getting a lil worried

hi there I cant beleive i am typing this but here goes. Is anyone else here starting to get concerned about when the weight loss will stop? I was a lightweight starting out and had only about a hundred to loose. I am now past that and now getting to the point wehre i am a lil concerned. I am now smaller than before i had kids. I weight what i did when i was 14 or 15 now. Im amost 6 feet tall and havea larger bone structure and size ten feet. I am now a size 10 to 12 which is well skinny for me. People are starting to ask are you planning on loosing more waot. And saying if you get any smaller and turn sideways no one will see you. My family doctor is saying she is going to send me to a nutritionalist cause she is starting to get concerned. I am just over 8 months out and im still loosing like 15 lbs a month. Its been 15 a month since my second month out. First month out was like 25 i think then steadily 13 to 18 lbs a month after that. My plateaus have been a week or two at the most. But ive yet to have a stall or anything that i would even think of calling a real plateau. I dont know if its that im not eating enough or what. My family says i dont eat enough to keep a bird alive. For breakfast i had 1 and a half slices of bacon a glass of milk half peice of toast with cheese on it and half a hard boiled egg and i was stuffed. Dinner was 3 chicken wings and maybe three spoons of mashed potatoes and four peices of cooked carrots. Does the above sound like about what you guys are able to eat or are you able to eat more? I looked up and to keep my current weight id need to eat 2227 calories thats without excersizing. I eat no where near that. I think i may come in at 1000 calories a day. Im literally skin and bone through my shoulders and chest area and hips> The only part that isnt bony is my stoache and i think that all skin there. Soooo i was wondering if anyone else is wonderng the same thing. Anyone else getting a lil worried ? When does it typically slow down? any help apprecitated thanks deborah gale nova scotia canada

Hi Deborah I know exactly how you feel! I actually wrote a concerned e-mail to my doctor in April because since January I had "only" been losing about 8 lbs per month (which I thought was normal) and now suddenly I am losing about 15 lbs per month. The weight is practically falling off. My upper half is getting all boney while my stomach and thighs are all skin The last time I weighed this "little" I was 11 years old. I am not below my doctor's goal (not even near it yet) but I really didn't think that I would lose this much or this fast. Now I wonder where it's going to end I guess that this is a normal reaction for us. Since we have never been so "thin" (at least not as grownups) this is probably just so new to us. At least that is what my doctor told me. He told me to up my protein and try to make it to 1200 calories per day. I am taking in apr 1000 now. I was wondering about something else, have you had trouble with bruising? I have been bruising so much these last few months that I have almost become concerned. I also feel numbness in my butt and my feet when I sit a lot. I have a hard time in my bed as I don't like it when hard surfaces come close to my bones (my back bones or my rib cage). Do any of you have similar problems? Anyway, enough for now Good luck to you all Kolla 304/183/140

yeah i bruise like cray too and moving and renovations to the new place have left me black and blue. I have had numbness in my right thigh since surgery sometimes when i lie in bed and i move a certain way its like i get a stabbing shocking pain in the thigh and it even feels hot.I figured it was nerve damage somehow from surgery its getting better now but it still there sometimes just nt as bad. I am now at my docs goal so this rapid weight loss is getting me a lil nervous. I never had weight on me till i had my three children, as a teen and child myself i was fit as i was a gymnast from five years old till i was 19. Now i weight less than I did when i was a gymnast that has got me a wee bit concerned.

Debrah I m so glad that you brought this up..i was just thinking about this over the weekend.... ohh My name is kathleen and im a lurker......HI Everyone.... I have lost 124 lbs and would like to loose another 40lbs, but that is it.... Im hoping that my body will stop loosing once I hit 150lbs, but im not there yet.... Question I have found that I get alot of cramps in my calves and feet.() when im laying in bed or in the middle of the night... Have you guys experienced that too? im seeing my surgeon next week and am going to talk to him about it. But I was curious if anyone else is getting cramps in ther legs. -thanks kathleen

Deborah, I am no where near my goal but I have also worried about this. I met this one lady in my support group that just last week said her doctor wanted her to stop loosing and she couldn't. She is about 5'8" and weighs 145 lbs. She does however not stop working out she goes to the gym for 1 1/2 hours everyday. As an outsider she seems to have gone beyond. But how do you not do that? I think there is such a fine line and at least speaking for me I know I don't ever want to go back where I was. I still have about another 90lbs to my personal goal and my husband actually told me the other day when was I going to stop loosing weight. I never really understood that part of how do we stop loosing weight. Do we have to eat small meals all day long? (wouldn't that be ironic!?!). As far as your concern it id definetly felt, unfortunatley I don't know the answer. But I am greatfull for us to be able to share this concern and hopefully someone knows the answer. As far as the food I eat about 4oz of cottage cheese in AM a protein shake for snack a frozen meal for lunch sometimes a pm snack for dinner it is about 1 serv. of carbs/1 of veggies and 2-3 oz of meat. snack 1 cup of milk or SF pops. Good luck and I hope someone out there know the answer!!! Mayra

i get the leg cramp things too wouldnt call it a charlie horse or anyting that is really bothersome its kinda like a dull ache in the calves mostly almost right in the back of the calf in the center sometimes of to the sides. When you ask your doctor post what he says about it. After being on here and reading so much you get nervous about things like the pulmenary clots and such although i do think they happen in the first little while if they are going to happen. I also wonder if its a calcium thing and protien where we arent getting in the calcium and protien to build stron bones and mucles liek we used to get in. Please post what your doc has to say about this. Bruising is another thing id liek to look into i bruise soo easily now. Im always sporting a bruice or two or three

