Justinh125

Good. I also worked in metabolic physiology labs for years and loved every second of it. But the yahoo article doesn't cite what papers support it.

If anything, I think it would be grounds for them to approve you, since you've now demonstrated that traditional supervised programs aren't effective. Clearly you need something more drastic.

Citation Needed! The body will always turn excess calories into fat if you are consuming more than you burn each day, but it takes more than 1000 cal/day to keep your body alive. In terms of other health issues (liver and such,) I suppose other calories are probably more "healthy" than booze. But as long as calories in < calories out, you will lose weight.

Pizza isn't so bad for you if you only have one slice. Right now, I can only get a part of one slice down.

Different doctors also "size" your stomach differently when they construct the sleeve. My doctor uses a larger "bougie" than some because he finds it to be most effective balance between minimal complications and effective outcomes. So while I can never really eat "large" or even "normal" portions of food, I imagine I can eat more than others less than 2 months out. But that hasn't stopped the excellent results....

I can't keep it to myself anymore. This surgery works if you do what they tell you to do. I'm living proof. I hate doing what doctors tell me to do. But even I can follow the directions they give me. So I did. And lo and behold, it worked!!! I'm lighter than I've been in years and my belt buckle is tighter than it's been in years!!!! You know what? I'm WINNING!!! It is WORKING!!! And that makes me very, very happy.

Maybe you could just go on short walks throughout the day before you feel like you hit the wall. That's what I did and was soon able to do much more.

Most? Watching my diabetes go into remission. That was truly wonderful to watch. I no longer have to take anything.....no pills, no insulin...nothing!

I had already done a sleep study at another time and have been using a CPAP machine for a few years. It really makes a huge difference for me. If I don't use it for a night, it feels like I have a nasty hangover. Wearing a mask to sleep took some "getting used to" but it was worth it for me.

I've had time to "sleep on it" to see if I really still feel this enthusiastic. I do! This surgery changed my life forever and it's already happening.... VSG works!!! I'm a believer!!!

Thanks for the kind remarks. If you follow your doctor's recommendations, I'm sure you will succeed as well.

This is, quite literally, everything I hoped it could be and then some

It's like over time it gets better and better. It's not just that my waist is shrinking and that's cool. It's also that I become more and more comfortable with small, healthy portions of food instead of the huge meals I used to eat. I met with my surgeon for my 6-week followup yesterday, and in addition to loosing 31% of my excess weight (by insurance definitions) I'm feeling great! I had some tasty grilled chicken for lunch today (probably around 4oz.)...it was delicious and filling. How cool!!! I had that small meal and didn't feel a need to have more...

Here's the thing: there's a lot of calories in alcoholic beverages, and it's not like it's healthy calories...just "empty" calories. Next, alcohol (especially hard liquor) can irritate the lining of your stomach...something you don't want right after surgery. Once it heals a bit, I think what many of the others are saying is true: probably a small amount in moderation is ok. Remember, it will get into your bloodstream faster...so make sure to drink accordingly...you might get drunker than expected otherwise. The other thing is that many of the recommendations are adopted from instructions they give gastric bypass patients. Obviously, for us our intestines aren't getting re-arranged, so many of those guidelines aren't as important. For example, my surgeon explicitly told me I can have coffee and that the "no coffee" rule is just for his gastric bypass patients.

It was a hard habit to break. For me, sometimes I have to chose less spicy food because no water to wash it down.

As you probably know, A1c levels are a measure over time...a 3 month average so to speak. Work on keeping your blood glucose down and the number will drop.

If it is any consolation, your stomach isn't sore. If it was your stomach that was sore, the pain after your surgery would be unimaginable. After all, they literally cut off the vast majority of it. The stomach doesn't have pain receptors of the kind that your skin or other parts of your body has. It cannot "feel" pain in that way. Instead, you likely feel pain from the muscles that contract when you vomit. For most people, those muscles are rarely, if ever used. So it's normal that on the occasion that you vomit, those muscles will be sore...just like if you did some other exercise working a group of muscles you don't normally use. Since they are muscles in your abdomen and around your stomach, that's where you will feel the pain. But all is well. The soreness will dissipate.

I asked this exact question. They said it wasn't dangerous at all, but your surgeon may say otherwise. I've vomited a few times where I overate, and nothing bad happened at all. The things they use to create the sleeve can endure far more than the muscle contractions caused by vomiting.

You'll be fine Remember that God blessed your surgeon with the skills to do a good job on you. One second you are asleep, and the next you are already done.

Why would I want to do that? I think my surgeon did a great job and I'm thrilled with the results...even better than he advertised.

I gain 10lbs just from the i.v fluids alone!!! My surgery weight was 228, my post-op weight (just a few hours later) on the same scale was 238!!! So don't worry so much about fluids...they can come and go a lot through the course of a day.

I should add on that no matter how large your liver is, your doc could do the procedure as open surgery, but it would greatly cut into your healing time. You really, really want your surgeon to be able to complete the thing laproscopically.

Awesome. Just keep eating healthy, and move your body (within the limits your doc. sets.)...and I'm sure the results will keep coming.

So when your body is in a "positive energy balance," meaning calories in < calories out, your body stores the excess in 2 ways: fatty tissue, and in your liver. When your body is in an negative energy balance (the opposite,) your liver will usually burn up its store of "stored energy" before your body burns fat tissue. So by being in a huge negative energy balance, you are forcing your liver to release its stored up energy, and hopefully in the process helping it shrink so your surgeon can safely and correctly do the procedure. I know it isn't fun, but that's really why they want you to do it....the smaller your liver, the better.

And as an addendum, I doubt any of us really enjoyed the pre-op diets our doctors made us do. At least for me, I got to be so large I needed bariatric surgery because I love to eat. So I did. For many, many years I ate and ate and ate, and it eventually turned me into a very large man. So I wasn't really excited at all when I was told I'd have to go on a "liquid only" diet to prepare for surgery. Especially because "liquid" doesn't normally consist of a large pizza plus a few pints of Ben & Jerry's ice cream...at least not according to my doctor. So most of us know how that feels. And while I agree that "most" people that haven't struggled with their weight don't know what it's like to be as hungry as I used to get, I would respectfully argue that I DO know what it's like. I promise it's worth it