Megan1973

Thanks for sharing. Most, if not all of us can completely relate. I hate Lane Bryant! That's not my style at all, yet most of my clothes come from there. I look forward to waltzing right into wherever I want and being picky! Buying clothes for style, not just because they fit.
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So I am just about 7 months out since my surgery. I can honestly and easily say this surgery was the absolute best decision of my life. My highest weight was 433 lbs and my surgery weight I was 396. I am now down to 230 lbs even with a total weight loss of 203 pounds. Anyone having any doubts about this surgery all I can say is do it!! I was terrified but it was the best thing I've ever done     
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Thanks for sharing. Most, if not all of us can completely relate. I hate Lane Bryant! That's not my style at all, yet most of my clothes come from there. I look forward to waltzing right into wherever I want and being picky! Buying clothes for style, not just because they fit.
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Still some work to do. Hired trainer this week. 232 to 141. Size 20 to size 5/6.

Still can't believe this is me!
Only 9.6 pounds to go until I hit my goal!
I have muscles! Who knew!!!!??
I'll be hitting my 10 month post op Gastric Bypass date on July 21st! I can't believe I've lost 114 lbs in 10 short quick months! I am working hard to hit my goal by the one year surgiversary date, but if I don't then I'm not going to be too sad about it..... Cuz how can I be!?
I will say that losing the last 10 pounds are the hardest!
I may not be losing too fast as per the scale now, but I can definitely see a change in my body so I'm totally happy! !!
Heather

6 months today, 26th February 2016, I had my VSG. Best thing I ever did! 85lb down and feeling great! 75lb to go.....
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The way my surgeon explained it is that if protein is low, our body thinks there is a famine and food is scarce and will do everything it can to conserve/store energy. If it is getting enough protein it thinks everything is great and our metabolism keeps humming. Also, protein is used for a lot of things, including repair. As we lose weight our body had a lot of rearranging, restructuring, repairing to do.
My analogy (you can't blame my surgeon for this one). Think of it this way:
If you have a regular house, you may need to do occasional maintenance, but if you are renovating your house, you need more labor, supplies, and energy. The protein is the supplies, the metabolism is the labor, and the fat is energy. If you don't have enough supplies (nails, bricks, etc.), then everybody gets to take the day off until more supplies are delivered (so your metabolism slows and you aren't using the energy). If you are waiting for supplies (protein) and not using the energy, then any new energy that arrives (carbs/fats) is stored. We are efficient at storing energy but our bodies do not store protein.
If we don't have enough supplies but the roof springs a leak, we may have to take supples from elsewhere (protein in our muscles, like the heart) to do an emergency repair.
That is why chronically low protein can cause heart and other serious problems: our organs (heart, lungs, skin, etc.) are made of protein. If we don't have enough protein we can damage our muscles and organs. If we have just enough for that but not enough to keep up with the repairs needed as we lose weight then our weight loss slows down or stops.
Also, if we aren't getting enough protein and our body consumes muscle then it slows our metabolism even more. We may see a change on the scale but it won't be fat loss, it will be muscle.
We need muscle to burn fat (back to my analogy, muscle is the labor force). So, instead of a work crew of contractors, we may have a skeleton crew that can do even fewer repairs.
The bottom line: don't skimp on protein. You don't get bonus points for starving your body of protein. You don't get bonus points for severely restricting protein.

Good evening, this is my before and after 6 months after my surgery, I lose 113 pounds so far, good luck to all, this was the best decision of my life.
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I haven't had the opportunity to read the other replies here.....running out of casual time this afternoon, lol.
I can simply answer your question with my own experiences with my VSG.
It was a walk in the park. Easy. Simple. Straightforward on the recovery. Almost everyone on my bariatric center's private FB page has posted the same results.
I didn't see the negative reports until joining here and also on youtube.
I think that there are an overwhelming majority of folks who have their wls and rock it. They move on in life and don't look back. You'll not hear much from this crowd.
Same thing I see at work. There are the quiet performers who nail down their responsibilities and do their job at high levels.......then there are the noisy and outspoken under achievers who voice complaint after complaint.
Just my opinion, experience and observation. Take it for what it's worth.
I'll say that without a doubt having my VSG was one of the best decisions of my life.

