learn2cook

Are you a bot? Your old 300lb body was telling you something about your health. Here’s the truth. Don’t follow any recommendations for health and fitness. There, you will gain the weight back exponentially. The next time you try to be healthy again, it will be near impossible, even with surgery and medication.

I thought you wanted a child? Isn’t modeling for that child healthy habits good parenting? You can do hard things. Ask for a therapist, dietitian, medical reports, take child care classes, marriage counseling, run away from abuse, get post partum care. Do it for your kid if you won’t do it for yourself.

Making the decision to improve your health and reclaim your life is huge so congratulations. And yes starting now can start to get you into the right frame of mind and help you start establishing better habits and new routines. You don’t have to jump in with everything. Small changes are often easier to adopt and adapt to. Here are some ideas you could start with. Just pick a couple which you think you could begin to introduce.
Finding time to be more active when you work full time, for long hours and sit all day. But you can carve out short blocks of time throughout the day. The little bits of 5 mins here 10 there add up so don’t think you have to find a solid 30 - 60 mins a day to improve your health. Go for a walk at lunch time even 10 mins is better than nothing. If you take public transport get off at the stop before your office or home. Take stairs not the lift. Walk up escalators. Park further away from where you’re going. A lot of us start off with these small changes and then build and incorporate more activity as they go on. I still do short boosts of activity (stretches and bands) and incorporate these other behavioural changes in my usual chores I do day to day.
May be start reducing or dropping those late night Snacks. Up your Fluid intake. Reduce portion sizes. Up your Protein intake. Avoid following any fad or social media trending diet tips, diets or food fear mongering. They usually don’t work, are never sustainable & not based in any truth.
Have you found a surgeon yet?

Welcome and hello!
My journey started with calling the different weight loss centers in my area and seeing if they take my insurance. I researched the doctors, procedures, and programs. The introduction to the programs were all online. The GLP-1 medications were not available then, so there’s more information now. My weight loss took off when I started meeting with the dietitian. She recommended the book “Weight Loss Surgery for Dummies” and this site here was recommended in it. So, ask away, lurk, learn. Most of us are healthier and grateful for surgery and all the newer methods. I wish I had done it sooner!

I wasn’t going to say anything, but honestly… I feel a little hurt by this post. At one point, I was 325 pounds. I wanted a baby more than anything, so I worked hard, lost 100 pounds through diet, and was finally able to get pregnant with my first child.
After I had my second, my weight climbed back up to 297. I wasn’t the mom I knew I could be. I couldn’t play with my kids like I wanted to, I didn’t have the energy to care for them the way they deserved, and I knew I was setting a bad example with the way we ate.
So I made a change. I got the surgery, fixed my eating habits, and got my butt in the gym. And now? I can do it all — and then some. My daughter tells me almost every day how happy she is that I lost the weight and can play with her and her brother. That hits me right in the heart.
I didn’t just do this for me — I did it for them. And I’m so proud of that!

Don’t do it.

How old are you and do you have any medical issues. I am nearly 70 and my year is up in March. I count the 7 months before my surgery because I lost 60 pounds during that time. So we are simular in we might loss. I am down 140 pounds total. I have a bad knee. I have been walking a little, and I mean a little. I have started Tai chi. It says weight loss if you do an hour but I am up to 30 min. We all have different problems that may slow us down. Do something and do something you enjoy.

Cars have computers?

I totally get you. White flour, processed sugar stuff just makes me dump. Even in small amounts I get crabby. Peace to you on your journey ☮️

It isn't weight loss surgery, it is metabolic surgery, just a tool to use or abuse. If you use it as it was intended you will be able to maintain your weight. Remember it is about health and wellness and not the number on the scale. I weight myself rarely, every scale is different and the surgeon's office is my go to place for accuracy. Just stay on plan and continue to follow the meal plan laid out for you.
By the way, the first article is a scholarly article, the second one is not a scholarly article. I would watch what kind of article you are looking at and take anything that is a .com with a grain of salt, literally.
While weight gain is possible, it is not the absolute. One day at a time. You may eat off plan during the holidays, but get right back onto your meal plan and exercising plan to maintain your health.
Wishing you the best.

Its a thing. I have never been as vigilant as I am now. I log my food and exercise every day. I weigh myself every day. Two pounds up and I deal with it.
Carbs still sit heavy on my stomach so I still don't eat them which is a bonus for me. I hope you find some way to stay thin too.

