Raevor85

Hello everyone its been a while since ive been on here. If you want to check out my previous posts you will see i had quite a few struggles and bouts of depression because of those struggles. But since then things have gotten a lot better. I started the program itself at a weight of 395. I had my sleeve done on 01/18/2024 (i was 367 on that day) and my current weight as of today is 294. Im just wondering if i am losing the way i should be at this point. Ive tried a few online calculators but they just confused me lol. I know for a fact im not getting all of my protein like i should be or water intake because i just get full so fast! (not that im complaining TOO much but it is annoying when something is good lol). I always take my vitamins and such thankfully ive never missed a beat on that. I have my gym membership but i havent been going as much as i should be i get in maybe 2 times a month but i will pick back up on that. Im not just sitting around the house though i have 3 kids and a spouse so relaxing isnt possible until bedtime LOL. Anyway i just wanted to know what you all think of my weight loss so far, and if you think the loss ive gotten at this point is on track. I meet with my 6 month check in next month of course but just wondering until then.

Not unhappy no it just seemed to not be shedding the lbs like before which I knew would happen eventually but I just wanted to be sure the rate I'm going is still good. I guess as long as I'm not gaining I won't stress too much. And I'll definitely do better with the protein and water from now on.

I agree with the others - we're all different, and several factors play into your rate of weight loss (most of which you have little to no control over), but that said, that sounds like a terrific rate of loss! You're losing it much faster than I did.

I put my surgery day weight in my stats instead of my highest weight because I wanted to track what I was losing since the actual surgery. But if you look at my signature, you can see what my numbers were, and they weren't pretty by any means.
Everyone loses at a different weight. It depends on what we have going on with our bodies. It took me 2 years to lose 200 pounds. Some on here have lost more than that in that same time. Some have lost a lot less. We can't compare ourselves to anyone else.
HAVING SAID THAT..... you lost, from your surgery date, 367 pounds - 294 pounds = 73 pounds lost. In 4 1/2 months. That's an average loss of roughly 16.5 pounds per month, or just a hair over 4 pounds per week.
For reference, I lost 79 pounds by 5 months out. So you're very close to where I was. Don't lose hope or feel discouraged. You're doing well. Maybe try hitting the gym once a week and also going for a nice long walk once a week. You'll see the extra movement really helps a lot, too. Stick to your protein first, then veggies, then carbs, then healthy fats and you'll also do well. If you can't get the protein and fluids in at the amount you need, do your best. Supplement with a protein shake for now, on top of the rest of your foods because that counts for both.

There isn’t really a hard & fast rule about how much weight you will lose at certain points along the way. The calculators, advice from your surgeon, dietician, etc. are all based on averages so not what you WILL lose but what you MIGHT lose.
At about 5 months you’ve lost 63lbs (plus the 40lbs before your surgery). It took me about 6 months to lose 60lbs & I lost at a pretty good rate. Yes, I started at a lower weight than you & we say, the more you have to lose the faster you’ll lose in the beginning, yet again this is a generalisation based on averages. I’d say you’re doing well - congratulations! My test always was what did my surgeon say. If he was happy I was happy. (My dietician to a lesser extent.) What does your surgeon say about your weight loss to date?
Focus on getting in your protein. It’s essential as is getting in your fluids. It will help you get the most from your surgery. Eat your protein first, then your vegetables & if you are able any multi/whole grains you are allowed. This helps ensure you hit your protein goal. In the first months it wasn’t unusual for me to just to eat my protein & nothing else for a meal. Drink all day - in the car, out doing chores at the shops, etc. I found drinking through the night helpful too - still do.
Enjoy every one of those pounds you’ve lost. Remember there’s no time line for when you have to have lost all your weight. You’ll get there in your time & there’s only right in that.

