Berry78

My blood pressure was very high the day of surgery (190/95). A few weeks after surgery it went down to 145/85, and stayed in that range until I hit 200lbs, when it became normal (120/80). For me, getting close to a normal weight was more important than the actual surgery.
So.. keep taking your medication, keep an eye on your pressures, and as you lose more and get closer to goal, you may find you need fewer meds, and perhaps get off of them at goal. (Not everyone CAN get off their meds.. there are plenty of normal-weight people running around that still need blood pressure meds.. but a normal weight will give you your best shot at it).

At 2 weeks out, I was still on liquids.. forget chicken breast!! Protein Shakes, Water, milk, juice, Decaf coffee, tea, and walking.. no rides that are rougher than a car ride.
Remember, your stomach isn't completely scarred over for 6-9 weeks after surgery. It is possible to develop leaks during the first 2 months postop, so you have to adhere 100% to your doctor's orders.
Good luck!

So Saturday we got about 4 - 5 inches of snow in Detroit. Today we are supposed to get another 4 - 6 inches. I need to retire and move South for the winters. LOL. Everyone be safe shoveling (if you live in an area that gets snow) and try to stay warm (I know that it is hard to do after WLS).

Yes, it is fluids from the hospital. You need to really push to be getting in your 64oz fluids each day. Congrats on your surgery, and welcome to the losers' bench!

Wowsers.. that's almost a pound a day! Were you not getting your vitamins/protein requirements with the band in?
Start working toward nutrition goals, without eating extras.
60-80g Protein
35+g fat
75g -100g carbs
Aim for about 1200 calories, which will stop the weight gain, and probably get the scale moving back down. If you DON'T lose weight on 1200 calories, then you need to get your thyroid checked.
Here is a sample menu:
Breakfast: 1/2 cup 1% cottage cheese and 1 whole piece of fruit (apple, orange, banana, etc.)
Lunch: 1 egg and 1 cup pinto Beans and 2 T. salsa
Dinner: 4 oz protein and 1 cup veggies (green beans, spinach, etc), and 1 cup white or sweet potatoes with a pat of butter.
optional: 1-2 cups lowfat milk
If you are still hungry, concentrate on non-starchy veggies.

I agree that it's all about how many calories you eat. Some people stop "naturally", because they are "naturally" eating enough calories to stop losing at that point. (Enough room, appetite, time, and desire to eat).
If you are at goal and want to stop losing (I assume you haven't updated your profile.. it still says you are 237lbs) then you need to examine what you are eating, and find healthy ways to boost your calories. I love starchy veggies for this. Potatoes, Beans, etc. Lots of nutrition in a calorically dense package. Add a pat of butter for an extra 50-100 calories.

I've been having a lot of problems with suspected orthostatic hypotension lately. When I stand up, things go dim and I'm a bit light headed.. but after about 5-10 seconds it gets better. I know to go get a big drink when it happens. Preop I had high blood pressure. Not sure what it's running now. (I'm not on meds anymore).
In the past I've had that "tv screen" vision happen.. I don't know what caused it, but it happened in a place like a mall. A lot of walking and visual stimulus.
I have a checkup this week, so I'll let y'all know if I find out anything.

I was reading, just today, about re-feeding anorexics. Basically, for them to gain weight, a typical 2000 calorie diet isn't enough to make significant changes to their weight. They need to eat 3500 and 4000 calories to make much headway. This is because the first 2000 calories are used just to continue living.. the extra is needed to make repairs and gain weight.
Bella, even eating whatever she wants, is still restricted by the size of her stomach and her rule of stopping when satisfied. She isn't eating over 3000 calories a day, therefore can't gain a ton of weight... yet. I believe that once her body has healed the starvation damage, (may take years with limited calories), then she'll gain weight like the rest of us. Assuming "satisfied" comes a smidge too late
As for what "most bariatric patients" do or don't do with rules.. you are probably right, summerset.. I just know that at some point, in order for us to be morbidly obese, we couldn't have been following rules. Whether burnout, or lack of attention, or a rebellious attitude.. whatever reasoning was behind it.. doesn't really matter... cuz here we are!
The key to long term success is going to look different for each of us. But ultimately, we all are working with the same fundamentals. If we eat too many calories, we will put on weight. (how many is "too many" will vary wildly between us). If we find we are eating too many and the scale goes up, then we have to change something so we aren't eating too many any more.
Much easier when we've gained 10lbs, then 100.

