Nepenthe44

1. F (with an asterisk, NB on low dose testosterone), 35 now, 34 on surgery date, 5'7" 2 . 27.2 lbs (I had lost 54 lbs in the 6 months prior to that, but stalled due to last supper eating, losing 20 pounds in my 2 week pre-op) 3. 276.0 4. 256.6 5. 228.0 6. 188.0 7. 147.0 8. Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass I'm a few days short of a year out, but I don't want to forget to post.

You will look lighter than you are. A few weeks ago i was talking to a coach who's been working with strength athletes for decades, a guy who knows what weight looks like on bodies. He looks at me and is like, you're what 120 pounds now? I was just barely into the 150s. I'm in the 140s now and I'm practically skeletal. I'm much, much thinner than when I was this weight as a teenager. I had initially set a goal of the highest calculated ideal weight for my height and am now thinking that if I actually reach it I'll need to buy clothes from the kids section. Which.... I mean, there's way more dinosaur print options so I'm not necessarily complaining. So let that influence your goals.

Yep. I'm always freezing. Invest in layering and thermal clothing. Handwarmers are nice, I put them in my boots during the winter too.

I don't follow the liquid rules. They don't make sense, biologically, and, as you've noticed, they make getting enough fluids in almost impossible. I don't drink much while eating because it's uncomfortable and usually I wait 5 to 10 minutes after eating, again for comfort. When I was closer to surgery, I generally waited longer after "eating" out of an abundance of caution to limit discomfort or dumping. I've broken down all of my team's advice this way. (Also a biologist.) Most of it doesn't add up. They don't care for me. The feeling is mutual. I suppose they can blame my lack of compliance for the utter failure of my surgery. 😂

The best exercise is the one you will keep doing. For me, I used VR games like Beat Saber when I was at the top of my weight range. Being so physically debilitated, moving was painful, but if my brain thought that not moving meant I would get smacked in the face with a flying block, I was able to do it. Plus, the music is a lot of fun. When I was about 50 lbs down, I started CrossFit, which is a combo of high-intensity intervals of constantly varied movements and weight lifting. It was perfect for me. I get a lot out of the intensity, the group/community aspect and the constant variety. The post-exercise "high" that a lot of people talk about? Never experienced it in years of being an endurance athlete when I was younger, but every CrossFit workout makes me feel like I just did a bump of cocaine. I would never be able to go to the gym alone and do the same workout circuit everyday at low intensity. My dad does it almost everyday; I don't understand how we're related. I've also supplemented that with walking/hiking, which is nice for cardio capacity development and getting outside, and a lot of stretching and strengthening exercises to rehabilitate my body. (Turns out that being livestock-sized and totally sedentary for almost a decade leaves you with weird muscle imbalances that leave you susceptible to injuries! Who would have thought!) Lately I've started to get back into endurance sports (cross country skiing and running). I love getting outside and find training for an event very motivating. (I find it very funny that most of the other athletes at my CrossFit gym absolutely drag their feet when running is part of a work out, but I'm so bloody thrilled to be able to do it at all, I'm stoked every time. Wish I felt that way about burpees!) But that's all what worked for me with my brain. Experiment and see what works for you.

Yes, I absolutely did this. I was (and still am to some extent) a binge eater and I literally made a spreadsheet of all my favorite binge foods to "check off" before surgery, spreading them out over a couple of binges. The thing that really amazed me is that most of them... weren't very enjoyable. I had lost about half of my excess weight before surgery and although I was having occasional binges throughout, they were generally the same few foods. So trying the old favorites, some of which were hard to get, I thought that they would taste amazing. But, frankly, junk food is usually disappointing. I also traveled to the city where I lived for a long time to go to some of my favorite restaurants and have some of my favorite non-binge meals. Again, sort of disappointing. The city was still amazing and I really enjoyed the non-food portions of the trip, but the food part was just sort of meh. I'm glad I did it. I was very worried about being one of those people who can't eat anything after surgery and literally never being able to eat any of my favorite foods again. The thing I was most worried about was salads. I had a big restaurant salad nearly every day up until my pre-op diet. That was the only thing that wasn't disappointing. I'm very, very glad that I can eat salad again!

@ms.sss I love your spreadsheet system so much! Beautiful.

