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I didn't really get a chance to do this because my surgery date changed and I had to immediately start the pre-op diet. So the only thing I had was 2 slices of a really, really good pizza and a few wings. Oh, and a mixed drink! And that was it... I've found post op that I can still eat a lot of what I loved before with modifications. I can have pho, but without the rice noodles, the sweet little lady at our local shop makes it with veggies for me! I can have korean bbq (which is my favorite meal) but we order ala carte now instead of all-you-can-eat and have leftovers for days. I can have thai curries but I get them to go and put them on heart of palm noodles and have several meals of it. I can't have the carbs I used to have and some days I miss them, but not for too long. I do miss a pastry with my coffee, but I'm working on finding a few decent keto cookie recipes and I recently made keto banana nut chocolate chip muffins that were wicked good and scratched that itch... My partner loves to eat out so I've found a variety of ways to adapt what I get, how to optimize for things that will be good as leftovers, or how to get a smaller portion or leave off what I can't eat... Enjoy your katsu curry!! I do kind of miss that with a steaming bowl of rice... Mmmm...

I don't know about not losing weight AT ALL with a low calorie diet, but for most of us, the pattern before weight loss surgery was that we'd lose weight but then gain it all back within a few months. It's because you're fighting biology. Your hunger hormones, your gut biome - everything is fighting against you to get back to your previous weight. Weight loss surgery resets a lot of that. That's not to say you won't gain it all back. Some people let bad habits slip back in and take over. But as long as you watch that, the loss is "maintainable".

I feel you on that - I love chocolate! Snacks in general haha. I am a bit worried about still craving it all after surgery, but I hope I will have the same resolve as you!

That is an interesting thing that I hadn't considered - rather than just junk food, but the food that are just favourites! Makes me think of my mum's mac & cheese and some other dishes she makes! hmm... I am so glad you can eat your salads still! I imagine that helps a lot to still have something you really enjoyed pre-surgery!

I started having back pain after losing 50+ pounds and it lasted a couple months. In my case I started going to a chiropractor for adjustments. I was told as I lost weight, everything shifts and needs to be realigned. My body was used to carrying around over 300 pounds so it stands to reason that my back, hips etc would be out of whack. I also had shooting pains down both legs when I did my daily 2-3 mile walks. It scared me. My chiro worked on those as well. Pinched nerves from being overweight and sedentary sitting. I was waking them up with exercise. I pushed through it all and after about 3 months of adjustments and additional weight loss, my pain is gone. All of it. You mentioned having physical therapy. Not sure if that included any chiropractic help but it might be worth a try. It sure helped me and hoping the same for you.

I totally get it! I am 2 weeks post op and I am only down 2 pounds from what I weighed the day before surgery. It's hard to say if it's a stall after dropping 15lbs rapidly on the preop diet, or if it's because I had so much fluid weight coming home from two days on an IV. But it messes with your mind, either way. It's easy to panic and think this is it, it's not going to work. But the truth is, stalls will break when they're good and ready to break. All you can do is keep working on living the healthy lifestyle you want to live and give yourself a break when you fall short of it. You can't expect to be perfect every minute, but I do think if you beat yourself up about it, you reinforce the idea that you will fail, and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy where you're more likely to give in to temptation again next time because you're feeling demoralized from all the negative self talk. 2 dress sizes down is amazing!

You are right! I shouldn’t stop this negativity I’m giving myself. I’ve been trying so hard to eat what’s my nutrition handbook for the past 5 months. I guess that’s why I’m craving so much other food. I also suspect because I’m in a stall, my body is sending out signal to creat my head hunger. This is my 2nd stall post op and it’s getting harder to break. Changing habit is not easy and my previous life style is not healthy. I loooove food and I believe I am a good cook… I was scared that I will go back to how I eat previously. The root problem is that I need to change my habit and my food choice, and it’s hard. I failed at my first sleeve surgery, and got the bypass now, which it still make me feel horrible. The thoughts of failing again got the best of me. I should be happy I loss 43lbs, and 2 size down on my dress size!

I didn't have a formal list, but about a week or two before I started the liquid diet, I did make some plans to go out to eat at favorite restaurants. I ordered a particularly rich meal at a local Italian place that I love, and at one place I split a bunch of appetizers (all fried, naturally). I also had a couple of big breakfasts at diners because I love diner food. Oh, and I accidentally ordered a Wendy's Baconator hamburger, which is three meat patties and a ton of bacon. I say accidentally because I'm not a person who goes to Wendy's on the regular, so I had no idea of the menu and had to make a quick decision because I was in the drive-thru. A burger with bacon sounded nice. I had no idea it was the size of a house! It was the only thing I ate all day, but I was laughing when I unwrapped it because I knew I would not be ordering another of these in the future! My only advice is not to let your "last meal" turn into a month of "last meals." Allow yourself a limited amount of time. You can do a lot of damage in a month!

Love, love, love this advice!! I can personally tell you that you are 100% correct. I was not drinking enough water (i was relying on Coke Zero) which i know actually dehydrates you. I also got into the bad habit of staying up way too late on my phone while watching Netflix so I was not getting enough sleep. My weigh loss stalled. I have now been drinking a lot more water and making sure i get between 7.5- 8 hours of sleep a night. By doing this i have broken the very long stall/very slow weight loss!! I know this is common knowledge about getting enough water/sleep, I just got into very bad habits for a while. I had my surgery 4/12/23 and have lost 82 lbs so i am doing good, but i knew i could do better!

I actually did the math and took it to my surgeons office asking exactly how did they expect me to do it!? I further explained I'd have to drink right up to bedtime and sleep was just as important in the healing process, so if I drank just before bed..I'd be getting up several times in the night. I was told they "know right out of surgery there is no way to get in the entire water requirement." They just want you to try. My math (basic because I suck at math): Average "day" (excluding time for activities you can't be actively drinking water i.e. driving, showering, different tasks at work): 12 hours No drinking water 30 mins before and after and during a meal: 90 mins+- 90 x 3= 270/60 = 4.5 hours per day you aren't allowed to drink 12 hrs a day +- - 4.5 can't drink. = Leaves you 7.5 hours to get down 60+-oz each day 7.5 hours to get down 60oz each day @ 2oz. max each "drink" = .12 to get your sip in. In other words not real easy or possible if you also add nauseous! This isn't taking into consideration snacks (which I didn't do and still don't). Needless to say they found me funny. I wasn't going for "funny!" Said they'd never had a patient break it down before. I told them I'm a Histologist who manages a laboratory measuring in microns/millimeters/centimeters etc. everyday what did they expect?.. Perhaps they should have done the math before asking patients to do something! I asked who has time for that!? That's when they said to work up to it, its not expected for awhile, to just try..its a goal to shoot for. Eventually you'll be able too. So no worries, just do the best you can! 😆