BigSue

I know what you mean -- I hate the idea that the fat-haters of the world have shamed me into losing weight. I did it for my health, but now that I've gone through the surgery, I find myself anxious for a time that I will fit into society and not be "the fat lady." I'm so tired of being treated like a second-class citizen because of my weight and I can't help but think how nice it would be to look and be treated like a "normal" person for once in my life. Being fat has sort of a built-in a-hole detector, and, well, there are a lot of a-holes. If a man is being nice to me, I know for sure it's not because he wants to get in my pants. And when I have a professional accomplishment, nobody thinks I used my feminine wiles to get an advantage. If I lose enough weight to look "normal," I will probably wonder about everyone I meet how they would have treated me at 300+ pounds. I've never had a boyfriend or even been asked out on a date (I guess the cool kids call it "talking" instead of "dating" now, but it doesn't make a difference to me), so I don't even know what I'll do if men start hitting on me once I lose enough weight.

Hang in there! The first few days are miserable, but it gets dramatically easier after the first week or two (especially once you get to purees and can start eating things resembling real food). I think the protein and fluid goals are unrealistic for the first week -- everybody has trouble meeting them in the beginning. Have you tried protein soups or hot chocolate? I found that warm liquids went down easier than cold.

It looks like you have two separate issues: your surgeon/hospital, and the decision to have WLS. As some of the other replies have said, I think you should consider changing surgeons. You probably have other options, and you are a customer -- if you don't like the treatment you're getting, you have the right to go elsewhere (this, of course, depends on where you live and how your surgery is being funded). Getting WLS is not just about the cutting. It's a lifelong journey, and the followup visits are a big part of that. I've read that patients who go to all of their scheduled followups are more successful than those who don't. My program requires 8 followup visits in the first two years (once/year thereafter), and you probably don't want the hassle of going to such a disorganized office so many times. The most concerning thing to me is that you don't know which surgery you're getting. That is a pretty big deal, and you should be the one to make that decision, even though the surgeon may have strong recommendations. Now, he could refuse to do a certain procedure because it would be harmful to you, but you still have to agree to whatever procedure he does recommend. I actually wouldn't have a problem with the informal tone of his e-mail. Doctors are people, too. I bet some people like the fact that he acts like a normal person and doesn't insist on being addressed as "Doctor." When I was looking into surgery, I was concerned about the hospital's reviews, too, but it turns out that pretty much every hospital in my area has bad ratings. I suspect that very few people have good experiences at hospitals, because you only go to a hospital if you're sick or injured. There are always complaints about wait times (because there are a lot of patients), billing (because medical care is crazy expensive and billing is complicated), and outcomes (because not every patient can be saved, and sometimes it takes trial and error to solve problems). Now, about the decision to have WLS, I went through some very similar doubts before surgery. I lost over 60 pounds on my own before surgery, and I started to think, "Maybe I can keep going on my own instead of going through with this." I have yo-yo dieted most of my life, but I had never lost that much weight before. About 10 years ago, I lost 50 pounds and kept it off for several years, but I eventually gained it all back plus 30 more pounds. I took some pre-surgery pictures of myself the day before surgery -- after I had already lost over 60 pounds -- and that made me realize how far I have left to go. If I lose 100 pounds from my surgery weight, I'll still be obese. And every pound is a little harder to lose than the last, so the chances that I could lose that much without surgery are... slim. This is a very personal decision that you have to make for yourself, though, and if you're not ready to do it now, you can always wait and see how far you can get on your own. P.S. If you want your stats (like starting weight, weight lost, and surgery date) to show up when you post, you can click on your user name on the top right of the screen, then select "My surgery" under Settings.

This might not help because you said you don't want glass, but I use these 4-ounce "baby food containers": https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0854P3XS1 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0854P2X1W They are oven, microwave, dishwasher, and freezer safe (well, the lids are plastic so don't put those in the oven), and pretty low in price (currently $14.99 for six, but the price fluctuates and I got them for $12.99). I like the rectangular ones (first link) better than the round ones because the lids on the round ones are a little difficult to put on and take off. I specifically wanted glass rather than plastic because plastic gets scratched and stained. I also think it's more enjoyable to eat out of a glass container than plastic, but maybe that's just me.

