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I hate comments on my weight. It makes me so self conscious to know how much people are looking at my body. I have said this on some Facebook groups and I always get people who say “people better compliment me on my weight loss! I worked hard for this!!!” I just don’t feel that way.

Update, my stomach is healed, I yin and Yang with diet and diabetes. I am on the upside my weight is 223 from 289 and I hope my 240 stall is finally over. Ozempic helped manage my A1c a lot and had a neat side effects of feeling nausea which helps me control hunger and has helped my weight loss. I am hopeful to hit the 219-210 in the new year and will need to start buying clothes to offset my weight loss, I want to follow a minimalist perspective moving forward. I begin p90x again in Jan to tone up and keep the losses coming. I got a small dog and walking him 3 x a day has been super helpful!

Some lose in that first week. Some don’t. It depends on things like how much fluid & gas you were pumped with during & after surgery. How long it takes your body to express it. How your body responds to surgery - the stress. You may have diarrhoea or be constipated over the first week or two. You may retain more of the fluid you’re consuming to begin. It’s all very individual as to what shows on the scale. Some surgeons actually advise not to weigh yourself for a week or more post surgery to allow for these factors as you can weigh more after surgery than you did before. (I weighed a good 2kgs more 24 hrs after my gall removal & took 4 days to get rid of it.) if you do weigh yourself after surgery don’t be surprised if there’s no loss or if there’s gain. But you could be someone who does have a loss in that first week (I did - almost 3 kg.) Your weight will be falling off you soon enough after & it will be fantastic. All the best.

How soon after surgery do you start to lose weight?

Do you know why you gave up on your eating plan? Is there something happening in your life causing you undue stress. Are you grieving a loss? Do you think you might be depressed? Are you self-medicating with food? If you have access to a therapist, they can help you try to get to the root of WHY you feel the urge to eat the wrong things (or in the wrong amounts). Unfortunately, surgery helps the body lose weight but it doesn't cure the emotional issues that may have caused us to overeat in the first place. In the meantime, I don't know what you're eating that is problematic, but maybe start by getting rid of junk food, soda, sugar, etc. Go back to protein, veggies and fruit. Don't worry about quantity, but start by focusing on making good food choices. Once you "detox" from your problem foods, it will be much easier to figure out how you should eat going forward. Have you contacted your bariatric team? They should be able to provide support and guidance (and maybe a referral to a therapist). Best wishes, hope you can get back on track soon. Hugs. 🤗

What a difference already in those photos! Well done on the big loss this month and wishing you all the best for the months ahead. Sounds like you're getting great advice from your team.

Our surgery center dieticians were also focused on low-fat everything, but I am not about to eat diet cheese. When I asked why low fat was necessary, and what it had to do with weight loss surgery, she just said it was because low-fat was generally healthier, especially low saturated fat. Well, there's much debate about that, so I told her I was going to continue to eat cheese, because my life would be sad without cheese. As you said, it has to be sustainable. Plus... if the mayo is fat free, why does it only have to be 1 tsp? One thing I did learn later is that if you have a lot of fat intake as you are losing weight rapidly, it can increase your chances of having gallbladder issues. I'm trying to keep low fat where I can, but still eat CHEESE! Did your surgery center not have a dietician of their own? If not, I'd ask them for a recommendation for a dietician familiar with WLS patients. Not that you will necessarily have a better outcome, but maybe!

