vikingbeast

I had a two-day athletic seminar this weekend with a bunch of people I've never met. We were asked to tell our story, so I told my story about struggling with weight loss, getting WLS, and trying to maintain strength through the weight loss. Afterwards a few of the participants said, "I would never have guessed you were heavy before. You could never tell now."
Like a (refreshing) splash of cold Water because I of course remember myself as the fat kid.

If you're only eating 1000 calories at 9 months out, maybe try bumping that up to 1200 calories for two weeks and see how you do. (You're not going to "balloon"—200 extra calories a day for 14 days is about 0.8 lbs, if bodies were machines.)

How is your blood Iron level? When my iron levels get low that is EXACTLY how I feel.

I had a two-day athletic seminar this weekend with a bunch of people I've never met. We were asked to tell our story, so I told my story about struggling with weight loss, getting WLS, and trying to maintain strength through the weight loss. Afterwards a few of the participants said, "I would never have guessed you were heavy before. You could never tell now."
Like a (refreshing) splash of cold Water because I of course remember myself as the fat kid.

Been a while since I checked in. A friend of mine said, "You know, if you do a French tuck*, you can show off those belt buckles of yours. You're slim enough now."
I am not convinced this is the style for me (feels like I wasn't paying attention after pulling my pants up and accidentally buttoned them around my shirt), but damn if it didn't feel nice to actually be able to do it. So here I am, another almost 40 lbs. down, 39 to go. Three quarters of the way to goal.

* French tuck - you tuck in the front but not the back. I know no French people who do this, but maybe it's named after Tan France instead of France France.

In the first photo I went from my surgery weight of 208lbs to 156lbs. In the second photo I went from my highest weight, 223lbs to 159lbs.
I am currently 154lbs but I’m waiting until I’m in the 140s before I take anymore photos.
All of these progress photos are amazing and inspiring!

6.5 months , total loss 33.5kg
73.8 lbs

Been a while since I checked in. A friend of mine said, "You know, if you do a French tuck*, you can show off those belt buckles of yours. You're slim enough now."
I am not convinced this is the style for me (feels like I wasn't paying attention after pulling my pants up and accidentally buttoned them around my shirt), but damn if it didn't feel nice to actually be able to do it. So here I am, another almost 40 lbs. down, 39 to go. Three quarters of the way to goal.

* French tuck - you tuck in the front but not the back. I know no French people who do this, but maybe it's named after Tan France instead of France France.

Been a while since I checked in. A friend of mine said, "You know, if you do a French tuck*, you can show off those belt buckles of yours. You're slim enough now."
I am not convinced this is the style for me (feels like I wasn't paying attention after pulling my pants up and accidentally buttoned them around my shirt), but damn if it didn't feel nice to actually be able to do it. So here I am, another almost 40 lbs. down, 39 to go. Three quarters of the way to goal.

* French tuck - you tuck in the front but not the back. I know no French people who do this, but maybe it's named after Tan France instead of France France.

Been a while since I checked in. A friend of mine said, "You know, if you do a French tuck*, you can show off those belt buckles of yours. You're slim enough now."
I am not convinced this is the style for me (feels like I wasn't paying attention after pulling my pants up and accidentally buttoned them around my shirt), but damn if it didn't feel nice to actually be able to do it. So here I am, another almost 40 lbs. down, 39 to go. Three quarters of the way to goal.

* French tuck - you tuck in the front but not the back. I know no French people who do this, but maybe it's named after Tan France instead of France France.

Congrats!!

Been a while since I checked in. A friend of mine said, "You know, if you do a French tuck*, you can show off those belt buckles of yours. You're slim enough now."
I am not convinced this is the style for me (feels like I wasn't paying attention after pulling my pants up and accidentally buttoned them around my shirt), but damn if it didn't feel nice to actually be able to do it. So here I am, another almost 40 lbs. down, 39 to go. Three quarters of the way to goal.

* French tuck - you tuck in the front but not the back. I know no French people who do this, but maybe it's named after Tan France instead of France France.

It took me a good month before I wasn't constantly tired. And it gets better, and fast. I have so much energy now it's hard to believe (though I do crash around 8:30 p.m.... but I get up at 5 a.m.).

I eat fruit every day, usually high-fiber fruits like berries. I'm going to respectfully disagree about keeping it under 1000 calories the first year—work this out with your nutritionist and make sure you are fueling what you want your body to do as well as setting yourself up for fat loss.

