SteveT74

Offense??? No way!!! I know what you meant. I was an overstuffed teddy bear. I used to be the first one to make fun of myself for being fat (sort of a defense mechanism I guess). Today, I still make those jokes (but only in my head). It's starting to sink in not the fat guy anymore. Btw, my mom said I look 15 years younger too!!! It finally feels like i have the old me back from when I was in my twenties and early thirties when I was in good shape.

You're 100% right!!! I have two little girls, 7 and 3. They need their daddy!! My grandpa was just like me--diagnosed with diabetes at 44 (same as me) and had the same stomach. He had his first heart attack at 46 and lost his leg to T2DM at 57. I am not going down that road if there is anything I can do about it!!!!!

Congrats on onederland!!!! It sounds like you're doing great! I know all about the clothes thing. I have blown past all my "skinny" clothes from before surgery. I buy pants at Costco for $17 a pair. If they are decent I buy them in my current size and one below. Fortunately, I am those "one belows" and they are getting loose. I also bought a suit from Kohl's in separates, which was a little on the tight side when I purchased it about 3 or 4 weeks ago and now it is big on me. I even bought some skinny shirts at express because I was so thrilled to actually be able to wear something from express (since all of their in-store men's clothing is slim fit). Well, they are getting big on me. These are good problems to have!!!! It was only a couple of months ago that I couldn't shop of the rack in any store. I would either order online or have to go to a big and tall. Quite a change!!

Thanks! I am a dad. :-)

I agree!!! It's looking really good on you!!! Seriously, you look really really great!! What a transformation!!! It's finally dawning on me how much and how fast my body has changed since I had surgery in December. I don't see day to day, but everyone else seems to see it. I do see it on the scale, clothes etc. I am down to 197 from 260 (although I was probably closer to 280 and got to 260 before I was willing to put myself in a position to be weighed). It's a great feeling. Summer 2018: Today (2/28/19): Also, don't worry about the extra skin!! I'll take the extra skin over the fat any day!!!! The extra skin isn't going to put me in an early grave. I wear compression shirts when I go to the gym and that keeps everything in check. I don't have a lot of extra skin fortunately, but you can't loose a lot of weight at 45 without paying a price for putting it on in the first place. So, that's the extra skin for me!

Awesome!!! What was your weight on the day of surgery??? For me, I needed to lose weight, but my issue was more about the impact of having diabetes, high lipids, triglicerides, high BP etc. I am off all of my T2DM medications and my blood glucose levels have been normal. Losing the weight has been great, but the change in my glucose levels under control has been the most important aspect of this for me.

Thanks!!

Dude, it was a Mardi Gras parade---I am sure you weren't the only one that didn't stop when they should. :-) Seriously though, unlike food, consuming alcohol is a choice. You don't need it to live. Have you tried setting a firm limit for yourself. For example, you can allow yourself to have two drinks over a 2 hour period and that's it for the night. You're there to be social, not to get a buzz or f---ked up. If you can't do that and you don't know when enough is enough, alcohol is not working out for you and you have to cut it out completely. The reality is if you feel this way now and you don't put the breaks on drinking, it's going to become a serious problem for you. You didn't get to 400 without abusing food---so, you have to be really careful with anything that is potentially addictive. You're picking up on this early before it becomes serious, so that's a great thing!!

That doesn't count for insurance purposes. You need to be on a doctor supervised diet, with the doctor recording your measurements monthly.

How often are you socially drinking? Is this a once a month thing, once a week, multiple times each week, daily? Is it a situation where you don't need to drink and can go a few weeks without a drink, but once you start, you can't stop? Give a little more info and maybe we can give you some better answers.

Great Job. I just posted something similar in the December 2018 thread, but I'll do the same here! Summer 2018: (Weighed around 250) Day of Surgery (Weighed around 234) January 17, 2019 (One Month Post-Op) (Weighed 210) Taken today (2/28/19) (Weighing in at 197)

He guys! I haven't checked up with everyone in a while. I hope you're all doing well. I see there have been quite a few posts on the forum about stalls, so I thought I would share my numbers for February. On February 1, I weighed in at 204.1 (which is down from 234 on the day of surgery (12/17/18) and 243 on the day I started my pre-op (12/3/18)). This morning, I weighed in at 197.4 (although I have been as low as 195.5 this week). So, for this month I am down 7.5 pounds--almost all of that weight came off before 2/13. I have only lost about a 1 pound in the past 3 weeks. Now, that looks like a stall, but I doubt it. I guess the time I have been spending at the gym (getting there between 4:30 and 5am and leaving around 7:30am 6 days a week) is having the biggest impact on this journey. It's definitely slowing the appearance of weight loss on the scale, but it's changing everything else for the positive. I think I have gained at least 10 pounds of muscle since mid-January. As lousy as I am at assessing my own progress and appearance, even I can feel (maybe see) the difference in my body tone. I am feeling pretty great right now and while I am still 25 pounds away from my goal weight, I am happy where I am! Everything after this is gravy! Here are the pictures to show the journey so far: These were taken in July and August 2018. I weighed around 250 here, which is about 10 pounds down from my highest measured weight. (I am sure I weighed more than my highest measured weight, but was afraid to get on the scale for a while). This is me on the day of Surgery (12/17/18). I weighed 234 on the day of surgery. I took this one on January 17 (one month post op). I weighed in at 210.2 that morning. I just took these earlier today. I weighed in at 197.2 this morning.

