izzit2017

sorry - I thought I'd responded to this, but now I don't see my response. I did it from my phone, so maybe something got screwed up. Anyway, I'm not sure about the rationale for this, I was just told not to take anything in Gummy form. I assume it's either an absorption issue or they might not have everything in them that we need - I'm not sure. But I do know a lot of people's surgeons don't recommend them.

Dear Pamcalma, hv a good talk with your Dietitian.

Its the perseverance tat matters, your body will ultimately submit and start burning as long as you dont give up. focus on your goal...

The rest of the forum folks are not judging you
But pointing out areas you might miss out...

Stay positive ya! ultimately, the "battle" is between you and your body (head hunger/refused to burn fat etc)

My advice is to seek the professional help of a counselor or therapist...
Emotional eating and soothing oneself with food are behaviors that don't simply disappear after bariatric surgery.
Once the stomach relaxes enough to accommodate more food, people with a history of emotional history often end up posting, "Oh my gosh! I need help losing this 50 pounds I regained!"
Having bariatric surgery with the hope that your preexisting eating issues will magically disappear is unrealistic.
Those who have bariatric surgery must put in tough work in order to succeed. For some, it means tackling serious psychological aspects of why they overeat (e.g., emotional overeating, binge eating disorder, food addiction, stress).
I'd say 90+ percent of success after bariatric surgery is psychological. Basically, the head of a person who has undergone surgery must be in the right place to succeed.
Bariatric patients who don't utilize more adaptive mechanisms to cope with emotions often regain weight due to using food for purposes other than intended.

It was something made up on the Internet to sell products/services. People falsely claim that going back to consuming liquids only for 5 days will shrink your pouch, which is medically impossible.

Another thing to note....

As we lose weight, we need fewer calories just for subsistence. Phrased another way, a 300lb body burns more calories just existing than a 100lb body.

If you consistently eat, say 1000 calories a day, you may lose 3-4lbs a week at the start. Eating the SAME calories three months later when you weigh 50lbs less your weight loss will slow.

Thanks! Greatly appreciate your explaination, very enlightening indeed

It's funny reading something I wrote only a couple months ago, and I would say something a bit different now.
You are right.. the losses preop have little to do with the success/failure of the surgery. I think I was going to say that the losses preop could predict the RATE of loss postop. Oops, my bad.
There is a line of thinking that the surgery will lower our "set points". This is a theory, there is no real way to test it. If our set points are lowered, then our bodies stop constantly trying to regain the weight... thus the losses after surgery tend to be durable.
My original response was basically saying, hey, the surgery moved your set point only so much, now it will be much harder to lose.
I think I've had a new epiphany over the last several weeks. I now think the surgery works because of the caloric restriction it permits. I'm sure there are lots of chemical/hormonal/metabolic changes as well, but those are things that we, as patients, can't control or interact directly with. So there is no point in talking about them in stall/regain posts.
The thing that causes fat loss is consuming fewer calories than we burn. It's easy to eat very few calories for the first 6 months postop. But, then our stomachs relax, we can eat more, and hunger comes back. Calories can increase, weight loss slows, then stops.
And we wonder why we haven't reached goal.
If this is true, then "set point" only means the weight that an individual carries based on their average daily intake (in relation to their metabolic rate).
So, if you want to lose more weight, you have to eat fewer calories. It's as simple as that. The trick is to still feel like you've eaten while minimizing calories. This means eating whole, unprocessed foods that have a lot of bulk and nutrition for relatively few calories.
I think my epiphany came when reading posts from patients that had surgery, then immediately were consuming maintenance-level calories (1500-2000). They didn't lose any weight. If the surgery does something really special, it wouldn't matter how many calories we ate, we'd still lose.
Ok, so with all of that.. those people that are eating very few calories and are stalling early in the process have something else going on. Their bodies are retaining Fluid. I don't know why we retain fluid (there are theories), but we do... and we can hold onto it for a couple weeks, then it'll leave with a "flush", sometimes 5lbs overnight.
The way to tell if you're just hanging onto fluid is if the scale stays the same but your clothes get looser. Also, if you are eating fewer than 1000 calories a day, I can pretty much guarantee it's fluid.
The only way I know to limit these fluid-retaining stalls is to eat more calories and exercise less. The body is less stressed and doesn't retain as much. BUT, you might be setting yourself up for poor overall losses if you do it this way.
Personally, I've eaten an average of 1100 calories since 8 weeks postop (I'm almost 8 months out now), and haven't exercised, and haven't really stalled. But, I also am not losing as quickly as someone that eats 800 calories and goes to the gym. (And since I'm not at goal yet, I can't say whether I'll even get there, or how maintenance will be. I do plan to start exercising for strength and fitness though).

Care to elaborate on the following:
“...If your weight hasn't budged in 5 months, then it sounds like you have reached your new set point...”

and

“...(Important question.. did you lose weight right before surgery? If you did, that impacts what I say next).
To be considered a medical success, you need to have lost 50% of excess weight within 18 months postop. So that would be 50lbs. Having only lost 37 this far.. if you don't lose more, then surgery DID fail you...”

I mean read so many people ‘s weight stall at first few weeks or months aft operation even they are following exactly wat was told.
How to speed up weight loss right aft operation?

If your weight hasn't budged in 5 months, then it sounds like you have reached your new set point. Going forward, weight loss will be similar to preop. Try not to fret, since you still have your sleeve to help you
From the numbers, your ideal weight is 100lbs less than your surgery weight. (Important question.. did you lose weight right before surgery? If you did, that impacts what I say next).
To be considered a medical success, you need to have lost 50% of excess weight within 18 months postop. So that would be 50lbs. Having only lost 37 this far.. if you don't lose more, then surgery DID fail you.
So let's try to get over this hump, and make it a success story. (The good news is that 208 IS a lot better than 245, so at least there's that.)
Step 1. Go back to basics. Try to prepare as much of your food at home from single-ingredient items as you can. Fast foods and processed foods are how many of us gained weight to begin with. I believe there are hunger-inducing additives in many of the products.
Step 2. Make sure you stay up on your medical stuff. If you have low thyroid levels it can cause problems with weight loss, etc.
Step 3. Count and measure everything. Try to stay around 1000-1100 calories a day, 60g Protein, lots of Water. Exercise will help at this point. No added sugar and no white flour (getting rid of those two things will basically knock most processed foods off the "ok" list).
Example meal plan:
Breakfast: 4oz cottage cheese and 4oz blueberries
Lunch: 1 egg (cooked how you like) and 3oz pinto Beans and 2T salsa
Snack: 1oz Peanut Butter on celery
Dinner: 3-4oz hamburger patty with 1/2 cup green beans or canned spinach.
Calorie free beverages only.