Arabesque

The 6-8 cups of water a day actually is a recommendation for everyone not just Bariatric patients. We’re pushed to drink water to get us off calorie laden carbonated drinks (there’s research about now that say artificial sweeteners cause weight gain as your body’s response to tasting sweet but not being able to gain the energy benefits so it holds on to any calories you eat.) Because it’s difficult to measure how much fluid we get from water rich fruit & vegetables (& I real on those to meet my goals now too) check the colour of your pee. Look for light straw coloured urine. The darker it is the more concentrated the toxins that are being excreted.

I still go pretty slowly at 21 months post surgery. Can do one or two mouthfuls now but swallow with a breaks between. It’s painful if I swallow too quickly or have more than the one or two mouthfuls at a time.

It’s just your natural hair loss cycle accelerated because of your reduced food intake & the shock to your body from the change of diet, weight loss & surgery. You may also notice a change of texture from the anaesthetic too. As my surgeon said your body has better things to do with the nutrients you‘re consuming at the moment than growing hair. Your hair is already growing back but at its normal rate so not as quickly as you’re losing it. Stressing about it is probably making it worse. It will stop just give it time. Mine stopped at about 6 months when I started maintenance & was eating a little more. A lot of us cut our hair so the loss wasn’t as noticeable & the regrowth doesn’t have as much to grow to get to the same length as your hair.

Congrats on your surgery. Whoo hoo! Only eating a couple of spoonfuls (about 1/4 cup) is very normal at this stage. Are you eating slowly (taking 10 - 20 minutes)? I used to eat from a teaspoon or a small toddler sized fork & almost just dipped them in my food - never a full spoonful. The pain sounds like your restriction. It’s a signal you’ve had enough. Mine also kicks in when I eat too quickly. But as with all things that seem odd or cause you pain speak to your medical team. There’s a lot of swelling after surgery at the top of your tummy but it shouldn’t still be causing you issues this far out. I struggled to swallow anything for a few days after surgery. Carried a sick bag for days cause I was constantly spitting up salvia. Not pleasant. You could also be holding some tension in your body because you’re sub consciously fearing you’ll have pain/discomfort when you swallowing as you did after surgery. The tension then causes the pain like a self fulfilling prophecy. Just a thought but again talk to your medical team. Generally, your tummy is pretty sensitive & cantankerous in the beginning & you may find a lot of foods don’t sit well. Food you can eat one day makes you ill the next. It does take a bit of trial & error to work out what food keeps your tummy happy in the beginning. This does all settle & you’ll find you’ll be able to eat most things in time. Personally, I still find potatoes too heavy to eat - they sit like a lump in my tummy. Multi vitamins would make me nauseous every morning. Vomited a couple of times too. I split the dose - one in the morning, one at night & always after food. Good luck.

Well I’ve been telling people I weigh about the same as I did when I was 12 & here’s the proof. (And probably only an inch or two taller 😆.) The only thing in my wardrobe from 1977 - my ballet costume. I was pretty much an average sized child then. My weight started going up after that when puberty hit. Excuse my drawn in knickers - added for a little decorum. 😁

I’m watching the documentary Diet Fiction on Prime at the moment. I’m about 1/3 of the way though it & I’ve been agreeing with a lot of what they’ve said. They’ve criticised the weight loss industry too which has done nothing to counteract the obesity problem but make money. So far it seems to be a bit focussed on plant based diets & anti meat. They’ve sort of ignored portion sizes which I think is a huge issue as many obese people (as we know) eat portions that are two, three & four sizes what they should. Said if you eat a balanced diet you shouldn’t need vitamins or supplements unless you have a medical need. Said popular diets like keto, paleo, etc. are short term only & could have side effects like keto affecting insulin levels. Spoke about how diet alone won’t help you lose & keep off large amounts of weight. Interested to see where they go next.

