lauraellen80

This evening I tried on a bunch of my old (smaller) clothes that I'd packed away. Most of them fit me now, including this dress that is a size 8! I'm still in the 12-14 range in pants, so it was a shock!

Your BMI is 18.5, which is the low end of the "normal" range. You definitely shouldn't lose any additional weight. It does sound like you have some tendencies toward anorexia, but I think your PCP is going a bit overboard by saying you should be hospitalized! You might think about going to see a therapist that specializes in eating disorders just to talk through things and make sure you stay in the healthy weight range and keep yourself on a positive path.

My midsection was pretty swollen, bloated, and tender for a couple weeks after surgery. At one week out, don't even worry about it. That being said, I definitely notice that while I've lost a lot of my gut, it's still bigger now than it was when I was this weight several years ago. But I'm still less than 3 months post-op, so I figure it will even out more as time goes on, though I'll probably have a pooch of some loose skin.

I've been on Effexor (75 mg) for awhile, since about a year before surgery, so I couldn't say whether my loss is slower because of it, but I'm averaging 3.3 lbs per week since surgery. I do know that I'd be a mess without it, so for me it's a moot point.

You are lovely! Great pics! I want to have some 1940s/50s-style pinup photos taken when I get to goal and surprise my husband. We'll see if I'm brave enough!

I'm still struggling to get more than 5 grams of fiber while keeping my carbs under 50 grams. And I know that's still way more carbs than most people on these boards preach. I worry daily about sabotaging my weight loss due to this, but if it's the choice between losing less weight or living in anal fissure hell because of constipation, I guess I'll be a little chubby. :/

I wouldn't go for juice--you're getting the calories and sugar without the fiber. I am 2.5 months out, and I'm getting fruits and veggies in a few ways: a few blueberries (8-10 or so) in my morning Protein oatmeal half an apple w/ a tablespoon of nut butter for a snack a slice of homegrown tomato or 3-4 baby carrots with my lunch (after eating my protein) veggies as an ingredient in a protein-based main dish or casserole a spoonful of guacamole on top of a black bean burger or refried Beans For me, including fruits, veggies, and even some whole grains (so far just in the form of oatmeal) is proving to be really important in order for me to get at least a little fiber in my diet. I don't want to become dependent on laxatives.

Awesome! Great job! My one-month appointment got pushed back by a few weeks because of a family emergency, so my 3-month isn't for another month yet.

So, you are not allowed to have any vegetables, fruits, or milk? That seems insane.

Dr. Dallal was my surgeon, and he did a great job. Einstein is a really nice hospital, too. My mom is an RN and came out to stay with me during my surgery, and she was very impressed.

I'm doing the same thing as @jess9395. Like, exactly... black tank top and black bike shorts. I have my husband take them in our upstairs hallway. I stand against the bathroom door, and he stands lined up with the end of a bookcase, so that we keep the distance and angles the same every time. We do front, back, and side views, and a face close-up. We started the night before I started my pre-op diet (and I now wish that we'd started after my first appointment, because I lost about 15 pounds between then and starting pre-op), took more the night before surgery, and now once a month. It's awesome to see the progress!

It gets better! I'm 2.5 months out, and I've eaten out at all sorts of places without any problems. I don't think I had anything from a restaurant until after I had started regular foods, though. Like @@jess9395 said, it's not a great idea to try a particular food for the first time when you're out. If you'd already had mashed potatoes at home and had no problem, it may be that the restaurant adds all sorts of fatty stuff (butter, sour cream, etc.) to theirs, and that's what bothered you. If you can, research restaurants ahead of time to plan what you are going to order. And don't be shy about asking the waiter what's in something on their menu, or how it's prepared. For awhile, you may have to be a little pushy with your family to go to a restaurant where you can find something suitable to eat. But as I said, once you are on regular foods, it's pretty easy. I even ate at the ballpark last night--part of a black-bean veggie burger with cheese, lettuce, tomato, and grilled onions, hold the bun!

Very normal! It even has a name--"food funeral." While having food funerals is not ideal, it's certainly a part of the process. What I ended up doing (after a week or two of really going crazy and realizing that I was not doing myself any favors) was to choose one food/meal each day that I wanted to have before surgery, and I tracked it ALL in My Fitness Pal. The rest of the time, I tried to eat healthfully and took Water aerobics classes. So I still lost weight pre-op, but did have a chance to "say goodbye" to things like mac-and-cheese and nachos. And when I did have those food funerals, I tried to eat slowly and consciously and really think about it as I ate. There were a few "favorite" foods that I realized really weren't that great, it was more the idea of them that I craved, if that makes sense. Good luck, and congrats of getting insurance approval--do you have a surgery date?

Fairlife's marketing team is really missing an opportunity... we should all be in a commercial!

I second the recommendation for Fairlife milk. It's ultra-filtered to have fewer carbs/less sugar and more protein. I second the recommendation for Fairlife milk. It's ultra-filtered to have fewer carbs/less sugar and more protein.

You sound like my therapist!

