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I had my surgery (bypass) back in 2019, I got down to 175 stone. I started sertraline 7 months ago now, and have gained nearly 20 lbs. Albeit my diet hasn't been the greatest, but I feel horrific and starting to hate the way my body looks again. Any tips for getting back on track? I snack/graze too much but don't feel strong enough to go back to old/good habits!! Any tips for diets to try/how to lose weight again

For me it was realizing that if I could have done it on my own I would have at this point. It’s not a lack of knowing what to do or laziness it was a deeper issue. As to why now? I have young kids I felt too exhausted to do anything with. I love to travel and I didn’t fit in a plane seat, full stop. I was tired of feeling like I didn’t want to meet new people or see old friends because of how ashamed I was of how I looked. I was tired of the very real everyday discrimination and judgement morbidly obese people receive. And I knew I would never be happy at 340 lbs. it would be a source of frustration and unhappiness my whole life. Some people are able to be content at any weight and I admire them but that wasn’t me. I felt wrong and miserable in my own skin, and I couldn’t do the physical activities I wanted to take part in.

I've used the Carb Manager app in the past to track my nutrition and linked it to my fitbit. However, their nutrition info on a lot of things were off. It was annoying always correcting it or creating my own for simple things. I tried the Baritastic app the last few days but I don't like how you can only create recipes using servings sizes instead of actual weight. (Example: I cook Soup for me and my family and it equals 65 ounces of food. I eat 20 ounces. It will calculate the nutrition info of exactly what I ate instead of guessing serving sizes especially since I cook for 6 people.) I am pre-op still (surgery in Nov.) but want to find a reliable, easy to use, accurate food and fitness journaling app. Any suggestions? Sent from my SM-S115DL using BariatricPal mobile app

I was hoping the OP would return so we could discuss some of the things posted here, but they have not. As such, I wanted to take a bit of time to delve a bit deeper into what was posted in the event anyone reading this was confused. Sorry, but this will be a long post. The TL;DR version is that most of what was posted was inaccurate. Let's start with this section: Dumping syndrome (feeling very sick when eating certain foods), is really variable for both Sleeve and Roux-en-Y gastric bypass patients. Some people have this, and some don't. It's generally accurate to say that dumping is more common in gastric bypass but regardless, relying on this as the way to keep you from eating things you shouldn't, is just not a good strategy. As I mentioned before, neither surgery fixes what's between your ears, so if you go into WLS expecting that this is going to keep you from binge eating, you likely won't be successful. Stomachs can stretch, but it takes repeatedly overeating for this to happen. I wanted to make that clear since some people are overly worried about this. As long as you stick to plan, this should not be a concern. Again, not a good strategy expecting dumping syndrome to "fix" you. Fix your eating problem first, then have surgery to help you get to a healthy weight. The OP seems to have a misunderstanding about how fat cells work. White Adipocytes (fat cells), store lipids (fats) as droplets in the body of the cell. The volume of the droplet stored in each cell can grow or shrink as needed. The point is that the number of fat cells one has does not determine some sort of "baseline" amount of fat you will store. Yes, obese people often have more fat cells on average, though this is somewhat determined by genetics, overall body mass, as well as how long you have been obese. The OP is correct in that you can grow new fat cells if you exceed the capacity of your existing adipocytes to store lipids. What's not correct is that this somehow makes it more likely that you'll gain weight if you overeat. If you overeat, you'll gain weight regardless. This is factually wrong. Yes, being cold does require your metabolism to work harder to keep you warm. Studies have shown that on average, if you were to exercise in a very cold environment vs. a warm one, you can burn as much as 30% more calories when subjected to cold. Keep in mind that this effect only occurs when you are exposed to cold however. Let's take a simple example to illustrate how little of a difference this makes: Let's say your basal metabolic rate is 2000 calories. If you burn 30% additional calories in a 15 minute session of shivering as the OP suggested, that means you'd burn about 21 extra calories. (2000 calories divided by 24 hours is about 83 calories. That times 30% equals about 25. Divide 25 by 4 since it's 15 minutes of shivering and you get about 6. So if you take the OP's advice, you'd burn about 6 extra calories for your 15 minutes of shivering. Now if you actually workout (rather than just sit), in a cold environment, you can certainly increase the calories burned, but again, it's limited. I hope you see that this is not a good way to actually lose weight. Plus, we should be exercising for other reasons like to improve our cardiovascular health. Shivering won't do anything for that. If you want to know the real way to exercise for weight loss, you need to do strength training. Why? Because as you strength train, you also increase your basal metabolism. In other words, you burn more calories even when you're not working out.