Sounds like you got some good advice. I hope kicks starts things for you. While it's true that weight loss happens in the kitchen (not the gym), you need to get exercise everyday if you want to see and feel significant changes in your body composition. Obviously, you don't need to train for a marathon or a beach body competition---but you need to enough to get your heart rate up and work your major muscle groups. If you can do that on your own, great--but a lot of people that go through WLS don't know how to exercise. You never mentioned anything about your specific weight, age etc. but maybe you can ask for a referral to a physical therapist that can help you get into shape safely. Obviously, you can also hire a personal trainer to help get you on the right track. It's not just about eating (or not eating as the case may be), but developing a healthy, sustainable lifestyle.

Everyone needs to find a plan they can live with and find a way to stick to it. I am around 10 weeks post op, so I am still relatively early in my journey--but I started with a relatively low BMI (37) and I only around 25 pounds away from my goal weight. I have been using the time to focus on major lifestyle changes. I do track everything I eat (most of the time) using MyFitnessPal. It's a great way to hold yourself accountable and see where you could be making mistakes. I am happy following a very low carb (keto-style diet). My macros are generally in the order of 43% protein, 40% fat and 7% carbs (mostly in the form of fibrous veggies) . I do track my calories, but my main focus is on sticking to my macros. I usually eat between 1100 and 1400 calories a day at this point. I am trying to bring it back down closer to 1100 at the moment. That's a sustainable amount for me at the moment, since I work out for 2-2.5 hours at a high intensity every morning.

I was thin as a kid (actually skinny). I was in really good shape through my teenage years and into my 20's. I even worked as a personal trainer for a while. I gained a little weight when I got into my later twenties and started working long hours at a desk job. I got up to about 210 when I was 28 (I am 45 now), but took right off on a low carb, high exercise diet and kept it off until I got married when I was 32. After I got married, the weight crept on. I was back up to around 210 on my wedding day and 220 within the next year. 230 by the end of the following year and then things started getting out of hand when I was in the 240. I could take some of the weight off with diet and exercise by never more than 15 pounds. Each time I dropped weight, I would gain it back with a little to spare--yo yo dieting. That killed my metabolism. About 4 years ago I was up close to 265 and went on a major low calorie diet and got down to 217 in about 3 months. About 6 months later I was back up to 255 (probably higher since I stopped weighing myself since I was so disgusted). In February 2018, I was diagnosed with T2DM and had lots of other fun co-morbidities. That was the kick in the pants I needed to start down the WLS path. I am 2 months post up and my BMI is now around 28, so I am no longer obese. In total, I was obese for at least 12 years and morbidly obese for probably 4 or 5 or those years. Having a VSG is best decision I ever made!!!! I can actually look in the mirror and really smile again!!!

Thanks guys for the all the good wishes. I had my 2 month follow up yesterday. Everything went well and my doctor is happy with how I am doing with the weight loss. He would like to seem me get to 12 months at 174 pounds (as would I). It's hard to imagine being that thin. I don't think I have weighted less than 180 since high school. Anyway, thanks guys and everyone keep up the good work!

Slow and steady??? You're down 86 pounds!!!! That's a huge difference!!!! You should be very proud of yourself!!

It will be at the top of my agenda for my 2 month follow up.

Thanks for the slice!

Hey guys, I celebrated my 45th birthday yesterday and, as a gift to myself, I hit onederland!!! 199.8 and today 199.1!! I love my sleeve!!!

Thanks for the tips. I am going to add some of your protocol to my routine and see if things improve.

You're blessed then. Perpetual irregularity is very unpleasant.

Ouch... I thought my constipation is bad!! I have been taking one dulcolax and two stool softeners a day and I go about every other day (and then it's either passing boulders or burning diarrhea for two hours). Either way it's a painful experience. I am drinking my water, getting in my fiber and it doesn't making a f---king bit of difference. Nevertheless, at least it's coming out once every 48 or so hours. I couldn't go once every seven to nine days!!!! That's awful!!! You really need to discuss that with your doctor and come up with a plan. You guys must have 8 pounds of poop in your system!!!

For most people, it's smooth sailing with VSG. Every now and then someone has some difficulty with nausea the first couple of days, but that's not common. A few people may have some issues getting their fluid in and later one with some foods. That really depends on how well they are healing and the degree of swelling they experience. To the extent people have issues, they fall more into the nuisance category rather then anything that's a real concern (i.e., all the stuff we b***h and moan about on the forum). I haven't read of anyone on here experiencing a leak or something serious. A few people have issues with their incision sites others have had issues with nausea or gerd. All that stuff can happen, but it's very manageable. I have had issues with GERD and constipation since the surgery, but nothing I can't handle (with a few pills). I didn't have any real post-surgery pain---really, none at all. I did have gas and bloating, but even that was pretty tolerable (strep throat hurts a lot more!!). The serious stuff like leaks at staple line or embolisms probably happen to some patients some place, but I haven't seen anyone on here that posted about going through something like that. If you're going to a center of excellence for your surgery in the US, the changes of having something like that happen are less then 0.2%. What ever mild discomfort you have in the first couple of weeks of recovery is pretty minor in the scheme of things. When you get on the scale and see those numbers drop, it's all worth it!!!

That's great!!! Just a word of advice, don't overbuy. What you think you're going to want/need before surgery is not the same as what you will actually want/need after surgery. Of course, have your protein shakes, gas tablets etc. lined up in advance, but I spent a few hundred on stuff I didn't need/use--don't make the same mistake. If turns out you want/need something you don't have, Amazon can get it to you in two days (one day if you want to pay a few extra dollars).