egs93

After almost a year and a half I'm currently at 1200 calories per day because I'm trying to lose back a little bit of regain and continue on down to my goal weight. My general day is something small for breakfast (cheese cubes and dried fruit, half a protein bar, a few pieces of fresh fruit with peanut butter or another type of dip), a small snack mid-morning (usually sweet - a few squares of chocolate or some more fruit), a sandwich of some sort for lunch, another small snack mid-afternoon (usually savory - a handful of chips or crackers, less than a full serving), and then dinner is a bit of a free-for-all - usually some type of chicken or fish, sometimes literally just vegetables (last night was rice, carrots, and sweet potatoes). One of the biggest things that I need to cut back on is snacking after dinner. I tend to stay up late and that means that my body thinks we need to eat periodically even when we really don't, and I find myself grazing - a bite of this, a handful of that - and I think that's a lot of where the aforementioned regain came from. I'm going to try to monitor that better and either not snack at all once I've had dinner or be very strict with my timing and make sure I just have one small snack that aligns with the others I've had throughout the day instead of blowing them out of the water.

I'm dealing with my first real instance of feeling this right now. In the first year post-op I lost 110 lbs very easily. I won't say there weren't frustrations and complications - there were - but by and large I didn't have to actually do much besides just listen to my body when it said I was full (which always happened very quickly and after very little food) and stay active. Then I slowly started getting to a point where I could tolerate more food. My stomach didn't cry out for me to stop as early as it had been. I was aware of it, but not aware enough to stop myself from gaining 20 lbs back seemingly over the course of just a few short weeks and taking a debilitating hit to my ego. I felt like a failure, like I'd betrayed my surgery and my goals, like I was on the path to gaining all 100+ lbs back and being obese again. I started being a little more mindful of my eating and activity levels and have lost 6 of those 20 lbs, but knowing that I've still never been at my original goal weight and have 27 more lbs to lose if I want to get to it, this morning I started getting more serious about it again. Strict calorie counting on weekdays, "cheats"/no counting on weekends for metabolism boosting. On the surface it seems like I'm ready to buckle down and get back to the work to keep myself from regaining. Inside, though, I'm terrified of the possibility that nothing that I'll do will work, and I'll keep gaining no matter what I do. I'm scared that I've lost my WLS powers too. 😓

Sometimes bumping your calories back up a bit for a while and then lowering them again can jumpstart your metabolism and get you over stalls and back to losing. It seems counterintuitive that eating more sometimes can lead to losing more, but it's true.

I definitely feel like my overall aches/pains/weaknesses have improved, and started to do so way earlier than 100 lbs lost. By the time I'd lost 40 or so lbs, I was already amazed at my noticeably increased energy levels and stamina, and how doing exercises that I was already doing at my high weight were worlds easier for me and could be done without strain. At 100+ lost it's almost inconceivable that I ever felt as much pain just from movement as I did before.

I'm about 9 months post-op and for the first 6-7 months I didn't miss or crave soda of any kind at all, even though I drank so much of it for most of my life before surgery (I'd given it up almost entirely about 4 months pre-op). About 2 months ago I suddenly got the most intense craving for soda, but still wanted to stay away from the carbonation if I could - so I went to a gas station and got the smallest possible Pepsi flavored slushie I could find....and now I have one per month just to keep the craving down. I haven't told anyone I do this because I usually make kind of a big deal about how I "can't" drink soda anymore - I'd just die if someone found out I let myself have those slushies every now and again!

I'm four and a half months out and I've found I can no longer eat bread or pasta of any kind unless it's gluten free, and even that I can only eat small amounts of. I also have trouble with liquid dairy products. Whole milk is completely not doable, as is more than a couple of bites of normal ice cream. I do drink almond milk sometimes or have non-dairy ice creams or frozen yogurts, but not often. Cheese is fine though! It's just liquid dairy that does me in. Kind of a weird quirk.

