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most people do have a rebound after hitting their lowest weight. Ten to twenty lbs is pretty common - but like others have said, some people don't gain back any at all and some regain everything. If you commit to keeping your eating under control for the rest of your life, though (not that you can never have an occasional splurge - but keeping things in control at least most of the time), it's very doubtful you're going to gain a ton of it back. It's definitely a life-long effort.

Always check with your doctor if something is unusual for you. In saying that, you store estrogen in your fat & as you lose weight it is released into your bloodstream. So it’s not unusual for women to experience heavier or lighter, or more or less frequent periods, more or fewer PMT symptoms like mood swings & emotional highs & lows after surgery. It seems to persist until your weight loss starts to slow or you’ve lost more than half the weight you were hoping to. Your spotting could be related to that but do check with your doctor.

There's really no reason for your insurance company to deny coverage here. While gastric bypass is obviously performed for weight loss, that's not the only reason. There are normal weight people that sometimes have it done for various issue like severe GERD and issues with gastric emptying. My point is that even though we think of it as a bariatric procedure, in your case, you need it purely for medical reasons. They can't deny it on the basis that they don't cover bariatric surgery, since that's not why you need the surgery.

the experience of one person is no way indicative of what YOU will experience. only way to know for sure how YOU will end up is to go through it yourself. there is no future-reading here, unfortunately. all i can say for sure is that if you make an honest effort to lose weight after wls, you will. and if you make an honest effort to keep the weight off in the following years, you *most likely* will. its easy to lose the weight...its exponentially harder to keep it all off. the vast majority of wls folks will regain SOME amount of weight after reaching their lowest point. exactly how much more is up to you and your habits, as well as your genetics, age, health, etc., etc.,... good luck! ❤️

Just jumping in to say that 60lbs in 3 months is a tremendous amount of weight to lose! Have you ever lost that much in three months before? Or at all? Pre-surgery, I could never lose more than about 40lbs before I plateaued and then slowly started to regain. But, I understand you have a long way left to go, so it probably feels like you'll never get there. Focus on building the good habits now, like you are. If you can, go for a daily walk. That may be plenty of exercise for now if you are currently sedentary. But protein, vegetables, and fruits are great choices. Also, take photos of yourself to see the progress. I swear that even at over a year out and within 10 lbs of a normal BMI, I still FEEL obese sometimes. And then I see a recent photo of myself and I am shocked to see a normal weight woman who kinda looks like me. How can I see myself so wrong in my own head? In the first year, I took a progress photo every month on the 21st so I could compare. I'm so glad I did.

The effects of surgery appear to be more durable than meds. So if you take Zepbound and stop, most people regain most to all of the weight over a relatively short period of time because nothing about your body has changed once the meds are gone. It's like your blood pressure going back up after stopping blood pressure meds. If you get surgery, it's permanently altering your physiology, so it keeps working for you long after the surgery is done. You don't go back to having a larger stomach or your intestines being rerouted in the case of a bypass. Your hunger and capacity do increase, so if you don't make lasting changes, yes, you can overeat and make poor choices over time that can lead to weight regain. It's a tool, not a cure. Some doctors will say that a bypass is more durable and "stronger" than a sleeve in terms of how much weight you can lose and how easy it is to keep off over time. The combination of surgery now plus adding GLP-1s sometime in the future (if you need them) seems to be an approach that more doctors are looking at for longterm maintenance. Of course, this assumes nutrition and exercise guidance is being followed.

So I had gastric sleeve surgery in 2017 and ever since I have had severe GERD. I just went through an upper GI endoscopy and it was found that I have a huge hiatal hernia, like half of my stomach! My surgeon says the only real way to get relief is the have a gastric bypass but my current insurance does not cover any bariatric surgery. Is there a way to get them to pay since the surgery isn’t for weight loss? I have BCBS of Alabama.

I’m having surgery May 15th. I did not need to do a preop diet. I just need to stay at the required goal weight. I am 5’5, 219 40 years old. Anyone out there starting out like me? Care to share?

