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well brb i go cry. i really had hopes that once i reach my first weight goal which is going into 60's i would see my belly actually shrink alot but now i guess it will always be a thing to live with

Don’t fret yet @Lilia_90. I too thought I’d lost my hourglass shape but it came back although the hip waist breast ratio was smaller. Once my weight stabilised, my remaining fat resettled & my waist & hips came back. My boobs were there too but needed hoisting up in a well fitting bra-LOL!

@BlueParis As I mentioned before my bariatric docotor and dietician both said exhaustion is a thing up to 4 or 5 months before your body starts getting back to normal. Low Iron and other problems could contribute. From my blood test results that's not the case. Exhaustion is part of the process. The dietician wanted me to stay close to 100 grams of protein a day. My average is around 135 grams. I log everything through the baritastic app that she can access. Seems weird to me that I should stay close to 100, but they've done this many times before. So I'll follow the guidelines to see what happens. @NickelChip i weighed myself the night before my DR. Appointment. I was 241 lbs. The next day on the doctors scale i was 245 lbs. I think my scale is 1 or 2 lbs off. Either way, I gained overnight and that is frustrating. But, the part I took away is all the inches i had lost. The Doctor and nurse both have had bariatric surgery. They kept reassuring that the process is working, but it can be slow.

I'm currently 3 weeks post-op from gastric sleeve surgery and am struggling BIG time with the diet. The pureed foods aren't doing it for me as the texture is not right...Has anyone else struggled with this? If so, please let me know what worked for you...I've always resorted to food when I'm feeling low and now I can't...I have snacked on no-no foods already and I'm petrified of returning old habits. I've gained 2-3 pounds in the last week and that's incredibly discouraging. I know it could possibly be water retention as my intake hasn't been a full 64oz per day. I know I'm not getting enough protein as well...I'm ready to resort back to a full liquid diet in hopes to lose weight over the next couple weeks...any suggestions would be incredibly helpful!

If you’re eating the set amount of calories set by your team you will loose. Vsg will limit your food intake = less calories . You mention all the weight . In all honesty it’s mind over matter.The stomach has ghrelin wich singles hunger. This is removed and does come back. This new stomach lets you basically retrain your brain to eat. It’s up to you to keep calories set by your nutritionist.

This is my first post, however I have been following this forum for years. I was banded by betancourt ( h/s is 20/20:sad0:) a few years back. After 2 surgeries, slippage and then erosion ( i lost 100lb) the band was removed. Guess what, I gained it all back. If I had known then what I know now, I would have never had the band. My ins has a WLS exclusion policy, so I am most likely going to be self payfor future- which i will do the sleeve. I will find out in 4 weeks if I qualify for medicaid. Ironically, they cover this surgery and DS. I would prefer to have DS = I think, due to long term WL sustainability. however I am a little sure of the malabsorbtion issues and "odors" if you know what I mean. If I don't get approved for medicaid I will be self pay. I am so scik of this weight and now it is Summer, I am thinking of just self paying and biting the bullet. However I only have about 10K to spend and all of the Dr i have contacted want more because it is a revision, US side about 13.5K. Including Aceves_12.5K Is it safe going to mex with the revision issue?So I am thinking about Jose Rodriguez or Ungson. I need some help here. Guidance please!

PCOS is absolutely something that will make this harder. I have it, and I've had to fight for every pound lost. PCOS causes, among other things, weight gain without the real ability to lose the weight. It just holds on to it. While there's no actual "pouch reset" per se, there is the option to get back to basics with what you eat, how much, how often, and how you move your body. It's more resetting your mind and reminding your body what it's supposed to do and not do. For me PERSONALLY, on non work out days, I eat around 1100 - 1200 calories, 25-30g of carbs, 50g or less of HEALTHY fats, and 60-70g of protein. I will drink 64oz of fluids typically. On work out days, I eat 1300-1400 calories, 40-50g of carbs, 55-65g of HEALTHY fats, and 80-90g of protein. I'll drink 90oz of fluids per day, with at least 20oz being either a Propel electrolyte water or a Gatorade Zero. For work outs, I started off small in the beginning. I walked on the treadmill, rode the exercise bike, did water exercises. Once I lost my first 60 pounds or so after surgery, I started adding in walking around my neighborhood and light arm weights. When I hit 100 pounds down, I increased my arm weights to full blown weight training, added in core/strength training, and kicked up my cardio. While I still keep to my eating schedule, I change up what food I eat based on the kind of work out I do that day. And I switch it up, meaning I don't do cardio on Monday, core training on Tuesday, weight training on Wednesday, etc... I change up the order I do my work outs and what types of core exercises I do or cardio I do, etc... Keeping my body confused about what I'm doing each day makes everything I do more impactful and makes more of a difference. I also make sure to take my multivitamin every day, I take a collagen & biotin supplement, I take a fiber supplement (on top of the fiber I eat because constipation and I are old frenemies at this point), I take coq10, echinacea, and I am sugar free as much as possible (or at the very least, no sugar added, and when I need a sweetener, I use monk fruit sweetener) and salt free (if I absolutely need it, I use pink Himalayan salt). I also drink green tea every morning for my caffeine as well as because it's a mild appetite suppressant (sometimes I have one at lunch, too, if I'm just dragging at work, but that's on top of my normal fluid intake).

