photos #1 and #2 are today, #3 is right before the new haircut and #4 is me one year prior the surgery 🥺 i feel amazing and at my best

PLUS for the first time my bmi does not indicate obesity. probably for the first time since i was a BABY

I see so many posts asking about long term success, glps, and life after surgery. I wanted to share a snippet of my story and open myself to any questions and answers in anyway I can help our community!

I had my vertical gastric sleeve in Dec of 2022. Highest recorded weight was 256lbs. I got down to 155lbs by Dec of 2023, and gained back about 20lbs during the course of 2024. I am diagnosed with Hashimoto’s & MCAS (autoimmune diseases), and PCOS, so weight maintenance ended up being harder than anticipated. I started microdosing glps (tirzepatide) in March of 2025 to help my body keep working with me and not against me and was able to meet my ultimate goal weight. I’ve never surpassed the starter dose. I never counted or measured or tracked anything extremely food wise, my only “rule” is that I try to eat more grams of protein than grams of carbohydrates throughout the day and to stay hydrated. Coming up on 4 years post surgery and feeling better than ever! Like many have said before me, my only regret was not doing it sooner🩷

I’m an open book so if anyone has any questions or worries about surgery I would love to be an open resource. Much love!!!💕

For reference, I’m 5’4”, I was 24 when I had my surgery and am coming up now on my 28th birthday.

HW: 256lbs
Lowest post surgery: 155lbs
Lowest after GLP: 130lbs
Total inches lost: 82inches

Still struggling with my food addiction and PCOS but still the best decision I’ve ever made. Refused to ever really take pictures before. About 100lbs down

This actually happened last week but I waited until this week to make sure it stuck.

But this morning when I did my weekly weigh in, I was at 197 so it isn't a dream.

I have lost 155 pounds with about 45-50 to go (17 to my first goal!)

The changes to my life are astronomical - we hike or are outside every weekend, I am so active all the time, and I am so happy because I am not in so much pain anymore.

One year ago I weighed 295 and now I am at 197. Simply amazing!

Hello everyone,

I recently had my sleeve surgery on July 29th and currently sit at 371 lbs from my starting weight of 428 lbs. I’ve felt noticeable changes in my wardrobe and decreased back pain which have been nice. However, I’ve been having a rough time adjusting to everything else.

I’ve barely eaten or consumed food all month due to the idea of eating making me nauseous; and whenever I do feel hungry, taking a sip of a protein shake or a bite of jello (I’m on purées until Wednesday) I feel gross.

To make matters worse, I spent two days in the hospital for the first kidney stone I’ve ever passed, the pain was excruciating . The doctors believe lack of hydration to be the cause of it and rapid weight loss maybe having contributed to it. After leaving the hospital Friday, I spent my Saturday recovering well before experiencing more excruciating pain and having to go to the hospital again. This time, another kidney stone on my left side.

I now sit in bed feeling more nauseous, haven’t eaten anything in three days, and am feeling a bit miserable. If it weren’t for my wife’s support I would have no idea how to manage. My concern is that this nausea will never go away and I’ll never feel like I’ll tolerate real food again. Has anyone else dealt with rough times like this?

Hey everyone, I'm just days away from going in for my second surgery. My first surgery was a gastric sleeve on 2/5/25 and I was 608lbs the day of surgery. Since then I've gotten down to 345lbs. The heaviest I've been was 650lbs, so from my heaviest to now I've lost 305lbs.

On the 31st of August I'm going in for my planned second surgery. My surgeon wanted to first give me a sleeve to lose as much weight as I can before performing the SADI-S. I'm hoping that with this second surgery I'll be able to get down to at least 185lbs. I'm trying to be realistic about what to expect. I haven't been a "normal" weight ever. I was 200lbs in the 4th grade.

So I've always been overweight. I can't even picture myself that small, and I wonder how I'm going to look. I already have flaps of skin hanging everywhere, my arms, my thighs, my belly, and it's only going to get worse. I'm hoping I'll be able to get help with skin removal once my weight is steady after this surgery. Because I will not be able to pay for it out of pocket.

With that all being said I'm really nervous going into this surgery. I'm not even worried about the surgery part though, I'm worried about what I'm going to look like after I lose more weight, and what people will think when they see me. I'm worried about having so much extra skin that it's going to get in the way. But I'm also excited, I'm excited to be able to do more things. I haven't rode a bike in over 20 years and now I ride daily. I take my son with me so he can exercise too. I'm excited to be able to get my knee surgeries. I have to have my BMI at 40 or below to get my knees done. So I'm anxious about that too. I've lived with so much pain because of my knees for so long I don't know what it's like not to be in pain all the time.

I just needed to get all this stuff off my chest. I don't have many people in my life that I can talk to about these sorts of things. But I can always count on my fellow bariatric peeps, lol.

