Daisyjayne

I'm nearly 9 months out, and I've lost 15kg more than my surgeon's goal for me. So I'm well past losing my EBW. I started at a relatively low BMI of 37 though, I think that absolutely helped. I try to eat Protein as a priority, then vegies, then quality carbs. I avoided junk for pretty much the first 6 months, but it's crept back in, in miniscule amounts as I start to navigate maintenance. I started at the gym doing bodypump about 4 months ago and I'm seeing the results of that, particularly on my arms, and I've recently started running the couch to 5K with my 10 year old. Unfortunately with exercise has come a surge in hunger, so I'm working on dealing with that too. I'm nowhere near being a vet, but I stuck (and still 80% of the time do) to my surgeons plan and it's really worked for me. I can't wait for my 12 month follow up appointment to compare my measurements from the 6 month one!
Oh, and I'm extremely strict about taking my Vitamins and not drinking within 30mins to an hour after eating. I'm amazed sometimes how much I can eat at 9 months out, but that's mostly slider foods based on flour (bread, scones) when I'm a little less strict on weekends. I've learned standard white bread is a no-no for me, as it's a true slider, and leaves me wanting more. Dense protein and veggies still fit me up for hours.

I'm still doing it - and some of the clothes I've moved along are new ones I bought thinking that I'd hit my lowest weight. I wish I'd held off a bit longer as I'm still shrinking.
I did take great pleasure in getting rid of my "big" clothes, I think everyone had clothes they bought just because they fit, not because they loved them. Getting rid of those felt amazing!

I'm regularly told I'm skinny, by family and now I'm getting it from colleagues. Objectively I can see my ribs, and collarbones, and my arms are just muscle and bone (and loose skin!). BUT my size 10 Aus pants fall off my hips and are tight on my calves 😭. I look at my legs and think they are huge, but have no butt anymore, just loose skin. I don't feel like I look in proportion. Body dysmporphia is real and hard to move past.
Plus I'm only 0.6 of a kg from from my goal weight of 60kg. But my weightloss disordered eating brain says "we'll, why not get to 59? Why stop there, get to 58?". So maintenance and deciding when is enough is going to be hard for me. At my last surgeon visit the exercise physiologist told me I should stop losing weight as my body fat was getting low. I've lost another 8.5kg since then. And it still falls off pretty easily nearly 9 months out from vsg.

All I had to do was fast on the day of surgery, no pre op diet. I've had excellent results and reached my surgeons goal weight within 6 months.
My opinion is this - I needed the surgery to stick to the post op liquid diet. Which post surgery was a breeze. Pre surgery, I would have struggled and probably failed. There is a reason I needed 80% of my stomach removed to lose weight.

Why do people continue to read his comments let alone react to them...

If you had taken the time to really read the post. The ricotta bake may taste like pizza as the poster mentioned but the ricotta bake is healthy and surgery friendly.
why not try being positive with people for a change rather than always making negative or bashing posts?
Believe it or not the day may come when you need help or encouragement. People here may end up treating you just as you have treated them.

I didn't tell anyone at first, now I tell most people who ask, unless I really don't want to. I've lost a lot of weight and it's very noticeable so people are curious. I do find it rude when people ask purely to gossip, but oh well, they can talk about it and forget it if they know instead of speculating. I'm always happy to tell people who look like they struggle with their weight, as I did for many years.

All I had to do was fast on the day of surgery, no pre op diet. I've had excellent results and reached my surgeons goal weight within 6 months.
My opinion is this - I needed the surgery to stick to the post op liquid diet. Which post surgery was a breeze. Pre surgery, I would have struggled and probably failed. There is a reason I needed 80% of my stomach removed to lose weight.

