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i agree.... i haven't had a fast-food burger in over 10 years. Don't miss it either. This time i also gave up Mt. Dew.... it has always been my kryptonite.... It's been 1 year and 4 months since i had one. @mariangel174@yahoo.com Don't overbuy.... I would say get a few of one kind (unless you live far away). Lots of peoples taste change after SX. If you buy in bulk, you will have it forever.....

For me, getting to my highest weight meant eating fast food twice a day. Following my current nutrition plan involves home prepared meals and packing a lunch to work. I'm saving so much money I'm sure the savings will offset the out of pocket (thousands) I had to pay for surgery and treatment this year. I take a bariatric vitamin once a day from BariatricPal. I just passed my blood work so I know the vitamins are quality.

I am also 10 years out. I started at 54 years old - and was 320. I lost 20 or so pounds before surgery, and then lost to about 165 pounds - I never could keep my weight there, but i kept it at about 175 for a few years... then life happened ..... and I slowly gained to 220. At 220 one morning just over a year ago I decided to do something about it. I slowly started changing the way I was eating. More proteins, less carbs, more fresh fruits and vegetables, more salads and greens and healthy choices. More bringing my lunch to work, than eating fast food. And I lost 45 pounds in I think it was 14 months. I am very happy with what I have accomplished ! I am back out of plus sized clothing..... had to get new clothing during Covid ... hard to do when you have NO idea what size you could be now ..... but am happily out of 22 plus and back into a regular ladies petite 16 jean and chino at old navy ! And I could fit into the 14s but at 64 years old, I need comfort and not squeeze !! I am eating lots of healthy veggies and salads with fish or chicken or bit of steak in them. Loving avacados for the fats and eating steamed eggs and riced veggies sautéed with a bit of sesame oil ..... If I can do it, so can you!!!!

In my most previous posts I've been lamenting on a weight gain three years post Weight Loss Surgery(WLS). No matter what I did the extra five pounds did not want to come off. It also lead to a spike in my A1c which put me back into the Type 2 category. I'm very fortunate to have friends and family that have had WLS after I had mine. We form an informal support group by calling each other up and helping to assist in times of need. Well, it was my time of need. Two of my fellow WLS pals directed me to a You Tube channel, Dr. Becky Gillaspy. They said her videos have helped them and it might spark an idea or two for me. I looked at her videos and two in particular caught my eye. What happens when late night snacking and Intermittent Fasting. I realized that I did snack prior to going to bed. I don't snack on junk food but no matter what I snacked on prior to bed was having a negative effect on my weight. I stopped eating at 7PM and did not resume eating until 8AM which gave me an intermittent Fast of 13 hours. When I conducted my weekly weigh in yesterday I found that I was down 3.5lbs from the previous week. It is too early to claim success but it looks as if this strategy might prove to be fruitful. I'm hoping that this also helps with my A1c levels. If anyone has any information regarding the late night snacking and intermittent fasting I would appreciate you sharing it. Thank you and I hope you all are enjoying your new found health.

At the beginning of COVID, I got sick with a respiratory/shortness of breath/fatigue/fever problem. Thought for sure it was COVID, but two antibody tests have been negative. Anyway, it knocked the socks off me for a couple of months, actually, and I dropped off my exercise. Until then I was doing a lot of things, including 60 flights of stair a day, weights, walking, biking, and swimming. Needless to say, I gained about 7 pounds. But I am happy to report that today I got back to my goal weight and I am sooooo happy about that. I have been increasing my exercise a bit, now with cooler weather (still 95, but feels heavenly after 115!) , and have monitored my carbs and nuts a bit closer. I am still doing IF, which I think is a great tool. And I have found that exercising in a fasting state not only makes me feel better DURING the exercise, but great afterwards, too. I did a 20 mile bike ride the other day in a fasting state and it was one of the best rides I have ever had. Maybe it's ketosis euphoria, but it sure felt good and like I could have gone another 20. The longer I get out from surgery, the more "normal" my eating becomes, and I am gradually learning what I have to do to feel strong, maintain the weight, and not get stressed out over it. The key with weight gain is to nip it in the bud. Don't let it get to 10 pounds - drop it dead in its tracks before it gets that far down the road. Regain does not happen overnight. It actually comes on gradually unless you just stop weighing yourself, start pigging out on unhealthy food, and just go into denial about the whole thing. I used to have nightmares about waking up and finding myself having regained all my weight. AAGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! But it doesn't happen that way. Weighing daily, and jumping back on track when only a few pounds up is the way to keep it off for good, I am convinced. I don't stress about it any more, because I know this is actually do-able! I will have to keep watching carefully as I move toward the 2 and 3 year marks. Hang in there, everyone. Knock it out of the park! Keep with your plans, get your exercise in, and enjoy your new lives!!!!!

