Thank you so much for your kind words - I knew I was in good company on this forum and I so appreciate your response. Today has been a good day - I hope it is for you too.

Hi Everyone - I am so thankful to have found this online forum. I have great local support with my therapist and family (at least my husband who tries to get it) but I have yet to attend a local support group post-op. My doctor's office is great clinically but one does not go there looking for emotional support. Either way, I have enjoyed reading the forum posts and grateful to find so many people to identify with.

Starting weight for me was 245. I was banded in 2010 - lost 50 pounds to achieve pregnancy. Band was removed in 2017 due to constant issues and then I gained it all back. After months of research and therapy sessions, I decided to have VSG in May 2019. Wonderful surgery! Hospital time sucked but after 4 weeks off of work, I felt great and to this date have had literally no issues with any type food - liquids or otherwise. I have lost the 50 pounds again and seem to be hanging out at 193. I have not lost any weight in 4 months. I cannot believe how easy it was to fall back into old habits even with my built-in portion control. I figure you can either adhere to the new diet and rock this lifestyle or you can go back to eating smaller amounts of what you ate before - interesting dilemma.

Regardless of the food, the harder thing for me has been the alcohol. 6 weeks post-op my brother got married and despite the fear of God they put in me for drinking, I went ahead and tried it out after being dry for nearly 2 months. No issues at all - once again, is this too easy? Fast forward to October - 53 pounds lost and I am off to Hawaii. Drinking every day and eating off plan but TONS of exercise - lost a pound during the trip, WTF? Fast forward to now and I have yet to recover from that point in time.

In October for whatever reason, I started getting TERRIBLE TERRIBLE CHRONIC hemorrhoids and was in so much pain, I couldn't even drive or even go to work on some days. This is also the point where I really started losing my hair. Stress at work kicks up, here comes the holiday trifecta and I find myself completely off plan, 1-2-3 drinks almost daily and though I make sure I get my protein and vitamins - I stopped tracking. Gain of 5 pounds since my lowest point.

I am 46, my estrogen crashed so hard after the surgery - I am starting hot flashes and haven't had a cycle since July. I started a mild anti-depressant to get me through the really hard days but overall, I have lost my mojo and that is the issue. I hate the way I look, I hate the way I feel and though I still don't regret having the surgery - I am trying to figure out how to get my mojo back.

Since the New Year, I cut back on the drinking (trying for weekends only) and had a few successful days of tracking so I could lose the 5 pounds (1/2 way there). I plan to attend the support group next week as well. I need a reboot and a kick in the rear, but I don't know how. I want to feel good about myself (not only now) but also want to lose another 40-50 pounds to achieve my goal. Is there such thing as the half-way blues? :-)

It is hard to come onto this forum and admit failure but I need to be honest with myself. I know why I haven't lost any more weight - that part is obvious. The real question is how to get back on track, will I be able to or am I doomed and this is the end for me in terms of post-op success?

I put a picture up from ever evolving storage room/office. Top left is after 20 pounds lost. There is no weight loss between the bottom left (Mid-Sept.) and bottom right (yesterday) but my hair loss is obvious.

Thank you for listening and I am sorry this is so long. Anyone out there identify with this? Are there any drinkers or is it just me? Anyone reach 1/2 of their goal and said to themselves, I am OK with this - let's stop here?

With gratitude,
KM14

I had the VSG, and at 1.5 years out I am still losing at a nice rate. But I have stalls too, and at times I have had the exact same fears you have! I just went through a stall that lasted two weeks, and then one day I got on the scale and lost so much weight "overnight" that the scale said "who dis?!". (In other words, it asked me to confirm that I was the regular user and not a guest!)

I find it helpful to focus on these two questions, in this order:

1. Does my diet leave me satisfied?
2. Am I eating few enough calories to lose weight?

If the answer to either of these is no, then I analyse my diet to look for small improvements.

The reason I put satisfaction first, is that if I feel deprived, I won't have patience during stalls. It might take you two years to lose all the weight you want. That's fine. You need to make sure your diet is one that you can maintain for however long it takes.

With that in mind, if you're really eating 600-800 calories, if your diet leaves you hungry you could probably add about 50 to 100 calories to that.

Another thing that helps me is to look at the graphs of my weight over time generated by my tracking app (I use cronometer, but my fitness pal, fitbit, and many other sites do it too). That helps me see that the stalls that feel like they last forever are only a blip on the graph, and in fact I'm losing quite steadily!

Hi All:

so Im 10 mths post op and lost over 100 lbs. Have been having issues with food for the past couple of weeks. Green veggies, doesn't matter what one, does stay down (end up throwing them back up). Beef is still a huge issue but I limited (if any) this. Trying to figure out what to do about new food. Im getting a bit bored. Any suggestions?

With more than 100 pounds to lose, you might be a candidate for the DS. It would add malabsorption to your restriction.

There are a lot of things to consider. It used to be pretty common for surgeons to do a sleeve first and then the rest of the DS after an initial weight loss of about 100 pounds. I have not heard of that being done in years, but it is something to discuss with your surgeon.

I did not lose any weight after the first eight months with RNY, but was at my goal weight. I did lose about another 10 pounds when I was 18 months out. But maintained in between those months.

Everyone is different. It is difficult to keep staying at 600-800 calories a day. Don't limit your options. Talk to your surgeon about what is the best thing for you.