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Go back to the basics! Prioritize protein, cut out sugar, stick to 140g total carbs, 40g fat. Meal Prep and go for daily walks Its doable!! You got this! This is my diet at 7months post op with an 1hr + of exercise 6x a week (exercise is 30min weight lifting and 30-45min cardio) Wake up: Café latte premier protein and decaf cold brew Breakfast: egg whites, Jennie o turkey sausage, cheese and Pico de Gallo Snack: fruit and mini jerky stick or popcorn (lesserevil brand only 50cal low carb and has some protein) Lunch: usually a salad with pasta, veggies, some crunch (wonton strips, crispy onions, croutons) dressing is homemade (Greek yogurt, hidden valley ranch dry mix, fat free Italian dressing to thin it out) snack: Oikos or Dannon Light and Fit yogurt with granola Dinner: I get fancy- last night I had an Egglife wrap put 2TSP of pest on it, 3oz grilled chicken, 10g of reduced fat mozzarella cheese, 1 tlbs of picked jalapeno, 1 tbls of red onion and 10g of shredded Parmesan cheese Dessert: a couple of yasso popples, or Ill have a few bites of my hubbys ben and jerrys (lol) This is my normal day to day with variations but I usually end up with about 130+ of Protein, under 90g carbs and under 50g of fat. I am not perfect at all but meal prepping really really helps my week be successful. I also track every single thing (bad or good) in Netdiary and I pre-track my day the night before or the morning of, this allows me to see what I have going on and if I decide to eat a piece of sugar free chocolate or make myself an iced coffee with sugar free creamer, I can see if my macros fit it. Lately I have been going over but I am still losing weight. I have surpassed my goal weight and am still losing- lot slower- so I am trying to figure out how to eat a bit more so I can maintain. I love this journey and am having so much fun with it (crazy I know) but I am an open book and am happy to help with meal plans, meal prep and exercises!

My husband is thin as a rail and can only put on a few pounds back In the day by eating fry daddy for dinner and a dozen doughnuts every day. Even then he didn’t gain that much. The best way I could explain it to him how hard it is to not eat when I am hungry was to explain the opposite. I came home with five Big Macs and after he just ate I told him to eat them. I said as much as your body is telling you NOT to eat them Big Macs and it would be almost impossible for you to eat I believe that it’s just as hard for me to ignore my body when it’s screaming out for food. He isn’t superior or less lazy or a harder worker or anything else that skinny people like to think. He is just blessed with good genes. He did nothing to earn or deserve them anymore than we did anything to earn or deserve our bad ones. In retrospect maybe five was a bit of overkill but I really wanted to make a statement. But just like some of us are blessed to be naturally pretty or cute and others are less fortunate in the looks department or some of us have a higher risk for certain. Illnesses, some people are lucky enough to be thin. We may have a tiny percentage or control by dressing a certain way or make up for looks or good preventative medical care for illnesses but ultimately it just is what it is. Now there are others that work at it everyday who are a different story but my husband and it sounds like your neighbor are just blessed. i think i finally got through to him about that.

my stomach was the last place I seemed to lose my weight (probably because I carried most of my fat there before surgery). You may end up losing more in your stomach with those last few kilos. I think you look great, though!! (and you've definitely lost weight in your stomach!!)

Hi Vanessa! Is there something particular that has made you sad, or is this the weight loss blues (which are totally valid BTW)? I find empty theaters so soothing. I just wish they'd turn the movie down a little. I keep meaning to try going to see one with earplugs in, I hear that helps sensitive ears. 60 lbs that quick is amazing! My weight loss has been slower, but we all have our different paces... Have you struggled with depression before surgery? Sometimes surgery and the weight loss journey can trigger it. You are not alone. Thank you for posting and letting us know what you need. I will just say that if you were on medication for depression before surgery, you might want to touch base with your provider. Our surgeries can sometimes change the way we absorb our medications. I had to change mine around because I wasn't absorbing them properly and was slowly going through withdrawals, which was NOT fun! Thankfully all is well now, I knew to watch for that issue and we caught it quickly!