You will look lighter than you are. A few weeks ago i was talking to a coach who's been working with strength athletes for decades, a guy who knows what weight looks like on bodies. He looks at me and is like, you're what 120 pounds now? I was just barely into the 150s. I'm in the 140s now and I'm practically skeletal. I'm much, much thinner than when I was this weight as a teenager. I had initially set a goal of the highest calculated ideal weight for my height and am now thinking that if I actually reach it I'll need to buy clothes from the kids section. Which.... I mean, there's way more dinosaur print options so I'm not necessarily complaining. So let that influence your goals.

OK so I have no experience with this because I have no interest at all in skin removal. WLS was, for me, all about the health benefits and way less about the aesthetic benefits but I totally get people who want both (and OMG see the photos on the before and after threads for detail and inspiration)! From what I have gleaned in my 2.5 years here people's weight loss is in the single pounds category after skin removal surgery. Unless you started off in the 60s or 70s of BMI? The point isn't the added pounds of loss but more the making their bodies feel more comfortable to them. I am also a huge believer in the concept of a new 'set weight' after surgery. Our bodies just seem to decide where to settle. Pushing beyond that is tricky. I would have been happy 15 or 20lbs above where I am at the minute. I didn't particularly push myself to get beyond that. But it feels like my set weight was decided by my body. I know that sounds strange. You talk about feeling happy at your current weight plus or minus the weight you might be after removal of skin and whether losing a few pounds more might cause sag that you would have to address at a later point. Honestly I don't really understand that but I guess others will be along soon who might. It might be worth discussing in detail with your surgeon what your desired end point is. Congratulations on your loss, it's amazing.

@AndreaJD Yea. I woke up with an abdominal binder after surgery and I had to go home with meds too after my sleeve. The binder is just a fabric thing that Velcro’s around you. Warning. Once you take it off. You will most likely need someone else to help you get it back on as snug as them had it if your still in pain. I didn’t really want mine back on though. They told me it was just a matter of personal preference whether I wore it. The meds I went home with were a PPI and pain meds of course and it seems like I got an antibiotic too.this time they told me I will also be on something that is supposed to prevent the hall stones that are common with quick weight loss. Omg. The before pictures. I need to have my husband take them too. I am the same way with photos. I see an entirely different person 😩. If you can, take pictures like every month or so and look at them side by side. It can be just as hard to see the loss iN the mirror but side by side photos really help to see them. Measurements help too, anything to keep you motivated when the scale doesn’t move for a few days and you’re getting discouraged. Ooh yea. The spirometer. I had one too @Greekmom4 after my sleeve. It’s just a little device you blow into that has a little ball or something to let you know you hard you are blowing that you try to get to a certain place and keep trying to get it higher for anyone who’s never had one.

I'm almost 4 months post op from the MDS and I've been asking myself that question, "am I overeating", on and off for the past 2 months. I've been able to figure out 2 body cues so far: feeling full to me is a pain in a specific part of my chest and feeling hungry is a intense pain in my abdomen. But other than trying to avoid those, I feel like I spend a lot of time grazing or snacking. Because of my morbid curiousity, I weigh myself pretty much every day. I didn't experience the "3 wk stall", but my weight has bounced around a bit. Dealing with pain and nausea has made me lose both pounds and inches, which scares me more than it makes me happy. The stress of school made that worse recently, in 4 days I lost 6 lbs. At my last follow up, my dr and dietician said to slow down my weight loss by adding in some carbs. I have been doing that for the last 2 weeks and I've been able to gain/maintain a range of 2-3 pounds, so I agree with @SleeveToBypass2023's advice about the rice and such.

