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Bariatric surgery is not a quick fix for severe obesity. What comes after the actual surgery matters a lot too. Weight regain is normal and is not something to be ashamed about. But, hopefully, the amount of weight regain is minimal and can be managed. Bariatric surgery isn't like shopping at a convenience store. It requires a care team that appreciates and addressed the nutritional, psychological, physical activity and other challenges that occur in the years after the surgery. https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2018/10/22/what-happens-after-bariatric-surgery-makes-a-big-difference/#4e3dce3c29b1

Until I was in the market for protein supplements myself, I never really noticed other people buying these things in the stores I frequent. This weekend at Sam's Club I saw about 10 different carts with cases of premier protein in the bottom of them. None of the shoppers appeared to be body builders, most were "overweight" but this sparked my question. Would it be fair to assume that many of these people at Sam's this weekend are in the WLS process or do people use these for other reasons than WLS or body building? Meal Replacements? What else?

Hi everyone!!! I just got my sleeve date of Dec 7th!!!! I am so very excited! I get the lap band out this Friday (10/26) also :) The port came out many years ago so it’s just the band piece. Hopefully it is easy breezy. I’ve waited so long for this surgery, both of them, and the reality of it happening soon is starting to click. This year has been dreadful health wise. Plagued with diverticulitis flare-ups, severe sciatic nerve pain, and general malaise with not feeling well. I feel like I’m ending this year on a good note and feel empowered to have a kick-ass 2019! I’ll be Turning 45 this year and I’m going to make it as amazing as possible. xx

Counting down. Friday 10/26/2018 is my big day. I'm excited and I know it won't be easy but I'm ready.

Hi! I had almost your same exact scenario. I had the sleeve 5 years ago at 275. I lost almost 100 lbs in the first year but after the first year i struggled to maintain my weight even exercising and sticking to the diet. I slowly gained back to up 235 (5 years out) and had severe reflux and my hiatal hernia was recurrent. So on 9/10/18 i had a revision from sleeve to bypass, revision of my hiatal hernia repair and my gallbladder removed. I had a rough start after surgery. I sailed thorough my sleeve recover 5 years ago easily so i though this would be the same. But I had a lot of trouble getting my fluids in and i got dehydrated and had to get IV liquids the first week and i ended up with a partial bowel obstruction the second week and back in the hospital for 5 days. The sleeve to bypass transition as been harder than i expected. I just didn't expect the surgery and adapting to the bypass stomach to be so different from the sleeve. The first month for me was very hard and i struggled to get in fluids and calories. I had a lot of nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, but i think a lot of that stemmed from the problems with the partial bowel obstruction. I am 6 weeks out now and doing much better. I still struggled with hitting my fluids goal and my new pouch is very grumpy at times so it doesn't like alot of things..lol But i have found foods that are gentle to my stomach and I getting my energy level back up. I have always able to eat pretty much anything i wanted, even after the sleeve surgery nothing really bothered my stomach. Spicy, beef, rich or fried food etc.. This was both a blessing and a curse, but after the bypass my stomach is very sensitive. So far and i have to be very careful trying new things because my bypass pouch will let me know quickly if she doesn't like it. Good luck with your surgery what ever you decide. I hope my post doesn't scare you off. Although, my complications can happen they are not the norm. I admit had times the last 6 week that i had "buyers remorse" ( which is pretty normal) and though what have i done. But now that i am gaining my strength back and staring to feel better, and i am losing i feel like this was the right decision for me,a nd these complication and limitations will help keep me on the right path to success. As of today I have lost 35lb (counting my 2 week preop liquid diet). They say revision patients will lose slower than first time WLS patients, but i am happy with my progress so far. I had a 2 week staff after the 3rd week, and i just started losing again. Hopefully, It will continue! Best of luck to you! Keep us posted!

... by James Wong. It's an interesting book that deals with how to get the most (micro)nutrients out of your food, e. g. you can read things like not to store tomatoes below 10°C so they can produce more lycopene or that steaming or microwaving crucifers retains 2x the antioxidants compared to boiling them. IMO it's an interesting read. He also provides some recipes

I like the protein packs by PLANTERS P3 and Hormel Natural Choice. Both consist of Chicken, turkey or ham bites with nuts and cheese....10-15 grams of protein and what you don’t eat, you can snack on later. Here’s a picture of my lunch today...170 calories

I have lose skin. Under my arms and even below the elbow a bit, I really dislike. My tummy, though? Well that’s ok by me. I am 56, no one ses it apart from my significant other who says it is a gloriously soft pillow! My thighs look a bit like elephant skin. Not fond of it, but I most-of-all am annoyed that my calves, not at all wrinkley, have lost NO inches at all. Hence no wrinkles. If I have to chose - I happily take the wrinkles and lose folds in exchange for the 100 lbs of fat I lost since RNY, or the 130-odd since high-weight. I LOVE being half myself! And I show it off. Gardening at goal weight - love my new dungarees, second hand, $10 - some Idaho farmer chick who’re them before me!