OP you have done amazingly well. I know lots of us beat ourselves up lots of the time but honestly, to drop almost half your body mass after surgery, AND then regain only 15 - 20lbs three years later, AND to have had a baby in the meantime is unbelievable. Third year regain is common - the norm actually. Trying to get back to your lowest weight ever might not work if your body has chosen a higher new set weight. It will fight you all the way. Forever. Please cut yourself some slack. It might be helpful to ask yourself what exactly you're aiming for now. Is it a goal weight/BMI? Or a state of mind where you accept and celebrate the huge changes you have made to your health and your life and now that of your baby. If you have a set goal, why is that better than where you are, and how much effort or angst do you want/need to devote to achieving it? As a general observation processed and ultra processed foods (products with ingredients you don't have in your kitchen) are what make people obese. The sooner you can ditch those the better IMO. Freshly prepared food is less likely to cause regain. I am a big fan of Dr Matthew Wiener's book A Pound of Cure. Might be worth a read!

Has anyone experienced an increase in their cholesterol levels? Before surgery, mine sat around 5 regardless of my weight (healthy, overweight or obese). In the first 3 years post surgery it was about 4. Then it went to 5 again. Okay I thought just where my body wants to be. But it’s 5.7 now. Like what?? My surgery follow up doctor suggested I speak to my GP about a coronary artery calcium store test. My dad had a higher cholesterol level but not enough for meds. One brother’s is about what mine is now but he follows one of those fat is good diet (I swear he slathers his toast with butter like an inch thick). My mum, other brother, aunts, uncles, grandparents levels are/were ok. Rest of my blood work was great.

I was sleeved in March of 2015 (HW 405, SW 357, LW 238, sustained 260 for a few years), had some regain where I hit 315, so I went on a hybrid Optifast/Numetra diet through a program at Kaiser (my then insurance in California). It worked well, I dropped about 50 pounds and was happy with that, but then I had some mental health issues including some passive ideation, so I decided to move across country (technically back home) to Delaware and share a living space with my brother and his wife and pets. Since that move I've gained back the 50 pounds I lost, I have another hiatal hernia, and severe acid reflux/GERD so now I'm on the path to revision to bypass. Thing is, I never wanted bypass, that's why I had the sleeve in the first place, the reworking of my internal plumbing scares the heck out of me! I've known a ton of people who've had it with no issues, but I've also known a couple who passed away from complications (granted, that was 20 years ago, and I know things have improved medically since then). But the idea of having dumping syndrome, and malabsorption, and needing to take vitamins and supplements forever - UGH - I'm freaking out!! 😨😖 I have an anxiety disorder (SAD & GAD) and my anxiety has been through the ROOF the past few weeks! My surgery date is August 26 - 13 days from today! - and I started my pre-op diet the other day (Monday), but part of me wants to cancel everything! However, there is a part of me that can't wait for the relief from the GERD. I guess I'm not asking for anything here, mostly just venting my anxiety. 🤣

@AmberFL In all your exercising have you found that your arms are firming up, if they were flabby before? Just looking for some tips as they remain a problem area for me and doing arm weights at home (mix between 1.5kg and 3kg) a few days a week for some reps doesn't seem to be making any inroads. My legs are always going to be a problem area for me because of lymphedema but that just stops me wearing shorts or a short dress leaving me still with plenty of options but having to keep my arms covered all the time (because I hate my arms) is a pain.

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Thank you @ShoppGirl @Bypass2Freedom and @JennyBeez for you lovely, thoughtful words. I really do appreciate your comments. The clothes came - the shift dress that I thought would be OK is massive and the jumpsuit that I thought would be too tight fits perfectly so go figure 🤷‍♀️ Annoying though when you buy the same size from the same brand and there are massive discrepancies. So, dress is going back and I’ve ordered a couple of things from the sale at Roman for less than half the price of the dress I’m sending back 🙂 @ShoppGirl I have to say that my hubby is being fully supportive. There are obviously times when I want to smother him with a pillow but not over this. He is onboard with what I am trying to do so no complaints from me over that. He just wants me to feel good about myself and get some confidence back I think. I did take your advice and ordered some new, dressy shoes (backless so if my feet do shrink again, it won’t matter!) I hope that the metabolic changes from the op really do kick in and work in tandem with the other changes we make. I know the op is a positive thing that we’re doing both for our physical and emotional wellbeing. @Bypass2Freedom Definitely seek food to ‘soothe’ when in meltdown mode. It is difficult to lose weight and keep if off. I hate, with a passion, those that patronisingly say “oh, you just have to eat less and move more”…OH REALLY?? 🤬🤬🤬 Well tell my metabolism that you arsehole. Continually dieting just screws your metabolism up, I’m sure of it. I’m hoping that the op acts as an internal reset button so my body stops acting against me and works with me for a while. I do know I need to stop being so harsh on myself…old habits and all that 🙃 @JennyBeez Yes, to camouflage, yes to self-sabotage. I know what started my weight issues and disordered eating. Food was used as a punishment when I was growing up (amongst other things) I won’t go in to detail as I don’t want to trigger anyone but I have undergone counselling etc. I did lose approx 100lbs around 12 years ago and then immediately started with Rheumatoid Arthritis which threw a massive spanner in to my works! My focus went from weight and gym visits to meds, hospital visits, X-rays pain and tests. Weight went back on, Osteoarthritis decided to join the party and then recently Fibromyalgia because why not?? Did I choose any of that? NO! Looking at it all dispassionately, I can see that I was angry with my body - I’d done the major weight loss, I was at the gym 5 days a week because I loved it, I was happy with myself and then I felt that I was kicked in the teeth without rhyme or reason. I know that WLS won’t make everything go away but hopefully it will make things easier to handle and get me moving once again. I miss the gym like you wouldn’t believe and I’m just hoping that I can get going to it once again for my physical and mental health. Working on my mindset is definitely a work in progress.

