Matt Z

Congrats and Good Luck!

It's very common, a quick search will generate more posts than you can shake a stick at. Are you following your doctor/nutritionist's plans? If so, then you are doing everything you should be. If not... then you really should be following their plan. Make sure your water is upwards of 128oz a day, make sure your calorie count is high enough to support your exercising otherwise you can force your body into conservation mode. Less isn't always more.

Call and see if you can get your diet adjusted. On mine, I was allowed all the celery I wanted, which sucked and was helpful at the same time.

Even the RNY has had changes since it's inception, but mainly due to improvements in medical equipment. I'm sure those same changes effected the sleeve as well.

Not really new... reports and studies have shown RNY has a slightly higher set of numbers than the sleeve for a while now in regards to losses and % kept off after X time has past.

I had no issues with changes in smell. My injections were ALL in my stomach, we were told this well before surgery, bypass patients had to do 2 a day for 7 days.

Does your pre-op diet say you can? Did you ask your doctor? I'm going to go with "NO" on all accounts, including answering your question about being able to drink it pre-op. Pre-op is when you REALLY want to work on getting out of bad habits and wrangling in those bs cravings.

Whey Isolate and Milk Protein Concentrate are not the same, not exactly. They are both derived from milk, just the process is different. Whey Isolate as most or all of the lactose removed from it, Concentrates do not.

Yes this is normal, you just had invasive abdominal surgery LOL

I wouldn't worry, have you started eating differently / transitioning to normal foods? If so, this will cause this. As long as you are tracking your intakes and you are consuming less calories than you are burning per day, AND you are getting PLENTY of water (upwards of 128oz minimum) then you'll be fine. Fluctuations happen, stalls happen, gains happen. Just stay on course and you'll be fine. You have not failed. Unless you are eating all sorts of crap and aren't trying, then you haven't failed at all.

That's counter intuitive, when you are working out, you need MORE calories to support the workout. Less is really doing to drive your body into conservation mode. Most doctors and research I've seen has shown that a modest increase in calories can actually help with weight loss.

Just remember those that start off at a lower weight, don't lose as much or as fast as those that start with a much higher weight. You went from 93-80 KG (205.03 LBS to 176.37 LBS) that's a pretty decent drop, that's a 13.97% drop in body weight. That's not something to scoff at. Your calorie and water intake is kinda low. You really want to be closer to 3-4 liters of water a day and 1000 calories a day this far out from surgery. What's your doctors saying about your intakes?

I get it, the pay to play thing does really help limit the "only here for a hook up" folks. They usually have trial periods so you can get in, start things off and see if it's worth it before committing to paying for it. Get yourself tinder and start playing around, you don't have to actually hook up with anyone, but when you start matching with people, and realizing that means they like you and are interested, it really does help to boost self esteem. Seeing other people have an interest can be quite empowering.

What amounts of water and protein are you getting each day? What's your starting weight, Height, Age, ETC required to find out your BMI? Are you tracking your intakes? What is your average caloric intake per day?

This is what's going to be harder. The "scene" these days is much different. Have you tried any of the dating services that are a bit more... professional? Something like Match or eHarmony where the idea is more about soul mate matches than hookups. But... hookups are a great place to start getting that confidence back... no judgement here.

This is the biggest myth going around with protein, it's false and there is plenty of information online about why it's false. Info here including links to study's showing the absorption cap is a myth. https://www.muscleforlife.com/the-truth-about-protein-absorption-how-often-you-should-eat-protein-to-build-muscle/

The patches are a very hot subject around these parts. Very divided group with this topic. I'm Curious why are you only using the patches for 30 days?

Dating is easy.... just be yourself. That's really all there is to it. It's when folks start trying to be more than who they really are to impress people that things get harder. Just be yourself and don't stress over people that don't respond to that, the whole idea is to find people that WANT to be with you, not those that want to be with the fake persona they have been exposed to. Good luck! And remember, always be honest and always be yourself.

Thank you very much! You are looking a floral as ever! LOL

Did your doctor tell you that a very common side effect of the sleeve is GERD/acid reflux issues? If you have GERD or acid reflux issues now, the sleeve generally makes it worse. Post WLS, odds are there are going to be some foods you can no longer eat. Even if only for a little while. I've come to find that so far, 99% of the foods I try, I have no issues with, including the ones I wish I did have issues with... I don't seem to get any dumping with any foods at this point. Which makes working with the surgery a bit harder, because it's back to that mental fortitude in order to not eat **** food.

No doctor is going to reverse any WLS simply because a patient can't eat what they want to, it would ONLY be reversed due to a complication that would warrant it. Your stomach doesn't absorb nutrients, that's the job of the intestines, which is why the Bypass folks have the malabsorption and the sleeved folks don't, there are plenty of sleeved folks that, once they get into their proper eating schedule, don't need any extra nutrition because everything is provided by the food they eat. Bypass patients generally will need vitamin supplementation for the rest of their lives.

The sleeve doesn't require much added vitamins, because there isn't any malabsorption going on. So don't worry too much about that, when you are afraid of the change, just ask yourself this, whats going to happen to you if you don't make any changes? I know for me, when I was a stones throw from 400, I knew not doing the surgery was going to kill me. When I was revised from the band to the bypass, not having the surgery was the bigger risk. Weight loss gets harder and harder as we age. You need to sit down and write out a full pro/con list. Because with the sleeve, a large portion of your stomach is going to be removed and thrown away. There is NO going back from the sleeve. The bypass is more reversible than the sleeve is, because the bypass, you get rerouted, but nothing is removed and the bypass is only reversed in very rare instances. Something else to think about as well.

My surgery date is listed in my callout. I had Band to RYN Revision on March 21st of this year. I'm having all the normal typical labs drawn, and my levels have (for the most part) stayed within the normal range. My only dip was in Vitamin D, because of where I live and my job, I don't see a lot of sunlight ever. So I've been supplementing that, but everything else is good, even was taken off of extra B12 because the patch has been providing the levels I need. My surgeon, PCP, the hospitals lead nurse and lead pharmacist all approved my testing of the patches as they haven't seen them ever. But, 3 month labs were all good, 6 months labs were all good. Been on the patches for 7+ months. Not sure who had issues or why with your groups, could be patch placement (you need a hairless, thinner skin placement area), could be patch wear length (you *HAVE* to wear them for 8+ hours) It's funny, there's another member around here that is against the patches and always says you can't tell if they work because vitamins won't drop within 3 months, yet you've got reports that folks had their levels drop within 2. Just amused at the differences all over the place with WLS.

I kept things pretty quiet moving into the surgery, not really out of necessity, just not something that I needed to broadcast. I told a select few people for one reason or another, but for the most part I kept pretty mum about the process until it was official, then once I started my pre-op, I let the rest of my friend base know what was going on.

Quinoa is a grain and it's massively high in fiber, most issues I've seen or read about were caused by the extra fiber, or the coating on the grain itself. Proper hydration and cleaning of the seeds should resolve these issues. I haven't had any issues eating it.