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If you feel like therapy can help you consider finding one that takes your insurance or even payment plans. I didn’t do it the first time around because I couldn’t find anyone taking new patients and I gained my weight back. Now I am facing revision and working on starting with one that is private pay but I asked if she can give a lot of homework so I hopefully won’t need as many sessions. You don’t necessarily have to do like every week I don’t think. I haven’t met with her yet but I’m hoping I can do like once or twice a month to start and do my homework in between. I have a regular therapist and she wants to speak with her so my hopes are she will basically tell my regular therapist how to help me and I won’t need her too long. I will be posting about how it goes I’m sure. Lol

This is a hard one because on the one hand, it's fairly easy to advise how to change your diet and lifestyle. Here are some basic things to try: drink at least 64oz water per day remove all processed foods and sweets from your house and diet and replace with fresh fruit and nuts/seeds (this includes artificial sweetener and protein shakes if you're past 3-6 months post-op) make sure you hit your protein goal (probably 80g) with high-quality lean protein every meal, every day (meat, chicken, fish, eggs, cheese, beans) decrease or eliminate your grains/starches and always opt for whole grain when you do have it eat only at mealtimes increase your vegetable consumption increase physical activity (for example, get 10k steps per day) keep a journal that includes both a food journal and an emotions journal, and use this to see if you can find patterns or triggers in your behavior The motivation is a whole other issue. None of these changes are likely to stick if you don't have the motivation and mindset you need to do it. Personally, I found a lot of information and motivation from reading Dr. Matthew Weiner's books, A Pound of Cure, and also the one that explains how weight loss surgery really works. I also get a lot of inspiration from watching YouTube vloggers and podcasts. Here are a few of my favorites: https://www.youtube.com/@LouisesJourneyxo https://www.youtube.com/@apoundofcure https://www.youtube.com/@nicoleislosingit https://www.youtube.com/@kakisrnyjourney5376 https://www.youtube.com/@thistothatlife Finally, if you can, get friends and family involved in supporting you by checking in on your progress, going for walks with you, maybe cooking meals together. And post here for support!

I really appreciate you including this part because, as I was reading your story, my first question was "I wonder how you say 'Go f**k yourself' in French..." For what it's worth, a friend who has put on some weight in recent years, teetering at a 30 BMI, (menopause, a breakup, long-distance move), started with a new primary care doctor a while back who told her whenever she had the urge to eat a cookie, just reach for a cucumber slice instead. She also only ordered blood sugar tests when my friend's main medical issue is thyroid related. Totally useless doctor! She's finally gotten in with a new one who isn't fat phobic (I know this because she's now going to be seeing my doctor). You have to have medical professionals who know how to give appropriate care, and yours really missed the mark. I'm so sorry she was so terrible. And given your other medical issues, I can definitely understand why you chose to do VSG even with a lower BMI. I hope getting back to a more typical-for-you weight helps ease your symptoms. Joint pain at a higher weight is no joke.

first congrats on the weight loss! second: for someone going into their 60's your skin is phenomenal!! do you like bathe in tubs filled with moisturizer?? never go out in the sun??? amazing 😳 third: unfortunately you cant target weight loss to a specific part of ur body without losing in other areas as well. generally the first place you notice weight gain is the last place place it will come off. unless you have an underlying condition (which you can be found out by visiting ur doc), bigger midsections are usually the result of 3 main things: (1) genetics...do ur parents have higher-proportion midsection circumstances? (2) bloating...from ones diet that causes fluid retention and gas...cut the carbs! (3) inactivity... visceral fat lives on inactivity, and guess where visceral fat likes to hang out? around ur internal organs which are located in your midsection.

Hello @ihoneyyou, You are doing so well. I think you look great too. Have you had children ? I ask because you may need a muscle repair to rectify your tummy shape. It may not be all weight loss related

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 everyone, I had Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy in September 2023. my starting weight (on the day of surgery) was 102 KG and today march 27th 2024 I am 70.6 KG so I've lost a total of 31.4 KG. My height is 165 cm. so I believe I'm almost close to my weight goal. I want to lose maybe 8-10 more kilos and I think that's good enough for me. I took photos of my body on November and yesterday I took photos as well to compare both. however what I'm noticing is that although weight number has gone down, I do see difference in shape of my body (legs, arms, face, back) but I have an issue with my stomach. it has gotten better and smaller, however for someone almost going into 60's I don't think my belly should be looking this big. Do you guys recommend anything to do or try or should I see a doctor about this? please help! I don't want to struggle with reaching my goal weight and having a big stomach still.