My surgical team told me to stop losing at my last appointment - since then I've lost another 6kg and plan to lose another 5kg on top of that. So I'm interested to see what they say at my 12 month checkup (I'm heading into my 8th month post op). I want to get down as low as I practically can, to minimise my bounce back weight gain so many people experience. I'm basing my final number on how I feel, and at the moment I feel pretty amazing. Still losing between 0.5-1.5kg per week, with a 3-4 small loss weeks in a row and then one big one. So every time I think I'm in maintenance, I'm actually not!
Ultimately you are the one that has to live in your body, so if you are happy at 180, I reckon you should stay there.

I didn't tell anyone at first, now I tell most people who ask, unless I really don't want to. I've lost a lot of weight and it's very noticeable so people are curious. I do find it rude when people ask purely to gossip, but oh well, they can talk about it and forget it if they know instead of speculating. I'm always happy to tell people who look like they struggle with their weight, as I did for many years.

In the last 6 months, I've lost 35kg, dropped my body fat percentage from 40% to 25% and have lost countless cms from my body measurements. My surgeon, dietician and exercise physiologist we're delighted with my results. In fact the surgeon said "gee, you've lost the weight well" when he saw me. I'm assuming he just means I look awesome now lol. I'm now in the healthy BMI range. And my fave result, my thighs no longer rub when I walk!
This surgery has been life changing in every way, I wish it had done it ten years ago, and skipped another 5 cycles of yoyo diets and all the associated self loathing and trauma.
My before photo is not even at my biggest, I got pretty good at dodging the camera.

Depends on what Keto you do. I did a version that was low carb, high Protein, moderate fat. You want your body to burn your fat stores, not the fat you are eating. Plans that advocate for eating fatbombs and pouring cream and coconut oil on everything are the ones you want to avoid. You go into ketosis due to a lack of carbs, not an excess of fat.
So keto for me is a lot closer to a normal healthy diet, lots of vegetables and protein and limited processed carbs. Depends if you want to count macros as well. I never did.

I was only given somac for heartburn, I'm 6 months out with no gall bladder issues. I'm in Australia though.

I don't understand what you are looking for? So many people are trying to offer you support. But maybe you are looking for something else - you certainly don't seem to want words of encouragement. I'm sorry you are disappointed but don't lash out at those who are trying to help.

Sent from my SM-G975U using BariatricPal mobile app

I posted a while ago about my weight loss, and regain and taking control again.
Started at 320 or there abouts 5'2" and 54 years old 10 years ago. VSG. Lost weight and got to 180 pounds. Over 8 years I regained to 220. Started slow weight loss / getting back into control in mid July this past year. I have now lost 30 pounds. Back to 190. I started my weight loss with a BMI over 54 in the 300's. I am still considered obese at 190 and a BMI just under 34; but darn it, I am so flipping proud of myself.
Yes, I am 64 years old. No, I can't really exercise ... but I do some short walks and I garden and vegetable garden, take care of my chickens. I had to get a local teen to help me lift 40 pound bags of feed this year; but I can still haul the 25 lb bags.... and I continue to work full time in my career. Life is good.
In my weight loss journey this time out, I stopped at 20 pounds lost and took a break. I experimented with adding in more foods, and balancing out what I needed to do to maintain that 20 pound loss, and did that for a month, then decided to lose some more. I think that i never really paid all that much attention to how much, what kinds of foods how I Prepare them.... and exactly how my body reacts to it. I use very little salt at home. When I eat out, I gain weight from the added salt. Yes, it is Water weight from the salt; but being on lock down at home and working from home, with no lunches out for meetings.... going to have to find places to lunch that cut the sodium out !!! Going to continue what I am doing. Taking breaks, slow weight loss and maybe make it down to overweight, or not.... but will be pleased to keep that 30 # off !!!
Still using my VSG. 10 years later.

