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That’s awesome ! My surgery was 1-4 and I have lost 22 pounds since the pre-op diet. I’m definitely feeling better than I did 22 pounds ago. I’m not loosing fast but it is . We have been given an incredible tool, with the surgery. And I refuse to fail.. Good luck with your weight loss journey. 🤩

My current goal is to lose 4 pounds a month. I only lost 3 pounds in December though (I did lose 7 in November so I guess it evens out), and so far I've only lost 2 pounds this month (though I did just get over a 19 day stall so... I'll take the 2 pounds lol), but I'm also only 21 pounds to my personal goal weight and I heard that the last 25 pounds is a pain in the ass to get off. I agree about that lol. I'm sooooo close to being in Onederland and it's driving me nuts! Anyway, the weight comes off the easiest the first three months, then the following three month it's still pretty good and then it slows. How much weight you lose each month depends on your body type, age, metabolism, and any number of things. Don't compare yourself to others because everyone loses at a different rate so don't think your surgery is defective if you're a slow loser. I, myself, am a slow loser, but I've still lost 120 pounds since my surgery (on the nose lol. I was 321 on the day of my surgery and I'm 201 right now). You can probably find something somewhere which will give you the average loss for VSG and you can always try and set around that, but personally it's better to come up with a realistic goal on your own that you'd be happy with. I set my goals on what would make me happy. My surgeon's office wants me to try to get to 165, but my PCP thinks that for my body type it wouldn't be a good idea and she's much happier with my own personal goal of 180. She said that she likes my goal far better.

Did you surgeon give you an idea how much you may be expected to lose over the weeks/months? My surgeon didn't have any expectations (or if he didn't he didn't share them with me). I didn't set myself an amount to lose each week or month, I just kept to my post op guidelines. If I didn't lose one week I knew the scale weight would catch up. Weight loss after surgery is a bit fraught with danger, some people expect to lose a lot of weight quickly, but the reality is a lot different. There is the post op weight gain from iv fluids and inflammation, there are stalls along the way that could last from a week to many weeks, sometimes there will be temporay gains due to various reasons. Some experience a stall within weeks of the surgery....the infamous three week post op stall...it doesn't always occur at three weeks out some experience it a little quicker for others it may be delayed. Some people are fortunate enough not to experience stalls in the first few months. Generally each of the surgeries has an average weight loss after year 1, year 2 etc, but some people will have lost less than that, others will have lost more than the average.

I'm having a hard time finding information about setting weight loss goals after my surgery. It's important to have specific, measurable goals but I don't know how much I should be losing, say, per week or month, after my sleeve surgery. Is there a formula or percentage I should be looking at? How did you all set weight loss goals after surgery? Thanks in advance!! Sent from my SM-T713 using BariatricPal mobile app

- if both surgeries are just as easy to fail as they are to succeed, why do the research charts show this difference? Research is based on averages. The numbers you are quoting do not apply to everyone in exactly the same way....it is an aggregate of those who reach goal AND those who don’t. 1 person loses 100 lbs. Another loses 40 lbs. Average weight loss of this “control group” is 70lbs...which is no where near what each person actually lost. @catwoman7 probably explained this better than me In her earlier post, lol Second, if you need to rely on averages for your peace of mind, it may be worth your while then to look into the makeup of the studied. Age, gender, starting weight, lifestyle habits, medical conditions, genetics, etc. Daunting, yes, but more informative and contextual. But really, wanna beat the average? Stick to plan more consistently than the “average” person (barring any medical conditions of course). Also, I wanted to ask, did you get to choose the size boujie you wanted for your sleeve or know what size Dr used for you?? Doc just did his thing with no input from me. I have no idea how what size he used! Also, did you cravings and hunger completely return after 6 months or it does but slightly? My hunger levels and occurrences has not returned to pre-op levels. I can’t remember when I first felt hungry though (it was months in)...but I do remember it was a rare occurrence. Even now at 2+ years out, i still have days of just not wanting/forgetting to eat. When i do get hungry, it isn’t the ravenous kind of hunger though. And it doesn’t take much to satisfy it. Lastly, can you just do complete Keto during the first year after surgery so you stay under 20 net carbs and in ketosis? Or our body doesn't need to be in fat burning mode because of the surgery? I didnt do full-on Keto during weight-loss phase because there was no way I could get in the percentage of fat required...but I did do ultra-low carb (20 net carbs max) during that time. But number of grams of carbs consumed is no where near as important as total calories consumed for weight loss. Though going low carb does tend to make me look lean. For my body this is good, cuz i can see more muscle definition, but for my face, not so good, as I look Skelator-ish. Since I have been consuming a higher number of net carbs (anywhere in the 100-175 range) my face looks much nicer, but the bod looks “soft” P.S. sorry this was so long

