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if there is anything I've learned since joining this site, it's that everybody's weight loss pattern is different...sometimes I think the variance is partially because different doctors have different post-surgery diets...mine did not have any such requirements; therefore, I started surgery day at 0 lbs lost...others have gone on three month pre-ops and lost 50 lbs pre-surgery...then others have 2 week liquid diets pre-op and can lose 20 or 30 lbs before surgery...you and I are the same height but I weighed 268 on surgery date and am down about 20 lbs since then...so I am not even where you are at now...I would think that the less weight overall you have to lose, the less quickly it would come off...but that is just intuitive thinking on my part

Success after weight loss surgery is no accident. It is the result of a lot of hard work and careful planning on your part. While of course it depends on a skillful surgeon, your post-op success depends most heavily on you. You can begin to set yourself up for satisfying weight loss and preventing regain long before your surgery date. Here are some ideas for building that solid foundation that will make your weight loss surgery journey smoother and more satisfying. Choose the right surgeon. If weight loss surgery is the tool, your bariatric surgeon is the one who makes the tool and gives it to you. You want a tool that is made precisely, ready to do the job, and built to last. Your surgeon needs to make the right cuts and place the band properly or make a tight, solid sleeve or pouch. So, look for a surgeon who is experienced and has a good track record of successful patients and low complication rates – don’t be afraid to ask! There’s more to choosing a surgeon than technical skills. Also, consider what else the surgeon will do for you. The right surgeon for you is willing to discuss your options and the procedure with you in a way that you can understand. You’re setting yourself up for extra challenges if you’re afraid to talk to your surgeon or your surgeon is unavailable. Get the scoop on the diet. Your diet is central to every part of the weight loss surgery journey. You may be told to lose some weight before surgery as a test to make sure you’ll follow the rules post-op. Then there’s the pre-op liquid diet to shrink your liver for a safer surgery. Next, for faster healing and fewer side effects, you need to follow the post-op progression from liquids to pureed foods to solid foods. Finally, there’s the nutrient-dense, low-calorie diet to help you hit goal weight and stay there. At best, you will have a surgeon or a nutritionist who gives you plenty of information. Since that’s not always the case, you may need to take steps to figure out the diet for yourself. You can look online, and may need to shell out the money for a few appointments with a nutritionist. Not knowing the right foods to eat can set you up for surgery complications and disappointing weight loss. Take responsibility. It’s nice to depend on a stellar surgeon and complete healthcare team to walk you through surgery and beyond step by step. Ideally, your trusted surgeon would explain your options to you and recommend the best surgery for you, whether it’s the sleeve, band, bypass, or another choice. You’d go back for follow-up appointments and ongoing nutritional and psychological counseling. That doesn’t always happen in the real world, but that’s no excuse to give up. You can take responsibility for finding out the information you need to know about what to expect, how to prepare, and what comes next. Be persistent and do your research in all kinds of places, and you’re more likely to succeed. Face the facts. Weight loss surgery isn’t all fun and games. You don’t leave the operating room skinny. Weight loss isn’t steady. It may take you longer to get to goal weight than you hoped. Recognize the real possibilities to avoid being disappointed and possibly even giving up. These are some other possibilities to consider, so you can be prepared if they happen to you. You may still love sugar, salt, fat, and/or starch. You may still be hungry. Others may not notice your weight loss, or may not be impressed. Others may be jealous of your weight loss or say you didn’t earn it. You may have loose skin when you are finished losing weight. Weight loss surgery doesn’t solve psychological problems. Be Open-Minded If you want to lose weight and get healthy, you’ve got to change your diet. Whatever eating habits got you to this point are not going to get you to goal weight! That may mean you need to be open-minded. Maybe you hated vegetables, or can’t stand the thought of downing protein shakes for 2 weeks on the pre-op liquid diet and up to 4 weeks on the post-op liquid and mushies diets. It’s time to re-evaluate. Can you sneak some veggies into your diet? Can you retrain your brain to love them? Can you force down those protein shakes for a few weeks in exchange for a lifetime’s worth of better health? Learn to see the good. There will be disappointments - guaranteed. The scale may not cooperate, or you may make a poor eating choice, or you might skip your morning workout because you didn’t make sleep a priority the night before. Focus on the negative, and you just may talk yourself out of continuing the hard work and good progress. Instead, learn to appreciate yourself and see the positive sides of things. Maybe you didn’t lose weight this week, but did you eat right? Maybe you downed a piece of pepperoni pizza without thinking about it, but did you pass up the breadsticks and soda that you would have had before surgery? Maybe you didn’t work out this morning, but did you make it to the gym more this month than you did last month? See yourself as a strong, powerful person, and you will act like one. You can build on the positive behaviors you see in yourself so they eventually overshadow the mistakes. You have control over your own destiny. Success with weight loss surgery depends on planning and hard work. The more you are involved and the more responsibility you take throughout the process, the better you can do.

