Spinoza

Just amazing to read this post. I've been here during all of your stages and am so pleased you have ended up exactly where you want to be 💚

Welcome to ONEDERLAND 🙌🎉 Our starting weight is v similar. Getting into the one hundreds was a big thing for me since I hung out so much here. In UK and Ireland we don't do things so much in pounds as in stones sometimes! Anyway, enjoy every milestone on the way down. It's a crazy ride.

Just echoing what the two very experienced forum members say above. A regain in 2nd and 3rd year post op is almost the norm. Please try not to worry about it unduly. Your set point is the weight/body composition that your body wants to hover around. The video below is short and might help. Your set point gets lowered drastically by WLS. But - processed food raises it. Eating cleaner keeps it lower. Building muscle mass keeps it lower. Might those be things you can work on a bit? Lots of people focus on cardio and that's brilliant, but lifting weights or using resistance bands (even if you never do cardio!) can add another really significant layer to that. Do you or have you ever tracked your intake? If that has slipped just tracking again might make you aware of what you're taking in and what you're using up. I am saying this as someone just about 3 years post op who regained 16lbs this year. I personally wasn't happy with that because it didn't stop as others' seems to, so I lost 10lbs by strict keto and am now back where I want to be. I had dietary lapses I needed to correct too and am working on that. I had this surgery to stop dieting - I feel like I can tweak things to keep me where I want to be without that and that I've learned a lot by stepping back and really analysing my intake the last few months. Also huge kudos to you for thinking about this with only 9lbs on. Much easier to look at what you can change now, if you even need to do that, rather than further down the line. I wish you the very best.

Really need a photo of those arms post op at your earliest opportunity, LOL.

Such an inspiring post. Thank you so much for sharing. I hope your recovery is trouble free xxx

OMG what a transformation! Amazing photos.

I am coming at this thread from a slightly different perspective. I'm not a long termer (whose experience I know you were asking for) so please do place more weight on those people's posts. I do rely SO MUCH on the stalwarts here to be my guiding stars and four of them have shared their wisdom already. I have struggled a bit to maintain my loss. I reached my original goal weight about a year after my surgery. The second year or so I lost much more slowly but ended up about 20lbs under my goal. In my third year I slowly regained 16lbs. I eat pretty well I think. I cannot, and never have, eaten breakfast. Coffee only before about 11am. Looking at the link above I do wonder whether I should just start stuffing something down. I think my regain has been due to bits of sneaky sugar creeping in, and alcohol (totally empty calories - if you can do without then this is the smart way forward, I simply cannot completely LOL). I reached a point a couple of months back when I was unhappy, thought I'd gone beyond the well known third year rebound and decided to cut out the sugar and (mostly!) the alcohol. Since then I've lost 10lbs of the 15 I gained. Still loosing now. My maintenance calorific intake seems to be 1500 or a little less. I am pretty tall and moderately active. It's weird because I lost large amounts of weight consistently on much more than this a year ago. I think some people get blessed with a new set point weight that is easier to maintain with a much higher calorific intake and some get cursed with a lower set point so that inhaling a random breath of air containing just a whiff of bacon can disrupt. Sadly I appear to be in the latter category now. Take home message - everyone's weight loss in the initial and the maintenance phases seems to be individual to them. Yes we can look for patterns and try to emulate those in order to maximise our own losses, but it doesn't mean our own loss will follow any particular trajectory. Sugar and alcohol are our enemies. I wish you all the best after your op OP. Keep posting, it's endlessly fascinating to hear others' experiences.

OMG this is absolutely fascinating. Thank you so much for sharing that link. 🌟

Is there any stick with the carrot? As in - if you regain weight whilst waiting for the surgery is there any chance they'll say - well, you couldn't stick the the diet pre-op so you mightn't post op? Not that I think they would, there just seem to be so many ridiculous hurdles to jump though beforehand sometimes. I wouldn't like you to get caught by any of them!

Brilliant news. So pleased for you and I hope the wait isn't the full 4-6 months - that's such a long time to maintain focus.

Oh I love your post. Fab photos too. Enjoy wearing that dress - you totally own it.

I can't afford plastic surgery so have had to make do without. My skin laxity has definitely improved in the almost 3 years since my surgery. I was also certain in the first blush of weight loss in the first year that never would I ever regain even a single ounce, but I did regain quite a lot despite my resolution not to. Haha that's all I have to say! My arms are still the most visible saggy skin I have and they look way better 3 years on. I would rather times a million have this 'problem' than my previous morbid obesity. No brainer. Stomach and bum and legs nobody gets to see and have saggy skin - but also seem better as time progresses. Breasts were the least unforgiving luckily, appearance wise. I know we're all different and we want different things as we progress. Hoping you all get to where you want to be soon. 💚

Oh that's kinda sad surely. Glad you had a good night though!

