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Hi everyone! I'm 13 days post op today. I had my gallbladder taken out at the same time because I had gallstones. My surgeon also removed a cyst from my belly button so I expected this surgery to be a difficult recovery but it hasn't been. I stayed only 1 night in hospital, had no trouble with getting myself in and out of bed or using the bathroom, I could drink fluids, I was walking laps, and I had no trouble swallowing pills, so they released me before noon the day after surgery. At home my pain was 6/10 for 2 days then 4/10 for 3 days. The pain was mostly attributed to the spot where the liver retractor was, probably inflammation too. I didn't need to take prescription pain medicine, I only needed Tylenol for the first 5 days. I've been pain free since day 6, and I've been doing great with staying hydrated at home thankfully. I had my first post op checkup on Monday (2 days ago) and everything looks great. They cleared me to start stage 2 Soft foods which has been going well too. I can resume playing sports and start lifting weights in approximately 3-4 weeks. I can't explain why it how my recovery has been so quick and easy. Before surgery I suffered for years with chronic fatigue, GERD, and insulin resistance. Which seem to be resolved as of now. I stopped my metformin a week before surgery, and my blood glucose is now in the normal range! My next goal is to ditch my CPAP machine. I have so much energy and feel better than I have in years. This is why I wanted the surgery, to fix my health issues. Weight loss is just a bonus!

Agreed with these comments. Definitely up your Protein where you can and cut out excess carbs. Anything past your minimum range, and they slow down the process of burning excess fat. Also processed foods along with excess carbs can cause more fluid retention, which causes your weight on the scale to increase. Granted, that is fluid weight, and not fat weight, but it can also cause inflammation and make you feel tired and bloated.

I am so happy you commented on my post! Means a lot. 230 was my pregnant weights. I got done to 170 with a trainer and on my own once or twice and that was a great version on me but clearly after 3 kids I just can't do it on my own or mentally with my daily life services. 197 pre surgery is great!! ❤️ Girllll I am a donut creamer lover so I can't wait to see the weight I drop before hand as well. We won't look back after this! Please keep in touch with updates I would love to see your progress!!!

You and I are about the same stats!! I’m 5’1. My heaviest was 234 but I lost a fair amount then started gaining again and at 213 I decided it was time! With my 2 week pre-op liquid diet I weighed in at 197 this morning. 5 more days until my surgery. Scared but eager to see where this takes us!! We got this!! Let me tell you!! I’m really noticing my habits around food now that I can’t eat anything… and I’ve been having dreams of eating food and ruining my pre op plan for surgery. I just have to laugh at myself for that though. Because I know I want this.

I would advise you to get rid of the scale. I say this a lot and it's difficult to say it in new and interesting ways. Let's see... We don't need the scale to follow our plans. We can follow our plans to the letter and stall or even gain a pound or three, as is very common. In such a case it's easy to start considering "changing things up" to get the scale moving again. in the first several months we could completely abandon our plans and still lose weight. Looking at the scale will give many of us confirmation that we are doing well when in fact we aren't. Again, the scale is a poor guide. We should measure our success on how well we are following our plan. Are we feeling better? How is our mental attitude? Are health issues resolving? How about those clothes? Are you more active? Is it getting easier? There are all sorts of measures of success without a number on a scale. I was too large for a home scale so was only able to weigh in at monthly follow-ups. I'm confident I had stalls or even days where my weight was higher than the day before. I never actually experienced them. Every weigh in was lower than the month before. Never a temptation to "get the scale moving." You are at the beginning of this adventure. Focus on the things you can control. You can't control a number on a scale. Damn it, not new. Let's see if next time I can come up with a Hanzal and Gretel fairy tale where the witch is a scale... Good luck, Tek

Hi there wondering how everyone is doing???? Current weight is 142 5”3 I eat every 2-3 hrs snack and have three bigger meals which is breakfast lunch and dinner. Still could only have about 5-7 spoon fool of the larger meals. Rice does not agree with me I figure it may never. Alcohol hits me super fast so I have to be very careful!

I'm up on January 3rd! Also excited, nervous, scared of what I'll feel like, scared I'll have the surgery and do everything right and still stay stuck at my current weight.

Hey everyone, I’m new here but I was wondering if anyone else experienced a weight plateau so early on. I’m only 2 weeks out of surgery but have been stuck at 213 for a few days now and it just feels so discouraging.

