LumpySpacePrincess

The only other suggestion that I can make (as someone who has also been on xanax before), is that the xanax is relaxing you to the point that you are not waking up to your body's signals that you need to go to the bathroom. Its possible you may have been mostly asleep and unaware you pushed out a fart, and coupled with the broccoli possibly being the cause of the loose stools, it created a mess. Sorry to hear you are going through this. I did this twice within the week after surgery and my poor boyfriend insisted on helping clean it up both times. So embarrassing! Hope things start getting better for you!

...I don't feel like I can share it with many of my other sleever pals. Most of them are still considered obese, even though we were sleeved around the same time. I feel guilty posting about my success in our groups, because I don't want to make others feel bad. At the same time, they are the only people I know who understand what this process is like. At first we were all united and very supportive of each other. Now I just feel like every time I share a success, they get upset about it. Anyone else have this experience?

Yes, your taste will come back. I had almost zero taste until about 6-9 months out (I don't remember exactly when it came back). The good thing about having no taste is it helps with making better food choices. When all food tastes essentially the same, the allure of richer, fattier, or sweeter foods just isn't there. Use it to your advantage and fill your body with good, lean Protein. The weight WILL come off, I promise!

I'm about the same amount of time out. I had a post-op appointment today. My surgeon and nutritionist were both thrilled with my weight loss, which was really great to hear! I asked them what I should be eating at this point. The nutritionist told me 1200 calories per day is considered optimal for maintenance sleevers, and around 60g Protein per day, 25g of Fiber from vegetables, fruit (she wants me to have two fruit servings per day), and some whole grains like oatmeal, nuts, etc. She told me in terms of fat and carb content per-se, as long as I keep it in the 1200 calories per day, it shouldn't be a problem to maintain my weight. As far as exercise, she told me 30 minutes per day of moderate to strenuous exercise four times per week was all we need. Right now I'm eating pretty much whatever I want, but I always make sure to get my protein in first and foremost. Hope this helps!

YES! My mom recently told me I was too skinny. My therapist gently reminded me to pay attention to where these comments are coming from. In my case, usually other women that might feel threatened that my role in the friendship or familial relationship has changed; i.e. I was always overweight and they were always smaller or "better" than I was. Now that I am smaller than my mom (she's never been overweight but she's now a size 10/12 and I'm a 6/8), she feels that the balance in that part of our relationship has changed. I try not to internalize it. I don't care what anyone says, I'm a size 8 down from a 32/34 and I feel fantastic! I simply tell people I will stop losing when my surgeon tells me to. After all, they know the post-bariatric body better than anyone.

I've lost a LOT of weight so I went in to get professionally measured. They measured me at a 34B, but because of all the loose skin on the side of my breasts, I had to be put in a C cup. The D was way too big, but now I'm getting frontal quad-boob, unless I wear one of those cast-Iron granny bras that halfway through the day just make it look like I have one big lump at the front, or separate them so they look like 1950s missiles! Anyone else experience this issue? I've been taping my breasts recently to minimize the "jiggle" that causes it but I'd really love to know if its just me or if this is a common problem. I can't wait to have my breasts done!!

I used to feel like that. I kicked the idea around for years but always said "Well, it would be great to lose it without surgery!" but I always knew in my heart I'd need it. Now I can walk into any store and buy whatever I want. I'm a size 6/8 (originally a 32/34!) and how I got here doesn't matter a lick to me now because I feel fantastic!! As others have said, this is a medical condition, and you are being treated by a medical team. If this was something that people could do on their own without medical intervention, no insurance on earth would pay for it! If you find these thoughts pervasive, I'd recommend seeing a therapist, even if just for a short while, to sort out your emotions. Actually, I recommend long-term therapy for all bariatric patients. We didn't get to our heaviest because we have a good, easy relationship with food!

Nope, but you must make sure you are drinking enough water before and after. I drink a homemade cappuccino every morning and have no issues as long as I drink one bottle before breakfast and one shortly after my coffee.

Can you give us a sample menu of what you are eating? That might help greatly.

They are similar but also very different. The c-section is open, so a larger portion of your muscle is cut, and cut in an area that assists with sitting up, standing, bending, etc, so your pain is going to be mostly related to those activities. The pain from the sleeve, which is a laproscopic surgery, is going to be mostly due to the air they pump into you while they are performing the procedure. The intensity of the muscular pain was less with the sleeve than with my c-section, but the overall pain was worse with the sleeve. Take heart, though, that after about 5 days you'll be mostly recovered from the sleeve, as opposed to 2+ weeks with the c-section. The pain might be more intense but it is shorter lived.

When I got those it was because I was dehydrated. Drink more Water and they should go away. If not, you may need to double your reflux/heartburn medication, which is also a common cause.

Anyone else? I've been doing a lot of weight training over the last few months, and I can tell I've built my muscle back up, but the tighter they get, the worse my skin looks. The only thing I can think of to describe it would be to say that it drips and puddles. Ewww. Wondering if this is just me?

@@Sweet Pee How much did you pay for your surgery? I contacted him for a quote, but he wont' give me a price until I send him my blood work (which will take awhile). I'm just trying to get a ballpark figure because I have to save up for this and it might take awhile.

