SpartanMaker

I tried that with the Fairlife Chocolate and it was rock-hard. No eating that thing!

@BigSue Well said. @Nepenthe44 You do you. You stated that you know what you need to do, and this was just a rant. So be it. I wish you all the success in the world, but with your adversarial approach and unwillingness to at least try what's being asked of you, I'm concerned you're headed for a really hard time. Whether that's self-inflicted of not, is for you to determine.

Please don't take this the wrong way, but if there's one thing you'll here on this site perhaps more than any other it's this: don't compare yourself to others. There's nothing good that can come of it. Even if you found someone that was your exact same starting weight, height, and even had surgery the same day, there are still way too many other variables that could impact your progression. Just some examples: age, physical fitness, %body fat, basal metabolism, diet, bougie size, surgical complications, etc. Honestly, it sounds like you're doing fine. If you're not happy with your loss so far, talk with your bariatric team. They may have suggestions for you such as increasing the amount and type of exercise and/or changes to your diet. Best of luck!

Never heard of it, but this sounds like a question for your doctor?

The reality is, the science is far from settled on almost everything regarding diet, especially when it comes to bariatric surgery patients. I'm going to suggest the one thing no one has yet: Be compliant. Unless they were proposing something that was literally harmful (it doesn't sound like they are), it won't hurt you to let go of your biases and trust the process. The vast majority of the dietary changes proposed by these bariatric teams is based on their real-world experience with what works and what does not for the the average patient. Sure, some of what they are proposing may seem odd or wrong to you, but does it really matter? You won't die from it, and might even benefit. As a scientist, open your mind to trying something new and testing out what they have proposed.

Seems pretty unlikely to have been the surgery, but a medication side effect, or new allergy is definitely possible. Would recommend reviewing all your meds with the primary care doctor, as well as seeing an allergist.

Did your surgeon not give you a plan? As we've seen here repeatedly, doctor's have their own ideas about you you should be eating when. They should be your first source for what you should be doing right now.

Everyone above is right, lot's of reasons your weight might fluctuate. There's one reason I can guarantee you it's NOT. That you gained fat. While this is a bit of an oversimplification, you would have needed to eat 3500 calories more that you burned in the last week to gain just 1 pound of fat. Since at 3 weeks, you're probably not even eating 3500 calories in a week, I's a safe bet that whatever else is causing your overall weight to fluctuate, it's not that you added fat.

Certainly no experience here since I just had surgery, but I'll provide my perspective. 😁 For me, I could care less what the number is on the scale. I did this to feel healthy again and not be ashamed of my weight. I don't want to travel and see the disappointment and disgust on my seat-mates when they see the fat guy is sitting next to them. I want kids to be proud of me, not ashamed. I want my wife to get her "knight in shining armor" back that she had all those years ago. I want to feel "normal" in public, (whatever that is), instead of like a pariah. I want to be able to go to places I always wanted to go but couldn't because of my lack of physical fitness. I want to feel strong and powerful again. I probably could go on and on, but my point is I'll know I'm "done" when I look and feel healthy again. Whether that's at 220, 170, or somewhere inbetween, it really does not matter.

Awesome, congrats!

Well, don't use me as the standard, but it took me almost 3 years from initial consult to surgery. I know some people, especially those that are self-pay, have done it in less than a month. Think of the delays as YOUR time to get mentally prepared. The surgery will help, but what it really takes to be successful is changing the way you eat. Especially if you have an eating disorder, this can be the hardest part.

I'm thinking there are some scale issues here as well. Any individual scale tends to be fairly consistent, but they can vary widely in terms of accuracy. This means I could weigh on one scale, step off that onto another, and weigh a lot more. I even saw this very thing at my surgeon's office. They have a very large scale that will weigh up to 1200 pounds, as well as an InBody BIA scale. The big scale said I weigh 8 pounds more than the InBody scale. My point is if these were all different scales that you weighed on, you can't rely on them to be accurate. Pick one scale and use it (most likely one you have at home?). Best to ignore the rest.

I was thinking the same thing. Best of luck to you both.

Welcome! Not that many folks here with the mini-sleeve. Hope it works well for you!

Glad you're also doing well! (And glad to know I'm not the only one after hearing all the horror stories here.) Please let me know what your doctor says? I don't have a follow-up until 2 weeks after and would be curious to know what they say, as I'm in the same boat in terms of what I can eat. I suspect since it's liquid, it's flowing right out of the pouch into the small intestines, but I'm thinking real food won't do that. Tomorrow is my first day on purees, so have not had a chance to find out yet how anything will feel other than liquids.

I assume you mean having to do things like the psyc eval and dietitian visits? These are for your benefit. I'm sure you don't want to go through the pain of surgery and all the dietary restrictions only to end up right back where you started from? Keep in mind that WLS is a tool than can help you, but YOU still have to put in the work. It's important you you're screened and potentially treated for eating disorders, as well as learn how to eat healthfully for life. You can't go back to eating poorly post-surgery and expect to maintain a healthy weight. The steps you have to go through are designed to help you be successful for life.

