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Thank you both for the great info. I'm still taking things really slow (I had issues at the 3 week mark and had to get IV fluids). I'm still struggling on getting my proteins and water but it's slowly getting better. I just want to make sure I'm doing things correctly. I see my doctor this week for my 6 wk post-op so I'm sure they'll have some additional info for me.

Do you feel your restriction yet ? This is my account after the restriction. I did not get to real foods for 12 weeks and I really struggled with meat protein. Depending on what the food was - yogurt, I would not wait anything like a minute. I took tiny spoonful's. With other foods especially warm foods I would eat the few small bites I could and when the food was cold I would put my food away and come back to it later. I hated to eat food that had gone really cold waiting for me to eat. My surgery was in winter and I was frozen to my bones. A lot of the time my food went into the bin because I had eaten enough

I'm kind of surprised you found a surgeon that still places lap bands, too. That surgery has largely been replaced by the sleeve as the non-RNY option. My clinic quit doing lap bands even before I had my surgery eight years ago. There are definitely some people who love their lap bands and have been successful with them - but there are also a lot who've ended up having them removed and went with a sleeve or bypass.

Hi! So i made the decision to do lap band because it is something that is adjustable. I am 31 and I haven’t had children yet and I want them and I thought Lap band is the right route for me right now because of that I went to experience that I know things can be adjust when this does come along with gastric sleeve and bypass it’s gonna be a bit more harder. I’ve already talk to my doctor about my options and he agrees that I can still have successful weight loss with band as well. I also know family members who have had the lap band and gastric sleeve that they’ve had success with both.

Oh I meant to say - @Arabesque is, as usual, spot on about stalls. They come and they go and they are SUPER ANNOYING. People swear by all sorts of tricks to break them like switching exercise regimes or eating more or fewer calories/protein, etc. but I don't really think they make any difference. Also - I am really nosy too so hope some other folks share their typical daily diet!

What surgery have you had OP? I had a sleeve 23 months ago. Ballpark daily menu below for you. I was eating about two-thirds of this quantity at 8 months I think. Breakfast - I don't eat it but I do I have a large latte with whole milk. I like supper instead. Mid morning - 3oz greek yoghurt (or porridge made with whole milk) and fruit (3oz frozen berries or sometimes half a banana with honey); alternatively two eggs fried or scrambled or one with a couple of rashers of bacon. Lunch - chicken salad with about 2-3oz chicken and usually 2oz full fat coleslaw, with lettuce, tomato, cucumber etc. and a sprinkling of seeds All fits on a side plate (piled up, LOL). Or soup (I love soup with loads of veggies and lentils for protein) - can do a good cup of that. Or a small amount of sushi - about 3 large pieces or 5/6 small. Rice really fills me up and is good on hungry days because it takes my stomach forever to process it (probably doing untold internal damage, LOL). Dinner - my main meal - meat or fish 3oz approx - I can eat more of some meats than others; veg about 3oz; if I have space left then a tiny amount of carbs but usually not. Fish pie I love, with a tiny mashed potato layer. Stews are good - usually beef and veg in those (no potato). Fried chicken (I prefer thighs to breast). Wings with hot sauce - I can eat about 4 top or bottom wings. Curry - especially veggie curry with lentils and chickpeas (no rice). Steak (or pork steak) fried. I don't make pasta dishes any more really but I'll happily make a really meaty ragu with beef/pork mince and bacon lardons/pancetta and plenty of veg and just eat that on its own! Sausages (one large or two small) with onions and mushrooms. Fajita filling - chicken with onions mushrooms peppers sour cream guacamole cheese etc just no fajita. Sometimes a pie - chicken and ham - with just a top crust none on the bottom. Pizza or other takeaway food very occasionally - I can eat two slices of a large pizza nowadays. Supper - porridge and fruit; cheese and wholemeal crackers or oatcakes; a slice of wholemeal toast and something - e.g. half a banana, or sometimes pate or cream cheese or nut butter. Snacks - 2-3 a day - 1oz cheese; 1-2oz deli meat; 1oz raw nuts; olives; most days I have a small bag of crisps (chips to you lot). I drink wine at weekends - 1-2 glasses per night. Basically a bottle per weekend. I drink *far too much* diet soda all the time. I have almost no sugar in my diet now but sadly on the rare occasions I do eat any I still really love it and crave more - don't think that will ever leave me. Hope that helps - it's actually made me hungry just writing it 😂

Howdidd you all get these signatures? I’ve tried googling and looking on this page but I’m not seeing it as an option.

