elliekay

Sorry if this is gross/TMI/wrong forum.

I've been maintaining for the past year and I've been getting a LOT of ingrown hairs "down there", where before I didn't... my partner thinks it's from loose skin causing friction or something like that. Which I guess makes sense because my stomach skin hangs down around where it happens. Has anyone else dealt with this post weight loss? A few of them have repeatedly gotten infected/started bleeding and idk what to do about it. It's gross and it looks bad and it's painful. Can loose skin cause this? Is there anything I can do to prevent it (other than the standard prevention/treatment...)?

SW: 300 / CW: 169.8

I’m down only about 8lbs from my last surgiversary but that’s ok I never thought I’d hit onederland, much less maintain 165-170lbs at 5’11” for a year!

The past two years haven’t been exactly what I’ve expected—for example, I’m not suddenly in love with what I see in the mirror, still have a long way to go mentally—but this surgery gave me my life back. I was one of the luckier ones who went into this with no comorbidities so my health is about the same as it was but my quality of life is so vastly improved.

Next stop: hopefully getting some of this skin removed

I haven’t been super active during maintenance but I just wanted to say thank you to everyone here who’s offered support and advice!

On 1/26/2018 at 5:47 AM, DropWt4Life said:

I will normally Celebrate Valentines Day the day/weekend before, because I hate the fixed menus, extra cost, large crowds and long waits. We will go wherever we want, and then either have leftovers on Valentines Day, or I will cook a good meal for us.

If this isn't an option for you, then I would just order the 5 course feast, eat bites of each course, and then bag up the rest for home. Honestly, everybody is so into doing their own thing, that nobody will notice. Even if they do, who cares? Do your thing.

I wanted to do that this year but I'm traveling both the weekend before and the weekend after! Which is weird because I never travel.

On 1/26/2018 at 3:26 AM, Rainbow_Warrior said:

Be that as it may, your husband has not chosen wisely for:

(a) your food consumption reality AND

(b) his wallet.

Speak to him early, ASAP, and ask him to reconsider ... but clearly explain why.

Haha more unkind to my wallet. If he was paying for the entire thing I'd be less apprehensive about it (is that mean?) but we're splitting the cost so I feel silly paying so much for a meal I'll mostly be eating as leftovers, if I even finish them before they go bad. I'm going to try mentioning it to him today, thank you for the advice (and thanks to everyone else who gave advice!)

1 minute ago, FluffyChix said:

I'd just order 1 dinner and share bites of his. He can feed you like in 9 1/2 weeks. How's that for romance? hehehe

Haha. I think we would get a few looks...

Unfortunately they're only offering the prix fixe menu and it's a "you sit, you order" sort of deal (I called earlier today to ask but forgot to ask about leftovers...) so sharing one meal is not an option. I'm considering asking him to pick somewhere new but I feel bad because I know he was proud of himself for finding somewhere so fast lol.

I asked him to help plan something for Valentine's as I wanted him to be able to pick something he'd enjoy... so he picked a (not cheap!) restaurant that is only offering a prix fixe menu that evening... 5 courses and half a bottle of wine.

I'm not a fancy people :x I've never done any kind of prix fixe menu. I know for sure I can't eat 5 courses and half a bottle of wine!! They don't have the menu for the night posted either, just that it's 5 courses. Will it be weird if I take like a single bite of each course and ask for a doggy bag for everything else? Eat just the first course and ask for the rest bagged? Will they even let me do that??? Is that a waste of money????? I'm just imagining getting nervous about asking for leftovers and over-eating and puking in the restaurant bathroom and having gross Valentine's puke breath and wasting my money down the toilet and blahhh. Am I just overthinking this???

I have a bit of a history of nitpicking his choices (I'm much more of a planner than he is) and I really do appreciate that he picked something, so I don't want to change plans if we don't have to. I will talk to him about it if I need to but I need to know if I'm just overthinking before I do that. Have any of you had experiences eating at prix fixe restaurants post-surgery? Is it manageable or am I going to look like the world's biggest douchebag?

Haha idk if I should even post mine. Don't wanna scare you

& How far out are you?

