FrankyG

You definitely should ask your doctor, but my doctor (and from what I've read most doctors) discourage eating simple carbs like crackers in the early days. I was told you can eventually eat them in moderation once you're in maintenance, but introducing simple carbs in the weight loss stage is going to get you hooked back on the carb craving train and you'll possibly slow your weight loss if you eat things like that regularly when you're just a few months out from surgery and still trying to lose.

Are you near to starting your period? Because that typically causes hormone fluctuations and cravings along with bloat and weight gain. You'll see this happen lots and sometimes it won't be because of your cycle - just random gains of 1-3 pounds due to hormone craziness (fat stores hormones, so as you lose fat, all those hormones get flooded back into your system and can cause weight gain and super fun crazy mood swings too!), Water retention due to eating certain foods or too much salt, the weather, what color your best friend's hairdresser's cousin wore on Monday... In other words, it happens and sometimes there is no real reason or explanation. You just roll with it. But the good news is small weight fluctuations are usually resolved within a few days and you'll see a drop in weight again soon. Just stick to your Protein and water goals, log all of your food so you know you're on track as far as calories go, and keep the carbs from creeping up too high, and you'll be fine.

Burping is my "stop eating right this minute or you'll regret it" sign. I try to stop eating before the burps start, but still occasionally have some. Most folks do tend to burp a bit more in the beginning if they swallow too much air - it's hard to gulp food or liquids when there is so little stomach left, but if you do manage to swallow air, you'll likely either burp or feel a bit uncomfortable for a little.

My husband and I had low Vitamin D a few years ago, and besides the supplement, were advised to go outside and get actual sun exposure a few times a week. As I am really fair skinned, they told me no more than 10 minutes a pop, and it needed to be with no sunscreen. I wore a hat so my face wasn't getting as much (I turn red easy) and mostly just sunned my arms, legs and stomach, but the husband would take off his shirt to get maximum exposure. We'd take a book and set a timer and did that twice a week. My levels came up to normal pretty fast while doing this. I think with the indoor jobs many people have and the common usage of sunblock due to the worry of skin cancer, we're blocking the body's natural ability to get vitamin D from sun exposure - which is a way better method than pill form. I wear sunblock when I'm outside now, but I'm outside a whole lot more now that I exercise (walk/bike/swim).

This is absolutely just me saying this, and I'm definitely some random stranger on the interwebs, but what I was told and my research has born out is that the whole "if I do X, I could stretch my sleeve" stuff is complete BS. My doctor is a nationally certified training doctor for bariatric surgery. He said that many doctors use scare tactics on their patients that they feel won't listen to actual logic/facts like "your stomach will not stretch out if you overeat/drink soda/whatever, but you shouldn't do it" because all most people hear is that it is okay to do whatever (it's not, but mostly folks don't listen or they don't take to heart what the doc is actually saying most of the time). So they say things like "you'll stretch your stomach or cause a leak or kill yourself if you do X!!" hoping that the patient actually listens to them and doesn't do things that are discouraged. Scare tactics work, because most people unfortunately do not listen to doctors' advice unless they think it will seriously harm or kill them. All you have to do to prove that point is check out the numerous threads on here about never drinking with a straw because according to my doctor it can cause a leak/blow up your stomach/you will DIE...AAAAAAHHHHH! panic crap. A straw. Seriously. (granted, this is anecdotal evidence, but still) Carbonation is just gas. Gas can cause discomfort. If the gas gets bad enough, it can cause you pain and you'll probably feel bad and want to burp or take some gas pills and feel bad for a while. But it is biologically impossible once you are healed for it to stretch out your stomach from drinking a few sodas of beers. Which is not to say you should do this, just pointing out the logic fail there. What will likely happen is a person develops a tolerance for the carbonation and starts drinking regularly again? They'll be introducing lots of carbs, sugar, high calories, and caffeine in the case of sodas, and a fast ticket to dehydration (since both alcohol and soda can dehydrate a person easily). And you're wasting precious stomach space on empty, addictive junk basically. So yes, you shouldn't drink them, but not because you will cause serious damage; because they are not good for you. And if the doctor just told you that, it would be much easier for a person to ignore their "advice." Which is why some resort to scare tactics. So totally understand if you steer clear of them based off of what your doctor told you, but other doctors do actually say differently regarding the reasoning behind avoiding things like carbonation... and often differ on other hot button issues as well. And it never hurts to be aware of some doctors using scare tactics to keep their patients in line one way or another.

