Gabbee

Girl, you’re doing great! I totally hear you and it feels like it’s taking forever for me too and I’m always stalling but I’ve started measuring my success using different metrics: how long I can run for, how many squats, how weight I can lift. That gets me through the stalls!! I started at 222lbs and currently at 167lbs at 8 months post op. 55 lbs in 8 months may not seem like a lot but you know what? Ive never been able to do this before and I feel freaking great! So I’ll take it! We got this! [emoji1434]

A bit of inspiration for the gym tomorrow! I have this printed and posted on my wall. Every time I think about skipping the gym I look at this and decide to suck it up and go even if it’s just for 20 minutes. I find that once I’m there it’s easier to get through it and find the motivation!

I'm 6 months post op and have been dealing with a really annoying stall forever. I'm not complaining because at least it's not moving up but I've been working out almost every day and eating pretty well—I average ~1,000 calories and ~100g of protein/day following a mostly keto diet, though if I wanted to I could certainly eat more. I feel satisfied but not restricted and I tolerate literally EVERYTHING. Anyway, I just hired an INCREDIBLE trainer that Im really excited about! She is a world champion athlete, has a SOLID reputation, and a background in nutrition. She was honest with me that she isn't super versed in bariatric patients. My Dr.'s staff hasn't given me great info regarding nutrition either so I'm kind of on my own there. I will be doing intense physical activity 5 days a week and my trainer wants me to try to eat 1,600 calories/day. How in the world I'm going to fit all that in? I don't know! She told me to try having more frequent meals, like 8 per day. She's also changing up my macros drastically, at least for the first 2 weeks, by reducing fat intake and upping my complex carbs: 1,600 calories, 140g protein, 180 carbs, 36g of fat. Has anyone started a rigorous workout regime a few months out from surgery? Were you able to eat enough calories to sustain it? And most importantly, should I even be eating more carbs than protein? I'm like, scared to mess around with that stuff now! lol Thanks for any advice you can offer!

@gotpractinoma, congrats to you! It feels so good to shed the constant self doubt and to finally feel proud of ourselves for doing it, doesn’t it? Regarding your stall, I’d actually encourage you to eat MORE calories, not less. It took me awhile to accept it but it did help with my stalls. I’m currently eating ~1,500 calories (on days when I work out, which is most days) and that is 100 cals less than my trainer and dr told me to eat. It’s just hard to get that much food in my sleeve! This means I eat every 2.5hrs or so. Here’s a sample menu of what I eat on a workout day: Breakfast: 1 egg, 2 egg whites scrambled with some veggies (peppers, onions, spinach, w/e I have) 1 cup of fairlife milk 2% fat in my coffee (which I take all morning to drink) Snack: Cheese string if Im still full, cottage cheese and strawbery if Im hungry Lunch: 2 oz lean ground turkey 2 oz of boiled japanese sweet potatos (my trainer swears by these as the best source of good carbs and they are absolutely delish. I eat them a few times a day) 1 oz of a veggie or salad PM snack 1: Sargento snack tray (my favorites!) Pre-workout: Blended shake that consists of: 1 oz boiled japanese sweet potato (sounds weird but it makes my drink sweeter and SO CREAMY!) 1 scoop of whey Protein (I use gold standard) Something for flavor. I alternate between fresh strawberies and a scoop of PB2 (tastes like a snickers milkshake to me!) Post workout: 1 Premier Protein shake Dinner: 2-2.5 oz of chicken breast 2 oz of carb (sweet potato, brown rice) I usually complement with whatever macro it looks like Im short on. Fried egg over my rice if i need more protein and fat, starchy veggie if i need more carb. Maybe even a protein Water to drink with it. Pm Snack 2: Something light. String cheese or boiled egg. This is the hardest time not to binge for me and I often crave sweets so when I do I curb them by eating a few banana chips. By the the way, do you have a trainer? They should be able to calculate your metabolic rate based on your weight, height, and activity levels and make a recommendation of calorie and macros intake you can bring back to your doctor to get their opinion on. Thats how I landed on mine: 1,600 cals, 150 protein, 80 carbs, 50 fat.

