BlackBerryJuice

I think it's different for every person because our stomachs are all stretched to different extents. So leaving behind 25% of a 5-liter stomach wouldn't do too much for weightloss, for example, while leaving behind 25% of a 1-liter stomach would. I would ask how they calibrate it instead, because most surgeons will use a bougie to calibrate the end size of the stomach. A taller person's stomach will end up bigger because of its greater length, so this still takes into consideration your body's individual energy requirements. If the surgeon is not calibrating the stomach with a bougie or some other tool, it's hard to predict results, as that's what they often use for research studies.

Haha, yeah, I say, don't worry about it. If it doesn't bother you, why worry. If you think you are eating too much in terms of calories, just add up your food for the day. When I first moved onto the mushy stage, I was constantly thinking I was overeating, but once I added things up, it would be just 700-800 calories.

I'm often gone at school all day, and my favorite approach is to go get a burrito bowl or a pita with lots of vegs and lean protein and pick at it every 3 hours or so. A 9" pita will generally feed me from breakfast til bedtime.

Skipped ballet today because I went to listen to this guest speaker, and he was totally amazing, so rather than bail early, I stayed for 2+ hours to listen to the entire thing. Oh well. I'll try to make it to bootcamp tomorrow to compensate, hopefully there'll be room for me there.

I haven't done much running since my surgery - we never did the race I mentioned in my original post. I just don't like running that much and now that I don't have to do it to keep my weight down, I just can't motivate myself. However, I do intense bootcamp workouts and at 4 months out, I don't have problems lasting through one. When I first started swimming after 2 weeks, I had to make sure to bring juice to the pool with me - otherwise, my blood sugar would drop after only 15 minutes of swimming. But now that my calorie intake is probably 4-5x what I was having at 2 weeks out, it's not a problem. In the past, I had several episodes of low blood sugar after intense morning workouts - even when I did have a snack beforehand. Last Saturday we got up late for bootcamp, so I just shoved half a Protein bar in my mouth right before. However, I was able to get through the entire one-hour grueling workout without experiencing any symptoms. So I think once you start eating more, endurance is not an issue. I also don't eat low carb, though, I think the low-carb thing could make intense workouts really challenging. I personally feel like a wreck if I try to eat low carb - no energy, terrible headaches, cranky, etc.

You know, I never had any problem with liquids, either. I was very careful with really tiny sips while in the hospital, but once I got home, I found that I never had any discomfort drinking. I think it's just that some of us have less swelling post-op than others (either because of our surgeon's technique or just our bodies reacting less violently to the trauma of the surgery), so we are able to drink more and don't experience pain when food or drink enters our stomach.

Just read this in the most recent issue of Allure magazine: Thoughts? Do you feel that your goal has changed since you've had the surgery?

I'm set for the next 2 weeks as far as exercise goes - I've got an unlimited bootcamp pass at a gym a few blocks from my house. My boyfriend and I are going this evening. Tomorrow I'm just going to take a day off from exercise, and on Wednesday I have a 1.5-hour ballet class. And then Thursday and Saturday we'll hit the bootcamp circuit again! Friday's off - this bootcamp is too hard to do 2 days in a row.

I'd just tell her you are having surgery. No need to specify what kind until you feel that it's really necessary. I agree with you that it's better to tell people you had WLS than have them speculate you have cancer or some other terrible disease (I wouldn't think drugs....lots of other things would happen before you lost a disturbing amount of weight on meth or something!).

I haven't met very many people who I know have had bariatric surgery - it's not as popular in Canada yet as it is in the US. Plus I'm 25, and there are few people in their 20s who get this surgery. But I mean, if you ever see someone who's been severely obese for decades suddenly drop 100 lbs in a year, the odds of it being via surgery are almost 100%.

I agree with chilo. Also, I don't know if you have access to it right now (I remember you talking about being stationed somewhere in the Middle East?), but at some point it might be worthwhile to measure your basal metabolic rate. 55 lbs is a decent amount to drop in 5 months, but it seems to be really bothering you, so it might be worth it to get your numbers all figured out.

So what are your starting and current weights, again? 100 lbs in 5 months sounds....intense.

Ohhh, that sounds good! Will have to try that sometime.

D-cup already...I wish they had ridiculously huge sizes just for kicks.

Nice! And 14 items for $200 is one hell of a deal!

Almost 4 months out. I eat more or less what I want (that said, I hate fried food), so my diet varies quite a bit day to day. The only constant is a Protein bar or shake every day. Bfast: preworkout - half a Protein Bar Post-workout: Protein Shake with Water, 2 pieces of chocolate Lunch: 6 oysters, about 3/4 cup apple and avocado salad with 2 shrimp Dinner: Indian buffet - half a tandoori chicken thigh; 3 or 4 small pieces of butter chicken; half a cup rice pudding

I agree, haven't been under 1000 for like 2 months and am losing just fine. I do go to the gym several times a week, but usually no more than 4x. I find that my weight goes up a pound or 2 if I haven't gone #2 in a few days. It could also be the result of some Water retention from high salt intake (not sure what you ate at Thanksgiving).

I did a few 5Ks and 10Ks before the surgery. I just tried to run as much as I could rather than do one of those run-walk programs. I would end up walking a bit during my races, but still finished with a decent time (30 min 5K). Give yourself at least 3-4 weeks to train if you've never run before.

Man, I wish I could wear extensions - my hair color seems to be impossible to match. I always get hairdressers asking me how I color it - I don't!

Haha, I actually look better than the site predicts based on my before pix! It makes you smaller, but doesn't smooth out the rolls...but width-wise, it's realistic - I compared my most recent pix to my before pix and the sizes are similar to the site predictions.

Obviously don't have that problem yet at a BMI of 26, but I'm thinking, what about using healthy foods for weight gain? Drinking whole milk and juice instead of water or sugar-free drinks comes to mind. You could easily add 300-400 calories a day with that - even more if you felt the need to. 114 lbs at your height is very low and below healthy BMI, but it sounds like you already know that, anyway. You might have heard about higher mortality in underweight people before - this is because underweight people don't have as many reserves to get them through a bout with serious illness. So it's definitely important to do something to try and bring your weight up into a healthy range.

Just thought I'd point out that you lose hair because of the anesthesia, not because of the dieting. Of course, if you are malnourished, you might lose more, but people lose hair several months after surgeries that don't affect their calories intake (C-sections, cholecystectomies). I like that tip. I'm going to a massive event that involves a buffet tomorrow. Several of my friends who'll be at my table know about my surgery, but there are 2 people who don't. They are nice people and I know they wouldn't judge me if I told them, but I don't want to tell them and hypothetically increase the odds of this information leaking to people I DON'T want to know. My boyfriend and I had a talk about this and decided that he'll be picking from my plate throughout the dinner under the pretense of "tasting things" so that people don't notice how little I eat.

I just looked it up on Medline and there was only one human study appropriate to us based on keywords "proton pump inhibitors/omeprazole" and "hunger." Then there was one study in cattle which showed the exact opposite: Moral of the story = research is a PITA.

It's really not that painful....imagine a very hard ab workout...the pain is very similar to that soreness. Also, I read a post by someone who had both a hysterectomy and the sleeve, and they said the sleeve is a walk in the park in comparison!

I'd never lie to another fat person, because I feel that I'd be withholding potentially lifesaving information from them. But stuck-up skinny people who think they know everything about obesity because THEY don't like chocolate and THEY have fast metabolisms....another story.