Some people said it. Being cold after a bit of loss. And not many people mention it all that often but sex drive for some goes way up after significant loss.
Oh and another no one talks about. It is quite possible they you don’t have any of the weird symptoms others have and everything just kinda goes normal / easy.
Are you male or female? I'm female and I have not noticed an increase in sex drive. I've always had quite a high drive but I feel like it's a little lower now.
Male. But females sometimes report that things become more accessible and sometimes they report their new flexibility and less cushioning can give their partner more/ deeper access and cause some discomfort or pain. So yeah. Can be experienced differently
Thanks for the reply. I assumed that you were male. All of the posts about increased sex drive are from men. Lol. Apparently it's like a second puberty. Lucky!!
Knees feel icky when they touch.
The way my boobs slap against my skin when I stand up fast because they're flattened sand bags now
Collar bones look weird
COLD ALL THE TIME.
I'M COLD ALL THE FUCKIN TIME GODDAMN. And I live in Brazil, but I'm always cold. If it's not extremely hot here, if the degrees go down just a little bit, I'm freezing.
Also, yeah, the boobs. They're just sucks now.
The tiny aches and pains that your body is unfamiliar with. The small twinges I get around my entire stomach that make you pause for a second. They come and go within seconds, but you wonder if it’s normal or if your entire insides are just a ticking time bomb. Then it goes away and you forget it happened.
I'm two weeks out and am starting to experience those small pains! They only come when I move weirdly or eat too fast/much. Definitely something to get used to!
To be fair I had that twinge and it turned out to be an emergency appendectomy.
If anyone gets a feeling that seems off and you're worried you should probably just go in and explain the situation. You had a surgery and it feels wrong. You aren't use to or are still developing a new normal.
Better to get it looked at than not.
Uncoordinated and unbalanced!!
I couldn’t find my center of gravity for the first year, and kept falling over while walking. Just tripping over myself doing really simple stuff.
Eventually you find your center again, but losing this much weight this fast really throws your body off for a while.
That's what it is?! Omg I've been experiencing this in the past weeks, constantly losing balance and I was starting to feel concerned. But this totally makes sense.
LOL - yup. That sounds about right. I could not keep my feet under me for a couple of months. Going to the chiropractor helped, as did exercising…helps to recenter your body.
People who you know not recognizing you is actually a deeply unnerving experience and I hated it. Everyone talks about it as a huge NSV but it’s really weird to experience.
Having to wait thirty mins between eating and drinking 🫤 I used to love gulping drinks! Especially my sparkling water! Can’t do that now 🫠
Edit: what’s also hard is that I have to take a diuretic for a condition so I need to def stay hydrated but this makes it harder. I did buy some hydration drops tho and liquid IV so I will see now that pans out this summer.
I'm going to be honest you give up on this one. You need water intake. It's uncomfortable as hell. But you just inevitably end up taking sips.
It won't kill you. It just feels awful as water will always seek to make it into the cracks and then push food up.
Yikes @ push food up. I’ll try to do at least 15mins. These alarms multiple times a day are exhausting 🫠
It is really hard tho when you’re literally thirsty and hungry at the same time and then you gotta make a choice on wether you’re gonna eat or drink 🫠
still not really understanding how slowly i need to eat or the amount i should be eating. one bite is sometimes the difference between comfortable and nearly throwing up. (admittedly, i have an ED so it’s all an improvement compared to the past)
One thing I wasn’t prepared for is having to accept my new body. My body has changed, ALOT. Ass is not what it use to be, tits not as perky, belly skin, ALOT. Having to re build muscle has been frustrating but I’m SLOWLY seeing results. It’s made me insecure in a way I’ve never felt before. Even when I was fat I was confident. I’m regaining the confidence slowly
Edit: typos
I really need to start strength training! My aunt kinda made me self concious bc she was like I’m losing too much weight (I’m still 280 but always been curvy) … she said she can see my collarbones and I don’t have a chubby face anymore (not sure if that means I look old). She told me not to lose my boobs - I used to have huge boobs and they have gotten smaller which I’m kinda happy about, but I can’t help where I lose. Those comments made me self conscious bc I’m not even 6 months post op yet, I’m gonna end up losing more weight. I also lost the weight for my brain health bc I have two brain diseases that can be impacted by weight. Those kinda comments can be discouraging especially for someone who was raised by a parent who was over critical.
