MeanSleevedMachine

I went for my one year follow up on May 9. I was quite proud of this one which is a non-scale victory. I was 44.7% body fat in May of 2018. At my visit on Thursday they tested my body fat again and I was 17.1% body fat. I am also off every single medication now. It is amazing how great this year has been.

The way I broke stalls was the reverse of what everyone in this thread is saying. I did two things anytime I stalled more than a few days. I upped my calories 150-200 per day at each stall and drank a ton of water/tea the first few days. I also stopped all exercise except walking for a few days. Once I started losing again and my body didn’t fear starvation, I went back to business as usual. I never hit a stall longer than a week with this. Well, until month 9. By then I had lost almost 200 lbs and intentionally started eating more to slow down the weight loss as I slide into my goal weight.

Sleeved May 10, 2018 and I’ve lost over 200lbs. 211 to be exact.

I would say this differs per person. I still drink two shakes a day. That said, I am a large man and will always be a large man. I'm just not a fat man anymore. I workout and I need 190 grams of protein a day. There is just no way I can eat that much food to get to 190 without protein supplements. Obviously, I am an exception and not the rule. If you only need 90-100 grams of protein, you can easily do that via food. That is basically chicken for lunch, steak for dinner, eggs for breakfast and a cup of cottage cheese somewhere along the way. It becomes a lot harder when you double that.

I actually did not hit my first stall until my 9th month.

Well, when I was at my heaviest I had severe lower back pain. I assume because the weight was just crushing my lower spine. I'd say more than anything the height boost is because I stand up straighter and my spine isn't compressed anymore. I used to have to pop ibuprofen almost daily for lower back pain and inflammation. Now, I have zero back pain at all. And I am, yes, 2 inches taller.

Well to be fair, I lost almost 2 inches in height from the time I was 20. So it is only fair I got it back. :)

Mikeyy, I was 6’5” 489 the day of my surgery and I am 6’7” 278 today. I was 6’6” and a half (barefooted) and 310 lbs when I played college football. All that weight had actually shrunk me. If you look in the photos you can see I am markedly taller now.

I eat Fiber One bars and drink plenty of fluids. If I don’t poop for a couple of days I’ll eat a bowl of Raisin Bran. If that doesn’t work I take a laxative (senna) and drink some smooth move tea.

I’ve had mine resized three times. Went from a 15 to a 12.5 to a 11 to a 10. I’ll probably have to get it resized one more time. Go ahead and get it resized. I almost lost mine once... far worse feeling than going a few days without it.

I lost over 200 lbs in 8 months. I was 489 when I started though. Pretty unrealistic for anyone under 400 to expect those results.

I do not have a BMI goal honestly. Mostly because I will always be overweight according to BMI. I feel BMI is totally unfair for anyone with muscle mass and a non-slender frame. I’d have to be 190 lbs to be “normal weight.” That will never happen. I’d say my skeleton along weighs 90-100 lbs.

I have now officially lost over 200 lbs in 8 months. Quite the journey. My wife was so impressed with the results she decided to have the surgery in October and is now my workout buddy. We walk 7-10 miles a day and lift weights five days a week. I consider myself about 20-30 lbs away from goal at this point. I understand there is probably more weight to lose than that if I reallt wanted to but I don’t really ever want to be super skinny. I have two little daughters so I prefer the “big enough to kick your butt and small enough to catch you” look for for any future boyfriends. :)

I eat 3 meals and 4 snacks a day. There is no way I could get 190 protein or 2000 calories otherwise. I think this question is heavily dependent on your gender, age, height and ideal weight. If your bmr is 2400 calories for your goal weight ( like mine) there is no way around snacking. If you only need 1000 calories then 3 meals might be doable.

You certainly can't base your calorie intake on mine so I'm not suggesting that. I am a large guy that even if I had zero fat on my body I'd weigh 250 lbs probably and I am 6'6". But I eat 2200 calories a day post-sleeve and the world hasn't ended. I still lose weight because it is below my BMR. I don't know your height, weight, age, etc... but I would imagine that 1100 calories is probably still under your BMR. You'll be fine. You can't live on 5-600 calories a day the rest of your life. The important things to do in this early stage, in this order and in my opinion are: 1. Make correct food choices -- protein, first. Healthy food first. If you get to the end of your day and still have calories left and you've hit all your macros then you can have a reward. I usually eat a half a cup of ice cream on days like that. Calories are calories. Don't buy the bull that there are 'bad calories.' It is all situational. If cookies are a building block of your diet then yes, that is bad. Not because the calries in a cookie are worse than the calories in a piece of chicken but because they are devoid of any nutrition. This is why you wait until the end of your day for any 'reward' food. If I have 200 calories left over on my day and I've hit all my macros, I use those 200 calories on whatever the hell I want. You should do the same. It keeps me from craving those things by occasionally enjoying them as treats. 2. Drink water, tea or some form of zero calorie liquid all day, every day. It will help with weight loss and constipation. 3. Log everything that goes into your mouth. You have to learn to do this because it makes you keenly aware of what you can and cannot eat. It makes you aware of what you are eating, too. 4. Get active. Don't squander this opportunity. For many of this -- at least, I felt this way for myself -- this is the last chance to live a long, healthy life. You don't want to go out without your best shot. If the weight beats you, don't let it be because you didn't give it your all. 5. Do not weigh yourself daily if you freak out about weight gain. If you must always weigh yourself at the same time every day. First thing in the morning, last thing before you go to bed and keep that routine. The reason being, your weight WILL fluctuate day to day and even during the day based on hydration levels and in the case of this surgery, constipation is cruel to your scale numbers too.

