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Interesting responses! I'd say the biggest thing that I see posted about over and over and over again is the speed of your weight loss. Meaning: you won't lose every time you step on the scale. Don't expect to get to goal in nine months. You will sometimes step on the scale and see the same number for days on end. Sometimes you'll also drop large amounts even when nothing in your diet or exercise has changed. Sometimes you'll be doing everything right and stall out for weeks on end. Sometimes your weight will jump up a few pounds, just to mix things up. It's okay. It's normal. It's part of the process. Relax, do the right things and you will reach your goal weight. That's what I wish I had known. It's what I wish every new sleever knew, because I see the same posts over and over again with people driving themselves absolutely crazy because they can't control how they lose the weight! ~Cheri

Congrats on your success! I didn't hit goal at one year, either but it's funny how we aren't as upset about it as we thought we'd be, isn't it? It took me six months to shed the last twenty pounds, so it's definitely attainable if you keep on going. Enjoy your smaller body, you earned it! ~Cheri

It could come back in spurts as you continue to get closer to goal. Or you could taper off and become a regular, consistent loser. No telling until you're there, unfortunately. The closer you get to your ideal weight, the harder the weight is to lose (harder = slower) so be prepared. You shouldn't worry about that for a while, though. Work on the night eating. It's a challenge for a lot of us. I used to curl up on the couch in the evenings and eat and it was very hard to shake that. I started losing the habit by only allowing myself to have a Protein shake or Water at night. The sweet shakes killed the craving to snack and also gave me a protein boost. This is still a challenge for me at times, because ingrained habits are very hard to break. I think the best approach to resisting sweets in the house is to allow yourself a small portion of what you want. Most of the time you should find that it wasn't as great as you built it up in your head and the rest of the time the small portion should be enough to satisfy the urge to eat and let you go on your way. Good luck, ~Cheri

Yes, I second this one. It's not that great as just a Protein Drink but if you consider it a lower calorie sub with a protein perk for those lattes you might find yourself "indulging" your latte addiction. ~Cheri

You guys won't like my answer! It took me SEVENTEEN months to reach goal. Granted, it took me six long months to drop the last twenty. I was a slower loser from the start. I'm insulin resistant (was diabetic, but no longer!) and have endometriosis (some say it's harder to lose weight with endo). I lost in fits and starts the whole time. I averaged 6 pounds per month but had two nine week stalls in there, too. I advocate eating normally, regardless of how slowly you'll lose. Normally does not mean I don't eat sensibly. I still eat higher Protein and lower carb but I am not on a diet and I do not restrict myself from eating things I want to eat. I think that part of why maintenance has been incredibly easy for me is because I dealt with my food issues prior to reaching goal. I didn't hit goal, try to reincorporate carbs and wind up facing an eating problem...which can and does happen to some folks. In any case, yep, that's the story. Seventeen months. I wouldn't change a bit of it. Trust me, goal is fantastic, completely awesome and very rewarding...and not once do I look back and regret that I didn't make it in a shorter period of time. Your body will lose at it's own pace. Just keep doing the right things, put the scale away when it freaks you out and don't give up. ~Cheri

No, I GET this! The laparoscopy was nothing but plastics are really gross surgeries that cost a small fortune and leave hideous scars...after a long, uncomfortable recovery period! I was so sure going in that I would never have plastics done but the reality that for me, it's definitely necessary. For me the skin is very bad. I had an apron after my first pregnancy (gained 97 pounds) and then I had twins in 2007 (only gained 60-something pounds) leaving me around 280 pounds after delivery. My stomach was a roadmap before I had them but they stretched me out to the max, leaving me with a deflated blob of skin instead of a stomach. My issue is not just navel down - my loose skin starts at my bra line! This goes down into an apron that still has some fat masses that are terribly stubborn and not budging. My apron hangs down to my pubic area. In addition to being just plain unattractive it causes some serious discomfort in the hot months. It also flops around when I exercise...very uncool. My arms are okay. If I'd get off my lazy rear and exercise they could even look good, I think. My boobs make me sad but I could live with them. But they're such pathetic, deflated puppies that I will probably have them lifted and augmented once I do surgery. The thighs are my other issue. It's like the skin from my groin to my knees melted. My thighs are wiggly, jiggly and saggy, and honestly are the biggest body insecurity I have right now (when dressed). Now a lot of this is just me because nobody else seems to think my legs are bad but then, the only person that sees me naked is my husband! I must wear hose anytime I wear a skirt or dress. But the good news is that with shapewear I look like a normal person. In my clothes, you'd never realize that I've got a good ten pounds of skin hanging about my midsection. I've found sexy undergarments that I actually don't mind wearing and I find that it's really helping me get through this rough patch until I'm back in the states to do plastics. You might have a different outcome - a lot of skin rebound is genetics. And remember that I've had twins. But yeah...it's pretty bad. If I lean over the skin hangs almost a foot from my body. ~Cheri

