Rainbow_Warrior

Yeah ... nice to have to tighten the band or to put more holes in a belt.
I also like that my business shirts are "swimming" on me ... very loose ... and the necks are so loose ... 5cm (two inches) or more too large now.

Yes ... a lovely feeling.
I have been able to buy a handful of items off the rack since May this year and I will be looking forward to more in the new year ... my winter clothes will need an upgrade ...
Winter clothes here (Australia) are required mid June to mid August (daytimes) and late May to mid-September (evenings).

Not far from Newcastle NSW, @elcee.
Had my VSG 368 days ago ... one year anniversary last Friday.
What are your key questions?

For me, almost any food.
Nothing known yet that I can't eat after one year.
I drink "shiploads" more Water.
My meals these days fit in a bowl or a side plate.
If I eat out, I make sure I take a couple of ziplock bags or a tight-lidded "chinese" container. I inevitably cannot eat a main meal in one go any more.
I usually order an entree only if the choices are suitable.

Yesterday my wife and I went to a play and I was sitting next to her and someone else and I just...sat in the chair. Didn’t have to worry about spilling over into the stranger’s chair. Is that how it is for most of the population?

Yes ... almost exactly my (male) experience.
* Down to just one medication now ... apixaban/Eloquis ... and that won't change any time soon
* My knees and ankles appreciate that I've shed more than a third of my mass/weight in 52 weeks
* Yep ... the bath-sheet is too big now when it would not quite go around me 15 months ago. A regular-sized towel is enough to dry me adequately after a bath or shower or time in the pool.
* Aeroplane and bus seats have room left-over
* My driving position in the car is not cramped by my obesity like 12-25 months ago. My seat belt is NOT all the way extended as in the past.
* My shirts/tops are down from Australian 8XL/9XL (USA 5XL) to 2XL/XL (USA XL). Ditto underpants ... from 7XL to 2XL now.
* My slacks/trousers are down from 177cm/172cm [about 70 inches] waist to 122cm/117cm range [about 45 inches]
I gave away 19 shopping bags of "super big" clothes and 22 pairs of slacks/trousers to the charity shop in the last few months.
Once the plastic surgeon removes my excess skin before xmas 2019, I expect to shed another two to three pants sizes.
I also noticed that my feet lose weight/width proportionately with my upper body. I no longer need 4E shoe widths. I can get by with E or 2E in leather shoes and regular joggers/trainers/tennis-shoes.

Yes ... almost exactly my (male) experience.
* Down to just one medication now ... apixaban/Eloquis ... and that won't change any time soon
* My knees and ankles appreciate that I've shed more than a third of my mass/weight in 52 weeks
* Yep ... the bath-sheet is too big now when it would not quite go around me 15 months ago. A regular-sized towel is enough to dry me adequately after a bath or shower or time in the pool.
* Aeroplane and bus seats have room left-over
* My driving position in the car is not cramped by my obesity like 12-25 months ago. My seat belt is NOT all the way extended as in the past.
* My shirts/tops are down from Australian 8XL/9XL (USA 5XL) to 2XL/XL (USA XL). Ditto underpants ... from 7XL to 2XL now.
* My slacks/trousers are down from 177cm/172cm [about 70 inches] waist to 122cm/117cm range [about 45 inches]
I gave away 19 shopping bags of "super big" clothes and 22 pairs of slacks/trousers to the charity shop in the last few months.
Once the plastic surgeon removes my excess skin before xmas 2019, I expect to shed another two to three pants sizes.
I also noticed that my feet lose weight/width proportionately with my upper body. I no longer need 4E shoe widths. I can get by with E or 2E in leather shoes and regular joggers/trainers/tennis-shoes.