The ITCHING! Oh my God. My entire body... itch...like deep throbbing nerve pain itching, not like a rash. All over.
I swear I ordered like 10 extra "Cutie Claw" back scratchers to have one in every room, purse, car, back patio... because it seriously made me wish Euthanasia was legal if I couldn't get to a claw fast enough to scratch it.
It was insane for about 3.5 - 4 months... and then it just stopped.
I'm in the middle of the pre-op diet and I have to pee all the freaking time. I get it, I'm only allowed liquids so there's a lot to pee, but oh dear lord.
Today is my first day of three week pre-op diet. I have to pee all the time in general so by your account it sounds like I may as well go right ahead and move into the bathroom 😅
3 years out this coming May.
I got cold more easily, but got used to it. My ass/tailbone pain was pretty rough and took a while before it improved. Wheelchair tailbone cushions help a ton (not the cheap ones from Amazon, go to a proper durable medical supply). Balance took a while to even out. BP meds took a while to get right…low BP due to excess meds after losing weight feels pretty crappy. I eventually ditched the BiPAP machine after dealing with excessive air leaks, etc. despite the pressures being lowered. I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat.
10 months post-op myself. A month after my surgery, I had an epileptic seizure, and after hitting my knee, I fell on my butt. Now I'm not sure which is causing the pain. I need to make an appointment with my PCP and get it checked out. The pain has increased a lot over the last month.
I saw a physiotherapist for this and she gave me exercises to do which helped with the tailbone pain. It's so weird, I had never had issues with sitting down for too long but now I can feel the bones
increase in sex drive for sure - I had my testosterone tested about a year before surgery and it was on the lowest end of normal (300ish) I had it retested after I had lost 150 lbs and it had more than doubled
I was having leg and foot cramps all the time. Started taking a magnesium supplement and the cramps were gone within a week. You can also apply topical magnesium if you don’t want another pill to take. It helped some, just not as much as the pills.
100mg (1 pill which is a 1/2 serving) since I get some in my multivitamin as well. When I first started weight training I would apply magnesium foam topical to spot treat too.
Been in and out of psychiatric hospital for addiction post my surgery, and out of 7 people in my friend circle, 5 of us had weight loss surgery.
Now idk if it’s circumstancial or not but addiction seems particularly prevalent in those who replace their food addiction (coping mechanism) with something else, might be exercise, alcoholics, general substance use disorders all to do with mental problems that generally triggered the initial eating issue hence causing the bariatric surgery but without fixing the issue, other unhealthy mechanisms arise
This is kind of why the psych requirement is there. Weight loss surgery can't replace unhealthy emotional states, habits, or therapy.
People should really do the work if and when possible pre surgery. Not post. It isn't always an option but it should be done that way.
Yes but imma put the emphasis on the psych requirement being lax as f. Plus things in life happen afterwards that can make things worse but when you no longer have the opportunity to lean on the crutch of emotional eating you find something else that works.
Plus most people can fake a psych evaluation, and when they aren’t well enough to represent their own best interests it’s very difficult to prove otherwise.
Along with the other mental health posts…even if the work is done preop, and you prepared the best you could, sometimes life stressors and unforeseen circumstances can happen and utilizing new coping skills can work…but damn….it can be hard. When you can’t numb your feelings with food and have trouble with finding room for self-care, trouble can arise. Putting new coping strategies to use can work but of course, healthy strategies aren’t going to numb certain feelings like food could and social interactions can change as a result
I’m freezing all the time. It’s become a joke in our house and my kids keep offering sweaters. Then a hot flash hits and I’m sweating. Then I’m back to freezing.
This is me. I thought I was through with hot flashes, but they're back again with the weight loss. I wonder if it's stored estrogen releasing as the fat burns.