I have never experienced this with spinach and it's one of my go-to veggies! I hope you don't mind but I did have a good laugh at your description. V funny 🤣 I hope you weren't actually worried!

OMG those photos are amazing. Professionally taken? You look fantastic. Enjoy your big birthday OP. 🙌🍾

So pleased that you're getting on top of this. You have had *such* the journey. It's HARD. Best of luck.

I had no idea gastric balloons were even done any more. Unless this is a different procedure from the days of yore? I think most surgeons abandoned balloons for the safe and considerably more effective sleeve and bypass options. I know those mightn't be an option for everyone of course. Best of luck and I hope it works for you OP. Sounds like you're in a good mind space and that's worth a lot.

So glad to hear you're out the other end of the surgery OP. My advice is prioritise your fluid goals for the first week or two. Honestly vitamins and protein goal and almost everything else can be caught up on later if you can't make them right now.

I know programmes differ hugely but my surgeon placed absolutely no restrictions on caffeine and I was hugely grateful. I have no idea whether there is good evidence that caffeine consumption affects weight loss after bariatric surgery but I suspect very much not. @GreenTealael do you have any evidence to share? I am a coffee, not a matcha drinker, but I know how much I valued those coffees in the weeks and months after my surgery. Might be worth drilling down into the actual evidence based practice with your team if matcha means as much to you!

Keep posting. We are all here for you x Also - stalls are the absolute PITS and gains (although always temporary) DOUBLE PITS!

Excellent thread - thank you @JamieLogical! I got sleeved almost 3 years ago. I hit my goal weight well within my first year. I lost another 10lbs very slowly in my second year to reach a BMI of 20. I was absolutely thrilled - I had lost just over half my body weight and was well beyond wildest dreams territory after a lifetime of obesity. But I started to regain this year. Initially I thought it was just the classic '3rd year regain' of the 10 - 20 lbs that so many people seem to experience. I asked lots of questions here and was reassured by the answers. I hadn't really drifted *that* much off the path (I thought). However, I continued to regain with no let up and was getting really worried. I eventually reached 16lbs over my lowest weight a month or so ago. Finally, I decided to go back to absolute basics and see whether that might reverse the regain. Carbs had crept in a bit (NOT A LOT, honestly) so I started every meal with protein, ate veg next, and stopped all bread, rice, pasta, potatoes etc. Just as I would have 2-3 years ago. Guess what? I have lost 9lbs of that regain in just over a month. My current diet is pretty much strict keto and not hard at all. I totally agree that the tool is there, we just have to use it and not eat around it. I'm so happy that I caught myself before I regained much more, but I can also totally see how I might have undone much more hard work. I wish you all the very very best with your new loss. I suspect you'll greet every milestone with just as much joy as you did originally.

It never ceases to amaze me how some people seem to feel completely at ease commenting freely on other people's weight (or, honestly, entitled to comment) in a way they would not about other things - e.g. to comment on other aspects of a person's physical appearance or behaviour. I suspect they give little to no thought to the effect that might have on the person they're commenting on - positive or negative. It's just something they feel entitled to say. And, yes, when it's commenting on a significant weight loss, the expectation is that we will welcome those comments because we were fat and now we're not. People seem to feel sometimes that we are churlish not to welcome these unsolicited remarks with open arms. I do think people are mostly trying to be nice and supportive and complimentary. They don't think too much further than that. I'm with you as someone who struggled with those remarks sometimes. The only consolation I can give is that it all settles down. Nobody has called me a skinny minny for years, LOL. I'm sorry you're having a rubbish time and I really hope that's behind you soon OP.

That is an absolutely amazing haul. Your shopping skills are off the Richter scale.

Do you live alone Fars? That seems so much harder than if cooking is being done for more people but it's doable with a bit of meal planning and a well-organised freezer I suspect. At 4 months I was eating pretty much everything apart from white carbs and sugar (including hidden sugars). I still eat those in very limited quantities 3 years post op because those are what made me obese. I also cook everything from scratch but I love cooking so that's not a chore. Soup I had by the gallon - all types - lasts several days and it's very freezable in one portion pots. @summerseekeris a huge soup fan and might be able to suggest some more adventurous ones but I did a lot of chunky chicken soup, hot and sour lentil, fish chowders. I liked plain greek yoghurt with a few berries for breakfast. I always had oatmeal for supper. Eggs eggs eggs are your best friends - scrambled, fried, boiled, poached. I never tire of them and they're so quick if you get hangry. My dinner was a small portion of your average family dinner without the carbs. Pasta dishes, stews, curries, burgers, tacos, sausages, fajitas, roast dinners with veg. I still eat all of these things, just more now! I hope you can find some variety, you must be fed up of the same few dishes.

Soft juicy bacon FTW!!!🤩