Calories, Calories, Calories Post-Op (My Head is About to Explode :p)

[more2adore]

Also, keep in mind you are MILES ahead of where I was at your stage I didn't hit 150 lost till over a year post VSG So, if you keep at it, you will kick my ass!

Only 39 is actually from my VSG, though.

 

[more2adore]

I'm sure people roll their eyes at me when I tell them I had MAYBE 3 months of honeymoon with the VSG before I had to start hardcore dieting. Cycling diets because after a month or 2, it would stop working. I've never had an easy ride and I'd like to slap (nicely of course lol) those who just glide through WLS as if its an easy ride. omg. SOOOOO HARD!!!!! I worked my ass off with my VSG, finding things that worked for me. Even worse is that the follow up care with my surgeon is DIRE. I saw his team twice in the 4 years post VSG, never him, until I was pre op DS. And post DS, I've seen the team once and him once. Not had my 1 year post op yet, I rang them, went in circles and gave up. So yeah, everything I accomplished was on my own.

It's not easy and you need to breathe and relax. I too used to lurk on the OtHer site looking at people having 600 cals a day living on protein shakes. There is just no way I could live on that. I'd die. Seriously die.

How is the ED treatment coming along? That will help focus on things than need to be focused on before you head down the VSG and dieting route as without coping skills, it can be quite triggering. If I said I never had a binge post VSG I'd be a damn liar, but I never gave up and kept going forward with 2lbs here and 5lbs there.

Having the DS in 2 parts, for me, has been a blessing. I know others see it as a disservice, but I look around at people who started out at my weight and had it all in one go....well. I'm doing better The mental stuff of someone over 600lbs in quite different than those at 400lbs or lower. This is your chance to learn everything you can absorb about nutrition and human biology and ED behavioural patterns. (If you find articles you need access to let me know. I have full access to Journals and research)

You can do this, but you need to learn not to compare yourself to normal sized people. I went into the VSG hoping I wouldn't need the second stage, but it quickly became apparent that if I wanted to lose a lot more weight, I would need it.

I'm thankful every day I had my DS in 2 stages. There are people who were 150 less than me that had it in one stage who have not been as successful as me, so having it in 2 stages does not predestine you to failure or hardship.

Keep moving forward

Fortunately the two years of ED therapy I had before I went into this has been super helpful. I haven't binged or even had the urge to. I've had "head cravings" but have been able to ignore them because I wasn't actually hungry. The therapist I just started with seems good, though I've only seen her twice so far. She has talked me into only weighing once a week, though, starting tomorrow, so she's accomplished something already (if I can actually do it, that is. Heh.)

If I knew for sure that sticking to 600 calories would start my weight loss again, I COULD do it. I don't know if I could do it long-term, but maybe? Right now I'm in "whatever it takes" mode. Having an 18 month window gives me a finite deadline and I'm in kick-ass-and-take-names mode. At least, I want to be kicking ass! I'm just at a loss as to how and getting very frustrated by it.

I'm not really comparing myself to normal size people, but I keep reading that the heavier you are the faster you lose, so seeing that so many people in the community are losing faster with much lower starting weights has been additionally frustrating as it's supposed to be the other way around.

 

[more2adore]

Well first of all, the starvation mode is very real, documented, evidence based, etc. There will always be some idiot who will disagree with every element of science, whether it's this or climate change or whatever. And there is plenty of ignorance in the bariatric surgery community and on certain websites. You know better, I'm sure.
I agree with Robs about the protein. since you absorb protein properly with a VSG you don't need so much. I would also recommend keeping a food log if you aren't already, not because it will help you lose weight but because it's something you can show your surgeon, if needed, to help support your claim that you really are doing everything right.
I think part of your slow weight loss might be that you did lose a fair amount of weight pre-op. So any phase of "rapid" weight loss just from restriction, which is what you get with a VSG, is already behind you. You are not going to have an easy go of it with your vsg, but the slow weight loss will eventually add up.

Thanks, Larra. Wish I had seen you'd posted about protein, too, before I responded to Robs. How could too much protein impact weight loss? I mean, I would be GLAD to give up a scoop of protein shake a day - very easily done. But I look at what recommended protein amounts are for someone my size and I'm not even getting half of that.

I use MFP religiously, so logging isn't an issue, fortunately.

The idea that I've already gotten all the rapid weight loss I'm going to get out of the VSG in less than two months (adding up to less than 40 pounds) is honestly VERY depressing. It honestly makes me wonder what the point even was.

 

[more2adore]

I went back and looked at some of my food logs from my first several months post VSG and I was mostly between 600-800 calories per day. Lots of days I didn't even hit 600 cause I just wasn't hungry.
Those were my docs guidelines...between 600-800 calories, 60-80 grams protein. Their recommendation was to keep carbs under 50-60 but that was too many for me. I kept mine at 25 or less.
I did very well and lost 120 lbs.

I don't have any advice..just sharing what I did 5 yrs ago when I had mine.
Are you feeling satisfied on the amount you've been taking in?

Thanks, star. Yeah, I definitely have been feeling satisfied. Not hungry at all.

 

[more2adore]

Define super slow loss.

