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It probably wouldn't hurt to get some protein shakes in, even if only to save on muscle wastage. I lost very little weight on the two weekpre-op diet. You may have already lost a lot of water weight before starting the liver shrinking diet.

With FEP BCBS dis you have to submit proof of other weight loss programs that you have tried in the past and did not work?

The average weight loss post weight loss surgery at five years is around 65% of the weight to be lost to be in the healthy BMI range. I think that is the 75% your surgeon is probably referring to - the difference could be based upon your specific surgery, the stats of his patients & possibly you & your situation vs another patient. As with all averages some lose more & can maintain it, some lose less & happily maintain at that weight. In years 2-3, it’s not uncommon for people to put on 10+/-lbs from their lowest weight as they settle into their new eating style. Some lose some of that weight others are happy to stay there because it’s an easier weight to maintain. As you’re losing you likely will experience stalls or (plateaus) almost everyone experiences at least one. It’s part of losing weight. Think of it as your body taking a break to try & catch up with the weight loss you’ve had so far. They break & you will start losing again if you stick to your plan. The goal is to reach a weight you are happy with, can enjoy your life at & can maintain with out gaining or losing (not including our natural weight fluctuations of course). Congrats on your weight loss so far.

As @ms.sss said. It can take time to work out that sweet spot of the number of calories your body needs to function & maintain your weight. It took me about 11 months till I stabilised, worked out how many calories I needed & was physically able to consume enough food to do so. Consequently I lost another 11kgs but have basically maintained there for about 12 months now. I eat less than @ms.sss - around 1200/1300 calories a day but I’m not very active. Not a runner nor the owner of a gym membership. 😁 If I was more active I’d need to eat more calorie dense food. If I was happy to maintain at a higher weight I’d also eat more. I eat three meals & 3-4 snacks a day. Generally I follow a healthy eating plan of nutrient rich foods. Prep most of my food myself. Almost every thing I eat contains protein. I eat fruit, vegetables, dairy, two serves of multi or whole grain carbs a day. I don’t have a lot of fat (salad dressing & liverwurst are the main - & worst - sources) & I got rid of a lot of sugar (real, artificial & substitutes) out of my diet. It also takes time to work out a way of eating that works within your lifestyle so you can still enjoy your life without being limited by restrictive food choices. My choices may not work for you & that’s perfectly ok. I doubt our bodies would gain weight faster than anybody else unless you’re eating more calories. The surgery gives your metabolism a boost & I’d think it would settle at a rate that is pretty acceptable for someone of your height, weight, activity level, age, gender, etc. Have a chat with your nutritionalist & discuss what eating options which may work for you.

2litres or 64 ounces is the recommended volume of water (mix of fluids) everyone should drink a day to be fully hydrated not just people who’ve had weight loss surgery. If you are in a very hot climate, exercise a lot or just sweat a lot you should drink more. I was advised (my dad had kidney issues) you shouldn’t actually reach that I’m really thirsty/dying of thirst point. Your pee should be light in colour like straw. Once you get to a sunshine yellow you really aren’t drinking enough. If it’s dark you are very dehydrated. Of course multivitamins can make your pee very yellow even if you are fully hydrated.

Some people do drop a lot more pounds after plastics, especially if there is still some stubborn fat deposits under the skin (or just lots of leftover skin in general for those who had massive amounts of weight loss). My surgeon said he removed a grand total of 400g of “material” from me, which is just shy of 1 lb (and i had a tummy tuck, arm lift AND breast lift!). But despite the minimal weight difference, the VISUAL changes were significant (well, at least to me, lol)

While I generally agree with @The Greater Fool, I've been told at least 64 oz post-bariatric surgery as you are losing weight because when the body is breaking down fat it uses water, so we need to drink more. Also, sometimes after surgery people don't drink enough because it's hard to swallow. I don't know how far out you are from surgery or if you actually have not had surgery yet, as your profile suggests. Some people find that drinking more curbs their hunger. This doesn't work for me, maybe it does for you. Some people will drink absolute gallons of water in a day; that can actually be dangerous as it throws your electrolytes out of whack. If you're not being extreme in either direction, not drinking a lot of alcohol, not running in today's Boston Marathon, not thirsty, you're probably gonna live.

Yeah, I'm shopping from the clothes that were in storage from when I had lost 100 lbs 7 years ago. I had almost gained it all back by January, when I started this process. I'm down almost 70 lbs now (18 since surgery 4 weeks ago), and a lot of the smaller clothes are fitting again, although I had given away a lot so I bought some stuff from a thrift store and a few basics from LL Bean and a new winter coat from Lands End. My winter coat from last year is a 3X so I ordered an XL, which is my current size.

