JamieLogical

You will find thousands on this site who have lost weight with the sleeve. Now, your case is unique and there may be some issues with scar tissue from your RNY and the reversal of it that make your sleeve surgery not as straight-forward as it would be for someone who had never had RNY. I've read some accounts from people who went from lap-band to sleeve not having as much restriction because scar tissue from the band effected how small their sleeve could be and the shape of it. Sleeve definitely provides restriction. I would argue that it provides more restriction than RNY, because with RNY, your pyloric valve is bypassed, meaning food can pass straight through your stomach into your intestines. With sleeve, the pyloric valve is intact and continues working as normal and hold food inside your stomach for longer so it has proper exposure to your stomach acid to break it down before allowing it to pass into your intestine. Also, with sleeve, the fundus is removed. The fundus is the top part of your stomach that is very stretchy and stretches to accommodate more food as you eat. With RNY, the pouch that is made includes some of the fundus, so your pouch is able to stretch more as you eat than a sleeve is. The main thing you will be "losing out" on with sleeve versus RNY is malabsorption. Since none of your intestine is bypased, you will fully absorb all of the calories and nutrients from your food. Edit: In terms of diet and food consumption, the two surgeries are very similar. You will always want to put Protein first. You will eat several small "meals" and Snacks per day to get all of your protein in. You have to avoid eating and drinking at the same time. You have to avoid carbs and slider foods. You have to avoid drinking your calories. It sounds like you were doing well with that with your RNY, so there is no reason to suspect you would have any trouble once you're sleeved.

Welcome! You can have caffeine during the pre-op diet (I was allowed to at least), but not for a while post-op as your sleeve is healing up. I went ahead and quit caffeine on my pre-op, just so I wouldn't have to be dealing with the withdrawal right after surgery. I was allowed to reintroduce caffeine at 30 days post op. One cup of coffee per day with lots of milk or cream mixed in to make it easier on my stomach. Now I'm 8 months out and drinking 3 cups a day.

Yikes! My sister works in an ER and a patient once told her the same thing (sad part is, she isn't even overweight!) and I though that was terrible enough coming from a stranger. But coming from someone who is supposed to be your friend?!?! Really?

Wow! You really do look a lot alike! Both beautiful!

I'm so glad you came back here! Hopefully you will get the advice and support you need to get back on track. I find that participating in the forums provides its own kind of accountability and keeps my WLS at top-of-mind still. Posts like yours are a good reminder that this is a life-long process that requires commitment and dedication. The good news is, it's never too late to get back on track. And look at the plus side, you are still down 75 pounds from your highest weight! Think of the difference that has made to your overall health and longevity!

I prefer Dannon Light & Fit Greek. The Yoplait has that "greek yogurt" flavor and texture that I never liked when I had tried it back when greek yogurt became very popular. But the Dannon tastes more like normal yogurt to me. Plus with only 80 calories and 12 grams of protein, you really can't beat it! I am addicted to the Key Lime and Raspberry flavors., although the Raspberry only comes in a 4-pack and the lids on the 4-pack options tear really easily and I'm always fighting with them to get them open.

Where I had my surgery, they would have kept me an extra night if I needed them to, but I didn't. I would have felt very cooped up in the surgical center if I'd had to stay there a second night. I liked being back in the hotel with my own space.

I did a little "research" of my own recently. We've all seen the "where are they now" articles and news pieces about some of the past Biggest Loser contestants that mostly feature those who have managed to keep *most* of the weight off. Almost all of them seem to be professional trainers or professional Biggest Loser contestants who just travel around the country attending events and giving speeches and they clearly need to keep up their appearances as ambassadors for the show. Well, I decided to look up some of the contestants we haven't heard from or seen since the early days of the show. I tracked down their facebook, instagram, and twitter feeds to see if I could find recent pics of them. Most of those I found appear to have regained all of the weight and then some. It's very unfortunate, as I had really rooted for those people back when they were on the show. Matt from Season 1 was a really big blow to me. He was one of my favorites and to see him now MUCH bigger than he'd been at the start of the show was very sad.

I had a situation where I thought my drain site might be infected, as it wasn't healing shut right away and was oozing puss. I took photos and emailed them to Dr. So and he called me back immediately. He said it didn't look infected, to keep it clean, and if it got worse or I was still concerned, I should go to urgent care. It turned out he was right, it wasn't infected and it healed up fine. As for communication with my PCP, direct communication was never necessary, but I'm sure it could have easily been arranged if needed. I was provided with the full surgical report, a copy of my EKG, and a copy of my lab results. I gave copies of all of those things to my PCP the first time I saw her post-op.

Story of my life! I have even gone so far as to shop for specialty jeans online that are supposed to accommodate people with large butts/thighs and smaller waists and they STILL had that stupid gap in the back. Ugh!

I agree with @@KingMoose that strength training is critical. Not only does it help stabilize or even increase your metabolism, it helps prevent you from losing muscle as you lose weight. If you don't do any strength training, a fair percentage of the pounds you lose WILL be muscle. The whole idea is to be losing FAT, so in order to do that, you need to work to maintain your muscle.