These are good suggestions, also if you wish to avoid lard you can go with a bowl of charro bean soup or some places have chicken tortilla soup. You will fill up very fast so just be mentally prepared. Enjoy!

Bypass here but from what I understand liquids and sliders foods (yogurt, soups, protein shakes) go through fast as in 15-20 minutes. Water I think goes thru immediately since I can drink 8 oz. of water in less that 5 minutes. Solid foods for me I am guessing around 45-60 minutes just based on when I feel full and when I can eat again. I am curious if anyone has the factual info. since I am just guessing based on how I feel and what I have read.

That's awesome!! Good luck!! I had my surgery on 10/1 and everything went well. I'm healing fast and today I move on to the Puree Diet. I refuse to blend everything Lol, so my dietician and I came up with great alternatives for me. I am totally embracing my new journey. Good luck again to you and all Sleevers.

I had my surgery 8/19 and I was 315. The lowest I've gotten 281 (saw it one time so it counts haha) and I've been hovering in the low 280s ever since. My nutritionist allowed me to go to a regular diet (albeit smaller servings) at my one-month check-in. I'm just starting to feel like maybe they moved me too fast and I stretched my stomach perhaps. Would any of you suggest a reset? I'm feeling kind of lost and starting to feel like I wasted money,

We decided to sell our house since the housing market here is hot. We found a beautiful house to rent. My husband is considering retiring and we want the freedom to move when the time comes. Might even be living near you @ms.sss in a few years! Anyway, this process has been crazy stressful and I’m losing weight that I shouldn’t. I’m going to up my calories and resist the temptation to fill up with junk. However, today I am indulging in Culver’s. (Midwest burger chain) Anyone have advice or ideas on getting my weight back to stable without just eating carbs and fat? We move at the end of the month, our house didn’t even hit the market and we got full asking price in one day. We’ve had to do everything so fast and have 3 weeks to go, I’ve lost 4-5 pounds and don’t want to lose any more and need to gain a few!

Hi all, I am 6 weeks post op and have lost 25 pounds. I find I have very low energy by mid morning and this lasts until around 4 pm. I am taking my vitamins and iron religiously, eating the right foods and making sure I have my required protein. I think I may be losing too fast, considering I am a low BMI (33) when I started. I wanted to start back at the gym by week 6 but all I want to do right now is curl up in bed and sleep. Has anyone else gone through this?

Hi. its me again! So I have now been on soft foods for 10 days. I am doing pretty well, I think. LOL. I have only gotten semi-nauseous once and it was on Black eye peas. I had eaten the same thing the day before with no issue. I think I might have just eaten too fast. I have eaten ALL kinds of things too. I'm not one that can eat the same things over and over. I end up wasting a bunch of food though because making a dish, even a small one, I can only eat it like two times and then its gone. I'm not gonna lie, I have snuck a little sugar here and there with no issue. When I say a little though, I mean a little. I have had one square of a Hershey bar...lol...and a tiny sliver of a pumpkin bundt cake from Nothing Bundt Cakes my daughter bought. I've learned to like cottage cheese with sugar free whipped topping and sugar free jello (strawberry is my fave) mixed together....my aunt calls it pink lady and its delicious. I've learned to like more yogurts because I cant eat eggs for breakfast every day! The weight loss is slow but it's not going up, so i'm okay with it. I lost 2 pounds last week. I am trying to walk outside a few days a week but I am still get tired very easy. I hope that goes away soon.

Today is my 3 month surgiversary! I ended up in a stall the last week and a half or so, but I have taken it in stride knowing my body is just trying to catch up with a 60 pound weight loss in 3.5 months including the pre-op diet. I was really hoping to get to ONEderland for my 3 month, but I know it is in my near future. Cool stuff since surgery: I have been working out a ton, which I couldn’t do before. My fitness level has increased so much since the beginning. It takes a lot more to get my heart rate up, and my recovery is fast. I weigh less than my husband for the first time in our 11 year relationship. For the record, he is 5-6 inches taller than me and his BMI since I met him has been 23-26. This one is double edged. I have loaded 3 giant contractor trash bags with clothes that are too big. Unfortunately, this means I have nothing to wear, and I don’t want to buy much this far from my goal. I have gone from a plus size 20-22, to a regular women’s 14-16. So happy I did this surgery to become healthy! Loving my new life!

