Hop_Scotch

What was your start weight and how tall are you? If you lost a lot of weight just before surgery your immediate post op weight loss is generally lower. It doesn't pay to compare ourselves to others in the first few months to many variables.

Definitely worthwhile touching base with your surgeon. I wondered if it could be bile, so I googled and found this https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/319403#:~:text=Diarrhea speeds up the digestion,or after a bowel movement. Stomach acids, digestive enzymes, and bile When food enters the stomach, acids and digestive enzymes attach themselves to it and begin breaking it down. The digestive system adds bile to food when it passes through the small intestine. By the time food passes through, these acids and enzymes should no longer be acidic. Diarrhea speeds up the digestion process, so foods often do not break down fully. This means that stomach acids, digestive enzymes, and bile may still be present in diarrhea. These can damage the tissues and cause a burning sensation in the rectum during or after a bowel movement.

Nothing only about 20lb in three weeks. How much were you expecting to lose by this time?

What pain killers have they given you? If nothing, ask for something. Even with painkillers, getting up and down, getting in and out of bed will be fairly uncomfortable for a while.

MFP does have a free option but its not the full version as per the paid subscription. I guess with the free options we have to accept reduced services and/or advertising...but adblockers can work well to reduce the ads. Can't help with the baristatic app as I don't use it.

I disagree that its drastic for anyone with up to 100lb to lose. People have and maintain obesity for many reasons, some quite complex, which is aside from individual factors such as gender, height, age. I am quite short 100lb extra on me is massively obese, whereas, 100lb on a 6ft1 person may well be overweight or just in the early stages of obesity. What a lot of people don't realise for lighter weight overweight person 25lb or 50lb is just as hard to lose as 100lb or 150lb for those who are more overweight.

Your body is still healing, it has inflammation, you are likely still carrying a bit of fluid weight from the surgery. By the way there is nothing only about 5lb especially post op day 5. You may need to reset your expectations.

Because a review said she was careless doesn't mean she actually was. Were the reviews anonymous? Remember a lot of people with positive experiences often don't leave reviews. I had the best experience with my surgeon but for privacy reasons did not leave a review, I don't do anonymous reviews as they are meaningless to me....could be true, could be made up...etc. It is up to you whether you change surgeon but I think you have lost confidence with her now because of the reviews/lack of positive reviews.

The weight is possibly off too quickly for your start weight, sounds like you need to be eating some more too given the weak/dizzy feeling. Is there a dietician on your program?

How much are you eating? Are you exercising a lot?

Your body will get the energy it needs from the fat it is burning.

Caffeine increases stomach acid, our new stomachs are healing, the additional stomach acid can be too harsh on an healing stomach and perhaps cause acid reflux. Coffee must be a bit harsher than tea though, most guidelines seem to be around coffee. Some surgeons say no coffee forever, others say no coffee for a period of time, some surgeons have no guidelines whatsover. For the first six to twelve months or so best to follow your own surgeon's guidelines around caffeine/coffee.

While it seems to be more of a blood pressure issue, if you've gone from liquids straight to soft foods, you may benefit for a week or two doing pureed foods as a transition to soft foods, even if it isn't part of your plan.

There are some people about who have. I did, but I had it done in the early days of it being done in Australia and there seemed to be be a high failure rate for the early ESG. Don't know what its like now. Seems to be a better rate of success for some done in USA. I had my ESG in Oct 2018, I lost restriction within six months or so, i was in denial about losing the restriction and still sprouting how good ESG was for some time. In Feb2020 an endoscopy showed that most of the sutures had come out or loosened. I converted to VSG in March 2020, best thing ever! If you proceed with ESG, make sure the doctor has done many of them (at least in the high 100s or even in the 200s). You want to know the success/failure rate one year and two years out for their patients.. Average weight loss is generally lower than the surgical options as volume of the stomach 'remaining' is greater than the surgical options. If I could do that time period all over, I would forego the ESG and go straight to VSG.

