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I had my 7-year follow up in March. Started at 5’8” and about 335 lbs. still 5’8”, haha, but weigh 163 lbs. I’m about 10lbs over my minimum sustained weight, but I’m happy where I’m at. Have been WFPB for the last 6 years or so.

Holy Cow! I haven't been on Bariatric Pal in couple of years (or more). One of the big reasons I dropped off the online forums is that I had adopted a WFPB diet, and not only was that completely out of line with the mainstream WLS thinking, but I didn't even like to hint about it as I would get extremely negative feedback. Imagine my shock when I logged back in to Bariatirc Pal today to see a vegan forum with a WFPB post. My mind was blown to say the least, LOL.

Ok, this recipe is so good I am compelled to share. I was doing my normal once-a-month cooking frenzy where I prepare and freeze a months worth of lunches and one of the recipes I chose this time was the Chili Relleno Casserole from the World According to Eggface site. Instead of using leftover turkey, I use some leftover chicken breasts I had grilled and frozen awhile ago and needed to use up. Click Here for Recipe Photo (from the site): I prepared it as instructed and divided it into 5 portions, here is the nutrition information I came up with via MyFitnessPal per portion: Calories: 236 Carbs: 21.7g (14g of this is from the black beans) Fat: 6.4g Protein: 22.9g

While I have been getting the normal bariatric/nutritional blood work done by my bariatric surgeon, I have not had my "standard" blood work since my last physical about 1 year ago, which was right about the time I changed my diet as part of my pre-op/post-op weight loss. I just got the results back last night and it's fantastic! While I did not technically have high cholesterol, I was borderline and my good/bad cholesterol was out of whack. Here is the change from year to year: Total Cholesterol (desirable is <200): 2/22/16 - 211 1/4/17 - 154 Triglycerides (normal less than 150; borderline 150-250): 2/22/16 -124 1/4/17 - 77 HDL (good cholesterol, desirable >40): 2/22/16 -31 1/4/17 - 49 LDL (desirable <130 or even 100): 2/22/16 -155 1/4/17 - 90 Blood Sugar (normal fasting sugar is <100-110, Diabetes is >125): 2/22/16 - 87 1/4/17 - 78 As you can see, I have had massive changes in the right direction across the board. Even those that were in the acceptable range have gotten even better! It's amazing what a year of eating right will do for your body! Curious if everyone else is seeing these types of results. It's very validating for all the hard work!

I started at 333 and probably lost about 70+ lbs before people really started commenting. Just wait a few more pounds, it's like a light switch. Pretty soon EVERYONE will start commenting. To the point of mental exhaustion. I'm almost a year into the process, down close to 190 lbs and I still get comments almost daily. "Hey Skinny", "Holy crap, are you STILL losing weight". "My god, you're even smaller than the last time I saw you" etc, etc, etc. It's great, but it does get old. People mean well, but at some point you will probably want to move on and talk about something else! I'm actually at my surgeons office now and the PA was like "Wow, you look amazing. Seeing you has really made my day!"

Once you are to the point where you can eat anything you can look into "Real Good Pizza". It's a 5 inch frozen pizza made with a chicken crust. They are like 270 calories and 25g of Protein for the "supreme". They also make a cheese and a pepperoni I believe. You do have to order a minimum of 2 cases (24 individual pieces), but they are small and don't take up a lot of room. They are really good and completely fulfill the pizza craving. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Great post - I have been "transitioning" into maintenance over the last few months and am really having a hard time finding the "sweet spot". My plan is a bit different from many on this site - I am allowed carbs as long as they are natural, unrefined carbs (fruits, veggies, Beans, lentils, etc). (as a side note, carbs seems to be a hot topic today, this is like my third post addressing them, so sorry for any repetition). I am not, however, allowed dairy (ok, so I'm not perfect here, but I eat very, very little dairy). I also eat as little processed food as possible. Herein lies the problem for me. It's REALLY hard for me to get my calories up to where I stop losing weight while still sticking to plan. I eat about 5-7 times a day, but when you are eating pretty much nothing but fruits, veggies and Protein (animal and non-animal protein), there just aren't a lot of calories to be had. I struggle to get over 1,600 calories a day at most. I don't think I am really answering your question in any way, but wanted to commiserate that it's a tough transition! Maybe the one thing I can offer is to not overly stress on carbs, as long as you aren't eating refined carbs, and sticking to natural, unrefined sources. I have been eating lots of carbs since I transitioned to "real food" post-op and have gone from 333 to 144 in less than a year. Everyone is different, but natural, unrefined carbs certainly did not slow my weight loss in any way.