Hi Tynisha! I don’t focus much on carbs, but I try to not go overboard. I eat crackers or a tiny PB&J as a snack most days and may have some oven roasted potatoes with protein for dinner. And I drink whole milk. What has been really important for me is making sure to eat three balanced meals a day, hitting my protein goal (around 110-120 grams daily). I have to have a protein shake or two with milk to get there. If you find you are eating too many carbs, it’s probably because you are snacking too much. If you focus on balanced meals and up your protein goal, you won’t be hungry/want to snack. Veggies and milk aren’t a big impact on carb intake, and help you feel full. Another good way to sneak in more protein is Greek yogurt. I like Oikos mixed berry. Fairly low on carbs/sugars and 15 grams of protein. Basically make sure you are getting enough protein, focus on feeling full from good food, and try to limit snacking. Has worked for me, and I’m still slowly losing weight almost 9 months later. Oh, and work out with weights. Since working out 3 days a week, my body composition has changed quite a bit. Best of luck! Dave

I'd make an appointment with your bariatric team then. I'm a slow weight loser..but 4 lbs in two months seems off.

my inside exercise is pilates, hot yoga, lane swimming, rock-climbing, and in-front-of-tv-weight-training (i also do a a rotating schedule of different dance classes). my outside exercise is running. i also do alot of other "outdoor activities" but i don't consider them dedicated exercise, its just stuff i do: walking, hiking, biking, softball, beach volleyball. i'm in toronto, Canada, so my outdoor activities are concentrated in the warmer months. in the winter i may go hiking or skiing, but not very often (and i don't run in the winter either). exercise is exercise no matter where you do it....but if you do alot outdoors, don't forget the sunscreen and hats!!

Hi everyone! Just got my surgery date of August 12th. Suddenly it's all so real. So it looks like we'll all be surgery buddies!! I am really excited, scared, hopeful, and anxious. But at this point, I just want it done. I started my liver shrink diet yesterday. It's going great except that protein shakes really don't agree with me. I found one that is not so bad, but when you're drinking 3 a day (that was my doctor's minimum) it's a lot. My husband is super supportive although he doesn't like the idea of me having this surgery because he doesn't understand why I can't just lose weight and keep it off. (I bet you all do, though!) The good news is that he is a great guy and he's been with me every step, which is good because he's the cook at our house. I had my pre-anesthesia call today and I have my last appointment before surgery with the Physician's Assistant on Friday. Two weeks to go from today. I have done a lot of things to get ready. Since I work from home, I got a treadmill and an adjustable desk, so I can get up and walk on my treadmill during meetings. My goal is to walk 30 minutes 3 times a day (I'm up to 2 mph so that's 3 treadmill miles, although I know it's easier to walk on a treadmill than on the street). I don't always get 3 in, but it's SO much more exercise than I have gotten in years. I want to be in the best shape I can for surgery and recovery. I also got a bullet blender, tiny silverware, an electronic food scale, new measuring cups and spoons, and tiny storage containers to put pre-measured portions in so I can grab n' go. (Amazon makes it TOO easy to spend money!) I have read The Big Book on Gastric Bypass and I got several bariatric cookbooks so I can plan meals that meet the post-op requirements. I think the biggest part of all this for me is the idea of eating differently for the rest of my life. I have failed SO many diets (or they've failed me...) that it's really difficult to think I will really be able to lose my excess weight for good. I know that it is all up to me, and I am really hoping that having a tiny stomach and the new, shorter path for food digestion will be the key I've been looking for. I think it will be, because if I have a reason why I must eat small portions of nutritious foods and cannot eat sugar, that will make it much easier. Before, I could always say, "Oh, screw it, I'll just try again tomorrow" and give in to "mind hunger". That is why, like many of you have said, I will definitely need your support, and the support of my surgeon's clinic, to be successful in the long run. Thank you all for sharing your experiences and may we all be celebrating our successes together soon!

