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I am so sorry to hear you're dealing with this @SleeveDiva2022 You know you can't have gained 9lbs of fat in 9 days based on your calorie intake so this has to be water weight and/or a completely overloaded bowel, and/or using different scales, or whatever. Hormones may well have a part to play but, if so, monitor your weight over a complete menstrual cycle (or two or three) and then decide what's going on. I do totally get the despair that a gain like that will induce but I hope it's a temporary blip for you. You have done amazingly well so far. Anyway - long story short - you got this.

So good that you've found this forum - everyone here is so supportive. Sounds like revision is the right thing, particularly given your GERD. And congratulations on your new arrival (maybe not so new now?)!!! My pre-op diet was 2 weeks of 800 calories a day. I could do it whatever way I wanted. What I did was three meal replacement shakes or soups (or whatever) and a small protein and veg meal in the evening. I should say I live in Ireland so it's likely to be different for you. My original surgery date was cancelled the day before I was meant to have it and not re-scheduled for 2 months so I ended up sticking to the 800 calories (give or take) all that time and losing 25lbs. I now view those as pounds I don't have to work hard to lose now, although at the time it was absolutely agonizing waiting for a date!!! I wish you all the best on your weight loss journey. I think your experience with the sleeve and the challenges you faced along the way will really help you get the best out of a bypass.

I also had a completely arbitrary goal of 120 lbs (it was the midpoint of healthy BMI range for my height). I called goal at 127 lbs instead because i felt I was looking too skeletor-ish. Like @Arabesque, i started to increase calories to stop weight loss, and was able to do so about 3-4 months later, but not until I lost a few more pounds and settled into 115. I was 118 even this morning, and i don’t look nearly as skeletal as i did when i was calling a 127 goal (i’m 4 years post op, btw). I basically eat whatever i want (luckily i don’t nor want too eat much anyway) and i dont feel food-deprived in any way nor exercise beyond what my lazy ass is willing to do (lol). But i am way more active than I used to be pre-wls. In a nutshell i can stay at my current weight with little to no effort given my current lifestyle. soooooo this is my long winded way of saying that weight goals are moving targets and that what u want/are satisfied with now may not be what you want/are satisfied with later. If you are satisfied with the efforts you are putting in (or not putting in) to sustain a weight, then, i say Goal Acheived.

Lots of broth, Soft foods like scrambled eggs, Low calories, Minimal sugar

Those on pureed foods, any favorite thing to eat? I'm only on day 3 and I'm loving eating food and never want to look at broth ever again. I am eating the ricotta bake and surprisingly my favorite is fat free refried beans with taco bell sauce on it. I was worried about the hot sauce but so far no issues and all the fiber is wonderful for my constipation issues that are already starting to disappear. I'm eating about 3 oz per meal but I'm eating about 4 times a day. Think my average calories is about 500. So I think I need to increase that but at the same time I'm afraid to because I don't want to stop losing. I'm having a little more trouble getting my protein in because I am only having 1 protein shake a day and I'm not really eating meat still. So I need to work on trying to add protein powder to my food. I'm afraid I won't like the taste though but I won't know until I try. Any tips or tricks for using protein powder in food? I have the isopure unflavored kind.

Sometimes i eat junk. (I am 4 years post op and have been in maintenance for over 3 years and have long ago learned what i can eat without imploding) I haven’t eaten since 2 pm yesterday (i got distracted by errands and then was just too pooped by end of day to do anything but sleep!), so i woke up pretty starving this AM. So when im super hungry, i don’t have the patience to cook something suitable so i just grabbed whatever was laying around. In this case it was a cold piece of bacon, 1/2 a Chinese bbq pork bun and a handful of ketchup chips!! Aside: this is actually a life lesson to have healthy things laying around so u dont end up with a breakfast like this lol. Had I eaten it all, it would’ve been 397 calories. Ended up just eating the cold bacon, the meat filling of the bun and some of the bun that got in the way of the filling lol. Estimated 159 cals for what i ate. (will likely eat the chips later though if someone doesn’t get to it first!)

