Search the Community

My doctor said it was up to me whether or not I wanted to spend the money on Biotin. I went all out and instead of getting the 325 mg dose, I got the 10,000 mg dose from Walgreens and still take two every day, plus I have sugar free Jello every day (for the gelatin) and bone broth Soup several times a week. I am 13 months out from my sleeve and had no major hair loss at all.....just a few strays around the house. At around two months I did have an issue with brittle nails, but that resolved by month four.

I certainly can relate to your fears. My sugar addiction was one of my reasons for choosing RNY over the sleeve. I knew there was a possibility of dumping when consuming sugar and felt it would be a good deterrent. I was right! Now that I'm 4 months post-op, I really do not crave sugar at all. I'm "lucky" that I actually do dump. I didn't intentionally test it, just didn't read labels and consumed sugar when I hadn't planned on it. The resulting nausea, racing pulse, cold sweats were enough to keep me away. Now I meticulously check labels and watch the grams of sugar. Sometimes I'll see my kids eating one of my pre-surgery trigger foods and I'll get a little jealous, but I don't crave it at all. I may have a bite of carbs here and there, but I can leave it at a bite. That would have been unheard of pre-surgery. I don't eat rice, potatoes, Pasta, bread or any other refined carbs. I do have quinoa or wild rice once in a while. None of this has brought back my cravings or impacted my weight loss. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

What I experienced after RNY gastric bypass surgery was very different than dieting. After surgery, I completely lost my hunger. It was not hard losing weight when hunger is not constantly continuously gnawing at your bones. I am 35 months post-op and I am happy. There are two phases after weight loss surgery. There is the "Weight Loss" phase and the "Maintenance" phase. I also have a sweet tooth. In the following article, I describe my approach to satisfying my sweet tooth. http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/Surgery2.pdf

I didn't have to do a pre-op diet because I didn't have much fat around my liver. I only used Protein drinks for the first two week. I used vanilla.. didn't really care for them. Here some things as a new bandster you might find helpful... especially if you have trouble eating a large meal at night or snacking and a few other pieces of information. I’ve been banded just over 6 years and have talked about this here a couple of time but I think it’s worth repeating for new bandsters. Back when I was banded my doctor suggested something called the “Egg Timer Distraction”. It’s kind of difficult to explain here but I’d be happy to email you the .pdf document. It REALLY helped me with “head hunger. I can’t tell you the number of people in my lapband coffee groups over the years that have said how helpful this “trick” has been in dealing with their head hunger. Also, I’m not really a “diet” book type person but I recommend you pick up two books. Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat: How to Break Your Eat-Repent-Repeat Cycle – by Dr. Michelle May I had the pleasure of hearing Dr. May speak at a conference when she came to Toronto and her book and guidelines really work well with the lapband journey. The second book is: The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite – by David L. Kessler Try and take it one day at a time. Don’t compare yourself to others. Don’t go into this journey saying “I’ll never be able to eat this or that ever again.” I can eat ANYTHING except rice and apple skins and no carbonated beverages. Follow the guidelines given to you by your doctor. Take tiny bites and remember to finish what you have in your mouth before you take your next bite. When I was losing weight I checked in every month with my family doctor to get weighed and measured. (I don’t own scales) I also attended two coffee groups for people that were banded. These things really kept me motivated and on track. I still check in every month with my family doctor to get weighed-in and I host two coffee groups. For me support from fellow bandsters plays a big part in this journey. Please feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions and also if you would like a copy of the “Egg Timer Distraction Document”. Tom, Toronto Banded July 6 06 Wt. Loss: 156 lbs tomander@bell.net

Question for all the pro-sleevers, is there anyone on here that has lost and maintained the weight loss for 5 yrs or more. I am afraid that the once I have the surgery and loose all my weight that it will creep back on like all my other diets and failed attempts. Are there any studies or testimonials from past sleevers that can say, yes this works and I have kept the weight off.

So when I am officially sleeved and start loosing I would like a visual aid of my weight loss progress. I've seen the 2 vases with stones - 1 for lbs to go and 1 for lbs lost. And also the charm bracelet. Wondering if anyone else has some ideas to share???

