JupiterinVirgo

This post moves me to tears. I am so close to being a normal weight, and I have been dreaming of having corrective plastic surgery on my body. And when you said you nearly cried when you saw your flat belly, I nearly cried! I'm really happy for you!

I would not define myself as skinny, but I have lost 160 pounds and weigh about 160 pounds. People definitely treat me differently, and almost every situation. I am included more in social activities, and frequently told that I am beautiful. I have come to be known in my community has a bit of a party girl, because I am always dancing and smiling. I'll admit that I am also different and more ways than just the shape and size of my body. I hold myself differently. I am happier. I feel better physically. But I have no doubt that the reduction in the size of my body has made a huge effect on how other people perceive me.

When I was preparing to have my sleeve surgery, I spent a lot of time on this forum. I found most of the people here to be very helpful. Even though there's every kind of personality here, we all have one thing in common: we wanted to lose weight and be healthier.
Approaching any surgery is scary. There are real risks, and real rewards when all goes well.
I have struggled with weight my whole life. Total sugar junkie. Used food to replace every unmet need I had, to repress every emotion for which I was unprepared to deal.
I gained and lost hundreds of pounds over the course of my life. Hundreds.
When my husband died eight years ago it broke me. I shattered, and it took me almost a decade to put myself back together. During that time, I lost everything: my beloved, my home, my income, even my sense of self. And I spent the next eight years eating to fill this giant empty void inside my being where someone who I thought of as the love of my life used to be.
I ballooned up bigger than I had ever been, surpassing my previous high weight and moving into the 320s.
I avoided social situations, and only left the house when necessary. I was afraid I would have to ask for a stronger chair when invited to sit down for dinner at somebody's home. I was afraid that I would need to sit down every 20 or 30 steps during a leisurely stroll through the mall with a friend. My body ached; sometimes the pain was so bad that I could scarcely move-even sitting still was painful.
Life had become extremely small.
Deciding to get the surgery was surprisingly easy, but getting through the approval process and going through with the surgery summoned up terror in me that had been there since my first surgery when I was three years old.
I thought it would be a miracle if I were able to get the surgery, simply because my trauma was so severe for so many years that it seemed like an impossible feat to put myself in the hands of medical professionals, who I have never trusted all my life.
With lots of support from my mother, my sister who had already had the surgery, and my therapist, I was able to get the sleeve.
And it changed my life!
I also decided that I was going to make up for lost time now that I was going to be able to physically get around again. I sold all my stuff, ditched my apartment, bought an RV and moved in! And it's wonderful! I could not have fit in here, nor could I do the things necessary when living in an RV, at my previous weight.
This surgery has allowed me an opportunity for a whole new lease on life. I am officially one year postop, and I am down about 130 pounds, with another 30 to go. It's amazing the difference a single year can make!
If you know that this is right for you, and the only thing giving you pause is fear that is not coming from your true intuition: there are many people on these forums who feel that this surgery has saved our lives.
I am one of those people. Here is a before and present a photo of me, in a year, this could be you!
Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

When I was preparing to have my sleeve surgery, I spent a lot of time on this forum. I found most of the people here to be very helpful. Even though there's every kind of personality here, we all have one thing in common: we wanted to lose weight and be healthier.
Approaching any surgery is scary. There are real risks, and real rewards when all goes well.
I have struggled with weight my whole life. Total sugar junkie. Used food to replace every unmet need I had, to repress every emotion for which I was unprepared to deal.
I gained and lost hundreds of pounds over the course of my life. Hundreds.
When my husband died eight years ago it broke me. I shattered, and it took me almost a decade to put myself back together. During that time, I lost everything: my beloved, my home, my income, even my sense of self. And I spent the next eight years eating to fill this giant empty void inside my being where someone who I thought of as the love of my life used to be.
I ballooned up bigger than I had ever been, surpassing my previous high weight and moving into the 320s.
I avoided social situations, and only left the house when necessary. I was afraid I would have to ask for a stronger chair when invited to sit down for dinner at somebody's home. I was afraid that I would need to sit down every 20 or 30 steps during a leisurely stroll through the mall with a friend. My body ached; sometimes the pain was so bad that I could scarcely move-even sitting still was painful.
Life had become extremely small.
Deciding to get the surgery was surprisingly easy, but getting through the approval process and going through with the surgery summoned up terror in me that had been there since my first surgery when I was three years old.
I thought it would be a miracle if I were able to get the surgery, simply because my trauma was so severe for so many years that it seemed like an impossible feat to put myself in the hands of medical professionals, who I have never trusted all my life.
With lots of support from my mother, my sister who had already had the surgery, and my therapist, I was able to get the sleeve.
And it changed my life!
I also decided that I was going to make up for lost time now that I was going to be able to physically get around again. I sold all my stuff, ditched my apartment, bought an RV and moved in! And it's wonderful! I could not have fit in here, nor could I do the things necessary when living in an RV, at my previous weight.
This surgery has allowed me an opportunity for a whole new lease on life. I am officially one year postop, and I am down about 130 pounds, with another 30 to go. It's amazing the difference a single year can make!
If you know that this is right for you, and the only thing giving you pause is fear that is not coming from your true intuition: there are many people on these forums who feel that this surgery has saved our lives.
I am one of those people. Here is a before and present a photo of me, in a year, this could be you!
Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

