James Marusek

The most important elements of the program are meeting your Protein, Vitamin and Fluid requirements. In the beginning food is relatively unimportant. This is because your body is converting stored fats into the energy that drives your body. Thus you lose weight. So in terms of meals, my surgeon recommended 3 meals per day. But the volume of food in the beginning is incredibly small, only a 1/4 cup per meal. Making the transition to solid foods can be rough. I basically relied on softer foods such as home made high protein Soups and chili. They went down easy and had lots of flavor. I have included some recipes in a short article I wrote about my experience. http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/Surgery.pdf

Congratulations on your weight loss thus far. I think what you were trying to say was that you lost 25 pounds post-op and 15 pounds pre-op. At the 4 weeks post-op RNY, those figures sound about normal.

Weight loss is in the Weight Loss phase after surgery is due to portion control. In the beginning you are restricted to 1/4 cup per meal. If you want to gain the full benefits from surgery, you should try and restrict yourself to that amount. Your body will handle solid food different than liquids. I suspect once you get into the solid phase you may find overeating to be a little painful. After surgery the most important elements are meeting your daily Protein, Vitamin and Fluid requirements. Food is secondary because your body is converting stored fat into the energy that drives your body. Thus you lose weight.

Some patients develop strictures which cause the symptoms you are describing. One of the ways to detect this problem is with an EGD test. So it looks like you are following the right path. http://alohasurgery.com/strictures/

If you are almost positive you don't meet clinical criteria for night eating syndrome then I wouldn't worry about it. It sounds like you are too stressed out already. I remember there were times prior to surgery when I would raid the food cabinets in the middle of the night. I am 29 months post-op RNY gastric bypass surgery and I do not feel the urge to do that anymore. I wouldn't go to the extreme of buying cupboard locks at this time, just focus on the requirements for surgery.

In the "Weight Loss" phase after RNY gastric bypass surgery, weight loss is achieved by portion control. You begin with an incredibly small portion of 2 ounces per meal (or 1/4 cup) and eventually after 18 months work your way up to 1 cup per meal. In the beginning I was consuming 3 Protein shakes per day. I concentrated on consuming high protein meals and as time went on I was able to drop off one of the Protein Shakes and then another. But I wasn't able to get off all the protein shakes until I hit 1 cup per meal. At 15 days post op, the most important (essential) elements of the program are meeting your daily protein, Fluid and Vitamin requirements. food is secondary because your body is converting stored fat into the energy that drives your body. Thus you lose weight.

Good luck on your surgery. As far as liquids all I remember was ice chips.

Congratulations.

It seems like I was losing at a 2 pound per day rate for a couple weeks and then it slowed down. It is funny first you worry that you are losing weight too fast then you hit a period of not losing weight for a week or two and then you worry about that. I guess the best advice is just don't worry.

I think I went through that stage. It was even more interesting for me because I sleep on a Water bed. It was really difficult to get out of bed in the early days after surgery.

I was told no sugar and no alcohol but sugar alcohol is an artificial sweetener and as far as I know it is O.K. There are several different types of sugar alcohols. Some can cause diarrhea if taken to excess. An example is sugar free gummie bears. Sugar free pudding was on my list of acceptable foods from the very beginning of the program.

I found out that soft foods (chili & soups) work best for me. I included some recipes in a short article that I wrote. http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/Surgery.pdf

It might be reactive hypoglycemia. http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/diabetes/expert-answers/reactive-hypoglycemia/faq-20057778

I had RNY gastric bypass surgery. The recommended dose after surgery was 500 to 1000 micrograms sublingual B12 daily. It must be methylcobalamin. I found a bottle of 2500 microgram (mcg) B12. I break these in half, so my daily does is around 1250 mcg. Since the bottle contained 200 tablets. One bottle was more than a years supply. I have no idea what dosage they wish you to take pre-surgery. You doctor or nutritionist should have specified a dosage range.

Welcome and good luck on your upcoming surgery. Let us know if you have any questions or need any help.

There are 2 different phases to weight loss surgery. These are "Weight Loss" phase and the "Maintenance" phase. The approach on these 2 phases are different. I had RNY surgery 29 months ago. This short article describes the strategy that I used for each phase. http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/Surgery2.pdf

I am 29 months post-op RNY. I purchased a set of measuring cups with the full range of sizes for my different meal volume stages post-op. Since I choose to eat primarily Soups and chili, it was easy to measure the exact size I needed for each meal. I still use them today. I also purchased a small metal spoon which I use when I eat soups and chili.

My vitamin D levels were within the acceptable range both before and after I reduced my level of Citrical according to my blood tests. When I was taking 6 Citrical's per day, my Calcium levels were 10.2 which was barely within the acceptable range of 8.6-10.3 mg/dL. Then when I dropped down to 4 Citrical's per day, my PTH Intact (another measure of calcium) changed to 72.7 which was out of the acceptable range of 7.5-53.5 pg/mL. The PTH level was high which indicates low levels of bone calcium.

Congratulations on the results of your follow up meeting. After I lost a lot of weight, some individuals mentioned that I was very skinny or extremely thin. My wife made comments that I looked like someone from the death camps at Auschwitz. Well this was not the case. I was in no way that emaciated or starving or extremely thin. It was just that I looked that way. One of the strange effects of weight loss was in the shoulders. After weight loss all my jackets, coats no longer fit. The sleeves of my jackets now hung down to my fingertips which gave me a look like the character Dopey in Snow White. Most times when you think of weight loss you think about waistline. You don't think about the distance from shoulder to shoulder. Long story short, I bought some new suits and sports jackets and I now look just right.

With RNY gastric bypass surgery, my body no longer synthesizes calcium from food. I know because I cut back from 6 Citricals per day down to 4 and they caught me. My blood work showed I was deficient and my nutritionist recommended I increase it back to 5 per day. I suspect this may not be the same for sleeve patients. You may have significantly more latitude.

Back in March I posted on this subject. http://www.bariatricpal.com/topic/335398-calcium-supplements/

The closet of old clothes was just dragging me down. Got rid of them all. Good riddance! I have been in maintenance mode for around 2 years now and if anything I am still losing a little rather than gaining a little.

I am 29 months post-op from RNY gastric bypass surgery. I had severe acid reflux (Gerd) prior to surgery and that is why I went that route. I lost my weight very quickly in about 6 or 7 months. From what I read WLS (weight loss surgery) will make you more fertile. Generally they recommend that you do not get pregnant after surgery until at least 12-18 months following surgery. Low caloric intake cannot support a pregnancy.

Welcome and let us know if we can be of any help. Try to get about a half hour per day of walking. It will help the recovery process go smoother. Also if you are drinking caffeine, cut that out now. When I went cold turkey on my 6 diet coke a day habit, I suffered for a week with withdrawal syndrome. It is best to get that over with now so that it does not compound with the effects of recovering from the surgery.

It can always be a little hard in the beginning. Your body is in a heal mode. The most important elements in the beginning is working towards meeting you daily Protein, Fluid and Vitamin requirements. food is secondary because your body is converting stored fat into the energy that drives your body.