Hop_Scotch

38 isn't old at all, definitely not too old for surgery. I am almost 58 and am contemplating it.

I am sure you will find there are plenty of people who do not have any religious beliefs that think nobody should have weight loss surgery, they think people should have the fortitude and willpower to do it 'the hard way' - Just eat less, just exercise, just say no, just trust the science of calories in calories out.......etc etc
This is why what I do with my body is my business, no one elses. This is why I don't tell people about my personal / medical business.

I know each surgeon's post op regime is different, but that's a sustained period of the pureed stage.
Does the restaurant have its menu online? If so, have a look and see if anything suitable.
You could also call the restaurant find out what may be suitable or if they do Soup. They may even do something for you if you chat with them before you go.

Sorry you're struggling so much!
Based on what you're describing, neither weight loss surgery, nor GLP-1 receptor agonists like Ozempic/Wegovy/Rybelsus would do anything for you. Both WLS and these meds work by helping patients reduce caloric intake. You've already said that doing so didn't work for you, so I see little point in either approach.
Here's the deal. While this is a slight over simplification, you can't overcome basic physics even if there's some sort of hormonal imbalance. If you eat less than you burn, you'll lose weight. If you eat more than you burn, you'll gain weight. There's no way around that.
This makes me think you may be asking the wrong question? I think instead of asking how can I reduce my food intake further, the question you should be asking is why is my metabolism so low and what can I do to increase how much I'm burning?
Based on what you've described, there really are only two explanations: Either you are eating a lot more than you think you are (it's common for people to dramatically overestimate caloric intake), or your metabolism is unnaturally low.
My first recommendation would be to have a baseline metabolism check done. This is sometimes called resting metabolic rate (RMR), resting energy expenditure (REE), or Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). Do some Google searches and you should find a place near you that can test this. Even if you do nothing else, knowing how many calories you burn at rest will help you understand what you should do to get to a normal weight.
Next, I'm going to guess that your previous fitness attempts were focused primarily on steady-state cardio. While that's great for heart health, it's not what I think you need. I would strongly recommend finding a reputable trainer that can help you add muscle mass through proper diet and exercise. Simply put, the more muscle mass you have, the faster your metabolism. In your case, where you've likely severely negatively impacted your metabolism through a starvation diet/anorexia, you may have to "reset" things with this type of training regimine.
One final point: stop obsessing with the number on the scale. This is a poor analog for how fit you are. Your body weight is comprised of lots of things other than fat (muscle, bone, Water, organ weight, etc.), so you could actually be really fit at 180, or carrying too much fat at 160. For example, you made a point of saying that after months of working out in a gym, you ended up weighing more than before you started. That's actually somewhat common and not necessarily a bad thing. That extra 6 pounds may have just be Fluid retention, or muscle (likely some of both), so the number on the scale was not a good way of tracking your overall health. This is one of the reasons we strongly recommend also periodically checking your body measurements, as well as potentially checking body composition. You can buy a BIA scale to check that, or there are plenty of commercial places that will do it for you.
Best of luck.

Dr. V has been pretty discredited by "retiring" from bariatric surgery and then shilling MLM snake oil

38 isn't old at all, definitely not too old for surgery. I am almost 58 and am contemplating it.

I am so sorry you thought you Cheated. It made me really sad. Please relax a little. Have holidays and enjoy them like the rest of the world.

I'll be honest. I cringed when I read this. I become concerned when I see people using ankle weights to do cardo. There are a number of reasons I would recommend avoiding this:
They change your gait mechanics, which can make you more prone to injury. For any impact movements like walking or running, you are increasing the impact on your joints, again making you more likely to injure yourself. These are not a substitute for weight training. You are mostly moving them along a horizontal plane, so they do very little to actually strengthen your muscles. (It's a bit of an oversimplification, but you'd likely need to move them along a vertical plane for that and you'd need to use a lot more weight.) While studies on this are a bit inconclusive, some studies suggest that there is very little to no actual benefit when used for cardiovascular exercises like running, walking or biking. The reason is that while it does increase the effort required, it tends to make you move slower to compensate. In other words, you'd burn roughly the same number of calories just by picking up the pace. (And by doing that you wouldn't have the increased injury risk.) You do you, but I think you'll find most reputable trainers, exercise physiologists and physical therapists would also advise avoiding them.
The other thing that I saw here that concerned me is the risk of overtraining. 2.5 hours of exercise in one day may be too much for you if you're not used to this? Overtraining can also lead to injuries, fatigue and burnout, all of which are the enemies of consistency. The single best thing we all can do to improve our health is ensure we are consistently exercising. Consistent, slow increases in your overall exercise workload are important to long-term health and fitness.

I used to do the same thing when I ate something "that I wasn't supposed to", my nutritionist said that punishing myself after deviating from my meal plan is worse than refraining myself from food as this creates an scenario that is ok for me to cheat as long as I work it off, creating a cycle.



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As a vet, I'd like to kindly suggest you reframe your thinking. There's no cheating, there are no bad foods. You're still allowed to eat and enjoy food. It's all about balance. You don't need to feel guilty or do an extreme work out to make up for anything. You're going to need to find a sustainable way of eating and relating to food.
Realistically, you likely ate under 1500 calories0 calories

I have days like that all the time. Not everyday but every once in a while its nice to eat some stuff you miss. Yesterday i had half a kit kat bar and it was delicious.

you're seven months out now - from about this point and for the rest of your life, you're going to occasionally have days like this. It was a holiday - even skinny people tend to eat more than usual or have special treats on such days. The trick is to get right back to it the next day and don't let it continue on. Sounds like you have a good plan.

