SpartanMaker

That's not how this works. You're basing how much you should be eating on some external factor, whether it's what someone told you is the right amount, or based on past experiences. Neither of those things matter AT ALL.
PCOS has 2 potential impacts on your body when it comes to weight gain: It can make you eat more and it can also slow your metabolism. That latter point is critical here. It means you may have to eat a lot less than someone without that disease.
If you REALLY want to know how much you should be eating, I would strongly urge you to go get a metabolic test. These are available in most major cities, either at larger universities, or via a commercial provider.
If you keep insisting that you're able to put on weight, but don't overeat, then I'm afraid you're going to continue to suffer from the disease that is obesity. I don't say this to be mean. Sometimes the truth hurts, but you can't magically break the basic laws of physics just because you don't like them.

Only you can decide if surgery is right for you, but if you are obese, you overeat... full stop.
One fundamental rule of weight loss is that you cannot break the laws of thermodynamics. If you eat fewer calories than you burn, you'll lose weight and if you eat more calories than you burn, you'll gain weight.
I know some people don't like to hear that, or think it doesn't apply to them, but physics is physics. You can't add body mass unless those calories are in excess of the number your body needs to keep you alive.
Look at it like this: your body burns a certain number of calories per day. It's not exactly the same every day, but for most folks, it stays fairly consistent. The problem is in your case, you stated you only eat 1400 calories a day. That number alone is completely meaningless. Because weight loss, weight maintenance, or weight gain are all about energy balance, you also have to also know how many calories you burn in a day. If you are gaining weight on 1400 calories per day, there are only two possibilities:
You are underestimating how much you actually eat. I know you probably think you're being accurate, but underestimation is incredibly common. Study after study shows that almost everyone underestimates how much they actually eat, even if they think they are accurately measuring everything. Part of that is measurement error, part is variation in foods, part is failure to count certain parts of a meal, part is "eyeballing" foods, and part is due to inaccurate calorie listings. The bottom line is that calorie counting is hard and often not nearly as accurate as we like to think. You may have an exceptionally low resting metabolic rate. As I said, 1400 calories consumed per day is irrelevant because you don't actually know how many calories you burn in a day. Since the basic principle here is you have to consume less than you burn per day to lose weight, 1400 calories consumed doesn't matter if you don't also know how many calories you are burning. Let's move on to how surgery works. Bariatric surgery works primarily by simply limiting how much someone can eat. Yes, there are also hormonal changes, but those are about satiety, so in your case, those may be less important. There is also some reduction in intake calories through reduced absorption (yes, even in sleeve surgery), but that's a fairly minor component overall.
At the end of the day, this is no different than weight loss drugs like GLP-1s, or even diets. They are all designed to reduce calorie intake. If you truly have no problems dieting, then it sounds like you need to just reduce your calorie intake until you start losing at a sustainable rate. You need to forget what someone may have told you about how many calories you're "supposed to" eat to lose weight, because it sounds like that whatever that number was, it's not the correct number for you.
Once you're losing at about a 2-3% per month rate, just stay there until you reach your goal weight. This should be simple for you since you said you have no problems sticking to a diet.
Best of luck.

I had a very similar experience! I bought something online in a medium based on a size chart, only to find that vanity sizing had done me in. I actually needed a small in that brand. I still felt like the sales clerk was judging me for asking for a small.
On another note, the vanity sizing thing is so frustrating!
I know women's sizing is the same, but I have found in men's sizes if you pick the size that's supposed to fit based on actual measurements a size chart, it's almost always too big. This wasn't an issue when I was obese because I probably wanted my clothes baggy. Now that I'm smaller, having a decent fit is more important, so I almost always pick the next smaller size of everything, and in some things have to go even smaller.

helloooo fellow Torontonian! ❤️
re: specific program inquiry, if you are going through the OBN (Ontario Bariatric Network) your whole plan/program/schedule will be outlined for you. in my opinion, the program and guidelines are very generic and are applied to EVERYONE, so its not the greatest at taking individual needs into account. im a natural DIY-er, so i took what they prescribed and determined for myself what worked for ME and just left the rest. personally i think this is the best M.O., but i get its not in everyone's wheelhouse.
my best advice would be: keep doing what works until it doesn't, then find something else that does.
re: smoking: i was smoke free for about 10 yrs when i had wls (prior to that i was a pack a day smoker for about 20+ years. one year post wls i started again (i was on vacay and thought "one couldn't hurt", ha!) that ended up with smoking a pack a day again from 2019-2023. been smoke free since (again).
as we all know, you will only succeed in quitting if you ACTUALLY, REALLY, WANT to. both times i quit it was cold turkey. both times because i had a minor health scare and i ended up pondering my mortality. hopefully you will find the impetus to quitting...its hard (i know!). do the best you can....you may fall off the wagon a couple (or maybe tonnes!) of times, but so long as you make an honest effort to TRY, you are already better off.
good luck! ❤️