Hooray for you!! I just noticed the same thing. Isn't it wonderful to have stuff like that just GONE?

I was told it is barely in your stomach for more than a few minutes as the stomach valves don't restrict fluids. I was also told to not drink during eating, and to wait at least half an hour after eating solids before drinking so the food stays in the stomach and you feel sated for as long as possible. The doc did tell me it was fine to drink right up until I started eating, but I've read other docs giving slightly different instructions, so do check with YOUR doctor to see what they recommend.

No it doesn't. Nothing stretches the sleeve. The stretchy part of your stomach is gone. It will eventually relax somewhat as the months go by, but it will never stretch out to the size of the old stomach, and you'd have to eat a seriously insane amount of food to hurt your stomach's size (and you'd feel sick and be throwing up way before that happened). Gas build up will not cause the stomach to stretch; it causes burping and a feeling of being very uncomfortable until the gas is absorbed. There are probably hundreds of threads on here discussing drinking alcohol. So you might want to search around to get some older opinions as well. Carbonation (soda and beer both have it) is a hot topic - some can't handle the bubbles after surgery as it makes them very uncomfortable and can cause pain from the trapped gas. And alcohol of all types will hit you MUCH harder since you have little stomach to filter it so drinking can be a bit unnerving after surgery. But mostly, drinking is empty calories and beer especially is very high carb, so it's discouraged. There's a reason they call that spare tire guys get a "beer belly" you know? What did your doctor tell you? Because that's the voice you most want to listen to regarding your own health and well being.

You are being too hard on yourself. 69 pounds down in 9 months is great! As far as why you might be losing slower than some: Were you a lower BMI starting out? (lower BMI peeps tend to lose much slower than someone with a large amount of weight to lose) Are you tracking every bite of food and sip of liquid? Are you weighing/measuring every bit of your food so you know exactly how much you are consuming? Are you eating too little calories (starvation mode) or too many calories? Are you keeping carbs low? Are getting in your Water and Protein goals? Are you exercising? If all of that is on point, then you just got lucky and are a slow loser. There is nothing wrong with it, and while I know it sucks, you just keep at it and remember it didn't take you a few months to gain all your weight, so it won't be a few months to lose it either. It isn't a race - you'll get there eventually. And losing it slower means your body and skin has a better chance of minimizing issues like loss of muscle tone, saggy skin and balance issues as your center of gravity changes due to losing a large amount of weight. Keep positive and don't compare yourself to others. Just keep on track with your protein, water, low carb and exercise and you will reach your goal!!

That's wonderful you're doing so well weight loss wise! I don't know why eating would be a torture at almost three months out, so not sure what is happening to you other than you have to really start thinking about how to eat and planning your day out so you can eat enough and hit your food/water goals? Are you having specific issues like pain or difficulty swallowing or something? I was pretty much fine after the first month other than being sensitive to sugar (which was a good thing) and an intolerance for eggs until about 6 months out (just threw them up every time so stopped eating them until about 6 months out and it's good now). As time goes on, you will need to eat more, and you need to start eating real, whole foods. You need to be making your Protein and Water goals daily, and if you can't do it with the 3X daily meals, then you need to be adding in some snack times and getting in enough calories where your body isn't starving itself. You're still pretty early out, but at 600 calories daily, you're likely in a nutritional deficit that can't be healthy long term. Please do your best to start eating healthy Snacks (a cheese stick with a handful of almonds, a cup of low carb yogurt, some grapes and baby bel cheese wedges... ) There are tons of ideas on here and other bariatric recipe sites. Please discuss your difficulties and calorie intake with your doctor because this isn't healthy long term. And you will notice things like hair loss, exhaustion and muscle loss if you don't start eating a bit more and getting your protein and water in.