Noted! corrected your 3 month weight to 189

The scales have bounced around all over the place this week 😬 These things happen so I won’t stress out about it… I’ve been trying to sort out what clothes I’m taking on our 3 day trip to London. It’s a 5* hotel with restaurants to match, plus we’re going to the Royal Opera House too so want to look as though we’ve made an effort. I don’t actually have any ‘nice’ clothes. I seem to have a wardrobe of ‘it fits, it will do’ plus a load of holiday/summer clothes that are too small at present. I bitched at hubby (not his fault, he was just there in the firing line) and then freaked out. Hubby wanted me to have a look for some new clothes. I’m totally no good at spending money on clothing for myself, I just don’t see the point. I won’t try anything on in a store, so that was out. So, it’s online shopping. I found a couple of sites but I was getting myself in a state and I just balked at the whole thing. I was snapping at hubby and, to be fair, he took it quite calmly. Anyway, I finally got myself calmed down. I found something I liked, he found something he liked, both were in the sale at Phase Eight so I’ve ordered and they are due to be delivered this afternoon. Hubby knows not to be around me when I’m trying something on. Hopefully things will fit (gone up a size from what I think I am, just in case) but if they’re too big, they will go back and if they’re too small hubby wants me to keep them to wear when I do lose some more weight. I’ve also ordered a nice combo from good old M&S too, ready to pick up tomorrow. Clothing really does stress me out. Being fat is one thing but I don’t want to look like a clown as well. I feel shamed and embarrassed when clothes that should fit no longer do. It’s just that, for whatever reason, the shame and embarrassment doesn’t transfer into positive action in reducing my weight. Ridiculous I know. I’m a grown woman who can tell you all the ins and outs of a low carb/high protein diet plus a fair few others so why can I put that knowledge in to long term action?? Why is it taking WLS to motivate myself?? Maybe it’s because I will be answerable to someone else ie the hospital? Something to discuss anyway when I have my dietitian appointment in August. Anyway, Endoscopy tomorrow and knee X-rays on Wednesday. Off to visit the grandchildren on Saturday so that’s definitely something to look forward to 🙂 Hope everyone has a positive start to their week. Onwards and Downwards!

I am here to add my vote for meal planning. I also have ADHD tendencies and I LOATHE food tracking. In the early days after surgery when I absolutely had to make sure I got in my protein and water, I managed to track by keeping a physical tracking notebook next to me at all times. I had to see the book to remember to do it. I stopped tracking around 5 months when I was consistently hitting my goals. Now that I am almost a year out, my weight loss has slowed (as expected) and I am finding it too easy to make poor choices if I don't plan ahead. I forced myself to actually track for a couple days and was shocked by how many calories I could eat and what I was choosing even when I "thought" I had been pretty reasonable. So, instead of tracking, which I am still terrible at, I've started meal planning and prepping ahead. For breakfast and lunch, I came up with a selection of maybe three or four choices I liked that have around 20g protein and entered them into my meal tracking app. For example, a spinach frittata for breakfast that I can slice into several servings, fruit cups that I make ahead for the week, single-serve packets of protein oatmeal or a protein bar for those days when I have to grab and go. For lunch, I make homemade chicken veg soup and also salad jars. I also like to make a batch of turkey chili to have on hand, which I store in single-serve containers. I also came up with a few snacks I like such as Greek yogurt with blueberries, or an apple with cheese. I also entered in my typical favorite 6 or 7 homemade dinners as recipes or meals in the app so I could easily add them to my day with one click. Before my shopping day, I try to plan my meals for the coming week. If I see my calories going too high or my protein not being enough, or whatever, on any given day, I can adjust accordingly. On a day that I eat oatmeal, I make sure my other choices are less carb heavy. If I have eggs for breakfast, I might plan to have a carb at dinner. I have the tab easy to get to on my computer, but printing it out each day would also work, as would entering each meal as a reminder in your phone's task list or calendar app. It is so much easier for me to look at my menu and follow it than it is for me to decide what to eat every day in the moment. It also means that if I can eat what I plan most of the time, I can have a restaurant meal or a dessert a few times a month without worrying about it or trying to track it. And since I tend to package up most of my make-ahead meals in single-serve containers, it's pretty easy to grab something to take along if I'm going to be out and don't want to have to hunt for food on the go and risk being off plan. The worst days for me are when everything in the house is an ingredient instead of a meal. That's exhausting and inevitably leads to snacking or poor choices. I find I need to set a regular day of the week for shopping when I can also have time to prep some items right away, before the food even goes in the fridge. I have the most success for the week when all my produce enters the fridge already washed, sliced, and portioned into fruit cups and salad jars, and when I can kick off a batch of chili in the slow cooker, a frittata in the oven, and a batch of taco meat to store for later in the week all at once. Freezing complete single-serve meals is another great strategy for those busy days when you might otherwise get off track. Like any habit, it takes a while to establish and may not be 100% perfect all the time, but I definitely find this helping me.