Hi there! My starting weight was 222lbs and I’m 5’4’’. My goal is to be in a healthy bmi so around 135-140lbs but since I’m also lifting and gaining muscle I may be fine with a weight above 140lbs. Anyway, about lose skin I definitely thinks it depends a lot from person to person. I still have 30lbs to lose (51lbs down) but I can already tell my arms and legs will stay tight but my belly probably will not. My belly is also where I carry most of my weight and where I have lots of stretch marks so it makes sense.

I think you should tell her, but I also think you’ll be fine! 6 weeks quit is plenty of time, my doctor only required 4 weeks (and I struggled the first week so it was more like 3). He was ok with it and my surgery went off without a hitch! Hope your procedure is smooth and recovery is quick. See you on the other side

Thanks@travelergirl. How is your diet/workout routine going? I’m also working out with my trainer 3x/wk and another 3x by myself. I have to say I am absolutely amazed at what my body has been able to achieve so far! I went from not being able to run for more than 90 seconds to running my first mile in the span of just 2 wks! And although the scale has been moving in the right direction again (down 3 lbs in the first two weeks we trained together) the measurements have been the best part. 3 inches of belly, 2-1/2 of thighs, and 2 inches of boob GONE! It’s really hard work and I treat it like a job but for the first time in my life I am SO PROUD OF MYSELF! My trainer mentioned casually last week that she admired my strong will, I almost choked on my water? Me? Strong willed? Ha, Ive never been able to stay head strong about anything in my life. But you know what, she’s right? I’m kicking butt at this and it feels great!

Thank you so much for your input! I’ve been itching to reply all week but was having trouble logging on to BP. Anyway, I decided to follow your advice and consult with my Doctor. As I said they arent as great with giving detailed information on nutrition but this time they took their time with me on the phone and explained everything. They said if I’m going to be spending more than 300-400 calories per day on exercising (and I definitely burn 2-3x that amount accordinf to my fitbit), I definitely needed to up my calories. So they cleared me for 1,600 calories when working out,140g of protein (as long as I drink a lot of water to protect my kidneys), and the 36g of fat but said absolutely no more than 100g of carbs/day which made a lot of sense to me. My trainer said she can work with that. I’m going to try it for a week and see how that goes but will follow your advice and monitor closely. If I start to gain weight I’ll go back to keto for sure.

I’m 3 months post op and that is the only incision that still bothers me. It’s raised, hard, and slightly sore. Doc told me it may never go away completely, but that it should get better.

@Fiskgyrl, what you’re experiencing is more common that you think. I think MOST of us rejected the thought of surgery at first. Most of us were certain we would be the unlucky ones that would end up with complications. For me it just came a time when I couldn’t keep pretending I was going to lose the weight naturally anymore. I was scared but I was more scared of spending the rest of my life stuck in this fat suit. It’s been a little over a month for me and it was the best thing I could have done for myself. It was really hard for about a month, but life is totally normal now and other than eating small amounts, you wouldn’t know I had WLS. There is no shame in being afraid, and it’s ok if you’re not ready for this yet. But if you do want to go through with it, my advice is try and commit. Say “I’m doing this, I’m rocking it, and there’s no looking back”. It’ll make you so much stronger for the liquid and recovery phases. Good luck in whatever you decide [emoji173]️

Honestly I get nauseous when I don't have enough to eat, or when I go more than 3 hrs without eating. Maybe make sure you're getting enough, even if you have to force yourself a little?

I love BBQ Quest protein chips! 21g of protein in a bag and it fills me right up. It also tastes pretty darn good!

Hey all, I'm 31, always struggled with a heavy period until I placed an IUD in about 2 yrs ago. My periods immediately stopped! At most I'd spot when I was on my lady time, which I honestly loved But yesterday, bam. Period. For the first time in 2 yrs. It caught me totally off guard. I know my doctor had said rapid weight loss led to high fertility, but I have my IUD so I wasn't worried Now I'm confused. Are the changes in my flow related to the surgery? Should I be worried about the placement of my IUD? And if I'm really so fertile, should I be worried about getting pregnant even with the IUD?