Hi Deborah, Well isn't that ironic about the leg cramping, last night it happened again. I will be try streching tonight and see if that helps. I absolutly will post my doc's response to this cramping phenominon..... I hope that it just means that we should be streching our muscles/and it is not anything to worry about..... I see him next tuesday.... I hope that you can get some feedback on the bruising, I feel like i can not respond although i have 1 bruise on my arm and have no idea how it got there, but since this is the first one i don't think that im worried at this point. But im curious to know if it is WLS related..please keep us updated if you get any info have a good day peace -kathleen

The cramping in the leg is normally low potassium. Ask your doctor though. When you are doing a low carb diet your potassium intake is low and that will cause muscle cramps. Janice

Hi everyone, I agree, I never dreamed of posting anything like this! At this point I have lost about 124lbs. and acording to my doctor "it wouldn't be unrealistic to believe that I will be about 140" which means I still have about 40lbs. left to lose. However, my doctor also told me that the weight loss will continue definately for the first 12 months and very likely up until 18 months after surgery. So, that left me with the same question, when will it stop? Believe me, I don't want it to stop yet... although I can't say I would be too upset if it did, but if I could continue to lose for another six months or so... where will that leave me? I have read stories of people that could not stop. Honestly I know I have already gone from one extreme to another... but I don't want the 'another' extreme to become VERY EXTREME. Reading some of the other responses has already helped me with this. I agree that we haven't been this small in a very long time, so it seems to be a lot different and we may see it as smaller than it is. Personally, I still have a lot of trouble seeing myself as anything other than a 300lb woman. I know this can take time, especially since I am one of us that has NEVER been of a "normal" weight, for almost 30 years when I looked in the mirror there really was a very large person looking back. I can't imagine that image leaving my mind as fast as this weight has been leaving my body. I also realize that the comments that other people are based on our former size(duh,I know), but I mean...They see a 300+lb. woman(in my case) that is now around 180, to them that is a very drastic change... so they will make comments like 'you'll blow away', or 'we wont be able to see you sideways', or 'pretty soon I wont recognize you'.... so that along with everything else going on in our minds will perhaps cause us to wonder if it is going too far, and meanwhile we are just becomming 'normal'... Just a theory. I also would like to share an experience I have been having lately that I think sort of ties in with this. I am not the richest person in the world... I work hard to pay my rent and bills and I am single(which means a single income), so I can't really afford to buy clothes as my sizes go down... so for the most part I have been wearing clothes that have been too big for me. I did begin to buy some things, but I found it hard for me to actually buy the right size... I was so used to looking for the biggest one and buying it! I know what you are all thinking...TRY THEM ON! Yes, I know, And I do now. But, with my budget I have to buy some things at secondhand stores and I didn't really like trying those on... anyway over the past week or so I have been wearing some clothing that actually fits me now and it has caused quite a reaction. A close friend said 'I think you have lost more than 120lbs', and a relative asked what I was down to and I told him and he replied 'are you sure, you look like you weigh less than that' I find this interesting. I actually fight with myself sometimes because I tend to wear clothes a bit baggy so that people don't make these comments. The reason I fight with myself over it is because I know I dressed to hide my body my entire life(at least since I was old enough to realize it) and now when I can buy jeans in the 'normal' section of the store I shouldn't try to hide my accomplishments, but it is still my instinct. Sometimes I find it so weird, the other day I was getting dressed and I said to myself 'these jeans will NEVER fit me', and in reality they do and are a size too big. OH, WILL THE ISSUES EVER END?????? As far as bruising, I have noticed this as well. My theory on it is that we had more padding before. Sounds too simple, I know, but I really believe that. Our bones are much more near the surface than they were before, and when banged against something it is sure to have more impact. I really think that over time we will adjust to this, just as the oddness of the bones. I had tailbone trouble for quite some time, but now I realize it and it doesn't bother me anymore, it is natural to me now to sit so it doesn't hurt and to sit the right way in the bath. I still have a little trouble with the hipbones and leaning against stuff, but I noticed that my body is adjusting to it as well. I think it will all work out in time, remember we still haven't even hit the year mark! I have had cramps as well. I notice them more when I don't get as much water in. I know cramping is a sign of dehydration and lack of potassium, so perhaps those of you that are having trouble with cramping should ask your doctors about this. Congratulations to everyone, and I wish us all continued success! Amber 304/180/?

Hello there.. My name is David... I know what you are going to.... I had the surgery back in OCT 2004.. I have met my weight goals.. and have learned how to keep the balance.... My dietician and weight trainer.. said.. to increase my protien intake.. but also balance out with some additional GOOD CARBS... such as sweet potatoes once in a while during the week..... The dietician and my primary care physician told me introducing GOOD CARBS into the increased protien intake will Cause a stall in the metabolism without slowing it down.... causing a plateau like state.... I was 370lbs going into this and I hit my target goal of 210lbs now ... I have maintained 210lbs now for over a month and a half without having to eat anymore than the usual birdlike portions we are all acustomed to.. LOL... Also I go by the RULE OF THUMB principle.. if my body says eat/snack.. DO it... but of course... eat only till you are full or a half a cup principle.. and you will never go wrong.... Hope this helps.. it has worked for me... and two of my friends with similar situations (having the surgery - POST OPS).... Sincerely Yours, David