Hi, my operation is on the 25th may, I started the liver reduction diet today and dreading it. My local NHS hospital has given me a very small list of food to have for 3 weeks and not a lot of information. I finished a weight loss injection last week because it wasn't agreeing with me so my appetite is coming back too 🤣 such bad timing haha. How did people's surgeries go recently?

It wasn’t too hard. My appetite wasn’t 100% gone like with the sleeve but given that I was already on the low-carb for a couple weeks before and the changes it made it was quite a bit easier to stick to it. In fact, it was night and day. The surgery was so much better for me. It actually made metabolic changes that got me up and exercising and that made me feel good. I was eating 100% clean for four months. Then I had some other medical issues that have sort of just put me in the stall mode but I am going to get back to it. I’m actually not allowed to eat like I was eating. I have to maintain my weight because I am in chemo, but I’m still exercising through chemo and before surgery, I was like 100% sedentary so the surgery definitely made some changes, not just to the stomach or the intestines, but to my metabolism to make me start up my exercise again, multiple times when I’ve had to stop because I was in the hospital for 10 days with pneumonia and then I had to stop because of different scans that they didn’t allow me to exercise for a couple of days and then I had to stop because I developed hyperthyroid, and my pulse was dangerously high for a couple weeks and every time I have started up again with my exercise so it’s kind of insane because without the surgery there’s no way I could’ve done that. I really hope it’s the same for you. I mean minus the chemo, of course, but that it changes your metabolism and that it works for you for me I could tell from very early out that it was gonna work this time. I lost 75 pounds and the first four months and I was so motivated that I kept exercising and eating clean through my first month after a cancer diagnosis going to all of the doctors and PET scans and all of that stuff even traveling all around the state I still stayed on my plan. Then with chemo, they didn’t want me staying at a calorie deficit so that threw things off a little bit but I have maintained the 90 pound loss and tomorrow is actually my last chemo treatment so hopefully I will be allowed to start losing again, but we’ll see. According to my bariatric team I need to continue eating enough for radiation, but I’m gonna see what the radiation doctor says. Anyways, I’m not talking about the cancer thing for any reason other than to say there’s no way I could’ve maintained any kind of loss before the surgery because I would’ve been eating for comfort. For a situation like this and definitely used it as an excuse to not exercise. And I have had a couple of days where I’ve eaten for comfort and I’ve used it for an excuse to not exercise, but unlike before when that meant everything was out the window for good I’ve gotten right back on track. Best of luck to you. For me it has been a life changer.

So glad to hear you are doing well. Yea when the cravings come back it sucks. I have been doing okay. Tomorrow is my last day of the infused chemo. Surgery on 3 weeks then radiation in five. I will be on the immunotherapy another year and maybe oral chemo depending on the pathology from surgery. 🤞 I don’t need the chemo because that may mean I’m immunocompromised still and I’m so sick of the isolation of trying not to get sick and miss treatment. I got a tiny little cold that made me septic and spent 10 days in hospital which made me miss two weeks of chemo so I’ve had to be super careful to not get sick again and all along they have told me once I get to radiation I won’t have to be so careful. I mean sick would mean I would miss treatment but only for a day or two while I had a fever or felt really crummy and it wouldn’t be life or death. Anyways, I only read about the oral chemo on the patient portal tonight so I will ask Dr more about it this Friday when we chat. Maybe it’s not a big deal. I have pretty much maintained my weight till recently. I’ve gained a few pounds. I’m still on the heavy steroids and the immunotherapy caused thyrotoxicosis I think it’s called. I was hyper thyroid to start but then like 3 weeks later it went back to normal and then to hypo thyroid and apparently it usually stays that way. I reached out to my bariatric team and asked him if I could start on with Govee to help get me off of some of these processed carbs and he acted like I was being crazy to be worried about my weight at a time like this. I said I’m not trying to lose weight. I know I’m not supposed to and I haven’t Since December when I started the Chemo, but I don’t think that if you’re so concerned about me, maintaining my weight to fuel my body and help myself recover that the foods I’m eating in order to sustain an overweight body weight are really helping me recover from anything. I said all I want to do is be able to stop eating the garbage and start eating healthy nutrition again and I would be willing to log all my food again and check in with you to make sure I’m not losing too fast or anything, but he says no way not until I get the all clear cancer free from my oncologist. But I’m helping my oncologist can reach out to him and tell him that I’m not gonna get that for another year and if I wait that long, I’ll probably be as big as a house again without any help. Or I may just have to go through an endocrinologist or my family doctor or something. Anyway, anyways, trying to not worry about it too much but I didn’t appreciate that. He acted like I have some kind of eating disorder or something and I have like a death wish. I mean, I wasn’t saying that I wanna take something that’s gonna make me starve myself to death. I was just saying that I want to change what I’m eating and eat healthy obviously if the medicine made it where I couldn’t eat anything. I would stop taking it. I’m not insane. 🤣 but it is very discouraging to see the numbers on the scale go up even if it’s only 5 pounds.

