Meryline

6 months post op, down 90+ lbs

My surgeon never talked to me about a goal weight or a target weight. I picked normal BMI as my goal. I have 18 lbs to go at almost 6 months out from surgery. Anything after that I look at as bonus.
Side note: I had my bodyfat tested, and according to the people who did the test I only need to loose another 6-7 lbs of fat to reach a point where my body would stay happy. I have been able to contain a lot of muscles during this weight loss phase.

i was offering help. i think your rate of weight loss expectations are far too high, i think you are exercising too much (800 calories per workout is extreme), and i tried to educate you that weight loss is NOT as simple as calories in / calories out. but you have rejected all of that (sound) advice and have turned into a raging b*tch launching ad hominem attacks against me.
again, i think finding a good psychologist might be your best bet.

i did read your post. now for you to learn something new...
exercise does not cause weight loss. and MORE exercise definitely doesn't cause MORE weight loss. sorry to be the one to dispel this myth for you, but it's been pretty well proven by a lot of credible research. in fact, if you are "slaving away" at the gym, that might be hampering your weight loss even further. that is, if you had a real problem with rate of weight loss, which you do not.
i would recommend you stop obsessing and doing something lighter that you enjoy (walking is probably best) rather than "slaving away" at the gym.
but what do i know, i'm just an a$$h*le.

Completely normal. They pump you full of IV fluids at the hospital, your body is healing from surgery, it is all normal. Some people don't see a loss until maybe 4 weeks out. It will happen!

December 2015 I had my first back surgery. I could hardly walk, and was heavily medicated with opioids to get through the day. Surgery was a success, until I had a relaps at the same place not even a year later. Long story short. I had 2 nerve blockages that worked for a while, but in the end, my surgeon said I needed to be operated on again.
We decided to wait and see if the wls would help my back. The pictures below are from March of this year, only 7 days after my wls, and from Saturday.
The herniation has been reduced to almost nothing, the spine covering the nerve is almost nothing, all due to loosing almost 90 lbs.
I see my neurosurgeon on Monday, but both I and my physical therapist are sure I won't be having the surgery I'm booked for on October 3rd.
If that is not a success story, I don't know what is.

December 2015 I had my first back surgery. I could hardly walk, and was heavily medicated with opioids to get through the day. Surgery was a success, until I had a relaps at the same place not even a year later. Long story short. I had 2 nerve blockages that worked for a while, but in the end, my surgeon said I needed to be operated on again.
We decided to wait and see if the wls would help my back. The pictures below are from March of this year, only 7 days after my wls, and from Saturday.
The herniation has been reduced to almost nothing, the spine covering the nerve is almost nothing, all due to loosing almost 90 lbs.
I see my neurosurgeon on Monday, but both I and my physical therapist are sure I won't be having the surgery I'm booked for on October 3rd.
If that is not a success story, I don't know what is.

A large percent of pre-op weight loss surgery candidates feel that once their waistline changes, so will their thinking, and their dead wrong.