Hello everyone its been a while since ive been on here. If you want to check out my previous posts you will see i had quite a few struggles and bouts of depression because of those struggles. But since then things have gotten a lot better. I started the program itself at a weight of 395. I had my sleeve done on 01/18/2024 (i was 367 on that day) and my current weight as of today is 294. Im just wondering if i am losing the way i should be at this point. Ive tried a few online calculators but they just confused me lol. I know for a fact im not getting all of my protein like i should be or water intake because i just get full so fast! (not that im complaining TOO much but it is annoying when something is good lol). I always take my vitamins and such thankfully ive never missed a beat on that. I have my gym membership but i havent been going as much as i should be i get in maybe 2 times a month but i will pick back up on that. Im not just sitting around the house though i have 3 kids and a spouse so relaxing isnt possible until bedtime LOL. Anyway i just wanted to know what you all think of my weight loss so far, and if you think the loss ive gotten at this point is on track. I meet with my 6 month check in next month of course but just wondering until then.

So i promised i would continue posting after surgery. My first post to the site was during my liquid diet. I had surgery on the morning of the 18th. Everything was going smoothly. When i woke up from surgery thats when all hell broke loose. My stomach felt like it was literally on fire im screaming and crying for help, pain medicine, etc. I blacked out after that or they gave me a sedative one or the other. I swear the pain of it felt worse than childbirth and i could never imagine anything more painful that until that day. I ended up staying 2 nights ( wouldve been 3 if i didnt choke down water) im home now and although the pain isnt as bad as the first day its still bad. This is day 2 going on 3 ill post again soon.

Omg thats good its not just me doing this lol i just couldnt find a way to take them all at once without gagging. Breaking them up is definitely better for me too.

I split my vitamins & meds across the day. One multi, my PPI & vit D in the AM & the second multi & HRT in the PM. Didn’t hurt me or affect my blood work. As long as you’re taking them. Routines are essential.

Thank you all for suggestions i tried them earlier today and so far so good! Im over the moon happy. I know i will have to use every ounce of patience i have to make it through this stage and remember when they say baby steps that phrase is literal lol.

Thank you all for suggestions i tried them earlier today and so far so good! Im over the moon happy. I know i will have to use every ounce of patience i have to make it through this stage and remember when they say baby steps that phrase is literal lol.

In preparation for post-surgery, I recently bought a set of vintage cocktail forks and demitasse spoons to help keep my bites the size my doctor wants. I happen to love vintage china and went through my collection to find suitably small salad plates and bowls to use, too. I took a photo with the new plates and utensils with my "standard size" items (dinner plate, dinner fork and teaspoon) for comparison. (The bowl is a fruit bowl and holds about 1/2 c)

Yep, baby spoons or teaspoons. I used to sort of just dip my teaspoon in - nowhere near a spoonful. Think of the teeny taste a child will take of a food they don’t like or have never had before & think they won’t like.
Your purées may be too thick for your healing tummy to tolerate yet. Try adding more liquid (water, stock, gravy, milk, etc.) & thin it down to a thick pouring consistency like custard or thinner for a while & see how you go. All because your plan or doctor says to move to the next stage, sometimes your body just isn’t healed enough to move on. It’s not uncommon for people to step back to the previous stage for a couple more days. We all heal at different rates.
Keep it slow. Leave minutes between bites. Don’t be surprised if it takes 20 or more minutes to eat that 1/4 cup. And if you can’t eat it all, that’s okay too. It will get easier.
A lot if this may sound like a bit of a faff but there is a lot of good learnings in these seemingly strange behaviours we’re asked to follow. For example taking small bites helps you to appreciate & think about what you’re eating. It takes a good 20 minutes for your full signal to get through to your head. Eating slowly helps to make sure you’re not eating to excess. So the message you’ve had enough gets through before you’ve eaten way more than you actually need & aren’t ever at the OMG I’m stuffed stage. It helps you to reassess & avoid that mindless shoveling in of mouthful after mouthful of food in a short period of time.