You keep that positive outlook you are doing great. Be proud of how much you have lost and how well you are metabolically. That is something to celebrate. I applaud you for keeping the faith as you slowly lost the weight and became healthier and healthier. That is the most important thing, you are healthier. Congratulations!!

I’m 53. I am having sleeve surgery in a couple days. I am worried about not loosing a significant amount of weight because I’m in Peri-menopause.

HW: 399 CW: 264 GW: 199 Total Inches lost: Waist: 12.5” Hips: 10” Progress video of my non scale victories & some before & after photos attached. ☺️ Hi everyone! I had sleeve surgery on 12/6/23. My weight on the day of surgery was 381, but just a few months prior (October ‘23), I was in the 390s — peaking at 399. 😭 I still can’t believe how far I’ve come since then. 🤯 At first, around this time last year, I was a little discouraged that I wasn’t one of those lost 100 lbs in the first 4 months stories. But now, looking back, I’m so proud of the progress I’ve made and those thoughts are long gone. My doctor even said he prefers when patients lose weight a bit slower, since it helps them adjust to their new lifestyle easier and avoid some of the negative side effects like hair loss. I’m happy to say I haven’t experienced any hair loss at all 💁‍♀️ and my habits are NIGH and DAY from when I was .5lb shy of 400lbs. I gotta say being in the 260s feels unreal. My goal weight of 199 doesn’t feel like a far-off dream anymore but now within reach. When I was 399, the idea of weighing 199 felt like a fairytale ✨ but now, being just 65 lbs away, it feels like I can see the finish line in the distance and it won’t be long until I cross it! 🏃‍♀️💨 If you made it this far, thanks for reading. 🤗🩵🩷 Wishing the best to everyone on their own fitness journey. We got this!! 💪 video-output-BBFB7DF1-7AA4-435F-9BE5-1CD3270BACD2-1.mov