Today, during one of my pre-op psych evaluations, I heard a woman say “I just feel like once I start losing weight and start feeling so much better about my self- I will stop doing all the destructive things that got me here. Don’t you think?”
My response was “no I don’t agree.” I went on to explain that hers was a common assumption, a dangerous “magic-bullet” fantasy about what weight loss surgery can do.
Here’s why: The part of our brain that is responsible for the thought : “wow I look so much better, I better not mess this up,” or “I feel better than I have ever felt in my life, I am a changed person,” is not the same part of the brain that wakes us up in the middle of the night and says: “go on, finish that 1/2 pint of Chunky Monkey in the freezer, there’s only a little bit left anyway, and I have been so good here lately.”
We are dealing with two very different brains; the frontal cortex and the reptilian mid brain. The frontal cortex is the most newly developed (relative to other parts of the brain) part of the brain. It is the component that separates us from animals. It gives us the ability to think about consequences, plan, and execute. It is the “higher” part of ourselves, that often says “why do I keep on doing the same things I keep saying I won’t do anymore?” Or “I feel so out of control. This _______ (eating, smoking, drinking, gambling, pick your poison) is a temporary solution that produces long term pain. I have to find a different way.”
Our reptilian midbrain is the Commodore 64 to our MAC; it is the palm pilot to our iPhone; the horse and buggy to our Prius; the Tommy Lee to our Oprah. Our midbrain is antique equipment, long ago evolved to keep us alive and hence the reason it is still with us today- it keeps us alive. Our midbrain contains the parts of the brain that make us recoil at the site of a snake or a spider in our peripheral vision. It is hardwired to not have to go through superfluous channels of the brain that might otherwise say “hmmm what is that crawling over there? How do I feel about that? Oh its just a spider, my aunt had a collection of spiders, maybe I should collect things, etc etc.” We just jump, and process later.
That very system has helped humans survive for thousands of years. There is an adaptive quality to a brain that proverbially acts and asks forgiveness later. That very old structure once kept us out of harm’s way when a pack of tigers were first seen galloping across a horizon, or when a rivaling tribe could be heard in the far off distance, threatening to pillage our territory.
Our midbrain is associated with learning and reward. Learning what makes us feel bad, what eats us (in the past that would be in a literal sense- like tigers, but presently it might be a mercurial supervisor or unending debt), and even more relevant to this article- what makes us feel good. When our brains come across something that makes us feel good (ex: sex, drugs, food), we are then flooded with an influx of the powerful neurotransmitter- dopamine. Just like not everyone that is exposed to drugs will develop an addiction, not everyone that eats a Nutella crepe will develop a food addiction.
Much of the research on obesity currently, postulates that food addiction, no dissimilar than alcohol or drug addiction- is a reward system dysfunction or dysregulation, born out of genetic predisposition. It’s almost as if some brains think “if one slice of pizza feels good, how would four slices of pizza taste?”
To break these two very different parts up in a different, more basic way; our frontal cortex is the voluntary, while our midbrain is the involuntary.
This very dangerous fantasy, many people carry into weight loss surgery is a myth that I try to dispel quickly. This type of “magic bullet’ thinking is the very thing that gets so many gastric bypass and sleeve patients into trouble years down the road. No one wants to look at triggers. No one wants to sit with a therapist and devise a strategic coping plan. We want a pill, a surgery, a 16 minute solution to a 40 year old problem.
This is not to say that weight loss surgery is not a solution, just that its only part of the solution.

