BigSue

I hope you get some good answers because I was going to ask about this, too! I am 5 weeks out now, so in one more week I will not be limited to soft foods. I live in a "food desert" where it's hard for me to get fresh produce because I don't live near any grocery stores, so I've been looking at meal delivery services. I haven't used them before because I felt they were too expensive, but now that I'm eating about 1/3 of a meal, a meal kit will stretch much further. I've been looking at HungryRoot, but I've seen some other healthy meal delivery services that look good.

I have a feeling he'll be back with a new account. Even with his old account, he changed the name at least a few times.

I feel the same way! At my current weight, I would never leave my house in leggings because I feel like they leave too little to the imagination. I wear dark wash, bootcut jeans 99% of the time that I am in public. I hope that I lose enough weight that I can wear leggings in public someday.

Yes, my doctor only said no drinking during or for 30 minutes after eating, no restrictions before. But just to be safe, I don't drink anything for 30 minutes before eating, either.

I feel the same way! At my current weight, I would never leave my house in leggings because I feel like they leave too little to the imagination. I wear dark wash, bootcut jeans 99% of the time that I am in public. I hope that I lose enough weight that I can wear leggings in public someday.

16.5 pounds in less than 2 weeks is pretty good if you ask me, especially for someone with your BMI (since you don't have as much to lose as most of us, you should expect your weight loss to be a bit slower). To put it in perspective, my surgery was 3 weeks before yours and I have only lost 16 pounds so far -- and my surgery weight was 60 pounds heavier than yours. I hit the 3-week stall right on schedule and only today lost 0.8 pounds after 6 consecutive days at the same weight.

Congrats! The time will fly by and surgery day will be here before you know it.

16.5 pounds in less than 2 weeks is pretty good if you ask me, especially for someone with your BMI (since you don't have as much to lose as most of us, you should expect your weight loss to be a bit slower). To put it in perspective, my surgery was 3 weeks before yours and I have only lost 16 pounds so far -- and my surgery weight was 60 pounds heavier than yours. I hit the 3-week stall right on schedule and only today lost 0.8 pounds after 6 consecutive days at the same weight.

Wow... I can't believe your PCP said that. Less than a week before surgery is not the time to bring that up.
You are the only one who can make that decision. I am terrible at making decisions so I know the feeling of wishing someone else would just make the decision for me. It was a much easier decision for me because I had a much higher BMI as well as comorbidities, but I still questioned my decision right up until surgery day, since I had already lost a lot of weight before surgery and wondered if I should try again to lose the rest on my own. To be perfectly honest, I often wonder why people with a BMI as low as 35 want to go through the ordeal of surgery, but it's a very personal decision.
I don't know what caused you to go down this path in the first place, but for most of us, it is a pretty long journey to get insurance approvals and meet the pre-surgery requirements. I'm sure you have put a lot of thought into this already. What I have read about decisions is that you should not make big decisions when you're in a heightened emotional state. I'd say that having anxiety through the roof qualifies. So look back on the reasons you made the decision in the first place when you were calm and had time to consider the pros and cons rationally.
I don't know how old you are, but I have been obese my whole adult life, and I first looked into WLS more than 15 years ago. At the time, I was in my 20s and didn't have any health problems, and I decided against the surgery back then because I was afraid of the risk of giving up my good health just to lose some weight. But it has caught up with me now and that's why I decided to have surgery at this point. Sometimes I wish I had done it earlier because I feel like I have missed out on so much in life because of my weight, but I also have a feeling that I wasn't ready to change my lifestyle back then and I might not have been successful (of course, I'm only a month out, so I can't say that I'll be successful now, but I do think I am much more ready to make the necessary changes now than I was 15 years ago). So remember that if you're not ready now, you can change your mind and get it later.
I know that probably wasn't helpful because I gave some arguments on both sides, but all you can do is make the best decision you can with the information you have and make the most of it. Good luck!

