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I tend to agree with your Doctor. It is scientifically impossible to consume 800 calories per day and not lose weight, especially if you are walking and/or exercising as recommended. It could be that you are not accurately recording your calories, not counting things like butter, oil, snacks, calories from sugary drinks etc, etc. Read about it...it is just not possible.

Team June 2021, I hit my 6 month mark today! Since surgery, I am down a little over 80 pounds and a little over 100 pounds. Overall, I feel so much better! My daily feelings vary though. Some days I feel on top of the world (very healthy/slim) and other days, I feel like I have a long way to go and wonder if I will ever make it to goal (very fat). I have more good days than bad and I am happy for that. I move much better and exercise daily, either walking 3 miles, lap swimming, or playing adventure fit on the nintendo switch (aerobic exercise). I also lift weights three times a week. I thrive on consistency and I track everything. In regards to the upcoming holidays, it has brought on emotional feelings and this is the first time I have had doubts about having surgery (so I can never eat three different types of dessert at one time again...like ever?) It has come on in the form of anxiety and I know my hormones are out of whack; I can quite literally feel them coursing through my body it seems. I am working through this and I think I figured out this wave of emotion is because I previously associated celebration, family, and relaxation with food very deeply. So, while I have no cravings or real fear about making healthy choices, I clearly need to re-read chapters that cover emotional eating and relationship with food. May this holiday season be everything you desire - time with family, time alone, rest, a time to get pesky tasks done, inspiration to set new goals - whatever you need! Take Care All!

What was your start weight and how tall are you? If you lost a lot of weight just before surgery your immediate post op weight loss is generally lower. It doesn't pay to compare ourselves to others in the first few months to many variables.

Exactly. Remember also we, all have a natural weight fluctuation, we just notice it more now because we ‘re more vigilant with weighing ourselves & recording our weight. I’ve discovered my natural fluctuation is a kilogram (2.2lbs). Any more or less & I reflect on what I’ve eaten or not eaten. Has my water intake been more or less? Did I have some alcohol? Am I constipated? Am I peeing more or less? … Should say I’m maintaining & am pretty vigilant but the principle is the same. If you’re still losing & your weight loss trend is still downwards your golden. If you’re maintaining, reflect on your last week & see what next week brings. Three pounds may be your natural fluctuation. Congrats on your weight loss. Whoo hoo.

As the others have said: it’s just a part of the experience. Your natural hair loss cycle accelerates as a result of the shock of the surgery, stress, anaesthetic, decreased protein intake, dietary changes, etc. The hair you lose was destined to be shed it just happens a bit faster than usual. Just keep on top of your daily protein goal & take your multivitamins. Taking additional supplements that supposedly stop hair loss or strengthen your hair will only help new growth not the hair on your head which is already dead if it does anything. Nothing happens to your new growth cycle so you still ate growing new hair while your losing just at it’s usual rate. A lot of us cut our hair shorter so the new growth doesn’t have as much to grow to catch up plus short hair always seems to look thicker. Same with your skin. Protein is important. You can try taking collagen & silica. Keep it well moisturised & regularly exfoliate. You may look more gaunt & tired for a while but it does settle once you start maintaining. Genetics, age, highest weight, length of time being obese all influences how much your skin has been stretched, how much will bounce back & how much loose skin you end up with. All the best.

Not sure... I'm not doing Keto, just kind of intuitive eating, trying to eat clean. I was doing pretty well, but have veered a bit. I'm very happy that I did NOT gain back the weight I lost on the pre-op liquid diet, so for me that's a win - I've lost 2 pounds since. Not a lot, and I hope I can keep it off during the holidays and make wise choices. After this week I am going to call and see what my options are and then make a decision from there.

My PS wanted me to try to lose more weight, but I was stuck for years as far as weight went. I was having reflux at that time and within the past two years after the tummy tuck, it got worse , I think due to all of the muscles being tightened, it put more pressure on my stomach, so I had to have the band removed. Now, I'm 8 months out of band removal and haven't gained any weight... yet. But I feel like it's only a matter of time, so I'm probably going to revise to RNY. At least when I do get to goal, I can finally do all of the plastics that I was planning to do right when Covid hit. But I understand about your age and the risks involved, and it will be a relief to get the excess skin removed. Best of luck to you!

I'm so excited and nervous at the same time. My surgery is on the 12th of January. Nervous cause i haven't had a surgery ever, cause i take neuroleptics that makes the weight loss harder but excited cause i so want it to go well. I even start my own blog in English about my journey: mybariatricstory.wordpress.com.

Thank you! I would love to have a plastic surgeon do it, but my BMI is still 42 and they won’t touch it. She said a panniculectomy is less risky with less risk of blood clots at this size. They all recommended I get the gastric bypass, but that means another two years of approval/weight loss/weight stabilization before I could have it done. I’m already 65. I just don’t want to wait that long, nor do I want the bypass. I have constant neck and back pain and know this would help, but I don’t want to look also don’t want to look odd. I’m so torn!