Yes non-scale victories (NSVs) are sometimes just as important than being a healthier you. The scale is not what you should be on every day. Choose one day a week and just keep track.
It is about health and wellness, not just loss of weight.

You are definitely not alone! I still meet with my dietitian every month. I had gotten down to around 163–165 lbs, but after my BA, my weight went up to 175 and no matter what I do, I can’t seem to get back below that. I’ve tried strict tracking, changing my macros, hitting 10k+ steps a day, lifting regularly… all of it. When I told my dietitian this, she said that this might be where my body is happiest. At this point, I think my body is just really happy here. I feel strong, my clothes fit great, my workouts feel solid, and honestly I’m in the best shape I’ve ever been.
Focusing less on the number and more on how I feel has helped me so much. There are so many other ways to measure progress besides the scale!

I had a very similar experience! I bought something online in a medium based on a size chart, only to find that vanity sizing had done me in. I actually needed a small in that brand. I still felt like the sales clerk was judging me for asking for a small.
On another note, the vanity sizing thing is so frustrating!
I know women's sizing is the same, but I have found in men's sizes if you pick the size that's supposed to fit based on actual measurements a size chart, it's almost always too big. This wasn't an issue when I was obese because I probably wanted my clothes baggy. Now that I'm smaller, having a decent fit is more important, so I almost always pick the next smaller size of everything, and in some things have to go even smaller.

Thank you @SpartanMaker and @ms.sss. I have gotten two nights now of good sleep and feel much better. I have always been a bit of a night owl but 3 and 4 am was a little too late to get to sleep. Things are just taking a while to get back to something close to normal. I have been REALLY lucky and not had too much pain, nausea or spasms but the sleep issue was piling up on me. Next step I see the surgeon for a follow up tomorrow and talk to the dietician about moving to pureed food Monday. Changes, one ounce at a time!

what @SpartanMaker said.
plus:
limit screen time a couple hours before bed. exercise during the day, do some stretches at night meditate and/or do some breathing exercises before bed (you can maybe even download and listen to some guided meditation) good luck! ❤️

Sorry you're having trouble sleeping. I know that's just making recovery harder. You probably already know this, but here's the thing: being stressed out about not sleeping can just keep you from sleeping. The first step in getting past that is just to release yourself mentally from the stress/insomnia cycle.
What I mean is that you have to acknowledge that you just had major surgery. Coupled with massive dietary changes and you are going through an incredibly stressful time right now. It's normal when stressed to struggle with sleep, so the best possible thing you can do is simply acknowledge that sleep may be difficult for a while and it's okay.
I would also say do whatever you need to do to get control of your pain levels. You may need to try changing out your pain meds, or consider changing where/how you sleep. As an example, even though I'm normally a stomach/side sleeper, I slept on my back in a recliner for the first couple of weeks simply because it was less painful.
Finally, I'd recommend researching good sleep hygiene and implementing as many of those recommendations as possible. Right now, you need all the tips and tricks you can get.
Good luck.

Jollof Rice with Coleslaw, Smoked chicken with Peanut Butter Sauce & Fried Plantains:

Forgot to post this last night. Blackened Shrimp bowl with brown rice, sauteed peppers & onions, tomatoes, avocado and a remoulade drizzle.

Al Pastor–Style chicken Skewer Tacos! (Well, taco, as in singular for me.)
It was supposed to have sliced avocado as well, but the avocado I had just wasn't ripe enough. My wife ate it anyway. I'm just not going to eat things I don't like just because we have it. That's one of the behaviors that got me so big in the first place. It's taken me a long time to come to terms with that and not feel bad for wasting food.

Gỏi Gá (Vietnamese chicken Salad):

Great work so far! Keep it up!

Great work so far! Keep it up!