Well done on the weight you have lost. It's not usual to gain a little weight in the 24 months or so following weight surgery from the lowest weight achieved. If you are trying to gain muscle weight you will gain weight if you don't reduce body fat to the same degree or more. Volume wise muscle is more dense than body fat. So a litre (in volume) will weigh more than body fat. So while you have gained scale weight is it possible (with body recomp) that you have actually reduced physically in size? Are you clothes feeling a bit loose? A dexa scan may be useful to you ( they seem to be much cheaper in the USA than most other places). It would give an idea of excess body fat and help you determine how much lean body mass you need to build as well as how much excess body fat you need to lose. For you at this stage it may be about body recomp vs scale weight loss.

No cons other than cost perhaps. I think its a great idea, some people (me included) tend to focus on the scales too much. We may strive and struggle to reach some magical scale weight but we may have insufficient body fat to lose after already losing a lot of weight. Focusing on body composition is a positive way forward.

At your current weight of 229lb, 20lb per month is excellent. Way more than most. A lot of people only lose that much in the beginning Weight loss slows down as you we all progress, its natural as you don't have as much fat too lose and with a lower weight the calorie deficit isn't as big as it was in the beginning. As you progress further weight loss will be lower and slower, this is not out of the norm at all. You are doing great.

Have I misunderstood? You've lost 56lb in about two months or just a little under that? I think what you've lost is great. Some professionals or those who deem themselves to be seem to set some unrealistic expectations. Were you happy with your weight loss up to the point in time your dietician told you otherwise? 10kms a day is quite a lot. I assume you are followng your post op guidelines for calories, volumes of food, types of food etc? Protein intake? Liquid intake? And hopefully consuming sufficient to sustain 10kms a day. If so and your are averaging a reasonable weight loss you are doing great. Editied to add: You mention you stopped losing weight? How long since you've lost some weight on the scale? Stalls are not uncommon, most of everyone who has WLS has a stall or more than one, even in the first few weeks.

It probably wouldn't hurt to get some protein shakes in, even if only to save on muscle wastage. I lost very little weight on the two weekpre-op diet. You may have already lost a lot of water weight before starting the liver shrinking diet.

Straws can bring air into your stomach which can cause gas like pains. Some people don't have problems other do. I imagine if someone was going to have problems it would be in the first six to 12 weeks, while the stomach is healing and is still tender and they are getting use to restrictions etc. I am not one to typically use a straw, so didn't have a need to use one or test it out. I think using straws is one of those variable things about weight loss surgery - depends on your surgeon and/or what you may read. Some were told never to use a straw again, others maybe in time, others were not told anything. These two links were just the first two I found, I've linked them for no other reason. https://www.obesityhelp.com/articles/drinking-through-a-straw-after-wls/ https://mexicobariatriccenter.com/bariatric-surgery-myths/

You may have a temporary bout of lactcose intolerance. If I recall correctly I think I had a bout or two of diarrhea in the first couple of weeks but nothing as sustained as yourself. Would be worth checking in with your surgeon or dietician I think.

It's really hard to comment on your weight loss without knowing your start weight and height. 21lbs in five weeks sounds pretty good to me though given you lost 27lb pound pre-op. More you lose in pre-op the less likely you are to lose a lot in the immediate post op stages, however, over time weight loss will average out.

Are you following your post op guidelines with regards to food volumes/intake? Are you losing weight? If yes to both of these, I can't see how you are eating too much. If would be helpful (but if you choose not to that is fine)if you filled in your profile it gives context to questions and helps members in tailoring their responses.

For a general reply there is the reply to this topic near the top of the first post and underneath the last post. If you want to reply to a poster with regards to something specific they have written then you can use the quote link. The quote link opens a comments page with a copy of the post you are replying specifically to.

Chewing gum may cause excess stomach acid due to the stomach expecting food. If you have excess stomach acid issues may not be a good idea. Either way may be chat to your surgeon or doctor.