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I'm not active much anymore but always want to chime in on slow loss threads because I SO related during my loss phase. I averaged 6 pounds a month and had one double-digit month (month one, 11 pounds). It took me a year and a half to lose 107 pounds. But - big BUT! I've kept it off for 9.5 years pretty effortlessly. That slower loss gives you extra time to work on the head side of weight loss. By the time I got to goal eating everything in moderation was just so natural to me that I never stopped and developed another food issue in maintenance. It's hard, but view this "extra" time as a blessing. Your body will have more time to adapt to weight loss, new habits, and new ideas before you enter the maintenance phase. And don't be in a rush to enter maintenance! In hindsight, I can say maintenance is the more challenging part. It's accountability, it's strengthening those new habits, and it's for the rest of your life. Cheri

I'm about 9.5 years out with a sleeve. I am within a couple pounds of goal and only gained when put on a med that's notorious for weight gain, but most of that fell off after I changed meds. Other than that I have stayed in the same window for years. I know that we all know this, but exercise matters! I did absolutely no exercise after my surgery. I was more active in my daily life but structured exercise was never something I added. I've been working out with a trainer - because even being small I am still 46% body fat! And I have very little muscle compared to my overall weight. So I'm lifting and generally getting much fitter. This may or may not result in a weight change, but I'm hoping that I'll have more endurance and feel stronger. I eat like I always have, moderation in everything, though obviously protein/carb balance is a bigger focus now that I'm lifting. Those that knew me back in the day know that my BMR was crazy low before my surgery, and I have been able to bring it up to about 1160. I eat about 1500 calories a day, which is just enough for my goals - seems low to my trainer, but he understands my surgery. But it still feels like a ton of food because I really do have a lot of restriction. Seven "meals" a day, folks! All in all, still hanging in. Incredibly grateful for my surgery. Cheri

It wouldn't matter if they had. Don't do it. You don't need validation that other people have done this, too - if they did, they were wrong, too. Follow your surgeon's guidelines. They are there for a reason. If you can't adhere to a post operative diet for a few weeks, you will have real issues down the road, so I suggest you look for some local support in the form of a group or personal counselor. The hard part of this process is not losing the weight - it's dealing with the relationships we have with food and how we use food in ways that "healthy" people do not. There were other options to "get rid of that taste" and you went for the foods you should be avoiding right now (and until you're well into loss, I'd add) so I'd take a look at that behavior and work on it. One (or two, or three) slips are not the end of the world, but your sleeve needs to heal, first and foremost. We don't have to be perfect, but we do need to be cautious and make smart choices. Don't be the poster one year from now frustrated with yourself because you haven't lost much weight due to the fact that you didn't work your sleeve and started eating around it as soon as you healed. Don't go down this path. ~Cheri

Oh yeah. Hang around and browse the stall?! or frustrated! threads and you'll see you're not alone. It's unfortunate but you'll never be able to control how you lose. When it's getting you down and ruining your day, stay off the scale. Most of us experience stops and starts and stalls (sometimes several long ones!) before getting goal. But we all lose. So yes, the frustration you're feeling is completely normal. But you already know in your head that it's illogical, too. You certainly didn't gain the weight overnight. And I find it highly unlikely you ever put on 48 pounds in just four months, either, but you've taken them off in that time nonetheless. It is natural for your body to need to recover and it is natural for loss to be harder the closer you get to goal. Hang in there and try to stay positive. Don't play mind games with the scale - just put it away and weigh once a week if you need to see a larger drop to feel successful. Best of luck!

Girlfriend, post your after pic to your profile, too! You've done great, lady. And what would your life be without a little drama?

If it's bothering you so much try a sip or two. Instead of trying to drink an entire beer, pour two oz. in a glass and slowly sip that. There's a way to satisfy the craving without overdoing it, and learning moderation is key for all of us. I can say that at one month out I hadn't had any beer but I did drink a very small glass of wine with dinner once a week. Carbonation is not forbidden for some people and is for others - it varies by surgeon. Mine never told me to avoid carbonation, but he did stress choosing healthier beverages to drink. And I agree that there is something to be learned by simply NOT indulging and knowing that you can some day, but choosing not to do so today. But a small glass of beer isn't a terrible choice in the long run. Just record those calories so that you're keeping yourself accountable, and remember that if we make great choices 90% of the time, we do get 10% to flex. ~Cheri

