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WOW. All I can say is WOW. ***In a VERY positive way*** First: Absolutely awesome you were able to donate a kidney period, but to your daughter is amazing. Good for you, good for her! So glad to hear she is doing well! Second: Good for you killin your weight loss journey! You have to end where it makes you happy. Forget the numbers, the recommendation charts etc. Just be happy and healthy! Third: I love hearing stories where someone's spouse took the WLS plunge. Even better when they are having a great experience. I would love to be going through this with someone at the same time. Common goals, common life style. Seems good to me. Again. CONGRATULATIONS!

Ignore the number on the scale. What's important is how you feel about where you are. If you absolutely must lose those 10 pounds, and keep those 10 pounds off, get comfortable with dieting for the rest of your life. Sounds horrible to me, but lucky for you, you're not me. If you find you are happy and comfortable where you are, welcome to your new goal. Congratulations. You still need to eat and drink mindfully but it doesn't need to rule your life the way weight loss diets do. Go off and enjoy your life. Those numbers we have in our heads are crazy makers. Yes, you were at your best when you weighed that wonderful weight when you were younger. That's the weight you want. But your body has changed. You now have a larger frame which dieting won't change. That larger frame requires more muscle to move around that dieting wont change. If you get to that perfect number you will not look or feel like you think you will. Whatever path you choose, make sure it's what you-now want, not what you-then wanted. You-then was young and stupid. You-now are experienced and wiser. Good luck, Tek

Eat lots of salty foods? 😁 I say that only half in jest. Since you just have to maintain a certain overall weight and not actual body fat, water weight will work just fine for you to "maintain".

Hello everyone! I am 20 months post VSG and for the most part I would say its been successful! I was able to donate a kidney to my daughter in January and she is doing GREAT! My hubby is 3 months post VSG and absolutely killing it! I am very happy for the most part. I have changed my goal weight a couple times and really wanted to get at a 125 or 130 but my body is just holding on to the last 10 pounds! I have tried all the tricks to get things rolling, upping my calories a tad, more exercise, less exercise and even did a three day protein shake restriction just to see if that would bump me out of this. I have a tummy tuck with muscle repair scheduled in November. My team told me this is just where my body is comfortable, he called it my new set point. Has anyone been able to knock off that last few pounds without a super crazy calorie deficit. Now that I only have the one kidney I am very aware of what goes in and out of my body and I don't want to do it any harm. I am keeping my protein at 100 grams per the nephrologist and nutritionists request and my calories run about 1300 a day. The math tells me I should still be in loss mode, but clearly I am not. I also keep telling myself that I am no longer overweight and I do not need to hyper focus on that damn scale!!!! BUT watching my hubby drop so many pounds makes me really really want that end goal! Anyway they set me up for my tummy tuck (flur de les with muscle repair) for November and I am excited for that :)

Hello, I am Laura from London. It's been more than 5 months since my Gastric Sleeve operation in Turkey with Surgery TR. I chose Istanbul for my surgery, the hospital was nice, and everything was so smooth. All the nurse don't speak English however, there is a guy with me who speak English very well, and help me in all process. They gave me a diet list and supplements before I turn back to London. They are still checking on me weekly and following my weight. There is personalized care because they know me, they know my child and ask about him.

Hello, I am Laura from London. It's been more than 5 months since my Gastric Sleeve operation in Turkey with Surgery TR. I chose Istanbul for my surgery, the hospital was nice, and everything was so smooth. All the nurse don't speak English however, there is a guy with me who speak English very well, and help me in all process. They gave me a diet list and supplements before I turn back to London. They are still checking on me weekly and following my weight. There is personalized care because they know me, they know my child and ask about him. You can ask all questions to me,

I do have to have the Psychiatrist visit to see if I am a good candidate for success. The therapists (not Psychiatrists, who are MDs, but Psychologists and certified therapists) will be ongoing to help me with my eating disorder(s) that have resulted in 50+ years of being overweight and being unable to keep weight off after one of my many weight-loss diets. I think therapy is going to be a huge help, giving me the mental tools to help me overcome my bodies need for the dopamine hit that comes with eating. And it will help me keep the weight off--ever little tool I can find to help me win this war is welcome. But OSU Bariatrics did not even give me a list of therapists that they recommend for eating disorders and bariatric patients. A little disappointing.

Almost 100% sure I will get the bypass. I keep playing mind tricks with myself, maybe I can lose the weight and keep it off if I try hard enough. But after 56 years of life I know me, and know when I'm lying to myself. The surgery will help me for sure. I know it is not a cure-all, and I still need to work on everything else. But I believe the surgery will give me the edge I need to actually succeed this time for the rest of my life.

