OutsideMatchInside

I have been natural almost all my life. My hair shed terrible. I took all my Vitamins, even expensive hair vitamins, and my Protein was always over 90 grams a day. My hair grew back even thicker. The texture is the same. I'm 19 months post op.

The best part about my sleeve is that I don't have to fad diet anymore. Why not just eat dense protein? Steak grilled chicken, lamb chops, pork chops, etc. You will be more satisfied for longer. All these resets programs focus on liquids. That might work for people with RNY, I don't know but it seems really counter productive for a sleever. Simple dense protein, just dense protein. The weight will come off. Liquids go right through my sleeve and offer zero satisfaction and don't remind me of the most important part of my sleeve, besides the Gherlin removal, the restriction. And once you are smaller 15 pounds is a lot of weight, it is at least one dress size, maybe 2. There is advantage in weighing yourself daily so if you are up say 5 pounds, you can stop it before it gets to be too much.

You don't have to take chewables just because you had WLS. I found them really gross to the point I didn't want to take Vitamins at all even thought I normally took a Multivitamin anyway. If I could swallow my other medicine post op, there was no reason not to take normal Multivitamins. I take these https://www.nowfoods.com/supplements/eve-womens-multiple-vitamin-softgels The soft gels are very easy to digest.

What is the point of eating wheat toast?

It doesn't matter which surgery you choose. There is no guarantee you will dump so choosing bypass won't save you from sweets. Find sugar free sweet replacements. I have sweets all the time but I don't eat sugar. My sweets are Protein bars, protein brownies, cream cheese withe stevia that ends up tasting like cheesecake. You have to think of long term solutions to the things you like. This is a life long thing, not a diet to squeeze into a bridesmaid dress. There is nothing wrong with replacements. Most of them are expensive and scarce so that will naturally keep you from over indulging.

I didn't start as high as you but I suggest you keep losing. You really want to be as low as possible. Even though I am flabby and loose there is still fat attached to this skin. True loose skin is just empty skin. You will get the best results the lower your weight because they can only remove so much without sending you into shock. I know excess skin is terrible to deal with. I live with it every day. Still each day I am under 200 pounds I see more and more rebounding and improvements. Originally I wanted to go for surgery asap but now I think I might bottom out on weight and wait at 6 months h from then. I hate the idea of living with this skin that much longer but I am actually seeing the logic in it. Also I still don't quite have my BMI lowith enough for plastics anyway. I know it sucks but try to get at least to 30 BMI before surgery.

I will take the advice of a MD over a nutritionist. Does anyone who is posting here even understand the education level or the lack there of that a nutritionist holds? The key not to wreck your metabolism is to increase you calories as you progress stages. My metabolism which I actually have checked scientifically and I'm not guessing, is normal to high even after losing 178 lbs. I kept my Protein high, I think in the past 19 months I had maybe 3 days of protein below 90, most of the time it has been 110 to 120. This allowed me to maintain a lot of muscle mass while burning fat for energy. If you are concerned about your metabolism. Have your resting metabolic rate tested. Then you will have a start point on if your metabolism is functioning normally or if it is inpared. There is no reason to go adjusting your calories unless you know what you are dealing with to start with. If your metabolism is normal, then you need to look at the types of calories you are consuming and not just to total number. 1500 calories of crackers isn't the same as 1500 calories of grilled chicken.

The less you weigh and the less you have to lose. The slower the weight loss. Eat dense Protein. I can't graze if I am eating 3 to 4 ounces of steak every 2 to 3 hours. There is no room and my restriction is working. Dense protein. It will keep the calories down, protein up and eliminate the ability to graze.

5 day pouch test is useless for sleevers and anyone more than 6 months from surgery really. It does not help you use the best part of your tool. Eat dense Protein. I'm not sure what your living/work situation is like but clear everything out you can binge on and only stock your house with dense protein. Steak, grilled chicken, pork chops. Things that really utilize your restriction. Even if you decide to binge or graze on these you can't do that much damage. Only eat dense protein for at least a week, 2 if you can make it that long. Eat salad greens with Walden farms dressing if you need a snack. Like someone else said, over eaters anonymous is free. The main thing is to let your sleeve help you. It can only help you if you are eating dense protein.