Guys, I know how much I want to lose when I have surgery, but honestly, just the IDEA of losing 10-15 lbs. the first month has me giddy with anticipation! I lose weight very slowly, and as I have gotten older, darn near impossible! I have 3-4 different sizes of clothes in my closet, and won't have to shop ever again! The word here is have to shop, it does not mean I won't shop!

I expect plateaus. I have had a few times where I've actually gained .4-.6 of a pound or stayed the same for a few days and I'm only 4 weeks out. That's true no matter how you lose weight, surgery or any other way. I don't know how long it will take me to get to whatever weight my body decides to settle at, but I know that having lost about 18 lbs in the first month, it will just get slower from here on out!

Total Scale Victory and Random Observations: I now have lost more than I weigh. I have lost 190 lbs. from my highest weight of 374. The first 50 was using Victoza for Type 2 diabetes. My bariatric program has my starting weight as 343. SW=325. CW=185. My program doesn’t give goal weights. For my own satisfaction, 174 would give me a normal BMI. I’d like to end about 170 knowing that some gain/loss is possible as things settle. I’m 5’10”. I have gone from a size 30/32 to a 14. I haven’t been this size since early high school. I look forward to doing things rather than dreading them. I’ve been off all diabetes meds since surgery. I am still using my CPAP although I’ve had the pressure lowered twice. I see the sleep program in December and we will re-evaluate then. I suspect I will still have a need for it. My cholesterol medication will be re-evaluated in December as well. My doctor thinks it likely I will remain on that med due to family history. That is the only medication I take other than my vitamins and supplements. I track in LoseIt. I track every bite, every day. It keeps me accountable to myself and I foresee it as something I will need to do forever. Today is the first time I ever exported my progress to a spreadsheet. On other groups, I see so many questions that ask how much someone has lost at a given point. I honestly never knew what I did. These are my totals lost from first to current month: 16, 19, 17, 15, 15, 18, 4, 9, 17, 10. I exceed my liquid goals every day and never tracked that after the first week. I’ve never had any trouble with liquids and I know roughly what I drink each day as I know what my mug holds. I also ran my macros for the first time. Since surgery, I’ve kept protein to 40-50% of my diet with fat and carbs 25-30%. I’m still at 800-1000 calories per day. My program has said that is relatively low at this point but as long as I am losing and not feeling hungry, it was fine. My hunger has not returned. I am grateful for that. I’ve tried to build successful habits that will serve me for the long haul. I’ve been walking since coming home from the hospital. I started at 5-10 minutes per day. Now, I try to walk 45-60 per day at a moderate pace. I use 5 lb. weights and do toning exercises for 10-15 min. most days. I’ve started seeing virtually a therapist recommended by my program. I don’t have a history of trauma or eating disorders but I didn’t get to my weight by having a healthy relationship with food. Plus, I was very moody and short-tempered following surgery. I feel great and have more energy than I have in years. But This. Is. Work. I’m ok with that and try to keep my focus on progress and health. I follow what my program suggests and make my own decisions within that framework. There is no short cut to this. There’s no pouch reset, fasting, diet pills and how soon can I eat at McDonalds. I ranted on here one time about hating the word “pouch.” I still do. I hate pouch reset even more. 🙄😫 I don’t believe in it. We don’t need to reset. We need to make the best decisions and choices we can without needing to be perfect. Sure, you lose weight with it, but it’s simply because you are going back to not taking in many calories….and most of us have been down that road before. I continue to absorb the wisdom I get here from those who have gone down this road before me or are on it now. I still hate shopping even though it is not as difficult as it once was. I’m still not sure who I see in the mirror and am uncomfortable with focus on my weight loss. I could eventually benefit from plastic surgery, but I don’t know if that will be in the cards. Enough for now……thanks for reading.

Yes, plateaus/stalls are common, and only indicate a pause in weight loss, not the end of it. You just keep following your program and the weight will continue to come off eventually.

I’m 5 weeks post op and I’m losing weight at a fairly good clip. Question: when the doctor says you should expect to lose 75% of the total amount you need to lose (or whatever the percentage is) from the surgery, should you expect that to happen continuously? Or will should I expect to hit a plateau before the 75%? Does that make any sense?

It seems to me that your loss is pretty normal (unless you had an extremely high BMI). Some of us are slower losers than others but time and time again I hear of people who lose the weight even if they are slower losers. I’m not sure where you read about 5-15 pounds a week but maybe they meant per month??

