Deb9386

Yes! I am sure that with the events of this past year with COVID, the troll population has exploded exponentially! Ha. Will try to avoid these posts as best as I can and hope that I do not have hospital personnel who feel the same...
Thank you!

I also have thyroid issues...currently on synthroid and liothyronine. The little amount of weight I have lost thus far has been hard fought and so, I have been wondering how this will play into weight loss after surgery. I think @Deb9386 might be on to something with the meds...(Good luck with the endno doc - crossing my fingers for you!) Hopefully we can all find that fine line of what amounts we need to take. It has been a long battle trying to get that number correct...I have a feeling it may continue to be one. But, the great news is that your doctor actually has agreed you have a thyroid issue. Most don't even bother testing for it.
Good Luck everyone. I will make sure to post my results as I go along....

People who are inclined to put on weight (for whatever reason) are never going to be able to be effortlessly thin as some people seem to be able to be. It's always going to be a battle against weight regain - don't look on your regain as a "failure" on your part; it's happened because you took your eye off the ball. But you've lost the weight once and you can definitely do it again! BriarRose's post is inspirational and really great advice - I haven't even got to goal yet and I KNOW that when I do I'll be fighting constantly to keep my weight there. You can do this!

I find that the days when I drink more Fluid (usually 70 fl oz), I lose more weight the day after. Maybe try to up your fluid intake?

I find that the days when I drink more Fluid (usually 70 fl oz), I lose more weight the day after. Maybe try to up your fluid intake?

I too am finding that I have cravings for the unhealthy foods I love. I don't keep those foods in the house - my husband's diabetic so we wouldn't have them in for him either, which makes it far easier to resist the cravings. I'm aware however that part of this is that mentally I feel I'm still "dieting" i.e. not at my goal weight. Once (hopefully) I reach goal weight I know I'm going to find it really difficult not to fall back into old habits. I need to deal with this. Thanks for your post which helps me know it's not just me who struggles.

Sorry that you've had this experience with friends, but I don't think it's that surprising to be honest. You have lost an amazing amount of weight - many congratulations! A major change like this, whether by wls or not, is bound to affect the established relationships you have with family/friends. Your obese friends have lost part of their "support group" where they can justify their own obesity because all of their friends are similarly obese. You've upset the balance of the friendship group and they can't accept that - subconsciously, it feels like a personal criticism of them remaining fat.
They're being cruel and unkind about the weight loss and wls because they're trying to put themselves back into the position where they don't believe they should try to lose weight.
Making new friends must be the answer - and make friends who have the same interests you now do i.e. not eating, but keeping fit & active pursuits like walking, running etc. Personally I wouldn't tell them about the wls because why do they need to know, certainly initially? Good luck!

I'm eating between 800-900 calories per day - the dietitian says that at my stage (9 weeks post gastric bypass) I should be having between 800-1000. I'm losing weight fairly steadily at that calorie intake. I don't think I could function on 600 cals or less a day - at the beginning when I couldn't physically take in many calories I couldn't concentrate and felt exhausted a lot of the time.

My extended family is really supportive, which helps a lot.

I felt exhausted in the first few weeks when my food/calorie intake was very low. It gradually went as I managed to eat more food and was taking in more calories. People are different but my diet plan added in carbs at each meal from 6 weeks and that gave me more energy. The carbs are things like oatcakes (which are soft enough to chew and go down) or banana.

I'm still having to eat little and often - I can't manage more than you're saying in one meal, so I'm getting most of my Protein via a daily shake, protein Water, yoghurt and cottage cheese. I can't tolerate solid meats yet - so can eat minced beef or turkey, but not a piece of meat, I still can't eat eggs and also tinned fish like tuna. Those all just stick. I can get fresh fish down tho. According to my diet plan I should be ok with all of those by now, so I'm hoping it's going to improve.

Over the last couple of weeks I've been feeling more hungry than I have before (9 weeks out). Quite often I'm not sure if it's hunger, thirst or head hunger. So now when I feel hungry I first have a drink, then if still feeling hungry I think "ok, do I want 50g of cottage cheese? " and if I don't then I know it's head hunger.
If your hunger is always at night maybe you need to factor in a snack an hour before bed? Or I think I read in another thread that somebody keeps a snack back that she can have if she wakes up in the night hungry?

This has been my experience too. I find myself getting fed up with eating the same sorts of food all the time (I'm in soft eating phase). I still can't tolerate most meat or tinned fish and so my meal options remain limited, bearing in mind calorific and Protein requirements. I could quite easily revert to eating all of the wrong sorts of food when I'm depressed or bored, and unfortunately the current situation here in winter and in lockdown in the UK is depressing and boring....
So I'm trying to use a combination of willpower and planning, and I do factor in 1 x "treat" per day if I stick to the eating plan - and I count the calories. The treats aren't what I would have considered treats 6 months ago, but so far it's working. My treats include e.g. a small bag of lentil crisps (90 calories/2.2 protein) or 5 sugar free sweets (40 calories/0 protein!). I don't think I'm ever going to see an apple as a treat, so I figure I just have to work with who I am.

