This is going to be long so if you don’t care about the story part, skip to the bottom for the numbers.

I never thought I would be here, post-op from WLS surgery, especially a surgery that removed most of my stomach but here I am, and I am thrilled to be here.

I grew up in a healthy, athletic family, really athletic, at the Professional level. We had healthy food and some not so healthy comfort food, but always real food in the house. I was always athletic, but slightly overweight growing up. Then in college, I started to yo-yo. My weight would change between 20 and 40 pounds. Then I had a baby, BOOM. I gained 70 pounds with the pregnancy and never lost it. I started working with Tech Startups in the dot com era and we had all the perks. Free food, free alcohol, all day every day. I moved up the ladder and with all the five star hotels came high calorie free meals. Extensive business travel meant eating out 5-6 days a week 3 times a day. On the days at home the eating out continued because I was so exhausted from the work week.

I was healthy with low to normal blood pressure and not diabetic most of this time. I was a healthy fat person for a long time until I wasn’t. I was active. I exercised, I could walk circles around even my thin friends in a mall. Then 10 years ago, diabetes. It was easily managed with pills and diet, so it didn’t create drastic changes. I never took it very seriously because I was never really extreme in my high sugars. Then about 4 years ago it seemed like things took a turn, I could never lose more than 20 or 30 pounds. My ability to exercise and be active seemed to diminish. Carrying all that weight was finally catching up to me and my body was breaking down and suffering. Then last year, high blood pressure came. After taking high blood pressure meds for 2 weeks that made me sleepy and made it almost impossible to run my business. I decided to have WLS.

I had researched and looked at WLS for years. I read WLS forums and talked to people, but always talked myself out of it. I finally decided that even if I died on the table that was better than dying slowly. So I knew I was ready. I went through the process very quickly. Almost not trusting myself to drag it out and I felt a real necessity to get the weight off quickly. I went from my first visit with the surgeon to surgery in 8 weeks. BCBSIL was wonderful and the whole process was fast and easy for insurance approval.

Another deciding factor that WLS would work for me, was because the post-op diet was something I was already familiar with. Low carbing? Sign me up. I had been an avid low carber off and on with varying levels of success for years. I realize now that the reason I was never successful was I gave up in stalls, but with the sleeve there is no giving up during a stall. I have always enjoyed low carbing because for me it makes my mind sharper, it is like doing coke or Adderall (no, I have never done either but I have been told the experience in great detail multiple times from multiple people). I have never viewed it as a punishment but a perk.

My issue prior to surgery has always been portion control. I skipped meals, focused on work and then would be ravenously hungry, and consume a whole days plus worth of calories all at once, or maybe in 2 meals. Even low carbing and eating healthy I would eat huge amounts. A 12 to 16 ounce ribeye is 900-1300 calories.

I was lucky to have an uneventful, rapid and easy recovery. I had very little pain, went back to work as soon as I came home (I work for myself), and stopped taking the pain meds within 36 hours of surgery. I met my Protein goals after the 2^nd day. I eat all of the foods I enjoy, just in small quantities. I was lucky in the sense I never ate or liked a lot of the things that people have issues with giving up post-op. So I don’t have issues with avoiding them. I gave up sugar years ago to try and control my diabetes. I gave up alcohol for the same reason. I was already years out from either of these things when I had surgery so I didn’t have to give them up post-op.

Okay that is by backstory and how I got to the point surgery and why I felt it would work for me. This is where I am now.

Numbers

The weight I have on here is the weight when I first went to the Dr. It is not my actual highest weight.

HW 377

SW 358

CW 231

Total weight lost 146, 134 since first surgeon visit, and 127 since surgery.

Inches lost

Measurements in Inches

Bust (fullest part of bust):

20

Pecs (just above the bust line):

15

Ribs (top of rib cage just below the bust) :

21

Waist:

25.5

Abdomen:

22

Hips:

17

Right Upper Thigh:

8.5

Right Lower Thigh:

9.5

Left Upper Thigh:

8

Left Lower Thigh:

10.5

Right Calf:

2

Left Calf:

2.25

Right Upper Arm:

6

Left Upper Arm:

5.5

Total 172.75

I wore a tight size US Womens size 28 plus and a comfortable size US Womens size 30 plus. Now I wear a Misses 14/16 I am almost to a 12.

I have boundless energy to match my personality. I am so active in my everyday life in big and small ways. I don’t hurt all over anymore at the end of the day like I did before. I thought that was natural, because I had been so heavy for so long, I didn’t think there was a different way to feel, I thought that was norm. Now I know the difference. I feel like I have taken 20 years off my age.