21 lbs since surgery is awesome! I also had VSG on the 25th and I’m only down 12 since surgery. That includes a random gain after I added in semi-solid food, so I am still up from my lowest. I can tell that I have been retaining water. Not only do I see it, but I could tell with drinking and not going to the bathroom. I have been desperate for answers and what I have read is that you spend most of your first month dehydrated, even if you are getting in fluids. That a portion of the weight loss is water and that sometime during the first month your body makes an adjustment to rebalance fluid levels, causing a stall or gain and that eventually this works itself out. I went for a big jog thinking I would help myself and the next day I was not only sore, but 3+ up on the scale lol Now I’m just trying to drink as much as I can and trying to convince myself that there is no way you can gain fat weight from an average 600 calories a day!

Always remember, we all lose at our own rate. Some are slow losers while others lose more quickly. There’s no right or wrong rate of loss. Sure there are generalisations & averages but you should never use them to judge if you’re failing. It really is impossible to compare your loss in pounds or inches to anyone else. So many factors influence your loss. Body shape, skeletal frame, age, genetics, starting weight, where you carried your weight, general health, genetics, etc. As you lose more weight you’ll notice you’ll drop sizes more quickly. Sizes tend to differ by 2 inches. It takes a loss of more pounds to lose 2 inches around your body when you’re bigger than when you’re smaller. That lose ‘10lbs & drop a dress size’ only applies to people who are pretty much in a healthy body weight range to begin. Took me a good 10/15kg (30lbs) to drop a dress size & a bit when I first started losing. How much exercise you do is really personal. Yes, there are lots of benefits but, for most, exercise only contributes to about 10% of the weight you have to lose. Have 100lbs to lose, exercise will burn 10lbs. I didn’t really exercise at all & I lost all my weight & more. All I do now is some stretching, & use resistance bands. I wouldn’t burn 40 calories. Ha! But that’s me. You’ll get there but in your time.

Re: does it really matter I mean, yes. There are other possible bad outcomes besides literally dying. If the effectiveness of bariatric surgery comes down in large part to microbiomic changes, for example, suggesting that I remove all fiber from my diet until over 6 months post surgery and introducing large amounts of artificial sweeteners into my diet could in fact work against positive changes to the gut microbiome. If my ability to lose weight pre-surgery comes down to emphasising foods that extend satiety (fiber, protein, fat), dramatically reducing my fat and fiber intake before surgery could cause me to overeat or binge eat and my weight loss to stall or reverse. If long term success comes from following one's hunger cues, teaching myself to eat according to the clock they've set, whether I'm hungry or not, in order to meet arbitrary goals could limit my weight loss long term or trigger binge eating again. They're not suggesting I take a spoonful of arsenic at bedtime, but that doesn't mean that their suggestions are neutral. They have no systematic evidence that their program creates success for the average patient or not. (The great part of this sort of program, from the practitioner perspective, is that you can almost always blame poor outcomes on non-compliance.) Some of the program requirements for the pre-surgery diet are literally impossible to follow at the same time. I can't take one or two bean-sized bites per minute, finish meals in less than 30 minutes, and eat 2200+ calories per day without a significant portion of those bites being high fat meats, full fat dairy, or, I dunno, peanut butter straight out of the jar, all of which are verboten. So regardless of what I'm doing now, I'm not compliant. It's not possible to comply fully. (The handwavy answer was "healthy fats". I have no idea how much avocado my dietitian expects me to be able to eat. I suppose technically if I ate just chicken breasts with avocado and nothing else...) I'm also not the average patient anyway (it's probably pretty clear at this point that I'm not neurotypical, for example, I understand that people with regular would either comply or lie without much difficulty either way), so even if their arbitrary program did create success for the average patient for whatever reason that means very little for whether it would work for me. The arbitrariness and the ultimatum annoy me. The fact that I'm being asked to disregard everything I know about how I personally deal with change to adopt a post-surgical style diet (low-fat, regimented, and frequent) half a year before any potential surgery date with an intact GI system, that I'm expected to throw away everything I know about what I need to lose weight, stop binge eating, and have the energy to do intense exercise frightens me. I'm terrified that I'm going to gain weight or relapse into binge eating (thus getting denied for surgery) and I feel like they're pushing me into that direction. All because Typical Tammy deals best with gradually introduced changes over a long time period and simple, unambiguous, authoritative instructions from medical professionals she sees as trustworthy experts? Nah. I mean, I'm sure there are, but this is the only one I have access to. And, ultimately, it doesn't really matter, as long as I can jump through their stupid little hoops, I can get what I need from them. It's just.... a long and irritating process of circus training. I'm not really looking for advice or anything, I understand the options and am resigned to them, this is a rant and rave.

