BelgianGuy

During the months where the weightloss was extremely fast, I did it once a week, but for the last few months, I have lost rather slowy and I am starting to have a stabilized weight, so I climb on the scale every day for a "maintenance" check.

It has somehow become an obsession, when I sleep over somewhere and in the morning a scale in nowhere to be found, I feel weird, it has become a part of my morning habits...Oops.

I had to buy smaller shoes as well, I really didn't expect this!

I swan and biked a lot, so for my arms and legs, everything is fine, belly-wise it's not the best but according to my surgeon and practician, it could have been way worse, but it's not very glamorous, still better than having an almost 40 BMI though!

Apparentely some young patients have no trouble with their skin, hope it'll be the case for you!

When I first had this machine, they provided me a nasal mask, it was purely horrible, I had exactly the same problem as OP, so I asked for a full facial mask and it did go better.

But as the weightloss went on, I had to go every two weeks to the technicians to get it less strong because the air pressure was way too much and it would leave me with a Sahara-like mouth, they even gave me a humidifier, but it was pure hell, I had Water drops falling on my nose all the time and the damn thing would make as much noise as a hookah/waterpipe.

I am glad I got rid of this crap, and I truly hope you won't need it long!

In one month post-op, I had lost around 27pounds (a bit more than 12kilos). I was very impressed by this very rapid weightloss! Wish you all success

My views on fat people? Well... I don't care that much actually, when outside I am either hanging out with my friends or my family, and if I am on my own, I just keep on listening to music and walking, I don't pay attention to people at all and I am quite often in my very own "bubble", I don't feel pity or compassion, neither disgust or any negative feeling. These are just people going on with their life, all of them.

I personally don't know many fat persons, except for one of my sister, she's aware of the problem and tries to lose weight, so I don't push her around because I know how my family works: the more someone from my family told me I needed to lose some kilos, the more I headed in the opposite direction, and I think she works the same way.

I also have this couple of friends that are very overweight, but they love each other and they're probably the happiest couple I know.

On the dating side, well, I have been single for a good four years and I was feeling like the most unattractive being on the planet, so I didn't even make a move or even dared to think about it.

But now I am thin, I must admit I don't find very overweight and/or obese people attractive and to be honest I actually never have.

I hated myself as an obese (young) man, I hated every single aspect of my overweightness, and I don't want to find myself alongside with someone who has poor life habits, the exact same ones I escaped from to build a new healthy lifestyle, it's a turned page and I do not intend to reread it by any means.

I was 23 when I had my sleeve, and almost one year later, I must say it hasn't been a problem at all.

Of course, if I go eat with friends, I eat less, but we still have great conversations and have fun. I have a glass of wine from times to times. Just be prepared to pay as much as before and leave 70% of the food in the plate (or to bring it home with you).

I also went to Italy to visit some Erasmus friends, I even had some pizza (actual Italian pizzas are way healthier than Pizza Hut and Dominos though) and good wine, of course I counterbalanced these bad calories by swimming in lakes and hiking in the mountain.

I also visited Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia this summer with one of my best friend, I had a drink with some locals (I use Couchsurfing to travel), tasted weird (but tasty) Baltic food and of course we had so much activities on the side that I actually lost 6kilos in a bit more than two weeks (13,5pounds) even though I was already 7months post-op!

I never felt social awkwardness around my friends and since I have done the sleeve, it's actually completely gone! I was the only fat person in my whole group of friends, they never said anything about it actually, it was who I was.

But nowadays, the activities I do with them are more varied: paintballs, biking hikes in the countryside, long walks in the woods with the dogs, damn I even dared to go to a club (I hated every minute of it, I hate dancing, I hate club music but damn I dared to go in!), I used to say no to these activities and would just hang out if we had a drink or we would just sit down and play videogames.

But, indeed, if most of your friendships are based on eating at restaurants and having a drink then it might indeed get boring real quick. But will it be socially awkward? Probably not.

I still smoke weed, recreational purpose or just when I really can't sleep.

The only side effect is that it makes me quite thirsty but tea and Water are my friends anyway.I had some "dizziness" twice because the strain was a bit strong, but otherwise, never had any single problem.

Oops, I meant to say "Gastric Sleeve Surgery Success Stories", not quite the same.

Hi Shelby!

If you wish to see such pictures, my advice would for you to go on the "Tell your gastric sleeve surgery story", there is a whole topic where people post those, and quite often to be honest

How has it been going for you so far? Not too difficult I hope?

Cheers!