My diet is pretty simple too. I’ve always had issues with spicy, rich or fatty foods so that narrows a lot of my food choices. I love my vegetables so asparagus, green beans, cabbage, broccolini, cauliflower, sugar snap peas (lots of green veg, no potato) were added back to my diet as soon as I was able to tolerate them. I love them plain. Microwaved with a splash of water & a teaspoon of butter till they still had bite then add salt & pepper. Mind you to begin I could only eat a small cauliflower floret or a couple of green beans. I added fruit pretty early on too. Watermelon, berries, red paw paw, grapes, rockmelon, apple, mandarin, lychees, cherries, mango. One small serve as an afternoon snack. I usually have two serves a day now. I cut out as much sugar, sugar substitutes & artificial sweeteners as I could out of my diet. Fruit is what I go to for something sweet. Watch dried fruit though. One prune is a plum. Two dried apricots is an apricot. It’s easy to eat 3 or 4 prunes but would you eat 3 or 4 plums at one time. For crunch & salt try rolling a chunk of cucumber in crushed sea salt. Easy & extremely low calorie. Even the odd teaspoon of peanut paste works. Try some hummus with some raw green beans, carrot, celery, etc. Guacamole with vegetable crudités works too. Make your own guacamole & hummus so you can control the ingredients.

Questions are always good. Coffee was no for my surgeon for several months but green or herbal teas were fine from straight after surgery. Wasn’t an issue for me as I only drink green tea anyway. I hardly drink alcohol at all anymore & I used to drink a large glass or two every night. Now I only have a glass about once a month at most. I had a gin & tonic at about 2 months post surgery. Took literally hours to drink it. I’ve lost a lot of my taste for it & it’s also not worth the calories now. And yes alcohol can be an issue with addiction transfer. Stalling happens to us all. It can be frustrating when suddenly you notice the scale isn’t moving at all. The first occurs at around week 3+/- & can persist for 1-3 weeks. Ride it out. Stick to your plan. It will pass & your weight will start to drop again. I looked at it as my body taking a breath from all the changes - surgery, reduced calorie intake, change of diet, weight loss, etc. It’s likely you’ll experience a couple of stalls on your weight loss journey. If dining out while on your vacation, you’ll find you’ll only be able to eat appetiser size meals - mains are just too big. Some places may be happy for you to share meals with your family. Soups are also a good option when eating out. Oh, and pack a coat for your holiday. You become really sensitive to cold as you lose weight... even in high summer you’ll be freezing. Good luck with your surgery.

Congrats on your surgery. I struggled with water too after being a good water drinker pre surgery. I was a gulper, easily downing a large glass in one go so to only being able to sip was a challenge. I found it easier to sip on hot tea - soothing too. Some people set an alarm to remind themselves to sip regularly. Try scrambled eggs instead of a boiled egg. Make them using more milk than you would normally so they’re sloppier. I ate a lot of scrambled eggs during my weight loss.

At not quite 12 months, it may be a little early out to worry that you’ll become underweight unless your weight is continuing to drop at the rate it did during your weight loss stage. It does take some time to work out the right balance of calories in & energy out to stabilise. What does your primary care doctor say? Did you have a goal weight & if so when did you reach it? I did struggle to maintain. Some of us do continue to lose. I lost a further 11kgs over 12 months. It was a challenge to slow my loss. I was losing at 3kgs a month when I reached goal. It took a couple of months to slow it to about 1kg a month, then 500g. I was constantly increasing my calories. My surgical team & doctor were concerned about the continued loss & I was regularly told to put on weight from when I was about 54kg. I was already eating all day long - 3 meals & 5 snacks! The only way I could eat more was to take longer (an hour +) to eat a larger portioned meal. My weight seems to have stabilised now. I’ve been wavering between 48 & 49kg for about 2 months now & I’ve reduced my snacks. At my January appointment, my surgical team was happy I was stable & there was no talk of having to put on weight. Whoo hoo! Oh, yeah. We all seem to go through that looking gruesome stage but it does improve. You have to give your body time to adjust & your remaining fat to reposition itself. I agree with @ms.sss’s suggestion of adding enriched drinks like Ensure & Sustagen. You can sip on them all day if you enjoy them. Personally I never enjoyed protein powders or supplements (disgusting & grainy). My dietician suggested adding powdered milk to enrich my milk. I found it too sweet but I do add a heaped dessertspoon to a cup of milk when I make chia pudding. Maybe find a nutritionalist/dietician to advise on how you can add to your diet to increase your calories in a healthy way.