Weight loss surgery success journey stories are important because the written word enables us to connect on an emotional basis with others. Telling our journey stories is a way to build a deeper level of understanding. Thinking about and creating our stories regarding our life history, life experiences, and influences on our lives can be related to family, friends, acquaintances, and even strangers. Everyone has different, exceptional life experiences with unique and special stories to share and teach others. My own story is one of redemption and salvation – but my redemption involved turning away from religion, and my salvation came from science. I was born and raised in a religious, conservative Christian home in Charlotte, North Carolina. My parents are both immigrants from Taiwan, and they moved to the United States in the 1980s. Their command of the English language and understanding of American culture were poor. Their acclimation to the United States was heavily dependent on their participation in the Charlotte Chinese Baptist Church. The Christian Baptist church is where my parents first initially met each other. They dated for a short period of time before they made the decision to get married. After marriage, they gave birth to me as their first born, and two years later, my younger sister. As far back as I can remember, my family attended Sunday services at the conservative Christian Baptist church on a regular basis. I was indoctrinated into being a conservative Christian by my family, friends, teachers, classmates, schools, and the conservative Christian church we attended. I was taught to believe in Jesus, Virgin Mary, and the existence of heaven and hell. We prayed in church, and I was taught to "give my life to god" and to avoid "sin." I was taught homosexuality was a sin and that LGBT people went to hell. My parents forbade my sister and me from dating, and I was told by my family, church, and teachers to save my virginity for marriage, which meant premarital sex was a major taboo. When I was in middle school, all of us girls were enrolled in the "Best Friends" program, an abstinence-only "sex education" program. The program merely consisted of "just say no" if boys wanted sex. Throughout my entire childhood, I unfortunately endured extreme domestic/family violence and experienced severe physical, verbal, emotional, psychological, spiritual/religious, and sexual abuse, incest, trauma, and molestation perpetrated by my conservative Christian father. My conservative Christian father was a very active volunteer at church, and he was highly respected by fellow church leaders and members of the congregation. However, he used his outward acts of service for the church as a deceptive mask to harbor many deep, dark secrets behind closed doors. My father was a chronic alcoholic and domineering, psychopathic perpetrator of horrific violence. He was a sadistic sociopath who derived sick pleasure from abusing my mother, my sister, and me in every way possible: physically, verbally, emotionally, psychologically, spiritually/religiously, and sexually assaulting, molesting, traumatizing, and humiliating us. My father weaponized the Bible as a tool to repeatedly abuse, assault, control, molest, terrorize, threaten, and violate my mother, sister, and me. He claimed the Bible justified his abuse, violence, and mistreatment towards us. He was a gun owner who threatened on countless occasions to murder the three of us and burn down our home “to destroy the evidence," so our bodies would never be found. Both my parents constantly warned I would be sent away to a foster home, where I would be treated far worse by strangers if I ever told my school teachers or complained to authorities about the horrific abuse and violence that was taking place at home on a daily basis. As an innocent young child, I wholeheartedly believed every word of my parents as I did not know any better. A middle school classmate noticed a bruise on my arm and asked me about it. I confided in her about the abuse and violence being perpetuated by my parents against me at home. She was sincerely concerned about my safety and worried about my well-being and told our homeroom teacher, who in turn, informed the middle school guidance counselor. After lunch, I was pulled from algebra class and asked to speak with the guidance counselor. Out of my irrational fear of being removed from my family home, the only place I'd ever known, I lied and said I'd injured myself by accident. At the time, I thought I was in trouble because I'd never been removed from class. I wanted only to return to math class to avoid missing any important class material. Back when I was an innocent child, I still believed in a just and merciful God. I used to kneel at my bed every night and fervently pray to God to kill me in my sleep. I desperately wished to die so I would not be forced to endure another day of extreme abuse and violence. It's heartbreaking for me to think back now about how I started seriously contemplating suicide when I was a young child. I did not wish to live and did not want to continue enduring the horrific abuse I experienced as a child at home every day. No one seemed to care about or love me, not even my own parents. I felt absolutely trapped in this living hell at home. As a child, my parents would not allow me to seek mental health care since doing so would reveal their abuse and violence towards me, and they knew they would face severe legal repercussions. My immigrant parents came from a conservative, traditional Asian culture and attached a very negative stigma to psychological services. They viewed patients who sought mental health treatment as "crazy." At the age of 18, I was finally able to move out on my own, and I left my hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina to attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I began to meet and learn from people of different races, ethnicities, socioeconomic classes, religions/non-religions, with family backgrounds and histories that were unlike the oppressive, conservative Christian culture I'd grown up with. I was exposed to new, fascinating ideas, thoughts, and perspectives from my university professors and fellow college students. I learned about liberal. progressive Democrats and the concepts of socioeconomic and racial injustice, diversity, equity, and inclusion, women’s rights, and more. I was exposed for the first time to secular ideas. I began questioning the existence of God at this juncture. All the rules and regulations I'd been taught to follow by my conservative Christian family and church as a means to salvation had brought me nothing but painful despair and misery throughout my entire life up to that point. I was exposed to an entirely new world in college in which I learned that I had value as an individual as well as learning critical thinking skills, philosophical logic, and scientific thought. However, the years