I'm just worried because most people I see on here who had the sleeve whicb I'd feel more safer getting, none of them were as heavy as me with as much to lose as me and thats why I want the sleeve but keep pulling back...I'd love to see a woman on here who had the sleeve with a 46 or higher BMI who now has. 20 or 25 bmi. That's all I'd like to see so that I don't go into this always paranoid it won't work enough cus im too big. That's all . My appt with my surgeons January 27th and ultimately he will leave it to me to decide but I just want real testimony from real people who were as big as me . I'm 5'7 293 lbs, and I want to be 150 lbs. If I follow the guidelines they tell you that sleeve will give you a 60-70% excess weight loss, that means I'd be 220. So I don't know why they put 60-70% if so many people lose all of it and it's more common than it says Sent from my SM-N986U using BariatricPal mobile app

I echo that it is a mindset/attitude battle and what Ms. SSS said. I started with very similar stats to you, I am 5'7 as well. I discussed it with my surgeon and he echoed that the individual dictates the success and not the surgery. I chose the sleeve because: Like Ms.SSS said, I didn't want to have my intestines messed with. It freaked me out. My surgeon said I would lose roughly the same amount of weight either way, if I followed their plan. I am not prone to GERD and did not want to spend extra time under anesthesia. I didn't want dumping syndrome. Thus far, I don't think I have experienced this yet. Things have set wrong in my pouch but that's about it. I specifically asked them in depth would I be able to lose the weight that I wanted and they confirmed, yes. The surgeries are much more advanced than even 4-5 years ago. There is no 18 month window where you start to regain. If there was for everyone, then why would anyone ever do this? The 18 months is a honeymoon period, as someone else said. In either surgery, you will have to have discipline. This isn't a miracle cure. Both can be stretched back out. Anecdotal experience isn't indicative of success or failure. If that were true, all the RNY friends that I have regained almost all their weight back (both were over 400lbs) while my one sleeved friend has kept it off. I don't think that means RNY doesn't work. They just fell back into poor eating choices and never truly changed their mindsets. They thought it was the easy way out and it's not. Gastric sleeve has been the right choice for many, myself included. Whatever you choose in the end, know that it has to be mentally first and it is basically a reset to unlearn bad habits, train for good habits, and give you 6 months to a year head start on your weight loss. Just like with anything, like Mando said, the success is your choice.

You need to look at the statistics from large research studies and not base it on what you see on the boards. Long time vets who are still hanging out here after several years post-op are likely to be patients who were very successful. And it could be that for many if us, staying active in the bariatric community might be one factor in our success. The statistics show that the average RNY patient loses about 70% of their excess weight, and the average VSG patient loses about 65%. Most patients end up somewhere around that peecentage. Of course you will always find people who end up above or below the average, and some WAY above or below that. The percentages get smaller the further you get away from the average. A 100% loss is a couple standard deviations from the mean, so you're not going to find a ton of people who end up there. My surgeon discouraged me from my goal of 100% loss, saying that only about 10% of his patients make it the far. But, i did it. And so did a few others from my clinic. But we're not the norm. I've checked the research. Studies show that about 10-15% make it to a normal BMI. Most end up overweight or class I obese (both of which are infinitely better than weighing 300+ lbs). But some of us do make it. But it takes some serious commitment and hard work. You can do it.. but it'll take a lot of dedication and effort.

have you considered the Duodenal Switch? It is a sleeve in conjunction with intestinal bypass for malabsorption. not a lot of surgeons do it routinely, but I have been very pleased with my results this far (3 months out) and research shows that weight loss retention is most successful with this surgery.

Hello, Looking for others that have Anthem Blue Cross PPO in California. At my initial visit with the surgeons office they instructed me to have 6 months of dietician visits. Anthem had sent me links to their policy document cg-surg-83 that (to my reading!) looked like 6 months wasn't required as of August 2020. The policy states: Documentation of all of the following: Past participation in a weight loss program; and Inadequate weight loss despite a committed attempt at conservative medical therapy (for example, comprehensive lifestyle interventions, including a combination of diet, exercise, and behavioral modifications); and Also: Revised 08/13/2020 Medical Policy & Technology Assessment Committee (MPTAC) review. Revised criteria requiring participation of at least 6 months in a weight reduction program. Revised not medically necessary indications to remove examples of devices which are no longer available. Updated Discussion and References sections. Reformatted Coding section. I have all of my clearances except for another 2 months of dietician visits. What I'd like to do is ask my surgeons office to just submit to insurance now with the hopes that I will get surgery end of Feb/early March. Has anyone got any recent experience I can draw on to help inform my decision and make my case!