Eggface's egg bites are truly awesome and I've made them any number of ways. If you don't want to do eggs at all, I guess your next option is meat! Breakfast meats make the world go round. My world, anyway. ~Cheri

The sleeve isn't a diet, it's forever. Learning to eat normally, in moderation, is key to your long term success. During the loss phase I usually got somewhere between 60-100 grams of carbs a day. In maintenance it's more like 150-170 a day. Find what works best for your body - we're all different. Track your food and see what your line/limit is and also be cognizant of trigger/problem foods that you might need to be careful about. I'm a mean little person when I try to low carb it. Mean enough that my normally laid back husband will pull me aside and yell at me to eat a damned sandwich already! ~Cheri

How much of a cook are you? I could PM you several of my favorites, but it would be a waste of time to send some of them if you like simple recipes! ~Cheri

Congrats on your success so far! And yes, it's a normal part of the process for us as our brains (and eyes, I swear!) adjust to the fact that we're smaller people. We don't see the differences the way the people around us do. ~Cheri

I'm 5'1" and had surgery at 242 (highest weight somewhere around 280) and now happily and very easily maintain between 133-137 pounds. During the losing phase I fluctuated between feeling like my goal (135) was unattainable and feeling like I should really get down into the 120s. After plastics, I should be right in the 120s (I have a lot of loose skin) so I'm happy here and don't want to lose much more, BMI chart be damned! ~Cheri

Enjoy it while it lasts and try not to freak when it slows down or stops completely, because it will eventually. I lost in fits and starts the whole time - I was either stuck on one number or dropping two pounds a day - nothing was ever predictable or constant for me. ~Cheri

I used to take the sublingual tablets every day but was recently tested and found that even that wasn't enough. I just got my first B12 shot and WOW what a world of difference! I feel about a billion times better than I have in a very long time. So take your tablets daily but be sure to get labs done around six months and one year to see if you're deficient in anything. Now that I'm on B12 (and taking new Iron supplements) I'm doing a lot better. And yes, it doesn't matter how much B12 you consume in your diet or pills that you must digest because you need more stomach to absorb it than we have after being sleeved. ~Cheri

If it's spasms they stopped around ten days out for me, so hopefully they'll fade quickly. In the beginning I could only tolerate warm or room temperature liquids...but room temp plain Water made me nauseous so I had to use something to flavor it. If you haven't tried it yet, sip warm broth instead of a shake or water. Everyone has trouble getting liquids in but you're going to have an issue with dehydration if you don't improve soon. I'd call your doctor/nurse if you still have issues even after trying warm liquids. Look up the symptoms of dehydration and be aware so you don't have a serious problem. Once you start drinking more you'll be okay. I didn't regularly get in my liquids and hit my Protein levels until about four months out. It took far longer than I thought it would! ~Cheri

I agree that there's something to the idea of breaking the habit of associating food and entertainment. I still have a hard time not getting a snack at the movie theater because it's an ingrained habit. That said, you have any number of options. I wouldn't do popcorn yet but it's not gone forever - just until you heal. If it's the hand-to-mouth motion you'll miss grab a drink instead of food (ice Water in a cup with a straw works great) and if you want an actual snack just pick something crunchy that fits in what you're permitted to eat right now. Veggies wouldn't have set well with me at that point and I wouldn't go after chips for the same reason I'd avoid popcorn (sharp, pointy things that get could stuck in a sleeve that's new) but yes, pork rinds could work. If it were me? I'd go eat dinner first and enjoy a bowl of Soup for dinner and sip water or something else during the show. But only because you're still healing! Eat like a regular person later and you'll be happier, I promise. ~Cheri

food allergy? Sometimes egg whites (and a long list of other foods) can cause this. I'd get it to the doc and do a blood test just to be sure. Also, any new meds or supplements could be causing a reaction, too. ~Cheri