of abuse had left many scars. I sought help from a psychiatrist who finally diagnosed me with major depressive disorder (MDD), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)/panic attacks, and complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD). My psychiatrist prescribed antidepressant and antianxiety medications for me, and I also began intensive psychotherapy. I sought out trauma-focused mental health counselors and therapists and successfully completed countless mental health treatments and therapies for my healing and recovery. I discovered the abuse and violence I experienced during my childhood was not my fault, and I was not to blame whatsoever despite what my conservative Christian family constantly told me. I also learned about concepts and techniques such as self-care, emotional regulation, and developing healthy boundaries. The mental health treatments I received included Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy, Somatic Experiencing (SE) therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) group therapy as well as medical treatments such as Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) treatment and esketamine treatment. In addition, I attended support groups for survivors of childhood abuse and incest, sexual assault, rape, and religious trauma. My journey back from the brink had finally begun. However, I was about to take a huge and very dangerous detour in my journey of healing. Food was my drug of choice back then. I used to binge eat massive amounts of food to desperately fill the empty void of nothingness I felt within and to cope with my feelings of depression, sadness, worthlessness, hopelessness, guilt, shame, fear, emotional numbness, fatigue, exhaustion, migraines, stomachaches, anxiety, panic attacks, nightmares, flashbacks, difficulty with focus and concentration, and other symptoms. I preferred unhealthy junk food and fast food that provided me with momentary comfort. I gained prodigious amounts of weight. The antidepressants I took increased my appetite, causing more weight gain. The weight gain made me feel even more depressed, and the depression made me eat ever increasing amounts of food, which became a vicious cycle. I developed social anxiety and hated going out in public because I feared strangers bullying and taunting me for my appearance. I am 5 feet, 6 inches tall, and unbelievable as it may seem to most people, at my maximum, I weighed a staggering 321 pounds at my highest and had a BMI of 51.8. I was super morbidly obese, extremely unhealthy, and unfortunately, developed many serious, chronic health issues over the years. Due to the excess weight, I used to get winded easily and ran out of energy very quickly. I could not stand or walk for more than a few minutes before I began experiencing excruciating pain in my back, forcing me to sit and rest before I could stand and walk again. I suffered from numerous chronic, life-threatening health conditions, which included high blood pressure, high cholesterol, pre-diabetes, obstructive sleep apnea, chronic back pain, knee pain, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, hiatal hernia, and others. Since I have a family history of even more severe health issues such as stroke, heart disease, diabetes, and cancer, I saw the writing on the wall. My super morbid obesity was literally killing me, and my future seemed bleak and hopeless. Due to my ever growing weight and developing serious, chronic health conditions which made my life excruciating painful and miserable physically and psychologically, I still had suicidal ideation, conducted detailed research on methods for ending my life, and even began to make active suicide plans. Fortunately, President Barack Obama successfully passed the Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as “Obamacare.” Obamacare was the first time in my life I had the opportunity to obtain health insurance as an adult. Luckily, I also discovered Dr. Peter C. Ng, MD, FACS, FASMBS at Rex Bariatrics and their amazing UNC Rex Health bariatric surgical team in Raleigh, North Carolina. On Monday, October 6, 2014, I underwent a form of bariatric (weight loss) surgery called the duodenal switch with Dr. Peter Ng at UNC Rex Hospital in Raleigh, North Carolina. Thanks to Dr. Ng and his compassionate bariatric team at UNC/Rex Healthcare, my recovery was finally back on track. Science, not religion, literally saved my life. My closest friends volunteered to help me many times, and they're absolutely critical to my success. Cathy took me to all my doctor’s appointments and was my biggest cheerleader. Joni was another amazing mentor and took excellent care of me at home while I was recovering from surgery. I would not be alive today if it weren't for Barack Obama, Dr. Peter Ng, Cathy, Joni, and other dear friends. I learned how to eat a healthy diet and began an exercise regimen to help take off all the excess weight. I worked tirelessly and pushed myself to the limit in terms of my diet, exercise, and lifestyle transformation. It was very difficult to say the least, but I succeeded, not through prayer or faith in God, but through hard work, sheer will, grit, perseverance, determination, and tenacity. Ultimately, I lost 191 lbs – a weight loss I'm very happy and pleased to report I’ve maintained to this very day. I now weigh 130 lbs, which is exactly what I weighed when I was 18 years old, and I have a very healthy BMI of 21.0. Since I've lost and kept off such a massive amount of weight, I no longer have any of the aforementioned health issues; they’ve all completely resolved themselves, for which I am very thankful. I eat a healthy diet, am physically fit, and lead a physically active, robust lifestyle. My friends lovingly refer to me as the "Energizer Bunny." I am happy and healthy now. I continue to take antidepressant medications and to see my psychiatrist and therapist because major depression is prone to relapse without ongoing treatment. I've developed a strong, iron-clad support system of compassionate, caring, kind, empathetic, generous chosen family and loved ones, all of whom I'm incredibly grateful to have in my life. I do not begrudge faith to people who take comfort in religion; however, the toxic form of Christianity that consumed my childhood nearly ended my life. I was saved by science and human compassion. My will to keep fighting came not from a belief in a reward after death, but from learning of the inherent value each of us has here on earth while we are alive and breathing. I visited my bariatric surgeon Dr. Ng for my annual follow-up visit last year on Wednesday, October 1, 2024. I received my blood work test results, and my labs were "perfect." Every year, Dr. Ng laughingly tells me my blood test results are better than his own! Dr. Ng is, without a doubt, my favorite surgeon since he literally saved my life. I’m exceptionally grateful for him and his expert surgical skills in