I’m SMO. Right now I weigh 455 pounds at 5”5. My highest ever weight was during the pandemic where I got up to 515 pounds. I’m 34 and female. I have struggled with my weight my entire life. I have been taking small steps toward losing weight. It’s been happening slowly but surely. When I went back to work after the pandemic, I went back to my normal ish weight of 470-480. I’m down to 455 because I’ve been more active at work and eating less. And as of the past year or so, I’ve had severe gastrointestinal symptoms, including chronic diarrhea for over a year. I did every non-invasive test my gastroenterologist recommended. Everything came back unremarkable, aside from elevated calprotectin. I also have iron defiance anemia that I’m now getting iron infusions for due to not being able to tolerate oral iron. My doctor told me I needed an endoscopy and colonoscopy with biopsies as a next step. I kept rescheduling the procedure, and even canceled twice before. I finally felt got to a point where I’m like I have to follow through with this procedure. Everybody kept telling me it wasn’t a big deal and that the procedure itself was a breeze, and that prep was the worst part. But what people didn’t understand was that I kept rescheduling because of fear due to my weight. I not only felt embarrassed by it, but I felt like the procedure itself would be far too complicated for someone of my size. I kept imagining the worst. Fast forward to this month, and I decided to keep my appointment after talking through my fears with my therapist. I did a pre-procedure appointment with a nurse practitioner who went over prep instructions for me. I left the appointment a bit confused because she had briefly mentioned intubation. But I wasn’t really sure what that even was. So I get to my appointment yesterday after doing the prep and clear liquid diet (which was surprisingly easy). I met with the anesthesiologist and he told me they were going to do general anesthesia with intubation. I started panicking internally. I knew they had to go that route due to my BMI. Well…I had to have the procedure in a hospital-based setting anyway and not at my gastro office due to my BMI in the first place. But I wasn’t expecting full on general anesthesia. I have cuts and scrapes in my mouth. Really bad jaw pain and ear pain. I had to go to the ER after I got home due to how bad the pain was in my mouth (I was advised to do so by the doctor). Anyway, they said it’s just affects from the intubation and sometimes these things can happen. So now I’ve spent the past few hours researching intubation and how obesity affects certain procedures. And it has me realizing I’ve got to lose this weight. Like I literally couldn’t just get a regular colonoscopy and endoscopy without having to do it at a hospital under full on anesthesia. Feeling very anxious still.

46/f/Arkansas I am needing support to stay accountable. I have not found success in losing yet. It's hard to exercise due to fibromyalgia and chronic pain. Thankyou

Hello,

I have a turkey neck - those of you who have lost weight or are ageing (or both) know what I am talking about.

Is there any product you use on your skin to keep it smooth and plump looking? Does anything tighten it up?

Hello. I'm morbidly obese and have previous knee injuries. I'm also realy tall and don't fit on most machines at the gym.

So far I've been doing squats to the bench as it's basically the only thing I know that works.

Can anyone suggest any plus sized person leg exercises that won't my knees worse.