avatarkorraa

Hey everyone! I'm 9 months post op VSG and have lost about 105 pounds so far (including pre-op liquid diet). Everything in general has been good so far, except for the past two weeks I've been experiencing a lot of abdominal and side pain after eating, and also some really terrible bloating, gas, nausea, and constipation. Did an ultrasound a few days ago and it turns out I have a contracted gallbladder full of stones. I know that the only way to get rid of gallbladder problems is to do gallbladder removal surgery, but I've been doing a lot of research and I've been finding that A LOT of people have been complaining that they experience uncontrolled weight gain after gallbladder removal. Despite eating healthy, exercising, and limiting the consumption of fats, people seem to rapidly gain huge amounts of weight, especially in the abdomen, and find it impossible to lose it. As a bariatric patient this of course scares the heck out of me! I don't want to do this surgery and ruin what I've worked so hard to achieve with my weight loss, and I still have so much more weight I want to lose until I hit my goal. What should I do? Has anyone else had gallbladder removal after wls? Did it impact your weight loss or give you any unwanted side affects after surgery? I'm so scared of having to do this surgery. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Almost 10 months out and I can eat 3-4oz of lean protein with 2-3 oz of veggies on the side, so anywhere from 5-7oz of food in one sitting.

Hello Everyone! I'm looking for some MyFitnessPal friends so I can get some menu inspirations from other VSGers, see other people's food diaries, to see how others are setting theris macros like calories, carbs, protein, etc. at different stages post op, and just to encourage each other in general! I'm 9.5 months out post-op VSG, add me! My profile: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/profile/avatarkorraa

Hello everyone, I'm 9.5 months postop VSG and I have lost 88 pounds since my surgery on Sept 19th, 2016, and 108 pounds overall since my pre-op liquid diet. For the first few months postop I was eating about 600-800 calories a day, and up until today I'm still eating around 700-900 calories a day, 80-100 grams of protein, and anywhere from 20-30 grams of net carbs. A lot of people keep telling me that my calories are way too low for someone as far out as I am, and I'm worried that if I continue to eat like this that my body will adjust to a really low calorie intake and once I hit maintenance that I'll start gaining weight if I eat over 1000 calories. I want to be able to maintain within a normal calorie range for someone my age, of around 1500 calories. I'm 5' 7" and 21 years old, and right now I weight 177lbs and I'm hoping to reach my goal weight of 150lbs. I was 285lbs before my pre-op liquid diet, and 265lbs on the day of surgery. But I'm honestly finding it really hard to increase my calories because eating up to 900 calories a day usually leaves me sufficiently satisfied for the day, and to be able to eat more than 900 calories a day I feel like I would really have to force myself to eat more. I eat healthy, nutritious food and always prioritize my protein, so it doesn't leave much room for me to eat too much calorie dense foods. I eat clean - no ice cream, pizza, chips, etc. or other junk whatsoever. Things I eat regularly include: Premier Protein shakes, chicken breast, shrimp, low fat cheeses (mainly feta, parmesan, mozzarella, and sharp cheddar), nuts (mainly almonds and pistachios), low fat greek yogurt, protein granola, high fibre bran cereal, small amounts of berries, Peanut Butter, and eggs. I eat a lot of veggies too, and always stick to non-starchy veggies like broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, brussel sprouts, cucumber, green Beans, and spinach. I weigh and measure everything I eat down to the gram and track everything on myfitnesspal everyday. Here is myfitnesspal account where I have my food diary visible, so any advice on what I'm eating would be really appreciated: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/avatarkorraa. I can comfortably eat anywhere from 5-7 ounces of food in a sitting, and I eat 3 meals a day and 1-2 snacks, every 3-4 hours. In terms of my activity level, I'm pretty sedentary because I have a lot of chronic fatigue and muscle weakness due to some complications I had postop , so I can't increase my calories too much because I'm not burning off a lot. In the meantime I'm following up with my doctor to see if there's something I can do about this so I can start exercising soon, because I really want to . So where should I go from here? I really don't want my metabolism to adjust to such a low calorie intake, but I'm scared that if I increase my calories that my weight loss will stop. Should I try eating more calorie dense foods or force myself to eat more in general? How many calories should I be eating right now to maintain a healthy weight loss and so my metabolism doesn't slow down? Is it too late for me now to do so? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

I'm wondering about that too! But it seems to me that the most successful sleevers (just from what I've seen browsing forums, YouTube, etc) are the ones that are eating at least over 1000 calories in the losing phase. Has anyone else noticed that or am I way off? Which brings me back to my original question - should I force myself to eat more so I can up my calories? I really don't want to risk ruining my metabolism in the long run...