performing the duodenal switch bariatric weight loss surgery on me, and I’m also tremendously thankful to the entire UNC Health Rex medical team. Sunday, October 6, 2024 marked a significant date in my life; it was my ten-year surgiversary. In case you aren't aware, a surgiversary is the anniversary of a surgery, most commonly associated with bariatric (weight loss) surgery, a medically necessary surgical procedure which profoundly changed my life with the best possible outcome. I’ve been grateful and fortunate to find peace, bliss, happiness, and joy in life without the need for religion or belief in a god or higher power. I absolutely love my life, and I'm beyond excited and thrilled to experience all the fantastic joy and happiness that life has to offer. I finally love and truly believe in myself. I'm an outgoing, hardworking, highly energetic Taiwanese American leader and activist. I’m self-employed and work tirelessly at multiple contract and freelance paid positions. My roles include working as a private military defense contractor with the U.S. Department of Defense by assisting active duty U.S. military personnel with their Mandarin speaking skills at a U.S. military base, as a Mandarin speaking private tutor, as an independent film & media contractor for Rob Underhill Productions, as a freelance writer & editor, and as a social media marketing manager. I'm a multicultural individual with a global mindset. I'm known for my values and strength of character: ethics, integrity, perseverance, resilience, and tenacity. Brimming with confidence, commitment to excellence, fervent drive to succeed, innovative thinking, and positive, can-do, go-getter attitude. My passions and strengths include professional networking, social media marketing, event planning, business development, communication, leadership, writing/editing, and team building. I'm well-connected politically and socially including CEOs, VPs, C-Suite executives, elected government officials, directors, leadership, management, business owners, entrepreneurs, physicians, attorneys, engineers, sales & marketing, real estate brokers, creatives, musicians, artists, innovators, and other powerful community leaders at local, state, and federal government levels, U.S Department of Defense (DoD), Fortune 500 companies, and nonprofits in Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill/RDU/Triangle, North Carolina, United States, Taiwan, China, and elsewhere around the world. I'm passionate about personal growth, living a fulfilling, purposeful life, and highly value community engagement. Most importantly I love volunteering, inspiring and motivating others, “paying it forward,” and having a positive impact on the community and world around me. I spend much of my free time performing charity work, volunteering at my alma mater UNC-Chapel Hill, promoting business owners, and volunteering and canvassing for Democratic politicians and elected government officials at local, state, and federal levels of government. I'm active in volunteering with many nonprofit organizations, mainly secular and non-religious, although I've cultivated and maintained dear, loving friendships with Called to Peace Ministries, a Christian-affiliated nonprofit organization that provides advocacy, education, support, and practical assistance to domestic violence survivors. In addition, I love volunteering to help people who are struggling with their own weight loss challenges, and I always hope my own story will inspire them. The causes I hold closest to my heart are ending domestic violence and abuse, ending poverty, promoting secular humanism, critical thinking, and science education, advocating for separation of church and state, supporting mental health advocacy and research, supporting social, economic, and racial justice and diversity, equity, inclusion, and helping people who are overweight and obese in their journeys to lead healthier, more physically active lives. I'm extremely active politically and have volunteered countless hours for Democratic political candidates' campaigns in Wake County/Raleigh/Triangle/RDU/RTP, North Carolina with their successful election and re-election to elected government office positions. In addition, I'm very active in the secular humanist movement by participating in local, state, and national meetings and conferences with my favorite organizations including The Freethought Society, Recovering From Religion, American Humanist Association, and countless others. I also enjoy volunteering for other liberal, progressive organizations that support ending domestic violence, advocating for mental health, women's rights, gun control, comprehensive sex education, socioeconomic and racial justice, diversity, equity, inclusion, and more. I enjoy cultural arts such as traveling domestically and internationally, learning about different languages and cultures, attending plays/theater and comedy shows, visiting museums, and going to concerts and hearing live music. I've traveled all over the United States, Canada, Mexico, Caribbean, and Asia including Taiwan, Japan, and Singapore. I'm physically active, love adventure, and enjoy experiencing nature and being outdoors. I love spending time in nature and exercising outdoors, especially hiking and ziplining. I've also done parasailing, flyboarding, canoeing, kayaking, sailing, cruising, whitewater rafting, and been given countless opportunities to experience many other awesome adventures I'd never received before. I absolutely live life to the fullest. This is the happiest I've ever been in my entire life, and I want to help others improve their lives and feel the same joy as I do. If I can do it, you can too! Even if life seems bleak and dark and you feel like quitting, DON'T GIVE UP! I promise you, life gets better; I'm living proof of that! I suffered through countless seemingly insurmountable adversities, barriers, challenges, and obstacles in my lifetime, but I also became a more empathetic, compassionate, loving, and kind human being. I'm a resilient and tenacious survivor and thriver. I'm an unstoppable force of nature to be reckoned with; there's absolutely nothing in the world that can stop me. My experiences have made me absolutely fearless: I fear nothing and no one. My long-term goals are to become a published best-selling author, a highly sought after public motivational speaker, and to give TED talks. I want to speak to audiences around the world about my journey, grit, perseverance, resilience, determination, strength, and tenacity, and to inspire and motivate others to do the same. Thanks so much for reading my story; feel free to share if you’d like and reach out to me if I can help! I attached a photo of Dr. Peter C. Ng, MD, FACS, FASMBS and me at UNC Rex Bariatrics Healthcare taken on Wednesday, October 1, 2024. (10-year surgiversary celebration of my duodenal switch, a bariatric surgery that Dr. Ng performed on Monday, October 6, 2014)