Good luck Brandy and Meisha and everyone else having surgery this week!! Tomorrow I will be one month post op!! I didn't lose anything last week, in fact when I checked my weight Monday I've gained 2,6 lbs. I might have cussed out the scale. 😂 I know it is just the infamous "3 week stall" and there is nothing I can do but stay the course. But maaaaan, when the scale starts moving in the other direction, it really does your head in. I worry this won't work for me, that this is all the weight loss I'll get, that my weight issues are too complicated for this surgery, etc... I know it isn't true, it is just a feeling and feelings are transient, but I'm pretty discouraged anyway. I'm sure it'll only last a few weeks, then get back on track. I plan on watching how everything is fitting while the scale is being difficult. I know it is just water weight gained from a stressed out body. But boy does your headgame need to be strong for this process... In other news I am on soft foods and about 70% of what I eat is relatively fine. I'm still taking nausea meds on and off. I still keep finding foods that piss everything off, my tiny tummy is PICKY. Fish still works best of all which still strikes me as all sorts of weird since I never liked it before. My tastebuds are still behaving strangely. And I really want a muffin but I can't have it because DS patients have to low carb it. *sighs wistfully* I picked up some of the Devotion brand protein that you can bake with. Maybe I'll be able to make a muffin when they arrive?!

Wow, you look great!! I'm so glad you've had such a great result! I love when successful people pop up to encourage everyone to stay the course, it is really inspiring. I'm in my first stall post surgery and it is soooo annoying and discouraging, even though I know it is part of the process. I'm just staying the course--low carbs, high protein, water, water, water, move when I can. I know it has to break at some point. I gained 2.6 lbs but I know it is water weight. It is a good thing I only weigh once a week or I'd drive myself mad... LOL

Awww, I'm sorry you have one more hoop to jump through! My advice for dealing with it is to let yourself honor that it sucks, that it is a frustration you don't want to deal with. Be mad about it! And once all the feelings ease, then put it in perspective. You'll lose weight better if you are getting better sleep. You'll have more energy with better sleep. You'll have your CPAP in the hospital with you in case you need it in recovery instead of having to use a hospital machine. And this need for CPAP is one more reason this surgery will be good for you and your body. Using it now is good caretaking and will make it that much sweeter when you can say goodbye to it because you don't need it anymore.

I signed up on here awhile back and waited to post anything until now and hope I can give some of my experience. March 1st of this year I had my gastric sleeve. I went in with a weight of 363 pounds and am 6’1. As of today posting this I am 225 pounds. Definitely was one of the smartest decisions I ever made for myself. Everyone’s journey is different. I was met with immediate energy following my procedure, like waking up everyday and ready to take on the world. And it’s still like that. For whatever reason for me, my eating habits and likes and dislikes immediately changed. I hated fish my whole life and now find myself craving it. Once loved ranch dressing, not it makes my stomach feel yuck. You hit these plateaus where your weight doesn’t change, sometimes for a couple weeks at a time, it’s easy to get discouraged but trust me, stay the course, don’t go back to bad habits and then bam! Next thing you know, you’re dropping a pound or two a day, followed by another plateau. This will happen repeatedly. For me I’ve noticed that walking 4 or 5 miles a day and being as active as possible REALLY makes it come off even quicker and maintaining a diet with no sugar for me has seriously helped. I treat myself to a little bit of carbs daily but mainly all proteins and it has worked great for me. Again, these are just the things that have worked in my journey and no two are the same. I’m fortunate that my job is pretty active so I keep track of my steps climbed and steps to get my exercise minutes in while I work. I also find a reason to be active when I’m not working. I wish everyone luck that is or has had this procedure done. And like I said, it’s the best thing I ever did for ME.

Congrats! That is great progress! Look how much you're able to do now that you weren't even a couple months ago, its amazing! Glad your health is improving so quickly! Yeah, I'm dreading my upcoming stall. I it's "when" and not "if" it happens for everybody. Just have to remember its just your body coming to terms with the drastically different caloric intake, and it will freak out periodically along the way. As long as we stick to the plan, we're still burning fat, even though our body is offsetting the scale number with fluid retention while it panics. It took years for us to put the weight on, so anything shorter than that makes our body interpret it as a threat. Once it realizes you're maintaining your health while burning the fat, it will gradually release it. Weight loss won't be linear, it will look more like stair steps with the occasionally brief increase (again, "Fake weight" since its fluid retention) before it steps down again.

