Thucydides

I had sleeve surgery in November 2015 and started out at 518 lbs. Before surgery, I could not walk a block without losing my breath and I needed a handicapped tag for parking. When I taught, I had to give my lectures sitting down because I could not stand for 50 minutes at a time. Everything hurt and my health was in really bad shape. Fast forward just under 3 years, I'm in complete remission from diabetes, take no medications, my weight has remained consistent in the 225-230 lb range, and I have no trouble running 4 miles a day. Four years ago, my wife and I took a cruise where I did not bother to get off the boat at most of the stops because I could not walk during any of the shore excursions. Yesterday, I just came back from a hiking trip in Iceland where I climbed and hiked a glacier. If I can do this, you can absolutely do this. There is nothing special about me. One important thing: the surgery is a help, but it is not a silver bullet. I still have to consistently make time to exercise (which has forced me to make it a priority) and I still have to watch what I eat and count calories. Temptations are still there and it is absolutely possible for me to overeat and gain weight if I am not careful.

Congratulations, BlueCrush! That is terrific news and a great achievement!

I started pretty close (518 lbs) to where you are and had nearly identical fears. Same 3-month diet, sleep study, etc. I remember worrying about whether I would survive the surgery but, in the end, I knew that I had a surgeon that was excellent and resolved to follow the pre-op program to better my odds. Everything turned out fine. Actually, much better than I ever expected. The best advice that I can give is really simple: follow the plan recommended by your doctor and focus on things day by day. Losing 300 lbs seemed impossible to me, but following my nutrition and exercise plan each day was much more manageable. As I did that, the weight came off. The hardest thing for me to wrap my head around was that I would feel so much better and so much more energetic even after I lost 30 lbs. I felt even better after losing 50 lbs, 100 lbs, etc. In short, focusing on the end goal sometimes obscures the fact that you will notice positive changes all along the way that will make it worthwhile and easier to stick with. I cannot begin to describe to you how different my life is at 210 lbs versus 518 lbs. Still blows my mind! There is nothing special about me. If I can lose and keep off 300+ lbs, you can absolutely do it. Good luck!

I had my surgery about 2.5 years ago and I, too, also only told a couple of close friends and my family. I wasn't ashamed of surgery, but I preferred not to have to explain and/or answer questions. I suspect that people probably guess that I had surgery, since dropping 300 lbs is a bit of a change. Honestly? I regret not telling people about it. I wish that I had done this years ago, as I think about all of the opportunities that I missed and all of the pain & aggravation that being 518 lbs caused. If there is one person who is in the position that I was and could feel a sense of hope from my experience, I would really regret not being able to offer it. I also don't want to contribute to any sort of false stigma to bariatric surgery. Like the other guys on this forum, I have worked pretty hard at this and surgery was not a magical cure-all.

As good luck would have it, I slipped on a small patch of ice while jogging (someone was running their sprinklers in 20 degree weather & I didn't see the ice in the dark). I have a consult with an orthopedist next week, but have been diagnosed with a torn rotator cuff. If I have to have surgery, I'm kind of nervous about the effect that this will have on my exercise routine, as it looks like the recovery from surgery is pretty long. Anyone have any experience with rotator cuff surgery or physical therapy?

Hi redliner, sorting out the number of calories to shoot for in maintenance is a struggle. Just eyeballing your stats, at 6' & 220ish lbs, 1300-1500 calories for a guy seems pretty low, particularly if you are doing regular cardio & weight training. By way of comparison, I had my surgery about when you did & I am just a bit taller than you. I have trouble keeping weight on if my calorie intake falls below ~2700 calories per day. One thing that I found valuable was to have a resting metabolic rate test done. I went to a sports science center at a nearby university and they did a series of tests (RMR, DEXA scan, bone density, etc.) that gave me a pretty good window of where things stood for me and what I needed to do to make continued progress (particularly in terms of building strength and increasing cardiovascular fitness). If something like that is available near you, it might help give you a better sense of what is going on.

