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Hey all! I know we all may have different surgeon guidelines and of course a nutritionist is the expert. Having said that- I’m looking for comparison of your numbers vs mine on your daily intake at 4 months out. I’ve been stalled nearly 3 weeks. Just curious to see what others tracking looks like at this time period post operatively. Thanks!!

more food for me! 1/2 a dinner roll with sliced avocado and a butter-fried egg. (i cut up a some of the sandwich first before i remembered to take a pic - oopsies) 364 calories for it all...eyeballing it, i probably ate about 2/3 of it, but i plan on eating the rest later so the cal count stands. p.s. my scale shows a 2.2 lb increase since i started eating relatively normally again yesterday . i do know its not actual fat or anything, and most likely just the food taking up space in my intestines and colon since i had probably nothing in there for the past little while. which you know, as an aside, makes me realize i haven't pooped in a really long time....

Crazy to think that surgery was 4 weeks ago. Finally started on solid foods, I return to work next week (thank god I wfh) and I'm nervous but excited to get back into a routine. Also thinking of buying a mini stepper to get my steps in now that my days will be consumed with work.

As a recovering people pleaser, I applaud you for prioritizing your health- both the physical and mental aspects of your health. Taking care of ourselves is not selfish- its part of being responsible for you own well being. Im so glad you are setting some boundaries, and I am going to remember that when I need to do the same for myself. Thanks for putting into words that there is more to this process than weighing and measuring our food. Best of luck to you on this journey- and please keep sharing your story, it helps both yourself and those around you!

I was approved to go home on the afternoon of the 22nd. I’m doing much better now that I’m home since I have a much better selection of stage 1 and stage 2 foods at home. Hitting my fluid goal is still a challenge but I’m determined to push through. On the bright side I have very little pain.

ok! so for the first time in almost 2 weeks, i woke up hungry! i've been sick for what feels like forever so i guess this means im officially better! so i felt for salty things so i made a weird plate of food reminiscent of my pregnancy days: toasted dinner bun with butter & cheddar, a handful of sour cream and onion chips and a peice of chicken skin cracklin'. 508 calories for all of it, ate all the chips (of course, lol), half the sandwich, and just a bite of the chicken skin cracklin' (it was NOT yummy). i'll probably eat the rest pf the sandwich later, but im def tossing the cracklin'. im looking forward to eating some food again now that i actually want to! and to regain the 7 lbs i lost while being sick (i look a little deathly at the moment, boo)

Hi and thank you so much for the above! I didn't know that about the watches, thank you for this insight. I think I do need to up my protein - I find it difficult to get a lot of it from food as I don't find myself that hungry that often. With regards to sleep, this may be my fault I fear. I tend to get between 4-6 hours a night every day, and I take probiotics maybe once a week in pill format? I need to book an appointment for bloodwork as I haven't had any done since the surgery. Thank you so much for all these suggestions!

I was an equal opportunity savoury & sweet eater. I eliminated most sugar in the weeks after surgery when anything with sugar, artificial sweeteners or sugar alternatives tasted extra crazy sweet & was off putting. I haven’t really let it back into my eating. I get my sweet from blueberries every day & the occasional additional serve of fruit. It can be hard to eliminate it & the alternatives completely. It is added to just about everything in firm or another. I know I have about 5g of added sugar (multigrain crackers I eat) a day & some artificial sweetener (yogurt, protein bar & peanut paste) but that’s it. And none of these things taste sweet. I will have dessert at Christmas but that all I have of traditional sweet food. (I did have a small piece of wedding cake earlier this year.) There is some sugar in the rare G&T I have. None of these things make me crave sweet again. I remember during Covid, when the grocery shelves were bare, I could only buy a box of honey instant rolled oats - it was awful, super sweet & I couldn’t eat it. Personally, I’d rather eat something with real sugar than artificial sweetener - that stuff is so bad for you. Good luck.

