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LindsayT firstly yes I’d absolutely adore you as a friend, I need one with absolute desperation. I feel very vulnerable and alone currently so without sounding a complete desperate loopiloo yes please. (Big arms outstretched never letting go) catlady0626 - thank you so so much for replying. Yes I have fever including occasional rigours and cold parameters intermediate. Paracetamol added to my daily medicines which does seem to calm. I do have flu like symptoms to accompany and just arrived back from holiday on an aeroplane though so have not made any connection to twists tears or similar. It’s actually crossed my mind I have herniated more prolifically at my umbilical and perhaps developed a hiatal in honesty. But don’t want to sound neurotic. summerseeker - your reply is so helpful and makes a lot of sense to reassure. I cannot tell you thank you in words to warrant how grateful I am for your reply. The ‘posterise hypertension’ I am struggling with is horrendous and must be BP but I’m not a fainter. It was the icing on the cake so to speak yesterday that started my panic. I knew all this I was struggling with was not normal but seemed to be dismissed on every contact by my care team. Therefore, I’ve waited and listened and tried 6 further contacts but began to feel I was either being neurotic or impatient or a time waster. However, reading your reply and everyone I’m replying to now had made me realise - I am not right and I need to act. Janetdekker - thank you thank you to you for replying. I’d love to get probiotics down me but I am barely able to swallow some days. It’s so hard getting anything down me or should I say to even stay down at the moment. I seem to have a day or two in say 10 days I get some foods down and I think I’m through the worst but then regress back to start. But I’ll buy some probiotic yoghurt drinks and see if I can keep these down to see if they help. It’s infuriating and so frustrating. I can’t thank you enough for taking your time to reply to me. to update further information that may help any further advice, thought share that I dearly appreciate. ive actually counted the week number today and I’ll be 13 weeks post-op on Tuesday next week. (Feels a lot longer) ive lost over 4 stones in this time frame and I’m so weak currently. I kid you not, I feel breathless making a cup of tea. I feel worse than when I endured pre-eclampsia and emergency section with my son. I felt I may die at that time but it’s feeling more similar as each day passes. Im utterly exhausted / spent. im 46 years old, 3 children and am 5 ft 9 inches. Weighed 21 stone 4.5lbs on Friday 10th February and now weigh 17 stone 3lbs. I feel The weight loss is much too fast as I cannot get enough protein or nutrition into my body. The loose skin and muscle deterioration seems quite extensive (I feel very soggy all over of this makes any sense) but admit my worrying in my current situation has me feeling quite neurotic so I’m trying to prioritise my worries to keep sane! today, I have managed to get 4 small strawberries down (chewed to a purée before attempting to swallow) with around 12 bites of clean spaghetti bolognese (meat removed and chopped into pieces no larger than rice and each mouthful chewed three times) and 300ml of fluid and a small cup of tea today. However, I’ve been in bed all day with tummy pain, vomited and other end loo trips within 20 minutes of eating. No full bladder urination. Swallowing is difficult and eating the strawberries took 20 minutes. The 12 bites of spaghetti Bol took an hour to get down me. I tried a smooth yogurt prior to bed but have just been woken up by tummy cramping / vomited it back up and checked my messages to see all your kind and helpful replies. I take lansaprozol time- delay tablets x 2. 3 x baricol chewables, calcichew x 1 and have just added 12000 mm/mg tablet of biotin today. If my nails get any thinner I’ll have none covering my fingers and my hair loss is devastating! 1-3 ciclixine / odansetron a day for sickness and nausea too. I can’t go a day without at least one a day but they do come with the side effect of drowsiness so they make me literally zonk. I don’t like this so much but it’s helped me gain a few hours sleep I guess as a positive. is there any other infirbation I can provide that may help with any of your thoughts / ideas / advice / suggestions? Obviously I’m new and am unsure of what further info will help you to support me. I can’t thank you enough for your replies and I’m so sorry if I sound like some neurotic banshee in a state of panic. I honestly don’t know what thoughts I trust in myself at the moment. I just feel so very poorly. thank you again for any wisdom. 💕💕💕

You can’t break a stall. I know some will say I did by doing this or that but what happened was their body was ready to break the stall. Stalls are an important part of your weight loss. It’s the time the body takes to readjust to the stress of the changes you’ve made & making. It’s also the time your body uses to reassess your needs & adjust things like digestive hormones & enzymes, metabolic rate, etc. Even though the scales don’t move, many find their clothes get a little loser which I think is part of your body readjusting. My body kept settling & changing shape for a time even after I’d stopped losing & my weight had stabilised. How many stalls you’ll experience & how long they last (most tend to last 1-3weeks but can be more) will depend on your body & it’s needs. Stick to your plan, don’t make big changes to stress (or confuse) your body more than your plan advises & the stall will break when your body is ready.

