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I was sleeved on 5/24/21 and have lost 70 lbs. I still have at least 70 more to lose. The past two weeks I haven’t lost anything and my appetite has been ferocious! I’m meeting my protein goals of 80+grams, but find myself creeping up toward 1200+ calories a day, even when my surgeon and nutritionist recommended 800-1000. I’m not feeling as much restriction and find myself getting hungrier, especially as the day progresses and in the evening. I’m terrified that my body had met its “set point” or my sleeve has stopped working or stretched out. What gives? Please help this newbie out and tell me it will get better!

I'm experiencing a situation at work today. This skirt fit comfortably snug during my pre-op diet period (last time I wore it). Today? Well... I just began Week 5 today (sleeved 10/13). I have not lost anything on the scale since about 10 days out. That doesn't exactly bother me. I'll take a smaller body any day of the week! The rest can catch up when it's time.

Welcome BirdLady! My big tip: As tempting as it may be, don’t weigh yourself for at least 3 weeks after the surgery.

Hey all, first time posting here and I've been dealing with this for months now. I got the duodenal switch about 7 or 8 years ago when I was about 16. Crazy young I know, and to this day I still question that decision and probably always will because of my age. I've had a great experience as far as weight loss goes, but as I've gotten older I've gotten increasingly worried about malnutrition/deficiencies developing over time. I'm religious about my supplements, and I literally got my bloodwork done earlier this week so I'm good about that. However, the anxiety about potential deficiencies that I feel like might go undetected in bloodwork (for instance I know B12 tests can be inaccurate in detecting deficiencies) or that there might be a time that supplements become ineffective for me is becoming extremely difficult to bear, keeping me awake at night, causing anxiety attacks, making my life miserable, etc. All to the point where despite not technically being diagnosed with any deficiencies, it makes me regret the surgery and feel like I'm going to get severe side effects or die an early death because of this decision. My entire family has had the procedure and I'm the only one who really deals with this to this extent so it's difficult for me to cope. I have appointments with my primary care physician and plan on contacting my surgeon to discuss these risks more with him, but I have the feeling that this anxiety will persist as my anxiety causes me to have doubts about the ability of modern medical science to adequately monitor the effects of a procedure this radical. I realize that all of these concerns are likely what should have deterred me from the surgery in the first place, but at the time my family, medical team and myself thought it was a good decision. Tl;dr: having extreme health anxiety about longterm nutritional complications despite doing everything by the book and don't know what to do about it.

Congratulations in advance! Tips: Don’t buy too much in advance and absolutely never compare you’re progress to anyone else.

Not at all! I was busting a prevailing myth - clumsily, I realise. I apologise that it came off snippy (as I can see on a re-read)!

Here are my thoughts, I had a great experience- hope you do too. Good luck! How did your tummy feel after the surgery? Were you able to *feel* your stomach, internally due to the surgery? Couldn't feel it at all. But, I didn't want to use my "ab" muscles to sit up, so I kind of slid off the couch/bed and stood from there. That was probably more due to the incisions. • Did you have to have a drain? Nope, no drain. • How long did you have to be on clear fluids after the surgery? If so, what clear fluids did you have? - 3 days maybe? It was fine, I didn't want to eat. Pho soup was my savior, I found chicken broth and bone broth gross. Get plain pho broth from your local Vietnamese place, eventually I added plain protein powder to it. • Did you prefer cold, room temperature, or warm fluids? I didn't want very cold or very warm liquids, but soup was warm, protein drinks cold, water cold. It was fine. • Sipping. Just don't take big gulps or chug anything. Approx 2 tablespoons at a time would work. You need to drink, hydration is extremely important. Sometimes I would end up with a big gulp in my mouth accidentally and would just sort of hold it in my mouth and swallow small sips. • Something I read said you won't be able to drink anything for the first 24 hours and that fluids will be through the IV, is that true? I was allowed to drink (tea, water, soup, vitamin water zero). • How did you sleep in the first week? If you are a side sleeper, when were you able to finally sleep on your side? Sleep on your back, my pregnancy/Ushaped pillow helped. I only took the prescription painkillers at night & they knocked me out. I tried to be careful about it, probably slept on back for a month.

Oh yes. Most definitely don’t compare yourself to others. There are too many factors which influence our rate of loss: age, gender, staring weight, genetics, etc.. If you’re losing a couple of pounds a week on average you’re doing fine. As long as your weight loss trend is going down you’re golden & celebrate every pound & inch you lose. Don’t forget you likely will experience stalls along the way when you do t lose anything for a week or more. Watch keto. It’s very high fat & you may find your cholesterol levels are higher as your losing weight as it’s released from your fat. Better to look to low fat, low carb, low sugar high protein while you are losing. What plan did your surgeon & dietician give you? I’d avoid the popcorn too until you’re in maintenance. It’s very easy to overeat slider food. Congrats on your weight loss so far.

The "easy way out"? Bulls(p)it. Total bulls(p)it. It is not the easy way out. It is a TOOL that you are being given to teach yourself how to interact with food from now on. It doesn't last forever. A lot of people think "oh well you got your stomach stapled so of course you're gonna lose weight" without knowing that you can absolutely stretch that pouch out. Don't. Listen. To. Her. Mothers aren't always right. Do this for YOU, because you have an entire life to live. And when the weight is coming off you left and right and you're starting to ease back into the world, you'll have the best feeling in the world and it'll motivate you to keep going.

Your weight is basically meaningless for the first few weeks. You just went through a major surgery and your body is catching up with the changes! It is virtually impossible to gain actual body weight right after surgery (weight fluctuations of a few pounds are very normal and usually just related to water retention), so right now, you need to focus on healing and getting enough water and protein. You might even want to stay off the scale for a while so you don't stress out about it needlessly. A lot of people just weigh in once per week so they don't see those fluctuations. You're doing great -- just stick with your program and you'll keep losing.