Despite our best intentions, we are still in some ways animalistic, hedonically-driven to feed our most basic impulses. This is part and parcel of why recidivism is the rule not the exception when it comes to recovery from most addiction. So what does this mean? Are all weight loss surgery patients destined for disappointment and disenchantment when the WLS honeymoon ends? No. But the answer to long term change lies more in two-pronged approach to long term weight loss success; surgery + behavioral change.
Simply thinking ourself slim is a fantasy. Think about your specific triggers for eating. For some it is that golden hour when all the kids are in bed and Narcos is queued up on your Netflix. For others it is that 2-3pm mid day slump. For some - it is when they are alone, the only time they can eat with abandon free from others’ judgement or their own embarrassment.
Whatever your triggers- the key is to identify what need is being met in that moment and to find a non-food alternative to meet each particular need ( many people have multiple triggers for over eating). If it is because its “your time,” after the kids are in bed- maybe you invest in a foot massager, or cultivate a self care space with textures, aromatherapy, candles, and books. If your trigger is that mid day slump, maybe you develop a yoga routine easily done in the office to help re-energize you. If it is the secretive quality to the trigger of being alone and eating, maybe it is finding another thing that is just your own that no one knows (going to a movie in the middle of the day, getting an overly priced facial on your lunch hour, playing hooky with your kid one day, etc).
The rule of the brain is : what fires together, wires together. So over time- if you have paired 8pm, Narcos, and nachos- you have created a neurological super highway. The moment 8pm rolls around, you are likely already getting the chips ready and didn’t even realize the thought pathway that just occurred. The idea is to repair our triggers with alternative behaviors and over time “clip those wires” or create “toll roads” to our superhighways (aka neurosynaptic pruning), so that we no longer experience such strong urges and can call upon the higher structures of our frontal cortex to guide the way again.
When we are in the midst of addiction, it is important to understand that our frontal cortex is not at the wheel. It has been duck taped and tied to a chair in the basement by our hedonic midbrain who is used to getting what it wants when it wants it. The closer we come to accepting this principle, the closer we come to being more mindful of our midbrain’s powerful rationalizations and sick contracts and see them for just that. We are better able to dis-identify from the thought, knowing it is not coming from our best self, but from our most carnal self.
Think of that distant cousin that only shows up when they need something, the Uncle Eddy that tells you he’ll move the RV when he leaves next month, indifferent to how it makes you feel. Except in addiction- that distant cousin has taken over, pretending its you until you can no longer tell the difference.
References
http://brainspotting-switzerland.ch/4_artikel/Corrigan & Grand 2013 Med Hyp paper (proofs).pdf
Blum K, Chen AL, Giordano J, Borsten J, Chen TJ, et al. The addictive brain: all roads lead to dopamine. J Psychoactive Drugs. 2012;44:134–143. [PubMed]
Avena NM, Gold JA, Kroll C, Gold MS. Further developments in the neurobiology of food and addiction: update on the state of the science. Nutrition. 2012;28:341–343. [PMC free article] [PubMed]
Gearhardt AN, Yokum S, Orr PT, Stice E, Corbin WR, et al. Neural correlates of food addiction. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2011;68:808–816. [PMC free article] [PubMed]
Saper CB, Chou TC, Elmquist JK. The need to feed: homeostatic and hedonic control of eating. Neuron. 2002;36:199–211. [PubMed]
Stice E, Yokum S, Zald D, Dagher A. Dopamine-based reward circuitry responsivity, genetics, and overeating. Curr Top Behav Neurosci. 2011;6:81–93. [PubMed]
Blum K, Sheridan PJ, Wood RC, Braverman ER, Chen TJ, et al. The D2 dopamine receptor gene as a determinant of reward deficiency syndrome. J R Soc Med. 1996;89:396–400. [PMC free article] [PubMed]
Comings DE, Flanagan SD, Dietz G, Muhleman D, Knell E, et al. The dopamine D2 receptor (DRD2) as a major gene in obesity and height. Biochem Med Metab Biol. 1993;50:176–185. [PubMed]
Noble EP, Noble RE, Ritchie T, Syndulko K, Bohlman MC, et al. D2 dopamine receptor gene and obesity. Int J Eat Disord. 1994;15:205–217. [PubMed]
Blumenthal DM, Gold MS. Neurobiology of food addiction. Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care. 2010;13:359–365. [PubMed]
Volkow ND, Wang GJ, Fowler JS, Telang F. Overlapping neuronal circuits in addiction and obesity: evidence of systems pathology. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2008;363:3191–3200. [PMC free article] [PubMed]
Volkow ND, Wang GJ, Baler RD. Reward, dopamine and the control of food intake: implications for obesity. Trends Cogn Sci. 2011;15:37–46. [PMC free article] [PubMed]

I have been able to get all my Protein from food since maybe 4-5 week (Started solids by day 4 as per my program)
We were told that each meal has to be 1 protein portion and on portion is 10g of protein. If you eat 6 times a day, you'll get 60g. I'm 6 months out, I now eat 20g pr meal, 4-5 times a day.
The key is meal prep. Figure out how to get 10g of protein into a meal. We were told that 1 egg is considered roughly 10 g. I have found a high protein yogurt that will give me 11g pr 100g. You have fish, chicken, who are fairly light to digest compared to red meat. I make creme cheese sauce with my chicken so it's not so dry, chew chew chew, and it goes down.
It is possible is you put some time and effort behind it. Also, track your protein, that is my biggest suggestion.

@blondie66 I think you are referring to me, and yes, me too. Sometimes I feel I can eat too much at just 6 months out.
I was at a seminar last night with an amazing bariatric nutritionist, and she told us that bypass patients usually can eat more than sleeve patients. Not sure what you had, but I found that very interesting, since we have smaller pouches.

