Cape Crooner

Interesting Week! So I hit my 3 week point in 10/27. Not exactly a stall, but a slow down (lost 3.6 lbs) for the week including a 3 day stall. Since then, it seems to have really picked up (down 6.4 lbs in the last 7 days). This weekend, I flew from Boston to California, which started with a hotel at the airport on Friday night and 4 meals that had many more calories than my normal meals. Still lost 1.8 lbs in the last 48 hours. CW: 224.8 (down 56 lbs from HW).

RG was that red wine - how'd it go down?

I have some good news for you. After a month of blended food, a piece of baked fish will taste like a bone-in rib eye! I am 5 weeks out and just got okayed for some solid food. I bought a container of Lloyds pulled chicken BBQ and it tastes heavenly. I know it's nothing compared to the real thing, but it's still Great. I am also looking forward to some wine in the not too distant future. When I do, my plan is to eat before I drink and go slow with Water on the side. I think the key to wine (or any alcohol) is: 1. Pick your poison wisely. Red Wine is probably the best choice. I lost a lot of weight on Sugar Busters and red wine was the only permitted alcohol. 2. Count the calories in booze. An ounce of distilled alcohol is around 60 calories - the same as one of those Jello SF puddings. Find a very low cal mixer (or water) to mix with and then count your drinks and calories. 3. My #1 source of extra calories pre-opt was the food I would eat while drinking. I think I started drinking thinking I wouldn't eat so my brain was already compromised before I set foot in the kitchen. During my pre pre/opt diet I discovered Jolly Time 100 calorie pop corn. I plan to have that and a couple of other safe Snacks planned before I start imbibing. One last thing, there appears to be no consensus on when to start drinking. Talking to doctors, there seem to be two issue that we have to watch out for. From a medical perspective, it boils down to ulcer avoidance. Booze, coffee, tomatoes, citrus, all can overload your sleeves ability to resist ulcers. My plan is to avoid all of these when I do have some wine. The other is weight gain. But I think my plan (listed above) will help me avoid it. Good luck...

Since my meals went from refried beans and mashed sweet potatoes to shredded chicken and baked fish, my weight loss seems to have accelerated. Yeah Proteins!

I think it's a good idea, but I wouldn't call it FAQ's. The term has adopted a new meaning that doesn't suit what's being discussed in this thread. Essentially, the term FAQ now means questions that a vendor or supplier get asked frequently by their customers/users. Further, these tend to be questions with "black and white" answers. My suggestion for those who are tired of answering the same question would simply be to not answer it. I, for one, have zero interest in hearing what people think "right and wrong" is. Hopefully, we all have guidelines from our doctors that spell this out. I do think it makes interesting reading to find out that some doctors say things like alcohol is okay after 6 weeks, but no coffee for 6 months. I am very interested in hearing from real people, about real situations - both triumphs and failures. I probably wouldn't even read an FAQ section where veterans posted there own ideas on right and wrong.

Loving the start of week 5! - Down 52 overall - Down 22 in four weeks - Adding solid foods - fish, chicken, cheese and cracker (note singular) - Thank goodness for my slider belt, otherwise my pants would fall down!

4 weeks today and down 21 pounds, not too shabby!

@trek1200 I was in a somewhat similar situation except I'm 15 years older. I had to go on a mini binge to get my BMI to 40 (281). I think my actual weight at that point was more like 275, which was 75 pounds over my high school weight (when I was a very competitive slalom ski racer). I lost 30 pounds pre/opt and another 20 in the 4 weeks since. I have riding my bike about an hour a day for 15 years, so exercise wasn't a problem (or a solution). I think you have to keep a couple of things in mind: 1. Any BMI over 30 will cut your life expectancy. 2. It gets harder and harder to lose after you turn 50. The last time I was able to lose more than 10 pounds was at the age of 50. After that, the same diet that worked when I was younger, did nothing. 3. The sleeve isn't that much of a permanent change. Most of the posters on here are once obese sedentary women, so it's hard to extrapolate their experience to a guy who's still athletic with a lower BMI. If you seek out the guys comments, you'll find plenty of guys who still enjoy steaks and whiskey (just not so much). I'm not even 3 months into the journey and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Just do it and don't look back!

A low fat Trisket is 13 calories, far less than a cheese crisp (50~).

No problem, there are other people who follow this forum!

Not so far, have been looking for weeks and come up with nothing. Part of the problem is the way Google works (I know it well, I was an early investor). It bubbles up answers based on who's paying. There's tons in money in weight loss and tons in WLS, so when you google anything that has anything to do with these topics you get pages of paid results.

@@MichiganChic Thanks, Do you have anything else you can share in terms of what the bad habits were that caused the weight gain? Also, what did you do to get rid of those pounds and why do you think it took so long? Thanks!

I'm 4 weeks out and feeling great. I've been wondering lately about what's actually going on inside my stomach. I asked two doctors at my hospital and got two different answers; one said it was fully healed after 7 weeks and the other said it would take ONE YEAR. I suppose both could be right depending on one's definition of "healed", but I was wondering if anyone has come across any research or other professional reports on this topic. Thanks!

Uh, I'm on the app, there is no "left" to be seen. I'm happy for Bestday, it's just not relevant to the question at hand.