If you don't find the info you want then here goes ... Slider foods are all the good stuff. Chocolate, ice-cream, cream cakes, biscuits, sweets and crisps. All high calorie and really easy to eat lots and lots of. If you ate these all day for a week then you will gain. For some reason these foods do not fill the stomach up. 50 grams of protein, meat, chicken, will fill me up but I managed to scoff a whole 100 gram, M&S cream and apple turnover and it did not touch the sides, had there been another, I might have been very tempted. I don't have bad stuff in the house normally but it happens

I will share my 6month post sleeve progress.....I am 54 and 5'1. I was 230 on surgery day, and now weigh 162.5. I have lost a total of 67.5lb. I have lost a total of 54 inches all over plus more, but I didn't start my measurements till 1 month post op. As of yesterday, I have lost 9 inches off my waist, 12 inches off my hips, 7 inches of left thigh, 8 inches off my right thigh, 4 inches off right and 4 inches off left bicep. 1 inch off my neck and 7 inches off my chest. Figures we lose weight in our chest 😭😜. I feel amazing already! I will be honest and say exercise has been at a minimum since the surgery. I know I will have to start exercising regularly for muscle tone, my heart etc. My 6 month bloodwork was awesome and all in the normal zone. Even my iron was in the normal zone this time. My A1C was 5.3 (it used to be 5.6-5.7). My cholesterol is 180 (which used to be 238 for many years). My knees hurt less, I am no longer on the CPAP machine, and I feel better about myself. I have not had any nightmare incidents relating to weight loss surgery. The only thing I still deal with is constipation which seems to have gotten a little better with broadening my diet. I average 700-800 calories a day. I consume 60-70g of protein. I know I do not drink what they recommend in ounces, but I am not far below the liquid requirement. This is one of the best decisions I have made in my life to help myself. Thank you to everyone on here for the great advice and support.

Yes they do . My dietician told me to count anything I can drink as my liquid intake. Protein drinks count as protein AND liquid

Hello, I had my gastric bypass in TJ November 2022. I went to the obesity Control Center with Dr. Ortiz, who is amazing. You can follow OCC on Facebook and Instagram. The facility is awesome and his staff were incredible. The price was around $6500.00 for everything including the hotel stay. The only issue I am having is the following up. You do get calls and email and they have a patient portal but nothing in person like in your hometown. Definitely weigh out all your options prior to going out of the country, if you need one on one.

Does protein 2.0 and other protein infused drinks count as water in take?!

Hello, I had my gastric bypass in TJ November 2022. I went to the obesity Control Center with Dr. Ortiz, who is amazing. You can follow OCC on Facebook and Instagram. The facility is awesome and his staff were incredible. The price was around $6500.00 for everything including the hotel stay. The only issue I am having is the following up. You do get calls and email and they have a patient portal but nothing in person like in your hometown. Definitely weigh out all your options prior to going out of the country, if you need one on one.

