Search the Community

Welcome!! Great job!!! I have days that I have to make myself eat too. Yet on some days I do get hunger pains. However I can eat a few small bites be fine for a few hours [emoji4] 5'4" Starting weight 297 VSG on 7/31/19 Surgery wt: 266 CW 228 GW 135 Sent from my [samsung Galaxy] using BariatricPal mobile app

37/NJ here, sleeved 7/2/19...any ladies care to chat? :-)

Just a little bit of advice as a veteran. You can take it or leave it..... I wouldn't stress about losing too much. Most people, at least 95%, have a certain amount of "bounce" weight that starts to happen at years 2-5 post op as our metabolisms start to regulate and other reasons. It's usually around 5-10%. I was at the high end of a normal BMI when I met goal, and when it happened to me, I wished I was at the lower end because my 10 pounds put me squarely back into the overweight category of BMI, which really irked me. I know it's definitely startling to see it, though. Just keep that bounce regain in the back of your mind when you're struggling to slow it down or gain a little back. It will happen naturally after a while 😘

I have finally gotten the weight loss to slow down. I think eating purposefully around the clock helped. I also purposely eat higher calorie carbs that get calories in and don't make me feel as full for as long. The crazy thing is it's the exact opposite of what we should do during the weight loss phase. The carbs I have are 1/3 cup of granola cereal over yogurt or mixed with 1/3 cup milk. It gives me around 150 calories and then I can eat yogurt, an egg or 1-2 oz. of meat 45 minutes later. If i only eat meat and veggies I am too full to get in other foods and only get 1000 calories max. I was loosing on that and wanted to slow it down. Granted I am not eating ice cream and cookies but still high calories and carbs and it does worry me that this could cause issues but mentally i still feel like eating is a chore and if I could I wouldn't eat a fraction of what i am now . I am hoping as I can tolerate more volume i can make healthier choices. I also can eat a 230 calorie packet of Bevita breakfast bars in under 10 minutes and eat again 45 minutes later. I have managed to get in 1400 calories the past 2 weeks. I also drink 2% milk and cook my spinach and egg in olive oil, and eat a Tbs of peanut butter, and have a RX bar during the day just to get extra calories.

HEY guys! Im new here. I see a couple surgery twins! RNY 7/31/19 I just stepped on the scale earlier and it said 229!!!!! I'm below 230's now! WOW! I about cried! So I am never hungry! I have no desire to eat. And i hardly ever have cravings. I literally have to force myself to eat everyday....Is there anyone else going thru that too?

Hey everyone, I went to my PCP on 2/18/19. I weighed 298 lbs at 6 tall. I was huge. Depressed, sleep deprived, eating disordered etc. My Dr. recommended me to the options program at Kaiser. 12 weeks of weekly classes to see if I was ready for the surgery. During those 12 weeks I researched weight loss drugs, and went on Metformin every morning and Bupropion x2 a day. I immediately lost interest in food and over the 12 weeks lost 45 lbs. I'm not diabetic but very hypertensive and sleep apnea severe. They approved me with no out of pocket costs for the surgery tomorrow at 7 am PST. The reason I'm doing the surgery is that I have a 3 year old daughter, and I want to be around for her. I'm late 40's and sick and tired of being sick and tired. My Dr. requires a liquid diet for 2 days before the surgery. I had five fast food dreams last night and dreams about chocolate candy bars and dreams about triscuits and cheese plates, etc. I cant believe I didn't struggle for 12 weeks of losing 45 lbs but 2 days of no solid food and its a huge struggle. Clear liquid protein, broth and lots of caffeine. I got really irritable at dinner time tonight and was frustrated. Even after losing 45 lbs I still ate unhealthy and had trouble controlling my appetite and had serious unhealthy disordered food cravings etc. The frustrating part was after losing 45lbs the teachers in my weight classes and my pcp and my specialists were all like why are you doing this? You are now on the border of obese and look really good. They all tried to talk me out of it! My Bariatric surgeon was very supportive and immediately scheduled my surgery. I'm excited and nervous. The really hard part is that not eating solid food for the last 2 days has been difficult and made me want to regress and go back to junk food! I didnt and I'm ready for the surgery but I hope my taste buds change and I become much healthier and practice mindful present eating habits. I know the Metformin and Bupropion were temporary battles won but not the war - which is why I signed up and I'm ready for surgery. I have my sugar free popsicles, and Premiere protein clear gatorade looking bottles and my vitamins and crystal light sugar free. I'm ready to win the war and this is a battle I knowingly go into with open eyes and a clear heart. I hope the surgery really helps the anger and depression and manipulative hormones that emanate from my stomach when it doesnt get its fast food or junk food fix. I want to enjoy not having an appetite and eating small healthy portions of healthy food. I want to be the 190 lbs guy from my college days. I have broad shoulders and a football players body and played in college but really just get healthy again. Two things I enjoy in moderation is 1 cup of coffee a day and once a month having a drink of alcohol or two socially. I hope I can regain both of those in the year after the surgery. I don't care about the junk food, fast food, and sugary or fried food. I hope I don't ever want those again. (My stomach is talking now) literally 8 hours before the surgery! Mark PS I hope losing weight helps the sleep apnea and lessens it, since the cpap doesnt work very well. I also hope to stop the 4 blood pressure drugs I'm on as well.

