Search the Community

I bought my first pair of jeans, or any sort of pants that button and zip, since college a month or so ago. I still hate how they look, because all the weight I have left to lose seems to have just melted generally down but it's something. And I'll get to do the jeans shopping again soon, because they're saggy baggy now. Back when I wore jeans last, the style was ultra-low rise with a flared leg. I'm really digging the high-waisted skinny style. It's like a hug from your ankles to your ribs, like those squeezing thundershirts that they put on dogs afraid of thunderstorms.

I gained 10 lbs within 24hrs after surgery (IV). It took a couple of weeks for the excess water from the drip to come off on me. I'm almost always dehydrated though. The weight lost in the beginning is mostly water, so later when the weightloss starts slowing down, it's because you're losing fat not water anymore which takes 3500 calorie deficit to lose one pound of fat.

My starting weight was 5'7", 235 lbs... so close to the same BMI as you. Similar to you, I wondered if I was "big enough" to get the surgery... but I had increasing health issues... diabetes and sleep apnea. I am SO GLAD I DID IT. I lost all of my excess weight, my diabetes is in remission, and I no longer have sleep apnea. And I love the way I look. The reality is, even though you're not morbidly obese, the likelihood of you losing and keeping off a substantial amount of weight is near zero (as you've discovered). Weight loss surgery is the only evidence-based means of losing and maintaining the kind of loss we need to achieve a healthy weight. Here is a video about Low BMI weight loss surgery outcomes. You can also search these forums for "low BMI." There are lots of us who have gone through the same questions you have.

most of us lose somewhere in the `15-25 lb range the whole first MONTH, so yes, seven lbs after one week is fine. In fact, some don't even lose that much because they "gain" weight from the IV fluids they give you in the hospital, and it can take few days for that to work its way out of your system.

I was doing keto to loose weight prior to surgery. Since surgery I have been following the diet as ordered. I haven’t deviated once. Even with the pre-op diet I only lost 7 pounds. Mine wasn’t liquid and I could have one salad a day with fat free dressing. I was just discouraged today bc the scales isn’t moving and I have my 6 week follow up coming up. At my 2 week, the doctor seems surprised that I had only lost 7 pounds. Everyone has been so encouraging. It was what I needed today. I will continue doing what I am suppose to do and find other things to focus on besides the scale. TY

couple things to remember: 1. you are only 33 days out. 2. The "keto diet" is a high fat, moderate protein, and low carb diet. It usually consists of 75% fats, 20% protein and only 5% carb. Even though you are eating smaller portions the fat is too high. 3. A baratric diet focuses on smaller portions, high protein, low fat, and low carbs! The fat you are consuming in a Keto diet 33 days out is likely the culprit. I would stick to the meal plan that should have been outlined for you after your surgery. I am over a year out and lost 100+ pounds after my surgery w/in the first year. I did think (after talking to my dietician) that I could also try to go back on the Keto diet. I gained weight 10 lbs before I stopped that cold in its tracks and focused on my portions and eating right foods. I am almost lost the weight I gained thinking the keto diet would work for me now. I had done it before making my decision to have gastric sleeve and lost 75 lbs in a short period of time. But it came back on and then some once I stopped eating Keto.

Try to focus on NSV (non scale victories). That helps me when I'm in a stall, or I'm not losing as much as I think I should be. So for example... with my first surgery (I had the sleeve in May 2022) I lost 30 pounds in 30 days. It was insane. Then I hit the mother of all stalls. Each time I hit one, I would gain 3-5 pounds and sit there for WEEKS. I would come on here nearly in tears. Then I learned to look for things other than the numbers on a scale. I saw that I was off some of my meds. My clothes were starting to get a little looser. I dropped a ring size pretty quick. I was able to walk around more with less stops. As time went on and I was further out from my surgery, the weight loss slowed a lot. I was still losing, but at a much slower rate. But I paid attention to the NSVs and I was thrilled. I was able to work out longer, do more intense workouts, dropped another 2 sizes in clothes, ring and necklace sizes went way down, I could go up and down stairs, I was off all blood pressure, anti-inflammatory, and diabetes meds, I could sit in normal chairs with arms on them COMFORTABLY, I could cross my legs..... So many things to look at when the scale is being stubborn. I ended up having several complications from the sleeve around month 8 or so post op, and had to have a revision to bypass in June of this year. Right from the jump, the weight loss has been soooo slooooow. But my bmi and weight were a LOT lower than when I had my initial surgery (when I had the sleeve, I was 388 pounds, 5'6", bmi 63). When I had the revision, I was 275 with a bmi of 43). Also, weight loss is lower and slower with revisions. But I mostly wanted my life back because I couldn't do ANYTHING with the complications (I had 6 surgeries in 6 months). Now I'm back to working out BEAST MODE, I can live my life, properly stick to my diet, and watch my NSVs (the scale creeps along at a snail's pace, but I'm still seeing NSVs so I'm happy). Things will happen for you in the time, and in the way, they are supposed to. Just know that even when the scale isn't cooperating, other things in your body are. Just look for those, keep doing what you're doing, and you'll get there in the end.

