PorkChopExpress

So I just hit two weeks post-op and I was advanced to soft/mushy foods. When I was happily shopping for items I would be allowed to eat, I discovered that Ziploc makes these nifty little 1/2 cup containers with a 1/4 cup line on them. If I put my meat and veggie in there to that line, it seems to be a perfect amount that gets me to "just full." Just thought I'd share the tip, it's working perfectly for me taking meals to work. It's just that I feel a little ridiculous when people come through the lunchroom and that's what I'm working on for half an hour Still so mind-blowing to me...THAT is all it takes to get me full. It's hard to reconcile with my brain.

Well this one went off the rails quickly lol

The reason men burn fat faster is purely due to muscle mass and TDEE. The more muscle mass you have, the more calories you burn. Most women believe that if they lift they'll get "bulky" so they just do cardio, which creates a very negligible amount of muscle. In the process of losing weight due to extreme calorie deficits like we're all doing, your body also loses muscle as it attempts to find energy. Consequently, over time your body's ability to burn calories slows down (hence why weight loss slows as your calorie intake gradually goes up, but your body's ability to burn it goes down). The only answer, really, is to do everything you can to maintain as much of your muscle mass as you can...and that means weight training and a lot of protein!

Thanks guys, I'm going to try it sometime this week, I think!

One thing that I think a lot of people skip when they lose a lot of weight is, they don't ever hit the weights. They just do cardio. What burns calories all day long is your muscle mass, and you lose a ton of it due to the extreme calorie restriction of WLS. The good news is, if you were obese, at one point your body carried a LOT of muscle...and the muscle has a memory of being that size, so it's easier to build it back up. I'd suggest to anyone who hasn't, and wants help maintaining their fat burning ability, to get involved with weight training and building muscle. Ladies, you aren't going to get "bulky" - trust me. But if you put on some lean muscle, you are going to find that you tone up, and you lose fat as your body composition changes. The muscle burns the fat. I would especially suggest working on compound lifts like squats and deadlifts. Check out Stronglifts 5x5 which is a great beginner strength training routine, with a cell phone app. Remember...it's not all about the number on the scale, it's also about your body composition.

There's never going to be a convenient time, most likely. This is the kind of thing you just have to find a window of time that will work for it, and do it. You need to do it at a time where you can take off several weeks from work, just in case you have any complications. I was back at work after one work week, but everything was super smooth with my recovery and I had no real issues (and I have a desk job, so I could come back with no strain on my healing abdomen/stomach). My wife said, "Just get it done." There was just never going to be a convenient time...but ultimately, I was fortunate not to need a ton of recovery time and I worked out nicely. As for not being able to help out around the house...it's temporary, and given that you're a father I suspect you can point out that there were MANY months when she was pregnant (and after giving birth) that you picked up the slack for her, to some degree. If all goes well, this really won't put you out of action for THAT long. I can get up and down and around no problem, do all my normal stuff after two weeks of healing. I am just not supposed to lift anything heavy, but I carried grocery bags no sweat. Give me a couple more weeks and I'll be pretty much back to normal. Just feeling a little weaker nowadays because of lack of nutrition, but it's not terrible. Anyway, I think if your work schedule will allow it, set it up and follow through. Then just be very diligent and on top of your plan with the surgeon and nutritionist, so you can get the maximum out of your recovery and minimize any risk of complications.

You took the step over that line, that's the biggest move. Now it'll be a lot of little moves that add up to weight loss I had mine done on Sept 23rd, I'm almost two weeks out now and starting on the mushy foods (thank goodness). After nearly a month of nothing but liquids, I was going nuts. Be prepared for your mind to take you for a ride, because you just robbed it of a lot of its comfort and removed a coping mechanism from your toolbox. There will be a mourning period, but don't sweat it. It's getting easier for me, and everyone who's been there says it passes, and you come out stronger. But this thing is at least as mental/emotional as it is physical. Keep walking, every day walking...get your pedometer going so you can track it. It'll help get the gas out, and it'll help you heal better. Really focus on that Protein, try hard to meet those goals because it really helps speed healing if you're getting enough. Good luck!

