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Don't feel discouraged. You're doing just fine. Fluctuating 2-even 5 lbs a day is normal at any weight. This has to do with water weight, food etc. It's best to weigh yourself first thing in the morning, before food or drink and most importantly only ONCE per week. You're still healing. This was a big surgery. But most of all, Youre on track! Have you ever lost 8 to 10 lbs in one week before this? be proud! If you obsess over the scale it will mess with your head. Do not compare any if your progress to other people, our journeys are different right down to our surgeon guidelines and food phases. For portion sizes, your body will tell you if youre pushing yourself too much. Start small and work your way up. Less is more right now, protein shakes are incredibly important to not lose muscle mass.

It doesn't have to do with what the person eats. "Skinny fat" means that a person carries too much body fat in relation to lean mass despite being a normal weight.

Some do more than 4 weeks some less. I needed to do it for two weeks. The time needed also depends on an number of factors. The surgeon may have requirement to do a certain amount of time due to a starting weight and or getting the patient to show commitment to the process. Their primary reason for anybody to do the diet is to shrink the liver so that makes the surgical field easier to access. Asking the surgeon their reasoning. Hope it all goes well for you.

Typically we only see 4 weeks for people with a lot more weight to lose. Don't know what your specs are since you have not added them, but people with a BMI in the 50's or 60's will sometimes have a 3 or 4 week pre-op diet. If that's you, it's to make the surgery as safe as they can.

You won't permanently stretch out your pouch over one meal. It takes overeating repeatedly over time. Also keep in mind that ounces of protein is a measurement of their weight, not volume. While 4 ounces of most meats will be about the same size, the 4 ounce rule doesn't apply to other things. The only thing where we generally use ounces as a volume measurement is liquid ounces.

I just had surgery last week, and just found this app… I was surprised how little pain I felt, but I was also surprised how tired I was post surgery. I actually slept from surgery until late afternoon the following day. But once I woke up I felt great, but I wear out quickly. My doctor said the weight loss will help me feel more energized.

Hey this popped up in my feed too, I remember this thread! At the time I was only a few months post op. I’m coming up on two years here, I lost 181 lbs. I weighed in at 153 this morning, so for my height of 5’10 I’m now at a 22 BMI. So at the end of the day I did in fact lose more than 100% of my excess weight, I did not start magically regaining weight at 18 months post op, and all this with a sleeve surgery. Who would have imagined.

I felt trapped in my body. We went to Lake Placid NY this summer, and my family wanted to do hiking/kayaking/etc but I struggled to make the 5 steps up to the condo. I was worried and embarrassed that the seat belts on the plane barely fit. The seat belt fastener on my car kept digging into my hips. Just maneuvering around was more difficult. I knew I was obese, but I would never allow pictures of me, because in pictures I could see how big I really was. I had thought about wls previously but always considered it "the easy way out". Figured if I had the willpower and determination then I could do it on my own. I had gotten down from 235ish to 194 about 3 years ago, but I got off track and gained it back all the way up to 259 lbs. After the NY trip, I started on my wls journey. I just had the gastric sleeve on Oct 11 (so just a few days post op). I'm still in the "what did I do phase" somewhat courtesy of these blasted stomach cramps, but I am excited for the journey to come.

I have had two knee replacements and one of them was a horrible mess from the start. I'd like to not have to have revisions as long as possible. I am so close to diabetic, but I have fought to not take any medications for 12 years after my messed up knee replacement. I am on medication for high blood pressure, my cholesterol is high, my hips are hurting and I just want to be able to move better without as much pain and live a very long happy life with my husband and our fur-kids. I have tried everything out there and loose weight, but it comes right back on when I try to eat real foods.

Well I am currently on the last trimester of my pregnancy. We are to be having a scheduled c-section due to previous c-sections I have had with my previous babies. Everything has looked good with baby's health as well as mine. Baby is about 3lbs as of now. We have about 8 more weeks left. Weight gain has been a total of 4 lbs. Nothing else new, just keep getting my protein in daily, drinking lots of water, and taking my vitamins. One pregnancy symptom that is horrible is heartburn. I have it soooo bad every day as well as leg cramps. LilaNicole congrats again and I'm so excited for your bundle of joy.

talk to your endocrinologist and listen to your instincts. it sounds like you found the cause of weight gain and it is resolving. you can always do the surgery later if you stall out!