Hi,
I had gastric bypass 3yrs ago October (I'm now 39). My starting weight was 340 and I'm current 260 with my lowest being 245 (I float between 255-260). I lost all of my weight the first 9mos and then I went off plan because my fertility doctor wouldn't restart treatments until my weight stabilized. I had surgery so I could get pregnant (I had undergone 3yrs of fertility treatments before surgery). I've had 3yrs of fertility treatments since then, no luck. My new dr said I'd help if I lost another 50lbs before we do IVF again. I've been trying for months and cannot get below 255. I lowered my calories to 800 with 30min of exercise and literally didn't even lose an ounce. I eat clean, very little to no sugar, fruit, veggies, Beans, lean chicken breast, and no flour products or processed foods.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hello, welcome!
I understand your plight. I too had troubles in the procreation department. However, it is going back to the basics. High Protein meals! Eat within 1 1/2 hours of waking and stop after eating dinner. Calories is not an issue, the amount of protein is the bigger deal. I'll leave the specifics to SpartanMaker, he writes volumes. No simple sugars and limit your food sizes. 30 minutes of exercise? What kind of exercise? Are you just walking, doing strength training or cardio? Walking is always a good thing. Keep working the basics and the weight will come off, but nothing will happen quickly.
Wishing you well.

I wonder if your feeling uncomfortable at this lower weight is to do with body dysmorphia or a similar disorder. It takes time for our head to catch up with reality and see ourselves as we really are after surgery. Our sense of who we are in ourselves and in society has changed. We’re not the big girl anymore but we may not see ourselves as a slim girl yet. We lose what we think is our identity. Our understanding of our actual physical size is different and hard to come to terms with. And so on.
These feelings are not uncommon after weight loss. They seem to manifest in different ways but common seems to be feeling uncomfortable in your self and that you don’t know or can’t see yourself anymore.
A lot of your head space during your weight loss has been filled with a second surgery, pregnancy and now caring for a baby. How much has been directed to you yourself?
Before embarking on trying to regain your weight, it may be helpful to look into therapy. It can’t hurt & many here have found it useful when dealing with these and similar issues.

Some of us don’t overeat and still stay stuck. I learned that it's not always about willpower or food addiction. Sometimes it’s hormones!!

Your PCOS is probably your worst enemy when battling your weight. Hormones were certainly mine. From puberty I started gaining and I bounced between 60 & 75kgs most of my adult life using a multitude of diets & exercises programs to manage it. Generally I was a low calorie eater even regularly skipping meals to limit calorie intake. I went to a dietician once who told me I wasn’t eating enough. (Never lost a pound seeing her.) Perimenopause hit and I suddenly went from 60 to 80. Then menopause and I was 91. All gained seemingly overnight. Couldn't lose except a couple of kilos on a 500 calorie a day diet and it took weeks to lose that. Nothing worked until I had surgery.
When hormones come into play how many calories you eat, how much you manage the quality of the food you eat, how much activity you do, you are fighting a battle with the odds against you.
One of the benefit of the surgery is that it alters your hormones (gut, metabolic, reproductive and other hormones like cortisol) to varying degrees. This is why it may help you.
A lot of others on the forum with PCOS have found success with the surgery & hopefully some will respond with their experiences.
But as others have mentioned you have to be mentally & emotionally ready for surgery. It’s not easy with a lot of head work involved. It takes a lot of commitment. And it is a lifelong commitment but so worth it

All the best, whatever you decide to do.

I never had a food addiction, never had any food related issues and WLS worked (for me) by managing whatever metabolic dysfunction I had.
My heaviest was 250 lbs and I am now ~ 150lbs for the past 7+ years. Not battling a food addiction probably set me up to have an easier journey.
I didn’t really over eat prior to WLS, but I definitely don’t over eat now.
You can try to hunt down the reasons for your obesity (but often it is too complex even for doctors to really appreciate) but TBH managing it is much more rewarding to focus on. I hope you find what you’re looking for, Good luck!

That's not how this works. You're basing how much you should be eating on some external factor, whether it's what someone told you is the right amount, or based on past experiences. Neither of those things matter AT ALL.
PCOS has 2 potential impacts on your body when it comes to weight gain: It can make you eat more and it can also slow your metabolism. That latter point is critical here. It means you may have to eat a lot less than someone without that disease.
If you REALLY want to know how much you should be eating, I would strongly urge you to go get a metabolic test. These are available in most major cities, either at larger universities, or via a commercial provider.
If you keep insisting that you're able to put on weight, but don't overeat, then I'm afraid you're going to continue to suffer from the disease that is obesity. I don't say this to be mean. Sometimes the truth hurts, but you can't magically break the basic laws of physics just because you don't like them.