That is amazing and you've earned every bit of it, I noticed you keep looking smaller and smaller on your profile pics, it is a noticeable difference. The sleeve is the greatest tool on earth when it comes to serious weight loss, it works, when my weight stalls it drives me nuts but I know that it's temporary! Keep it up cause you're a diva! Celebrating with you! http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUGTaLO2_Xs

As far as I am concerned there is no slow or fast, all weight loss is to be celebrated, that said, there is too much focus on scale weight, we neglect too many times the non scale successes..one being improved health and frame of mind, sounds like you have achieved both, well done, keep up the great work.

I really appreciate the feedback. It's really helpful in letting me know what I'm experiencing is completely normal for us all. So far I've lost about 40 pounds and for my own personal goal, I still have another 70 pounds to go. Some say they can see it in my face cuz it looks thinner, but to be honest, nobody really sees my body because I've been working remotely from home since the surgery and they only see me cuz video, so that's usually just from the shoulders (or boobs) up. Lol. But my family sees me and hasn't noticed much weight loss. It's discouraging.

@catwoman7 is absolutely correct. Your rate of loss does slow as you progress so what you’re experiencing is usual. The only difference is some may lose at the higher rate for a little longer some fir a shorter time. Depends upon how much we have to lose & just our individual differences - gender, age, weight loss history, metabolic rate, activity, etc. I wasn’t a big exerciser - just walked on my treadmill. Started off slow & slowly increased to about 20 mins as I felt stronger. Then I struggled with low energy & low blood pressure so I stopped & used resistance bands for a while. As @ms.sss said you may have to lose more before others notice the loss. It seems the more you have to lose, the more you’ll have to lose for others to notice. A good friend noticed after I lost about 15kg - so about halfway to my goal. I was also wearing a straight line dress that had been a little snug (& pulled across my ass) before surgery but was hanging loosely when she saw me.

I can tell you what I know about gastric bypass surgery. My friend has has this procedure twice within a four year span. To date she has almost regained all of her weight back for the second time. Ultimately, success depends on the efforts of the individual. I chose lap band surgery as a weight loss method because there is less down time and I didn't want the atrocious scar on my stomach. I believe either of the procedures demand commitment.

I just want to second some of the other people's advice here with my story. My family doctor suggested gastric bypass to me, he hasn't had a lot of patients do weight loss surgery. He did have one recent one who had the Roux en y gastric bypass and had success. I told him later that I thought the gastric band looked good to me. He researched it, called me in to the office and told me that was the way to go - less risk, slower weight loss (safer), no malabsorbtion, and the same results as gastric bypass 5 years out statistically. I think he'll be recommending the band, rather than bypass to other patients now. The only disadvantage where I live is that gastric bypass is covered by provincial insurance and banding is not - self pay unless you have really good private insurance. Anyway, when I seen costs - bypass costs more than banding - perhaps your surgeon is steering you to the more profitable surgery for him/her. I'd check that info you're getting because it doesn't match with what I've seen. I don't get the part about the band not being permanent - it will still be there indefinately. It has the advantage of being reversable, but I can't even imagine choosing that. I felt I needed the surgery because I know I would regain the weight otherwise. Only you can judge what might work best for you, but I have no regrets about choosing the band for me. I could eat more at a meal than many others around me, so I figured portion control would be a big help. And I do love my sweets too - just have to keep them portion controlled too.

I started this journey beginning nov 2011 by attending my first meeting gathering information about bariactric surgery and by knowing what i might be in for seem to ease my mind and made my decision a little easier. My spouse accompanied me to the meeting and we both decided on the vertical sleeve based on my prior prob,ems with high blood pressure and a high BMI COUNT. Since my surgery in April of this year God has blessed me to lose nearly 30 lbs and I am thrilled. In the begginning i assumed that i did not need to drink my protein shakes and I could eat enough proteins to sustain my self, By the middle of May 2012 I felt faint during church services and a light bulb came on. Wow, i need energy which means i need to drink my protein shakes daily not only to guard against hair loss. As I go along I am learning from everyone that the food intake will only be 3ozs at the most and my small meals can include soup, a piece of meat, or a serving of cottage cheese with fruit, etc. Thanks for this site because I am not alone and there is support.

