SpartanMaker

I think most of us go through what you're feeling right now. We all dread a loss of the things we used to enjoy. (Most of these fears are unfounded, by the way.) The reality is if those things are important to you, you'll most likely still be able to do them, just less often. Instead of focusing on the loss, another better approach might be for you to think of new, healthier ways to have fun with your friends. Drinking and eating don't have to be the only ways you interact. Also, if you do end up having dumping syndrome (which is not a certainty), then you may have to make some dietary changes, but many people really have very little problem making those changes. Perhaps the thing for you to do would be weigh the positives vs. the negatives of surgery. When you remember all the ways being obese effects you, you may find sacrificing a few things to get rid of all those other issues is more than worth it. As the end of the day, only you can make that call.

Can you explain what you mean when you say you don't feel strong enough to go back to good habits? It sounds like you already know what you need to do, but are struggling to do those things for some reason?

I was hoping the OP would return so we could discuss some of the things posted here, but they have not. As such, I wanted to take a bit of time to delve a bit deeper into what was posted in the event anyone reading this was confused. Sorry, but this will be a long post. The TL;DR version is that most of what was posted was inaccurate. Let's start with this section: Dumping syndrome (feeling very sick when eating certain foods), is really variable for both Sleeve and Roux-en-Y gastric bypass patients. Some people have this, and some don't. It's generally accurate to say that dumping is more common in gastric bypass but regardless, relying on this as the way to keep you from eating things you shouldn't, is just not a good strategy. As I mentioned before, neither surgery fixes what's between your ears, so if you go into WLS expecting that this is going to keep you from binge eating, you likely won't be successful. Stomachs can stretch, but it takes repeatedly overeating for this to happen. I wanted to make that clear since some people are overly worried about this. As long as you stick to plan, this should not be a concern. Again, not a good strategy expecting dumping syndrome to "fix" you. Fix your eating problem first, then have surgery to help you get to a healthy weight. The OP seems to have a misunderstanding about how fat cells work. White Adipocytes (fat cells), store lipids (fats) as droplets in the body of the cell. The volume of the droplet stored in each cell can grow or shrink as needed. The point is that the number of fat cells one has does not determine some sort of "baseline" amount of fat you will store. Yes, obese people often have more fat cells on average, though this is somewhat determined by genetics, overall body mass, as well as how long you have been obese. The OP is correct in that you can grow new fat cells if you exceed the capacity of your existing adipocytes to store lipids. What's not correct is that this somehow makes it more likely that you'll gain weight if you overeat. If you overeat, you'll gain weight regardless. This is factually wrong. Yes, being cold does require your metabolism to work harder to keep you warm. Studies have shown that on average, if you were to exercise in a very cold environment vs. a warm one, you can burn as much as 30% more calories when subjected to cold. Keep in mind that this effect only occurs when you are exposed to cold however. Let's take a simple example to illustrate how little of a difference this makes: Let's say your basal metabolic rate is 2000 calories. If you burn 30% additional calories in a 15 minute session of shivering as the OP suggested, that means you'd burn about 21 extra calories. (2000 calories divided by 24 hours is about 83 calories. That times 30% equals about 25. Divide 25 by 4 since it's 15 minutes of shivering and you get about 6. So if you take the OP's advice, you'd burn about 6 extra calories for your 15 minutes of shivering. Now if you actually workout (rather than just sit), in a cold environment, you can certainly increase the calories burned, but again, it's limited. I hope you see that this is not a good way to actually lose weight. Plus, we should be exercising for other reasons like to improve our cardiovascular health. Shivering won't do anything for that. If you want to know the real way to exercise for weight loss, you need to do strength training. Why? Because as you strength train, you also increase your basal metabolism. In other words, you burn more calories even when you're not working out.

I had very little actual "pain" from the carbon dioxide. I'd classify it more as "discomfort"? I just took tylenol as far as pain meds and was fine. (I didn't even take all the tylenol I was prescribed.) Also, as has been said here already, walking really helps, so I was walking multiple times a day. I think compared to the many other surgeries I've had, this one was actually one of the least painful.

I think it's normal to be worried. I've had over 15 surgeries now; some major and some minor. I was worried about all of them. While worry is normal, being paralyzed by fear is not. The truth is we as humans are really bad at understanding risk. if you look at that data, we are many, many times more likely to die or have life altering complications from being obese, than we are from WLS. In fact statistically, WLS is even safer than things like gall bladder removal surgery.

I know a lot of folks from Europe go to Turkey. I think it's even cheaper than MX, though travel costs from the US may eat up the difference?

Another good choice might be the bariatricpal vitamins? I don't have any personal experience with them, but the specs were almost identical to the Procare Health capsules and the bariatricpal ones are less expensive.