That's not necessarily true, and you could be putting your body into starvation mode. You should be talking with your nutritionist and or your surgeon about what you can do to drop your last bit of weight. Good luck! Starvation mode doesn't apply to people who have extra fat on their bodies, and certainly not for people who are obese. Its a weight loss myth that has been beat to death. I know giving up our food is hard psychologically, but you need to give up control of it at least a little bit to make this surgery work. I got to my goal weight because I kept my calories low for the whole first year (around 650 to 800 per day), while those in my cohort (support group) who were of the "starvation mode" mindset and increased calories and exercise are still considered overweight, and not by a narrow margin. You will not die, you will not starve to death. Your fat is there to feed your body in times of famine. If you want it to come off your body, you have to decrease intake and force your body to use its energy stores. Your calories need to come from your body, not from your plate.

When the episode originally aired, I was just a few months out of WLS. I was yelling at the tv. I was so f-ing angry at her. I know so many people who were turned down for WLS after multiple appeals and who really truly needed the surgery and would have been excellent candidates, and I feel like she pissed her opportunity away. The episode stuck with me for awhile, though, and slowly I started to realize that could have been me. She has an eating disorder, no questions about it, but so do I. What's the difference, though? Well, I feel I am fortunate enough to be a psychology student (now in graduate school for counseling psych), so I had access to so much more information than a lot of people did on assessments, abnormal psychology, etc that through my training I was able to recognize my own eating disorder and seek help. For years (my therapist and I place the start of my disorder around the age of 3) I honestly didn't know that I was any different than anyone else. I thought everyone ate the way I did, I was just unfortunate enough to get fat. She is wife and mother to her disorder, not her family members. She is so deep into it that I honestly think only inpatient care would help at this point. I don't think she wants to be the way she is, and I think she probably senses something is wrong, but for some of us having a food attachment that strong can be the same as someone trying to get off heroin or narcotics. Your disorder will convince you of all kinds of things, mainly that you don't need help. Its incredibly difficult to live with. I fully empathize with her, not for her choices but her lack of ability to make good choices due to her disorder. It must be hell living inside her head.

Lowering carbs is never a bad idea, especially if refined grains and starchy veg (potatoes, etc) have creeped back into your diet. However, you will probably need to lower your calories as well. We tend to stall out because we forget that as we lose, our bodies need less. If we keep eating the same amount, we aren't creating a big enough deficit to lose fat. If you are going the low-carb route, just remember to keep your daily fat at or below your Protein in grams so the fat you're burning comes from your body, not from your diet!

You will NOT gain muscle that quickly, so don't buy into that. At most, people who train might gain about 2 pounds of muscle per month at the very most, and we're talking serious athletes. The average person might gain a quarter to half a pound of pure muscle per month, but usually not more. It took me three months of intense weight training to gain a pound of lean body mass. Most of what you are experiencing is probably Water gain, but you also have to take into account when you up your activity, your brain will tell you to eat more. Make sure you are not grazing throughout the day or developing the "I worked out hard so I can have extra" mentality. Keep your calories low, lean, and non-starchy and the water weight should drop away and take some fat with it.

Try lowering your calories. As you lose weight, your body requires less to live on, so you need to reduce how much you are taking in per day to make sure your deficit is big enough for weight loss.

No, she has no problem with it. She knows i'm not taking it to stop eating completely, just as a helper. She's called my doctor to explain this but my doctor just doesn't think its necessary. She's also one of those doctors who thinks I should just go for a walk every day and the fat will melt off without dieting, etc. She almost didn't fill out my physical for my WLS because she said it wouldn't help me at all. I'm trying to get a new doctor, but my HMO is very stubborn.

I wish I could afford plastic surgery. Its not likely, at least not until I'm out of graduate school and have my LPC so I can practice. So probably about a good 6 or 7 years away. Not sure I can live with it for that long without getting majorly depressed.

16 months post-op, sitting around 156 most days. The part that bothers me the most is my fat apron. Though I do know its shrunk from when I was at my heaviest, it is still very prominent. I know its not all skin, the majority of it is still pure fat (confirmed by a plastic surgeon). I feel like I've failed because its still there. I can't fit into a lot of clothes correctly, I always have to wear long shirts to cover it or people stare and make nasty faces at me when my shirt rides up. Does it ever go away?? Have I been doing something wrong to make it stick around?

I'm about 16 months out and have lost almost all my excess weight, but I'd still like to lose a bit more. The problem is, my eating disorder (binge eating) sometimes gets very, very loud in my head and its hard to ignore it. I've been on phentermine before and it helped wonders, but my doctor won't give it to me anymore because she thinks that now that my weight is gone, eating shouldn't be a problem. Does anyone have any ideas for an OTC appetite suppressant? Not looking for something for daily use, just once in awhile when my head gets too loud. I did ask my therapist but she couldn't recommend anything specific.

There are a couple of products I'm looking at ordering from netrition. One is a honey alternative made from xylitol. I want to know if anyone has post-op experience with it? Maltitol, unless in very small doses, makes me dump so I wanted to hear from others about using xylitol based things instead. Thanks!

For the most part, I haven't had to touch anything except the occasional Tums since about a month out. Now, suddenly, I have heartburn every day even though how much I eat and the type of food I eat hasn't really changed all that much over the last six months. Is it common for heartburn to just kick in late?? Its kind of annoying, so any suggestions on getting rid of it that don't involve Prilosec (expensive where I live) would be great!

Any recommendations? I was originally going to go with Dr. Capella, but it seems a lot of his patients have issues with stuff not healing correctly and him leaving lumps of fat by the pubic area. I am now ready to consider plastics in Mexico as well if I find someone that people have had good experiences with. I will need a lower body lift and a breast lift. I haven't decided on an arm lift yet. Also if anyone can tell me about what they paid for these procedures, I'd appreciate it!