Matt Z

We all have or will get frustrated with our weight loss.
We all have or will question if we are doing things the right way.

I'm not different.

I wanted to showcase why focusing on the short term isn't the best thing to do.

Here we have my 1 week weigh ins. I'm so super frustrated with this. I've got this goal I want to meet and it's getting tougher and tougher. 2.7 lbs is still a respectable drop. But, I see this line and it makes me sad.


Here is my month. 7.4 lbs. This isn't great at all. The downward trend is good, but the rate, really gets me frustrated.


Here is where things start looking much MUCH better. Here is my year in review. 85.2 lbs total. Here is where we can start seeing why it's so important to look at the whole journey and not just the small daily/weekly or even monthly numbers. I am proud and pleased when I see this chart.


And here is my full weight loss weigh in history. Here is where you can clearly see the struggles. You can see where I got the Lap-Band and started this whole process. You can see where the Band and I stopped working well together. You can see the gains and losses, all the super frustrating stalls. But what I really want people to take away from this is, the whole picture shows the real story. When we focus too much on the small things, we lose focus. When we don't take the whole journey into account, both past and future... we lose sight of our own successes.



I hope this helps someone to get through a stall or to realize that, it's never too late to start over.
Just keep moving forward and try your best not to worry about the small little blips when the whole history will show something much different.

Stay Strong.

Thanks Wanda!

That's great that you have someone that can do the taping for you, VERY important to track your fat loss, ESP when the weight doesn't move on you... which happens with muscle growth and Water retention. I weigh in daily, I get it's not the suggested method, but I like having as many data sets for tracking trends. I'm glad I can provide my information and experience to hopefully help others.

The human body loves to keep things status quo. So when you start messing with intake, it does whatever it can to hold onto fat and energy stores. It does end up giving up and getting with the new program... for a bit anyway, then it gets all clingy with the fat cells again... as long as you are tracking your BMR and intakes, and are getting plenty of Water (128oz +) then you'll be ok. I so totally get the frustration! If you can, get a body fat measurement device or find a gym or nutritional store that has one, paying attention to fat loss, I feel, is pretty important, we see weight as a single factor, but, bones, muscle, tendons, our organs all contribute to our weight, the goal of Weight Loss Surgery is to reduce the weight from Fat only. It really should be called Fat Loss Surgery, and I think that would get more people paying attention to their fat content rather than focusing only on the weight number.

We all have or will get frustrated with our weight loss.
We all have or will question if we are doing things the right way.

I'm not different.

I wanted to showcase why focusing on the short term isn't the best thing to do.

Here we have my 1 week weigh ins. I'm so super frustrated with this. I've got this goal I want to meet and it's getting tougher and tougher. 2.7 lbs is still a respectable drop. But, I see this line and it makes me sad.


Here is my month. 7.4 lbs. This isn't great at all. The downward trend is good, but the rate, really gets me frustrated.


Here is where things start looking much MUCH better. Here is my year in review. 85.2 lbs total. Here is where we can start seeing why it's so important to look at the whole journey and not just the small daily/weekly or even monthly numbers. I am proud and pleased when I see this chart.


And here is my full weight loss weigh in history. Here is where you can clearly see the struggles. You can see where I got the Lap-Band and started this whole process. You can see where the Band and I stopped working well together. You can see the gains and losses, all the super frustrating stalls. But what I really want people to take away from this is, the whole picture shows the real story. When we focus too much on the small things, we lose focus. When we don't take the whole journey into account, both past and future... we lose sight of our own successes.



I hope this helps someone to get through a stall or to realize that, it's never too late to start over.
Just keep moving forward and try your best not to worry about the small little blips when the whole history will show something much different.

Stay Strong.

WLS is a tool. It's 100% up to you to work with it. If you don't have any motivation, you need to look somewhere else, it's not the WLS causing that. If your eating is out of control... reign that crap in, only you can do that. You've got 2 options. Do what you need to... or don't. It's your call. No one here is going to do it for you. Your WLS won't do it for you. You have to look yourself in the mirror and decide that you are no longer going to allow yourself to keep ignoring what needs to be done.

Start over. Restart your Pre-op diet and follow it to the letter, pretend in you didn't have the surgery and are going to get it... start your pre-op, then fast the day of "surgery", then start working through your post-op diet. This will get you back into the swing of things and will "reset" your pouch/sleeve a bit.