A lot of factors come into play in regards to how much lose skin you’ll have. Age, genetics, gender, how much weight you lose, how long you carried your weight, weight loss & gain history, etc. The lose skin you end up with is skin that has been stretched out to a point that nothing can make it bounce back and the only way to get rid of it is through surgery. I always compare it to a well used hair band that has lost it’s stretch - can’t do anything with that. Collagen, while it has its benefits, won’t stop or get rid of the amount of lose skin most of us have. Some people will suggest exercising but this only works on the supporting muscles not on the skin itself. I have lose skin. Not a lot (not handfuls but good pinches over my body). I can still wear body conscious clothing without support garments. More from good genetics I think. I chose not to have surgery to remove it. I look at it has something I earned through my efforts to lose my weight. It’s a reminder to keep me on track. I’d rather have my lose skin than be 200lbs again.

I'm 32 and had sleeve surgery 6 months ago. I've lost 90lbs since my pre-op class (2 weeks before my surgery). And I have a huge amount of loose skin on my arms, belly, butt, and thighs. My face has adjusted well. So age is not always a factor... genetics, how much u lose, how quickly, and body type factors are most important. I have about the same amount of skin as my 65 year old grandma who had the same surgery 7 years ago and lost about the same. We are close to the same size now. She took collagen and a hair/nails/skin supplements. I didn't take anything extra for my skin or any type of collagen. Just some aveeno for dry skin every now and then. Sent from my SM-S115DL using BariatricPal mobile app

Hello everyone, I'm Stephanie and I've been on this journey for a little bit over a year I had my surgery April 24, 2023 weighing in at 291. I started this journey March 7, 2022 at my heaviest weight ever 382 lbs. All my life I had always been overweight but never had I ever been given the diagnosis of morbidly obese. September of 2019 I had the biggest scare of my life, I almost died. My heart was in Congested heart failure, I was going septic, and was put into a ketamine trip so they could shock my heart. After that I ended up having atrial flutters on the right side of my heart. I was put on Lasix and while I was still in the hospital I lost 13 lbs of water weight. I've had tachycardia for years, was a smoker and extremely overweight. The doctor didn't sugarcoat it for me at all he flat out told me my smoking and my weight was killing me. He said I qualified for bariatric surgery and that I should look into it. 2020 I had an ablation done to fry the nerves to the right side of my heart so it will beat normal and it worked I haven't had any issues with my heart since. I've been on a beta blocker; and I had to do a sleep study and I have sleep apnea. I stopped breathing 13 times in an hour. Which brought me to bariatric surgery. November 13, 2020 I quit smoking cigarettes, before my surgery I had lost 82 lbs had the duodenal switch surgery and as of May 5, 2023 I have lost a total of 100 pounds. The most weight I have ever lost in my life. I don't regret my decision at all about getting surgery cause I feel better and healthier and I want to get out of bed and I want to exercise and I just love the way I'm feeling everyday. Stephanie Ellis

I didn’t exercise & still don’t. I do some stretches, use a resistance band & do some sit ups now but more to help with my back & to keep me a bit limber than for anything else. I wouldn’t burn 30 calories. (Ironically I would burn more calories if I weighed more LOL!) I really don’t enjoy structured exercise at all. It’s boring, I don’t like being forced to ‘perform’ & I hate being sweaty. I do my stretches, etc. in 5-10 minute blocks through out the day (it’s called exercise snacking & is just as beneficial as doing a single long block of exercise). I’m more willing to do it like this. Exercise only accounts for about 10% of any weight you have to lose. Want to lose 60lbs? Exercise will only contribute to you losing about 6lbs. Of course there are many other benefits to exercising but don’t rely on it for boosting your weight loss. I have never been this successful with sustained weight loss ever before & I’m almost 58 so have quite a few years of dieting experiences. 😉 I’ve changed so much about my relationship with food. I still enjoy food but know & accept I can’t just eat what I like, when I like & how much I like. I don’t consider I’m making sacrifices or missing out. It really is about changing your thinking about food & eating. It doesn’t happen over night but you’ll get there too. Day by day, week by week.