60-70g of net carbs sounds really low. I track all carbs and don't net out the Fiber, but I eat 120g of carbs on "low activity days" and 150g of carbs on "high activity days", plus 60g of fat and 140-150g of Protein, for a total of 1580-1740 calories a day. I am four and a half months out.

September 14 here. I am down 78 pounds since surgery and 87 since the start of the pre-op diet. Weight loss has definitely slowed as I replace fat with muscle, but it's nice to be able to buy clothes and have choices again.

My surgeon's office was in the hospital itself, so he had me trot around to various departments. The EKG was in the cardiology department. The blood work and urine sample were in the lab across the hall. The only involvement my primary care doctor had was a separate appointment to give final clearance for surgery, which was basically him reviewing the results of the labs and EKG and then going, “Are you ready?” “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

I got a DXA scan, assumed I would lose 5-10% of my muscle mass, and picked the weight based on wanting to be below 20% body fat. That end goal changes as my body comp changes, but I guessed 240 and I was exactly on target.

I think a lot of us had that same worry.
I'm here to tell you that the eating habits DO change.
Sometimes, if I'm out, I'll order food like The Before Times... and then after a few bites I'm all "yeah, not doing this". Tonight there was cake. I had a few bites and pushed the rest away. The old me would have et the whole dang thing and gone for seconds (and possibly thirds).
The whole point of the surgery, really, is to give you a tool that makes it a bit easier to develop better habits.
You know how when you start a diet pre-op, and the first week or few days you're ALL IN on the diet, and the weight starts to come off, and you feel like you can just DO this?
Now imagine that for six months. Or a year. Because the weight will just come off. Especially for us—it is, unfairly, still easier and faster for male bariatric patients to lose than female (in general).
By the time the weight loss slows down, the habits you need are ingrained.

I got a DXA scan, assumed I would lose 5-10% of my muscle mass, and picked the weight based on wanting to be below 20% body fat. That end goal changes as my body comp changes, but I guessed 240 and I was exactly on target.

I'm with @JAKE H - if you can, try out CrossFit. The exercises look intense but can be scaled down to the level where you are, and you build up. Most CrossFit classes are a combination of pure strength (today was barbell power cleans) and then a high-intensity workout (today was short runs, dumbbell cleans, and pull-ups or ring rows).

That said, I don't do CF every day. 7 days a week is too much. I usually do CF 3-4 days a week, go for a decent run (5k) twice a week, and do mobility work (with a program called ROMWOD) 3-4 days a week. And sometimes my body goes on strike and I do sweet f🤬-all for a day or even two.

The result is that I have very little loose skin (a little around my chest and some in the front of my stomach), and my metabolism is at full rev most of the time.

Bathroom scales aren't precision devices.

Let me give you the advice my nutrition coach gave me. Weigh as often as you want, but pick ONE day a week and average the last week's worth. Then track your average. Because maybe you slid your scale and it's balanced differently. Maybe you ate something salty or drank a little wine and you're bloated. Maybe it's almost time for Aunt Flo to visit, or you overdid it at the gym, and are retaining Water.

But the average won't lie to you. And so, on days like yesterday where I had a bunch of salty food for NYE and then weighed in heavy, it averages out over the week, and I see I am losing about 2 lbs. a week.

Yes, it happens. There are at least a couple of reasons:
1. Lack of padding. As we lose weight, there's simply less of us to cushion us from the cold. Think about why bears eat so much before hibernating—they get fat both to insulate themselves and to nourish themselvesˀ.
2. Temperature regulation. This is related to #1. Our bodies are used to having the thermostat 'set' a certain way. Now that thermostat isn't keeping us as warm anymore and it takes time to catch up.
3. Iron deficiency. This is a big one, especially if it's your hands and feet that are especially cold. Right after surgery we struggle to get enough iron. And even if you supplement with iron, your body may not use it as efficiently as you need. And one of the signs of anaemia is... feeling cold a lot.

Icelandic yoghurt is also called skyr, and it is absolutely the perfect food for a weight loss surgery patient—high Protein, low carb, and low fat.

WHOOP WHOOP! Amazing! That's an incredible transformation, thank you for sharing it and thanks for being here to talk us newbs through the process.

@MelanatedQueen It's totally the three-week stall. Your body is rebalancing its Fluid levels and stuff.
While there's some variation (hello, hormones...), generally the rule is CICO (calories in calories out). If you're eating 500 cal a day, there is no way you're not going to lose weight. Even if you're very petite, your body requires a certain number of calories just to exist, and 500 is below that number.
If you get through another three weeks without moving, talk to your surgeon, but nearly everyone breaks that stall in a week or two.