I posted this on another thread about revision, but I had a hiatal hernia and bad GERD so it applies for this thread too. I want to preface that this is about to be a long message, but it's my journey. Thanks for reading. My 1st Bariatric journey started in 2009 (I was 26 years old). My heaviest weight was 250 lbs. I did a month liquid diet as my preop diet and got down to my surgery weight of 220 lbs. I had a sleeve done in Sep 1, 2009. I got down to around 175 lbs from my surgery weight of 220 lbs. I got down to a size 12. I did regain some weight years later, but that was my doing (not eating the best, not exercising as I should). In addition to gaining some weight back, i developed a 5/6cm hiatal hernia and had really bad heartburn and reflux. I started taking Nexium for years. Finally 14 years later (now 40 years old) in April of 2023 I decided to ask a doctor about taking daily Nexium (after hearing constantly from family that it wasn't good). My surgeon gave me 3 options. 1. Continue taking Nexium daily 2. Fix my hiatal hernia (but he did warn me that hiatal hernias are known to come back) 3. Fix my hiatal hernia and do a revision from Sleeve to RNY. Before any of that to make an informed decision I had to get an upper GI with contrast and an endoscopy with a Bravo study. I had the endoscopy done and the Bravo capsule placed on my esophagus. After the 1st endoscopy my GI doctor said she didn't even need to see the results of the Bravo study...seeing my esophagus alone was enough to see how inflamed my esophagus was and she confirmed the bigger sized hernia. Either way, the Bravo capsule was placed in and I did the 3 day study. The results came back and like my GI doc said...it was bad. The acidity in my stomach and esophagus was ridiculous. I use to take generic Nexium 20mg but my GI doc said that wasnt enough for how bad my esophagus was. I was told to bump it up to 40mg 2x a day. So I did that and it helped to heal the massive amount of inflammation I already had in my esophagus. To confirm that I had a 2nd endoscopy done. The Bravo study, the upper GI scans, the endoscopy was all completed so that I could make an informed decision on how I wanted to proceed. Which of the 3 options discussed did I want to proceed with. I decided option 3 was best (revision from Sleeve to RNY with a hiatal hernia repair). For me my insurance approved the procedure and it was fairly a quick process because I went the general surgical route vs the Bariatric route. I could have had the revision in July but I had a cruise planned in August and I wanted to be able to drink and eat and ENJOY my vacation so I opted to wait and had the revision 2 weeks after I came back from my cruise on September 11th. I was 215 the 1st day of my preop diet. I got down to 206 but then mother nature decided to show up the week of my surgery so as women we gain water weight during our cycle and the day of surgery i weighed in at 209. I was so pissed. I knew it was water weight because of my cycle but still nobody wants to see the number on the scale go up. Surgery went well. I had no complications. My recovery was A LOT smoother. I had BAAAAAD nausea and gas pains after my sleeve becauseof the anesthesia. With the RNY I had 0% nausea. I had a little bit of shoulder pain because of the gas and I did have another pain when I inhaled big because of the hernia repair, but it was all normal and pains of that nature were expected. I was just sooooo glad that I didn't wake up extremely nauseous after the RNY like I did after my sleeve. So now I'm 31 days post op. I've been at 195 since like September 26th. I hope that I've HOPEFULLY lost at least 1 pound now since I've been stalled at the same weight for 2 weeks. Btw I'm 5'4 for reference. My size 14 clothes button again and my 16s are getting a little loose on me now. I'm not swimming in my clothes or nothing but it's a small progress. I was wearing XL shirts and now Large shirts fit me a lot better. I feel less like a sausage in them lol! Oh and tonight I tried on this bra that I know for a fact a couple of weeks ago could not button or even come close and today it fit. So now a 38D will fit. Great non scale victory! I can tolerate all food and as long as I don't take huge bites and I chew my food well and eat slow, I'm good. Otherwise I've already had my 1st reminder of what it feels like to throw up because your food feels stuck. I had that happen after the sleeve sometimes too and it sucks, but it's a process learning how to eat again and reminding myself that I can't inhale my food. I am taking a daily vitamin with iron and then 3 calcium citrate chewable daily. My doctor also still wants me to take 1 Omeprozole daily for 6 months post op to give my esophagus and hernia repair time to truly heal. 1 month down....5 months to go. Then I'll be able to see if I don't have any GERD or heartburn without any medication. The weight loss is a perk and I definitely want to lose more weight and get down to 150 or at least my best sleeve weight of 175, but I always have to remind myself that my goal of this entire revision surgery was to not deal with heartburn and reflux anymore. So yeah...thats my revision story so far. Please let me know if you have any questions. I'll be happy to answer.

