PorkChopExpress

You are going to be the one that has to take it all the way home. The surgery itself isn't going to get you all the way there. The sleeve doesn't create long-term malabsorption issues, which in my view is a positive because that is only really valuable while you are losing weight. After that, it will become a hinderance. The sleeve will create a serious restriction and help you re-learn how to eat, and create a new relationship with food. That's critical if you're going to reach your goal. At 5'3" I think you'll find most BMI/weight scales would still classify you as overweight at 160lbs. You'd be looking more at 130-140 to be a "normal" BMI/weight. Totally do-able, but you have to be prepared for the fact that it's going to require you to master your diet, get consistent with exercise, and really be disciplined. The surgery isn't a magic bullet.

Yeah your fat numbers and carb numbers are flip-flopped. Should be the other way around...and if you really want to kick start yourself, cut the carbs for a little while, too...and make sure they never consist of fruit. Always vegetables, preferably non-starchy. Also, you may want to re-evaluate your TDEE and make sure you're actually in a decent caloric deficit every day, to begin with. If you're not getting the exercise you were, get back to it. If you're at the same intensity level you were a week or two ago, boost it. Also...water, Water, water. Everyone's body reacts differently but one thing is for sure, if you're stalled out you have to try some changes and I would try cutting the fat content of your diet in half for a week. If that doesn't see results, then boost your non-fruit carbs. Beans and such. It's trial end error, busting plateaus. Sometimes, counter-intuitively, it can even help to boost your calorie intake for a week, to kick-start your metabolism.

I've never heard of Sheetz before, but it sounds like fast food and fast food is tricky. A lot of things seem to set peoples' stomachs off after surgery. Might have been a sauce, or maybe the cheese...who knows. I have some safe go-to things now for when I have to resort to a meal out. Taco Bell pintos & cheese and a side of chicken or steak, and a side of green beans and chicken or mushroom chicken at Panda Express. Those both work well for me.

@@SalOdyssey Not really, everyone's body loses fat at its own rate. What you care about mainly is the trend over time, and the average per week. Just track it over a period of a month or so, that's a better gauge of how you're doing. But the body doesn't go on a 7 day schedule like most of us weigh. You may drop two pounds the day after you weigh, as your fat cells had been holding onto Water that day and then expelled a bunch of their contents the next. @@Ignatius Nice! I wouldn't sweat the scale for a few weeks post-op though, the healing process combined with other hormonal issues can cause water retention and so you may find that you don't lose as much as you THINK you should have, given the restriction...but it'll catch up. It's awesome not feeling hungry though, that has really been the key for enabling me to fight my mental demons, because I'm not battling that hunger and the compulsions it has traditionally caused in me. You will probably go through some "feels" about eating, your old habits, fighting against a desire to go back to some old behaviors...there WILL be some psychological hurdles. Probably not until you start eating "real" food again and are feeling more healed up, but I went through some stuff the first couple of weeks, as a kind of mourning period over my old relationship with food. I'm going into week 7 now and I feel real good though, it's been empowering. But yeah, I also have to be mindful to even eat, and although I like what I eat, it's really a totally different thought process now. It's an awareness that I need to get my Protein in for the day, I need to get my dietary needs met...but there's not a big "entertainment" component there. I want it to taste good, but it's not being done for fun, or to soothe, or whatever. It's just to feed the body. That's a pretty major change.

Yeah, this behavior is one simple step removed from bulimia. Disordered eating is what we're trying to get away from, here.

I was cleared for "mushy" after my first two weeks and on the menu were turkey meatballs. I was ecstatic. I chewed it to within an inch of its life before swallowing of course, and I found that meat sat heavier and took a little longer to digest at first. But I was really happy to be eating something more normal, personally. Then again, I never experienced the effect a lot of people talk about, where my taste buds changed or I started disliking things I liked before. I think the only thing I've experienced is a "refined sugar detox" where I don't have a physical craving for that kind of stuff anymore. I still get the occasional mind-nagging about it, but that's easy enough to ignore now. Especially because I don't feel hungry.

GAINS! Muscle has memory. We have a lot of it as obese men, in our lower bodies...and so even though the extreme calorie restriction will cause us to catabolize a bunch of it and reduce our strength, we can get it back, and then some. NO LIMITS

A LOT of bodybuilders take major issue with this theory and say it doesn't hold Water in practice. There is a practice among a lot of bodybuilders called "intermittent fasting," which is being used to continue building muscle while "cutting" (losing fat). This practice involves eating all of your day's calories within a limited window...and fasting the rest of the time. So a lot of guys are eating hundreds of grams of Protein within a six or eight hour period, and each of those meals exceeds 30g of protein. They claim that if it were true that the body could only absorb 30 grams "at a time" (and there is great debate about what exactly "at a time" constitutes) then there's no way intermittent fasting would work. Honestly, there's a great deal about how the body works that dieticians and medical science don't really have figured out. But on something like this, bodybuilders put a TON of trial and error into finding out what works and it's pretty well-documented online, so I tend to believe that the 30g/protein "at a time" thing is a bit dubious. But I do think it probably has a lot to do with your activity level and metabolism, too. So maybe for us, 30g/protein per sitting is more reasonable. I don't think that's one size fits all, though.