Wow... I can't believe your PCP said that. Less than a week before surgery is not the time to bring that up.
You are the only one who can make that decision. I am terrible at making decisions so I know the feeling of wishing someone else would just make the decision for me. It was a much easier decision for me because I had a much higher BMI as well as comorbidities, but I still questioned my decision right up until surgery day, since I had already lost a lot of weight before surgery and wondered if I should try again to lose the rest on my own. To be perfectly honest, I often wonder why people with a BMI as low as 35 want to go through the ordeal of surgery, but it's a very personal decision.
I don't know what caused you to go down this path in the first place, but for most of us, it is a pretty long journey to get insurance approvals and meet the pre-surgery requirements. I'm sure you have put a lot of thought into this already. What I have read about decisions is that you should not make big decisions when you're in a heightened emotional state. I'd say that having anxiety through the roof qualifies. So look back on the reasons you made the decision in the first place when you were calm and had time to consider the pros and cons rationally.
I don't know how old you are, but I have been obese my whole adult life, and I first looked into WLS more than 15 years ago. At the time, I was in my 20s and didn't have any health problems, and I decided against the surgery back then because I was afraid of the risk of giving up my good health just to lose some weight. But it has caught up with me now and that's why I decided to have surgery at this point. Sometimes I wish I had done it earlier because I feel like I have missed out on so much in life because of my weight, but I also have a feeling that I wasn't ready to change my lifestyle back then and I might not have been successful (of course, I'm only a month out, so I can't say that I'll be successful now, but I do think I am much more ready to make the necessary changes now than I was 15 years ago). So remember that if you're not ready now, you can change your mind and get it later.
I know that probably wasn't helpful because I gave some arguments on both sides, but all you can do is make the best decision you can with the information you have and make the most of it. Good luck!

That's terrible -- sounds like they're really disorganized!
What kind of Cookies and cream Protein Shake did you get? I bought some Premier Protein cookies and cream shakes and I hate them. Fortunately, I only bought a 4-pack, but I'm very disappointed. 🙁

The Michigan Bariatric Surgery Collective has a database of WLS outcomes, and they created a calculator that takes into account your height, weight, age, and gender to estimate your weight loss for each type of WLS. Of course, this is only an average and any individual's results can vary, but it should give you a pretty good idea of what to expect.
https://mbsc.arbormetrix.com/Registry/public/calculator/uiCalculator/7?menuId=1013

The short answer is, "Maybe." Everybody has a different experience. Some people can eventually eat anything and other people are unable to eat certain things even years after surgery. I think most people can eventually eat small amounts of just about anything. But... isn't it kind of the point of surgery to make you unable to eat the way you used to? If you can eventually eat a burger and fries and everything else you used to eat, it's going to be hard to lose the weight you want to lose and keep it off.

The short answer is, "Maybe." Everybody has a different experience. Some people can eventually eat anything and other people are unable to eat certain things even years after surgery. I think most people can eventually eat small amounts of just about anything. But... isn't it kind of the point of surgery to make you unable to eat the way you used to? If you can eventually eat a burger and fries and everything else you used to eat, it's going to be hard to lose the weight you want to lose and keep it off.

Once you start shopping for Protein powder online, you'll start seeing ads for other protein powders. You should look at the ingredients and nutrition info to make sure they meet your requirements. Here are the ones I purchased (I think I found all of these through ads on Facebook):
IdealFit (IdealLean) (You can also buy individual sample size packets if you don't want this many)
1up Nutrition (I bought the "summer body starter kit," which allowed me to choose my own samples, but that no longer seems to be available; it might have been a special offer that you can only get to by clicking an ad)
Northbound Nutrition Waves of Whey
Strength (Unfortunately, the samples are 5 packs of the same flavor, so you'd have to buy 10 packs just to get both flavors)
KetoShop (There are two different sample packs; I got the zero carb just because the flavors were more appealing to me)
P.S. None of these are referral links and I do not benefit in any way from them.

That’s what I did. I ordered sample packs of a bunch of different Protein powders, not only to figure out what I like, but also to have some variety when I was drinking so many Protein Shakes.

I have a feeling he'll be back with a new account. Even with his old account, he changed the name at least a few times.

I had gastric bypass, but I think this part is pretty similar for both surgeries. I have six incisions. Five of them are in a row; you could connect them with a horizontal line about three inches above my belly button. The second one is about two inches below my right breast. The largest one is about an inch and a quarter and the smallest is about half an inch. The largest one had a lot of bruising around it at first.
i was instructed to keep the dressings on the incisions for three days and leave the steri-strips (adhesive strips to hold the incisions closed) on for a week. The incisions looked kind of nasty when the dressings and steri-strips were on, but when I removed the dressings and steri-strips, I realized that I was just seeing dried blood and the incisions were almost healed.
i was surprised by how little pain I had. The only real pain I experienced was gas pain, and it was awful the first day but improved quickly. By 24 hours after surgery, I was merely uncomfortable, but not really in pain. I had a couple of doses of Toradol in the hospital. I went home the day after surgery with a prescription for Vicodin, which I filled just in case but did not need it. I didn’t even need Tylenol. I have not felt any pain in the incisions except a tiny bit a few times when I leaned over a certain way and the waistline of my clothing rubbed against an incision. I could feel a little internal discomfort if I twisted my torso too much (e.g., rolling over in bed).
By about the 4th day after surgery, I felt ok. I could have returned to work (desk job) at that point if I really had to, but I was definitely better off taking the week off and focusing on getting fluids and Protein (which is pretty much a full-time job at first). I went back to work 11 days after surgery. I remember that I actually felt great that day, better than an average day before surgery.
I’m almost a month out right now and I basically feel “normal,” except that I am not hungry at all. I haven’t felt the least bit hungry since my surgery despite the fact that I haven’t had more than 500 calories in a day for over a month. I was instructed not to lift anything over 20 pounds for the first 6 weeks, but that’s the only physical restriction I have.

