Losebig

You didn't mention the preparation of the meats, but that can play a BIG role. Having things moist and in small pieces definitely helps. I find that shredded meats (chicken salad for example) are much easier. You might try cutting it into tiny pieces (mince or dice it) and then using a lot of sauce (BBQ for chicken, A1 for beef, etc) will help. I've been eating a lot of ground meats, which helps (I also use sauce like mustard for these). Solid chicken still doesn't work for me, but I find that low fat hot dogs (45 calories, 6G protein), low fat chicken sausages (80 calories, 13g protein), ground turkey with sour cream (30c, 8g Protein per ounce) will work well. Egg whites are another low calorie high protein choice and are soft, I usually have 1/2 a cup for Breakfast with 1/2 an ounce of low fat mozzarella and sometimes a diced turkey sausage mixed in. Greek Yogurt also works, but has more calories and carbs. Beans and nuts can work too, but can be very dense so need to be mixed with something.
Good luck!

Hunger decreasing isn’t a myth. The surgery reduces the level of ghrelin, which is the hunger hormone made by the stomach reducing hunger. This is one of the major reasons surgery helps along with the volume constraints and the feeling of being ‘full’ with very little food.
With that said early hunger seems to be pretty common (I had it too), but for many people it fades and a few weeks out you have little to no hunger. When it does return it’s not the same as it was pre surgery for most people. In my case I had a lot of hunger early, then no hunger at all and now it’s there - but not that intense and I can easily distract myself. I’m not sure what it’ll be like when I’m further out, but many people report it returns to a more normal level after several months, but may be less intense.
Once you are on purees and solid food you will also get a ‘full’ feeling quickly and that will help satisfy hunger. Hang in there, you’ll be in good shape.

Little over 2 years out, lost 100 or so lbs and have kept it off. Exercise had taken a hit lately due to non stop travel, but still maintaining....

Recent (12/12), but down 30 though not focusing on it. Pants are falling off. I've got a lot of clothes that didn't fit in my closet and now they do so I've suddenly got a wide selection of clothes. I've noticed a bit less back pain too

Recent (12/12), but down 30 though not focusing on it. Pants are falling off. I've got a lot of clothes that didn't fit in my closet and now they do so I've suddenly got a wide selection of clothes. I've noticed a bit less back pain too

I weigh two or three times a week, wireless scale that reports to my phone. It’s been a good way to break apart the psychological element of weighing myself - I actually don’t pay a ton of attention when I do it most of the time. But sometimes, I’ve actively been thinking that I feel a little heavier than I should, and then weighing myself has been a good thing to reconnect the number on the scale with how my body feels. Now it turns out I’m pretty sensitive to as little as a two-pound shift, which NEVER would have happened when I was heavier.

And then if I realize I’ve been consistently feeling heavy, I’ll go look at the graph on my phone and if the trend is not good, I’ll taper back or cut stuff out for a while. But since I’m pretty much maintaining at this point, the biggest benefit has been the body/number awareness. I’m pretty sure I had some body dysmorphia going on when I was heavier, so this low-stakes awareness is a huge improvement.

Nice work! The reduced pain is huge, I noticed the same thing. I think general inflamation goes way down when the pounds come off as does the stress on your body.

closing in on 2 years. I have to be super careful with anything that expands (i.e. Pasta, rice, potatos, some breads). The only result is I have a tiny amount < 1 oz and am in pain so its just not worth it. I have to be careful with sweet stuff (I never loved it but now don't even really like it). Fatty stuff goes right through me, so anything as fatty as or fattier than say a breaded chicken tender causes problems. Fatty meats do it too.
With that said it was / is life changing and absolutely worth it

closing in on 2 years. I have to be super careful with anything that expands (i.e. Pasta, rice, potatos, some breads). The only result is I have a tiny amount < 1 oz and am in pain so its just not worth it. I have to be careful with sweet stuff (I never loved it but now don't even really like it). Fatty stuff goes right through me, so anything as fatty as or fattier than say a breaded chicken tender causes problems. Fatty meats do it too.
With that said it was / is life changing and absolutely worth it

Recent (12/12), but down 30 though not focusing on it. Pants are falling off. I've got a lot of clothes that didn't fit in my closet and now they do so I've suddenly got a wide selection of clothes. I've noticed a bit less back pain too

closing in on 2 years. I have to be super careful with anything that expands (i.e. Pasta, rice, potatos, some breads). The only result is I have a tiny amount < 1 oz and am in pain so its just not worth it. I have to be careful with sweet stuff (I never loved it but now don't even really like it). Fatty stuff goes right through me, so anything as fatty as or fattier than say a breaded chicken tender causes problems. Fatty meats do it too.
With that said it was / is life changing and absolutely worth it

closing in on 2 years. I have to be super careful with anything that expands (i.e. Pasta, rice, potatos, some breads). The only result is I have a tiny amount < 1 oz and am in pain so its just not worth it. I have to be careful with sweet stuff (I never loved it but now don't even really like it). Fatty stuff goes right through me, so anything as fatty as or fattier than say a breaded chicken tender causes problems. Fatty meats do it too.
With that said it was / is life changing and absolutely worth it

I had my surgery exactly a year before you 12/12/17. Hopefully it's a lucky date. Almost a year out looking back it was an amazing life changing decision. I was just over 300 lbs to start and by June (6 months) had lost just under 100 lbs and was running miles at a time, biking etc. since then I've been trying to maintain around 200 and struggling a bit to not keep losing (a high class problem). Good luck, great things are to come and in a year you will feel totally different!