Can anyone give me some idea of what size pan this requires? Kevin

This sucks, but it sounds like you have some poison in your life. Set a goal in your mind to get out of that mess, someday. Not today, or tomorrow, but eventually you need to strike out on your own and get away from these negative influences. Even if they're family. Maybe especially if they're family. Regarding the boyfriend, this may be the unfortunate byproduct of deciding to get your weight under control. Sometimes people are friends with us, or close to us, for reasons other than us. They include us because we enable them in some way, or we make them feel better about themselves, or whatever it may be...ultimately, it's selfish and unhealthy. So if he left you, rest assured that you are better off without him, because he was probably no good for you to begin with...even if you thought he was. You are going to start thinking of yourself differently as the weight comes off, and I suspect he wouldn't be on board with the changes. Take this time to focus on yourself, and your goals. Tune out the negativity as best you can. This is a good community of people helping each other get through this difficult transition, lots of support here...and if your surgeon's office puts on a support group, or if there is one you can find locally (there usually are), attend them when they happen. Support groups help a lot. Your success is not dependent on your family's support or your boyfriend's, it's dependent on YOU. This is all happening within you, and your mind, and your thoughts, and all of that is under your control. You can't control the external stuff, but you can stop letting it have too much of an impact on you. Set your goals and put your focus on them, in spite of what anyone else says. You will get there, and you will get away from those negative influences and created a positive, happy life for yourself. Just stay focused...and DRINK YOUR Water Kevin

I agree, don't rush it...the body loses how it loses. Everybody's is different. It holds onto Water prior to flushing out the fat cells, so at any given time that you step on a scale, your body may be pounds heavier than it actually is, due to water alone. Don't sweat it so much. Do you know roughly what your body's TDEE number is (total daily energy expended)? Calculate it (calculators are available online), then subtract the calories you're consuming any given day. The difference is your caloric deficit. Then remember that one pound of fat is the equivalent of 3500 calories. I think it's quite likely that you aren't exceeding 1000 calories a day right now, two months post-op. Starting at 301 pounds, you're probably at a deficit somewhere in the neighborhood of 2000-2500 calories a day. Figure 17,000 calories a week in deficit. Divide that by 3500 and you're looking at a probable loss of five pounds a week (though the body does what it does, and it may be more or less at any given weigh-in date). And the TDEE I guessed at there doesn't really include a decent amount of cardio, which will boost your TDEE another 100-200 calories a day. 5lbs lost each day like that ends up looking like 100 pounds after five months. At my BEST dieting and exercising without the help of surgery, I managed to get around 50 pounds off in that amount of time...and that was a seriously disciplined effort (which stalled, as always). So just let your diet, exercise and sleeve do their thing. If you want to add to your weight loss, be on top of your exercise.

Part of the reasoning for the slowness with introducing foods is to allow the staple line to heal, and for the stomach to sort of "normalize" again, before you start taxing it with harder to digest foods. It takes about 6 weeks for those incisions to heal completely (both the abdominal ones and the stomach) so try to be disciplined in following your surgeon's instructions, to give yourself the best recovery possible. You probably aren't hurting anything if you're chewing to pureed consistency, but I wouldn't risk hindering your recovery or creating a complication. That said, my surgeon has advanced me to "mushy" after two weeks (surgery was 9/23), which includes things like chili and scrambled eggs and the like, just chewed to puree consistency...so some of it is how the surgeon thinks you're recovering, I think. Also, as I understand it the remaining stomach tissue in a gastric sleeve is not as elastic as what they remove, and so it's harder to stretch out. Not that I'd TRY to stretch it, but I've spoken with people years out from their sleeve surgeries and they report that they STILL can't eat that much in a sitting. So I wouldn't worry that you've stretched it. I suspect the stomach is going to enforce your portion sizes pretty well, right now. You'll know, if you put too much in...

My plan right now is to wait until I can get as lean as I possibly can, and just deal with the extra skin until I get most of the fat off, so the skin is very thin. What I don't want to do is get it done, and then lose a bunch more weight and have it be loose again. I also have heard that when your skin is very thin, it's easier for them to give you a good cosmetic result, and the recovery is easier. So that's what I plan to do.

