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I just went camping for two weeks and we lost power and ice in the area due to storms. We moved on and ordered eggy stuff at Tim Horton’s, sandwiches at Subway (didn’t eat the bread), and burgers at local restaurants (no bun but extra lettuce and tomato). In fancier places I ask to order an appetizer as a meal. No one cares. I ended up dropping 5 pounds. (I think the threat of carnivorous animals being attracted to food in the tent had a big effect on healthy habits too. Sigh, maybe I should be more afraid of the giant rats in my apartment building ;)

I don't worry about women being good to me, I worry about ME being good to me. Someone will always have something to say. I love the progress I'm making, but I've had some tell me I look sickly, or like I have "Ozempic face" (I didn't even know what that means until my cousin told me...I've never taken any kind of shot or med for weight loss), or that I took the easy way out, or that I ruined any chance I have to just live a normal life and eat what I want. But you know what? They don't live in my body, they don't pay my bills, they don't live my life, and they don't cut me a check every 2 weeks. So what they say or think is irrelevant. I'm happy, I'm healthy, I'm finally starting to live my best life, and I really don't care what anyone else thinks about how I got here. The point is, I'm here.

I had my surgery June 12th. I just started getting my energy back the last 2 weeks. I did have to increase my calories though. 500-600 calories wasn't doing it. I was trying to exercise but I was exhausted all the time. I Increased my cals to about 1000. It gives me enough energy to exercise but it has slowed the weight loss. But I'd rather lose slower and feel better.

I was still on soft foods after 3 weeks No biscuits for me. Did your Dr give you a diet to follow? I find eggs very filling. I snacked on sugar free jello and pudding. We were advised to avoid "slider" foods such as potato chips and pretzels because they aren't very nutritious or satiating

Hi everyone, I am getting really concerned - I had my surgery 3 weeks ago. I don't seem to have much restriction or very little. I just ate 5 Weetabix with milk and honey. I obviously haven't conquered my BED. Has anyone got any good ideas about what I can do please? I'm so ashamed. I live in the UK

I had my surgery june 11th in the U.K. I’m doing ok but I could sleep the day away and still sleep at night. I take all my vitamins and supplements. At 8 weeks post I wondered if anyone else feels the same. I hope your doing great after your surgery x

I’m sorry to hear this. If the burning is in the stomach region (not the oesophagus) this sounds like exactly what I had. Here is my long story: I was sleeved June 19 and I had this!! I had 2 ER visits and was re admitted to hospital. I referred myself to a gastroenterologist in the end. That is what you need. My pain was only at night too! Here is my long story and I hope it helps you. Please know I am feeling better now. You’ve had complications but there is hope. Here is what I posted last night in another thread. Hi everyone! I was sleeved on 19/6 (Australian date format lol). My experience was no smooth sailing and I developed severe complications despite seeing the best surgeon at the best hospital. I’ve felt really scared, alone and isolated so I am delighted to find this forum. my weight was only 92 pre op and I guess I was considered a healthy young woman. 5 days post op I developed a severe burning pain deep inside my stomach. After numerous emergency visits and tests, it was determine I did not have a gastric leak. I had to be re admitted to hospital to manage the most severe pain of my life, for another 5 days and they still didn’t know what was wrong. Long story short, I had to self refer myself to a gastroenterologist who immediately knew what was wrong. I had developed bile reflux from my bowel into my freshly cut stomach which was causing the searing pain, severe inflammatory gastritis of my stomach lining, which then caused pancreatitis and severe spasms of my actual stomach. Because of all of this I could not even get Water down and my throat was burning and mouth dried up from bile damage. He put me on a bunch of new intense meds and nearly 8 weeks post op now I am starting to feel normal. It’s been a really scary rough ride and emotional and I haven’t known if I’ve made the right decision. I can eat about 1/4 cup soft foods now which I am grateful for. I also ended up seeing a second surgeon who has done thousands of sleeves and said bile reflux and severe gastritis which causes severe sharp pain / burning pain is possible and he has seen it. Basically everything is inflamed and unhappy and this can also cause pancreatitis pain. How my new gastroenterologist helped me and I finally started getting better 2 weeks after surgery was medication to stop the bile called cholestyramine, as well as upping the PPis to twice a day plus adding on a drug called famotidine at night with physically reduced the volume of stomach acid you produce (ppis just neutralise it). Plus I had to take metaclopramide as it pushes things down instead of up, including bile, 3 times a day. I am finally better now nearly 8 weeks out. I was desperate and hopeless and felt like my original surgeon could not help me / did not believe it. Generally for me my severe pain was only at night time when I was meant to sleep! You need to see a gastroenterologist stat. Good luck.