So Bestday, did you gain weight down the road? What kind of guidelines do you have on your meals?

Absolutely not irrelevant! I'm new to this journey, but as a 50 year veteran at dieting, I know that nothing is more irrelevant or annoying than hearing the opinion of someone who has just lost a bunch of weight and NOW think they know everything about the RIGHT WAY to lose weight! The truth is, they actually know next to nothing, what they claim as knowledge is simply a regurgitation of things they've read of heard from the so-called experts. Even before my orientation, I discovered how wrong the so-called experts were for the simple reason that they don't agree on most of the most important aspects of a typical WLS program... Like: Pre-opt diet liquid Diet Post-opt diet When to drink and when to eat Portion sizes When to add coffee When to add alcohol (if ever) Understand, I have seen inconsistencies in all of the topics just within my own hospital. Expand it to this forum or the whole frigging Internet and you quickly realize that THERE ARE NO RULES. Of course the typical true believer newbie will simply assume the lowest common denominator or exactly what their program told them. To me all of this is useless. While the results we're hearing about are incredible, this is ultimately still a diet (you can't just get the surgery and never worry about calories, carbs, and the scale again). Like all successful diets, we're mostly all very strict with ourselves in the beginning, but our conviction eventually wanes after we meet our goal AND THAT'S WHEN EVERYTHING GETS INTERESTING! So, to me, you vets are actually all I care about. The divergent expert opinions have already proved themselves irrelevant as are the newbie myna birds who mimic their advice. You are the most relevant participants in this board! PS: Although I have a VSG, I know there are many successful bands as well, so to me that's a distinction with no difference...

Ash - I'm finding no real restriction with soup. Undoubtedly, I'll be ordering it soon!

Yes, me too. I have followed them down and they were either lap-bands or old school stomach stapling, thus far no VSG or RNY's. As I look around this forum, it seems to me that there are two frequent causes; drinking sugary sodas or other drinks all day and/or eating complex sugary/fat carbs rather than Protein and healthy meals (and yes in most cases it was accompanied by some sort of major life trauma). So to further narrow the question, soda/sugar bad habits not withstanding, has anyone (or anyone you know) gained back more than 10 pounds while following a rather normal person's diet?

"Just an observation, but if someone did regain a great deal of weight, chances are pretty good that they are not active on this forum. We are a self-selecting group and chances are pretty good that participating on this forum is 1) very helpful in reaching our goals, and 2) indicative that we haven't given up whatever our experience." I think this probably true, so let me modify my question. Have you or anyone you know personally had a big gain back...

Google just gets me experts OPINIONS or stats, not stories from real people. All the stories of real people failing I've found were lap-bands or old-fashioned stomach stapling. Please just let real people respond to my post...

I agree. These are the folks that put a plan in place and have maintained that successfully. I'd rather get the nuts and bolts from therm. I would really like to hear from those who fell (which is why I started this thread). Search this site, there are dozens of posts about dealing with stalls and arresting the bounce, but I can't seem to find much evidence of SLEEVE FAILURE (which is what I would consider a 40%-50% gain back). That said, I'm happy to hear from bounce arresters as well...

Yes, if your 5-10 bounce grows, feel free to share!

Continuing on my Quest for the truth from real VSG veterans, I'd like to pose another question... I hear and read a lot about "Do's and Don'ts" from so-called experts, dieticians, and nutritionists that we must all follow or risk gaining back the weight we lost once "the Honeymoon passes". I'm curious, has this happened to any of you? I'm not talking about a stall or 5-10 pound bounce, I'm talking about gaining back 40% to 50% or more If so, please share what you think caused it; better yet, if this happened to you and you fought it off and subsequently lost the excess weight, please share your strategy. Since I know this is a common fear, I'd also love to hear stories from people who were afraid they'd gain weight as they moved the maintenance, but didn't; especially those who strayed from the diet guidelines. I am very happy with my progress (down 47 pounds), but I'm having a tough time accepting the idea that I'll never be this heavy again... Thanks

At Newton Wellesley, they have a weigh-in the day of surgery and they cancel anyone who's gained weight. I went on the 5:2 diet the day after my first weigh-in and the 1700 calorie diet 3 weeks later after my first meeting with the surgeon/NUT. They cut me to about 1000 calories 5 days before surgery and I went in down 30 pounds (about 40% of my loss goal achieved). So far, I have had an incredible recovery and I think it had a lot to do with the fact that I lost 30 pounds in 2 months, which meant there was a lot of room in my torso for the surgeons to maneuver (my surgery only took about 30 minutes). I have also heard that the high Protein pre-opt diet strengthens the stomach tissue, which results in a firmer staple/suture hold and faster recovery. If I was going in on the 9th, I'd go on a 1000/calorie high protein diet today!

Victoria - Do you mean "2.5 weeks pre opt" or post opt. NOTHING upsets my stomach. I'm adding green Tabasco to my eggs and refried Beans. I'm adding spicy low carb bbq sauce to my mashed sweet potatoes. That said, 4 ounces is my limit for anything of substance (it's probably 3 ounces, but I can't bring myself to prepping such a small portion.) Of course this may change with solid foods!