Yes ... almost exactly my (male) experience.
* Down to just one medication now ... apixaban/Eloquis ... and that won't change any time soon
* My knees and ankles appreciate that I've shed more than a third of my mass/weight in 52 weeks
* Yep ... the bath-sheet is too big now when it would not quite go around me 15 months ago. A regular-sized towel is enough to dry me adequately after a bath or shower or time in the pool.
* Aeroplane and bus seats have room left-over
* My driving position in the car is not cramped by my obesity like 12-25 months ago. My seat belt is NOT all the way extended as in the past.
* My shirts/tops are down from Australian 8XL/9XL (USA 5XL) to 2XL/XL (USA XL). Ditto underpants ... from 7XL to 2XL now.
* My slacks/trousers are down from 177cm/172cm [about 70 inches] waist to 122cm/117cm range [about 45 inches]
I gave away 19 shopping bags of "super big" clothes and 22 pairs of slacks/trousers to the charity shop in the last few months.
Once the plastic surgeon removes my excess skin before xmas 2019, I expect to shed another two to three pants sizes.
I also noticed that my feet lose weight/width proportionately with my upper body. I no longer need 4E shoe widths. I can get by with E or 2E in leather shoes and regular joggers/trainers/tennis-shoes.

At a trade show this week. Usually miserable with sore feet and back. I'm 100% fine this year. Younger and skinnier people were complaining how much they hurt, no idea how I had no pain at all!

I can understand that.
Mentally and job-wise, I feel like the same person I was a year ago ... competent, capable, busy, etc ... BUT NOW NO UNDERLYING WAY FOR CLIENTS AND COLLEAGUES to assume I am a lesser person BECAUSE I am now much closer to "normal" size.
It should NOT happen but people do treat me better now than a year or two years ago. As I shrink month by month, I am very aware of just how much verbal and visual discrimination there is targeted at FAT/OBESE people ... much of it by people who are themselves increasingly oversized or overweight compared to a generation (or two) ago.
Physically, of course, I feel like a legend ... I can breathe really well. I am quite fit as, between two to three hours per day (seven days per week) of swimming and three 90 minutes (or longer) gym sessions per week, I am stronger, better balanced and quite muscly.
Many of my bones now appear "at the surface" of my skin. I have some quite hard upper body muscles and a very hard, strong chest.
I am off all but one medication and will be looking to steadily stabilise my mass/weight between 84 and 89 kilograms (185-195 pounds). The surgeon says he will put together a plastic surgery team in 10-12 months to remove my loose abdominal skin and some remaining stubborn "hard" fat.

Yes ... almost exactly my (male) experience.
* Down to just one medication now ... apixaban/Eloquis ... and that won't change any time soon
* My knees and ankles appreciate that I've shed more than a third of my mass/weight in 52 weeks
* Yep ... the bath-sheet is too big now when it would not quite go around me 15 months ago. A regular-sized towel is enough to dry me adequately after a bath or shower or time in the pool.
* Aeroplane and bus seats have room left-over
* My driving position in the car is not cramped by my obesity like 12-25 months ago. My seat belt is NOT all the way extended as in the past.
* My shirts/tops are down from Australian 8XL/9XL (USA 5XL) to 2XL/XL (USA XL). Ditto underpants ... from 7XL to 2XL now.
* My slacks/trousers are down from 177cm/172cm [about 70 inches] waist to 122cm/117cm range [about 45 inches]
I gave away 19 shopping bags of "super big" clothes and 22 pairs of slacks/trousers to the charity shop in the last few months.
Once the plastic surgeon removes my excess skin before xmas 2019, I expect to shed another two to three pants sizes.
I also noticed that my feet lose weight/width proportionately with my upper body. I no longer need 4E shoe widths. I can get by with E or 2E in leather shoes and regular joggers/trainers/tennis-shoes.