I spent the first 2 days sick beyond description, which as it it turned out, was because my body doesn't really like IV narcotics. Once we laid off the good drugs, not only did nothing really hurt, but I stopped puking every 20 minutes. I was largely miserable for 1-2 weeks afterward because I was completely freaked out that I had destroyed my life. I had never had surgery before so I didn't feel great from the anesthesia. I had pins and needles in my fingers and toes, which also freaked me out but turns out it went away in a week or so. My recovery was miserable because emotionally I made it that way by being worried that I had made a huge mistake. Once I got past the point where I couldn't eat anything and had moved into the soft stage, everything was better from that point forward.
I am one month short of my 3-year surgiversary and I would go through that misery all over again in a second if I could see where I would be a few years in the future.

I have never posted pictures on here because I never wanted to put out what I used to look like as I am no longer that person. I am a new person but have come to terms that I wouldn't be who I am today if I hadn't lived life as a larger person. I also know that when I started out looking at other people's pictures were such at motivation for me so I am hoping these will help someone in return. The picture of me at my largest was after I had my son. I had lost a significant amount of weight before my day of surgery which is the pic of me looking grumpy and in pain.      
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Today my weight dropped to 75kg (165 Ibs). I was told that at 74kg (162.8 Ibs) I'd be a success. I am now 10kg (22 Ibs) away from my goal weight, and 15kg (33 Ibs) away from my stretch goal of 60kg (132 Ibs).
It is amazing to see how sugar caused few stalls, and even a little gain in the past.
Since I stopped eating ice-cream and frozen yoghurt, and sticking to the food plan, suddenly my weight is peeling off again.
It is like my body can't process sugar and stores it as fat instead.
So, I have to be mindful constantly of what I put in my mouth.
The sugar and its bad effects will never change. If I eat sugary food, I put on weight, if I don't eat it, I lose weight.
So this will be lifelong process for me ....
Happy to say though that melons and frozen berries satisfy my sugar cravings after dinner, and are a much healthier substitute.
Funny, I never used to eat much of rock melon or honey dew, now I love them
It is good to see the scales moving down again! I swapped ice-cream for frozen yoghurt because I thought it was healthier and lower in calories ..... alas what started with a small serving of frozen yoghurt became larger and larger servings. It was emotional eating for me, as I had lot of stress recently, so I felt I needed a reward..... Thankfully I realised what I was doing, and went back on track, back to basics. Basics work for me, and I have to be mindful of the Sugar Demon!

As of today I've lost 150lbs...here's an updated pic. I can't freaking believe this!!
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So I just went through my closet and purged EVERYTHING pre-sleeve. (Except one reminder outfit and a couple sentimental things)
I literally have nothing from my past that I can wear. I am about a size 14 right now, down about 100 pounds and still in process. I haven't been a size 14 since school - and that was more than 25 years ago!
I have donated about 20 bags of clothes!
But I did keep my old HS jacket!!

It feels so freeing to be rid of all that old baggage!!

That's fantastic! You look happier and younger.
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Thanks for sharing. Most, if not all of us can completely relate. I hate Lane Bryant! That's not my style at all, yet most of my clothes come from there. I look forward to waltzing right into wherever I want and being picky! Buying clothes for style, not just because they fit.
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Thanks for sharing. Most, if not all of us can completely relate. I hate Lane Bryant! That's not my style at all, yet most of my clothes come from there. I look forward to waltzing right into wherever I want and being picky! Buying clothes for style, not just because they fit.
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Feeling good with 70 lbs lost today. Wanted to show a picture and brag a little 38 more til goal, 24 until ONEderland!

