2ndSpring

I'm using the fitbit app right now. Here is what they do well:
each food is available in multiple measurements and can accept any fraction as the quantity: e.g. 1/16 cup, 1/2 ounce, 1 medium apple, 1/4 large apple you can enter new foods into database - entry screen follows nutrition label format your history can be exported to Excel (although it is limited to 31 days which is a bummer) you can tag favorite foods for quick access in addition to protein/fat/carb grams, it also tells you percent by calorie it tells you how you are doing towards the day's calorie goal - a Protein goal would be a nice addition the database is huge! Here is what is missing:
tracking if you took your daily Vitamin inputting recipes copying a day or a meal - because we have so many leftovers! I would love to see other nutrients - like my ratio of Omega 3 to Omega 6 and Vitamins.

I'm using the fitbit app right now. Here is what they do well:
each food is available in multiple measurements and can accept any fraction as the quantity: e.g. 1/16 cup, 1/2 ounce, 1 medium apple, 1/4 large apple you can enter new foods into database - entry screen follows nutrition label format your history can be exported to Excel (although it is limited to 31 days which is a bummer) you can tag favorite foods for quick access in addition to protein/fat/carb grams, it also tells you percent by calorie it tells you how you are doing towards the day's calorie goal - a Protein goal would be a nice addition the database is huge! Here is what is missing:
tracking if you took your daily Vitamin inputting recipes copying a day or a meal - because we have so many leftovers! I would love to see other nutrients - like my ratio of Omega 3 to Omega 6 and Vitamins.

Dave,
i was also scared about the surgery and it being "too good to be true". To be blunt, whoever said this is the easy way out was on crack. This is not easy. This is only a tool to help you get what you want. If you don't do the work, (changing habits, stop emotionally eating, becoming an active individual etc) then it will not work as per your expectations.

For example, my dad is 6'9" and pushing 550 lbs. He got the gastric bypass surgery. Did great for 2 years. Dropped all the way to 250 lbs. then he became an alcoholic and is now as big or bigger than he ever was.

It it was my biggest fear doing the surgery to be like my dad. To sabotage myself and not let the tool work with me to be successful and let me tell you, this is a whole brand new life for me. A whole new way of trying to deal and make better habits. Some days I make progress and some days I don't.

i think your family will be more supportive than you may imagine. If there are individuals who are not supportive or detract from your goals, choose to spend your time with those that are supportive of you.

You are are choosing to make a change in your life. Don't let fear stop you.

Megan

I'm just outside of keto because I've been eating fruit and Beans. But I'm 8 months out. I was in keto for the first few months. I couldn't take the stank mouth bad breath from keto anymore!!
When I first started on this journey, I read every study I could find in my search for the ideal eating plan. I was SOOOO frustrated. There is very little hard science out there about the right way to eat for the human body. Every blogger swears they know the answer...haha, have you ever watched a paleo follower and a vegan go at it?

Lots of great questions. My advice is going to be kinda wishy washy.... the right balance of carb/fat/protein really depends on what your body reacts to and what you can live with long term. It takes a little trial and error to hit on the formula for your body.
For me, avoiding sugar, grains & starch, while eating plenty of fat and a moderate amount of Protein has been the solution. I don't eat rice, bread, Pasta, quinoa, potatoes, etc. But i do get carbs from fruits, veggies and Beans. In addition to olive and coconut oil, I also eat cheese and nuts. Eating this way has kept me losing and also wipes out cravings. 1 helping of pasta or sugar triggers cravings and can screw up my mind or days.
Applying my plan to the foods you mentioned, my plan would be ok with the fattier Proteins, but I would stay a mile away from the chocolate, mashed potatoes and SF pudding (that is just a box full of chemicals, LOL).
My best advice is to decide what guidelines you want to follow and then stick to them religiously. The psychological/behavior issues are super important right now while you are in the early months. This is the time to make big changes in your relationship with food, while your stomach doesn't care.
Best of luck and I hope this helped a little.