Hi everyone! I was just planning out my strategy for the coming Christmas dinners, lunches, brunches and thought I'd share. Maybe you guys have some tips to share as well! 1. Learning flexible control Problem We're used to thinking in black and whites. Good food and bad food. On-the-diet or off-the diet. Thoughts like 'oh well, since I already ate X, I may as well give up on my diet' are probably familiar to us. Solution This year, I'm going to eat beyond my calories, but not far beyond my calories. I'm not going to be counting, actually. I'm going to taste a little bit of everything, and stop when I feel satisfied. 2. Me first Problem "People expect me to be eating what they eat / I can't handle questions about how I eat / I will disappoint my Aunt if I don't eat this or that ..." Solution My body, my eating: I'm going to compliment the food I get, and in general take charge of the situation. I won't be hoping nobody notices I eat way less than the rest of the family, I'm eating how I want to eat and that's it. In general, I'm going to remind myself my eating is for my body. Their eating is for theirs. People who seem confident don't get second-guessed. Fake it 'till you make it. 3. Answering all the questions Problem People asking about my weight loss, commenting if I shouldn't put on some weight, judging bariatric surgery. Solution I'm going to be my own PR agent; and I'm coming prepared with answers. My answer to "how did you lose the weight?" is 'I fixed my mental relation to food first, then had bariatric surgery, and life has never been better, so happy with how I did this' is my prepared answer in a family setting. It sounds well-planned (and it was, btw) and doesn't open up a can of new questions. Rather it inspires co-celebration and I expect lots of 'good for you!' kinds of answers. Again, a confident attitude doesn't open attack lanes. My answer to "I think bariatric surgery is the easy way out" will be a question in return; "I don't know a lot of people who lost more than 100 lbs and kept it off without metabolic surgery, do you?" My answer to "oh but can't you drop the diet for a day and enjoy eating with your family like we do?" will be "I'd love to be here sharing a family meal in 20 years, too, so I'm not too focused on eating a certain amount, I'm focused on eating what's right for me" with a smile to make it less confrontational. However, a question like that warrants a certain amount of back off! in the reply. In general, see 2. I'll happily taste everything. I will eat however much or little I feel like, though. And it's okay to be a little on guard in our situation, we're still getting the hang of things. 4. Coming prepared Problem Finding myself without any options to eat something I'd like to eat. Solution Avoid setting myself up for failure: I'm stocking up the car on sugar-free chocolate, popped cheese, Quest protein chips, instant protein oatmeal and some fruit. If I'm hungry, I'm hungry, and then I need to eat. I don't want to chance it and find myself in a situation where I "have to" eat something I don't want to eat. I can eat whatever I want, in smaller amounts, but I'd like to have options. 5. Pre-forgiving myself Problem What if I end up eating 2,800 calories and washing that down with 1,200 calories worth of dessert wine? Solution The only way this will truly be a problem is if it means I'm back in beating myself over the head with it-land. If this happens, it was probably because it was a really fun night, the food was amazing, and hey, the upside to Auntie Liz' drinking problem is she brings awesome French dessert wine. Better help her drink that and move on with life the next day as planned. What do you guys do to fly through the holidays? Merry Christmas!

It's so weird how different programs work. In mine, after a month which is phase 3 for me, they have provided the list of all kinds of food including bread, pasta, rice and that too white rice. We can eat all kinds of grains as long as we can tolerate. It kinda petrifies me since we are always told to stay away from carbs during weight loss. Of course we are asked to eat Protein first then vegetables, fruits and carbs come last. I'll try to include little at a time and try not to have too many carbs in my mela especially since my protein comes from heavy carb laden whole foods (vegetarian and all, and no protein powder on my program).

Generally post bariatric surgery we’re advised to avoid bread, pasta, rice especially while losing. They are nutritionally poor food choices, can swell &/or sit heavily in your much smaller tummy. Your focus should be protein. If you can only eat say 1/3 cup of food for a meal the majority of that 1/3 cup should be protein focussed. Some people do eat small amounts of vegetable pasta, cauliflower rice, etc. as they progress through the weight loss phase. And some find they can eat a little traditional bread, pasta or rice as they are able to eat larger portions at a meal. Many avoid these foods until maintenance when they start to reintroduce them into their diets. It does depend upon the plan you have been given & also how you react to certain foods. What does your plan/surgeon/dietician recommend? I still don’t eat bread or pasta or rice at 2yrs 7 months. They tend to still sit heavily in my tummy & I also try to focus on nutritionally dense food choices.

It could be that you have reached your low weight point. You could be in a prolonged stall which is more noticeable because you are getting close to goal & your rate of loss has slowed. You may need to up your activity or tweak your food choices a bit. What does your dietician or surgeon say or suggest? Unfortunately, the truth is not everyone reaches their goal weigh. Some lose more, some less. Some regain, some maintain. Remember, the average weight loss at the 5yr point is about 65% of the weight you had to lose. I reached my goal at 6 months but continued to lose for another 10/11 months. I struggled to eat enough to stop the loss. The rate slowed a lot over that period down to about a pound or less over two weeks or more. I’m what is termed a statistical outlier & have beaten the odds so far but I have no idea what the future will bring. Congratulations on the weight you have lost. Whoo hoo!