I had a very similar experience! I bought something online in a medium based on a size chart, only to find that vanity sizing had done me in. I actually needed a small in that brand. I still felt like the sales clerk was judging me for asking for a small.
On another note, the vanity sizing thing is so frustrating!
I know women's sizing is the same, but I have found in men's sizes if you pick the size that's supposed to fit based on actual measurements a size chart, it's almost always too big. This wasn't an issue when I was obese because I probably wanted my clothes baggy. Now that I'm smaller, having a decent fit is more important, so I almost always pick the next smaller size of everything, and in some things have to go even smaller.

Keep going! Maybe keep logging food and bring it down a little. And over the next 4 months you will have lost at least 10 more lbs! Hopefully more! As long as I am getting smaller I am ok with it going slow. The last 3 months I only lost 9 lbs. Lost lots getting ready for surgery and right after. But am upping my calorie expenditure now and hoping I will meet my goal of being 154 by my year appointment in December. Good luck!!
As my quote says on my profile, the only way out is THROUGH!! Stay intent on what you want to accomplish. You will do fine!

As you probably know, PCOS can affect metabolism. This means you may be getting a double whammy from PCOS and your height that really pushes your metabolic rate down.
As I mentioned earlier, without having an expensive metabolic test done, we can't know for sure how many calories per day you burn on average. If I had to guess, I think it could be as low as about 1000 to 1200 calories per day for your Basal Metabolic Rate. This is basically the amount your body burns just keeping you alive.
If we add in a bit more to account for the fact we all burn some additional calories (even if we're mostly sedentary), then that could put you around 1300 to 1500 calories per day.
If you're eating ~1000 calories a day, that means at best, you'd lose about 1 pound a week, but it could easily be closer to 1 pound every 12 days or so. If you do the math (I did ), then this would put you losing right about 2.5 pounds per month or 10 pounds in 4 months, which is right where you're at.
Now for the record, I didn't factor in anything for the fact that as a DS patient, you are actually also benefiting from reduced absorption. These are all made up numbers anyway, so don't get too caught up in the hard numbers here. Remember:
Even if you think you're super accurate in logging food, variation in caloric content from one piece of food to the next means your calorie counts may or may not be that accurate. Don't trust manufacturer calorie counts as accurate either. They can be as much as 10% or more off. We don't actually know how many calories you burn in a day on average. My guesses are just that, guesses. Bottom line, you've got a few things working against you here, but as long as you continue to follow your surgeon's plans, there's no reason you can't lose the excess weight. It's just going to take you longer than most people.
I know that sucks, but it is what it is. Knowledge is power, so hopefully you'll come away from this with a little more knowledge. That should give you a little more power over your unique situation.
All the best.

Sorry, one more point I should have made above: I'm not a fan of calorie counting for the very reason you're struggling. You seem to be stating: "I'm only eating 700 calories a day, why am I not losing?"
As I mentioned, we all are horrible at knowing how many calories we're really consuming. The issue is actually even bigger than that. Remember, you have to eat less than you burn to lose weight. Since you most likely are overestimating your intake (we all do it), that's an obvious issue. The EVEN BIGGER ISSUE is that you only have one side of the equation. You have a rough idea of intake (even if you measure poorly), but actually have no idea whatsoever know how many calories you really burn per day. There is no reliable way to measure that unless you have a rather expensive metabolic test done. Sure, there are online calculators, but these are only good at determining rough amounts and they can be off by hundreds of calories per day.
I won't lie. As a person of small stature, you have it a lot harder than most because the margins for error will be smaller. What I mean is that we know you personally need fewer calories per day just based on your height. Beyond that, it also means the number of calories you have to "play with" are also a lot less than a taller person would have.
Let's look at a couple of examples to illustrate this point:
Person A needs 2500 calories to maintain their current weight. This means they can cut their calories down to 1000 and all other things being equal, they can in theory lose ~3 pounds of fat a week. Person B only needs 1200 calories to maintain their current weight. They obviously don't have the "room" to cut by 1500 calories a day, and even 1000 is unrealistic, so they'd have to reduce by 500 at most, taking them to around 700 calories a day. This person will only lose about a pound of fat a week, even though they are eating less calories per week than person A. It seems unfair, but it is what it is. Person B is going to have a harder time being compliant with dieting (since they have to eat so little food), and is also going to lose a lot slower.
Guess which one you are?