How much weight were you expecting to lose each week/month? Was it a realistic amount? Were you being influenced by the weight being lost by people who had a lot more to lose than you? For example the people on My 600lb Life who lose 20-30lbs a month. Remember their starting weight was three or more times your starting place. It takes a lot of calories to maintain a 600lb body. Of course decreasing their caloric intake to 1000/day is going to result in a lot of weight loss.
In general, the less you have to lose the less you will lose each week. If you are expecting to lose say 80lbs you can’t compare your weight loss progress with someone wanting to lose 160lbs.
Think of it as a percentage. Going from 200 to 120lbs is losing 40% of your body weight. Going from 400 to 120lbs is losing 70%. If you lose 1lb a week that’s 1.25% of the weight you want to lose. A person wanting to lose 280lbs, would have to lose about 3.5lbs/wk to be at the same rate. I’m not saying this is a constant percentage rate of loss for everyone, but just a way to look at your loss rate differently.
Some people with similar stats to you will lose at a faster rate simply because of their make-up: their metabolism, how much they exercise, their muscle mass, etc. Others will lose more slowly. You will have good weeks & slow loss weeks & stalls of no loss.
Most importantly the surgery isn’t magic. You won’t lose all the weight you want to lose in a couple of months. It’s hard work. You have to re examine your life & your habits (eating, exercising, cravings...) to understand what lead you to being overweight. You’ll have successes & failures, slips back to old habits (understandable you had them for years) but if you don’t make changes you can’t expect to the lose weight.

Fat loss (DEXA SCAN)
Fat loss is the goal, not Water or muscle loss.

I posted just to let people know that I'm completely disheartened and am on the verge of not trying at all anymore. I was crying out for help. Does that clear up your confusion?

No, I’m sorry it doesn’t. Crying out for help involves wanting help, I don’t think you want help. You’ve declared many, many times in many many ways on this forum how unhappy you are, how much you regret having surgery and how somehow after a whole 2 months you’ve decided that it didn’t work.
We get it, you hate it, you seem to enjoy complaining rather than listening to people who take the time, effort and their personal experiences to try and help you. You self declared/diagnosed that this surgery didn’t work for you. You believe that 2 months and 14 pounds later.
*The surgery is working, you’re just uncomfortable.
Someone mentioned therapy earlier to you and your response was something like: “That would be like spitting in the wind” (not verbatim)
Why are you spitting in the wind here?
There are a lot of people that had their surgeries canceled due to Covid, are heartbroken and would trade places with you in a heartbeat.
You gave up from the start. You don’t need permission or an excuse to fail at this, and you certainly won’t get it here.

It's such a weird feeling, I don't feel full as much as I feel like I couldn't physically take another bite. Totally different feeling to when I'd stuff myself with food to the point of nausea and vomiting. But a much better feeling. I think it must be like the feeling a person with a heathy relationship with food must feel when they put their fork down. I'm amazed that I sit down to my tiny bowl of food, take 6 bites, and I'm done. And I'm close to 6 months out!