63 years old here. RNY Feb 2019. Reached goal between 6-7 months, with loss of 110 lbs. I am 5'6". I exercise a lot - walking/hiking, weights, stairs, legs, biking, swimming. Just completed a triathlon which was an amazing experience and unthinkable 8 months ago. My advice is to get a step tracker and start walking right away, even while in the hospital. I was up to 10,000 steps by day 7, and just kept adding little exercise routines along the way. A step tracker is very motivating and keeps one accountable. I log my exercise along with my food.

Hi, there! I'm 57 and had my RNY on March 27, 2019. I am 5' 3.5" and started at about 230 or so. High weight was 246. I'm now 158. I recently increased my calories and the weight loss accelerated. Go figure! I was eating no more than 800 calories for months. I know you didn't ask about calories, but wanted to motivate you to eat more when you can. Congratulations on your surgery and best to you!!! Sent from my SM-N960U using BariatricPal mobile app

Hi, I attended my first party this weekend. There was quite a few family and friends there. I was really nervous about how I was going to explain my weight loss, I haven't told anyone except my two sons and my soon to be daughter in law. Only two people commented on my weight loss and I basically told them I have been dieting and exercising which I have been since before and after my surgery. I'm just really surprised more people did not comment on my weight loss. I've lost 70 lbs since January. There was a girl at the party who weighed as much as me before, we used to walk every weekend for a few months then we quit because other things kept coming up, she knew how hard I was trying to lose weight. I was shocked that she never commented on my weight loss. She was not acting herself at the party, I got a feeling she was not happy with my weight loss [emoji20]. The good news is I'm 66 days post OP and down 37 lbs. It's coming off slow but it's been steady [emoji4] 5'4" Starting weight 297 VSG on 7/31/19 Surgery wt: 266 CW 229 GW 135 Sent from my [samsung Galaxy] using BariatricPal mobile app

I'm 43 female. I started in February 2019 at 311 lbs. RNY on July 3, 2019 at 281 lbs. Currently, I'm down to 215 😊 I exercise every day and I'm pretty good watching my calories, protein, and carbs, and water.

Well I'm 49 and I had GB March 23 2019 starting weight 274 now Im at 193 so it's coming off slow but steady, but I'm not exercising like I should either. All in all I'm happy with my loss and I'm still losing every week.