I know many WLS plans (including mine) encourage not counting calories and instead focusing on the macros... but I'm wondering if I'm eating too few calories and if its negatively impacting my weight loss 1.5 yrs post op and I'm generally eating 600-900 calories. Today I'm at 638, and I have a hardboiled egg if I get hungry later so I'll probably wrap up at 700 for the day. I was traveling over the weekend and did a pretty good job of sticking to my plan and tracked absolutely everything I ate (I promise! every single bite!) but ate 1186 and 1204 calories on Saturday and Sunday respectively and gained 3.6lbs! Hoping it's bloating or something because that seems really excessive, especially when if I were "normal" for my height/weight I could probably be eating around 1500 calories and still be losing weight. So yeah. Just wondering if my caloric intake is normal, and what you guys are at.

I say I had acid reflux surgery & am doing Keto Not super inaccurate. They addressed my reflux issues during the surgery and I am eating ketogenic foods.

I know my surgeon warned me he would not do the surgery if I was sick. Best of luck & hope you feel better soon.

Ellie - you are young, 23 am I correct? And I think your skin will adjust a lot, especially after you get some muscle and a couple years. And if you have not had kids or are not done having kids then wait on plastics until after that.
I think you look amazing.

23 is correct Kids are in the plan someday but I can't see myself starting until ~30 or so and I feel like I'm "wasting my youth" or something being so flabby still. I hope you're right about it adjusting!!

5 hours ago, OutsideMatchInside said:

You look great! I would love to have your thighs mine are a real pug area. yours are tight compared to mine.

The skin, talking to some plastic surgeons, fat clings to it and it is very hard if not almost impossible to lose it. So it makes you feel fatter than you really are. We have a similiar shape pre-op and post-op, I am a little more hippy than you are but you also have 5 inches of height on me.

My body has changed so much in the past 12 months, I would really say don't look at plastics until you are weight stable at least a year maybe even 2. I know that sucks, I have really struggled with that waiting myself but if you want really good results from plastics and you only have money to do it right once, then wait.

My thighs are still bad, but they have improved a lot over the past year. If I don't get my thighs done ever, I can live with them as they are. Last year I would not have been able to say that, they were my worst area, they have tightened and improved a lot. My stomach is similar to yours but I have more loose skin on it.

Lately my belly button area has started becoming gross/yeasty because it gets no air, it is just a black hole surrounded by skin. That area, as my body is adjusting and I am losing more inches is just getting worse. There is no way I can live another 40 years with that skin. I imagine 10 years from now carrying it around will be hell on my back, so it has to go.

My arms compress nicely in clothes but they are 1/2 loose skin, the are really toned, but you can't see it because of the skin. It has to go.

As far as the butt goes there is hope. As time has gone on and with massages etc, my butt has came back to a respectable level. That has been over the past 6 months. As time has gone on the fat has just relocated there and my hips, increasing my feminine shape (which is part of why my skin stomach is worse I think). I haven't been doing squats even though I promise myself I will every week. It is just my body rearranging itself.

Just stay active, eat the same, and let your body decide what it wants to do. You might be surprised what happens. Waiting on plastics until your body is done adjusting is important not just because of the procedures you might choose but because there are different techniques for each surgery so waiting as long as you possibly can helps with your and your Dr making the right choices for surgery and techniques. The surgeries I would have done last year and the techniques I would have wanted are completely different than what I would choose now.

Good luck and keep up the great work. Now the really hard part starts, maintaining. Also as far as wanting to lose another 20 or 30, I feel the same way, but if I lose another 20 or 30, and then had my skin removed, I would end up under weight in the end. Maybe another 10 max is all I need.

Thank you for all the insight!! You're always so helpful in your replies, I really appreciate it. The thought of waiting a year or two sucks but I can't exactly afford it now anyways. I can't imagine my skin changing but I really hope I have the same experience

Crappy pics but 8/1/16 & 8/16/17
300 heaviest, 278.4 day of surgery, 174.2 this morning. Coming up on 13 months! I'm mad at myself for not doing anything with pics/measurements on my 1 year surgiversary but I was moving that day--just finally got the scale unpacked a few days ago. Weight loss has definitely come to a screeching halt (4lbs in almost 3 months [emoji33]) but my measurements are still moving so I'm not too concerned. 4.2lbs from my initial goal, I think my new goal is 150.

On 8/5/2017 at 10:09 AM, godblessedchild said:

Congrats, what's the ketogenic diet

Low carb, high fat Though I do focus more on Protein so I'm not sure if it's true-keto. The big thing for me was watching carbs.