I can only echo all the positives that have come from other post op friends. I too wish that I had done this years ago instead of nine months ago. I feel WONDERFUL. I agree with Dub about the hormones after surgery. Heaven only knows what was stored in my lardy bits but it was like the gates of hell had opened for a while as all those guys escaped from captivity! Lots more settled now and have just gone back to being an old git. I won't say a miserable one though as I spend most of the time walking around with an idiot grin on my face. I love it when I'm dog walking and I wish someone who has a face like a smacked arse a cheery 'Good Morning'! That person with the SAF used to be me. Not any more it ain't.
I walk at least four miles every morning but five is becoming the norm now. I've even started to break into a sprint when there's no one around. Not for long, but a sprint nonetheless. My old injuries from being a ballet dancer for years are still there but so much easier to deal with now that I no longer have the weight of eight average new born babies clinging to my frame. The plantar fasciitis in my foot has gone dormant so hopefully it is considering leaving altogether. My knees are finding life easier so think the replacements can now wait for a while. My hip replacement is amazing. 18 months ago I was limping around but since having had the worn out one replaced and losing weight I can do great things with my leg. Arabesque? No probs! Going to attempt a ballet class for us older ballerinas soon so shall see how that goes. When I have time to go for a swim, I can now manage a mile in just over an hour. Slow but certainly sure.
When it comes to clothes, well, I'm having fun. Gone are the boring, hide the fat, tents. I am into stuff that is fun. I might still wear Sketchers for all my walking but my collection of heels is growing all the time and I LOVE wearing them. Less the Miss Piggy look around the leg and foot area and more Miss Whiplash!
My carb intake has, naturally enough plummeted. My Protein intake has shot up. I always have some cooked chicken or salmon hanging around in the fridge just incase I get peckish. I stick to natural, unprocessed foods and when I have dairy produce I go for the full fat version. The satisfaction I get is immense, both physically through my stomach feeling full and mentally through my brain feeling satisfied and happy.
I've still got 20lbs to lose until I reach my goal and am again in the middle of a stall but I know that my internal stylists are at work on my body rearranging and reshaping so I'll just let them get on with it!
OK guys, it's Sunday morning, I'm sitting in bed with husband, three dogs and two cats and I need another cuppa. The sun is shining, the sky is blue and I'm a very happy punter. Have a great day guys x

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So, here are a few things I wish I had known before I had my surgery (I was sleeved 5/23/16):
The gas...oh my goodness, the gas. It hurts, it stinks, and sometimes you can't trust a fart. Lovely.
Surgery doesn't make it easier to lose weight. It actually makes it more complicated! Protein, carbs, sugar, fat...It's all scientific now. If I don't get my protein, I hold Fluid and don't lose weight. If I eat sugar, I don't lose weight. If I don't get all my Water for the day, I feel hungry, tired, and--you guessed it--I don't lose weight. I even landed in the ER getting 4 bags of fluid and a CT scan to check for complications. And my insurance got a bill for $7,000. After the one they got for $29,000 just a month previous...more on that later...
Mood swings from hell will descend upon you, and you will be powerless over it at first. Now, I am learning that I tend to cry right before a stall breaks. Fat stores hormones that have to go somewhere when the fat goes...extra PMS? Yes, please! NOT. Yes ladies, your period may go completely haywire for a while. FUN...
Speaking of stalls...the weight won't always come off in a predictable pattern. It may not come off as fast as you want it to. If you stick to your plan, you will lose weight, but along the way you will stall. You may not lose anything for a while, even though you're doing everything right. You will get concerned, you may think the surgery isn't working, but if you stick to your plan the weight will come off. On it's own schedule, though, not yours. The human body is incredibly complex and very good at learning how to NOT starve. Some people believe in starvation mode, some don't, but don't test it. You don't want to get sick and malnourished. You may need to exercise more and log your food to make sure you haven't slipped up, but the stall will break. Eventually...
You will become acutely aware that people who know you had the surgery are watching you. Watching what you eat, when you eat it, and how much of it you eat. Watching to see if you lose weight, and if you don't lose weight FAST, everybody has an opinion about whether or not you should have had the surgery and if it will work, and you may hear horror stories about somebody's friend/sister/brother/cousin/coworker who had the surgery and gained all the weight back. Or never lost it at all. Stick to your plan, and remember why you made the decision to have surgery. Be ready to avoid toxic people as necessary. If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. So be careful who you tell. If you are married, consider your spouse's feelings. Talk about it. You will need them on your side if at all possible. If they aren't, it could be problematic. Be ready to have hard conversations and make decisions based on those conversations. You may learn things about your relationship that you never knew, which can be good or bad.
You will have regrets. Mostly in the beginning, but be ready to wonder what in the hell you were thinking when you had this surgery. It's hard! There is an overwhelming temptation to believe that this was supposed to be easier. It's not. It's effective, but it's a lot of work and it takes a lot of self-discipline.
People may judge you and say that you took "the easy way out". See the previous paragraph. And then see the second paragraph. You may have to educate a few people. Or tell them to get lost, your choice.
If you didn't already know it, you may find out that you have a serious problem with food. Get that fixed, and do it before you waste a lot of time and heartache. Go to therapy. The surgery will NOT fix your brain. I cannot stress this enough! You will find out that food is the glue that holds our lives together. We Celebrate with it, we mourn with it, we reward ourselves with it, and sometimes our social lives revolve around it. All of that has to change. Food is fuel. Period. You will not enjoy eating out for a while, if ever. The portions are RIDICULOUS, and most of it is nothing you should be eating anyway. "I'll just have a small salad..." No, you won't, not for a while. You won't be able to eat raw vegetables for a long time, and never before your doctor clears it. It's the last step. And it may be never for certain foods. BECAUSE...
Your taste will change. What your stomach can tolerate will (obviously) change for a long time, and maybe forever in some aspects. You may hate what you once loved and love what you once hated. Go with it. And get over your addiction to caffeine, because that has to go, too. Not forever, but your surgeon will have an opinion about when it's okay again.
If you smoke, a reputable surgeon will not do weight loss surgery on you. They will most likely test you for nicotine, so don't cheat, just quit. You won't heal as well and it's just plain bad for you.
You will have no vices for a long time. Because...you can't drink alcohol either! Not for a LONG time. Just look that one up, because I quit drinking a long time ago and I don't even care about this part. Except: you may trade old addictions for new ones. You may need therapy to fix this. If food was a coping mechanism for you, you had better have a plan for new coping skills. BECAUSE...
This is stressful as hell, if you hadn't figured that out. You hair may come out. Be ready. Biotin is rumored to help, but it isn't a sure thing.
You will need to take Vitamins for the rest of your life. Don't be cheap and skimp on this one. You need bariatric vitamins. Deficiencies can set you back in significant ways. It's not worth it. Take your vitamins.
Now. If you're still reading this, you may think I am one hell of a "Negative Nelly". Nope! I am a realist. You should be scared. You should think long and hard before you have weight loss surgery. If you even qualify for surgery, you've cleared a significant obstacle. If your insurance covers it, that's another significant obstacle out of the way. Soooo...If you have a surgeon willing to do it, and you can get insurance to pay for it (or if you can make it happen as self-pay) DO IT. If you still want to have weight loss surgery despite knowing how much it can suck, then you will probably do well. BECAUSE...
IT'S WORTH IT. All of it.

