catwoman7

it's very common. The reason oft stated is that estrogen is stored in fat cells, and a bunch of it is released during rapid weight loss. A lot of women post about mood swings and screwed-up cycles the first few weeks or months after surgery. It does eventually settle down and stabilize again.

many of us "gain" weight from the IV fluids they pump into us at the hospital. Some people have reported "gaining" up to 10 lbs from the fluids. However, it's not a true gain - it's just water (and water with sodium in it, I might add, which makes some people retain it for awhile). It takes a few days for it to work its way out of your system. I'd stay off the scale until your first post-op appt (most of us have our first post-op at two or three weeks out). Your weight should be on a downward trend by then.

I had to wait on mine. I was a university librarian (now retired). I could have gone as early as March (2015), but the library director wanted me to wait until the semester was over, so I had it June 3 (2015). I took three weeks off but could have gone back after two, probably - but then, my job was mostly a desk job. It might be harder with yours since you're on your feet all day - plus with kids of your own....

as long as you're following your program, it's just a stall. They usually last 1-3 weeks, so you should be near the end of it. If you're NOT following your program, then get back on it (!)

I scheduled my last colonoscopy appointment in the afternoon so I could break up the Golytely (or whatever it is) - I drank half of it in the evening and the other half the following morning (per instructions). I had a morning appt the first time I went through this so I had to drink the whole gallon in one evening. Not doing that again... In both cases, though, I had to drink a bottle of magnesium citrate the night before I started the golytely, and the mag citrate is only like 16 oz - so I did have two days of prep, but it sounds like it might be different from yours. (in other words, I did day 1 - bottle of magnesium citrate. Day 2 - half gallon of Golytely in the evening. Day 3 (day of colonoscopy) - the other half gallon of Golytely that morning, colonoscopy in the afternoon

you're starting out at a MUCH lower weight than most WLS patients, so you shouldn't except to see huge drops. I'd actually lost less than you at the six-week mark (about 22 lbs), and I started out MUCH heavier than you. So you are doing fine. btw - it seems like the majority of us lose somewhere in the 15-25 lb range that first month. Of course you'll always find a few outliers - BUT...they're outliers. You are doing just fine - you are in that range. And again, you are also starting out at a much lower weight than most of us. Unfortunately, I think a lot of people's perceptions are affected by shows like "My 600 lb Life", but you have to remember that those people start out at much higher weights than the average WLS patient. Not many of us "normal" WLS patients lose as much weight right off the bat as those people do. Again, you are fine. Your loss is perfectly normal.

a lot of people seem to have trouble with chicken. At least the first few weeks or months. Maybe back off of that and try again later on?

this sounds really weird, but I always strove to be a super healthy eater, so I'd eat all this food to make sure I got all of my nutrients for the day. For example, my usual breakfast pre-surgery was a smoothie. I would throw in a bunch (and I mean a BUNCH) of soft tofu or Greek yogurt, a banana, two or three peaches or an equal amount of melon or cantaloupe, several berries, some nonfat dry milk, and then enough orange juice to get it going in the blender. So that was like 600 kcal before I even walked out the door. Mid-morning I'd usually head downstairs to the coffee shop (I worked in a library) to get a coffee and an oat scone. Oats are good for you. So there's another 500 (or more) calories. Lunches were always leftovers. I can't remember if I usually had afternoon snacks or not (it's been six years since surgery), but if I did, it probably would have been a packet (or two) of cashews from the vending machine. Nuts have lots of nutrients, you know. Then I'd come home and snack while I was making dinner. Dinners were often some sort of ethnic fare - Chinese or Thai or Indian - so chicken (usually) plus heaps of vegetables in some creamy sauce (that is, if Thai or Indian) served over about a cup of brown rice. So yea - healthy - at least nutrient-wise - but probably 3000 or so calories a day, give or take. I still worry about not getting all my nutrients every day. Like - always. But then I remember that I DO take vitamins, so I'm getting some that way - and over the course of several days, I probably DO get all my nutrients - just not all in one day. But I still find myself thinking about this - and thinking that I should go eat some nuts or something because they're nutritious.

