AgentShepard

CanyonBaby, I too am super apple-shaped, so let me tell you what works for me: the empire waist.

Look for high-waisted flowy tops and high-waisted dresses. If you are like me, the narrowest part of your torso is the bra-band area, so if the waist of your clothes hits there and flows to a full skirt underneath, it is very flattering and comfortable. Plus this style is supposed to fit loose, so you can wear it for several sizes before it looks too clownishly large on you.

Peekaboo, I eat Quest Bars. I am devoted to them! My two favorite flavors are chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and Double chocolate Chunk, followed by S'mores and Cookies and Cream. They give 20 or more g of Protein and around 20 g Fiber (REALLY helpful) for under 10 carbs and 200 calories. There are bars that have more Protein, but usually those have over 300 calories. The ratios in the Quest Bars are the best I've found.

GNC usually sells the boxes of 12 bars for $35, but if you buy their $15 gold membership the price for a box is $25. I always keep a stash in the house and I try to have a bar in my purse if I'm going out, just in case I get stuck somewhere and need an emergency snack (as my sugar gets low more easily now than before the surgery.)

As for hair, as long as we get our protein and Vitamins, Hair loss at this stage is probably attributed to something called telogen effluvium - basically, the physical shock to the system of surgery plus rapid weight loss right after shocks a bunch of hair into falling out, but the good news is that it resolves naturally on its own with time. Here is a good article on the topic:

http://www.obesityaction.org/educational-resources/resource-articles-2/weight-loss-surgery/weight-loss-surgery-nutrition-and-hair-loss

I would encourage you not to back off of working out for the sake of your hair. Unless you are doing some kind of kooky hair-pulling workout, I guess!

I stepped up my working out from gentle walking to more intense exercise plus weights in late February, and for the first three weeks or so I bounced around within the same 3 pounds. It was frustrating, but I kept at the working out because it really was making me feel good, and lo and behold, last week the weight started going down again and now I've lost around six pounds. (Seriously, if you've never tried doing weights, think about it! I love the way it makes me feel - strong and capable. after spending so long with my body making me feel weak and limited, I revel in feeling like I can kick ass and take names if the situation requires.)

Another thing to be aware of - BMI is meant to measure the overall average size of a population, and when it is applied to individual people it is very problematic. It doesn't take things like muscle or bone mass into account, for instance - and people who have been heavy develop denser, heavier bones to carry the load. There are other measures like body fat percentage or waist-to-hip ratio that seem to be better health indicators for individuals.

I've talked about this before on this board, but I find that I do better when I set myself functional goals to Celebrate - things like fitting into seats, or being able to walk down the street to a restaurant, or being able to go up the stairs using my "bad" leg. It find it really empowering and encouraging to focus on the things that I have worked to be able to DO with my body rather than the things that my body IS or looks like.

Hi guys! I'm just a few weeks out from 6 months. I have lost a total of 112 pounds. I've gone down from size 32 jeans being really tight to size 26 being loose, and on top I've gone from a 32/5X to a 24/3X or 22/2X, depending on cut and material. I'm about a 24 dress size now.

About me: 5'8", mid-30s, large frame, PCOS and hypothyroid

What I eat:

Breakfast: a Protein shake or Protein Bar

Lunch: 3-4 ounces of meat, 3-4 ounces of veg, sometimes 1-2 ounces of starch if there is room left

Afternoon snack: Protein Bar or alternate snack (cheese, veggies and dip, etc.)

Dinner: Whatever the family is eating, adapted to focus on Protein and veg, eaten in the 3 bites protein 2 bites veg 1 bite starch pattern

I sometimes add another snack if I've done a heavy workout and need a little something else - a piece of fruit or some cheese, often.

On average, I'm getting:

1230 calories

30g sugar

76g protein

26g Fiber

1800 mg sodium

656 mg Calcium before supplementation

7mg Iron before supplementation

108g carbs

Working out:

I strive for 150 minutes of activity a week. I mostly do walking, and then 3 times a week on average I go to the gym for high-intensity interval cardio plus weight training. I lift pretty heavy (8 reps per set) and have been really happy with the strength gains I've seen. I do a lot of walking apps and games to keep myself interested - The Walk, Zombies, Run!, and Ingress, for instance.