Hi everyone, I had Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy in September 2023. my starting weight (on the day of surgery) was 102 KG and today march 27th 2024 I am 70.6 KG so I've lost a total of 31.4 KG. My height is 165 cm. so I believe I'm almost close to my weight goal. I want to lose maybe 8-10 more kilos and I think that's good enough for me. I took photos of my body on November and yesterday I took photos as well to compare both. however what I'm noticing is that although weight number has gone down, I do see difference in shape of my body (legs, arms, face, back) but I have an issue with my stomach. it has gotten better and smaller, however for someone almost going into 60's I don't think my belly should be looking this big. Do you guys recommend anything to do or try or should I see a doctor about this? please help! I don't want to struggle with reaching my goal weight and having a big stomach still.

Hi everyone, I had Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy in September 2023. my starting weight (on the day of surgery) was 102 KG and today march 27th 2024 I am 70.6 KG so I've lost a total of 31.4 KG. My height is 165 cm. so I believe I'm almost close to my weight goal. I want to lose maybe 8-10 more kilos and I think that's good enough for me. I took photos of my body on November and yesterday I took photos as well to compare both. however what I'm noticing is that although weight number has gone down, I do see difference in shape of my body (legs, arms, face, back) but I have an issue with my stomach. it has gotten better and smaller, however for someone almost going into 60's I don't think my belly should be looking this big. Do you guys recommend anything to do or try or should I see a doctor about this? please help! I don't want to struggle with reaching my goal weight and having a big stomach still.

Long rant ahead sorry ... So, I'm slightly angry (understatement). I saw my french primary care doctor yesterday. She's never been great to be honest. I've been seeing her for 6ish years. 5 years ago I gained over 80lbs pounds in a year and a half going from 118lbs (that had been my standard adult weight since my teenage years with a BMI of 19) to 200lbs ( BMI 32.3) after taking antidepressants. I stopped the antidepressants after a year because the weight gain was making me more miserable than I was being slightly depressed and thin. I have been struggling to loose the weight since... loosing and regaining the same 15-20 lbs again and again. As I've mentioned before, I have slight cérébral palsy - nothing too bad but enough to make walking pretty painful on my legs when I hit over about 130lbs and to make me generally clumbsy - I also lack gross motor coordination and don't have the best fine motor skills either... I can't really do any sports that require coordination and can only really ride a bicycle in a flat straight line and it takes a lot of mental effort for me to keep my balance, crowds freak me out because I'm scared of tripping and falling and don't even mention jumpy little dogs, my nemisis as my balance is so precarious. However I've always made do and It's never stopped me having an enjoyable fufilling life and a pretty decent career. My weight gain really really made me suffer, emotionally of course, my self esteem, my self worth etc ( I live in Paris which is the thinnist city in a thin country ... and it's not a place where people are kind to overweight people at all - I checked and the mean BMI of a Parisienne woman is 22.3 - so when you hit a BMI of 30 here you're really a fat outlier and are basically scorned in all public spaces ). It also made me physically miserable and I lost the little flexibilty I had - constant pain when walking - loss of gross motor skills, trouble showering standing up at 30 years old, not being able to put my socks on etc etc. For the last 4 years I have been to my Primary care doctor about 5 times asking for a referal to a nutritionist - she's always refused as told me "but it's simple, you just need to eat less and move more, it's not magic, No need to waste money on a nutritionist if you have no willpower "No **** sherlock! She has no idea the willpower it takes to get out of bed at 200lbs with cerebral palsy when you feel like your legs are litterally going to snap, when your feet are burning with weight stress induced neuropathic pain. In January I finally cracked after a lot of introspection and thought and booked my VSG for February in Turkey. I've now lost 35lbs since my preop diet so in just under 2 months. I already feel a lot better, the pain when I'm walking is lessening, I'm fitting back into the "second round" of fat clothes I got myself. So I walked into her office yesterday ( I had the intention of "fessing up" to having had a VSG and asking her for iron supplement ideas as I'm still being sick when I try and take iron ) She took one look at me and said "ah, you've finally found your willpower, loose another 20kg (40 pounds) and you'll be an attractive young woman again" I had a surge of red rage inside me, I kept my calm, but didn't tell her about the surgery, I just smiled and told her I needed a refferal to a dermatologist for a mole on my face and left. I'm never going back to see her again. I spoke to my physical therapist on the phone this morning and he sort of helped he said "can I be unprofessional ? Honestly, qu'elle aille se faire foutre, (she can go f*ck herself)" Lets find you another doctor." My physical therapist knew about the surgery, as did my orthopedic surgeon and booth agreed that with my CP anything is better than being even slighty overweight and that the surgury was worth the risk as they've both seen me loose my mobilité over the last few years and has seen how its affected me. They said that if I could afford to go private abroad I should because If not I'd have to jump through hoops for years in france because my BMI (32) wouldn't have been considered high enough as a stand alone. So yeah... this weekend I find myself another doctor who's not a fatphobic arsehole and has a minimum of human compassion. And for the iron I'm just going to go and ask directly at the pharmacy what the have to propose. Sorry that was long but I just had to get it out, I'm slowly realising all the **** I've put up with because of my weight these last years and I am ANNNNGRYYYY!!!! Hope everyone is having an okay hump day!