I don't know that that ever completely goes away. I largely avoided fast food when I was in weight loss phase, although on road trips I'd sometimes have Wendy's chili - or Panera's turkey chili or some of their soups. In maintenance, I still do the chili - and/or sometimes a half salad at Panera. At McDonald's (which is rare - and only on road trips) I'll get an Egg McMuffin since they have them available all day now. They're 300 calories and have lots of protein, so they're fine for a maintenance program. I can't do fries or fatty things - and I haven't eaten ground beef in probably 20 years. Highly fatty meals don't sit well with me AT ALL. I could probably handle a grilled chicken sandwich - or half a one, anyway.

we weren't allowed to do juices because of the sugar content, but ask your dietitian.

it depends on where most of the fat loss is coming from, and probably how much fat you had there in the first place. But yea - not uncommon. I have no butt - but then, I didn't have a huge butt even before surgery (I was apple-shaped, so most of my fat was in my gut and upper body)

I was always able to drink faster than I thought I should be. Liquids pretty much go right through you, so. As the above poster said, you'll start the feel the restriction once you move to solid foods.

there are so many factors that influence people's rate of weight loss that they have little to no control over (e.g., age, gender, genetics, metabolic rate, starting BMI, etc). The two factors that you DO have a lot of control over are your activity level and how closely you stick to your food plan. If you do well with those two, you WILL lose the weight, whether fast or slow. I was a slow loser. I was reminded of that by a very insensitive resident who was doing the follow-ups at my clinic one day - he said I was behind the rest of my co-hort. Well, I was super committed and almost never went off plan that first year, and I ended up losing every molecule of my excess weight, over 200 lbs (took me 20 months). So I pretty much blew everyone else in my "co-hort" out of the water. And I know I am not alone. my point is, us slow losers can also be very successful. In the end, your success is due how committed you are - NOT your rate of weight loss.

the scanner is huge - I weighed well over 300 lbs and fit in there just fine. Also, it's not nearly as long as an MRI machine. I think it was maybe only a couple feet long - so your head isn't inside - and neither is the lower half of your body. It really just covers a large section of your torso. what they do is stick you in the machine and take all kinds of measurements of your heart while you just lie there quietly. If this is the same test I had (which they called a nuclear stress test), once they're done getting these baseline tests, they'll inject something that'll make your heart race. It's supposed to mimic heavy exercise. Then they'll stick you back in the machine to take all the measurements again. The point is to see how your heart does under stress, and how long it takes it to recover. the test was no biggie. The part where your heart is racing feels pretty weird, but it certainly isn't painful or anything. The rest of the time you're just lying in the machine - again, with your head and lower half of your body sticking out. It was pretty easy.

people "gain" weight from the IV fluids they give you in the hospital. Some of us "gain" as much as 10 lbs from them. It can take a few days for them to work their way out of your system, so if the weight is bothering you, stay off the scale for a few days. I don't think I weighed myself at all that early out - I waited until my two-week follow-up appointment. Updated to add that Hopscotch is right - in addition to the IV fluid, you lost a lot pre-surgery, so you won't lose as much right after surgery as someone who didn't have a pre-surgery loss.

it's so weird for me to hear conversations now about people's weight since I rarely heard those when I was morbidly obese. Now, people don't know my past, so...I occasionally hear unkind remarks. I don't know how to handle those, honestly. I've just been ignoring them, but I'm not sure that's the right "response".

three week stall. If you do a search on that on this site, you'll find something like 17,000 posts on it (and no, I am NOT kidding). It happens to almost all of us (and it's not always the third week for everyone - but sometime during the first month or so after surgery). your rate of weight loss is fine. I think some people's expectations come from watching shows like "My 600 lb Life", but keep in mind that those people start off at MUCH higher BMI's than the average WLS patient. Your rate is fine. I lost 16 lbs the first month, and I ended up losing 100% of my excess weight (over 200 lbs). As long as you stick to your program and your general weight trend is downward, you're good.