I've had moments of yay each time I was able to fit into the old clothes in my closet that didn't fit anymore. This week I took out my favorite pair of jeans from high school (during my restricting phase no less) and they were perfect. I was also happy when my waist dropped below 40 and 35 inches, which are considered cutoffs for disease risk for men and women respectively, at least in the US. I didn't start taking measurements religiously (once a month) until pretty far into my weight loss, but I ordered an eShakti dress for a wedding in 2018 at about 30 pounds below my highest weight and my measurements were 61-57-70 (chest-waist-hips). The day before surgery, my waist was 46 inches and hips 57 inches. My last measurements, from about a week ago, were 38.5-32.5-39.5. I've lost 30 inches from my hips, 24 from my waist, and 22 from my chest. (Yes, my WHR actually increased, but I've also been taking low dose testosterone for about 2 years.) Things have started to plateau, but I still have a sundress that I want to be able to fit into and I imagine I'll get there.

Like isn't the correct word. I curse the gods nearly every moment I'm doing workouts, but I'm addicted. If you like high intensity activities and are disciplined enough not to injure yourself, then it's great and I highly recommend it, especially if you have a gym nearby with a well-trained coaching staff. (More than the level 1 certification, which is essentially nothing.)

I'm in quite a different situation, but maybe the anecdote will be helpful. I'm trans and had been taking testosterone for a little over a year before surgery. 9 months out, I got my T levels tested and they were double what they had been when I was tested a few months before surgery. I have no real insight as to why and it's possible that I was just absorbing the topical gel better through paper thin skin rather than an inch of fat, but perhaps it has to do with the mechanism @Arabesque mentioned.

I was cleared to go back to CrossFit at my one month follow-up, which ended up being 5 weeks out. My team acted surprised that I had waited and told me that I could have started sooner, just not to do anything that hurt. Now, I couldn't actually lift anything heavier than a 15 lb training barbell and my goal remains, almost a year out, simply not to pass out. But I was allowed to do it very soon after.

This is really good to hear. I'm genuinely baffled by the way my body is right now and very frustrated, especially since I have significant weight to lose to reach my goal. The chorus of "don't lose more weight" has started from all corners but I'll just ride through and have faith that my body will settle. (The chorus is especially annoying since I'm not even sure I can stop right now. I'm already not following virtually any of the weight-loss focused nutrition recommendations. Short of adopting an all-ice cream diet, I don't know that I could maintain.) Still don't love it though! Over the weekend, spent some time snuggling with a new crush and he started counting my ribs. 😣

I was an hourglass when I was young, carrying weight in my chest and hips. Always had a relatively slim waist. Have built quite a significant amount of muscle (or retained much more than expected) through a combination of weightlifting and testosterone therapy. Definitely planning on significant skin removal, which should help unveil the few bones that aren't clearly visible due to swaths of skin.

I'm another 40 pounds down or so and it's... bad. I don't have to stretch or flex, you can just count my ribs all the way down, except for where there's a fold of loose skin (I think these are technically called breasts?). This isn't "I'm so used to my obese self I don't understand what healthy is" type skinny, this is "I can play the xylophone if I wear a low-cut shirt", tabloid speculation about drugs and anorexia type skinny. On some level, I'm stoked, my ED self is absolutely thrilled to be able to see every bone, but I just don't understand how I can have so much hanging fat on my lower body and look like a skeleton on top. I do have a small frame by wrist size, but my rib cage apparently did not get that memo. Because, again, I'm still overweight. My bodyfat percentage was assessed at over 30 a few weeks ago. Where the #%@! is it? My weight loss also hasn't plateaued, or even significantly slowed. I'm still losing around 1.5-2% of my bodyweight per week. I am absolutely not following the diet plan given to me, eating much larger portions of much more calorie dense food but I continue to diminish. On one level I'm thrilled, but on another I'm worried this won't stop and I'm going to have to wear turtlenecks to stop birds from nesting inside my torso.

One note on long distance hiking: I'm having to do serious rehab on my hips and core in order to increase my walking capability. While my aerobic capacity and endurance are very good, my hips start to physically give out at about 3 miles. My physical therapist isn't really sure what the issue is, but thinks that it's a combination of weakness and poor flexibility from the postural adaptations that happen with extreme obesity (my legs literally point in a different direction than they used to!) and some effect of fast weight loss on the muscles themselves.