I had Petersens hernias 2 years out - the membrane that holds in your guts is pulled apart by the weight loss and the intestines slide in and out and loops can get trapped. It never shows on X-rays and not always on ct as it moves about. General emergency docs in uk missed diagnosis and it was finally seen by bariatric department and repaired- more than half my gut out of place when they sewed it back up! thing is because it moves around the scans don’t always catch it. I spent ages trying to figure out what foods caused it. If I got on hands and knees and rolled hips/back I could often soothe it which we realise now may well have helped move things back. it needs exploratory surgery to be entirely sure/ rule it out. Make a fuss. Make sure you see bariatric surgeon, use name Petersens xx

It looks like we're the same height and I had the goal weight of 150 too. How did you know or decide to change your goal?

Any advice helps I’ve regained 40 pounds and I want to get to my goal weight which is 66 pounds away I’ve went back to basics but struggle mindset wise and can’t afford the therapy part 😭 any advice?

Thanks again @Arabesque and @ChunkCat for your advice earlier. I haven't been checking in as much, dealing with continuing health issues. Healthcare providers are difficult to get scheduled with in my area, so I'm just now getting to follow up with them. I've been waiting to get scheduled with a Neurologist since August, but no luck. I've had to burn my days off with work due to Covid at the beginning of the year, so I'm not able to get in with a specialist since the closest one available is about a 4 hour drive from here. There's also no immunologists with availability in 2024 within 4-5 hours from here either, so I'll be waiting on that for a while. I am getting in with a cardiologist to see what is going on. My heart rate is dipping down to 28-29 bpm in my sleep, and I wake up feeling exhausted. I'm on a CPAP and also getting another sleep study scheduled in April to see if adjusting that will help. I'm still just walking about 1-2 miles a day. I walked 4 miles a couple weeks ago, and was hardly able to get out of bed for 3 days. I've never been that drained from that relatively small amount of exercise before. Luckily I was able to work from home and had my laptop in bed with me, but it was a struggle with the 12 hour shifts. I am getting frustrated since I've gained weight back, and I'm 10 lb heavier than I was at New Years, but my primary care thinks whatever issues I'm having is killing my metabolism. I'm starting back on my pre-op diet this week to try to lose a little more. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know, I am open to them. Thanks!

I supposed the OP has already worked this out since the post was 2015 but I just want to add that the surgeons do then to weight loss drugs as one of the tools in their belts post surgery now. They have quite a few in addition to phentermine nowadays too. For anyone out there experiencing weight gain please touch base with your team. I was unable to take the meds because if interactions with other meds I was on but that was definitely an option that was presented to me early on and for someone with only a fair amount of weight to lose it could help. I have taken phentermine in the past and it did reduce my appetite significantly. My problem is I wake up several times and night and eat too so once the med wore off I was hungry. For those reasons they didn’t work for me but they do work for many people.