Gastric sleeve on 14/10/19 😱

Just found this thread. I was 50 when I had my sleeve on 2-6-19. I’ll be 51 in 10 days and I’m one pound away from goal weight. It’s so exciting to know that this will be the first birthday since I turned 28 that I’ll have a normal BMI

I’m 345 and I’m getting the duodenal switch in 10/22. Hoping to get to 170

I'm 66 and scheduled for my surgery on 10/23

Sounds like you have a lot of metabolic challenges going on. There are veterans on here that know WAY more than I do about how bodies that for whatever reason, throw up intense metabolic..let's say 'resistance'...they have a wealth of knowledge and experience with losing weight, even if it is slower, with most of these conditions. I actually am a fan of low carb..like VERY low carb, put you in 'ketosis' low carb as I am a slow loser. My dr's plan though..dang @Fluffychix knew exactly the name for it...I'll look up her reply to my post and put it here...he had me increasing..now that I was, at the time they gave me my 'macros' for moving forward into the 'real food arena)...he had me UP the carbs but carbs isolated to the low glycemic/better for you carbs...kept protein high of course, and put fat as the lowest % which I understood (the fat part of it). the calories were the EXACT same that I had been doing since eating SOME real food....and I was losing like..2 lbs a week...then down to 1 lb...then down to nothing for over 10 days...my 2nd or 3rd 'stall'... Finally I bit the bullet and went into my fitnesspal and changed my macros around....I ate protein oatmeal...feeling guilty the whole time. I also ran into a 'picky pouch' issue and suddenly things i had been able to eat like 1 slice of turkey deli meat...was repulsing me. My calories ended up actually starting to tank into under 400 on some days which threw my body off too. Ironically, the oatmeal stayed down and some days was the only thing i could get in..as well as half a protein drink. Flash forward to past 4 days...got self back to 800 calories but on my dr's version, not mine...and I went to an oktoberfest dinner 2 nights ago with a group of ladies I know. I had baby bites of almost everything. I ate tiny bites of a dumpling, of the meat (NOT sausage, more like a roast)...cucumbers....and as there is another woman there who had WLS who is 1.5 years out, we were talking about what things would be safer for me to try than others..and the whole table started talking about the fact that several German dishes, especially the salads, involved lemon juice, vinegar, etc. - things known to help with digestion. As we had several courses, the "meal" was eaten over 2 to 2.5 hrs. I made sure to stop WAY before what I know my pouch could handle. I skipped a few things that I knew might be 'dicey'..but honestly..over the course of that meal, I ate MORE calories than I had in days when I added it to the rest of the day. I never hit my restriction..truly took BABY teeny tiny bites of things......this morning, i got on the scale and I'm suddenly down 4 lbs! This is with still seeing my ankles slightly swollen from yesterday's jaunting around town. I think sometimes we get so 'set' in what our macros are...that our bodies need to be shaken up. This could mean you need to change your macros and so many other variables. I was going to look into IF (intermittent fasting) before agreeing with members here that I actually should try what my dr and his nutritionist were suggesting which was actually increasing good carbs. I mean..I was stuck...so really...all that could happen is potentially a 'gain and if I did...I'd wait it out to see if it was my body just 'reacting' again. I really thought I'd see a small gain this morning or stay the same. It goes to show how wrong some of my old thinking can be sometimes....and there are MANY MANY ppl on here who can share from their experience...also being ppl who are 'slower losers' than some (i.e fight having metabolism challenges)...I would need to re-read what you posted but I think there are other options that remain unexplored that are available to you to try. And I say this being a person that is ON Seroquel. My loved one is on Seroquel AND topomax. She had a very bad reaction to Latuda which was disappointing. She is making MINOR changes in her meals..and is hiking with me..both of us are SEVERELY out of shape but we do mini-hikes.....I know if she can lose weight with her tiny changes....there are definitely ANSWERS/HELP out there for you..many things still to try DESPITE the meds. I wish you nothing but the best!!