Hi Dave,
Welcome to the forum. You are asking all of the right questions (not everyone does) and thinking about the small details and how it will impact your life. This is definitely something to go into with your eyes wide open. The better educated you are, the more successful you will be.
I'm about 8 months out and I wholeheartedly recommend it. I wish I had done it years ago. I wasted so many years being overweight and waiting to do things until i was thinner. The surgery stopped my body from fighting me and allowed me to focus on changing my mental issues around food. It is much easier to adopt new mindsets when your stomach isn't screaming to be fed.
There are foods I have given up permanently, but i don't miss them. I also don't miss overfilling myself. I am able to eat out in restaurants and no one has noticed i eat so much less than them. I eat slowly and put the fork down between bites, so I wind up finishing at the same time as everyone else.
All in all, it has been a great experience.
Best of luck and keep us updated.

I'm just outside of keto because I've been eating fruit and Beans. But I'm 8 months out. I was in keto for the first few months. I couldn't take the stank mouth bad breath from keto anymore!!
When I first started on this journey, I read every study I could find in my search for the ideal eating plan. I was SOOOO frustrated. There is very little hard science out there about the right way to eat for the human body. Every blogger swears they know the answer...haha, have you ever watched a paleo follower and a vegan go at it?

Lots of great questions. My advice is going to be kinda wishy washy.... the right balance of carb/fat/protein really depends on what your body reacts to and what you can live with long term. It takes a little trial and error to hit on the formula for your body.
For me, avoiding sugar, grains & starch, while eating plenty of fat and a moderate amount of Protein has been the solution. I don't eat rice, bread, Pasta, quinoa, potatoes, etc. But i do get carbs from fruits, veggies and Beans. In addition to olive and coconut oil, I also eat cheese and nuts. Eating this way has kept me losing and also wipes out cravings. 1 helping of pasta or sugar triggers cravings and can screw up my mind or days.
Applying my plan to the foods you mentioned, my plan would be ok with the fattier Proteins, but I would stay a mile away from the chocolate, mashed potatoes and SF pudding (that is just a box full of chemicals, LOL).
My best advice is to decide what guidelines you want to follow and then stick to them religiously. The psychological/behavior issues are super important right now while you are in the early months. This is the time to make big changes in your relationship with food, while your stomach doesn't care.
Best of luck and I hope this helped a little.

I'm using the fitbit app right now. Here is what they do well:
each food is available in multiple measurements and can accept any fraction as the quantity: e.g. 1/16 cup, 1/2 ounce, 1 medium apple, 1/4 large apple you can enter new foods into database - entry screen follows nutrition label format your history can be exported to Excel (although it is limited to 31 days which is a bummer) you can tag favorite foods for quick access in addition to protein/fat/carb grams, it also tells you percent by calorie it tells you how you are doing towards the day's calorie goal - a Protein goal would be a nice addition the database is huge! Here is what is missing:
tracking if you took your daily Vitamin inputting recipes copying a day or a meal - because we have so many leftovers! I would love to see other nutrients - like my ratio of Omega 3 to Omega 6 and Vitamins.

That pre-op liquid diet is a killer. It is very very tough, both physically and emotionally. Headaches, hunger, crankiness, crying. Your body will adapt in a few days. and I promise that you won't feel like this once you are post-op. This is just the painful kick start to your journey. Staying positive is really important. Drink a lot of Water to flush the toxins out, and have a lot of broth so that you feel like you sat down to a meal.
Please follow your surgeon's instructions. My surgeon told me after my surgery that he could tell I followed instructions and that his job is so much easier when patients follow the pre-op instructions. (and making our surgeon's job easier means less risks and complications for us). Please think of it this way... these are pre-operative instructions from your surgeon and must be followed to the letter to reduce your risk of complications and improve your surgical outcome. It is not the same as cheating on a diet or ignoring your nutritionist's advice, which will just slow your weight loss.
Hang in there. it won't always be this hard

Hi Dave,
Welcome to the forum. You are asking all of the right questions (not everyone does) and thinking about the small details and how it will impact your life. This is definitely something to go into with your eyes wide open. The better educated you are, the more successful you will be.
I'm about 8 months out and I wholeheartedly recommend it. I wish I had done it years ago. I wasted so many years being overweight and waiting to do things until i was thinner. The surgery stopped my body from fighting me and allowed me to focus on changing my mental issues around food. It is much easier to adopt new mindsets when your stomach isn't screaming to be fed.
There are foods I have given up permanently, but i don't miss them. I also don't miss overfilling myself. I am able to eat out in restaurants and no one has noticed i eat so much less than them. I eat slowly and put the fork down between bites, so I wind up finishing at the same time as everyone else.
All in all, it has been a great experience.
Best of luck and keep us updated.