NSVs:

So many!

-I can now sit painlessly in the Evil Chairs in my office

-I can now fit into restaurant booths

-I can buy clothes in more than just one store instead of just being limited to Catherine's

-My bad knee is waaaaaaay better, so I don't need a cane to walk anymore

-I am off BP meds and metformin

-I have more energy and feel overall happier

I'm going to fly somewhere next month. Can't wait!

So in the last several weeks I've really increased the intensity of my workouts. I've moved from plain walks to interval training, and I'm doing strength training with pretty heavy weights (8 rep range) 2-3 times a week. So far it's been going well and I feel well-- I like to motivate myself by pretending to be, like, the Black Widow or Emma Peel and tell myself that I need those squats to kick bad guys in the face. These workouts are quite intense for me - HR above 140 in the cardio, working muscles to near-fatigue in the strength training.

However, a few times I have noticed that after a workout I get low blood sugar symptoms - like I've burned through all my fuel. I get very shaky and muddle-headed. After the first time it happened I now try to work out within an hour or so of having a protein-rich snack and then I bring a Quest bar or something with me to eat afterward.

What has your experience been with pre-and post-workout eating? Do you time your workouts around mealtimes, and if so, how? what mix of Proteins and carbs works best to fuel a workout and not get a sugar low afterward?

I am five months out from the sleeve surgery if it makes a difference in your answer.

On the NSV side today, I had a therapy appointment and my therapist remarked that he noticed a difference in me since the last appointment - that I seemed more energetic and spry. Gotta love it!

It's easy to laugh this question off, but I agree that it's an important one. I have been "the fat one" since I was about six. It is a fundamental part of my self-image. It was very difficult for me to decide to have the surgery because of this. I told my therapist that I felt like a character in a myth who sacrificed a part of their body to gain some gift - like Odin, sacrificing his eye for wisdom. So far I think the sacrifice has been worth it, but make no mistake that it WAS a sacrifice.

I am still very fat, even if less so than before, as I'm only 4 months out. But so far I miss the days when I was usually over-warm! My hands and feet are always cold.

One of the reasons I'm keeping up with therapy is because I anticipate that once I lose enough weight that I am "normal size" it will be a difficult adjustment to make. For one example: in my entire adult life I've never had more than about five places where I could buy clothes. It's exciting to think about being able to buy clothes ANYWHERE, but also really overwhelming. I will have to re-learn how to dress myself. That doesn't mean I'm sorry to have had the surgery, but it's a real issue I struggle with, and I think it's important for us to discuss these parts of the journey as well as the more fun ones.

Also worth noting that the bougie size only effects the width of the sleeve. The length is determined by your anatomy (distance from the esophagus to the pyloric valve) and will tend to be bigger in taller people.

That said, I think I have a biggish sleeve and I've lost fine so far (nearly 100 pounds in nearly 4 months) so I am skeptical that the difference in width between a Bic pen and a Sharpie would make all that much difference to your weight loss!

My four-month surgiversary is Feb. 17. My little tummy is apparently made of cast-Iron, because very little bothers me. I can eat almost anything except for tough/dry meat (I can eat a filet mignon but not a sirloin - nice problem to have!)

In my pre-op classes, they taught us a technique that I found very useful - when you're eating, take three bites of Protein, two bites of veggies, and one bite of starch. Repeat until full (not very many repetitions for us!) This way you can still feel like you're eating a real meal with the rest of the family, but your Protein is still priority.

Here is how I deal with bread and bread-adjacent foods:

1) look for lower-calorie, higher-protein substitutes if what I'm looking for is mainly crunch - there's a product made from cheese and quinoa called Mr. cheese O's that I really like. A few of those are even better then croutons in a Soup or salad and give some protein and Calcium.

2) I only eat bread if it's REALLY SPECIAL bread, and I only eat a little tiny bit. So, like, just a bite of the biscuit, and not every day - just once in a while.

3) drier/crispier is easier. Soft/fresh bread feels a bit gummy/heavy in the tummy still.