Why kick coffee? Honestly, giving up so many other things we love during the post op phase is hard enough! I never did give it up though I can tell you I had very little of it for the first month or so post op because I was focusing on Protein shakes and Water. I still drink a protein coffee every other day or so, and I drink coffee every single day. I cannot drink as much as I used to, though, and that's fine. The only issue could be how you drink your coffee. If you add tons of sugar and cream you'd better track those calories! ~Cheri

A lot depends on what his motivation is, so yes, the idea to bring him to a seminar or have him do his own research is a good one. If he's trying to keep you from getting your hopes up too high, that's one thing. If he's anxious about you losing the weight because of his own insecurities, it's another. And if he just doesn't want the financial burden if it doesn't work that's also another thing entirely! My husband was supportive to the extent that once I told him I wanted to do it he backed me up. However, he never felt I needed to lose weight. He was worried a little bit that we would wind up spending another large chunk of our own money to fund yet another diet attempt on my part. As I've lost he and I have had to have more than one heart-to-heart about how he's feeling because I think part of him never really did expect all of the changes that came with the surgery. Not just losing weight, but personality changes in me and total lifestyle changes that have affected our entire family, too. Talk it out and ask him where he's coming from. You'll be better off post op if he's worried about money or failure, and will have a bigger issue if the problem is insecurity on his part. Marriages that are in a good place prior to surgery generally improve or at least don't worsen. Folks that have tension prior to surgery can have real problems afterward, so get it all out in the open now. ~Cheri

I'm 21 months out and my sleeve is still doing exactly what it's supposed to do: it restricts my intake. This, in turn, causes me to consider what I eat constantly. I think about what I've had so far that day and I add in a Protein shake if I need it, or choose to eat more chicken and skip the rice, or eat that cookie if I'm on track with everything else. I hardly record my calories at all now, though I do have to log a few days every few weeks to be sure that I'm on track. And that goes both ways, because more often than not I find that I'm still not eating enough! Sometimes I'm overindulging a bit but I don't really see any gains on the scale (I've got a happy little 4 pound window I live within) so I don't fret overmuch. Like coops, I no longer waste calories on junky, processed foods. That extends into me avoiding sugar free or fat free food items. Yuck! If I'm going to eat only three or four bites of something, they need to be wonderful or I'll just find myself in the kitchen looking for something else later! I think part of why I never feel any discontent about my diet (and how I avoid binges or making a habit of overindulging) is because I do full fat, full flavor and don't beat myself up about it. And I still firmly believe that part of why I am so healthy mentally is because I did not approach the sleeve like a diet and restrict myself to the max to hit goal quickly. I have a much more laid-back approach to food than a lot of people here, and maintenance has been easy as pie for me. That said, I still hate exercise and every time I see BlackBerryJuice's posts I think I should get to the gym more. She looks fantastic, but then she's working very hard for it, too! I'll just be a little softer...and lazier, I think. ~Cheri

For most people it falls under learning to eat NORMALLY. That means not approaching the sleeve as a diet, learning to overcome bad eating habits that made us big in the first place, and learning to use food as fuel and enjoy it in moderation. A lot of us are in total denial until we're already sleeved about what exactly made us fat. I was sure my issue was 90% genetics and was definitely in denial about the fact that I was an overeater and that I used food as a comfort. I was sure that simply restricting my portion size via the sleeve would solve all of my issues and make me a happier person. This is not so. The sleeve will help you lose weight because it reduces the size of your stomach. It will not teach you to stop restricting yourself with a crazy diet or make you exercise or make you stop eating Cookies if you choose to eat one per hour for six hours. It will not magically make you enjoy eating healthy or make you perfectly happy all by itself. The challenge I had was learning to eat normally, to approach food as something that can be enjoyable but that doesn't induce guilt, either. I had to learn that it's not all or nothing, it's the rest of my life. It was not easy but it was worth the work. If you do the headwork in the beginning, maintenance is easy. ~Cheri

