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African American vsgers!



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I'm confused lol why is there a special forum for African Americans?

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You asked what I was thinking? I'm both black and white. I don't identify with any one race.

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So am I! Yeah not to sure why there's a special forum and I'm not to sure why people get offended when the question is asked

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Because people never pop in the other forums asking why they have forums but some special snowflake with no critical thinking skills or tact always pops up in here asking the same dumb question.

Lmaooooo you seem pretty upset

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Don't feed the trolls! :angry:

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Hey all! Checking in. How's the weight loss going? I'm having a weird issue because I gain muscle so fast the scale has been playing tricks on me. My legs are becoming super define (win) but the scale has me at the exact same weight though my dress size has changed. ☹️

It's been about 14 months since surgery for me. I've lost 65lbs, and went from a size 26 to a 14.

How's everyone else doing?


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*note I've been stalled since December.


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Keep doing what you were doing in the beginning. The scale is a checking point if you are loving what you see don't let the scale mess with ur mind.

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Sleeved Mid Nov and thus far its been 106 lbs loss... My short term goal is to loose at least another 30 lbs or so by mid July so my FB b-day picture can be as diff as night &day from last year... Long term? Yo, I can't think straight after 1-der-Land. I haven't seen 1-der-Land since Middle school & I'm dang near 40yrs old! Can't wait!

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I'm one month out tommorow and have lost 27 pds, went through a three week stall but hopefully I break it soon! 9 more pds and I will too be in 1-Derlandd

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5 hours ago, Afrikanaaa said:

Hey all! Checking in. How's the weight loss going? I'm having a weird issue because I gain muscle so fast the scale has been playing tricks on me. My legs are becoming super define (win) but the scale has me at the exact same weight though my dress size has changed. ☹️

It's been about 14 months since surgery for me. I've lost 65lbs, and went from a size 26 to a 14.

How's everyone else doing?

Don't use the scale as your only source of measuring. As you've said you have gone from a 26 to a 14 (12 inches btw) and you have more definition in your legs and soon the rest of your body. As long as you are feeling great and keep doing what you're doing you'll get to that goal, and be fit and healthy along the way.

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I think keeping track of your body fat percentage and lean mass is the best marker of progress. Which is why I like DEXA scans so much.

I'm doing great. I have been struggling during Lent since I have up meat. Protein Bars have made sick a few times. I am so excited for Easter! Back to all the meats. It has been a great learning experience and I have learned that the way I eat normally really works for me and I can never go Vegan or vegetarian like I had been considering. Too hard to eat right even with seafood included, no meat at all would be impossible. Oh well.

Culturally it is interesting to see how people react to me being so small now. I'm heavy in weight at 188 ish but I wear size 8s and 10, a 9 in juniors. So that is pretty small for a Black woman my age. My RNY associate has commented she would never want to be this small it isn't her ideal, lol, but when she first had surgery all she talked about was onederland then she got a man at 250 pounds and decided that was enough weight lost. Now she is back around 300 and borderline diabetic again. A good lesson about losing as much as you can for health and not just losing enough to meet a physical ideal. I liked being curvier, but I enjoy being healthy.

Just a few more pounds and I will have lost more than I weigh!

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7 minutes ago, GMen88 said:

Happy to see there's a thread for African American VSGers, as I've got questions about hair loss and incision healing and scarring!!

As a male, I experienced a lot of Hair growth. Especially body hair growth, but that is more than likely due to the increased levels of testosterone release within my body's fat cells due to the rapid amount of weight loss I was going through. I heard that its quite different for women though than it is men when it comes to the hair question.

As for my incisions, they've healed up quite nicely. I had 4 incisions with my surgery and I can really only see too of them. They are way smaller than what they use to look like. But I think a lot of that was due to the increase amount of Vitamins I've been taking along with a hair/skin/nail Vitamin I was taking from Walmart of all places.

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As a male, I experienced a lot of hair growth. Especially body Hair growth, but that is more than likely due to the increased levels of testosterone release within my body's fat cells due to the rapid amount of weight loss I was going through. I heard that its quite different for women though than it is men when it comes to the hair question.

As for my incisions, they've healed up quite nicely. I had 4 incisions with my surgery and I can really only see too of them. They are way smaller than what they use to look like. But I think a lot of that was due to the increase amount of Vitamins I've been taking along with a hair/skin/nail Vitamin I was taking from Walmart of all places.


Thanks for that info!! I'll be two weeks post op tomorrow and while I'm a ways from completely healing, I was curious about how my incisions will heal. I have 5 and they are all pretty small besides the one in/above my belly button. There's still glue on my incisions but as soon as that falls off, I plan to use Vitamin E oil on them. In terms of my hair, I'm natural and have ALOT of curly, thick hair. I'm pretty afraid of all of the talk I hear about losing hair but I'm hoping if I keep up with my Water, Protein and Vitamins, I won't have to deal with that particular side effect. Thanks, again!


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Thanks for the encouragement everyone! In it to win it. My goal clothing size is an 8/10 so I'm getting there.

Will definitely look into the DEXA scan.


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Thanks for that info!! I'll be two weeks post op tomorrow and while I'm a ways from completely healing, I was curious about how my incisions will heal. I have 5 and they are all pretty small besides the one in/above my belly button. There's still glue on my incisions but as soon as that falls off, I plan to use Vitamin E oil on them. In terms of my hair, I'm natural and have ALOT of curly, thick hair. I'm pretty afraid of all of the talk I hear about losing hair but I'm hoping if I keep up with my Water, Protein and Vitamins, I won't have to deal with that particular side effect. Thanks, again!




I have 5 incisions too, but at 14 months out only 3 are visible. My suggestion is to avoid getting sun on your scars and rub them for like 10 minutes a night to avoid Keloids. I don't typically keloid but my surgeon saw me a week post op and gave me that advice.

Also. I lost my edges around 4 months. The nape of my head slowly but surely thinned A LOT. And it was weird because at first I thought I was fine but then the front part of my head was super thin. I am really self-conscious about my hair so I wound up doing protective cornrows, putting a wig grip around my head and wearing wigs a while. Around the 10 month mark I started wearing my box braids / weaves again.


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Love wig grip!

My hair thinned out for a long time. Now it's growing like fire. I have found I like wigs more than weave. Easier to be active with wigs you can just take them off, workout and put them back on

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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. LeighaTR

        I hope your surgery on Wednesday goes well. You will be able to do all sorts of new things as you find your new normal after surgery. I don't know this from experience yet, but I am seeing a lot of positive things from people who have had it done. Best of luck!

    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. summerseeker

        Life as a big person had limited my life to what I knew I could manage to do each day. That was eat. I hadn't anything else to look forward to. So my eating choices were the best I could dream up. I planned the cooking in managable lots in my head and filled my day with and around it.

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        I don't know at what point my life expanded, was it when I lost 100 pounds? Was it when I left my walking stick at home ? Was it when I said yes to an outing instead of finding an excuse to stay home ? i look back at my last five years and wonder how loosing weight has made such a difference. Be ready to amaze yourself.

        BTW, the liquid diet sucks, one more day and you are over the worst. You can do it.

    • CaseyP1011

      Officially here for a long time, not just a good time💪
      · 0 replies
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