BurgundyBoy

Robin, great great! and after all the ups and downs you went through before your surgery, even more (dare I say) ... delicious?

@Raijin What you've gone through / are going through / is really common. There are a gazillion posts here and elsewhere about sometimes needing to up your calories a little bit to "convince" your body that it can allow weight loss - when it is getting all the signals consistent with you being in in the midst of a famine. From your post it sounds like you are doing everything you 'should' do such as a restricted diet, getting some exercise, and focusing on getting protein. INVARIABLY you will lose weight. You just can't eat less than 600 calories a day and not, eventually, lose weight. I used to lose weight only about every 3 weeks. My weight would be stuck at a specific place and then BOOM I'd lose 5 or 6 pounds. Your question about exercise is an interesting one. Many of us do muscle-building to make ourselves more handsome or beautiful, and to maintain an adequate amount of 'hungry' muscle in our quest to keep our weight at a healthy place. However, recent small studies suggest that the biochemical changes characteristic of being healthy are more common in people who undertake cardio. A good non-scientific description can be found here: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/04/well/move/aerobic-fitness-may-trump-strength-for-metabolic-health.html (Note that this study was only done in Finnish young men, not women, and not older people, but it's hard to think of a reason why those factors should significantly affect these findings)

@tracyringo Great before and after pics. Well done!!

Ridley you'll be okay. You will not be sentenced to measuring your life in one ounce cups. I think you are feeling low because you just got a divorce (figuratively speaking) from eating too much, which was both a comfort but also a cause of premature death and disability from obesity. I have maintained my weight at about the same measure now for 2 years, despite having many bad habits now and many more before my surgery, and all while enjoying being a gourmand and drinking good wine and having a convivial life that often focuses on meals and good company. Not sure about the quote but many of us have said, in similar words, that surgery only changes your intestinal plumbing, it does not change your brain. So we have to re-train ourselves, our expectations, our habits, and that is achievable during the honeymoon period. There are biochemical connections between your stomach and the brain, and in ways we don't fully understand, the sensation of hunger. For me there has been a lot of enabling power in knowing that I can resolve my physiological hunger with a specific quantity of food, and that if I have 'head' hunger or hedonic hunger I can satisfy that ... with a bite. Last night I went to a wine tasting dinner with a dozen other people; I'll be going to another one later this week. It's possible to enjoy life more now (because my weight is lower and my health better) ... I just eat less too. Again, you'll be okay. Many of us wonder what we have done after surgery, but it's just a phase...

Well, um, congratulations and too bad. Be sure to get those orthopedic issues documented (you described those earlier) along with any family diseases like diabetes, hypertension, heart or kidney disease that you may be prone to acquiring.

@lisa18 Good! An electronic pat on the back and thumbs up for getting some walking in! Atta-Lisa! I am much less disciplined than I 'should' be (being very imperfect, perhaps even a bit flawed now and again) - and exercise gives me a bit of a cushion for my behaviors. It's true that when I goof up and mindlessly snack at night watching TV the worst I can do is 500, not 5,000, calories now, but do that for a week and you gain a pound. My typical workouts come in the 500 calorie flavor or the 1000 calorie flavor ... some of us can maintain our weight through just diet, but given all my behavioral flaws, the exercise helps me a lot. When I travel for work and have no pool, cycle, or rowing machine in the gym (my preferred sports) I can always walk. Tough when family events involve food at your stage. With time you may no longer miss some foods very much ... you may come to see these food-filled events as a kind of theater going on around you, rather than something you have to participate in.

Lisa, not to speak for you, but would suggest you may also be mourning your prior love of your life ... food. For many of us food, and the act of eating, and the linked pleasures we had were a comfort from 'the slings and arrows' of life. It was for me. It is totally normal to mourn the loss of a friend. As @athenarose notes, a change in your diet may change your brain chemistry too. Personally I have become persuaded that eating a lot of carbohydrates, which I did in the past, was a form of addiction on my part. I enjoyed eating a lot of food, and I suspect that at least part of that was the release of serotonin, and of dopamine, in my head. The latter is key to feelings of pleasure, or of reward: and it is released when you smoke cigarettes or use drugs like cocaine or methamphetamines. You have done something definitive for yourself that will reduce your reliance on that crutch. You want to live a long time without pain or suffering or ill health, while being happy ... and that means weight loss for all of us who have been obese. But you can adapt, you can do things for yourself just as you have taken action to lose weight. Consider taking an anti-depressant (yes there are lots now with low risks of side-effects, and that are generics that are low cost). Get some exercise, even if it is only walking a mile a day at lunch, that has been shown to improve mood. You mention that you feel alone in this - continue to reach out to others who have been in your circumstances, such as by posting here.

@Sama5959 You are crushing this, mate!

@Dodes Congratulations! You look great! Well done!

@S Griffin 71 Another thought - I have seen microwavable pouches of South Asian foods at Costco - mostly vegetarian options - that are around 300 calories for a full pouch. Likely too many calories for you now, but in the future might fit your needs. I have had the lentil ones and they are quite good.

Dodi, that is so excellent! Well done!

@BrightDay congratulations on your loss and getting into the 20s! Sometimes people mistake our thinner faces for being unwell. To my own eye I can see creases in my face that were not there before; luckily for me, mine are in the pattern you see with a smile, so the creases are not unwelcome. Have you thought about what your Goal might be?

@Kathryn1974 Your pouch is fresh, and not very able to stretch very much, and may still be a bit swollen since your surgery was recent. But yogurt is not a brick nor a stone, you are not going to stretch your pouch with something soft like yogurt. It's normal to want normal food ... but stay away from the naughty stuff, that is what got you into trouble. @cinwa's advice about avoiding dehydration is good stuff! You want to make sure you are making urine. I think having loose stools is common after surgery. You undoubtedly were given some antibiotics at the time of your surgery to decrease the risk of infections. The antibiotics will kill bad bacteria, but will also kill off many of the normal bacteria that live inside your intestines. Until the normal bacteria grow back to their prior levels you can have a change in your stools. Having said that - Some people develop a condition after surgery, or after a course of antibiotics, called C difficile diarrhea. You can have a stool test done (call your doctors) especially if you have a lot of belly pain and fever with diarrhea. The chance of getting it may be lessened if you take a probiotic before surgery. I think you are smart to be eating yogurt, especially if it has live cultures, and you may want to try a probiotic. I did a lot of research before my surgery and found that the scientific world has studied a probiotic called Lactobacillus GG quite a bit, and so I chose that probiotic (the brand Culturelle uses this; not a product endorsement, but it is what I used). At the other end of the spectrum, a lot of people become constipated from using opiates for pain after surgery, and from a low fiber liquid diet. You can safely mix some psyllium or other bulking agent into your protein shakes and keep that from bothering you. There are a lot of postings on that topic here! Congrats on having the surgery done and joining the Loser's Bench!

Would just call the company, report the lot number, and get a new case shipped to you.

Have a good trip. We are with you.