Only you can decide if surgery is right for you, but if you are obese, you overeat... full stop.
One fundamental rule of weight loss is that you cannot break the laws of thermodynamics. If you eat fewer calories than you burn, you'll lose weight and if you eat more calories than you burn, you'll gain weight.
I know some people don't like to hear that, or think it doesn't apply to them, but physics is physics. You can't add body mass unless those calories are in excess of the number your body needs to keep you alive.
Look at it like this: your body burns a certain number of calories per day. It's not exactly the same every day, but for most folks, it stays fairly consistent. The problem is in your case, you stated you only eat 1400 calories a day. That number alone is completely meaningless. Because weight loss, weight maintenance, or weight gain are all about energy balance, you also have to also know how many calories you burn in a day. If you are gaining weight on 1400 calories per day, there are only two possibilities:
You are underestimating how much you actually eat. I know you probably think you're being accurate, but underestimation is incredibly common. Study after study shows that almost everyone underestimates how much they actually eat, even if they think they are accurately measuring everything. Part of that is measurement error, part is variation in foods, part is failure to count certain parts of a meal, part is "eyeballing" foods, and part is due to inaccurate calorie listings. The bottom line is that calorie counting is hard and often not nearly as accurate as we like to think. You may have an exceptionally low resting metabolic rate. As I said, 1400 calories consumed per day is irrelevant because you don't actually know how many calories you burn in a day. Since the basic principle here is you have to consume less than you burn per day to lose weight, 1400 calories consumed doesn't matter if you don't also know how many calories you are burning. Let's move on to how surgery works. Bariatric surgery works primarily by simply limiting how much someone can eat. Yes, there are also hormonal changes, but those are about satiety, so in your case, those may be less important. There is also some reduction in intake calories through reduced absorption (yes, even in sleeve surgery), but that's a fairly minor component overall.
At the end of the day, this is no different than weight loss drugs like GLP-1s, or even diets. They are all designed to reduce calorie intake. If you truly have no problems dieting, then it sounds like you need to just reduce your calorie intake until you start losing at a sustainable rate. You need to forget what someone may have told you about how many calories you're "supposed to" eat to lose weight, because it sounds like that whatever that number was, it's not the correct number for you.
Once you're losing at about a 2-3% per month rate, just stay there until you reach your goal weight. This should be simple for you since you said you have no problems sticking to a diet.
Best of luck.

helloooo fellow Torontonian! ❤️
re: specific program inquiry, if you are going through the OBN (Ontario Bariatric Network) your whole plan/program/schedule will be outlined for you. in my opinion, the program and guidelines are very generic and are applied to EVERYONE, so its not the greatest at taking individual needs into account. im a natural DIY-er, so i took what they prescribed and determined for myself what worked for ME and just left the rest. personally i think this is the best M.O., but i get its not in everyone's wheelhouse.
my best advice would be: keep doing what works until it doesn't, then find something else that does.
re: smoking: i was smoke free for about 10 yrs when i had wls (prior to that i was a pack a day smoker for about 20+ years. one year post wls i started again (i was on vacay and thought "one couldn't hurt", ha!) that ended up with smoking a pack a day again from 2019-2023. been smoke free since (again).
as we all know, you will only succeed in quitting if you ACTUALLY, REALLY, WANT to. both times i quit it was cold turkey. both times because i had a minor health scare and i ended up pondering my mortality. hopefully you will find the impetus to quitting...its hard (i know!). do the best you can....you may fall off the wagon a couple (or maybe tonnes!) of times, but so long as you make an honest effort to TRY, you are already better off.
good luck! ❤️

Aah, stalls. The eternal battle of weight loss. But yes, you can continue to experience stalls of varying lengths until you stop losing. Plus you’re getting close to your goal weight (or your new set point) so your rate of loss can slow right down to what seems like nothing - like measuring loss in ounces not pounds. The last 11kg I lost took about a year so less than a kilo (about a pound) a month on average but in those last months it was almost at a dead stop with fluctuations until it finally settled & didn’t change.
Did you carry most of your weight in your abdominal area? If so, this might be why you are still carrying weight there as it is where you had the most to lose. Losing an inch off your thighs will look like you’ve lost more than losing an inch off your tummy because it is a larger area. But it wouldn’t hurt to speak with your doctor about possible build up of lymphatic Fluid or lymphedema given your history.

Hi Lisa,

I’m so sorry you’re struggling. You are not alone and there is always hope!

I agree with @SpartanMaker above.

I am post menopausal and that peri-menopausal and immediate post time is so tricky. There may be some other reasons for continuing weight gain and stagnant loss. As a sped teacher, I always look at crossing out medical issues first. So thyroid, PCOS, fibroids, and endometriosis should probably all be ruled out.

I too am a sooth with food comforter. I had therapy that was very specific to me, related to eating disorders. My counselor helped me with body dysmorphia,and feeling good about making positive choices. For me, I had to stop tracking. I pretty much stick to Keto with some veggies. I reached out to TOPS and OA for advice and most people there kind of came to the same conclusions. Many women found they needed to keep taking Metformin to help with genuine continued hunger. They were peri menopausal and we wondered if their doc didn’t snip as much stomach off as the ones from my clinic. (We compared notes.) In the end, we were all fighting for our health and there was no shame. Asking for help is the best sign that things will turn around for you too!

