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helloooo fellow Torontonian! ❤️ re: specific program inquiry, if you are going through the OBN (Ontario Bariatric Network) your whole plan/program/schedule will be outlined for you. in my opinion, the program and guidelines are very generic and are applied to EVERYONE, so its not the greatest at taking individual needs into account. im a natural DIY-er, so i took what they prescribed and determined for myself what worked for ME and just left the rest. personally i think this is the best M.O., but i get its not in everyone's wheelhouse. my best advice would be: keep doing what works until it doesn't, then find something else that does. re: smoking: i was smoke free for about 10 yrs when i had wls (prior to that i was a pack a day smoker for about 20+ years. one year post wls i started again (i was on vacay and thought "one couldn't hurt", ha!) that ended up with smoking a pack a day again from 2019-2023. been smoke free since (again). as we all know, you will only succeed in quitting if you ACTUALLY, REALLY, WANT to. both times i quit it was cold turkey. both times because i had a minor health scare and i ended up pondering my mortality. hopefully you will find the impetus to quitting...its hard (i know!). do the best you can....you may fall off the wagon a couple (or maybe tonnes!) of times, but so long as you make an honest effort to TRY, you are already better off. good luck! ❤️

So tomorrow is two years from when I had my sleeve surgery, though it is only just over one year since my last procedure due to all my post of complications, and a few weeks ago I turned 50. Here is a picture of me at 40 and a picture at 50. My weight back in May 2015 was about 130kg (20st / 286lb), it went up and down in the years between to where I was 120kg before surgery and now I am between 63 & 65kg (10st/141lb) so I am now half the person I used to be. 40yrs vs 50yrs The last two weeks I have had really bad abdominal pain on and off and when it showed no signs of improvement I went to the emergency department where my bariatric surgeon had some of his team waiting for me. After CT scan and blood tests it showed my abdominal area was very inflamed but no infection thankfully so they hooked me up to painkillers and sent me home with a prescription for more pain killers (tramadol) and muscle relaxers. Yesterday I had my follow up and the surgeon has said that following a review of my results it looks like the clip that they had to place when I had my leak is now causing a reaction so I have to continue on the pain meds plus add in antibiotics for a couple of weeks. The surgeon has said the clip has to come out as it is a matter of quality of life for me going forward as he says the pain can come back any time in the future if left it. The choices he gave are that it can be done by open surgery to remove (which he says is his second choice) and his preference is to do a revision surgery to bypass. Given all the sleeve post op complications I told him that I didn’t want to go down a surgical route, especially back in the same hospital but he feels this is the best option though he did say I could of course get a second opinion. So I have done just that, I contacted one of the surgeons (a mentor of my bariatric surgeon) who I had to be transferred to when my leak would not heal (the one who had to ft the pigtail/tube in my stomach) and he has said from looking at my files he believes it can be removed without the need for surgery and can see me in two weeks time to review my case and check scans so fingers crossed he can do something endoscopic wise. I am due to get my arm lift surgery end of October so if I had to have stomach surgery in the next few months I wouldn’t then be able to get my lift. Obviously that is not a reason to decline the surgery if it is the best and only option but it would be great to get everything resolved without stomach surgery and still be able to get my arm lift.

Hello everyone! Question on weight stall. I had my surgery in May of 2024. I have not lost weight quickly but steadily and I am down 63 lbs. I have seem to stall for months 9 and 10 and then all of a sudden I lost .80 lbs in the last week. Has anyone gotten to month 8-10 and stalled and then started losing weight again? I have another 30 to go and I am hoping this is not where my body is comfortable. Also I have lost significant weight all across my body but still have a belly and abdomen. Of course it is smaller than it was but it just seem anything has budged from there for the longest time. I do have lymphodema in my from breast cancer so I am hoping it is not a solidifying of any lymphatic fluid (I have the massage machine and do manual massages). So I am hope it is just being stubborn. Thank you for any comments and personal stories with your journey you have regarding this.

Hello I am new in this community I wanted to say hello!

i am a big proponent of food tracking...but im anal and love spreadsheets and data so its actually kinda fun for me. so i get that its not for everyone and may actually be harmful for some in terms of anxiety, et. al. BUT...if you can commit to tracking everything you put in your mouth for a week (preferably two!) you can determine exactly what your habits are instead of guessing that you are "mostly on track". you will be surprised how much we underestimate what we eat (and for this very reason i used to always OVER-estimate everything i track/tracked). hopefully this data/info you collect can help you come up with a plan for YOU. but yeah, it takes a bit of commitment and effort. if this is not for you, the simplified version of my advice would be to do something else if the thing you are doing is not working. good luck! ❤️

You are definitely not alone! I still meet with my dietitian every month. I had gotten down to around 163–165 lbs, but after my BA, my weight went up to 175 and no matter what I do, I can’t seem to get back below that. I’ve tried strict tracking, changing my macros, hitting 10k+ steps a day, lifting regularly… all of it. When I told my dietitian this, she said that this might be where my body is happiest. At this point, I think my body is just really happy here. I feel strong, my clothes fit great, my workouts feel solid, and honestly I’m in the best shape I’ve ever been. Focusing less on the number and more on how I feel has helped me so much. There are so many other ways to measure progress besides the scale!

🤣😂 this is hilarious! Glad you got a new suit! Boobies contained! LOL

in the early years, i spent/wasted alot of time returning online purchases because i kept buying stuff i thought would fit me, but was really just too big. i'm 7 yrs post op this year, and i've since learned to check the measurements associated with the sizes before i buy. i'm used to ordering xs/xxs now. but before it used to blow my mind that i would fit into these tiny sizes. as with all things, give it some time and you'll get used to it as it becomes your new normal. happy shopping!! ❤️

I had a very similar experience! I bought something online in a medium based on a size chart, only to find that vanity sizing had done me in. I actually needed a small in that brand. I still felt like the sales clerk was judging me for asking for a small. On another note, the vanity sizing thing is so frustrating! I know women's sizing is the same, but I have found in men's sizes if you pick the size that's supposed to fit based on actual measurements a size chart, it's almost always too big. This wasn't an issue when I was obese because I probably wanted my clothes baggy. Now that I'm smaller, having a decent fit is more important, so I almost always pick the next smaller size of everything, and in some things have to go even smaller.

Aah, stalls. The eternal battle of weight loss. But yes, you can continue to experience stalls of varying lengths until you stop losing. Plus you’re getting close to your goal weight (or your new set point) so your rate of loss can slow right down to what seems like nothing - like measuring loss in ounces not pounds. The last 11kg I lost took about a year so less than a kilo (about a pound) a month on average but in those last months it was almost at a dead stop with fluctuations until it finally settled & didn’t change. Did you carry most of your weight in your abdominal area? If so, this might be why you are still carrying weight there as it is where you had the most to lose. Losing an inch off your thighs will look like you’ve lost more than losing an inch off your tummy because it is a larger area. But it wouldn’t hurt to speak with your doctor about possible build up of lymphatic fluid or lymphedema given your history.