OneYearLater

I eat 1/2 cup egg beaters, about a 1/2 Oz of feta cheese and 1 tbs of deans french onion dip mixed in for flavor and it’s great! A good amount of food and fills me up for about 160 calories and lots of protein.

At this time last year, I was dressed in my preop gown and socks waiting to be wheeled into the room to start my new adventures. It’s crazy that it was exactly a year ago. Boy. It’s been a joy, and rough, and wonderful, and frustrating and so many things. I have been a super super slow loser. I started at 268 and have lost a total of 63 pounds in a year and I have worked SOOOO hard for every single last one of those pounds. I’m only 5’3”, so I still have a LONG way to go. I won’t lie, I started into this thinking hey...this will easy peasy. How could it not? I have no stomach and won’t be hungry. It’s not. Sure at first, you may drop pounds pretty quickly, but Head hunger is no joke folks. NO JOKE. You start thinking you are hungry right after you JUST ate! How is that possible? Head hunger. Have I been perfect and only eaten protein with very few carbs? Most days yes...all days...no. I work out just about every day with the bike and weights and keep my calories at about 800 a day. Some days I’ll eat more or less and gain and lose regardless. Still haven’t solved the elusive puzzle on what works perfectly and sometimes have stalls for months! It’s been a rough journey but at the same time wonderful. I have discovered so much more about myself along the way. I have so much more self control than I thought I did, I’m stronger than I ever thought I could be...and I make mistakes. I’m also human and can get right back on the saddle when I fall off. As disappointed as I get with myself at my slow loss at times, i realize that I NEVER would have been able to do this on my own. For those of you doubting our decision...it works. You may not see the amazing and fast results some do, and that’s ok. Everyone is different. Keep plugging along. You can do this and it was a great decision. i’m on my way to my appointment with my surgeon for my last check. I’m kind of embarrassed that I didn’t get under 200 like my goal was at least by this point. I will get there...when my body is ready for it. I’m going to keep plugging along! I guess I wanted to write this for anyone that has recently been sleeved and is feeling discouraged about not having the kind of results you see others have. Assess if you can make any changes to what you are doing and keep going! You do YOU!! You got this!!

Boy am I glad to see your response! Since you are a few years out, it really helps me to see that you are maintaining at a significantly higher calorie amount than when you were in your losing stage. That has always been my concern that I would be screwing up my metabolism so much by being a low amount of calories for a long time and eventually I would get hungry again and would fail trying to stay really low with hunger. Thank you! You give me hope!

I agree! I went through this extreme because I wanted to get good weight loss that I couldn’t do on my own without this tool. That why it’s been so disappointing losing NOTHING for all those months. I’m starting to see some results now that ex lowered my calories to about 800-875, but it’s starting to stall again I think. I’ll have to see how things go because some days I do start to feel a little weak from my blood sugar levels getting too low (type 2 diabetic).

TRUE! I need to just be grateful for right now when I can still eat this low of calories and not feel the hunger and enjoy every moment of it instead of worrying about what it might be like later. I’ve always been s planner so it’s hard to get out of that mode, but you’re right. I need to just appreciate the now.

This is encouraging...thank you! I don’t plan on going back to eating the way I was which got me into this mess in the first place with the weight gain, but I also don’t want to stay at a cal level this low for the rest of my life if my hunger starts to come back some!

That makes a lot of sense. My doctor said to stay about that in calories but I guess I’m different and need to be lower to lose with that being my maintenance intake. I’m just hoping it doesn’t lower too much continuing to eat this low but it doesn’t sound like it does from what you guys are saying. Yes I do resistance and weight training along with my cardio. I can probably increase that some as well as I’m going along to stay safe with my metabolism. Thank you!

Thank you for the responses! I’m just wondering if after “hunger” starts to come back if people are still staying at that low of caloric intake. I don’t have too much of a problem with it now, I’m just really worried about once one year, two years hits. I know some folks that had the surgery many years ago and gained a significant amount back and can eat a lot more than when the first year passed, so I’m concerned because I certainly don’t want to go down that road!