Start counting your calories. You are eating too many for your metabolism.
Go back to basics... 60g+ Protein, 64oz+ fluids, Vitamins. Cut out white flour and sugar.

Oh, Geraldine, YOU LOOK FABULOUS!!! AWESOME JOB!!!! You are my absolute hero!
Now, I hope you don't mind if I use you as an example to FluffyChix.

Ok, Fluff.. and she is still "overweight"! Lol. When we look at her, if she said "I want to lose at least 55 more pounds to get to the lower range of a healthy BMI".. what would you say to that?

A re-feeding syndrome is basically low electrolytes. Sodium, potassium, magnesium. Coconut Water is fabulous for adding a bit of sodium and a lot of potassium. I drink some almost every day. When I miss a few days, I start getting "charlie horse" muscle cramps.
Sodium, of course, comes from salt. The best sources of potassium are potatoes, coconut water, and low sodium v8. Electrolytes aren't found much in Multivitamins (you can get a separate pill over the counter for magnesium and Calcium, but not potassium).
Coconut water can be consumed at any time during the postop diets (it's a clear liquid). V8 is Tomato based, and can be irritating to a new tummy, and potatoes don't show up in most patients' plans for a long time.

Wow, so no one seems to know the REAL reason?
Ok, so the surgery rarely gets people to a "normal" BMI. Period. I don't have the percentages exactly, but right off the top of my head... 5% go under weight, I think it's like 15% reach an ideal BMI, and the other 80% stay overweight or obese.
Doctors don't like telling their patients that they have an 80% chance of still being "overweight" at the end of their journeys, so they get creative. "Let's not focus on the number on the scale", or "we don't set goals, everyone has their own journey".
The average patient can expect to lose 65-75% of their excess weight. So for example:
Starting weight: 300lbs.
Ideal weight (top of "healthy" BMI): 150lbs
Excess weight: 150lbs
65% of excess weight: 97.5lbs
75% of excess weight: 112.5lbs
So this patient can expect to end their journey somewhere between 202.5lbs and 187.5lbs.
If this patient went in, expecting to be 140lbs, like when she graduated from high school, she would be disappointed at the idea of 190. Of course, 190 is SOOO much healthier than 300! So the surgery is absolutely worth doing for her, but she'll be the one that freaks out when the scale suddenly stops "50lbs above goal".
It's not a problem with the scale, her surgery, or her diet/exercise program. It's a problem with her expectation.

After losing 100lbs, good news! I have pubic hair! Lol! But, just because it's here now, doesn't mean it was there for the last 15 years, maybe that's where the hair off my head ended up...

Technically, I was 200.00 on 12/06, but I want to count today's 199.8 instead. By next week, onederland will be old news! Lol!

I agree with the "6 month end to honeymoon". I'm 8 months out, and I noticed a dramatic change in how much I could eat and my hunger levels at the 6 month mark. The weight loss has slowed dramatically since that time... partly because of increasing my calories, and my body is much smaller, so doesn't burn as many. Double whammy.
Counting calories (or portions) HAS to figure into your every day existence... forever. It's not that you can't have a snack. It's that you can't have an unscheduled/unaccounted for snack, and if you do, you'll have to make up for it later, or experience slow/no losses.
Yesterday I went on a bender and pretty much ate just cake all day. Yes. I'm not perfect. But, even though it wasn't planned for ahead of time, I can "catch up" from it by being extra strict for the next 6 days. That way my weekly total will still work out. A single day of really strict dieting doesn't make a difference to long term weight any more than a single day of falling off the wagon. It's the day in and day out habits (the weekly and monthly calorie totals) that ultimately make the impact on the scale.
I can also make the choice to just "forget yesterday", and just go back to normal eating (restricted, but without being extra strict). Not sure if a bit of self-flagellation is needed from going off plan.. you know.. consequences to your actions.. or just be lenient and let it slide. I'm afraid that letting it slide may just invite future misbehavior. The right choice for me may be the wrong choice for someone else.
But, you see, we have to think these things through. Maybe we should budget calories like we do money. Most of us have a limited supply of dollars in any given month, and know if we buy this thing, it prevents us from buying that thing. We have to make choices. If we let our calories slide, day after day, we pay with no movement (or wrong-direction movement) of the scale. But, the scale is really a poor indicator of how you have done TODAY or THIS WEEK. Accountability for these short-term actions has to come from tracking and planning on the day to day.
Most of this post is just me thinking aloud for how to fix ME. I already keep a dry erase board in the kitchen with my food categories and quantities for the day. As I eat my food, I check it off. But, at the end of the day, I erase it, and start over the next day. There is no long-term record or accountability to show me how often I'm straying.
I think I'll have to keep a calendar, and give myself a "green" for the days I follow plan, a "yellow" for the days I only stray a bit with extra Protein or veggies, an "orange" for days I eat extra starchy veggies, and a "red" for sugar or grains (and "black" for all-cake days.. so far, in 8 months, this was my first "black" day.. so at least there's that!). That way I can see a quick rundown on how many days I'm actually off plan, and where I need to work on it.