Hey everyone, I'm looking for some advice/support with regards to my eating habits and dealing with a stall. I'm 9 months post op VSG and I had my surgery on Sept 16th 2016. My highest weight ever was 310 pounds, my surgery consult weight was 285 pounds, and I was 265 pounds the day of surgery after the pre-op liquid diet. I'm now 183 pounds for a total loss of 102 pounds since my pre-op liquid diet, and 82 pounds since the day of my surgery. My goal weight is 150 pounds and I'm 5' 7". Now I'm not new to stalls at all - I've gone through every stall in the book so far. I've had major stalls at 3 weeks post op, 1 month post op, 3 months post op, 6 months post op, and now here I am stalling again at 9 months post op. But what has me really worried this time is that I thought I had finally broke my stall a few weeks ago but my weight shot back up again today, and I even gained weight! I've been stuck at 183 pounds since the beginning of June, but I weighed in two weeks ago at 178 and I was thrilled. I had been eating 600-800 calories a day, 70-100 grams of protein, and below 20 grams of net carbs (most days being around 15). I thought I had broken through my stall but after seeing 178 that one time, I weighed in over the next few days around 180-181 even though my eating habits didn't change. I got really frustrated and told myself I'd do a little experiment...I thought maybe I wasn't eating enough, and even my nutritionist advised me to increase my calories and carbs because I've been eating this way since the very beginning post op. Starting last Friday, I tried for one week to eat 900 calories a day, still keeping between 70-100 grams of protein, increasing my water intake to over 64oz a day, and eating slightly higher carbs (below 30 net carbs per day) to try and break the stall. (By net carbs I mean I subtract both sugar alcohols and fiber from my total carb count). So I did that for a week and promised not to weigh myself for the whole week until again next Friday, and lo and behold when I weighed myself today I gained weight and am now back at 183 pounds! I don't know if I'm losing inches because I don't measure myself - but my clothes size has stayed the same and I feel like my progress pics since last month look the same. :/ Maybe that's just me though and I'm psyching myself out, but I'm feeling so upset and frustrated and depressed, I don't know what to do! I weigh and measure everything I eat down to the gram and track everything on myfitnesspal everyday. I eat clean - no ice cream, pizza, chips, etc. or other junk whatsoever. Some staples in my diet are premier protein shakes, chicken, shrimp, low fat cheeses, nuts, low fat greek yogurt, protein granola, peanut butter, and eggs. I always stick to non-starchy veggies like broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, brussel sprouts, cucumber, green beans, and spinach. Things I eat occasionally are half a slice of a high fibre/high protein low carb pita or loaf, a protein bar on long days at work where I do some heavy lifting for an extra boost, or a high fibre/high protein muffin cake (Smartcakes) sweetened with erythritol as a treat (just tried these very recently though - while they have good stats I don't know if I'll continue to buy them or avoid). During my little 'experiment' this week, I increased my carbs mainly from healthy sources: small amounts of strawberries, high fibre whole grain cereals, and lots more veggies like broccoli and cucumber. I ate more frequently in the day by adding an extra snack or small meal to up my calories to 900 a day, but I never eat less than 3 hours apart. I never eat and drink at the same time and always wait at least 30 minutes between drinking and eating. On days I'm low in fibre I'll add fibre-enhanced crystal lite to my water to get in enough fibre each day as well (still can't tolerate plain water yet sadly - makes me really nauseous). I cook using cooking spray to make sure I'm using as limited amounts of oil as possible. I take my PPI, multivitamin, Vitamin B12, and Vitamin D3 + Calcium supplements everyday as well. Here is myfitnesspal account where I have my food diary visible, so any advice on what I'm eating would be really appreciated: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/avatarkorraa As for exercise, that's been a bit of a challenge because I've been experiencing some severe chronic fatigue and muscle weakness ever since my surgery. I feel really exhausted, light-headed, dizzy, and weak all of the time, and even simple tasks like walking up the stairs has become more much challenging since surgery. I know people are supposed to feel like they have much more energy after WLS, but sadly for me it's been quite the opposite (and I'm very young too to boot - only 21 years old). I don't know if this is because I'm not eating enough or because of some other underlying health problem, though. My labs are all perfect but I do suffer from PCOS sadly, and I have pretty low blood pressure. I'm not completely sedentary though - my job requires me to do some moderate heavy lifting once a week (which is difficult to do in the state I'm in now but I try my best) and I'm certainly not housebound or anything as I'm always out and about running errands. I really do want to implement some sort of formal exercise program into my daily routine though, but sadly I have next to no energy all the time and my muscles and joints are in a lot of pain everyday. Eating closer to 900 calories this week helped me feel a little more energized, but not by much. In the meantime I'm following up with my doctor to see if there's something I can do about this so I can start exercising soon, because I really want to . Anyways, any advice/support would be really appreciated! I really want to reach my goal of 150lbs but it's so hard not to get discouraged during times like this. Seeing the scale shoot back up to 183 pounds today really scares me and I just don't know where to go from here, and I'm honestly too terrified to eat anything now. Thank you so much for reading and I wish you all the best on your respective journeys!

