disneyfan1116

I was BMI 30-31 when I signed up for surgery, and 29 on Day of Surgery.
3 months later I'm down 35 lbs and feeling great. 20lbs or so to goal.
From my perspective your doc is right - high Protein, low carb, no sugar, small portions of quality diverse nutritious food (weigh and track all your meals) and some exercise and the weight should fall off.
I feel that this was the right decision for me and so far..would not discourage other Low BMIers... though to be honest, the proof will lie in my ability to get to goal and to stay there. I'm optimistic because this has really changed my relationship with food. I used to be all about the huge portions, now I am satisfied with much less. That was my main motivation to do this - I needed help with Portion Control. That is much harder to do without the surgery without being hungry all the time.
Definitely experienced some judgment from those with higher BMIs in the hospital and on forums (i didn't tell anyone else except mother and partner) - but we must each walk our own paths. In fact, at the hospital, the doctor who performed the surgery on me said to me afterward that my stomach was surprisingly large - the same size as someone much bigger than I actually was at the time - and so he was not surprised that I had extreme trouble keeping my weight down. I did feel a little vindicated at that.
The first month was rough, I cannot lie. Really hard. Be prepared.
Now though, I feel great.
The only physical side effects have been an increase in GERD symptoms like acid reflux and heartburn, which is a little annoying as I did not have these problems before. Mentally I was very emotional for the first few months. All in all its been worth it for me so far, but check in again a few years out to see if I am still saying that Maintainance is probably more challenging than losing!

So-- I have lost 70 pounds now and four sizes, and apart from my husband, mother, and brother/sister-in-law, nobody-- not one person!-- has made a comment about it. Not even a vague "looking good". It is so bizarre to me! I still have 40-50 pounds to go, but I see a huge difference when I look in the mirror.
Did this happen to anyone else? I know this is not why I had surgery, I'm not in it for the glory or vanity, but... weird, no? I thought someone would have noticed and/or suspected something by now...

I haven't told anyone but my immediate family about my surgery so personally I haven't had many of those comments. But I know others who have
Mainly people seem to think that surgery is "cheating" that you could have just exercised and ate less and that was it. Well that doesn't work for everyone. There are people who can do that and be successful long term, but most people can't. How many of us have cut calories, exercised,starved ourselves, only to have lost just a few pounds.
Surgery is just another tool in the battle to loose weight. All the surgery did was change the shape of my stomach. I still decide what goes in my stomach, and I still have to choose to exercise. I can be bad and eat junk post surgery and gain weight, or I can be good and follow the plan and loose weight. The surgery was just a bit of help, most of the work is still up to me

And at 286 pounds you look unhealthy now.

Yes I know and I'm bi racial and 29 was wondering about hair loss with my type of hair?
Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App
I have curly hair that's full was wondering if Hair loss would be noticeable
Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

I tried changing what I was eating rather than the amount of calories I was eating... I am allowed grains (via crackers) - so I gave up the crackers I and dropped to 171.6 in 2 days... however, 2 days later I was back at 173.2 so obviously I am still doing something wrong. I drink 101.4 ounces of Water a day, plus 1 cup of hot tea with Splenda - I do the 10 minute workout and then I (usually) walk 3 miles (some days I skip the walk if I don't have time in the morning or if I know I will be getting lots of steps in without it later in the day) followed by enough steps the rest of the day to have walked a total of 5 to 8 miles - and I have done other exercise as well this week - roller skating... swimming... (it's summer and I have out of town family here so we have been doing all kinds of stuff). I think I am not getting enough Protein, so I am going to increase my protein and decrease my veggies for the rest of the week (I would give up my blackberries - but my NUT and my doc encourage me to use them as my go-to snack because they tend to keep me "regular").