OutsideMatchInside

What are you eating though? What you eat, how you eat it and in what order and combination makes the difference in how much you can eat. Example, I can eat 4 ounces of steak alone and be full. If I eat steak alternating bites with spinach or salad. I can eat a cup or 2 of salad and 6 ounces of steak. At 6 months I was eating 3-4 ounces of dense protein only at a meal.

I am over 2 years out. I have always used Stevia. I used it as my sweetener of choice for my coffee and peanut butter (I make my own if I have it) before I had surgery. It worked well for me as a diabetic. The only brand I use is Stevita. All the others have gross after taste. Stevita just has a sweet honey taste. I try to limit my processed foods like protein bars and other protein products but when I do have them and they have sweeteners I don't care what they have. My day to day life does not consist of consuming processed foods. Wait, take that back I have Halo Top all the time, and it is sweetened with Erythritol another artificial sweetener I tolerate well. Although when I have purchased it for cooking etc, it has been lack luster. This is a life long thing for me, I can't see really never having anything sweet. Part of what makes maintenance easy and realistic is finding things that replace things, and is sustainable. If people feel constantly deprived, it feels like a diet, and they fail. A lifestyle is easy to stick to.

Congrats again on achieving your goal! That eating less might be a phase. I had something similar happen around the 1 year mark but it didn't last. Congrats and keep up the great work!

All of my co-morbidities resolved in 6 months. That was within only losing about less than 1/2 of my excess weight. Diabetes High Blood Pressue Arthritis (my knee does not hurt anymore) Skin (I had diabetes related skin issues)

This drinking keotones fad is one of the worst things I have seen in a long time. It is just marketing and junk science. Just eat right. You don't need to drink keotones. Don't let people rip you off. Low carbing is all you need if that is your method of losing weight.

You look great! I would love to have your thighs mine are a real pug area. yours are tight compared to mine. The skin, talking to some plastic surgeons, fat clings to it and it is very hard if not almost impossible to lose it. So it makes you feel fatter than you really are. We have a similiar shape pre-op and post-op, I am a little more hippy than you are but you also have 5 inches of height on me. My body has changed so much in the past 12 months, I would really say don't look at plastics until you are weight stable at least a year maybe even 2. I know that sucks, I have really struggled with that waiting myself but if you want really good results from plastics and you only have money to do it right once, then wait. My thighs are still bad, but they have improved a lot over the past year. If I don't get my thighs done ever, I can live with them as they are. Last year I would not have been able to say that, they were my worst area, they have tightened and improved a lot. My stomach is similar to yours but I have more loose skin on it. Lately my belly button area has started becoming gross/yeasty because it gets no air, it is just a black hole surrounded by skin. That area, as my body is adjusting and I am losing more inches is just getting worse. There is no way I can live another 40 years with that skin. I imagine 10 years from now carrying it around will be hell on my back, so it has to go. My arms compress nicely in clothes but they are 1/2 loose skin, the are really toned, but you can't see it because of the skin. It has to go. As far as the butt goes there is hope. As time has gone on and with massages etc, my butt has came back to a respectable level. That has been over the past 6 months. As time has gone on the fat has just relocated there and my hips, increasing my feminine shape (which is part of why my skin stomach is worse I think). I haven't been doing squats even though I promise myself I will every week. It is just my body rearranging itself. Just stay active, eat the same, and let your body decide what it wants to do. You might be surprised what happens. Waiting on plastics until your body is done adjusting is important not just because of the procedures you might choose but because there are different techniques for each surgery so waiting as long as you possibly can helps with your and your Dr making the right choices for surgery and techniques. The surgeries I would have done last year and the techniques I would have wanted are completely different than what I would choose now. Good luck and keep up the great work. Now the really hard part starts, maintaining. Also as far as wanting to lose another 20 or 30, I feel the same way, but if I lose another 20 or 30, and then had my skin removed, I would end up under weight in the end. Maybe another 10 max is all I need.

