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Oh yea. Well I never did like to shower on the cold winter days because my wet hair makes me cold afterwards but they are usually only a handful of really cold days abs then we have a warm day after. This year I don’t have as much insulation or hair for this freakishly cold winter. The hair thing works out for after the shower but your head does get cold even inside at like 69 without hair it’s weird. I used to always be hot and 69 felt good but not this year. I lost 85 pounds and all my hair and of course it’s would be our coldest winter in 20 years. Triple whammy. 😂. I guess at least in the summer I won’t be so hot 🤷‍♀️ i am definitely gonna talk to my hubby about converting our guest room into an exercise room. We haven’t had anyone over in years and I really would like to get a normal sized treadmill the one I have works for space but not for my clumbsy nature. I could get some shallow shelves and keep all the weights and yoga mats and all that in there too.

Hi guys, I had my Sleeve 9 days ago, and am averaging 430 cals per day. Trying to get my 2 litres of water, but mostly 1.5 or so. Still on liquid diet, having one shake in the morning and 2 x 125ml (half cup) serves of home made soup with protein powder for lunch/dinner. At first the weight was falling off at .5kg (1lb) or more a day. but the last 3 days it hasn't dropped, in fact this morning it was 200 gm (half lb) up. Not panicking, I know that there will be stalls, but I didn't think at this early stage 🥲 I also know I probs shouldn't weigh everyday, but I *have* to 😝 Today I thought I might try to up the cal intake a bit and get a bit more steps in. Anyone else have this so early?

Thank you 🙏🏻 my gastroenterology appointment is in three weeks so I am going to start there and I look forward to figuring it out because it’s not fun I have talked to a few doctors on the scope of my PCP…. One has seen complications/odd symptoms in long term gastric bypass patients. When I say complications, I mean digestive complications because there are plenty of people who don’t have enough nutrient, etc., and have issues that are beyond that. I pretty much covered all of those in my first 10 years when I really didn’t know how to take care of myself from a nutrient standpoint and vitamins. I do think it could be a parasite, or potentially a combo of diverticulitis and acid reflux. Most of the potential diagnoses have weight loss associated with them, and that is definitely not the case unfortunately lol. Yes, I would love to press the fix me button, but I know I have to do the work on this

I didn’t have significant issues immediately after the surgery. I know a lot of people experience, dumping, nausea, and vomiting. I had one experience of vomiting, and it was simply because I made a bad choice to drink a drink that had too much sugar in it. I really had, other than the inability to eat big portions, no issues at all. Since that was what I was going for to begin with I was pretty happy and felt very fortunate. I followed what I now know to be a pretty typical less fiber, diet as the lettuce and other things seem to not do well. But vegetables that were cooked were fine. About three years ago, I started to experience extreme, explosive diarrhea - at first I thought it was random… Maybe I was sick, or I had eaten something bad. At that point, the occurrences were about a month apart. As this started to occur more often, I started eliminating things from my diet. Last summer, it was every day. I also had cramping and it would continue until my bowel was empty. At that point out of complete necessity I changed everything I wrote down what my habits were, anything that was consistent that I was consuming. I started systematically removing. I had stopped drinking diet sodas about five years ago, and it never occurred to me that artificial sugar could play a role in this however, I did find out that as I added, sugar-free vanilla to my coffee each day, that was playing a huge role. As soon as I started drinking, just black coffee I felt some relief. I thought that maybe I found the solution. It went from every day to every other day basically. So I started cutting more things out. And then I started having more symptoms. My stomach hurt when I ate. It felt like my esophagus hurt. I started having food come back up. I had to eliminate anything with oil in it. Almost everything I enjoy eating in anyway is off the list. Which is fine, I’m 63. I don’t need to enjoy my meals, exactly. However, it makes selecting food very difficult, especially as I travel a lot. I’ve now started adding gas, more cramping, and the symptoms are better one day worse than next. as to what my team says, lol… My gastroenterology appointment is next month. I have been waiting four months for that appointment. My blood work is perfect better than it’s ever been. I’ve had an ultrasound on my abdomen. Everything is fine except for my gallbladder has some sludge in it. I am well aware that my gallbladder perhaps is part of the problem. However, my PCP thinks that I should just lose weight and my gallbladder will be OK. With that, I can’t lose weight. I’ve actually gained during this whole time. Which seems almost impossible as I spend a tremendous amount of time eliminating everything I eatalmost immediately. The other amazing part of this is I feel great other than the diarrhea/other stuff. I go to the gym, I travel every week for work, I am in different environments with different schedules and somehow I have been able to work around my situation. I have had to cut out longer flights, which has made me really sad because I’ve missed several opportunities to go places I’ve wanted to go, but the risk of not being able to being in a bathroom for a half hour is too high. my current list of what I can eat with no issue is toast, sharp cheddar cheese, cooked green beans, chicken noodle soup, and Parmesan cheese crisps. It’s not a diet that anyone really wants to live on lol. Nor is it actually possible to live on.

