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I did at first. Then this weekend I took 3 large trash bags and filled them with clothes I could no longer wear. I realized, ok this is real.
Then this AM, I literally could not wear pants I could on Friday. They were too big. So yes, I'm finally seeing it in the mirror.

Hi, I am from Grosse Ile. I had my surgery 6/25 and am down 40 lbs total. I also had mine done at HFH-Detroit but by Dr. Genaw, who is partners with Dr. Carlin. I had a good experience and am doing well so far. Congrats to you!

The fact of the matter is everyone doctors, Pa's,
Nuts, **** even all the people here will have different views on what works and what's "right"
My take away? f**k em!
If its working for you then keep it up. If its not change it. Even with everything science knows about weight and weight loss the body and process are still full of mysteries.
I go in on Wednesday, what do you think my surgeon will say about the 5:2 I do??
Well guess what? I don't care! He never had a weight problem or the sleeve. He can only gather so much information from a book. Academics?
Meh..

I am in the same place you are. I was sleeved the 25th of June. I had a stall for 3 weeks. It can be so frustrating. I keep reading about some people who are just slow losers. It is disheartening to realize I am one of them when the NUT said to expect about 5 pounds a week. However, I keep reading about people who are successful over a longer period of time. I am following the rules and doing everything I am supposed to be doing. We just need to hang in there and count the non scale victories. I am off some meds I was on before and I am at the weight I was when I met my husband 14 years ago. Hang in there all! We can DO it too!

just keep on following the rules...the weight loss will come.

I didn't have a ton of weight to lose to begin with but I was still way over weight and very unhealthy. My blood pressure could not be controlled with the max dosage of meds and I had to use cholesterol meds to control my LDL, had joint pain and I was at 320 pounds about a few years ago. During the 2-3 years pre-op, I fluctuated between 280 and 315.
I've lost slow, other than the first 2-3 months after surgery (see signature below). I may not get to my goal of 215, but I still haven't stopped losing and I'm almost 15 months post-op. The last several months I've probably only averaged a pound or two loss a month and I'm currently at 227 (not terribly bad for 6'-3"). But I'm also still losing inches, which lets me know the fat is dropping slowly and I'm actually adding muscle and getting stronger every month. I see this in my max lifts in the gym, so I'll take the pound or two of fat loss a month, especially if I can continue that during all of my second year post-op. If so, that would put me at my goal by the end of this second year. Also, when I put that 215 goal out there, it was just a number that I was told to give myself and to shoot for it. Sometimes goals can be measured by more than just what is on the scale. My body fat has gone from around 35% to about 16-17%, I'm off my blood pressure meds completely now with normal range BP, off my cholesterol meds, joint pain in my knees are gone and I feel MUCH better! So slow loss on the scales for me has not been indicative of my overall progress since surgery. My main goals always were to get healthier and off my meds and I have done that. Any other benefits are just gravy for me (pun intended) and I am very appreciative of this surgery even though I've not lost heaping amounts of weight.

I would say, by definition, I was a slow loser. I had a total of 80.5 lbs that I wanted to lose to my goal after I had my surgery.
In the first 6 months, I lost 55 lbs. Then, it slowed to a crawl.
In the next 6 months, I lost 21.5 lbs
I stalled at this point for 3 months and I actually thought I might be done losing, then I lost 3 more pounds, now at 15 months post op.
Once again I stalled for about 2 months and thought I was done losing, still about 5 or so pounds from goal, but I was really that worried about those 5lbs.
Then, 18 months post op, I hit my goal weight of 140lbs and 80.5 lbs lost. In the months following, I dropped a few more pounds!
Now I have a 3-4 pound weight fluctuation. My cycle is a major factor in how much I weigh, so I try not to let it bother me. I can go up as much as 2 or 3 lbs during ovulation and 3-4 lbs during TOM. My weight loss near the end only really occurred in the 2 weeks in between Tom and ovulation, so I highly encourage women to really pay attention to their bodies. I also get wicked cravings and have a very hard time not wanting to eat everything in my path. How do I cope with the cravings? I do not keep anything in my house that I know I will eat.
Now I am over 2 years post op and have not had many issues maintaining for the last 8 months. I am still learning as I go and I still make mistakes. But over all I would say I eat healthy 90% of the time, and 10% of the time I don't. If I am going to be truthful, I never counted anything (calories, carbs, protein), I never weighed anything, and I don't exercise by definition regularly. I did follow my post op guidelines. I rarely eat bread (but I will eat garlic bread when out for supper) and I eat very little other "white carbs" like rice, Pasta, flour, sugar (notice that I did not say never). I do not drink with my meals, I still occasionally drink Protein shakes, I eat a lot of greek yogurt sweetened with stevia, drink 2% milk, eat nuts, and enjoy veggies AND fruits. I will still have an ice cream cone once in a while, I will still eat chocolate and I will still have other treats as well. I just do not keep them in my house so they are not tempting because I do not have any more will power now than before surgery if food is sitting in front of me (hence a 4 lbs weight gain over Christmas that I am happy to report is all gone again).
I wanted to make changes that I know I could live with, maintain, and be happy with for the rest of my life. I am happy with the weight I lost, and even though it was slower in the "sleeve" world, it was still faster than any other time I had tried to lose weight in my life. My new habits are firmly entrenched, and even if I stumble now (like Christmas), it is not difficult to get my head back in the game. I would not change what I did and how I did it and I love this tool that I have been given!