Yes ... almost exactly my (male) experience.
* Down to just one medication now ... apixaban/Eloquis ... and that won't change any time soon
* My knees and ankles appreciate that I've shed more than a third of my mass/weight in 52 weeks
* Yep ... the bath-sheet is too big now when it would not quite go around me 15 months ago. A regular-sized towel is enough to dry me adequately after a bath or shower or time in the pool.
* Aeroplane and bus seats have room left-over
* My driving position in the car is not cramped by my obesity like 12-25 months ago. My seat belt is NOT all the way extended as in the past.
* My shirts/tops are down from Australian 8XL/9XL (USA 5XL) to 2XL/XL (USA XL). Ditto underpants ... from 7XL to 2XL now.
* My slacks/trousers are down from 177cm/172cm [about 70 inches] waist to 122cm/117cm range [about 45 inches]
I gave away 19 shopping bags of "super big" clothes and 22 pairs of slacks/trousers to the charity shop in the last few months.
Once the plastic surgeon removes my excess skin before xmas 2019, I expect to shed another two to three pants sizes.
I also noticed that my feet lose weight/width proportionately with my upper body. I no longer need 4E shoe widths. I can get by with E or 2E in leather shoes and regular joggers/trainers/tennis-shoes.

Yes ... almost exactly my (male) experience.
* Down to just one medication now ... apixaban/Eloquis ... and that won't change any time soon
* My knees and ankles appreciate that I've shed more than a third of my mass/weight in 52 weeks
* Yep ... the bath-sheet is too big now when it would not quite go around me 15 months ago. A regular-sized towel is enough to dry me adequately after a bath or shower or time in the pool.
* Aeroplane and bus seats have room left-over
* My driving position in the car is not cramped by my obesity like 12-25 months ago. My seat belt is NOT all the way extended as in the past.
* My shirts/tops are down from Australian 8XL/9XL (USA 5XL) to 2XL/XL (USA XL). Ditto underpants ... from 7XL to 2XL now.
* My slacks/trousers are down from 177cm/172cm [about 70 inches] waist to 122cm/117cm range [about 45 inches]
I gave away 19 shopping bags of "super big" clothes and 22 pairs of slacks/trousers to the charity shop in the last few months.
Once the plastic surgeon removes my excess skin before xmas 2019, I expect to shed another two to three pants sizes.
I also noticed that my feet lose weight/width proportionately with my upper body. I no longer need 4E shoe widths. I can get by with E or 2E in leather shoes and regular joggers/trainers/tennis-shoes.

I had my eleven-month checkup on September 10th ... recorded 114.3 kg (252 pounds or 18 stones).
I started with pre-op Protein Shakes on July 17th, 2017 at 174.6 kg (384.93 pounds or 27.49 stones).
That's a drop of 60.3 kilograms all up (132.94 pounds or 9.5 stones).
When operated upon, Thursday 12th October last year, I was 160.4 kg (353.62 pounds or 25.26 stones).
So the TOTAL POST-OP LOSS IS A LESSER AMOUNT of 46.1 kilograms in 48 weeks (101.63 pounds or 7.26 stones) ... a very acceptable loss average of a nudge over two pounds per week.
I am very pleased with this ... and despite recriminations or guilt about the things I could have done better or more consistently, I'm in a FAR, FAR BETTER PLACE than the hard-breathing, morbidly obese lump I was back then.

Contrasting over 11.5 months.
First pic in red beanie is from mid-May 2017 ... five months before surgery and about 177kg (390 pounds). BMI = 57.13
Second pic from less than two weeks ago (i.e late April) ... six and a bit months post surgery ... at 131kg (289 pounds) & BMI 42.3.
The two pics were taken on the same verandah less than a metre apart 11.5 months time-lapse. Interesting that I happened to be wearing the same sports pullover/top both days. (There's a 'shipload' of spare space in that top now!)

So true.
I started with minimal (safe) exercise after surgery (on Oct 12th 2017). By the end of November, my daily swim had progressed from ten laps of a 25m heated indoor pool to swimming 125 minutes and chest-deep wading about 45 to 75 minutes (dependent on time available, work, etc.)
I also do gym for 90 minutes three days per week (after starting out with just three or four stations for a total of 15 minutes).
Little things: I park the car on the far side of the supermarket car-park so that I get an extra slab of incidental walking. I park at least one block from the cafe/diner (unless it's raining).
I try to eat under 1000 calories on at least four days per week (but I don't stress if the exercise makes me hungrier). I still try to eat 45% to 65% of my calories in Protein rich foods.

