Continuing after Bariatric Surgery

itsmelissalynn

Hi everyone!

My name is Melissa, and three years ago I had the Gastric Sleeve surgery. Since my surgery, I went from 450lbs to 215lbs. My ultimate goal is 160.

Almost one year ago, I left my career as an Executive Chef and moved to a less active position. My old eating habits did not get eliminated like I thought they did, and I snack my way back up to 250lbs, and now I am determined to finish my journey through exercise and better eating choices!

I am curious, who else is going through what I am going through (finishing their weight loss after bariatric surgery finished it's job)?

I'd love to have some pals here!

Best,
Melissa

Foltz

7 years out here, I dont think it ever really ends

Just got to use the tools you've been given and power through it.
Started @ 300, 260 by time of surgery, ->185 w/out working out just diet -> to 240 when my 2nd daughter was born thanks to Sympathy eating ->195 after getting on with StarTrac and having no excuse to work out on my lunch. Now i'm just trying to get back to the 185 at my lowest. with the Exercise added in, I'm smaller now then when i just was on the 3 Phase eating plan coming out of surgery. It's hard God knows and whoever says Bariatric surgery is a quick/easy way to lose the weight, they obviously dont know what we go through.

Best Regards,

Kevin

2/14/07 - Initial Banding

itsmelissalynn

Thanks Kevin!

Did you experience any muscle loss? I have for sure. I went from moving around all day everyday to sitting, and my muscles just can't take the heat. I'm in the gym now, and I have the motivation, but the knowledge isn't there... and frankly, I start to psych myself out!

But I can see the weight accumulating in the worst place, my mid section. I guess cardio will be my first friend.

0somuchbetter0

I had lap band surgery in May 2012. I don't think the surgery has "finished its job," at least not in my case. It's an ongoing process that will continue until the day I die. In other words, I didn't have a huge loss thanks to the surgery and then had to keep going "on my own." Maybe because the band is less extreme than the sleeve? Since surgery, my weight has gone down and up (a little) and down again and is now holding steady. I still have about 40+ to lose but I'm HUNGRY!

Foltz

Alot of the hunger, is boredom and in the head, i've had many days when i just started drinking my water, and doing something else... and it went away. It's a constant head game with hunger though. The way I see it is the Surgery is just an implanted tool that we have to fall back on. It wont do everything for us. As i put up before the weight loss that i had without the exercise and spot on diet was good, but the weight loss i had with the Exercise and nearly spot on diet was even better, my skinny jeans that i had at 185 were my normal jeans at 195, and loose at that.

Look at Kettlebell Circuits they're great and work on toning the entire body. Let me know if you need a sounding board I'm always glad to help!

jgnatca

I am coming up to six months out from Gastric Bypass. My loss is steady, slowing down now. I am sorta running ahead getting physically active because I want this new life to be sustainable. I have very few digestive issues so I am lucky there. I know I have gained a lot of muscle since I got active after surgery.

Missjulesdid

I had my VSG surgery March of 2013. HW was 360 Surgery weight: 290 I lost down to 239 by August of 2013 and bounced back up to 245ish and stayed there until August of this year with minimal effort, Pre-surgery, unless I was nose to the grindstone 110% effort, I'd rapidly gain any weight that I'd lost and by rapidly I mean like 15 pounds in a month and keep going until I was back up to my original weight... so only gaining back 6 pounds during that year, when I left my job, got married and moved half way around the world is pretty amazing!

Now I'm in a place mentally where I'm ready to continue on my journey but I'm currently living in a third world country so a lot of the foods I'm used to using as a "crutch" such as protein bars aren't available here. Also meat, chicken and fish are really expensive here but potatoes and rice are cheap so I do struggle a bit with that. Also I eat at the in-law's several days a week and picking over calories there is simply NOT an option., If mama puts fatty sheep meat and potatoes on my plate, I'm gonna chow down on it. So I'm just trying to be careful with the foods I'm making for myself, avoid snacking and getting in some long walks. I'm now down to 230 so I'm slowly getting off some weight. This month I've really REALLY decided to knuckle down and try to lose a pound a week in December. It's nothing like I lost early on, but I'm happy with it.

My goal is to get down to 180ish (I'm 5'5") which would put me a good weight to get a lower body lift. I'm much more accepting of small losses than before surgery because I know that I can maintain them, and I'm not starving all the time so I feel like this is sustainable and can afford to be patient. I'll be back in the States by January or February of 2015 so I'm hoping that being home where I can more accurately control my calories and have access to a gym will help me crank it up a notch. I am hoping to reach my goal by December of 2015. People talk about the honeymoon phase but that doesn't mean that the surgery has finished it's job after that. The sleeve doesn't expire. It's available to use as a tool at any time. It may be a bit slower and require more effort, but it's still WAY more doable than before surgery!

NotGnarly

itsmelissalynn wrote: »

Thanks Kevin!

Did you experience any muscle loss? I have for sure. I went from moving around all day everyday to sitting, and my muscles just can't take the heat. I'm in the gym now, and I have the motivation, but the knowledge isn't there... and frankly, I start to psych myself out!