I had 2 periods a month for 9 months. My Dr said there was nothing she could do, my body had to work it out. That was after an entire lifetime of normal clockwork periods. Good luck

GaCaldwell has a good idea with get a tailored compression/shapewear garment. The issue is, if you really have a lot of loose skin, you already know that moving it one place will make it stick out and move some where else. Like when I wear shapewear I have to go for basically my whole torso, even there are only a few places that need smoothing, because just smoothing one area will cause bulges in other areas. So even if you can get some kind of low shape wear to work, I would still tape down my sides and have that tape tucked into the shapewear. That way you can have a perfectly smooth back. If you are going to have a professional photographer, they can fix some things for you, but you can't control the pictures other people take. You have to also consider that an HD camera is going to pick up more details than a phone camera. Try a few different things and practice. If you have a good friend that can help you with taping, all the better.

When you can eat at least 1000 calories a day and drink a couple ounces of water at one time. If you arent well fed and well hydrated you get dizzy in poses.

I wasn't even cleared to be in the gym until 6 weeks. I couldn't drink enough fluids fast enough to stay hydrated in the gym until about 12 weeks. I couldn't eat enough to support a workout until about 8 weeks.Why not just walk?

I use duct tape all the time.Mainly I tape my boobs so I can wear backless dress. Plebty of thin women tape it is a useful beauty tip, google it. I'll never buy another strapless bra again, tape works so much better. If I can tape the G cups up, anyone can. BTW, if you ever want real useful beauty/fashion related tips, never ask on a weight loss surgery forum. You got pages of kind but useless comments. You are normal sized now, go to the places normal sized women talk about beauty and fashion. They have similiar issues, just not in the extreme. It works just practice. I plan on taping my thighs this summer. Duct tape comes off very easy with no pain if you get you body temp up. You can tape it off in the shower or with a heating pad.

I look about 10 years younger since I lost weight. I have always had a high young sounding voice and that helps. I never had a fat neck, I could always wear normal necklaces and chokers. My face was round, but now that I have lost my face is square. I used to contour may face to the Gods, now I use much less product. I don't look my age at all which I find mainly annoying. People make a lot of assumptions about you based on age, I don't enjoy people assuming I am a millennial. You pretty much control your weight loss with the sleeve. I wear a size 8/10 right now, but when I was in the 230/240 range I wore an 16/18. I was at the top of regular and bottom of plus sizes. If I wanted to stay plus sized and insanely curvy, I could have stopped there. I wanted to be as low a weight as possible so I kept going and I am still going. i want to lose another 30. I'm still curvy, the smaller I get the more exaggerated my curves get. no reason to stop. I'll end up slim thick in the end.

Goal Weight: 180 Current Weight: 191

@@xoxococojay As you heal and with time you are going to be able to eat more, you are supposed to be able to eat more/heal. That is why you can't just rely on restriction to tell you when to stop. 3-4 ounces is a proper meat portion. Depending on what I am eating and how much I have already ate that day, I can eat 6 ounces of dense protein(I have to eat 6 ounces sometimes to catch up on Protein for the day, which is how I know I can). What stops me is having it measured out to 4 ounces. Restriction won't save people long term, good habits, and weighing (measurements can be really off) your food.

At 18 months I can chug Water and eat anything. I have a theory on why some people can and some can't but I can't do a study to prove it but I see the same thing over and over. Basically I think your sleeve is like a muscle, you have to use it. People that have issues getting their Protein in are not exercising their sleeve. Like if you rely on Protein shakes for a long time, you don't flex your restriction. A lot of vets have said that going to liquids for a day or 2 makes them tight as a drum. If I go a day without anything solid, it takes me a couple days to work my capacity back up. The only thing I have issue with is scrambled eggs but I have always hated them so there is no loss. I have to make sure chicken breaks are most enough but I don't even like them. Pork chops and steaks are the easiest things to at for me. The effects of surgery are short 6 to 9 months. Then you can eat whatever and your restriction is normalized.