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.

How much is it going up? The reality is weight loss is never a straight downward line. It zigs & zags & goes up & down. A gain could be fluid retention (as you said you have), constipation, hormonal fluctuations, your usual weight fluctuation, etc. as long as your general trend is downwards your doing fine. Do you weigh less today then you did three weeks ago? And yes stalls happen. The first often around week three ( yes, I did say first) & they can last 1-3 weeks. They are just your body shutting down (needing a break) in response to the stress of all the changes (to your diet, reduced calories, surgery, weight loss, etc.). They always break & you’ll start losing again when your body is ready.

I reached my goal & was happy, so I started to increase my intake to find my maintenance point. But I kept losing. More & more slowly of course. By the time I did stabilise I was a good 11kg less than my goal. I was eating three meals a day & 4-5 snacks. I settled around that quite happily for about a year. But with a medication & a dietary change I gained 2kgs & have been there for 9 months. I eat around 1300-1400 calories a day. Still have to snack a few times a day to reach those calories (& get in the extra protein I need) but not as many as initially. I think this is about the weight my body is happy at too - my body’s set point. Maintaining at that lower weight wasn’t/isn’t an issue. How I eat doesn’t impact how I want to live & enjoy my life & doesn't require me to run miles or spend hours in the gym (a big positive to me - LOL!). And I guess they’re the real factors to consider. Are you happy at the weight you reach & does maintaining it allow you to live & enjoy your life as you want without feeling you are missing out or making sacrifices? And is it sustainable? I say this a lot but it is what is working for me.

Actually maybe the correct question is - how did you know when you were done? I am within a couple of pounds of my original (completely arbitrarily chosen) goal weight. Which by the way I never really believed I could reach. I was sleeved 10 months ago and am still losing around half a pound a week on 1200 calories (ish) a day - a bit more at weekends because I drink some alcohol then. I am hungry at times but I can keep that at bay by eating lots of protein snacks alongside my 3 meals a day, which are protein and veg for the main - still not much in the way of carbs. My question is - did you just select a goal weight and stick to that? Did you achieve/maintain this by intentionally increasing your calorie intake once you got there? I'm thinking I could easily go up to 1600/1800 calories a day and probably maintain at that or thereabouts. Or did you just keep going as long as you could, staying on the right side of hunger (AKA deprivation, LOL) and see how low you could go, and does the weight loss then fizzle out? If I did that would I ever be able to up my calories again without gaining? So many questions, LOL. I would really appreciate your thoughts and experiences.

I'm gonna repeat what the others have said - I hope that isn't too annoying! If you're eating 1000 - 1200 calories a day you will be losing fat. Whatever water shifts are happening are making it appear that you're not. This happens to everyone. You have lost 21lbs since your surgery - I lost 17lbs in my first 6 weeks so you're doing better than I did (not that it's a competition, LOL). If you stick to your plan you will see sustained fat loss - it's not possible not to. Keep the faith - I know how disheartening it is not to see a change on the scale but I promise you - if you stick with the programme in a year you'll be here posting how you're at your goal weight. Post here lots - everyone is so supportive and helpful - we are really rooting for you!!!

First: This is my concern with people going out of the country for any type of surgery. Cut and dump. They get their money and that's the end of your care. I am sure this is not the case with every surgeon but it isn't a rare occurrence either. Unfortunately that is the risk you take. Second: Everyone is different and everyone stalls. Your body is in shock, and now you are eating a fraction of the calories it was used to before surgery. It basically goes into starvation mode and stores EVERYTHING it can until it realizes it is not actually starving and this is the new normal. Your body will adjust, the human body is quite amazing. I lost like 12 lbs the first week and then nothing for like a month but then my body was like oh ok and I started dropping weight like crazy. (102 lbs in 6 months) I am currently in another stall and have lost 2 lbs in a few days shy of a month now. It does suck but it will pass. The bottom line is if you have a calorie deficit you WILL lose weight. The surgery helps you be able to eat less, resulting in less calories. Try to stay off the scale for a while, measure yourself and find other ways to see the results. Smaller clothes, non-scale victories, etc. be patient, you got this!