I don't know your stats, as far as height for the weight and medical issues but I would definitely hold off and see what happens with the meds and getting your hormones balanced. It really hurts nothing to hold off for a few months and see how it works out.

I am scheduled for surgery TOMORROW! I am working my last day before I am out and cannot focus. I just happened to stumble on this group. I wish I would have known about it sooner! So my pre-op diet seems to be different than a lot of others. I am on 700-900 cal and 70g protein per day, no sugar or carbs. I was not put on a clear liquid or even liquid diet. Han anyone else experienced this? I am asking because I have been very strict over the last 10 days and have not lost any weight. I am nervous about eating once I get home. I ordered some bone broth from amazon but other than that I am not sure what else to plan to eat? I did get protein powder and protein water. Any suggestions on things I need to get in my house to prepare? Or at this point, I should say what should I have my husband pick up while I am in the hospital tomorrow night!? Thank you for any info you can provide.

Hi, All - I recently relocated to Texas and do not know people here who have had DS. I was wondering if anyone would be interested in helping to support each other with daily check-ins, support, encouragement, tips, etc. If so, feel free to introduce yourself on this thread! I am 40 years old woman, single, and dealing with infertility (I am trying to freeze my eggs). I had DS 8.5 years ago and lost 50% of my excess body weight at the time but did not push myself to lose even more (I was in grad school and my mom was deemed terminally ill at the time). I would like to re-commit to healthy eating and working out and have been flying solo for about a month now. I am highly motivated to lose quickly (but safely!) to improve my chances with egg freezing/harvesting given that I'm also up against my biological clock! Hoping there might be some other people who want to join me!

This!! I had people suggest it to me, but I never saw myself needing it. I always thought I could do it on my own, I don't weight that much etc. Yet in those years the weight was creeping on me, every year 20-25lbs here and there. My sister had it done earlier this year because of the comorbidities that run in our family, and then it hit me. If she was advised to get it and weighs 80lbs less than me, why wouldn't I need it, why after trying for years I still think I can do it on my own? Got all the details I could from her and a close friend who had bypass (she had vsg), and once I understood my why, everything just fell into place. Now I'm getting ready to have surgery within a month.

Same here! I am 8+ years out and looking to get back to basics after minor regain but never having lost more than 50% of my excess body weight! I never really pushed to try to lose more when I plateaued.

I love this thread! LOVE LOVE LOVE IT! Everyone's story is the same but yet SO different. I have been obese my entire life, even a fat kid. I literally NEVER remember seeing "100 something" on the scale. I was 250+ lbs in middle school. I did some extreme **** as a teenager, starved, salad with fresh veggies and no dressing and water only.. the list goes on. My mother basically threatened to have me admitted because of my extreme obsession with trying to loose weight in an unhealthy manor. Gave up...again... got fatter. Young adult into future adult: Lost over 100 lbs multiple times but could NEVER keep it off! In high school is when WLS became known and my best friends dad was upwards of 800 lbs and he was the first person I knew to have it. I don't know what procedure he had, or if there was even options back then. Anyway, he had MAJOR complications and in about 2 years was wasted away to around 100 lbs and in a wheel chair. Almost died but pulled through and from there I don't know because I lost touch with this friend when she became a drug addict. Anytime anyone ever mentioned WLS that is all I could think about.. was him and how it just about killed him! Now grown adult: It came up a few times, by myself or other people and I always convinced myself I don't need surgery I KNOW HOW TO LOOSE WEIGHT! I know how to eat healthy. I know what to do, I have done it, too many times actually. Then 2 years ago, I broke my record breaking 400 lbs! I was depressed, hated myself, hated doing anything, hated seeing people I knew.. just hated everything really. Thru those 2 year till I made my decision I was actually trying to convince myself to have it and always talked myself out with the same reasoning... "I know how to do it and have done it.. so just DO IT AGAIN and stick with it".. we all know how that ends! About a year ago I was at my doctors office and during conversation he asked me if I had ever considered WLS. I told him everything I just told you. Plus, he has been my doctor for about 15 years, so he has seen it! My weight fluctuating from 250 to over 400 lbs... constant struggle. He explained his side of things to me, never once said things like "you need it" or anything else like that. Just provided information. I left that appointment and couldn't stop thinking about it. At this point in my life I knew a few other people who had WLS surgery, the problem now is that only 1 of them were successful! So then that gave me doubts, because that was really my only issue. Loosing the weight wasn't the problem, keeping it off was ALL the problem. But then, I started paying attention, to what they did, how they ate and I realized it is because they don't try. I suddenly convinced myself! (KINDA) I researched WL surgeons in my area, found an amazing team and called them up. They said I just need to verify my insurance will cover WLS and that they will cover it at their hospital. They did, I had my first appointment. i still wasn't sure, but I decided "what do I have to loose to just do the classes" so I did... honestly most of it I already knew. But i did learn a lot more about the "surgery" itself and life after surgery. But, what actually "convinced me" is health. My family history is the worse! Literally. Everything. My mom has EVERYTHING, half or more of my family is diabetic. High blood pressure, heart problems, liver problems...EVERYTHING! Even cancer runs ramped in my family. I was 400 lbs and had MINOR high blood pressure and GERD (which may or may not have been weight related) and that was it. No other problems, but I kept imagining waking up one day and BOOM! Diabetes.... or heart attack... My mother was 55 and looked 70 and in the worse health you could imagine. On more pills than I could count... I just always saw that being my future and HAD to STOP IT. Or, at least do what I COULD to try to stop it! So.. I did it.. ashamed... and told VERY few people... (like 5 people) I think for me I didn't want people to know I had WLS and then fail at it.. then everyone knows... etc. NO REGRETS! BEST DECISION I EVER MADE FOR MYSELF! I WISH I WOULD HAVE DONE IT 15 YEARS AGO!!!! Within 3 months, off ALL meds GERD is gone... Blood pressure is actually TOO LOW at times! the NSV are off the charts, I can't even begin to list them all. Sorry for my crazy long post, but I was excited about this tread and wanted to throw out all of the details of my reasoning and thoughts!

