Howdy!
I meant to do this update shortly after surgery, but then I forgot... Figured now that it is the New Year and people will be starting their journey, now would be a good time to share my story! Here is the link to my initial post from about a year ago. , for those who are interested in how the weight was lost I would recommend going to this one - this post will be more focused on maintaining, gym, and the surgery. I'm going to go through what I've learned, how I feel about the whole process, etc.
Here are the photos for those who don't want to read a novel -
Before/After (Was around 280 in bottom left photo)
Pics During Surgery (Very NSFW/NSFL)
Post-Surgery Recovery
Better Comparison of Before and After Surgery
Here's my Instagram if anyone wants to follow further progress or get pictures of my adorable cat.
As I was losing the weight a lot of what I was hearing were the horror stories of people who just gained the weight right back and I was (and still am) determined to not let that happen.
About a week after my initial post I started with a personal trainer to work on slowly gaining weight so I could put on muscle, fill out the frame, and most importantly get all my hormones back in order. I was taking in just over 3100 kCals a day, which when I started I thought to myself "Psh, I used to weigh almost 400 pounds this'll be easy af", however, doing it in clean foods was uh, not fun. Diet was mainly eggs/bread/rice/chicken/lean beef/rice/potatoes with some veggies as well as fruit (usually pre-workout) to get my micros (Get your fiber in people, your booty will thank you). After about 2.5 months of forcing myself to eat, I decided I wasn't really feeling the whole bulking thing and decided to just chill at 190, enjoy myself, and slowly lean out at that weight (what is usually referred to as recomping) After 11ish months I'm still solidly at 190, all my lifts have skyrocketed (Yay newbie Gainz!), and I'm still going strong.
Maintaining for me was by far easier than dropping the weight (especially now my hormones are back to normal). Whenever someone asks how I lost the weight, their diet never works, they can't keep the weight off, etc, my response is always the same - You will not be able to lose weight, especially sustain the weight loss, if you do not enjoy what you eat! Eat in a deficit and you will 100% be able to lose the weight and keep it off. If you are dieting, that always will have the connotation that it is short term or at the very least has an end date. This will sound extremely cliché, but true change WILL require a change in lifestyle. I don't mean completely change who you are, most of my time outside work is still spent playing WoW or LoL, however 2-2.5hrs that were spent there are now spent at the gym, and I eat better foods.
As far as gym goes, I'm hooked. I started a PPL Split (Push-Pull-Legs) back in March and love it. I go in the Pull-Push-Legs order starting Monday, and Sunday is my day for cardio (as well as a couple days throughout the week, usually have 3 a week). My current max's are 200 for Bench, 265 for Squat, and 315x2 for Deadlift).
Now the one most are probably curious about, surgery! Procedure I had done is a Lower Body Lift, this one goes all the way around (they remove skin on front and pull it down, remove on bakc and pull it up). This is considering cosmetic, and not covered under insurance. Total cost including surgeon, hospital fees, anesthesia, etc. came out to just under 13k USD. It is a VERY long procedure, mine was about 6 hours. The main factor in how long recovery will be is whether or not muscle tightening is needed. This is them literally suturing your abs back into place, when you get very overweight, or especially in pregnant women, your abs kinda spread out towards the side. If this isn't corrected it will leave a little bump in the missing space and doesn't really give the result one wants when getting this procedure done. If this is done, I was told the recovery time is 6 months. That's 6 months of no lifting of any kind. However, luckily for me the way I carried my weight, I did not need to get this done and my recovery was just over 4 weeks to get back in the gym.
As far as the surgery recovery actually goes it wasn't too bad, however, keep in mind I did not have muscle tightening done and that is supposed to be bringer of pain for lack of a better term. For me, the worst of the pain was my back, by FAR. After surgery, since your skin was just yoinked down, you are hunched over for about two weeks. The first six days I was severely hunched over 24/7, even while sitting and sleeping, so you can imagine my back wasn't all to happy about it. After about a week my surgeon told me to start working on stranding up straight, and at about the 2 week mark I was standing straight, and 3 weeks I could lay flat.
The whole surgery process was for sure not fun, like at all, however it was 100% worth it in my opinion. The confidence boost I got was insane, as well as the comfort of not having to deal with all the 3xtra skin at my waistband. I still have a little left on my THICC thighs as well as my upper abdomen, chest, and arms. My chest and arms I should be able to fill out as I get more muscle, however the upper abdomen will have to wait and see.
My apologies for the novel, if ANYONE has any questions about anything, the weight loss process, gym, surgery, maintaining, please don't hesitate to ask me! Fele free to dm me here or on Instagram. Keep in mind, I do work nights so I sleep during the day, so if I don't answer right away don't worry, I will do my absolute best to answer all questions.