Hi everyone I will be Starting the process of my weight loss surgery on the 26th of this month I have first choice health insurance through the state of South Carolina I am going with the prisma bariatric institute in Greenville South Carolina and I would like to know if anybody else has went with them and use the same insurance I am using thank you in advance

Thank you all for the replies. When it comes to the weight loss I just wasn’t sure if I should have been losing more which is why I mentioned it. It’s nice to know that my weight loss is on track. I’ve been working with my surgeon/ office and we’ve been trying to figure out what’s going on. I see him again this week so hopefully we can figure something out.

I had hiatal hernia repair with my bypass. I would get cramping after eating and sometimes vomit. This happened with decreasing frequency for about the first 2-3 months post-op. My surgeon’s office thought it was related to the hernia repair. I still get nauseous sometimes if I eat too much, too fast, but haven’t had the cramping/vomiting thing in 4-5 months. Congrats on your spectacular weight loss so far! I hope the rest of your recovery goes smoothly. 😊

All the information you need is here on this forum. You may not know many people in real life who have been through this surgery, but everybody here is in some stage of the process of weight loss surgery. If you haven't already, I would strongly recommend that you spend some time looking through the archives of this forum -- it's a gold mine! YouTube is also a great resource -- there are quite a few YouTubers who make videos about their WLS experience. I was pretty well prepared for surgery because I spent months reading this forum and watching YouTube videos about WLS. It seems like the most common questions that come up include: Stalls - Almost everyone has a weight loss stall within the first two months after surgery (commonly called the "three week stall" but it can happen earlier or later). Do not be alarmed. You didn't do anything wrong. The surgery didn't fail. Stick to your plan and you will start losing again. Weight gain from surgery - Many people weigh more when they come home from the hospital after surgery than they did before surgery. That's temporary and it's because they pump you full of IV fluids in the hospital. You're better off not even weighing yourself for the first couple of weeks after surgery because it is honestly meaningless. Fluid & protein goals - It's almost impossible to meet your fluid and protein goals in the first couple of weeks. Most surgeons tell you to get at least 60 ounces of fluids and 60 grams of protein per day. It sounds easy but it's not at the beginning. Do your best and don't worry if you can't quite get there. Dehydration is a serious thing that can land you back in the hospital, so you do need to sip as much as you can, but it's not the end of the world if you can't get 60 ounces. Pro tip: try warm fluids (tea, broth, protein hot cocoa) if cold drinks are difficult. Hair loss - Most people start losing hair around 3 months after surgery (it's a phenomenon called telogen effluvium), and there's not a whole lot you can do to avoid it. Protein and iron deficiencies can contribute to hair loss, and some people say that biotin can help to prevent hair loss, but you will almost certainly have some hair loss no matter what you do. It will grow back. Vitamins - Your surgeon should have given you a list of vitamins that you will need to take. This varies a bit from one surgeon to the next, but most say to take a bariatric multivitamin (or a double dose of a drugstore vitamin), iron (which can be included in the multivitamin), calcium citrate (most drugstore calcium supplements are calcium carbonate, so make sure to check the ingredients and buy calcium citrate), and B-12 (sublingual, injection, or nasal spray). You'll have to take chewable vitamins for at least the first month or two. Vitamins come in different forms (chewable, melt-in-your-mouth, capsules, liquid, patches), so if you have issues with one form, try something else. The BariatricPal store has a great selection of vitamins and they frequently have sales. I purchase most of my vitamins from there (BariatricPal brand). Constipation - Nobody likes to talk about toilet stuff, but constipation is no joke. A lot of surgeons recommend taking Miralax daily (note: Amazon has a generic brand that is much cheaper). Don't wait until you get constipated to take something. Prevention is easier than treatment. Other than that, the one thing you should do today if you haven't already is take your "before" pictures and measurements! Most of us have very few "before" pictures because we didn't like the way we looked before weight loss and avoided being in photos. You will want to have some pictures for comparison when you reach your goal weight. You will want to have your starting measurements so you can see how far you've come. Good luck! Stick around and let us know how it goes!

