Banned member

Eeek... I feel like a freak here sometimes. I eat 2000 cals everyday... And I will continue to do so until my weight goes up even a bit.
Remember it takes 3500 calories not burned to gain one pound!! And most ladies burn 1500 calories a day minimum, without excersise. No need to stress!

"The scenic route is beautiful" - thanks for that, coops!

The things that I've learned in my almost one year since vsg is that this is my journey and I have to focus on things that I can stick with and not necessarily something temporary that may get me to where I want to be (goal) but isn't sustainable in the long run. One of the most important things that I realized is that I can't crash diet. I can't pick a calorie number that's so low to where I feel miserable, deprived, and on the verge of bingeing. I do remember advice being given when I was preop and people would say that most people eat between 600-800 cals during the losing phase. That calorie level makes me want to binge and I've never been a binge eater and definitely don't want to start. Weight loss wasn't as hard the first 6 months but I definitely didn't have to try like I do now. Now that I have to try and figure out what different things work, I feel like I'm becoming more knowledgeable on what I need to do and my own needs. The first 6 months I thought I had everything figured out and if I had made it to goal during that time I don't think I would of learned a damn thing.
One of the most important things that I've learned is that I don't need to have a huge calorie deficit in order to get the scale to move. I set my calorie deficit goal at 500 (per day) and this will lead to a weight loss of about 1 pound a week or 4 pounds a month. This deficit also allows me to eat like a normal person who is trying to shed a reasonable/healthy amount of weight at a time. I've long abandoned the sprinting to goal approach and now I'm just focusing on slow and steady. There's no award for getting to goal early or losing a whole person in a short amount of time. Plus I didn't want to be one of those people in maintenance who are white knuckling it trying to stay at goal or the ones who freak out because they ate a snickers bar lol. My goal has always been to eat everything in moderation. I don't eat low carb or fat free diet(y) stuff. I'm a human and want to be able to eat normal human things within reason. Could I have lost faster? Probably! Yes the honeymoon period is long gone but I still have the tool *Yes, rambling again lol*
Oh and CLK that's how I lose also. I usually have one week where I lose all my weight and then I maintain for the other 3 weeks. I keep track of my cycles and can tell when I'm gonna gain Water weight or stall. My cycles have become shorter now 27 days, whereas before surgery it was 30-32 days. You, Coops, and another lady (can't remember her SN) have been very inspiring to us slow losers.

The things that I've learned in my almost one year since vsg is that this is my journey and I have to focus on things that I can stick with and not necessarily something temporary that may get me to where I want to be (goal) but isn't sustainable in the long run. One of the most important things that I realized is that I can't crash diet. I can't pick a calorie number that's so low to where I feel miserable, deprived, and on the verge of bingeing. I do remember advice being given when I was preop and people would say that most people eat between 600-800 cals during the losing phase. That calorie level makes me want to binge and I've never been a binge eater and definitely don't want to start. Weight loss wasn't as hard the first 6 months but I definitely didn't have to try like I do now. Now that I have to try and figure out what different things work, I feel like I'm becoming more knowledgeable on what I need to do and my own needs. The first 6 months I thought I had everything figured out and if I had made it to goal during that time I don't think I would of learned a damn thing.
One of the most important things that I've learned is that I don't need to have a huge calorie deficit in order to get the scale to move. I set my calorie deficit goal at 500 (per day) and this will lead to a weight loss of about 1 pound a week or 4 pounds a month. This deficit also allows me to eat like a normal person who is trying to shed a reasonable/healthy amount of weight at a time. I've long abandoned the sprinting to goal approach and now I'm just focusing on slow and steady. There's no award for getting to goal early or losing a whole person in a short amount of time. Plus I didn't want to be one of those people in maintenance who are white knuckling it trying to stay at goal or the ones who freak out because they ate a snickers bar lol. My goal has always been to eat everything in moderation. I don't eat low carb or fat free diet(y) stuff. I'm a human and want to be able to eat normal human things within reason. Could I have lost faster? Probably! Yes the honeymoon period is long gone but I still have the tool *Yes, rambling again lol*
Oh and CLK that's how I lose also. I usually have one week where I lose all my weight and then I maintain for the other 3 weeks. I keep track of my cycles and can tell when I'm gonna gain Water weight or stall. My cycles have become shorter now 27 days, whereas before surgery it was 30-32 days. You, Coops, and another lady (can't remember her SN) have been very inspiring to us slow losers.