When I was preparing to have my sleeve surgery, I spent a lot of time on this forum. I found most of the people here to be very helpful. Even though there's every kind of personality here, we all have one thing in common: we wanted to lose weight and be healthier.
Approaching any surgery is scary. There are real risks, and real rewards when all goes well.
I have struggled with weight my whole life. Total sugar junkie. Used food to replace every unmet need I had, to repress every emotion for which I was unprepared to deal.
I gained and lost hundreds of pounds over the course of my life. Hundreds.
When my husband died eight years ago it broke me. I shattered, and it took me almost a decade to put myself back together. During that time, I lost everything: my beloved, my home, my income, even my sense of self. And I spent the next eight years eating to fill this giant empty void inside my being where someone who I thought of as the love of my life used to be.
I ballooned up bigger than I had ever been, surpassing my previous high weight and moving into the 320s.
I avoided social situations, and only left the house when necessary. I was afraid I would have to ask for a stronger chair when invited to sit down for dinner at somebody's home. I was afraid that I would need to sit down every 20 or 30 steps during a leisurely stroll through the mall with a friend. My body ached; sometimes the pain was so bad that I could scarcely move-even sitting still was painful.
Life had become extremely small.
Deciding to get the surgery was surprisingly easy, but getting through the approval process and going through with the surgery summoned up terror in me that had been there since my first surgery when I was three years old.
I thought it would be a miracle if I were able to get the surgery, simply because my trauma was so severe for so many years that it seemed like an impossible feat to put myself in the hands of medical professionals, who I have never trusted all my life.
With lots of support from my mother, my sister who had already had the surgery, and my therapist, I was able to get the sleeve.
And it changed my life!
I also decided that I was going to make up for lost time now that I was going to be able to physically get around again. I sold all my stuff, ditched my apartment, bought an RV and moved in! And it's wonderful! I could not have fit in here, nor could I do the things necessary when living in an RV, at my previous weight.
This surgery has allowed me an opportunity for a whole new lease on life. I am officially one year postop, and I am down about 130 pounds, with another 30 to go. It's amazing the difference a single year can make!
If you know that this is right for you, and the only thing giving you pause is fear that is not coming from your true intuition: there are many people on these forums who feel that this surgery has saved our lives.
I am one of those people. Here is a before and present a photo of me, in a year, this could be you!
Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

I would like to add an update to my progress. Here are some new pictures! I am the original poster.

I want to earnestly thank everyone of you from the bottom of my heart for being so receptive, and so kind in your responses. I read them all. And I am so grateful if in some small way my story helps you to claim the life you truly deserve. Aliveness has become my primary value. I am pursuing it with all my primal might. LOL
Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

