Introversion

You're not doing anything wrong, except perhaps believing in the unrealistic expectations that your surgeon has fed to you. Here's reality: most sleevers don't lose 30 pounds per month. Once you accept reality and stop comparing your progress to others, your weight loss journey will progress more smoothly. I lost 15 pounds the first month, 12.5 pounds the second month, and the rest of my losses were single digit (1 to 7 pounds monthly). It took me 17+ months to lose 100 pounds. Also, weight loss with a sleeve doesn't occur in a predictable pattern. We lose weight, then stall and plateau, then may even gain before losing again. You won't lose every week. I guarantee you will gain if you continue down the road of eating bananas and other starches so early in your journey. Carbs lead to water weight fluctuations. 1 gram of carbs will store anywhere from 3 to 4 grams of water weight in your body. So if you eat more carbs than your body utilizes in one sitting, those carb grams are stored as glycogen in your liver and muscle, resulting in water weight that contributes to a bigger number on the scale. To reduce these weight fluctuations, curtail your carb intake. Focus on real protein. Stay off the scale. Good luck to you.

Perhaps you need to weigh yourself less frequently if a 2.5 pound gain induces that much anxiety. You cannot expect to lose consistently each and every single week. Glycogenation is the prevailing reason for weight gain when you work out and eat minimal calories. Working out enhances our muscles' energy storage capacity. Active people need more fuel, so active bodies adapt by increasing the capacity to store glycogen, leading to temporary fluid gain. So you lose fat, but the progress you make is masked by water weight gain. You may have lost 2 pounds of fat the past week but gained a few pounds of glycogen or fluid in that time. In sum, stay off the scale and allow your body to work through the changes it's experiencing. Measure your progress by the looseness of your clothing, not by some arbitrary scale number.

It took me more than 7 months to lose 60 pounds. To put that in perspective, in 2 months you've lost the same amount of weight that it took me over 7 months to lose. You're doing wonderfully. Learn to adjust your expectations to match reality. Good luck to you.

I'm 2.5 years out and can tolerate bread, rice and pasta wonderfully. In fact, I can tolerate the aforementioned foods too wonderfully...in the context of being able to eat nearly unlimited quantities of bread, rice and pasta without ever feeling full. Starches spell WEIGHT REGAIN for the majority of sleeve and bypass patients, so just because we can eat them doesn't necessarily mean we should. Good luck to you.

Liquids don't challenge the sleeve, so you won't feel full with them. There's no accurate way to determine your sleeve's size until you're eating solid protein (read: chicken, pork chops, steak). For many sleevers, pureed food doesn't even challenge the sleeve because these foods have been altered to a thickened liquid consistency. Good luck to you.

Firstly, does your plan require you to count calories? My plan never required calorie-counting. The theory is that your daily caloric intake will be reasonable if you always prioritize protein. The only thing I ever counted was protein grams. In addition, it's almost a certainty that you didn't reach 300+ pounds by eating 900 calories a day. 900 calories daily is an intake at which most obese people lose weight. In other words, don't worry too much at this point. Trust the process. The weight will come off. Stay off the scale, and good luck to you.

You can't compare your rate of weight loss to others... What was your starting weight? Typically, the lower your starting weight, the slower your rate of weight loss is. I had also lost about 19 pounds at 6 weeks out. With the exception of the first 2 months, all of my monthly losses had been single digit (1 to 7 pounds a month). It took me 17 months to lose 100 pounds. Although I was a slow loser, I'm dancing on a cloud because this is the first realistic chance I have of keeping the weight off. You see, it doesn't matter how rapidly or slowly you lose. What really matters is keeping it off for life. What's the point of losing 30+ pounds a month like a house on fire, only to regain a couple of years from now? Good luck to you.

Liquids are incapable of stretching the stomach, ever. Liquids do not remain in our stomachs long enough to do any damage. They quickly enter the small intestine via the pyloric valve at the bottom of the sleeved stomach. The only way a sleeved stomach can stretch is by continually overeating past one's limits over a prolonged period of time (read: overeating daily for several months in a row).

From a nutritional standpoint, Clif Builder's Protein bars are truly worse than most protein shakes. Clif bars contain a whopping 20+ grams of sugar per serving. If I'm going to eat that much sugar, I'd rather eat a Snickers bar and actually feel as if I'm indulging.

That's a splendid idea...but I don't count carbs or fat grams.

