Please, anyone with experience on life after gastric sleeve surgery

[Mayte 0]

Please, anyone with experience on life after gastric sleeve surgery. I had mine exactly today 1 year ago (May 10th, 2012), it was self payed with a lot of sacrifice, and I´m now having a panic attack.

I started with 264 pounds and now I´m at 198. I don´t know what is going on? Only 66 pounds down. I thought I´d lost much more. I see on internet people that has lost between 80 and 100 pounds by now. I was told this surgery was right for me but know I think i should have gone with the bypass. I´m so afraid of have throwned my money away.

I eat good, a lot of Protein, veggies, brown rice, brown Pasta, hardly bread, and specially, I don´t drink soda. So i don´t know what is going on? I workout 4 hours a week, sometimes more, so I really DON´T UNDERSTAND WHAT IS GOING ON?

There´s only 1 thing I haven´t followed instructions to the word, and it´s that right after dinner i drink half a glass of juice or Water. I don´t wait an hour.

Every two hours I am hungry again.

What am I doing wrong?

Please anyone.....

[kulita 243]

Hun, Calm down a bit.

First off LOOK at everything you have accomplished so far! Don't focus on other people and their successes/failures YOU are not them and YOU do not have their exact same body chemistry.

YOU lost 66 lbs! Scream it out.... That is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! You may continue to lose more up until 24 month mark (typically). I haven't any idea what you are currently doing right now, but EVERYONE can ALWAYS improve upon what they are currently doing.

Maybe you can consider taking in more Protein, weight training, and limiting more carbs. In about a month the scale may move a bit more when you alter these factors.

Again, don't panic. You made a healthy choice and YOU ARE A SUCCESS! Make some smaller adjustments if you would like to sustain maintenance or possibly increase weight loss.

[Mayte 0]

Thanks Kulita, i know I would have never lost this pounds by myself, it´s a great way to go.....and I feel and look much better now, but it is discouraging when you see yourself behind the average weight lost.

I´ll have to... don´t know, just live in a diet for the rest of my journey I guess....How sad!

[kulita 243]

Well, not really.

I mean if you think of diet as rabbit food then you are looking at this wrong. Each of us has to follow a diet and that is #1 Protein first. Everything else is secondary. There are a lot of people who are VERY happy with this surgery and eat delicious meals.

This lady http://theworldaccordingtoeggface.blogspot.com/

Is such an inspiration and she enjoys what she is eating... not to mention the food looks really good. Try out some of her recipes and follow Portion Control.< /p>

[cinward2001 141]

I´ll have to... don´t know, just live in a diet for the rest of my journey I guess....How sad!

Having a sleeve means you have to modify your "diet." Diet really just means what you eat day to day and how you eat. There isn't a "magical" WLS that lets you eat exactly what you want while still losing weight. It just doesn't happen, so you HAVE to be willing to make changes to what you eat.

Just from what you've written, I'd advise that you cut out the rice and Pasta. Doesn't matter that it's brown...pasta and rice are still high in calories. Also, the juice after a meal is mostly empty calories, and as a liquid, is doing very little to help you feel full.

And last, you might want to try waiting longer to drink after a meal. You won't know for sure, until you try it, if that's part of what's making you feel hungry so soon. Maybe tell yourself you'll make those changes for a week...see what happens on the scale.

And one last suggestion...if you've been working out the same way for a while, change it. For example, if you do mostly cardio, switch to some weight lifting. If you do one type of class, try a different one. Our bodies get more efficient the longer we do something, so it begins to lose its effectiveness. Same for food. If you're eating the same things now that you did 6 months ago, you're SMALLER now...so you have to make some changes (like the Pasta and juice) to continue to lose.

Good luck! And DO focus on the great changes you've made so far!

[kulita 243]

Just from what you've written, I'd advise that you cut out the rice and Pasta. Doesn't matter that it's brown...pasta and rice are still high in calories. Also, the juice after a meal is mostly empty calories, and as a liquid, is doing very little to help you feel full.

