Greensleevie

There is absolutely nothing wrong with Weight Watchers. Just like with anything, if you have the correct mindset, you'll make it work. Same with WLS.

My sister ended up losing more weight than I did on Weight Watchers and has kept off every pound for years. I can't even say that, as I've fluctuated 10-15 pounds. I personally think WLS has screwed up my metabolism, but that's a whole other subject.

Oh bull. I kept losing for 18 months. Sure, your body becomes complacent and wants to stop losing, but we have to just move it along ourselves by tweaking some things. You are in almost complete control of how far you want to go with it.

Didn't your surgeon give you instructions?

Why don't you ask your surgeon instead of looking for validation on an internet forum?

I used Cigna and it took about 4 months from start to finish.

You're going through one of the hardest stages right now in my opinion, and it's very common to feel the way you do. Like what was said above, once you start finding your new normal, things get easier and easier. Hang in there!

3 minutes ago, Clementine Sky said:

It might seem like a contradictory action to take, but you may want to experiment with increasing your calories and healthy fat with good choices and see if that makes an impact. There was an article in The New York Times a few months ago about a long-term study of the contestants on the weight-loss show "The Biggest Loser," and how extreme dieting and exercising permanently damaged their metabolisms. Eating too little can be detrimental to your weight loss in the present and the future. When your body isn't getting enough calories to sustain your lifestyle it sort of freaks out to try to protect you. With the amount of vigorous exercise you're doing, you're not really consuming enough calories. So when you're not getting enough food, your body thinks you're going to starve and slows down your metabolism to try to protect you. It's an adaptation method the human body evolved to have back when our ancestors were going through famines.

I broke my first month-long stall simply by adding in a daily afternoon latte made with whole milk. I broke my second stall and actually lost weight at a more rapid pace when I was on vacation with my family and not tracking what I ate. I was still being mindful and making reasonable choices, but did have frozen yogurt and the like at times. I think my body took to the extra calories like a car with a tank nearing empty being filled up.

Your body can also just stall out because it needs some time to catch its breath. I've had several lengthy stalls, but had exceeded my goal weight by the one-year mark. I then lost another 15 pounds, and have been maintaining that for six months. Slow and steady seems to have helped me with keeping the weight off. Congrats on your weight loss thus far. You lost more in three months than I did in nine.

I concur. I exercised a lot like you do, and whenever I stalled out, I increased my calories and viola! Stall over. Give it a try!

7 minutes ago, char3672 said:

I just "assumed" that I am done with pizza, Pasta and bread now. I am just trying to do everything the "right" way. I am only 8 days post op, and so far I have tolerated eggs, cheese and chicken salad. I was a pizza ADDICT! So maybe thats why I'm afraid to eat it!?

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Haha i get it.

It is best to stay away from certain foods that if eaten too much, can hinder weight loss or maintenance, ESPECIALLY if they are a "trigger" food. Mine is ice cream, so instead I'll find a healthier alternative like Halo Top. You can do that with your pizza, too! Make cauliflower or almond flour crust pizza with all the healthy toppings instead! Lots of recipes out there for low carb pizza.

Once you're on soft foods, Google Ricotta Bake. You'll thank me

Why won't you be able to eat pizza again? I eat a piece of thin crust pizza occasionally. If it's more than occasionally, I eat the toppings off (including the cheese) and leave the crust.

I have learned that there are no "bad" foods, only bad choices. food is not the enemy.

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

You're still healing. Nerves have been cut and things stapled back together, compromising some feeling you may have in your new sleeve. Try not to push it, measure your portions, and stick to your prescribed diet in the mean time.

Some of us have sleeves of steel. Not all of us have thrown up and can tolerate an assortment of foods well. I am one of them, and I consider that a good thing. Don't rely on adverse effects to keep you on the straight and narrow, because that doesn't last anyway.

12 minutes ago, goshesgaunt said:

Its also a lot of fat.

At 3.5 years out and 110 pounds lighter and maintaining, I have never watched fat and don't intend to. It keeps me satiated and helps with hunger.

7 hours ago, telltell624 said:

No beer is killing me. Been without for almost 3 years now though lol.


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As I said before, I tolerate carbonation well when it's seltzer or an occasional Coke Zero, but beer is a no go. Sits so heavy! Sad face.

Dr Matthew Weiner has a great video about this topic, and states that carbonation stretching the stomach (especially a sleeve) is a myth. My surgeon also concurs.

The problem with soda are the CALORIES, NOT the carbonation. Empty, non nutritious calories are the fastest way to gain weight for a WLS patient because they go down so easily. It's silly to think the pressure from a few carbonation bubbles will "stretch" anything. Aside from the natural stretching that happens years out, it would take years of systematically over eating to the point of sickness to stretch a sleeve significantly because the fundus, or stretchy part, has been removed during surgery. Dr Weiner has no issues with carbonated waters or selzers as tolerated.

At 3.5 years post op, I drink carbonation periodically and can eat just as much as any one else as far out as me. It has not stretched anything. It's really time to put that myth to rest.

Some people have saved up for it, and some people have it financed through credit cards, Care Credit, private loans, etc...I even know a gal who took out an equity loan on her home to have it done.

Nope. You're right on schedule.

Google or search this forum for " 3 week stall" and you will find literally hundreds of questions and answers about it. 99% of is have gone through it and continued on to lose weight.

You're not doing anything wrong. Just stay the course and it will pass.