Hi Everyone, LONG POST, I apologize in advance. New to the group although I’ve been watching for a month now. Never posted, because it just didn’t seem real enough, I thought it would never get here. I just had my consult and got my surgery date for Sept 13th. I had no prerequisites that my insurance requested other than the norm: psych, only 1 nutrition, and labwork which I completed in 5 weeks(I was extremely lucky for all of that). Some personal trips with husband slowed the process. I think I probably would hv been done on a week otherwise😂 I was told by surgeon today that I will also have NO PRE-OP diet. So now I’m petrified. Not due to the surgery, but due to the fact that I cannot lose ANY weight prior. I am so close to being under 35 BMI from just 3 weeks ago of 39 BMI. I am a 36 BMI as of today. How the heck does that even happen? I think someone read something wrong. Surgeon said HE would not cancel the surgery but the hospital may, due to afraid insurance won’t pay. Only co-pay I will hv is the overnight at the hospital So I’m stuck with HAVING to eat to hold on to this weight. It wouldn’t be a problem but my biggest obstacle is I don’t eat enough…getting 3 meals in a day is a huge struggle for me. It’s like when I’m not hungry my body won’t let me eat. I literally get nauseous trying to force it down. I’m hoping my nervousness now due to that won’t make me lose additional weight. Guess I just need someone to say it will be okay Everyone seems so supportive of one another here. I hv chronic back pain and hv fought too hard for insurance approval to get on the table and hv them say “oh sorry, we can’t bcuZ you’re 34 BMI now. I’m going crazy with worry right now 😫😖. I don’t eat red meats, sweets, etc. don’t exercise due to pain and discs. How can I hold on to this weight for 3 weeks. Protein shakes? along with the food I do eat. I’m at the point today where I just want to chew and swallow and hope it results to some extra pounds

Should have also mentioned a consideration is that losing weight is pretty hard on the liver. Plus as we lose weight cholesterol is released into your blood stream from your fat. It is quite common to have poor liver function results & to see your cholesterol levels rise while you are losing weight. (It settles again once your weight settles.) A high fat diet would put even more stress on your liver & increase your cholesterol levels further. Just something to consider & discuss with your surgeon & dietician.

You can include bone broths & cream soups during the post surgery liquid stage @LookingForward22. That way you don’t have to rely on shakes. Add in some protein powder to help with meeting your protein goals. Or make your own shakes using a non dairy milk, yoghurt, protein powder. There are some flavour powders about that don’t contain sugar or artificial sweeteners - saw a peanut one recently. Congrats on your weight loss so far too.

I weight every day now and use the Happy Scale app which gives me a running average of weight loss so it smoothes out the ups and downs. I have a history of going for months conveniently "forgetting" to weigh and fooling myself into believing that I've only gained a little then when I get the nerve up, well you know the story. I even tried the Shapa scale which did not show a number, just a color based on the direction of your weight. Gained 30 pounds while I had that thing. I totally get the reasons to not weigh often, however with the app averaging the weight for me I'm actually doing a good job learning to accept those ups and downs that used to sabotage me mentally. Living with my reality instead of putting my head in the sand like I used to do. So for me, daily weighing is working.

My insurance also changed from BCBS to Cigna during the process. It made things SO much easier. No supervised diet, no therapy. Had my surgery less than 3 months after my first bariatric visit which I was SO thankful for. I can't imagine being here 6 weeks out and still have months of waiting to go. I did have a letter from my PCP documenting his support and reminding the reviewer of my arthritis in weight bearing joints (which is already so much better). Other than that easy peasy.

VSG Surgery in scheduled for Sept 1, 2022. 4 years ago I started having a lot of gastric problems. Random and often vomiting, severe diarrhea, heartburn, indigestion, etc. I had 2 colonoscopies and 2 endoscopes. Finally, diagnosed with gastritis and microscopic colitis but no reasons why those happened. I took lots of different meds, changed when and what I ate, etc. Nothing worked. It was so bad I was afraid to even leave my house at times. I went to a bariatric/general surgeon about a VSG. He ended up being just who I needed to help solve my huge gastric problem. At first, he said I would probably need to get a bypass instead of the VSG because he thought I may have had GERD/reflux. He sent me for another endoscope and discovered from the last endoscope (a year before) I had newly developed a hiatal hernia, stomach ulcers, and deformed pyloric. Did some more tests and found my stomach acid was about 5 times too much. My pancreas was not able to produce enough of the necessary stuff to neutralize the stomach acid traveling through the intestines, which in turned cause the gastritis and severe diarrhea. The bypass leaves a still somewhat function stomach so I will get VSG instead since it removes a large portion of the acid producing fundus. I will also get a repair for the hiatal hernia and pyloric. I am so thankful to my doctor for finding my gastric problems and explaining to me in a way I could understand. AND lose the weight, too! I ended up not having GERD/reflux at all, even I develop due to the VSG, I think I can handle it! Thanks for listening to my story!