As someone with absolutely zero self-confidence that got used being labelled as the "fat funny guy", it feels kinda weird being 'skinny'. Some of my friends and relatives tell me my humor feels way more sinister with this much weight gone, that I look "colder", pretentious and more distant as well, but at least they say "But damn, now you sure are good-looking!"

The thing that changed the most outside of that is that nowadays people will actually sit next to me in a train or a bus, people talk to me more, and I spotted people checking me out and/or smiling at me, or even some girls flirting with me.

Of course to all of that my only answers are either misplaced nihilism, shyness and/or a faked lack of interest.

I think, my main problem, is that years of obesity have made me paranoid and self-esteemless (not sure if it's a good term). I don't trust people that well except for a few good friends. If someone comes to me and tells me a compliment or show real interest, my first reaction is to think 'uhoh, they're probably fucking with me right now, must be a bet", even though I perfectly know I fit the "social" physical norms.

So yeah, my global feeling regarding this is between "Wow, cool"/"I have never gotten this far, what should I do" and "Why is it all so complicated for me to be a normal human being".

Other thing that changed is my wardrobe, I sold/gave almost all my old clothes in which I was floating like a ghost, and bought nice clothes. Wearing a "Medium" size rather than a XXXL sure gives me more opportunity to buy new outfits.

That's about all I can say for now I guess

I drink coffee almost everyday, tea as well. As long as you hydrate enough, I don't think it's a problem.

No disrespect but you were adorable then and a total hottie now! Lol so inspirational thanks for sharing

Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Thank you

I already had a beard before the surgery, but indeed I have noticed that I have to trim it way more often nowadays, after a few days without trimming it starts looking pretty thick and messy.

I tried some carbonation after 6months, I had a small beer in holidays, a white one so it would not be too heavily carbonated. It didn't feel bad but it took me a long time to drink it...

I never loved sodas or sparkling Water so I didn't feel the need to try those again. I tried a sip of "champagne" at a wedding and it felt plain horrible.

Thank you very much for the kind words

Each year one my sister, my grandma and I have this small ritual where we go up to Brussels and walk around to visit the Christmas market and also buy the last Christmas gifts, and I have pictures from last year before the surgery and a picture of yesterday.

So, voilà!

As soon as you can after the surgery, you should also try to have the habit to exercize again, even simply walking 20minutes a day!

That's how I began, and soon after I started biking and swimming again and it felt amazing, it also helps not to have too much excess skin and it made me feel pretty good (especially those long biking hikes)!

Also the first days/weeks, it's normal to feel a bit low, to feel disgusted by food, but don't give up, the weightloss and new habits will rise and little by little eating will feel good (even great) again.

Good luck with it all!!

Just do what you want, if they are your true friends, they will be happy for you, happy about the results you will have. If they are not, if they still tell you you took the easy way out, that you could have just stop eating (as if it was easy to tell change your way of living so brutally), maybe they didn't want you any good since the very beginning...

I did not tell any of my friends. Two weeks after the surgery I started to visit them again (was starting to receive calls like "dude, where are you, we haven't seen you in a while) and told them... Some of them were sad I didn't put them in the confidence but some have admitted they would have tried to hold me back on the surgery decision.

In the end, all of them are glad for me and I kept most of my friends

Be careful indeed, especially if you used to have cravings for it before.

Nonetheless I enjoy a glass of wine or liquor (with a ton of ice), but I try to keep it as occasional as possible.

I was sleeved on February the 25th and had my first glass of alcohol at the end of June when friends from abroad visited and we celebrated, it went down fine.

When you have always slept on your left side and you need a pillow between your knees because feeling them knocking against each other is a rather disturbing feeling.

Unless your husband or mother absolutely wants to, it's not really useful at night, I personnaly dozed off between trance-like waking moments when the nurses would check on me and horrid nonsensical nightmares!

But it was nice to have family visits during the day though

So far I am just 9months old and it has been nothing but weightloss without any interrumption (with slow downs though), I am very happy about this!

Have you had your surgery in the US or in Europe? Amsterdam is a great vibrant city, it's a nice choice to establish yourself in Europe

9 months after getting sleeved, I just hit a pretty important milestone (for "metric" people) for I have indeed lost 50kilos!! (which roughly translates to 110,5pounds). I am really happy about the results, my lifestyle habits have changed for the best and I am so very glad I have reached more than my goal in less than a year, I know I'll have to stay focus and do my best to stay this way, but right now I am so glad I did it. Cheers everyone

(Me in July 2015)

And me today (tonight)!

There aren't that many Europeans on here. I guess my nationality isn't much of a mystery