My 6' boyfriend and 5'2" best friend both lifted me off the ground at different points this week 😱 I was carried across an entire room!!

On 6/15/2017 at 11:27 AM, Danielle Elaine DeMartino said:

I am two weeks out from my 10 months and just hit 100 pounds lost - I have been in a two-month stall and it's killing me >_< but my food intake could be better any suggestions on how you broke yours other than Water increase. You look fantastic congratulations.

I didn't really make any conscious changes but looking at my food log, it looks like I was a bit stricter on my carb intake and was experimenting a bit more with food--my boyfriend started doing the ketogenic diet and he was getting more on track with his eating when my stall broke so I guess that influenced my eating as well? We were trying a ton of recipes from the low-cal ketogenic community. Good luck & thanks! Congrats to you as well!

How do you guys and gals get the weight tracker thing?

I'm on mobile so sorry that my instructions aren't exact, I don't have the links to reference at the moment, but if you go to edit your profile (upper right corner, where you can edit your current weight and see the "my surgery" page and stuff) there's a section called "my tickers" or something along those lines that lets you create and edit a tracker for your signature. (I'm assuming that's what you're referring to--let me know if you mean something else)

Congrats....3 weeks today rny n my scale is stuck at 250-251 ugh

Don't worry too much this early out My third week started a stall where I didn't lose more than a pound for over 2 weeks, and that's only one of the stalls I've hit along the way. It'll come off!!!

congratulations, you look fantastic. I was noticing that you don't have a lot of sagging skin. Are you exercising a lot? Also, how many grams of Protein do you think you eat in a day? Do you still do the shakes or do you find protein in other sources of food? Sorry about all the questions but I have hit a stall and any help you give me would-be great. Did you hit stalls along the way?

Thank you! Luckily my skin isn't as saggy as it could have ended up being but this is definitely a flattering photo in that regard haha. My upper thighs and around my belly button have little skin aprons from the weight loss. I don't exercise nearly as much as I should--probably 1-2x per week--and a standard day for me is probably about 75-95g protein, 50-60g fat, 10-20g carb. I only have a shake if I'm under 75g protein, but usually it comes from food, lots of meat in my diet. I just came out of a 2 month long stall, I thought I had just completely stopped losing weight but then had a whoosh of weight loss this week. How's your Water intake? Increasing water was the only real difference I made when my stall broke, not sure if it's coincidence or not. Best of luck and no need to be sorry for the questions, I'm happy to answer anything I can

That's amazing! What diet are you following?

Thank you! Doctor recommended high Protein, moderate carb, low fat but I'm finding a lot more success with high fat/protein and low carb (30g or less per day). I also feel a lot better doing low-carb

@catwoman7 and @OutsideMatchInside - I've never considered that! I'll look into it. Honestly I hope it is a decent amount of actual fat because I'd like to be a size 8--sitting around a 12 right now. At my height I don't think I'll get much smaller than that regardless. I can tell I have a bit of loose skin but it's hard to really tell how much of it is skin and how much is fat. Thanks for the tip!

Breakfast: 2.5oz pulled chicken

Lunch: 4oz chicken lettuce wrap (tofu, ground chicken, green onion, cabbage, lettuce wrap)

Snack: 0.5 tbsp reduced fat PB, 1oz raw almonds

Dinner: 2.5oz pulled pork

Probably will end up having another snack later in the evening since everything else was really early. My brain says Protein Shake but my tummy says cucumbers and hummus.

Hi everyone!

My goal going into surgery was to get to 170lbs. As of this morning I weighed 180.6 (FINALLY losing again after 2.5 months of sitting at 185...) and I got to thinking, I've got way more than 10lbs left to lose!! It's weird how different my body is at this weight than I thought it was going to be--from looking at pictures of girls my height (5'11) at 170/180 to my conversations with my doctor and those close to me about what my expectations and goals should be, I really thought at this point I'd just be a bit chubby, not able to grab handfuls of tummy like I can now! I'm incredibly proud of how far I've come and that I'm this close to hitting goal... hopefully I'll hit it by my 1 yr surgiversary on 8/1... but I guess I'm just surprised that this weight I never thought I'd ever be able to get to now seems too heavy. This is my first time ever being this weight apart from being a child so I really don't know what to expect anymore or what to adjust my goal to.

Has anyone else had to adjust their goal as they've gotten close to it? Or been surprised by their body's changes in relation to what their expectations were?