James Marusek

At one week post-op you are going to be very sore. Most of what you will have to deal with is the complexity of the program requirements. Taking your Vitamins spaced out throughout the day and being unable to swallow even medium size pills. Getting in your Protein from Protein shakes. Drinking fluids. For me one of the worst requirements was the blood thinner shots. You will not even be able to drive until you are off the narcotic pain medicines. If you have the latitude, I would give myself 2 weeks.

My directions had a sheet that said "To Maximize Weight Loss The Following Foods Should Be Avoided". One of the foods listed was Nuts. There are 2 phases after weight loss surgery. These are the "Weight Loss" phase and the "Maintenance" phase. I am 28 months post-op from RNY surgery. I was in the "Weight Loss" phase for about 6-7 months. The length of this phase will vary by individual. It is not a good idea to eat nuts until you reach the "Maintenance" phase. It is probably a good idea to exclude nuts from your diet for the first year after surgery, then you can begin to reintegrate them back into your diet.

After surgery it was difficult to sleep. I found that slipping a pillow between my legs at night helped. Also after losing weight, my extra padding was gone so that when I sat in a chair or in a car for a while it became somewhat painful. I am now using a gel cushion (from Bed Bath and Beyond) and it works fairly well.

I will pray that your surgery is successful and your recovery swift.

Good luck on your future surgery. Let us know if we can be of any help.

Walk, walk, walk - about 30 minutes per day. It will make the recovery go smoothly. Cut out caffeine now. I experienced around a week of withdrawal syndrome (severe headaches/body aches) when I went cold turkey. You do not want to compound this with the effects of surgery.

I had severe acid reflux for a couple years prior to surgery. I had RNY 28 months ago. I experienced no incidents of reflux after surgery.

Good luck on your surgery tomorrow and let us know how it went after you return home.

Good luck on your surgery tomorrow and keep in touch.

After surgery my taste buds changed dramatically. I found that I could not even drink the Water in the hospital because of a very strong taste of chlorine. Crystal Lite was something that I relied on for my Fluid requirements for the first year. After that I expanded to good English teas, coffee and no sugar added Cocoa.

It sounds like you already found a good Protein shake that is agreeable to your system. One of the problems that I experienced after surgery was that I became lactose intolerant for about 2 months after surgery. So anytime I drank milk, I had immediate pain in my stomach and then diarrhea. So it sounds like you are lucky at least in this area.

Ketostick! Why are you focused on ketosis? Yes you are probably in ketosis but that's probably good. After surgery, the most important requirements (critical requirements) are meeting your daily Protein, Fluid and Vitamin requirements. food is secondary. This is because your body is converting your stored fat into the energy that drives your body. Thus you lose weight. Don't worry you will not die of starvation. After surgery your body will be in a major heal mode. It is common for people to be unable to meet their daily requirements during the first few days after surgery. But you should keep trying and you will get there. Protein is very important. Normally this requirement is met by consuming Protein shakes. They taste terrible but it is important to find one that you can tolerate. So experiment. For me I found that Muscle Milk Light (vanilla Creme) powder blended with Water worked well.

Congratulations and good luck on your surgery. Let us know if we can be of any help.

Sleeve patients loose weight at a slower rate than RNY gastric bypass patients. They also seem to experience a plateau more often. [Although a 6 month plateau seems extreme.] I am 28 months post-op RNY and lost most of my weight during the first 6 or 7 months and then leveled off. A sleeve patient might expect to lose weight over the entire first year or even more. I would look closely at how you are meeting the program requirements and see where you might be falling short. Weight loss is generally achieved through portion control and the avoidance of grazing.

Your Protein requirement is a combination of the amount of protein you obtain from meals combined with the amount of protein from supplements. At 6 months your meal volume has increased to the point that if you consume high protein meals you can reduce the number of Protein shakes that you need to consume each day in order to meet your goals. I have provided some discussion in the following linked article. http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/Surgery.pdf

Protein shakes taste terrible. But protein is necessary - essential to the program. The important thing is finding a Protein shake that you can tolerate. As your meal volume increases, you have the option of reducing the amount of Protein Shakes that you consume each day. Your protein requirement is a combination of the amount of protein you consume from meals combined with the amount of protein you obtain from supplements (protein shakes and protein bars). This is provided that you concentrate on eating high protein meals. This option does not become available at 3 weeks or even 6 weeks but closer to 3 months when your meal volume has increased significantly. I put some discussion on this subject in a short article at http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/Surgery.pdf

I am 28 months post-op RNY. The approach that I use I put in a short article. Here is a link. http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/Surgery2.pdf

I had RNY surgery 28 months ago. Some individuals have surgery and gain some or all of their weight back. I wanted to know why. My nutritionist said this was caused by "grazing" - eating Snacks throughout the day in place of full meals. I ran across some research that seems to back up this hypothesis. The researchers, publishing in Cell Metabolism, created a free app and asked volunteers (from the general population) to snap a photo of everything they ate. The app then records the photo, with a time and date stamp, and sends the data to researchers. The study’s overall goal was to look at the time span between the first meal of the day and final meal, to learn about people’s eating habits. The results showed that the majority eat over a 15-hour period each day. Some research suggests that limiting the “eating window” to 10-12 hours per day may contribute to weight loss. Their sample size was small, but of their volunteers interested in weight loss researchers set the app to help them restrict food intake to a 10-hour window. Without changing the types of food they were eating over 13 weeks, this volunteer group lost an average of 3.5 percent of their initial weight per person. http://acsh.org/2015/09/picture-this-a-food-app-that-could-improve-public-health/

