Search the Community

tricare select requires that you have proof that You were unsuccessful with non-surgical medical treatments for obesity. Your medical records must show your failed attempts. Diet programs, such as Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig, are acceptable methods of dietary management, as long as there are monthly clinical visits with your doctor and medical documentation of your participation and your progress throughout the course of the dietary program. Is that maybe what they want to know or did you already provide that?

I have found that most people are satisfied to hear you are working with a nutritionist and exercising more. It is the truth. I mean It’s those two things that are mainly why your losing weight. It’s just easier to do those things without the hunger hormones screaming at you.

I told very few people. My immediate family, some close friends, my boss all knew. Afterward, when it was obvious I'd lost a ton of weight, I told most people that I'd been working with a dietitian and was exercising like a fiend (which was actually true...I just conveniently left out the part about the surgery). When another obese person asked me, I was honest with them, since they know that diet & exercise thing is a bunch of schlock. so I don't know if I was technically lying - just leaving out the surgery part for most people who asked. But then again, if you don't want people to know about the surgery, there aren't a lot of options.

This is a tough one! I’ve also been trying to figure out what to say. Because I’ve struggled my entire life with eating disorders, ups and downs in the weight department and a lot of the times that I lost drastically it was because I wasn’t treating my body the right way (not eat, binging and purging, over doing it at the gym and constantly obsessing). So having someone comment on my wait good or bad is triggering for me. My first thought is, in this day in age the way things are with body positivity etc people really shouldn’t comment on someone’s weight loss or gain because there can be a multitude of reasons why someone has lost or gained. Another example: my sister recently lost a TON of weight (she was already somewhat thin to begin with) and we were discussing how she feels when people ask her about her weight loss and exclaim how great she looks etc, and she has a hard time with it because first of all, “did I not look good before?”, as she says to me and second, she was actually very ill and it’s the reason why she lost the weight. It’s like people put so much value on who you are based on your weight. So I cringe when I think of what to say. Part of me wants to say something snarky but I’m not a snarky person lol and can’t really think of anything. So instead I’m going to be honest! I’m eating healthy and working out! I already have been eating healthy and working out since I started my program and have lost some weight so it won’t be too far fetched. My situation might be different then yours though because I live hours away from most anyone I don’t care to tell the 100% truth to. So when I see them the 1 or 2 times a year, or every other year that I do, it won’t be so jarring. I think part of the issue is the fact that people think that WLS is the “easy way out” and from reading posts on this forum and hearing first hand from friends that have had WLS that’s is totally not the case. You still have to put in the work to be successful with WLS. And honestly… I don’t think there’s anything easy about going through surgery and getting your stomach cut into and/or altered in any way.

I am fairly private, and do not feel the need to tell everyone that I am going to have WLS. Especially my judgmental extended family. But I'm wondering how to respond when inevitably the topic comes up that I have lost a significant amount of weight. I don't want to lie, but I don't want everyone to know my business, either. What are some kind, polite responses to the question, "What did you do?"

I have PCOS and I had my sleeve surgery on the same day as you. I also think I hit a stall, but everyone says you start to lose weight again after a couple of weeks. I’ve also been struggling with water intake but it’s slowly getting better. Glad I’m not alone, and I hope everything is going ok with you.

I’m also new to the thread. Our ages are similar and height and weight as well as BMI and diagnosis

It's like we are twins...For the past 5 days I have gained and lost the same 0.5 lbs. I had surgery on March 3rd and have lost a total of 37 lbs (12 lbs during pre op diet and 25 lbs since surgery). It is very frustrating but I figure I am in another stall (I had one about 2.5 weeks post op that lasted for about 6 days then I started losing again). Keep following the plan...we will get through this!

That's WONDERFUL! I take cruises a couple of times a year and most people think you gain a ton of weight on cruises because there's food available 24/7, but on vacation I limit myself to the 3 meals a day and no snacking and I almost always end up losing weight or if not, staying the same weight.

1) probably a stricture. Once they get it cleared, you'll be fine 2) you shouldn't be progressing on your diet like that. Goldfish crackers and French fries during week 3 is on no one's plan. You'll eventually be able to eat stuff like that again (although in controlled amounts), but right now you should be focusing on following your plan. You don't want to sabotage everything when you're right out of the gate. This will all work as long as you follow the plan. Don't be one of those people who never loses very much weight - or worse, gains it all back. You've been through too much for that.

a 10-20 lb rebound weight, usually during year 3 (although it can be earlier or later for some) is EXTREMELY common. A dietitian who gave a presentation on one of Unjury's virtual support groups a couple of weeks ago said they don't even consider it regain until you gain more than 15% of your lowest weight (so for you, that would be slightly over 15 lbs). Under that, and it's just your body settling in to a weight it feels comfortable at. you can always lose weight again by cutting your calories - although weight loss is a struggle for those of us at or near a normal BMI.