I found an affordable therapist in psychologytoday.com It sounds like insurance might cover yours through your clinic. I had to pay out of pocket but it was well worth it.

Hey, you’re not alone. I asked for help from my dietitian. I went to meetings with other bariatric patients. I watched videos online. I got a therapist. Obesity is a disease and if one thing isn’t working, go to your doctor and tweak something else.

I found I have to weigh and measure everything. I prep my food. I’m really boring and do better when I eat mostly the same things for Breakfast and lunch. I’m someone that needs to eat breakfast. I have to have a regular schedule most days. When I need to loose weight, I need to also concentrate on more aerobic activities, very low weights.

What you need for you is going to be very individualistic for you. In the bariatric groups I attend or stream, one person got the DS portion done. One person uses gl-1 meds, another need’s metformin. A different person needed more yoga and Pilates and made it her career. Another person found starting her day with morning mass and volunteering in the community filled her with energy that wasn’t food. My coworker got a dog that needed lots of walks AND agility training. She got back to goal and found a stress relief and joy. So you’re going to have to do some research on yourself, because getting healthy and staying healthy is a multi pronged approach. It’s a little like finding the right combination of medical, physical, emotional, spiritual tools, and realizing the ruby red shoes on your feet can help. You can do this!

Hey, you’re not alone. I asked for help from my dietitian. I went to meetings with other bariatric patients. I watched videos online. I got a therapist. Obesity is a disease and if one thing isn’t working, go to your doctor and tweak something else.

I found I have to weigh and measure everything. I prep my food. I’m really boring and do better when I eat mostly the same things for Breakfast and lunch. I’m someone that needs to eat breakfast. I have to have a regular schedule most days. When I need to loose weight, I need to also concentrate on more aerobic activities, very low weights.

What you need for you is going to be very individualistic for you. In the bariatric groups I attend or stream, one person got the DS portion done. One person uses gl-1 meds, another need’s metformin. A different person needed more yoga and Pilates and made it her career. Another person found starting her day with morning mass and volunteering in the community filled her with energy that wasn’t food. My coworker got a dog that needed lots of walks AND agility training. She got back to goal and found a stress relief and joy. So you’re going to have to do some research on yourself, because getting healthy and staying healthy is a multi pronged approach. It’s a little like finding the right combination of medical, physical, emotional, spiritual tools, and realizing the ruby red shoes on your feet can help. You can do this!

Hey, you’re not alone. I asked for help from my dietitian. I went to meetings with other bariatric patients. I watched videos online. I got a therapist. Obesity is a disease and if one thing isn’t working, go to your doctor and tweak something else.

I found I have to weigh and measure everything. I prep my food. I’m really boring and do better when I eat mostly the same things for Breakfast and lunch. I’m someone that needs to eat breakfast. I have to have a regular schedule most days. When I need to loose weight, I need to also concentrate on more aerobic activities, very low weights.

What you need for you is going to be very individualistic for you. In the bariatric groups I attend or stream, one person got the DS portion done. One person uses gl-1 meds, another need’s metformin. A different person needed more yoga and Pilates and made it her career. Another person found starting her day with morning mass and volunteering in the community filled her with energy that wasn’t food. My coworker got a dog that needed lots of walks AND agility training. She got back to goal and found a stress relief and joy. So you’re going to have to do some research on yourself, because getting healthy and staying healthy is a multi pronged approach. It’s a little like finding the right combination of medical, physical, emotional, spiritual tools, and realizing the ruby red shoes on your feet can help. You can do this!

My pre-op was a waiting game, and I joined BariNation. I watched their podcasts and thought I would try it for a month. I have been there ever since, and am glad to have people to learn from, licensed therapists to talk to and nutritionists that are registered dieticians to get recipes from and information about nutrition. There are physicians that give answers to questions, and peer meet-ups that keep you involved and are very helpful. I spend most days there because there is always something to attend during the day or in the evening. It is depending on the time zone you are in as to when these zoom meetings take place. There is a lot to learn, and one thing I learned is that I have a lot of Non-scale victories both before surgery and now after surgery. I have made friends that get me, and we talk, instead of write, and some I have numbers for and when we have some head work involved, we call and talk to each other to help us past the hard stuff. I would recommend it to help you during your waiting period. Isolation is not a good thing.
I learned over the months that isolation can actually be detrimental to your work and progress. You want to continue to progress before your surgery that is nothing more than a tool. Being in groups helps to keep you grounded, and you can learn about emotional eating to help you to get some work done in the emotional eating realm of our lives. We used to use food as comfort, and we can't do that now, once you are post surgery.
Wishing you the best.

I would say it took me 26 months to get to a weight where I was happy. A lot more than others did but I had my issues. My size and age made me very disabled, exercising was a no-no. I got here though. I am living my best life.