I haven't seen any posts in a while -- how is everyone doing? I had a sleeve on 10/9, lost 19 pounds really fast, then at 2 weeks, hit a stall that lasted about 3-1/2 weeks. It was very frustrating and I felt like I had messed something up or done something wrong. I wondered if this was not going to work for me and yet I was permanently stuck with a tiny stomach. I hated seeing all the social media posts of all the people who seemed to be continuously losing weight every week while I stalled -- even though I knew not to compare my journey to other people. But even during that long stall, I had to stop wearing a bunch of clothes that were too big, I moved my Apple watch to a tighter setting on my wrist, I was able to stop taking all blood pressure and diabetes meds because my levels were all normal or low, and I even completed a 5K (walking it mostly but still!!)!!! My doctor told me not to worry about the scale -- that "it would catch up." So I just didn't weigh for a while, though I stayed the path on eating, water, protein, and movement. Well, today I got on the scale and have now lost 31 pounds since my surgery. The scale is catching up. What a relief! I'm sure that I'll stall again at some point, and I'll be in a better mindset to just stay consistent and keep with the program and have faith.

Congrats and good luck! I had mine last Monday, and had similar doubts going into it. The first 8 hours afterwards was the worst, but it wasn't so much that it hurt, it was more just an uncomfortable feeling. That combined with coming out of anesthesia and the way I overthink things didn't help, haha, but around 8 hours afterwards it started easing dramatically. I felt way better the next morning and walking was easy after that. Definitely recommend walking and Gas-X to reduce the pressure feeling. As for the scale not moving, just remember that weight loss is not linear, it comes in waves. Whenever there's a sharp change to our body, our mind overreacts because it thinks we're under threat and its trying to save our life, even if its something as simple as a diet. The fat we accumulated was as a defense measure to protect against starvation for our ancestors, but we as humans haven't adapted to the plentiful amount of food and high carbohydrate availability that we have present day. Think of our fat cells as little balloons that can store pieces of fat as a potential fuel source for starvation protection. As we go into a deficit with our calorie restriction, the body is forced to burn those pieces of fat, but those balloons remain, waiting to be filled back up again "just in case". If our body thinks it is threatened after a significant amount of that fat fuel is burned, it will temporarily fill it with water/fluid to keep the balloons in tact. This is where the "water weight" you may have heard of comes into play. So even though the fat itself is gone, those balloons are hanging on for dear life, thinking they're trying to save you. Only after some time passes, the body decides that its safe to shed those empty fat balloons, and you'll have a "whoosh" of weight loss after a stall period. These stalls can be 1 week to a couple months, which makes it very easy to get discouraged. When (not if) you get to a stall, just remember to stay the course. You had an entire lifetime to condition your body that your higher food intake was the normal amount required for survival, so it won't be convinced that everything is ok with a reduced caloric intake for a little while. Your weight loss will appear like stair steps instead of a straight line. Also anticipate slight gains during these stalls. That is just the water retention, and not fat reappearing, so think of it as "fake weight". As you get close to your final goal, and you're exercising more, remember that muscle weighs more than fat, I think about 1.5x as much. So as you build muscle, it will offset the number on the scale. That is why the scale number isn't as important in the final phase of your weight loss journey. It can be discouraging if you're only chasing the number, so keep in mind all the other victories towards the end. Think of the energy you have, an easier time breathing, the ability to do things you couldn't before, being able to wear clothes you never thought you'd fit in, and the additional years added to your life!

I unfortunately fall in the "small percentage" Arabeque mentioned like you most likely could be. I, since surgery still feel hungry and no, its not head hunger. I, like you probably do find it annoying to have gone through all this only to be fighting the hunger yet again. I do know they say it can take up to 6 months for the nerves that register "full" to repair as they've been severed during surgery and I still don't feel full (its been 3 months). I just stick to what I'm told I should be eating and figure the battle continues. Lets hope your hunger levels out or its just the "head hunger" everyone says it could be. Just stick to the plan, drink water when you feel hungry and as others have said distract yourself. I know its probably not what you wanted to read/hear but its the hand dealt - learn ways to handle it. In my case, I want the weight gone and to be healthier more than I want to eat - so I ignore the hunger. Good luck - baby steps to thinner and healthy.

Sorry about your one more hurdle CPAP addition. I too was put on CPAP before surgery. I was one point (5.9 so 6) above the not needing it - it sucks I know. Just tell yourself.. Just one more step closer to your surgery. What's odd is my CPAP score has gotten a lot worse since I had surgery! I was told (IF you can talk to a sleep doctor), they tend to diagnose / prescribe then from then on its crickets telling you its now under your GP's care - except they're not specialized in reading CPAP scores or diagnosing the machines data - that the change is due to my weight loss due to mask leaks...right...I have the nasal mask and its not influenced by weight gain/loss, so I've quit using it for now, especially since I'm past the required 3 months of usage by the insurance company. So again, just do what you have to by jumping through their hoops to become healthier and get your surgery!