Quick follow up on the rotator cuff after seeing the orthopedist. On the negative side, my MRI showed 4 tears, although all were 2/3 tears and not full ones. On the positive side, my dr is hopeful that physical therapy may delay, if not prevent, the need for surgery. All in all, this was exactly what I was hoping to hear. Thanks again, everyone, for the helpful advice.

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. I appreciate it. What you describe, BigViffer, fits what I have read elsewhere. My surgical consult is Thursday, so I will have a better sense then of whether it will be physical therapy first or surgery now.

Aquatics are a great idea. I didn't have access to that, but had similar problems initially with even small amounts of walking. I started very small (just walking laps inside my house) and gradually built up to more and more walking. My focus was just getting some movement. As the weight came off, which will happen if you follow the dietary plan, exercise gets much easier.

Chandni, I can completely relate to this, because I dealt with exactly the same thing prior to my surgery (and for some time afterward). I was 518 lbs before surgery. This meant that may back and knees were enormously painful for any amount of standing or walking beyond a couple of minutes. I started out just trying to walk laps around the inside of my house. A few minutes at a time, gradually increasing it over time. As the weight came off, it got easier to exercise and do things that I never could do at my initial starting weight. I'm now a little bit more than 2 years post-op and have gone from needing to park in handicapped spaces because I couldn't walk due to knee and back issues to jogging 4 miles every morning. There is nothing special about me, so you can absolutely do it! My best advice to you is to start small and just focus on moving a bit more each day. You will see, as you lose weight it will get substantially easier. Good luck!

100 lbs down in 4 months is terrific progress. Keep up the good work! The best part is that it will get easier and easier to exercise and be active, which I think really helped me. Before surgery, I couldn't walk a block without getting out of breath and had to use a handicapped parking permit. Now, I jog 4 miles every morning at 5 am. I never thought that would happen.

I started at 518 lbs 2 years ago and am now at 214 lbs and holding steady. I have some loose skin in my arms and a little bit in my legs. I still have a lot in my stomach area. To be honest, it hasn't been a big deal for me. There isn't anything that the loose skin prevents me from doing. It does give me a bit of a middle-aged paunch in my stomach area if I tuck in my shirt, but compression shorts or shirts pretty well minimize that. Obviously, plastic surgery would be an option to deal with the loose skin, but I doubt that I will do it. It doesn't bother me enough at this point to want to deal with the expense and recovery time.

I'm 2 years out now and I had exactly the same issues. My wife and I used to love going to restaurants. Now, I'm really ambivalent about it. I generally eat because I have to, but otherwise food doesn't get me too excited anymore. Like axlr8n, I do have to think about food more than I thought that I would have and generally eat about 6-7 small meals per day. I had the exact same clothing problems and found Ebay to be a great help. As I lost weight, I ordered clothes from Ebay. Once I lost more weight, I sold those clothes and then bought a couple of sizes smaller. Only now that I am at my maintenance weight am I buying new stuff from places that I never could have shopped at when I was a 7XLT or 8XLT.

One thing that I am glad about is that I had read a fair amount about what to expect in terms of mental changes. Even then I still wasn't completely prepared for it. I've lost over 300 lbs now and weigh about 215 lbs. I'm going to a concert tonight and still worry about whether I will fit in the seat, because that is something that I always worried about. I'm still surprised when I try on regular clothes and they fit. For a good while, I was wearing clothes that were 2 sizes too big because it seemed unfathomable that I could ever get below a XXL. The biggest adjustment was in how others treated me as I become closer to normal in weight. For a long time, it really pissed me off as people become nicer to me. Clerks were more helpful in stores, strangers were friendlier in social situations, people at work treated me differently. It took a while for me to get my head around that. For you guys getting ready for surgery, I wish you all the best. I wish that I could adequately describe to you how much it has improved my life. I've gone from routinely missing out on a lot of things to now doing almost anything that I want. Heck, I jog now! Willingly! At 5 am in the morning! I could have never seen that coming 3 years ago. Looking back, the surgery and recovery seem like a blink of the eye.

