NickelChip

The concern I would have (though I am not a dietician) is that slim fast bars and protein shakes are more "food-like substances" than actual food. Processed foods, even "diet" ones, can cause metabolism issues, and this feels almost punishing. Maybe you could try to find more satisfying, healthier options? You might try scrambling 2 eggs blended with some cottage cheese and a big handful of frozen chopped spinach for breakfast with a small serving of fruit, and a big salad of mixed veg topped with rotisserie chicken, black beans, and fresh salsa for lunch. Make sure the meat or chicken is being served with plenty of non-starchy veg, too. And don't ignore a good night's sleep and plenty of hydration. If you take prescription meds, check if any of them have weight gain as a side effect. I do agree that surgery is most likely going to be needed as soon as you can get it sorted because losing and maintaining that amount of weight is almost impossible without the metabolic changes that come with surgery.

Every program is different, so you need to reach out to your surgeon's office for their rules. I was allowed tomato soup and I added unflavored Syntrax Nectar Medical protein powder. I also enjoyed the Bariatric Fusion chicken soup flavored "shake". Celebrate makes one, too, and Unjury has a really nice beef one. A warning, though. I didn't like them at all a few days post-surgery as they tasted like chemicals to me. But pre-op, they were a godsend.

The more I read up on nutrition, the more I'm becoming convinced that calorie restriction is not the way to approach weight loss. It actually sets us up for failure and yo-yo dieting. You need to reset your metabolic set point by choosing the right foods and listening to your body for signs of when to stop eating as opposed to counting numbers. When I reached my highest weight last summer, I found the Pound of Cure book by Dr. Matthew Weiner, and this greatly changed my thinking. I started following his program and lost 13lbs slowly and steadily, and without counting a single calorie or macro. Of course, surgery has helped tremendously, but the months I was just following Pound of Cure guidelines, I never felt hungry or deprived. His YouTube channel has hundreds of videos to help get you started. The book is really cheap on Amazon, and there are no soecial products or supplements you have to buy. Just healthy, real food. Anyway, my advice would be to start there and see if it helps.

Traveling is hard. I used to travel a lot for work and by the end of a week of restaurant meals, I would be craving fruit and veg so much because I could never seem to get enough of that. I have found ordering simple chicken dishes in restaurants with a veg side and skipping the starch has been the best way to get something well-balanced when away from home, and that won't upset my stomach. Can you stop at a grocery store to get Greek or Icelandic yogurt and fresh berries when on the road? I'm not sure how common it is to have a small refrigerator in your hotel room in the places you're going, but a serving of unsweetened yogurt with fruit and a sprinkle of sliced almonds is a great start to the day that requires no cooking or blending. You could also try raw veg and hummus (if you are able to tolerate raw veg). Does your job require going out to dinner with clients? If not, you might see if you can travel with a small electric hot pot to heat your own meals in your hotel room. Maybe bring small containers of your favorite spices to make simple go-to meals on the road. A few times I recall staying in hotels that had true kitchens and being able to buy groceries when I arrived. That was such a relief. It's funny that when you start traveling for work, you think it will be such a treat to go out to eat all the time, and after you do it for a while, it's not fun at all. Congratulations on making it 12 weeks with no alcohol! That's a great accomplishment. I had a single sip of a friend's cocktail this weekend and I have to say, it didn't taste good to me anymore. Maybe it was just a bad cocktail, but hopefully my tastebuds have changed for that. Sadly, I was not cured of my sweet tooth from the surgery. It was such a disappointment when chocolate was just as delicious as before.

From the research I've done, your lifelong maintenance is less about counting calories and more about eating mindfully while choosing nutrient dense, natural foods. This is one of the best videos I have watched on the subject:

It may seem counterintuitive, but you may actually need more calories. At least, I've read that many times in other threads. Make sure you are feeling satisfied when you eat and not cutting back on calories just to keep them low if you still feel you need more. I know that as time goes on, we're supposed to be in the 1000-1200 range, and that sometimes our bodies can slow the weight loss if we feel we are facing starvation. Check with your dietician about that if you can. Having said that, I think expectations for how fast we will lose are sometimes skewed by results from outliers, either those who lose very fast or those who start at very high weights. I've lost 48 lbs since I started this journey, but only 22 lbs of it is post-surgery. Basically, yeah, I think just keep doing what you're doing and trust the process.

