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Hi All! Lately, I have been receiving attention for my weight loss, mostly positive. People have been asking me how I lost the weight. I prefer to keep my surgery private and only a select few know about it because I do not want to hear negative comments. When people ask how I did it, I say, "Thank you! I have been following a low carb diet, walking every day, and not drinking alcohol." Recently, someone commented on how quickly I lost the weight on this diet, and for a moment, I worried that they might be thinking I was using drugs. LOL Does anyone use different excuse?

Hi everyone, Just checking in to see how you are all doing now that we are 8 months on from the start of July surgeries? As I posted before I had a terrible time with complications; leak, pancreatitis, allergic reactions, abscesses and infections, I even had to be transferred to a hospital in another country for a procedure to stop the leak! But most importantly I made it through and got home from hospital the start of November. I am only starting to get my energy back now and find an interest in doing more than just coping /trying to get through the day, can see small improvements each week. My weight loss has slowed down over the last few weeks but my body, and mind, have been through a crap fest the last few months so not surprised, it will happen when it happens. I still can't always hold food down and get bad pains in my stomach at times, have refulx but it is all an improvement from a few months ago. So far I am down 38kg / 83lbs which is good going considering when in hospital I was on a feeding tube for quite a while and my weight went up due to the nutrition I was being pumped with. I may have to get a revision to bypass if the leak doesn't heal (won't know for another month or so if the treatment worked) but I'll cross that bridge if and when it comes. I hope everyone is doing well.

I went through similar, op in July and only finally home from hospital start of November. While in hospital I found it difficult to hold anything down and was put on a feeding tube for a couple of months and then the second time I was put on a tube it was because I had a leak and they wanted to bypass the area so it could try to heal. I am also on daily medication for my stomach, have to take before I eat anything, and I have strong meds for nausea if needed. Over the last few weeks I have slowly started to increase the calories I take and exercise I do, gone from about 500 cal a day to approx 900 cal but for me the more important aspect is ensuring I get enough protein. I am able to now hold food down but it is hit and miss, like Sunday my dinner did not stay down but it was something I had eaten before without issue, it just depends. I have to push myself to eat three meals a day as I just don't feel the hunger (or interest at times). I don't sleep well and am exhausted all of the time which is why I have tried to push myself the bit more on food intake and exercise. I do see small improvements but I am not where I thought I would be this far out from the op and it can upset me at times but I try to focus on the good things. My weight loss as slowed down over the last 6 weeks or so but I am hoping it is just my body is still in recovery mode after going through so much stress since July. I would think your body is probably going through the same, a lot of trauma has occurred and it is trying to cope. Don't compare yourself to others, everyone has a different experience with the op and we all recover in different ways, just try to focus on the progress you can see in yourself. If your doctor is ok with how you are doing that is important and it will get better for you, just need time to recover and destress. Hopefully you will be slowly able to up the food intake or find a source of high protein that you can keep down. I don't know how you are on fluids but for me I can now take coffee again (even the smell of it turned my stomach for the first six months or so) so I take it with protein powder which means I am getting protein through fluids as well as the food I can eat. Same for collagen, I put it in my coffee also and it is another dose of protein so in two coffees a day I get 20g of my protein requirements. Happy to chat if you want. We can do this. 💪

I agree with Arabesque that your body is probably more along the lines of what things would look like for most people at 4 months. The central line feeding would have been high calorie to prevent malnutrition, so I'm assuming you didn't lose any weight on it? Or did you? I remember reading about your rough start, I'm glad you've been able to get off the feeding tube and that you are able to eat, even though you are taking meds to help with that. Going from the high caloric intake of the central line to an extremely low caloric intake has probably been a shock for your body. Many of us stall somewhere in the first few months, some for a few weeks, some for a month or two, as our body readjusts and tries to decide if it is starving or not. I know you can only get in so much food with your digestion issues, but is there a reason you aren't supplementing with whole milk or shakes a few times a day? These wouldn't be affected by your slow stomach issues. And they may give your body a bit more energy to work with. Protein waters could work too, things like SEEQ are thinner and as easy to get down as water. The watermelon flavor tastes like a watermelon jolly rancher. LOL Weight loss post surgery is a delicate balance. We want to be in enough of a deficit to facilitate good weight loss, but if we are too low our body goes into stress mode and won't release any weight because it thinks we are in a famine and are trying to burn through our reserves. So we have to eat enough to reassure it that we aren't slowly starving to death. Decreasing your activity and increasing your intake a bit (even if it is just a shake or a few glasses of milk) might give your body enough of a signal that you aren't starving and have what you need to continue to lose weight safely. Things like hydration and sleep are crucial too, as these are also markers the body uses to determine how much stress it is under and if it is safe to lose weight. In fact, some studies have shown that sleep is MORE important for weight loss than even exercise is! I tend to think they are both important, but the point is, you have to look at the holistic picture of how much stress load your body thinks you are carrying in relation to how much energy it has to give. My last stall lasted 6 weeks and drove me crazy! But my body broke the stall when it was ready to, I just kept eating well, drinking well, and resting well. That's all you can do really. You can't push the river. ❤️

Yep! Once my mobility improved and my joints stopped hurting from the excess weight, I didn't need the cane anymore.