I'm about the same amount of time since my bypass. I don't recall having an intollerance to almost all foods for extended periods. But for a few days or a week, sure. I don't think you should rule out the experience of anyone based on years post-op because there are people here that know more about weight loss surgeries than you and I. Heck, they give many surgeons a run for their money. Some of us research the stuffing out of weight loss surgeries before we even see a surgeon. Could you fill us in on what's going on? How does your intollerance work? Does it prevent you from swallowing, or does your food come back up? How long after eating? Anything else change during this period? Your previous issues could also provide insight into your current issues. Also, what does your medical team say? Tons of knowledge and experience is on the edge of their seats waiting to help. Tek

Just to echo what @SpartanMaker has said in developing a habit - I only started going to the gym a few months back, after pressuring and guilting myself into not going to the gym since the start of my weight loss journey. I just started with going once a week, doing a short full-body workout, and then from there I sort of just fell into it once I realised my body was capable, and I wasn't in pain with it! I think my brain was putting it off so much because I was relating it back to my experiences with exercise when I was 100+ lbs heavier! Needless to say, it was painful and I hated it. Just take baby steps, and find what works for you, even just a short walk to clear your head (which may help with the mental health too), and go from there. Wishing you all the best ❤️ You have smashed it so far, you will smash this too!

@SpartanMaker situational depression sounds about right. I've never had depression, so what you said makes sense. Thank you so much for what you said, and for the tips. @BlondePatriotInCDA and @NickelChip, thank you so much for your posts. It helps knowing others feel this way and I'm not going crazy lol I knew posting here would help. When I tried to explain this to people in real life, they always say "what are you bummed about, you lost all the weight, you look great, and your career is on track. Why be upset about the funding? Just go along to get along." And it's SO frustrating. I want to move up in my career SO BAD and I hate that funding is stopping me. I want to tone up and build up my lean muscle, but it's frustrating that feeling upset about my inability to move forward professionally is potentially stopping me from caring about doing what I need to do healthwise. UGH.....

It probably depends a lot on what your normal diet looks like. If, for example, you normally drink protein shakes and want to continue having those, then you could take protein powder that you mix with water or milk. Honestly though, if this is just a week or two, why worry about it? I'd say go have fun and eat whatever you want on the cruise. If when you get back home you find your weight has creeped up, just reduce your intake a bit for a while until you get back to your current weight (assuming you like being at your current weight).

If there have only been a few reports of patients experiencing this, then that is far below the level that would normally raise any concerns. Coincidences not causality? Worth tracking, of course, but it doesn’t raise any alarm bells for me. And, of course, a high number of those of us who struggle with their weight are likely already going to have other issues around self-esteem etc. Some may be more prone to negative emotions.

