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@AmberFL today's the day 😁😁 I know all will go well and I hope the hubby takes care of you in the next few days while you recover, he'll get the benefit in a few weeks 🤣

And how have you done this week? Still better than before I hope. One day at a time, as with any journey. We've all done it with WLS.

I did keto a lot before surgery, it was vogue as we’ve all done a million diets in our lives... It works, but cravings. The preop and post diet are similar. Just way more liquids. For the fatigue and headaches, broth was the key. You would dehydrate rapidly and would suffer without the salt. The sugar detox is real, often once it passes you are a ton less Hungery. For those like me, and sugar can start the cravings. 100% agree with others who posted. It takes me about a full week for those to stop. Distractions help, exercise helps, just going to bed helps. I am always less hungry after mild exercise, mostly sweaty and thirsty. It helped stopped the food focus more than plain distractions. Heavy exercise increased the hunger the next day. This might sound crazy, but I had to constantly know when my next meal was. Lunch done, wait 2 hours then sugar free jello, then 1 hour and sugar free popsicle, then start to prep dinner, etc. knowing I was eating something in 1-2 hours helped. I tend to panic eat. Food was scarce as a kid and I tend to stuff myself if it’s not readily at hand and I’m hungry… my next meal is 3 bananas as fast a I can shove them in and I remain food panic triggered and have to talk myself down. I’m working through my hunger panic. I’m 100% not super thin now, I’m huge and need help… it’s why we are all here. :). To give and get support. And trying to not be a clean your plate club, eat any meal you are offered, all meals need a dessert, eat till you have pain and call that “full” kinda gal. I’d also make sure I got all of my sleep. I’m a 10 hour person. Plan a small exercise before you know your mega Hunger hits (I’m lunch). A 15 min walk helps divert my blood to my limbs and gets me craving fluids. Call your food what it is. A popsicle is a dessert. A pudding is a dessert. Sometimes reframing these help, ok in 2 hours I’m having protein pudding as a dessert, followed in 2 hours by a dessert popsicle. We are all different, so need different things. If after dinner I have a popsicle every night before bed, I call it dessert and I always know it’s coming and I will be getting more food… and I’m ok not being as full at dinner. This.. might have been too personal, but… helps me.

As of this morning, I reached the goal weight I had set for myself last April when my husband and I committed to our new lifestyle! I am back down to the weight I was at when we first got together, which was 8 years ago last week. I am setting a new stretch goal for myself to lose 15 more pounds, but I plan to take that very slowly. As long as I keep trending slowly down, I will be content.

How often do you do your labs? Are they okay?? My team has us do them every 3 months for the first year at least.

I did keto a lot before surgery, it was vogue as we’ve all done a million diets in our lives... It works, but cravings. The preop and post diet are similar. Just way more liquids. For the fatigue and headaches, broth was the key. You would dehydrate rapidly and would suffer without the salt. The sugar detox is real, often once it passes you are a ton less Hungery. For those like me, and sugar can start the cravings. 100% agree with others who posted. It takes me about a full week for those to stop. Distractions help, exercise helps, just going to bed helps. I am always less hungry after mild exercise, mostly sweaty and thirsty. It helped stopped the food focus more than plain distractions. Heavy exercise increased the hunger the next day. This might sound crazy, but I had to constantly know when my next meal was. Lunch done, wait 2 hours then sugar free jello, then 1 hour and sugar free popsicle, then start to prep dinner, etc. knowing I was eating something in 1-2 hours helped. I tend to panic eat. Food was scarce as a kid and I tend to stuff myself if it’s not readily at hand and I’m hungry… my next meal is 3 bananas as fast a I can shove them in and I remain food panic triggered and have to talk myself down. I’m working through my hunger panic. I’m 100% not super thin now, I’m huge and need help… it’s why we are all here. :). To give and get support. And trying to not be a clean your plate club, eat any meal you are offered, all meals need a dessert, eat till you have pain and call that “full” kinda gal. I’d also make sure I got all of my sleep. I’m a 10 hour person. Plan a small exercise before you know your mega Hunger hits (I’m lunch). A 15 min walk helps divert my blood to my limbs and gets me craving fluids. Call your food what it is. A popsicle is a dessert. A pudding is a dessert. Sometimes reframing these help, ok in 2 hours I’m having protein pudding as a dessert, followed in 2 hours by a dessert popsicle. We are all different, so need different things. If after dinner I have a popsicle every night before bed, I call it dessert and I always know it’s coming and I will be getting more food… and I’m ok not being as full at dinner. This.. might have been too personal, but… helps me.