I lost rapidly for 12 days post-surgery. Then I stalled for over two weeks. Then I lost for 6 days, and now I've been stalled (moving up and down in the same 5 pound range) for 3 weeks. My stall weeks are WAY outnumbering weeks where I'm actually losing. I wasn't TOO concerned about this until my endocrinologist started expressing concern that my weight loss was way too slow as well. I've lost 39 pounds in two months post surgery, but 25 pounds of it were in the first 12 days, and I haven't lost anything for 3 weeks now.

 

[more2adore]

I may be crazy and I'm definitely not a medical professional, but I'm absolutely a superabsorber (or was before DS). I can say that I lost most dieting when I would vary the diet to trick my body into thinking it wasn't starving. Higher calories and carbs one day, low the next, mixing things up worked much better than following a fixed low calorie routine which would always kick it into absorb-even-more starvation mode. Maybe try to mix it up a bit for a couple of days and see if the metabolism kicks into a different mode? In any case, thinking of you and wishing for good things!

Thanks a bunch, hil. I'm thinking that's what I'm definitely going to have to do.

 

[robs477]

I really appreciate the response, Rob.

Re: The protein, are you aware that the amount of protein "normies" require is supposedly based on body size?.

Of course I know that. I just wanted to convey to you the only thing that (BARELY), worked for ME to even lose at all when I was pre-op. It’s my hope, that because you are younger, your metabolism isn’t quite as crashed as mine was, so, again, you have to keep changing and tweaking until you find something that works for you.

"Changing" it up so to speak, as Hilary said, i.e., have a high carb day, low or no carb day, mixing it up....that absolutely works for me POST DS, but only made me gain weight pre-DS.

That is not a new theory, and works for a lot of folks and most professional trainers actually recommend just doing that. The theory being that it keeps your metabolism OFF BALANCE and from developing memory patterns.

 

[more2adore]

I wish my metabolism weren't as bad! I was started on my first diet at 2 years old, then endured being starved until a doctor said something, then fed crap food until I gained it all back plus some, then starved again, over and over again, through my entire childhood. My metabolism has been hopeless for a very long time.

 

[star0210]

I just wanted to chime in again and give you a big cyber hug.
I can feel your frustration and I understand it and the confusion.
Yeah where I am today trying to figure out what my body wants/needs to lose is different from where you are, but the feeling of that frustration is the same.
I am sure you're not done losing and I don't believe your rapid loss window has ended...I think you just have to figure out what your body wants. (Rapid is a relative term also)
I do believe your slower loss does have a lot to do with how much you lost before the surgery. But slower doesn't mean none.
Hang in there!

 

[Elizabeth N.]

I lost rapidly for 12 days post-surgery. Then I stalled for over two weeks. Then I lost for 6 days, and now I've been stalled (moving up and down in the same 5 pound range) for 3 weeks. My stall weeks are WAY outnumbering weeks where I'm actually losing. I wasn't TOO concerned about this until my endocrinologist started expressing concern that my weight loss was way too slow as well. I've lost 39 pounds in two months post surgery, but 25 pounds of it were in the first 12 days, and I haven't lost anything for 3 weeks now.

Hmmmm, okay, I agree, that is indeed pretty minimal loss thus far. What do you have to accomplish in order to get your DS completed?

 

[more2adore]

Thanks @star0210, I can use those hugs a lot! *Hugs*

@Elizabeth N. Really glad someone else sees it, too. That alone makes me feel somewhat better. He won't do the DS on me until we are finished having kids. So there's no telling how long it will be until I can actually have the DS.

 

[DianaCox]

Plenty of DSers have had perfectly normal and safe pregnancies. Better than they would have been if the woman had been heavier.

 

[more2adore]

I agree, Diana, and I tried arguing that, but he said patients have too hard a time maintaining vitamin levels to be able to safely support a pregnancy. I don't agree, but I wasn't about to get into an argument with the only vetted DS cutter in the country. I'm going to need his skills.

 

[robs477]

I realize that all the pregnant talk stuff is a girl thingy, but…..I care too, and…as I’ve been reminded of on numerous threads…I’m one of the girls too , so….here is what I would do……..LIE!!!!

I just had to LIE my ass off numerous times to get my Wife in for emergency medical treatment and that taught this ole dog a VERY valuable lesson..

1) What your intentions are and what you really intend to do with your life is none of their (Doctors), GD business because they don’t really give a flyin F*# (most not all) anyway! They just don’t want to be sued, so you have to LIE and tell them what they want to hear.

2) You and only you get to decide what to do with your life and your health, NOT them.

The sooner you can get the DS, the better. Knowing what I know now about the medical community, I would tell my Dr. whatever he needs to hear to make that happen.

 

[more2adore]

I don't like lying to doctors (can have pretty dangerous consequences), and it's too late for that, anyway, Rob. He asked at our first appointment with him if we intended to have kids, and we told him yes, that that was part of the reason we were pursuing weight loss surgery for me. Even if we had fibbed and said we didn't want kids, we're newlyweds and in our late thirties - he might have still been concerned we might change our minds. Who knows. There's nothing I could tell him at this point that would change his mind and make him give me the DS right now. If we could afford to go out of Australia to make this happen with another surgeon, we would - but that's very much NOT something we can afford at the moment or for the immediate future.