Congratulations to everyone! I had my surgery on the 14th and am doing pretty well. I've been sick a few times due to eating too fast and will continue to keep training myself to fix that. My question to everyone is have you found an online accountability group that has a zoom, or whichever online forum, monthly group? Due to covid, my surgeons office has stopped all support groups and I feel like it would be beneficial to talk with others and hear how they are doing and suggestions for any issues that arise etc. I am on several FB groups but find that a lot of the post tend to be related to the same things and wanting others to tell them its okay to have soda or do things that they know we shouldn't be doing. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Interesting. I'd consider a sandwich with fruit and/or vegetables/small salad or pickles on the side as a "normal lunch". Or a sandwich with a yoghurt as dessert. It's a common thing to bring with you to the office and a popular choice at the cafeteria if one doesn't like what's offered for warm lunch that day. The combination of sandwich, chips and cookies for lunch sounds weird to a German. The burger/fries or other fast food combo is the "unhealthy but tasty" occasional choice for lunch for most people I work with.

One week left of liquid diet, fits perfectly with my church's one week of fast and prayer [emoji16] [emoji120] How's everyone doing? [emoji4] Sent from my IN2013 using BariatricPal mobile app

I’m feeling scared and frustrated and uneducated. I have always had heart palpitations and high pulse. Before surgery I was on 3 no pills. I’ve had several full cardiac work ups and it’s always been normal. I’ve struggled with fluids since surgery as in I’m probably always dehydrated. I have weened off of two of my bp meds (lisinopril hctz and norvasc) and I take 25 mg of metoprolol twice daily. Everytime I try to come off of beta blockers my bp and pulse sky rocket. I had an incident in July I was at work and all of a sudden my pulse jumped to 140-160s they gave me adenosine (med that stops and restarts your heart) and it didn’t work they gave me a beta blocker and I went back into normal rythme and rate. Then a couple of weeks ago I was standing next to my bed and all of a sudden I had back to back palpitations and I ended up in ER, they gave me fluids and it stopped. Since then I have had pretty frequent palpitations. I do notice they get better when I drink water but I dunno if I can say everything they do because I just started trying to figure out the link. I’ve reached out to my cardiologist and was told on mychart they would call me to schedule an appointment. I’m just wondering if any of this is normal “relatable”. I’m wondering if it’s from lack of water. I’m also wondering if certain foods can trigger the fast heart rate and palpitations because I’ve noticed I’ve gotten entirely too comfortable cheating here and there and. I am gonna restart from the basics. any input would be appreciated!

Right after surgery I was able to lose weight faster than a speeding bullet, my restriction was more powerful than a locomotive and my metabolism could easily leap a tall building with a single bound. Today, my kryptonite is time. Time has made me once again a weight loss mortal. I am able to gain weigh even though my diet has remained healthy. I don't lose the weight gained as fast and I am able to eat more. What to do? I actually fore saw this problem. The first year of my WLS journey when I was researching and going through the process to be approved I went to as many group meetings that I was allowed to attend. I always picked the brain of the people in attendance. Like many on this board they were ALL newbies with the success stories only newbies can tell. Not a single failure in the group. That is until one day a woman showed up and started telling us her story. She was five years out from surgery lost a lot of weight and put most of it back on. She warned everyone that things would change as you get further out from surgery and that it wouldn't necessarily be for the better. She had wished that she did not get caught up in the euphoria of her early success. She said that it's like winning the lottery. One day you have more money than you'd ever dream of having. If you don't plan on saving it you'll go bankrupt. That's what happened to her. She won the weight loss lottery. She lost more weight than she could have dreamed losing. Trouble was, she didn't plan her long term weight loss and now, she went "bankrupt". As I went through my daily routine I came across others who had WLS and many had indeed gained the weight back. I was in my doctors office and the medical attendant there told me about her failure when I told her that I was going through the process to get approved for WLS. She told me that it creeps up on you. Two pounds turns to four, four to eight than you're back to where you started. You start to Feel helpless and give up. As I went to the group meetings pre and post surgery I noticed not many people stuck around. There were no veterans in the group just eager newbies who can attest to the success of WLS. Seems as if the veterans drift away and either gain the weight back in silence or just get tired of hearing the same stories of success over and over. I knew that I would probably lose my WLS super powers someday and I had hoped to plan for it. First, I did lose a lot of weight in the mid 90's and I never thought that I'd get back to being obese. I was so wrong. Like my medical attendant experienced, five pounds turned to ten then to 20 and you know the rest. It took me less that four years to gain back the weight and then some. It took another 17 years to get WLS. I decided that I would use every tool that I could in order to keep the weight off and maintain my health. I joined Over Eaters Anonymous. It's another support group away from the support group my surgeon has. I started seeing a therapist who specializes in eating disorders. ( I'm a compulsive over eater) and I have family and friends who have had WLS who I can call to get and give support to. I also weigh myself every week at the same time on the same scale and set a "Red Alert" weight of 160lbs. ( Have a log since the day of my surgery) If I go above the 160 I know that I must redouble my efforts. Here is where my lost WLS super powers comes in. Despite all this I am having a difficult time losing the five pounds that I am over. I feel as if I am now a mere weight loss mortal who has to work two to three times harder to lose and maintain the weight loss. I can't say it wasn't expected. From all the people I spoke to I knew this day would come. It's that, I was once a WLS immortal and now I have to struggle like all others to lose weight. My saving grace (I hope it is) I planned for it since I went through it before and I took the advice of those who went before me seriously. For all of you newbies who are experiencing the euphoria of being WLS immortal plan for day like me when you lose that super power. Just a note, there are many who do maintain their WLS super powers. They are on this forum and they are truly superstars. They unfortunately are the exception to the trend. I find their advice to be invaluable and I look for their posts for such advice. To everyone, good luck with your new found health.