I am coming up on my 1year Bandiversary on 5/30!!!!!!! A lot has happened to me in that year, foot surgery which I regret, knee surgery which was needed and cancer surgery most def needed! With all this I have so far lost 73 lbs! I am down from a 4x-5x to an XL and loving myself again! I had the foot surgery because I was more active and foot was hurting but guess I picked wrong doctor cause foot is worse but working on fixing that! Through my surgeries and also loss of my mother in law I have been fairly diligent on what I eat! I could use an adjustment but due to this last surgery have had to postpone that so I drink water to fill me when I know I shouldn't eat! Thankful for a second or maybe third chance at life and living. Can't wait to get on my feet as I just got an elliptical that I am dying to use. I don't make myself crazy and once in a blue moon I do have something I "shouldn't" but in very small doses that's ok too! If I don't then I will want even more, sometimes just a bite satisfies! It doesn't have to be hard!! I'm human not perfect! Could I have lost more? Probably but it's progress not perfection!! This is my story my life and I have more to write!!!!!!!

When mine started to fall out, I stopped washing every day, and went to every other it every 3rd day. I would wet it in the shower, but not shampoo so I wouldn't break off the hair, and then blow dry on a cooler setting. When I did shampoo I made sure to condition as I noticed it was very dry. Don't worry though-this phase actually passes quickly!

I follow that same path of weight loss as dhales. I was at 192-194 for 10 days, then over one weekend I dropped to 188. Now I flirt between 188-192 for the last week. So if the trend continues, I'll drop to 185 and hang out between 185-188 for a few weeks. I used to sweat it but not anymore. tmf

I lost a whole round chunk of hair the size of a hand on my head after pneumonia (two days in coma, five days in critical care unit). The resulting hair loss from surgery will probably be similar, called alopecia areata. A dermatologist will prescribe a steroid cream and may inject steroids into severely affected areas. The best thing is to eat healthy, keep vitamins up, boost your immune system pre- and post-op as much as possible and try to avoid any and all stress! 80% chance it will all grow back normally when you get healthier.

I agree, Dr. Nick Nicholson and his office staff are great. Very easy to deal with and you can call or email them anytime with questions. Baylor Plano really has it together with weight loss surgery patients. I highly recommend Dr. Nick in Plano.

I use it daily. I still have tons of hair coming out, and its been about 19 months out for me. My hair loss seems to happen in cycles. I'm just using the Nioxin to also stimulate growth too. Nobody else can tell that I'm losing hair like crazy, so thats good. It does smell nice, but its a bit pricer. I've been considering takng biotin too......

Has anyone used nioxin for hair loss?

I'm pre-op & I eat cottage cheese now & love it. I sometimes have it for Breakfast with a teaspoon of sugar free jam mixed in. I've also had some halved green grapes in it or pineapple or applesauce. Since I'm Type 2 diabetic, I can't eat a regular plate of Pasta, so I've taken about 2 oz of angel hair or spaghetti with marinara & mixed in a couple heaping tablespoons of cottage cheese (sorta like a lasagna) to help fill me up without eating too many carbs. It's been good all the ways I've tried it so far.

Started back at gym at week 3. First two to three weeks were rough, lose a lot of muscle quick with rapid weight loss. I sweated a lot and stamina was low. Talked the PA and dietician, increased calories for additional calories burned, it helped get stamina back and sweating stopped. Around week 8, 5 weeks after returning to gym, my strength was back to pre surgery. Workout still basically, 1/2 hour treadmill running followed by 1 hour of resistance training, cardio workout, ab workout, mixture of all of the previous all depending upon what my personal trainer plans for me.