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I've lost a total of 80 pounds and I'm so proud of myself. I didn't even realize how big my face was until a memory came up on my Facebook feed. 40 pounds away from my ultimate goal weight!   
"In the end we only regret the chances that we didn't take."

You know what it's like to not constantly be thinking about dieting or what to wear or what you look like? It's freeing. I have spent my entire life feeling like I was too fat for every major thing I wanted to accomplish. I still did accomplish almost all of them but the last 7 years before I had surgery, I had gained and lost weight, where I was at one point 137 and another point 237 as the highest and lows in that time, but ultimately all of my energy went to managing my weight. I never thought about the future or all of the things I could accomplish because in my mind until I was no longer fat, and thus no longer worthless, the only thing I had a right to be doing was losing weight. That has pretty much been my thought process my entire life since I was in kindergarten and a kid poked my stomach and made the Pillsbury Doughboy sound. Like you, I look back on what I look like and I wasn't that fat! I graduated high school in the 120's because I lost about 70 pounds my senior year of high school and I started college at 130-ish. I was always the fat girl in my mind though because to stay that size required constant obsessing about food, exercise, and my weight.
I am now 32, I have been at goal for about 15-16 months, and within a few pounds of goal for a little under 2 years, and for the first time ever, my entire life does not revolve around my weight. I wanted to go to law school when I was younger, but realistically I couldn't afford it so I just forgot about it. It occurred to me last summer that I could actually do that now, and in the span of less than a year I got into a law school with a full scholarship and an MBA program, both of which I start in a month. I would never have even considered those things before I had reached and stayed at goal because, first, why would anyone want to be nice to the fat girl in school, and second, I should be devoting energy to losing weight...if you're not thin, then you're worthless, no matter how smart, educated, or kind of a person you are. That was my thought process my entire life, and I won't lie, if I start gaining weight, it will be my thought process again.
Right now though, I find value in the fact that yes, I wear a size 2 and I feel confident, but also in the fact that there are SO many other things about me that now I feel like matter. I am intelligent, successful, educated, and a good person, and those are things that now I can see as being who I am, rather than just the fat girl worth nothing. Last summer my first serious relationship (serious isn't saying much but it was important to me) that I had after the sleeve and probably one of my most serious ever ended. My boyfriend left me to go live with his family in another state. Before I was at goal my only thought would have been that it didn't work out because I am fat and worthless and he was ashamed of being seen with me. Now though, sure a few body inferiority thoughts have crossed my mind, but I can see the real reasons that it didn't work out and they had nothing to do with what I looked like. That allowed me to not spend any time hating myself and torturing myself with exercise and diet because I wasn't good enough to be loved, which was the first time ever that I was out of a relationship and didn't feel like if I had been thinner or prettier it would have worked out. That's a really nice feeling.
So...when you no longer have all of the fat stuff to think about, you find that you can suddenly be all of the things you never had time for before. When you love yourself, you get to grow and be better and bolder and do all of the things that might not even occur to you right now as being something you want to do. The world may not be your oyster, but it certainly feels like it, and the weight of being able to think of something other than losing weight, of waking up everyday and thinking about living life instead of why you don't deserve to live life until you're thin, and finding that there are SO many things in life that it never occurred to you to care about or try before is a really great feeling.
Three years ago and for the entire 2.5 decades before that I woke up thinking about how I wasn't going to be fat. Today I woke up and thought about how I need to order some things for my business, how I need to clean my house (I didn't say the thoughts would always be exciting) and how HOLY CRAP I get to start law school and my MBA in less than 4 weeks and how far I have come in the few years it took for me to find that the person under the fat was someone who was every bit worth loving- not just by other people, but most importantly, by myself.
Good luck with your sleeve journey. There are points you might wonder if it is worth it...if I can be your voice of Christmas future (less Ebenezer Scrooge), every single second is worth it.

