Spinoza

Thank you. A very interesting article. My heart breaks for children who are dealing with obesity related health & emotional issues we didn’t have to until we were adults & had them had some knowledge & strategies to manage aspects of these issues ourselves. The toll of obesity on one’s physical, psychological & emotional health & well being is almost immeasurable.
It is known that high & ultra processed foods increase production of our hunger hormones & reduces the production of satiety hormone. But companies won’t stop producing these foods & the convenience & lower prices make them very attractive to families. The comment ‘trying to limit meals to one plate’ is also endemic of the excessive portion sizes people accept as being appropriate & ‘normal’. If children aren’t introduced to healthier & better food choices & cooking methods, like vegetables, home cooked meals, etc., they will never develop a taste or appreciation for them. I am horrified by children & adults who don’t know what some fruits & vegetables are let alone know how to cook or eat them. Same with other foods. Education about better & more nutritional eating is fighting a losing battle against multinational companies, convenience, price, advertising, etc. It is more & more becoming a wide spread generational problem.
Many strong opinions on whether children should or shouldn’t have surgery or be placed on medication. The decision to go down either of these routes or not is truely one of life (or quality of) & death. Nor is it easy. The child & family must be well educated about their options, the impacts & the lifestyle changes necessary for success so they can make the most informed decision to best benefit the child whatever route they decide to follow.
Well that’s my opinion (& rant for today).

Super interesting thank you! My only co-morbidity was reflux. Interesting that the sleeve would be expected to cure that for 54% of people like me and bypass 63%. I had thought the differences in risks were much greater. I plumped for the sleeve because I knew that in the past when I lost a lot of weight my reflux settled and I thought I was gambling on it settling again. It did, but the gamble and the odds I based it on weren't right.

The MBSAQIP Bariatric Surgical Risk/Benefit Calculator (A tool clinicians are using to estimate progress)
Hope it helps someone!

https://riskcalculator.facs.org/bariatric/?_ga=2.112690692.1282950073.1698781773-393992475.1698781773

Super interesting thank you! My only co-morbidity was reflux. Interesting that the sleeve would be expected to cure that for 54% of people like me and bypass 63%. I had thought the differences in risks were much greater. I plumped for the sleeve because I knew that in the past when I lost a lot of weight my reflux settled and I thought I was gambling on it settling again. It did, but the gamble and the odds I based it on weren't right.

Oowww @KathyLev. Hope it’s healing or has healed well.
I wonder if it’s just your body reacclimatising too. We have to learn about our new centre of balance & awareness of our smaller body in the space around us. I mean everything is smaller even our hands & fingers.
I used to kick my toes on the skirting board under my kitchen cabinets. Took me a while before I realised I used to use my protruding tummy as my sub conscious ‘stop walking you’ve reached the bench’ signal. With my much smaller tummy my toes was reaching the skirting board before my tummy did. Lol!

Also - total comfort food and totally understandable.

I just love to hear about people who have maintained such a huge loss. Thank you so much for sharing, it gives the rest of us hope!

Best advice is stick to your plan. (Have to admit I’m surprised by the Peanut Butter. I know some use peanut butter powder to add as a flavour to their shakes but not actual eat peanut butter until maintenance but then plans are different.)
You said candy is a trigger for you. This is a head hunger not a real hunger. Have you spoken to your therapist about this? They’ll help you identify why you crave candy, what situations, what emotions, habits, etc. trigger it & will help you work out strategies to manage your craving. This is part of the head work we do to change our relationship with food & our eating. Remember the surgery changes your body not your head.
Sure, once your weight stabilises, you’ll work out how much & how often you can have some of your old favourite things, if you even still want them. I didn’t really crave sweet things as such but certainly enjoyed eating something sweet every night after dinner. Now I rarely eat sweet foods - a couple of times a year & don’t miss it. I have about 5g of added sugar a day. I do very little artificial sweeteners (in yoghurt & Protein Bar but they don’t taste sweet at all) or sugar substitutes either as I’m pretty sensitive & foods can easily taste excessively sweet. Who would have thought food can be too sweet! If I want sweet now I have some fruit.
The sugar alcohols can cause bloating & diarrhoea in many which is why your plan likely says to avoid it.
All the best.

Definitely agree with the others. Even if this delays your surgery a little it'll be worth it to drag those issues out into the light and address them beforehand. You did the right thing being honest.
Have you discussed this with your therapist? If so I BET they'll advise a little more time pre-op to get you to the right place mentally.
The surgery itself is only one piece of the jigsaw. You have the rest of your life afterwards to use that tool and only one chance to prepare for it, so you'll want to give yourself the very best crack of the whip.

Yeah I totally get this and my advice is just to lie enough to get through the process. Sorry, I know that doesn't help the person coming behind you - I have no idea how to buck the system. I've met some of the most ill-informed professionals I have *ever* met on the road to WLS. If I had locked horns with all of them I'd have had no energy left for the journey itself.

Ah - thought it might be that. I wish you a speedy recovery. Nasty virus with such long term effects.

Also - total comfort food and totally understandable.

So pleased you're recovering! Do you have any idea what made you feel so unwell for so long?

Oh wow that's super interesting thank you. Think this is going to be the way forward. To hear him say that obesity might be 100% treatable with this approach actually made me weepy. So many people could be helped to a different life.

