WitchySar

Well drat. I had a question I wanted to ask and I rarely get on here. Kinda sucks to limit access so people can't get the info they are here for. Guess I'll go look elsewhere. Thanks.

I had my sleeve almost 2 years ago but I can't post in the Vet forum. I also can't find any info on how to gain access other than where it says you have to be 18+ months out, which I am. How do I get permission to post there?

I think how a person views fat people after they've lost weight likely depends a lot on why they lost the weight, and how they viewed themselves prior to that. A lot of people hate themselves when they're fat. They don't take care of themselves, they let their health get worse, they have no confidence, etc. If you start from that point then I would imagine there's a higher chance that after you lose weight you will view other fat people in a negative light because you viewed yourself in a negative way. For those who were honestly happy while fat I imagine it would be different. If you are happy (and especially if you are also healthy - yes it's possible) while fat then you will probably not have any negative feelings toward other fat people once you are no longer in that category. It's all about reflection. How we view others more often that not has a LOT to do with how we actually view ourselves.

Will this be true for everyone? No, of course not. But in general this is how I imagine it would go.

Did they give you an indication of how long it normally takes your insurance to respond?

Physical therapy? That's the first time I've heard of that requirement.

I'm lucky to be in a small coven that keeps track of when things are. lol I'm rather lazy otherwise too.

*high fives* Nice to meet you! I'm not Wiccan either. I am technically a Kemetic Druid Buddhist, so I tend to just say I'm eclectic. My patron Goddess is Bast.

*Another high five for being a huge geek too* Kinda guessed as much from your name.

That's strange, I have Medicaid and didn't have to submit anything about exercise at all. I was denied initially though because they didn't like my primary's note. It was too comprehensive apparently. She made it shorter and was approved the next day. Insurance will do anything they can to find reasons to deny because then they don't have to pay. Don't give up!

I have bipolar (some discussion as to whether or not it's 1 or 2) and had the sleeve. My surgeon didn't want me to get the bypass or switch though because of risk of malabsorption of the meds. He did also say that patients with bipolar can sometimes experience increased swings after the surgery because of the hormone flush (even people with no mental illness also experience ups and downs because of the hormones) so he just wanted to know I'd be well monitored by my psychiatrist. In his experience patients who weren't controlled on meds and monitored could have a harder time losing weight because of the likelihood of emotional and binge eating. But again, that's a concern with more than just bipolar. So as long as you're controlled on your meds and your psych is on board to perhaps check in with you a bit more often for the few several months then there shouldn't be a problem.

Thanks for the info and advice. I figure she's probably just regurgitating something she was told or perhaps just didn't explain herself well (regarding the comment about injuring myself). I will start trying to find a healthy carb to add into my diet on days I work out. Currently I'm working out about 5-6 days a week but not every day with the heavier weights, so I'll use the carbs for the heavy weight days first and see how that goes.

As for losing weight I'm more concerned with getting healthy and not so concerned with the number on a scale. My *goal* is 175 lbs anyway which is technically still high for my height but I already have a good amount of muscle mass so my surgeon thinks it's a fair goal. If I end up only getting to 200 (or whatever) that's fine with me too. I'd rather have muscle than worry about the number.

Okay, so that's one vote for carbs. lol I'm nervous because I have best results on a very low carb diet, have for years, and my nutritionist definitely supports low carb but I get the impression she doesn't work with a lot of people who want to get into lifting and such... she has mentioned how she has trouble convincing most of her patients to even go for a walk around the block.

Alright, any particular carbs you suggest? Do you support carb loading before or carb back loading? My daughter (who is training in body building) swears by chocolate milk after a workout but that's so much sugar... I don't know about that.

I have enjoyed weight training for a while now and am going to start moving toward training to be a powerlifter. I haven't even started the shift yet and I'm already in a debate with my trainer about my nutrition needs. My trainer is a competitive powerlifter but she's also naturally really thin and I don't think she understands my nutritional needs and how they vary from a non-bariatric patient. She is stressing the need to carb load and/or carb back loading. She swears that without it I could injure myself by trying to force my muscles to use different forms of energy and at the least will never achieve great powerlifting goals without it. Is this true? Even if I did eat more carbs before or after a training session I still have portion restriction so I don't know if I'd get the amount of energy she's wanting me to.

So I guess what I'm asking is should I increase my carbs before and/or after a powerlifting training session? With my portion restriction anyway it's not like I'm going to be downing a huge bowl of Pasta or Cereal. So... pros, cons... required vs suggested vs pointless?