your surgeon should know better. Although I can relate - one of my early follow up appts was with a resident who pointed out I was behind where I needed to be. But he was just a stupid resident - he should have known better. I wish I could have seen his face once I'd lost over 200 lbs - 100% of my excess weight.

I lost the same amount (16 lbs) the first month and ended up losing 235 lbs (I've gained back a few since then). Most of us seem to lose somewhere in the 15-25 lb range the first month post-op, so you're in the right range. If you're getting your expectations from "My 600 lb Life", remember that those people start at over 600 lbs - that's way above where the average WLS patient starts from, and starting BMI is one of the factors that determines what your rate of weight loss is (other factors are age, gender, how much of your body weight is muscle, whether or not you lost a lot of weight prior to surgery, metabolism rate, other genetic factors, etc). The only two factors that play into the rate of weight loss that you have much control over are how closely you're sticking to your clinic's food plan, and how active you are. If you're doing well with those, you'll lose the weight, whether fast or slow. the other thing you may be dealing with is the "three-week stall" that most of us experience. It's not always the third week post-op - sometimes it's the second or fourth or fifth week post-op, but it's most commonly during the third week, hence the name. It's basically the first major stall after WLS. Most of us go through this. It generally lasts 1-3 weeks. I had mine during weeks 2 and 3 (so two weeks). I lost virtually nothing during this time, but once week 4 started, I dropped like 6-8 lbs within just a couple of days. so anyway, long way of saying, there's no reason to feel defeated. Sounds like everything is pretty normal...

Sounds like you might just be a little bit of a slower loser, and that's ok. As long as you're losing, and following your plan, and exercising, and changing your eating habits you're doing everything right. If you were at a lower bmi and weight than others on here, you will also lose slower. But again, as my surgeon says, "as long as you continue in a downward trajectory, you're doing great". Stalls happen, everyone's journey looks different, and you're still early in yours. Your body is only like 4 weeks post op. It's still healing. Give yourself some grace, and time, and you'll see the results you want.

Congratulations on your spectacular success. Could you post on how you have kept at this weight for so long. Do you have to watch what you eat ? Do you still feel a restriction ? etc TIA

You are only 30# more than me. I am 5'1, 240 lbs. I have High Blood Pressure and Low Thyroid, I am considering the surgery because I am tire to lose the same 5 lbs in the last 2 years, I remember when I was fat at 190 lbs, it was 10 years ago. I wish I had asked for the surgery before, I jus asked few months ago. I got my 1st consult couple weeks ago. sometimes we need to think or weight our choices in one side stay the same in the other side few months of discomfort ( while we heals and get into our new style) but gaining quality of life, gaining help. Wish you the best, GO FOR IT!

You are only 30# more than me. I am 5'1, 240 lbs. I have High Blood Pressure and Low Thyroid, I am considering the surgery because I am tire to lose the same 5 lbs in the last 2 years, I remember when I was fat at 190 lbs, it was 10 years ago. I wish I had asked for the surgery before, I jus asked few months ago. I got my 1st consult couple weeks ago. sometimes we need to think or weight our choices in one side stay the same in the other side few months of discomfort ( while we heals and get into our new style) but gaining quality of life, gaining help. Wish you the best, GO FOR IT!

Hello, I am sorry your surgery got cancelled, however if you don't trust your medical care team you need to find a different one. I am sure they are other places where you can go. You need to feel care for, that will cause confidence and less stress on you, at the other hand they have the right to give your spot to someone that believe in them regardless of whatever. As the person in the table I will not want a care team doing anything to me when they know I don't trust them, they will look at me in a negative way before I even arrive, I will be in so much stress that some of my organs my go in distress that might cause complications. Just imagine you have a store and you know a customer that doesn't like you will be there, that will mess up your day, before, during and after the person leave, even if you are not helping, it will be tension in the air that might or might no spread to coworkers, the patient would be the customer that expressed concern, that came many times and the store was closed, or the items she asked were there but they were given to someone else, etc, lots of valid reasons for her annoyance but still she continue to go there. I will say that they r NOT a match, they need to part ways. It is for the best Find a different surgeon and care team. I wish you the BEST, rest your mind, let it go and find someplace else. Changing subject you lost 82 lbs! you might not even need the surgery, you only need to lose 42 lbs, you lost 41 lbs twice. I lost 35 lbs with Weight Watchers, eating whatever I wanted.