Hello there! I want to preface that this is about to be a long message, but it's my journey. Thanks for reading. My 1st Bariatric journey started in 2009 (I was 26 years old). My heaviest weight was 250 lbs. I did a month liquid diet as my preop diet and got down to my surgery weight of 220 lbs. I had a sleeve done in Sep 1, 2009. I got down to around 175 lbs from my surgery weight of 220 lbs. I got down to a size 12. I did regain some weight years later, but that was my doing (not eating the best, not exercising as I should). In addition to gaining some weight back, i developed a 5/6cm hiatal hernia and had really bad heartburn and reflux. I started taking Nexium for years. Finally 14 years later (now 40 years old) in April of 2023 I decided to ask a doctor about taking daily Nexium (after hearing constantly from family that it wasn't good). My surgeon gave me 3 options. 1. Continue taking Nexium daily 2. Fix my hiatal hernia (but he did warn me that hiatal hernias are known to come back) 3. Fix my hiatal hernia and do a revision from Sleeve to RNY. Before any of that to make an informed decision I had to get an upper GI with contrast and an endoscopy with a Bravo study. I had the endoscopy done and the Bravo capsule placed on my esophagus. After the 1st endoscopy my GI doctor said she didn't even need to see the results of the Bravo study...seeing my esophagus alone was enough to see how inflamed my esophagus was and she confirmed the bigger sized hernia. Either way, the Bravo capsule was placed in and I did the 3 day study. The results came back and like my GI doc said...it was bad. The acidity in my stomach and esophagus was ridiculous. I use to take generic Nexium 20mg but my GI doc said that wasnt enough for how bad my esophagus was. I was told to bump it up to 40mg 2x a day. So I did that and it helped to heal the massive amount of inflammation I already had in my esophagus. To confirm that I had a 2nd endoscopy done. The Bravo study, the upper GI scans, the endoscopy was all completed so that I could make an informed decision on how I wanted to proceed. Which of the 3 options discussed did I want to proceed with. I decided option 3 was best (revision from Sleeve to RNY with a hiatal hernia repair). For me my insurance approved the procedure and it was fairly a quick process because I went the general surgical route vs the Bariatric route. I could have had the revision in July but I had a cruise planned in August and I wanted to be able to drink and eat and ENJOY my vacation so I opted to wait and had the revision 2 weeks after I came back from my cruise on September 11th. I was 215 the 1st day of my preop diet. I got down to 206 but then mother nature decided to show up the week of my surgery so as women we gain water weight during our cycle and the day of surgery i weighed in at 209. I was so pissed. I knew it was water weight because of my cycle but still nobody wants to see the number on the scale go up. Surgery went well. I had no complications. My recovery was A LOT smoother. I had BAAAAAD nausea and gas pains after my sleeve becauseof the anesthesia. With the RNY I had 0% nausea. I had a little bit of shoulder pain because of the gas and I did have another pain when I inhaled big because of the hernia repair, but it was all normal and pains of that nature were expected. I was just sooooo glad that I didn't wake up extremely nauseous after the RNY like I did after my sleeve. So now I'm 31 days post op. I've been at 195 since like September 26th. I hope that I've HOPEFULLY lost at least 1 pound now since I've been stalled at the same weight for 2 weeks. Btw I'm 5'4 for reference. My size 14 clothes button again and my 16s are getting a little loose on me now. I'm not swimming in my clothes or nothing but it's a small progress. I was wearing XL shirts and now Large shirts fit me a lot better. I feel less like a sausage in them lol! Oh and tonight I tried on this bra that I know for a fact a couple of weeks ago could not button or even come close and today it fit. So now a 38D will fit. Great non scale victory! I can tolerate all food and as long as I don't take huge bites and I chew my food well and eat slow, I'm good. Otherwise I've already had my 1st reminder of what it feels like to throw up because your food feels stuck. I had that happen after the sleeve sometimes too and it sucks, but it's a process learning how to eat again and reminding myself that I can't inhale my food. I am taking a daily vitamin with iron and then 3 calcium citrate chewable daily. My doctor also still wants me to take 1 Omeprozole daily for 6 months post op to give my esophagus and hernia repair time to truly heal. 1 month down....5 months to go. Then I'll be able to see if I don't have any GERD or heartburn without any medication. The weight loss is a perk and I definitely want to lose more weight and get down to 150 or at least my best sleeve weight of 175, but I always have to remind myself that my goal of this entire revision surgery was to not deal with heartburn and reflux anymore. So yeah...thats my revision story so far. Please let me know if you have any questions. I'll be happy to answer.

Since you're in the area of cosmetic procedures, you might want to check out places like lip injections santa barbara for a variety of non-surgical options that can complement surgical ones. They may offer insights on combining procedures safely. Considering your post is from 2020, you might have already moved forward with your plans. If you did, I'd love to hear about your experience as it could benefit others in a similar situation.

Totally agree with @Arabesque in that a diet of shakes might be hard to sustain huskymama, particularly if you're slow to recover from your fracture. If you can revert to protein first, veg second, carbs (a long way behind) third you might be able to claw back your previous weight loss. I know it's rubbish to regain for whatever reason and I hope you can get it sorted while you recover.

Oh I agree, it's definitely a lifelong commitment to use our sleeve TRAVELRN. I also need to eat every 2-3 hours at this point if I haven't planned protein based meals in advance, which seem to keep me full for longer - then the pressure is off (for me anyway) and I can eat 3 meals a day. It's so very hard to keep on track though.

