Creekimp13

With luck, you'll be one of the folks who doesn't feel hungry at all:) Both reactions are pretty common.

A week out from surgery I wanted to eat my leg off I was so freaking hungry. Not "head hunger".... I had desperate "I'm starving to death" hunger....because essentially that's what you do right after surgery. You eat starvation levels of calories. And while some people don't experience a lot of hunger...a lot of people do. Ghrelin production be damned. At about three weeks out, when I started eating about 1000 calories a day, the hunger went away and I felt human again. Have not had problems with hunger since.

(psst....it's Steven Assanti!!!!!!!!)

This was taken in a questions and answers podcast a couple of months ago. Do you recognize this guy? (hint...I was shocked)

You know, it's funny....I don't see those people as humiliating themselves. I see them as extremely brave and inspirational. Unless they're Penny Saeger. LOL:)

The surgery is a tool. Without a lot of discipline and attention to changing your lifestyle habits, it won't work. That said....with the tool in place...it gets easier when you're making good choices. Holidays are great. I overindulge a little on special occasions. But instead of eating a few servings of something naughty....you'll probably feel content to have a few bites of naughtiness. You'll still be stuffed and feel like you pigged out if you do this... I promise. But the net calories will be so much better...you'll sabotage yourself...less. It doesn't make your holidays feel deprived or sad...least it doesn't for me. When I went to Easter dinner I had a couple of bites of everything. Ham, potatoes, poppy seed bread, salads, the works....I even bit a Cadbury egg and quickly handed it back to my kiddo. It was delicious and wonderful. My portions are extremely small...but I don't feel at all deprived. Food is still a pleasure at celebrations. But overindulgence is followed up by walking a few extra miles, salads for dinner, and adding some extra cardio the following week. Balance is the goal. If you want to plan for indulgence...plan for increased discipline before/afterward to level it out. Three months out....you should be able to find things on menus you can eat for work. It shouldn't be an issue. A well cooked protein and whatever side you like, a protein and a salad, a soup....it's easy to eat out for business at 3 months. (or at least it was for me) Keep protein snacks in your bag...most convenience stores sell them now...cheese sticks, hard boiled eggs, deli meat and nuts. You can absolutely do your bike trip. Several accomplished athletes here running races and doing high demand training. Hydration is harder in the beginning. A few months out, you can drink pretty freely. (if a little more frequently) You will LOVE riding your bike again:) I am really enjoying riding mine:)

I love going out to eat. I look for a plain, beautifully cooked protein. A steak. A piece of fish. Crab legs. Chicken breast. Pair it with a baked potato, or vegetable or side salad. I bring tupperware with me. Cut off the portion I want to eat at the start of dinner, and pack the rest up. Don't even have to ask the waiter for a box...I have my own. I'll do about a quarter cup of potato, and 2-3 ounces of protein, and nibble a few veggies. I can usually get a lunch or two out of the leftovers if my hubby doesn't eat them first. Soup and appetizers are a great option, too. Chicken satay is a favorite. Chicken tortilla soup usually works. At the asian buffets, I'll buy the carry out box and load up a plate with proteins, mushrooms, peppers and onions and have them stir fry it on the hibachi while my family dines in on the buffet. I'll eat a half a cup from my carry out box and have tons to take home. (which again, usually gets eaten by my hubby before I get back to it) For fast food, I'll do salads. Sometimes half an egg mcmuffin. Here's a naughty meal on the run that I love... 1 KFC chicken drumstick original recipe 130 calories Side of green beans 25 calories Side salad with fat free ranch 50 calories 205 calories...and I feel full. 14grams of protein

Research divorce rates after bariatric surgery. 80-85% of couples will split up 2 years after bariatric surgery. Surgeons and psychologists will tell you....surgery can make a good relationship better, and a bad relationship worse. Be prepared for that.

Until you're certain that weight loss surgery is the right path for you, I would continue to diet...but delay your surgery until you've had a chance to discuss the issue with a therapist. Weight loss surgery is a huge undertaking. It's life changing. And it's permanent. You need to be 100% committed to changing your diet and exercise habits. You need to be sure. My personal feeling is that you might not be there yet. If you're not? Keep soul searching until you are. Best wishes.