If you take away the time you had a feeding tube, you’re probably more at about the four month mark compared to the rest of us. I think I was eating about 600 calories then so a little more. I was a low calorie small eater too. Didn’t stop e losing all my weight & more. So don’t give up. (So sorry you had these struggles.) and I would expect that is also why your doctor is okay with your lower food intake at this time & your eating routine. While yes it is important for you to be slowly increasing your caloric intake & increasing your portion size as you progress, I would expect t your path will be even slower. Out of curiosity what are you eating? Maybe there are some foods that are less dense & with higher calories you could be consuming. Do you regularly see a dietician to guide you on food choices with your specific needs? May be you could reduce some of your activity to take some stress off your body. Exercise only contributes to about 10% of your weight loss. I didn’t exercise as such. Just upped my daily every day activities. Parked further away from where I was going. Walked up escalators. Took stairs. Did single trips up & down my stairs instead of carrying multiple bags or whatever at once. Get some resistance bands. You don’t have to do a lot to see a change in muscle toning & building which ultimately will help you burn more fat. I’ve been doing about 4 x 5 minutes or so sessions across my day for about a year. Doesn’t burn a lot of calories. I say I wouldn’t burn 40 calories a day but my arms look great & I get complements & I had to buy new pants as my thigh muscles had grown. All the best. And yes, the stall will break when your body is ready.

As I am approaching my 4 week post op. I am so EFFING proud of how I am sticking to the program! Just wanna do a happy dance 💃 HW: 325Lb SW: 297 PreOp Weight: 266 CW: 238

Hello all, my name is Cyd. I am 53 years old and have battled my weight all my life. 15 days ago on February 5th, I had Gastric Bypass surgery. I am still having a problem swallowing. Every time I swallow, I feel the gulp going all the way down. It makes me nauseated. Which then in turn makes me not want to swallow anything. I am no where near the 64 ounces of liquid a day that I am supposed to have. I have an appt with the surgeon tomorrow and I will tell him all about it. Starting to feel depressed. Just looking for some understanding of what I am experiencing from people who have been thru it. Thanks in advance. This is the day before surgery. So far it looks like I have lost 13pds.

Your body is in starvation mode, so it's holding on to absolutely everything you put in it. Especially with you exercising on top of it. You should be at MINIMUM double that by now. When I work out, I take in 1200-1300 calories per day. On rest days, I take in 900 - 1000 calories per day. You're actually going to have to increase your calories to lose weight again. I know that sounds crazy, but right now your body thinks it's starving, so it's hoarding as much as it can to try and keep you alive. If you absolutely will not increase your calories, you need to completely stop exercising. If you won't stop exercising, you need to increase your calories.

My package had a 2 year lifespan. I could see them every month if I needed to and I did in the beginning. That lasted about 9 months because I had some problems. The last year was 2 x quarterly and a last check in at 2 years for my pat on the back. I enjoyed my visits because I did well at weight loss, unlike weight watchers etc where I would just stall for months on end. All the while enduring the ritual non humiliation/ seething jealousy that these groups use to motivate

I love this topic, I'm recently thinking about how I will want to dress when I hit my stable weight. I've reinvented myself many times over the years and now I'm going to again. Right now I'm only wearing sweatpants and pajamas since it's so cold but come summer there will be lots of dresses. I'm 7 weeks post op and already my swimsuits are baggy and I'm hesitant to get new ones, I don't know what size I'll need now, and I don't think it will fit for very long, but maybe worth it anyways then donate it. I did splurge on a pair of jeans that I love but they're starting to sag on me. This is going to be fun and a bit scary I think.

This is such a great piece of advice, @BigSue! My background is in costume design and I love clothing, both historical and modern, but it's been years since I could really indulge in stylish clothing in the way I wanted to. Right now, I tend to favor a lot of wraps and kimonos. I have heavier ones for winter and silky ones for summer, with tunics and leggings. I was talking to a friend recently about needing to replace my wardrobe and she said something along the lines of at least I would still have all my wraps, since those are one-size. But I realized when she said it that I might not want to wear those so much in the future, or might choose differently. I admit I choose what I do to hide my figure. I have no idea what I'll like if that isn't a necessity anymore. But, like @Arabesque, I think at a smaller size I will feel like I'm drowning in fabric with some of what I wear now. I will say that going through my closet now, I have too many clothes, none of which I love. I'll be happy to see most of them go. For the next year, I'm going to do my best to take it easy with my wardrobe buying. Easier said than done, I know! But it feels like a good time to enjoy having a lot less, and make the most of the seven thousand or so scarves and necklaces I have to achieve different looks until I can settle into a maintenance weight and really think about how I want to dress. I'm tempted to do the Wool& 100 day challenge this summer, where you choose one of their dresses and document yourself wearing it for 100 days in a row and get a $100 gift card toward buying a new one when you complete the challenge. The variety of looks people achieve with accessories is amazing, and wool jersey is a surprisingly good fabric for all seasons, including summer. I figure by June my rapid weight loss will have slowed a bit (surgery is tomorrow!!!!!) and by the end of 3 months, I'll be ready for a new dress size anyway, so win win! Besides, I love me a good dress in the summertime.

