Cervidae

@M Ashley - I have definitely seen an improvement in my PCOS symptoms since surgery. I have always had horrible hair growth (I'm talking 5 o'clock shadow here...), a severe skin condition called acanthosis nigricans (the darkened skin you may have around your neck, under arms, chest, etc), all around bad skin no matter what I did, hormone surges, inability to lose weight, irregular periods even on birth control, etc. The list goes on and on. My disorder made everyday life hellish for me from the moment my body started going through puberty, and the women in my family start young. I was 8 when the symptoms started and had just turned 10 when I got my first period. Before surgery, I was on a lot of metformin, birthcontrol, and a medication called spironolactone that is normally used for high blood pressure but for me was helping to control hormone fluctuations and in turn reduce my symptoms. I stopped metformin a few days before surgery in preparation for the surgery, and was told I never had to start it again. I still take birth control and spironolactone, but these medications are actually helping me now, whereas before they barely touched my symptoms. I guess my disorder is just that severe. I can happily say that my skin condition has disappeared without a trace, my periods are now pretty regular, and I'm actually losing weight (albeit a bit slower than anticipated, probably because PCOS still has me in its grasp. But I'm not complaining!). My skin has even cleared up and looks and feels healthy now. All in all, this surgery has improved or fixed pretty much every single health issue I've been suffering from my entire life. I'm so, so grateful.

Welcome! It's great to have you here. This place has been invaluable to me since before my surgery and it continues to help me every single day. I will be 1 year post-bypass in 8 days, and I've lost 173 pounds since surgery and almost 240 pounds total. Gastric surgery saved my life! I cried a lot in the beginning too, from the day my PCOS specialist gently suggested I look into it. It was a lot of things - feeling hope for the first time in a long time that I could become healthy and have a future, realizing there was a way that I hadn't already tried and failed at to lose weight, being frustrated and ashamed that I was struggling so much with such a large amount of extra weight, seeing the huge life change and insurmountable-feeling task that was ahead of me, the list goes on. It's not anything to be taken lightly, and it's not something anyone should go into without support from any place they can get it, whether that's family/friends support, medical support, and mental health support. I see a therapist and attend a monthly support group, and I firmly believe I would not be as successful as I have been without this amazing support system. It took a terrifying thing and made it a possible task, and gave me the strength I needed to make this change. You can do it, too! My inbox is always open if I can help at all, and the rest of the members here are just amazing and kind, really. Any help you ask for here will be gladly given. Welcome to the family! Best of luck to you!

It seems to me that I may be a 24-year-old version of you! I'm an artist, and also very neurotic. I have an anxiety disorder, and that tends to contribute to my hand-wringing and needling questions. From everything I've observed and experienced, it seems that any change you may be seeing in celebrities who have had weight loss surgery is partly hormonal and mostly emotional. If anything, I feel more clear and focused since losing a ton of weight, though I can't deny that I have had huge hormone fluctuations and a fair amount of emotional turmoil since this process began. Self-image and identity are things that a lot of people must spend their entire lives discovering and understanding, and ours change in a matter of months. It's a baffling and emotional time. So in the end, while I struggle with hormones and emotion, I feel clearer and more intelligent than before.

I'm getting my one year post op labs done tomorrow! And one of the things I love so much about my bariatric center is they encourage and expect you to be patients there for life. They schedule annual follow-ups every year following surgery for as long as the patient will show up. The surgery and lifestyle change is for life, so the checkups should be too!

is it a desire/craving to eat or are you having actual physical symptoms, like gurgling or cramping in your stomach?

Good luck! Take good care of yourself, walk as much as you can, and sip sip sip water all the time! You'll do great.

I have random stalls and I have stalls every month during my period. I'm currently in a random one that's been lasting for over a month. Still, I'm almost a year out and I've lost about 170. It all adds up in the end, but man, even after a year of dealing with stalls, I'm still just a bit annoyed when I step on that scale and it hasn't moved, yet again.

I love this feeling! Being exhausted and powering through difficult physical activity, and knowing your body can handle it now and also knowing that physical activity actually will make a difference in your weight. I love it.

I struggle with this a lot too. At my heaviest, I was 450 pounds (or maybe more, I never stepped on a scale back then...) and now I'm 217. I truly still feel like a 450 pound person. Seeing myself in a mirror, especially when I wasn't expecting it, is shocking and confusing. Seeing pictures of myself is also extremely weird, and I often ask my friends/family/boyfriend "is this accurate? Is this a good representation of what I actually look like? Do I look like a different person? Do I look anything like myself anymore?" Because I feel all of these things. It's so strange, but honestly, it's also incredibly wonderful. I never believed things would really change, even after I had the surgery and was dropping weight like crazy. I still don't really believe I'll ever get under 200, and when I get under 200, I won't really believe I can make it to 170 (my goal weight), and so on. We accept who we believe we are and it's hard to change that identity and self-image after many years of it being who you are. It's hard to adopt a new one so quickly, and to truly say goodbye to the person you used to be. 2 years ago, I was over 230 pounds heavier. It's going to take some time to see the new me for who I really am and what I really look like, and I'm still changing! But I keep trying every day and I will keep trying until hopefully someday I feel like "me" again. The new "me". Here's a progress picture! You can see how different I am from the person I used to be 2 years ago... http://imgur.com/wxCv8k6