On 3/6/2017 at 5:16 AM, Polarbearwifey said:

Carbonation will expand your stomach. They made an experiment with a balloon (represent the stomach pouch) and a soda to show us how the bubbles from the carbonation made the balloon to expand every time you drink it. It was scary. I'm good without soda

Your stomach isn't made out of latex, it's not going to react like a ballon. And especially if you have the sleeve it's a myth that it will stretch it. With the sleeve all, or at least most, of the stretchy part of the stomach is removed. And even if a little bit or the stretchy part is left carbonation is no where near strong enough to stretch it, nor would the small amount left be able to stretch enough to make a huge difference. You might go from being able to eat 4 ounces to eating 4.5 ounces instead. And any stretching that MIGHT occur would not come from carbonation, it would be from forcing in too much food at once time. The research supports this.

The myth of the stretching came from the bypass pouch which can stretch, but even then again carbonation isn't strong enough, especially once combined with stomach acid, to have any true effect. It's much more likely to stretch from eating too much though.

Surgeons are human, they are not infallible. They make mistakes, and many are prone to telling horror stories to scare their patients into doing what they want them to do.

When I made the decision to have the surgery I weighed 368. On the day of surgery I weighed 332. Now, almost 3 months out I weigh 287.4. So I've only lost 44.6 pounds since surgery. I was expecting a greater weight loss since I had such a high BMI (general rule of thumb, the more you weigh when you start the faster you lose... but doesn't take into account things like thyroid) but oh well... such is life.

Low carb, even extremely low carb, is perfectly fine for long term dieting. As long as you get enough Protein and fat your body will function perfectly well. It starts to break down and be a problem when people try to eat low carb and low fat, or they don't get enough Protein.

I personally have to stay below 20 net carbs in a day. That allows for a good amount of vegetables or fruit, as long as I choose lower carb fruits and veggies (such as green Beans and strawberries, two of my favorites).

As far as my body is concerned all carbs are bad carbs. I have to stick to less than 20 net carbs in a day, period.

I've lost 66 pounds since I started last June (2016). No one notices. Hell, even my clothes fit the same.

You have a very valid concern, it's one I share as well. I have never been thin (seriously, even at 4 yrs old I was fat) so my skin is SHOT, I know it's not going to bounce back and that terrifies me. I'm 42 now and my husband is only 27. I don't want to start looking like I'm his mom! I have always looked younger than I am and I do NOT want that to change. If it wasn't for the fact that I need a surgery on my knee (and possibly ankles too) due to a previous injury I would not have had the surgery. And now that I look at it afterwat my health wasn't really bad and everything *wrong* is traced to my thyroid which no surgery and weight loss is going to fix. But no ortho would do surgery on someone weighing 368 lbs so I had no choice unless I wanted to become completely sedentary, which I did not want.

So now I'm weight training (been doing it since before surgery but I'm continuing), using lotion and collagen masks, and hoping that eventually I'll be able to afford plastic surgery. I am very vain and yes, I would rather be obese than look like a floppy mess. Just being obese is NOT a death sentence. Gods how I hate people spouting off incorrect info like that. Yes being obese and eating large amounts of crap all the time, and doing nothing but sitting on your ass will negatively affect your health, but omg NOT ALL FAT PEOPLE DO THAT! Ugh, stop the stupid generalizing and realize that everyone is DIFFERENT!

So when deciding if this is for you you need to figure out a few things... are you happy how you look? Is your health going downhill? Are you active and eating healthy now? And then decide from there if you'd be happier making the change or staying as you are.

***Why yes, I AM a HAES and Body Positivity advocate.***

When was your surgery?

My doc said that most people will struggle to get their Protein and Water in for the first 8 weeks. The plan was to get as much of it in as you can and slowly reach goal (80-100g protein/day, 64+ oz H2O/day). When I saw him 2 weeks post op and told him I wasn't hitting my goals, I was disappointed in myself and thought I would get a talking-to from him. He just patted my leg and said I was doing great and that I'm still healing and will hit my numbers as long as I follow the program. He was right! lol!

But I still have to work on making my water goals. I can't gulp water anymore. I am MUCH better now, at 12 weeks I was able to take some big drinks but would still get queasy if I drank too much too fast. at 15 weeks I'm able to get 8 oz down in about 20 minutes without trying too hard or feeling bad.

It's a journey so "doing everything right" doesn't mean it will go perfectly. There will be some ups and downs, some back slides and some leaps forward. Our metabolism is a magical creature that sometimes eludes us. lol! It doesn't like the body losing so much of it's stockpiled energy and will slow down thinking we are dying of starvation. Then it will realize, nope, gotta dump some energy now! and bamn, 3 lbs gone overnight. lol! Or, that's how it will work for me sometimes. I have stalls every few weeks. I'll have a week where I don't lose anything or even go up a lb even though I'm doing everything right and increasing my water and exercise slowly every day. Just got to kind of throw up your hands, realize we are only in control of so much and keep on keeping on.

