I need to vent/complain....

[FrankyG 1,450]

First, I agree with everyone else - don't compare yourself to anyone else. You are losing weight at the pace your body wants to work at. Your friend eating crap and losing lots of weight? It's going to bite her in the ass eventually. Massive hair loss, saggy/sallow skin and no muscle tone.. and she will regain a significant amount of weight after a few years since she's not eating correctly NOW. This surgery is not a magic bullet; it is a tool to help kick start weight loss, but mainly it is to help YOU relearn how to eat healthy - the right foods and the right portion sizes.

I am a slow loser (way slower than you apparently!). What I started doing early on is to take measurements - chest, waist, hips, arms, thighs, calves. I'd mark down what my weight was, the measurements, and take some pics (front/back/side/arms raised). Some months, I'd only have a 5 pound difference if that. But my measurements WENT DOWN. I'd lose an inch off my hips, half inch off my arms... because in the times where it seemed like I was not losing actual weight... I was losing fat and gaining muscle. I was not stalled out unless you count the numbers on the scale. But fat is bulkier than muscle, so it wasn't obvious until I started tracking and documenting that exchange.

My NUT says to go no lower than 100 grams of carbs, but I do best on around 50-80. I don't sweat it if I go up over sometimes, but I try to stick to my goal of 80 most days. I also figure I'll be tracking my food for years and possibly for the rest of my life. I think that is a small price to pay to be healthy.

Now, I am no longer sad if the scale doesn't budge for weeks, because I know as long as I'm keeping up with my protein/carb intake and moving my (slowly shrinking) butt several times a week, I am still doing well.

And most of all, I'm retraining myself on how to be healthy for the rest of my life. Because THAT is the biggest thing all of us have to learn. And if it takes me a year of two to do lose all or even most of my excess weight, then I'll still consider it a success, because I am on a lifetime journey to change how I relate to food, how I move and how active I am - forever.

Edited October 9, 2015 by FrankiesGirl

[James Marusek 5,244]

Congratulations on losing 50 pounds over the first 4 months. I had RNY gastric bypass and my weight loss ended at about 6 or 7 months post op. But sleeve patients lose weight at a slower pace, but more consistent over a longer period of time. So take a deep breath and continue to follow the program and let the magic happen.

After surgery, I was drinking 3 Protein shakes a day. But as my meal volume increased, because I was concentrating on consuming high Protein meals, I was able to begin to drop my Protein Shakes from 3 a day to 2 then 1 and finally when my meal volume increased to 1 cup per meal, I completely took myself off all Protein Shakes. The point here is that protein shakes contain calories and as I dropped the protein shakes (while still meeting the daily protein requirement) I was able to kick-start my continued weight loss even when I hit a stall.

The daily protein requirement is a combination of the protein from meals combined with the protein from supplements (protein shakes, protein bars).