The things that I've learned in my almost one year since vsg is that this is my journey and I have to focus on things that I can stick with and not necessarily something temporary that may get me to where I want to be (goal) but isn't sustainable in the long run. One of the most important things that I realized is that I can't crash diet. I can't pick a calorie number that's so low to where I feel miserable, deprived, and on the verge of bingeing. I do remember advice being given when I was preop and people would say that most people eat between 600-800 cals during the losing phase. That calorie level makes me want to binge and I've never been a binge eater and definitely don't want to start. Weight loss wasn't as hard the first 6 months but I definitely didn't have to try like I do now. Now that I have to try and figure out what different things work, I feel like I'm becoming more knowledgeable on what I need to do and my own needs. The first 6 months I thought I had everything figured out and if I had made it to goal during that time I don't think I would of learned a damn thing.
One of the most important things that I've learned is that I don't need to have a huge calorie deficit in order to get the scale to move. I set my calorie deficit goal at 500 (per day) and this will lead to a weight loss of about 1 pound a week or 4 pounds a month. This deficit also allows me to eat like a normal person who is trying to shed a reasonable/healthy amount of weight at a time. I've long abandoned the sprinting to goal approach and now I'm just focusing on slow and steady. There's no award for getting to goal early or losing a whole person in a short amount of time. Plus I didn't want to be one of those people in maintenance who are white knuckling it trying to stay at goal or the ones who freak out because they ate a snickers bar lol. My goal has always been to eat everything in moderation. I don't eat low carb or fat free diet(y) stuff. I'm a human and want to be able to eat normal human things within reason. Could I have lost faster? Probably! Yes the honeymoon period is long gone but I still have the tool *Yes, rambling again lol*
Oh and CLK that's how I lose also. I usually have one week where I lose all my weight and then I maintain for the other 3 weeks. I keep track of my cycles and can tell when I'm gonna gain Water weight or stall. My cycles have become shorter now 27 days, whereas before surgery it was 30-32 days. You, Coops, and another lady (can't remember her SN) have been very inspiring to us slow losers.

I did reach goal, but it took me 18 months. Hang in there and don't get discouraged. There is no expiry date on the sleeve and for how long we can lose weight. It just might take a little more work than it did in the beginning.

Yes, I too, love hearing from Cheri!!

Being the slowest loser in town (lol) I am starting to feel grateful of the fact. As I've said before, I'm still not at goal - but of so close to my surogeon's goal - and I really think that this has stopped me regaining anything other than holiday weight.
It has given me the, reluctant, opportunity to focus on my needs, the way my body responds to food and exercise and how my mind works ... I have had to do a lot of self reflection and self analysis to get to this point of acceptance.
Ok, I am not going to fart and lose 50lbs over night! That's cool with me now, 3 years later.
I never take me sleeve or my body for granted any more; it needs respect! I get that now, regardless of what the pesky scale says.
Does all this mean I don't want to lose more - hell NO! I'm desperate to get to at least 154 - I'd love to see 135 but now I realise that if this doesn't happen I'm no less worthy of being a good person! The scale used to dictate my mood, not any more... don't get me wrong, when I see a low number, especially a new low I am happy... but if I see a bounce it doesn't put me in a a bad mood or a dark place anymore.
I suppose what I am trying to say is that being a slow loser makes me/you/us appreciate each and every scale victory and non scale victory alike!
Remember, the scenic route is beautiful!

