vikingbeast

Part of the dumbbell thing is because your core is not fully healed. You lose a lot of core strength. I would imagine your strict press is also way off. And sit-ups are probably not your friend, nor toes-to-rig.

I’m 1y9m post op and it took probably a year before I started to feel strong again. I may never hit my old PRs, my days of deadlifting 545 for reps are probably gone, but my mile time went from 14:48 to 9:33, I can do rope climbs, I can bust out V-ups and the occasional strict pull-up, and I’m a hell of a lot healthier.

We did strict press for the first time in a while, sets of 2. My previous 1RM was 195 and my previous 2RM was 175. I did 155 today for 2 and that was after a 12-minute AMRAP of double unders (another thing I can do now) and toes to bar (close but no cigar).

I noticed I’m more sore after grueling workouts. (I’m almost 47, so read into that what you will.)

It does come back. I lost a lot of muscle mass (yay for DEXA scans) during my weight loss phase. I’ve put on about 17 lbs since my low and 9 of them were muscle per the latest DEXA.

I have no idea what my actual initial weight was because I refused to buy a higher capacity scale, so my heaviest measured weight was 396. But I’m sure I was more than that.

All those things you mentioned struck a chord with me. I remember having to ask for tables, not booths, and then having to size up the chair to see if I could actually sit. I didn’t have an aneurysm but I had uncontrollable hypertension and was getting precursors to heart attacks.

So I’m here to tell you that it all changes, and very quickly. I’m 18 months post-op. I didn’t hit the goal I wanted but I did get below 20% body fat and am within 10 pounds of my lowest weight of 262. (I’m six feet tall and built like a brick sh!thouse even without the fat).

I eat intuitively now (after therapy to help get me to have a better relationship with food) and I exercise a lot. I’m running a 5K on Sunday and it’s… just not a big deal. I fit in booths and I can run up and down stairs and jump to a 30” box. I am not on any blood pressure or blood sugar medicine, and I no longer need a CPAP. I wish I would’ve done this a decade earlier.

Here’s the thing, though: the program where I had my surgery done was not that useful. I ended up with a nutrition coach I hired, who got me eating correctly while still losing weight hand over fist. I had already been doing CrossFit (yes, at 400 lbs—the coaches simply scaled the workouts so I was getting the same stimulus as the jacked beasts in the gym but at a level I could do) and building muscle helped with fat loss and body comp. I needed therapy and psychiatric help to resolve my anxiety and depression.

You’re gonna do great. Write down all the stuff you can’t do now and use it as a checklist for later. You’ll be stunned how quickly it happens. Just make sure you have the support team with you, don’t rely on the bariatric program; they’re a hammer and everything they see is a nail.

I’m happy to pass along contacts for the nutrition program I started at 3 months post-op, or give details about my exercise program, I just don’t want to look like a spammer.

I track, but every now and then I'll have a "holiday" from tracking. I usually end up gaining 2-3 lbs. over a week or two, and as soon as I start tracking again, it goes back down. (I'm just finishing one of these "holidays".)

I went to the dentist yesterday and the hygienist just... put the arms up on the chair. I fit in the chair!

On 5/20/2022 at 8:00 AM, LilaNicole20 said:

Good to know!

Just go in knowing that everybody is different and every body is different. I am quite densely built so I have to use both the scale and the handheld doodad on "athlete mode" at which point it's close to the DEXA scan. If I do it in normal mode, it WAY overestimates my body fat.

I had to delete nuts from my diet, too many calories and not enough satiety. I do find the temptation to snack happening so I'm trying to be vigilant about that.

Fifteen pounds to go, eight months and a week out from surgery.

On 5/18/2022 at 5:16 AM, ShoppGirl said:

I wonder if they do that on purpose like expensive brand names make us a smaller size so we buy their jeans.

I doubt it. It's using electrical signals from your legs and can't accurately predict your trunk, so just 3% off is pretty good. I have a DEXA scan every three months and that's what I use (and, oddly, since I lost weight, the DEXA scan is within 0.5% bodyfat of the little throwaway hand-held electrical impedance thing every single gym has.)