I love to eat, but it is a mental choice. I would say at 3 months when I understood my sleeve better and I wasn't afraid of over eating (because over eating hurts like hell), I enjoyed food a lot more. The same thing happened at 6 months. At a year I felt pretty normal with food and at that point I understand why people regain. Physically I am basically never hungry unless I go 12-16 hours without eating anything solid, for those on the app, I'm 18 months post op.

@@HogwartsIsMyHome Good for you for taking the advice that people offered. Seriously everyone that has spent weeks not chewing anything dreams about food. I wanted all the bad things the first couple weeks after surgery. Then finally I was able to chew something and it was like the heavens opened. My cravings stopped. You can definitely eat out. Just check the nutritional values. A lettuce wrap burger from 5 guys is delicious.

@oustide.. Love your response. Question, did you consider yourself a food addict before surgery? Curious to know if there are former addicts that found long term success. Thank you! Sent from my XT1585 using the BariatricPal App I'm not sure. I was just overly indulgent, and I rewarded myself with food. I'm not sure I was a full blown good addict but I was self medicating, self soothing with food. Rough day, you deserve something delicious. Great day? You deserve something delicious. I really wanted to have a better relationship with food badly. So many of my friends are thin and healthy with healthy lifestyles. I wanted so bad to be like them, but I was a glutton. I love to over eat. I felt like you only live once and you should have what you want. Surgery allowed me to create a whole new relationship with food. By following the food steps closely I was able to break old habits. Like baked fish seems delicious and decadent after weeks of broth and Protein shakes. When I could finally have steak after eating seafood for months, it as almost orgasmic. I found healthy replacements for a lot of things. They taste good but not too good, I am not fooling myself that they are normal foods. The money I used to spend on food, I spend on clothes and makeup. Now that I am small I can buy a bodycon dress for $10 online, instead of going to steak and shake or getting chinese food. That $15 I might have blown on bar food, I can buy a lipstick with. I still indulge myself but in different ways with durable goods. And no I have not addiction swapped. I shop about 1/10th as much as I used to since now I have to try everything, because my sizes change weekly. Also now that I have more variety in clothing, and brands vary so much, a size 10 or a medium top might work at one place but I need a large or a 12 at another. So I hardly shop compared to how much I used to shop. I used to buy clothes online almost daily, and now I get maybe one thing a week.

Wish I could love this instead of just liking it. So many of us have that clean plate mentality drilled into us as kids. Getting over that is a huge thing. Sent from my KFTBWI using the BariatricPal App I grew up with a military Dad. Believe me it was really hard to get there. The further I am from surgery the easier it is. I have lost so much weight at this point that I don't want to back track. I find that I will obsess about things and think they are really better than what they are. So I will taste something. After 1.5 years of low carbing and eating clean and healthy, carbs and "bad" foods just don't taste that good to me. So a taste is enough to remind me I don't even want this thing, I just think I do. Buying size 10 jeans tastes a lot better than a cookie. That being said they had Cookies at work, they looked super delicious. I took a bite, stood by the trash can, tossed the rest and went back to my office. If I had took that cookie with me back to my office, I would have sat and pinched off of it and had the whole thing. Is that an ideal situation? Not really. Most people would say never touch the cookie at all. This works for me. A taste just turns me off, even if its good, it just isn't as good as not being morbidly obese.

I sipped premier protein all day. Literally all day. I had 3 shakes a day

I take my Vitamins like a regular person. I don't take mine with food, I have them between meals. If you think vitamins might make you ill, then I would take them 20 minutes after done eating.

@@Patticake74 I depends but yeah a lot of people do. I went from a 12W to a 10M