Hey everyone! I'm 9 months post op VSG and have lost about 105 pounds so far (including pre-op liquid diet). Everything in general has been good so far, except for the past two weeks I've been experiencing a lot of abdominal and side pain after eating, and also some really terrible bloating, gas, nausea, and constipation. Did an ultrasound a few days ago and it turns out I have a contracted gallbladder full of stones. I know that the only way to get rid of gallbladder problems is to do gallbladder removal surgery, but I've been doing a lot of research and I've been finding that A LOT of people have been complaining that they experience uncontrolled weight gain after gallbladder removal. Despite eating healthy, exercising, and limiting the consumption of fats, people seem to rapidly gain huge amounts of weight, especially in the abdomen, and find it impossible to lose it. As a bariatric patient this of course scares the heck out of me! I don't want to do this surgery and ruin what I've worked so hard to achieve with my weight loss, and I still have so much more weight I want to lose until I hit my goal. What should I do? Has anyone else had gallbladder removal after wls? Did it impact your weight loss or give you any unwanted side affects after surgery? I'm so scared of having to do this surgery. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Hello, I hope everyone here is doing well on their weight loss journey! I'm posting this because I've been having some serious mental health difficulties after surgery and I don't know what to do. I just need to reach out to other people here who understand the struggles of bariatric surgery and who would be so kind as to offer any words of advice or support. I had VSG surgery 9 months ago on Sept. 19th, 2016. I started at 285 pounds before Opti and I'm at 180lbs right now, putting me at a total loss of 105 pounds so far. At my ultimate highest weight I was 310lbs. My ultimate goal weight after surgery is 150lbs (I'm 5' 7") and I'm trying SO hard to try and make it there. A little too hard in fact. I was actually diagnosed with an eating disorder by my psychologist at my last follow up and my NUT is concerned with my eating habits. I've been dealing with a lot of bodily dysmorphia, which I know is definitely normal for bariatric patients due to loose skin or just in the process of getting your mind to catch up with recognizing the physical changes in yourself that everyone else sees. But I'm so unhappy with my body still. I know I've lost a lot of weight, but I still feel so huge and ugly and fat, and I'm so distracted with the way my body looks and with the fact that I still don't feel thin enough. Because of that I've been restricting my meals a lot in an effort to try and lose the rest of the weight faster, thinking it'll make me feel better. I've been skipping meals sometimes, going hours without eating, weighing myself multiple times a day on 3 different scales I have at home, and I've been restricting my calorie and carb intake as much as I can. I know it's unhealthy and a sign of disordered behavior, but I just can't seem to stop doing it, no matter how much I recognize that it's a problem. I track everything I eat on myfitnesspal everyday and I weigh my food using 2 different food scales, and sometimes several times. I'll log say, 15 grams of cheese on myfitnesspal, but only weight 11 grams of it to make sure I'm always eating at a deficit and that I don't accidentally eat too many calories. I've set my calorie goal in myfitnesspal for 900 a day but I never hit it. I have a mental barrier in my mind at 800 calories and most days I feel good when I eat around 700-750. I feel really proud of myself on days I eat closer to 500-600 calories, actually. Other things I'll do, is when I use a spoon to scoop and weigh my Greek yogurt from a carton into a bowl, for example, instead of just using the same spoon to eat my bowl of yogurt I feel obliged to aggressively wash it or just get a new spoon because I don't want to eat any extra calories from the yogurt residue on the spoon. If I don't do that sometimes I'll just lick the spoon and then spit it out whatever was on it into the sink. It's messed up... I know I know this behavior is really unhealthy, but I can't