I'm also interested to hear other low BMI weight loss surgery experiences! I am having VSG in 6 days and my starting weight (before liquid diet) is also 205.

I'm in GA, but am working with Alabama Surgical Associates. https://www.alweightlosscenter.com/payment-options/self-pay-pricing/. I have UHC and our policy doesn't cover any bariatric procedures. So far I had a phone consult with Dr. Doucette. He wants me to lose 30 pounds before surgery - which because of my work schedule should be the end of Dec. I have a weight check in call with the Dr. in 2 weeks.

What has been your experience with going into surgery with a weight of 205lbs or under? My starting weight was 220 but I've lost 15 pounds pre op. I've heard people smaller will not loose any weight. Going into surgery smaller what is the recovery like? (I am doing this surgery because I've tried everything to loose weight and live a better lifestyle)

My results with the sleeve are completely different. I DO get sick eating sugar, rich foods, etc. It has been 8 years since my surgery and I have kept the weight off (100+ lb. weight loss).

I do my measurements and weigh in on the 4th of every month. Surgery Date April 18th 2022. Pre op diet weight 317lb. As you can see this month i did not loose much weight. Almost no weight for 3 weeks. Typical stall. It happens. We shall see where we are at next month. Hoping to reach under 200lb

So, my new insurance provider, Cigna, is not covering weight loss surgery--it is excluded for my company's policy with them. I contacted Sage Bariatrics, and self-pay for Gastric Bypass is $15k. I know there is a cheaper option in Mexico (OCC), and have sent them some questions. Can anyone recommend any other center of excellence that might have decent pricing, either in the USA, someplace else in the world? Thanks!

Thank you all so much for advice and your input, I do follow a low carb diet due to insulin resistance with PCOS. I think that unfortunately I may be kinda stuck here, I’ll keep following the plan and hope and pray for some movement in the right direction but I think for my mental health it’s not helping to beat myself up every week that the scale has stopped moving.. cause it hasn’t moved in 5 months…. I’m happier now at my 220lbs than I was at the 289 lbs before surgery so I think to give myself a little mental break I need to figure out how to be more positive about the small success I have had over the last 10 months. Focusing on the “not good enough” mindset has really triggered my depression and sense of self hate again and I definitely don’t want to get back to that where I need medications to get out of bed daily because those depression meds made me gain a ton. Gotta try and find some positivity somewhere right? Thanks!

Hello, I just started Mounjaro!! I'm on Week 3 of 2.5mg and the appetite suppression is no joke! My doctor put me on this after stalling out at 80 pounds lost post op. Surgery March 2021, stopped losing March 2022 (but haven't gained). I'd like to hear about anyone else's experience so far, the weight loss has been slow, but I'm hopefully because the scale is finally moving again!!

I’m so happy for you and hope it will help you achieve your dream quickly! However, you should be prepared to recover and maintain the diet your doctor gives you. They're also more instructions after such an operation on the weight loss coach page, and it may be helpful for you as well. It is a good decision that you decided to lose weight than keep it continue suffering. And I’m not talking about appearance, because you’re beautiful. But extra weight causes a lot of problems to our organism, as well as public judgment. Moreover, it is sometimes hard to be comforted on regular seats and find good clothes to wear. Now you’ll have fewer problems

I am a little over 3 weeks out of the sleeve and I am worried that my serving sizes are two big. Should I be able to eat two over easy eggs this early without an issue? I am losing weight. I just don't want to make myself sick. I am in the soft food stage.

I had surgery on the 12th and towards the end of my second week I started to gain a few pounds. It is off again now. I think that are body was just healing and hydrating. I have heard about the dreaded 3 week stall from many, but I was still shook when it happened.