Well, January Buddies, sounds like we all have our individual struggles. I'm just over 2 weeks post-op and I'm trying really hard to get all that liquid in too 😵‍💫 What helps me is to remember that this is a marathon - not a sprint. We're in it for the long haul. And I just keep working to overcome the struggles, and have discovered that doing that strengthens my resolve to keep working at it! Kind of like a mind game. Hope this help you too.

I can’t wait to see all of the dishes being made this week!

Thank you. I forgot to mention that I just had the endoscopy done last week and Al looks good. No reason to not do the sleeve. My preference has always been the RNY because my sister, sister-in-law and niece have all done the RNY with great success and I know what to expect. Recently my gut says to do the sleeve, but also feel I’ll regret it if do.

I'm in my 50s so also close. I had a sleeve 3 years ago. I'm not exactly sure what you mean when you talk about having it again - do you mean a revision of some kind? Second procedures are necessary for many of us, for many reasons. If we can look at *why* we regained, sometimes we can avert regain a second time around. Sometimes not. If you do go with further surgery (and many of us would if and when we regained I think) it might help before that to go back to the immediate post op rules and stick to those. I went for a sleeve partly because it left the door open to a revision if I *did* regain. I'm only 3 years out and glad to have that escape hatch (but - more surgery is not enticing!!!!) I am totally open to GLP-1 /GIP drugs if I do regain a lot. Just different tools. Also open to a revision if necessary - as I said I kind of chose the sleeve on those grounds.

I had gastric bypass surgery and did everything alone. I live alone, no husband, no kids, no local family, and I didn't tell anyone other than healthcare providers that I was having surgery. I took a taxi to the hospital. Hospital policy does not allow taking taxis/rideshare or public transportation home, so I hired a home healthcare service to pick me up from the hospital (I was in for one night), take me home, and pick up my prescriptions. After that, I had no additional assistance. The most limiting thing after surgery was not lifting more than 20 pounds for (I think) the first 6 weeks, and also not bending over, like when cleaning or doing laundry, so I had to be careful with household chores, but other than that, I didn't have any problems. I went back to work (desk job) after a week and I was fine. I will say I had a very easy recovery with no immediate complications, but you won't know how your recovery will go until you get there. I would recommend to anyone without support to have a backup plan. Is there a friend or family member who could come if needed? Could you hire a home healthcare service if you needed help? Also, if there is any physical labor your normally do, like cleaning or landscaping, consider lining up someone to do that for a while.

I just had a check up with my surgeon and he told me the weight loss slows down at the 6 month mark, then at 12 months and then usually stalls around 18 months post op. I’m 8 months post up and I have definitely noticed the weight loss has slowed to 3kg (6lbs) a month. But i also noticed it’s motivated me in my choices: I’m so much more mindful in the sense that i catch myself choosing entirely willingly to eat more protein for example or to just say no to that Christmas chocolate someone’s offering - and knowing my weight loss is slower means I am even more conscious of the impact of « bad decisions » so it’s actually kind of a good thing. Almost like preparing for the future I guess But anyways yes it’s normal to see the loss slow down but put a positive spin on it My surgeon actually told me there’s and « anorexiogenic » side to WLS that can be dangerous - kinda like being addicted to seeing that number go down. So he prônes putting the scale away and weighing in once a month from 6 months post op onwards to make sure we don’t mess with our mental health

Not to make you jealous or anything @AmberFL but I went to the gym today 🤣 I was really looking forward to it after not having been for 2.5 weeks due to Christmas holidays so I can understand the frustration. It is worth it to be patient and take care of your new assets.

I enjoyed my Thanksgiving food a bit too much lol, but December is a reset and I am getting my boobies done in 28days! so I am doing a lower carb and amping up my workouts since I will be down and out for a few weeks. So my win was meal prepping, having everything that I needed to be successful this week!

