catwoman7

You see your biggest drops the first month or two. As others have said or implied, weight loss drops off the further out you are from surgery, and the closer you get to a normal BMI. You're obviously starting at a lower BMI than I did, but it took me 20 months to lose all my excess weight. After I hit the year mark, I was losing about 2 lbs a month, despite working pretty hard at it.

if you're female, 20.6% if actually quite low. You're definitely reached goal!

I had my surgery at age 55. I know several people who've had it in the 50s and 60s - and even a couple in their 70s!

Yea the weight loss does get slower the closer you get to a normal BMI. My last 20 or so pounds were a BEAR to get off. I worked my butt off and lost about 2 lbs a month. But I finally got there...

agreed. People who have lost a lot of weight often have more muscle and bone than someone who's never been overweight. It's because you needed that extra "infrastructure" to hold up the weight. You lose some of that as you're losing weight, but not all of it. The PA at my clinic said you'll probably look about 10 lbs lighter than what the scale says, because of the extra muscle and bone weight (well, and loose skin if you have it). So the lower end of the BMI scale might be too low for the OP. I got down to the middle of my normal BMI scale, and I looked crazy thin. I look much better at the higher end - or even slightly overweight.

oooo yea - that looks bad. That's kind of how I was after my plastic surgery (and I discovered I was allergic to the glue or tape they used). They had me on prednisone tablets for 10 days, which does the same thing as the cortisone shot will - depresses your immune system so it won't react to allergens. Should do the trick...

I don't know how many of those products actually do the trick. Some people swear by biotin; others say it doesn't do a thing. I've never heard of Nutrifol, but I expect it also has its fans and detractors. Those hairs are already dead and will eventually fall out, so I don't think anything can help with that - it's just the natural growth/fallout cycle, it's just been sped up due to the trauma of surgery + restricted calories. At most, some of those products may help with the regrowth once it starts. The loss will stop eventually - it was three months for me (but fortunately, I didn't lose much hair. Not enough for me - or anyone else - to notice, other than I did notice more hairs than usual in my comb -so I knew I was losing some)

yes. Especially for small incisions like you have with WLS. I didn't find out I was allergic to it (it was either that, or surgical tape) until my second skin removal surgery. Not sure if they used a different tape or glue with that one, or if it just took awhile for my body to build up a resistance to it. It was too early to remove the tape, so the surgeon put me on prednisone for ten days (which lowers your immunity), at which time it was safe to remove the tape. as someone else said, your surgeon or PCP can put you on benadryl to deal with the itching, too.

if it's hurting, you might want to go back to liquids for a few days and then try again. Sometimes your stomach isn't quite ready to move on to the next stage. It's always fine to go back a stage if need be.

my first year post-op I usually ate a light yogurt or some sugar free pudding or Jello when I had a sweet craving.

14 lbs in three weeks is pretty normal. Most people who aren't the size of the patients on "My 600 lb Life" seem to lose 15-25 lbs the first *month* after surgery. And since you're a revision patient (weight loss is usually slower for revisions than for virgin surgeries), I'd expect you'd be at the lower end of that range. You're only at the three week mark, so I'm guess you'll be 15 lbs down (if not a little more) by the end of your first month. not having an appetite at all is completely normal. Hunger usually comes back sometime during the first year after surgery. Mine came roaring back at five months out. Honestly, I wish mine had never come back. Although it was weird at first, I must admit it was easy to lose weight when I was never hungry and didn't give a flip about food. THings got a lot harder once my hunger and appetite came back. So take full advantage of that!! also, even though I was a slow loser from the get-go, I lost 235 lbs (at least originally - I gained about 20 lbs back in year 3, which is also common - most people have a 10-20 lb weight rebound after hitting their lowest weight). you are doing absolutely fine - actually a little better than expected since your surgery was a revision. I think you're doing great! P.S. I lost 16 lbs my first month - and I had a virgin surgery AND weighed almost 400 lbs. You're what we call a "light weight" at 222 lbs - and this is also a revision for you - so you're doing very well!

I had surgery several years ago, but I think I remember showering before I left the hospital - if so, they probably just covered them up with surgical tape so they didn't get wet.

yes - you just need a letter from your clinic saying they're medically necessary

at nine months out, you're probably still not absorbing all your calories. That malabsorption lasts up to two years at best - so watch out! Once that ends, you're likely to gain if you go over your calories (well, not with a one-shot deal - but if you do it for too many days over the holidays, YIKES!) other than that, though, you've done great with this! Congratulations!!

just so you know, those last 20 or 30 lbs are a bear to lose. It took me FOREVER! You can do it - it'll just be pretty slow going. The last four months or so I was losing like 2 lbs a month! UGH!!

you're welcome! Do run it by your PCP, though, in case it's because the dosage of your blood pressure med needs to be changed - that'll sometimes cause it, too - but i'm betting on orthostatic hypotension since it seems to be very common the first few months after WLS.

that's actually pretty common. It's usually due to blood pressure changes - and it usually goes away after awhile. I used to have that occasionally my first few months post-op. Just get up slowly. Here's an article on it: (oh - I just read you're on blood pressure medication. It could be that, too - some people have to have their dosage changed after having WLS). Here's the article on orthostatic hypotension, though - seems to be fairly common the first few months after WLS: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/orthostatic-hypotension/symptoms-causes/syc-20352548#:~:text=Orthostatic hypotension — also called postural,or lightheadedness and possibly fainting.

I'm in my 60s and just did the Smart BMI calculator. I'd never heard of this - but I love it!!

I use MyFitnessPal (although a lot of people on here use Bariastic)

it's probably the infamous "three week stall"; you're just getting it a little early. Most of us experience our first stall within the first 4-6 weeks after surgery - it's usually the third week, hence the name. Mine was weeks 2 and 3. It broke during week 4 and I dropped like 6-8 lbs within a couple of days. Just stick to your program and it'll break - they can last 1-3 weeks, but they WILL break as long as you stick to your plan. And as others have said, this will likely be the first among several - occasional stalls are very normal during weight loss. Stay off the scale for a few days if it's playing with your head too much - and keep in mind that it WILL break, and you'll be on your way again.

it's pretty uncommon, but I do know it can happen. My mother-in-law (not a WLS patient) had that happen. She went into the hospital with one bowel obstruction, had surgery, and then had to go back maybe a month later for another one - had another surgery. It's been about two years, though, and so far so good - it hasn't come back. Hopefully it'll be the same for you. Sorry you're going through this!!

that's hard to answer because programs vary so much. I think I was about a month out when I was allowed to eat it, but the diet progression at some clinics is slower than that. I'd check with your clinic.

tomatoes have a lot of acid in them - so I can see that upsetting your stomach for sure. I still have trouble eating acidic foods sometimes (at 7.5 years out)

the only thing I had close to that was when I went in for my second plastic surgery. It was in Chicago, so we drove the two hours down there and stayed in a hotel overnight. Got to the hospital around 6:00 am. Got all prepped, IV started, even talked to the anesthesiologist about 20 minutes before the surgery was supposed to start. The surgeon got in there late - like an hour late - turned out he'd broken his wrist on the way to the hospital, so they had to reschedule the surgery! (he said one of his residents could do it if I wanted to stay, but I declined - after forking over all that $$, I wanted the surgeon to do it). Luckily, the hotel let me cancel the rest of my stay (two more nights), given the circumstance...

this is a terrific video! Thanks so much for posting it!