Just thought I'd share a study I found in one of my medical journey subscriptions. Interesting read! Sleeve Gastrectomy Improves Testosterone Levels in Obese Men Thu, 10/08/15 - 11:39 Sleeve gastrectomy can normalize testosterone levels in men with obesity-related hypogonadism, according to a recent study. Previous research has suggested both the potential benefits of bariatric surgery to overall health and potential adverse effects of testosterone replacement therapy. For this reason, researchers aimed to investigate the effects of surgery-related weight loss on serum testosterone and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ RELATED CONTENT Bariatric Surgery Helps Relieve Asthma Symptoms Bariatric Surgery Can Lower Diabetes Risk by 80% ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ In their study, they followed 24 men undergoing laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy, measuring their serum testosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), and PSA levels before surgery, then again 3, 6, and 12 months after. Overall, the amount of men in the study with low serum testosterone levels dropped from 63% to 41% 12 months after surgery. “Our cohort experienced a significant increase in average serum testosterone as quickly as 3 months after sleeve gastrectomy and by 12 months, this value had increased from 295 to 423 ng/dL (p=0.003). DHEA showed a trend toward increase, from 12.8 to 39.6 ng/mL (p=0.12) and serum PSA concentration rose over 12 months from 0.62 to 0.75 ng/mL (p=0.047) with no change in PSA mass.” “The take home message is that if you are an obese man with low testosterone your therapy should be weight loss not testosterone replacement, and a successful way to achieve meaningful weight loss is through a bariatric operation,” they concluded. “This is a unique and beneficial finding for sleeve gastrectomy hasn’t been studied before, demonstrating for the first time, that testosterone levels are improved in a group of obese male patients following sleeve gastrectomy.” —Michael Potts References: Morton JM, Mokhrati T, Nair AA, et al. Male sex hormones normalize after laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy. Paper presented at: The 2015 Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons. Chicago, IL. October 5, 2015. American College of Surgeons. Testosterone Levels Improve in Obese Men Following a Common Weight-Loss Operation [press release]. October 5, 2015. https://www.facs.org/media/press-releases/2015/morton. ‹ PREVIOUS ARTICLENEXT ARTICLE ›

Please don't leave, we need more realistic folks in here! I do think that a lot of people think this is a magic bullet. Its not. At all. It's one of the hardest things I've ever done but the best thing I have done for my health and would do it again in a New York minute! I just commented the other day on poster who is considering the sleeve and she cited some examples on how she is in the mindset that losing 100 pounds in 14 months is minimal. All the examples she gave the loss was on average over 7 pounds per month! I commented that 7 pounds per month on average is ANYTHING but minimal! She disagreed with me and insisted that to her it is. A few do manage to lose 200 pounds in a year but those are usually very high BMI people. I do believe she will be let down if she "only" loses 75 pounds in 6 months. I would be dancing on the table for that! Of course my favorite one was a poster who was about 7 months out or so and had not lost any weight in several months and was wondering why her sleeve was not working. Only being about 5 weeks out at the time didn't give me a lot of experience to draw from but I asked if she was following the the NUT eating plan? Was she working out? Drinking the necessary Water? Was she eating slider foods? Her reply was while she would love to be doing that, she had no self control and therefore was hungry all the time and following the NUT plan and working out was not a viable option. (I promise I am not making this up!) Wow. Just wow! What can you say to that? We need to be patient, the weight didn't come on over night and it won't leave that way either. All I know is that at almost 12 weeks post op, I feel better, inside and out, I look better and I am so much healthier than I was pre surgery and even though I am only half way there, I know it will come off, it has no choice as long as I follow the plan. It's worth waiting for and celebrating the accomplishments along the way!

Since I have been lurking here for about a month, I have finally decided to come out of the closet! I am so inspired by all of the stories of success and especially by the support that you give each other to overcome any stumbling blocks. I will consider myself very lucky if I become a member of this forum. After reading and researching for months, Lap Band surgery is definately something that I want to do; but I have to first win the battle with my employer and United Health Care. I work for a huge company (largest telecom company in the United States) and my benefits center tells me that UHC does not cover weight loss surgery. But UHC tells me that they just administer the plan that my employer has chosen, which specifically excludes WLS. Even though I have not see a surgeon or atended a seminar; after speaking to me on the phone, the patient coordinator in the surgeon's office sent in a request to UHC. Hopefully, I will get a denial soon and can hire an attorney to file an appeal. UHC told me that the appeal goes directly to my employer who will make the decision and then direct UHC to either pay or reject the claim. Does anyone here know if I have any kind of chance of getting this paid? BTW, I am 42 years old, 5'4" and 286 lbs. Have been overweight all of my life. I haven't been under 200 lbs in over 20 years.

