Thucydides

I'm pretty close to where you are in terms of weight, but I am eating a good bit more calories and protein than you are. Like others mentioned, my main target is about 100 grams of protein per day. In terms of calories, I shoot for about 950 calories a day. Some days I fall slightly below that, others slightly above that. I'm fairly active now, getting in about 25 miles a week of brisk walking & hiking. Generally, I'm losing about 4-5 lbs per week right now at this calorie, protein, and exercise level.

Congrats, @@DavidOso ! You have made remarkable progress. I can't wait to join you below 300 lbs!

Great work, @@jhig ! I think that your mentality is exactly on the mark for success.

Welcome, @@lovelymilena . This is a great place for support. Congratulations, between making it through the 6 month diet requirement and making sure to reach out for help, you have already taken some of the toughest steps. You got this!

@@ForLfKlovr I can relate, because I have had similar thoughts. In the end, I decided to only tell some close friends and family members. It is not that I am ashamed of having had the surgery, but I decided that I did not want to deal with the recurring questions and judgment that I thought was likely to follow revealing it more widely. My thinking is this: the surgery did not remove a single pound of what I need to lose. It gave me a tool that has helped me to stick with a sensible eating plan that has caused me to lose weight. I could probably still down a pint of ice cream in a sitting or graze on junk food throughout the day, even with the surgery. Instead, because I avoid those things, stick to my Protein goals and carb limits, and get a lot of exercise, the pounds are coming off. Since these are all personal choices, I don't feel like I owe anyone an explanation.

I was sleeved in November 2015, too, and I definitely feel more hungry than I was a few months ago. @@Christinamo7 's advice fits my experience. As long as I focus on Protein to satisfy my hunger (at least 100 grams a day) and keep up with drinking Water, it is a lot easier to stick with my dietary guidelines. I have managed to keep my carb levels low (never above 50 grams a day), so I have avoided the cravings for sweets. That is my biggest fear more than anything else.

@@aggietop Congratulations! 100lbs in less than 4 months is an excellent achievement. You should be really proud.

Starting at 518 lbs, it had been a good while since I had any actual exercise apart from walking to the freezer to grab some Ben & Jerry's. Fast forward to today, I'm doing brisk walking or hiking 3 days a week and 30 min on a rowing machine another 3 days a week. I'm supplementing that with some simple dumb bell lifting. My stamina is up and my joint pain is down. For those that are further along, how and when did you decide to upgrade your workouts to more strenuous activity? At some point down the road, I think that I would like to take a martial arts class, but I'm clueless in terms of deciding when that is likely to be feasible. Any advice?

@@DavidOso Outstanding! That is terrific news! Breaking the 300 lb threshold has to feel like a great achievement!

@@transmformme To be honest, I have found the office staff to be very hit or miss. The surgeons are great. Dr. Roshek did my EGD, Dr. Nick my sleeve, and Dr. Carlton checked in on my during a follow up. All were very positive, helpful, and high energy. I have found some of the office staff difficult to get follow-through. My first group of post-op labs, for example, took about 3 weeks to get results and those were delivered to me over the phone. Some staff have not been great about returning calls. Others, are amazingly responsive. I emailed one of the nurses with a post-op diet question. I got a long, very thorough response within 30 minutes. It is really a mixed bag. Because I have a great family physician, I have decided to navigate some of these issues with the office staff with my doctor's help. Before my follow-up appointments, I have Nicholson Clinic send me a lab order via email. I then do the labs through my family doctor a week or so before my follow-up appointment with the Nicholson Clinic. I then send my results to them. This gets me my results much more quickly, much more cheaply, and, since my dr. delivers lab results online, I can easily look them over myself and coordinate things with my family doctor. I am pretty happy with how that has worked so far and I have not had any resistance from the Nicholson Clinic in doing things this way. The only place where I was genuinely disappointed was with the post-op phone nutritionist consult. I know a lot of others have had a very good experience doing it this way, but I was pretty underwhelmed. The nutritionist that I spoke with was not too helpful and, frankly, did not seem very knowledgeable about bariatric patients. Between reading on my own, talking to the nurse educator and Nicholson, and talking to my family physician, I seem to be doing fine developing a plan that is working for me. I consistently hit my Water and Protein targets without a problem, get lots of exercise, and am seeing the weight come off at a solid pace. Were I to do it again, I would still do my surgery with Dr. Nicholson. Since I am enough of a control freak that I want to directly manage my own care and ask my own questions, the hiccups with the office staff does not bother me that much. In the end, my priority was the skill of the surgeon. There, I feel like I made a good choice. My recovery went very well, I had no complications, and my incision scars are even pretty small.