I'm with you on this. I'm only 5 weeks post-op but have realised things I didn't know before my wls. I thought that I ate when I was "down" or depressed. Actually I've realised since surgery that I want to eat when I'm bored. But I've been more weepy than usual since surgery and I think that the sweet stuff must have been releasing serotonin which helped my mood [although it's hard to tell at the moment as the lockdown /situation we're in here is so depressing anyway]. I doubt that I will become addicted to exercise to fill the serotonin gap as I have never liked sport, so my only real option is not to have the trigger foods in the house at all.

Just pick yourself up and get going again. But think about it and try to learn from the experience. If you can learn what triggered the problem, you can figure out how to avoid another call. As long as you keep learning from failure, you set yourself up for success.
For example, I remember twice after riding my bike that I absolutely craved french fries. I gave in both times and got sick both times. Then I realized it was the salt I was actually craving. Once I added some electrolytes to my water bottle during rides, I never experienced that again. So try to think it through - was it boredom, stress, or something else? What can you do during those times rather than eat? One of my big temptations is munching while watching TV. Now I have some sewing hand work to finish up before Christmas and I do that instead of eating. So much more productive! You can do this. You are not alone.

Haha! So true!

I was told by my dietitian to go up to between 800-1000 calories at 6 weeks out. I gradually got to this and am still losing, though the weight loss has slowed to about 2 lbs per week. I have to get 60g Protein and 2 litres Water per day. Every plan seems so different! At the end of the day if you have a calorie deficit you'll lose weight.

Thank you for your prayers 💗
I understand about you feeling guilt. I feel guilty still about my son's death and think that somehow I should have prevented it. He hadn't been well, but went to Asia for an extended trip and died while there - I "knew" if you see what I mean that he wasn't really well enough to go but didn't talk him out of going. I could have persuaded him not to go I think and he wouldn't have died - so I blame myself for not listening to my "inner voice".
As a parent it's hard not to feel guilty if your child dies. It's such an unnatural thing that a child dies before their parent. It's very hard because our sons & husbands so often don't talk about their pain - mental or physical; they hide it from us.
Do you have other children?

Hi Lynda - I'm so sorry to hear this. You must be hurting so much. My son died unexpectedly 2 years ago and I understand just how devastating a loss it is. My thoughts and prayers are with you. Debbie

Thank you for your prayers 💗
I understand about you feeling guilt. I feel guilty still about my son's death and think that somehow I should have prevented it. He hadn't been well, but went to Asia for an extended trip and died while there - I "knew" if you see what I mean that he wasn't really well enough to go but didn't talk him out of going. I could have persuaded him not to go I think and he wouldn't have died - so I blame myself for not listening to my "inner voice".
As a parent it's hard not to feel guilty if your child dies. It's such an unnatural thing that a child dies before their parent. It's very hard because our sons & husbands so often don't talk about their pain - mental or physical; they hide it from us.
Do you have other children?

I had the RNY bypass only last week but had been thinking about wls for some time. My husband was exactly the same as yours - very anxious about the risks of the operation and not understanding why I couldn't just lose through dieting as I had in the past. Anybody who has not been obese/morbidly obese almost certainly doesn't understand the issues around weight gain/loss for those who are. I had various co-morbidities and once I decided that I was going ahead with the surgery, just powered through his anxieties by saying I'd rather die of the surgery than spend 10 years having limb amputations due to diabetes.
The day before my surgery somebody recommended to me Dr Matthew Weiner's book - How Weight Loss Surgery Really Works - and I read this immediately before my surgery. It validated all of my decision making and I highly recommend reading it if you're undecided about the surgery. If you, like me, are a yo-yo dieter who can lose weight on a diet and then gradually regains it all - it will resonate with you and give insights.
Good luck with the decision making!

It is scary - I was very anxious about the endoscopy and particularly about the surgery. But it really is amazing that the surgery (in my case RNY) means that you don't feel the hunger and can't over eat because of the restriction. My bloods went from borderline diabetic to well below within 10 days after the bypass. I knew my liver was "fatty" but my surgeon showed me the photos and told me it was borderline cirrhotic - losing weight is the only thing I can do to improve this. So I know I made the right decision. These days it's a very safe procedure but you're bound to feel anxious about it - everybody does.

Yes ↑ me too!

I'm with you on this. I'm only 5 weeks post-op but have realised things I didn't know before my wls. I thought that I ate when I was "down" or depressed. Actually I've realised since surgery that I want to eat when I'm bored. But I've been more weepy than usual since surgery and I think that the sweet stuff must have been releasing serotonin which helped my mood [although it's hard to tell at the moment as the lockdown /situation we're in here is so depressing anyway]. I doubt that I will become addicted to exercise to fill the serotonin gap as I have never liked sport, so my only real option is not to have the trigger foods in the house at all.

I've kept my wls private, only telling my husband and (adult) children. I'm a private person anyway and don't really feel it's anybody else's business. Plus there's a LOT of judgment over wls here in the UK - the surgery is a lot less common here than in the US I think - and basically you're labelled as a "fat slob who can't be bothered to limit what you eat" and who takes the easy route of having most of your stomach removed! Nobody cares about the research showing that some people are genetically pre-disposed to weight gain and excessive hunger and that the wls actually works on a hormonal level. But my decision to keep it private has been helped by Covid as we basically haven't seen anyone socially or otherwise for months....