rjan

I'm 3 months out - my energy came back at about 2 months. Just a data point.

About 11 days out - which was a little early for my plan (should have waited until day 14). But at that stage I was feeling pretty desperate for something semi-solid. And I started out by just trying a couple spoonfuls.

Don't beat yourself up. Freaking out in some way or another is very normal in the first few weeks. It will get much easier as you move towards eating more normal food. I'm 3 months out now, and my husband and I eat together sometimes, and separately other times. When we eat together, I just eat much smaller portions with more of the protein and vegetables and less of the carbs. Recently I've been able to add in very normal foods that I find tasty - like steak and salads - just in much smaller portions. We even made pizza together this weekend - he just ate 5 times as much as me, and I ate an egg before I ate my slice. ? The only thing I still consider completely off-limits is sugar (except for fruit).

People like that are definitely infuriating sometimes for those of us who have the opposite problem. I agree with colormehappy - I think you're better off asking him to help you by eating/cooking his food away from you. That's a very reasonable request. If he doesn't have a weight problem, it's going to be almost impossible to get him to change his diet, and he's going to have a harder time understanding what you're going through. But surely he could at least not eat sandwiches in bed for you. ? Hopefully you're not in a tiny apartment like I am.

Right now you're making me feel kind of lucky that I had my surgery mid-March in Mexico, and quarantined at a AirBNB away from my husband during that really tough post-surgery time when you're in the middle of a realllly big adjustment. Wait - are you saying he had 4 sandwiches as a snack at one sitting? Does that mean he has his own weight issues as well? Or is he one of those types who can pack it away, no problem?

Geeze louise...you're making me glad I went self-pay!

The stomach upset, gas, and bloating are definitely the distinguishing symptoms of a food intolerance! A stall and a few lb gain one week happens to most people around 2-4 months - happened to me. Not very fun, but normal. I would really hate to cut out yogurt and cottage cheese.

When I was researching this, I though Ariel Oritz was not trustworthy enough - he's made some misleading statements about his media before. I went with Hospital Angeles.

I had trouble even with fluids at first - couldn't drink much at a time. But not everybody does - especially if you got the bypass - the sleeve can be worse. Once you get to real food, you'll probably start feeling it more. In the meantime, thank your lucky stars!

I totally know what you mean. You will get more and more used to not drinking with meals as time goes on. And like @NovaLuna says, you might be just generally thirsty - even if you feel like you're already drinking a lot, drinking more away from mealtime may help. But I'm feeling your pain. My doctor didn't give me advice on drinking BEFORE meals, and advice on this topic is very variable - some doctors say not to drink before meals for up to an hour - others let you drink right up until you start eating. I find it helps me if I take a drink right before my meal starts. If it gets real bad, sometime I'll chew on an ice cube during or right after my meal. It's not enough fluid to wash things through, but it's enough to moisten my mouth. I think when I feel thirsty during a meal, what I'm really feeling is that my mouth is dry. They're always telling you to make things saucy to help food go down - I figure an ice cube does the same trick.

Only if it has active cultures - it should say somewhere on the container if it does. I grow my own kefir from scratch - it's really easy, and pretty cheap (mostly just the cost of the milk because the grains cost only $15 and have kept going for 5 years so far). Kefir also has more bacteria than yogurt, and contains many more strains of healthy bacteria than yogurt or most supplements do.

I never got guidelines for that. But I was nearly diabetic when I got surgery, and I view the actual surgery as only the start of a process that resets your metabolism - for instance, studies show that the metabolism of WLS patients drops at 6 months, just like any dieter, but rebounds to a metabolism normal for their weight at 1 year out. So I want to be careful to treat my sugar metabolism carefully for the first year so that the surgery works as well as possible. My choice has been to keep carb grams and protein grams about equal, because that was a diet that worked for controlling my hunger before surgery. Even after the surgery I find that if I eat more carbs than that, I'm hungrier for the next few days.

I like the unflavored protein powder - I also found most of the protein products too sweet. The unflavored is much more versatile - you can even add it to savory things.

I grow my own - that way I know they're fresh! I make kefir, which is much easier than yogurt - just pour milk in, wait a day, drain the kefir off - done. No heating or other nonsense required. I ordered the grains that hold the probiotic colony and make the kefir from Amazon - just search "kefir grains." Only costs 10-20 dollars. I've had mine for 5 years, and have given them away to several people since then (they multiply over time).