I referred last year to my need to feel more comfortable driving my car.
Back then, my gut/stomach was just 5mm to 7mm (under half an inch) away from the steering wheel.
Well, thanks to a smaller arse/backside, I have moved my seat about 40mm (1.5") closer to the steering wheel ... but the gap is out to 155mm (6.5") or more.
I'm really enjoying being sleeved!

Can I respectfully suggest that you go to the pool now?
"Why?" you might ask.
Well, I tried walking and gyms when I was over 400 pounds. I tried all manner of exercise ... but my joints, especially my knees and ankles were under too much stress.
Someone suggested the pool. I worked up the courage and bought 9XL swim shorts and a 7XL rash vest (so no-one would see my rolls of fat) and headed down at 5am one morning.
It works. No joint stress while you're floating or wading.
The lap-swimmers were amused the first couple of times but I kept coming back and they egged me on. Some of them became great encouragement over the last two years.
The best part is, despite the initial fear, I have enormous lung capacity now. I can swim nearly three times as fast as I used to in 2015.
And now, it's a great assistance post-op in keeping my shrinking mass somewhat firmer. Swimming is a good fitness choice.

Having dropped from 7XL or 8XL shirts/tops to XL or 2XL in the last 11 months, I certainly appreciate that I now pay $7.95 for a rash vest or t-shirt rather than $29.95.
I know being ultra-large used a lot more lycra or cotton but I am pleased about the 65% price saving on many common items.

Can I respectfully suggest that you go to the pool now?
"Why?" you might ask.
Well, I tried walking and gyms when I was over 400 pounds. I tried all manner of exercise ... but my joints, especially my knees and ankles were under too much stress.
Someone suggested the pool. I worked up the courage and bought 9XL swim shorts and a 7XL rash vest (so no-one would see my rolls of fat) and headed down at 5am one morning.
It works. No joint stress while you're floating or wading.
The lap-swimmers were amused the first couple of times but I kept coming back and they egged me on. Some of them became great encouragement over the last two years.
The best part is, despite the initial fear, I have enormous lung capacity now. I can swim nearly three times as fast as I used to in 2015.
And now, it's a great assistance post-op in keeping my shrinking mass somewhat firmer. Swimming is a good fitness choice.

FFS, he's just making the point that he wants EQUALITY of sensitivity and, in future events, a respect of his right to NOT believe in a deity (or deities).

I referred last year to my need to feel more comfortable driving my car.
Back then, my gut/stomach was just 5mm to 7mm (under half an inch) away from the steering wheel.
Well, thanks to a smaller arse/backside, I have moved my seat about 40mm (1.5") closer to the steering wheel ... but the gap is out to 155mm (6.5") or more.
I'm really enjoying being sleeved!

Yes, I looked forward to leaving 7XL and 6XL shirts, 66-inch waist work-slacks and 9X track-pants behind.
Today is 35 weeks since surgery. 47 kg (104 pounds) lighter.
I'm wearing 2XL and some XL shirts/polos. My slacks are 48-inch waist. I'm in 4X track-pants. My shoes are looser on my feet.
I used to be 15mm from belly to bottom of my car steering-wheel. (Half an inch for American readers.)
Now I am 155mm (6.5") from flatter belly to the steering-wheel (and because of my smaller arse, my seat is a few notches closer to the front of the car too).

2 kg the first two weeks (or 4 pounds 5 ounces).
Stop worrying.
Once your stitches/holes have healed and you eat to your plan and start daily exercise, a good trend usually begins.
I'm 8.5 months post-op and not concerned that I have occasional "flat" weeks. The trend s good.

2 kg the first two weeks (or 4 pounds 5 ounces).
Stop worrying.
Once your stitches/holes have healed and you eat to your plan and start daily exercise, a good trend usually begins.
I'm 8.5 months post-op and not concerned that I have occasional "flat" weeks. The trend s good.