seem to get over this huge fear I have of food now. I'm honestly so terrified of food. Especially carbs. I had my original limit on myfitnesspal set at 20 net carbs a day, but I'll adjust my daily macros by eating 5 grams less here and there to round it out to 15-16 net carbs a day, because I'm so scared of 'hidden carbs' I may be eating accidentally. As I type this I have a plate of chicken breast that I weighed and logged in myfitnesspal already just sitting beside me because I'm too scared to eat it and I want to cry. I read all about patients who regained everything after surgery and I'm so scared that'll happen to me. A little voice in my head keeps telling me "if you don't weigh out this lettuce at a slight gram deficit from what you've logged, or if you eat 19 net carbs today when you really should be eating around 15 to make up for any hidden carbs, then you'll just go right back to being 300+ pounds again and miserable with your life If you can't control yourself now, then you won't ever be able to control yourself again and there's nothing stopping you from regained all your weight back". And that's the thing... while in general I'm dissatisfied with the rate at which I'm losing (I can't help but feel extremely jealous of those people who reach their goal weight at 6 or 8 months postop), and while I hate the fact that my stomach hasn't flattened out yet and I still have a belly that prevents me from wearing the clothes I want, and while I hate the fact that my body feels so disproportionate now, and while I hate the fact that I still have 30 pounds to lose and even if do I reach my goal weight it won't feel like enough......I know I'm MUCH happier after having had the surgery. I like the person I've become, how my personality has changed in subtle ways, and how losing weight has allowed me to be the person who I truly want to be. I always felt that with being fat, you don't get to be the person who you want to be or who you feel you truly are on the inside because you're always hiding from the world. Maybe that's a bit too abstract of a feeling to put in words, but that's how it's been for me at least. I know I'm much happier and confident now, and all my family and friends are so proud of my weight loss. I feel like I can't allow myself to let them down. I keep telling myself that once I reach my goal of 150lbs that I'll allow myself to eat more calories/carbs for maintenance, but in reality I know that my disordered behaviors are only getting worse and in the state I'm in right now I'll never want to stop losing weight. I've wrestled with the idea of trying to get down to 135-125lbs if I can. If I gain back any considerable amount of weight I'm worried I might become suicidal. I know that's a really extreme statement, but I absolutely cannot allow myself to gain weight or I know I'll be completely devastated. I don't know what to do now. Every time I go to weigh my food or track my meals it honestly just turned into such a mental battle with myself and I keep wanting to lose as much weight as possible. I want to be able to eat normally and responsibly, and not feel like food is the enemy, but I just can't help feeling the way I am now. Food has prevented me from living the life I wanted for so many years and I feel like I'm just not emotionally ready yet to begin to eat normally. My physical health has suffered a lot as a result sadly, and I'm always incredibly tired, fatigued, and my muscle strength is totally non-existent. Even just walking up the stairs in my house has gotten considerably more challenging than how it was before surgery. Exercising is something I really want to do but I honestly just can't with the energy levels I have right now. My blood pressure and blood sugar are always both pretty low too (around 80/50 range and 3.5, respectively). I really just can't seem to get over these mental struggles unfortunately. It's been quite rough. And that's why I'm desperately seeking your support right now. I'm just looking for some support/encouragement/advice or any kind words in general, because we WLS-ers are all in this together, for both the NSVs and the challenging parts of our respective journeys. If you read this far, thank you so much for listening! I really appreciate it