I always wooshed after my cycle, too. Up three or four pounds (after sitting still the rest of the month, usually!) but a big drop right in the last week to ten days of the month was my norm. I usually lost all my weight for the month in the last week or so.
It is a lot easier without the hunger. I still don't have hunger. But I do still have disordered eating habits inside me, that only need a little stress, upheaval or upset as an excuse to come out and cause me problems! I think that in the loss phase (which was 17 months for me) it's really easy to rely on the lack of hunger to help you make those choices and stay on track.
As you get a bit farther out, it does fall more squarely on you. More specifically on your head and on how you relate to food. It's still sometimes a challenge for me. And what makes it harder is knowing that for six days running food is something I don't particularly care about and can walk away from at any time. It's easy on those days. But give me a really hard day - give me bad news and bad emotions and plenty of stress...and those choices become much harder to make. And head hunger still feels like hunger - no, not physically. But that nagging and never ending desire to just eat and eat can still show up!
I'm not here to share horror stories or scare anyone. I think that being a slow loser really helped me do as much of the head work as possible. Achieving goal and maintaining it before my baby helped me realize I can succeed and that it's possible. But staying in that "need to lose a few mindset" after any type of regain (even one for a baby, like my piddly five pounds I can't lose) is hard sometimes. And it gets HARDER the farther out you get.
Accepting that I will never be able to just eat what I want without being accountable no matter when I get back to goal and no matter how easy it is to stay there is important. I have to stay on top of things, because even now it's still far too easy to mindlessly eat or to fall back on old habits of using food to cope.
I know that for me, at least, losing incredibly quickly would have left me floundering once I was in maintenance. And oh, now? I would have given up already if I truly expected to lose the weight from my pregnancy overnight. I've been battling close to fifteen pounds for more than five months! And I still have five of them to go!
~Cheri
Not sure if I even had a point when I started. I guess that it might have been that this is challenging in the long run no matter what. But at least my slow loss allowed me to learn some new coping skills and new habits before I got to maintenance.

For the past 3 days I've weighed 206.4 looking forward to a woosh in the next couple of days after ovulation passes I tend to retain Water during this time. Figured out the calories to my homemade jambalaya recipe and it's only 235 cals per cup and super yummy. My sleeve is still working well (not that I'm surprised). I can only eat about 3.5 oz of dense Protein or 3/4 cup of food at a time. So happy for this tool and plus I don't have that overwhelming sense of hunger like I did before and this makes it easier to eat between 1000-1550 cals a day. *Blabbing away, sorry*

For the past 3 days I've weighed 206.4 looking forward to a woosh in the next couple of days after ovulation passes I tend to retain Water during this time. Figured out the calories to my homemade jambalaya recipe and it's only 235 cals per cup and super yummy. My sleeve is still working well (not that I'm surprised). I can only eat about 3.5 oz of dense Protein or 3/4 cup of food at a time. So happy for this tool and plus I don't have that overwhelming sense of hunger like I did before and this makes it easier to eat between 1000-1550 cals a day. *Blabbing away, sorry*

For the past 3 days I've weighed 206.4 looking forward to a woosh in the next couple of days after ovulation passes I tend to retain Water during this time. Figured out the calories to my homemade jambalaya recipe and it's only 235 cals per cup and super yummy. My sleeve is still working well (not that I'm surprised). I can only eat about 3.5 oz of dense Protein or 3/4 cup of food at a time. So happy for this tool and plus I don't have that overwhelming sense of hunger like I did before and this makes it easier to eat between 1000-1550 cals a day. *Blabbing away, sorry*

Went to Cuba last week to see my son graduate from International Film School there. I took this picture there in a courtyard. Tropics are hot and beautiful! I am down 90 pounds! 5'8" and 152 lbs!
Done Did It!

I only had to take my PPI for about 4-6 weeks. I stopped once I ran out and I did feel like I had more acid but it eventually went back to normal. I don't like the thought of taking pills long term. I'm almost a year post op and haven't had any problems with acid but I do eat every 2-3 hours.

I started at 260 the day of surgery and I weighed in at 205.8 this morning. I'm 5'3 and 29 yrs old. I so want to get in onderland and I'm finally motivated to make this push for goal. The first 6 months of surgery I didn't track cals or anything and when I stalled I thought my body would just naturally start losing weight again but nope. I definitely think calorie counting will be something that I may have to do for the rest of my life.