Thank you all for your kind words! These forums have been great for keeping me on track before and after surgery. I really appreciate you all. Honestly this is pretty much the only “before” pic, and I’m not even quite sure it’s at my highest. My program said take before pictures right before surgery, take measurements. But of course I didn’t listen. My main goal for photos pre-op was “don’t be in them”. A few more questions I see all the time I here I will answer: yes I lost hair, yes, even though I got my protein and vitamins. It just happens. I cut my hair shorter, and literally the only other person who noticed was my hair dresser. And all the hair is growing back now, which looks kind of funny since it’s a little frizzy halo on my head. But the whole hair thing is kinda funny to be honest, not a huge upset or a tragedy. No, I don’t feel like weight loss made me look dramatically older, nor did I gain wrinkles or jowls. But I’m in my 40s, and I’m a skincare enthusiast and regular Botox user so that may have influenced stuff. 😂 Yes, I can eat “normally” now. If I went out to a restaurant with someone who didn’t know it wouldn’t be obvious outside of what looks like a small appetite. I’m not eating special bariatric diet food. Happy to answer any questions people have! And thank you all again.

I am 8.5 months post op and my weight loss has slowed to a very slow crawl so I know what you mean. I am about ten pounds from goal still but my goal is at the high end of normal so I figured I could reach that fairly easy and readjust from there. I do not do a lot of exercise aside from walking. I think to lose much more I may have to add in some actual cardio. Perhaps you will too.

Hi all, I'm 9 months post op and in the past two months I did not lose one pound. I eat a little bit more than before, but my eating habits are very good. I lost 65 pounds in total (I'm at 165 now) but would love to go down to 130lbs at least. Is the weight loss done for me? I'm wondering if there was no more weight loss for any one of you after less than a year. I just want to mentally prepare myself if 160-165 is the lowest I will get

The weight loss back pain is real! I had a heck of a time for a few months. I fully believe what was said earlier about sudden shift in how you hold yourself. Once my stomach started going away I’m sure it messed with my center of balance. I started exercising more and it eventually went away.

Thank you!!!! 💛💛💛💛I actually never thought that eating would ruin my weight loss. I would love to eat more. I’m honestly not hungry at all. I haven’t begin to feel hunger yet. I have to set alarms to eat. My surgery team told me that I don’t have to eat more, just make a few tweaks to what I am eating. For instance, adding peanut butter to my apple sauce or yogurt to get the calories up. Or adding low fat Mayo to my tuna instead of just eating it with a little pepper. I do eat 5-6 times a day. I think when I’m completely healed, I might start to feel hunger and be able to get more in.

I encourage recording your body measurements. When I hit stalls and started to question my weight loss, recording body measurements reinforced me.

Congratulations on your fabulous weight loss! Yes, it's important to get enough calories, even though we feel like when we eat we're "ruining our surgery" sometimes. I hope you have continued success and that the changes you are making with eating more and the B12 injections will improve your energy.

Not knee surgery but I did have a total hip replacement 8 months after my gastric bypass. The ortho doc wouldn't do it until my BMI was less than 30. He said surgery would be safer and my recovery would be much easier. He was right! He was also impressed with my weight loss!

I had surgery on 11/10/20, but started my weight loss efforts on 7/5/20. If you’ve been here a while I’m sure you’ve seen me lurking about the forums. Stats: SW 339. CW: 165. I am a 5’10 woman in her 40s. I work full time and have young children. My current BMI is 23, I started off with it closer to 50. I knew it was going to take me a while to hit goal- I had 174 lbs to lose. I did all the calculators pre-op that said I would be lucky to get under 200 lbs, but I decided that just wasn’t going to apply to me (haha). My plan was to focus on fruits, vegetables, and healthy proteins while ramping up exercise. I eliminated cookies, pastries, and candy but that’s about it. I don’t do low carb, because that isn’t how I’m planning on living the rest of my life. I focus on calorie reduction, which sounds like oh if that’s so easy why did you need surgery? Well cutting calories is possible if you aren’t hungry all the time no matter how much you eat, and if you can fill up on the healthy things without it being like flash paper into a volcano. I honestly did need the surgery, and I’m not going to pretend it did the work for me, but it gave me the help for the work I wanted to be able to do. Six days a week I do a split between running and rowing for a half hour. I’m going to run in a 5k this spring, which has been a dream of mine for years. I exercise on my lunch break every day. Yes, I have some loose skin. It’s nowhere as bad as people make it out to be. I am not exactly planning on running around in a bikini so it’s not like it limits my life at all. It’s not visible in my clothes, not even tight fitting ones. I might get it removed some day, but if I don’t I’ll still be happy. This weight loss has been the fulfillment of a lifelong dream for me. Life is difficult when you are morbidly obese. It’s difficult physically, emotionally, and socially. This weight loss hasn’t fixed every problem in my life, but I didn’t expect for it to. It fixed my weight related problems, and I had a lot of them. This surgery can be life changing, but it’s not a magic bullet. You still have to make huge life changes. But if you feel sabotaged you your own constant hunger, cravings, and binges, this can really be the tool you use to dig yourself out of the seemingly insurmountable weight you need to lose. This isn’t a finish line for me. I am still working on hopefully losing another 15 lbs, and I’m never going back to my old eating habits. I know I signed up for a lifelong change, otherwise I’ll be right back where I started. But finally hitting goal was a nice early Christmas present to myself. Sorry for the essay, but I don’t really have anyone in real life to share with who gets it!