I'm nearly two months out from my surgery and a few weeks ago I hit my first stall which lasted at least three weeks. I'm finally over it now - 11 lbs below where I'd stalled - and I have to say it would have been much harder to deal with that initial plateau if I hadn't already read all the great advice on these forums. When I stalled my panic set in almost instantly, telling me that I needed to eat less (even though I was already eating a miniscule amount of calories compared to my pre-surgery habits) or work out more (even though I was getting plenty of exercise multiple days a week). The disordered eating habits and punishing mindset I'd developed pre-surgery snuck back up on me quickly, and my instinct was to worry that I'd done something wrong that needed corrected in order to start losing again. But then I remembered how often I'd seen people here say "just work your plan" and "continue as normal, your body will take care of itself." I calmed down, continued on the diet and exercise that had worked so far, and sure enough I'm losing again just fine. So I guess this is just a long-winded way of saying I'm glad this website and this community are here, because it really did help to think back on this forum when I was ready to lose my mind over that first stall.

I'm a month out and dry mouth is SUCH a problem for me still. My mother also had the sleeve a year ago and said she dealt with it for 2-3 months following her surgery. It's especially bad right after I wake up in the mornings and in the half hour before/after eating when I know I can't have my water no matter how dry my mouth feels. I'm hoping it goes away eventually as well. Good luck!

I know it's difficult to give up if you've been addicted but every bad effect from smoking is even worse for WLS patients. Please, for the sake of your health that you went through your surgery to improve, do everything you can to stop smoking permanently. Do not let yourself believe that it's okay to continue or start smoking again.

Everyone's journey is different and nobody should compare themselves to others, so this isn't meant to be a competition. I'm just curious as to how long post-sleeve it took people to reach their goal weight (either your personal one or the one your surgeon set for you, if those were different). I've seen a lot of people both here and in my real life say it took them around 6-8 months, but I don't know if this is "average" or just the number I happen to have seen most often by coincidence. Oh, and people who have reached their goal weight - how good did it feel when you did? 😃

Everyone goes about their life post-op differently, but I don't think your friend is doing anything "bad" or "wrong" with his actions. If he's already lost 90 lbs, he's clearly seeing good results from the surgery and from his current habits. I have seen some people on these forums say that completely choosing to never eat certain things (like desserts) works best for them, but I know several people in my real life who have been sleeved and they all fall closer to your friend's type of eating than to complete deprivation and they've all hit their goal weights. Eating what we think of as "bad" things in moderation, combined with good exercise and healthy food choices nine times out of ten is still an effective method of weight loss, for people who have never undergone wls and for people who have. To each their own!

If you are not prepared to give up smoking in order to get this procedure, PLEASE put the procedure off until you have quit and been smoke free for a while and know that you can remain that way. We all know there are huge health risks with smoking anyway, but it was stressed to me repeatedly throughout my process that these risks are MUCH more pronounced for post-op bariatric patients. As ms.sss said above, many programs will not even approve a surgery unless you've stopped smoking at least six months prior to the date. I'm not sure why your program has gone so quickly, but it sounds like they've left out a lot of incredibly important information that people with three or six month pre-op programs hear. I would be very very worried about your health if you went through with the surgery as a recent smoker and then realized afterwards that you couldn't give it up. It's just not worth getting a weight loss surgery that is meant to improve your quality of life, only to put yourself in extremely high danger by not being able to quit cigarettes.

My sleeve was my first surgery ever as well! The best advice I can give is just make sure to be compliant with the doctors, nurses, and the plans they lay out for you, both in and out of the hospital. Don't be afraid to ask questions, but follow their advice and instructions as best you can, because they'll be the ones to guide you through the experience.

Stopping smoking was a great step! I had stopped smoking about five months before I had my first appointment (before I'd decided to do the process) and also completely stopped drinking about two months before - again for unrelated reasons, but those both ended up being things that the nutritionist and psychiatrist at my weight loss center were very happy to hear. I gradually cut down on caffeine and carbonation and eventually cut them out entirely at about 4 months pre-op, and started taking my recommended multivitamin at that same time.

I mentioned this on another post recently, but I went through something very similar. I was calm, assured, and excited all the way through my six month pre-op process, and then got suddenly attacked by nerves in the couple of days before. When I was in the intake room at the hospital my heart rate was so high just from nerves that they even asked anesthesia holding to give me something mild to calm me down before they took me to the OR. I've had generalized anxiety disorder for most of my life, so I was anticipating that I'd get very nervous as the surgery got closer, but I think some jitters are probably common even for people who don't struggle with anxiety normally. Just breathe, remind yourself of all the work you've put in so far, and know that you'll come out on the other side ready to start a whole new life!