Had my follow-up with the surgeon today, and they advanced me to "mushy foods" which is tremendously exciting after almost four weeks of doing virtually nothing but drinking. I get to have 1oz of meat, 1 Tbsp of fruit and 1 Tbsp of vegetable, per meal. Apparently, I don't have to puree anything...I just have to chew it to that consistency. They want me starting with ground meat consistency (beef, pork, chicken, turkey, etc...) and then gradually moving into pulled or shredded consistency, before trying whole pieces. They suggested cottage cheese (which I hate), meatballs, thin deli sliced meats, seafood, scrambled eggs and chili. So I went to the store and picked up some small frozen meatballs and various kinds of chili to try out. I also got some squeezable pureed fruit mixture, which I can just squeeze out onto a spoon. Otherwise, I got a small tub of mashed potatoes and a can of green Beans to try. I don't much care for other types of cooked vegetables. Also started on my Vitamins today, which is good because I have started feeling like I needed the boost. Multivitamin, Iron with Vitamin c, Calcium, B-12 once a week, and Vitamin D (I have a deficiency, according to my bloodwork). I set up alarms on my phone to help remind me to take them, because I'm sure I'll forget. So three weeks of the mushy foods, gradually increasing the difficulty of the meat, and then as of week six I will be able to try anything, and see what works. I have to say, I actually find that I'm a little scared to eat, now. I just don't want to cause any issues with the sleeve, most definitely don't want to throw up or get sick...and it feels like every new thing I introduce is a potential danger. But at this point, I'm so craving flavors and chewing that I'm willing to risk it! Also down to 341.5 from my surgery date weight of 351.8 (and that wasn't fully clothed), which amounts to 10 pounds in 11 days. Quite a pace.

It's staggering to think that the best I've ever done with normal diet and exercise is to lose about 50-55lbs in around six months, which was usually where I'd hit a wall and stop losing, and couldn't drop my calories any more because I was starving, and ultimately gave up. You've dropped over twice that much in the same timeframe. It's pretty phenomenal. I know that it's all just an adjustment, I'm going through a lot of the mental stuff right now, in addition to the eating changes and just behavioral stuff. As prepared as I was, I just don't think you can ever be totally prepared for what all this entails. It's massive change. Thanks for the encouragement, and congratulations on your weight loss, that's awesome.

Yes, I'm 10 days out from my VSG and I'm dealing with this issue. I know it's just my mind struggling to "let go" of the old behaviors, and I have used food as a companion for so many things over the decades that my triggers seem innumerable. I see them a lot more clearly now than I did, pre-surgery. But that knowledge doesn't help, I still feel like I'm going through a "mourning" process with food. I imagine it doesn't really help that for two weeks before surgery and now 10 days after, I'm consuming nothing but liquids. I miss chewing, texture, varying flavors, and the feel of eating. And you know, the killer of the whole deal...that eating made me happy. That emotional component to eating is probably 90% of the reason I became obese, in the first place. It's too much to expect that I'm going to shake that in just a week or so, even though I don't feel hunger and my stomach wouldn't handle it anyway. This is why I had the surgery. I needed physical enforcement, I needed it to simply not be possible to backslide, or retreat into well-worn and comfortable habits, and let food be my emotional friend again. I find myself overly occupied by what I will be able to eat after I graduate from pureed foods and peoples' experiences are all over the place with what they did and didn't tolerate. Some people can eat whatever they want (just small amounts) and other people say their new stomach enforces restrictions. It's just weird to have hit the reset button, now. I've been restored basically to the point of infancy when it comes to eating, and have to re-learn everything about it. I'm scared about putting things in because I don't know how much it'll hold, and I don't want to injure anything. And I know that's going to continue for months to come, as I figure out what is okay, what's not, and how much is enough. I never had to worry about that, before...I could just keep on eating whatever was in front of me, most likely finishing all of it, and never give any thought to what my stomach was going through. I'm with you though...the mental part of this is every bit as big of a deal as the physical. But you know, when I really get to the meat of it (no pun intended), this is probably the process a person SHOULD go through if they're actually making the necessary changes to lose weight WITHOUT surgery...but which they don't. I think that was always a major problem for me...the idea that it didn't have to be permanent, I could stop any time. That lack of 100% commitment is just a set-up for failure, which I did time and time again over the past 25 years or so. That's why I finally decided that the only way I could achieve this goal is if my body enforced it for me, and took some of the load off my mind. But my mind is definitely struggling at the moment!

Maybe you just didn't chew your food well enough...that's kind of what it sounds like, to me. Like something got stuck, couldn't fit through and came back up.