I love this post! I have a love/hate relationship with my old pictures. I really did not realize how big I was in the day to day until I saw pictures of myself. I knew my weight, but honestly didn't see such a HUGE person in the mirror. But always saw it in pictures, it was strange. Now, I see skinn(ier) in pictures but still see fat me in the mirror. I however love looking back at pictures because it "wows me". In 6 months I have lost 112 lbs and 143 since the start of my process. To look at pictures from last Christmas is amazing to me, that I can (or anyone) have such a drastic change in 10 months! Some people change so much I hardly recognize them in the "after" photo whereas others look the exact same but smaller. I was worried about this, I didn't want to not "look like me", if that makes sense. But then i saw a recent picture of me and my best friend that she posted on FB and I was like.. shiiitttt I don't look like me BUT oddly enough the smaller I get the more I look like my little brother who was the ONLY skinny person in my entire family and passed away in June. Then I thought it was my mind messing with me but then suddenly another friend and 2 family members commented on the picture stating how much I look like my brother now. I wanted to look like me, but if I have to change, I am 100% MORE THAN OK with me looking like my brother. ❤️

It's good to read about your positive attitude toward the operation! I'm sure everything will be ok. I fully understand you guys here because it's always a weight problem for me after giving birth to my first lovely child. My tummy got bigger, and nothing I could do to save the situation because the problem was in the skin that stretched out. It was a big problem for me, and I decided to have an operation at some point. Via Google, I found out about the company https://gartnerplasticsurgery.com/mommy-makeover/ that could help me with my problem. The doctors did everything at the highest level, and now I'm very satisfied with my body and tummy shape.

I've been lurking this forum for a long time now, both in my phase of questioning WLS as an option for me (for a good few years or more now on and off) and since I started the official process. Happy to say I have a surgery date set for October 20th. I'll be getting the sleeve done. Weirdly, this will also hopefully help resolve a couple of issues I didn't even know I had until recently due to required pre-op testing (such as mild delayed gastric emptying -- had to do a motility test pre-op which is how I found this out). I've been on the liquid skim milk diet since the 6th and it has been absolutely brutal for me. Making me do a motility test that required me to eat scrambled eggs and toast with strawberry jam 5 days into it was also pretty brutal in itself. I'm looking forward to my surgery though and I'm really looking forward to changing my life. Working out is really hard at my current weight and I'm looking forward to shedding a bit so I can get back to personal training. I've already dropped a good 10+ pounds since I started this process, looking forward to anymore I lose in the future. Grateful to be here!