@SpartanMaker I am not wanting to lose weight really, I am at maintenance however since I got PS surgery I am on the higher end of my maintenance and I would really like to get down to 160-165 as opposed to 165-170. I know not much of a difference especially with my height and build but in my head it makes me feel better. LOL When I was working out (which I will get back into hopefully soon) I was eating anywhere from 2200-2400 calories and staying in that 160-165 number, now I am eating anywhere from 1700-2000 and I am on the 165-170 end. I have to assume that my lack of working out is keeping me where I am at. Which I do want to recomp, I want to get a 360 body lift but want to see how lean I could get before making that decision. I may just want to save the money and pain if I look decent enough LOL For reference yesterday my day was 1961 calories, 185g carbs, 175g protein, 72g fat, 34g fiber. If I was working out and burning 700-800 calories like I was then this is great I would stay at the lower end of my maintenance. But what I am gathering I should be focusing more on the carbs, protein and fat as opposed to calories?

What struck me here is not really the macros and much as how different the calories are. The thing is, no calculator is going to tell you what the calorie count should be. My suggestion would be to simply track your existing calories for 1-2 weeks to see where you're at now. I assume your looking to maintain based on the fact you are showing to be at goal. If that's not accurate, then we might need to make some adjustments to what I'm about to propose. At this point, you can completely ignore anything a calculator spits out in terms of calories since by tracking your calories at your current weight, you know exactly where YOU need to be to maintain. Let's say for the sake of making the math easy, you determine that 2000 calories is working for you at maintenance. Skip the calculators and do this: Protein should be somewhere between 1 and 2 grams per kg. If you are inactive, 1 gram is probably minimally sufficient, but if you are very active or shooting for body recomposition, then you need to be closer to 2 grams per kg. 1.5 to 1.6 g/kg might be a good target if you are working out, but not super active, or are not really trying to add any muscle. The next thing to determine is grams of fat. If you are just maintaining, anywhere between 1 and around 1.5 g per kg is probably fine. If you are actively trying to lose or recomp, it would be better to be closer to 0.7 g per kg. Carbs is next and really will just be the rest of your calories, vs. a specific number of grams. Here's how that looks in practice: Again, just to beep the math simple, I'm going to stick with 2000 calories at your current weight of 170lbs, which translates to about 77kg. If your goal is body recomp, then 2g/kg should be your target protein, which equates to 154g per day. 154g at 4 calories per g equals 616 grams from protein per day. Fats when doing a "recomp" would be 77 x 0.7 = 54 grams of fat. 54 grams of fat at 9 calories per gram would be 486 calories from fat If we subtract 616 and 486 from 2000, we'd get 898 calories from carbs. This would be roughly 225 grams of carbs per day. A few notes: This is all based on research, but I also am not "carbophobic". My personal experience is that sufficient carbs are needed to fuel workouts. Some people have success with fewer carbs and more fat. I have no problem with that approach if it work for you. If so, feel free to adjust fat up and carbs down. Either way, the protein is the key, since you'll need that to build muscle. If recomp is not your goal, feel free to run the numbers with lower protein and correspondingly higher fat and carb numbers. Don't go lower than 0.7 g of fat per kg. You need a minimum level of essential fatty acids to stay healthy. In terms of how to change this if you are working out more than you are today, it really comes down to both the types of workouts (endurance sports virtually demand more carbs), but also how vigorous your workouts are. If you are trying to lose weight, I would recommend eating back at least half your calories from your workouts. Any less and you're likely to feel too rundown to put the proper effort into the workouts. If you just skate through workouts, then you lose a lot of the benefit of them. If you are trying to maintain or recomp, then you really should eat back all the calories from your workouts.

I had a sleeve in 2022 and had a revision to bypass in 2023 due to complications. I had little to no pain, I was up and moving around with ease, I've really had a great experience. And I've lost quite a bit of weight with the revision, even though that wasn't why I got the surgery to begin with. I have ZERO regrets.