This is a long post. I promise there won’t be many like this. My hope is that my story will help inspire someone that is on the fence. My story is about some really good decisions I’ve made including marrying my wife. I submit to you that our respective journeys are about decisions and commitment to a process. The surgery fixes the physical for a period of time, but it does not work on your brain. The short and sweet version:
HW: 602 lbs I very rarely admit to this.
SW: 552 lbs
CW: 260 lbs
Total weight loss: 342 lbs
On this day 2 years ago, I made one of the best decisions of my life. At the time, I had no idea how great I was going to feel or the new experiences I was going to enjoy. All I knew was that I was about to turn 50, and I came to the realization I had to make a change. I always told others, that you can’t do the same thing over and over and expect different results. That was my a-ha moment prior to the surgery. I decided I was going to undergo weight loss surgery. I decided I was “all in” on this process. The day I went to initially meet with my surgeon, I stepped on the scale and weighed 602 lbs. It was hard to look at. Every part of my body hurt... my knees, my back, my ankles, etc. Almost impossible to walk. To put it into perspective, I could barely walk for a couple of minutes without pain or having my heart beating heavily. The good thing was I had normal BP, sugar, cholesterol, etc. I can’t even explain my mental state. I had slowly withdrawn from almost all aspects of living. I am the by-product of losing weight successfully and then gaining it back with interest. I could always lose 75-100 lbs on my own. But since I had a lot more than that to lose, I would eventually hit a wall and revert to my bad habits. I initially wanted to have VSG surgery because it was less invasive and quite frankly I was scared of surgery. Although my surgeon recommended RNY, he left it up to me. I researched a lot and decided RNY. I asked soooo many questions. I spoke with people that underwent surgery. I also decided that I was going to pay out of pocket for the surgery. I felt it was an investment in me. I also didn’t want to chicken out during the insurance process as other times. From my initial consult to surgery day (about 60 days), I lost 50 lbs. 27 of those were during the liquid diet. And no, I did not cheat once during the liquid phase. Was I scared about surgery? Absolutely. But I also understood, statistically, men of my weight do not live long lives. My surgery weight was 552 lbs. I was blessed to go through the surgery without complications. The 1st 6 months out, I focused on the nutrition aspects. The only physical activity I tried was Water aerobics. At about the 6 month, I weighed in at 425 lbs. I felt things were beginning to slow up. I decided to hire a personal trainer. My first conversation with him was that I knew I needed to exercise for my health but there’s no way I could ever have the passion for going to the gym like him and others. My first goal was to walk a 5K. I accomplished that 6 months after. It took me 1.5 hours to finish. But I did it. What an incredible feeling. Today, I do that on a daily basis. Both walking and jogging. I have never felt this good during my adult life. I have embraced this new lifestyle and now look forward to working out. During these unprecedented times we are facing, I have found alternatives to going to the gym and refuse to allow the situation to dictate my life. Today, I stand at 260 lbs. This is the lowest weight I’ve been since high school. It’s important to build the right team. To my wife, my surgeon, my primary physician, and my trainer.......THANK YOU. I would not have been able to achieve these results without your support, encouragement, and advice. I also look at my own level of commitment during this journey. As I said, I hope that my story helps others.

Hunger changed for me, post sleeve, from "I must eat now or I will die" to "I need to eat but, meh, it can wait". Head hunger is also different, sometimes I want to eat something just because it will take good, but my rational brain kicks in and I don't eat it, as it's not worth the effort/ I ate not that long ago/ it's empty calories/ I can only eat 4 bites anyway so why bother!
The surgery changed my relationship with food forever. Along with the weight loss, that's been the best part of the sleeve for me.

Hunger changed for me, post sleeve, from "I must eat now or I will die" to "I need to eat but, meh, it can wait". Head hunger is also different, sometimes I want to eat something just because it will take good, but my rational brain kicks in and I don't eat it, as it's not worth the effort/ I ate not that long ago/ it's empty calories/ I can only eat 4 bites anyway so why bother!
The surgery changed my relationship with food forever. Along with the weight loss, that's been the best part of the sleeve for me.

For me it's if I take enough bites to actually feel full, or don't chew enough. I can only eat enough to feel nearly full, if you know what I mean. Since I had surgery I've never felt entirely full, just satisfied. I guess that's the point where "normal" people stop eating, I'd always eat until I felt like I'd explode!
I'm 6 months out and I got the foamies last week at work, after eating chicken for lunch. Spent 2 hours feeling like I was going to vomit and spitting up saliva.

I think I average about 50gm of Protein a day, and that's with a 9g protein bar every afternoon. My nutritionist is concerned I don't eat enough, but I've lost only 6kg of muscle out of my 37kg weight loss, which is much better than the average (most people lose 1/3 muscle to fat ratio). So I think the blanket 60-80gm per day they reccommend is not what my body actually needs. The exercise physiologist and surgeon were very impressed with my muscle loss/ fat loss.
The protein rich foods I do eat are eggs, cheese, chicken and salmon, and I get high protein wraps and bread. I still have a Protein Shake if I do bodypump at the gym (although my gym is shut until who knows when so no more shakes for a while). I really hate protein shakes!
I'm 6 months out (sleeve) and my restriction is very much in force, so I'm still only eating small amounts at meals, and don't really snack.