Do you count the carbs in fruit? I drink a lot of fresh squeezed orange juice and am a bit confused on whether those carbs take you out of ketosis. Like @@Travelher said - fruit juice is not a good option. From a nutritional standpoint you might as well drink a coke and take a Vitamin C tablet. Once you remove the Fiber that is in the orange, you are just consuming straight sugar. And this is from a guy that eats a ton of fruit everyday. But I never drink juice. I will make smoothies out of the whole fruit, as it retains the fiber. But no juice.

I'll take a contrary position. From my experience, you will probably feel pretty good 8 weeks out, but will have extreme dietary restrictions which could be very difficult to deal with in a captive environment. In addition, there is a very slight chance you could have complications emerge at around that time (e.g. - stricture) and medical care could be dicey depending on where you are. While I am extremely happy with my RNY and would do it again in a heartbeat, in your situation, I would consider postponing the surgery. If you can move it to July from April, what's 3 more months really? Then you can focus on you and your recovery. I took my first extended trip out of the country to an all inclusive about 10 months post-op, and frankly I'm glad I waited that long. Any trip I was taking 8 weeks post-op (frankly even up to about 5-6 months post-op) I was bringing a LOT of my own supplies - Protein drinks, cottage cheese, etc. Now that I'm a year post-op I can usually make so with whatever is available. I may throw some Protein Bars in my bag for emergency use, but other than that I can pretty much roll with it.

I hear some version of this quite often, but do feel compelled to point out that a lot of the vitriol against him is based on his actual actions (tweets, press conferences, etc). Much of it isn't theoretical, based on what he MIGHT do in office, but critical of things he is currently doing/saying. Personally, I can not stand the man. I am afraid of what damage he may do given his history of being very thinned skinned and verbally reactionary. However, that is no way means I want him to fail. In fact, the opposite. There is nothing more i would like than to be completely wrong on this guy and have him be the greatest president in American history. We all win in that scenario. No one wins if it goes the way I imagine it will. But getting back to your original point - I'm not sure it matters. Even when discussed rationally and intelligently, I have almost never seen anyone actually change their mind on a political topic. We live in an age where confirmation bias seems to be at an all time high. Unless I can find it on Fox News or Drudge, I can not find a source to quote that will ever seem to satisfy my friends on the right (this goes for the left too, I just am generally arguing with them less). If I post something from what I consider a reputable news source (CNN, Forbes, Politico, NPR, BBC, etc) they always scream that these are biased liberal media sources and therefore they reject the argument. Unfortunately, this has recently been reinforced by our president elect. In his first news conference since the election he called CNN "Fake News". I believe this to be dangerous rhetoric as suppressing the media will not serve us well in the long run.

What I'm about to say flies is not always well received, so I will issue the standard disclaimer of this is my opinion, and is what has worked for me (whew....): A lot of time we want to simplify "carbs" much like "fat", but not all carbs are equal. On one had, I am almost zealot like in avoiding "carbs" - I do not eat any sugar, Pasta, rice, bread, etc. etc. In fact, the only grain I eat at all is a cup of steel cut oatmeal maybe a couple of times a week. That being said, I eat a TON of carbs. I eat lots and lots of vegetable, fruit, Beans, lentils, etc. These all can be very high in carbs (they are universally high in carbs with the exception of some vegetables). A lot of this has to do with the way that the body processes carbs. When you eat a highly processed carb source (pasta, white bread, etc) your body essentially treats it just like you are eating sugar. It dumps insulin causing sugar spikes (and crashes) and quickly stores the excess as fat. I consider both of these results to be very undesirable!! However, when you are eating more natural, unrefined carbs, your body does not react that way. Because these foods come with bound with lots of natural fiber, it slows the intake of the carbs/sugars, trickling out insulin and avoiding the blood sugar spikes/crashes. I regularly consume 150-200 grams of carbs a day on a 1200-1600 calorie diet (now that I am trying to figure out how this whole maintenance thing works!). This has worked very well for me. Even at lower calories along the way, I consumed large amounts of natural, unrefined carbs. As he was mentioned above, I should note that I'm a patient of Dr. Weiner's, and this is very much aligned with his plan. I am a huge fan of Dr. Weiner's, and love his recommended diet. Lots and lots of delicious food, and I've had fantastic results. Welcome back @@KindaFamiliar!

Depends on your surgeon. I was told to chew well, but no specific parameters. As to the 30 min before / 30 min after, my doctor told me to do whatever works for me, that there is no rule from his perspective. I find that I am fine drinking right up to a meal, or not, but I'm almost always drinking to get fluids in, so I usually drink right up until I eat. I generally don't drink for awhile after eating as it makes my stomach hurt. I don't really time it, but 30 minutes sounds about right.