Try on often. I missed out on some clothes in my closet because I didn't think they would fit, and when I finally tried them on, they were way too big. At one point I dropped a whole size in 2 weeks. No kidding. And in the same 2 weeks, the scale didn't really budge.
I have gone from a 18 to 6-10 at this point, depending on brand and material.

Finally time for my 6 months before and after pictures.
I have lost over 90 lbs.
A week ago I completed a Nordic Walking half marathon.
I have prevented a second back surgery, and life is pretty good.
I have under 15 lbs until I have a normal BMI. I started at 42.

Finally time for my 6 months before and after pictures.
I have lost over 90 lbs.
A week ago I completed a Nordic Walking half marathon.
I have prevented a second back surgery, and life is pretty good.
I have under 15 lbs until I have a normal BMI. I started at 42.

Finally time for my 6 months before and after pictures.
I have lost over 90 lbs.
A week ago I completed a Nordic Walking half marathon.
I have prevented a second back surgery, and life is pretty good.
I have under 15 lbs until I have a normal BMI. I started at 42.

I don't have treat for when I reach goal, I'm 13 lbs away from original goal of a normal BMI. But for my 1 year surgeversary I'm flying to the States to visit a friend and go shopping.

Completely normal. They pump you full of IV fluids at the hospital, your body is healing from surgery, it is all normal. Some people don't see a loss until maybe 4 weeks out. It will happen!

That is 44 days. When was the last time you lost 30 lbs in 44 days? I lost 33 lbs in the first 44 days after surgery. It's a good amount of weight loss. We started at the same place. You are doing good.

That is 44 days. When was the last time you lost 30 lbs in 44 days? I lost 33 lbs in the first 44 days after surgery. It's a good amount of weight loss. We started at the same place. You are doing good.

That is 44 days. When was the last time you lost 30 lbs in 44 days? I lost 33 lbs in the first 44 days after surgery. It's a good amount of weight loss. We started at the same place. You are doing good.

Right now I'm eating 150g (5oz) Skyr (high Protein yogurt) with 20g of flaxseeds and a nectarine in it.
In about 3 hours I'll have a 5 oz portion of stew (lean meat, potatoes, carrots and celery root)
3 hours later I'll have ground chicken fajitas with bellpeppers (5oz total), a little cheddar and some sour cream (No tortilla)
3 hours after that I'm having 100g of smoked salmon on a piece of Protein bread and humus
And for an evening snack I'll have 1-2 mozzarella sticks
That is around 1100-1200 kcal 112g of protein, 53g of fat and 46g of carbs
A normal day for me is usually 1-2 cold meals and 3 warm meals. I meal prep and always have my freezer stacked with 3-4 options of pre portioned 5 oz meals to take to work and heat up. Without it I know this wouldn't have worked. Almost always when I make dinner I make a larger portion, so I can freeze the rest

Quest bar for sure. I love those. 20g of Protein and only 4 carbs.
I usually get mine from iHerb

I don't have treat for when I reach goal, I'm 13 lbs away from original goal of a normal BMI. But for my 1 year surgeversary I'm flying to the States to visit a friend and go shopping.

I was told right of the bat that portions should be no more than 5 oz. I never got a lower number than that. I couldn't in the beginning, but fairly quickly got up to 5 oz. I have stayed there since, but from week 4-5 on, I have gotten all my protein from food. (my program has you eating solids by day 4, I know it's not the norm).
In my opinion, the quicker you are able to get your protein from food, the better. You have to be structures, meals will consist mostly from protein, but it's possible. I meal prep, portion and freeze, and my freezer is always stocked with 5 oz portion of food with a minimum of 20g of protein a portion at all times. I just grab 2-3 different ones with me to work every day.
I eat every 3 hours, 4-5 meals a day. I'm just over 6 months out and down 92+ lbs, starting at 255 lbs.

6 months post op, down 90+ lbs

I don't have treat for when I reach goal, I'm 13 lbs away from original goal of a normal BMI. But for my 1 year surgeversary I'm flying to the States to visit a friend and go shopping.