I do the Procare Health one-a-day capsule with 45mg of Iron. I have no issues taking large pills, but if you do, you might have to open it and put it in Yogurt or something. They also make a twice a day capsule that I assume is smaller if that's what you need? I looked at the specs on eight different bariatric vitamins and felt like the Procare Health capsule was the best. (It was also the ones my team recommended.)

Weighing daily would drive me nuts! I do once a week right now, but was already thinking I may go to once a month.

You may want to spend a least a few weeks tracking exactly what you're eating. Most people find they eat a lot more than they think.

Honestly, this doesn't make sense to me in your case? Saxenda is an appetite suppressant. Unless you're hungry and overeating (which you said you're not), Saxenda won't do a thing?

I'm a bit confused? Can you help me understand if you're concerned about your calories being too low or too high? My plan does not have any mention of calorie goals at all, at any stage, so I'm not sure what you're shooting for.

I'm open to learning if you can help me understand how and why this is "misogynistic language"? I was specifically responding to the OP that said:

As long as you chew well, I don't think it will hurt you. Best to know if it's a texture thing, then you can talk to your team about it.

Could be? Maybe try regular non-pureed tuna and see how it goes?

I'm really just grasping for straws here, but maybe look for patterns? Like amount of fat or carbs, types of food, etc. I know that some people really struggle with certain foods, but tolerate others just fine.

You're not eating too much, are you? Maybe cut in half whatever you're eating and see how that goes?

This is definitely a difficult situation. First some background for you. I think there are generally three reasons we have the staged diet that we do: To protect our healing stomachs. Not only are the stomach tissues massively inflamed and need to heal, but they also don't yet work the way a normal stomach works. Eating things that are off plan can even cause a blockage. That could lead to yet another procedure. Now the fact that he tolerated these foods so well may mean he's probably healing well, but it does not alleviate the risk of blockage this early on. To ease us into eating restricted portion sizes. Even if we can eat bacon & eggs, doesn't mean we should. The entire point of surgery was to cause restriction, malabsorption, and hormonal changes to help us learn how to eat properly. If he deviates once, that's one thing, but if this becomes his new norm, he's going down a path that will lead to weight regain. I don't know about him, but I didn't go through all this to fail. To make sure we are maximizing protein utilization. Our protein forward diet was designed to allow us to keep as much muscle mass as we can while losing weight. Insufficient protein can cause our bodies to actually burn muscle instead of fat. This will cause a reduction in our metabolisms, which will make it that much harder to lose weight. Yes, what we ate had a good amount of protein in it, but it also had a fair amount of fat. While some fat is needed in our diet, excess fat may cause him to lose more slowly or fail to get enough protein. My advice here is that you should have an open and honest conversation with him. Simply express to him you're concerns. Also, let him know you will help in any way you can. Also, I agree with @The Greater Fool. "Telling on him" with his nutritionist would be the wrong approach. Hopefully he can have an open and honest conversation with them about the fact that the went off plan and seek their help for the issue. Afterall, there's a reason this happened and his team should be able to help. Ultimately, it's going to be up to him to decide if he's going to go back on plan or not. Just be there for him and be supportive, but don't nag. Nagging will just make it worse.

Not during the day since I'm constantly sipping water. At night I'm actually woken up in the middle of the night with severe dry mouth. Not sure yet if that's because I'm mouth breathing, or if something else is going on? I do know I'm a lot more congested that I used to be, so that might account for the mouth breathing.

Started everything week after 1 week.

I'm able to take all my meds whole, even the large ones. Some people can't however. For those, cutting them in half might work. Note that some meds you should NEVER crush or cut. Any meds that are designed to be released slowly shouldn't be cut or crushed. These are typically labeled things like ER, XR, or SR. if in doubt, talk to your doctor or pharmacist.

My guess is you're progressing a bit too fast and/or eating too much. You might try something simpler like a TBS of yogurt and see how you do, Scrambled eggs are notoriously difficult for people at first and the Ricotta Bake might also be a bit much for only 9 days post surgery. For comparison, some plans have you on full liquids for 2 weeks post surgery.

I hear you. When I started walking right after surgery, all I could manage was about 10 minutes. Now I'm up to two 20 minute walks a day. (My surgery was 9/20.) Interestingly, the more I do, the more I feel like I can do. You may just have to push through the tired feeling?

All right, I know as a guy, I have no experience with PCOS, but I wanted to comment on your statement here. It would be physiologically impossible for you to have gained 9 pounds of fat in 9 days if you're following you plan. Since inflammation is a common side effect of PCOS, and water retention is correlated with inflammation, I'm guessing you're just retaining water. I hope you find some relief from you symptoms as you continue to lose. I know it sucks right now, but I'm convinced you will continue to lose weight in the long run. Think of this as just another stall.

I'm super jealous. I moved on to "pureed", foods, but it's just Cottage Cheese, Ricotta Cheese, and Yogurt only until my 2 week appointment. Only after that am I allowed to move to things like beans, chicken, tuna, etc. I can't even do the ricotta bake until then (I asked).