Nothing beats a woman for creative problem solving Ms.SSS. I don’t have the problem of weighty bedding at night holding me back from getting up to pee. Sometime I’m just way too tired to get up. Or I know I just went an hour before & refuse to accept I need to go again. Speaking of bed - isn’t it just about your bed time now? (It’s almost 3pm your tomorrow here.) Snuggle up. Sweet dreams & don’t let the bed bugs bite.

The shock of the surgery & weight loss to your body & the reduced caloric intake accelerates your natural hair loss cycle. My surgeon told me my body had better things to do with the nutrients I was consuming than grow hair - blunt but true. It will pass. How much hair you will lose & how long it will last is different person to person. But you should expect about 3 months +/-. Mine stopped when I was in maintenance so after about 4 months. I lost quite a lot but it’s just about all back now. Don’t waste your time taking supposed hair growth supplements because they won’t stop the loss cause it’s a natural process. Some people say it stopped their loss, but it was probably when the loss would have stopped without taking the supplement. The only thing they may do is make any new growth stronger. Can’t help your existing hair cause it’s already dead. A lot of us cut their hair at this stage so the loss wasn’t as noticeable & the new growth wouldn’t take as long to get to the same length. Your new hair is already growing back. It’s just growing at it’s normal rate & not at the accelerated loss rate. Best thing to do is make sure you’re meeting your protein goals & accept it’s happening. You could make it worse if you stress about it. Temporarily losing some hair is a pretty minor price to pay to the amazing achievement of losing weight. Good luck.

Tell the truth. The head work on the weight loss journey is really important. You might get an immediate go ahead or they may offer strategies to support you. Your honesty will only help you be more successful on your journey. The process is different in Australia, the psych evaluation is not mandatory but at the discretion of your surgeon’s recommendation. My surgeon said I didn’t have to go but sent a friend to one session. Another friend had two pre surgery sessions & continued to go after her surgery. Good luck.

My surgeon asked me if I had any thoughts on what I wanted to lose. I said 31kgs which would put me at 60kg - the lowest weight I’d been as an adult & where I’d often yo yo dieted down to - with a BMI of 23. He said it was a good goal. I never changed my goal but my body kept losing & seems to have found it’s own happy place. Funny thing is I was told for years I had a large frame (the old wrist measurement thing). Now all the fat is gone, I actually am small/medium boned so being on the lower half of the BMI range is fine.

Has your doctor prescribed it because your levels are low? Or have you just decided to take it yourself? Only asking cause I just had this conversation with a friend who had decided she should take it cause she’s fair skinned. I’m very fair, avoid the sun & my vitamin D levels are extremely good. I think I’ve convinced her to ask her doctor for a blood test as there are side effects if your levels are too high.

I hear you! I found a bowl with a couple of spoons of rolled oats I couldn’t eat in my fridge this morning. I put it on a lower shelf in the fridge two days ago & forgot. It was all crusty - not appetising at all.

Looking soooo good.

It can be pretty crazy especially as we all experience things differently & there’s no definite rule as to how you will progress post surgery. That’s why this forum is so helpful - so many members happy to share their story so you don’t feel as crazy. You may have some similarities to one person’s experience but be totally different to another. It was a combination of not being hungry & that two dessertspoons was enough. A quarter cup of most things was common until after month 3 post surgery if I remember correctly. I wouldn’t say I felt full & certainly not ‘stuffed’. I just didn’t want any more. It did help me understand the difference between wanting to eat & needing to eat. Some days I’d only eat half a thin pork sausage (about 2inches long) for a meal. It would take 4 days to eat a single serve of rolled oats. I used teaspoons & baby forks to eat so each bite was small. It was pretty freaky that that amount of food was all I wanted & needed. I still take ages to eat (30-60 mins depending on what I’m eating) because if I eat too quickly my restriction kicks in.