Hi folks, I was sleeved September 7, 2017 and after about 5 months out (March), I hit a stall that I couldn’t get out of. Months and months go by....nothing. Granted, I didn’t gain any weight either, but haven’t been able to lose any. I’ve had some other challenges as well...around the time of the stall, my gyno put me on hormones for pre-menopausal stuff. I have stayed at about 1,100-1,200 calories and work out about 4 times a week doing cardio for 30-45 minutes and light weights. Still haven’t been losing. Went to see a nutritionist who said to up my fiber and water. Still nothing. I’m getting close to my 1 year and really want to get this weight off before then, so I took my doctors advice and went back to basics eating like when I first had the surgery. I’ve FINALLY started to see pounds drop. Yay! I’m hoping this is just a stupid concern and unfounded, but I’m concerned about my caloric intake. Back to eating this way, I’m taking in about 700-800 calories a day. I’m finally losing, but after a period of time, is this caloric intake sustainable??? I want to lose the weight but eventually I’m going to start feeling hungry again, right? I am worried about messing up my metabolism so much that if I eat more than 800 calories after I reach my goal, I’ll be stuck at such a low caloric intake that will just be impossible to continue with and eventually start gaining weight back. I guess I’m looking for some folks that have been at this for a while to get an idea of what kind of caloric intake you were at while losing and what caloric intake you are at to keep from gaining? Thanks for any advice you can give.

I went about 3 months with no period after my surgery and out of he blue.....bam. a non stop period for almost two months hat was so heavy that my hair started falling out and I had to go to the emergency room for a blood transfusion. I’m 49 ( was 48 when all of this was going on) and my doctor said that sometimes surgery will screw your cycles up for a while then come back. I finally ended up going on hormones to start an early menopause. If you truly are post menopausal...consider yourself super duper lucky that you didn’t end up having to go through all of the menopause ups and down like so many women do!

People lose weight for various reasons...and some of the reasons aren’t necessarily positive. From the pics and amount you lost, it’s defnitely obvious that you lost and you look great! It doesn’t sound like you are particularly close with the people you work with and it’s possible they may not want to say anything for fear of offending you or bringing up something that you might be sensitive about. Some people don’t like to talk about weight period and some people lose weight from illness or depression so they may be being cautious. I wouldn’t take it personally. You look fantastic. Shoot! I remember long ago I commented to someone that I know after not seeing her for a while that she looked great and that she looked like she lost weight. She was upset with me for thinking that she needed to lose weight. Yikes! Never mentioned anything like that again to someone unless I knew for sure they were trying!

I did the classes back in 2010 here in San Diego. I lost about 25 pounds during that time, already had my gall bladder removed a couple of years before, so any possible roadblock they look for didn’t exist. I was the first to have my surgery scheduled and I would say my surgery was scheduled maybe a couple of weeks after. It all kind of depends on if there is anything happening with you that might delay things so it’s different for everyone.

Try Genepro protein powder. I buy it from gnc. You need a very small scoop for 30 grams of protein and can mix it with crystal light.

Hi all, My surgery was on September 7th and I've lost 20 pounds since then ...woot woot! Well here it is....I'm moving into my 3rd week and BAM! it's been about 3 days and my weight has stayed the same if not 1 pound gain, lose, gain back. Ugh. I know....this is by far the most loss I've had in such a short amount of time, but still can't help put have that little panic happen even though I've heard of the 3 week stall before. I guess my questions are....what did you do? Did you just wait things out? Did you change things up at all? What helped you get over the dreaded 3 week stall?

I also had the surgery of course for weight loss but also to get off the diabetes meds. My numbers have been great and the doctors told me not to start any meds until it went over 180 for fasting glucose readings. Well, it's been slowly creeping up and this morning it finally went over that magic 180. Am till on the soft puréed food phase and eat very low carb. Ugh. I am really hoping that I'll start seeing it drop again after my body adjusts more.