The Michigan Bariatric Surgery Collective has a database of WLS outcomes, and they created a calculator that takes into account your height, weight, age, and gender to estimate your weight loss for each type of WLS. Of course, this is only an average and any individual's results can vary, but it should give you a pretty good idea of what to expect.
https://mbsc.arbormetrix.com/Registry/public/calculator/uiCalculator/7?menuId=1013

The Michigan Bariatric Surgery Collective has a database of WLS outcomes, and they created a calculator that takes into account your height, weight, age, and gender to estimate your weight loss for each type of WLS. Of course, this is only an average and any individual's results can vary, but it should give you a pretty good idea of what to expect.
https://mbsc.arbormetrix.com/Registry/public/calculator/uiCalculator/7?menuId=1013

The Michigan Bariatric Surgery Collective has a database of WLS outcomes, and they created a calculator that takes into account your height, weight, age, and gender to estimate your weight loss for each type of WLS. Of course, this is only an average and any individual's results can vary, but it should give you a pretty good idea of what to expect.
https://mbsc.arbormetrix.com/Registry/public/calculator/uiCalculator/7?menuId=1013

The Michigan Bariatric Surgery Collective has a database of WLS outcomes, and they created a calculator that takes into account your height, weight, age, and gender to estimate your weight loss for each type of WLS. Of course, this is only an average and any individual's results can vary, but it should give you a pretty good idea of what to expect.
https://mbsc.arbormetrix.com/Registry/public/calculator/uiCalculator/7?menuId=1013

Well, I am almost a month out and I am constantly worrying about whether the surgery is going to work. What if I went through all of this for nothing? (BTW, you may see in my profile that I have lost 81 pounds; most of that was before surgery and I have only lost 15 pounds since surgery, and hit the 3-week stall right on schedule.)
I can tell you that you should absolutely not draw any conclusions from a single week, and frankly, shame on your dietitian for saying how much you "should have" lost in 6 days. She should know better. I lost over 60 pounds in the 5 months before my surgery, and I had a few stalls, including one where I lost no weight for two whole weeks, despite the fact that I "should have" lost a few pounds based on my calorie deficit. Also, I had some GI discomfort during my pre-op diet and I've had very few issues since surgery (other than the first few days), so don't make any conclusions about that, either. Your stomach will be totally different after surgery so there's no telling how you'll feel then.

Well, I am almost a month out and I am constantly worrying about whether the surgery is going to work. What if I went through all of this for nothing? (BTW, you may see in my profile that I have lost 81 pounds; most of that was before surgery and I have only lost 15 pounds since surgery, and hit the 3-week stall right on schedule.)
I can tell you that you should absolutely not draw any conclusions from a single week, and frankly, shame on your dietitian for saying how much you "should have" lost in 6 days. She should know better. I lost over 60 pounds in the 5 months before my surgery, and I had a few stalls, including one where I lost no weight for two whole weeks, despite the fact that I "should have" lost a few pounds based on my calorie deficit. Also, I had some GI discomfort during my pre-op diet and I've had very few issues since surgery (other than the first few days), so don't make any conclusions about that, either. Your stomach will be totally different after surgery so there's no telling how you'll feel then.

Well, I am almost a month out and I am constantly worrying about whether the surgery is going to work. What if I went through all of this for nothing? (BTW, you may see in my profile that I have lost 81 pounds; most of that was before surgery and I have only lost 15 pounds since surgery, and hit the 3-week stall right on schedule.)
I can tell you that you should absolutely not draw any conclusions from a single week, and frankly, shame on your dietitian for saying how much you "should have" lost in 6 days. She should know better. I lost over 60 pounds in the 5 months before my surgery, and I had a few stalls, including one where I lost no weight for two whole weeks, despite the fact that I "should have" lost a few pounds based on my calorie deficit. Also, I had some GI discomfort during my pre-op diet and I've had very few issues since surgery (other than the first few days), so don't make any conclusions about that, either. Your stomach will be totally different after surgery so there's no telling how you'll feel then.