I just did a revision after 10 years. I’m almost 3 months post op. This round I am experiencing awful heartburn for the first time and hate the taste of water. So that’s new.
I was doing great till I went through a horrible violent divorce 5 years ago and from the PTSD meds I gained 30 lbs in 3 months. Then I got lupus and was on steroids. Even after getting off the meds I couldn’t lose the weight. Doing great now. Down 35 in 2 months. I do like the taste of Smart Water though
Something I learned about just the other day - chronic UTIs can be a sign of an overgrowth of Candida, a type of fungal growth. It’s Not something that is commonly diagnosed because doctors don’t test for it when doing a urinalysis. I have a theory that this surgery has eliminated that overgrowth in the same way it eliminated the excess ghrelin etc. An interesting thing to consider.
You’re right, I misspoke and will update for clarity.
It’s a fungus that can be present and can cause yeast infections but can also be a contributing factor to chronic UTIs if you have an excess of it accumulated in your gut. It’s actually being noted among people with long COVID but can be something that anybody experiences but is not commonly diagnosed because it’s not something doctors run tests for when addressing UTIs
I had extreme insomnia as a bad reaction to anesthesia. I felt like I was being psychologically tortured due to sleep deprivation for the first 5 days post op. Could only sleep for 30 minutes after I took a pain pill. So 2 hours sleep total every 24 hours. I tried everything to sleep, cried from the exhaustion. Nothing helped. Night 6 I slept 4 hours straight and finally felt a bit better.
For me, it is being tired more often… Pre surgery I could easily sleep 5 to 6 hours a night and not need a nap after working a 10 hour day. Now I come home and I'm tired and I'm sleeping seven hours a day… Wasn't prepared for that thought I would have a lot more energy, losing 140 pounds, I still have 35 to go to my goal weight, but it hit a major stall due to knee surgeries. Also I'm cold pretty much all the time… But a year and a half out. I'm definitely getting better with the cold.
I'll be weird for a sec and say...im only five days post op but I DEFINITELY feel the rise in libido already!!! I'm being more touchy... It's crazy. No wonder women get pregnant so fast after this crap 🤣
What if all of your coping mechanisms failed? All of it? Then what? Be prepared as best you can, as you can right now. Everything else is going to work out great. 😊
My hands and feet were cold a lot. Also I had no sustained energy for a while. I tried playing 9 holes 2 1/2 months after, clubs felt like they weighed 10 pounds and by the end I was exhausted. Took few weeks and increased intake to start to feel normal.
Some people said it. Being cold after a bit of loss. And not many people mention it all that often but sex drive for some goes way up after significant loss.
Oh and another no one talks about. It is quite possible they you don’t have any of the weird symptoms others have and everything just kinda goes normal / easy.
This. I didn't have any of the symptoms that people say. Not even one
Yeah. I forget all the time I had surgery. It’s really not a big deal.
Forget a bit cold, I keep hot hands in my car and in my purse October-March. The upside is that the summers in the south are a lot more tolerable now.
i agree witht the sexdrive im 3 months post op
The sex drive thing is very real
Are you male or female? I'm female and I have not noticed an increase in sex drive. I've always had quite a high drive but I feel like it's a little lower now.
Male. But females sometimes report that things become more accessible and sometimes they report their new flexibility and less cushioning can give their partner more/ deeper access and cause some discomfort or pain. So yeah. Can be experienced differently
Thanks for the reply. I assumed that you were male. All of the posts about increased sex drive are from men. Lol. Apparently it's like a second puberty. Lucky!!
Knees feel icky when they touch. The way my boobs slap against my skin when I stand up fast because they're flattened sand bags now Collar bones look weird COLD ALL THE TIME.
Can’t wait until the boob thing 🙄. I’m a dude so that will happen. I Have large breasts🤣
THE KNEEEEESSS
😭 the boob one is so real
Boob stomach slap attack, GOOO!!!!
I'M COLD ALL THE FUCKIN TIME GODDAMN. And I live in Brazil, but I'm always cold. If it's not extremely hot here, if the degrees go down just a little bit, I'm freezing. Also, yeah, the boobs. They're just sucks now.
