New DS

Fantastic!

If you read the posts and follow the advise of the people that have been here a while, you'll lose more than by just following your doctors advise. I find they don't caution us about carbs enough. I stalled about 7 months out and changed the way I ate with watching my carbs and I blow all my goals away! I hit my surgeons 3 year goal at 18 months, already hit my 5 year goal at 21 months and I'm lower than he thought I'd ever get and I'm not even 2 years out. They feel you are successful if you lose 70% of your excess weight. I've lost over 94% of my excess weight and I still plan on losing a bit more. You also have to factor in the excess skin weight with everything else. Here are my stats:

HW 398.8

SW 356

GW 175 (3 year at 18 months)

GW 160 (5 year at 21 months)

CW 153 (21.5 months out and still losing...)

My goal 145 (I should hit it before the 2 year mark.)

I've worked hard for this, not just on my plate and what I eat (FYI I track EVERYTHING I've eaten since day 1), I started walking at 6 months out with 6,000 steps a day and I'm now at 12,000, at 1 year out I stated weight training 3 times a week to help boost my metabolism and it worked. I eat over 1,800 calories a day and I'm still losing. My goal every day is 130 grams of protein and under 50 carbs and I'm moving toward maintenance. When I was working hard to lose I was at under 20 net carbs a day. Once I started watching my carbs, I started losing and had fewer stalls.

Liz

Hydration is most important..more than anything. 64oz is your bare minimum goal every day starting the day you came home. Nothing is really pleasurable for a long time (in my experience) so lower your sights to "doesn't suck", and this starts with fluids (everything wet counts), protein and food.

Don't mourn the lack of pleasure. It will return in several months. It makes it easier for you to focus on what your body needs without those pesky cravings getting in the way.

Congrats, Miss Maggie. I'm 13yrs out from DS, and it's still the best decision I ever made. With DS surgery, the body is transformed by weight loss but the mind is bring transformed too. My experience was/is that the mindset has to adjust also. You will lose weight, you will look better, feel better, and find life overall is much better I do believe. Hydrate, vitamins, relax,repeat. It will work, you will make it. Keep sharing with posts, you'll find support here.

Don't worry about vitamins. Get in the ones you can, try the chewable they are a bit easier (but you will have to switch to pill form later).

Get in your water anyway you can. It is really really hard. It took me about 3 months to enjoy eating again (at least somewhat) and honestly even 12 years later, I'm not a big fan of eating certain foods that I use to love (like pizza and burgers). They just don't agree like they use to.

Good luck to you.

How's everything going? Doing okay?

Liz

Thanks for asking!

I just had a follow-up on Tuesday. I'm down 40 pounds since surgery 3 weeks ago, which is way exciting! My stretchy jeans no longer have to stretch, lol. My surgeon said that he's not too concerned that I'm not quite at 64 oz of water per day, but I did have to promise that I'd keep working at it.

I find that I get very nauseated if all I've had is liquid. If I've had soup/yogurt for a meal and then I go back to drinking water, I tend to throw up water about half an hour after I start drinking again. Solid food is seeming to sit better with me, but I can only eat about two bites before I'm done. Learning my body/digestive habits all over again has been tricky. Differentiating between actual hunger and head hunger has been pretty easy but with certain cravings, I can't tell. Earlier today I was craving beef so bad I was fantasizing about tacos.

My skin has been very itchy/dry, which my surgeon says is normal, considering the dry climate where I am and my drastically different diet. I just need to find a lotion that works.

Great! 40# is amazing!! It took me a while to get to where I'm at with water, 132 oz per day. Don't forget you can count your soup, protein shakes, and most other liquids you drink. Try taking smaller sips when you get back to your water or wait longer after eating, for about 2 months I had to wait 45 minutes to drink after eating that may help you.

Liz

Hi Miss Maggie,

It's been a few months since your last update (on this thread at least), can you tell me how you're doing almost 6 months post-op? I'm considering a DS (revision from RNY) so I'm very curious how things are going.

Thanks for sharing!

Looch

Thanks so much for asking! I'm doing great, as long as I remember not to compare myself to anyone else. I can tolerate pretty much any food, which I realize could get me into trouble if I choose the wrong things, and I will admit to making the wrong choices a few times. The only foods I absolutely cannot stomach are anything with sugar alcohols. Absolutely disgusting.

It took about 3 months for me to hit the recommended 64 oz of water per day, but I do a lot more than that now.

I'm a week shy of 6 months and down 162 lbs. (I count from my highest weight) I've shaved more than 20 points off my BMI and I've lost 20 inches around the widest part of my body. My doc says if I was losing any faster, I'd probably be doing damage to myself. I'm losing steadily about 5-7 pounds per week. It's definitely tapered off since the earliest days but it's still steady, so I'm not worried.

I would absolutely 100% do it again. I wish I hadn't waited so long.

HW 525

SW 492

CW 363

Good luck and please feel free to ask me questions!

*Edited because I reworked the math on my loss and realized I overestimated my weekly average