This isn’t really a rant or a rave. More just a topic that I am curious to hear others thoughts on. I had my psyc eval this morning and it got me to thinking….a lot. On one hand I was extremely irritated that I feel like we are being discriminated agains to have to do a psyc eval to begin with while on the other hand I question whether a one time appointment is enough and we should be required to do more. First let me say that when I say that it should be required for us to do anything I do not believe that insurance companies should be the ones dictating ANY of this. I think that doctors should be making medial decisions, period. With that being said they are involved so should they be allowed to require a psyc eval for one surgery and not another? Not ANY others as far as I know. I mean all the hoops that are required for weight loss surgery, I haven’t done anything like this for any other surgery It really feels like discrimination. How is it that in this day and age they are still getting away with it.? On the other hand are they on to something and is the evaluation really enough? For those of us who have been through it all would you have benefitted from ongoing therapy to deal with all the life changes and some professional help to change the disordered eating behaviors that most of us have to some degree? Should this be a requirement? Or perhaps they should just have to educate us about therapy and provide access to it for those who choose it. Or instead of the evaluation beforehand require one visit post surgery just so we could see what therapy is like and we can decide if it worth it. Maybe the surgeons should be required to have a therapist on staff that can handled their patient load. Should the doctors step up and require more of their patients than the insurance company does (if they believe it’s beneficial)? Is that even allowed? or should all of this be the patients decision? Just something to think about

Day 1 post op. Im home. Had cream of wheat. Coffee. So far so good. Whomever recommended the weighted heat-pad, biggest thank you! No narcotics- gabapentin, tylenol, flexeril work well to control pain. I recommend buying liquid adult tylenol. They gave me pills and it hurt alot…i asked for liquid tylenol after that. You can find adult liquid tylenol at amazon if you cannot find in store

I wake up at 3:30 am every morning. Work starts at 5 am. It's hard for me to go to bed at 9 pm. But I try anyway, only to toss and turn. I don't like taking meds to sleep. I may need a new sleep study just to see if I need the bipap. They did tell me that I may not need it after losing a lot of weight. They suggested that would be about a year out. As I mentioned in other posts, they warned me about exhaustion so that is definitely where I'm at. I hope it gets better soon. Being tired all the time isn't fun.

I am hesitant to say that I have a weight target, because I really want more than that. I want to be able to run and move and wear the clothes I want to wear. I want to have a low resting heart rate. I want to be able to play sports with my son. There's so much more than a number on a scale. I have probably spent 15,000 hours at the gym. I have a lot of skeletal muscle, but it's not really visible. I always felt too humble to want big muscles, but why? I've done the work. Why shouldn't I enjoy and take pride in it? I have been walking. Not a lot, between 6 and 10 thousand steps a day. I have some chronic shoulder injuries, but I can't wait to get back to lifting. I love lifting weights. I am thinking another two weeks off. In the meantime, I want to get back to stationary bike and a lot of stretching!

How is everyone doing? I had my first follow up with my Dr yesterday since my surgery on May 9th. I started talking numbers with him finally and it seems insane but he said by the first year I should lose about 100 pounds, well he said within six months to a year. That would put me at my lowest weight in at least I dunno 25 years. I finally got around to taking some measurements and pictues although I had already lost 63 pounds but at least I will have something to look back on.

I was on Ozempic, Trulicity, and Mounjaro at different times between 2021 and 2023 (depending on which one insurance would cover for that month), and it helped with my Type 2 diabetes symptoms, and I lost 30lbs as a bonus. However, I feel like I hit a wall around that 30lb mark and couldn't get past it. I was stuck around 320-325lb for a year before going forward with Gastric Sleeve surgery last November. I feel like it helped significantly for my diabetes, and more for weight loss than other things I have tried, but it definitely wasn't a miracle drug for the weight loss aspect of it. It didn't really help my cravings, but then again, nothing has helped that for me. If you take it, be sure your doctor monitors your thyroid levels periodically. My mother has a history of Thyroid issues, and Mounjaro caused some significant issues for her, so she had to stop taking it.

Hello 👋 it’s good to hear everyone’s progress. Things have been mixed for me as my husband died suddenly 65 days ago. Shocking to say the least. So I’m not quite sure how I’m doing really. however, my surgery has been life changing, physically I’ve never been so fit. I’m down 30kg and only 3kg from goal but have been in a plateau for around 5wks. Despite the emotional turmoil I have pretty much managed to stick to the programme, only wavering twice when I simply did not care enough to stop myself eating too much rubbish. The reassuring thing was I stopped and got myself back together. I want to be healthy, so am putting the work in. Walking and exercise, (strength, cardio, yoga - on Apple fitness) have given me a focus. When I feel lost and overwhelmed by grief I go walking. Rather that than gorge myself silly then feel even worse, as I would have done prior to surgery. There’s never a good time for a spouse to die but I’m glad I was well on in this weight loss journey as I’d be in an even worse position had I not been. My husband would be proud and happy. ❤️