I agree - the microbiome is very fascinating. I actually had food intolerance issues for about 8 years until I went on a probiotic and prebiotic regimen about 5 years ago. Helped a lot with my digestion, but not with my weight unfortunately. However, studies also show that bariatric surgery changes the microbiome.

I've heard some people gain lactose intolerance from the surgery. But I'm surprised that made you gain weight - how much did you gain? Curious because I had surgery a couple weeks after you, and I just got out of the "~3 month stall" myself. I had gained 3-4 pounds from my low during the stall. I finally got going again this week, and am now down 2 lbs from my previous low. But I didn't have to cut out milk. ? On the other hand, I do have other food intolerances that I've had for years, and they usually make me bloated and/or constipated, so I definitely see how they could cause ~3-4 lbs of water/other retention. Were you feeling all bloated and gross until you cut out milk?

Sorry, I'm probably one of the really rare ladies that isn't experiencing the slightest bit of breast sagging. My girls have always been tiny - no matter what I weigh. When I was young and dating, I used to lament this fact. Now I feel really lucky. On the other hand, my arms are already a nightmare...and I'm only halfway.

Yes, I did that right after surgery. I really liked it because I was sick of everything tasting sweet. Only thing is, as @over65 mentions, if you plan to reheat it later, the protein powder will lump up and get gross if it gets too hot. But I use it in hot things all the time - you just should practice before surgery so you know what works. I used to add protein powder and then heat the whole thing, but then you have to watch it like a hawk to make sure it doesn't get too hot and I ended up wasting a lot. So lately, I heat and then add after it's hot - if it gets too hot, I just let it cool a bit first.

Welcome! I'm only 3 months out and am still losing, so I can't sympathize with recent weight gain. But I am definitely upset that my apartment building closed the gym! So glad it's finally summer here in Canada so at least I can go for pleasant walks.

It really depends on the person. But personally, I'd suggest 6 days out - that's when I flew. I probably could have done it at 4 or 5 days, but 3 days would have been tough. And the doctor was telling me how impressed he was that I was walking so much the day after surgery! Also, I usually don't check my bag, but this time I did.

Those look awesome - but also expensive. ?

I also was really, really hungry right after surgery. For me, what seemed to really help the hunger go away is when I was finally able to get enough protein in starting at about 1-1.5 weeks after. I was having trouble at first because I totally gagged on the pre-made protein drinks I had tried and found fine before surgery. My protein intake increased partly because I moved to full fluids and was able to start eating things like yogurt. I also found an unflavored protein powder I liked and added to pudding and broth. (Just be careful adding protein powder to hot liquids - if the liquid is too hot, the protein clumps up and gets all gross.) Now that I'm 3 months out, the unflavored protein powder is still my staple - I'm back on coffee, so I use it to make a 30 g protein latte most mornings - heaven! Hang in there! The first few weeks after surgery can be really tough, but you'll start to feel better and find your routine soon.

3 surgeries in 4 days - ack! Surprised your doctors were willing to do them all back to back like that!

Sugar free pudding with unflavored protein powder is the only way I made it through the first two weeks. After that, I was lucky that I like cottage cheese. Just keep experimenting and see if you can find something you can tolerate - it could even be something you didn't particularly like before.

Yes, definitely. I had bought a bunch of pre-made protein drinks before surgery after I tried a few brands to see what I liked. But after surgery, I didn't like them anymore - mostly I found them ridiculously over-sweet. So I found some unflavored protein powder (GNC Isopure Whey Protein Isolate). Right after surgery, I was using the unflavored protein powder to make protein pudding (for a little texture) and mixing it with broth (for something that wasn't sweet). You have to be really careful when you add it to hot foods, or the protein powder lumps up and turns disgusting, but it's doable with some practice. Now that I'm 3 months postop and back on coffee and solid foods, I have my protein latte every morning. 1 cup of milk, espresso, with protein powder in the milk. Then I eat it with half a protein bar. With the milk, it's 28 g of protein before noon! Another thing you could do after your surgery is just make your usual, but with a touch of juice instead of the fruit. It's the fiber in the fruit that your stomach won't be able to handle for a while after surgery.