My Dietician consistently says there is no such thing as a pouch reset. The calorie deficit is what makes you lose weight during said "ouch reset phase" by going back to liquids for so many days it is simply less calories. In addition, the restriction the same reasoning. Being on a liquid diet for a week, so when you eat solids your stomach reacts quicker because it is used to only have liquids again. You had to have surgery to shrink your stomach, so just drinking liquids for a week is not going to magically shrink your stomach. Everyone has different opinions on this, but if you really think about it it makes complete sense. Regardless, if your friend thinks it is and it is working for her then that is great! And, no reason not to reset if you want to.

As my post mentions. I have lost two pounds in five weeks. To me that is pretty much nothing. I shouldn’t stall after one week. i log EVERYTHING. i have zero support from Mexico so paid to see a dietitian here instead of the six month wait through a referral. the dietitian said because of kidney issues that landed me in the hospital week 2/3 to avoid protein powder (I’m also allergic to whey) and to keep my proteins around 50-60. She also said to get minimum 1000-1200 cals a day. She also told me not to worry so much about the fibre fat and sugar and carbs right now. But I still do. I won’t eat rice, pasta, or salads. And if I eat bread it’s only gluten free toast low carb. Any crackers are either made from cheese, sweet potatoes, or almonds. we also went through all of my supplements and she said that they are perfectly fine. The colonic cleanser also went through all of my supplements and medication and also said they were fine. I’ve also increased my calories as suggested by two other people who had the surgery by 200 cal the last few days which was really hard but it hasn’t helped any. as mentioned in my original post I literally have never felt restrictions on what I ate I would have to stop myself. It’s only been the last couple weeks maybe even three weeks that I actually feel full. And that was a concern I brought up to the dietician to is that I can eat a whole container of yoghurt and still keep going if I wanted to. I never did though. so I’m at a loss. Either there’s something really wrong with me or it’s completely normal to only lose 2 pounds in five weeks. here are some ss from the app I use

You can eat way more than I could at 6 weeks out. I had a tough time of nausea and sickness. For months I only managed about 300 calories a day. Even now at 10 months out I can only manage 800 to 1000 Cals a day. This made me have slow weight loss because my body was holding on to everything, I managed to give it. So, let's see if we can find out what's going on with you Are you on regular foods now or still on pureed? We are all given different plans so we don't know what yours will be. Can you show a food diary for a typical day ? How is your protein intake ?

I have never heard of bypass to sleeve. Would be great for you to tell us more. I would think that would be difficult to do considering the anatomy of both surgeries. Committing to changing your lifestyle and dealing with the underlying issues with food is hard work. you can out eat any surgery! Gastric sleeve, d/s, bypass etc are all just tools to help you be able to better control your consumption of calories . Personally, my issues with food brought me to this weight and will bring me back to it if I do not continue to work on and control my food issues. I have seen a few people I know eat themselves obese again after bypass. (One with bypass resumed her constant Dr Pepper drinking two weeks in because she “couldn’t live” without several cans a day. Surprise surprise she didn’t loose as much as she thought and is creeping back). Sleeve does work well for a majority of people, especially those who make the changes. I hope you are finding a path to achieve what you want.