I love that last part. That’s so true. I am looking at every way or calculating it and it boils down to the fact that losing only a percentage of that I am most likely not going to reach my “happy weight” however I will lose a large amount of weight and I will be healthier. That’s what matters most.

.......... I "think" I broke the stall ! * knock on wood* 😁 Yes! I've been at 192 for months and nothing I did would break it. Finally ....I am gradually going down and as of today I am 185 ! It's the weirdest thing - all summer I was exercising and walking and the scale wouldn't move. Now that it's winter in Wisconsin , I haven't been walking at all except for grocery shopping and the weight loss started again. The only reason I can think of why I was stalled is,I must have been gaining muscle . Well - I'm not going to question it .... I'm just going to enjoy it I'm so happy to be a "loser" again..... LOL

Nope didn't and don't have a problem with swallowing. Performed oral after 1 week post op and it was fine. Sex is much better for me with all this weight gone for sure! My partner misses my butt but meh LMFAO

1). there are a lot more people who don't reach goal than there are who lose too much weight. Plus if you feel like you're losing too much weight, you can always increase your calories to put the brakes on it - or to start gaining. So I wouldn't worry about this one AT ALL. 2). fewer than 5% of people are able to lose weight and keep it off. You may be one of the lucky ones who can do that - and if so, and you're afraid of the surgery, it's not too late to pull out and try it on your own. I wasn't one of the lucky ones. I spent my first 55 years as overweight or obese. I gained and lost weight a million times and could never keep it off until I had weight loss surgery. 3). hair loss, if you experience it (and not everyone does), is temporary. I lost hair during months 5-8 post-surgery (so...for three months). It wasn't much, though. I could tell because there were more hairs in my combs and brushes, but I really didn't notice it at all when looking in the mirror, so I'm sure no one else noticed it. Plus hair loss after surgery is more like shedding - not huge clumps of loss like one might have after chemo. For a lot of people, they're the only ones who notice it. It's usually more loss of volume than noticeable "bald spots" - and it does grow back. to me, the risk of losing some hair temporarily vs. being morbidly obese for the rest of my life was a no-brainer. But you may think and decide differently for yourself - and there's nothing wrong with that. If you're not mentally ready for this yet, or want to try on your own to lose weight, then there's nothing wrong with canceling or postponing your surgery. You wouldn't be the first..or last.