Congrats on the insurance approval, @sgc. I'm almost exactly 6 months out and your expectations fit well with my experience. Where you are ahead of the game is that you are already exercising and off of blood pressure medicine. I wasn't smart enough to do that beforehand. That should put you in good shape heading into surgery and have you well-prepared to be successful afterward. I feel like an idiot that I did not do this sooner. I kept thinking that I was still going to have to exercise and eat healthy to lose weight even with the surgery, so why not just skip the surgery entirely? I wish that I had understood earlier how much the surgery would help me keep my head in the game to do those things. Keep up the good work!

Dr. Nick did my surgery back in November. I had my first consult with him in September, my EGD in October, and my surgery in November. I, too, went the self-pay hiatal hernia route. Because I was initially going to do the surgery through another surgeon using my insurance, I went through the pre-op nutrition programs, psych eval, etc. In retrospect, I am really glad that I did because, when the surgery came, I was pretty well prepared for it and had a decent idea of what I was supposed to do. I had a very good experience with Dr. Nick. I liked him a lot and have had zero complications. I have also had good success in getting the weight off, but I have had to work hard at it by disciplining myself to eat according to plan and to get a good bit of exercise in. I'm 6 months out now, so far so good. Best of luck with your surgery, you will be amazed at how quickly you will start to see results.

I had the exact same thoughts of "failure" and "why can't I do this on my own?". I promise you, they will pass. The surgery will give you a tool that will be a big help in you getting yourself in the shape that you want. Since you will still have to do the work, you will still feel the success. Congratulations on taking a tough step.

I think that it is perfectly normal to be nervous about surgery. I certainly was. In the end, I thought that the risk was higher not having the surgery and staying at my beginning weight than the low chance of a problem during the surgery. The surgery worked out well for me and I have been happy every day that I did it. I would not change a thing. Best of luck with the surgery. Between the pre-op process and diet and the nervousness ahead of the surgery, you are already through the toughest part.

Congratulations and welcome, aggietop. It sounds like you are making great progress. It really is remarkable how quickly things get easier over time and how much of a lifestyle improvement this is.

I was worried about the issue with my sweat pants after surgery because I wore them above my belly as well. That did not turn out to be a problem for me because my incisions were spaced such that I was able to wear my pants where I normally wore them. I took a week off from work for surgery and had no problems with regular clothes by the time that I went back to work.

@@Ignatius I dealt with exactly the sorts of things that you describe, skipping events because of being worried about seating, avoiding flying, etc. The weight was so debilitating. My job is one where I get a lot of opportunity to travel to some pretty interesting places. Because of my weight, I skipped free trips to Turkey, Sweden, and the Republic of Georgia just in the past couple of years. I had my surgery in November 2015. Due to my high weight, I had to do the pre-op for 4 weeks. That was hard, but I stuck with it and lost 46 lbs during that period. Fast forward to now, almost 5 months post-op, I am down 166 lbs. More importantly, my diabetes in full remission and I am off of all medicine. The arthritis in my knees is substantially better. I do a lot of walking and now can get out and enjoy things with my wife. People don't stare at me anymore when I am out in public. Everything is easier, despite the fact that I still have another 100+ pounds to lose. I have absolutely no regrets. The surgery was scary, but turned out to be easier than I thought it would be. I recovered quickly enough that I was released same day by my surgeon. I was sore, but the pain was never enough that I felt the need to take pain medication. I knew that surgery at my weight came with a lot of risks, but I figured that staying at 518 lbs was likely to be a lot riskier. The guys on this forum we a real source of inspiration for me when I got cold feet or wondered if this would work for me. Best of luck, just thinking about getting some help is a really big step to take. I wish that I had been smart enough to do it when I was younger.

