Matt Z

You **DO NOT** have to take that doctor's word, you are allowed a second opinion. Why would the doctor what you to be at higher risk of health issues than be healthy? You also do NOT need to see a VA doctor. You could find a doctor that works private and public sector, like my Surgeon and a few doctors around here (I work at the VA.) You should be able to have your usual therapist do the eval. That sounds so super ridiculous. Good Luck!

I guess I must be the oddball, I seem to sweat more when active. I do get WAY colder now too.

My surgery and all tests were/are being performed/evaluated/monitored by a Lifespan Training Hospital here in Rhode Island.

This *might* take care of 1 aspect... and only if the person uses milk (And I believe this study was done using full fat milk.) *BUT* this study wasn't performed on those with an altered and/or shortened intestinal/digestive tract, It doesn't change the diuretic or increased acid production sides of Caffeine ingestion. Just making sure folks have all sides of the puzzle to make their choices.

My Apologies, Didn't see the date on the side there, just that you were listed as a lap band, and you didn't state you were going in for revision. Good luck on everything! I hit 50 lbs lost today since my pre-surgical check in on March 2nd!

First, congrats on starting your WLS journey. Second, Please do not take this as anything negative, but please do some research into the band, it's being phased out due to overhyped marketing and overwhelming under performance. Even the top 2 manufacturers are no longer making replacement parts, one company sold that portion of their business completely. There are far greater numbers of people that have had issues, complications or performance that was so subpar that they required revision to another WLS. I'm one of those revisions. I was banded in November of 2011. Lost 70lbs or so, but that was it, I was stuck bounding back and forth between 300 - 310 (and sometimes a little higher) nothing I did would break that plateau. I got stuck on foods that should have been fine, I had issues with leafy greens... in the end I revised to RNY and wish I went that route from the start. I got lucky, I didn't have any symptoms of major complications, but my band was 100% encapsulated with scar tissue and took my surgical team over 3 times longer to remove than it should have... I don't even want to know what would have happened if I didn't have it removed. Just a heads up, be informed and get all the information up front. Whichever you choose, understand it's not going to be an easy ride, WLS is not the short cut fast track to a skinny you. It all takes time, effort, patience and practice. Good Luck!

I was in a similar boat, had the band back in 11/2011, lost 70, then gained some back and then just couldn't lose anymore weight no matter what I did. So, I had the band removed and revised to RNY, wish I had done so sooner. Also, something they doesn't get discussed often, Your band could have some serious issues and you won't know unless they open you up. In my case, I had no *major* issues, I had some problems with certain foods, ut no slippage or erosion. Yet, when they went to remove the band for revision to RNY, the band was 100% encapsulated with scar tissue and took 3+ hours just to remove... So, you might not have any symptoms and you could have a ticking time bomb band in you, like I did.

Personally, I just won't take anyone's word without clinical evidence, I'm in the middle of a trial being overseen by my surgical staff, nutritionist, hospital pharmacist and head nurse. I'm not taking ANY vitamins orally except the required B vitamins. So when I get my results back, then we will know empirically if the patches do in fact work or not, just saying I'm not going to take the word of someone that might be a doctor but more than likely isn't a pharmaceutical specialist. (Just because someone is a teacher or college professor, doesn't mean they know everything about everything...) I get my blood drawn this coming Saturday, Follow up with my surgeon on the 18th. I will certainly keep folks posted on my findings.

I guess I got lucky, I'm 2 months out and haven't noticed any slowing in hair growth or thinning out yet either. My primary said it usually happens at the 3 month mark... so I guess we'll see.

It's amazing how different each doctor is, I was told I could use the elliptical as soon as I got home!

Using PatchMD patches myself, no need to chew or swallow anything. Just slap them on and go. I'm doing a test with my team, I'm not taking ANY oral vitamins outside of the B vitamins. So in a few weeks when I get my blood drawn, I'll know if these patches work or not.

Can you link any studies on this... I can't find a single proper study saying they are bad, Lots opinion back and forth, but opinion and fact are rarely equal. I did find this clinical study supporting using Drop Sets posted on The Journal of Sports Science that shows that Drop Sets are actually rather beneficial. https://www.jssm.org/gecjssm-15-562.xml.xml But like with anything... who knows what science is going to say this week... Remember when eggs were bad? Then good again, then just the yellow was bad, now we are back to them being good again?

