Forums » Smalltalk » AMA: I lost 82kg (180pounds)

In November 2018 I had a gastric sleave surgery. This surgery is less well known than its two cousins - the gastric band and the gastric bypass. The sleave is accomplished by removing 85% of the stomach so it makes the shape of a tube. This accomplishes two things
1) The stomach holds less capacity, which means you fill faster.
2) Parts of the stomach that produce the signals for hunger are removed so you don't feel hungry.

I was overweight my whole life, and even when I graduated from high school I was over 100kg. At the time I started my pre-surgery diet I was at my highest weight of 144kg. I currently weigh about 62kg. Of course, I tried more conventional methods like dieting and exercise and even though I once got my weight down as low as 75kg I would always put it back on plus more. When I got more desperate I would do more extreme and probably unhealthy diets.

Please do not ask me any questions about your own health / weight loss. You should consult people who you trust in real life, as well as medical professionals.

http://imgur.com/a/DSl5IIZ

That's quite a transformation! What did your post-op treatment look like? Was the recovery and adjustment difficult?

Hi Auberon

The post op treatment was as followed:

Two weeks of a completely liquid diet. For me this mostly made up of medical-grade meal replacements, but you could also eat soup, tea/coffee, smoothies etc. As long as there were no chunks which could get caught in the stitching.
Four weeks of puree food. I ate a lot of pureed sweet potato and scrambled eggs. This was the worst part of the pre/post op diet because by now it'd been 1-2 months since you've eaten solid foods and you were getting pretty sick of it.
And from a non-diet standpoint, you had fairly regular checkups with your surgeon and a dietitian affiliated with the clinic.

Physically, recovery for me was easy. I spent 3 nights in the hospital and by the time I went home I pretty much felt well enough to go to work, but my surgeon told me to rest at home for two weeks, so I did! A common side-effect of the gastric sleave is acid reflux, but had almost none.
Mentally it wasn't always so easy and I’ve had my ups and downs. One thing I found difficult (and to a lesser extent - still do) is handling social eating. There were a lot of times with friends and family who meant well by inviting me out. They didn't want to make me feel left out. But really I hated it. Scouring the menu for anything small enough to eat or accepting that you'll be paying full price for a meal and eating two bites of it. It is pretty common that the things on the menu are too unhealthy, and I'd be telling myself "this accounts for both your lunch and dinner." It's unfair, because I know they continued to invite me out with good intentions, but it actually made me feel spiteful towards my friends/family for putting me in that position.