This is something a lot of folks are curious about. Found this answer at The American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery site: Misconception: Most people who have metabolic and bariatric surgery regain their weight. Truth: As many as 50 percent of patients may regain a small amount of weight (approximately 5 percent) two years or more following their surgery. However, longitudinal studies find that most bariatric surgery patients maintain successful weight-loss long-term. ‘Successful’ weight-loss is arbitrarily defined as weight-loss equal to or greater than 50 percent of excess body weight. Often, successful results are determined by the patient, by their perceived improvement in quality of life. In such cases, the total retained weight-loss may be more, or less, than this arbitrary definition. Such massive and sustained weight reduction with surgery is in sharp contrast to the experience most patients have previously had with non-surgical therapies.

My experience has been a series of plateaus and sudden drops. I feel like the coyote in a road runner cartoon. Fall sharply to the next ledge, stay there for weeks, then another drop, and another stall. Bodies are weird. For thousands of years we've developed dozens of adaptations to fight starvation. This whole problem of fighting deadly extra weight is a very new to human evolution.

Sleeve -vs- RNY....statistically, people lose a little more with RNY. With sleeve the average person loses about 60% of their excess body weight. With RNY the average person loses closer to 70%. But people are individual.....You can succeed to goal with both, and both can fail if you don't make the necessary lifestyle changes. With sleeve...some people get really bad acid that sometimes requires revision to RNY. With RNY...people can experience dumping and more nutrient malabsorption problems. The bottom line is making lifestyle changes.

Nope. They figured it out with two readings. A MedGem metabolic test and a hydrostatic weight (under water scale).

Congrats and good luck!

Bingo. My doctor actually writes exercise expectations on a prescription pad...it's a very important part of our program and is stressed.

70 minute rule.... Don't drink with meals, essentially. Avoid fluids ten minutes before a meal. Spend at least 30 minutes eating your meal with no fluids. Avoid fluids for 30 minutes after a meal. Total=70 minutes.

People seem to fall into two camps on this one. Camp A.....absolutely NEVER cheat! You're flirting with disaster! Tough love...you are going to throw your gift away and you will be sorry. Why would you work so hard to sabotage yourself? What were you thinking? Camp B....if you can't prove you can set a limit, eat a sane amount of a treat and walk away, food still controls you. You haven't won. Life is about compromise. You should allow yourself to enjoy treats once in a while within reason. I think there's some wisdom in both of these ideas. You want to be really careful with foods that can trigger reckless eating. You want it to be your idea to indulge...and not let the food or food situation control you. Too much indulgence can be a slippery slope. But fundamentally...I'm a Camp B person. I don't usually get my own desert, but I will pretty regularly take a bite or two of my husband's. I eat a truck ton of carbs....but they're not white anymore...everything is whole grain and low glycemic. I let myself have treats, but I try to put thought into it, plan for it...and not do it on impulse anymore. I try to live with balance. It's tough. Sometimes you fall off the beam. LOL. Just keep getting back on. If you notice a pattern where you are out of control...address it. Awesome idea to see the therapist for extra examination of this issue:)

Be a little careful of shopping in bulk...cause sometimes your tastes will change after surgery. Things you used to love, you'll suddenly hate and vice versa. Case in point....there was a chicken broth that I absolutely loved pre-surg.....afterward I couldn't gag it down...tasted like a sweaty chicken armpit. Gave away a dozen cans. Had a similar experience with orange jello and a strawberry premier protein. Bleh!

Yes, they will do your surgery if you get your period. Several posters here have talked about having had that situation happen. I was due for mine on my surgery day...but luckily the presurg diet and nerves made it come a week late.