Congratulations, its the best feeling. Its also a weight I never want to go back over. Onederland for ever !

i actually thought i was in menopause at the time of my surgery...i hadn't had a period for almost two years just prior to that. about 2 weeks after surgery, i got a period, omg. and lasted for like 8-10 days. which is weird, cuz when i was regular, my periods lasted 4-5 days tops. and this one was HEAVY. after that, i got my period like clockwork, every 4 weeks, lasting 4-5 days again. guess i wasn't in menopause after all, i was just fat. which sucked (the period part not the fat part) cuz i really hate getting periods. then about 4 years later, i truly went into menopause. and haven't had a regular period since 2022. yay! but yeah, i as i understand it, hormones are stored in some level of fat, so when there is rapid weight/fat loss, your hormones are released back into your body (bloodstream?), and you are effected by it. so if hormones are the cause of your spotting, this could be why. but to be safe, pls have a visit with your doc or gyno. don't mess with reproductive health: if you can catch something early, catch it early. good luck! ❤️

Spartan Maker thanks for the feedback. I am doing my best to increase my physical activity every day. I am weight training with the a trainer 2x a week and I’ve been trying to get in 30-45 minutes of cardio 2-3 times a week to. I do agree I probably need to do my best to up the intensity. I think I’ll start couch to 5k and start jogging. Lately my protein has been variable. I always get 70-80 but I know I would like to get more like 150. On a good day I get 110. My calories have been anywhere from 900-1300 depending on the day and if I work long hours. My hunger is generally fair. I do get hunger cues and what not but it’s not terribly overwhelming. I have been feeling great overall. I would say as far as processed foods the main thing I eat processed is the shakes otherwise I have been trying to eat Whole Foods. I am a nurse and work 12 hour shifts and I do need To do better about getting a little additional physical activity after my shifts. This is a journey but have been blessed with feeling good and generally have good energy.

You are killing it! Your point about calories is really on point as well. I recommend any bariatric surgery patient read up on Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S). The simple explanation is that if you work out a lot, you need to eat more. If you don't, then you are a lot more likely to start having a hard time with things like fatigue, various injuries, getting sick a lot, lack of concentration and depression. At its worst, you can get really sick, leading to heart issues and worse. My personal experience is that women tend to struggle with this more, though anyone can be impacted. Some people here might think it doesn't affect them because they don't consider themselves athletes, but if you are working out multiple days a week, it is a risk, especially considering how hard it can be for us to get more calories in. Over time, you'll hopefully learn where your personal limits are. For example, I've found that right now I can maintain my weight reasonably well up to about 30 miles a week, but beyond that I lose weight whether I want to or not.

Hello everyone. I'm 2 years post-op and was sleeved on 01/06/2023. I'm at goal and have been for awhile. I just wanted to pop in and say that I have no regrets. For the first time in 20 years, I am HEALTHY. Bariatric surgery is just a tool though, you have to follow your plan to see results and you HAVE to work on the "head hunger" because that doesn't go away with surgery. However, if you do your part. You will be pleased with the results. It feels wonderful to be on the "other side" of weight loss and maintaining. Best of luck!

I have always spotted for a few days before my period; I look at it as my warning that its coming. It has calmed down some now, but for the first 3-4 months after surgery, my period was like when I was a teenager again. I had terrible cramps and a heavier flow; apparently there is estrogen in your fat cells and when you start losing weight, it releases the estrogen so it can make your periods worse.

So just wanted to pop in and give you my short experience. I never ran, until 6months ago, I started out with walking outside, then stair master, then walking on incline a little faster to a short jog. I too would jog for 2-3min at a time then walk for a min and continue that pattern for about 15min. Now I can run 3.5miles on my lunch break and it takes me about 30-32min to do so. I started really slow but running really helped with my body composition, my mind is more focused and overall has really helped my moods too. I also lift weights 4 days a week so that has helped. My only thing I noticed with all the working out is that I eat more LOL however when I was only eating 1200-1500 calories I was not building the muscle I wanted, and not looking how I wanted. So if you start eating more remember its the working out and your muscles is burning off all that fast! Now that I am not able to work out how I like due to PS I am slowly dying LOL but soon enough i'll be back to it. Enjoy this journey its so fun!