You have to be the one to make this work. So, make the decision to do it.

I figured it would be nice to have a section where we could just confess to some of the potentially dumb things we've done, pre or post op. Just so others can see we are all human. I want this to be kept as civil as possible, where people can own up to things without anyone else chiming in with anything negative, we all know what we did wasn't "right" but I'm sure we ALL have done something we shouldn't have.

I'll start.

I cheated on my pre-op diet a few times. I also like to find loop holes and exploit the crap out of them. I drank beer for a week+ on my pre-op, because it didn't say I couldn't. I only stopped after I was forced to, because my wife asked my surgeon and of course they said "no"... boo. I also ate a whole slice of French meat Pie at my Dad's 60th birthday luncheon.

I cheated on my post-op diet/puree stage a bit too. I ate rice cakes and Protein chips or other veggie chips. Not a lot, but it happened. I "pureed" a steak and cheese sandwich once. I ate a few fried ravioli on my puree stage as well.

This past weekend, I had a beer. My wife and I took my parents out to dinner at a local casino, it's Restaurant week, so we found a good looking location and went out to eat, part of the deal was that you got a draft beer with your meal. So, I had a shipyard summer ale with my grilled chicken parm sandwich (only ended up eating 3 bites of the chicken and none of the bread).

I did all that thus far and nothing bad happened.
I understand the changes are to ensure we stick to our diets, but understanding that we are all human and WILL either slip up or just stray from our diets on purpose like I did. It's good to see that, it's possible to still live and be able to enjoy a few things we "shouldn't" without any negatives happening.

So, what's your WLS confession?

LOL yeah, I've been doing a lot of ab exercises to help with my back issues. I almost couldn't keep the grin off my face when I was able to do 3 sets of 10 of incline bench crunches while holding a 25 lb plate. And the fact that I can actually start to feel them is just so damn cool LOL.

No idea why they are dumping PatchMD for PatchAid. But, I'll just have to spend my money somewhere else. I was using points to help offset the cost, but... if they are moving to a new brand for no reason... I guess I'll have to move along as well.

No worries! I knew going into this that I was looking at an uphill battle against everyone that was against the Patches for whatever reason. ***AND*** I went into this open minded, if they worked, they worked. If they didn't work, they didn't work. I did not start this little experiment biased one way or another. I read all the positives and negatives so I was aware, but I started this with zero expectations other than *something* would happen. I'm happy that my labs are all coming back good, I'll update anyone that wants to know when I get my 9 month labs done early / mid - December.

I've always been a "reality over perception" person... ESP being overweight.

If my levels were low.... then my team would have said the Patches aren't working. But since my levels are all where they are supposed to be... then they are working.

The **ONLY** 2 things I take in addition to the patches are 1 10,000 Vitamin D a week, because I live in New England and we don't get enough sun to make enough of the vitamin. And I take a once a week B12, my levels were normal before being placed on this extra supplement, and it was done simply for precautionary reasons, it was not necessary, in fact if my 9 month labs are high in the B12, they are going to have me stop taking it.

I do not take **ANY** other required supplements because the patches are performing the way they are advertised.


Your logic is odd. I can take your arguments against the patches, replace them with "chewables" and your idea still sticks, "you are eating food so therefore the chewables aren't doing anything"

My Dollar amount per day isn't much higher than if I was using chewables. I wake up, slap on my patches and I'm done, I don't have to worry about "supplement burp" upset stomachs, flavors (or lack there off) I don't even have to worry about the pile of pills I'd have to take to get all the supplements I'm getting from the patches. I went into this knowing that the clinical results are still pending, I discussed my choice with my surgeon, nutritionist, head nutritionist, head nurse, head pharmacy tech. They all agreed that on paper, the patches look great and they agreed to allow me to "test" them, to the point where there is a paper planned revolving around my tests and results and the hospital is looking at my results to help them push the patches into the elderly patient community given the elderly can have issues with not only taking pills, but remembering to take all of them. I researched the living hell out of the patches, found reports and results from early testing, I've reached out to the manufacturer etc. I read every slam piece out there and **ALL** negative reports are from people that haven't used them, haven't spoken with anyone that actually has, they base their information on unconfirmed stories and a lack of research about the product. The problem with using a lack of information as a reason not to use something is, there is no evidence they don't work. But, every single user that's had their blood drawn and had their doctors tell them their levels were good, are all the success stories proving the patches *do* in fact work.