LOL! Yes, I do! When I first heard about him, I was like, "Wait a minute... " Oh, and Roll Tide! And I still have abandonment issues over your coach leaving us high and dry. That and boot stomping us the two times we've played him since his departure. Grrrrr......

LOL! Yes, I do! When I first heard about him, I was like, "Wait a minute... " Oh, and Roll Tide! That is seriously funny. I wondered where good 'ol Les Miles would end up after being dismissed from LSU, but I'll be honest, I didn't think it would be as a bariatric surgeon!! :lol: I can only imagine the amount of crap that guy gets in Alabama!

@Hiraeth OMG - you live in Alabama and your surgeon's name is really Les Miles?? Is that true? Do you get the irony there?

Now that I think about it, I was taking the easy way out by controlling my high blood pressure with medication. Now I have done it the hard way by losing weight. Excellent.

Nuts are great. I tend to eat almonds. And I get raw almonds for two reasons: 1) They are healthier 2) They aren't amazing, so you probably won't overindulge on them. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Do any of you have issues with airport security screening since surgery? I light up the body scan device like a Christmas tree, resulting in an extremely intimate physical screening. And it happens every single time! My abdomen is always lit up. Could be staples? Could be excess skin! But what's even weirder is I also get random other areas. Today it was my shoulder. I've even had it light up on my freakin' forehead!!! Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this as I don't recall seeing any topics on it as I've been reading the forum posts over the last year. And I don't think it's a common thing as I even had one TSA agent look at the scan results and say "Holy Crap!" I fly fairly often and this never happened a single time before my surgery and resulting weight loss. Now it's 100%. Looks like I'm going to have to get Global Entry or Nexus or something so I can get pre-check every time. I have no issue with metal detectors. (edited for typos)

I wouldn't worry about it. Sounds like you've been doing well. Agree with what others have said about just focusing on Water and Protein to stay healthy. From a BMI perspective you are still registering in the overweight category, so I doubt you have anything worry about from a health perspective. Obviously I don't know your body type (as in you could be a professional weightlifter for all I know), but assuming you're not, you enter BMI "normal" range at 184 (assuming you're 6' as someone mentioned earlier - I'm on the phone app and can't see that data). You aren't underweight by BMI until you are 136lbs. I'm not saying you should live and die by BMI, just illustrating it to help put your mind at ease. I have the same issue. It's been hard for me to stop losing. I'm way past even my revised goal. I feel like I'm eating all the time, but it's hard to get a lot of calories in on my surgeons plan (which is probably why he doesn't encourage us to count calories). But even at 144 lbs at 5'8", I'm still just kind of in the middle of the normal BMI range, so I'm sure I'm not at any risk. But I would prefer the weight loss to stop. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Well, I guess it's good to know I'm. It alone in being molested by TSA. Given the sheer number of responses I'm surprised I haven't seen a post on this before. I guess Nexus it is. I do love pre-check, so it'll be good to get it every time. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

I fly into FLL every 6 weeks. Terminal 2 in fact. That one hit pretty close to home. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

I just realized this was double posted somehow. Sorry about the duplicate. BP was acting funny and it took several minutes for this post to go through. Now it looks like it somehow posted twice.

Do any of you have issues with airport security screening since surgery? I light up the body scan device like a Christmas tree, resulting in an extremely intimate physical screening. And it happens every single time! My abdomen is always lit up. Could be staples? Could be excess skin! But what's even weirder is I also get random other areas. Today it was my shoulder. I've even had it light up on my freakin' forehead!!! Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this as I don't recall seeing any topics on it as I've been reading the for m posts over the last year. And I don't think it's a common think as I even had one TSA agent look at the scan results and say "Holy Crap!" I fly fairly often and this never happened a single time before my surgery and resulting weight loss. Now it's 100%. Looks like I'm going to have to get Global Entry or Nexus or something so I can get pre-check every time. I have no issue with metal detectors.

Thanks for the feedback. I also have metal in my knee (for 20+ years) and it was never a problem, so my hunch was the skin. I have the ID issue as well. Drivers license and passport. At least my drivers license expires this year, passport is good for like another 5!! I get a lot of "congrats, keep it up!" from the TSA.

That's a huge deal! One of the toughest parts for me so far has been getting back to "normal" albeit a new "normal". I never want to eat like I used to, but it feels good to sit down to a meal (at home or at a restaurant), and be able to eat small portions, but within the realm of the normal. I don't like attention pointed my way, so it's important for me to fit in normally to social situations. I'm 9.5 months out and still struggle with this at time. I'm going to a friends for dinner tomorrow and am stressed about it already. Especially since I haven't seen him since surgery and he doesn't know I had it. One of the many good things about dropping 185 lbs is that people who knew you before the weight loss aren't surprised when you eat small portions!!