Sorry, wanted to make one other comment here. Please don't approach your weight loss as something that will inevitably stall short of your goals. Plenty of us make it to goal and below, and have maintained this lower weight successfully. There are two things that will really up your chances here: You need to eat better and move more. If you slowly start making better food choices, you'll find you'll lose weight more steadily and be a lot less likely to regain. By making better food choices, I mean eating less ultra-processed foods and focusing instead on: Protein: High quality legumes Lean dairy Lean meats Carbs: Mostly veggies Some whole grains Some fruit Fats: Try to make this primarily monounsaturated fats This is not to say you can never have a treat, or have to eat only the above, but the more you focus on less processed foods, the better off you'll be. I also recognize that you can't make changes like this overnight. Take your time by just making small changes here and there until they become your new normal. Once those small changes are the new norm for you, it's time to make another small change. Keep at this process of making just small changes and eventually, your diet will be a lot better. In terms of movement, we now have lots of data to show that people that are successful in maintaining after weight loss tend to be very active. Once again, I know you're not going to be running any marathons tomorrow, but you absolutely can start small and focus on doing more and more over time. The CDC recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity per week, which works out to 30 minutes per day for 5 days. They also recommend 2 days of strength training per week. Some data suggests that formerly overweight and obese people need to do even more than this, so my personal recommendation would be to shoot for at least 300 hours of moderate-intensity physical activity or 150 hours of intense physical activity, or some combination of the two per week. If you are over 65, the CDC also recommends you do some sort of regular training to improve balance since this can have a dramatic impact on fall risk. I know that sounds like a lot, but again, if you start slow (even 5 minutes a day 3 days a week), you definitely can get there. For reference, moderate intensity physical activity is walking a brisk pace, or similar activities such as a slow bike ride. Intense physical activity is more like jogging or riding a bike up a hill. If you didn't work up a sweat, it definitely does not count as intense.

I think you have to first understand what these medicines do. They stimulate insulin production. This may or may not be important to you depending on if you are diabetic. They slow gastric emptying, meaning you'll feel full longer They may suppress hunger signals. Interestingly, researchers don't fully understand why all of this occurs. My personal take in your case is that if you are still steadily losing and are not feeling overly hungry yet (most people don't feel a lot of hunger 4 months post op), then I personally don't see the need to use this medication. I doubt it will do a ton, and might even make it hard to get adequate protein intake. If on the other hand, you are already feeling a lot of hunger and are struggling, then these might help. A few other things to think about: For most people in the US, these medicines can be VERY expensive, even if you have good insurance. If you don't have good insurance, then I hope you're independently wealthy because they can be several thousand dollars a month. Most of the pharmaceutical companies that sell these drugs do have some sort of savings card to make them SIGNIFICANTLY more affordable. Keep in mind that most of those are only good for up to one year. That means you could be back to looking at thousands of dollars a month to continue the medication after the savings card runs out. There are companies that are selling compounded versions of many of the GLP-1 agonists and they sell these for a lot less (typically hundreds of dollars a month rather than thousands). Bariatric Pal is even doing this. These companies can do this because the FDA has special rules for drugs in short supply that allows companies to make them to help fill demand. The issue is that you may or may not be getting what you think. See this link for more info: https://www.fda.gov/drugs/postmarket-drug-safety-information-patients-and-providers/fdas-concerns-unapproved-glp-1-drugs-used-weight-loss While some companies are certainly reputable and selling you what they say they are, others just are not. It's a little like the wild west right now when it comes to compounded GLP-1 agonists. There is a percentage of people that don't seem to respond to these medications. It's about 15% for semaglutide and a bit less for some of the others. I mention this since some people get really disappointed when this happens, so it would be good to be aware of this possibility ahead of time. These drugs (like most any drug), can have side effects that make then not worth taking for some people. There's really no way to know ahead of time if you will have this sort of problem. Generally speaking, most people that stop using these medicines tend to gain weight back pretty quickly, since the hunger will kick back in. As such, most doctors and pharmacists recommend staying on these for life. It's best to be prepared for this now, vs. thinking you're going to get away with just taking it temporarily.