I forgot I did get a luxury sports car this year. It was more about being small in general than a reward for goal weight. My other car was large and just didn't match me anymore. I don't see PS as a reward because at this point is reconstructive not cosmetic.

Just sip all day and you will be fine. Your protein drinks are fluids and they count too, so if between protein drinks and water you are hitting 64, you are fine.

I get light headed if my calories or too low. my blood sugar drops. How often do you eat? How many calories per day? Please alert your medical team, low iron and/or low vitamin D can cause dizziness.

DO NOT start eating until you are full. That is a complete recipe for disaster. Long term the amount of food it takes to feel full will increase and you will stall out or worse regain. In the beginning start with 2, measured ounce and work you way up from there. When you can eat 2 ounces for a week without being overly full or sick, then go to 3, so on and so on. The nerves to your stomach are cut and don't heal properly for weeks, sometimes months. By the time you feel full with a sleeve early on, you have already over ate. Even myself at 2 years I can't trust myself to eat until full, by the time my stomach sends the signal to my brain I am full, I am actually stuffed.

Weight has been far more accurate than volume for me. I use a scale for everything and I weigh everything in grams/ML because that is more accurate and makes more sense Once you are allowed solids, it is unlikely you can eat 4 ounces of it at once. It took me months to work up to it. The exception was soft baked fish, but that is really a soft food, not a solid. Even at 2 years, 4 ounces of solid food will still vary for me based on moisture content and the mood of my sleeve that day. You don't have a book that tells you what you should be eating? I was allowed 2 ounces at first and even that was a stretch. Also, this really isn't a question you should have to ask online or be confused about. You paid a team of people for this surgery, they should be telling you explicitly what you should and should not be doing. Make them. Weighing your food long term is going to save you a lot of calories over measuring. In the beginning a WLS patient that is healing can't eat much, so it doesn't seem like this matters much. Long term, when you are stalled or can't seem to lose and you think your calories X they might be Y. These small calorie differene over the course of a day, week, month and year add up. Better to create strong good habits in the beginning and carry them on long term.

Honestly I was really aggressive with my office. I called and hounded them to get what I wanted. This is the end of the year so people are trying to use their insurance before the year is up, offices are busy. Squeaky wheel gets the oil. Call them and follow up.

This so much. I run my own business and people ask me all the time how much money I make. I give a fake number every single time. A rude question does not deserve a response. I tell people the truth, I eat low carb. I eat Keto. I adopted a dog so I have to walk everyday. I removed a lot of stress from my life. I stopped eating my feelings. It took me 5 years to get here. All of that is the truth, none of it is a lie. When people ask me why I only have 1 child (only in the midwest I swear) I tell them because I use birth control and that is all I wanted. I don't tell them what method of birth control I use. Honestly WLS is not even why I lost the weight. I lost the weight. I picked WLS to help me and I used it to help me but I could be like most WLS and have failed at it. I only succeed at WLS because I was super strict and worked my ass off. Prior to having surgery myself I thought surgery did all if not most of the work but sugery after 6 months isn't doing anything for people. They have to do the work. If they haven't used that first 6 months of healing to make a real life style change. They are stalled by month 9 and actively gaining by month 12. They never hit goal and over the years they just keep gaining and gaining. All the little threads people make shouting out their surgery date buddies are so cute in the pre-op and early stages. Then as the months go on few and fewer are responding, still losing or at goal. Less than half by year one, then by year 2 it is crickets. Half my WLS buddies who had surgery when I did barely talk to me, because they never hit their goals. It sucks. Stop calling people that don't blab all their business to people that are not entitled to it, liars. A generation ago, this would have never been an issue. The death of privacy is horrific.

Neither. Real loose skin can only be corrected with surgery.

If it ever gets cold enough to wear it... I was going to get one last year when I got under 200 pouds but I spent so much on clothes and my weight wasn't stable I didn't get one. This year it happening. Mink or Fox.