McDonalds: the McDouble burger without the bun (230 calories, 23 grams protein) Chick Fil-A chicken strips, 3 pieces: 360 calories, 36 grams protein McDonalds egg McMuffin: 290 calories, 18 grams protein 1 5-ounce can of tuna: 120 calories, 22 grams of protein 1 scrambled egg with 3 turkey bacon strips: 160 calories, 12 grams of protein

Have you tried the Citracal Petites? They're smaller pills than the regular Citracal. I also like the Calcet Lemon Creamy Bites, although these tend to run out quickly and end up on back-order with retailers. https://www.amazon.com/Calcet-Lemon-Calcium-Citrate-Creamy/dp/B003AL6LWW https://www.citracal.com/calcium-products/petites.php

I wore a size 20 on the day I was sleeved. By the time I reached goal I was wearing a size 2 to size 4 depending on the clothing designer or manufacturer.

You didn't need to tell your supervisors about your bariatric surgery in the first place... When you requested time off, you could have mentioned you were having an elective surgical procedure and left it at that. They legally aren't required to know any more info than that. Well, now that the information about your bariatric surgery has been potentially leaked to those who have no need to know, perhaps it will keep you accountable. Good luck to you.

Of course you won't need to eat small portions forever. Of course you'll be able to eat potatoes, pasta, baked goods and other carbs. However, do you want to end up like Carnie Wilson? She's the celebrity who regained two-thirds of her weight after having lost 150+ pounds with gastric bypass. Yes, you can eat larger portions and simple carbs as time passes. But do you value life as a healthy normal-weight person more than the ability to eat the starchy crap that probably fattened you up in the first place? The choice is yours. Good luck to you.

Yes, I did. I began to believe I was one of the few people who wouldn't see results with bariatric surgery. However, I focused on the positive aspects. While I could lose massive amounts of weight prior to surgery, I always regained it all plus more. Surgery offered the only hope of keeping whatever weight I lost off for good. Now, my slow weight loss phase is water under the bridge. I have no regrets about undergoing surgery and only wish the gastric sleeve was more popular a decade ago.

I am 2.5 years out and was a slower loser...to provide some context, it took me 17+ months to lose 100 lbs whereas a few others have lost that amount of weight in 3 months. Nobody gives a rat's ass how slowly or quickly we lose except for us. It's the final result that matters: achieving our goal weight and maintaining it for life. Good luck to everyone.

You're going to pay whether you have the surgery or not... If you don't have bariatric surgery, you'll probably accrue $100,000+ in medical bills with a future heart attack, stroke, knee replacement, or plenty of dialysis chair time. If you have bariatric surgery, you'll pay for the surgery itself or the insurance co-pay, but you'll probably avoid a $100,000 stay in the hospital intensive care unit.

NSV stands for non-scale victory. These include walking or running or climbing stairs without becoming breathless, fitting comfortably into airline seats, wearing smaller clothing sizes, resolution of health problems, etc.

You have a point, but the carbs in yogurt are not derived from white flour... Some people are more carb-sensitive than others. The original poster stated she's only lost 2 pounds since surgery. Perhaps removing crackers from the diet may help. That's all.

You're being vague when describing your food choices, but the mere mention of oyster crackers jumped out like a sore thumb. Many of us who are/were obese remain in perpetual fat-storage mode when we don't curtail our carb intake. For some, carbs stimulate a continual stream of insulin production, thereby preventing stored body fat from being burned. The end result is you don't lose weight. Here's another way of approaching the topic...carbs are the easiest, preferred fuel/energy source for your body. Therefore, why would your body expend precious effort metabolizing your stored body fat when it is getting all the energy it needs from any carbs you may be feeding it? My advice is to curtail your carb intake ASAP. Even a few oyster crackers need to go. Good luck to you.

I resumed fully caffeinated coffee at 2 months post-op. The rationale for avoiding coffee during the first month out is the acidity: coffee is very acidic and may irritate or interfere with your new sleeve's healing process.

I'm more than 2 years out... The first (and only) time I vomited was at 13 months out...yes, 1 year post-op. By the way, the vomiting was self-induced because I ate something that resulted in severe colicky pain.

The majority of obese people have hiatal hernias and many don't even know it... A hiatal hernia repair is an easy fix that takes a few seconds, apparently. According to my surgeon, my hiatal hernia repair added a whopping 90 seconds to my overall sleeve surgery time.

My rate of weight loss didn't slow down because it was slow from the beginning. For instance, you lost 54 pounds in 3 months, whereas it took me 6 months to lose 53.5 pounds. In 3 months you've lost more pounds than I'd lost in 6 months.