So you've lost about 40lb in two months, that is excellent given your start weight, I would say your fluctuations are just that and no cause for panic. The small weight gains you've experienced (along with the excellent weight loss) may be your weight loss pattern. Very few people lose weight on a continually down pattern...most of us have stalls, weight gains and and losses, this is just how our bodies are even with weight loss surgery.

Hi and welcome, just a quick note you may want to change your user name from your email address, there are lots of spam bots that troll the web for emal addresses and you will be bombarded with spam. Oh and don't forget to fill in your profile and make it public, it gives context to questions and helps members tailor their responses. I am not sure there isn't anything I'd which I had known, I had researched for about 18 months on a non surgical weight loss procedure and found this site along with another plus facebook groups as well as many youtube channels, then in the the between the ESG (Oct18) and VSG (Mar20). I wasn't surprised by stalls or the fact that i would feel instantly full with some foods (for a while). I wasn't surprised that weight loss surgery isn't a magical tool, I know from research that it wasn't and it wouldn't instantly save me from my unhealthy habits or sugar cravings. These I had to resolve for myself with help if necessary. I was probably more suprised how well I recovered and tolerated foods (with an exception or two) etc.

It would be helpful if you filled in our profile particularly your start and current weight along with your height, it gives context to questions and helps those replying to give a relevant response. Even with weight lost surgery scale weight can fluctuate on a daily basis due to a lot of factors: hormones, exercise, dehydration or rehydration, medication, sodium intake etc etc. Are you eating to your surgeon's and/or dietician's post op guidelines? If you are fairly tall or carrying a significant amount of weight, less than 500 calories may be too low for you and you won't be meeting nutritonal goals...you don't want to lose too much muscle weight you want to be losing body fat. The weight gain and loss may well be your weight loss pattern, keep track on a daily basis if you are going to weigh daily (but if you can't cope with the daily fluctuation of scale weight don't weigh daily) and you will be able to spot the trends. Its all good as long as the long term trend is going down.

Weight loss and gain is quite normal - you just need the overall trend to be down. 500 calories per day is a very low intake; my dietitian recommends a minimum of 800 as soon as you can get up to that level of intake.

just as an aside, you've lost about 24 lbs in four weeks? That's actually very good. Most people seem to lose somewhere in the 15-25 lb the first month, so you're at the top of that range. Not sure what you were expecting, but that's actually an excellent loss!

I did lose some pre-op (28 lbs-around there). I ran into complications in the hospital with the surgery and actually gained 13 lbs right off the bat. My stomach was amazingly purple and black and very, very swollen. I looked larger then the first day of program. After about 3 weeks or so, that weight gain of the loss pre-op came off in about a week. Then I started losing so fast those first 2 months. Two months ago, I started a job at a factory working ft with heavy lifting and running (my dept is on a line in receiving heavy boxes of merchandise). I stopped losing for about 2 weeks at that time and then it just came off unbelievably fast. I do have to see my Dr as it is much faster then I think is normal and my skin is becoming very loose. It truthfully seems like every two or three weeks I am still going down a size. Besides weight loss, most important, my measurements are really a loss of about an inch a week. Right now, I have a problem with trying to eat because of my new job and the jobs of everyone in the house. I work overnight then am on schedule for picking the kids up from their jobs, etc. so I don't really feel much like eating. I do try to get in at least 600 calories and pretty much just drink my protein powder mix with water while I'm working all night. My boss is extremely kind for giving me consideration with the surgery. Thank you for the congratulations. Losing 53 lbs before the surgery is absolutely amazing and a lot of work on your part.

Hi everyone I’m about 4 weeks post-op and I feel Like the healing process has been pretty slow along with a slow weight loss. I did have some complications after surgery. One day after being released from the hospital I had to go back for pneumonia and stayed a week. During my gastric bypass surgery I also had a hernia repair. Almost 4 weeks out and I’m still feeling pretty nauseous and having lots of gas and stomach aches. I also know I’m not getting enough liquids daily it’s still a struggle. Has anyone else gone through this or something similar? my stats: Height: 5’9 Starting Weight: 342.2 - Surgery Weight: 310 - Current Weight: 286.6