I am on bipolar meds which are notorious to interfere with weight loss. I have lost slow but steady and I am about ten pounds from goal.

Hello Buddies! I have been reading this board continuously but haven't posted much as I've been busy busy, but I just wanted to jump in and relay some of my experiences post surgery if it might be helpful to those currently going through it or about to. I had my sleeve on Nov 9th. The one thing that I found that really helped me out of the gate is walking. From day 1 I made sure to make myself walk. Each day I increased my distance by an additional driveway until I was able to walk all the way around the block and then added even more. By 2 weeks post surgery I felt like I was 100% again. A friend of mine who had the same surgery 5 years ago by the same surgeon couldn't believe how quickly I recovered. I attribute it to the walking. So that's my advice on recovery. Unfortunately I did make some major mistakes because I was feeling good and due to a family emergency, 1 week post op I had to fly home to help care for my mother. I didn't want my parents burdened by worrying about my surgery so I kept the entire thing hidden from them. As such, I completely skipped the pureed food stage and just ate soft foods while chewing oh probably a hundred times before swallowing. I do not recommend skipping any food stages but I had to do what I had to do. I had a bad experience with solid food. I was running around and wasn't paying much attention to the fact that I hadn't eaten all day and when I got home I was ravenous. I cooked up some tofu chicken fingers (my vegan go to for a quick and dirty meal pre surgery). Well, um... lets just say it didn't go well. I had that lump in my chest that felt like the food was stuck. The saliva continued to pour up into my mouth. There was nothing I could do to make the pain in my chest go away or the saliva stop flowing. I literally thought I was going to die. I decided to go for a walk. The amount of spit that continued to flow from my mouth could probably keep a whale wet for a decade... it was awful! After about 20 minutes, the pain finally subsided and the constant flow of saliva finally dried up. It was an experience and a hard learned lesson to remember to chew chew chew! and wait wait wait before taking another bite! Rice, my favourite pre surgery meal is now a no go for me. It just doesn't sit well at all. Sad but I can deal with it, bigger picture and all that. Sugar. I was a sugar addict pre surgery, I'm a mostly plant based eater, I attribute all my weight gain to my sugar addiction. I have found that although I am still addicted to sugar, I can have that '1' piece of whatever it is and be satisfied instead of that '1 whole bag' and still not be satisfied as I was in the past. If I go past that '1' piece threshold not because I'm not satisfied but because I'm still a glutton I find myself in the washroom with a mild case of dumping syndrome. Another welcome reminder that '1 is enough'. I feel like I am losing weight fairly quickly but I'm not noticing any adverse side effects like hair loss or sagging skin but I do take collagen everyday so I'm thinking that might be helping with that. Today will be my first day back to the gym in 3 months. I am looking forward to getting back into running again without all that additional weight holding me back I hope you all are enjoying success and keep going! Happy Holidays!

Thanks for the encouragement! I think my body would be quite happy to gain everything back! I’m pretty much on a diet every day without ever losing anything, but it’s far better than gaining it back!

I have been thinking about increasing my calories because of this. My surgeon doesn’t have me on a set amount of calories. He was extremely happy with my weight loss so far and asked me to stop weighing my food and eat ‘normally’ (three meals with two snacks), and I am at approx. 650/700 kcal per day right now with those three meals and two snacks. But HOW on earth can I eat more calories without adding fat and sugar? I am at a loss here 🙁 Any tips or tricks would be appreciated!

And it doesn’t bother you? I know I may be beyond panicky about it and I’m sure I’ll adjust - it’s just almost like I don’t trust myself to be OK head-wise with not being able to finish or having to order an app for a main etc? I suspect this is a dumb fear since last time I lost the weight when I went out I’d make an awful lot of adjustments and not have an issue - being 150lb lighter was the reward for those adjustments but I fell into a depression a few years ago and ate my feelings - since had therapy and got my head straight but still can’t shake the weight.

Not only are we trading weight loss tips, I'm learning American slang lol. Thanks man, took it off again for privacy reasons, just figured I'd show what 200 lbs looks like on 6 feet on me. But yeah, factor in the rebound 5 lbs or so people seem to gain (or 10 as it were), but kind reminder (to myself, too) that getting down to an indefensible weight is probably a really bad idea as it starts the cycle of overeating again. I'll honestly probably lose 5 lbs more due to my anatomy - it seems MGB'ers lose a lot and keep losing for a while - but it's not my goal. I'm already below goal. Congrats on your success. You'll be rolling in it soon I assume you're Scandi, too, based on name?

Looking good! I figure I'll just roll my eyes when I have to deal with buttinskies talking about my weight.