I'm scheduled for 10/23

now I know Abilify is another way to go to and the bullfight is the new medication that I take I've been on Seroquel for a long time and they always say weight neutral when they first come out and then I later on the end up becoming a lawsuit and I understand that they always get the car and all that stuff comes involved but my doctor thinks that what happens is if you don't even have the carbs I was only on 1200 calories but he thinks that what it does is slow down your insulin. but here goes the crazy part I've been doing the same diet since the May 23rd to Mill Replacements a day 64 ounces is 296 oz of water and 3 oz of meat for the first 45 days after the surgery I lost from 318 lb to 271 lb but in the last 6 weeks I haven't lost anything I gained 5 lb nothing is changed and it's got my PCP and my doctor who do the surgery and even my dietitian scratch their heads and they did all my blood work and they're not seeing anything any signs except for some weird sign that my iron is extremely low and my vitamin D and my calcium is completely out of whack prior to the surgery they wasn't so they're all trying to figure out what the change is only person is even trying to do anything different at this point is my psychiatrist who's taking me off of my volume is an axes and changing my Seroquel to Latuda and seeing if this is going to do any difference and raising my Topamax which is only thing that actually is there a weight-loss medication to see if that will help anything I haven't eaten a piece of fruit or piece of vegetable and literally since the three days before May 23rd I haven't drinking anything but water and or protein water since the surgery my literally my calorie intake is from the meats that I eat at night about 5 p.m. and the shakes come to a total of between 680 calories to round 810 calories a day I walked between 10 to 15000 steps a day up to sometimes 20 and I also played the drums for about an hour and everybody says that I'm very active I look very healthy I never see you if it's good I'm always running around now I feel great but I went to my primary care physician 5 weeks ago I was 268 then I went to then I went to my psychiatrist I was 271 I went to my primary care physician I was 274 now 2 weeks ago and today I'm 277 I haven't changed anything so I called my dietitian yes I'm a dietitian don't call him cuz he's really worried about my situation and I call it a day so maybe we're going to go ahead and put you on a 1200 calorie diet and maybe that will restart your metabolism and that's going to worry me but I'm going to try it and maybe that'll give me a jump start again a lot of towels and start losing weight he said maybe you're just exercising too much and you just need to have more cuz your body's going to self starvation mode it makes sense and somewhere but I'm just afraid if I start eating more Ill gain more but I'm not eating carbs so I haven't had a potato chip in 3 years

This was also me before surgery. I did manage to drop 33 pounds before surgery but it took 6 months and half of it was on the liquid diet. I've lost 53 pounds since surgery for a total of 86. I don't lose as fast as other people due to PCOS but it's been steady at 10-12 pounds a month so far.