Very few pictures exist of me at my heaviest because I always used to avoid being in pictures. Have you ever noticed that a lot of people’s “before” pictures are from weddings (either their own or a part of someone else’s wedding party)? I’m guessing that’s because weddings are among the few times you can’t really refuse to be in pictures. I wish I had more “before” pictures so I can appreciate the difference. It’s certainly jarring to see how big I was. I got passport photos taken when I was at my heaviest (one of the only pictures I have of myself at that weight), but I didn’t get around to renewing my passport until several months later, after I had already lost a lot of weight, maybe 100 pounds, so I decided to get my passport photo retaken, and the side-by-side difference was striking. Well, I look at the SECOND passport photo now and compared to how I look currently (200 pounds down from my heaviest), the difference is incredible. One of the reasons I used to hate being in photos is that I pictured myself as a lot smaller than I was, so seeing myself in pictures forced me to see how big I really was. What’s weird is that now I picture myself as being bigger than I actually am, so seeing myself in photos now is also surprising, but in the opposite way. There’s not that big of a difference between the way I imagine myself now vs. how I imagined myself at my heaviest, even though in reality, I look like a completely different person. The last time I went to my surgeon for a follow-up, the nurse called me back and looked confused when I got up and walked over. She kept looking back and forth between me and my chart and then asked me to verify my date of birth, because my chart had my picture from my initial consultation and she couldn’t see the resemblance. And this is someone who works in a bariatric surgery practice, so it’s not like she doesn’t often see people who have lost a lot of weight!

Curious if your doctor/nutritionist suggested 1700 calories or if you naturally got to that #? i am trying to get back to basics but never had a target number of calories as a guide. the focus of my dietician and surgeon was just for me to get enough protein in and to limit my refined carbs. the weight melted off the first few months (50% of my excess) til it no longer did.... i was content being at 215 lbs til it has impacted my fertility. now i'd like to drop another 50 lbs asap!! any advice is much appreciated.

Hi, Everyone! I am a DS'er who had my surgery 8.5 years ago. I lost 50% of my excess body weight at the time but have lived in 5 different cities since (and may be moving again this summer!) and honestly was not able to really focus on my weight loss as much as I had hoped in light of all of the moves and a lot of life transitions (e.g., loss of both of my parents in my 30s, completing grad school, etc.) I have kept what I have lost off with minor regain and re-loss over the years (no more than 10 lbs) so have hovered around 215 lbs pretty consistently for 6 years. I decided to freeze my eggs since I still have not met that special someone, am 40 years old, and have had pcos since high school. Unfortunately, I am not responding well to the highest dose of follicle stimulating hormones the doctors are giving me. and they are expecting to be able to freeze only 2 eggs at most, which is even less than what they had originally anticipated based on my follicle count. The fertility team has suggested doing a medical weight loss program (injections like wegovy or mounjaro) to lose weight rapidly before doing another cycle as they have seen some patients respond much better to the meds after losing more weight. I'm certainly going to explore that avenue (there is one through the local hospital's bariatric surgery program) and i have also joined a bariatric surgery support group through the local hospital. i'm wondering if anyone here has considered injections after DS or if you have some advice for me for how to restart my weight loss as i've been trying to do so with just diet and exercise for almost a month now. i'm walking 45-90 mins a day and trying to eat a lot of protein. i've been eating minimal carbs -- just from fruits, veggies, and oatmeal but haven't been dropping weight. i assume my DS still works since i have still had foul smelling gas up until a month ago when i would eat stuff like sushi (the rice!) or a baguette at panera. Appreciate the advice! Highest Weight: 328 Weight at Surgery: 290 Current Weight: 215 Goal Weight: 140 (bmi of 25) but I would be thrilled to get to 165 (a bmi < 30)

This procedure works. It’s a great tool. I meet goal weight over 15 years ago. Overtime I Gained 50 pounds back but lost 40 pounds after the endoscopy and cauterization. This along with behavior (emotional, psychological) modifications, lifestyle reset, and fitness basically I gave myself a wellness makeover. Totally reversed regain. It’s been a year and still going strong.

I will agree with the others your options are to a) accept the surgeon's social awkwardness/rudeness if the other clinic members are supportive, or b) find a different surgeon/clinic. In your shoes I would probably look for another surgeon/clinic. I do want to point out that the RNY bypass surgery is generally accepted to be more effective than VSG. RNY results in greater weight loss, resolves heartburn/GERD, and resolves, improves, or prevents Diabetes 2. Some say VSG is a "more invasive" surgery, but frankly, removing 80% of your stomach is pretty damn invasive. With RNY bypass the stomach is separated but not removed. Both are performed laparoscopically. The VSG is easier and quicker for the surgeon. However, a lot of VSG patients have to have revision to RNY later.