But I can see the weight accumulating in the worst place, my mid section. I guess cardio will be my first friend.

I had sleeve surgery over 2 years ago and have lost a serious amount of lean muscle. My body feels so mushy but I blame that on doing only cardio and not lifting weights. My lowest weight after vsg was 203 and I just couldn't get past it no matter how much I restricted. I only managed to lose 50% of the weight that I wanted to, but according to statistics I fall within the expected weight loss from the surgery in general.

Long story short I log my calories now and started lifting heavy almost a week ago. Trying to get my metabolism back up and regain some muscle. I finally realized that all my years of dieting has made it easier for my body to acquire body fat and lots of cardio seemed to work against my goals. So now I focus on eating 2000 cals a day, lifting heavy weights 3 times a week, and doing cardio twice a week for about 20 mins. I just started a week ago but so far I'm noticing positive changes and am feeling muscles that i haven't felt in years. Of course it will take a while but if I'm losing inches, I could care less what the scale says.

Foltz

My biggest issues is not logging, if I dont log I stray from the path. If i log i focus. Started doing Stronglifts when I got on with StarTrac. lifting for about a year I didnt see much gains. Switched up to a KettleBell workout back in February and I've seen the most change from starting on that. Now it's just doing as Gnarly said above, and focus on inches lost and not the scale

itsmelissalynn

Foltz wrote: »

Alot of the hunger, is boredom and in the head, i've had many days when i just started drinking my water, and doing something else... and it went away. It's a constant head game with hunger though. The way I see it is the Surgery is just an implanted tool that we have to fall back on. It wont do everything for us. As i put up before the weight loss that i had without the exercise and spot on diet was good, but the weight loss i had with the Exercise and nearly spot on diet was even better, my skinny jeans that i had at 185 were my normal jeans at 195, and loose at that.

Look at Kettlebell Circuits they're great and work on toning the entire body. Let me know if you need a sounding board I'm always glad to help!

Great advice! Thank you soooo much. I'll definitely look into Kettlebells!

itsmelissalynn

jgnatca wrote: »

I am coming up to six months out from Gastric Bypass. My loss is steady, slowing down now. I am sorta running ahead getting physically active because I want this new life to be sustainable. I have very few digestive issues so I am lucky there. I know I have gained a lot of muscle since I got active after surgery.

I wish I would have done that, but I was cocky and didn't think I had to... now I have to undo the damage!

itsmelissalynn

So this is to Gnarly and Kevin,

What do you think it is about the relationship of weight loss to cardio and weight loss to lifting or muscle training that caused such a huge difference?

I have two physical goals: 1) to become a runner (I've ALWAYS wanted this) and 2) to tone using weights. I've started C25K and I already love it, but I don't want to avoid my muscles too. I'm so lost in the gym. Maybe I should invest in a personal trainer? When I was working out earlier in the year, I was very avid in it and I do love the way it makes me feel... but I didn't see results and got discouraged.

I know my hardest battle right now is retraining my mind to remember that I'm not hungry... my mind is. I know I stretched my stomach out, but there's no way it is back to where it used to be, so this is NOT hopeless. But I can't keep ignoring my muscle loss. It can really get frustrating, but I am determined to finish the job.

Foltz

When i started down the path, my wife who hit the ground running after her Lapband did TKB, and i lost it all by just diet and some running, after i gained the 'sympathy' weight when she had our second kid (~1yr post LB for her) and then got on at my current place of Employment, I had no idea what to do exercise wise. But i was surrounded by equipment here, so I asked one of the guys, he got me on the standard lifting schedule Monday: Chest/Tri's, Wed: Back/BI's, Friday: Legs. It helped, I started dropping weight decently but not seeing much growth. After watching my other co-worker do his crazy kettlebell routine I figured i'll try it, and this month (8months into it) I'm working on a Great Gamma challenge which is brutal . Kettlebell Investment is fairly small, being you'll need 1 Kettlebell (~#15/#20), maybe 2 just dont buy one at a big box store, look to Amazon @ Cap Barbell KB's fairly low price.

TLDR: Trainer's are good, sometimes costly, but it helps to have someone to keep you honest

thepurplejudge

Hi! I am interested in your dilemmas, and the ways you've figured out to solve the problems of losing muscle. I was always overweight, with a history of yo yo dieting -- my high years ago was 320, but more recently was hovering about 260. Had VSG, was about 275 before pre-surgery prep - between June and Oct. I lost 40 lbs. Had the surgery at the end of Oct, and have only lost 30 lbs since -- almost stagnant for the last 6 weeks. Arthritis precludes running or high impact activities. I know I need to exercise to get metabolism going, but feel I don't have the strength or energy to do that. Any help would be appreciated.

mumof3g

I was VSG end July 2014 so far lost 95lbs, I am on a stall at min but I have got it into my head that I am always hungry but the thought of eating food makes me feel sick the physiological harriers are difficult. I have also changed my job and thought It would help just I am now not exercising as I should. I think I just need to kick my self up the butt and snap out of it but how?