So that is my story, if you read it all, thanks. I hope it can help someone. Obviously I am still not done. I need to lose at least another 50 pounds and once I get there I am going to evaluate and see if I want to lose another 20 or 30. I never thought that would be an option, to get my weight that low, but I think now it is a possibility.

Edited July 11, 201610 yr by OutsideMatchInside

I loved reading your story from start to finish. I see your wisdom in response to other posts and always take mental notes as they make perfect sense to me. I have not had surgery yet as I'm still saving up for self pay. Thank you for always encouraging us to get the mental health needed for this journey to make it a lifelong success. Xoxo

Today I am 24 month, 2 years post-op. I just went back today to read what I posed a year ago. At that time I was super happy with my weight loss at the time. 4 months later I was not as thrilled with my weight loss. I was fairly miserable and in the middle of a complete identity crisis. Now 8 months later I feel a lot better about everything.
At this point I am pretty scared about long term success because there is so little support for long term “successful” WLS patients. If you are regaining or never reached goal that is a lot of support but if you are “successful”, it is mostly a pat on the head and “keep doing what you are doing”.
The change from being super morbidly obese to being a “normal” size and under 200 pounds has been very mentally taxing. Like I said there is little support for it. There is little support in the bariatric community because most people never do it and there is virtually no support outside of it because it is a real rarity. I spent a lot of time and money trying to find a therapist that could help and there are basically zero with any experience, so I was left on my own to find my own plan to work it. Which luckily I was able to do. Everyone, even medical professionals (perhaps especially medical professionals) seem to think losing weight solves all your problems and that is really not the case at all. Losing created all kinds of new problems for me that I never even knew existed.
Weight at 1 year post-op 231
Weight at 2 years post-op 186
If I was just going by the scale as a measurement, I would be disappointed right now because I have only lost 45 pounds in the past year and I wanted to be down 50 by now. I stopped eating for weight loss about 5 months ago, and while I am not necessarily trying to eat for maintenance, I am not eating to lose either. In that time period I have still managed to lose 10 pounds. The goal right now is to lose another 15 pounds total over the next year, and hopefully lose another 5 pounds before the end of the year. I could lose it faster if I tried but it is better for my mental health to stay weight stable.
Physically I am already at a size I like. 8/10 is pretty perfect for my height/frame. I am pretty sure with skin removal I will be a 4/6. I have lost a lot of inches, and more interestingly my body shape has changed and adjusted a lot. I have a 34 band and I don’t even think my band size was that small in HS. I can’t ever recall buying anything with a 34 band, so that a huge shock, NSV for me.
Last fall I really wanted skin removal surgery very badly. Now I see that would have been a tremendous mistake. The surgeries I would have picked last year and the results would have been lackluster. I definitely see the advantage of waiting for plastic surgery. Your skin, fat, body distribution changes. The body is amazing thing and watch it repair and rebuild itself is amazing to witness.
I always took a lot of pictures of myself. I have never been camera shy even at my heaviest. Now I take multiple pictures a day as a way to become accustomed to how I look. Pictures and my clothing sizes are my size validation. My face is so different now, the shape is totally different. It has gone from round to square, which requires different makeup application and accessories.

Inch loss
I have lost 65.5 inches total since last year

	Difference
Bust (fullest part of bust):	6
Pecs (just above the bust line):	4
Ribs (top of rib cage just below the bust) :	5.5
Waist:	10
Abdomen:	5
Hips:	8
Right Upper Thigh:	4
Right Lower Thigh:	4
Left Upper Thigh:	4
Left Lower Thigh:	4
Right Calf:	2.5
Left Calf:	2.5
Right Upper Arm:	3
Left Upper Arm:	3
Totals	65.5

I have so many NSV almost daily it is impossible to list them all. I appreciate the wonder and amazement of what I can do now. In some ways I look forward to when this is more normalized but I kind of hope it never is so I don’t forget. I love my new sports car, I worked hard for it, and I look great in it. I would have never been able to fit in it comfortably before or get in and out of easily. My lap dog really enjoys my lap now that I really have one. I can fit anywhere and shop anywhere.

My total losses
HW 377
SW 358
CW 186
Size 28/30 at Surgery
Currently 8/10

Thank you for following up and sharing more about your story! I've been aiming for keto eating as I believe that will be best for me for the long haul.

I'd love to hear more about what is mentally taxing about no longer being morbidly obese. I understand what you said in another post about being in a constant state of flux which is exhausting. And not being able to find a good therapist is frustrating. What are some of the other new problems you've encountered at normal size?

Maybe you can post a picture sometime so we can see what this kind of success looks like!

All the best.