I had a similar loss pattern. It took me 17 months to lose 107 pounds, and I lost, on average, just over six pounds a month. I had two nine week stalls along the way. I also lost all of my weight in the last few days of the month, after being the same weight for most of the month and bouncing up a few pounds around my cycle. It is pretty normal for the folks that lose more slowly to fall on and off because our journey is longer and we can't help but compare ourselves to others that lose more quickly. The important things to focus on: Not everyone loses at the same rate, and a loss is still a loss. Try to accept that this is simply how your body works, and be thankful you have a sleeve to help you maintain a healthy, low calorie diet long enough to get to goal. For me, losing the weight would have been impossible without my sleeve - 17 months is too long to hang in there with any diet if you don't have help. Work on overcoming the poor eating habits and emotional eating habits that might have helped you become overweight in the first place. Being a slow loser gave me a great opportunity to work on these issues while I was still plodding my way to goal. I got to goal well adjusted and without the desire to binge or bury my emotions in food. This is the BIGGEST factor in long term maintenance; overcoming the bad habits is necessary if you want to keep the weight off forever without living on a diet forever. Because you're a slower loser, you might find that like me, you can safely incorporate more carbohydrates and eat a more balanced diet before you get to goal. Once I stopped shaving my calories and carbs down to nil, I found that I was still losing at the same pokey pace but that I was feeling 100 times better. Not only did I feel better and have more energy, but that feeling of deprivation was gone, and I no longer beat myself up with the expectation to see a loss on the scale every single morning. There comes a point when regardless of our size or weight we need to learn to love ourselves. It can't only be dependent on the scale, or you'll live your life in fear instead of embracing it with joy. It's hard to overcome the negative ways we view ourselves. But you need to realize that you are a success. You will reach your goal. You can do this. Try to be nicer to yourself. Keep it up. You know what you need to do to lose weight, as you've already shed quite a bit. If you're off track, record your food again. It's worth the hassle and the time spent. Go back on shakes, and eat Protein first. You know all of this. You just have to decide that you're worth the effort, and that you want to work that surgery you had to it's maximum potential. Good luck, ~Cheri

I'm two years out now, but I cook and did it from just a few weeks post op. I'm a serious baker and I bake three or four days a week. I entertain large groups several times a month, too. I love cooking just as much now as I did then. I just don't eat as much as I used to eat! I'd say that in the beginning, when I was on liquids and soft foods, it was a definite concern. I didn't want to be around food much because I couldn't eat it. My way around this was to simply prepare several meals before my surgery and freeze them, so my family could have the home cooked meals they're used to while I was healing. I did a huge Thanksgiving spread for 22 people when I was about four months post op. I enjoyed cooking, I enjoyed having my family eat everything. Over the course of an entire day I got to try a bite of everything I wanted, and I didn't feel resentful or frustrated at all. I'm back in the states visiting family and the first thing I did was make a menu with my family of all the good things I'd bake and cook while I'm here! It's just a part of who I am and it didn't get cut out with my stomach. ~Cheri

Everyone is different. I'm over two years out now but still don't do much Pasta, rice or tortilla. They swell up in my belly and I go from feeling fine to feeling sick with one bite. I don't care for that feeling, and I find it's harder to gauge when I've had enough to eat with these foods because of how they expand. I'll do a few bites of rice or noodles here and there and I make my own varenyky, so I eat a couple of those a few times a year. I'm not feeling deprived or anything. I can honestly eat any food I want (except cow's milk and more than a few bites of ice cream made with cow's milk) but I choose not to eat certain foods because of how they make me feel. I urge anyone trying these foods to go SLOW and only take a few bites and wait a good ten minutes to see if it's going to cause an issue. Once you know your limit it's easier to avoid issues with these foods. ~Cheri

"Full" isn't the same post op. I'd eat only a few small spoonfuls and stop for a while to make sure it will sit well. Then I'd go back and finish, making sure to eat no more than 2 oz. in the very early stage. ~Cheri