@BlueParis Excellent job on the daily steps! I'm happy to say the scale finally shifted today to 203.0, so I can officially say I am halfway between my highest weight (which was last summer) and my goal weight. 48lbs lost and 48lbs to go! This is also now officially the lowest weight I've been in over 20 years. I bobbed above 200 lbs a few times in my 20s, but mostly was steady at around 190-195lbs, until I started dating my (soon to be ex) husband. I was 28 at the time, and we went out to a lot of restaurants, ordering starters, desserts, and cocktails along with meals. By the time my 29th birthday rolled around, I was over 200lbs and I never saw the 190s again. I kind of feel like all of these pounds I've lost so far are like symbolically shedding the bad years I went through in my 30s and 40s and getting back to being myself and reclaiming my life as I start a new decade.

WOW!!!!! That is such a fantastic milestone to hit, and you look amazing! What an incredible transformation. I hope you're really proud of how far you've come!

I take my multi first thing in the morning with breakfast at 7am and then take calcium at 10, 2, and 6 (I take two calcium chews and a calcium chocolate for "dessert").

Honestly, I personally find protein snacks and the like very gimmicky. I don't buy anything like that. A protein chip is still a chip, and the "health halo" of the added protein doesn't make it healthy. For the most part, I don't eat packaged foods or snack foods. If I need protein between meals, I go with a protein shake or eat something natural like nuts or cheese. But my program discourages snacking.

There is a Scandinavian study on NSAID use in both sleeve and bypass patients. It was a longitudinal study that looked at records for patients who had been prescribed NSAIDs after these surgeries and compared subsequent ulcer formation to that of the general non-bariatric population with a history of NSAID use. For sleeve patients, there was no greater risk of ulcers than for non-bariatric patients, even when prescribed for regular use of 30+ days. For bypass patients, there was no greater incidence of ulcers if NSAIDs were taken for less than 30 days, but there was a measurable increased risk when prescribed for 30+ days. You might ask your doctor what they think about this study (which they may or may not have read). There seems to be an extreme amount of caution in the recommendations compared to the actual risk established in this study. And while the risk increased in bypass patients with chronic NSAID use, it's worth noting only a small percentage of those patients actually developed ulcers. Do with this information what you will.

@RonHall908 Wow, what a difference in your face! That is just a night and day transformation. Well done! I've pretty much been stalled the past couple of weeks. Down 1/2 lb, up 1/2 lb. Infuriating. An interesting thing to note is that I'm right at the weight I managed to hit about 7 years ago during my last really serious successful attempt at weight loss. Going back over my records, the lowest I hit was 203.8 after about 9 months of nutrition counseling and regular daily exercise. After that, it was a long plateau and a slow and steady climb back up. Lo and behold, I am at 203.8 again. It makes me wonder if my body has some reason it wants to stall out at this weight, which hopefully the surgery will eventually win out over. Or the universe just wants to mess with me because I'm an ounce away from lowest weight in over 20 years, 1 lb away from my half-way weight loss goal milestone, and 3.9 lbs away from onederland. So what a great time to stall and stew! I almost kicked my scale this morning.

I had a nice trip to Nantucket for the Daffodil festival this weekend. Lots of meals out. I had chicken teriyaki, poached eggs and kielbasa, smoked bluefish pate, mozzarella and beet salad, and scallops with bacon among other things. Got in lots of walking. Weight was unchanged this morning, but I'm curious if that is a mix of not enough water and too much salt from so many restaurant meals. So we'll see what a couple days of regular routine does for me. I'm grateful I have had no issues with foods for almost 2 weeks now. Hoping that means my stomach is finally healing properly.