I started looking into WLS about 15 years ago, but my family talked me out of it (not because they didn’t think it would work, but because they thought I would die or have horrible complications). This time around, I didn’t tell anyone (other than medical professionals), and I don’t plan on telling anyone. I have heard a lot of criticism of WLS, mostly by people who are ignorant and have no idea what’s involved with it. It’s interesting that people are telling you that it’s not a quick fix, because I think the most common misconception people have is that it’s the “easy way out.” It’s not. It’s hard. It is the most effective treatment for weight loss, so I don’t know why so many people would rather see us continue to struggle with yo-yo dieting that has been proven not to work. i wouldn’t necessarily say to ignore the opinions of your friends and family because at least some of them are saying these things out of genuine concern because they care about you. But take their opinions with a grain of salt because they most likely don’t know much about WLS. Pay more attention the the people who have actually been through it, like people here. I watched a lot of YouTube videos before my surgery by people who have been through it, and that really helped to prepare me (for both the good and bad parts) and put my mind at ease. Part of the reason I was so easily convinced not to do it before was that I was so intimidated by everything I’d have to do and what I’d have to give up, and I didn’t know if I could do it. Seeing real people who were in the same boat as I was get through it made it seem possible.

I had my gastric bypass done robotically. When the surgeon told me about it, he was emphatic that he, the surgeon, would still be performing the surgery, just using the robot to control the instruments. I got the sense that he has encountered people who were concerned about a robot performing their surgery because he said this multiple times. He says that he can do it with or without the robot, but he prefers to use the robot, and I was fine with it because I wanted him to do it the way that was easiest for him! My surgeon used the Da Vinci robotic surgery system, and I found some videos about it on YouTube. This one shows you a little about how it’s used:

I had gastric bypass on July 16 (6 weeks yesterday). I've lost 20 pounds since surgery (the rest was before surgery), and I'm disappointed because I'm not losing weight any faster than I was before surgery when I was eating 3-4 times as much. It is easier now because I haven't been hungry since surgery. I am now under 250 pounds, which is my lowest weight since college, and the weight that I have been lying to say I am for years. Now I will have to pick a new lie! I used to have high blood pressure, and now I'm solidly in the normal range (not even pre-hypertension) with no medications. My A1c went from 8.1 in February to 5.2 last week, also with no medications. I am discouraged, though, because I have lost more than 90 pounds from my highest weight, but I'm still wearing the same clothes. They're a bit too loose, but not quite to the point of my pants falling down. I can wear a few things now that were too small at my highest weight, but I've only gone down one size, MAYBE two. I didn't get around to taking "before" pictures until I had already lost 40 pounds, but I recently took 1-month post-surgery pictures and I honestly cannot tell a difference between my pictures at 250 pounds and at 300. Even though my butt doesn't look any smaller, I have lost enough padding that sitting is a pain in the @$$ (which I was expecting eventually, but I thought I'd have to lose a lot more weight before I experienced that). What gives? How could I have lost more than 25% of my body weight without getting much smaller? Am I losing muscle but not fat? I will say I can tell a difference in my face (my phone doesn't even recognize my face half the time now), but that's not much consolation. I don't think any full-body pictures exist from my highest weight since I intentionally avoided cameras, but I got my passport picture taken at my highest weight and then procrastinated so much on sending in the application that I decided to get the picture retaken.

On a related note: I won't miss being unable to see the clock in my car because I have to raise the steering wheel so high (to make room for my belly) that it blocks my view. I still have a long way to go before I'm not fat (not sure if I'll ever get to that point), but I can now put the steering wheel at a height that doesn't block the clock!

You are far from the only person who had gained weight during quarantine! There was a very intense thread about it on this forum recently (so intense, it had to be shut down). Nobody should judge you for that — it’s a tough time for everyone. Some insurance companies, and maybe some bariatric programs, do have a requirement that you not gain any more weight before the surgery. This may or may not be the case for you, but you might want to check. I bet you can lose 10 pounds, or close to it, before September 10. You said you track everything in MyFitnessPal, and that’s a great start. I lost over 60 pounds in the 5 months before surgery just by doing two things: tracking everything in MyFitnessPal (and staying well under my calorie limit) and intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting really helped me to get out of the habit of snacking. I did 16 hour fasts every day, starting after dinner and ending with lunch the next day. It was hard at first, but not so bad once I got used to it. I could push through the hunger and temptation knowing that I could have an indulgent dinner. I think it was a good workout for my willpower. Look for foods that are filling and tasty but relatively low in calories. Look at the foods you normally eat and figure out which ones are the healthiest. Salads are great, especially if you use light dressing. You can have a big salad with lots of grilled chicken for under 300 calories. Popcorn was another one of my favorites. Not exactly the healthiest snack, but a mini bag of “blast o butter” microwave popcorn Is just 210 calories and really filling (even lower in calories if you pop your own with an air popper, but you have to start somewhere). I LOVE Built Bars (protein bars). Some flavors used to be 110 calories and made a great daily treat (they recently changed and now they’re 130, but still a heck of a lot better than a candy bar).