First congrats on your weight loss. Whoo hoo! Body dysmorphia is the worst. It is hard to come to terms with how you look now & how your body feels & works. Even, as I discovered recently, the size of your body in relation to things around you - sort of like spatial awareness. Have you been taking photos of yourself as you’ve been losing or recording body measurements? It can help you come to terms with how you look now. As does comparing your old clothes to what you’re wearing now. Honestly, it wasn’t until I was at goal that I started to see my real new size. Little things like seeing a reflection in a shop window & thinking how good the woman looked & then realising it was me helped. Once I was trying on shoes & glanced up & thought gee that lady has good legs. They were my legs in a mirror. It’s weird when it happens. I used to think I was pretty flexible but the reality was it was just my fat giving me a false sense of achievement. Like I always thought I could bend over & practically touch my head to my knees. It was really just my head reaching my fat legs & tummy. I wasn’t that bent over - lol. The general feeling of weakness does get better too when you’re closer to goal & start maintenance when you’re eating a little more. I found sipping on diluted hydra lite gave me a bit more energy as did adding a small amount of whole or multi grains to my diet like rolled oats for breakfast. The loose skin is part of the weight loss process. How much you have depends on lots of factors like gender, your age, how long you were at your highest weight, etc. If it really bothers you, you can always explore plastic surgery. A lot do. I didn’t but that was my choice. I have very empty breasts now too. I sort of wish I had some lipo & transferred the fat into my upper breasts when I reached my goal cause there ain’t much fat left anywhere now - lol! As you lose weight, oestrogen that is stored in your fat is released into your blood stream hence the change to your menstrual cycle. It will get back to normal (maybe even better) as you get closer to your goal weight & aren’t losing as much. I still don’t get all my water in which is odd cause I was a big water drinking pre surgery. I compensate by eating water rich foods like lettuce, beans, melon, berries, lychees, etc., making extra milky porridge, etc. I pee a lot & it’s pretty light in colour so I must be doing ok. It’s ok to feel like you’ve lost your self on this journey. You’re not the same as you were - overweight & unhealthy. Give yourself time to come to terms & accept your changing body & to discover yourself again in a slim & healthy body. Good luck.

I didn’t start at as high a bmi as you but I still thought I’d share my experience so far. I chose sleeve with my surgeon’s support, even though I suffered from stress related gerd. Yes, I have some issues but manage it with medication. I chose sleeve surgery because it doesn’t change the digestive tract as much as other surgeries. Yes my stomach is smaller but it is the same length as it was as are my intestines. I think this is why absorption is not as great an issue with sleeve. My nutrient absorption is good. I haven’t taken multi vitamins since I reached my goal a year ago & my blood work come back fine. Yes, bypass patients do tend to lose weight more quickly to begin but the 5 year average of weight lost & maintained across both surgeries is about the same - 60-65% of the weight initially to be lost. Dr Vuong has a great video that explains this very well. Think it’s called how to maximise your weight loss. The amount of weight you successfully lose & maintain really comes down to the individual. Even though I’ve exceeded my original goal (lost about 135%), I’ve had the view that I would find a place of balance between maintaining my weight & maintaining my lifestyle. I believe that if you restrict your food choices & intake to a point you can not enjoy your life & the things you like to do your diet will fail because you will consciously or subconsciously revolt against the restrictions you employed. Honestly, my diet is still pretty restrictive but I’m not quite 2 years out so I have a long way to go to find the balance of what works for me. Currently, I eat low sugar & artificial sweeteners, low fat, moderate carbs (whole or multi grains but no breads, rice, pasta), fruits, vegetables & of course I’m protein & portion control focussed. I have the odd glass of alcohol but I often don’t finish the glass. It’s easy to manage & doesn’t affect how I socialise so far. The keto debate is an interesting one. My 3 week pre surgery diet was keto but I know I could not maintain the high fat requirement long term but that is me - I don’t like overly fatty foods. But it certainly gave me a kick start. There is research that says the high fat content causes cholesterol problems. There’s research that shows that while it may help people with diabetes to begin, long term it can cause erratic insulin levels due to the low carb intake. And of course there’s research that it’s great. I think you have to find the diet that works for you. Good luck whichever surgery you choose.

yes it was an open surgery in the 90s (and thus more risks), but a lot of people in my generation remember the intestinal bypasses they did back in the 60s and 70s. Those were the ones where they didn't bypass the stomach at all, like they do now - they bypassed most of the small intestine. Those surgeries were very risky - but those aren't done anymore. But I think when some people say "bypass", those are the ones us old farts remember - so that's why a lot of people - esp older people - think weight loss surgery is really dangerous (for the record, it's not anymore - they do them completely differently now)

For me to stay at my 150 loss goal I would need to lose 170-180 so when I regain I stay at 150 and I see bypass being more effective at that for my starting weight as opposed to sleeve I'd def regain more than where I need to be. Sent from my SM-N986U using BariatricPal mobile app