I actually decided a couple of weeks before the two week pre-op diet that I was going to indulge my various cravings, as a sort of "last blast" before everything came to a stop. I must have eaten at Buffalo Wild Wings like four times, had various favorite dishes at different local restaurants, ate junk...just indulged, basically. Not the healthiest move, no...but I knew I was never going to do it again. That was going to be THE END. I was going to save my favorite sushi place for the last day. As the end of my splurge neared, I started finding that I had kind of "burned out" on it. I wasn't really craving anything, just eating routinely, and I started to come to the realization that by needing to do that splurge, I was acknowledging how great food's control had become over me. It was at the wheel, and not me. I started asking myself, why did I feel the need to do that? Was what I was giving up so important, in light of what it had done to me? I didn't go to the sushi place, my last day. I went to a Subway and had a turkey sub, chips and one last Coke. The next day, I started the liquid diet and no matter how hungry I got (and I got REALLY frickin' hungry), I never once cheated. Not once. I just buckled down, got serious, and dedicated myself to the change. The hunger was only temporary, I knew it was only two weeks, and after that I wouldn't be feeling it anymore. Sure enough...I don't. Surgery was 9 days ago, and I don't feel hunger at all. I'd be lying if I said I'm not going through my own mental process right now of sort of "mourning" food, and my old lifestyle and stomach size, but none of that did any favors for me...it just made me obese. If I list the pros of eating whatever I eat in one column, and the cons in the other, I easily fill the page with cons...and get maybe three pros. It's all in the mind. So for me, doing the pre-diet binge was helpful in clearing a mental hurdle and sort of preparing myself for the process...but again, not a real healthy thing to do. Still...upon weigh-in before surgery, I had lost 35 pounds from my high, a month earlier. So it didn't do THAT much damage

It's funny, I'm one week out from my sleeve procedure now and I haven't noticed a change in my taste buds at all. Seems like all the stuff on the liquid diet tastes the same as it did to me before the surgery. I don't know if I've noticed any change in my olfactory senses, either...although I think maybe my desire to have different flavors than this boring stuff I've been having for three weeks might be partly responsible for that! I do have to say, though, that my desire for sweet things is GONE. I don't have any hankerings for cakes and Cookies, or candy bars or anything I used to really like, now. That's a huge blessing. Really, what I'm feeling like is crunchy, chewy, salty/savory...flavorful texture, basically. But as far as junk, I don't really want any of that at all.

One week down and things are going well. I have good energy levels, I finally managed to hit 90g of Protein via shakes, pain is almost all gone and wounds are healing. The antibiotics and some unpleasant squeezing have the site with the seroma healing up now, as well. I have a whopping eight scars across my abdomen, evidence of the surgery team discovering my hernia mesh and switching gears, I guess. My mom (a retired career nurse) has been out here helping me recover, and it has been great not having to think about anything. I love my wife, but she isn't a caretaker in this way. She heads home tomorrow morning and on Monday, I go back to work. I find that it is easy to identify a lot of my eating triggers now. My mind isn't clouded with hunger. I am really jonesing for carbs, I find. Probably the all protein, no carb diet I have been on for almost a month. I want crunchy, chewy, tangy and spicy...sweet and sugary aren't registering at all. But as with a couple of days ago, it isn't driving me crazy, I am fine. I am just looking forward to getting some variety, and actual food. I have gradually upped my walking every day, till I reached 2.5 miles today. Next week, I will start on the elliptical at the gym. If any of the lifters here can weigh in, if you read this...how long did you wait, before you incorporated weights? I won't start before I feel fully healed, but was four to six weeks post-op good enough?

Well, had to visit the surgeon today and he had to open up one of the lap incisions and excise a bunch of Fluid buildup due to a seroma. He put me on an antibiotic and left the wound down open to keep draining. Wasn't a terribly pleasant experience but apparently not terribly uncommon and not super serious when treated. I'm supposed to keep working on pushing fluid out with dressing changes until it resolves. Such a treat. Thoughts of chewing and eating real food are coming back, though they aren't a preoccupation and I feel fine. I think after three weeks of nothing but bland liquids, I am just craving some actual food that requires chewing. I'm looking into a food processor for pureeing stuff, that should start in a week. Will be interesting to see if I can make things appetizing in pureed form. I really do miss chewing and texture, though.