When I was preparing to have my sleeve surgery, I spent a lot of time on this forum. I found most of the people here to be very helpful. Even though there's every kind of personality here, we all have one thing in common: we wanted to lose weight and be healthier.
Approaching any surgery is scary. There are real risks, and real rewards when all goes well.
I have struggled with weight my whole life. Total sugar junkie. Used food to replace every unmet need I had, to repress every emotion for which I was unprepared to deal.
I gained and lost hundreds of pounds over the course of my life. Hundreds.
When my husband died eight years ago it broke me. I shattered, and it took me almost a decade to put myself back together. During that time, I lost everything: my beloved, my home, my income, even my sense of self. And I spent the next eight years eating to fill this giant empty void inside my being where someone who I thought of as the love of my life used to be.
I ballooned up bigger than I had ever been, surpassing my previous high weight and moving into the 320s.
I avoided social situations, and only left the house when necessary. I was afraid I would have to ask for a stronger chair when invited to sit down for dinner at somebody's home. I was afraid that I would need to sit down every 20 or 30 steps during a leisurely stroll through the mall with a friend. My body ached; sometimes the pain was so bad that I could scarcely move-even sitting still was painful.
Life had become extremely small.
Deciding to get the surgery was surprisingly easy, but getting through the approval process and going through with the surgery summoned up terror in me that had been there since my first surgery when I was three years old.
I thought it would be a miracle if I were able to get the surgery, simply because my trauma was so severe for so many years that it seemed like an impossible feat to put myself in the hands of medical professionals, who I have never trusted all my life.
With lots of support from my mother, my sister who had already had the surgery, and my therapist, I was able to get the sleeve.
And it changed my life!
I also decided that I was going to make up for lost time now that I was going to be able to physically get around again. I sold all my stuff, ditched my apartment, bought an RV and moved in! And it's wonderful! I could not have fit in here, nor could I do the things necessary when living in an RV, at my previous weight.
This surgery has allowed me an opportunity for a whole new lease on life. I am officially one year postop, and I am down about 130 pounds, with another 30 to go. It's amazing the difference a single year can make!
If you know that this is right for you, and the only thing giving you pause is fear that is not coming from your true intuition: there are many people on these forums who feel that this surgery has saved our lives.
I am one of those people. Here is a before and present a photo of me, in a year, this could be you!
Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

OMG you look incredible! I'm at 21 months and down over 150 pounds wondering if I should keep striving for further weight loss as I am already thinner than I've ever been as an adult, but after looking at your pictures I think I can go all the way!

First of all, averages mean little to the individual. I have been on this form for almost 2 years, and I would say that it seems to me that most of the people on here who have had their surgery 9 to 12 months ago have already lost well over 100 pounds. Including me. We all have the fears that you expressed, but in the end I think most of us came to the conclusion that when we were honest with ourselves, we knew we needed this more than we were afraid of changing. I know in my own personal case, my body had gotten so big in my life had gotten so small. I was terrified- but it was even scarier to imagine that I was going to soon be so big I was going to need a wheelie cart to buy groceries. And I have seen many people on this forum expressing their joy in meeting their goals. I only have 30 more pounds to lose! Like you, my initial goal was to lose 150. And I'm almost there! And if it takes another six months who cares? My life is so much better now!
Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

After all this time, and all this work, I still love my sleeve even with everything that comes with it. I am still amazed at how my body cyclically and periodically continues to drop weight. I never dreamed that I would lose this much. I have left my stretch goal in the dust, because when I started it seemed unlikely I would ever reach it anyway even though it would still be considered 60 pounds overweight. I am now well beneath that and I am continuing. Here is a picture of before and present.

Before I had my surgery, and during the majority of my weight loss, I spent a lot of time looking at other people's pictures so I could reassure myself that I too, could have the results I had hoped for. Well let me tell you my friends, you inspired me so much that I actually have done it!Still planning for my plastic surgery to remove my excess skin, but this is what 150+ pounds of weight loss looks like!

Before I had my surgery, and during the majority of my weight loss, I spent a lot of time looking at other people's pictures so I could reassure myself that I too, could have the results I had hoped for. Well let me tell you my friends, you inspired me so much that I actually have done it!Still planning for my plastic surgery to remove my excess skin, but this is what 150+ pounds of weight loss looks like!

Since surgery, I have been less and less interested in eating meat. I'd like to say that vegetarianism appeals to me because I'm some kind of humanitarian, but really I just feel increasingly disgusted with the thought of dead animal flesh even though I've always been a huge meat eater.
I find that occasionally my body requires actual meet but most of the time, I'm OK without it. I get much of my Protein from cheese, a little from yogurt, and the occasional egg.
All of the dishes I know how to prepare feature meet as the main attraction. That's not true: Pasta is the other main attraction.
I'm getting quite bored with my staple foods, I need some super simple superfast super easy one dish recipes that are high-protein, low-carb, and vegetarian.
Can any of you magnificent vegetarian veterans help me out?

