aNYCdb

As I recall the predominant flavors were lemongrass, ginger, and some sort of Thai chili and coconut (in that order)

At 208 and 1,200 calories a day you should be losing weight even if you weren't running, especially over that period of time. I have no reason to doubt you but is it possible that you are really consuming more calories than you think? Alternatively have you had yourself tested to establish you base metabolic rate (how many calories you burn at rest). Without knowing these answers I can only suggest that whatever you are doing with your diet try doing something different. If you are currently high protein low carb add more carbs, if you are more balanced try keto or paleo.

Obviously insurance only wants to pay for surgery if you are morbidly obese, there is not getting around that. That said gastric sleeve is pretty low on the long term side effects scale so the chances of needing additional surgery and being denied are similarly low, its a question of personal risk vs reward.

Food takes 3.5 days to pass through your system, but regardless you can't truly gain 3 pounds in a day. If you are on your diet plan then you are losing weight. Try not to pay so much attention to the quirks of the scale.

The answer is that it depends, some people who lose 200 pounds will wind up with little loose skin while others that lose 50 will need/want surgery. Everyone's skin elasticity is different. The only general rule is that the younger you are the more elastic you skin is. Part of the problem with answering this question is that you don't really wind up with loose skin you wind up with skin that is being stretched by your remaining fat the problem is its not really possible to get rid of all of your fat. The closest analogy I would have is that of a water balloon. While you can drain 50% of the water out of the balloon the remaining 50% will keep the balloon from going back to its original shape. The issue is that some people have skin that is able to shrink to encompass the remaining water only while others the weight of the water will pull on the skin effectively leaving space.

Have you tried making peanut butter from the dried peanut powder? While its definately not the high fat peanut butter you may be used to I've found it gives me my PB fix (and helps reduce the sweetness of my protein shakes).

I'm pretty sure they teach them that joke in med school.

1) It depends on the insurance company, but generally you don't want to be gaining weight at any point during the process (different companies may have different thresholds, for example mine was no more than 2 pound weight gain). 2) Requests for approval is usually submitted when all of your requirements are completed, which is usually after your final weigh-in/nutrition class (because they take the most time). When you say pre-op testing I'm not sure what specifically you are referring too. If you are talking about like preop bloodwork then that could be before or after approval request. If you are talking about things like pulmonology, cardiology, sleep study, stress test, PFT, etc (obviously you may not have to do many of these) then approval isn't usually submitted until they are all complete. 4) Of course they can, but since you usually needed them to sign off on the referral for surgery it usually isn't an issue. If you foresee it being an issue then address it with them now, and if necessary change PCPs.

Salt and lime, I don't see why not.

I believe its "Beauty & Light," but I don't have any experience with them.

My understanding is that NSAIDs are off the table from about a week before surgery till about a month after. You should talk to your doctor about specifically what they require.

I think it depends on what your job entails and how well you handle pain. I had surgery on a Thursday and was back to work (remote) on Monday and back to the office (and train commute) the following monday (10 days). I think most people are feeling back to 90% or so in a week or two. Being a nurse though I would think that potential for having to lift people or do other strenuous things might mean you need to stay out longer to avoid the increased risk of a hernia.

I have to admit I was expecting something like this...

Congrats, that's awesome!!!

I was too cheap for quarters.