You look great! Congrats! I see why they say you will take so long to hit goal weight, after that first 8 months, it's been tough. But at least we are still losing!

Hello. I'm relatively new to these forums. I had my VSG surgery on July 10th, 2023. I weighed 450lbs on my surgery date, but gained 13lbs during my two and a half days in the hospital. It was water weight because they kept the IV on non-stop pumping liquids into me without giving me my diuretic that I've been taking for nearly 10 years, Lasix(furosemide). I am at 410lbs now, a little over 5 weeks since surgery. My treatment team has a rather slow and careful recovery diet plan, starting with 1 full week of clear liquids + protein shake only, 2 weeks full liquid diet, 2 weeks pureed diet, 2 weeks of soft foods(where I am now), and then on to introducing regular foods starting the 8th week after surgery. I am extremely thankful for the surgery. I'm feeling better, and am thankful that they cut away the hunger along with 85% of my stomach. I still don't have much of an appetite, but I understand that my stomach is still healing and it is going to take months. Right now is the time to learn new good eating habits. I've been following the rules set forth from my treatment team closely. I haven't thrown up, nor have I really felt nauseous. My stomach seems to be handling everything I've been putting into it. Although at work today my stomach let me know it was not in the mood for egg salad. after 2oz of it I felt a pressure and ache in my stomach so I stopped eating. It might have been stress or I still had some liquid in my stomach. I follow the 30:30 rule, but work was hectic and I loose tract of my liquids. Its frustrating having to stop to take a sip every 10 minutes. I forget to sip more than I actually do. Thanks for reading my short little intro. I need to go back and catch up on the previous 24 pages of posts.

Hello @Readybutscared I am similar in size to you 5'7 1/2" and currently 240 pre-surgery. My DS Loop surgery is schedule for 9/19. I guess we''ll see how it turns out. Of course I am nervous. I'm 68 years old. I feel like I should have looked into the WL surgery years ago. I've struggled with weigh for over 50 years. Like you I hide my weight well and don't appear to be obese. As I have gotten older I have developed weight related complications requiring medications; GERD, high blood pressure and recently type II diabetes. As I said we'll see how this works out. I'm tired of being a fat guy and want to see what it's like to have a normal weight my remaining 25-30 years. I enjoy bicycling. I told my surgeon try riding carrying an 80 lb. bag of cement.

It's nice to know not everyone has to avoid those things long term with the RNY. I was going by what I've read and heard from other RNY patients I've met, many of whom still avoid those things, especially dry meat. I suppose it is one of those things where there are a variety of experiences due to individual needs and the variety of plans from doctors and dietitians. I could have included the statistics for everything but it would have been a much longer post and probably a bit overwhelming to read. I find when comparing features of surgery that statistics don't matter to me much, a chance of something is a chance of something and still goes into my weighing and balancing of the surgeries overall, but I'm sure everyone differs on that. My goal was to write a post that was easy to understand and fairly neutral, as I've noticed most surgery patients are heavily biased to their own surgeries unless they are experiencing complications and have plans of revision. We have a lot of bypass patients on this board so I figured you guys would chime in. Sadly we don't have many that have had the SADI or the DS, which is unfortunate because these are really great surgeries for the right person. Thanks for chiming in with your experience Catwoman7, your weight loss and maintenance is truly impressive and you always add great things to a discussion!

Wow 500lbs that's amazing congratulations. I just had open surgery in 2021 C section and it was horrible because of my weight

1 year mark check ins? Well, tomorrow is officially 1 year for me. I am down 102 pound since surgery and 124.8 since my Pre-op. I have definitely slowed to a crawl on the weight loss at this point. The last couple months I have barely lost anything. But, I will take this weight over where I was.