Homemade purees should be completely smooth, like yogurt or pudding. No bits, no lumps, no bumps.
I was advised to take bites no bigger than my thumbnail and yes, use a baby spoon! Most of us use smaller utensils, at least at the beginning. Even with bites that small, and even though it is pureed, you should chew it just to ensure it is smooth before swallowing. Then set down your spoon/fork and give it time to work its way down.
The advice to eat a 1/4 cup is the MAX you should do, NOT the minimum. Most of us could only do a few tablespoons of food to begin with, if that. Don't eat more than your tummy can handle. Give food time to move down your throat and into your stomach before you eat more.
Relax, eating should be slow and deliberate. And it should take a lot of time to eat, like 30 minutes or more. Don't drink within 30 minutes of eating. 20 minutes is too soon. Some have to wait a little longer than 30 minutes, it depends on how long you personally need to give digestion to complete and move the food out of your stomach. In the beginning I needed to wait 45 minutes.
For many of us, yogurt was considered a puree, it is a heavier texture than a liquid. So if you can do yogurt without thinning it down, you are doing good! It is fine that it was in your full liquid stage, but it is still good to have in pureed stage.
Try the above suggestions and see if that helps. It really sounds like you are eating too much too fast. Take the amount of time you think is slow and double it! Take the bite you think is small and half it, at least! Your tummy is very brand new, purees are heavier than shakes, it is normal for them to take longer to make it to your stomach, and longer to digest. ❤️ Good luck!!

Do you have a health care portal? I've found sending a message to my doctor through the portal is a good way to go if I have a question. Usually the nurse will respond within 24 hours, and if needed the doctor will give me a call. It might be better to get your concerns addressed that way. I'm sorry you didn't get to meet with your surgeon.

This is terrible. What sort of aftercare is that. Send an email directly to the surgeon if you can listing the questions you have & didn’t receive answers about or didn’t have a chance to ask because you were pushed out the door.
I had good follow up which is why I’m very surprised & disappointed for you at your after care. I saw my surgeon at week 2, 1 month & then the 3rd month. A colleague then took up my follow up appointments. I saw them every three months until my third year. I still see this doctor every 6 months. I don’t know for how much longer though. I guess my next appointment at my 5 year mark will tell.

Thank you, this is helpful. It is definitely not head hunger....I know the difference between that and genuine hunger. I know not to eat anything solid. I'm finding that something a little thicker helps a bit. I'm on Pepcid. Guess I'll really be looking forward to the soft food stage! I'm mostly relieved to find that it's not abnormal!

Congrats on the surgery! Expect the first month to be a roller coaster of emotions, hunger, anger, and a day or two of regret. That's a rite of passage for us, where I think everyone second guesses their decision. By week 5, I finally started getting a better handle on things and I'm still very happy with my decision. 10 weeks out and I'm in better shape than I've been in decades!
As others have said, you feel hungry because you are hungry. Your body is used to the previous amount of eating, and panics when it realizes you're not eating what you used to. Since you were a candidate for surgery, then your body has enough fat cell reserves to live off of that for a few weeks, which is why they have you focus only on water the first two weeks, while working in more protein to prevent you from burning muscle. However, our bodies don't understand that logic and kicks into survival mode. It only understands "food" or "no food".
The first six months is critical to the process because that's when we have the best opportunity to retrain our mind and bodies to adapt. In a sense it is traumatic to our bodies, and it will fight until it understands that this new normal is safe, because that's its job, to keep you alive!
Once you're back to solid foods, that's when recognizing head hunger becomes more important. Around that time (somewhere around weeks 4-6), you'll have worked up to eating enough calories to be sustaining metabolism, while still running enough of a deficit to burn fat. At that point, your body will try to tell you "hey, we're close to the old normal again, go ahead and eat more!". As my therapist reminds me, remember to listen specifically to your stomach, and not your mouth. Practice eating enough to where your stomach feels full, and not pressured from too much, but at the same time, study your habits to see if you're eating to stay busy, to deflect stress (I'm guilty of this), or just because your body thinks you should keep your stomach topped off.
During that period, if you feel like your stomach is craving more, double check what nutrients you are getting. If you're deficient in vitamins or minerals, you will develop insatiable cravings, but your body can't tell you exactly what its missing. It just yells "I'm Hungry!". Check with your doctor on which supplements to add or remove, and also branch out with different styles of food as long as they fit your calories/macros. I felt like I was starving for most of last week, then I got some Korean food (sort of a bibimbap inspired kale and cabbage salad with beef) on Friday, and the cravings stopped. I'm still trying to figure out what itch that scratched, but obviously I was missing something in that!
Also, be very careful with sugar, starches, breads, rice, etc. That can send you into a craving spiral that lasts 2-3 days. Some sugar alcohols like Sorbitol and Xylitol also trigger that for me, while Monk Fruit, Stevia, and Splenda don't. Everyone is different, but pay attention to those ingredients, because that can make the hunger feel worse!