I can't believe its almost been a year already! I hit my 1st major goal of 155 which is what I have been trying to hit for over 20 years but then I of course have been in a stall and have been going up and down the same 3 lbs and haven't hit it again since. So I'm hoping this stall will break soon and that I can keep going. Its so sad to not really feel happy about hitting that goal because I gained the next time I weighed myself and so I can't count it in my head yet. I'm close though so I'm happy about that. Once I hit 152 I'll have lost 80 lbs which is my next goal lol. I'm scared because I seem to have to be very strict with my calories to be able to lose and not gain. I have to be under 1200 and over 800 and I have to exercise. If I don't exercise then even with that range of calories I start to gain or stall. Which means I might be stuck at 1200 and under for life which is depressing because my hunger is really coming back and I've never had a great restriction so every day is a harder battle. I'm using veggies to fill in the hunger gaps and water too but its scary. I was hoping that after this amount of time that eating less and eating better would be natural and normal for me so that it wouldn't feel like a diet. For awhile it was like that but now with the hunger back I can easily eat too much and my brain still thinks I should be eating bigger portions. I'm still working on it though and I'm still hoping to reach more goals so I hope I don't fail this close to the finish line. One day at a time

Oh, I'm beyond heart broken, I literally cannot stop crying. I work in a hospital and my panic attack was so bad after being told my surgery was cancelled that I had several nurses, plus a physician all ask me if I was ok or if they could drive me somewhere/take me to the ER. I even got reprimanded by the nurse over the phone for not following instructions, when I asked if I was correct in being on an under 500 calorie diet, with my three 160 calorie protein shakes adding up to 480 calories/day. She refused to let me even speak. When I asked if I could speak for 30 seconds she said no. The instructions I was emailed says "3-5 protein shakes per day depending on the amount of protein per shake." I am using the Premier Protein, which has 30g protein, so since I was told I needed 80g/day I was drinking 3 shakes per day. She lectured me on not following instructions until she looked back in her email that she sent me and realized I was correct. Apparently it was suppose to be 6 shakes per day! This was also part of what got me cancelled, when I asked if I was correct that I should be under 500 calories/day.

I start the morning with 16 oz of water. Then, I have my protein shake. I have lunch, dinner, and at least a couple days of snacks. I purchased a really great recipe book with high protein options. A couple of my favorites are bell pepper nachos and tofu tacos. The biggest help is that I marinate enough for two or three family dinners and freeze the extra. This lets me take a break from planning during the week. My go to snack in a hurry is a Chobani 60 calories yogurt that has 11 grams of protein. I add some Granola and fruit, and this is a very filling and healthy option for me. I still have restriction, and that helps to keep me in check. This week, I am 6 months out and will need to push up my calories and protein intake.