It has been 3 months since VSG and things have been going very well. The highlights: I've over eaten and drank too fast one time, and learned quickly to not do that again. I've lost 19kg since preop and have dropped two pant sizes, and wearing cute clothes I actually like. I don't mind having my photo taken now, but my saggy neck is still preventing me from taking a good selfie, lol. My sister didn't recognise me and has been full of compliments. I'm so looking forward to seeing how things are going to be at the 6 month mark. I hope all the other July surgeries are going great too. Thanks Carlye

So this is my first post back since 2013. I was sleeved in 2011. I weighed 278. I lost 105 pounds and got to 173. Fast forward to today and I am now 220! I am ashamed I have gained back 47 pounds. I was happy around 185-190 and I’d like to get back there. How have you been doing? Anything working?

And anything to dry will get stuck too. I can't eat chicken right now. I had salmon and I was fine but once I reheated it, it got stuck. I'm struggling with what to eat now because I'm scared of food getting stuck. I have been having chicken noodle soup and quiche because ive been able to keep them down although i either ate too much or two fast because the soup got stuck. So far I've lost 30 lbs. I can't even be excited because I'm miserable. A lot of people who have had the bypass and have had complications still say they don't regret it and they would do it again. I just think I wasn't ready for it. I wasn't in the right place thinking wise. But everyone's experience is different.

I haven't ever had a surgery but in on Keto diet and intermittent fasting and I've lost almost 35lbs in 3 months. I love the food on this site, it's a little expensive but allows me to eat sweet stuff without the sugar. Anyways. I was wondering if anyone has had a tummy tuck or nose job and could recommend a good Dr in Connecticut that's good but not 1000000 dollars. Thanks

So, I threw together a Spotify playlist to listen to when I do my mostly daily walking for exercise. The songs range ALL over the place, but generally are tracks that I consider to be high energy or have a strong rhythm to keep me moving. I decided to open it up as a Collaborative Playlist the other day and asked friends on Facebook and Twitter to add stuff to it to hopefully increase the variety. And well...hey...I spend a decent amount of time here. This is a type of a social setting with people who are also committed to their weight loss journeys...so why not throw it out there to another audience to see about getting some more songs on that playlist. I am trying to keep it to one song per artist, but that's not a hard and fast rule. Please feel free to add onto my playlist or maybe use it as some inspiration to add to any playlist you might use! https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4tt03Hl9KA3evSxNr3iTmF?si=Ml8TUQnDQ1ihnDlHyhg0mA

My BMI was 31 it is now 30. I had the lap-band for 12 years and stayed at my goal weight nearly the entire time. Lap band was super effective. Unfortunately it slipped and it was removed. Fast forward a year and 40 lb. gain, I had gastric sleeve surgery beginning of June. It's October 1 and I've lost 19 lbs. 10 lbs. was lost in the 1st week. Even with proper diet and steady exercise, don't expect the weight to fly off.

All of us who have gone before you managed to do it, and you will be able to do it too! I used to eat fast food 2-3 times per day, wash it down with a few sodas, etc. Like others have said, the first few days suck, but your body gets used to it. Toss the phentermine, as it will only make things worse. You can DO this!!