Have you checked your calorie intake? If you’re reducing your fat & sugar intake you will have reduced your calories which would explain your weight loss. Why are you trying to reduce your pancreatic enzymes (which are produced naturally within your body & are needed for digestion & absorption of nutrients)? How does cutting fats & sugars stop the production of the enzymes or are you doing that for a separate reason? I take pancreatic enzymes because I don’t absorb protein well (side effect of my gall removal) hence my questions. I worry that reducing your enzyme levels may be causing your weight loss too because your not absorbing nutrients well.

Aah the how often to weigh debate. The responses seem to swing from very rarely/never to daily. I weighed every day for the first two years or so but now weigh 3 or 4 times a week. In the past if I thought I was putting on weight I wouldn’t go near the scales. If I didn’t see the number on the scales I could believe I wasn’t putting on weight even if my pants were very tight or bought the next size. So me weighing as I do now is about what I need to do to keep myself honest. I say you know you best & weigh yourself as you need to keep yourself motivated & on track. Has my hunger returned, yes. It did so slowly. Has it increased since it fully returned, no. There are still odd days or times I’m not all that hungry at all. (Wish that happened more often 😁.) I try to eat very much to a routine & not eat outside of that. If I think I’m hungry I consider if it’s real hunger or head hunger. Such as when did I last eat? Did I eat a smaller portion at my last meal? Is it almost time for a meal? How am I feeling - bored, sad, annoyed, stressed, etc. It can be an ‘interesting’ discussion I’m having with myself. 😁 This helps most of the time. I’m sorry about your injury @huskymama especially after achieving so much. But you didn’t have to go back to shakes to lose your weight just go back to how & what you were eating before your injury though smaller portions as you can’t be as active at the moment. Meet your fluids & protein goals. Eat your protein first then vegetables & last any carbs you’re allowed if you are able. Return to lower fats, carbs & sugar. Check with your dietician for ideas & guidance. Focus on upper body exercises because of your injury. Search for some exercises for those with limited mobility online. You can do this.

I'm 6 days post op and for the last 3 days I have been making 300ml of flavored water-based protein drink then add ice so it comes to 400ml and I sip on it for an hour and a half while I am in classes at university. That drink gives me 2 servings of protein (25gr) and it tastes great. I use ISO Whey Zero Clear.

I was down to 150 - had surgery 12/22/22. J fell and injured my ankle and need surgery. I have been down since beg if August 2023 and Ive gained 17 pounds back. I cant exercise and I was walking 5 miles a day and actually had finally started running foe he first time in 15 years. I am so frustrated and dont know what to do other than live on protein shakes. I need this thread so thank you for starting it!

I really like creamer in my oatmeal, so I feel like vanilla protein powder would work! I'd mix half a scoop of powder with 1/4 cup of cold water, then stir it into the oatmeal once it has been cooked. You don't want to heat protein powder very much or it'll denature the protein and it'll clump and be gross. But stirred in after the oatmeal cooks should be fine...

Oh, I just remembered an article I read about hyperallergenic foods. It was about a clear whey protein water sold in New Zealand. It cited several cases of extreme reactions to small amounts of the beverage in children known to have a dairy allergy. It seems that in concentrating proteins into drinks we've created a new class of "hyperallergenic" foods that may send some people's immune systems into overdrive. The interesting part is that their reactions were much more dramatic to the protein water than to actual cow's milk because the protein was so concentrated in the protein water. So I guess it is possible you are developing a dairy allergy and it is showing up when you drink the shake because it is much more concentrated than any other source you are ingesting whey from? Something to think about anyway... Here's the article: https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2010/12/22/Hyperallergenic-functional-foods-raise-protein-concerns

Oh that's no fun... I've heard of people having various issues from too much biotin. It is why not everyone advises supplementing it. I think it is unlikely to be the shakes, mostly because a true allergy comes from reactions to a protein IIRC? For the shakes that protein would be in the whey. That means you'd react to ALL whey, which means essentially all cow's dairy products. It is possible to develop an adult true allergy to a protein, but they are rare... However, we can develop intolerances to things and it is possible some additive in the shake is doing it. The reaction you are describing sounds like eczema, it causes that textured skin feeling and sometimes pigment changes. I have a friend that gets it every time she eats cheese! But if it is hives taking benadryl should help noticeably. I'd quit the biotin, give it a week or two for everything to calm down, then try the shake again. If the rash shows up from drinking it again you should go be tested for a dairy allergy by an allergist. I'm not a doctor, but that's what I'd do...