Back when I had surgery SADI wasn't really a thing yet so I never researched it. Of course, neither was VSG. My research lead me to ultimately choose RNY. Because of my size it was an open surgery which made early recovery very painful. I'm one of the lucky ones that dump both on sugars and fats. Back when I had surgery it was more of a 50/50 chance I would dump. I hoped I would dump so that I'd have another tool to keep me from the wrong foods. It took an amazingly few dumping episodes to learn to avoid sugars and fats. All these years later it's all just part of the joy of being me. I managed to lose my excess weight, a bit over 500 pounds, and keep it off. It's now pretty natural eating to my surgeon's program, I don't really even think about it. It's all just normal. There are success stories with virtually every type of surgery. Build good habits during the honeymoon phase and they will serve you when your surgery is but a distant memory. Good luck, Tek

honestly, there are more people who never make it all the way to their goal than there are those who lose too much, but that said, you can always increase your calories to either stop your weight loss or gain a few pounds if you think you're getting too thin. So I wouldn't worry about that at all. I lost 100% of my excess weight and yes, for a time I was "too thin", but I was also aware that a majority of us have a 10-20 lb rebound weight gain during year 3. And I did. In addition, even before the rebound gain, things (fat, I guess?) tends to re-distribute itself after a big loss, so even though I weighed the same for awhile, I started looking a lot better. My face filled out, etc - even before that gain. as far as it being hard - the first year, it wasn't too bad - esp before my hunger and appetite came back at month 5. For those first few months, for the first time in my life, I wasn't thinking about food at all the time. In fact, I didn't think about it much at all - and at times didn't even want any. Even though it was weird not to ever be hungry and to not give a flip about food, I found it very liberating! But things changed at month 5 when suddenly my hunger came back (and it does for most of us sometime during the first year). Then you're dealing with the hunger beast again, although it's not as strong as it was before surgery. But I wanted more than anything to lose this weight once and for all, so I really stuck to my program and lost it all (weight loss didn't stop until I was almost two years out, though - I had A LOT to lose!) it does get harder after the first year because diet fatigue sets in, as well as some old habits. You really, really have to watch yourself. And eight years out, I have to continue to watch myself. It's so easy to slip into old habits. But I have a "drop dead weight" limit - I weigh myself once a week now, and if I hit that limit - or come close to it - I cut back until my weight is safely within the limit again. But this really isn't any different from most of my never-been-obese friends. So many of us have to monitor our weight and to cut back when it starts getting too high. anyway, yes, it can be hard - esp when your hunger comes back and your motivation starts to wane, but unlike before, your effort actually pays off. You put in the work, and the weight comes off (or stays off). Before, the most I could ever lose is about 50 lbs (and even that was rare - most of my dieting ended up with a 10 or 20 lb loss). And inevitably, it will all come back. Happened every time. BUt this time, it worked!

My children are adults. But, they've seen me struggle with my weight for all of their lives. They know that I had obesity-related health issues. Having the surgery was an attempt to reverse these health conditions and in my case, it worked. Thanks be to God! My children are happy that their mother will perhaps get a chance to bounce grandchildren on her knee, one day.

I am 10-months post op, gastric bypass. How much I eat, depends on what I'm eating. If I'm eating leafy greens, I can eat quite a lot. If I'm eating a drier meat, I can't eat much. A typical salad for me would be one leaf of iceberg lettuce, 5 grape tomatoes, about 2-3 ounces of protein, and a little over a tablespoon of salad dressing. If I'm eating a burger, it will usually be one 1/4 pound patty, served with a slice of cheese and condiments, on a fajita-sized low-carb tortilla. I generally eat about 3/4 of this. My usual breakfast is 1 whole egg and two egg whites, scrambled with cheese. Sometimes I can eat the whole thing and sometimes I can't. I have hungrier days and less-hungry days. I've learned that overeating is unpleasant. If I eat too fast, food gets stuck in my chest and hurts. And that cuts my meal short, which is annoying. Do I still eat too fast? Yes - especially when I've waited too long to eat and I'm hungry. When I eat slower, the meal is more satisfying. With what I'm eating, I'm basically in maintenance mode. My weight bounces between 166 and 170. Though I haven't hit goal, Both my nutritionist and I are okay with where I'm at, right now.

at over eight years out, no one would be able to tell I had bypass surgery by looking at what I ate. At most they'd think I'm a "light eater". I'll usually order a salad - or an appetizer - or else an entree and have them box up half of it to take home. Same as most of my female friends who've never had a weight issue. I do, however, order "bariatric friendly" meals - entrees with protein and vegetables. I very rarely order things like pasta or dishes that feature heavy cheese or cream sauces (well, pretty much never). Although again, that's what my non-obese friends typically order, too. Like summerseeker, I check out online menus (most places have them) and decide what I'll order before I go. the first few weeks you'll be eating microscopic amounts, but that doesn't last forever.