Bariatric pal is working with a plastic surgeon now Dr Alejandro Galvez you can email Michelle@bariatricpal.com to get a quote and see his work

Half of my bodyweight-not half of my extra weight-gone!

Lost half my body weight!

I've never really been a huge drinker, and before surgery it was not uncommon for me to go many months without a drink.
I had my surgery Nov., 2015 and am living an entirely different lifestyle in a new country where drinking alcohol is the one common denominator at every social event.
Because I suffer from social anxiety, this appeals to me because it calms me down and makes me more outgoing and friendly. That is, if I wasn't drinking I would stay home.
My question is how does this effect weight loss and maintaining weight?

I love the fat acceptance movement! I remember that as I was psychologically and spiritually preparing for my sleeve surgery, going through a period of Feeling very angry that I had to have the surgery in order to learn to love my body, love myself. I became very keenly aware that I had been withholding love for myself because I didn't think I had a body that deserved love. This was not an intellectual thought, but a block inside of me.
I didn't know how to love a fat body. I had been tortured and tormented my whole childhood for having a fat body. I was told by supposedly well-meaning family members horror stories about little girls who stomachs exploded, Lectured to eat more strawberries and less candy, and offered giant slices of cake when I felt sad.
I can't help but wonder, how my life might've played out differently, if as a chubby little girl I was excepted as I had been, and not constantly told that it was not OK to be who and what I was. I wonder if I even really would've had a weight problem at all as I got older, if I had been allowed to be what I was without being made to feel that I was less than everybody else everywhere I went.
By the time I was in third grade, it was very obvious to me that my fat body was not acceptable. By the time I was in fifth and sixth grade, I knew that my fat body made me unacceptable. And by the time I needed surgery, I knew it was because I had been stuck in this loop for 30 years, and I had internalized all the hatred other people had for my body. And I needed a whole lot more weight to separate my "self" from the hatred.
The fat acceptance movement, is really about body positivity. It's about recognizing that there are many kinds of bodies, and none of them are innately bad wrong or ugly.
As a public, we are extremely misinformed and poorly educated about fat, diet, body, and overall health. Our doctors in our surgeons are themselves severely miseducated, on the effect of lifestyle and diet not on just one kind of body but all bodies.
The fat acceptance movement wants fat people to be comfortable in our culture. It wants fat bodies to be accommodated like other kinds of bodies are accommodated. It wants recognition that a fat body is not automatically an on healthy body despite the mythology of our culture. And at the end of the day, the fat acceptance movement is asking that fat bodies be allowed to exist without shame blame and ridicule.

I'm very early in the process, at three weeks post op and have not stepped on the scale since two weeks prior to surgery, but I want to print this out for the long haul. Thank you so much for this well organized, common sense summary!

Thank you all so much for your feedback on this issue. I definitely think I probably have low Iron and maybe some other nutritional deficiencies. I will get it checked out!

I assume you would have mentioned it, but have you started birth control or a new medication?

Both have made me lose hair in huge quantities in the past. Otherwise, hormones are probably the culprit, as previously suggested.

I'm so sorry for you. I've endured this three times in my life. No fun. I hope you figure it out.

Cheri

Also, a zinc deficiency can cause the hair to become thin and/or fall out:
https://www.nutrafol.com/blog/zinc-for-hair-growth/

Let me be clear. I am specifically replying to @JupiterinVirgo and her specific situation because she is almost 2 years from surgery, almost at goal, and her Hair loss from post-op had previously stopped.
Which means her hair loss is not surgery related and is not because of a massive hormone dump, because at this point her weight loss is very slow. So the issue is Vitamin deficiency or something else (stress). Since her hair loss had stopped but it now picking up.
If you are less than a year from surgery, this doesn't apply to you. Your hair loss is surgery, massive weight loss related.
Long term you still have to have your Vitamins checked on a regular basis even if you are taking them regularly, because sometimes adjustments are needed.

@JupiterinVirgo you should have posted this in the Vets forum

My team cannot provide a reason for the Hair loss. It varies, but I agree check your levels or just try taking another supplement for the hair loss.