the nauseated feeling from eating too much or too quickly is actually a good thing - it's what helps us control our eating. unfortunately, a lot of us deal with chronic constipation, even years after surgery. Find something that works for you and keep on it. A lot of us take a capful of Miralax every day to manage it. Other treatments that people have used include stool softeners, magnesium tablets, Smooth Move tea, and eating a few prunes every day. I'm sure I'm missing some here...but just find something that works for you. I never had to crush pills either, fortunately. I was allowed to swallow (whole) any pill that was smaller than a pencil eraser from the time I left the hospital, so that meant I could swallow all but two pills (those giant calcium tablets, plus one other one that I can't remember). Got around the calcium by getting chewables. The other pill my clinic's PA said I could hold off on for about two weeks, at which time I could probably swallow it whole (and I could...) I do all the cooking in my house. Once I got to solid food stage, I made the same things for my husband as I did for myself. He'd just get more of whatever it was - plus I'd often add a starch for him, like a potato or some pasta or rice. Otherwise, same.

a couple of ideas - some people become lactose intolerant after surgery (sometimes it's temporary, sometimes it's not...). Also, certain artificial sweeteners can also have that effect on some people - esp sugar alcohols (those with names that end in -itol (xylitol, maltitol, etc)). So could it be something like that? You may have to experiment with giving something up for a few days to see if it makes a difference.

it's going to depend somewhat on whether this is for the professionally-supervised diet that a lot of insurance companies require for a few months, or if it's just a visit or two that your bariatric clinic wants you to do with their resident dietitian as part of its requirements. If the former, the dietitian will probably have you keep records of what you're eating and you'll check in with him/her once a month to review your logs and they'll make suggestions on where to improve. If the latter, it'll probably be something more along the lines of FutureSkyDiver said - they'll probably talk about the basics of nutrition, how many proteins/carbs you should be getting, how much fluid you should be getting, etc. I had to do both - meet with a dietitian once a month for at least six months (to meet insurance company requirements) and then once I was closer to surgery, I had to meet with one of my clinic's dietitians to review their requirements for post-op eating. I think I met with her once or maybe twice.

let your clinic know. You could be developing a stricture. They happen to about 5% of bypass patients - and fortunately, they're an easy fix. If they're going to happen, they'll usually appear sometime during months 1-3 (they're very rare after month 3), so you're just about in the window for one. I had two - one at four weeks out and another at eight weeks out. If that's what it is, you'll feel better right away after they fix it (they'll do an upper endoscopy and stretch it - you won't feel a thing and you'll feel about 100% better afterward). Even if it turns out NOT to be a stricture, your clinic should know your symptoms because that's not normal.

nerves are normal, having something go wrong during the surgery is rare, and you WILL lose the weight if you're stay committed to your clinic's food plan. like creekimp said, your job right after surgery is to stay hydrated. And get your protein in, too - but hydration is even more important those first couple of weeks.

it's mostly water. Plus most people lose a lot more the first week than they do the second week - but again, that's because a big chunk of that first week's loss is water. It's unlikely you'll lose another 10.5 lbs during week 2 of the pre-op diet - but even if you did, why would you worry? Most people would love to lose 21 lbs during the pre-op diet! You'll likely lose some more weight the second week, but probably not as much as you have so far.

this is only semi-related, but it's not uncommon for liver enzyme levels to rise during rapid weight loss. Big drops in weight are hard on livers. My enzyme levels were elevated my first year which freaked out my PCP, but then I read that it's not uncommon during rapid weight loss. Once my weight stabilized, my liver enzymes were normal again. BUT....you evidently have something going on - but whatever it is may or may not be affecting your liver enzyme levels. The weight loss can do that. I hope they can figure out what is going on - that would be miserable!

I really liked the ones by Bariatric Advantage. They have several flavors - I liked all of 'em!