FITINDEX smart scale here, and I have the smart tape measure that goes with it too. I love it. It underestimates my body fat by about 3%.

Guy here. I have a "pooch" and for a while I was all "why won't this damn fat just go?" until someone saw me with my shirt off and said, dude, it's skin. It's all skin. So once I stabilize, I'll have it removed. I have worked too hard and want to know what it feels like to just... take my shirt off and go swimming.

I was... but I went too fast and managed to pull one of my incisions which kept me out a bit longer. So even though you're champing at the bit, go slow. And once you're cleared, don't go crazy. It will take time to build back up.

Mine's almost all metal. Northlane, the Architects, Lamb of God, Thy Art is Murder, Sonata Arctica, The HU, it doesn't matter. I need it resonating in my head to lift heavy.

5 hours ago, mrsjo said:

This is a good tip for me. I’m scheduled for surgery next week and I’m so bummed about not being able to go to my “box” during recovery. I keep thinking I’m going to lose so much ground, never gonna be able to stand on hands again, won’t be able to build muscle yadda yadda. The list in my head goes on and on so maybe if I write stuff down I won’t get so bummed.

I was allowed back at extremely limited capacity (no more than 10 lbs. and NO ab or core work) after two weeks. I was allowed to lift after 6 weeks. Your strength will take a dive temporarily because you simply won't be able to eat enough to power serious lifts. It was probably 12-16 weeks before I really started to feel like "myself" in the gym.

BUT... wait until you see just how much easier the rest of it becomes. My mile time went from 14 minutes to 9 minutes. I went from having to do single "grief burpees" (step out and step in) to being able to chain 20 actual burpees. I'm closer to a pull-up than I've ever been.

My strength isn't what it was before, but I'm also not training the way I was before. My deadlift went down about 25%; squat too; bench is down about 30%. I miss the days of a 675 deadlift, but I'd rather have the health markers I have now, and the endurance, and the ability to do bodyweight things. I took my L1 and am now coaching, and helping others to love their bodies for what they can do.

2 minutes ago, Joshmaul said:

I don't, mainly because my bathroom scale doesn't handle going above 300 all that well, heh - most of my weigh-ins have been at either my PCP's office or the weight-and-wellness center where my surgeon is based. They properly calibrate their scales.

The FITINDEX and Renpho smart scales (both about $25 US on Amazon) do well up to their limit of 400. I find I am consistently within a pound or two of my doctor's scale, which could just be clothing.

I have found—and this sounds so stupid, but it's true—that when I get the 'munchies', if I eat a pickle (garlic Kosher type), it absolutely satisfies me and instantly kills off my need to snack. It's the salty acidic thing, I think. olives do it too, but they're much higher in fat.

I also was able to eat more than your average sleever. But also, I suspect my surgeon made my sleeve a bit bigger knowing how active I was even before surgery (it's hard to be so active when you can't eat enough!).

When I was three months out I was restricting myself to 800 calories and my center's nutritionist had an absolute conniption at me. Said I was ruining the tool and if I wanted to just gain all the weight back, that was my business. I was devastated for a hot second before I absolutely lost my temper at the top of my lungs and fired her so loud they heard it in the surgeon's office across the hall.

A friend of mine recommended a nutrition program she used, and I am so glad I found it. Immediately my nutrition coach (who had coached other bariatric patients before) upped my calories to about 1200, still prioritizing Protein. Over the last six months she's increased it to 1600-1800, and we're just now backing off a little bit because I feel like all I do is eat. I have just a few pounds left to lose, so they will be harder to shift. I expect maintenance will be around 1600 calories depending on activity level.

11 hours ago, SleeveDiva2022 said:

I'm wondering...am I supposed to eat every 3 hours, or 3 hours after my last meal? Because it takes between 30-40 minutes to finish eating, and I am really struggling to eat every 3 hours (3 hours after my meal ends seems more reasonable).