@SpartanMaker funny you mentioned your run and how you had to play the why in your head -this morning I woke up at 4am. as I always do. and kept pushing the snooze button, but I knew I had to go the gym and do lower body weight lifting- I knew in order to progress how I am trying to shape my body I needed to do it. So I got up, and did it. As I was working out, I told myself your here, put your game face on and just effing doing it. Probably one of the best lower body workouts I have done in a long time. I am constantly repeating it in my head- glad I could help!

Wow! So happy for you! Our journeys have been similar! I started at 244. Was 228 day of surgery I think and I'm 190.6 now. I am more flexible and feel better all over. Hopefully the weight loss continues. I am not sure I want to get down into the 120s or 130s like I'd set before. Probably 140s or 150s will be ok for me. I'm 5'3" but I'm 51 so the smaller I get the more wrinkles I see! No likey! But will see. Congrats on your weight loss. I'm happy for you that you got to do this at your age. Wish I had! Keep going!! You look fantastic!!! 🤗✨️👏

Wow, that's a bit concerning for sure. Hopefully you've already seen a doctor and discussed this issue? There are some medical conditions completely unrelated to weight that can cause a sudden rise in blood pressure, so I would think it's worth a visit to your doctor to discuss what may have caused this. Also, have you noticed any patterns where it's high vs. low, or is it just high all the time? For example, times of day, before vs. after eating, sodium intake, life stresses, that sort of thing?