Hung out with a friend of mine today and had my first awkward moment, when it comes to food, post-op. He suggested we go hit In-N-Out (a well-known SoCal burger chain, for those not familiar with the place) and I had to explain that I couldn't really eat there. Since I haven't spread it around that I had the sleeve surgery, he was pretty befuddled by that reaction, coming from a guy who would have been all about In-N-Out only a couple of months ago. I had to explain that I'd had the surgery, that I wasn't spreading it around but that I did need to make a healthier choice. We ended up at a Korean BBQ place and we were both happy with that choice. It officially got weird for me today, I guess. I felt self-conscious that I had to explain it, and that I no longer have the freedoms other "normal" people have, when it comes to food. I cost myself that freedom by being irresponsible about my eating for so long. He didn't react too weirdly to the news that I had surgery, but also seemed to not know exactly WHAT to say about it. "Congratulations" doesn't seem quite right, I'm sure...and "Good for you" also doesn't seem like the right sentiment. So it's weird for others who know me, as well. Just another new wrinkle in the experience. But it ended well, anyway.

If it's not a potassium deficiency, it's dehydration. Your muscles will cramp BAD if you are dehydrated. Make sure you're getting at least 48oz of water a day and preferably 64.

You just want to avoid refined sugar. You aren't going to dump from the sugar in fruit unless you over-do it, and you won't be able to over-do it because the stomach won't allow it. To be really honest with you though, you should really focus on getting your carbs from vegetable sources rather than fruit though. Not only is it going to help you lose more, but in general it's a good habit to be in.

Trust me, when you start eating actual foods and not stuff that just slides right through the stomach into the intestine, the sensations are going to change a lot. That's when you'll really know that you're missing the majority of your old stomach

Yup, every day...a little bit better! I'm six weeks post-op now and it's remarkable how fast the time has passed, and how good I'm generally feeling. It does get better, you won't always feel miserable, people!

To be honest, with what I ended up paying after insurance I might as well have gone to Mexico. When it's all said and done my out of pocket will end up around $5k anyway. Didn't realize all the "add-ons" I'd end up paying for.

I've been pretty bound up off and on since I started on solids, too. Haven't taken anything, hoping that it'll resolve as my diet expands...but yeah, the surgeon said Miralax or another stool softener if it becomes too much of a problem.

"Listening to your body" right now is actually "Listening to your mind." It has nothing to do with your body, you just want eggs and sausage and the "old diet." Nobody here (at least I hope nobody here) is going to tell you, "Go for it!" Seriously, if your surgeon hasn't cleared you for it, you don't eat it. Period. You may feel "all healed up" but you are NOT...and you won't be for another 4-5 weeks.

Lots of pillows behind your back and head, just prop yourself up at an angle. That's what I did, slept like a baby.

Just don't push it to where it's uncomfortable, you don't want to cause problems with the staple line or a leak. Take it slow and steady with the sipping. It will improve over time.

Preparation, preparation, preparation. Not having food prepared, or having a plan for healthy things to get while you're out and can't get home, is DEATH to weight loss. As you have seen, surgery didn't fix your mind. You are not a different person after surgery. The behavior part is on all of us to fix. The grazing is going to create so much calorie creep in your diet, you'll be shocked.

You don't have to do Protein powder as a shake. If the volume of liquid is a problem, start making it like a "pudding" consistency so it takes up less room. Get some of the flavorless GENEPRO protein that is 30g in a one TBSP size. You can mix it with a ton of things. There ARE ways to get the protein and I strongly recommend getting as much as you possibly can while you're healing, because it speeds recovery immensely. Not to mention helping you retain muscle mass so you can keep burning fat more efficiently.

The Duodenal Switch is the most aggressive of all the weight loss surgeries, so I reckon it'll have the toughest recovery physically...but I imagine you knew that, going in. What you're enduring mentally, though, pretty much everyone goes through in some form or another, I think. My first couple of weeks, I was pretty obsessed with food. I was watching Food Network a lot. I don't know why I was torturing myself but it was like my brain was raging against the fact that I had taken away its comfort, entertainment...whatever. It was almost like it was trying to punish me, reminding me of what I'd given up. Eventually I started to think of it that way; that my psyche had become so accustomed to using food in ways other than simply providing fuel, that it was rebelling against the change. But you know what? It passed. The obsessing about food passed, and each strange new wrinkle that I have to deal with mentally or emotionally has passed, given time and exposure. I just realized over the past couple of days that I no longer feel weird about my portions. I used to be dealing with the feeling that it wasn't enough, every time I put my little portion on a plate. Now it feels normal to me. You are going to go through ups and downs mentally, but be aware of them. Think about why you're feeling the way you are and ask yourself if it's rational. You know why you had the surgery, you know what you wanted to achieve through it. You knew what you were giving up, and the reasons for it. This is where the rubber hits the road...you've had the surgery, and now it's time to change. And I think most of us know that you're feeling the resistance to change that your "old brain" is putting up, because we've all felt it in some form or another. And the unfortunate thing is, we'll all probably be dealing with that for the rest of our lives...working to counteract those impulses. But you took a big step to get it under control...and that is what you've done. You have taken measures that will allow you to get it under control. The physical stuff will improve as you heal, a little better every day. The mental stuff will take time and conscious effort to change. But it'll come together, you just have to be patient and diligent. Just do what you can. As for the "doctoring" your Protein shakes, I'm afraid of what that means...but I am hoping it doesn't mean adding stuff you shouldn't be having, because you'll only be causing yourself problems if you do that. If all you can do is drink protein shakes and you need to skip meals, then do that - as long as you are getting your protein every day, and you are getting your Water, you will be fine. Over time, you'll get meals in too...just don't sweat it. One foot in front of the other. And stay off the scale for a few weeks. People obsess about the scale. It is your enemy, avoid it. I am only weighing once a month, personally.

Fortunately, I had mine out about five years ago already...so I didn't have to worry about it. I guess gallstone issues are common enough after WLS that some surgeons just take it out preventatively, you'll have to ask if yours would. Some insurance companies may not see it as medically necessary until you have complications with it though, so your mileage may vary.

That's awesome, welcome to the club