The pull and twist sensation is most likely a stomach spasm. It is one of the rarer side effects of bariatric surgery. I got them too, and mine happened even with water! My surgeon told me they'd go away after a few weeks and sure enough, between weeks 2 and 3 they magically faded out! You have to be veeeeery slow with eating and drinking.
The pain on the inside that feels like your stomach weight is causing it is completely normal. You have a lot of internal sutures and there are anchor stitches to keep things in place, those are often the most painful and take the longest to heal! I couldn't lie on my side for a few weeks without propping up my stomach with a pillow under it because the pulling of my stomach sideways caused intense pain thanks to the anchor stitches. I think it took about a month to 6 weeks for that to fade completely.
Bariatric surgery is not a sprint, it is a marathon. Healing takes time and a generous amount of patience. The more impatient and annoyed you are with your body, the more agitated and anxious you will get. All the things you have described sound fairly normal for 11-12 days out from surgery. I'm sure your surgeon will tell you that at your follow up appointment! Be sure he knows all your concerns. It takes about 3 months for those internal sutures and cut nerves to heal up completely and start sending clearer signals to your brain. But the pain from the incisions and internal stitches should go away within 4-6 weeks. I'm sorry your team didn't explain to you how gradual recovery is and how slow it can feel... You can do this! When you see the scale moving it'll help ease the frustration. LOL

So today was day 11 and my symptoms are still that pull and tug or twist? When im drinking protein shakes or trying watered down soup juice ( cream of chicken thinned out with water then strained ). It feels like something squeezing my insides for a heartbeat then it finishes going down its uncomfortable and makes me NOT want to swallow anything besides water. A few of my incisions are healed up but puffy on the inside ( no pain or anything though ) and a few are painfully hard to ignore when im sitting up a certain way and sometimes when walking. I feel like the weight of my stomach is causing these aches because when i hold my stomach up with my hands pain is gone. Im going to see my surgeon for my 2 week follow up on the 31st so hopefully he can tell me whats wrong if anything. Also i still cannot stop spitting like it has decreased but not gone away completely it is SO annoying you have no idea. And i still get this pain at the roof of my mouth where the bone is right before your throat. Its not as painful as before but it still throbs on and off. I will update when i have news fingers crossed for me.

I wouldnt even worry about it honestly ive read the amount of pounds you lose varies person to person. The most important thing is you are losing something and thats what our surgeon will be looking for aswell ( at least thats what my dietitian told me ). To be able to do this liquid diet at all is a test to ones strength because maaaannnnn there are time when i am tested thats for sure LOL.

I wouldnt even worry about it honestly ive read the amount of pounds you lose varies person to person. The most important thing is you are losing something and thats what our surgeon will be looking for aswell ( at least thats what my dietitian told me ). To be able to do this liquid diet at all is a test to ones strength because maaaannnnn there are time when i am tested thats for sure LOL.

Thanks for that laugh! I still crack up thinking about calling our meals “ feedings”! I’m gonna steal that for sure.

My god 3 more days seems like a lifetime away! Today i had a literal mouthwatering craving for one of my favorite foods. It came out of no where honestly and it took all my will power to tough out that episode. Thankfully it was also close to my next feeding ( thats what i call my "meals" lol ) and that definitely helped kick out that craving from my mind whew! But it was definitely a close one let me tell you. Also had to switch broth flavors because the same old really DOES get old after a while. How is everything going with those of you who are currently in your diets? How did those who have done it feel at this point in yours if you can remember back? Lol.

So im getting ready for bed but thought id post this really fast. I made my boys some frozen pizza and i swear putting it in the oven zero effect. When it was done and i had to cut it up for them my whole WORLD turned upside down. I think that moment was the biggest temptation throughout this liquid diet at this point. I am seriously counting the minutes until the 18th! 6 more days please hurry up LOL