After about 3 weeks post op, I am finally feeling better. So I am back to focusing on what I am eating and trying to break my stall. I have the stall at week 2, only really loss weight for 1 week after surgery when I was in the liquid stage. I want to ask all of you, how much proteins you eat a day? Before the surgery I was told to have 65-75 grams of protein a day, but when I follow up 1 week after surgery, my nutritionist told me to drink 2 bottle or protein shake a day. That’s already 60 grams! However I followed what he told me for a week. With the 2 bottle of shakes, my protein intake is over 100grams a day. When week 2 ended I didn’t loss any weight, but gained 2lbs…I feel like I took too much protein so when week 3 started I stop drinking 2 bottles of shakes and only drink 1. I can eat 40-50 grams of protein on my own right now. With the shake I am ranging from 70-85 grams a day. I like salmon, tuna and other type of fish and it gives me good amount of protein. Now after a few days of doing that. I finally loss that 2 lbs and back to my 1 week post op weight 241 lbs. do you think I am doing the right thing here not listening to what my nutritionist tell me?…he said I needed more protein to heal. 85 grams of protein is already 20 grams over what they told me to take initially tho. My liquid intake is 48oz a day now. This is hard because I literally can only sip very small sips. To finish a full bottle of water 500ml, it will take a 1 full hour, sometimes longer. With 3 meals a day, not drink 30 mins and 30 mins after, 48 oz of liquid is at my best. My eating schedule is 8am-5pm. 8am breakfast, 12pm lunch and 4:30pm dinner. Take me 30 mins to finish my meal. I feel like drinking water is like a full time job now. Surgery date 1/22 250lbs Post op 1/24 257lbs 1/31 follow up visit and started 2 shakes a day 241lbs 2/5 243lbs I stop drinking the 2 shakes 2/9 241lbs So after almost 3 weeks I loss about 9 lbs, and it was only during the first week when I was eating! Now I am feeling better I want to continue with the loss and not gain weight. Any input would be welcome. Thanks in advance.

So I was pretty strict with myself up until probably this month when I hit 6months. I stayed away from carbs like they were the devil. Recently, I have incorporated 1/4C of diced O'Brien's potatoes and peppers air fried with egg whites and 1 slice of turkey bacon. Not gonna lie it scared me to do that lol Last night we had spaghettis and I made the sauce so I only had sauce on top of broccoli. You can still have the foods you like just modified. Shrimp is great, instead of real butter use pam or spray butter and add a side of veggies. this is the time to really focus on your relationship with food. This is for life. I have to remind myself of that all the time. I went off my rocker yesterday...I was snacking on pirates booty, a couple of Doritos here, a couple of pieces of chocolate there then had Froyo. But I realized that I cannot do that again and I know that I have the willpower to get back on the horse and forget about that day (I still tracked everything!) I have been working on my relationship with foods, and what I can have in moderation and what I really have to stay away from. I workout HARD too, weight lifting, cardio, F45 and I LOVE it, its become kind of a passion and I have a couple of ladies' that I do workout routines for them and sometimes bring along with me to show them as well as done zoom workouts with my bestie. Also I am an everyday weigher and I wont ever stop that. I need to know that what I am doing is working and when I have snacky days I like to see the damage. Surprisingly, there was none. What I am saying is take full advantage of this honeymoon stage! lose as much as weight as humanly possible and track and get a good workout routine going. If you are lost on where to start with weight lifting I am more than happy to help!

do any of you have a solid upper body or lower body routine? I do a lot of free weights and machines if I don't do a home workout. Sometimes I do YouTube videos or I will look up exercises on what muscles I want to target. But if anyone has a solid, sweaty, muscle shaking workout I am all ears!!

I am so glad that you are still reaching out to your team and posting here. I won’t get too far into my story but because of “confusion,” about my mental health, interactions with meds and embarrassment the help I got from my team was not working for me and I gave up. I continued to gain and now I am back here facing revision weighing a little more than when I started this journey. People here are very helpful and understanding but your team should be giving you answers too. Sounds like they have a plan for the next step if need be and that’s great. if all else fails, The phentermine is the one medication that I could try which did work amazing during the day for me but I suffer from insomnia and when I can’t sleep I eat. So, the meds worked wonderfully during the day but at night, with my larger sleeve and being awake so many times, I was able to consume too much for the whole day and I still gained. But I can see how if you sleep throughout the night it really could work. I didn’t get to try mountjourno or any of the other brands it’s sold under because of financial reasons but if you can swing it, I have heard AMAZING things about that medicine too (there are some side effects for some people to consider). People claim they think they must know how skinny brains feel after taking it. They just don’t ever have to think or worry about food. One lady has to set alarms if she is busy to remind herself to eat something. Another drawback is how long you have to take it. Some say when you go off it you start to gain. They are doing studies now where they are trying to work out a maintenance dose that may be less than the regular dosage though. There are also places that are starting to “compound” it at compounding pharmacies. I wouldn’t necessarily trust the stuff from random sites online but my PCP was telling me they were working on getting it in their office and it is less than half the normal cost that way. I don’t know much about the other weight loss drug options because I couldn’t take them with my bipolar meds Interestingly, i just seen an ABC special Oprah did on weight loss injections the other night. (Ironically it was the day I went back to see my surgeon so I thought maybe it was meant to be which is why I inquired about them with my PCP). I’m really hoping that reached someone that has the power to change how accessible these meds are. I asked my pcp and she said it’s probably going to take a little while like everything else and she thinks at this point I shouldn’t wait on surgery for that but if your interested keep asking questions because these things tend to just change in the middle of the night and the word takes a while to reach you if you not the one asking. Anywahs, kudos to you for not giving up. Let your team do all they can to help you and keep posting here!!. I think when I stopped that I lost all hope. I was so isolated. Surrounded by skinny family and having only one heavyset friend who is perfectly content being that way I don’t have a lot of real life people who understand me the way that this community does. I felt so ashamed and I didn’t want to drag down the vibe here with my failures. Since I have returned I have been welcomed with open arms and honestly don’t know why I ever doubted that I would be. Keep doing what your doing and you will work this out. I know it. 🤗