Iv'e had BOTh the ruen-y bypass surgery that was successful FOR over 10 years, after having a baby, gaining weight back and having vitamin deficiency issues I had a revision to a gastric sleeve. The sleeve has been a joke, there is no stopping me from over eating sweets or fried foods, I was sick when I ate those things with a ruen-y. I had an upper gi last week (I am 7 years post op of revision) Dr says my stomach looks like any other non surgery stomach he sees. So much for my surgery dr saying stomachs dont stretch. 1.Ruen-y is more evasive but it keeps you from eating sweets/fried foods without becoming so ill you have to lay down for 2 hours. (not dangerous, just very uncomfortable) 2.If you have weight loss surgery be SURE to have lipo suction after you've lost most of y our weight. Once you grow a fat cell you NEVER loose it unless you have it removed by having lipo suction or cool sculpting. A fat cell will lay flattened until you have extra calories that need stored then they pop right up. Get rid of them b&&*$ right away, you can still grow more cells if you over eat but it takes time to grow them new, old cells are like little saboteurs waiting to fill up again. 3. If you don't like aerobic activity try chill-aerobics. Sit somewhere cold.. shiver and ur body burns fat. 15 min. of shivering equals 30min,. of aerobic activity. Your body will burn fat to try and warm you up. (it's actually opposite in a polar bears body)

Officially at 1 month out today. The last week has been a mess. Up and down (mostly up) 2-3 lbs from my lightest weight this month. Recently transitioned into soft foods the last few days, per my doctor’s orders. He basically doubled every stage, which was also frustrating. I know there is a lot of talk about week 3/4 stalls. Just feeling so discouraged to see a gain when the calories are still very low. It’s hard not to be frustrated and sad. I have spent the last year watching accounts on Instagram where women have described weight just melting off every week. I knew I was always a slower loser, but I thought this procedure would be a game changer. Anyone else feeling like this?

First it will take a lot of concentrated effort over a long period of time, eating huge amounts of food to stretch your tummy out again. You do need to be careful of portion sizes while you are healing so you don’t put too much stress on your tummy & the stitches, & staples holding it together. Though there are similarities in plans, there are also lots of differences plus there are also your individual needs to be considered (vegetarian, allergies, etc.). Which is why your surgeon &/or dietician should have provided you with the post surgical diet listing what foods you can eat when they want you to follow. They should also provide you with goals & recommendations around fluid, protein & sometimes also calories & macros. They should also advise on portion sizes. If they haven’t ask for them - they are supposed to be there to support you through this. As an example of differences, I was only given fluid, protein & portion size recommendations: 2L fluid, 60g protein, 1/4 - 1/3 cup food from purée. Some are advised more protein. Some are given caloric goals along the way like to aim for 1200 calories within a couple of months (I barely hit 900 at 6 months). There are differences in plan lengths, the stages & even the food. Once through the immediate post surgical stages & on solid foods, talk to your dietician about different eating plans you could follow while losing & would easily translate into maintenance as well. Best advice is: don't do more than you are able to do & don’t do more than you are advised to do just because you can. If you can’t eat something on your list or eat all your portion that’s okay. Eating more than your recommended portion or eating food not on your recommended list for each of the eating plan stages until you are at that stage is not the best decision.

I meant to post a follow-up to my post on Thursday, but this darn tropical storm/hurricane popped up and we decided to start hurricane prep. Live in the FL Keys and it looks to be tracking west so I think (hope!) we won't get a direct hit. Thursday I had appointments w my surgeon and nutritionist. My loss is right on track, my surgeon stressed that rapid weight loss early on is indicative of muscle loss and that is not what we want to see. I was bumped to 1000 calories, and my nutritionist stressed the most important thing we can do to ensure maximum weight loss is to eat 5-6 meals, eating every 2-3 hours. Also, to start weight training now and to focus on weights, not cardio. I love weight lifting, so I don't mind this. I had been eating 4 meals and one snack and he wants me to bump it to 5 meals. I'm good at meal prep, which is essential with such frequent eating. But it does feel like I'm eating constantly! Surprisingly, he does want me to drink one protein shake a day to really up protein consumption. I've been averaging 110 g of protein a day, he wants at least 80. But craziest of all, they want me to weigh myself every 3 days!

Agreed. You just had a pretty major surgery and our bodies take time to adjust to just that but the reduced calories on top of it make this recovery that much harder. Plus if you are female your hormones are possibly out of whack which can make things seem even worse. As you start to take in a few more calories things should start to get better. If you are really struggling reach out to your team for someone to talk to.

It will get better, your body is healing and adjusting. Just stick with it and the weight will come off. Same with your energy levels, you are eating barely any calories right now, your body is healing so you are going to be beat. Try to keep your head up and you will get through the slump.