A food diary is a good idea. I hate doing them but I've been keeping one since my preop diet and will probably continue for a few more months until I really feel like I've got a good routine and no issues with hitting all the goals. I'm feeling pretty much back to normal, no issues with food in more than a week. What kind of pain are you experiencing?

This one took a little more math since they give you pounds lost instead of what weight you will be, but I liked that I could see it month my month. The funny thing is the risk calculator one is more aggressive/optimistic in terms of my weight loss. The Mexico one says I'll be 195 at 3 months but the Risk one says 5lbs lower. Oh well, as everyone says, this is just an average, no matter which calculator you look at. But I do find it helpful to have an idea of what to expect. It keeps me realistic.

Took my 2 month post-op photo today. Subtle changes between now and the 1 month post-op photo.

If all you're having for breakfast is a protein cold brew, that won't stick with you for long. I have a smoothie in the mornings and it packs a good nutritional punch. I recall even from before surgery that a smoothie would keep me going until lunch. My new go-to, after some trial and error, is 150g frozen fruit, 30g baby spinach, 1tsp each of hemp seed, chia, flax, and raw sunflower seeds, 100g drained and rinsed canned beans (cannellini, white beans, black beans, chickpeas will all work), plus 2 scoops unflavored protein (20g), a scoop of beetroot powder and a scoop of Benefiber. I fill with as much water as my 20oz blender cup will hold. I add a squeeze of the bottled grated ginger to kind of mask the bean flavor, and I blend the heck out of it with a Vitamix so it's really smooth. It's about 360 calories, 30g protein, and has 16g fiber (11 from ingredients, 5 from Benefiber). It takes me about 45 minutes to drink it at 9 weeks post-op.

It can vary widely. At my first program, they ran CBC, metabolic, thyroid, vitamin D, A1c, and a few others. But I switched to a different program, one within the same hospital system in fact, and the doctor ordered so many tests that even after combining a few that could run together, they had to take 16 vials of blood! The lab had a policy of no more than 12 vials per day, so I had to go back for the rest.

Using my day of surgery weight, the calculator suggests I'll be 195lbs at 3 months. I'm 204.4 today, but assuming this blasted week-long stall breaks soon, it seems likely I'll be somewhere around there in another 26 days. It tells me to expect 178lbs at 3 months and 158lbs at a year, with a low of 151lbs at 18 months. I would be pleased as punch with that if it happens! That would be exactly 100lbs down from my highest weight, which seems unreal.

This is the best time to start good habits for the future. You probably won't feel hungry for a while, but you will need to eat regularly anyway. Without the distraction of hunger, you can make deliberate choices. Right now, you should have a schedule from your surgeon's office or dietician that tells you what you can eat, how much, and when. Try to follow that as you get used to your body's new cues. If you need more detail, you can check out bariatric cookbooks, but choose ones written by doctors and registered dietitians who specialize in bariatrics. It's a good time to slowly try out new recipes and retrain yourself for small portions.

From what I've been reading and a video from Dr. John Pilcher I recently watched, it's definitely normal. You usually lose the most in your first 3 months, around 1/2 the weight you're going to lose. After doing some poking around to clarify, it seems that number is calculated using your day of surgery weight. Between 3 and 6 months, you continue losing at 1-2 lbs a week, and this slows to maybe just a few pounds per month between 6 months and a year. So, let's say you lost 50lbs in the first 3 months, it's going to take you 9 months to lose the other 50lbs, but you most likely will lose it as long as you keep doing the right things.

No, but I did cut back on the amount of seeds (too much fat) and put drained and rinsed white beans this morning. It's definitely a work in progress to figure out what to eat. The bean taste was subtle so I think I will get used to it, and I may add some ginger to cover it. Frustrated to be on day 6 of a stall. My doctor told me I needed to increase my activity level, so I've been going on an hourlong walk and hitting 10k steps or more every day for the past...yep, precisely 6 days. Wondering if there's a correlation, like the extra activity made my body temporarily panic. I'm just trying to ignore it and carry on. The good news is I've had a lot fewer issues with stomach sensitivity this week, so I'm feeling brave enough to try some new recipes and incorporate more veggies.