4) I log everything I eat and balance on the fly. So if I have had a really good day and I'm over my protein for the day, I can choose something for dinner that's a little more carby or indulgent. Alternately, if I know that there is a special occasion that say and I might want to have something lower-protein, I make sure to offset it with really low-carb, high-protein eating the rest of the day.

5) When you try something new, have just a nibble and let it sit for a while before eating more - every once in a while my first nibble of a new food will send the NOPE signal and I just won't have any more of it.

6) Avoid things that come on Buns. Toooooooo much bread. If you are in a bind and have no choice but to eat something like a sandwich, make it extra thick with protein filling so you get a higher protein ratio in each bite, because you won't be able to take many bites.

Everyone has to find the routine they can live with. If it's really important to you to be able to eat biscuits, it is completely possible to eat biscuits in a way that works with your eating plan.

People on this site tend to be either "austerity" people or "moderation" people, which is fine, because everyone is different, and what works for you might not work for me. The important thing is to track, see how things go, and be open to adapting if something isn't working.

Yes, it's totally possible. My four-month surgiversary is next week and I've lost a little over 97 pounds, 73 of which were since surgery. (I'd love to hit 100 by then!)

Obviously I've got more to lose than you do, which helps it go fast at first, but I've had outstanding results so far with a very smooth recovery. Also, since the surgery, my bad knee is down to the occasional twinge and I've been taken off two prescriptions, and my bloodwork results are A+ across the board. I also have a lot fewer painful issues (food hurting, throwing up, etc) than my friend who had bypass.

I'm early yet, but so far, so good!

Today I went to lunch with a group of friends who are very into fitness (one is a yoga instructor.) We were going to a place a mile away from our office, and the group suggested we walk.

Reader, I walked there and back, and it wasn't even hard. I could not have done that six months ago.

Hooray!

For surgery people in particular who do grocery haul videos, I have always seen it as a way to get new ideas for foods I might want to try. I don't have time to read every label in the store, so this may show me something I've missed.

Pre-op, I watched them to get ideas of how I might need to alter my shopping habits.

I had the same thing with Water after surgery, it seems pretty common. I like the little flavor squeeze bottles (Mio and the like) better than the powder packets because you can control how concentrated the flavor is. Just carry one with you in your purse and use it to make the Water taste nice!

Also what has helped me is getting a water bottle and carrying it with me all day. That makes me more likely to sip on it throughout the day, and then when it's time to refill you get a little walking in.

meat is the easiest Protein source but you can also get a lot from dairy and eggs. I also don't know what I'd do without Quest bars, though at 8 weeks you may or may not be able to eat those yet. If you buy the $15 membership at GNC, you can get a box of Quest bars for $25 (they are normally $35) and for me, that's 12 meals, so the cost comes out pretty well. Of course, you don't want to eat bars for all your meals but they are shelf-stable and portable unlike many other Protein sources, so they are great for having on hand for a food emergency if they work for you.

Finding a Protein shake you can tolerate is important too. I like the Syntrax flavors, especially chocolate Truffle, Peanut Butter Cookie, and Cappuccino. You can mix them up with sugar-free flavored syrups and low fat milk for extra protein. Eventually your goal will be not to depend on supplements, but early on you just can't eat enough to get all the protein in without them!

I had my surgery in October. I've lost 93.4lbs in all, 32 pre-op between July and October and the rest since.

How are you at getting fluids in? You might be able to dilute the Protein shakes (or the clear Isopure Protein drinks) with something you find more palatable, enough to be able to get it down. I would sometimes try to get my protein really concentrated so there wouldn't be so much of it, but that just made it nasty.

2 weeks is still really early, so don't despair! Just keep trying to find things that you can tolerate that you can use to dilute/hide the taste of your protein sources that you don't like as much.

Is there a Soup that you like? Blended up/thinned cream Soups were a go-to for me during full liquids.

I was also really intolerant of protein-shake taste during this stage and had to doctor them up with sugar free pudding/syrup/hot chocolate mix to get them down, but now (4 months out) I am back to tolerating Protein powder as well as I did before surgery, so some of this yucky feeling will go away with time!