Hi Dave,
Welcome to the forum. You are asking all of the right questions (not everyone does) and thinking about the small details and how it will impact your life. This is definitely something to go into with your eyes wide open. The better educated you are, the more successful you will be.
I'm about 8 months out and I wholeheartedly recommend it. I wish I had done it years ago. I wasted so many years being overweight and waiting to do things until i was thinner. The surgery stopped my body from fighting me and allowed me to focus on changing my mental issues around food. It is much easier to adopt new mindsets when your stomach isn't screaming to be fed.
There are foods I have given up permanently, but i don't miss them. I also don't miss overfilling myself. I am able to eat out in restaurants and no one has noticed i eat so much less than them. I eat slowly and put the fork down between bites, so I wind up finishing at the same time as everyone else.
All in all, it has been a great experience.
Best of luck and keep us updated.

I don't need to connect to others.
It needs to be able to produce reports or be exported in a spreadsheet type format for keeping. Need to be able to see all history or archived history for trends.
Need to be somewhat customizable to add our own menu and save that, so we would not have to retype an entire recipe/meal each time it repeats - like 'Sue's chili, or 'Sue's Breakfast #2' - which might be 2 eggs over easy, 2 bacon, 1 tsp oil. Etc.
(Exercise is okay okay to add but I own a fitbit already, and yes it has a food function but I is not as user friendly as I would like).

Essentials:
- Water intake (48 fl oz minimum goal)
- Protein gram & percent of goal (goal needs to be set by user)
- Saturated fat & total fat & percent of each (goals set by user)
- Calories & percent of goal (set by user)
- All the main Vitamins & minerals (Bs, D, Calcium, Sodium, etc)
- # servings of vegetables & fruits and percent of daily goal
- Exercise
- Ability to add foods not in database and share that info with others (grows the database)
- Ability to add nutrient data for recipes & frequent food combos
- Track weight, percent body fat, waist & other key measurements.
- Track labs (all the common labs Done for both bariatric and "regular" checkups)
- Ability to see percent of goals reached on daily basis as well as averaged over a week and over a month
- All goals CEM set at a default value, but customizable if user desires
- Ability to add comments (e.g. Dumping events etc) so users can see patterns
Not Essential but Desirable:
- Link to Fitbit type devices
- Share recipes w nutrients
- Photos of self
- Track pants, shirt, & dress size

Lots of great questions. My advice is going to be kinda wishy washy.... the right balance of carb/fat/protein really depends on what your body reacts to and what you can live with long term. It takes a little trial and error to hit on the formula for your body.
For me, avoiding sugar, grains & starch, while eating plenty of fat and a moderate amount of Protein has been the solution. I don't eat rice, bread, Pasta, quinoa, potatoes, etc. But i do get carbs from fruits, veggies and Beans. In addition to olive and coconut oil, I also eat cheese and nuts. Eating this way has kept me losing and also wipes out cravings. 1 helping of pasta or sugar triggers cravings and can screw up my mind or days.
Applying my plan to the foods you mentioned, my plan would be ok with the fattier Proteins, but I would stay a mile away from the chocolate, mashed potatoes and SF pudding (that is just a box full of chemicals, LOL).
My best advice is to decide what guidelines you want to follow and then stick to them religiously. The psychological/behavior issues are super important right now while you are in the early months. This is the time to make big changes in your relationship with food, while your stomach doesn't care.
Best of luck and I hope this helped a little.