Hi.
I've been lurking for months, but this is my first post. I've come to an abrupt end of my pre-surgical rigamarole, and am just waiting for the bariatric clinic to call me in order to schedule an appointment with my surgeon for the final consultation before scheduling surgery - I wasn't expecting it to be so soon, as I only started the process on April 11th. My insurance - Excellus BCBS - requires a 6 month stretch of supervised weight loss only if they don't feel that your previous attempts at weight loss were serious enough. I guess 25+ years of constant struggle was adequate, because after my 2nd nutritionist follow-up (a group seminar and 2 follow-ups scheduled a month apart are my clinic's required minimum) I was handed my post-surgical diet info and was told to expect a call within a week. Yikes!
Anyway. My name is Amanda, I'll be 38 in a month (sigh) and am 5'7" and currently about 282 (and an increasingly snug size 22.) I'm married and I have a 5 year old daughter and I live in Rochester, NY. I'm an MFA grad student and work (incongruously to the MFA) in inpatient pharmacy compounding services at the big hospital in town. I have been fat since I was about 6 years old. When I was a teenager, I was about 170-180 and thought I was the fattest thing on two legs. I look back at pictures of myself and my heart breaks for all that self-hatred, sadness, and lost time - not only because I realize now that I wasn't fat at all (you wanna see fat, 16 year old Amanda?? I'll show you FAT!! flubflabflub) but also because I realize how much it never mattered to my friends and family. This is stuff I still struggle with, though. I started gaining rapidly around 18, and have more or less hit peak mass. I was abut 245 when I met my husband 11 years ago, 270ish after having my daughter 5 years ago, and was 291 when I was weighed at the beginning of the bariatric surgery process. I've attributed my weight gain over the last decade to the insidious "domestic spread" - both husband and I have gotten fatter in that time. But that doesn't explain away all the years before that.
I have a progressive, hereditary autoimmune connective tissue disease that is treated sort of like cancer - I get infusions at the cancer center every month through a port in my chest and take a low dose of oral chemo at home every week. Women with autoimmune diseases sometimes see a worsening in disease progression after pregnancy, and this was certainly my experience. I've been having to treat my disease aggressively over the past 5 years, and I've recently reached a really stupid cyclical point where the more I weigh, the less effective my treatments are, the more immobile and depressed I become, the more weight I gain, the less effective my treatments are, and so on. This decline in my health and quality of life is what pushed me to reserve a spot in a bariatric seminar in April.
As the reality of surgery looms on the horizon, I've begun to worry about some stuff. Somehow I managed to avoid that certain heartbreak that is endemic to fat kids - I was never bullied for my weight (I was popular in my high school, even as a weird kid with green hair and combat boots,) I have never been (obviously, anyways) discriminated against because of my weight, I've always been lucky in love and never had a problem with finding romantic companionship, and so on. The only person that has ever had a problem with my fatness is me. It's been the thing that I've blamed for every disappointment or unhappiness in my life, even though, intellectually, I know that's total nonsense. I worry about what will occupy my thoughts once the fat is gone. What will it be like to thoughtlessly sit in a chair without anxious thoughts of weight limits and chair-smashing public humiliation? What will it be like to not have to obsessively strategize my wardrobe for maximum chub-concealment? What will it be like to simply take up less space? I feel as though I have never not been fat, and I have no idea what to expect.
So, Hi!