You're not even 2 weeks out. You're fine. And how much you can eat is also dependent on the bougie size your doctor used, your tolerance and ability to eat once you start mushies. Also liquids are not subject to restrictions since they tend to flow through the stomach sleeve, and you aren't going to feel hunger (at least what you perceive as hunger) for quite some time. Just do what you can and try your best to get your Protein goals in each day.

I love the fact that I can't finish a whole sandwich in one sitting. I'm satisfied with a smaller portion. This is not something to be scared about! You should be thrilled at the idea of eating something good for you, and being satisfied with half a sandwich, or like how with me a 5 ounce steak is more than I can finish if I have a few bites of a veggie with it (yes, I eat steak occasionally- It's great protein!). It is fabulous being able to leave food on my plate, and leftovers are awesome to look forward to later. I'm almost one and a half years out, and while I can eat more than when I started, I'll never be able to eat like I used to and that's a wonderful thing, because I don't ever want to end up like I was. You should be excited about how you are taking the first steps on the path to changing the way you view food, and relearning how to eat healthy good-for-you foods in smaller portions... that is the whole point of doing all of this!

Sweets and high fat don't make every person sick after the surgery, and most of the time it is a short term effect for those that do get sick from them. I couldn't touch high sugar for about 6 months, but guess what? That effect wore off and I could eat anything now with no serious repercussions other than gaining weight. I know that, so I don't eat crap foods all the time. I do eat stuff like a cupcake or a cookie for special occasions, but I plan out my day so I know I have room in my calorie count and I eat healthy 90% of the time, so eating something "bad" occasionally doesn't derail my whole life. Relearning how to eat healthy during the honeymoon period is what the surgery is really all about. You have to throw out everything you used to do and establish good eating habits while the restriction takes care of the portion control. That is what everyone is supposed to learn how to do during the honeymoon phase after surgery. It is really sad that the doctors don't explain this part better to every single patient before they have the surgery. If you don't do this, then the weight loss will happen in the beginning just because you're not able to eat as much, but likely will slow down sooner, and also regain is very likely once your metabolism adjusts in a year or two and all you still eat is crummy foods. Anyway. You definitely need to try doing the 5 day reset. It will help remind you how your stomach feels and feel the restriction again, and should help you detox from the sweets/crap food cravings - eating high carb usually makes you crave more carbs - it is a vicious cycle. You made some mistakes, but the sleeve is still there, ready for you once you're ready to recommit to eating correctly. You lost the best time to make fast and easy changes, but if you put in the work, you can still make it happen. But you have to be willing to do the work. Start tracking every bite of food and sip of drink. Get your Protein and Water goals figured out, keep your carbs low (under 100 definitely but if you can push it down to 50 grams/day that would be even better), and get your calories for the day down to around a 500 calorie less than you burn in a day. Throw out all the junk food in your house. Tell friends and family to not tempt you with foods like that and don't go places where you'll feel weak until you get control of yourself. Think of it like being an alcoholic or trying to quit smoking. You don't go places where you'll feel tempted and you ask friends/family to be supportive of your struggle and not offer you things you shouldn't be having, and do your best to remove the temptations from your path. Exercise - find something you enjoy doing and then do it a minimum of 5 days a week. Even if it's just walking a 2 miles around your neighborhood after dinner, it's something if you're currently doing nothing. What seems to work best food wise is whole foods, that you cook yourself. If it comes in a box or frozen package, it probably isn't a very good choice. Learn to read labels REALLY well, and figure out things like net carbs, sodium levels, etc., and check out both here and bariatric recipe sites like http://theworldaccordingtoeggface.blogspot.com/ Proteins should be the main part of each meal and every snack: things like fish, chicken, lean cuts of beef, cheese, yogurt, even Beans and lentils. Healthy vegetables - leafy greens, red peppers, squash, zucchini, avocados, broccoli, cauliflower... watch the ones that are high carb like corn and green peas as even healthy veggies can have high carbs sometimes and you need to be aware when you eat them. Should also be including healthy fats like coconut or olive oils and things like nuts or avocados have fat too, but it's a good fat (just watch the amounts and calories). Watch things like lunchmeat that are usually high sodium (again, read labels!) and be aware of times of day that you might be weak and have healthy Snacks on hand to prevent the quick stop at the drive thru or dropping by the office vending machine. MEASURE everything. You can't rely on eyeballing food amounts. Get a digital scale, and weigh your food so you get accurate calorie counts. It is way too easy to guess and over-estimate your food portions. And you might need to see a counselor that deals with eating disorders if you can't get control of your eating and get your head in the right space to succeed at this. Please don't take this as being mean, but worrying over what others did and comparing your lack of success while eating bad foods isn't helpful or realistic. But here's the thing. You aren't a failure unless you give up completely. Don't give up, and you will succeed.