I've been having a pretty rough recovery, it started out fine but then it kind of came crashing down. Today I've been doing kind of better, I haven't been able to meet protein goals yet because I've been searching for protein shakes/powders my body would tolerate. I think I may have found one but I've also been dealing with nausea, my body had one of it's extreme well, I'll say "episodes" by which case I went to the E.R. to get checked up to make sure I don't actually pass out since I can't keep up with the losses this time around. I'm taking flintstones multivitamins even though they are insufficient my nutritionist said if I can double up on them that'd be great. Something is better than nothing I suppose, I believe my body is just one of the ones that recovers slower so I've been taking it one day at a time. I haven't even bothered with getting a scale or weighing myself, I'm happy with getting weighed at appointments. My sheer focus is just on getting my body on the actual path to recovering well at this point.

Oh you're having some big losses here - that's lovely to see, makes the whole thing worthwhile. Meanwhile I am still crawling along - one more pound off this week. I know it's a loss and all that but it means I have lost a total of just 9lbs in 5 weeks. I need to lose at least 100lbs and am hoping that this is just a long 'stall' and I start to see some decent losses soon. I am doing everything according to plan and I'm not really looking for advice at the minute - just checking in with my November buddies, as I like to do. Keep the faith my friends!

So I could use some help. Had surgery Dec 20, 2019, but really started working out (lifting and running) in Oct. Since I increased my activity level, I have been just hungry. My eating habits are all over—trying to get protein, but hungry (so I’m grabbing handfuls of whatever). I haven’t been tracking food accurately due to being snacky. And unfortunately gaining weight (roughly +7 pounds—from 143 to 150). I can’t tell if it’s muscle or flab. Clothes still fit, but my body dysmorphia is in full bloom and I feel like I look like I’m back at pre-WLS shape. The working out has been amazing though, and I’m enjoying the weightlifting in particular. I know at 2 years it’s common to gain some weight. And for the body to begin to absorb calories more efficiently. I guess I’m at a loss as to how to “right this ship”. I need to get back to below 145 for my mental health, which sounds slightly ridiculous, I know. Tracking calories accurately and not snacking I guess? Thoughts or “been there / done that” experience ?

I have a spouse who doesn’t want me to have the surgery. I’m having the sleeve tomorrow and today I am 5’7 and 211. I am a severe diabetic and to the point I have to have this even though I’m at a 34 BMI due to the diabetes and health issues with that my insurance is paying 100% of the surgery. But Mr has brought me my favorite things, tried to take me to dinner and get mad when I say no during the liquid phase. The closer to surgery the more insecure he is becoming (married 20 years) I am seeing my therapist more the past week then my entire life. I will choose life and health over his insecurities and sabotaging me. I lost my very healthy thin father to diabetes when I was 17. I want to be here for my kids and grandkids. If you want this, you want life and choose, as someone here told me yesterday, to learn to love yourself then this will work and you will be successful. My sister had bypass 25 years ago and still maintaining her weight loss, her daughter had it 3 years ago maintaining her weight loss. I could go on and on but I won’t. I think the first step is seeing a therapist to find out why you are killing yourself with food. Because that is what is happening. It’s a tool, it’s up to you to succeed. And I am fighting against all odds with my Hubby but I will choose life and make this successful if that means leaving my 20 year marriage. If he loves me he will support me and help me - period

how cute are those.... such talent. No, not a red head.... I think it was just the light in the office. My mom would kill me (even at 53) she is not a "red hair" fan. I love red hear. The concert was amazing. I finally got my first vax....