Thanks gang! Each day gets a little easier and I feel a little better, and it is getting easier to get my water needs met. I did a mile and a half walking today total, and my need for pain medicine is reducing. Feeling decent. I appreciate all the encouragement, I am sure I will be asking questions as the weeks go by...there is so much to this entire process.

Well, the surgeon had to make the decision to switch me from Roux-en-y to vertical sleeve gastrectomy, but the surgery was done successfully yesterday and I'm at home recouperating now. Still trying to get rid of the last of the very uncomfortable gas, but I feel okay. Not very interested in putting anything in my stomach right now, but I'm trying to get fluids and Protein shakes down...it's just VERY slow going. I get at most maybe 2oz done per hour right now. As the gas pain and general discomfort subside, I'm sure it'll get easier. Unfortunately, apparently the mesh that a prior surgeon used to repair an umbilical hernia was the wrong type, and resulted in my intestines scarring into the mesh such that he couldn't do anything without risking damage to my intestine, so he made the judgment call. I'm glad for that, I don't want complications if I can help it. It's just a bummer because that's what I've been feeding my brain with for over a year and I haven't really read up on VSG, though I imagine it's going to be much the same, behavior-wise. Anyway, I'm glad to have it behind me and now I just want to make a full recovery and get on with this business of losing weight and getting fit. On a side note, my pre-surgery weight was 351.2 - I lost over 35 pounds leading up to surgery. Not bad!

That's quite an accomplishment, to have done that pre-surgery. The best I think I ever did on my own steam was around 55lbs lost and it would slow to such a crawl...and either something would happen to create stressors in my life that caused me to fall off the wagon, or I'd get so discouraged about not seeing any result for my effort, knowing that I'd done everything right, while feeling incredibly hungry every day, that I left the wagon (usually intending not to do it permanently, just as a "break" - but as soon as I went off...I stayed off). This surgery is the tool I've needed, I think. The fact that I can get around six months of steady losses without feeling hungry is the key thing. Hunger is what has always made me lose my mind and make it easy to go off the rails. If I don't have that problem and I'm seeing results, I can handle the diet changes. Had the last meeting with the nutritionist today, tomorrow I start the Clear liquids only and then Thursday it's the cleanse, and Friday morning I'm on the table. Nervous, but I'll be really happy to get this all behind me finally and not have it constantly weighing on my mind.

Yeah, I'm staying on track...it's taking all of my willpower, but I have resisted every urge to cheat on this pre-op diet. It's too important, and I know that it's really not going to be that long before I won't feel like this anymore, and I'll be back to square one with my eating. So that's helping me get through it. But man, it's hard...and probably part of it is just the difficulty of knowing the finality of it. I've drawn a line in the sand and I'm stepping over it, and I am not going back. But that's a pretty intimidating thought, some days. It helps to see guys who've done it successfully and are making huge strides in their fitness, especially guys who are in their forties and above. I know that in all likelihood, a year from now I'm going to be kicking myself for not coming to this decision a lot sooner...but better late than never. I'm really experienced with tracking my intake and all of that, of course most of us probably are after having done all of the traditional diets we have! Protein will be my priority because I want to preserve whatever muscle mass I can during this process.

Hey, I've read a bunch of posts on this forum over the past several weeks and decided, now that I'm only days away from my surgery, that I'd go ahead and join. The liquid pre-op diet has been the most brutal diet I've ever been on, I'm starving all day long and I never thought I'd miss chewing so much...but I haven't cracked. I've been doing everything by the numbers, so I can get the best outcome possible. My surgery date is September 23rd, and this diet has had the nice effect of making me welcome the surgery date, so that I hopefully won't have to feel this gnawing feeling in my stomach anymore, at least for a few months! I'm glad to find a men's forum, there just aren't a whole lot of stories out there on the web about men having the surgery and achieving fitness goals, and the like. I am planning to really get myself to a high level of fitness through this process - I love weights and even though I've been overweight most of my life, I know a lot about nutrition and weight training. I guess the challenge isn't gaining the knowledge, it's actually using it. My weight is such a difficulty now though that I'm basically carrying another full-grown man around all day long, it makes the compound lifts difficult to execute safely, without risking injury. So I can't do them. I can't wait until I can feel the relief of getting that guy off my back and pushing Iron, instead of flesh. Thanks to the guys on this forum who have posted photos of their progress. I plan to be around.