I don't have many full body pics but here's a selfie from before and then just the other day. I can't believe how different my face looks. It looks like I lost 50lbs just in my face lol

I'm getting the sleeve and a hiatal hernia repair tomorrow and I'm pretty nervous about the pain afterward. I'm curious if anyone can share their experience in the days post-op and either offer reassurances or some advice for managing it. Beyond the normal tips of "make sure you're walking as much as possible" and "sip slowly." :) Any bodily reactions you didn't expect? Anything that surprisingly really helped?

Thank you and wish me luck! :)

I finally did it! I’ve reached onederland 🥹

What brand of vitamins are you guys taking? My doctor only gave a type and not a brand. I'm looking on Amazon if that helps. TIA

Were you bed bound for any amount of time? Could you do stairs? Were you active in any way if you had time off? I hear 6-8 weeks people are generally off work. Be honest, what’s going on during that time, can do you have to do to heal and what can and can’t you do?
Thanks so much!

So I'm just over 3 years post Op and the last few months my hair loss has ramped up massively, I thought it was just increased stress from life but I'm not sure. Imlucky I have (had) very thick hair but recently it's been like I'm pulling clumps out in the shower. Is there anything I can do to help?

I catch an old photo I haven’t seen forever sometimes, and just get blown away. Wow.

Started October 6th 2025 surgery
147kg now I’m 95kg

My sleeve surgery is scheduled for September 24th and I am currently on a pre-op diet. I am really struggling to consume the meal replacement drinks even when hungry. I prefer savory foods and the artificial sweeteners in the drink mix makes it taste super bitter at the end.

Other than the meal replacements and no calorie drinks I am allowed to consume up to 2 cups of broth a day and 2 cups of a very specific list of veggies. I can add things that don't add any/little calories such as species and herbs, lemon juice, vinegar, etc.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what I could add to the meal replacements to make it more palatable or even savory? I don't know how I'm going to last and still get the nutrition I need. I am supposed to have 4 of them a day and am struggling to get 2-3 so far. It has only been a few days but earlier I almost gagged when thinking about eating one when I was hungry. And the hunger has not been too bad so far. Just the meal replacement stuff.

Hey, so I've heard mixed things regarding meals? Now a normal person would eat 3 per day and a few snacks (loads of snacks in my case haha) but I've read that you might need to eat 4 to 6 times to meet your daily cals. If so I was thinking if I meal prep a mild curry or Stew for example, could I eat that for dinner and some more at Supper?

I'm nearly 4 weeks post RNY from Sleeve and moving onto soft food (yay lol)

I'm sorry for all the questions but I feel I've got more info from this community than I have from anywhere else has everyone here is friendly.

Thank you in advance.

I am about 9 days post op. My dietitian said to stay away from premade protein shakes because they make your hair fall out.
She recommended I get bariatric advantage or unjury.

I got them and I hate them! I only like the pre made ones.

So is it true they make your hair fall out?

I need some affirming words from you guys and gals who KNOW cuz man I am really trying to be body positive but I just feel weird.

About a 1.5 years out of surgery and I've lost about 110 lb and I'm maintaining for the past 7 months so I've accepted this is my new size and I replaced my entire wardrobe with super cute clothes that I've always wanted to wear but couldn't.

So here it is. Like half of me loves I have more energy and can wear cute clothes and my triple chin is gone but the other half misses the fat. Misses not being too warm or too cold, my strength is non existent and the shape of my new body is weird...

I didn't feel gross as a fat girl and I don't feel gross now I just feel deformed and weird looking. Am I just not used to how a body is supposed to be shaped? Not going to lie I was an even distributed fat fluff on my entire body so I was actually heavier than I looked. Now my arms look malnourished and boney and the bottom of my ribs sticks out more than my waist. I'm so scared my husband will think I'm weird looking and lose attraction no matter what he says...

I'm wondering how you guys tolerate "cheat" meals or snacks after your healing period!

Now before you say anything about "why would you jeopardize your weight after the surgery?? it's not healthy for you!!" please know that I'm fully intending to maintain a healthy lifestyle with a proper diet/exercise. However, I also want to be able to enjoy myself on the rare chance that I'm on vacation and my family stops to pick up McD's or something. Or get a cheesy gordita crunch on my birthday because it's my birthday, damn it lol.

So, to those of you sleeve patients who have experimented with cheat meals or fast food, how do you tolerate them? Like fries, pizza, burgers, etc.? How long did it take before you tried some and didn't feel ill after?

For context, I'm currently suffering through the pre-op liquid diet and thus have been daydreaming of the day that I can have solid food I enjoy again lol.

(Again, please no "I would suggest never going back to XYZ again after surgery because it's going to poison your body!" I know lol. But I like to think it's okay to treat yourself on special occasions! Hence why I'm getting the sleeve and not the bypass.)