Is the pain you're feeling from an incision site or just an overall feeling of pain along one side? If it is the overall pain it likely is from trapped gas they use to inflate the abdomen to get in there with the surgical tools. Many docs now try to remove the gas as much as possible because it does hurt like anything when trapped. The best thing is to get up and walk around often; the more you move, the more it works the gas out. If it is an incision site, it likely is the large one where they pull the stomach through; that one hurts more because it's got stitches in the muscle area (the other incisions are small enough not to need that) so it does tend to hurt more. The only thing to do is keep up the pain meds on schedule. If you are in pain, don't try to stretch out the length of time between dosages as it may let the pain get worse. If the pain is bad, then call your doctor's office. Pain should be manageable with the pain meds and if not, then you may need to get in to see them or get something else that works better. But if it so bad you literally are crying and the meds aren't touching the pain - especially if you are running a temperature, you might need to go to the ER as intense pain with fever can indicate a leak. Hope you feel better soon!

Stay off the scale. Seriously. Your body just went through major trauma and all the fluids and drugs they used will take weeks to really leave your body and your main goal right now is just to get your fluids in, walk around when you can and concentrate on healing. It will happen. Just adjust your expectations. Oh, and stalls... they will happen too. Usually within the first month. Stalls are also normal. Don't freak out about them. Just keep working on Protein and Water and moving more and log every bit of food and drink so you know how much or little you're getting. As long as you follow that, you'll be fine.

Track your food and Water intake. You likely are eating way too few calories and in starvation mode, or eating way more fat or carbs or something bad. P3 Protein packs are made by oscar meyer - they're lunchmeat bombs full of sodium. Weight can stay the same but you can lose fat and muscle if you're starving your body. You want to get your calories and protein up to a decent level so the loss is fat, not muscle (that's just scary!). And the brain and body functions do need a minimum number of calories to operate, so if you've been in a deficit for long, you'll likely be seeing some issues with cognitive function and strength and stamina. And you absolutely should be taking Vitamins for the rest of your life. You're not eating enough in general if that list you posted is basically all you eat, and you make no mention of even eating vegetables - especially nutrient-dense ones like spinach, broccoli, avocado, etc. - then your body is basically eating itself and has no source of nutrients/minerals without the vitamins. You're definitely going to have long-term issues if you're not eating healthy real food (not shakes) containing Proteins, vitamins and minerals and healthy fats.

@@s.thompson you may not have read this thread you just bumped up, but the original poster had complications and was regretting their surgery because things weren't working for them the way they are supposed to work. You are just barely a week out. You are experiencing what many people go through the first days/weeks after surgery. (including the regret and feeling of "what the hell did I just do?" feelings) Everything you're going through is in the range of normal - some are lucky enough to have zero issues right after, but most do experience discomfort, pain, pressure and difficulties swallowing. If the meds your doc gave you don't work, call them back the next day and get help. But it sounds like you're just really swollen and need to get the right dose of pain meds and get fluids in to feel better and get through the first few days of discomfort. Try sipping warm/cold (I used broth and sugar-free popsciles alternately) and I had difficulties swallowing for days after before I figured out to use that method. You're likely in pain from the gas they used to inflate your abdomen too, and the only thing that works for that is to get up and walk so the gas gets absorbed and out of your system. It absolutely will get better. Have faith that it will and just keep sipping fluids, walking and take your pain meds as often as allowed. If it doesn't get better really soon, call that doctor back and get them to help. Good luck!