If it makes you feel better, what you're feeling is completely normal. Only now at over 3 years out I obsess about KEEPING it off

. NOT EVERYONE HAS MENTAL ISSUES WITH food THAT IS OVERWEIGHT OR UNDERWEIGHT OR IS INCAPABLE OF CHANGE OR INCAPABLE OF LEARNING WAYS TO COPE WITH FOOD ADDICTION.

This is complete and utter BS.

If you're having major surgery to lose weight (or keep it off), you've got issues with food. Also, this surgery won't magically make all of our psychological problems with food (or any others) go away. You can't expect to be cured with the surgery alone. Yes, people can develop coping mechanisms, but it takes work on their part and in some cases, professional help.

The people we see asking questions about foods that are clearly not on their plan may not be quite ready for the commitment it takes to make the surgery successful in the long run. Some people feel they're doing a service to point that out. Me personally? I couldn't care less unless they are endangering themselves. It's not my job to define what their success looks like.

I'm a true foodie. I'm willing to try anything once. Why not?

I eat TONS more veggies now than I ever did pre op. By choice, even! I didn't like green Beans before, but now? A little bacon and onions fried up into them? Yum! Just like @OutsideMatchInside said butter makes everything better? Same goes for bacon 😀

11 minutes ago, PatientEleventyBillion said:

And now that I've searched this users posts, I just realized I'm feeding a troll. My bad.

How am I a troll? For the sheer fact you don't like my posts?

That's not being a troll. I'm a WLS patient with 3.5 years under my belt giving honest advice and no nonsense feedback. Nothing more, nothing less.

Now put me on ignore.

4 minutes ago, PatientEleventyBillion said:

So do you also go to an alcoholics anonymous forum and brag about being able to drink booze? I mean, since we're talking about what works for you.

Oh, stop being so dramatic. That's a total false narrative. It's a Coke Zero. I'm not forcing anyone else to drink it. We're all adults here, and make our own choices. Your choice is to not drink it. Okay, awesome! Go you!

You don't get to dictate what we can and can't say on a public internet forum. You ALSO don't get to dictate what is considered 'good' or 'bad' for me.

Here's my disclaimer:

*Don't try this at home.

Happy?

Now put me in ignore so you don't have to see any more of my evil Coke Zero drinking posts. I'm sorry if I triggered you.

2 minutes ago, PatientEleventyBillion said:

Congrats on your vice.

Soda was my vice too, and was the biggest reason for me as to:

1) Blood pressure and heart rate advances:

- Peaked at 170/115 bp (WITH BP meds + metoprolol), RHR of 100-110 bpm

- By the end of my pre-op diet and not a drop of soda, my BP was 105-120/65-90 and RHR was 50-60

- While sugar is the biggest culprit with soda in large quantities, caffeine plays a big role too.

2) Liver damage. One can of soda is too much sugar (thus carbs) for the body for an average person either sedentary or low activity. The liver has no choice but to convert the excess into fatty acids and distribute it throughout the body. It also begins replacing hepatocytes with fat causing irreversible damage. In some people this process happens slower so they won't see the damage until years later, but in others it happens faster.

3) Severe addiction issues.

Given what it's done to me, in a much quicker span of time than it does to others, it makes no sense to have this crap anymore. Pure carbs, sugar, and caffeine with absolutely no nutritional benefit to it. While I don't begrudge others for making this choice, it's simply a dumb thing to brag about on a forum where people are trying to get off this stuff.

Coke Zero has no sugar and no calories, hence the "zero". I don't drink empty calories.

One 12 oz soda a day isn't going to give me enough caffeine to cause any adverse effects. My surgeon isn't anti caffeine and never has been.

Not bragging at all. Just saying what works for me may not necessarily work for you, and that all the alarmist attitudes I see many times from newer post ops are unfounded and unnecessary. Each of us find what works.

And by the way, my labs are also perfect.

But you do you!

I drink a 12Oz Coke Zero every day at almost 3.5 years out. My ONLY vice.

I don't smoke.

I don't drink alcohol.

I eat clean 85% of the time.

I run 5 days a week.

My stomach has not stretched out any more than it normally would at 3.5 years out. Even if so, I still weigh and measure everything, so stretching won't matter because I make good choices most of the time and am not overly dependent on the tool itself, because as the years go on, the tool becomes moot.

As of right now, I am 1 pound below my original goal weight of 140.

You look at your respective surgeons rules, and figure out what works for you and what doesn't and roll with it. I hate absolutes.

Studies have shown weight loss is 80% diet, 20% movement. Like the poster above said, the benefits of exercise aren't just weight loss.

I feel if you don't find some kind of way to move more once you've lost the weight and want to maintain it, you will have a difficult road ahead. Your chances of maintaining your weight are much better with a regualr exercise routine.

I do it like it's my job, like bathing or brushing my teeth. It's just something I have to do if I want to stay a normal weight and healthy.

2 minutes ago, painter88 said:

I don't vomit, I just bring the food black up and spit it out. This happens now on a weekly basis, makes me feel much better. I do it instead of feeling miserable after overeating.

Maybe it's not right to do? I don't know. But I sure feel good afterwards.

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MAYBE it's not right to do?

That's called bulimia. How about just not overeating by measuring your food?

You can't rely on the surgery forever, because the benefits are really only temporary. You'll be able to eat almost normal portions a couple to a few years out, so learn to make good choices and portion now, or it will equal regain down the road.