I'm wondering if I'm the oddball here? I keep hearing about all the challenges everyone's having and this almost feels too easy to me. I'm one week post surgery and I've had very little pain and no nausea at all. I'm easily able to get in all my fluids and protein and then some. I've not developed any aversions to anything, so have been fine with the fairlife protein shakes and a bit of bone broth to mix it up a bit. I do have lower energy than I'd like, but that's to be expected as I heal. Evenso, I still have been able to get in 30-40 minutes of walking a day. I think the only sub-optimal thing I've experienced is a few dizzy spells (maybe once a day). I can't tell for sure at this point if it's hypotension, but that's what I suspect. Since it just happens in passing, by the time I check my BP, it's in the normal range, with my diastolic borderline low (60-62). I'm honestly waiting for the the bomb to drop. If something can go wrong medically, I'm typically the poster child.

This 100%. End of story. @strawberryga Sorry you had such a tough road. To me it sounds like the real issue was not the surgery, but frankly that you were/are not mentally ready to move away from your poor eating habits and find a healthier path. I might suggest therapy to address why you felt the need to eat things you know you should not be eating. Expecting WLS to fix the space between your ears will never work. Sorry for the bluntness, but it feels to me like you need some tough love at this point. I do hope you find the help you need.

You wouldn't have blood in your urine or stool if you had a blood clot. What doctors are worried about is something called Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT), which is a clot that occurs in a deep vein, typically in your legs. If this clot moves into your lungs, it's called pulmonary embolism (PE), which can be life threatening. Note that this risk is not unique to bariatric surgery. It's possible after most major surgeries, but surgeries on the legs or abdomen have a higher risk of DVT. Interestingly, like @catwoman7, I also did not receive a new prescription medicine to manage this risk. In my case, I was already taking a low dose aspirin. Recent studies have shown that LD aspirin is as effective as other blood thinners to prevent DVT post surgery. FYI, walking also helps prevent DVT, so don't skip on any walking your team has prescribed.

Since you're still in the investigatory stage, something for you to think about is are YOU really ready? Your concerns about how to feed your family are legitimate, but IMO you need to get control of your own eating whether or not you have weight loss surgery. Keep in mind that WLS is just a tool. You still have to put in the work. There are plenty of people that regain after WLS and the main reasons center around not eating healthy foods and lack of exercise. My point is I STRONGLY recommend improving your diet before WLS. Trying to completely change your diet after surgery just makes the entire process a lot harder. Prove to yourself that you can consistently provide healthy meals to yourself and your family and only then have WLS to give you a tool to help you reach your goals. It's been said a thousand times, but losing weight is a mental game, not a physical one. I strongly recommend you start working on the mental part now. So many of us have unhealthy relationships with food. Now is that time to address that, not after surgery. Best of luck in your journey.

I would recommend not comparing yourself to others on here. Everyone has different starting weights, different levels of muscle mass, can do different amounts of exercise, have different basal metabolic rates, etc. 26 pounds is a lot! As long as you're following your plan you'll be successful, even if it's slower than you were expecting.

Once you get to later stages, your plan should allow apple sauce. If that helps get the pills down, I'd think it would be fine. My problem isn't that they are hard to swallow, it's that my team wants me to take them one at a time, then wait 10 minutes between pills. I take over 20 pills a day right now. As to vitamins, it sort of depends on which ones you use. I'm using the ProCare Health one-a-day with Iron right now. It runs about $15 before shipping. There are some that are less expensive and some that are more. You'll also need calcium supplements, and most folks choose the calcium citrate chews with vitamin D3. Those run about $30-$35 a month.

Eventually you should be able to have salads again, but just less. Raw veggies are definitely going to be later in your plan, so it may be several months before you're actually able to eat salads. Also keep in mind that sweet dressings may not be tolerated well, so keep an eye on the sugar content.

58 here. As you know, the older we get, the longer it takes to heal. This is major surgery, so give yourself some grace and just know it's going to take a while before you feel good. I also told my wife to expect that I'm going to have buyers remorse (at least early on), so her job is to remind me why I did it. As you pointed out, the liquid portion of the diet can be challenging. The vitamin regimen isn't that big a deal for me. A bigger challenge right now is just how hard it is to take all my meds. I admit I'm on a lot of medications, but it's going to take me 2.5-3 hours a day to take everything. That should get better soon, at least I hope. I should be able to drop some of the meds, and it should get easier to take more at once like I used to.

For premixed Protein drinks, I'm a fan of Fairlife Nutrition Plan Chocolate. Out of the calcium chewables, I'd rate Celebrate at the top, along with Bariatric Advantage. Bariatric Pal has their own branded ones and those are not bad, just not a good as two above. The worst ones in my opinion are the pro care brand. Some people must like them, but I found them to be so bad I threw them away.