Question for you all with experience with going on GLP-1s after surgery. First of all I started out at 325 before I started my pre op diet, Day of surgery i was 315 (Oct 2), Tomorrow I am 4 months post op gastric bypass and I am down to 259.8 (55 since surgery and 65 since the pre op diet)Anyways, I also have a failed attempt with the gastric band back in 2013. Lost 100 lbs only to have complications and gain it back so thats part of my side story. My Dr. recommends GLP-1 starting now because of my high BMI and how much I want to lose after surgery. Personally i would prefer to start this after I’ve lost all the weight I can with diet and exercise and have plateaued. What is your experience with this. I am always wondering if im on track. I would ultimately like to see 160-175 but I guess I wont know until I get there. Any feedback or experiences would be great! Thanks

I think trying to compare yourself to others to determine what's "normal" is a losing game. Plenty of people struggle with various things like fluid intake or nausea early on, but lots of others (like me), had very few issues at all. There really is no normal here. Regarding weight loss, it's only been a week. I'm quite sure you've actually lost some fat in the last week, but you are probably hanging onto some water weight after the surgery. That's quite common. I would suggest that you keep in mind that you're "playing the long game" here. Daily or even weekly variation in your weight are not things to be concerned over. It would be physiologically impossible for someone to eat 600 calories a day and not lose fat. It probably takes more calories than that just to keep your brain alive (much less the rest of you), every single day. If I can give you one piece of advice, try not to stress the process because stress can derail your success really quickly. People sometimes don't realize this, but stress can have a bigger impact on weight loss success than just about anything else. Stress will suppress your metabolism and also cause you to retain fluid, thus even further masking weight loss. I know it's hard, but trust your doctor, trust the process, and follow your post-op diet. It will work, as long as you do what you're supposed to do.

You ready for a long story? 😎 My exercise history is definitely one of extremes. I was very athletic in High School (Secondary School). I played football (American), was on the swim team, and ran track and cross country (not all of those every year). Afterward I spent time in the US Army where running was the norm, so I ran quite a bit. My recollection is that I was running roughly 30 miles a week at that time, so actually a lot more than the minimum required. Unfortunately I was badly injured while I was in the service and was barely able to even walk for a long, long time. Once I mostly recovered from that, I got heavily into powerlifting for almost a decade. I had convinced myself that due to bad knees I shouldn't run anymore, so instead i just focused on the strength training as well as a tiny bit of cardio on the elliptical. Unfortunately, I tore up my back in a workplace accident, so from that point on, no more heavy lifting for me. This was really the beginning of my descent into inactivity and severe weight gain. The heavier I got, the less I was able to even move, until using a cane or walker had become the norm. In addition, during this time I ended up having multiple surgeries, including 5 different shoulder surgeries, multiple knee surgeries culminating in a total knee replacement, and even open heart surgery for a bad heart valve. Fast forward a lot and about 9 months after my bypass surgery, I was walking and backpacking pretty consistently. A bit like you, I decided mostly on a on a whim to just try jogging a bit. It was more to see if I could even do it than anything else. You have to understand with my health history, lots of my doctors would say I shouldn't run. I say I'm going to do whatever I need to do to keep myself healthy because I suspect at some point, I'll need both a revision to the knee replacement and a new heart valve. My ability to survive those surgeries at an advanced age is going to be highly dependent on my overall health. Anyway, back to running. I was so shocked at how well and relatively pain-free the running went, that I decided to start training for a 5k. From there it's just snowballed and I've now done around 20 or so different races between 5ks, 10ks and Half Marathons. I'm not super fast (I am 60 afterall), but I am still pretty competitive in my local races, at least for my age. I'm also lucky that I'm now retired. This means I have the time to train appropriately. I typically run 4 to 5 days a week and average between 25 and 35 miles a week. I'll probably ramp that up in 2025 because I'm targeting a fall marathon and I'd like to be around 50-60 miles a week at peak fitness before the race. At this point running is my passion, but I do still strength train twice a week to keep what strength I do still have. As an aside, I'm strongly considering becoming a Certified Personal Trainer. Not really because I needed the knowledge, or because I expect to work in the industry (I am happily retired after all). My real goal is to help others where I can on their journey to fitness. I feel I can better relate to those that are struggling than a lot of CPTs that have always been fit. I also at least want those I work with to know I do have some knowledge of the subject (even though I've frankly probably forgotten more about training than a lot of CPTs even know). I'm really glad you're going to keep after it. You might surprise yourself in terms of what your capable of!