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/27/health/bariatric-surgery.html "Most people believe that the operation simply forces people to eat less by making their stomachs smaller, but scientists have discovered that it actually causes profound changes in patients’ physiology, altering the activity of thousands of genes in the human body as well as the complex hormonal signaling from the gut to the brain. It has become clear that bariatric surgery changes the entire setting of a complex, interlocking system. There is no one place to tweak it. To show what is involved, Dr. Kaplan reports that surgery immediately alters the activity of more than 5,000 of the 22,000 genes in the human body. " I found this article really enlightening, and it was really the catalyst that made me decide to go this route. It's the one I will show to my husband when I tell him what I'm doing - I will not tell him yet as he will try to prevent it. He is one of the naysayers. I have extreme hormonal and metabolic issues, which are not going to go away. Yes, I "barely" qualify at my current BMI - but this is because I eat 1300 or less a day and do 10,000 steps. Have lived like this for 3 years now. Have not lost any weight - all I can do is avoid gaining. And it's exhausting. So what happens in 10 years, 15 years - when I can't keep this up anymore? The way I see it is I'm future-proofing my health. Your loved ones should be proud of you for putting your health first, unfortunately there is so much fat-shaming around.

Hi emccomis, we are surgery twins. Tuesday is the day for us! I'm nervous and excited because I lost 10 lbs on the liquid diet and I'm ready to lose more. Good luck to you! Please check in afterwards to let us know how you are doing!

So after I compared what I've been using and this, I'm going to stick with what I have. It's $10 cheaper and one less gram of protein, but I add a tablespoon of PB2. The chocolate one tastes like a Reece's. But if you order, you'll have to let me know how it is. I know when I just went in the store online, it was sold out.

Did you have sex the night before? Any frequency, burning, or pain while urinating or after urinating? It probably came from either your pee pee, or maybe a hemmie. If it's bright red, 9 times out of 10 it's a hemmie or a uti. It would be extremely abnormal to have any bleeding post hyster, w or w/o ovaries.

I will ask about non NSAID anti inflanatory options. Maybe they will prescribe something else that works as well? If I keep Medicaid (and Medicaid remains funded) I could conceivably move from sleeve to bypass if I choose sleeve and struggle with regain... I understand the long term difference is about 10% or 10-20 lbs. If it's a difference of a new setpoint of 220 with NSAIDs and less chance of malnurishment vs 210 with no NSAIDs and more risk I'll accept the 10 lbs. But if it is 180 vs 240 then it's worth the risk and finding some way around the NSAID problem. I wish there was a crystal ball to see how I would personally react. A lot of the literature has HUGE degrees of margin: like "lost an average of 60% of their extra weight (plus or minus 35%)" Are you kidding me?! That's 25-95%!!! And sometimes people do everything right and lose less and some others don't change their habbits at all they just eat smaller portions and lose more... It's apparently impossible to predict!

Hi. I am still waiting for approval. Hoping to get a date in NOV. Dec at the latest. Of course having met my OOP for my insurance I don’t want to start over next year 😭😭 so fingers crossed. I have been trying IF to prepare. I notice lots of different pre Surg diets and post surg diets. I guess every surgeon has developed his own plan that works. For me, when I get the date for surgery, I will do a 10 day liquid diet before. I am hoping the IF I am doing now will prepare me. I although it seems impossible to really prepare. Good luck 👍🏼 everyone.

Don’t think of a few lb gain as a failure. With our new bodies, they are much more susceptible to weight fluctuations. I know without a doubt that if I have a glass of wine, the scale will be up 2lbs the next day. It’s the same when I introduce new foods, or adjust my vitamins. My body reacts to minute changes by retaining water. Run for an extra 10 minutes? Body rebels and I’ll stall for a week. Skip my now regular runs? Body will stall for a week... Just give it time and focus on living a healthy life. You won’t be on your A game every day of every week, but if you can look at your life and say you eat well, are active and are caring for yourself, then it will motivate you to keep going!

My surgery date is Dec 3. Having family over for Thanksgiving Dinner today. I have my consent visit in Grove City, Nov 19. I would like to lose 15 pounds before that if at all possible. Thought of doing Atkins until the consent visit.