Welcome! I first looked into weight loss surgery about 15 years ago, but I didn’t get any farther than the initial consultation with the surgeon before my family talked me out of it. This time, I didn’t tell anyone because it was my decision and I didn’t need their input. Sometimes I wish I had done it back then because I feel like I’ve missed out on so much because of my weight, but I also think that I wasn’t ready at the time to make the changes necessary to succeed in long-term weight loss, and I have a much better shot now than I would have had 15 years ago. It looks like you are ready to do this now, too! i hope your endoscopy goes well. Make sure the anesthesiologist knows what happened last time so he or she can take measures to prevent it from happening again.

I didn't do any meal prep before surgery, and I don't think it's really necessary. After surgery, you'll have a very limited diet. Depending on your program, you'll have some period of time that you can only have liquids (which require little to no prep) and then only pureed foods. There are a lot of no/low-prep pureed foods, like applesauce, yogurt, sugar-free pudding, cottage cheese (which is actually available pre-pureed now), mashed cauliflower, and refried beans. Most of it requires no prep other than stirring in some protein powder and maybe throwing it in the food processor. If you really want to do some advance meal prep, maybe make some pureed soup and freeze it in small containers. You are going to be eating very small quantities, so one recipe can make many servings. I made some black bean soup and one recipe came out to 14 portions. Ricotta bake makes 8 portions. Just those two recipes make dinner for 3 weeks. Since that didn't really answer your question, I would suggest you check YouTube. There are several videos on WLS meal prep. I find them very boring because they're mostly just mixing protein powder into food and dividing it into a bunch of containers!

Yeah, 222 is a pretty low starting weight. You can’t expect to lose as quickly as someone who started 100 pounds higher. 10 pounds in a month is pretty good, considering your starting weight. And 1200 calories is quite high for a month out. I’m 6 weeks out and averaging just over 400 calories per day (I’m supposed to increase to 800-1000 now). By the way, if you want your info (surgery date, surgery type, starting weight, current weight) to show up when you post, you can update it by clicking on your username at the top of the screen and then “My surgery” under settings. If you want to share any of that info, it helps for people to see it as context when you post.

I weigh almost everything. It's more precise and I don't have to wash a measuring cup. It's easier to divide things into equal servings that way, e.g., dividing a 150-gram yogurt into three 50-gram servings, or calculate how many servings (or what fraction of a serving) I'm eating for the purposes of food tracking. Some things are difficult to measure accurately by volume, like protein powder. "One scoop" can be very different amounts depending on how tightly you pack it in the scoop.

I bought a big bag of GenePro and I don’t like it. Even though it’s unflavored, it still has a taste, and it’s unpleasant. It’s useful for mixing into purées like refried beans and mashed cauliflower that cover the taste well enough. I mixed it into broth when I was on clear liquids, and I could only add a little bit or it would taste too bad. I never tried it with plain water, but based on how it tasted in broth, I wouldn’t want to. I did see someone on YouTube making a protein shot with it (mixing it into a small amount of water and drinking it quickly), but I don’t think I could stand to drink that. Rather than mixing GenePro into flavored drinks, I would recommend getting clear protein drinks. Protein2O is popular. I bought a case of it and I didn’t like it, but I suspect I might have gotten a bad batch or something because every time I drank it, I got solids (the texture of cooked egg whites) precipitating out in my mouth. Premier Protein makes a ready-to-drink clear protein but I haven’t been able to find it where I shop. There are also some clear protein powders on the market, like Syntrax Nectar. I bought some bone broth, but I didn’t care for it much. I ended up preferring broth made from Better than Bouillon (which I already had in my fridge since I use it for recipes). I was able to mix a little GenePro in it without it having too bad of a taste. One of my favorite protein drinks is protein hot chocolate. I got it in the BariatricPal store and it was really good. I mix it with warm Fairlife milk for a nice protein boost, I bought a big canister of it on Amazon, but that’s not as good as what I got from BariatricPal. I’ve found that warm liquids go down easier than cold, and the hot chocolate is a nice change of pace from cold protein shakes.