I've been on Wellbutrin for a number of years. Didn't need to stop for surgery and still taking. Wellbutrin doesn't usually cause weight gain. I also take Klonopin which worries me that it might interfere with weight loss. But without it, my mood gets unstable. Sent from my SM-T580 using BariatricPal mobile app

We are going to start doing that here in Saskatoon. Our support groups will start the first Wed in November, and will be open for anyone who has had sleeve weight loss surgery, and we plan on doing a clothes exchange at those meetings. so we will need to clean out our closets just before the Nov meeting, I hope I will have some to take, (no, need positive thinking here) I KNOW I will have some to take along with me.

I brought: Chapstick Deodorant (didn't use) Phone charger + extension cord Magazines (didn't even take them out) Non-slip flip flops Extra clothes (didn't use, went home in what I came in) Hair ties Band to Vsg revision: 5/23/17 HW: 315+ Starting weight: 294 Surgery Day: 281 Current: 235 Goal 170

Thank You for writing. I am 54, work as a classified employee for our local school district. I am going for a early out retirement with my PERS on December 1, 2008, so have a goal I want to meet by then. I am a little bit nervous about knowing for sure what I can and cannot eat afterwards, but am guessing my facilitator will have a lot more info for me. I have glued myself to these posts and the internet gathering a lot of good info. almost so much I tend to forget little things, so I am starting a notebook and copying and printing everything I think I might want to refer back to. I purchased 2 books, one, Weight Loss Surgery for Dummies and Weight Loss Surgery- Finding the Thin Person Hiding Inside You!,by Barbara Thompson. They have been a great help. I hope you will stay in touch. Kerry

I had my surgery on February 7th 2018, I am almost 7 month post op and just curious about when this honeymoon phase will end. Does anybody remember what month they were in when their loss began too slow, stop, or become a lot harder.

Penni, I am SO SO SO sorry to hear of your loss. ((hugs)) Not being physically with your daughter during this time of miscarriage is probably the hardest! about the video... I read your question and immediately I thought of you videoing your belly... THEN I read what Crystal said, then Betty agreed. Thats 3 votes for the same idea. Im thinking that its kinda like American Idol - they want unique, different, special... but NATURAL! And the idea of sharing about you being an RN was a great thought too. Youre gonna get it - I just know it. :eek:

5-6 months supervised weight loss...EKG..Pulmonary EDG..Stress test ..Chemical blood work...Sleep Apena..and thats what i had to do....Good luck

Increase your food and exercise daily. The weight loss will resume

Hi guys. 6 months post op here and FINALLY stopped losing my hair. Biotin, silica etc did nothing to stop the loss BUT I see about 1 inch of new growth...so it will help with regrowth I suppose. I can feel thickness near my scalp, but it's sparse at the ends from the loss. I mean giant handfuls falling out daily. I'd say I lost 1/2 my hair by the thickness of my ponytail. A lot of people talk about biotin, but add silica too from bamboo supplements. I didn't see the regrowth until I added the silica. Hang in there. Just like yor energy...it can come back.

Sorry to tell you that you will probably lose some, no matter what you do. I just read an article in a magazine that talked about crash diets and basically said eating less than 1200 cal a day can cause you do lose your hair because of nutrient deficiencies. Since we are physically unable to eat that much, it is inevitable that we are going to be losing hair. Mine starting about a week or 2 ago. I'm 3 months out as of yesterday.

I lose alot of hair everytime I wash it (pre-op).. dosn't seem to make a dent. Wondering how bad it is...

I didn't sweat the hair thing too much. I just got a short hair cut.

Yes I take it...... started 5 months pre-op. 1000 MCG which my NUT said was adequate. My niece, sister, and co-worker were sleeved and all took Biotin pre-op (are still taking it) and lost hair but not as much as it could have been. Their hair looks great and I would have not known they lost any hair. A good multi Vitamin will help too. Good luck!

Finally got approved today !!! No pre-op diet ... No weight loss necessary ! Pre-op is next Wednesday and surgery is that Thursday !!! To God be the Glory !

Hi everyone, this is my first time actually posting on this site. I'm so nervous and worried about me not loosing enough weight. firs there was a mix up. My primary dr. told me i weighed 359 before surgery. then my NUT told me i was only 342. but i'm sure i had gained weight since i had last seen her. but when i went for my check up. she told me i had only lost 19 pounds at a month and half. and she said i've should've lost about 31 pounds by now. Now i'm two months and i'm scared to weigh myself because i don't want to be disappointed. I see other people losing 70, 80, 90 pounds by their second month and i dont know whats going on. I was in tears yesterday watching a youtuber talk about how much weight they lost at 10 weeks and reflecting on my own. Can anyone help me with a solution? to speed up my weight loss?

I am a year out, I have not shed any more then I did before surgery. I have kept mine short the last several months though. Many people have said that when shedding happens they find it easier to deal with short hair.