im almost 5 years out and lost 115-120 lbs (depending on the day, lol) pre-surgery, i was only slighty active...not because i didn't want to be, but because i tired out easily. i would do fun cardio-intensive activities every once in while, but wouldn't last long, and would take a few days to recover. immediately post-surgery i did a couple laps of walking the hospital halls, once home, forced myself to walk around my kitchen island several times a day. graduated to walking around the block a few times a day, to walking several times at once around that block, to walking around that block for at least an hour, often times much more. by 5-6 months post op, i was RUNNING around the block and neighborhood for min 5km sometimes more 5-6 times a week. i also started exploring other things to do around 3 months post. i tried hot yoga, tap, zumba, bouldering, salsa, weight training. only yoga and zumba stuck. i did force myself to do some sort of strength training 4-5 times a week (body weight only) because i hate strength training but i also know it does wonders for how one body LOOKS. i was pretty religious about all this exercise for about 2.5 years. then i hurt my foot which sidelined me for 2-3 months and i didn't go back to my regularity of exercise since. i probably only run a 5k twice a week now. i do notice the difference in how my body looks now vs then. i was much firmer then and also had more energy. my arms are a faded memory of their once awesome glory lol. i keep telling myself to pick it up but alas im super lazy. its way hard to start up again once u stop, so my advise here would be: dont stop! as others have alluded to above, exercise isn't really a main factor in weight loss, it more for health and "body presentation" lol. u mean i weigh pretty much the same as i did in my exercise heyday, but i dont look nearly as good (body wise). another piece of advice i would dole out here is find something u actually like to di, as u have a better chance of doing it long term. good luck! ❤️

Hi! My surgery was rescheduled for August 10th, this Thursday, because I got sick the week of my original date. I'm in the lower Hudson Valley, NY, just north of NYC. I'm having the SADI-S (aka SIPS / aka Modified Duodenal Switch). My surgeon doesn't put his patients on a liver reduction diet, but he does ask us to eliminate refined carbohydrates and I've been working with the dietician to increase proteins and decrease carbs overall since last October. On Wednesday I need to do a clear liquid diet. My nerves started last night, after I read through all the consent forms to sign, and when it really hit me about giving up my food habit. It's not like I hadn't thought about any of these things, but they seemed really far away so I didn't worry. I'm so happy that there seems to be a nice little cohort of us for August, so we can support each other! I'll go look for the FB group too. Good luck to everyone! I saw a few were having their surgeries early this month, how has it gone?

I hope you do not give up on swimming, there are so many different types of swimsuit styles out there. I personally wear a 3-piece, it has a sports bra-like top, then a tank that goes over the top, and a Capri pant for the bottom, I bought some additional swim shorts, but more often than not I wear the Capri pant. I got it from Amazon I would be more than happy to send you the link if or you might be able to use the search terms "three-piece adult swimsuit"

I started strength training back in October for 2 months before I entered the program. Personal issues and how I chose to handle them stopped my progress. I restarted weight lifting and swimming in March. I focused more on weights (6 days a week) and swam 2-3 days a week about 3 hours total. I eventually dropped swimming, since I swim at a public facility and the kids are out of school, and for some reason overtake the indoor area instead of staying outside where the slides and water features are. I have been lifting 6 days a week, at least an hour a day, I have greatly improved my strength, and I have been told I look slimmer, but I do not see it in my clothes or on the scale. I am still waiting on my surgery date, my Insurance told me it will likely be in September, so I am trying to get as much off as I can beforehand, It has been great to become stronger but disheartening to see the scale barely move. On Friday I decided I would focus on cardio only for 2 weeks to see how that goes. After surgery I was thinking I could get back into weights, I prefer doing that to the treadmill, stationary bike, recumbent bike, and elliptical. I plan to swim again once the kids are back in school. I appreciate your comment as I have been having a hard time with not seeing the scale move. It upsets me a little that none of the medical professionals I have seen have suggested focusing more on cardio, just to get more weight off for now.

Hey surgery twin! I am on the pre op diet too and it's been difficult. Just over a week left, we are almost there! 🙂

Pain level was 6-10 for the three days but they were always on time with the pain meds. By the time I got home I only used Tylenol because I felt spasm and cramps. That was about it tho.

