Thucydides

I faced the exact same question between bypass and the sleeve when I first started out the process (my surgery was November 2015). In the end, I decided on the sleeve because a less invasive surgery at my initial weight (518 lbs, 67 BMI) seemed safer and I thought that I would be happy if I could just get done to a weight where I could simply be functional. My surgeon flat out told me that I "would never be normal" and the stats backed that expectation up. For gastric sleeve, average weightloss is 60% of excess body weight. That meant that I should have expected to have lost 202 lbs and gotten down to 316lbs. I decided that I would be good with that. As of today, I have lost 304 lbs and am at 214 lbs. This is beyond anything that I ever expected. The key to remember is that the averages are just that, averages. They include people who have really seized this lifeline and run with it, others who have struggled a bit more, and still others who have not changed their eating & exercise habits. I have been one of the lucky ones. Look around at this forum and you will see a good number of men who have made amazing progress with a remarkable level of commitment. Whatever you decide, best of luck to you. I have absolutely no regrets and I cannot begin to describe how big of a difference the surgery has made for me.

This is something that I have been dealing with in a major way. Despite losing over 300 lbs, I feel exactly the way that you do. I still routinely worry about fitting in theater seats, airplane seats, etc. in the same way that I did at 518 lbs. It is still a surprise when I fit in places. When a family member bought me some clothes as a gift, I was surprised to find that I was routinely buying clothes that were 2 sizes too large. My surgeon told me that he did not think that I should go below 220 lbs. I am currently 6 lbs below that and still see myself as having a large belly and having more weight to lose.

I'm 19 months post-op and have definitely had a similar issue in terms of changing tastes. Before surgery, I was a big meat eater. Now, I really dislike most meat (particularly chicken and shrimp, both of which I really enjoyed before surgery). It is weird, but I have learned to work around it.

Congratulations both on your weight loss and your marriage. You both look incredibly happy. I wish you both much happiness.

Congratulations! This is crazily one of the things that I have been most excited by. I used to have to buy either two seats or fly first class, both of which were ridiculously expensive. I just got back from a work trip to Tbilisi, Georgia (23 hours each way), and was more comfortable in my single coach seat than I ever was in first class.

The advice from @BigTink2LilTink fits my experience really well. The only other thing that I will add is to prepare yourself for how differently people will treat you. Honestly, I wasn't well-prepared for that or my reaction to it. In general, strangers in public (stores, etc.) are much nicer and more friendly to me now than at my pre-op weight. Many of my friends also treat me differently (in a positive sense). Some of that, I'm sure, is a function of me acting more confidently at my new size. What I did not expect was how much the difference in my treatment by others would piss me off. That was something I wasn't prepared for and is something that I have had to force myself to calm down about.

Joe, I wish that I had done the surgery when I was your age. I did my surgery in November 2015 at a pre-op weight of 518 lbs (I was 44 then). Waiting so long caused me to miss out on a lot of things that I regret. Fast forward to now, I am down 300 lbs and my experience is similar to blizair09's. Recovery went pretty smoothly and sticking to the plan has caused the weight to come off at a pretty steady clip. I do work my butt off, however. I have religiously followed my nutrition plan, even this far out, and I have completely embraced being active. This has forced me to re-prioritize things to make time to keep up the exercise. The payoff is well worth it. I can do things now that I never could have imagined before surgery. It is sad to say, but I also get treated very differently now than at my old weight. The only downside that I have seen is that buying new clothes has been expensive! You can do this. It is normal to be nervous. I was. If you can commit yourself to make the changes called for, the rewards are enormous. Best of luck!

I felt similarly concerned about time to maximum weight loss before my surgery (November 2015). I was 518 lbs pre-op! What I didn't realize, because I was so worried about the end goal, was how much of an improvement I would feel at each stage after surgery. I felt enormously better 3 months after surgery and could do way more things. At 6 months, I couldn't believe how much better I felt than at 3 months. As the months unfolded, I cared less and less about any sort of end date because each day was better than the next. That was the toughest thing for me to recognize before I began the process. Now, at 17 months and 300 lbs down, a particular goal weight or timeline feels completely meaningless in a way that I did not expect at the start of this. All the best to you kinipela24!

I think that the advice that it varies from person to person is right. It is actually pretty hard to guess. My initial surgical consult told me that I would "never be normal" and that the best that I could result that I can expect from surgery was to get to around 290 or 280 (I started at 518). I dropped 257 lbs in the first year and, at 17 months out, am still losing weight (down 301 lbs so far). My experience is that over time you tend to pay a lot less attention to the scale. My weight can bounce a bit week to week, but I find myself focusing a lot more on how much my workouts improve or how my clothes are fitting

One thing I'll add, based on my experience, there is no one size-fits-all approach for anyone. For a good while, I worked with a nutritionist who insisted that bariatric patients should NEVER exceed 1000 calories, 60 grams of carbs at any point post-surgery, including in maintenance. That might work for some, but that was not a great recommendation for a 6'3" male who exercises a decent amount. I've found information from my family dr, people on this forum, and trial and error to have been my best guidance.

I've had a similar experience to the other guys here. My metabolism doesn't seem to have really dropped off a lot. I'm try to gradually stop my weightloss now and have incrementally upped my calories to do it. I'm at 2000 calories a day now and am still dropping about 2 lbs per week most weeks. I workout about an hour a day 6-7 days a week with a combination of rowing, walking, and weightlifting.

I actually had my sleeve surgery done and a hiatal surgery repair done at the same time. That is what I told people and had no problems.

