aliekat55

So i get within 2 pounds of a 100 pounds weight loss at three months and the rapid weight loss slows down, no prob. i have been expecting this for some time and felt it would be good to coast to my goal. besides i am at a lower weight than i could have dreamed. My body fat % was determined to be 13% which can't be real but has caused me significant blow back in people telling me to stop losing weight . So i increase my calories from 1400 to 1600 to coast gently to my goal. Then i get on the scale two days later (on my 90th day post op) mostly to keep myself honest and not allow the weight to go up. and voila I lost a little bit, so i feel good, not great, reasured really that i did not ruin everything by easing up on my program. and like ten beats go by before it hits me, I LOST 100 pounds! how could i have missed that? Instead of being elated and celebrating, like i read in these support sites I feel conflicted. All the rules presurgery no longer apply. In the past i have worked so hard to lose a pound a week and now, it hardly feels like trying. I think i am convinced this is all a fantasy and will be taken away just as quickly as it was given to me. I also cannot see what others see from fifty feet away. people are blown away at the rapid change in me. I have to stare in the mirror to kind of see improvement. it goes to prove what my wife has always said, i am crazy and have a fat brain.

I would agree.it has been essential to my success. My Fitness Pal makes it so easy. without it there are so many times I wouldhave eaten something i mistakenly thought had far fewer calories/carbs. besides that i need to be kept honest. there is something about looking at all I ate and the calories and protein. besides how can you make changes down the line if you dont know what you are eating. PRotein in particular. I would say that not traking your food is like playing football without pads, you could do it, but it is not advisable. IMHO

be aware that some multi vitamins will intensely color the urine and falsely make it look concentrated

Only sooner. and without as much worry.

I don't generally care for candy but with my constipation problems perhaps I could try it.

me too. I love the Kashi crackers instead , small, easy to digest. i try to bite a third of a cracker at a time. sometimes i put laughing cow light chipotle cheese spread- very low in calories. serves as a reasonable snack mid day.

I am on long term steroids. it did not affect my weight loss at all. I lost it much faster than i could have hoped. but i did go off them for the month after surgery because it increases the chance of a leak ( interferes with healing). you have to focus on the instructions and work it as hard as you can, with exercise an essential component. hope that helps

unfortunately I am not feeling colder. on the plus side i tolerate the heat much better and dont sweat as early or as much and cool down faster, but i still like a very cold office and home. My feet do feel colder but that is about it. HOpefully the window of opporutinity has not closed and it will come. My wife and i are about 6 degrees apart from our comfort zones and it woudl be nice to narrow that a bit.

wow! good to know. i am three months out and i max at 2 oz of thinly sliced chix or ham, with a few kashi crackers. beef is harder. i am pushing hard to get up to 1500 calories a day and i am still losing weight. i exercise six days a week. I am scared of maintenance so when i increased my calories I increased my workouts--kind of self defeating, i know. i went to a bod pod to get a handle of what weight i should aim for and it said i was at 13%--ludicrous. from other methods and comparing to the pictures of body fat i figure i am around 20%. of course there is a bunch of weight tied up in the loose skin-- so i have no idea where to go. I will have to take it a day at a time. thanks for the post.

how do you know it is kidney pain and not back pain? or even GI pain? if it is not transient I agree with Arts137 get it evaluated.

I found unjury vanilla to be amazing. i am still having a cup a day 3 months out because it is my favorite protien source and I cannot eat much in the morning. i got a sample from my doctor and perhaps yours has some too. you can add flavorings to it. there are calorie free chocolate syrups out there. good luck

I tried toast at 2 months no problem but i had to eat it extra slow and give it time between bites to signal when was enough. it did seem to want to swell and i ate only a bit but did well. unfortunately pasta was way too easy, no problem at all. i am with you, the real reason i hardly ever touch either is that i love them. Although once you have had anything stuck in the esophagus for an hour that will cure you ( for a while). I am avoiding rice still, for it was so much a favorite my family thought i was culturally chinese.

It gets better, much better. simple but not easy: follow directions, something difficult to do with that darned Y chromosome.

I felt good in a few days. better than normal in that i had no desire to eat and did not think about food 24/7. IT is quite a load off my mind. But the feelings keep changing. it is hard for the mind not to get too worked up: when the weight began to crater i worried it would not continue, when i still did not care about food a month later then i wondered if i would ever be able to eat with other people, now my interest in food is increasing so i worry i will go back to craving food ( not yet). the sleeve is a great reality check--probably its best feature is that when i get a bit in a hurry or get emotionally upset and start eating it stops me right in my tracks.

congrats! i just finished my third month. it is quite a journey. highly recommend to throw the exercise in right away to max out the benefits of the sleeve. good luck

MOM helped me to get started but now i need four metamucil caps daily and regular colace caps to keep going.

I am getting more people telling that i have to stop losing weight. I try to take it in stride and not get upset but it is rather presumptive for them to tell me about my health. I did not have a good answer until today, for those that ask how long will i keep losing weight. I will continue to lose weight until it stops coming off or when my body 'tells' me that something is wrong. if that is much lower than the charts say, so be it, if it is higher than i expect then so be it.

I am still waiting for the cold to start. My wife thinks that i tolerate the heat better and that may be true but I still love the cold. I am closing in on my goal so perhaps it wont work for me.

You are very young and should do well, particularly if you do as bubba says, a bit of weight lifting does wonders. But you may be getting ahead of yourself, like planning the press conference before actually climbing mount everest. the process is challenging and not for the faint of heart--at least if you want it to succeed.

I have had two episodes that were hard to explain. both happened in my third month post op. the first i was eating a bit of smooth PB and the second a protein bar that i eat all the time without problems. Both times my stomach decided it did not like it and I suffered for a good 40 minutes before it came back up . I assumed that i must have not chewed thoroughly enough (chew PB?). Small price to pay for the benefits of the sleeve.IMHO

OMG! but where is the smile?

I got home from work yesterday absolutely exhausted, fell into bed for a nap and clearly there was something poking me in the belly/chest. i roll over to remove whatever it is and there is nothing there. WTF? clearly something is poking me there! finally figure out it is my rib cage protruding out. how do i fix that? does this go away? fortunately it only happens on the right side as it sticks out slightly more than the left. I suppose i am happy about it. going along with this, sleeping on my side has become increasingly difficult because my legs have become so bony that they don't easily lie on each other without a presure point. I will adjust, but i did not expect this.

you are very young so you have a good chance the skin will adjust a good bit, particularly if the weight has only been there a few years. unlike me and my sharpei suit ( of which i am inordinately proud, i might add)

unless you are going to a 46-48 you wont be happy with it and it will confuse your sentimental attachment. I did this once and they could alter one size without problem, past that and you might as well get remnants and piece them together. Listen to the woman and get yourself an ok suit then when you hit your target get a new expensive wonderful suit and start a new attachment to that one. IMHO. That is my plan. I am losing size too fast to stay in one size long enough to wear it much.

I am at month 2.5 and it has been far too easy ( I know heresy) sure it took hard work and focus and retraining, but compared to the work i used to put into simply maintaining my high weight this is nothing. So my question is whether it gets harder? not so much to lose weight as I am nearly at goal now but to maintain the weight loss. particularly when the novelty wears off. thanks