My daughter, a PharmD, told me that she makes her own essential-oil concoction, too. You could probably make 10 bottles of your own scent (and customized to your liking) for the same price as one 2fl oz bottle of Poo-Pourri. What is your recipe?

I am a post op My surgery was on 10/15 I lost 4 kgs already

I lost 60 pounds from May 10 to September 24th, before my surgery. So I don't think there's any reason he couldn't have lost that weight if he wasn't working very hard and very committed to his goal. I think the hard work for him will be keeping it off. But I wish him the best.

I just had my surgery on the 16th of Oct. I haven't had any issues besides the pain... I can deal with high levels of pain from breaking my arms legs ankles.... but the pain from having my stomach cut and trying to move around has been just about putting me in tears. But I am still getting at least 10 minutes of a walk in around the house they are just in turtle mode. Lol Sent from my SM-G955U using BariatricPal mobile app

Finally, a topic near and dear to my heart. I'm a neurotic femme (cis female) who doesn't want facial hair at all. I have snow white skin and thick dark brown hair and I have been fighting this fight since I first had a job to pay for solutions. This is the regimen that works for me. Electrolysis with someone I trust. I got a little emotional lift out of it like a tattoo. You DO NOT have to grow out the hair. You shave before you come in. It takes a bit to fall out, and you can remove it then too. 10 or so treatments on my face. Sideburns are gone but the white hairs need to be plucked. 6 treatments on my pits and it's gone. 6 on my bikini line and gone. 6 on my underarms and I pluck a hair once every few months. I've had 4 treatments on my full legs. I will need more. I rarely shave ever. Heaven Shaving I shave my upper lip and jaw line once a week. Very feminine, I know. I use a Venus Razor and Aveeno shaving cream after exfoliating. I like to wash my face with the Clarisonic brush to lift the hairs first. Plucking Plucking your face is risky, you can get a big gouge with pointy tweezers. What feels like a lot of hair on my fingers is usually just one hair. I prefer Rubis Perforated Stainless Steel Tweezer #135, available on Amazon. ___ Since I'm not spending time shaving, except my face once a week, this seems easy to me. Did it hurt? Yes. I take a painkiller before lasering. It also helps to have a relationship with a place you trust and you can get package deals. Most will negotiate. Other Methods Electrolysis What is this jive? I probably had 20 treatments on my face with lots of different people, but because I pluck, it will never really work. I think it's on the outs and for me, laser was a night and day difference. Waxing I don't have experience with it. So yeah, I hate the hair, I pay out the b*tt to remove it, but I am happy with my routine.

OMG! I’m so sorry! I have zero medical training but if I had a pain that was 8 out of 10 (sometimes worse) I would be heading to the E/R! Do you still have your gall bladder?? Hope you get answers soon!!!! 😰

Hello: please help! I have an unbearable pain on the right side of my belly under my ribs and goes all the way to the back/waist on that same side. from the beginning after the surgery I had this pain but it was just sometimes, considering it Was near the stitches I thought it hurt there because that is close where the doctor removed the stomach and manouver everything from that side. Weeks past by and the pain dissapeared. And yesterday 19 days after my surgery here I come again with the same pain but now is super strong I would say 8 from 1-10 or sometimes 9/10. It’s horrible if I bend, If i turn, if I twist and I have to walk like huntchback because if I put straight hurts more!!!! The doctor told me it’s normal, that the abdominal wall is healing and bla bla bla... but is it really? Don’t get me wrong doctors know a lot... but i hate that for them always always is normal unless you have fever or kind of dying.. so please guide me. Oh the pain is like someone is pulling me from the inside.😭

I've had a BMI between 40 and 45 for ~20yrs. A lot of obesity in my family. I've tried a number of diets and medically supervised weight loss programs. Only to lose weight and gain more back. I have very high blood pressure and cholesterol (on meds), I've developed pulmonary hypertension, a heart murmur, I have a bad back, and the Ortho just told me I will need total knee replacement very soon. I've researched WLS for over 10 years and have been to seminars with 3 different bariatric centers. I'm over 50 and I decided it's long been time. Because I have some dysfunctional, rude and shallow people in my family, I've elected to tell no one but my wife about WLS. I really don't want people to think about WLS everytime they see me. I don't want the questions. And most of all, for their own sake, I don't want to give them a chance to say something ignorant. Just the thought of it makes my blood boil. So, if you have unsuccessfully tried to lose weight a number of times, medically qualify for WLS, and have done your homework on WLS, you have the right and obligation to improve and even save your life.

That IS major, Lynn - congratulations! May this be just one of many successes to come. I got off my BP meds, too, but your numbers are waay better than mine! And then, 19# lost as well! I just hit the 50# lost mark, so I'm celebrating, too,