Thank you for posting this. When I saw my surgeon at 4 weeks I told her I was worried because I wasn't meeting my protein and calorie goals. I try, I really do, but I just can't manage to get in 60-80 grams of protein and 800-1000 calories in a day when I can only eat 2 oz every 2 hours. I'm doing everything "right" according to my plan. I weigh and measure my food, I eat 2 oz every two hours, I drink at least 64 oz of water a day. I'm cleared to start working out tomorrow (was unable to do the walking post op because of knee and ankle problems causing instability and pain, surgeon knew this) and I'll be doing weight training several times a week. So I'm doing everything I can but it's still not perfect.

I asked my dr what Creamer she used in her coffee. She said CREAM! She said if you look, cream has less sugars than anything else, including skim milk, and you actually need to use less of it.

Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Plus the fat it has in it is healthy for you and keeps you feeling satisfied longer.

They should definitely have explained exactly what wasn't covered in the price they quoted you. I've never been self pay but all the paperwork I've ever seen (I have a medical background) indicate that the anesthesiologist and labs would be separate bills. If they led you to believe it would all be included I would fight it with my surgeon's office.

No I didn't cheat on my pre-op diet because I don't consider it "cheating." Did I follow the diet completely though? No. I didn't go nuts eating nachos and pizza and cakes, though. My pre-op diet was a liquid diet for 1 week prior to surgery. After a lot of research (why yes I do have a medical background, so let's nip that in the bud) and a LOT of soul searching I came to the decision to follow a strict low carb diet for 6 of the 7 day diet and then on the final day do the liquids only. Part of my reasoning was that I knew myself, if I felt hungry on the liquid diet I would end up going off it anyway but I wouldn't make healthy choices. I WOULD have eaten nachos and pizza and cake. By eating strict low carb though I didn't feel deprived, I wasn't hungry, I felt no need to eat the "bad" foods. And I lost 16 pounds in that one week.

And no, just because I didn't follow my surgeon's guidelines for the pre-op diet doesn't mean I've cheated post-op. After the surgery the stakes were a LOT higher. If I cheated while healing I could die, that was enough motivation to follow the diet progression. Plus I mutilated my insides, I'm not going to let that be for nothing. (Wait, I take it back, I moved to purees one day early. Oh no!) And even now, just a couple days away from going onto whole foods I feel no need to *cheat*. I'm still eating only 2 oz per meal even though I've been told eating 3 or 4 would be fine, I'm eating Protein first trying to get up to 60 grams at least, and not eating junk food. So just saying that because someone doesn't follow exactly what their surgeon told them to do pre-op doesn't mean they won't be motivated AFTER the surgery.

I've found a brand of THC "mints" which are sugar-free. Also, if you find, say, a chocolate bar with a high THC content, the amount of sugar & carbs in the thumbnail-sized piece you eat is nearly negligible.

Thanks for all the info. I have another question. I'm not interested in smoking it, and edibles are out of the question since it sounds like they don't come sugar free. I saw a few people mention vaping it, is that like regular vaping? I've tried vaping (0 nicotine since I'm not a smoker) so I have a vape pen, does it work like that? I made my own vape juice, is there like marijuana oil or something I could put in that and vape that way? Or is pot vaping completely different?

The canna-liquid you can use with an e-cig is available, but kinda hard to find. You *could* make your own, but it takes a thorough knowledge of decarboxylation and chemistry to make a product that works.

Usually when people talk about vaping, they mean vaporizing the flower - no combustion. I have a portable vaporizer "pen" with interchangeable atomizers for flower, wax, or low-viscosity liquid. If you're interested, just PM and I'll let you know the name brand.

Ah, gotcha. Yeah I'm looking for something I can put in an actual vape pen, mixed with a nice smelling and tasting liquid. I can't stand the smell of regular pot, makes me cough and gag. I'm really only willing to give this a try if it doesn't smell or taste like pot.

I wasn't over 60 bmi but I was damn near it when I started everything. I believe at my highest weight I was something like 59.4 bmi, that was in June at my appointment with my primary when I told her I'd decided to have the surgery. In the 6 months before surgery I'd lost 36 pounds, and since the surgery I've lost about 30. Considering my size when I started I really expected to lose a lot faster but apparently even at really high weights the loss can still go slow. Disappointing but I try to remind myself that I know how to lose weight, fast even, since I've done it before. What this surgery is going to do for me is give me the tools to KEEP it off.