I'm using the fitbit app right now. Here is what they do well:
each food is available in multiple measurements and can accept any fraction as the quantity: e.g. 1/16 cup, 1/2 ounce, 1 medium apple, 1/4 large apple you can enter new foods into database - entry screen follows nutrition label format your history can be exported to Excel (although it is limited to 31 days which is a bummer) you can tag favorite foods for quick access in addition to protein/fat/carb grams, it also tells you percent by calorie it tells you how you are doing towards the day's calorie goal - a Protein goal would be a nice addition the database is huge! Here is what is missing:
tracking if you took your daily Vitamin inputting recipes copying a day or a meal - because we have so many leftovers! I would love to see other nutrients - like my ratio of Omega 3 to Omega 6 and Vitamins.

For weight loss and health, consider moving away from prepared foods (including Protein Shakes and bars) and to lean Protein, vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. Follow the stages of eating during healing of course. Then focus on healthy and delicious foods. My observation is the people who struggle most with cravings are consuming sweet protein shakes and bars and searching for lower carb substitutes for past high fat/carb foods. Taking advantage of the early days to change eating patterns will have incredible payoffs over our whole lifespan.

I'm just outside of keto because I've been eating fruit and Beans. But I'm 8 months out. I was in keto for the first few months. I couldn't take the stank mouth bad breath from keto anymore!!
When I first started on this journey, I read every study I could find in my search for the ideal eating plan. I was SOOOO frustrated. There is very little hard science out there about the right way to eat for the human body. Every blogger swears they know the answer...haha, have you ever watched a paleo follower and a vegan go at it?

Lots of great questions. My advice is going to be kinda wishy washy.... the right balance of carb/fat/protein really depends on what your body reacts to and what you can live with long term. It takes a little trial and error to hit on the formula for your body.
For me, avoiding sugar, grains & starch, while eating plenty of fat and a moderate amount of Protein has been the solution. I don't eat rice, bread, Pasta, quinoa, potatoes, etc. But i do get carbs from fruits, veggies and Beans. In addition to olive and coconut oil, I also eat cheese and nuts. Eating this way has kept me losing and also wipes out cravings. 1 helping of pasta or sugar triggers cravings and can screw up my mind or days.
Applying my plan to the foods you mentioned, my plan would be ok with the fattier Proteins, but I would stay a mile away from the chocolate, mashed potatoes and SF pudding (that is just a box full of chemicals, LOL).
My best advice is to decide what guidelines you want to follow and then stick to them religiously. The psychological/behavior issues are super important right now while you are in the early months. This is the time to make big changes in your relationship with food, while your stomach doesn't care.
Best of luck and I hope this helped a little.

I agree particularly about the pudding, look at the ingredients list..



The only nutrition one even gets it if they add milk.. but you get that nutrition by having the milk without the pudding. And far less sodium.

Lots of great questions. My advice is going to be kinda wishy washy.... the right balance of carb/fat/protein really depends on what your body reacts to and what you can live with long term. It takes a little trial and error to hit on the formula for your body.
For me, avoiding sugar, grains & starch, while eating plenty of fat and a moderate amount of Protein has been the solution. I don't eat rice, bread, Pasta, quinoa, potatoes, etc. But i do get carbs from fruits, veggies and Beans. In addition to olive and coconut oil, I also eat cheese and nuts. Eating this way has kept me losing and also wipes out cravings. 1 helping of pasta or sugar triggers cravings and can screw up my mind or days.
Applying my plan to the foods you mentioned, my plan would be ok with the fattier Proteins, but I would stay a mile away from the chocolate, mashed potatoes and SF pudding (that is just a box full of chemicals, LOL).
My best advice is to decide what guidelines you want to follow and then stick to them religiously. The psychological/behavior issues are super important right now while you are in the early months. This is the time to make big changes in your relationship with food, while your stomach doesn't care.
Best of luck and I hope this helped a little.