GREAT ADVICE! My NUT is always telling me to make sure that I "Don't drink my calories" Then I always say, "I have to have milk".... LOL. I agree try cutting out some of the carbs and change up your exercise. In a month, see if you notice a difference. If not, then you may want to see your DR.

[Mayte 0]

O.k. will do so I guess, there´s no other option, no carbs for me then...I wish I would have known this before surgery. No carbs "Is a diet". I was told and read on internet that I could eat everything healthy (no sugar, no fried food, no white flour, no sweets, ice cream, etc.) and that´s it.

By juice I meant Clight, it´s supposed to be 0cals and carbs.

About exercise I do 1 hour of spinning, 1 of Body Pump (weight lifting), and 1 hr of rowing. So I guess it has cardio and muscle work out.

I can´t believe I have to go on a diet, a no carb diet.

Thanks for the posts

[Yvette 2]

All good advice here. You're doing great with 66 lbs. down! I'm 2 years post op and at my goal, but I wasn't there at 1 yr. post op. I find myself going "back to basics" when I get off track with my diet. I actually pull out the diet and exercise plan my doctor gave me and check it against what I'm currently doing. You'd be surprised how one small deviation from the plan can impact your weight loss! Keep at it! You'll get there!

[BenisaMartim4 369]

There are so many things that factor into this. Your sleeve is not a failure. All of us function differently and have had different things going on with our health when we were sleeved. I am in a support group with ladies that all were sleeved within a month of each other. We are all 14 months+ -. Our weight loss ranges from 66# to 170#. I have lost 165#. My start weight was 335#. What was your start weight. Pounds lost is not the best way to look at it. You need to know % of body weight lost. This is how they figure it on the biggest loser. It's not fair to compare the weight loss of a person weighing 350-400# to that of a person weighing 200-250#. The bigger person is pretty much always going to drop big numbers faster. You also may have the opposite problem than what you think. You may not be eating enough. You will lower your BMR if your body presumes starvation. I was doing this to myself. I would ask my doctor to assess my routine. If he/she thinks you are doing everything right (keep up with it on my fitness pal so you can be POSITIVE of your intake) then I would consider going to an endocrinologist to have my BMR tested. If it shows that your metabolism is damaged, then they can tell you ways to help boost it. You did not make the wrong decision choosing the sleeve over the by-pass. It is much better to lose >60# and be healthy than to lose >100# and be malnourished and Vitamin deficient.

Sent from my iPhone using VST

[Mayte 0]

Thank you Benisa for your words too, i will keep on.....thinking I´m just half way there.

[HatheryOnHerWay 603]

Perhaps focus on cutting out the carbs for now, until you get to goal. Once you get to goal, you could certainly add back in the brown rice and Pasta as long as you aren't gaining weight back. Right now it sounds like your body just thinks it's at maintenance?

[Mayte 0]

My starting weight was 264 pounds

[cinward2001 141]

I can´t believe I have to go on a diet, a no carb diet.

It's not a no carb diet...there are carbs in a LOT of foods. You'll find carbs in vegetables, Protein, processed foods that are supposed to be mostly Protein, etc. You don't have to be "strict"...just try cutting out the Pasta and rice for a while. Or even cut out ONE for a week to see what happens.

You're looking for what works for YOU. What you can live with long-term while still working toward your goal weight.

[Mayte 0]

You know what cinward, exactly that! I keep the Atkins diet on my head. And when I hear no carb diet (or lets say 20 or 40grs per day), I keep remembering that in this diet if you fell off the wagon even once...it was "The kiss of Death", you would have to start all over again for your body to get into ketosis, and burn your storage fat bla,bla,bla....and you would have throwned away all your past effort.

So I guess here the key is to change that in my mind, I´ll eat low in carbs as much as I can, but if i fall once, I don´t have to think it´s the end, and just keep on. I have not throwned away anything, nothing is compromised, I can keep on....