That's a really interesting point I hadn't thought of. If you are active and larger, it is something that can make you special. People may admire you for it. But being an average weight person and exercising? No one cares! I do remember grappling with this as I got older and went from being a "young" person who had accomplished a lot of things in a relatively short amount of time to a person of an age where it was no longer remarkable. It definitely took some rethinking about my own identity when I was no longer that bright young person and was just another person out there doing stuff.

Over the last 5 years I have been following on social media overweight athletes and body positivity. I have been able to run some 5ks and get my yoga teacher certification at my current weight, 252. After surgery I will not have this identity of being ’a person who moves in their large body’. I don’t hate my current weight but I know the surgery will be better for me medically. Has anyone had a similar experience?

Over the last 5 years I have been following on social media overweight athletes and body positivity. I have been able to run some 5ks and get my yoga teacher certification at my current weight, 252. After surgery I will not have this identity of being ’a person who moves in their large body’. I don’t hate my current weight but I know the surgery will be better for me medically. Has anyone had a similar experience?

3 weeks (to get staples & drain removed), monthly for first year, then quarterly for the next 1.5 years, then annually, then I moved out of state. I was a special case because I started at an exceptionally high weight, so Doc wanted to monitor me much more closely than most. Gosh, as the years go by I feel like my experience and my Doc's philosophy of weight loss is very out of touch with folks today. Good luck, Tek

The hormonal oestrogen flush was great for me. I was menopausal & my symptoms disappeared. Yay! They came back though once I lost the bulk of my weight. Sigh! But yes, heavier/lighter, more/less frequent cycles, more or fewer PMT symptoms & yes increased fertility are common. It’s actually often suggested that you double up on contraceptives for a while.

So loverly of you to do this @BigSue. Great advice. I did the colour thing back in the 80s when it first gained popularity. I am a winter & still wear predominately black. LOL! It makes it easier to put a practical & workable wardrobe together - things match (tops, bottoms, shoes, scarves, bags) & can be swapped about to switch up an outfit because of knowing the colours that work best on me also complement each other. It’s interesting how our personal style changes too. Pre surgery I wore a lot of architectural avant garde type clothing. Can’t now cause even though my height hasn’t changed (😉 still short) I don’t have the body to support the clothing anymore. I feel like I’m drowning in fabric & being overwhelmed. As someone who constantly gained & lost weight, the fear of getting something out to wear & discovering it wouldn’t fit was real & occured every day. Now it doesn’t even enter my mind. Bonus of actually maintaining my weight for more than a week for the first time ever.