Thank you all! I never thought about it before, but it makes perfect sense.

Oops! Sorry for posting this. Realizing now that there are other threads about the same thing. Sometimes the Bariatric Pal app is hard to navigate.

Hi all! I feel really dumb. I consider myself to be pretty tech savvy but cannot for the life of me connect any food trackers to my fitbit. I tried baritastic, sparkpeople, and Myfitnesspal. I did find the setting to connect on sparkpeople, but it still won't populate on the fitbit app. Frustrating. To be honest, I only like tracking my food on Baritastic. I already have a bunch of recipes saved there, and find that it's the least time consuming of the 3. So if it integrates with the fitbit, that'd be my number 1 choice. I should say, I have a fitbit blaze. Any tips would be helpful! Thank you!

Would you mind sharing some favorite bariatric friendly air fryer recipes? My mom has one and I'd love to try it before deciding if I should buy or not.

Yes! My weight loss was going great... until week 2. Hit a plateau right around week 2, and have been in it ever since. Going to be 2 weeks on Friday that I've been stuck at 200. 200!!!! Ugh!!

Hi friends, I'm 23 days post op, and started softs 2 days ago. I don't feel I have received a lot of guidance from my dr's on portion sizes at this stage. They told me to consume between 80-100g of protein per day, have 2 shakes a day, and that I'd probably only be able to eat between 6-8 bites per meal, maybe "half of that if eating dense protein". Well, I can easily eat 2oz of lean protein and 2 oz of something else (cheese, mashed sweet potato, whatever). I see here people having a hard time eating 1/4 C of food and it makes me worried that I'm eating too much. Is it that I'm measuring by weight and folks are measuring by volume? Is there a better portion size by weight i should be aiming for? For breakfast today I had a whole egg cup (http://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/recipes/amp50901/ham-cheese-egg-cups-recipe/). I ate super slowly, chewed well, and when I was done I wasn't stuffed, just satisfied. 12 g of protein from food to start the day. I was pretty proud of myself. I haven't had a negative reaction to anything I've eaten so far. Is this ok, or should I be eating less? What are other folks doing at this stage? I totally can eat less if I have to. I just dont know if I should be aiming for that. I'd love to get more and more protein from food and leave the protein supplements behind, but I know that takes time and am willing to do whatever will set me up for long term success.

Thank you, ladies! This is super helpful! I guess I was eating tok much, as I suspected. I'm going to cut back down to 2 oz of dense protein but glad to know my new pouch is not overly sensitive!

Hey all, I can't stand store bought broth so I have always made my own at home. I usually just count it as the same nutritional value as store broth, but I've recently started to do this really concentrated broth that I know has a much higher protein content. Here's how it's made: How should I count that towards my protein totals?

Hi friends, Need advice from those of you farther out than me. I'm going on a work conference a little over a month from now. I'll be there for 4 days, and meals will be provided by the hotel. My organization is great, and are more than willing to make accommodations if needed. I just don't know what to ask for or what I'll be eating by then! What were you mostly eating at 10 weeks out? What should I request? I'm flying in a few days early to visit a friend and that will give me a chance to purchase a few things like protein shakes, cheese sticks, etc. I'll also request a mini fridge and microwave when checking in to the hotel. Any other tips?

Such great advice and tips!! Thank you all. I've also sent a request to HR to see the meal menus ahead of time. That way I can decide whether to eat whatever I brought in my room or come down to eat with the group. Just crossing my fingers I tolerate food well by then!

Do they feel like spasms? I definitely had those the first week post op, and they were painful and made me not want to drink my fluids. Although they'd happen when I wasn't drinking too! I told my dr at the 1 wk appt and he prescribed me an anti spasmodic called Bentyl. I took it for 2 days and felt infinitely better!

How long are you staying in the hospital for? My surgery was outpatient, so I was home the same day. I absolutely needed help getting in and out of bed (it's painful to use your abs at first), and up and down from the recliner. I'm single too but luckily my mom is around and supportive so she stayed with me he first 3 days. After that I was much more independent!