From what I understand if you actually have low B12 then the shots make a significant difference in energy levels. I have a friend that gets them and when she doesn’t have anyone to do the injection and runs low she really notices it in her energy levels. I haven’t heard her mention any effect on weight but she is thin so I don’t know if she would notice a couple pounds one way or another (she’s not like us on the scale everyday).

I agree witb others that a call to your surgeon is in order. Until you get to the bottom of it perhaps try the 5 smaller meals or shakes to up your calories a bit if you get too low. Although keep in mind that many people do have a bit of bounce back weight a while after they get settled so some will say a little wiggle room isn’t a bad idea.

Right now I am not getting a great deal of help from his team. I am trying to decide between SADI and bypass but I honestly think I may be one of the first patients to get the SADI with him. A fact that if it is true scares me a bit but the possibility of greater weight loss has kept me interested. I do have an appointment tomorrow with his PA and in two weeks with the dietician to help in my decision. I hope I get quite a few answers between the two. I am just really trying to figure things out so I can eat that way now to see what I am possibly getting myself into. Lol

i think it all depends on how much actual fat you still have left when you get plastics. even if you reach "goal weight" you may still be carrying subcutaneous fat along with the excess skin. i've read of folks on here who have dropped 10, 20, 30 lbs after plastics, so it has been done. me, I lost a grand total of 400g (i.e., 0.88 lb), so basically nothing....BUT it made a huge difference visually, so...

They have vitamin patches. However, the drawback is they aren't as good from what I understand. I'm certain your doctor will find something to help you. My insurance does cover rehab for my knee. I did it for two months, but I can do the samething at home. It was just stretches and certain movements to strengthen other parts of the knee to help stabilize it. The doctor did a couple injections but that only helps for a couple weeks. I'm at 100 lbs weight loss since October when I weighed in at my first visit to the bariatric center. I dropped nearly 70 lbs before I had the surgery. Thanks for the comment. I'm not a very photogenic, but I will post some pictures at some point.

The pouch reset diet is an old wives tale. You can’t ‘reset’ your pouch. You can only reset your head & thinking. If you think you are eating more than you should, watch your portion sizes carefully & your frequency of meals. Portion control will always be something we have to take care with because as the months pass we are physically able to eat more. Our restriction eases. Our tummy, while still small softens & is more pliable. And our hunger returns. We can also learn how to eat around our smaller tummy. I was told to eat about a cup at 6 months but as your surgeon said everyone’s journey is different and you may have different needs in regard to how much, what & when you eat. Check with your dietician for the best portion size of proteins, vegetables, etc. & frequency of meals for you. Then you just have to keep to those recommendations. As I always say, all because you can (in this case eat more) doesn’t mean you should. I’m glad your surgeon is so supportive & is willing to look at other ways of helping you to lose more weight & get closer to where you want to be.

I have logged my weight like that but never thought to add the big life stressors or events in between. I bet that would be helpful for a bariatric therapist if you see one. I am working on getting in to see one. I had gastric sleeve three years ago and gained all my weight back. I am contemplating a conversion surgery and I want to pull out all the stops this time around. Best of kick to you.

I've seen people here have plastic surgery who only lose weight in the single digits of pounds. Think any more than that might be the exception - maybe for people who started out biggest?

Bodyfat to muscle ratio? My concern as the weight comes off is losing too much muscle weight as opposed to fat %. A low number on a scale doesn't reflect that. But it will show in clothing sizes. Or could it be excess skin???? This discussion does pose a question for me. Everyone here who has hit goal weight and lost a ton of weight to get there. I see these people who have skin removal surgery, and they weigh it and turns out to be 30+ pounds. How does that figure in to goal weight if never removed??? Say if goal is 150 and you are left with excess skin weight, would 180 be more realistic or if you reach 150 would you be underweight if you are carrying around 30 pounds of excess skin???? Such a conundrum. 🤔