So I need to clarify that it is not 84 lbs since surgery, it is 35 before the 2 week pre-op Optifast diet, 20 lbs in the two weeks of Optifast, and then 29 in the 6 weeks since the surgery. Either way it is 84 lbs since the end of Feb/beginning of March. I feel great and am about 45-50 lbs from goal at this point, 185 was my HS athletics and military weight (6 ft tall). I keep thinking to myself that I took the easy way out becaue I have worked my butt off in the past to lose weight, and always have, just could never keep it off. Now I am losing with only basic gym time and I never feel hungry.

Although I am only down 4 inches on my jeans, it is deceiving becasue I have always had big muscular legs that carry a lot or weight in them so I tended to be much heavier than I looked. In fact, my family was floored when I was up to 317 at one point, they all thought I was around 250.

Anyway, it is nice to shop for normal clothes instead of being forced to wear the limited options of a 40+ inch waist. Not sure if any of you experienced this but my clothes went from possibly being too small but not looking terrible, to not fitting at all. I dont feel I had a period in there where the stuff fit me correclty.

The little NSVs are awesome, shopping for "normal" clothes, people noticing and actually willing to say something because it is noticable, the complete lack of desire to eat the wrong foods, and the amazing amount of energy I experience now. I am looking forward to participating in the obstacle course 5k races (Warrior Dash, Run For Your Lives, etc....) that my wife has started doing but I am going to be very cautious on that since I have a twice torn ACL (a big contributor to the sedentary life that led me to 317 lbs). I am just excited by the fact that I WANT to do these things. I have that desire now, it is awesome!

No pics yet, just never think to take them, but I will get some in here soon.

Eazye are u on my fitness pal if so friend me so I can see ur food logs my name is conner4ever..thanks

Janette, no, sorry I'm not on it. I'll. Check it out though. And if it looks to be useful I will get it and friend you.

Ok, I am 15 weeks out of surgery and as of today, I'm still losing, But, i'm now down to about 2-3 lbs per week, not the 5-6 lbs like before.... I am not disappointed though since I fully expected the slow down. I am down to 211 lbs from 317 when I started the whole process earlier this year. I could not be happier with the progress, experience, and with how I feel, no doubt! I have had no issues at all and felt geat within 1-2 days after surgery, I am LUCKY I guess.

At 211 I am 26 lbs from my goal of 185, but I have had several people tell me to stop losing because I look fine as I am. I think I mentioned it in the past but I have very thick muscular legs so I can carry extra weight w/o looking like it. Either way, I am just a hair under 6 ft and I am comfortable wearing XL clothes (simetimes a bit too loose) and can wear L in some items if I want it to be a little tighter. Judging by that, I am very happy with where I am already and, again, could not be happier with the surgery and how well it has worked for me.

Oh, something I forgot to mention, I have run into the issue of slow loss but think I know what the cause is. It has been discussed here in the past but I feel I am not eating enough throughout the day to keep my metabolism as high as it was right after surgery. I recently started counting calories and realized I was only taking in about 900-950 calories a day. So, I started eating an extra meal a day starting this week and I dropped 2 lbs quickly. I am trying to take in about 200 calories every 2 hours starting at about 7am and ending by 7pm at night. If I can do this, I will get roughly 1200 calories which seems to be my "sweet spot" for keeping my metabolism really going. I drop down to 1000 or less, I seem to be hindering my weight loss.

So, any of you out a few months and struggling with slower than expected losses, try adding another 200 calorie Protein bar or yogurt, or something to your routine and go for a week or two, you may see your weight loss pace start to pick back up.

So I think it was a lack of enough calories that slowed my weight loss becasue all last week I started ramping up my calorie intake (with healthy calories) and I actually dropped another 2 lbs over the weekend. Im down to 208-209 now which gets me to 109 lbs lost since I started the whole process. I do feel like I am constantly eating but when it is 75-150 calories at a time, you need to constantly eat to get in the 1200 a day.

I am not doing a lot of solid foods, just lots of yogurts, Protein bars, string cheese, etc....but I do at least try to get a solid chicken or turkey meal of some sort in every day. Solids like that fill me up quickly and lasts a lot longer which is expected.... Only 24 lbs to go to goal and ony 3.5 months out, loving the surgery, thats for sure!