To tag onto Ash's #3, Caffeine also binds to calcium and renders it unusable by your body... so in a situation where calcium intake is important, caffeine needs to be cut or at the very least you need to understand that it's going to attempt to rob you of calcium so you need to ensure you offset.

That's a very common issue for high protein diets with whey. They swapped out you and still have the same issue? What brands have you tried so far, are they pre-made or powder, if powder what are you using for liquid?

Be sure to pick up some dry mouth spray and lip balm for right after surgery when you can't drink anything for a while... REALLY helps make the first part of recovery that much easier. Congrats and Good Luck!

Congrats on the break through! Those concerns and doubts after the fact are tough. But they do make the breakthrough that much sweeter!

Weighing every day can be madding. ESP if that's the ONLY number you get to look at. I always suggest getting another metric to check if possible, like if you can find a scale that also does body fat. This way you have more than 1 metric to follow. I don't know how many days I've gained weight, or stayed the same... and actually lost body fat. The best advice I can give you is to stay on track of your intakes and any exercising. The math never fails, If calories consumed is less than calories burned, you WILL be losing something... either fat, or weight (or muscle if you aren't consuming enough protein!) Keep up the good work, you got this!

Go for the unsalted versions if possible. It'll help with ensuring you don't accidentally grab that water during eating, gotta make sure you keep the 30 mins before / 30 mins after rule going... which isn't easy for spicy or salty foods. And watch the calories as well as stated. Not sure Bypass folks have "sliders" like Sleeved folks do though... The one thing to be aware of is amounts, with comfort foods, ESP ones you typically eat without paying attention to what you are doing... you can go overboard without even realizing it. Also, you *might* not have the same tolerance for those hot things after surgery. I've noticed some things just don't sit well anymore, like ginger for instance, just does NOT play will with my new set up. Maybe buy a small $99 bag of them to test out, that way you get your fix and you won't be out a whole can/jar if you can no longer tolerate it.

2 months and 4 days. (Don't let the total weight in the post box on the left fool you, that's total from when I had the band installed in 2011)

It is very scary. I won't even pretend like I didn't have countless nights wondering if I was doing the right thing. Not just for myself, but my family. Hell, I even went as far as to write out good byes to family members, just in case. I've felt like a failure for too long... I decided I wasn't going to let that happen again.

Gottcha, for the pre-made. I've only used powdered versions, so that'll be where my advice leans towards.

I'm confident that we all have that though, even if we never admit it. I mean, we have gotten to a point where we are talking about surgical intervention to help us with our already failing habits. So, it's 100% natural to have some doubts or be scared. But this is where you get to take the reigns and decide that you won't fail. Failing, is a choice. Failing is when we decide to give up. If you try and don't succeed, as long as you keep trying, you aren't actually failing, you are just figuring out what actually works for you. So, decide that you won't fail. Choose to not give up this time. Choose to take any and all missteps as learning experiences and ONLY as learning experiences. This is your time to mold yourself back into the image you wish. You got this!

Just watch the calorie count on Muscle Milk (I love it, please don't get me wrong, it's just on the high end for calories for a protein)

I've been a fan of the "cardio sandwich" you do a some cardio (or fat burning) then you do some weights, then you do more cardio. Like right now, I'm doing 20-40 mins of cardio (depending on the exercise) then I do strength training, then I go back and do another 20-40 mins of cardio. I'd focused mainly on the fat burning up front, because we are all still learning our limits and our intake isn't the best. For strength, I'm a fan of Dropsets. You lift a certain weight until you can't, then you lower (or drop) the weight down slightly and keep going until you can't, then you drop weight again and repeat until you physically can't lift anything or you run though the whole set. Like yesterday I did 10 reps at 70lbs of hammer curls and then worked my way down to 10 lbs in 5 lb increments, doing as many as I could for each lower weight. REALLY gets those muscles pumped! At first, start with fat burn and cardio and LIGHT weights... you don't want to stress your abdomen too much. Hell, at 6 weeks out I was doing lateral pulls and felt one of my incision points "pinch"... since I was stretching the muscle group at the time... I knew it wasn't a pinch... it was a tear.

I'm with you there... although I won't begrudge anyone from enjoying them... some people like eating bugs too... LOL