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Please don't be afraid of food. I suggest speaking with your doctor and nutritionist. They may have ideas. I'm sorry this is going on. Another thing, please don't compare yourself to everyone else. It's so important protect your mental health through all this.

Good afternoon, everyone. I'm new here. I was looking for some kind of forum where I could interact with others like me. I think I may have found it. I live in South Texas, and I had a sleeve gastrectomy in Mexico in 2009 when I was 35. I initially weighed 340 lbs and lost 149 lbs. and went from a size 32 to a size 14. My goal was a 12, but I was really happy. I was exercising 5x a week on the elliptical for a whole hour nonstop! I kept the weight off for approximately 6 years. Unfortunately, all kinds of tragic events started changing my life. In 2014 my father passed away, and I took it really, really hard. I ended up on Xanax and Ambien. In 2015, I got divorced. In 2016, my mother passed away. In 2017, I was transferred from a job I really enjoyed to a brand new location with all different people to work with. Then the COVID Pandemic kept me teaching from home for a year and a half. It was literally one heartbreak after another. Rather than looking for actual help, I helped myself... to pills, alcohol, and crap food. Over the past 9 years, I regained all my weight. Even though I still felt restriction in eating (i.e. only half a burger or 1.5 slices of pizza, with no sides or drinks and I was done). I was 10 lbs away from my original weight before my sleeve. Last year, though, my school district sent out an email stating that WLS was now covered by our insurance. I was so excited! I looked into it, made many calls, and thought coverage was out of the question because I had already had a surgery. Our insurance covers "one surgery per life." However, since my first surgery was private pay, they went ahead and accepted covering my revision to a bypass. Today is my 18th day post op. I've lost 42 lbs altogether since May 11, but only 10 of those lbs since the surgery. I feel a little blue because I was hoping for more than a 10lb loss in 3 weeks. I lost more weight at the beginning when I started a semi-liquid diet to prepare for surgery. I was doing 3 shakes and one solid, no-carb meal. I know that revisions are slower than virgin surgeries. I am doing as much reading and research as I can. I just can't help it, I guess. After my sleeve, the weight loss was phenomenal. Right now I am consuming 450 cals, 60 g protein, and keeping my carbs under 40g. I am walking around my house (not outside because South Texas) 4x a day and was told I could start on the treadmill this coming Monday. Maybe I'm doing something wrong? I'm also trying to find ways to consume fiber without a lot of carbs. I've eaten 1/2 cup of pinto beans twice but, man, that's a lot of carbs. I wanted to try raspberries, but I'm afraid of the little seeds getting stuck in my sutures. Any advice, thoughts, suggestions?

You got this. All the best!

Focus on what the procedure will do for your health; it sounds like you're literally doing this to improve your quality of life and even save it. Excess skin is not going to harm you in most cases. You'll have the rest of your extended life to worry about that.

ride it out. the aversion to food will abate eventually for most. Good Luck! ❤️

Have you noticed your opinions becoming unpopular after WLS? I don't usually label my opinions as unpopular because that would sound like humble bragging. They are just my opinions. Not necessarily true or a fact. 

Congratulations!! The time will fly by! 😁My surgery is also scheduled for 8/31 but I've been told that it may be pushed back. Hopefully, we'll get to be surgery buddies!

I will take this any day because I had a butt shelf. You can not hide one of those

I think your goals are admirable. So many get caught up in how much they lose, how fast or slow they lose, how long it takes, etc. as they’re losing. Of course when we’ve lost our weight we all feel pretty darn happy about what we have achieved (& deservedly so). How you eat after you’ve stabilised is really up to you & how you want to live your life. If eating carbs fits in better with your lifestyle & your family then eat carbs. Just maybe choose better carbs - complex, whole & multi grains, low processed versions, smaller portions, or less often. You’ll work out what & how much of certain foods or food groups you need to eat, can eat, can eat occasionally, or those you may be better off avoiding. It’s your choice. Of course we can’t go back to how we used to eat - that’s just asking for trouble 🙂. Accompanied with this may be that your weight settles a little higher than at your lowest as you work out your caloric needs (what your body needs to function effectively to maintain your weight & activity level), eating style & lifestyle preferences and that’s okay. For me deciding not to call how I ate after I stabilised a ‘diet’ was a positive mental move. I’m not on a diet this is just how & what I eat. Diet had such negative connotations & memories for me: restrictions, being limited, missing out, etc. & failure. Personally, I cut out a lot of sugar & generally avoid artificial sweeteners & sugar substitutes whenever I can so I don’t eat cakes, biscuits, desserts etc. except a couple of times a year like Christmas. Don’t miss it. Don’t feel I’m missing out or being restricted & my friends & family accept it, no fussing or pushing me to eat. For example my niece was serving out cake for her 13th birthday earlier this year. When she got to me she asked what I’d like and added we have strawberries too. (I had strawberries.) It didn’t happen overnight but slowly it became just me. All the best.

not all bariatric diets are low-carb. Some are balanced. Also, once I got a ways out, I mostly just counted calories (although making sure I met my protein and fluid goals) losing weight via exercising is of course possible, but really tough. People overestimate how many calories they burn by exercising. According to research, exercise is much more effective in helping to maintain weight than it is to lose weight. Of course, it's always excellent for your overall health and people should do it (if they're able to, of course) - but as the primary weight loss tool, it's supposedly not that effective (well...unless you're spending a few hours a day at the gym or are into running marathons - that kind of intensity would probably do it!) I'm eight years out and have never reached the point where I've been able to eat without being concerned about my weight. I know from experience that if I eat too many calories for more than a couple of days, my weight will gradually start heading north again. Honestly, a lot of my never-been-obese friends are the same way- they have to watch what they eat. Unfortunately I think that's the way it goes for a lot of people - obese or not. Not many are blessed with the ability to eat whatever they want and not gain weight. also, you'll eventually get to the point where you can enjoy the things you do now in moderation. Nothing is off-limits for me And DS patients can generally eat more than RNY and VSG patients because of the malabsorption (RNY has some malabsorption of calories, but only for about a year, and it's not as strong as it is in DS people). Although if I'm not mistaken, I think DSers do have to be more careful with carbs - IIRC, they don't digest them well - and I know traditional DSers don't have to worry too much about fat (but not sure about SADI patients) - but check with your clinic. They'll know for sure.