I'm 2.5 months out. I'm supposed to be getting between 700 and 800 calories a day. I think. My bariatric center's dietitian's guidelines seem to be based on the assumption of 1000 calories per day... but they told me to stay between 700 and 800 at this point, so ??? I assume that we are not supposed to factor calories burnt in exercise into out intake, and anyway I have mainly been walking, not doing Cross Fit or training for a marathon or anything, so when though My Fitness Pal says I still have x number of calories left after exercise, I ignore it. I've seen a number of people on these boards who were still only getting 500-600 calories at the point I'm at, too... so maybe I'm waaaaayyyyy over my calorie limits already. The dietitian that was based out of my bariatric center location left right around the time I had my surgery, and at my last follow-up, they still didn't have a new one yet, so they had the dietitian at their other location (in Maryland, I'm in Pennsylvania) call me to try and answer some of my questions, since the post-op info I was given gets super-vague after 8 weeks out, and I had been given contradictory info by the two different physician's assistants in the practice. I've gotten the sense that everyone in the practice is irritated by my demanding specific numbers that I should be aiming for (and I'm (in)famous among the staff for my binder of notes that I carry to every appointment), but the off-site dietitian did acquiesce to emailing me a sheet of basic guidelines (the aforesaid 1000-calorie plan). The guidelines for Protein are fairly low (60-80g), and the guidelines for carbs are pretty high (130g). Fat is supposed to be kept to 25-30 grams per day. I'm trying to get at least 80 grams of protein and stay under 50 grams of carbs. I know that amount of carbs is still obscenely high for a lot of people on here, but I was having so much trouble with constipation that I started having oatmeal (1/2 packet of the reduced sugar kind w/ 1/2 scoop of protein powder) for Breakfast each day. Anyway, three times in the past week, I went over my 800-calorie limit, and I'm freaking out. I went 13 calories over on Sunday, with a whopping 8 grams too much of carbs; 5 calories over on Monday, with 1 gram of carbs too many; and 26(!!!) calories over yesterday (through carbs were still in the acceptable range) when I forgot to track a spoonful of coffee creamer (which I shouldn't have even had in the first place, I know). I'm not in a stall right now, but I feel like I am heading for major disaster. I had been tracking every single effing thing I put in my mouth so religiously since a couple months before surgery, and the fact that I screwed up like that yesterday worries me immensely. Am I on the path back to the way I was before? I'm a lower BMI, so while I don't have as much to lose as some people, I also know that my rate of loss is likely to slow way down soon, possibly come to a grinding halt, and I worry constantly about my "honeymoon period" ending and not having reached my goal. Every day I worry that this is it, I'm just not going to lose any more. I'm within ten pounds of the lightest I've been since college, and it terrifies me that I'll be heading into the unknown soon, as far as further weight loss goes. Can my body (and/or brain) just not make it any further? Am I just too weak of a person to handle this? I had been feeling so positive about things, and felt that I could eat most types of foods--meats, dairy, eggs, veggies, fruits (albeit in small amounts), go out to eat while making healthy choices, and feel like a "normal" person. Well, obviously I'm not normal, and it's looking like I can't handle expanding my diet. I'm thinking about going back to just having 3 Protein shakes a day (and plenty of Water, of course) for a week or two. I will definitely have to take a daily laxative if I do that. Has anyone gone back to liquids only and had success?

The jeans I posted about less than a month ago are getting too big!

I was going to say something very similar in my last response... I couldn't find the right wording, so I left it out. Thanks for mentioning this!

Yeah, I will also note that I lost over 25 pounds pre-op, so I did jump-start things a bit there. And I'm getting within about 10 pounds of the lowest weight I've been able to get to (with Weight Watchers) since college. I have a feeling that my rate of loss is going to tank once I reach that point.

This is one of those things that is really hard to make predictions about. Everyone loses at different rates. You can't compare your loss to anyone else--some people drop a lot really quickly, some have a lot of stalls along the way, etc. However, to give some idea of numbers... my surgeon said he likes to see his patients lose about half of the "average" expected weight loss (60% of total excess weight) by six months out. So, I started out with about 100 lbs of excess weight. The surgeon will consider my surgery a "success" if I lose 60% of that, i.e., 60 lbs. So by my six month appointment, he hopes to see about 30 lbs gone. I've actually already lost over 60 lbs at less than 2.5 months out, but I have a feeling that things are going to slow down a lot before too long, so I'm already trying to mentally prepare myself!

I don't have any words of wisdom, but I'm sure this must be a gut-wrenching thing to deal with...I'm so sorry that you're that you are going through this, @Smye. I agree with @Babbs--going to some counseling by yourself may be helpful as you process the whole situation.

Smooth Move Tea works for me

Um, seriously? I looked back through the responses, and only one person responded that they didn't have a food addiction prior to surgery (which, yes, is possible--there are a few people on these boards who had significant weight gain due to a medical issue and couldn't lose on their own). Everyone gave thoughtful, helpful advice to your questions. Here is the relevant part of my own response: I'm not sure what you were expecting us to say--yes, of course many of us were/are food addicts, and because of that, we gave you advice that came from each of our experiences dealing with that aspect post-surgery.

The more I read these boards, the more I realize that the "all-or-nothing," "black-or-white," "perfection-or-failure" thinking that has plagued me my entire life is much more common than I thought and is especially so among those who struggle with obesity. I guess I've always subconsciously bought into the BS idea that fat=lazy, and so I felt that I had even failed at being a perfectionist! Something I continue to worry about is keeping myself balanced in this new life. When I was a teen, I constantly beat myself up over the fact that I failed at being anorexic... in my mind, that was the goal. What could be more perfect than achieving total control over your eating? (BTW, I was a ballet dancer in a pre-professional company in the era before Misty Copeland and her badass muscles, so this was tacitly encouraged) Yes, now I understand that anorexia is the complete opposite of having control--instead you're being controlled by a disease. But I already see myself getting freaked out when my macros are a few grams off for the day (even though my PA and NUT have said not to get too hung up on keeping track of the numbers), and I struggle with comparing myself unfavorably to others on these boards who never touch anything made with flour ever again (if that's the yardstick of success, I'm already a failure). Yeah... I'm going to be in therapy for awhile!