Hi there, I thought my story might be helpful to you. I am not yet sleeved. I had my band in 2007 and am scheduled to get it removed in three weeks, then I have to wait three months to get the sleeve. Late last year I started dieting faithfully and could not lose. In January I saw my PCP who ran a bunch of tests and it came back that I had both hypothyroidism and insulin resistance. He put me on Synthroid and Metformin. The Metformin made me horribly sick and I could never adjust to it, so I stopped. Due to some insurance issues I couldn't get back to see him until late April. Since I couldn't tolerate the Metformin, he put me on Januvia. I immediately started losing weight. Then I read Wheat Belly and gave up gluten and the weight has been coming off regularly and pretty effortlessly and, except during my PMS week, I'm losing about 2 pounds per week, which considering I couldn't lose anything before makes me pretty happy! I know this may not apply to you, but I want to encourage you not to give up, keep experimenting and find out what's keeping you from weight loss. I am a firm believer in functional medicine and explored vitamin/mineral deficiencies and allergies until I stumbled upon my insulin resistance, thyroid issues and apparent gluten intolerance. Good luck! Laura

Congratulations on the weight loss and getting those clothes out of storage! Don't you just hate those stupid doctor's scales? My doctor always weighs me at least 5 lbs more than the scale at home. It drives me nuts! Of course, it could be because I'm stark naked and it's morning when I weigh here, but it still gets me mad! That is sooo exciting about the jeans. There's nothing like fitting into clothes that you never thought you'd get to wear again. I know I have several 18's in my hope chest (and I am hoping, because I just recently got into a 22). It'll be a while before I'm squeezing into them, but I can't wait. Keep those hips holstered - they sound dangerous! By the way, I love your maniacal laugh... eheheheheheheheh!!!

~~~CONGRATULATIONS~~~ on your six month annaversary! Mine is going to be on Saturday! I am going to a huge party on Saturday too. Im sorry that your surgeons office isnt providing you with enough support. I would hate to find out what that is like. I LOVE my surgeon and the office staff! They are wonderful people! Everyone should have an experience like that. I am right behind you on the weight loss. I am down 50 some odd pounds. I am with you on being a rule bender...but usually when I break the rules, I suffer. I will tell ya about the pretzel rod that almost killed me some day! YIKES! No more damn pretzels~~ You are sooo fortunate to have the support of your family! You are making your husband proud weather you fit in that penwar set or not, but cha know what, you WILL DO IT!! Well, I certainly am proud of you Debby Do~~~ Keep up the amazing work! We will pull into the station of our goals together!!!! We can do this! You have done amazing thus far!! ~CONGRATS AGAIN~

pre op and post op diets are to prepare the body for surgery not to lose weight. hell if we could lose weight w/o WLS, as TMF says often, why get the surgery? if you do lose, it will be mainly Water weight (not actual true weight loss), those and those inches that matter over what the scale says come later on down the road if you are not following your dr's advise on the pre op dieting then you are doing it wrong, if you are doing what you are suppose to, then everything is fine...give yourself some credit and keep doing what you are doing...do what dr says for best results.. all the best.

Great answers!!!!! At least she didn't throw the "your going to die" phrase at you. It is true, the sleeve is going to change what you eat and definitely how much you eat. The process is EXTREMELY emotional. Mourning the loss of food for comfort, wondering why you have to do something so drastic to keep from eating too much - it is a tough process on the other side. But, it is worth it. You did a great job answering her concerns and preserving your friendship. Most people speak from a place of not knowing anything about WLS. They don't always mean to be negative or hurtful, they just don't understand the procedure. Good luck! lara

Well, don't try to lose those ten pounds the way I did...doesn't feel too good! I was throwing up my own saliva...it was bad. His nurse had told me that he's agressive with his fills...so, I'm not sure how he miscalculated. But, he only did the first one - now another doctor will be taking care of me...and he's not as agressive. Oh, btw, I don't think I mentioned that my surgery was performed by Dr. DiMarco with the Weight Loss Clinic in Harrisburg PA. He's one of the most saught after doctor in my neck of the woods...