@@AgentShepard, you are doing incredibly well. Very happy for you. Did your surgeons give you a goal weight?

Thanks for the encouraging words! My surgeon didn't give me a goal, so I'm basing my very loose goal range not off BMI but off the body comp measurements that I had taken last summer. I was just below 450 and I had just under 200 pounds of lean body mass (muscles, bones, organs, etc.) I figure that as long as I stay active and maintain my muscle and bone mass by exercising, getting my Calcium, etc, 200-250 is probably a good general range to aim for, at least at first, because women do need to have SOME fat on board! I'm on the tall side and have a large frame, so those numbers seem to make sense for me.

I figure that if/when the day comes that I approach 250 (a little over 100 more pounds from now) I will get my body comp done again and evaluate where I am. Honestly, it's been so long since I was anywhere near that size that I don't even know what what I'll do with myself! Even after having lost 93 pounds I still find it hard to really believe that I might ever not wear plus sizes. Who knows? Already, my bad knee, backaches, and general wellbeing are much improved and my bloodwork came back great across the board, so I've already seen a lot of improvement and I'm trying to focus on that.

I have noticed more hair than normal coming out in the shower in the last few days - perhaps I am approaching that post-surgery shedding period! I've also really started to notice... well, not really loose skin yet, because there's plenty of fat still in there, but I'm starting to look kind of deflated, and there's a lot more movement to my various rolls because they aren't full to the brim anymore. It sounds gross but I actually kind of like it... evidence of progress, I guess! Hopefully the skin will shrink back to some degree over time.

If you like dill, it's great in a creamy cheesy scrambled egg!

Also the ricotta bake is delicious and amazing and I adored them when I was on mushies.

Totally normal to feel extra tired when you start resuming normal activities. I was shocked how tiring sitting at a desk for eight or nine hours really was!!

My advice is to take things as slow as you can and give yourself time to recover. Build your activity level up gradually so you don't push yourself so hard you end up in bed for a day recovering! (Voice of experience on that one.)

I know that I didn't get back to my normal energy levels until about six weeks after the surgery. Fortunately I have a very supportive workplace that was flexible with me during that time!

Weighed in this morning and I'm 91 pounds down! I don't really have a solid "goal weight" - I'm planning on waiting until I get farther along and then seeing how all my health indicators are doing to find a nice healthy place- but I'm thinking that I'd eventually like to lose between 200 and 250 pounds all told. I'm really looking forward to having lost 100 - there's just something so satisfying about those nice round numbers. If my pattern continues, I could get to 100 some time in the next month - I've slowed down to 10-15 pounds a month since I got back on normal food.

One thing I'm going to try to build into my measurement is a body fat percentage measure - I think it might be better to set goals based on that rather than just weight or BMI, as I've got very sturdy bones from being so big for so long. They took a measurement at my doctor before surgery; next time I go I think I'll ask them to do it again, just to see my progress from that angle.

Today was a good day; I finally fit into the first set of my old jeans that I had "grown out of" and can thus now finally get rid of my last pair of dowdy old-lady jeans that were the only thing I could find in my size.

CUTE JEANS AGAIN! HOORAY!!!!!

Everyone will have a slightly different recovery. I have had a very tolerant stomach ever since the beginning and have had no problems with any of my stages and have been able to get in my recommended amounts of Protein since the very first day at home. However, it took me about 6 weeks to get my normal levels of energy and stamina back! Just follow the instructions you are given, and don't be a martyr - if you are having a problem, tell your care team so they can help you fix it.

For those of you worried about hair loss, the medical name for diffuse Hair loss following a physical stress like surgery is "telogen effluvium". That may be a useful search term.

Buying clothes is so strange right now. The experience I'm having is that I'm shrinking in the waist and thighs, but not much in the hips and calves... so pants are an ORDEAL. Basically, pants that fit my calves and hips/lower belly are way too big in the waist/thigh/seat area, so I can't go down much in size, the pants just fit weird! So far my best bet has seemed to be finding stretchy/knit pants that fit in the waist, and the stretch takes care of the bits that are too big for that size. Ordinarily I'd just wear dresses, but it's cold! I did find a few pairs of tights to try to make the dresses a better option, and this weekend did that with success. Of course it doesn't help that the plus size stores change their sizing so much - last week I walked into a Lane Bryant wearing a pair of 26 pants from several years ago (before my surgery I was in a 32) but even the current LB size 28 was way too small! Frustrating to say the least. I think I'm just going to make my 3 pairs of pants that fit last until I lose enough that I can fit into my giant stash of size 24s that I have been keeping in the top of my closet...