Sliders can be soft foods like ice cream, yogurt, custard, etc. For many of us, other foods are sliders, too. Mostly junk food! Popcorn slides, as do things like chips or crunchy Cookies. Anything you can chew into tiny little bits that doesn't swell when it hits the stomach (not meat, bread, rice, Pasta, etc.) is a slider food. The best thing to do when you first start out is to stop that pylorus up with your dense Protein first - there's more than one reason eating protein first is a good thing! Doing this prevents you from overeating your other foods because the dense meat will take a while to digest. Sliders are an issue when you have an eating problem (like overeating, bingeing or emotional eating) and especially when you don't track every bite you put in your mouth. It's easy to "forget" to record several hundred calories if you graze all day. And to answer the original post, you'll find an increased capacity to the point where you eat mostly normally around 6-9 months and you'll reach your "forever" capacity sometime between 9-15 months. I'm nearly two years out (21 months) and I still eat very small amounts compared to people without surgery. It takes real work to stretch a sleeve. Not just overindulging once in a while - it takes eating to the point of pain and sickness repeatedly to stretch the stomach out and it's still never going to be even half of what it once was. ~Cheri

Sorry to say but I'm pretty sure the verdict is that it's purely genetics and that there is very little we can do to combat loose skin. Some of us get more of it than others. It seems keeping the skin moisturized helps a bit and that exercise really does work wonders. I had twins prior to surgery and there was no way I was going to avoid loose skin - I had a bunch of it before surgery and it's even worse now. I started wearing shapewear full time (except in my PJs!) when I was down about forty pounds and noticed that my apron flopped when I did jumping jacks. Well, I won't lie - sometimes I still hate the loose skin. But I can hide the skin with undergarments and I couldn't hide being fat. I'd rather wear shapewear every day for the rest of my life than weigh more than 200 pounds again! I will get plastics eventually but in the meantime I use some heavy duty shapewear - Spanx do not cut it for me. I use an extra-firm waist cincher by Rago Shapewear in conjunction with a longline bra and it works wonders. If I'm wearing a skirt or a dress I use a high-waisted open bottom girdle, usually something sexy from What Katie Did. I find that since I need super-duper shaping and I have a natural hourglass figure that I'm happiest using things that are old-fashioned 40s and 50s style undergarments. They're beautiful, sexy AND functional. They cost a pretty penny but work miracles. Spanx do not work as well for me. I do like the toning camisoles from Maidenform (Fat Free Dressing or Flexees) for layering, however. They have a nice long line and work better at taming my tummy than other brands. I wear them over my waspie or waist cincher, though. ~Cheri

Congrats! You'll make it to goal, no worries. Keep at it and the weight will continue to fall off. I love Dr. Aceves! ~Cheri

I'm a complete lightweight now but I don't have any issues like what you're describing. Actually, now that I think on it, my reaction to the tannins in wine is more pronounced since surgery and I've been totally unable to drink any wine, white or red, since surgery or I break out in hives. No worries there, though, because I never cared much for wine in the first place. I regularly drink a mixed drink or two (or three...okay, sometimes four) on the weekends and have no problems, other than being pretty tipsy pretty quickly. Record those calories, though, or you'll be sorry! I will say that you definitely need to be careful about your limits if you do start drinking. My tolerance is MUCH lower now and I can get drunk very fast if I'm not careful. I also sober up quickly, though, so it's all a trade-off! ~Cheri

I have five stepkids that don't live with me (at the time of surgery they were 20, 17, 15, 12, 11) and twins that were 2.5 at the time of surgery. I didn't tell any of them prior to surgery. They all knew I was going to see the doctor and have surgery but nobody asked for more details and I didn't offer them up. Around four months out we had a visit with the older kids. They noticed I'd lost weight and that I eat less but weren't overly concerned. At this point, 21 months out, the only child I've told is the one that is now 18 and that's only because she was with us for a four month visit and brought up the fact that I eat very small portions. When I noticed she was trying to keep up with my eating habits (only eating a few bites here and there) I confided in her because I didn't want her to start eating less simply because I do. I actually had to sit her down and show her how I track my calories (and how she can, too) so she would know that I am eating a healthy amount of food and so we could be sure she was, too. I don't know that you need to tell the little one anything much beyond the basics. Let her lead and if she persists in asking for details make the decision on whether to tell more or not. My two are now more curious about the scars on my stomach than anything else. They know I don't eat that much and it doesn't phase them a bit. If anything, it's helped them eat in moderation - if they're no longer hungry they'll mimic my behavior and push the plate away and say "No, I'm not really hungry, my food just tastes yummy." So, anyway, I'd definitely tell the older daughters so they don't develop an issue once you go on a liquid diet. I'd play the little one by ear. Congrats on making this decision. It's going to completely change your life. ~Cheri