Hey everyone, I need some advice and just general tips & tricks for how to cut out a bad habit such as grazing. I am 6 months out and I've been very good with eating well post-op, I track everything I eat and keep my calories and carbs minimal, but grazing has been the one bad habit I can't seem to kick. I don't go crazy though, I always eat clean and when I graze it'll be on 2-3 almonds, a small sliver of chicken, or some spoonfuls of salad, definitely not cakes or Cookies or chocolates. But I know the calories eventually add up so it's a habit I want to get rid of. I track and weigh absolutely everything else I eat for my regular meals and Snacks on myfitnesspal. Lately what I've been doing is trying to log those calories from grazing on myfitnesspal to at least be accountable and adjust my macros for the rest of the day accordingly , but it's difficult to account for everything sometimes since it's such small amounts. Rather than doing that though I'd much prefer to just stop the habit altogether. Any advice would be really appreciated! Thanks

Hey everyone, I'm at the 6 month post-op mark and I'm going through the longest stall I've experienced in my journey thus far! I'm not new to stalls, as my body will usually stall for 2 weeks at a time then all of a sudden I'll lose 5 pounds over the course of 2 days, but my weight hasn't changed in over a moth now and I'm feeling incredibly discouraged. My starting weight was 285 before my 3 week liquid only pre-op diet, and I was 265 on the day of surgery. I've been sitting at 205 for the past few weeks, so I've only lost about 60 pounds since my actual surgery date My goal weight is 150 which seems like a mile away right now! I've been logging everything I eat on my fitnesspal and I eat around 800 - 900 cals a day, with a goal of no more than 25g of net carbs (I do go over sometimes though, but I don't usually surpass 35g of net carbs). I've been getting all my Protein and Vitamins in most days and I drink about 1.5 - 2L of Water a day. I eat 3 meals and 1-2 Snacks a day. I can definitely eat much more than I could a few weeks ago, and I eat 5-6oz per meal in one sitting (Which feels like a lot to me...I thought I would only be eating 4oz per meal until at least a year post op, but 4oz doesn't fill me up like it used to. Maybe my stomach just healed really fast? Or I have a larger sleeve?). I haven't started exercising yet although I really do want to! I'm just starting to get my strength back since I was prone to some fainting spells and had some really bad weakness/fatigue compounded with anemia and low blood sugar for a while post-op, but it’s slowly getting better. Hoping to start slow doing exercise with some daily walking and running at least once exams are over (I’m a university student) and when the weather gets a little better. In the meantime though, anything I can do to help break the stall or just ride it out? It’s hard not to feel discouraged because I still feel like I've made no progress when I look in the mirror and when the scale doesn’t move it just makes the bodily dysmorphia that much worse Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you! Btw, add me as a friend on myfitnesspal! J http://www.myfitnesspal.com/profile/avatarkorraa

Thank you all so much for the advice! I finally broke my stall today and weighed in at 201 so I'm really excited about that! I think it was just a matter of time but it's hard not to freak out when it happens. I'll try to up my calories from now on a bit as well as the others have suggested!

Hey everyone, I'm asking this question because I feel like my sleeve can fit way more than the average patient at this stage. I'm 6 months post-op and at this point I can easily eat 6 ounces of food before feeling satisfied, not fully stuffed. If I overeat (which of course I'm definitely not making a regular habit of doing, I've just noticed this on a few occasions), then 7-8 ounces can leave me feeling fully stuffed. I feel like this is way too much compared to others who seem to only be able to handle a maximum of 4 ounces even several months post op. I don't know what bougie size my surgeon uses, but I'm wondering if I seem to have an abnormally large pouch or maybe my stomach just healed really fast? I'm being very careful with what I'm eating and even though I can eat this much I'm keeping my calories low, around 800-900 a day, but I'm feeling like I don't have the restriction that I should be having at this stage. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

I'm really worried to start upping my calories though, I heard 800 is what we should be aiming for in the weight loss stage and 1000-1200 during maintenance, but my NUT never gave me any calorie guidelines so I'm not too sure. She did tell me I need to eat more during my last follow up, but I'm just really scared my weight loss will be even slower than it is now if I start eating more Will upping my calories really help me break the stall? Thanks!

Hey everybody! I'm almost 6 weeks post op at this point and for the past few days I've been finding that I've been super hungry all the time. I can normally eat a small snack like a cheesestring or some deli meat to make the hunger feeling subside for a bit but then an hour or two later I find myself getting really hungry again and experience that gnawing stomach sensation. This hasn't really happened before and I've only noticed it being a problem in the last few days. The last few days I've been really good at hitting my Protein goals, and I'm always at about 70-80 grams, whereas before I could only hit 50-60. I'm wondering if that has something to do with it? I'm still measuring out all my food, tracking my food on myfitnesspal (food diary: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/avatarkorraa) keeping my calories at around 600-800 a day, and I can't eat more than 4oz in one sitting for sure, but I'm just worried that if this continues I'll eventually start eating too much and not sustaining my weight loss. My weight loss has also been quite slow, I've only lost about 20 pounds so far and I had my surgery on September 19th. :/ Any advice? Thanks!