4oz coconut milk
4oz 1% milk or other
Cinnamon to taste
1 cap coconut extract
3 equate art sweetener
Thicken up drink thickener 2 scoops
Chill throughly before drinking
One scoop vanilla protine powder
Absolutely delicious, I was craving Horchata and came up with this!
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The scales shouldn't be the only indicator of success...and if someone puts on a bit of scale weight because of increased body mass that's great...no doubt they will have lost some body fat and will continue to do so.
I can't think of a worse reason not to do strength or resistance training because of the scales...I would think the benefits would far outweigh that.

From memory (and happy to be corrected if my memory is faulty), daily calorie allowance is based on weight (entered in your profile settings) and adjusted up if exercise is added. Calorie allowance is not adjusted via check in weight entered.
See 'Update diet/fitness profile' in the following link to enter current wegiht so as daily calorie is adjusted. https://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/settings
Not sure how many lbs/kilos up or down are needed to see an adjustment in the set daily allowance though.
Edit add: Just played around with my settings and calorie allowance changed when I updated current weight in the account settings. I use the website not the app so don't know if the settings are the same in the app.

I am by no means an expert on relationship behaviour, but from I take from your post is that it maybe insecurity / jeaolousy but also some control issues, in the sense of controlling you. His behaviour certainly isn't acceptable in the workplace.
Does your husband show the same behavour in other aspects of your life outside of work?

This.
Some people have weird expectations in the long run. However, sometimes I think their surgeons even fuel that expectation or at least they do nothing to combat that (false) expectation.
Dr. Weiner has an interesting video about growing portion sizes on YT. Interesting chart at about 1:30 min

Your comment ‘in my head I’m not satisfied’ set off alarm bells for me & I’m worried you may have developed an eating disorder of some sort even though you say you want to put on weight. Have a chat with your surgeon/doctor & ask for a referral/recommendation to a therapist who specialises in disordered eating.
It’s hard to judge your weight without knowing your height but I would worry you are underweight at 100lbs. What does your surgeon or doctor say? I would also think you are eating very low calorie to be at that weight too so if you want to gain weight the first step would be to increase your caloric intake. You can do this easily without introducing cakes, Cookies, etc. into your diet. Simply increase the nutritious foods you already consume. This can be through Snacks & portion size if your portions are smaller than recommended. Not knowing your diet, consider adding multi/whole grains. snack on cheese, fruit, vegetable crudities, nuts, some good fats like avocado. Your dietician would be best placed to advise you on this of course.

This. I fit this pattern to a T. I am 14 months out. I'm working out hard, tracking calories, and have dropped into the 4-5 bs a month range. The fast loss is only at the very beginning for most people, and will slow down. You will have stalls and it will be frustrating unless you are someone very lucky. This is a long game, not a quick fix by any means.

as long as you stick to your program, yes, you will lose weight. As I mentioned above, I lost 16 lbs the first month, around 12 lbs the second month, and gradually less and less as time went on. But I remained very committed to my program and eventually lost all 235 lbs of my excess weight (so, in other words, lost 100% of my excess weight) (have since had a regain of about 20 lbs, which unfortunately happens to most of us after hitting our lowest weight. But that's fine - I'm happy where I am)

nope - "normal" WLS patients do not lose that much that quickly. Maybe if they started off at 600 lbs, but otherwise, no. You might find some "normal" WLS patients ("normal" as in starting off in the 200s or 300s - and maybe low 400s) who lose 30+ lbs the first month, but even that's not common - and they certainly wouldn't keep up that pace after the first month. I've been hanging out on bariatric forums for the eight or so years, and just based on posts I've read (which have been thousands), I'd say most of us lose around 15-25 lbs the first month, then about 10 lbs (give or take) a month for a few months - then it drops to around 5 lbs - then 2 lbs......then eventually stops.
as far as not losing any weight the last 1.5 weeks, you're in the infamous three-week stall that most of us experience. I just did a search on it here on bariatricpal for you just a second ago. Here are the 17,501 (and no, I am NOT kidding) posts on the three week stall for your reading pleasure:

https://www.bariatricpal.com/search/?q=three week stall

5-15 lbs per WEEK?!? For the first few MONTHS?!?
That is a bold (and borderline irresponsible) statement for a publication to make.
If I lost 15 lbs per week i would’ve been NEGATIVE 5 lbs in 4 months. Dust Particles. Anti-matter? Does anti-matter have negative mass??…i digress…
I didn’t even hit an average of 5lbs per week (for first 4 months), and from reading on here i was one of the faster losers.
Pro tip: manage (lower?) ur expectations and revel in your accomplishments. It will save you alot of angst.
P.S. Congrats on the 20lb loss! That is no small feat in a month.

15 lbs a week?!?!? NO WAY!
Ask your surgeon about that, no way they would agree with loosing 15 lbs a week.

It would be useful if you filled in your profile (height and surgery date weight is a good start) for context, regardless, 20lb is great and there is nothing 'only' about 20lb.
What did you expect to lose in a month and where did this expection come from?

It would be useful if you filled in your profile (height and surgery date weight is a good start) for context, regardless, 20lb is great and there is nothing 'only' about 20lb.
What did you expect to lose in a month and where did this expection come from?