Does it help that I'm 19+ months out and STILL losing? I DID lose 100 pounds in my first six months, but that was less than half of my excess weight.
Folks, it's not a race. Learn your stuff and get it done. Stalls are normal, frustrations are normal. We keep saying "it's not about the finish line, but about the journey" and it's annoying, but VERY true. At this point, I'm losing 1 pound per week, on average (it comes in big spurts... I'll lose 2 pounds in a week and then nothing for two weeks). BUT it's been that way all along, just the amounts have gone down as I get closer to goal.
I've lost over 200 pounds. Heck, I've lost more than some of the STARTING weights I've seen from the really short folks. If I can do this, you can do this. There's no time limit or expiration date on your sleeve. Treat it well and it will be good to you for many years to come.

4 months out 35 lbs down only 4 lbs lost in 9 weeks . I wish I could be fast but I don't think I will be it will come off when it wants to I just have to stay on plan. It's hard when you can eat anything many days I want to just give up .
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I am six months out and have lost 73 lbs. Some would find that tragedy since its not a 100 lbs. or more in six months. I have been a slow user but I have been continually losing and Im very proud at what I hv lost. I have went from a size 22-24 pants to now in a 16 that are baggy. Whoohoo. I also went from a 3x shirt to a medium shirt size and sometimes large...depends on the shirt. I feel so much better and feel confident I will lose the rest.
Don't get discouraged if you feel you're a slow user. It will come off!

Lately I've seen a TON of posts about lucky sleevers that drop 100 pounds in six months.
Congrats to them and to their loss. And I would never, ever begrudge anyone the right to crow about a fantastic success. It's part of why we're all here, to share the ups and downs of this surgery!
But frequently, these posts are followed by folks that feel frustrated because they aren't losing at the same pace. All too often, we forget that everyone loses at a different pace. It's easy to lose sight of the real goal (long term maintenance) in the face of the scale goals we set for ourselves. And it's also easy to forget that this isn't a race and that there's no special prize waiting at the end for reaching goal more quickly.
I would like to contribute my loss pattern so that people can see that there is more than one way to achieve a goal. Being successful is about reaching your personal goals, overcoming your personal food demons and maintaining your weight loss for life. It's not about hitting goal in nine months.
I encourage everyone else with a slow loss story to contribute their successes here as well. It's hard to research this surgery and find only the stories about extremes - people completely thrilled with surgery or people that regret every minute of life post op. The same goes for loss. When people search out stories on this, it's too easy to only find rapid loss or stall posts but nothing showing the more realistic and moderate journey many of us take. The sleeve is a permanent tool that does not have a special window of easy weight loss. There is no reason to feel discouraged when you haven't reached goal at one year out, or even two. There is nothing preventing you (short of your own body's natural stopping point) from achieving or re-achieving goal at any point post op.
I lost 60 pounds in the first five months after my surgery.
And I slowly lost 32 pounds over the next seven months.
It took me another five months to shed the final 15 pounds to my goal.
I lost 107 pounds over the course of 17 months. I stalled twice for nine weeks each time. I had months where I only lost one pound. I regularly experienced a gain of three pounds around my cycle, and often only lost weight in the last week to ten days of the month, after sitting at the same weight for nearly three weeks.
I am a success, and at 2.5 years out (and currently pregnant) I still have good, healthy eating habits and maintained my weight loss quite easily. Even 30 weeks pregnant, I am still wearing a size 6/small (in maternity clothes, of course) regardless of how I feel about my expanding body!
I learned what was important on this journey and am in better health today (not just physically, but mentally and emotionally), than I have ever experienced as an adult.
Good luck to those currently on their journey, and I encourage everyone to share their stories here so that newly sleeved folks can see that slow vs. fast loss doesn't really matter in the end.
~Cheri

Okay, thanks all you smartie pants! I use chopsticks too! I was more asking if you take small bites off of the piece or if you still put the whole thing in your mouth and just chew and chew and chew and chew!

Okay, thanks all you smartie pants! I use chopsticks too! I was more asking if you take small bites off of the piece or if you still put the whole thing in your mouth and just chew and chew and chew and chew!

Okay, thanks all you smartie pants! I use chopsticks too! I was more asking if you take small bites off of the piece or if you still put the whole thing in your mouth and just chew and chew and chew and chew!

This is a great book! I got it a week prior to my surgery and poured over it all week. Now, post surgery, I am continually looking back at it for information and advice. Thank you!

I'll be starting regular food in Tuesday! I just had some guacamole for the first time!!! YUM! Does anyone else eat this on the soft phase?

Okay, thanks all you smartie pants! I use chopsticks too! I was more asking if you take small bites off of the piece or if you still put the whole thing in your mouth and just chew and chew and chew and chew!

There is a recipe on sparkpeople.com for Protein crepes made with egg whites and Protein Powder. It makes 3 crepes. I used vanilla muscle milk powder and it was like a really thin pancake. I put a little SF Syrup on there. Pretty good. I could only eat 1 but the others reheated well!

There is a recipe on sparkpeople.com for Protein crepes made with egg whites and Protein Powder. It makes 3 crepes. I used vanilla muscle milk powder and it was like a really thin pancake. I put a little SF Syrup on there. Pretty good. I could only eat 1 but the others reheated well!

Hi. I had my surgery Tuesday. I came home today. No drain. I vomited twice in the hospital and now twice at home. No one seemed too concerned in the hospital. Should i be? It seems clear with a little mucus and lots of bubbles. I started farting a little today too.

I am a June 25th sleever from Michigan. Having surgery at Henry Ford Hospital. Pre-op has been tough. Made it through the week of shakes. All clear diet today has been hard again. Glad to find some buddies here!