Hey everyone! I'm wondering how many calories one should be eating about 5 months post-op. Up until now I've been eating around 600-850 calories a day but these past few days I've been eating closer to 900 which is scaring me a bit because I don't know if this is too much. At my 3 month follow up appointment my NUT told me I should be eating 1000-1200 calories which seems way too high for someone only 3 months post op. I'm not doing any exercise routine at all either. I had my surgery on September 19th so I'm almost 5 months post op now, but I don't know when I should start increasing my calories and what would be a good range. I know it'd probably better to not worry too much about the calories and just focus on getting enough Protein but I feel like I need to set a daily number to help keep me in check day to day. Thanks!

Here's mine http://www.myfitnesspal.com/profile/avatarkorraa

My highest weight ever was 310 pounds, I started my 3 week pre-op liquid diet at 285 pounds and day of surgery I was at 265 pounds. And today I am 215 pounds. So my weight loss strictly since surgery is the same as yours for 5 months out

Hey there everyone, I'm currently about 3 months post op VSG and I had my surgery on September 19th. My highest weight ever was 310 pounds about 3 years ago. I started my pre-op liquid Optifast diet at 285 pounds and was on it for 3 weeks, got down to 265 on the day of surgery, and I'm now 230 pounds 3 months out. So I've only lost 35 pounds since my actual surgery. I'm feeling quite discouraged because I feel this is a very slow loss for someone 3 months out. With regards to my eating habits, I weigh absolutely all of my food and am consistently getting between 60-80grams of Protein and anywhere from 600-850 calories a day. I can eat a little bit more than I could a few weeks ago, and I can get in about 3oz of lean protein in one sitting. However I can eat about 5-6oz of food spread out over a few hours. So sometimes I'll weigh out 4oz of meat and 1-2 oz of veggies with some cheese or hummus and eat that over 3-4hours to make sure I'm getting in enough protein in a day. I do this because I'm trying to get all my protein from food and not have to rely on Protein shakes or bars anymore. Occasionally I will have a Protein Bar occasionally and I usually add protein granola to my yogurt. Some things that I eat on a regular basis are greek yogurt, hummus, cheddar cheese, almonds, beef Jerky, chicken, beef, eggs occasionally, and vegetables like broccoli or brussel sprouts. When it comes to Water I'm getting in about 1 - 1.5 liters a day. Also, here is my fitnesspal where I've been logging everything I've been eating everyday for the past 2.5 months since I started pureed foods: scale Any support would be great, thank you!

I'm 3 months post-op and recently switched over from my chewable multivitamins to some prenatal multivitamins to get the added iron and folic acid which is supposed to be really important for bariatric patients, but they have been making me incredibly nauseaus and every time I take one I feel like I'm about to throw up. I haven't had any problems taking pill form vitamins before, and I'm taking my vitamin B12 and calcium regularly. Has anyone else experienced this? What multivitamin do you take daily that fits the bariatric requirements? Any recommendations for good ones? I prefer pill or capsule form rather than chewable and would like something completely tasteless and odourless (the prenatal ones had a really strong smell and taste even though they were in pill form, it wasn't very pleasant :/ ). Thanks!

After doing a little bit more research I actually realize this may have something to do with the PPI. I forgot to take them for the past few days (been getting in all my Vitamins though!) but I figured since I wasn't experiencing any acid refux after not taking it for a day or two that I didn't need them anymore. Bad mistake!! I had no idea that the absence of a PPI can manifest in hunger pains like this. That explains a lot honestly. I don't really experience head hunger and I've no problem with sticking to my scheduled meals and weighing all my food before now, so I suspect that the absence of the PPI is what's made me feel so hungry all the time.

Oops I meant to post this in the sleeve surgery for beginners post-op forum not here, how can I delete it? So sorry!

Hey everybody! I'm almost 6 weeks post op at this point and for the past few days I've been finding that I've been super hungry all the time. I can normally eat a small snack like a cheesestring or some deli meat to make the hunger feeling subside for a bit but then an hour or two later I find myself getting really hungry again and experience that gnawing stomach sensation. This hasn't really happened before and I've only noticed it being a problem in the last few days. The last few days I've been really good at hitting my Protein goals, and I'm always at about 70-80 grams, whereas before I could only hit 50-60. I'm wondering if that has something to do with it? I'm still measuring out all my food, tracking my food on myfitnesspal (link: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/diary/avatarkorraa) keeping my calories at around 600-800 a day, and I can't eat more than 4oz in one sitting for sure, but I'm just worried that if this continues I'll eventually start eating too much and not sustaining my weight loss. My weight loss has also been quite slow, I've only lost about 20 pounds so far and I had my surgery on September 19th. :/ Any advice? Thanks!