Now, I did state "For me" I will not pretend that things like skin density, composition, hydration levels, oil production, hair density, and patch placement location are not going to have an effect on efficacy. But reduced efficacy still doesn't equate to the patches "not working".

I've been on the Patches for almost 9 months total now, my 3 month and 6 month labs were all good. I'm on supplemental Vitamin D (once a week) because I live in New England and we don't get enough sunlight to generate the Vitamin naturally, and they put me on a once a week B12 just in case, my levels had dropped slightly, but were still well within the normal range, they just wanted to be cautious with the B12. But literally every single other test came back normal and I'm **ONLY** using the Patches (aside from the D and B12)

I'll have my 9 month post op labs drawn next month. I'm suspecting more of the same, all good levels.

As someone using the Patches, and having my levels tracked closely, and those levels all being within norms... The patches are working, at least for me. But, blindly saying something doesn't work... is just daft. I understand the clinical trials are still pending results, but, there are PLENTY of folks using them, and having the blood work show they are working just fine.

Thanks for accepting the truth... too many times I'm curt and to the point with folks on here and they get all weepy about it or defensive.

Good luck... it's tough and it sucks, sometimes it just takes facing down your demons. Or, swap out for things that fit your diet!

OK.
Stop.

Pretty simple. You know you shouldn't eat the, so don't eat them.

Sorry if this is blunt or callous, but, seriously, what do you expect someone online is going to do for you? No one can do anything for you. Hell, even if you went to a doctor, and they told you again not to eat sweets, the *only* person that is going to stop you from eating what you shouldn't... is you.

Is it hard, sure. But at the end of the day, only *YOU* control what *YOU* do. You decide to give into the cravings. They don't make choices on their own... Step up and do what you need to do. Focus on all the reasons you wanted the surgery to begin with.

This is your surgery. This is your tool. This is your future. Own it.

@Wishful.shrinking seems like your surgeon is a bit of a sexist a$$. Is he really the best in the area? If so, maybe it's best just to ignore him or placate him until after your surgery. Telling anyone that they shouldn't do something, based on outmoded social "norms" has no place in medicine... sadly these small brained dinosaurs still exist in the wild. By all means bulk up. Larger muscle burns more fat than smaller muscle... *NO ONE* has the right to tell you what to look like. That's 100% your call.

I would be offended if I were in your shoes. But you need to pick and chose the battles, do you fight him on your personal goals... and have to settle for a potentially less skilled doctor? Or do you just brush it off as the ramblings of moron that just happens to be the best body mechanic in your area? That's also your call.

Either way, good luck and happy body building!

That's a fairly old report and does not include the rate of revision from Sleeve to Bypass in the "complications" It also seems to include the dumping in the Bypass but not for the Sleeve as far as "complications". The rate of Sleeve to Bypass revision is fairly high. This also doesn't include or account for the medical advancements that have become common practice over the past several years AND seems to include older post op issues from older forms of the surgery. And, lets talk about the fact that Gastric Bypass happens more often than the Sleeve, thus again skewing the real numbers.

Case by case. They would come out about even. Except with the looming revision for the sleeve.

I had the band. I needed revision. So I had to have 2 surgeries thus increasing my overall risk as opposed to getting the bypass first which would have lowered my overall risk.

Any information, when taken without all facts can seem scary. But you need to look at the entire picture.

273 SGs were performed of which 6.6% (n = 18) were converted to RYGB most commonly due to inadequate weight loss (65.3%) and severe reflux (26.1%).
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28416180



https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29496440
You've got approx. a 10% chance that you'll need revision to another surgery.

So, maybe 1 surgery vs 1 surgery without factoring in revision increasing the risks because now you've had 2 surgeries instead of 1, leaving out dumping for the sleeve but adding it in for the bypass, sure, it looks like the bypass is a much more dangerous surgery. When you factor EVERYTHING in... pretty sure they break even if not a little in favor of the bypass.

You still can't undo the sleeve though, no matter what happens. 70-90% of your stomach is gone. Nothing usually gets removed in the bypass, just moved around.

Again, either way. Good luck with your choice.