Could you tell me your calorie range as of now maintenance wise??? Im now focused of a healthy lifestyle of course.. counting my calories and weighing daily. I’ve become actually severely obsessed and it’s causing my body to lose weight because of fear. Do you treat your body like ‘normal’? **** man… the struggle is real but thanks so much you are so helpful ❤️

I'm just 2 months postop. I lost about 50 pounds preop. Since surgery, I've lost 24. I've been losing basically around 2 pounds a week. My dr office said that by 6 weeks they like to see 15-25 pounds....so I'm right in the middle there. But I get your frustration. I knew that losing weight beforehand would give me a slower weight loss rate -- but it's a "healthy" rate (1-2 pounds per week). AND I look at it as I'm 50 pounds ahead of the game. And if I didn't have the surgery, I probably wouldn't still be losing weight every week AND I most likely would have gained back what I already lost.

Awesome, congratulations. You are so close to your goal weight. Great job!

I use MyFitnessPal (free version). I've been using it since 2011 and I really like that I have that history there. You can create and save recipes you make, you can get macros, look at your weight over time, etc. There's a lot more it can do that I haven't figured out because I'm not great with technology.

There is likely going to be a bit of a learning curve to figure out what your maintenance calories are. If you track your food intake, this process can be a little easier. Step one: figure out what your average daily intake is (by tracking calories) and weigh yourself regularly (to determine how this intake amount affects ur weight) Step two: if you are gaining or losing over a specific period of time, drop or add some cals, monitor for a while. Rinse and repeat until u find ur sweet spot. As u get further out and your activity levels change, you may need to reevaluate again and again. It took me 2-3 months to figure out my maintenance calories, and i lost a further 10+ lbs in the process. Since then i’ve been happily maintaining my current weight for over 2 years. I decrease cals when I exercise less and increase when there is more. Its an ongoing thing. Good luck! ❤️ P..S. Full disclosure: i don’t always eat healthily, but i generally always stay within my calorie range (on average).

Thank you! For sure I can gain but really don’t want to do that in an unhealthy manner which I was so so use to. Thank you

I am only seven months out so I can’t say from experience but if I were you I would slowly add in healthy fats like avocado, nuts/ nut butters and healthy oils as well as healthy snacks but maybe at 100 calories at a time till I found my maintenance calorie amount. You may lose a little more doing it this way but you can always gain it back if you really want to. Many people have about a ten pound gain after they reach their goal anyways.

I’ve had my surgery last year June and struggling mentally, fear of going back to the way I looked before… I’m constantly wondering if our bodies will gain weight faster then people who haven’t had the surgery do you know what I mean? even if we eat healthy will we gain weight faster or more because we have had the surgery?! Questions: once we have reached our goal weight do we follow a normal ‘healthy lifestyle’ and calorie intake for maintenance that you can set on my fitness pal? Or do I still only consume + - 1000 calories? I’m so confused because I do not want to my old self but I also can not lose more weight because I have gone under. PLEASE HELP.

I am going to get the TDS in a few months. I dont want a long cc just in case I would have a lower weight loss goal. I am going to talk to my surgeon tomorrow-video pre op appointment and I am going to confirm with him that I want a short cc-ideally 100cc. He measures the total bowel so he has to go in there to measure it then.... I could truly know what my cc is , you know?

I’m on Week 19. Had my first post-surgery vacation, at Walt Disney World for 2 weeks. I learned I don’t have any food intolerances. Yes, some stuff will sit “heavy” but no nausea or vomiting. I still kept up my protein intake so that balanced things out. Shared most meals & snacks, usually I can only eat about 3oz protein and some veg/carb and I’m full. The nice thing, I’m only up 0.6lbs from the day I left. So, I’m expecting that water weight to drop off this week as I return to my normal diet that is much lower in sugar & carbs. Prior to vacation, my weight loss has been steady with no stalls. Anywhere from 0.6 to 4 lbs per week. I have lost 51lbs. i still don’t really have real cravings. I did pass up on treats I’d normally get at WDW because I was either full from regular meal or simply not interested. That was kinda weird 🙂

So in Feb ‘22 you will be 13 months post op. i had my TT at 13 months post op too, but I was already at goal (well, technically below goal) at the time. Though I did schedule it months before (at 7 months post op) i *think* any loose skin you encounter after the tummy tuck will be minimal (if at all) as i would assume you will be closer to goal by then? What did your surgeon say? P.S. I’m 2 years post TT now and my tum is still lovely, lol. But my weight has been pretty stable since though… Good luck, and can’t wait to see ur results (if u choose to share, that is)! ❤️