Thanks! Aware of the transfer risk, so am very careful to take it easy. There's actually a number of risks post surgery including a super high rate of divorce and a higher rate of accidental death. So far I'm beating the odds and don't enjoy drinking enough where I think it'll be a problem (also only really drink when out of business, which often times has weeks in between events)
Some good ideas here. Any carbonation for me is a no go, just feel full and uncomfortable.

Thanks. I actually go out a LOT (job hazard). The problem is I really feel my drinks so I'm looking for ways to minimize. My go to has been vodka and diet cran. Thinking maybe rum and coke since rum is often half the alcohol of vodka. I have gotten good at not overdoing it. Post surgery I feel it way more and much more quickly, but it also passes faster too.
will have to look at a 'tall' in my are that usually is a double (2x the alcohol). Really something like flat beer would be ideal, low alcohol and it takes a long time to drink.

Wondering what folks are doing in terms of drinking. If I want to go for a night out, but don't want to get plastered what can I drink if I don't do beer or wine? Beer is too fizzy and wine puts me to sleep, so I stick to low calorie mixed drinks, problem is they tend to be way stronger so over a couple hours I can easily have more than I want. Anyone have any low cal / low alcohol mixed drinks?

It's gotten more busy, but that's expected. Still struggling and may end up dropping down like 10 lbs and seeing if that is easier to maintain... I suspect that I'm going to have to monitor my weight closely (both up and down) forever. Maybe the appetite suppressing effects will lessen after a couple years

Up and down. Job is great, but I had a super busy week a couple weeks ago and lost 8 lbs... so still working on balance. The good news is I had been on vacation prior and gained a few lbs over a couple weeks so the swing wasn't crazy and I'm not too badly below my target zone. I've stocked my office with nuts etc and that definitely helps

Thanks for the reply. Nutrition I'm hitting my Macros and in good shape. My issue is just that I'm losing weight, not trying to bulk up for competition or something like that.. but losing 5 lbs just because I'm busy, even when not doing a ton of physical activity. This is a problem because when I drop too much I look sick and feel sick... High class problem I know, but still a problem.
I have since done more Protein Bars, which are easy to have on my, calorie dense and decent nutritionally. I've been doing more peanuts and Peanut Butter too. That has helped the last couple of weeks, plus having pre-cooked stuff I can just grab (cheese, sausages, chicken, etc). With those changes I'm maintaining

So I'm out a little over 18 months, though virtually all of my ~100 lbs lost was done in the first 6ish months, so I've been on maintenance a while. I've been doing really well and my weight has been +/- 3 lbs the entire time.
I just started a new job and I've been really busy. My problem right now is that I'm not feeling hungry so I don't eat and I'm running around so it feels like when I do eat I'm competing with whether to eat or drink, this has me down to 3 meals a day (from ~6) and my calorie intake is half what it should be for the past 2 weeks. I'm starting to lose weight and generally feel like crap. I've tried adding in some higher calorie stuff (pastry, sausage, cheese, nuts), but just don't have enough time to eat. I likely need to do some kind of schedule, but my struggle is what can I eat that's < 4 oz, but will get me ~500 calories per meal? Any suggestions on easy nutritionally dense Snacks so I can have fewer bigger meals with this new schedule? Other folks have this issue when they get busy?
For some reason if I don't eat or drink for a few hours its like my stomach clenches as well and my capacity is greatly reduced, for example I didn't have dinner until after 8 tonight and even eating 2 eggs was a no-go with pain like I over-ate, so that's also causing some issues.

Thanks! Aware of the transfer risk, so am very careful to take it easy. There's actually a number of risks post surgery including a super high rate of divorce and a higher rate of accidental death. So far I'm beating the odds and don't enjoy drinking enough where I think it'll be a problem (also only really drink when out of business, which often times has weeks in between events)
Some good ideas here. Any carbonation for me is a no go, just feel full and uncomfortable.

Thanks. I actually go out a LOT (job hazard). The problem is I really feel my drinks so I'm looking for ways to minimize. My go to has been vodka and diet cran. Thinking maybe rum and coke since rum is often half the alcohol of vodka. I have gotten good at not overdoing it. Post surgery I feel it way more and much more quickly, but it also passes faster too.
will have to look at a 'tall' in my are that usually is a double (2x the alcohol). Really something like flat beer would be ideal, low alcohol and it takes a long time to drink.

Thanks. I actually go out a LOT (job hazard). The problem is I really feel my drinks so I'm looking for ways to minimize. My go to has been vodka and diet cran. Thinking maybe rum and coke since rum is often half the alcohol of vodka. I have gotten good at not overdoing it. Post surgery I feel it way more and much more quickly, but it also passes faster too.
will have to look at a 'tall' in my are that usually is a double (2x the alcohol). Really something like flat beer would be ideal, low alcohol and it takes a long time to drink.

Super helpful, I was afraid I was weighing too often. Daily I fluctuate a lot (water), so weekly works well for me (same time and day every week). I just returned from a 3 week vacation with no scale and am 1.2 lbs above my 5 lb range I usually fluctuate in, so working to get that corrected over the next couple of days... Agree about staying on track, that's what got me in trouble every other time I got thin, but not this time!

Thanks. I actually go out a LOT (job hazard). The problem is I really feel my drinks so I'm looking for ways to minimize. My go to has been vodka and diet cran. Thinking maybe rum and coke since rum is often half the alcohol of vodka. I have gotten good at not overdoing it. Post surgery I feel it way more and much more quickly, but it also passes faster too.
will have to look at a 'tall' in my are that usually is a double (2x the alcohol). Really something like flat beer would be ideal, low alcohol and it takes a long time to drink.