Let's see -- what are some of my favorites? Swedish fish, peeps, pizza on day 3 post-op, chicken fingers and fries during the pre-op liquid diet, ice cream as a full liquid, putting Protein Powder in a milkshake, alcohol during the first month post-op, a pork chop in the first week post-op. And there have been countless others; these are just the ones I remember off the top of my head. (And most of these posts come in the form of yes/no questions -- can I eat swedish fish? -- can't ice-cream count as a liquids? -- etc.)
Yea, I have sparred with some folks in some of these threads -- mostly because I want better for people. But probably 1/2 to 3/4 of the people I've encountered on this site really aren't making lifestyle changes, aren't changing their relationship with food, and aren't going to be successful long-term because of their decisions and their inability to get a handle on food. And those people will be blowing up these forums for a while, and then they'll disappear until they come back months or maybe even years later talking about how WLS failed them and they need a revision to one thing or another. And then the cycle will repeat. For those people who are super focused on what they need to do to be successful pre- and post-op, this gets really frustrating. Yes, it's probably better to just ignore these kinds of posts, but, again, many folks just want better for these people, make a comment, and then commence the next internet war.
There are a handful of people on here who are successful and thoughtful. I stick around to see what they say. Everyone else can eat/drink/post/etc. whatever they want to. I'm just going to enjoy my 200 pound weight loss, and work on getting this last 17 pounds off by the end of the summer.

Both surgeries can lead to long term success and both surgeries have pros and cons. Go through your needs and medical risk factors with your doctor and match them to the surgery and post-surgery lifestyle that best suits you.
Ignore the weight loss statistics. They are misleading because they are averages and include people who are non-compliant. It is true that RNY loses faster up front, but over the years it equals out and an individual will lose weight in direct relation to how well they follow their program.
My decision factors that led me to choose the sleeve were that I didn't want malabsorption and I didn't have diabetes or gerd, so there was no benefit to choosing the more complicated surgery. If I had more to lose, or had diabetes or gerd, I may have chosen differently.

I really don't understand why people need to run ANY of the choices each person makes, that it really is a personal choice. What works for me may not work for you. I had the RNY and my hubby had a SLEEVE. Just in our case, I defintly lost all my weight in 6 months with an 8# gain in 4 years. I have maintained my 1234# loss for almost 4 years. He had his Sleeve a year ago this June. He has lost 135#'s but mostly it is the food choices he makes. First off he weighed 460# now he weighs 330#'s. He still working on it. His choice defintly (he had the Lap Band for 13years) even back then was the RNY. He had complications after they removed the Band. That was in 2013. So in 2016 we went to Mexico for his surgery. When they got in there his band had caused so much scar tissue that he ended up with the Sleeve. My opinion on which surgery is the best would be WHATEVER YOU AND YOUR DR DECIDES ON. Educate yourself on all options. Then make a informed decision of which one works for you. Good Luck in whichever way you go.

I dumped in the first 6 months with the sleeve. I did it twice making dumb choices. I haven't dumped since. Also most RNY people only dump in the beginning also. Dumping isn't an always thing for most people. There is no reason to choose a surgery on dumping. A lot of people that are sweets lovers and choose RNY are disappointed to learn long term they have eat all the sweets they want. Nothing will stop you from eating cake but you.
What surgery you want is a personal choice. I picked the sleeve because it just seemed more logical to me. I'm single, live alone, not near family and I needed something with fast recovery, the least amount of long term maintenance and the lower complications rates.
@MarinaGirl seems to really hate the sleeve for reasons that don't even make sense. She had an experimental surgery that has little data to back up that isn't even widely performed. No one rags on her about that, but she makes a point to show up in every thread she can and bash the sleeve.
If you really listen to Dr Weiner he says every WLS should be considered a one time shot, and the reason is because you only get the metabolic reset once. Revisions don't give people the same metabolic reset as the first time. Plus with the exception of the band, because the band is just a terrible product, the reason people need revisions has nothing to do with the surgery and every thing to do with their food addiction, which he also explains. If someone is a food addict, surgery is not going to save them, no matter how many times they have it done.
GERD is at a 20% in the general population and 10% in sleevers. If you already have GERD prior to surgery then getting the sleeve (unless the cause of your GERD is a hiatal hernia) is not a smart option.
@Terri70
You just have to pick. The weight loss in the end will be about the same no matter what surgery you choose, because how much weight you lose and if you maintain depends solely on you and your choices. Weight loss surgery after about 6 months won't do the work for you, you have to. So the surgery you choose just depends on what you are most comfortable with.