Prior to surgery, I was walking, but not consistently. I will walk one week, then stop for two, then start again etc. Once I decided to do the surgery, I do not recall trying to follow any exercise program. I did not start walking until about 6 weeks post op, 2x a week. I was cleared by that time for strength training but still had some minor tingling in the big incision so was advised to do core exercises as I could handle them. I had all intentions to start a strength training program I had purchased end of January but did not start until March and have been following consistently. This consist of strength training with weights and resistance bands, 5x a week and depending on the week range from 30min to 45 min. Loose skin depends on too many factors to determine. I was told by my doctor that anyone who is loosing over 100lbs will have loose skin, the severity will vary by those factors. I personally thought I will have more loose skin, but being 20lbs or so from goal, I feel like I only have in my arms and breast, the other areas are not that much and I feel like by building muscle they will look a little better. Note that if you do decide to start adding strength training to your exercise routine, the number on scale will be different as you are gaining muscle and loosing inches. Some people have a hard time with that. I personally have shifted my focus to body composition instead of the number on the scale since I'm 8 months post op and reached my original goal weight.

Hey July buddies! Well I’m exactly one month passed my July 6th Gastric Sleeve. Hope everyone is doing well! I’m reporting 25 lbs down this morning very happy for the first month! No Stalls, yet. Only eating around 1000 calories a day, but burning more than 3600 every day. Lots of walking, can’t wait till the doctor says I can lift heavy weights again, my checkup is next week.

In answer to your question ........ I was a couch potato before my RNY back in last May last year. Walking past three houses was exhausting. So I rarely walked. So I began walking. Each week/month I went a little further and further. i can now walk 5 k easily. Walking is a great way to start to get fit. Then I started to do a small amount of strength exercises. It only been the last month that I have done cardio. I walk, use a recumbent bike and use limited weights. For me the whole thing is just about getting fitter. I do feel fitter and happier in my body. At my size I am going to have loose skin. How much you exercise will be determined by what you want to achieve and how much you are prepared to do. Losing weight is one thing but in order to keep the weight off exercise will need to be part of your life long journey. I hope it all goes well for you.

Hi! I'm so happy your year has been such a success! And how exciting for your daughter! It's awesome that she could see how your journey has gone, especially in that first month or two post-op. My surgery was on September 7, 2022, and I am kicking my butt trying to get to below 200 pounds by my one year RNY anniversary - I've got 10 pounds to go! I have lost 200 pounds since my highest weight in November 2021, and 145 pounds since surgery 11 months ago. Highest Weight: 410 | Surgery Weight: 355 | Current Weight: 210 | Goal Weight: 185 Physical Health: I am weight lifting 5 days per week, and my cardio is spin cycling or swimming 4-5 days per week. I'm currently a size 12, medium/large, down from size 28, 5x - I haven't been a size 12 since 6th grade! I am still not used to walking into a store and easily finding clothes that fit me. For decades, I have only been able to shop at plus-size clothing stores like Lane Bryant, and my options are so vast now! Also my hair is growing back and getting healthier again. My last blood test showed I was low on folate, so I'm taking that which has the benefit of helping with constipation, too. Recent realizations: collar bones and ribcage are things that I have turns out?? Mental Health: I don't track my food anymore because I started noticing some unhealthy food restriction patterns starting when I was closely tracking it. I have also asked for help from my support people. Just yesterday I asked my mom to remind me that, no matter what I said, today is going to be a rest day and she helped hold me to that today. She also offered to hold onto my scale for a bit which I took her up on so I can keep my weight loss progression mentally healthy. That said, I have been off my depression and anxiety medication for about five months now and I'm finding that my mental health has been thriving lately. Excess Skin: Because I've lived at 300-400 pounds for 20+ years, I have a ton of extra skin and I have started looking into excess skin surgery options for my belly, arms, and breasts. I am saving money wherever I can to try and save up for skin removal surgery. I will never be able to afford surgery in the US, but I've been researching options abroad like in Mexico, Colombia, and Thailand. Right now I use compression garments to hold my tummy skin in place while I exercise or basically just exist because chafing is a real problem. I have really bad skin to begin with and I don't need to add in chafing and skin infections just for fun. I hope you guys are doing great as we all come up on our one year anniversaries! Let's keep supporting each other and sharing in our various successes and struggles!