Do your research and start the process. If you change your mind, there's nothing to say you can't cancel at the last minute. But why waste time when you could at least be jumping insurance company hoops to get this done if that's what you do want in the end. I was 242 on my day of surgery and I was 29 years old. My only regret post op is that I didn't know about this surgery when I was 20 years old, because I wish I hadn't spent so many years fighting against my weight, dieting and hating myself, just to gain the weight back over and over again. With interest! Only you can decide what to do. I can say that I "only" had 107 pounds to my goal, but I never in a million years would have gotten here and maintained without my sleeve. Even with my sleeve it wasn't a fast journey - it took me seventeen months to get to goal. No way on this earth could I have stuck to a diet for that long. The sleeve was my answer. Maintenance with it is a breeze if you deal with the emotional/head issues of being overweight while you're getting to goal. I weigh daily, and I have a range of weight I comfortably stay within, and very seldom do I need to restrict myself because I've put on more than I'd like. I eat like a normal person - I choose wisely most of the time but have days where I'm sloppy about it, too. It all evens out. And I don't really gain. In fact, I'm currently pregnant - almost 11 weeks - and have only gained five pounds, even though I was on hormone shots until last week. I still wear my sixes and my size smalls, though I admit that this baby belly is going to make me use Bella Bands to keep wearing them before too long. This has never happened to me before - in my previous pregnancies I was up twenty pounds in the first trimester with a single and with twins. Anyway, only you can decide. I can only tell you what it did for me. There are very few people out there unhappy with their sleeves. And even the people that are unhappy usually wind up happy after they heal or get through their complications. We don't see very many people coming back here after a year talking about how they regret surgery. In fact, I'd be hard pressed to think of a single post like that I've ever seen. Good luck, whatever you decide. For many of us, this was THE answer to our struggles. ~Cheri

There is NO window of best weight loss with this surgery. Guess what? You still have a sleeve and 85% of your stomach is gone. You still have restriction, if you eat the right foods in the right order. There is absolutely no reason that you can't start over from scratch and make this work for you. It's entirely your choice. You didn't have a brief window of guaranteed malabsorption as with the bypass. Your sleeve is the same now as it was roughly one year out, because the work and effort (and pain) it would take to stretch it any serious amount would be ridiculous. I mean that - you may have stretched it an ounce or two, but there is no way it's giving more than that. And what's an ounce or two in the long haul? Not enough to sidetrack you forever. So, you've lost 100 pounds AND KEPT THEM OFF and cannot possibly consider yourself a failure. If you want to lose more, work at it, because you can do it. Do the five day pouch test. It's a bypass thing but the detox works for us, too. It'll be tough and you'll hate it, but if you get through it, and then start over with the basics you can do this. Track every single bite you put in your mouth, even those drinks. If you don't have a realistic picture of what you're eating, how can you expect to keep it under control? If you can't do the pouch test (I'm not judging, it'd be hard for me at this point, too) simply record your diet as it is now for three days, and adjust your calories downward again by 20%, eating in a good ratio (I do 40% Protein, 30% carbs, 30% fat) and within two weeks, you should have kick started your loss again. Once the loss stops, adjust downward again. And you know you should be eating dense protein first, then your healthy carbs, right? I guarantee that if you try to scarf six ounces of steak you'll have a problem. You've still got restriction, you've just to work with it, not against it. Do that headwork - do it or you'll always have trouble with this. Talk to a counselor or come here and vent, but do something. Get a handle on when and why you eat and try to learn better habits. Find a new emotional outlet and coping mechanism. Find a way to do things in moderation. If you approached your loss as a diet, strictly cutting calories and carbs down to nothing, it's unsurprising if you then fell off the wagon in a hard way. Isn't that what we all did prior to surgery? The sleeve isn't a diet. It is possible to eat a variety of foods, to never feel deprived, and to eat those perfect food choices 90% of the time and do whatever the hell you want with the other 10% and lose weight, and maintain that loss. Right now you're probably addicted to carbs...and food, eating in general. You've gotten back into bad habits. But even though it will be tough, you CAN pick this up and get to your goal. I fell "off" a few times during my journey and had to pick back up again. It's normal, until we learn that we really can have it all if we're smart about it. And really, congrats to you - you have lost 100 pounds and are in a great relationship with someone you love. You have no reason to consider yourself a failure, or to beat yourself up because you haven't achieved goal yet. Good luck, ~Cheri

I've never needed a card to order off the children's or senior menu. Most restaurants are understanding, especially since we're always ordering other meals at the same time. I've never had to go into detail about surgery - I just say I don't eat much and hate to drag home leftovers. Nobody has ever refused me. I couldn't possibly go to a buffet now. Not only could I hardly eat a thing, but if I've only got about twenty bites in me, I want them to be tasty, higher quality food - not bland and tasteless buffet fare. And I admit it - I'm a bit grossed out by all of the people piling high plate after plate after plate of food at a buffet. Can't help it - against my will I became one of those people: the judgmental (only in my head!) ex-fattie. ~Cheri

Miralax in the beginning...and oatmeal every few days now that I eat like a normal person. ~Cheri