Like others, not waking up is a concern. I've had many surgeries in my life. My odds are getting worse. I'm a bit anxious about complications. My biggest worries are: Post Bariatric Hypoglycemia, low blood pressure, and heart arrhythmia. Dehydration and bowel obstruction are other concerns, but not the biggest. I also have a weird worry that I am going to lose too much weight. I went to Dr. Google (LOL) and studied up on all the complications and the treatments. That has reassured me and calmed me down, a lot. Pretty much every complication can be treated. Some need to be recognized sooner than others, but with timely intervention they can be taken care of.

Ya I definitely will. I am getting so antsy and worried. ready, but not for this surgery. How long was it before you were cleared for any weight lifting type exercise?

Your story sounds very similar to mine! I'm sick of yo-yo dieting, as well. I've been off and on keto for a few years, too. I actually lost 62 pounds doing keto, but it wasn't sustainable for me and I was STARVING ALL THE TIME. People say they're never hungry on keto. Ha! I wish! I couldn't eat enough food. And I think it changed the ghrelin and leptin in my stomach. Because now I'm either STARVING or I'm full - there's no in between. After going off keto, I gained back all but 15 pounds. Thankfully I didn't put on even more weight than I lost. I've tried other diets and I failed all of them. I have diabetes and high cholesterol. My blood pressure, while still normal, is creeping up. I'm going to say that I have metabolic syndrome. I'm 52-years old. With my co-morbidities, I don't think I'll make it to 60. Desperate times call for desperate measures. I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired. I have a life to live and I need energy to do it. Gastric bypass in 34 days!!! Woo hoo!!!

I'm 3 weeks out and also gained about 3 lbs from last week. I expected stalls from time to time but not to gain! I'm hoping that it's just that time of the month and the fact that my iron levels are severely low. I just started liquid iron supplements so we'll see next week!

Good luck to everyone that is past their October surgery date! Can't wait to hear from you all. Hope things went smooooooothly for you. I'm on day 7 (I think) of the liquid diet. My doc. ok'd veggies (low carb) this time, and that has made a difference. I've pooped twice, which is much better than the last time I did this and was already taking colace, etc. Although I am so very tired. Sleeping a lot. And sick of shakes, lol. But I'm down 8 pounds, which is the lowest weight I've seen this year. I hesitate to be excited because that scale can go up and down like the sea, you know. Ha. Anyway, 1 week out today. I have bouts of panic, but trying to manage.

I was worried they wouldn't do it. My surgeon told me that if I gained weight between the last appointment and surgery (about 30 days) they would not do the surgery. Of course, I gained weight. I found out my surgery, being open, was being used as an educational experience for several other surgeons. Had it not been for that... Good luck, Tek

Personally I wasn’t worried too much about the surgery in terms of anything going wrong. I was most worried about the surgery not working for me. In other words I wouldn’t lose anything at all or I would lose some but gain it all back.

I hit the three-week stall at 2 weeks. Mainly because my body was taking Water back in after being dehydrated and recovering. I hit 3 weeks yesterday and the scale is going down again. I started weighing myself every day, but I am learning to let go and not do that every day. I think I am going to weight once or twice a week at specific times of day. I went crazy worried that this wasn't going to work, but it is and I am so glad I had the surgery.

I weigh myself every day and the scale has not really moved in the last 4 days. So I might be in the dreaded 3 week stall. I think that you can gain weight even with the low calories but I don't think its fat, I think its water weight or constipation. Eventually your body will get the clue and let go and you will see the scale move. I would call your dietitians though and let them look over your food log and see if they have any suggestions. My dietitians said usually the stalls are caused by either not enough calories, low protein or not taking vitamins. But I would talk to your team and see what they think. It should at least help your anxiety and give you some input from the experts. Good luck!

i weigh daily. for now at least. i wanted to be able to analyze the data and see trends especially as it relates to stalls. i’m in a stall right now and even “gained” a pound yesterday. i just try not to obsess about the daily bc it’s an overall downward trend when i look at the weekly. i’ll probably stop weighing daily once i get to a month