I lost 42kg so just a little less than you asked for. I don’t enjoy exercising. Never have. Still don’t. Over the years before surgery I tried lots of things: walking, yoga (one I enjoyed most), aerobics, swimming, cycling, etc. They never helped me lose weight or maintain my weight so I really wasn’t all that surprised when I discovered exercise only contribute to about 10% of any weight you want to lose. Of course there are many other benefits to exercising but don’t rely on it to help with your weight loss. Did I exercise during my weight loss? Nope. I just upped my everyday activities: parked further away from where I was going, walked up & down escalators & travelators, made multiple trips up & down my stairs (why carry groceries up in one trip when you can do it in two or three), etc. I still don’t exercise as such. I exercise snack at home by doing 5-10 minute sessions about 4 times a day of stretching & using resistance bands. I have loose skin (not a lot but enough) but my arms look more toned from using the bands - I just don’t wave my arms about. Too many factors influence how much loose skin you’ll have. Age, genetics, how much weight you lose, how long you were at your higher weight, your weight loss & gain history, etc. You can’t stop it. Your skin has already been stretched. You may get a little snap back if you’re younger & still producing elastin. Think of your lose skin as a well used & over stretched hair band/elastic. Can’t fix that. As to exercising helping with it, your muscles lie under your skin & your skin drapes over the top. You’ll need a lot of muscle to fill your skin out. My thighs would have to be three or more inches larger to fill out my loose skin there but I don’t want large thighs again. Nor do I want a large butt again to fill out the loose skin there. Surgery is your only option if your lose skin bothers you, limits your movements or gets infections, rashes, etc.

I'm 51 yo male, considering a full extended tummy tuck (loose skin from WLS) and chest lift w/ nipple grafting (gynecomastia). At what point (weeks/months) am I likely to be fully recovered, feel "good as new" / "back to normal"?

You should just be taking a sip every few minutes of all your liquids. No gulping mouthfuls or downing glassfuls so you won’t feel full. Liquids go through your digestive system more quickly too. Plus many nerves were cut during your surgery so messages about hunger, satiety, fullness, etc. don’t get through in the same way or at all. This is why it’s very important to stick to the portion sizes & the eating & drinking guidelines (sipping, eating slowly, etc.) you were given most especially in the first weeks while you are healing. (I still sip & eat slowly 4 years out.) Actually not eating or drinking until you are full is an important learning. It takes time for the message to get through that you are full so by the time you realise you are full you are more than full & have eaten or drunk way too much. Listening to your signals & signs as to when you have had enough & don’t need more (need not want) does take time and they may be different from what you know them as. If you had a leak you’d know about it. Symptoms include: fast heart rate fever chills stomach pain chest pain shortness of breath of breathing difficulties nausea & vomiting If you have some or all of these symptoms contact your surgeon & go to your nearest medical centre. All the best.

I am one week postop from doing the Endo scopic sleeve gastric and I’m doing my liquid diet but I don’t seem to get full with water. Should I be worried that my stitches on my stomach might of got loose or will it change once i get to eating solid protein

Believe it or not, sometimes too much water will wash out all of your electrolytes that you're not able to replace with food (because it's limited). A couple of weeks ago I was doing 80-96 oz of water a day, and I started cramping in my feet and legs at night. I switched one of my water bottles out for a zero-sugar Propel water bottle, and the cramps stopped that same night. I chose Propel over Gatorade or Powerade because it has less sodium, and I have to watch my BP.