I weigh myself daily at one point it was twice daily. I rarely weighed myself before surgery and back in the days when my weight was in check I also weighed daily. For me it helps check things in check. To the OP yes my weight bounces between the 2 same kilos for a month. This is my tracking since Feb. 73kg, 72,73,72,72, 71,72,71,72,71. These are roughly weekly recordings my loss has slowed alot now I am 9 months out but early on it was a similar pattern

I’m 3 weeks out from surgery. May 16. Gastric Bypass. I’m 60. 5’6. 43 BMI. With so many co-morbidities ! Diabetes, high blood pressure. Arthritis in knees and ankles. Last weekend I got very down, thinking if I hadn’t been successful before long-term how was I going to be able to do it now. If I had slowly been losing since this whole process started last July when I had my first consult I would weigh less now as I know wls is just a tool and not a magical solution. I talked about my fears, ordered a bariatric cookbook and got on here to read to see if anyone eles was going through something similar. I didn’t find anyone who wrote word for word what I was feeling but I read supportive things, really just what I needed to read, to think that yeah ok I got this. My daughter said that she’d be worried if I felt invincible beforehand because acknowledging my shortcomings beforehand seemed more healthy. It helps not to keep things bottled up because that’s when the fears snowball for me. I had my doctor phone appointment last Thursday. I forgot to ask how long they recommend being off work. I was readying myself to have to do a 2 week liquid diet but doc said it wasn’t necessary, just for me to lose as much weight before surgery as I could. Which lead to me thinking about how I hadn’t lost anything really during these months of pre-op. and self-doubts. I appreciate all y’all writing about everything. The good bad and ugly. The overwhelming sentiment seems to be: why didn’t I do this earlier. That’s where I want to be. Now, working on tapering off of caffeine! Thanks for being my buddies.

What you’re likely seeing is your natural fluctuation. Mine is a kilogram (2.2lbs) over a couple of days. Fluctuations in our weight occur because we may be retaining a little fluid, be constipated, may be you didn’t pee as much the night before, hormonal fluctuations, just how your body digests food, stores energy & excretes waste, etc. Because you likely didn’t weigh yourself this frequently, you’ve never really noticed this fluctuation before. Weight loss isn’t a consistent straight line of losing the exact same amount every day. It’s a wiggly line of ups & downs & plateaus. As long as the general trend of your loss is downwards you’re golden. There’s nothing wrong with weighing yourself every day. I did & so do a lot of others. You know yourself best & what you need to keep you on track & motivated. If you find it hard to reconcile the wiggly line of weight loss, weighing every day is not for you. Many find it useful to take body measurements a long the way as well. Especially as sometimes es the scales don’t move but the tape measure does. Congrats on your weight loss so far.

There are several variations of what a surgeon may require you to do pre surgery. I had an easier road as I was on keto for two weeks (I did almost three because of when I saw my dietician). Some do two weeks of nothing but shakes. Others, two weeks of shakes for two meals & one of protein & vegetables/salad. Some do a day or two only. I did discover my surgeon recommends different diets for different patients based on their weight loss/gain history, starting weight, health status, etc. The purpose is to shrink your liver which is likely fatty & enlarged therefore clearing some of the abdominal field so they can better see what they’re doing during surgery. Some use it to see if you can manage a restricted diet before surgery because of the restrictive diet to support your healing after surgery. But I do agree. Wait until your next appointment before buying anything for your pre & post surgery diets.

I hadn’t heard of it either & it wasn’t an option with my surgeon. Is it a Sydney thing?? I wonder if stomach stretching after sleeve was either an old wives tale or to scare patients to encourage them to eat correctly (portion size, frequency, etc.) so that wouldn’t happen. I do recall Dr Nowzaradan operating again on one of his patients saying they had stretched their tummy again but they had been eating exactly the same way as they always had: huge portions, many times a day every day for a long time. So they deliberately worked to stretch it again. No surgery would have helped them. As others have said it sounds similar to lapband (gastric banding) which are not performed as often because of higher risk of complications. There are a lot of people here who have had to have a revision to sleeve or more commonly to bypass because of issues with their band. On googling I noticed that some weight loss clinics don’t identify the possible side effects of the minimiser but did discover one (Perth) clinic that did: … placing a ring around the top of the sleeve can cause obstructive symptoms much like adjustable gastric banding resulting in difficulty swallowing and food intolerance. It can cause dilatation of the top of the sleeve which we consider to be the most critical part. It may also increase the risk of reflux, volume regurgitation and possible aspiration. But if you’ve done your research, weighed the pros & cons, and you know yourself & your challenges with eating best, & your surgeon supports you, it is ultimately your decision. All the best.