I’m almost 9 months post op vsg. I’m not loosing as much as fast as I had hoped, but I’m consistently loosing still. I had a high starting weight and lost a good bit before surgery. My highest weight was 382 … by my surgery (Aug 2022) I was down to 325. This week I’m down to 260. So post surgery I’m down 65 pounds - with an overall loss of 122. I still have a ways to go - and I’m a little disappointed in myself for not being further along by now … but I’m hoping that I can continue to steadily loose and keep my progress going until I hit “goal”. On the plus side I’m feeling good and happy with being able to loose after years of struggling with no results. Congrats on everyone’s progress!

I certainly agree and hope this is easier to work with than the band! I couldn’t eat before midday and couldn’t even take medication (pills) in the morning as they would get stuck. I’d sometimes even get stuck on thick liquids! One would think this would have led to weight loss but I just found myself compensating with less healthy choices and eating at night because I still felt so hungry. This will be good for us, we can do it!

Hello All, I came to this site when I was doing research for my own surgery which was completed in December of 2021. I found it difficult to find numerous relatable stories from men who had weight loss surgery. Hence, I thought I would share my experience. I am a 56 year old male and I would consider myself just another guy. I started my own new business in 2015. If you have ever started a new business from zero, then you know it is a very stressful experience. Consequently, I gained 20 pounds a year for, roughly, six consecutive years. My weight ballooned to an all time high of 353 pounds. If it wasn't nailed to the floor, I ate it. If it was cold, I drank it. I take full responsibility for my actions. I freely made the decision to consume all of the food and drink. I also found ways to justify eliminating my regular exercise routine during this time period. Towards the end of 2021, from a health perspective, I was miserable. I had trouble walking any sort of distance. My poor dogs felt neglected because I could not walk with them. I had a difficult time standing for any length of time because my lower back would begin to ache. I was beginning to have problems with my joints, especially my knees and ankles. From an emotional perspective, I also had issues. I had to search for restaurants with tables instead of sitting at a cozy booth because I could longer fit in any booth. It is an awful feeling to ask, "Can I have that table over there instead of this booth?" It seemed to me they knew I asked because I couldn't fit in the space. I was forced to buy bigger clothes. Soon, those clothes didn't fit and I had to buy even bigger clothes. My clothes needed to be purchased in the "fashion forward" Big & Tall section of stores and websites. I began to hate to have my photo taken because I did not like the way in which I appeared in the photos. To me, the person who looked back at me in the mirror looked nothing like the person who appeared in those photos. Who was that guy in those photos? Was that really me? I began to feel self conscious about eating in front of other people. I just had this feeling they were saying, "look at how much food that fat guy is eating." while I was eating a slice of pizza. I found myself buying food to eat in the car while I was driving so no one would see me. I justified the binge eating by telling myself I was hungry and didn't have enough calories at such and such a place. I grew tired of family members asking me if I was "okay" each time they saw me. I grew tired of friends asking me if I was able to "manage" going somewhere with them. Consequently, people started to avoid me. It was my own fault. I was grouchy all the time. If you are reading this, perhaps you have had similar feelings to my own. I made the decision I needed a little help. I began to look for a surgical procedure to assist me in my weight loss journey. I decided to have gastric sleeve surgery. As previously stated, my surgery was completed in December of 2021. I followed my surgeon's instructions explicitly. I ate what they told me to eat. I drank what they told me to drink. I used an app on my phone to track every calorie. When permitted, I began a regular exercise routine. The routine began with cardio and, over time, I added weight training too. Day after day and week after week, I developed better habits. I ate better foods and less calories. My cardio improved and my strength improved. Oh, I also lost weight...a lot of weight. My weight went from 353 pounds to 199 pounds. Yes, that's right. Today, I weigh less than 200 pounds. My total weight loss has been a whopping 154 pounds in 17 months. My waist size shrunk from 48 inches to 34 inches. My shirt size went from XXX-Large to Large. Hell, even my shoes lost 1/2 of a size. The feeling has been incredible. Nothing tastes as good as thin feels. Today, I continue to perform cardio four days per week and I lift weights every other day. Luckily I have had no ill side effects from the surgery. I feel great. I feel like others who have described losing a lot of weight...fantastic. Apologies to you if I have rambled on too long. Hopefully you find something here in which you can relate. Good luck in your journey. All the best.