I've seen a lot of posts with questions about how to dress and buy clothes during and after significant weight loss. I'm by no means an expert, but there are some things I wish I had realized earlier along the way of my 200-pound weight loss that might be helpful to others. I spent my entire adult life up to age 39 as morbidly obese. At my heaviest, I wore size 28, and it's difficult to find ANY clothing that size (even stores that say they carry plus sizes often only go up to 24), let alone flattering or stylish clothing. I sought out black and other dark colors because it's slimming, you know? I just wanted clothes that would (a) fit on my body and (b) hide my size as much as possible. Now, I wear size 6-8 in most brands, and I can shop anywhere... Which is nice, but also overwhelming. Here are some things that helped me: Color analysis - I wish I had done this a long time ago because wearing the most flattering colors helps no matter what size you are. I don't want to endorse any particular company because there are a lot of people who offer this service, but I got mine from a House of Colour consultant after seeing a very informative YouTube video by Sierra Schultzzie about her color analysis. Spoiler alert: black is only recommended for those with a "winter" season. Style analysis (or "clothing personality") - This was life-changing, and I think it was particularly helpful for me after I lost 200 pounds because my body is so different from what it used to be. For example, I used to be a big-busted lady and now I am not, and I used to worry about how big my butt looked and now it's undesirably flat. Again, there are various systems (I think the most popular is the Kibbe body type), but I went back to House of Colour with the same consultant who did my color analysis. I got a ton of information on how to dress to flatter my body based on my proportions and shape, including things like necklines, rise of pants, length of skirts/dresses, fabrics, embellishments to seek or avoid, pattern shapes and scales, jewelry shapes and sizes, accessory shapes and sizes, and more. This was incredibly useful information, especially after my body changed so significantly. A lot of the recommendations were completely at odds with the way I've dressed for most of my life, and once I started wearing clothing that suited my colors and clothing personality, I started to look stylish. I frequently get compliments on my clothes, which, until recently, I didn't even know actually happens in real life. It almost feels like cheating -- as though I am impersonating a stylish person. Clothing rental - Do it! I wish I had started this while I was losing weight. It would be incredibly useful to someone who is rapidly changing sizes, since you can change sizes every time you exchange the clothing. Again, there are a lot of services available, but I went with Rent the Runway and I'm pretty happy with it. I didn't start using it until my weight stabilized, but I've found that they are really good at recommending the right size (since sizing can vary a lot between different designers/brands). It's also a great way to try out clothing that fits into my color season and clothing personality since I can just exchange it if I don't like it (but there's an option to purchase it at a discounted price if I want to keep something). They have some pretty high-end clothing, and I get compliments left and right when I wear my Rent the Runway items. Loose skin - I have a confession: it enrages me when people who haven't even lost any weight are freaking out about the possibility of loose skin. Talk about putting the cart before the horse -- you have to earn loose skin. I literally worked my a$$ off to achieve my saggy butt. I have nothing against anyone who chooses to get plastic surgery to remove the loose skin, but as someone who has lost 200 pounds, I have quite a bit of loose skin and no plans to get plastic surgery. I've accepted that I'll never have a bikini body (and honestly, even with a lot of plastic surgery, I doubt that would be a possibility), but with a combination of shapewear (I swear by shaping camis to smooth my abdominal region and hold everything in place) and well-fitting clothes, I don't think my loose skin is evident under normal circumstances. I think if you saw me on the street, you would probably consider me to look like an average middle-aged lady -- but a semi-stylish one! I hope some of this is helpful to those of you in the process of figuring out how to dress your new bodies. I've come a long way, but I'm still a work in progress, so I'd love to hear other people's experiences and tips as well!

I really started noticing some bloating around middle part of October, which was after my appointment I had in September. I figured it was diet and I cut out the cucumbers and it took it down some of the bloat but not all the way. Then the tenderness started shortly after starting the Woman’s Probiotic. At first I thought since I increased my strength training at the gym at the same time that I was just sore and it would go away. Since then it just seems like it’s gotten a little more tender. I’m stumped too. The Nurse Practitioner wants to put it on gallbladder but I have a feeling it will get the same results as I had 10 yrs ago when I did the ultrasound and hida scan on it. I understand they have to go up the ladder on the testing to rule things out too. It’s just frustrating. I do know if the pain gets worse or new symptoms pop up to call weight management or go to the ER. I have been having soft formed peanut butter colored bowel movements and still do the 2 colace daily and the miralax once daily. If not I slow down and it turns into the kind of bowel movement the first one after surgery was aka what I call horse size poop. I don’t know if that helps with anything or not. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Yes, I was told 64oz, yet I'm honestly only getting +-48oz. I KNOW I should be getting more, but I'm just not thirsty and I get busy/sidetracked and forget because I'm not thirsty so I don't get my required in. So much f I'm not getting close to my goal how could I be over hydrated? I know its silly to worry since I have my appointment this week..but I still wonder. I'm a need to know person, A laboratory manager ..so its just who I am..researcher! "I honestly don't think I've ever had my hydration level tested, so I have no clue about that one! Have you been eating any high sodium foods? Or started doing strength-training recently? Both can cause some Water retention. Other than that...??? high WBC usually means you're fighting an infection - although I just googled albuterol, and you're right - it can increase white blood cell count. That could be what's going on. I would imagine that if you were early out of surgery and your body was trying to heal, that could cause an increase as well - but since you're six months out, then no - probably not that. More likely water retention or the albuterol. Let us know what they think...I'm curious." - Catwoman7 No, I don't ever add sodium and my diet is low in sodium, so its not edema. This is why I'm worried - if it was a diet with excessive sodium I'd not worry. No on strength training "lately".. just light hand weights which I've been doing for months. Regarding the high WBC count, I don't have a known illness/cold/sick.. Thank you for your questions and potential reasons. I guess I'll know soon enough and I'll PST the doctors answers.

Thank you so much for your reply, I appreciate it. I think both of your suggestions are worth taking into consideration and I've decided that if I'm still feeling this bad by the upcoming Friday then I will contact my clinic and ask for recommendations. I think once I see the first week's weight loss that will also give me a boost! I need something to make it feel like it's worth it and I'm sure that will help. Also, I'm just trying to stay positive in general, writing things down and talking to my partner about things to look forward to. Thanks! 🙂