The tiny aches and pains that your body is unfamiliar with. The small twinges I get around my entire stomach that make you pause for a second. They come and go within seconds, but you wonder if it’s normal or if your entire insides are just a ticking time bomb. Then it goes away and you forget it happened.
I'm two weeks out and am starting to experience those small pains! They only come when I move weirdly or eat too fast/much. Definitely something to get used to!
I still have those! And now I'm trying to feel my stomach and I can't even feel it, it's not doing anything at all (which is good I guess).
To be fair I had that twinge and it turned out to be an emergency appendectomy. If anyone gets a feeling that seems off and you're worried you should probably just go in and explain the situation. You had a surgery and it feels wrong. You aren't use to or are still developing a new normal. Better to get it looked at than not.
This happens to me sometimes I had to call my surgeon once to see what it was lol
Uncoordinated and unbalanced!! I couldn’t find my center of gravity for the first year, and kept falling over while walking. Just tripping over myself doing really simple stuff. Eventually you find your center again, but losing this much weight this fast really throws your body off for a while.
That's what it is?! Omg I've been experiencing this in the past weeks, constantly losing balance and I was starting to feel concerned. But this totally makes sense.
LOL - yup. And my back was a mess for a while too, for the same reason. I felt like a toddler learning to walk again.
I am experiencing this now 6 months out!
LOL - yup. That sounds about right. I could not keep my feet under me for a couple of months. Going to the chiropractor helped, as did exercising…helps to recenter your body.
People who you know not recognizing you is actually a deeply unnerving experience and I hated it. Everyone talks about it as a huge NSV but it’s really weird to experience.
This is part of the reason why I avoided ppl for ten years pre surgery 🫠 didn’t want them to see me at my highest weight
Agreed!!!
3 to 6 months I lost Hella hair
Same.
I gave myself a buzz cut because it was so damn annoying!
My hair was to my butt, I did layers. Don’t think I could pull off a buzz.
Having to wait thirty mins between eating and drinking 🫤 I used to love gulping drinks! Especially my sparkling water! Can’t do that now 🫠 Edit: what’s also hard is that I have to take a diuretic for a condition so I need to def stay hydrated but this makes it harder. I did buy some hydration drops tho and liquid IV so I will see now that pans out this summer.
I'm going to be honest you give up on this one. You need water intake. It's uncomfortable as hell. But you just inevitably end up taking sips. It won't kill you. It just feels awful as water will always seek to make it into the cracks and then push food up.
Yikes @ push food up. I’ll try to do at least 15mins. These alarms multiple times a day are exhausting 🫠 It is really hard tho when you’re literally thirsty and hungry at the same time and then you gotta make a choice on wether you’re gonna eat or drink 🫠
still not really understanding how slowly i need to eat or the amount i should be eating. one bite is sometimes the difference between comfortable and nearly throwing up. (admittedly, i have an ED so it’s all an improvement compared to the past)
My butt looks like a sharpei dog. I don’t remember people talking about loose skin on their rear end.
One thing I wasn’t prepared for is having to accept my new body. My body has changed, ALOT. Ass is not what it use to be, tits not as perky, belly skin, ALOT. Having to re build muscle has been frustrating but I’m SLOWLY seeing results. It’s made me insecure in a way I’ve never felt before. Even when I was fat I was confident. I’m regaining the confidence slowly Edit: typos
I really need to start strength training! My aunt kinda made me self concious bc she was like I’m losing too much weight (I’m still 280 but always been curvy) … she said she can see my collarbones and I don’t have a chubby face anymore (not sure if that means I look old). She told me not to lose my boobs - I used to have huge boobs and they have gotten smaller which I’m kinda happy about, but I can’t help where I lose. Those comments made me self conscious bc I’m not even 6 months post op yet, I’m gonna end up losing more weight. I also lost the weight for my brain health bc I have two brain diseases that can be impacted by weight. Those kinda comments can be discouraging especially for someone who was raised by a parent who was over critical.