Hey everyone! I'm 4 weeks post op and looking for some advice about eating out at this stage. So in about a week I have a work-related event that involves eating out at a restaurant. At this point I've been cleared for soft foods and am no longer on purees. I haven't told anyone about what type of surgery it is and I'm trying to keep it a secret. I've been avoiding eating out with my friends for the past few weeks but this event is one that I'm hosting so I'm expected to be there. So I've looked up the restaurant in advance and looked at the menu thoroughly and I assume could probably safely order the grilled salmon. I haven't tried introducing salmon into my diet yet so before I go I'll be cooking some salmon at home and seeing if I am able to tolerate it well. At this point I can comfortably eat about 3oz of tuna so i don't expect to be eating any more than that of the salmon, so obviously I won't even touch the side of vegetables and ask for a to go container right off the bat. For more experienced vsgers, how did you handle eating out early post op? I don't want to do anything that would jeaporidize my health or my weight loss, so if eating out is just a bad idea at this point then I probably won't go. but just looking for some advice and wanted to hear what you all think. Thanks!

yes, unfortunately i've had many dizzy spells that early on, the worst of them being if i'm in the shower too long or changing positions from lying down to sitting up. i had to end up going to the hospital at one point because it was so bad, but i felt better after i was given some iv bags of fluid. i think at this point getting in enough water is critical because you don't want to get dehydrated, if you're not taking in enough water it's easy to feel very dizzy. take it very slowly when changing positions too. good luck

Hello everyone! I'm brand new to this forum so hello! I'm 21 years old from Toronto, Ontario and I was sleeved on September 19th, 2016. I'm really excited for this journey and to live a healthier and happier life! I'm 5' 7" and my highest weight ever was 310 pounds. My surgery consult weight was 285, and my surgery weight after the pre-op liquid diet was 265. I'm about a month post op now and sitting around 250. I'm not going to lie, I'm a little bit disappointed about only losing 15 pounds so far. Those 15 pounds came off in the first two weeks and for the past two weeks since then I've lost nothing! The scale doesn't want to move and I'm terrified lol. I had some severe post-op complications including internal bleeding which had me going in for a second emergency surgery about 2 days after I was initially sleeved and I had to have a blood transfusion because I lost about 2 litres of blood. I ended up staying about a week in the hospital and went through some pretty horrible stuff, so I don't want to have gone through all of that for nothing! I'm worried that perhaps I'm eating too much/not enough or just generally doing everything wrong lol. I'm trying my best to stick to the program but since the scale isn't moving and considering the complications I had I'm starting to get really anxious and worried that I'm failing at this already. For the past 2 weeks I've been on the pureed food diet, but the thought of pureeing meats and vegetables in the blender kind of grosses me out so I've been sticking to other foods approved for this stage according to my hospital's bariatric guide, which says that 3-4 weeks post op aside from pureed foods I can have melba toast, moist fish mashed with a fork, and very soft cheeses. So instead of eating pureed foods I've basically been living off of tuna these past 2 weeks. My fitnesspal profile is here where I've logged my food intake for the past 2 weeks: Vitamins everyday so that hasn't been an issue. In terms of Water intake I am definitely struggling because plain water makes me very nauseous. I'm averaging about 4 cups of water a day right now. Any suggestions on what I should do to help break this stall or is it inevitable and I just need to ride it out? I'm feeling pretty insecure and scared right now that I'm failing already, especially exacerbated by the fact that my surgeon basically tried to talk me out of getting the sleeve by saying I would only lose about 20-30 pounds and I would eventually be unsuccessful with it and that I was better off with the RNY (yeah, he was not very nice at all!). I stuck with my decision to have the sleeve because I believe it is the right choice for me and I did a lot of research on it, but the discouragement from my surgeon and the fact that I've only lost 15 pounds in a month has gotten me feeling quite anxious. Any advice or just words of encouragement would be greatly appreciated! Thank you so much