I never did Wegovy (Semaglutide) but a few of my friends have done it. I went straight to surgery. As soon as my friends were off, their body put back on the weight and then some. Too many horror stories about Semaglutide, rotten food stuck in stomach, stomach paralysis, to name a few. My best friends daughter has been on it for 3 months and has only lost 5 pounds, she needs to lose well over 100. Found out her thyroid is messed up so she is on thyroid meds and has lost 10 pounds in 2 weeks. She is still considering surgery, but will let her body adapt to thyroid meds first.

One note on long distance hiking: I'm having to do serious rehab on my hips and core in order to increase my walking capability. While my aerobic capacity and endurance are very good, my hips start to physically give out at about 3 miles. My physical therapist isn't really sure what the issue is, but thinks that it's a combination of weakness and poor flexibility from the postural adaptations that happen with extreme obesity (my legs literally point in a different direction than they used to!) and some effect of fast weight loss on the muscles themselves.

Anesthesia can mess with our bodies for a while after surgery, and it has been clinically shown that major surgery can trigger depressive episodes in people. What you are experiencing is completely normal even though it sucks. Add to that hormonal changes, and body changes, and changes in the nutrients you get, and recovering from a major surgery and yeah, you could feel pretty down! I'm 3 1/2 weeks post op. Some days are good and some days aren't so good. I've heard the first 3 months are really challenging and the first year takes a lot of resilience and adjustment. Next time your husband starts with the "this is what you wanted" I'd kindly remind him that those words are not supportive and guilt trips are not necessary. That you are cognizant of the fact that you wanted bariatric surgery to lose weight and improve your health, but NONE of us can even begin to understand the fullness of an experience before we actually have it...and living this experience is feeling challenging right now. Even the BEST things for us often come with distinct downsides. You are allowed to be upset! You are allowed to say this is a struggle! What would be more supportive of him would be for him to validate your feelings and assure you that things won't always feel like this, but while they do, he's there for you. I'm sure he's doing what he can, but everyone deserves feedback when their words are making it harder for you to deal with what you are dealing with. I too feel a little off kilter from the world right now. Any surgery brings grief with it when it alters your body. Let yourself grieve. You are in a liminal space right now, transforming from one version of yourself to another. Much like the caterpillar who winds itself into a cocoon, you have had to bury yourself into this new experience, and you will never be the same. Some parts of you have to die so that other parts of you can blossom forth and live. When you finally come out of this cocoon, flying will be so thrilling!! But in the meantime, the transformation sucks! LOL I don't think caterpillars think the process is fun either...

I'm so glad that work is going well! You look fantastic and all professional!! I hope it continues to be awesome... I am so sorry you have the BRCA gene. I had a cancer gene panel done this summer due to the endometrial cancer I had. I found out I have the CHEK2 gene, which is lower risk than the BRCA gene, but still high risk enough to consider an elective mastectomy. I've considered going that route if I have to have a boob lift post weight loss... I saw the oncologist this morning to talk about taking a round of tamoxifin to reduce my risk. It was informative!! It is possible they could do both the hysterectomy and the hernia repair at the same time if the doctors are in the same system. GYN surgeries often coordinate with other surgeons so their patients only have to go under once. You will be shocked at how light your pelvis feels post surgery, I still marvel at it! I love not having that monthly visitor, I didn't really understand how much energy it was taking for me for 2 weeks out of the month. And my iron levels stabilized really nicely post surgery. If you need any support don't hesitate to message me! I found recovery from the hysterectomy similar to my DS surgery, though I was sore longer with the hysterectomy...

Not in the least. I'm trying not to buy much at all lol. I have a box of smaller clothes when I lost over 100 lbs about 10 years ago (like size 13, 15, 19 juniors). I've bought a few pairs of my fav underwear in one size down from where I am now as the 3 pair I bought originally are already to large (guess thats a good thing). Other than that the only other things I've bought have been two pair of cute boots in a smaller size (where I was when I lost all my weight last time) and a workout set to aspire to. I figure the thrift shops will be my go to in between.

Sure... blame the weight loss. Good luck, Tek

I plan to do both. As difficult as it was for me to look at them, I took photos of myself in a tank top and exercise leggings just a couple days after the doctor appointment when I had my highest ever recorded weight. I kind of needed to look the picture to really see it and process it, you know? I plan to put on the same clothing again probably the day before surgery, and then keep those clothes to take pictures every month or so after. I think wearing the same clothing will really help to see the differences. I may take additional photos wearing just undergarments, but those will never see the light of day (whereas I already posted my before picture to an album here because I appreciate all the folks who have posted theirs). And definitely measurements. You'll want those for your own records, and keeping up with them as you lose will help when shopping for new clothing.

How do I lose weight? Fast I need pills nothing is working where is the adapax?