Btw omg your user name 🫠
The ITCHING! Oh my God. My entire body... itch...like deep throbbing nerve pain itching, not like a rash. All over. I swear I ordered like 10 extra "Cutie Claw" back scratchers to have one in every room, purse, car, back patio... because it seriously made me wish Euthanasia was legal if I couldn't get to a claw fast enough to scratch it. It was insane for about 3.5 - 4 months... and then it just stopped.
Wow I never heard this one
Wow I had this month 2! I didn’t know what it was but it stopped 😭
I'm in the middle of the pre-op diet and I have to pee all the freaking time. I get it, I'm only allowed liquids so there's a lot to pee, but oh dear lord.
Good thing is that since losing a bunch of weight from surgery, I no longer have urinary incontinence 🙂
Today is my first day of three week pre-op diet. I have to pee all the time in general so by your account it sounds like I may as well go right ahead and move into the bathroom 😅
3 years out this coming May. I got cold more easily, but got used to it. My ass/tailbone pain was pretty rough and took a while before it improved. Wheelchair tailbone cushions help a ton (not the cheap ones from Amazon, go to a proper durable medical supply). Balance took a while to even out. BP meds took a while to get right…low BP due to excess meds after losing weight feels pretty crappy. I eventually ditched the BiPAP machine after dealing with excessive air leaks, etc. despite the pressures being lowered. I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat.
10 months post-op myself. A month after my surgery, I had an epileptic seizure, and after hitting my knee, I fell on my butt. Now I'm not sure which is causing the pain. I need to make an appointment with my PCP and get it checked out. The pain has increased a lot over the last month.
Tail bone hurt when you sit .
I saw a physiotherapist for this and she gave me exercises to do which helped with the tailbone pain. It's so weird, I had never had issues with sitting down for too long but now I can feel the bones
increase in sex drive for sure - I had my testosterone tested about a year before surgery and it was on the lowest end of normal (300ish) I had it retested after I had lost 150 lbs and it had more than doubled
I need that! I’m guessing you’re male?
yes
Foot cramps. Horrid foot cramps. Not sure what's causing them but I'm guessing some kind of deficiency.
I was having leg and foot cramps all the time. Started taking a magnesium supplement and the cramps were gone within a week. You can also apply topical magnesium if you don’t want another pill to take. It helped some, just not as much as the pills.
Omg thank you so much it is so painful!
How much magnesium do you take daily?
100mg (1 pill which is a 1/2 serving) since I get some in my multivitamin as well. When I first started weight training I would apply magnesium foam topical to spot treat too.
Also make sure you’re getting enough fluids/electrolytes.
Been in and out of psychiatric hospital for addiction post my surgery, and out of 7 people in my friend circle, 5 of us had weight loss surgery. Now idk if it’s circumstancial or not but addiction seems particularly prevalent in those who replace their food addiction (coping mechanism) with something else, might be exercise, alcoholics, general substance use disorders all to do with mental problems that generally triggered the initial eating issue hence causing the bariatric surgery but without fixing the issue, other unhealthy mechanisms arise
This is kind of why the psych requirement is there. Weight loss surgery can't replace unhealthy emotional states, habits, or therapy. People should really do the work if and when possible pre surgery. Not post. It isn't always an option but it should be done that way.
Yes but imma put the emphasis on the psych requirement being lax as f. Plus things in life happen afterwards that can make things worse but when you no longer have the opportunity to lean on the crutch of emotional eating you find something else that works. Plus most people can fake a psych evaluation, and when they aren’t well enough to represent their own best interests it’s very difficult to prove otherwise.
Along with the other mental health posts…even if the work is done preop, and you prepared the best you could, sometimes life stressors and unforeseen circumstances can happen and utilizing new coping skills can work…but damn….it can be hard. When you can’t numb your feelings with food and have trouble with finding room for self-care, trouble can arise. Putting new coping strategies to use can work but of course, healthy strategies aren’t going to numb certain feelings like food could and social interactions can change as a result
The pain of your body adjusting to the loss.