If you can get to your Protein target by eating three hours after you finish eating, go for it.

I weigh four times weekly (Mon Tue Thu and Sat) and track my average rather than individual weights.

It's an approval. A lot of times the surgeons will submit for other surgeries as well (such as hernia repair) so that they can just do it if necessary while they still have you open. That's what some of the other codes may mean. They don't do it if it's not necessary.

Don't eat past your hunger cues.

One of the things that I want to beam into everyone's head is that for a LOT of us, aftercare is pretty horrible. My surgeon's bariatric nutritionist lit into me for eating 800 calories a day 3 months out - I work outdoors and work out for an hour a day. My surgeon actually skipped two check-ins in a row after that. So I went and got a nutrition coach (whom I absolutely LOVE).

I could always eat more than they said I'd be able to. But as long as I ate slowly, the restriction kicked in eventually. I lost weight hand over fist (it has since slowed down, but I'm 8 months PO and not far from goal).

I wouldn't worry about it. But do watch out for stalls. They happen, they suck, and they shouldn't derail you.

Eight months out. I usually take 20-40 minutes. It takes time for the 'full' signal to reach my brain.

I don't see why not. The pills are pretty tiny.

Well, this certainly went in an unexpected direction.

I think the OP basically wanted us to tell her that there was some way for her to both lose her weight and make no further changes (because "sacrifices suck").

I did want to add one thing, though, for the future people who read this. Your body can carry an INSANE amount of poop. So the OP, starting her post-colon-cleanse weight, already was down as much as ten pounds (I 💩 you not!) just from having it all out of her.

And it doesn't matter which scale you use as long as you use the same scale every time.

On 5/14/2022 at 5:35 PM, noteasierstronger said:

I am going to miss Crossfit during my recovery. My gym is awesome. I'm going to do Murph this Thursday as my last WOD before surgery, since I definitely won't be up for that on Memorial Day. I am looking forward to seeing what my updated body can do in a few months, though.

Sent from my Pixel 4a using BariatricPal mobile app

Seriously, write down where you're at right now. The running stats, the gymnastics stats (where you scale to if you scale, etc.), even how you feel. Pick a couple of recent WODs that you enjoyed doing, and then do them again in six months. You. Will. Be. Stunned.

The picture on the right was yesterday; the one on the left was me close to my fattest. I'm eight months post-op and still losing weight, albeit much more slowly now. I was wearing size 46 pants that barely buttoned around my waist on the left; size 32 on the right. Size 4XL shirt on the left, L on the right. (The left is blurry because I had to crop and it didn't do it nicely. You can still see puh-lenty!)

So my first NSV for the week is making me scratch my head. I'm still losing, which is nice, but I had to return a pair of American Eagle brand shorts because they were too large—apparently I'm a size medium now. The idea of a six-foot-tall, 268-pound man being a medium in ANYTHING clothing related is just too bizarre for words. I expected it in Carhartt work t-shirts because they're like Chucks, they're known to run very large and you have to size down. But a teenage clothing line??

But that's not the weird NSV. The weird NSV requires some backstory.

I live in a two-story home that is a little older (by local standards; stop laughing, Europeans).

My beloved offspring's bedroom is directly above the doorbell—the actual thing that makes the chime sound itself.

Whenever I would walk across her room, my weight would compress the floor and press down on the wall that the doorbell mechanism is mounted on, and because of how it's wired, the doorbell would ring.

It took me WEEKS after we moved in to figure out what the heck was happening. I'd be putting her to bed and the doorbell would ring. She'd wake up and need Water or to chase away a nightmare at 2:30 a.m., and I'd walk in and... the doorbell would ring. Freaked me out!

Well, the other day I was putting clean laundry on her bed ("put it away yourself!") and I noticed that I don't make the doorbell ring anymore. Not even if I hop up and down on the spot. Nothing else has changed except the size of me, and so... weird non-scale victory!