Sorry to hear about the lack of support. I have hair loss, not extreme but it is noticeable. I used to loose a lot before and now its like double that, so I cut my hair 30 days post of so it wasn't as noticeable.. Biotin is supposed to help with new hair growth, but it would not stop the hair shedding/loss. My surgeon's office suggest being on top of your vitamins and proteins, taking the biotin supplement to make sure new hair growth is strong. Some from my support group swear my castor oil and other supplements but I have not tried it.

I have very thick hair so losing some won't be an issue. Every Spring I cut my hair into a long shag with lots of layers and texturing. Feels so much lighter going into Summer. This year and 5 weeks out from surgery, I'm debating if I should be purposely thinning my hair out and get the cut. 🤔

I was sleeved on March 7th, with a 2 week Pre-Op Diet. I lost 20 lbs prior to surgery and since I’m down another 25 lbs and 4 inches off my waist. I get on the scale way too often! I can tolerate almost anything and I’m still on soft foods. I work out 6 days a week; a Pilates workout, 30 minutes on a stationary bike and an arm workout with a resistance band instead of weights. I’ve somehow made the mental switch to eating to live and I look at food completely different now. I’m rarely hungry and sometimes forget to eat. I have a huge sweet tooth and I’ve been worried about never having sugar again. I bought a Ninja Creami and problem solved!! The ice cream I can make tastes great !! So far the only regret I have is not doing this sooner. My team is happy with my progress so far and I’m looking forward to creating my new look. I am freaking out a little about the possibility of losing my hair. If it happens around 3 months, that’s next month for me. I have a lot more energy.

It’s pretty common but usually temporary. As @catwoman7 said it’s usually related to getting up from lying down or sitting - postural hypotension. Your blood rushes to your feet thanks to gravity & it takes a little time to be pumped up to your head again. Hence the light head mess, dizziness, loss of vision or fainting. I always had a predisposition to low blood pressure (hereditary) & now I have it all the time. I can experience it tipping my head back, reaching up to get something off a shelf & with a hot shower/bath as well as getting up. Definitely talk to your team. If you are on BP meds they may need to be adjusted. Keep your fluids up. Add extra salt to your diet. Get up slowly & stand before moving. I find bending over at my waist so my head is level or just below my heart helps it pass more quickly. And as I feel it coming on I reach for a wall, table, chair, person, etc. to ground myself until it passes.

My hand is up. I’m 5’3” & weighed 200lbs when I started. I lost to my goal by 6 months (132lbs - so loss of 68lbs). I kept losing very slowly for another 10 or so months until I reached 108lbs - a total loss of 94lbs. I’ve been pretty much stable since then aside from little fluctuations & I’ll be 4 years out on the weekend. There is no right or wrong rate of your weight loss. There are averages but like all averages (statistics) some will lose more than the average others less. And some will lose at a faster rate & others will lose at a slower rate. Averages only give you an idea of what might happen not what will happen. And all of this is okay. Remember it’s not a race. There are some things you can pretty much rely on. If you weigh more at the beginning you tend to lose larger amounts at first (like you see on My 600lb Life). Your weight loss is always more in the beginning. Everyone’s rate of loss slows. If you follow your plan, you will lose at the rate that is right & best for you. Nothing wrong with 21lbs in 6 weeks. (I’d lost about 22lbs at 6 weeks.) That’s about 3lbs a week. Can’t complain about that. The only time you should be concerned is if your surgeon or team is. Celebrate every pound you lose.

All the hair on your head eventually sheds at some time. It falls out itself onto your clothes or the floor, you wash the loose strands out or you catch it on your brush or comb. It’s just that at the moment your hair loss schedule has been sped up. Can’t stop it & you can’t really make yourself lose more than what you currently are. Just be gentle. I like the idea of putting conditioner on it before swimming, & ensure you rinse your hair out well after swimming until you can wash it properly.

Does your "big" arm appear larger than the other one on visual examination? If not, I'd chalk it up to measuring inconsistencies between arms, especially if you're doing the measurement on your own. I don't have help, so I only measure my non-dominant arm and don't put any stock in the number because, unlike with a waist, there's no easily found measurement point. Am I supposed to pull the tape taught around my batwings or just let it drape loosely like my skin does. 🤷‍♂️ "Losing" that many inches in your non-dominant arm doesn't sound like an actual loss of tissue; it sounds like measuring at a different point than you did the last time.