Oh wow that's super interesting thank you. Think this is going to be the way forward. To hear him say that obesity might be 100% treatable with this approach actually made me weepy. So many people could be helped to a different life.

Oh wow that's super interesting thank you. Think this is going to be the way forward. To hear him say that obesity might be 100% treatable with this approach actually made me weepy. So many people could be helped to a different life.

Quick and helpful video for anyone interested in the topic
GLP-1 Medications and Bariatric Surgery" width="200">

Great advice above. I had a sleeve so my experience might be different from yours OP. My full on hunger returned about 7 or 8 months out. Sorry yours has come back so soon - it is sooo variable.
I have religiously stuck to the Protein first mantra ever since. I find if I eat an ounce or two of deli meat, yes it might be more calorific than veg or fruit, but it kept me full for MUCH longer. Plus gets me to protein goal.
I say experiment and find what works for you. Absolutely echo what @Arabesque says about head vs real hunger - if you're craving something particular then it might be worth trying to distract yourself/defer eating. If you're properly hungry then go for a small amount of protein and re-evaluate half an hour later.

The dizziness is likely orthostatic hypotension or in simple terms drops in blood pressure with postural changes - getting up after sitting or lying down. You can get it reaching up too. It’s pretty common in the first weeks after surgery & I think aggravated by the low calorie intake but for most it’s temporary. (I had a tendency to it before surgery & now I have it everyday.)
Keep your fluids up. Add a little more salt to your diet if possible. Get up slowly, in stages & wait before moving. When I do move I generally try to keep near a chair, table,wall, etc. so I can grab it & ground myself if my vision narrows. Even been known to grab a person too - LOL.

Depending upon how much weight you’ve lost so far, your upper body pain could be from your body finding it’s new centre of gravity. Your body used to hold itself in a certain way to compensate for the weight you carried. Now it doesn’t have to & your muscles at relearning how to hold yourself when standing, walking, etc. And yes it’s pretty common & can be experienced at different time while you’re losing.

So, I'm not an expert, but I've been doing a lot of reading and watching videos from reliable medical professionals (like the one I shared above, and the videos from Dr. Matthew Weiner in Tucson). I've also had friends and family members with both bands and sleeve surgery, and seen all of the ones with bands eventually fail, while the sleeves have had at least moderate success. Full disclosure: I'm scheduled for a bypass in December.
The most important thing about all of this is it's not your fault. It's not about getting your head right, it's about getting the right tools. And the band is just not a good longterm tool for almost everyone.
The biggest difference between the band and the sleeve or bypass is that while the band relies on restricting your eating, the sleeve and bypass both change your metabolism. It's not just about capacity, it's about a fundamental shift in how your hormones communicate with your body. Do you still have to have good nutrition, and be mindful, and work on your life issues that influence how you eat, and all that good stuff? Definitely. But choosing a metabolic surgery (sleeve or bypass) totally shifts the playing field in a way the band didn't. I think it was one of the videos from Dr. Weiner where he said it was like getting a second chance to draw a new card from the genetic lottery.
Good luck with your meeting with your doctor, and just remember, this isn't your fault. It's not because you're not strong enough, or good enough, or any of that nonsense people like to say. It's because you got dealt a crap hand in the gene department that makes it really hard for you to manage your weight, way harder than for a lot of people, and it's okay to use every tool available to make it easier.

more food for me!
1/2 a dinner roll with sliced avocado and a butter-fried egg.
(i cut up a some of the sandwich first before i remembered to take a pic - oopsies)
364 calories for it all...eyeballing it, i probably ate about 2/3 of it, but i plan on eating the rest later so the cal count stands.
p.s. my scale shows a 2.2 lb increase since i started eating relatively normally again yesterday . i do know its not actual fat or anything, and most likely just the food taking up space in my intestines and colon since i had probably nothing in there for the past little while. which you know, as an aside, makes me realize i haven't pooped in a really long time....

Those figures look good to me. You'll start losing again, keep the faith. Stalls just suck. We all try to second guess ourselves when we hit one but if you stick to your programme you'll be losing again soon.

Amazing. So happy for you. Your post is full of joy

Stalls are common & a necessary part of your weight loss. It’s when your body stops & assess the changes you’ve made & resets things like digestive hormones, metabolism, etc. based on your changes & new needs. Think of it as your body taking a breath to understand the stress you’ve been putting it through. Once it understands what you now need, your weight loss will start again.
Stick to your plan, don’t stress your body more. Your stall will break when your body is ready. They usually last between 1-3 weeks but it can be longer.
Can be difficult to compare what others are doing or achieving at a certain point in time. I was barely eating 900 calories at 6 months. Barely touched a carb except what was in vegetables & fruit & barely any sugar (still average less than 10g added sugar a day often only 5g). Most are eating way more than that. With your calorie intake you will still lose weight but I agree, your dietician is your best help.

I just checked my stats and by your stage I had lost 70% of what I ended up losing overall. But honestly it is different for every single person. You have done amazingly well so far and you may (hopefully DO) have further to go. The best way to max out your loss is to stick like glue to your programme. Some (I think a lot) of where we end up is determined by what your body decides is its new set point.
I hope you are celebrating your loss and the changes this will have made to your body. You must feel like a completely different person now. I totally understand the anxiety to lose as much as you can - I think most of us had (have!) that.
Good luck.