So sorry that you're struggling.
Weight loss is both the simplest thing in the world, and also incredibly complicated. The good news is there is absolutely hope for you!
Thinking through what you've posted. I think I want to break things apart a bit so we can address a few different things:
Let's start with being an emotional eater. My personal belief is that EVERYONE that is (or at one point was), obese has an eating disorder, or at the very least suffers from disordered eating. You simply don't get that big without having an unhealthy relationship with food. I'm really glad that you are working to get help in this area. We have a saying here on this board that you should take to heart: Bariatric Surgery doesn't fix your brain. Success or failure long term is most often about addressing these mental, not physical issues. The surgery is a tool that can help you, but surgery alone won't make you lose weight. My point here is YOU ARE NOT ALONE. A lot of the folks here have the same problem regarding turning to food for emotional support. You can get control of this, but it does take time and help. Failure to lose weight. We all lose at different rates, so it's hard to judge whether or not how much you've lost is problematic. First, can you clarify some things? Your sidebar shows you having lost 128 pounds, but your post suggests it's a lot less than that? Also, your post says it's been 6 months since your surgery, but unless I'm misunderstanding something, it's only been 4 months? Even if it's only 4 months instead of 6, having lost 9 pounds would still be on the low side, but I think you need to also keep in mind that you are on the low end of the height scale. That absolutely does matter when it comes to weight loss. Smaller bodies need fewer calories per day. That's just a basic fact. I think it's important for you to understand that you can't break the laws of physics. if you eat fewer calories per day than you burn, you'll lose weight. Eat the same amount as you burn and you'll stay at the same weight. Eat more than you burn and you'll gain. I know that seems obvious, but people often look for reasons other than this as to why they might not be losing as expected. They'll say things like "my metabolism is messed up" as if that means they're allowed to break this basic rule. Perhaps their metabolism is messed up, but there's no rule that says you should be able to eat, say 1300 calories a day and still lose. Your metabolism is your metabolism and while there are ways to ramp it up, you don't get to break the laws of basic physics. Calorie counting. You mention eating 700 calories a day, but then mention snacking on top of that? Did I understand that correctly? Here's the thing. Everyone is TERRIBLE at calorie counting and if you're not counting the Snacks, you're estimates of how much you're consuming will be even worse. Even if you're counting the snacks in the 700 calories, the likelihood that you're actually eating only 700 calories a day is really small. Studies have shown again and again that people drastically underestimate how much they are eating per day, even if they try to accurately weigh and measure everything. Part of it's just user error, but part of it is that the actual calorie counts of food are not nearly as simple to measure as we think they are. One final thing to keep in mind. Our bodies are made up of lots of "stuff", and this "stuff" is all part of what you weigh day-to-day. Fluctuations in how hydrated you are, your muscle mass and even stool weight can mask fat loss, so don't get too caught up in what the scale says. Simply put, the scale is NOT your friend. Let me give you an example of just how much the scale can lie: I'm a runner and if I run in hot weather, it's not that unusual for me to lose 6 to 10 pounds in the space of a couple of hours. Does that mean I lost 10 pounds of fat? Of course not. It means I lost a bunch of Water due to sweat. Using a scale as the sole means you use to judge your success would be a bit like trying to use a hammer as the only tool you use to build a house. a hammer's great for some things, but there are also times when it's not.

Wow, you are all doing fantastic and I love that you're feeling good about your new bodies! (Especially those of you rocking a form fitting dress or bikini, that's effing awesome!)
For me as an older guy, I don't really have a style, unless you consider athletic clothing a "style". Yes I know athleisure is a style, but I think of that as more for women? When guys wear workout clothing, it's just what we happen to be wearing at the time.
I guess what I'm saying is I didn't explore new "styles" as much as I had a blast buying types of clothing I never would have worn at my heaviest. My point is even style challenged people like me can have fun dressing in ways that we never would have considered before.

I had a very similar experience! I bought something online in a medium based on a size chart, only to find that vanity sizing had done me in. I actually needed a small in that brand. I still felt like the sales clerk was judging me for asking for a small.
On another note, the vanity sizing thing is so frustrating!
I know women's sizing is the same, but I have found in men's sizes if you pick the size that's supposed to fit based on actual measurements a size chart, it's almost always too big. This wasn't an issue when I was obese because I probably wanted my clothes baggy. Now that I'm smaller, having a decent fit is more important, so I almost always pick the next smaller size of everything, and in some things have to go even smaller.

I would say it took me 26 months to get to a weight where I was happy. A lot more than others did but I had my issues. My size and age made me very disabled, exercising was a no-no. I got here though. I am living my best life.