Just as a preface, I had the sleeve in Dec. 2016 and dropped about 120 lbs in 6 months, then screwed up and slowly went back up almost to where I started. I had a revision to bypass in Nov. 2021 and have been doing very well, about 80 lbs down so far. Last week was spring break for my kids so we decided to take a vacation, my first since the most recent surgery. We went to Virginia (drove from NY). I was very worried for a few reasons. First, I weigh myself every single day (yes I know some recommend against it, it works for me). I didn't want to bring my scale so it would be a week without monitoring my weight loss (or gain). Second, I rarely eat out and I weigh everything I eat when I make it. I wasn't going to be bringing my food scale and I knew I'd have to eat out more than usual. Finally, we were going to a lot of places where there weren't the healthiest options to eat. So I resolved to try my best not to blow it and see what happened. We stayed at a timeshare resort which had a full kitchen (stove, oven, microwave, utensils, pots/pans, etc) which was fantastic because we were able to go shopping for a lot of stuff to make in the room so I knew exactly what I was eating. I was able to make my usual breakfast (2 scrambled eggs with shredded cheese) almost every morning. I bought a few pre-packaged salads and some other stuff for the room. I only had to actually eat out 4 or 5 times the entire trip, not counting during the drive to and from VA. When we ate out I was able to check the calories for what I was eating to make a healthier choice, and made sure to stop when I was full instead of cleaning my plate. I was able to find something to eat at both Waffle House and Cracker Barrel that wasn't too horrible. Even at Busch Gardens we went to the German area restaurant and I got something called a German Chef Salad that was pretty good and not too heavy or unhealthy. Bonus at Busch Gardens: Last year (pre-surgery) we went to an amusement park and I wasn't able to ride most of the roller coasters because I just couldn't fit - no problem at all this time, got in with room to spare! I stayed away from snacks and desserts (I got Halo Top ice cream for the room to have at night). When we got back I was concerned what the scale might say, but I was down 2 lbs from when we left, so I'll consider that a win! I had a nice NSV before the trip too - I was looking for clothes to bring and found a bunch of shirts I got when I lost all the weight the first time, and they all fit comfortably and looked great. Before the surgery I wore XXL shirts, and even those were getting a little snug, I even had one XXXL I think. Lately I've been wearing XL's which were getting roomy, all the shirts I found were L and fit great, so that was awesome. I also had to buy a new pair of jeans that was 4 sizes smaller and fits great. I found my old bathing suits which were too tight last year, now half are too big and the rest fit OK (almost too big but not quite yet). So it's been a good week, hoping to continue on my path to onederland again! Here's a pic of the family having fun.

I know and fear my worry is for nothing but going up a pants size is frightening. And If the weight continues to spike I'm in trouble cause I know how hard it is for me to lose. I am blessed and know I am Fortunate. I'm not trying to be ungrateful at all. Just cautious.

From your reckoning then you are 117lbs. You are still well below your goal weight and currently at a healthy BMI. Maybe your body is just readjusting. Giving yourself a little leeway might be a good thing for now.

you will hit stalls along your journey. you are possibly in one now where you wont loose weight for a couple weeks or so.

Ok my question goes with this, I think. My surgery was 4/4. I was weighing everyday and that was not helping out. So today was the first week I waited a week in between and I just stayed the same weight. Is this normal, has this happened to other people? I didn’t think I would stop losing weight so early. I lost 15 lbs before and 15 lbs after. Does anyone have a similar situation?

I am 4 years post op. I started at 227 and my lowest weight has been 103. I've done amazing. These last three months I have gained 14 lbs. I known shouldn't worry but I am. I would like to lose at least 7 of those. We all know the struggle and I fight it everyday still. Any advice on how to drop those few lbs? Can't seem to do it. Thanks so much and many blessings!!

Wow I'm so sorry. My dad passed April 28th last year. 1 week after my birthday, completely unexpected not knowing his heart was at 13% capacity. His death was followed by the loss of 6 more family members within the next 9 months. I leaned on food so much I gained 130lbs. I had my sleeve surgery on my 30th birthday last week and my follow up is this week on my dad's 1st anniversary. Praying for God's strength and comfort as we continue to navigate grief [emoji178] Sent from my SM-G996U using BariatricPal mobile app

First you shouldnt be weighing yourself daily like that... Everyone can gain or loose a pound or so daily. Also water weight. Also you will end up running into stalls where you wont loose any weight and maybe even gain a tiny tiny bit.

I only told my husband and best friend. Since I lost some weight I have told my mom and a couple others but for people I don’t feel that close to I just answer questions about weight loss with the diet and exercise response which is mostly true.