NGM we can do this. It may take us longer than others but we can definitely reach our goals I've come to the realization that I probably wont reach goal until the 2 year mark. Maybe I'm meant to lose the first 50 pounds in the first year and then the other 50 pounds in the next year. I never would of imagined still being obese almost a year after surgery but I try to view it as I've NEVER been able to lose 55 pounds on my own, ever. It will definitely take longer and the weight wont come off as quickly as it did soon after surgery but we still have the tool

I started at 260 the day of surgery and I weighed in at 205.8 this morning. I'm 5'3 and 29 yrs old. I so want to get in onderland and I'm finally motivated to make this push for goal. The first 6 months of surgery I didn't track cals or anything and when I stalled I thought my body would just naturally start losing weight again but nope. I definitely think calorie counting will be something that I may have to do for the rest of my life.

Not sure if I posted in this thread but I'm definitely a slow loser by every definition. I will be 1 yr post op Oct. 2nd and have lost 55 pounds. Weight loss really slowed down after the 6 month mark and I stalled for about 3-4 months, probably self induced because I wasn't counting cals and probably was eating too much or at maintenance level. Well I've been back on plan and counting cals with MFP for the past month and have managed to lose the 4 pounds that I gained while stalled. I'm mentally back in the game and ready to start losing again and get this weight off. I think during the stall I took a mental break and that's probably what I needed and thankfully I did maintain during that time. I have about 50 pounds to goal and I so can't wait to finally break into onderland. I've been hovering slightly above it for the past 4 months.

I get dizzy a lot too. I've had blood work done and everything is fine. I personally think it has to do with eating such low calories and low carb.....especially the low carb.

Not sure if I posted in this thread but I'm definitely a slow loser by every definition. I will be 1 yr post op Oct. 2nd and have lost 55 pounds. Weight loss really slowed down after the 6 month mark and I stalled for about 3-4 months, probably self induced because I wasn't counting cals and probably was eating too much or at maintenance level. Well I've been back on plan and counting cals with MFP for the past month and have managed to lose the 4 pounds that I gained while stalled. I'm mentally back in the game and ready to start losing again and get this weight off. I think during the stall I took a mental break and that's probably what I needed and thankfully I did maintain during that time. I have about 50 pounds to goal and I so can't wait to finally break into onderland. I've been hovering slightly above it for the past 4 months.

I usually don't post on topics like this because I always end up looking like a crazy person for saying what I do. Well here it goes: I've dealt with Constipation since I was a very young child. My butt has been through a lot of painful stools and I wouldn't be surprised if my butt hole has actually shrunk because of all the ripping and tearing that I've experienced over the years (scar tissue). I now squat to poop. I know it sounds weird but it helps get all the poop out and not just little pellets. I use a squatting platform. I'm not saying that squatting to poop makes the issue of constipation go away but when your poop is impacted and very hard to push out, squatting makes it easier. I honestly believe that the way that current toilets are designed is the reason why we have so many problems going. Toilets are often to high for us short people and it's not natural to poop in a sitting position. If you're in the woods and need to poop you will more than likely squat and find that your poop is longer and you wont feel like there is more poop left in your bowel, you will have complete elimination. My husband thinks it's weird what I do but he's tall so he doesn't understand how hard it is to poop when your knees are below your hips and I used to spend hours on the toilet just trying to push out poop and would be so frustrated. Not being regular really effects your mental state.
I don't want to go too deep into the theory and most times when I post in these threads I feel as if I'm wasting my energy because most think it's stupid advice but if you happen to be one of those people open to trying something new then definitely google "squatting to poop" and you will find tons of articles on why it's beneficial and that you wont have to deal with constipation as much. I don't use stool softeners or laxatives because they cause problems days later and you will more than likely end up back in the same situation. Drinking lots of Water has helped me and so has squatting. Good Luck

Congrats on goal! What an awesome achievement! I have started noting the weight I was from last day of the month from the previous year - lets see for last August I weighed 222 lbs. - and this year I weigh 50 lbs less. I will take it! I am going to continue to try and stop comparison with those fast losers and just be mindful of my own progress and success - and the fact that I am not piling it all back on - which is what has always happened in the past. Just going to be that better version of myself and keep slogging away at it