blondie, the OP is quite petite, so 130lbs for her is like 162lbs for me (I'm 5'7). Which is thin, but not TOO thin. I would look great at 150lbs.. though I doubt I'll ever get there.

NSV: so i randomly went jean shopping and the size 4 actually fit, and really fit. I thought i was going to have to squeeze into them for dear life lol. I've been fat my whole life so this is new to me. The fact that i'm actually a small still blows my mind, but yet the scale still says im overweight smh. I'm still going to view this as a victory.

Thank you both! I know I want to get to my goal I won’t stop here [emoji5]

After losing 100lbs, good news! I have pubic hair! Lol! But, just because it's here now, doesn't mean it was there for the last 15 years, maybe that's where the hair off my head ended up...

A re-feeding syndrome is basically low electrolytes. Sodium, potassium, magnesium. Coconut Water is fabulous for adding a bit of sodium and a lot of potassium. I drink some almost every day. When I miss a few days, I start getting "charlie horse" muscle cramps.
Sodium, of course, comes from salt. The best sources of potassium are potatoes, coconut water, and low sodium v8. Electrolytes aren't found much in Multivitamins (you can get a separate pill over the counter for magnesium and Calcium, but not potassium).
Coconut water can be consumed at any time during the postop diets (it's a clear liquid). V8 is Tomato based, and can be irritating to a new tummy, and potatoes don't show up in most patients' plans for a long time.

They just aren't used to you looking (relatively) slender. You should work with your doctor to determine a good goal weight, then tell your family and friends that your doctor is helping you decide when to stop losing weight.
Congrats on getting so close to goal already! You should have no trouble getting there!

Thank you guys contact my doctor he doesn't feel its heart or surgery related thinks I have a pinched nerve.

A re-feeding syndrome is basically low electrolytes. Sodium, potassium, magnesium. Coconut Water is fabulous for adding a bit of sodium and a lot of potassium. I drink some almost every day. When I miss a few days, I start getting "charlie horse" muscle cramps.
Sodium, of course, comes from salt. The best sources of potassium are potatoes, coconut water, and low sodium v8. Electrolytes aren't found much in Multivitamins (you can get a separate pill over the counter for magnesium and Calcium, but not potassium).
Coconut water can be consumed at any time during the postop diets (it's a clear liquid). V8 is Tomato based, and can be irritating to a new tummy, and potatoes don't show up in most patients' plans for a long time.

I have 4. One is teeny tiny, and the others are just tiny. I didn't have one that was larger than the rest. Very pleased with Dr. Illan's handiwork there. I'm 8 months postop, and other than putting body lotion on after showers, haven't done anything special. The scars are visible, but have faded to about 1/2 white, 1/2 light pink. (I have fair, caucasian skin). As well as they've healed, even if there were 3 more of them, I wouldn't be concerned. I have enough loose skin that I won't be sporting a bikini anytime soon ever.

This is definitely a hard one. I really hope to avoid plastics myself, but I'm not working with anything as dramatically ..."gifted"... as you are.
Not sure what cup size you are wearing, but I'm 30lbs from goal and wear a 36DDD bra, and am overflowing a bit, so I actually need the next cup size bigger (what size is that anyway? E? F?). Not buying a bigger bra since I'm hoping to keep shrinking. (I started out at 42DDD, so my band/cup keeps shrinking proportionally).
Aesthetically, people tend to prefer an hourglass figure, which means your chest should approximate your hip measurement. It doesn't really matter what "people" like, of course.. it matters what YOU like. But if you do decide on a reduction, I recommend aiming for DDD or smaller, so you can wear bras from regular stores.
(If I had your chest, I probably WOULD opt for surgery.. to minimize future back pain, and for better clothing fit.. but gosh, there are risks there too. Tough choice!).