Working out is great. Working out with a trainer beyond learning how to use the machines properly is mostly useless. Working out to minimize loose skin is a fools errand. I hate to tell you, but I am going to be real. If you are super morbidly obese and your skin is stretched beyond the limit, nothing is going to help you. People that start with lower BMIs 45 and under have a small chance of minimizing loose skin because they are not as big start with. Once get to a BMI over 50, the only thing that is going to help you is good genetics and luck. My starting BMI was 60/61 My waist used to be 66 inches, my hips used to be 70 inches, my bust was 64. My waist is 39-31 depending on the day and my hips are 40 ish, my bust is 40 (I wear a 34G down from, well I could never get the proper band size DD). At least 5 inches of that on both is just loose skin. That is the reality. I am 1/2 the size I used to be. I have lost over 232 inches off my entire body. I have loose skin. You can't stuff a whole entire additional person in your body and expect it to snap back. I lost the weight of a grown man. I have the excess skin to prove it. It sucks but it isn't the end of the world. My face is amazing with no loose skin, LOL. My calves are great, so are my hands feet and forearms. That might not seem like much but it goes a long way because the rest, can easily be covered/masked. Shapewear, well cut clothing and time (my skin has improved a lot in all the months I have been under 200 pounds. My thighs are a disaster but I can still wear shorts and mini skirts, I just wear a thigh shaper. My arms aren't that noticeable in sleeveless dress or 3/4 to long sleeve. I don't wear cap sleeves or short sleeves unless I am wear a blazer because it draw the eye to that area. The skin on my torso easily compresses with shapewear or tight dresses and I drop a size.

@Mustlose90 Are you having surgery in Mexico? Most US Drs require your primary to sign off. Someone has to say you are safe for surgery. If you are afraid of your Dr, why do you go to them?

@JeffN have you talked to your Dr About it? Are you taking any meds?

A mink coat. I have been shopping for one for a couple weeks now.

Playing PokemonGo and walking to hatch your eggs is great motivation. I walked 25 miles the first weekend I played.

Honestly it is easy to keep it a secret and it is better in the long run. My choice in not telling people except the few people I had to tell, was because I knew people who had surgery before and I knew how people gossiped about and how that was their label forever. Once you are healed if you heal well, you probably won't even feel like a weight loss patient. I am 2 years post-op and I don't really feel like a WLS patient anymore, my post-op memories are starting to fade and not be as vivid (I have to read posts here to be reminded). I will probably live another 40 years at least. I don't need the label of WLS patient 10 years for now, when I barely remember it and keep my weight off will be the same for me as it is for other people. I think your recovery will be easier by keeping it to yourself, you don't have to worry about other people projecting their feelings onto you. Also, it honestly is not other peoples business. Health and surgery should be private matters. How you lose weight shouldn't really be a topic of discussion. I think your husband is just trying to protect you. Let him.

Honestly if you are still in the losing phase you need to try everything on. Sizes change rapidly. plus womens clothing sizes have no standardization. I like the idea of people picking out clothes for you, it helps you step out your comfort zone. You can do it in person though at almost any good quality store and catch sales. Sales people love to personal shop for you. I have a couple people that call me when things come in that they know I like. Gwynnie, with the having clothes and returning them has always seemed like a nightmare. The clothes have never been my style. I hear a lot of issues with their billing and the returns. Thanks for posting you experiences!

Exceed your protein goals but really... A lot of it is just temp as your body changes. My nails are usually super strong I have a few months where they were thin, and now they are back being like talons. Nothing special done.

Anywhere between 1400 and 2200 calories, it just depends on my mood and what I am doing. 1400 and 120 grams of protein is my bare minimum to function, and I eat more when I am active or out a lot. 26 months post op.

They pay you pennies and sell it for a lot more, honestly it is better to just donate considering what they pay people.