There are actually not more compilations with the bypass than the sleeve, this is incorrect. Also, the sleeve is 100% non-reversible, because parts of your anatomy end up in the waste. The bypass is actually reversible in certain situations, the reversal is tough and has it's own complications, but it is possible and does happen.

Honestly, I'm really happy that I didn't go with the sleeve (I was a band revision and my surgeon *will not* do band to sleeve due to the increased staple line failure risk) I'm over a year with my bypass and I still am so very happy with it. To each their own, just, make sure you are basing your decision on facts, not feelings. Good luck!

The bypass will prevent GERD, the sleeve has a chance of causing it or making it much, much worse. Stick with the facts and figures over feelings... because feelings associated with things we don't know much about... are generally not accurate. I was afraid of the bypass too at one point, because I had the wrong information. I got the band. I really wish I had just gotten the bypass from the get go and not waste so much money on 2 surgeries only because I was afraid of something based on the wrong information.

My personal experience here. Good luck with whatever you chose to do!

I figured it would be nice to have a section where we could just confess to some of the potentially dumb things we've done, pre or post op. Just so others can see we are all human. I want this to be kept as civil as possible, where people can own up to things without anyone else chiming in with anything negative, we all know what we did wasn't "right" but I'm sure we ALL have done something we shouldn't have.

I'll start.

I cheated on my pre-op diet a few times. I also like to find loop holes and exploit the crap out of them. I drank beer for a week+ on my pre-op, because it didn't say I couldn't. I only stopped after I was forced to, because my wife asked my surgeon and of course they said "no"... boo. I also ate a whole slice of French meat Pie at my Dad's 60th birthday luncheon.

I cheated on my post-op diet/puree stage a bit too. I ate rice cakes and Protein chips or other veggie chips. Not a lot, but it happened. I "pureed" a steak and cheese sandwich once. I ate a few fried ravioli on my puree stage as well.

This past weekend, I had a beer. My wife and I took my parents out to dinner at a local casino, it's Restaurant week, so we found a good looking location and went out to eat, part of the deal was that you got a draft beer with your meal. So, I had a shipyard summer ale with my grilled chicken parm sandwich (only ended up eating 3 bites of the chicken and none of the bread).

I did all that thus far and nothing bad happened.
I understand the changes are to ensure we stick to our diets, but understanding that we are all human and WILL either slip up or just stray from our diets on purpose like I did. It's good to see that, it's possible to still live and be able to enjoy a few things we "shouldn't" without any negatives happening.

So, what's your WLS confession?

Whoa... "apparently?" Sorry! or Yay!, depending on how that went down.

Today's dating scene is pretty much online at this point. Or you can hit it off in some of the single mingle events in your area.

You can chance your surgery type here
https://www.bariatricpal.com/patients/portal/
Add your progress here
https://www.bariatricpal.com/patients/portal/?do=progress
Update your signature here
https://www.bariatricpal.com/settings/signature/
Create and manage tickers here
https://www.bariatricpal.com/tickers/

I'm the same height, my overall heaviest was 370 back in 2010, But I'm a bit younger, I'll be 40 in March.

I was banded in 2011, lost 70ish then struggled to lose anything else and I ended up in the gain / lose cycle, stuck around 300-310. I was revised to the bypass March 21st of this year and I'm down another 70 lbs or so.

I'm down to 240ish right now. The amount of extra skin isn't too bad, I wear khaki's and a polo to work daily and the extra stomach skin is really well hidden. I went from a tight size 50 pant, worn below my gut line to a comfortably loose 40 worn at my actual waist line. Compression gear works great, I use it for the gym so I can run without too much jiggling and bouncing. I don't bother to wear it all day long since most of the extra skin is easy to hide. With Compression gear, don't spend too much on stuff at first, I made that mistake and now I've got "compression" gear that's too big to compress anything. You want to buy compression clothes 1 size smaller than your current size.

Here is my largest to most recent "photo recreation". 370 in 2011 to 243 (when the photo was taken) in 2018.

Here is my updated before and after set. 140.4 lbs loss between the first and last columns. I'll be looking into plastics as some point, but it's not *needed* really, just not overly jazzed about how I look naked. But I'm so happy with how I feel and how I look clothed.

Just remind them that this IS the old you, from before you gained the weight.