I weight 145 lb 10 years ago I was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia bipolar 1 with extreme Mania I was given Seroquel 400 mg and right away after 3 months I was 318 lb I got my surgery and May 23rd of 2019 to help fix a large hernia they're going to have to have my weight down to 200 pounds as fast as possible. now they can't drop my medicines because I will be hospitalized immediately for my mental illness. they are trying to figure out all kinds of ideas. they have put me on 200 mg of Topamax to help lose weight and to help with my bipolar and change my medication from Seroquel to Latuda. I begin my change tomorrow . I will let people know how it goes in 2 weeks . I don't know what's going to happen. I'm down to 271 and I'm holding for 6 weeks now and then last week I've gained 5 lb and I'm still at 750 calories. I haven't changed anything in my diet except when they tell me to every three days my dietitian to try to figure out what to do . they are trying to figure out what's going on obviously I I think it has to do with my medications . I haven't eaten over 1,200 calories in 3 years. But again I may be wrong that's why I need your help. I do not eat carbs I do not eat sugars in the last 7 years. I do have pictures of before I was on Seroquel you would not believe the difference. I can post them if you'd like. But this is not a congratulation post this is for people like me or people who might have answers in this field. I don't want to have have people coming into gratulate me or anything like that because, I'm looking for people that are have done this and actually completed and one or I'm looking for those who are doing this and we can work together as a team to figure this out. now they're giving me iron supplements on top of iron supplements and Vitamin D supplements on top of Vitamin D supplements even though I'm outside active and on top of that. Because before I didn't have these deficiencies and now my doctors and I don't know what's going on because before surgery I've never had this and now after surgery I was giving all these supplements and my blood work comes back that I got all the great vitamins and me but it's showing extreme low iron and extreme low vitamin D so now they're giving me more iron to take and more vitamin D and it's still losing iron we're still losing vitamin D . What's the cause? it I'm drinking tons and tons of water 64 Oz a before noon on exercising I'm walking jogging 2 to 3 miles a day on play with the dogs I built the fence last week. I haven't done that in 10 years put a mailbox I'm also doing everything I possibly can to do to counter this problem my way I was always a health nut I always believe calories in calories out I was always extended extreme bodybuilding and weight and extreme sports and I go from being 145 lb to 318 pounds in 3/4 months and I know I'm not going to lose this weight super super fast but but I should at least be losing half a pound of one pound a week and I should be showing large vitamin D all that low iron and low calcium is starting to show up so even my PCP so I can do blood work and starting to send them to the lab something my else might be happening. My family only has a history of thyroid cancer and lung cancer cuz they smoke we lived to be 85 and 90 but we all get a little bit of dementia and Alzheimer's . But that is we usually end up dying from. that's part of the mental illness part. but all my family members are skinny I mean I'm the only large person in my family because of the the Seroquel. I do not have high blood pressure I do not have any type of Diabetes I do not have an insulin problem my ACl one is at like 4 even at my weight . so I don't have problems. but we are trying to figure this out that they took my blood and all the vitamins I'm perfectly good on vitamins I do not need any extra types of foods are vegetables anything I add to my diet. So my dietitian has tried to add vegetables to my diet over the last six weeks and I gained weight he tried to remove meat from my diet go back to the shakes and do less calories that's when I lose weight so basically it comes down to 750 calories. If I eat 750 calories I maintain 271 lb if I eat less than 750 calories bye 200 calories I begin to lose 1 pound a week if I eat anything over 200 calories IV in the game 2 pounds a week again. so I'm hoping with you Latuda and dropping the Seroquel and they replace of the Seroquel using the Latuda that this will change I will keep you updated. And I'm hoping that I meet more people that have mental illness and doing the surgery can give me other ideas or is there any psychiatrist out there that know of any other mental illness bipolar mood stabilizers that are weight neutral please informing or inform us. Thank you sincerely yours The Crazies

Thanks for the encouragement! I know GW will happen now and TBH, I had my doubts on this day 8 months ago. By the end of the month I’m going to start adding in a serving of complex carbs daily and bumping average daily calorie intake by 200 until I can consistently get to 1200 healthy calories daily. It will take a couple of months I’m sure, but I’m kind of counting on that to take this long so I can also lose another 5-10 pounds in that time as I work on transitioning. Long as I can maintain within a 5-10 pound window of goal (with my GW of 155 being the UPPER limit) then I’ll be completely satisfied I’m truly not looking to go under 145, but I understand it could temporarily happen as this process isn’t like a faucet you can turn on and off at will. These next 3-6 months are going to be interesting and will be full of trial and error.

Okay so today is my 8 month surgiversary. Lol, I had really hoped I’d hit GW by this day, but true to me, I fell ONE MEASLEY pound short! Ah well, gonna double down this week so I can by sure to be at GW by my bday in 10 days. Never give up!

Okay guys so today is my 8 month surgiversary. My GW is 155, and true to form (me being more of the tortoise than the hare) I’ve fallen 1 pound SHORT of goal for this date. Am I gonna let it stop me or discourage me? Nope! In fact I’m doubling down this week bc my bday is in 10 days and maybe I can at least hit my goal by my secondary GW date. Never give up!

Thanks so much. I finished pretty close to the bottom, but all that matters is that I finished! My friend (who does these events all the time) told me that 90% of the U.S. population will never do any kind of endurance event, so just finishing puts me in the top 10%! I like that way of thinking! Here is me stomping the finish line! I have no idea how so many copies got posted, and I have no idea how to get them off. Help!

Surgery: 10/2/19. Pain was not very bad until Today when hospital meds wore off. Mind/matter was worse. My stomach is hard and fat as ever. And, because of IV in hospital, the scale betrayed me too. I bought a brace to help but my belly cramped up more . My dad was visiting and I kept apologizing profusely. I don’t think he had a nice visit. What was reassuring is that this is for now @ not 4 Ever.