I had the exact same thought before deciding to do surgery. I had lost a lot of weight on my own, only to gain it back. When my family doctor raised the possibility of surgery, I resisted it because I figured that I would still have to exercise and watch what I ate to lose weight, even with the surgery. I thought that I could just do that on my own - even at 518 lbs! Now that I have had the surgery (November 2015), I am struck by how much of a difference it has made (down 293 lbs as of my weigh-in this morning). I still have to watch what I eat and make sure to exercise, but the surgery has made a major difference to me. For me, the difference is sort of like the difference between swimming with or against the current. Both require you to expend the effort and actually swim, but it is a lot easier to make headway swimming with the current. Gastric sleeve surgery has allowed me to swim with the current in terms of improving my health. My life is completely different today that what it was in 2015. I was also self-pay. My recommendation is to look at the options that surgeons in your area make to self-pay patients. Some have some fairly creative programs that can help make paying for the surgery and/or working with your insurance company a bit more manageable.

I was sleeved in November 2015. When I started my pre-op diet, I was 518 lbs, had high blood pressure, diabetes, sleep apnea, and could not walk much more than 1 block without getting out of breath. 16 months later, I am now 226 lbs, off of all of my medicines, all of my health problems are completing resolved, and I actually enjoy working out! The only down side I have is that I have had to blow a lot of money on clothes because I haven't stayed in a particular size for all that long. One of the best decisions that I have ever made.

Best of luck with your surgery, Jaguarftype. I'm 16 months out now, but I can honestly say that the recovery was not nearly as bad as I feared it would be. For me, the pre-op period was the toughest. After that, it got easier every day from there,

I don't have personal experience with a leak, but I wanted to pass along good wishes for a quick recovery.

I'm only 15 months post-op and started at 518 lbs. The calculator predicts that I would lose 199 lbs and wind up at 319 lbs. Thus far, I have actually lost 288 lbs and weigh 230 lbs as of my weigh-in on Friday. There is nothing special about me, I have just followed the recommended exercise and diet program.

I do! One of the things that I always felt guilty about was how hard it was for me to walk either of my two dogs, Ramius (the handsome guy in my avatar) and Jasper (a shepherd mix). Now that I am in better shape, the both get about 2 miles a day in walks and are a lot healthier.

Greg, I know exactly where you are coming from because it is exactly how I felt before surgery. I had been obese my entire life, but had never considered surgery because I figured "I would still have to diet anyway, so why bother with the risk and expense?" Even when my family physician raised the possibility, I still only went through the motions for a few months, convinced that I would never have surgery. Oddly enough, something changed, I made the decision to do it, and have never looked back. I could not be more glad to have done it. Sal is right, it is not a quick fix and involves a lot of hard work to stick to the plan. But you know what else is also hard work? - being 518 lbs like I was. It takes a lot of planning to navigate the world at 518 lbs. The surgery helped to give me a reset button to refocus my priorities around healthy eating and exercise. I have to decide to do both every day, but I am in much more control of things than I have ever been at any point in my life. If I can ever answer any questions or lend any moral support, don't hesitate to drop me a PM. The guys on this forum were an invaluable source of info and support to me all along my process, so you are in the right place.

Thanks, @ . I can definitely relate to the struggle to get enough calories. All in all, it is such an odd feeling. After decades of obsessing about my weight and having to fight to avoid eating unhealthy food, it almost feels strange to be indifferent to the number on the scale and just focused on doing what will help me live healthy. For me, my approach has be to largely act like I'm an addict. I have completely avoided all fast food, fried food, pizza, junk food, candy, etc. since my pre-op period in 2015. I figure that those are the things that are my undoing and, if I give in, I risk falling back into some really bad habits. Thankfully, I have no cravings for those sorts of things anymore. I'm pretty confident I would again, were I to indulge.

I am wondering if anyone has any advice in terms of their macro targets once you have transitioned to maintenance. I have been gradually upping my calorie target (now at about 1600 calories), but I'm still losing weight at that level. I'm ok with that for a bit longer, but I am struggling with how best to change my macro targets as I increase my calories. I'm kind of wary to increase my Protein intact above 100-120 g per day, but I am a bit fearful that upping carb intake too much will set the stage for me falling back to bad habits. Any advice on how you approached this? I'm grateful for any advice. The dietitian that I have consulted (my surgeon does not have an in-house dietitian so we are referred to one for phone consult) with keeps recommending a max of 900 calories per day, but that seems like really bad advice for a 6'3" man doing a lot of cardio and weightlifting who is continuing to sometimes lose 4-5 lbs a week. To add to complications, my surgeon is currently under federal indictment, so I don't have a lot of great outlets for guidance at the moment.

Thanks, @@James Marusek and @axlr8n. This is really helpful.

I'm continuing to have a similar issue, but it is focused around my stomach. I have lost enough weight that family members have suggested that I'm starting to look a little "gaunt". I have been hitting the weights pretty hard to try to build back some of my lost muscle tone. Somehow, even though I am still dropping lbs, my body is still managing to pull weight off from just about everywhere but my stomach.

I would echo the suggestions that you talk to your doctor asap. I had not previously had depression issues before surgery, but they hit pretty hard about 6-8 weeks post-op for me. I felt really depressed, but had no idea why. For me, it did turn out to be due to the massive hormonal shifts that occurred after surgery. It went away after a few months. Take care of yourself. If something doesn't feel right, don't hesitate to talk to your doctor for help,

Congrats, fellow Texan! You will be amazed at how different things will be as you progress after surgery. It has been genuinely life-changing for me. Good luck!