You're in the very well known and discussed three week stall. It happens all the time, and there are literally hundreds of threads just on this forum alone about how a person is panicking since their weight loss has stopped. Stalls will happen ALL THE TIME over the next year for everyone that is losing weight. No way to tell how long they will last, or how often they will happen, but as long as you are sticking to your doctor's guidelines for food, Protein, and Water intake and doing some gentle activity (ramping up to real exercise as soon as you are cleared to do so), the stalls eventually break and you'll be just fine. Stalls are the body's way of taking a breather and ramping up for the next round of weight loss. No one loses weight steady; it's always going to be lose some... stall for a week. Lose some more; stall for three weeks... rinse and repeat. http://www.bariatricpal.com/topic/351046-embrace-the-stall/ And no, you can't stretch your pouch or sleeve out from eating and drinking foods you're supposed to be eating/drinking. Even if you overate, you'd likely just throw up. The stretchy part of your stomach is gone if you had the sleeve surgery. Your stomach will eventually relax once the swelling has gone down and by a year out, it might hold slightly more volume than at 3 months, but it won't grow back or otherwise stretch.

One thing to remember is that they have had plenty of notice to get things in place for your absence. No matter how much they'll miss you, you are not irreplaceable. I'm not saying that to make you feel bad or downplay how much you do, but you need to see that putting yourself in the position of feeling responsible for everything in your office (especially to the point where you're experiencing anxiety about being out for a little while) is putting too much pressure on yourself. They are competent adults and can survive your absence. And if they can't, you'll have great job security. All you need to do is leave notes on anything that they might want to access easily, and then forget about work once you're out and concentrate on healing and resting.

I love taking stuff home - leftovers are awesome! Kinda confused why that would seem a negative? I eat out pretty much anywhere and either get a Protein packed appetizer (one place I always get their ceviche - soooo good!) or get a reasonable entree (usually chicken or fish) and then take it home with me. I also can just ask for the husband to get an add-on to his meal (like they'll let you add on shrimp or crab legs to some meals) and eat that with a side salad. We do usually go to sushi restaurants and I just order sashimi and some riceless rolls and am perfectly happy.

I'm coming up on 1.5 years out and while it has slowed down, I am still losing, but I'm also still tracking every single bite of food and drink. I won't ever stop doing that because that seems like an easy way to stop being accountable. It's too easy to overeat, get too many calories or not enough Protein if you're not actually paying attention. I also will eat low carb for the rest of my life because I know adding back in too many carbs makes me stall out and even gain weight. So another thing to really pay attention to is how many carbs you are eating daily since that's a surefire way to stall out weight loss. Definitely suggest you track your food/drink, get your protein and Water goals and keep your calories about 500 below the amount you burn, and you'll likely start seeing your weight loss start up again.

If I ate something that felt stuck, I actually wanted to throw up. It doesn't hurt (at least it didn't me) and I learned really fast to not eat big bites or anything that wasn't on my approved list of foods before its time.

There are dozens of threads on mood swings and emotional roller coaster stuff on here. Not sure why you haven't seem them before. Fat stores hormones. Once you start losing fat, all those hormones get flushed back into your bloodstream. It means for most of the time that you're actively losing weight, you'll be on a wild roller coaster of mood swings - crying, angry, depressed, happy - scary stuff when you're not expecting it. It is all completely normal. You should just try to make sure if you start feeling really depressed or really angry, take a few moments to step back and breath and remind yourself that it is hormones and try not to get upset with yourself or others. I'd also warn family/close friends that your moods might be haywire for a while and to try to give you a little space or comfort if you start acting nuts.

I still eat Kroger's carbmaster yogurts when I'm craving sweets. I love their cinnamon bun, black forest cake and key lime pie flavors. They use artificial sweeteners to keep them low carb, but other than that they taste great and have 60 calories, 9 grams Protein and like 4 carbs per container. I'd stop eating the candy even if it is sugar free stuff. You're still mentally pushing candy and bad foods as things you want to eat, and you have to start thinking of healthy foods now to replace the crappy cravings. If you can start using other foods (like the yogurt) early on, it will help down the road when you're eating regular foods - you won't automatically think "Oh, I'll eat some candy..." Instead it will be "oh, I want some yogurt"