Hi ladies. How's everyone doing? Share updates and losses and NSV x I've been doing very well. I'm 83kg and almost 7 months post op (well in a week) 26kg loss and my surgical team are happy and proud. I look fantastic and feel it. We are currently fasting (holy month of ramadhan) so I've been focusing on dehydrating more than food as doctors are more concerned about dehydration then starvation haha which is unlikely teehee but I've been doing well especially after getting a fancy stanley 😄

I'm only two weeks post op and it doesn't hurt to eat unless you eat too much. I've learned pretty quickly what "too much" is so it's not painful to eat. Just eat slowly and your restriction will stop you from.being in pain. My mother had bypass in 2008 back whe it was standard to do an open procedure. She was able to eat almost anything and she wasn't in pain when she ate 15 years later. If they are 3+ years post op and still in pain when eating, they are probably either not eating correctly or they should speak to their surgical team.

I'm still evaluating my options (Keep dieting with my RD exericing with my trainer and Zepboundng, Endoscopic Gastroplasty, SG, RNY). I've met with two different medical teams, and my RD. I'm in one surgical in take program. Nevertheless, while I continue to research procedures, I wanted to ask about something that I won't be in any study. Is going through a bariatric procedure something people can do w/o support or consistent support. I have to plan to be on my own. How fragile are people after these procedures? How much help do people typically need? Can these procedures be done completely alone aftercare? Alone as in no one is available to help. Is it safe to be alone days weeks after the procedures?

I wish it were that simple, but it's not. We have to keep in mind that our weight is made up of a lot more than just fat. There are multiple body composition models used, but the one I recommend most people use when trying to lose fat is a 3 compartment model that consists of the following: Fat Muscle Bone I recommend this one since it's easy for most people to visualise those 3 components. Keep in mind however that roughly 70-75% of muscle mass is water. Why is that important? Because sometimes we can be fooled by the scale into thinking we're not losing fat, or that we're gaining fat when we're not. Most likely, what you're seeing is simply changes in water weight. A really common scenario is for people on low calorie diets (like most people here), to see a plateau and think that means they need exercise more and/or eat less, but when they do that, they actually gain a bit according to the scale. The reality is they didn't gain fat, they retained more water. I think it's important to keep in mind that we all have something called a Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). This is the minimum number of calories your body needs simply to stay alive. It can be thought of as the number of calories you expend per day even if you were completely sedentary. BMR is a complicated subject, but on average, the bigger you are, the higher your BMR. Yes, it goes down as you lose fat, since fat is not completely metabolically inert, but fat loss does not have nearly the effect on BMR that losing muscle does. This is one of the main reasons bariatric patients are told to focus on protein intake because protein is needed to help prevent excessive muscle loss when dieting. More muscle = higher BMR = faster weight loss, or being able to eat more at goal weight The average BMR for women is ~1400 k/cal per day. Higher if you are taller or more muscular, lower if you are shorter and/or have lower muscle mass. Men, for obvious reasons tend to have a higher BMR that's more in the 1700 range. My point in telling you all of the above is that it's highly unlikely that someone eating 900 calories a day needs to eat even less if weight loss has stalled. Frankly, if that is the OP, then I'd actually recommend exactly the opposite: try upping your caloric intake a couple hundred k/cal per day and see what happens. I know it seems counter intuitive, but your body is not a simple machine where the calories in vs. calories out paradigm actually works. Happy to discuss more and provide additional info, but this post is already overly long. Best of luck.

I am 7 months post op and have ben lifting "heavy" for about 3 months now. i am trying to follow a body recomp plan but its been so hard to dial in the right macros, especially when i do loose. I just had a meeting with a dietician who told me i should stick to 1000 calories a day but i am in the gym 2x a day plus i am very active outside the gym as well. im not a competing athlete of course, im still very over weight, but i am pushing my body harder than ever before and i just don't think that my personal trainer or doctors recommendations are correct. one is only thinking about the size of my stomach ( i had bypass) the other is only thinking about the extreme amount of activity. i feel best between 1200 and 1400 cals however my trainer wants me at 2050 and the bariatric dr.'s dietician says 1000. when you were starting out did you eat back the calories burned while exercising to maintain your calorie deficit ? i see so many people saying contradictory things but most haven't had the surgery. id be interested to know what worked for you because your progress is amazing!