I went back to the gym this afternoon for the first time since surgery. Success! I was able to walk on the treadmill for 30 minutes and do a full round of (gentle) upper-body weights. I've been walking since surgery, of course, but it's been in smaller chunks of time or else slowly - this was the most intense workout I've done in a while - before surgery my knee hurt too much and I struggled to do 10 minutes at a time! So I am feeling super jazzed.

I got a voucher for a few sessions with a fitness trainer with my surgery packet. I want to meet with her and see if she'll work with me to build a program I can do on my own and only meet with her every once in a while, as I can't afford to see a trainer every week or whatever.

I'd be interested to hear if anyone else is doing strength training, what kind of routine you do.

Just adding in, I average about 900 calories a day at this point but it varies between 800 and 1100. Of course I am 5'8" so my needs are different than more petite ladies! I am generally doing one Protein shake a day and getting the rest from food. I avoid added sugars but I am not going out of my way to do low fat - I figure, fat doesn't make me ill, so as long as I'm meeting goals for Protein and sugars, I'm not going to worry about it. There are only so many things I can count at a time, you know?

So I wanted to talk a little bit about my progress so far! I'm seven weeks out from surgery, and I've lost just under 70 pounds, 37.4 of which were post-surgery. Looking in the mirror, I don't think I look very different, but others have told me that I do. I have noticed the difference in clothes; I'm down 1-2 sizes in pants and 2-3 in tops. Fortunately I have about five different sizes of clothes in my closet, so I should be good for another few months before I have to shop much.

Mostly though, in the last week I've been noticing a significant improvement in my mobility. My bad knee is much improved, to the point that I have gone from needing a cane every day to only needing it if I'm going to be out and walking for several hours. I can stand and walk for extended periods of time, where at my highest weight I could barely walk or stand for 5-10 minutes before my back and my knee were in so much pain I had to sit. I couldn't even cook dinner without taking breaks, I would be in so much pain. Now, that back pain is gone, and I stand and walk without even thinking about it.

I'm hoping that I'll continue to lose weight and improve my health in various ways, but I'm so glad that my most severe problems are already so much better. It's very encouraging and gives me hope for the future!

I for one have found therapy an invaluable part of this whole experience. Every person is different, has different issues related to their size and health, and different things that will be emotionally difficult. People talk a lot about things like stress-eating, but that isn't everyone's issue.

For instance, I have been big my whole life and that is a fundamental part of my self-image. I spent many difficult years coming to peace with the body I had and working on repairing the damage that years of cruelty about my size had done to my psyche. I had reached a place where my weight was high but stable, I was getting in a good amount of activity and was in good shape, my health was good, and I was satisfied.

Then, I had an injury that made it difficult to get exercise, and I started gaining weight again, and it was like I passed a tipping point - I started having more and more health problems that made it harder and harder to do anything and then got bigger and bigger, which made the health problems worse, etc., etc. - you probably know the vicious cycle. I finally decided that I could either have the surgery and hopefully get my health back on track, or I could continue sliding into more and more disability and poor health.

I chose the surgery, but it wasn't an easy choice. I felt like I was betraying all the work I had done to accept myself, that I was literally choosing to maim my body in order to make myself into a different person. That I was making a desperate sacrifice. That I was giving in to all the people who had been cruel to me in the past, that I was validating everyone who had told me that I wasn't good enough the way I was.

My therapist is a key part in helping me to work through these issues and come to terms with my feelings.

Everyone is different. Just because you don't have binge eating disorder (I don't) or a food addiction (I don't) or a serious stress eating problem (not really) doesn't mean you may not benefit from therapy of some kind, whether it's individual or group.

Just something to think about.