One year post op on august 17th! I was lighter than the left picture on the day of surgery but the left is my highest ever, and the right was the 4th of July, which still looks pretty current. http://imgur.com/wxCv8k6

I have PCOS as well (pretty severely) and my symptoms have greatly reduced since having surgery. I started near 400 pounds on the day of surgery and I'll be one year post-op in ten days. I've been enormously successful and have lost about 170 pounds since surgery day. I remember in the beginning the only real doubts I had were about whether I could follow the diet forever, whether I would sabotage myself, if I could remake my habits into healthy ones by myself, etc. Now that I have some perspective almost a year later, I can say that I would do this a thousand times over again, exactly the same way, if I had to. But I would also always pair it with therapy. I firmly believe every person who undergoes or wants to undergo this surgery should be seeing a therapist. No exceptions. Even if you are one of the VERY rare people who don't have a food addiction, the amount and intensity of the huge life changes that come with surgery are not to be taken lightly. Changing so many things about your everyday life is no easy feat, but it is incredibly rewarding in the end. Becoming an entirely different person in the span of a few months to a year? You NEED to talk to someone during this time. I firmly believe that the monthly support groups I attend, frequenting this website to talk to people about the crazy weird changes that are happening/have happened, and seeing my therapist regularly are all vitally important to my success, and I would probably not be doing as well if I hadn't kept up with it. The accountability alone really makes a big difference. Good luck to you! It seems that you already know what you need and have tried all other options over and over with limited results. If you do this right and stay healthy and accountable, this whole process can be simply amazing. I can't count the ways my life has changed for the better since beginning this journey, and I truly would do it all over and over again if I needed to. My final piece of advice would be to write down all the reasons you know this is the right thing for you, and read that list whenever you're faltering or unsure. Always remember your real eventual goal: being healthy. Nothing else really matters and anything is worth doing to be healthy. My inbox is always open if you ever need someone to talk to!

it was $6 off at my Costco!

I was taking three pills a day by a week out. Never had any problems. My bariatric center has an "as tolerated" sort of policy about pills after the first couples of days.

Have you cut out sugar/white bread and Pasta? How about soda? Are you drinking enough Water? These things alone will frequently allow people to drop several pounds quickly. As people have said above, this time isn't about proving you can do it so much as actually making the changes that will become a part of your everyday living for the rest of your life. You have to show yourself that you are capable of following a strict plan and giving up the things you like that are unhealthy, and the weight loss that follows that is what the nutritionist is looking for. Also as someone suggested above, are you in or have you considered therapy? I truly believe every person considering or getting weight loss surgery should be seeing a therapist. This is a HUGE change and a huge undertaking, and that can be scary and difficult if you're struggling emotionally to deal with all of it. My inbox is always open if I can help you at all. We didn't have a specific amount to lose, but they did expect to see a downward trend of weight. I think I only lost maybe 5 pounds in the whole 7 months of preparing, and it certainly was not for lack or trying, but losing 5 pounds vs. gaining 5 pounds is a big difference in terms of what's going on behind the scenes. That's what they nutritionists/surgeons are looking for: proof that you have changed your habits behind closed doors. Good luck to you! Never has this process been easy but it has always been entirely worth it.

at 6 months, my bariatric center was suggesting a half cup to a cup of food, especially if it's not super dense like chicken or steak. I have trouble reaching that amount for a couple months after that point, but a lot of people in my support group were doing just fine. 3.5 ounces of fish and maybe like 3-4 ounces of sweet potato sounds sort of exactly where you should be. Just be aware that you may not experience quite as much restriction as a lot of people do and plan your meal amounts accordingly. It may also be wise to use something like myfitnesspal to log all the food and the amounts you're eating. I'm betting you're doing better than you think you are.

August 17th will be one year post-bypass for me. If I can help you at all, let me know. My inbox is always open. I'm also more than happy to friend anyone on facebook from this site if it's easier for you to talk there.

What flavors of Premier have you tried? Because they all sort of have different textures and consistencies.

At this early stage in healing, the nerves in your stomach that were severed have not knit back together. So it's entirely possible you are both definitely full, but putting more in than you should because you're just not feeling it. I found it helpful to just stick to the food plan to a T, even if the half cup or soup or quarter cup of cottage cheese did not make me feel full. I noticed a marked difference in my satiety by 3-4 weeks out. Hope this helps.

there are hormones stored in fat, and when you lose fat rapidly, they can be released and really mess with you. I dealt with (and am still dealing with) a lot of moodiness and anxiety, and sometimes deep depressions during this past year. It does get better, but I second the suggestion above. Talk to someone and get as much support as you can as soon as you can. Take care, and hang in there. It gets better. And congratulations on your weight loss.

I've lost 227 total so far in the last two years, about 170 since surgery about a year ago. Still losing. My inbox is always open! Don't let the judgement and negativity get you down. You've taken control of your life and done things most people would be way too afraid to do.

Congrats! Keep us updated.

LOL! Following!

That's how I was in the beginning too. I felt pretty horrible for the first two weeks or so, and then it took months after that for me to feel anything resembling normal. Now I'm nearly a year out and down 170 pounds, healthy as can be, and happy! Just remember why you did this in the first place, and hold on to that. It gets so much easier very soon. No one said this process would be easy. But seriously, hang in there. If you need someone to talk to, my inbox is always open. <3