ShellMilliner

Just an FYI to all you folks out there:
Isopure powder does not taste the same as the premade bottles. They add other Vitamins and "magic goo" and it makes it creamy and IMO nasty.
I LOVE the apple melon Isopure zero carb. I make Jello from it, freeze it for ice cubes to add to Water, drink it straight...whatever. I thought Id save some money and buy the bulk powder, but it was a bust.

Hi
I had gastric bypass surgery on Monday. I had a hernia and some scar tissue from a previous surgery that was corrected.
Today is my third day in the hospital and I am so ready to go home. I can actually drink plenty of liquid in regular sips. Not sure if that will change because I can't tell if I'm full or not. I'm burping a lot and feeling the gas move around inside my tummy. So weird.
Bye for now.

Yes, throwing up works the best for me too. You won't make that mistake again.
So sorry to hear it!

Unfortunately as with all weight loss procedures if you don't learn proper eating habits over time you will regain most of the weight back. My good friend who I grew up with had the sleeve done 6 years ago and now he has gone back to original starting weight after losing 80 percent of his excess weight. I tell him it's not the sleeve but you he still eats the wrong things drinks a lot of liquid calories and eats a big bowl of ice cream ever night.

Tell me what good all this self directed anger is doing for you?

Is it helping you lose weight? Is it helping your stress levels, your blood pressure, your tics? Is it good for your self esteem, your mood, your sense of well being?

If you had a bad appendix, would you be mad at yourself? How about loss of hearing? Would you be mad at yourself if you needed brain surgery for a tumor? Eye surgery for a cataract?

You need help. WLS may very well be your answer. If losing/maintaining weight was that easy for every person, we wouldn't have an obesity epidemic. Stop beating yourself up and be thankful that this opportunity is available to you. Use it. What you are doing to yourself emotionally is not at all helpful and is most likely detrimental to your good health and efforts.

Stop it. Fix it. Move on with your life.

Let's do this Big Opie. You know, I was a police officer and injured at the WTC on 9/11 and by two drunks in the line of duty. I ended up a wheel chair and had to get my lower extremities all repaired. I use to run half marathons and work out at 220lbs. In 9 years, I haven't been able to work out any more due to my injuries and gained 100 lbs.
Im getting my surgery tomorrow 4/30. Today, I was so hesitant and bummed out about being the last day. But it is the last day of the old me. I'm totally pumped to lay my head down and get this done. Get healthy, get your meds and get motivated girl. Woooooooooooooooooooooo. I sound like Richard Simmons. lol

I was "healthy fat" until I wasn't. I don't mean to sound scary but you developed obesity consequences over 20 years younger than I did. I urge you to make health #1 - obesity was killing me.
When I was about 21 I lost 60# and had zero excess skin, working out left me toned...I wore a bikini with absolutely no "muffin"
When I was late 40s (post sleeve) I lost 160# or so. I am grateful my excess skin wasn't even worse but I had it! I worked out and hit goal with great muscle tone, and yet excess skin.
Really there are many obvious factors (age, amount lost, genetics etc) and you should work out but it doesn't prevent excess skin. All skin looks better of over toned muscle.
I will say that when I was maybe 20-30# heavier the skin was much less of an issue-so one option is to get to a healthier weight without necessarily being "normal weight"

I just turned 26. The first time I lost 100lbs I was 19, I had virtually no sagging skin, that was without the surgery. Wore a bikini at the jersey shore. This time around after gaining that hundred back and surgery I'm down 70lbs and I definitely am beginning to see my skin is not where it was. My tummy looks a little dimply, my arms are sagging, and I have some excess skin in my thighs currently. But I'm by no means ashamed of it. I thought I'd be embarrassed by it, but I'm not in the least. It's hit or miss, hopefully you won't have any issues. I think had my weight not fluctuated up and down so drastically I wouldn't have any sagging issues. As everybody has previously said, totally worth it regardless.

Well, if I'm the one that scared @@Pac-woman, then I don't think there was any keeping her here. I think I have a reputation as one of the more positive, nice, and helpful people on these forums. So if *I'M* too harsh for her, then this probably isn't the right place for her to be and express herself. I'm sorry if she felt like she was being attacked. I think it is awesome to give people encouragement and a positive outlook. I try to do that every day myself! But I don't want to lie or misrepresent anything either. Everyone who goes through this journey needs to have real and reasonable expectations. Promising someone they will never have loose skin or that any aspect of this process is going to be 100% sun and roses is just setting them up for potential disappointment.