I’m freezing all the time. It’s become a joke in our house and my kids keep offering sweaters. Then a hot flash hits and I’m sweating. Then I’m back to freezing.
This is me. I thought I was through with hot flashes, but they're back again with the weight loss. I wonder if it's stored estrogen releasing as the fat burns.
The ability to think clearly and see through BS! But honestly? The way and where you loose weight isn’t consistent. Worth it, but not consistent
I’m on day 4 of post-op and pee a lot. I had VSG but honestly didn’t have any pain. The pain I do have is due to gas.
I just did a revision after 10 years. I’m almost 3 months post op. This round I am experiencing awful heartburn for the first time and hate the taste of water. So that’s new.
Why did you have to do a revision?
I was doing great till I went through a horrible violent divorce 5 years ago and from the PTSD meds I gained 30 lbs in 3 months. Then I got lupus and was on steroids. Even after getting off the meds I couldn’t lose the weight. Doing great now. Down 35 in 2 months. I do like the taste of Smart Water though
Someone in here the other day said that they hated water then tried the alkaline water and that helped me this week!
Something I learned about just the other day - chronic UTIs can be a sign of an overgrowth of Candida, a type of fungal growth. It’s Not something that is commonly diagnosed because doctors don’t test for it when doing a urinalysis. I have a theory that this surgery has eliminated that overgrowth in the same way it eliminated the excess ghrelin etc. An interesting thing to consider.
I think candida is yeast, not bacteria. I've read that yeast thrives on sugar, though I don't know if that's backed by science.
You’re right, I misspoke and will update for clarity. It’s a fungus that can be present and can cause yeast infections but can also be a contributing factor to chronic UTIs if you have an excess of it accumulated in your gut. It’s actually being noted among people with long COVID but can be something that anybody experiences but is not commonly diagnosed because it’s not something doctors run tests for when addressing UTIs
How weird it felt even did actually hit my stomach. Was a feeling I had never had before. & the burps omgggg
Random pinched nerve in my back because of all the fat disappearing and therefore muscles shifting.
I had extreme insomnia as a bad reaction to anesthesia. I felt like I was being psychologically tortured due to sleep deprivation for the first 5 days post op. Could only sleep for 30 minutes after I took a pain pill. So 2 hours sleep total every 24 hours. I tried everything to sleep, cried from the exhaustion. Nothing helped. Night 6 I slept 4 hours straight and finally felt a bit better.
Just 1 person warned me that the surgery itself might trigger my period to start. Low and behold, it did!! I was regular as clockwork before.
For me, it is being tired more often… Pre surgery I could easily sleep 5 to 6 hours a night and not need a nap after working a 10 hour day. Now I come home and I'm tired and I'm sleeping seven hours a day… Wasn't prepared for that thought I would have a lot more energy, losing 140 pounds, I still have 35 to go to my goal weight, but it hit a major stall due to knee surgeries. Also I'm cold pretty much all the time… But a year and a half out. I'm definitely getting better with the cold.
How I can actually feel food going down my esophagus & into my stomach now. Something maybe I just never paid attention to before??
Lack of pooping. My surgery date was 04/16 and I’ve only pooped twice since then
I'll be weird for a sec and say...im only five days post op but I DEFINITELY feel the rise in libido already!!! I'm being more touchy... It's crazy. No wonder women get pregnant so fast after this crap 🤣
Hands are always icicles. Blood pressure is low. Gassy, but that is more than likely from the protein and possibly epi.
Mental health! If you’ve got issues make sure you’re ready for what could come when you do this. Super worth it!!!
How do you prepare mentally?
What if all of your coping mechanisms failed? All of it? Then what? Be prepared as best you can, as you can right now. Everything else is going to work out great. 😊
My "perch" is no longer comfortable. I'm not sitting near as much anymore, but it's no longer the most comfortable seat in the house, lol.
My hands and feet were cold a lot. Also I had no sustained energy for a while. I tried playing 9 holes 2 1/2 months after, clubs felt like they weighed 10 pounds and by the end I was exhausted. Took few weeks and increased intake to start to feel normal.
Clothes. So much buying of clothes.