I usually use the BariatricPal Portable Protein Mixer, Blender, and Whipper (you can get the same thing on Amazon). I got it as a free gift with my order, and I wouldn’t have bought it otherwise, but it has turned out to be very useful. I use it every day. It still produces some foam, but it makes it very easy to mix powder into liquids without lumps. It’s also easy to clean. During my pre-op diet, when I was drinking a lot of protein shakes, I used a Blender Bottle. These are very inexpensive (certain colors are a few dollars less than others) and they work very well for protein powder. I don’t use them as much anymore because I’m not making full-size 8-ounce shakes these days.

How are you doing now? Have you seen or called a doctor about your shortness of breath?

I am curious about how many grams of carbs people are being told to eat in the post-op diet. I was told to aim for 60-80 grams of protein and 60-80 grams of carbs per day. I'm doing ok with the protein (usually at least 50 grams per day), since that's what was stressed as the most important thing and I bought a lot of high-protein, low-carb foods/drinks, but I have a hard time getting more than about 40 grams of carbs in a day. The nutritionist told me that the point is to stay out of ketosis because it makes you feel crappy, but I feel fine. She did say that 40 grams of carbs per day is probably enough to stay out of ketosis, so I try to get about 40 grams of carbs per day, but I'm wondering if that's really necessary.

I just stayed one night. I went in first thing Thursday morning and was discharged Friday afternoon.

I starting working out 2-3 weeks after surgery, just doing light cardio. I didn't work out much before surgery, so I started slow. Someone here recommended Leslie Sansone Walk at Home videos on YouTube. I started with 15-minute videos and now I'm doing 20-minute videos. I'll probably try some 30-minute videos next week.

I'm 5 weeks out and eating 2 to 3 ounces per meal (3 meals per day). I'm still eating mostly purees, but I have recently started adding 1/2 ounce of shredded canned chicken to some of my meals. My program says I can eat up to 1/2 cup (4 ounces) at a time, but I stick with 2 to 3 ounces unless I'm eating soup (and then I have 4 ounces). I think 2 tablespoons (1 ounce) is lower than most programs for 4 weeks out. I am allowed to have soft veggies, but I am very cautious because I don't want to eat anything that makes me sick. The only veggie I've had so far is mashed cauliflower. I also eat pureed black bean soup that has carrots in it.

Welcome to the post-op side! Mine was the same. It's so weird to me to see people who get purees while still in the hospital! I'm all about taking it slow because I do not want to vomit.

Good luck! I hope your surgery goes well! Keep us posted.

I had gastric bypass, but my surgeon said this cramping feeling is very common early on, especially for VSG patients. I was prescribed hyoscyamine for it but only took it for a few days. I think the protein and fluid goals are unrealistic for the first week or two. I didn't get anywhere close until about a week out. I'm 5 weeks out now and it's still a struggle. My first several days post-op, I constantly felt like I had just eaten Thanksgiving dinner, just from drinking a few ounces of water or protein drink. I don't feel so stuffed or bloated anymore, but I haven't felt any hunger since surgery (which is pretty awesome).

I really like protein hot chocolate. I got some from the BariatricPal store that was really good, and then I got a big canister from Amazon that's ok but not quite as good. I have found that warm stuff goes down a little easier than cold, and the protein hot chocolate tastes like normal hot chocolate -- something I would drink before surgery. It's nice to have something a little different when you get sick of the cold protein shakes.

I had my surgery a week before yours and my weight loss has been slow, too. I only lost 15 pounds the first month, I had my 3-week stall right on schedule, and I'm hoping to get to 20 pounds down by my 6-week follow-up (which is on Thursday). Even though I know that this is a decent weight loss, it is still so frustrating when I see all these people posting who started off at a lower weight than I did and lost twice as much weight in the first month. I guess we just have to be patient. Regarding the shortness of breath, I don't want to raise alarm, but that is one of the primary symptoms of COVID-19. Are you having any other symptoms like fever, cough, loss of taste/smell? Do you have a pulse oximeter at home to monitor your blood oxygen? You can get one on Amazon (or possibly at a pharmacy) and it can help you figure out if you need to get medical attention.