I was 29 when I had my sleeve surgery and I didn't really think about saggy skin all that much initially. Your comment that you're too fat to do anything reminds of things I used to say to myself. I yo-yo dieted so I would go down to about 138, then up to 200, down to 140, up to 210, until the last time I was down at 137 and then went up to 237, which is when I decided on the sleeve. I was too fat to be seen in public and if in hindsight if I had known how my saggy skin would look, I still would have lost the weight. You can hide saggy skin, but you can't hide fat. Also, a few hours in the OR with a good plastic surgeon, and most of the flab can be fixed. Then you can be healthy and hot, but if you aren't willing to lose weight because you might be saggy, that's like saying you aren't going to swim to shore off of a sinking ship because you might get wet. Yes, you're going to have some sag...but if in the end you are exponentially better off than now which seems like a fair trade to me.
On another note, from a medical perspective I would encourage you to reconsider the medications, at least the hypertension one. If you are borderline diabetic, it seems quite a few people have had this problem resolved with the sleeve procedure and weight loss. Cholesterol can be resolved ideally by changing the way you eat, although it can also be genetic in that no matter how you eat you will still have high cholesterol which will hurt you in the long run. I had hypertension when I was fat and figured losing weight would fix it so I didn't take the drugs. I am now 128 and this month I finally went on beta blockers because being thin and in shape did not change the fact that my bp continues to be through the roof. Of all of those issues, I would take the hypertension medications and carefully monitor your diet for at least 6 weeks before having a fasting glucose and cholesterol test done again. I ate a big meal the night before a cholesterol test once and I went from my usual very low number to ridiculously high, so there are things that can skew that result. As someone who has hypertension, I was mad that I had to take drugs, but I feel SO much better now that my bp is managed. If you end up losing weight, you can always stop the drugs, but the damage you are doing now, especially with a high bp isn't something that is worth dealing with purely because you don't want to be on fat people medications.

That's kind of a bold statement. There are a lot of factors that can contribute to loose skin. Everyone is different, so to say the OP won't have loose/saggy skin just because you don't, is potentially inaccurate. While it is true that there are some things you can do to minimize loose skin as you lose weight (hydration, moisturization, sumplementation, and strength training), there are also factors like age, rate of loss, and genetics to contend with.
To the OP, the thing to keep in mind here is that potential loose skin is the least of your problems! The excess weight is ruining your health. You are young and already experiencing many medical issues related to your weight. Plus, I doubt the fat looks all that great either, so are you really going to look "worse" with some loose skin?

@@Big Opie
almost 3 years ago i reached goal
down 105 lbs
i was 58 years YOUNG
i noticed that my rear end+ had a lot of sagging skin
definitely firmed up a "bit" within a few months
age does matter in this case
being a youngun - your skin "should" tighten up for the better
you'll probably still have some hanging skin
"DEAL WITH IT"
a little hanging skin won't kill you
being overweight can
good luck with your decision about having surgery
decision, decisions, decisions
kathy

You're so young that I doubt you'll have much problem with saggy skin. And if you do have small issues, you can find a way to have plastic surgery. But at your age you can practically grow new body organs. (Oh, to have had this surgery when I was 24/25!)
Maybe you're just venting and expressing some natural fears about really changing your life and what that will mean for you in many ways.
But in terms of your actual decision options, this decision is really a no-brainer: Get the weight off, keep it off, and get healthy.
If you lose weight without WLS, some very good, very long-term research on thousands of people says your odds of keeping the weight off are only 5% or 1 in 20 (or 30 or 40, depending on which research you prefer). If you have WLS, good research says your odds of keeping all or most of the weight off long-term are 50-60%. Obviously, WLS offers better odds for long-term success.
Obviously, WLS by itself may not solve your problem. You have to continue to learn and practice new behaviors and new attitudes and a new lifestyle to be successful long-term. But those will be easier to learn / practice with WLS than without. Trust me. I know. I'm 69 years old.
One other thing: You're already pretty heavy at this young age, and if you don't fix the problem now you'll gain more weight and soon weigh 300. And then maybe 350. And then maybe even 400. This problem never stays the same for those like us -- it just gets worse and worse.
I wish the very, very best for you. Chin up! Have courage! You can fix this. Many people have.

I am your height and I was about 10 pounds heavier when I started than you are now according to your sidebar stats.
I would MUCH rather have saggy skin than die early of complications from my obesity. I might not look like a bikini model naked, but I sure do look a helluva lot better in my clothes. Plus I have the ability to do anything I want.

Grab a hold of your life while you are young!!
In these pictures I am about 6-7 pounds heavier than I am now. Where would you rather be in a year or two?