I made a post about losing weight slowly and I just kept doing what I was doing, and dropped 5lbs this week…WEIRD! But I am officially considered overweight and not obese!! Below is a before and after picture. The before is not even my heaviest!

Really appreciate your kind words SemperVeritas. It is good to hear that taking semaglutide was a helpful and positive experience for you. Yes, being obsessed with thinking about food is horrid and is driving me battier. I just want the thoughts to stop. Even now I think that my doctor will say no just because he can. I am still classified as obese (Loathe that word) and doubt that I would lose any more weight but maybe if it can help you it can help me. Kinda scared to try it and scared not having it too. Crossing my fingers for tomorrow - about 12 hours from now. Thanks again.

So as you can see, I'm well below my goal weight. I'm not super excited about it because I'm looking really boney and too skinny. I'm normally getting 70-90g of protein per day, but I can only work out on weekends because I work all week and don't get home until 6 or 6:30 at night. I eat 3 meals and 2 snacks normally, although for the last 3 weeks I've added another snack in there. I started adding a protein shake in with my lunch because that's usually my lightest meal of the day, and I want to make sure I'm hitting my protein goals for the day. But it looks like I'm losing muscle, and I REALLY don't like that. I tried reaching out to my nutritionist and she said to add more carbs, but I'm SUPER sensitive to them, and if I eat too many, I get really sick. I can push it to about 35-40 per day, but after that, I get HELLA sick. So I've been trying to load up more on my protein and increase to 80-100g per day, but I'm STILL dropping weight and STILL looking boney and too skinny. Not only that, but I feel like I'm losing strength. I'm REALLY upset by this. Anyone have any suggestions on how I can reverse this???? I'm starting to look and feel sickly, and I don't like it at all.

Sounds like a stall (it's only been 3 weeks...my stalls have been known to last 2 months before). And also, the closer we get to our goal weight, the slower we lose. I've been fighting the last 20 pounds to my goal weight for every bit of 5 months now lol Now that I'm 11 pounds away, it's like I'm at war with my body to get it to be where I want. Eventually, we hit our new "set point" where our bodies are happy and comfortable at a certain size/weight, and it doesn't want to go any lower. Personally, I don't care if it's happy here, I'm not where I want to be yet, so I just have to keep at it, change things up periodically, and above all have patience. I'll get there in the end.

I have just found this site today. I had my gastric sleeve May 21 thought I was doing ok but see others are zooming way ahead of me. I have lost 10.7 kg since surgery (exactly 6 weeks ago). I only lost 400 grams on my liver reduction diet. According to weight charts, I need to lose 80 kg more, but I would be thrilled with 63kg. I am currently 137.9 kg.

The progress in your pictures is awesome. My scars are lighter, two of them are small but you can still see them somewhat. With you being normal BMI, I would say it's going to take time to get to your goal. Travelling a lot will have something to do with it as well. I want to get under 200 lbs. before my knee replacement in October. I know, once I have that done. Weight loss will probably be nonexistent for a couple months.

I’m 6 years out & if I tried to eat a “normal” meal I would throw up. I can only eat about 3 1/2oz at a time. This means I have to eat 5 times a day. My surgeon even made my pouch a little bigger because I didn’t need a by pass for weight loss but because my esophagus was in an L shape & this was the best way to correct it. Try eating smaller portions.