Sunnyway

I've mentioned in other posts that I had complications post-revision surgery. I became profoundly depressed while in hospital for weeks without knowing when I would be able to leave. My Wellbutrin was bumped from 150mg XR to 225mg daily and it helped tremendously. Once I was out of rehab and back home the extra dose was discontinued. You might talk to your doctor about adding a bit more during this slide you are in.

Wow. You are incredibly busy. That’s awesome to get rid of some clothes. It’s like we are accepting that this actually is working this time unlike all the diets in the past and I’m so glad they went to some really good causes. I am sorry your in another stall but at least this time your not letting it freak you out. It will pass before you know it. I’m SO glad you have an appointment for your scope and I hope you get some answers really soon. Congrats on being down to the last two classes and it’s awesome that you have a goal but if you don’t reach it, don’t let it stop you from attending. I didn’t attend for my AA or my BA and I actually regret not attending. The AA was for legitimate reasons but the BA was because I was embarrassed of my size and didn’t want to be in the limelight. Such a shame because it’s hard work earning that degree and we deserve to be celebrated. What a cool mom letting your daughter play hookie and shop for her sweet 16. Those are the memories that we tend to remember as the years fly by. I hope you are enjoying your weekend as well. Keep up the good work!!

I've never tried the caffe latte, but I do add coffee to my Fairlife Protein Shakes. My favorite is salted caramel. I also add the Jordans Skinny Syrup in coordinating flavors. Sometimes I add coffee to a vanilla Fairlife and add pumpkin Spice syrup. I add Mocha skinny syrup if I use the chocolate Fairlife, etc.
I also use the skinny syrups in Greek yogurt, and tea, sugar free lemonade (fruit flavored syrups) etc. I'm pretty sure they have coffee and chai flavored syrups too. You can find them at TjMaxx and Marshalls and they're about half price than Amazon and the skinny syrup website.
https://www.skinnymixes.com/

I would only count things as a meal if it has protein. Popsicles would be considered fluid only. At four days post op, you really don't have to eat 3 meals a day, etc. You just have to sip constantly while you're awake in order to hit your protein and fluid goals until your tummy heals to the point that it can accept "normal bariatric portion meals" I would just focus on sipping every 15 minutes when you're not eating. The only thing that would count as a meal AND fluids would be something like a Protein Shake, protein Water or broth with unflavored Protein Powder that was added to it, so anything that has Proteins and is a fluid would count as both.
I don't batch and freeze currently, so I'm not sure about containers. I'm not sure how freezing protein shakes would go. I have a feeling the texture would be different or they may separate.
Have you tried the Fairlife protein shakes? They don't taste like a protein shake. They just taste like a lightly flavored milk to me. strawberry reminds me of Strawberry Nesquick, but not as strongly flavored.

I recently posted something that might help? https://www.bariatricpal.com/topic/441918-six-sources-of-behavior-change/

The best advice I can give is to return to your pre-surgery food plan. My clinic uses a "liver reduction" plan which is high Protein, low carb, high vegetables/fiber, and occasional 30g Protein Drinks I am post RNY>RNY revision on 12/21/21 and losing very slowly after losing a lot (70 lbs) pre-surgery). It's frustrating. Because of complications post surgery I have no more consumption restriction than I had pre-surgery, so I have to strictly track my food intake, calories, and protein on the Baritastic app. I'm getting about 1000-1200 kcal per day now. The clinic wants me to eat 800 kcal.
I can stick to the diet for meals, but struggle with craving between meals. I'm like a zombie staggering to the refrigerator at 3pm, 8pm, and bedtime. The cravings are irresistible. I want ANYTHING! While I have been choosing "good" food, like fat-free Greek yogurt or fat-free cottage cheese and fruit, I'm exceeding the calorie count they want me to maintain.
I don't eat sugar, flour, white potatoes, rice, and processed foods because I am a sugar/food addict and these are "trigger foods" for me. I've recently found a few snack foods that are satisfying the craving for these things. For "bread" I've discovered low-cal, low-wheat Ak-Mak Sesame Crackers, WASA Crisp'n Light Crispbread, & WASA Light Rye Crispbread at 20 kcal per cracker. For sweets I like Smucker's sugar-free Jam at 25 kcal per Tbsp. A single cracker with a tablespoon of the sugar-free jam often satisfy the urge to stuff my mouth. If not, two surely will. I'm still not meeting the 800 kcal goal, but getting closer.
Good luck getting back on track with eating healthy. Get exercise, too!

This reminded me, something so critical for me through the years, and that is tracking calories, macros, weight.
Oh how I wish I was a mindful eater but unfortunately, I am not. I simply have never trusted myself and to keep the weight off, I absolutely have to log everything. It helps me keep track of my 7-13 fruit/vegetable servings that I need daily, as well as my Protein. On those bottomless hungry days, I like to look at what I ate because it helps me determine my physical vs head hunger too.

I'm two years post-op, and my appetite has returned, but not nearly to the extent as before surgery. In the beginning, it was easy to lose weight because I wasn't hungry at all and physically couldn't eat much, but that has gradually changed. It feels upsetting at times to see the portions that I am able to eat because I think, "I shouldn't have room for this big of a salad, " but I think my perception is skewed because I'm comparing my current portions to my initial post-op portions, not to what I used to eat pre-surgery.
I remember pre-surgery often feeling like my stomach was a bottomless pit, and no matter how much I ate, I could still feel like I was starving. There are times now when I eat a reasonably-sized meal and still feel hungry, but even then, it doesn't take much to get all the way full. I'm probably doing it wrong because we're not supposed to eat to the point of getting really full, but I'm not perfect. And sometimes it's still hard to tell whether it's real hunger or head hunger.
I can definitely see how people can regain a lot of weight after a few years, because I feel as though my stomach has stretched out quite a bit and I could over-eat if I'm not careful about what I eat. However, I have COMPLETLEY changed my eating habits and shifted toward low-calorie foods. I've been tracking everything I eat in MyFitnessPal for over two years, and I consider that the #1 key to my weight loss, other than surgery itself (in fact, I lost 70 pounds before surgery this way). I'm not stupid -- I know how to read a nutrition label -- but there's something about actually logging my food intake that makes me confront my choices and think about what is and isn't worth eating.
I still track my calories in MyFitnessPal and I'm afraid to stop, but I suspect that I would probably be ok without tracking because I've gotten into good habits. I've also found that at times I've eaten more than I should (e.g., eating at a restaurant or getting hungry between meals and having a big snack) and think, "I need to limit my calories for the rest of the day," I actually end up not being hungry for the rest of the day, anyway.
My tastes have also changed since surgery. I used to be kind of a picky eater, and I'm not sure if my actual tastes have changed or if I've just become more open-minded, but I eat all kinds of things now that I wouldn't have touched before surgery. I used to hate seafood and now I love it and eat fish almost every day. I used to hate a lot of vegetables, like squash, peppers, radishes, cauliflower, etc., and now I'll eat just about any vegetable. I consider cauliflower rice to be the greatest diet hack of all time because it simultaneously eliminates a high-carb food and sneaks a vegetable into the meal. Plus, if you buy the frozen stuff, it's faster and easier to prepare than actual rice. Before surgery, I turned my nose up at the idea of cauliflower rice, but now I eat it several times per week.
I suspect that a lot of people who regain the weight rely too much on the restriction and don't change their eating habits, so when the restriction wears off, they're kind of back where they started.

Ok, I hear you all. And I get it I think.
The surgery is a tool to help you get to a point where your mind, willpower and new habits have to take over. Some of you seem to be saying that years down the road there is little difference, except for starting point and maybe some restriction, between having had surgery and just following a good healthy diet for weight maintenance.
I will try to follow a maintenance plan now and not graze. I suppose its good to know that I will always need to be diligent.
Thank you

What led me to weight loss surgery isn't what led most people here. I didn't (don't) have food addictions, etc. I had medically induced obesity due to auto immune disease and long term corticosteroid use. So, I got a Lap Band in 2013, and lost about one hundred and forty pounds. I never got to a "normal" weight. It's like I reached a new set point and stopped losing. I pretty much maintained that for about five years or so and then I developed GERD. As @Tomo said, the GERD associated with Lap Bands/Sleeves doesn't respond to meds and there's always a gnawing, hungry sort of sensation that makes you feel like you always need something in your stomach to stop the torment going on in there, and that led me to eating slider foods, because they felt the best to my GERD tormented stomach. So I regained maybe ten pounds during my GERD period. Then in 2021 I had the band removed, then I lost the ten pounds that I had gained, because the GERD eased up a bit and I was able to eat healthier fruits and veggies that my Band wouldn't tolerate before and kicked the carbs to the curb. I'm currently almost 7 weeks post op RNY revision and I've lost twenty-nine pounds. So the scale is finally moving after years of being stuck. I feel like I didn't regain weight even after my band was removed due to a change in eating habits and behaviors that I adopted when I got my Lap Band. I maintained those, and yes it was easier after my Band was removed because I could eat healthier again. My Band wouldn't tolerate fibrous, healthy veggies most of the time. So I would say maintaining success in the long term relies on a change of behaviors and eating habits. One other thing that I think helps a lot of people maintain success is lifetime tracking of calories/macros.

Yes, your body adapts to the changes made by surgery, and it will still want to gain weight, as it does now, but it is harder and slower to do so. This means that you have to adapt to to counter that tendency - the surgery will indeed help you to lose the weight that you can't lose now by yourself, but you still need to work at keeping it off.
This guy gives a pretty good presentation of how it progresses, and some ideas on how to live with those changes to help maintain things. You don't have to follow all of his recommendations, (I'm not so sure about his green smoothie thing....) but it helps to understand what is happening so that you can develop your own plan that makes sense for you.
My takeaway from him is that you will see increased ability to eat more at a meal, though not as much as pre op - his progression is consistent with my experience, though my wife maintains a greater restriction than I do, YMMV - is to fill in that increased ability/desire to eat more with bulky, low calorie veg to minimize and control the caloric increase over time. The salads that I make now for lunch have about the same amount of Protein - meat and cheese - that they did early on, but a lot more veg than earlier. Our protein needs doesn't increase over time - our "high protein" post op diet isn't really all that high, but rather a maintenance level of protein while everything else is dramatically reduced at that time.
I found that it really helps to work on your long term maintenance diet as early as possible - long before surgery if you can - to get used to how you should eat 5-10 years from now rather than just next month or next year. Learn how you should be eating for good weight maintenance (and satiety) and start developing those habits early - don't worry about rapid pre op weight loss, let the surgery do that.
If you are seriously concerned about your long term prospects on weight maintenance - if you have had a long history of yo yo dieting, and/or are starting at a very high BMI, you should also consider the DS, duodenal switch, surgery as that has demonstrably better regain resistance than the RNY or VSG, which are very similar in that regard. There are more trade offs involved - what in life doesn't have them - but it is worth considering ahead of time rather than as a revision later on, as the bypass is a difficult thing to revise.

hunger/appetite usually come back sometime during the first year after surgery (and a minority of patients never lose it at all). After that, things get more challenging. It's hard work - but it does "work" as long as you're committed and stick with your program.
during year 3, most people experience a 10-20 lb regain as your body settles in to its new set point. Of course, some people can gain much more than that if they aren't careful.
basically, the surgery keeps you from eating a lot AT ONE SITTING. I'm over seven years out, and I can't eat nearly as much at one sitting as I could prior to surgery. As an example, before surgery, I could easily eat half a large pizza. Now, I can physically only eat 1-2 pieces. Again, at one sitting.
the major problem is grazing. If I eat 1-2 pieces of pizza at 6:00 pm, and another piece at 7:30 pm. and another piece or two at 10:00 pm - ta da! I've eaten half a large pizza. So you really have to watch that if you want to maintain your loss.
like others have said, though, it gives you a huge reset. I lost over 200 lbs, which I could have never done on my own. But after that loss, it's on you.

The surgery is in no way a magic cure. It’s only a tool to help. You can buy all the tools you want though, and some fancy drill may make it easier than a hammer, but your deck is still not going to get built without you doing some of the actual work.

I think of the surgery more as a clean slate. Yes, the hunger does come back and no you will not be able to eat exactly like you did and keep the weight off. BUT, you will get this one time fresh start where you really do lose if you follow the plan and if you resolve to continue making those healthy choices most of the time you should be able to maintain it.

I’m not gonna lie and say it’s easy cause it’s not. I have to ask myself probably once a day do I really need this or do I just want it. But it’s totally worth it to be able to feel good in my own skin.

Yes, your hunger does return. A bigger question that influences this is whether what you are experiencing is real hunger or head hunger. Head hunger comes from cravings, habit, boredom & emotions. Real hunger comes from your body needing nutrition & feels different. You’ll learn how it feels for you. For me I get restless, know something is wrong but don’t crave or want a specific food, texture or flavour.
Unfortunately while the surgery changes your digestive system, it doesn’t change your thinking. You have to do that part. Many find working with a therapist helpful with head hunger & the issues behind it.
Yes, the surgery does physically reduce the amount of food you can consume, boost your metabolism, change your body’s set point & temporarily reduce your hunger (not everyone though). The reality is if you aren’t ready to do the head work to reflect on how, what & what you eat you will gain weight again. The surgery isn’t an easy fix though it can give you the impetus to change. I realised what I was doing wasn’t working & that surgery was my last resort which made me want to embrace the benefits & not waste them.
Hope I haven’t scared you more. In many ways I eat more & more often than before (was a meal skipper). I worked out a way of eating that works for me, complements my lifestyle, provides my body with what it needs & has been sustainable. Some do regain some of their weight because how they initially chose to eat doesn’t.
The truth is the surgery can be amazing if you grab the opportunity with both hands. I’ve never been able to maintain my weight like this before & haven’t been this weight since I was 12 or 13. I look at food differently. Not as the enemy nor as a way to make me feel better but as a source of the nutrients my body needs to function effectively. And yes, I still enjoy food & eating .

I will try my best to answer your questions. They are good questions.

I had the sleeve in 2015, I was revised to bypass due to gerd over a year ago. Years after the sleeve, my weight crept back up about 40 lbs but no where close to where I started which was over 320 lbs. Unfortunately, my appetite was never really supressed after the sleeve, but even years later, I could never eat a lot in one sitting. 10 ounces max no matter how hungry I was. I never ate around the sleeve either. That is, no milkshakes, donuts, cakes, slider foods that slide right through the sleeve. So the restriction was always there, thank goodness.

But then, I got gerd. Gerd is a horrible thing, it gnaws at your stomach and you feel you have to put something in it constantly just so the pain subsides. No medication worked. It was frustrating, painful, no sleep either.

Fast forward, I get an RNY and my severe gerd is finally gone. I still have silent reflux from time to time but it is not bad. Appetite is more suppressed compared to the sleeve but I could have happily went a lifetime with my sleeve and stay in a decent weight range if I didn't get gerd and had to revise. So, yes, appetite returns but if you can make the commitment to follow the basic rules of Protein first, no drinking during meals, no slider foods, you will do good.

SD- 5/2018
SW-318
LW -180 didn’t stay there long & maintained roughly 190-195 for a long time.
CW 210
Yes your stomach will stretch back out
Yes it’s very hard work—FOREVER
I am torn like on 1 hand it was totally worth it. On the other hand It didn’t solve the issue that I desperately needed it to. That’s another story for another time. I am however slightly happier thinner. I wasn’t happy at 180 it was too small for me. I like me at 200 it is my happy weight but I am slowly gaining. For the past 1.5 yr I have been ⬆️ & down 10lbs usually gaining right before my menstrual cycle & then I lose its. Everything kinda comes back like my appetite is larger & I can eat just about anything. I don’t exercise persay but I live on a farm so I’m always working. I back to the same shitty eating habits eating once a day @ dinner like before WLS. I need to re train my mind make Protein intake a priority & more frequently. GOOD for u for taking this leap of faith. I’m sure that I wait is stressful in itself. I can’t believe it’s taking that long. It took me 2.5-3 mths from initial appointment.

Its the 4th of the month. Which means its time to do my monthly weigh in and measurements.
High weight of 317lb.
Surgery date April 18th 2022
I have to go buy new clothes again. The clothes i bought last month for work no longer fit and the belt i have put in roughly 7 extra holes in it. Time to replace it lol.

Thank you all so much for your insight! I’m embarrassed to say, I’m pretty positive it was just extremely painful gas. I’ve never felt that before! It has passed and I’ve been able drink my liquids so much easier now and I feel a thousand times better. Whew! I was really scared for a moment lol

Yes, depression is not uncommon post bariatric surgery. Medication may be the way to go, at least temporarily.
I have had clinical depression for at least four decades and have been taking bupropion (Wellbutrin), an NDRI, for 20 years. I have no side effects. SSRIs an SNRIs did not work for me or only worked briefly.
It's important for you to work with a psychiatrist for medication. They know far more about psychotropic meds than primary care physicians. Please bear in mind that there is no one-size-fits-all psychotropic medication. To find the antidepressant that works for you is a trial and error process. It may take numerous trials. Hang in there, it does get better.

So I have a few things to update on. I haven't been super active lately because things have been crazy.
First, I finally got rid of my size 26/28 clothes!!! I had them bagged up for a good week and a half and I finally pulled the trigger and got rid of them. All of my work clothes, shoes, and size 10 jewelry was donated to Dress for Success. My casual clothes and pajamas were donated equally between a local homeless shelter and a local domestic violence shelter. I'm currently in size 22/24 clothes, but they're starting to get big on me (I'm in like a size 21 lol But there isn't a size 21, so...) Once I make it to a size 18/20, I'll do it all over again.
Second, I'm in another stall. I have been for the last 8 days or so. I know because it's following the same pattern as the last 2 I had. I gain 3 pounds and then sit there for weeks, then drop like 5 pounds when it breaks (first stall lasted about a week and a half. Second one lasted 2 1/2 weeks. I figure I might be looking at 3 1/2 or 4 weeks now). I'm used to it now so I'm not freaking out. BUT, my size 9 rings are too big. I need size 8 1/2 and like I said, the size 22/24 clothes are starting to be too big. So even though the scale isn't moving, I'm still winning!!!
Third, I FINALLY got my appointment for the scope. The GI cocktail has helped me be able to eat some food, but I still have to be careful. I'm now on 80mg of Nexium daily and I take the GI cocktail 10-15 minutes before eating anything. I can actually sleep in my bed again, so that's good. Looking forward to this scope to get to the bottom of everything once and for all.
Fourth, been working my tail off finishing my last 2 classes for my degree!!! I'm a little over half way finished, and it's been exciting. I've been working on this degree for the last 11 years, so to finally be at the finish line is amazing. I had been putting it off and as my health and weight started getting better, I just became super motivated to finish and finally have my degree. My graduation is in December, and I FULLY intend to be below 300 when I go. That's my new goal. I have 3 months. I think I can do it. I'm at 322 right now (remember I gained 3 pounds before just sitting at this weight?) so if I can lose 23 pounds in 3 months, I'll hit multiple goals at once. So excited!!!!!
Well, that's about it for now. Hope everyone is enjoying their 3 days weekend. My daughter's birthday is Tuesday, and we're letting her miss school and we're taking her out to lunch and then to do a little shopping (she's turning 16). Have a good one

I was curious if any of my fellow sleevers had been diagnosed with depression prior to or after surgery. Since about August 2021, (was sleeved on 7/27/22) I've been experiencing on and off symptoms of depression. It comes and goes on a daily/weekly basis. One day I'm fine, then the next week I'm just down in the dumps with seemingly no way out, then I'm fine for the next week or two. I've spoke with a psychologist in the previous months and obviously spoke with a psych to do my pre-surgery evaluation. If you are taking any anti-depressants, what are they and what kind of side effects have you had?

Sharing a blog post I wrote a few years ago that I thought might help some of you...
On the face of it, losing weight seems so simple. How many times have we all heard statements like “just eat less and move more!” While that type of sentiment is factually true, it can be incredibly hard in practice. The reason is because we all are creatures of habit.
Now when I say habit, I don’t want you to think of the negative connotation we sometimes give to the word habit. Habits can be and often are, good things. An example would be brushing your teeth before bed. If that’s a habit you have (may of us do), it would be hard to classify that as a bad thing. We do it partly because we know we should, but also because it’s just become a habit, and things would feel off if we didn’t do it. In fact, because so much of what we do on a day-to-day basis is routine, habits help us get those things done without having to exert much extra mental energy to them.
It follows that if we want weight loss or other healthy behaviors to become habit, we have to “hack” our brains a little. We do that by replacing old behaviors with new behaviors. Over time, the new behavior become a habit that replaces the old behavior we want to get rid of.
This again sound simple enough, but because we as humans are wired to seek out rewards, we sometimes do things we know we shouldn’t. This means we can’t just flip a switch and start working out, or ”eating better” (whatever that means). We first have to make sure the reward we get for the current behavior is minimized, and the reward we get for the new behavior is maximized. By doing that, we can slowly change behavior.
To make this easier, I have grouped behavior change into six dimensions we need to focus on:

We’ll start with the 3 dimensions of motivation.
Motivation is often misunderstood, so I want you to think about it a little differently than you may think of it now. Motivation is simply the mental processes that drive your behavior. Thus when someone says “I have no motivation”, that’s actually incorrect. They do have motivation, they just have motivation to do something else.
Personal Motivation – These are things that internally motivate you as an individual person to act in a particular way. There are several factors that make up personal motivation, but the most important factor is how a new behavior makes you feel vs. the current behavior. To change behavior, we need to minimize the negatives associated with the new, desired behavior and maximize the positive aspects of it. We also want to do the exact opposite for the bad behavior we want to replace.
For a more personal example, I like fishing but am not a big fan of slow cardio (too boring to me). I can turn boring exercise into playing simply by using a row boat or kayak to fish from, rather than a motorized boat. If you have small children, you could play tag or hide and go seek with them, rather than walking on a treadmill.
Social Motivation – This form of motivation is all based on the fact that at our core, people are social animals. In short, we crave acceptance by others. While this can be a negative if taken to the extreme, we can also make it work to our benefit. Examples would be having one or more accountability partners or using social pressure to ensure compliance.
Structural Motivation – Also known as the “carrot & stick”. The goal is to find ways to add in additional punishments for bad behavior and rewards for good behavior. For example, many people find that meaningful financial rewards or punishments can drastically impact behavior. An example might be “placing a bet” with a family member that you will not eat any highly processed foods for the next month. If you succeed, you get the payout, but if you fail, you have to pay instead. Obviously the carrots & sticks don’t have to be financial at all, but for many people money is a big motivator.
We move now from Motivation to Ability.
I want you to think of ability as how prepared you are to replace bad behaviors with good ones. It does us no good to be super motivated to take on a new good habit if we don’t have the knowledge, skills, or ability to actually incorporate the that habit into our lives.
Personal Ability – This is all about learning and developing the skills, tools & knowledge you’ll need to actively engage in the new behavior. For example, if my goal was to use horseback riding as exercise, I’d have to get a horse, find a place to board the horse, learn to ride, learn to care for the horse, etc. before that could become a reality. This is obviously an extreme case, but too many times we expect that simply having motivation will be sufficient to reach a goal. The fact is it’s not. No matter what the goal is, there is some level of knowledge or skill needed to make it happen. A more concrete example might be “wanting to eat more vegetables”. For many people, this is a challenge not because they don’t like vegetables, but because they have no idea how to prepare them. Learning to do so would be the TRUE first step to a better diet.
Social Ability – Teamwork is the operative word here. Perhaps you really struggle to walk enough on a daily basis, but you also know if you have someone to walk with you, it would make it much more enjoyable for you. This can also refer to using a coach or expert to help. If you know you need to use strength training to reach your goals, but don’t have any idea where to start. Enlisting the help of a professional might be just the thing you need.
Structural Ability – I like to think of this one as cheating to your advantage! So many times, we create environments where we’re almost bound to fail. Examples are things like keeping a bag of chocolate or saving your “fat clothes” just in case. Another classic example would be failing to plan meals ahead of time. Instead, we need to change everything we can about our environment to support us making good choices and eliminating anything that causes us to stumble.
Taken together, these six sources of habit change can help you replace bad habits with good ones, but it’s not magic. You still have to work at it and you still have to make yourself more aware of when and why you are choosing bad habits over good ones. This awareness is really the first step to success.

I had revision at age 73, 30 years after my RNY. I was on the bariatric clinic’s program for eight months prior to the revision surgery.
I lost 70 pounds pre-surgery by cutting out all sugar, flour, white potatoes, rice, and processed foods. I’ve lost a total of 106 pounds to date.
There were complications from the revision surgery so it did not result in any consumption restrictions. The additional weight loss is due to sticking with the plan above.
I encourage you to do some reading about sugar and food addiction. I recommend the following books.
Food junkies: recovery from food addiction, by Vera Tarman
Why Diets Fail (because you’re addicted to sugar), by Nicole Avena & John Talbot
Weight loss surgery does not treat food addiction, by Connie Stapleton

DTMFA

DTMFA