I had a RNY 28 months ago. I lost a lot of weight very quickly. At 6 or 7 months I leveled off. At the end of the Weight Loss phase, I was totally unable to wear any of my clothes. I gave them all away. My wife is a seamstress and it was not worth the effort to tailor them. On the other hand, I am a great shopper. I generally buy clothes at a 70-80% discount and I love to shop. This gave me the opportunity to buy the latest fashions for a completely new wardrobe. It was fun. I could shop at normal department stores again. On the journey down you will need only one or two sets of clothes. I would buy a pair of pants that I could barely fit into (provided I took a deep breath) then a week later it would fit like a glove. It was a great incentive (a NSV - non scale victory).

Bring them into the process. Educate them on why you are undergoing surgery, the risks involved, the benefits. Make them part of the solution. They will have many fears and you need to put that to bed (resolve). They will need to perform a greater amount of the work that you normally perform until you are back on your feet. If you attend bariatric surgery meetings pre and post op, you might even bring you 15 year old with you when you attend one of these meetings.

Thank you! Believe me I will... I was actually wondering about the liquid diet that I would have to do before and I guess after too lol what all does that include? (I know it may sound like a stupid question) but does that mean only shakes and Water or could we have soups too? The pre-op diet will vary by surgeon. For me I believe my surgeon did not even require it. I had lost 20 pounds through a 6 month dieting and exercising program pre-op. By losing a little weight prior to surgery, it give the surgeon room to work inside my body. In my case, my only directions were to eat or drink nothing for 8 hours prior to surgery except for sips of water up to 4 hours prior to surgery time. Some surgeons request a 2 week liver shrink diet. Your stomach is located just to your left of your liver. To access your stomach for most bariatric procedures, your surgeon will use a liver retractor. This is a device that lifts the liver up and out of the way so your surgeon can safely operate on the stomach without the liver getting in the way. your liver can very quickly shrink in size if a strict 2 week pre-op diet is followed. This makes your surgery safer, and you healthier. Most 2 week pre-op diets recommend: Increase your Protein consumption Eat lean meats Lower your carbohydrate consumption Avoid breads, Pasta, cereals, rice, etc. Eliminate Sugars Eliminate candy, Desserts, juices, sodas For me a liquid diet was post-op. 4 Weeks following surgery - full liquid diet (full liquids are foods that have a semi-solid or pudding like consistency) Weeks 5-8 pureed Foods Weeks 9 and beyond Solid Foods You should be given a detailed list prior to surgery of all food groups and volumes that you can consume at the various stages after surgery. Some of the foods recommended in the Full Liquid Diet are Cream of Wheat, Cream of Rice, oatmeal, Farina, Instant Mashed Potatoes, Unsweetened Apple Sauce, sugar free Pudding, Low Fat Yogurt, Low Fat Cottage cheese and Beans.

There are different types of weight loss surgery. One very common type of gastric bypass surgery is called Roux-En-Y Gastric Bypass or RNY for short. Another type is called the sleeve.

I use Protein bars such as Quest bars when I am on the go to supplement my protein. When I eat out I try and find something on the menu that contains protein and low on carbs. I use chili at Wendy's, crunchy tacos at Taco Bell, and several types of Soups. I am 28 months post-op RNY so I have a little more latitude. Generally they wish you to avoid fast food restaurants for at least the first year.

Things to do: * Start attending Bariatric Surgery Support Group meetings. They are generally monthly and free. * Experiment with various Protein shakes. I found "Muscle Milk Light" Protein powder (vanilla Creme) to be good. I also recommend getting a blender (Ninja with single serving size mixing cup) to mix the powder. Realize that your taste buds may dramatically change right after surgery so this initial research may need further experimentation after surgery. * Give up caffeine. When I went cold turkey, I suffered a week of withdrawal syndrome (severe headaches, body aches). You do not want to compound the effects of surgery with the affects of this withdrawal. * Give up all carbonated beverages. I lost 20 pounds on this change alone during pre-op. * Walk 30 minutes every day. It will make the recovery process go a lot smoother and you will feel a lot less pain and soreness. * A few weeks before surgery, they should give you a day long class that will include vast amounts of detail on program requirements. It is very overwhelming. * After surgery the most critical requirements of the program are meeting the daily protein, Fluid and Vitamin requirements. food is secondary. Your body will be converting stored fat into the energy that drives your body - thus you will lose weight. I had RNY surgery and one of the surprises was that after surgery I completely lost my hunger. It was not difficult to lost the weight when hunger was not constantly, continuously gnawing at my bones.

Welcome and good luck on your surgery. I am 28 months post-op RNY gastric bypass surgery and it is probably one of the best decisions that I ever made. Let us know if we can be of any help.