My goal is 170....which is a little lower than what what my doc set it at. After my metabolic analysis, they determined that at 172-178 pounds I would have 30% body fat...which is what they like to aim for because it's a conservative normal body fat level for someone in their 40's. If they were to go by BMI, my weight goal would be lower...but since BMI is very arbitrary and doesn't reflect true body fat to muscle ratio....they prefer metabolic analysis. Truthfully, my big goal was to achieve normal blood pressure without meds, have normal blood glucose, and resolve my leg edema....and I've done all of these My other big goal is to live the rest of my life under 200 pounds. Anything else is a bonus. I did a lot of hunt seat riding competitions at 170 and was in the best shape of my life. I think there's a good chance I'll see that number again:)

My goal is 170....which is a little lower than what what my doc set it at. After my metabolic analysis, they determined that at 172-178 pounds I would have 30% body fat...which is what they like to aim for because it's a conservative normal body fat level for someone in their 40's. If they were to go by BMI, my weight goal would be lower...but since BMI is very arbitrary and doesn't reflect true body fat to muscle ratio....they prefer metabolic analysis. Truthfully, my big goal was to achieve normal blood pressure without meds, have normal blood glucose, and resolve my leg edema....and I've done all of these My other big goal is to live the rest of my life under 200 pounds. Anything else is a bonus. I did a lot of hunt seat riding competitions at 170 and was in the best shape of my life. I think there's a good chance I'll see that number again:) But I would not want to dip below it. I'm a big framed muscular girl and start to look unhealthy under 170. Proudest non-scale victory....getting gorgeous calves back. My hubby used to complement my legs all the time and admired them....and when I got edema in my lower legs it was really disheartening. Looking forward to wearing shorts and showing them off:) Recently got back into my old tall riding boots...which was pretty cool:)

A lot of WLS folks are surprised by my calorie recommendations. Here they are from my packet....note that 1000-1200 calorie goal gets introduced at mushy food stage. I hit 1000 calories a day at 3 weeks. During one of our seminars a speaker said....beware doctors who push starvation level calories, you'll hear other people who have had WLS talking about calorie levels that seem much lower than what we're advising......some doctors want rapid weight loss patients because they are walking advertisements for their clinics. Their client's long term success may not be their first priority. Not to say that doctors who do things differently than my group are wrong....I fully recognize this is an emerging science and that diet will always be a topic of a lot of controversy. There are different ways up the mountain and you need to work with the people you've chosen. It is oldschool conventional wisdom in bariatrics to take advantage of the smaller appetite and push small calorie goals in the early months. Pushing higher calorie levels early to stimulate metabolism is a newer concept that a lot of oldschool clinics just don't embrace yet. Just sayin....ask good questions. Listen to your body. If you don't have good energy, if you don't feel terrific, if you feel like something is wrong....pay attention to that. I'm excited that our protocol is being adopted by Bethesda and Cedars Sinai. And I'm excited to be part of a longitudinal study.

"You look great, but is it rude to ask...do you have cancer or something?" ---neighborhood teen boy I often encounter while riding my bike. LOL "Nope. I had weight loss surgery." "Oh! That's cool. Glad you're not sick."

I had nearly a month of stalled weight loss in Feb-March. Very irritating stuff. Forward three steps, back two. Forward two steps, back three. Frustrating! I eat 1200 calories a day. Is that too much? Dietitian says no...it's perfect...be consistent...wait it out....you don't want your metabolism to adjust to very low calories because you won't be eating very low calories for life. So...I've been trusting my program...and doing 1200. Last night, I thought....crap...I just screwed up bigtime. Went out to dinner with hubby and ate steak, salad, baked potato, grilled veggies. Nothing unhealthy, but overindulged a little. And a sip or two of hubby's wine. And a bite of his dessert. LOL:) I expected to pay for it on the scale this morning. Nope. I lost two pounds since Friday. Which I'm sure has more to do with hormonal water weight (menstrual yaya)...but still! I didn't expect a loss like that. Looking over my records, I've lost 7 pounds in the last two weeks. Which I think is sort of an astoundingly awesome loss for me at this point in my journey. Only thing I've been doing different is changing up my exercise. I'm still walking 12000 steps a day, but I've added a rebounding work out on the mini trampoline, swimming at the Y once a week, and sweating to the oldies with richard simmons once a week......so still walking every day and added three cardio workouts a week. I think the key...is patience, consistency. For those who are stalled....hang in there:) It gets better:)