I tried to. Then my wife told her mother and that is pretty much like telling the world.

I did not have to share a room and that is honestly something that would have been a deciding factor for me as to which hospital I’d have the surgery done.

Well, I saw weight fly off from the start. However, when I really noticed huge results was about month 3-4. That is when my clothes started to literally fall off me, my wedding band would just slide off my finger and I could do seven flights of stairs without getting winded or feeling like my knees were about to explode. Everyone around me and the scale had told me how much weight I had lost and what a huge difference there was but I still saw a fat man when I looked in the mirror. But that month when all that happened in rapid fire I was like “damn, I’m really starting to get results!!!”

I actually had the surgery before my wife did. I was sleeved on May 10 of last year and she was sleeved on October 10. It certainly helped with us both going through it at roughly the same time. However, at the end of the day you are the captain of your own ship. If you want the surgery, have the surgery. However, go in knowing it isn’t the easy way out. Losing weight and keeping it off with the sleeve is hard work. You’ll be logging food, exercising and eating right. Being sleeved certainly makes it easier to get rolling but you still have to be committed to changing your lifestyle.

My breakfast varies. I sometimes eat a eggwich (egg as bun) with sausage. Sometimes I eat oatmeal with a vanilla protein shake instead of milk. Sometimes I eat sous vide egg bites. Sometimes I eat a bacon, Gouda and egg McMuffin from Starbucks. Sometimes I eat kodiak protein waffles with sausage. Sometimes I just each 6 ounces of sirloin steak. Really just depends. :)

I was 477 the day of my surgery (489 heaviest weight) and yesterday I went in for a blood pressure check up with my primary care doctor and was 416!!! I had surgery on May 10. So about six weeks. Granted I have been walking 5 miles a day. I’ve been waking up at 5 am and lifting weights five days a week for the last three weeks after I was cleared to lift. I’ve been eating about 1200 calories a day. 120g of protein or more a day. Still is is almost too good to be true. I don’t weigh myself at home because I don’t want to be discouraged during stalls.

Sallie Lindsey — I’ve had zero issues with loose skin so far. I’ve covered that pretty extensively in this thread so I won’t rehash it all. These are the things I do to try to prevent it but I have no idea what, if any of it works. I could have zero loose skin and do none of this for all I know. 1. I workout. 2. I drink 90+ ounces of water a day to stay hydrated. 3. After showers I rubs skin so soft lotion all over my body. It could be all genetic or gender or age. I do not know.

EJustice, I was never denied by insurance but it did take me a year to get approval. Losing 100 pounds on your own is pretty incredible! What an accomplishment. I lost 112 lbs after our first child was born and then put it all back on and then some after our second child was born. It was a combination of the stress of two infants (they are 16 months apart), lack of sleep and eating junk food that led to my wife and I both packing on the pounds. The one thing the surgery does for you that you can’t do on your own is it limits your ability to sabotage yourself. Even if you wanted to eat junk you can’t eat a lot of it after the surgery. Your stomach won’t let you. Beyond that, if you can keep losing without the surgery I’d do that.

Under 300 lbs for the first time in a long time. Total weight lost is 191 lbs since May 10.

I wore my baggy clothes for months and months. I just recently started buying new clothes now that I am getting closer to my goal weight. I went down 3 shirt sizes and five pant sizes. So yeah, I was walking around in some pretty loose clothing for awhile. I just tucked in all of my shirts to make them look better and not like a gown. I hate to waste money and clothes are about the worst investment you can make if you aren’t planning to use them for a long time. That $20 shirt is worth about 0.50 after you remove the tags. I just couldn’t justify buying clothes I’d wear a couple of months and then ditch. It never really bothered me to wear loose clothing. I looked awkward, I am sure. But one of the nice things about getting older is I care less and less what others think of me with each passing year. :)