Yesterday.....turned out to be a busy day.....and that hadn't been the plans. Was a scheduled day off work.....and zero work was done. I mean, it began as planned.....early morning, coffee mug in hand, world news on TV.....then local news....then made breakfast...eggs & sausage...vitamins.....shower.....clothes on....wallet in pocket....car keys in hand....out the door to run errands. Chaos occurred shortly afterwards. Fun chaos. Happy chaos. @GreenTealael. what you stated before, about compatible core beliefs.....it had been resonating in my noggin. More on that elsewhere.....but allow me to say a heartfelt THANK YOU. At some point after returning home early evening....in between phone calls, texts, family-work-and that fun chaos follow-up.....I remembered it had been 12+ hours since foodz. There were a pair of succulent little fillet mignon cuts in the fridge....and some portabellas, too, Bamsucka!!! Superfast meal came together. Was able to know it down....chewing like a responsible adult and was giving it a good 30 mins before inhaling a bottled water or 6. That steak was seasoned like a freakin salt lick, lol. Gotta slow my roll on sodium. I'd almost made it to that post-meal 30 minute mark before the phone rang.......fun chaos was summoning me back into the frey....and I didn't hesitate to roll wid it. 3 hours sleep.....and here I am...watching news and sipping my morning coffee.....sun is thinking about coming up. I don't know what this last day off work will hold in store.....but I'm packing a protein bar or something just in case.

Nope tea wont make you loose an ounce. A bit off topic, I have never drunk tea, the one cup I remember drinking was after giving birth. It was sweet and wet and I was drained. I saw as a child what tea did to my parents cups, yuck, no thanks. I drank the only other thing available, corporation pop. 1950's english slang for water. Them days, coffee came in liquid form called Camp Coffee. It was made from chickory. One time mother was ill and dad made a meal and used this as gravy browning. {we like brown gravy here} We ate it because it was this or nowt. It was a week till mother worked out what we actually ate. So, after my rambling, I come to the point. Here I am sat in Greece drinking Iced Peach tea like it was going out of fashion. How my tastebuds have changed. This will defo not make me loose weight as it comes with a lump of baklava at this bakery. It would be rude not to.

Huge sympathy on the stall OP. We've all been there and they totally suck. I hope you lose loads on the way out - that's most of our experiences. Rubbish when you're in the middle though.

Hi Bugg. What you are feeling is totally normal. I had similar or kind of similar fears. I was sleeved in 2017. Best decision ever. I lost 40kgs and have maintained with variations of about 5kgs on and off. I had no health complications and feel so healthy. I still drink water in 2-3 swallows only then rest. It is not a big deal and I am used to it now. With the total weight loss, most people lose the most weight in the initial aftermath and you will likely gain some of it back. I maximized the most weight loss I could experience in the initial phase. Last but not least, remember you don’t anyone an explanation about your private health information. People don’t go around explaining their blood pressure, asthma, yeast infection treatments etc. That applies to your bariatric treatment. You share what you fell like sharing with whoever you want to share with. It’s your private health information. Good luck with your treatment.

@Todd_196 how has this week been for you? We are all here to support you. I hope you're on the way to a happier life

Thank you! I'm glad it working and you're right, it's the end goal that matters. 20kg will soon turn to 40kg and so on and so fourth. I think I've dropped a dress size too. I used to wear 30-32 UK and now I'm buying 26-28. Some clothes are tighter than others but that's just clothes for you. I can imagine going from that mentality to mainteance must be tough but you'll get there. You just need to try and get in the habit of not weighing and such like you used to and then it will become the norm. I'm so glad to hear how far you've come, it sounds amazing! As someone who dreads walking 3 minutes, I can only dream of enjoying a walk! And the eyes that watch you is so true, I've always told people (slim friends and my partner) that people stare at you and make comments because you're so huge. They never believe you, but its very true. I've always been the fattest in the room, have yet to meet someone bigger than me! I know the exist, but it's just how it is. Well done on changing your life, here's to a bright future with more mobility and experiences (: We should defo chat more, maybe in DMs or elsewhere if you'd like. Would love to have someone in my life who understands! x