I want to start by saying I know that "everyone is different," and "it's not a race, it's a journey", but I sometimes have a hard time relating because I had VSG at 199 lbs (I'm 5'2") and the weight loss just seems so much slower than most of what I see online. I'm 6 wks post-op and down 21 lbs since surgery and 33.5 lbs including pre-op diet. I've seen the charts saying how much I can expect to lose in what time-frames, but I would love to hear from others with similar starting stats. I get discouraged pretty easily and need some inspiration or similar stories. How long did it take to reach your goal? How much had you lost at about 6 wks (or 1-2 months?) When did you see the biggest loss? Thanks!! Sent from my SM-S918U using BariatricPal mobile app

Oh I feel you OP. I am almost 18 months post sleeve and had 3 periods of really noticeable hair loss along the way. I have always had thick hair that I have worn well below shoulder length. At around 3 months I lost loads and cut it to shoulder length. Twice more I have shed *A LOT* and done the same or higher cut again. Now sitting at a below ear bob, LOL. However - this far out I now have about 3 inches of really really thick regrowth (fuzz) that I think will meet my current bob in a few months. Nothing you put onto your hair will make any difference - honestly. Being well nourished from within and meeting all of your goals might. However for me it was just reaching the end of my weight loss and the concurrent major stress on my body that seemed to allow my hair to finally regrow properly. You're doing amazingly I'm sure. I wish you the very best of luck.

i think frequent hair washing (with shampoo) is more an issue for your scalp than your actual hair. i only "wash" my hair with shampoo maybe once every 1-2 weeks. all other times in the shower i "wash" with conditioner only (google co-washing). honestly nothing is going to prevent the hair that means to fall out from not falling out. you may delay it a bit (dont wash, dont brush, dont rub, don't tie up, etc). but its really just delaying the inevitable. enjoy your vacation, your hair will sort out eventually ❤️

Your body is still in its healing process. The 3 week stall is normal and my doctor advised that weight loss isn't going to be a curve but more like stair steps; there will be moments it goes down and then periods of stalls. Much easier expectation set up in my opinion. Stick with your plan and trust the process. The weight is worth the wait!

I’d recommend wetting your hair and putting on a deep conditioner to keep the salt from drying out your hair- but that wont really stop loss, it will just keep your hair in good condition. Maybe air drying would be good too— there really isn’t much to stop it from shedding, but keeping the rest of it healthy will make you feel better about it.

Hi everybody! Thank you so much for all of the reply’s, it is SO incredibly helpful! Question for you all. I am getting ready to head out of town for summer & I’m concerned about the Hair loss. I’ll be in the ocean pretty much every day, meaning I’ll need to be washing my hair a lot more. Do you think this will worsen hair loss or cause more shedding? Should I maybe try to wash it less rather than every day like I would’ve before? Thanks again! 

I am 14 weeks post-op. And I had experienced that awful tugging/pulling on my left side for several weeks in the beginning. Now, not so much. Maybe I might feel when I hold my arms up for too long when doing my hair. But for the most part, it went away in time.

mine started at 3 months post-op. cut off all my hair into a pixie because i hated seeing my scalp AND vacuuming up the CARPETS of hair accumulating in my bathroom. The Great Shedding stopped about 3 months after it started. im 4.5+ years out now and i have a full head of under-boob length hair that actually seems thicker & healthier than it was pre-surgery (probably due to my better diet and overall health) and it even has a wave to it now, which was unexpected, but appreciated lol. I didn't take any sort of supplement nor do anything special to my routine other than the haircut. Basically just waited it out. Good Luck, and hang in there!

Welcome everyone! Insurance and your current health will dictate how long before surgery. The Covid epidemic screwed up a lot of surgery dates too. I had to wait a while to get a hiatal hernia healed (acid injuries) before I was allowed to get surgery. All told, it was a solid year from first call to surgery date. I used that time to eat healthy and work out. I practiced drinking my full water load and quit caffeine. And yes, I practiced cooking and meal prep so that I would be successful after surgery. I told myself surgery would lock that pre surgery weight loss off my body, and it did! Long term weight loss is a head game. I could do all those things before surgery, but I also got a therapist in eating disorders because let’s face it, weighing 355lbs at 5’4” definitely shows disordered eating. So, it’s up to you, but this could be an exciting chance for you to spend time working on you!