Once you start on more solid foods you start to experience the restrictive benefit of surgery. In the liquid stage everything you drink literally goes right through your tummy. And I agree, some times you may be able to eat a little more one day but not the next. Also, your tummy can be a bit cantankerous: enjoying something one day & making you feel unwell the next. A lot of people say they struggled with eggs to begin. I didn’t but I couldn’t eat one egg for months after surgery so this seems very normal to me. (Took me 3 days to eat 2 scrambled eggs.) Personally I’d think 6oz of any food at this stage would be too much. Two dessertspoons was my limit. But that was my experience. Eat slowly. Take a break between each mouthful. Allow the message that you’ve had enough to get through. You don’t want to eat until you’re full or in pain from the restriction. Good luck & congrats on your surgery.

I often question the efficacy of these products too. If you’re already taking multi vitamins &/or eating a balanced diet, do you need the extra vitamins? (I don’t take any multi vitamins at all because I get all I need from what I eat & taking them makes me nauseous.) Have you had a blood test lately? If you are low in A or B than the product may be of help. I bought collagen & silica (liquid or powder). I mixed these in my yoghurt drink every second day for more than a year. I couldn’t tell you if they actually helped my skin tighten or look better & smoother or not. I was taking them when I was losing weight & I don’t know if my skin would be the same as it is after losing weight without taking them. I don’t take them anymore. I do regularly use a hyaluronic moisturiser because my skin can be a little dry. Just check the ingredients for drug interactions & side effects. You can only try.

So sorry you are experiencing this. Just a couple of other causes to consider. Were you on meds to control your weight or for weight loss in the past? Some of those can cause anal leakage. Also it can be a side effect when you’re older of Spina bifida occulta which many people have but don’t realise. (Mine was picked up three years ago when I was 52 & not at birth.) Hope they can find a cause & solution soon.

How tall are you? Your doctor is possibly suggesting a weight that places you in the healthy BMI range - can’t tell without your height though. There’s nothing wrong with setting your own weight loss goal. A lot of people are very happy to get to a weight that is less than what their surgeon originally suggests & they find it easy to maintain. As BigSue suggested, you may reach your goal than decide to lose more. Losing the weight can motivate you to lose more. I lost an extra 11kg (24lbs) from my surgeon & my goal. I wasn’t intending to, my body just kept slowly dropping weight even though I kept upping my calories. It seems to have finally settled & I think this is where my body wants to be. And I’m very happy where I am too. Good luck with your surgery.

Agree with going back to the basics. Protein first then vegetables. Get rid of the bread & a lot of the grains during the weight loss stage (you can slowly add whole or multi grains once you’re in maintenance). Watch your portion sizes. Reduce your snacking to once a day - cheese, high protein yoghurt, chunks of cucumber, small serves of fruit. Remember why you decided to have your surgery. You can get back on track.

I think it’s a typo & should be 15-25 pounds a month not a week as it says on the website. Even people on My 600 Pound Life don’t lose 100 pounds a month. When they get down to the 200s they’re told they’ll be losing about 15 pounds a month. You’re doing well. Celebrate every pound you lose. Good luck.

I understand you wanting some quiet time when you get home. When I got home I used to say I’ve been nice to people all day long & I can’t be nice to anyone else. I was a poor sleeper pre surgery - averaging about 5 hours a night so I understand your exhaustion & low tolerance levels. Not sleeping is an awful thing. After surgery I became a world champion sleeper - about 9 hrs a night sometimes more. Unfortunately that seems to have changed & I’ll have a couple of bad nights & then a good night. Hope I’m not reverting back to my old habits. ☹️ Have to question how effective melatonin really is though. My mother was prescribed melatonin & took it every night. She was told it could take a year for levels to build up & the benefits to be realised . Well, it’s been 2 years & she still doesn’t sleep. Not sure how old you are, but poor sleep can be a symptom of peri menopause. Hope you find a solution soon.