WLS chicken salad
1¼ lbs cooked chicken, shredded (about 3 cups) 1 cup celery, chopped ½ cup walnuts, chopped 1 cup grapes, halved 1 pink lady apple, cored and diced (squeeze lemon juice over apple to stop any oxidization) ¼ cup onion, diced ¾ cup light mayonnaise ½ tsp black pepper ½ tsp onion powder These ingredients make up 8 servings. As an addition to this you can easily add some string cheese to your serving to up the caloric intake etc.
As per My Fitness Pal this recipe has the following:
Nutrition Facts
Servings 8.0
Amount Per Serving
calories 187
% Daily Value *
Total Fat 8 g 12 %
Saturated Fat 1 g 6 %
Monounsaturated Fat 2 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 4 g
Trans Fat 0 g
Cholesterol 61 mg 20 %
Sodium 70 mg 3 %
Potassium 298 mg 9 %
Total Carbohydrate 6 g 2 %
Dietary Fiber 1 g 5 %
Sugars 4 g
Protein 23 g 47 %
Vitamin A 2 %
Vitamin C 3 %
Calcium 3 %
Iron 6 %

Sounds yummy!! Thanks for posting/sharing! I'll have to try this recipe. I love chicken salad.

I cant wait to be able to ride horses again, and bike riding comfortably!!!

1. "I DO look skinny today! And HEY! I don't just LOOK it, I am SKINNY TODAY!!!"
2. "Hubs DOES love my new body, does YOURS? Might be time for a change!"
3. " I DO feel better being slimmer. Do you?" (and give that famous up-and-down all-knowing look while you're at it!)
4. "Why, yes! I will get a pedicure. Want to join me, I see you're due, as well!"
5. "Oh, please, give her my number. Maybe this time it will work for her!"

I'm so LOL.....
I think to a lot of people "some" weight is about 10 pounds. To others it's more than they can comprehend. They don't really know what to say without fear of offending us in some way. I try not to worry about it too much. I know how much I've lost, and that's all that really matters.
Enjoy the compliments regardless of how silly they may sound. I say temper patience with mercy...

LOL! If they did, you would have some very saggy cheeks now!
This is just my opinion but I think people are not sure how to respond when they see someone who looks very different. Most people simply want to be encouraging and so the first thing out of their mouth usually relates to how different our faces look. I know when I look in the mirror, it shocks me.
On 2 occasions now, I have had people not recognize me at all. The only reason they knew it was me was because I was with my husband.
Then of course, they are scared to ask how for fear it might be some horrible disease like cancer causing my extreme weight loss. In these two cases, they actually asked my husband about my weight loss. I am very open about how and why I had WLS so he will simply tell them how proud of my weight loss he is and that it is intended. Then they will usually compliment me and ask questions.
I have a fantastic relationship with my dermatologist, he actually saved my life a few years ago in the hospital. Of course I was at my heaviest at the time. I see him every 8 weeks for an injection. Every time I see him he stares at me and then tells me how pretty I look. All because I don't have 3 chins anymore and my face looks younger. Of course this is always a positive compliment.
Anyway, sometimes people just don't know how to even bring it up without offending you.

I was extremely exhausted but i would eat a little something and i would pep up. I'm almost 3 months out and my doctor put me on extra B12 because my b12 was low which explains why I was tired all of the time.

My packet was submitted to insurance on Tuesday. Here's hoping for a quick approval.

@@ShellMilliner I appreciate those words... This is the second day and I'm doing ok... But yeah I need to do this... I took 2 shakes already a bar and i have like one more shake and Soup for the day

Don't foget your shakes and broths count toward your 64 oz goal. But I'm 4 weeks out tomorrow and still usually only manage about 48 oz of water/day and about 65-75 grams of Protein. I'm a SADI so I require 80-100 grams/day. Some days you will find are easy than others. I don't beat myself up I do the best I can do day by day.

@Kristomoto The pre-op isn't as bad as your head is letting you think it is. The first couple days are rough and your body makes adjustments. By day 3 most of what you are feeling is head hunger. Drink lots of Water and warm tea. Warm liquids trick the brain into feeling fuller. Because pre-op diets vary so much between doctors I'm not sure if you are strictly on liquids/shakes or not. You can also ask your NUT or doctor's office if you get hungry if you can add another protien shake in. Usually, they are accomodating. The pre-op is not about losing weight but shrinking your liver, your body does this by going into ketosis so the biggest factors are no additional carbs and low fat. Believe, me after day 3 you will be surprised, just keep your eye on the prize.