@MrBeeswax I'd say the same thing, there are no limits here. I've looked through a number of scientific papers on weight regain and insufficient weight loss after bariatric surgery and about the only thing you'd find if you do the same is that the data is all over the place. I've seen numbers from as low at 10%, all the way up to 80% of patients regain some weight. The reason for that is there's very little consensus on defining what weight regain even means. If, for example, I lose too much weight, then gain back a bit, some studies would include me the the weight regain numbers. I'd say that's a healthy thing to have happened. I suspect @SouthernSleever fits into that category, though I obviously don't know for sure. One other thing you'll find in those studies is that a lot of the patients that regain a lot of weight or failed to lose enough weight tend to be "non-adherent", meaning it's their behaviors, not the tool that's the real issue. We say this a lot here on this board, but it's worth repeating: Bariatric surgery does not fix your head. If you're not willing to commit to learning how to eat better and move more, then you too may be one of those that "fails" bariatric surgery. I would strongly urge you to keep that in mind if you do pursue surgery. You absolutely can reach a healthy weight, but surgery is not a miracle cure. I takes a ton of hard work and commitment to be successful.

Okay, but I’m asking because if I don’t have to do a surgery I won’t. I’m thinking ten years from now. When I’m 56 will I be back here now. At 275 my weight loss on zepbound has slowed. That’s ~45 lbs drop. But I don’t want to go through surgery to only get to 250 because if I gain 20 lbs in 10 years I’ll be back here.

@MrBeeswax I feel that no matter which surgery you receive when we suffer from the disease of obesity and we detour from eating properly then we're gonna experience weight gain. Obesity bodies are different than regular bodies who metabolize food normally. We who suffer from obesity have a metabolic disease, so when we get surgery and start back creeping in those "comfort and emotional eating foods" that we KNOW our body loves to store FAT with such as chips, cakes, cookies, unhealthy CARBS, refined sugars, just SUGARs period in access then we're gonna regain unfortunately we have a horrible disease that requires very proper planning for success. I lost a lot of weight really fast with VSG and I credit my success to 1.Meal prepping for success 2. Being organized 3. Movement. i honestly don't think the type of surgery matters. its that HAND TO MOUTH MOVEMENT what are we putting in our mouths 😂

Good luck. I’m pre surgery and eerily. We are roughly the same weight stats. At the end of next month I’m going to pick a procedure and I’m worried about durability. The pandemic was a once in a century event, but this person’s story is not unique. Therefore, I’m worried if VSG is the best surgery for durability. Aside from BPD/DS I see VSG patients having a lot of regain on this platform and on the FB groups, there’s less, but still a fair number of RYGB patients with regain too. Most didn’t just go full on ultra terrible diet, so I am now reading and watching videos to avoid regain. Are there any books on the topic?

Is a 30% increase of lowest weight normal? I’m pre surgery so I’m trying to gauge where I could be at. This person losing 151 lbs is amazing. Just trying to gauge where I might end up in 8-10 years if I work the plan

63 pounds is quite a bit of weight to lose in 3 months. I also highly recommend that you track your calories, especially during the weight loss phase. It is easy to under/overestimate how much we eat.

The hair loss can be shocking and frustrating but save your money on supplements, special shampoos & treatments. Unless you’re lacking in the specific nutrients you require for hair growth they won’t help. The hair loss is temporary and for most lasts 3-4 months (regardless of taking supplements or not). During this time of stress and hormonal changes, your usual hair loss cycle is accelerated so you lose more hair but it is hair you would lose at some point. Your new hair is continuing to grow just at its usual rate. Meet your protein goals and ensure you’re getting in the nutrients, take a vitamins you’ve been advised to take. A blood test will show if you’re lacking in anything. Many of us cut our hair shorter as shorter hair always looks thicker and bouncier than long. And it will take less time for your new growth to reach the length of your shorter hair. Also there is no real evidence in support of collagen for hair growth (hair is made of keratin not collagen). Want to take it for your skin, go for it. I agree with @SpartanMaker: as collagen isn’t a complete protein it can’t be counted as part of your protein intake and you’ll get more collagen per dose/serve of a collagen supplement in powdered form than a capsule. It dissolves well & isn’t filling like a protein powder. If the hair loss persists or the loss is excessive, a dermatologist will be the best for you to see for help and other causes of the loss than just weight loss.