VSG Surgery in scheduled for Sept 1, 2022. 4 years ago I started having a lot of gastric problems. Random and often vomiting, severe diarrhea, heartburn, indigestion, etc. I had 2 colonoscopies and 2 endoscopes. Finally, diagnosed with gastritis and microscopic colitis but no reasons why those happened. I took lots of different meds, changed when and what I ate, etc. Nothing worked. It was so bad I was afraid to even leave my house at times. I went to a bariatric/general surgeon about a VSG. He ended up being just who I needed to help solve my huge gastric problem. At first, he said I would probably need to get a bypass instead of the VSG because he thought I may have had GERD/reflux. He sent me for another endoscope and discovered from the last endoscope (a year before) I had newly developed a hiatal hernia, stomach ulcers, and deformed pyloric. Did some more tests and found my stomach acid was about 5 times too much. My pancreas was not able to produce enough of the necessary stuff to neutralize the stomach acid traveling through the intestines, which in turned cause the gastritis and severe diarrhea. The bypass leaves a still somewhat function stomach so I will get VSG instead since it removes a large portion of the acid producing fundus. I will also get a repair for the hiatal hernia and pyloric. I am so thankful to my doctor for finding my gastric problems and explaining to me in a way I could understand. AND lose the weight, too! I ended up not having GERD/reflux at all, even I develop due to the VSG, I think I can handle it! Thanks for listening to my story!

Wow. Surgical regimes are so different. I had to inject blood thinners for a month even if I was running miles by then (I wasn't!) because of the serious risk of clots after bariatric surgery. I was prescribed a PPI for 4 weeks. I took it although I knew I was done with reflux within a few weeks of my sleeve, because my weight loss reduced my reflux symptoms so soon.

Yay, its finally real enough and close enough to fill out, congrats! I'm with you and I have no idea what a good goal for things like neck size is lol. I guess you can google average sizes and then I would be generous and aim on the high side. I've never taken any of those measurements of myself before but I do think it's an important part of this weight loss journey since sometimes the scale might not move but then a measurement will change and that can keep the positive thoughts going. I'm even having trouble thinking of goals for the next page. Just saying weight loss and exercise more don't seem specific enough. If you have goals you are willing to share for that next page, I would love to hear them so that I can come up with some better ones. I haven't started my journal yet but its coming up fast.

Thank you, I’ll double check my labels and the Baritastic App. I used members mark Canned chicken, good & gather brand non-fat Greek yogurt and used the gram weight of the eggs rather than large, med. I noticed there are some Protein gram diffrences between brands so I’m not sure if it is that or something else - but it’s a good point to verify those numbers. It really was yummy, I hope you like it!! 

I vary… I usually weigh myself in the morning. I only record my weight on Tuesdays (my surgery was on a Tuesday). Occasionally I will jump on to get an idea of how much I fluctuate throughout the day, but that’s not an all the time thing. Like if I’m feeling bloated I might hope on or something like that.

One of the best ways would be to think back and remember if there was a point as an adult that you felt healthy and happy with your weight? If so, that's where I'd start. If not, better to err on the high side. You can always adjust down if you get to your goal and are still not where you want to be. For example, right now, you're lean mass is ~144 pounds. That means any BMI based calculations would be too low. Yes, you'll lose some lean mass as your weight goes down, but not enough that you'd be at a healthy weight in that 104 to 140 range. My gut tells me maybe 175-180 would be a good target for you at this point. Depending on how much lean mass you lose, that would put you in the 25 - 30% range for body fat, a healthy amount for a woman.

