Hello all,

First off, I want to thank everyone for the years of great discussion on this forum. I have mostly lurked here for the last few years. I had sleeve surgery 5 years ago and it has been a great experience for me. I am thinking about starting a YouTube channel with lessons learned. I’m putting together a list of topics to make videos on. What are topics that are important for you all? What information do you think is lacking?

I would also like to interview people at various stages of their journey… message me if you would be interested in taking part in that (can keep you anonymous).

Thank you in advance for your thoughts!

I think a sort of "debunking" themed episode would be good....answer questions like "Is this the easy way out?" "Will I gain all the weight back?" (I mean honestly this forum is a gold-mine for myths and misconceptions if you go looking for them).

Something along the lines of "Why am I not allowed to eat xyz yet but my friend who used a different surgeon is?" That seems to come up a lot; the question of can I eat this yet and why/why not?

My biggest piece of advice for YouTube is watch your analytics to see what your audience responds to, try to take a little extra time to make your videos look polished and produced -- especially for a medical topic, you don't want them to appear amateurish. Don't use copyrighted music if you're planning to monetize later. Tutorials are your friend (YouTube taught me everything I know about video editing and cameras!)

I would suggest something about the infamous three-week stall. It seems like there's a post almost every day from someone who's about three weeks out, frantic because they haven't lost any weight in several days. I really wish more clinics would tell patients about this early stall, because it happens to the majority of us, and most people don't know about it ahead of time so they freak out when it happens.

also, something about how the rate of weight loss is dependent on many factors, some of which you have little to no control over, like genetics, how muscular you are, starting BMI, age, gender. And also not to expect to lose 30+ lbs the first month, because that's not common with people unless they're the size of the people on "My 600 lb Life". Just let them know that if they stick to their clinic's plan, the weight WILL come off. Their ultimate success is dependent on how compliant they are, not their rate of weight loss.

I am in the pre op stage and my most important questions were:
1. What is the process in getting approval (of course this is based on your insurance)
2. What to expect after surgery
3. How painful is the surgery (this can differ from person to person)
4. How can a person mentally prepare for this procedure ?

Make sure to come back and let us know the name of your YT channel