When I went to TJ for plastics several years ago, I was provided with stocking and compression garments, which I wore. When I had my sleeve done in September, I was given compression stockings, but my surgeon removed them, because the elastic was really cutting into my calves, so I didn't wear any on that trip home.

Are you avoiding the doctor because you feel ashamed of the overeating? And when you say you are overeating, what exactly do you mean? Are you overeating in a single sitting or are you grazing through the day or are you eating the wrong things?

Except you aren't taking into consideration the decreased metabolism from losing weight. When your body has to start burning stored energy for fuel, you metabolism slows. So your basal metabolic rate will decrease as a self-preservation mechanism. That's why it takes some trial and error to strike the right balance. If you go too low on calories or too high on exercise, your body will start hanging onto every single bit of fat as long as it can. So you have to try to find a calorie range where you can sustain your level of activity and still continue losing weight steadily. That's why people who are stalled in their weight loss are often encouraged to consume MORE calories to lose weight. They need to consume enough calories to convince the body it's not starving.

Holy cow! I don't know how you manage to eat Subway bread. Just thinking about it makes my sleeve hurt! I can barely manage any bread-like thing at all. The most "bread" I've managed to eat in one sitting is about 3/4 of one slice of Pepperidge Farms Light Style Soft Wheat, which is very thin and only about 3" square. I toast it to make it a little less "spongy", but it still fills me up SO MUCH! Made myself an open-face egg "sandwich" with that a few times and that's it. I'd avoid bread for the carbs anyway, but the restriction really doesn't give me much choice.

I got an aisle seat for my flights home so I had easy access to get up and walk around. Just made a couple of trips to the bathroom when the drink cart wasn't in the way. You shouldn't need any special access or accommodations for boarding. You likely won't be in much pain. All I did was ask someone near me if they would mind putting my bag in the overhead compartment for me. I just said "I just had surgery. Would you mind lifting my bag for me?" and everyone was very helpful. I didn't bring a checked bag with me for my VSG surgery, but when I had plastics several years ago, I did pretty much the same thing. Just asked someone near me at the baggage claim conveyor if they could grab the bag off the belt for me. I was sure to bring bags with wheels for both carry-ons and checked bags!

No no no. The gain has NOTHING to do with increased calories. You didn't increase your calories by 10500 did you? When you begin exercising intensely after a long period of not exercising, your body retains Water to heal your muscles. That 3 pounds is 100% water weight. Read this: http://www.sparkpeople.com/blog/blog.asp?post=why_the_scale_goes_up_when_you_start_a_new_workout_plan

I was allowed to swallow whole pills at 7 days post-op, so maybe ask your surgeon about that? I take a generic version of Citrical Maximum. It's two large pills twice daily.

It's really not quite that simple, but yes. If you are going to increase your activity level, you need to consume more calories to sustain yourself. While a calorie deficit is required for weight loss, too large a deficit will decrease your metabolism and slow your loss overall. So you need to strike a balance, which you can only really do through trial and error on your end. Also, listen to your body. I know that when I started seriously exercising, I started to feel more real, actual hunger and had to add a bit to my diet to make up for that.

I've tried coming off my PPI twice post-op and had acid issues again immediately both times. I'm okay with being on a PPI forever. I would rather that than have another surgery and revise to bypass with all the potential complications there. I mean, I'm already on vitamins for life, what's one more pill to take every day?

You're going to have a hard time finding any sort of bar with low total carbs. There are many low net carb options, but I haven't seen any with low carbs overall. It's the nature of the beast. In order for it to have a bar shape, size, and consistency, it needs to be filled with SOMETHING, and that something is always carbs of some sort.

I ate all my protein and took all my vitamins and still experienced hair loss as well. It was at its worst from about 3.5 months to 5 months post-op. I am now almost 8 months and it has slowed considerably. Still have more coming out than I did pre-op, but I also have a lot of new growth.

It really depends on how far out you are from surgery and what you are eating. I am almost 8 months post-op. I can now eat about 3-4 oz. of dense meat (chicken, pork, etc.) in a meal. If I'm eating something liquid-y... like greek yogurt, I could easily eat 6 or more oz. I eat the 5 oz. containers every day and never feel restriction with them. I also have no trouble eating a 2 oz. Protein bar in about 5 minutes.

You should go by whatever your nutritionist tells you, since every pre-op diet is different.

That article is an opinion piece, not a study, and is written by one doctor, hosted on his website full of pop-up ads trying to sell me his books and supplements. Sorry if I have a hard time taking it as gospel. Even he says 40-70 grams a day and more for people who are aggressively exercising or pregnant women. He doesn't specifically mention bariatric patients, but it is a commonly accepted that WLS patients also fall under a category that has a higher protein requirement. He says these groups need 25% more protein than normal, so that would mean 50-88 grams. And this is coming from a guy who is clearly anti-protein!