I recently discovered these forums and I am super excited to explore and learn and hopefully help others, too. I have been overweight my entire life. Even when I was in elementary school. My dad gave me nicknames to try to get me to stop wanting to eat. Fat in the can, the Crisco Kid. He was funny and I love him dearly, but he had no idea of the forces behind my eating problems. And an old-school way of tough-love (never physical, but jokes, which can be bad too). Anyway, In '92 I enlisted in the Army Infantry. Yes, I lost enough weight to get in, and Boot Camp took care of the rest. Then slowly gained weight back while I was in, despite all of the running and pushups and "pleasant nature hikes." Weight became a problem and I was called out all the time. But I always passed my physical fitness tests, and always did my job and stayed out of trouble, so I was mostly left alone. Fast forward to today. Heaviest weight after the Army was 315 pounds (I am 6'2"), and now I am 275 pounds. Constantly up and down up and down. Discovered Engine 2 and stayed on it for 6 months, was down to my 250s, then simply could not stay on that diet, and pushed back up to my current 275. Finally went to Ohio State University's (OSU's) Bariatric program and in-processed trying to use BCBS. BCBS requires the last 5 years of weight history. I am apparently supposed to be under a medically supervised diet for 6 months. See a Dietician (end of this month) and a Psychiatrist (end of this month), and find my own Therapist and start having sessions. So no surgery until next year some time. HOWEVER, I changing jobs in a few weeks, and will now have Cigna Health Insurance. My OSU coordinator looked up Cigna and said they did *not* have a 6 month supervised diet, so if things go well I should be able to have surgery before the end of the year. SUPER excited! Going with bypass, not sleeve, because I became diabetic this past year (only taking Metformin to control), and have routine bad heartburn. It is a better fit. Anyway, that is me, and hopefully a new me is around the corner. I cannot wait for a fresh start in life, albeit a difficult start. Thanks for listening

I agree with you that it is a personal decision between the patient and physician. That said, I was 226 pounds at my highest and had gastric bypass (covered by insurance). It reduced my Gerd and has been fabulous for me. Duodenal switch I’ve seen recommended for morbidly obese. Sleeve or bypass can be for either. I’ve heard of cases of larger individuals getting the sleeve because they were high risk and it was less time on the operating table. Also, I had no complications after bypass. One night in the hospital, and then at the playground with my son the following day. I’m 1.5 years out, lost all my excess weight and have been maintaining my goal weight .I couldn’t be happier with my choice for bypass or my results.

I tend to weight myself every morning after I pee and have been up for about 15-20 minutes.

I have issues (digestive) when it comes to artificial sweeteners. I don’t particularly love the taste of most either. I knew going in I would have issues with the artificial sweetener in the pre-op liquid and post liquid stage when options are limited. Most times my sweet tooth is satisfied by fruits - but sometimes I want something more and try to use moderation. I have found built bars (especially the puffs), which do contain erythritol and were recommended by my nutritionist, more than satisfied my sweet tooth (and offer a nice protein boost) when I was eating solids. (That was pre-op… right now I’m a week out from being sleeved). Those were an occasional thing to tide me over on the go and keep me from getting to hungry and over eating. The Fairlife shakes, in moderation didn’t bother me, but when they were my primary source of nutrition - I struggled. I also have a milk allergy so I need to watch how much dairy I consume. I’m ok with a little - but too much and I get stomach cramps and digestive distress. When I called my nutritionist Monday because of the artificial sweetener causing some digestive irritation - she suggested moderation. One of the yogurts she suggested I try had cane sugar & fruit pectin. It was lower in sugar than regular, and had a bump of protein. I had two days to get through until purees, where I could add in real food and transition away from the shakes… so it was getting through. I try to make healthy choices, fresh fruit or no sugar added in general. Occasionally I have some things with artificial sweetener, but keep it limited because past experience has proven it will irritate and inflame my digestive system. I am working towards a balanced approach. My PCP (whose been my Dr for about 44 yrs now) has always told me he’d much rather I have less sugar in moderation than artificial sweetener as a rule. So I am trying to stay within my program guidelines and follow a balanced approach. It takes some creativity, but so far I am making it work. I have more to loose than you do, but I’m pleased with the progress I have made so far. Since I started my weight-loss journey I have lost about 75 pounds so far (50 leading up to my pre-op, 10 in the pre-op liquid phase & 15 since being sleeved last week). I might have had even better progress had I gone strictly sugar free … but I’m striving for maintainable, steady progress - something I can do forever not just a short term “diet”. Moderation seems to be working for me, but I will keep reassessing and working with my team and make adjustments as I go.

eczema ? sometimes during body stress like rapid weight loss the immune system can trigger eczema or atypical dermatitis… i have used oatmeal powdered in a food processor and mixed with shaved ivory soap (reformed into bars with a little water) for relief before when i have gotten patches