Thanks so much for posting what you each of you has been doing. Not only is it a big inspiration for someone like me that is only about 5 months out, but it is really informative. It is a big help.

I completely agree with Dub's comments on the surgery, especially in terms of the impact that you lost so much weight previously. I lost about 200 lbs about 5-6 years ago without surgery and then managed to gain it all back again within a little more than a year. Now that I am losing weight again after the surgery, that prior experience has been helpful in teaching me that I can't get complacent. I have to consistently stick to the plan (focus on Protein, minimize carbs, consistent exercise) that the surgery has set me up to follow. Where the surgery helps is that it has given me a tool that mix sticking to plan much easier for me to do now. I don't know if this is what you experienced when you last weight on your own, but everyday was a struggle to avoid temptation while I lost those 200 lbs. After the surgery, my temptation level is much, much lower. I won't say that it isn't there, but every day isn't the fight that it was when I lost the weight on my own. Now, rather than avoiding junk food because I was on a diet and looking forward to when I could have it again, the surgery has helped me develop a mindset where (1) my life does not revolve around food in the way that it once did and (2) I avoid junk food, not because I am denying myself it, but because I have just decided that I just don't eat those things anymore. Other things are more important to me now. Best of luck with your surgery. This forum is an immense help. I have been able to get a lot of excellent information here.

Without question, I found the pre-op diet (which lasted 4 weeks for me) to be much more difficult than the post-op one. I was so grateful that the surgery went well and that I had no hunger, I didn't even think about the fact that I was on an all liquid diet after surgery (even during Thanksgiving!). Best of luck with your surgery!

I have had the same, generally good experience with the Quest bars (prefer cookie dough) for Breakfast. I eat one of those for breakfast and the a serving of fat-free Greek yogurt a few hours later. That puts me at 35 g of Protein and a good chunk of Fiber all before morning's end. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Agreed. Post-op breathing problems are nothing to take chances with. You should call your surgeon as soon as possible.

I had my surgery last November (November 2015). I lost 46 lbs during my 4-week pre-op. The remaining 111 lbs lost have been since the surgery. For me, it has been a pretty steady weight loss. The biggest noteworthy thing for me is how much better I feel, even though I am still 100+ lbs above my goal weight. I can already move around much better and am substantially more active. Before surgery, I focused so much on the total weight that I needed to lose, that it really didn't hit me that I would see a consistent improvement in every regard, week by week, even before getting to my goal.

I have not hit the 200-lb mark yet, but both my surgeon and I feel pretty confident that I am on my way. I initially planned to go the bypass route but, after consulting with two surgeons, both suggested that the sleeve was the best fit for me. In the end, both are tools to help with weight loss. If you follow the plan, both will help you get where you want to be. Best of luck.

Thanks all for the feedback, it is really helpful. I have noticed that eating a freshly grilled hamburger off of the grill is much more feasible for me than eating one that is reheated the next day, so I think that there is something to be said for the dryness of different foods. I'm giving the slow cooker a go today with sirloin, mushrooms, and a red wine/mushroom sauce. @@JupiterinVirgo That is good advice on paying attention to your body and, especially, gathering information from a wide variety of sources. My surgeon does not have an in-house nutritionist, but referred me to one that holds phone consultations and did not seem to know much about bariatric patients. Information from these forums has been especially helpful!