Best of luck, DaAlchemist. I had a similar experience with the gastric sleeve as the others. My surgeon and I thought it was the safer route at my starting weight. His expectation was that with the sleeve I would get down from 518 lbs to about 305 lbs. Instead, at nearly 2 years post-op I'm at 214 lbs. Best decision I ever made.

Welcome Batcap and congratulations on the progress that you have made thus far. I'm about the same age as you and started out at a much higher weight. The difference that this has made for me is far beyond my wildest expectations. I wish you all of the best do your pre-op period and your surgery.

I tried compression shirts, but I never found ones that worked well for me. They would constantly roll up on me, which was uncomfortable and kind of defeated the point. I had better luck with high waist compression briefs like these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D1C8FKG/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

One thing to think about, the hormonal effects of bariatric surgery can cause some pretty strong feelings of depression. I dealt with it for a couple of months after surgery, feeling exceptionally depressed for seemingly no reason. I had never previously had depression problems before that. I knew that something was off, but couldn't shake it. By my 3rd month post-surgery, the symptoms passed. If things don't feel right, you start to feel worse, or the symptoms don't pass, please talk to your surgeon to see if what you are dealing with might be something along those lines.

I was nervous about my psych visit, too (I'm just about 2 years post-op). It actually turned out to be nothing to worry about. I took a long written psych evaluation test (multiple choice) and then had a conversation with the psychiatrist. The primary purpose seemed to be to get a handle on how willing you are to follow the recommendations for the surgery. The fact that you are working through your 3 month supervision plan and seeking out answers to things that you are nervous about suggests that you are doing all of the right things. No need to stress about tomorrow. Good luck!

I'm nearly 2 years post-op and have never gone to a gym. I started off gradually with walking and increased the tempo and distance over time. When I first started walking, I could only do laps inside my house (I started at 518 lbs). After that, I moved to walking at a park and tried to walk a mile. It took a while for me to do that. At that point, it took me about 27 minutes to walk a mile. Now, I walk 4 miles every morning at about a 13 min/mile clip. At about 6 months post-op, I added weightlifting, kettlebells, and a rowing machine to my routine. The biggest key is to find something that you enjoy and can stick with. I never felt that I had time to work out, but the added energy has helped give me extra time to be able to fit in exercise. Best of luck!

I have had a similar experience to James (although I had a gastric sleeve). I had very low levels in my initial blood work post-op and have been taking a slow release iron supplement ever since. That has gotten my iron levels back closer to normal & have not had any energy problems. In addition to separating iron & calcium supplements, I was also advised by my dr. to talk the iron supplement with vitamin C. The vitamin C apparently helps with iron absorption.

This was a serious concern for me before surgery. I had severe arthritis in my knees and took meloxicam for it daily (an orthopedist said I had the knees of a 70 year old when I was 42). I also took Bayer Back & Body for back pain. I genuinely wondered how I would manage without it since NSAIDS are a complete no-go with my surgeon. I'm now nearly 2 years post-op and have not taken any type of pain medicine since the surgery. My knee and back pain got better quickly as I lost weight and is now completely gone.

A key thing that my surgeon has preached is avoiding grazing between meals. Now that I'm trying to maintain my current weight, given the amount that I can eat at any one time, I am finding it impossible to get enough calories in without eating throughout the day (ie; grazing). Right now I am at a target of 2400 calories/day and I am still losing 1-2 lbs per week. I am interested in how other guys have dealt with this. Do you tend to eat throughout the day and just focus on tracking and making good choices in what you eat or are you doing something else? Right now, I am finding myself eating even when I am not hungry just to try to hit a calorie target and limit further weight loss. I don't want to scale back the amount of exercise that I do, but I also see that having to eat throughout the day could also potentially send me down a road back toward some bad habits. Any advice?

Thanks, blizair09. That is really helpful and fits pretty closely what I have been doing as well. Congratulations on your incredible progress!

I'm having a similar issue. I've gradually upped my calorie target to find a steady maintenance level. I'm at 2400 calories per day and still losing 1-3 lbs per week, despite the fact that I'm already 7 lbs below the weight that my surgeon suggested that I should not go below. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk