Tony B - NJ

13 minutes ago, sandief54 said:

Surgery 9/21 and today is the 26th. I am not losing weight. Not sure if it's because of the drain and gas, Water retention, etc. Drinking two Premier Protein shakes, Water, coffee w/ half n half and Soup. Not sure if that's too much food. I'm worried.

You are fine. You have swelling and fluids from surgery keeping your weight up. After about a week those fluids will start to dissipate and the weight will come off. Keep sipping water and broth, keep walking and give it time.

3 hours ago, ms.sss said:

Personally, I wouldn't trust the calories these phone apps list as being burned. They are notoriously inaccurate.

Unless you've had a series of physical metabolic tests to determine your baseline at your current weight, PLUS have a heart monitor strapped to your chest and and other sensors attached to you to calculate volume of oxygen your body consumes, you won't know what your metabolic rate truly is.

Not sure if you are doing so already, but its probably better NOT to factor in exercise in your daily calorie counts.

600-800 cals a day at your weight of 248 lbs would seem like you should be losing weight, though...so when you say you are struggling to lose weight, do you mean you not losing weight at all? How long has it been?

Great point. I like to say “don’t eat your exercise”. Meaning what you allegedly burn exercising should NOT add to your allowable calories to consume. Whenever I did that is the past I was not successful so I ignore exercise calories.

Something appears to be off. I assume you are weighing and tracking your food accurately? Guessing can lead to being way off.

Just now, Sunnyway said:

I don't think sugar-free pudding counts as a "clear liquid". It's a soft liquid.

According to my team it was fine.

When I think of that I think of when I was a teenager and trying beer for the first time. A friend of mine told me to try drinking beer with a straw because you will get fucked up faster. He said it was because you don't take in as much air with the straw which seemed like it made sense since the straw is submerged in the beer and you create a closed system by sucking the beer into your mouth. As long as you don't take a breath and open your mouth mid suck, the air doesn't get in. That is my theory based on absolutely no science from a teenage buddy 40 years or so ago.

good luck. You will have a wide range of opinions and help on here.

I was back to work in 7 days. I have a desk job and no physical requirements other than sitting on my ass. I did make sure I got up atleast hourly and took a 10 minute walk around the office and warehouse to keep things moving. I did wear compression stockings for a couple weeks after I started back to work.

My son is vegan and he uses Owyn. You can get it on Amazon. It is vegan Protein so it is not the milk based whey protein. He says the taste is good, so it is worth a shot. I have not tried the vegan protein as I have been able to tolerate the milk based.

I think the theme here is that most of the people on here are for the surgery or they would not be on here with few exceptions. The reality is that many of us have lost a ton of weight before but end up bringing it right back on board. The sleeve is the tool many of us find is going to be there to keep us honest and help us keep the weight off. You cannot just unconsciously eat anyway and go and gain it back. If you eat and stretch out your sleeve, you are going to know it is happening and make a conscious choice to eat and screw it up for yourself.

start stocking up on Protein powders like Premeir Protein. You will go through a lot of that between pre op diet and after surgery. I would also stock up on Bone Broth for sipping that first couple weeks after surgery. It goes down nice and has protein in it. A nice break from plain Water.

Pretty basic really. Clear Protein, Protein Shakes, Bone Broth with protein, chicken or beef broth, Water, gatorade zero, sugar free pudding or Jello, pretty much it....

20 hours ago, SoulGardener said:

I tried My Fitness Pal but it costs $20 per month & will not allow me to go below 1460 based on parameters it asked me to enter. How do you get it to allow you to put in your own calorie intake?

It will allow you to put in whatever calorie limit you want in the free version. Go to "more", "calories, carbs and nutrition" and you can enter in your calorie count as you desire. The only thing it will NOT do at that low calorie level is give you automated projections. It works well enough for what I need and again, you can manually input your goal numbers.

2 minutes ago, lizonaplane said:

It's really easy. Takes about 5 seconds to put it in. Then you just sit or lie down and wait for it to work. It's much better than having to go to the Emergency Room and be around people with covid just so the nurse can deal with you being constipated and they have to go in and dig you out... that's way worse.

You make a good point. but.....

On 7/21/2021 at 9:34 PM, StartingMYjourney2021 said:

Hi I am 3 months post op, and I have lost 36lbs. I started at 245. I’ve been feeling discouraged with the weight loss after I had one month stall, but it’s started coming off again.
I run 30 Min four to five times a week. I eat 1000 calories daily. Protein intake is 70-80 grams daily.

I hope things work out for us ladies and maybe it’s just a waiting game now we didn’t put the weight on over night

Try to cut your calories down just a touch and get out and walk every day atleast for a half hour, even if it is in 15 minute pieces at a time. It sound almost impossible to take in that few calories and not lose more weight. Are you closely counting?

good luck to those with surgeries this week. It is not as bad as you are anticipating.

I just cannot get myself to do the suppository....lol

If you are taking all your Protein as recommended, you should be seeing an increase in energy. That said, you are probably like me on an 800 calorie diet so it is not like there is a whole lot of energy to be had in there. Keep taking your protein and Vitamins and you will start to feel better.

Good luck!

Similar to the warm Water, I have had good luck getting things moving with Bone Broth. It is warm and also has a decent amount of Protein and pretty low in calories.

I have not tried to eat out yet but the Soups seems like an easy way to order something without fear of problems. I think a piece of fish like cod or flounder is a pretty good bet too since it is so soft and stays pretty moist after cooking.

Just remember to eat slowly and chew until the food is virtually liquid. Put down your fork for a minute or so between bites to allow everything to get through to the stomach. If you eat too quickly or take too big of a portion it will feel like you swallowed a golf ball and hurt in middle of the chest.

I had a similar issue but kept up with the Protein Shakes and Bone Broth. It will pass soon.

22 hours ago, Lulu728 said:

Hey Evangeline, I'm in in my pre-op diet phase, too. Surgery 10/1. Started pre-op diet on Friday, so today is Day 3. Day 1 went ok, but Day 2 OMG!!!! I woke up with horrific headache, was jittery and had hunger pains most of the day. Better today though and plan to stick it out.

I think Tony is right about keeping ourselves distracted so I intend to do that. I get 1 light meal a day in addition to the 2 Protein Shakes and hope you do, too. Best of luck to you!

Let's Keep Our Eyes on That Prize!!!!

Good luck!!

21 hours ago, kristieshannon said:

My mother of the bride dress.

Wow!

My surgeon sent me in after about 10 days to have a barium X-ray to verify the staples hold. He said the first couple days and then around the 10-12 day mark you see this issue.