Yes, that's me at 290 (actually 292 in that photo). People are already warning me not to lose too much weight, but there's still a ways to go... and in any case I literally can't eat enough to overcome my TDEE even if I wanted to. It's slowed down. My primary care doctor says 275 would be fine and really he just wants me under BMI 40 (which I am), but I'd like to see where I can go. I went from size 54/34 pants to size 35/34... if I end up back where I was in college, I'll be in 32/34s. I have a DXA body fat scan every three months (it's cheap here, about $40/35€/£30) which reads my body fat. The problem is that the body fat measuring weight scales have two settings. If I leave it on normal mode I get a reading of 42% which is CLEARLY untrue. But if I put it on athlete mode, I get 25%, which is also clearly untrue, though closer. They need to have "kinda fit kinda fat" mode! The last DXA reading last week had me at 31.7% which I was a bit disappointed as I wanted to be under 30%, but it'll get there. Slowly but surely. I just want under 20%. 15% might be a stretch at 45 years old, but it'd be nice to have the beginnings of abs under the loose skin. 😁

You definitely are, though I'm a farmer's boy too You look rad, dude. Not long until people starting telling you to stop losing weight. Are you 290 in that last picture? That's insane. 250 will look perfectly fine on you. Btw pro-tip for when you get there: I'm BMI27 now and unfortunately lost a little more with the 'rona, I can see my ribs now, my delts have individual muscle strains visible ... yet my scale still says my bodyfat% is 22. There's like ... no way that's true. My dietitian says it's the extra skin that messes with the current in the bodyfat measurement and not to worry about it. So just keep that in mind.

I'm slightly broader built than you, I think (it's always hard to tell with pictures, see below), and my weight loss target is higher than yours (225 would be about 15% body fat on me, aiming for 240ish, currently 290). But that was a REALLY great thread. I did not have the MGB, just the regular sleeve. My nutritionist is way on top of things and is an active woman who fought and won her own battle with weight, so I am confident she has got me on the right track.

12th is my magic number. The only thing that i'm nervous about is that maybe the weight loss wont be so fast because of my everyday meds.

I had my sleeve on May 17th. In January, I weighed 385. I started preparing and had my first bariatric meeting with the surgeon around mid March. My weight when I started my 2 weeks of shakes was 362 and my surgery weight was 342. I track almost everything I eat and I am setting at 256 right now. Kinda tough to track around the Holiday, but feel like I have a new lease on life. I danced for almost 3 straight hours on Nov 27th at my daughter’s wedding! Your stomach will be tiny which will help you while you get/keep your mind right. Do NOT cheat! Have and keep the faith in the process! If you do that you will be extremely happy and able to get back to an active lifestyle!!! :-)

What does your “Best Me” in fitness terms look like? For me it is the feeling of feeling free. Free of the excess weight, free of the constant emotional abuse I have done to my self by telling myself I am not good enough. I am good enough and so are you! I have done a lot of hard work over the past 6 months to get myself to the place I am in now, but I want more! In 2015 I ran the Buffalo NY half marathon and it was the most freeing experience ever. I am not a runner and I do not like running, but crashing the challenge had me wanting it more then ever! Try something new and challenge yourself! I am determined to make 2022 my best year ever! Want to join me? I am setting personal fitness goals such as starting on 1/1/22 running/walking minimum 2 mile per day everyday for the entire year. Working out daily, trying new exercises, working out in new places etc. Share your goals! Share fun workout pics or even amazing backgrounds of your workout areas. You never know who your inspiring! If you need support say something and we can form a group to support and share! Will it be easy, of course not, but can it be fun and life changing, absolutely!

Oh I love that! Same with me I was raw vegan the past year and loosing a feeling great I even became a cherries vegan nutritionist then my mother had a bunch of health problems and starting in June of this year I was back and forth to Missouri to help her. I got Covid late July - even though I was vaccinated and ended in pneumonia. My goal in January was loose my weight by the end of the year or get the sleeve. Life happened and kicked my butt this year so 3 months ago I called a bariatric surgeon and I got in this Weds for the sleeve. But I get the focusing on the mind I feel being a raw vegan put me vibrationally and spiritually in a different vibration and I have been working with a therapist to work through my eating disorders and issues with my mother. I feel this step is the next step but you are so right it is so important to focus on getting your mind in the right place. Sounds to me like you are really heading in the right direction! Next year is going to be such an amazing year! I can’t wait and am really looking forward to the next phase in my journey!!!

Absolutely no problem, I guess I wasn't very clear Yeah, I used to be very all-or-nothing, but I realized it was really what made me fail (and gain weight). You know the drill, start exercising, no carbs, bed at 10pm ... and when one thing fails, the whole thing fails. Last year, I focused on getting my mind in the right place. This year has been about fixing obesity. Next year ... well, next year I think I'm just going to enjoy my life