There are definitely other brands of 100% whey protein isolate available. I mean, it does sound like they want you to buy from them, but I would compare the price to make sure they aren't marking it up. My doctor's office just gave us a list of brands to consider, plus a few requirements for fat and sugar content. They were more concerned with us finding flavors we liked, which you can't always do with a single brand option. Then again, my doctor also doesn't require more than 48 hours of a liquid diet and doesn't do the puree stage, just soft, well-cooked foods you can chew down to mush. So they're all different. Which leads me to believe many of the "rules" are more like "preferences."

Thank you to everyone who replied to my post, all of your thoughts, comments and encouragement is great appreciated. I lost 2lbs this week so I am hoping it continues. I am eating healthy foods and continuing with the exercise. My diet has changed radically from pre-surgery, it is quite shocking the difference (not just in terms of calories and portion sizes, but also the quality of food I eat). I am keeping myself motivated towards my goal of IVF. Thank you all again xx

I quit slowly, just using things up at home and not buying more. Then once that was done, a few weeks later I started introducing a few artificially sweetened things. Unlike a lot of people, Im not anti-fake sugar. But I need a break from sweets for the fake stuff to taste good. I still use moderation even with fake sugars, but I like flavor packets in my water sometimes, a flavored syrup in my coffee as a treat, or a flavored yogurt or pudding. I don't crave fake sweeteners though so I just use them selectively. I don't find they create a craving for real sugar, in fact, they help me walk by sugary things because I know I have my own safe version at home. But keep in mind I never binged sugary foods so it could be different for someone who did have that issue. Sweet things are not a trigger food for me.

First congratulations on your life changes and healthy goal achievements! I very much enjoy working out and being active too. Just don’t trust whole heartedly what sport devices say word for word. They are really tracking trends and general steps. They tend to overstate actual calories burned. They also don’t account for older-than-50 bodies that burn calories far more efficiently. Several things could be at play so you will still have to do your detective work. Try talking with your dietitian or nutritionist. You may need more protein. You might be triggering your body into starvation mode too, and need to slightly increase your food intake. Make sure you aren’t coming down with a cold that increases inflammation like Covid. Are you getting 7 hours of sleep per night regularly? Is your bloodwork good? Taking probiotics? I stalled at the same time and found my bloodwork was off. But, I also talked with my surgeon who “walks his talk.” He suggested switching up my workouts. I used to live for the weightlifting high, but only lift 2 days a week now. I do more outdoor activities like rowing, biking, and hiking. Walking with poles burns far more calories. I’ve rediscovered walking with all my daily water in a backpack ups my morning walk too. Two years out I’m still finding my balance of food to exercise and still loosing weight. You’ll find it too.

First congratulations on your life changes and healthy goal achievements! I very much enjoy working out and being active too. Just don’t trust whole heartedly what sport devices say word for word. They are really tracking trends and general steps. They tend to overstate actual calories burned. They also don’t account for older-than-50 bodies that burn calories far more efficiently. Several things could be at play so you will still have to do your detective work. Try talking with your dietitian or nutritionist. You may need more protein. You might be triggering your body into starvation mode too, and need to slightly increase your food intake. Make sure you aren’t coming down with a cold that increases inflammation like Covid. Are you getting 7 hours of sleep per night regularly? Is your bloodwork good? Taking probiotics? I stalled at the same time and found my bloodwork was off. But, I also talked with my surgeon who “walks his talk.” He suggested switching up my workouts. I used to live for the weightlifting high, but only lift 2 days a week now. I do more outdoor activities like rowing, biking, and hiking. Walking with poles burns far more calories. I’ve rediscovered walking with all my daily water in a backpack ups my morning walk too. Two years out I’m still finding my balance of food to exercise and still loosing weight. You’ll find it too.

I've been there, and I get it. That's why I want to suggest what I believe is the best casein protein powder. It won't mess with the flavors of your food or drinks. Casein protein blends seamlessly into various dishes. You can mix it into savory foods, like soups or stews, or even stir it into your morning coffee without turning it into a sugary mess. It's versatile, and you won't have that "raw flour" taste you mentioned with pea protein.

This was incredibly helpful. Had a tough day today 3weeks postop. Vomited my soft meal and was incredibly discouraged on just not enjoying to eat. I just eat be wise I have to. Zero enjoyment or pleasure in the taste. At times I have food aversion. I wasn’t aware of how much or how fast my relationship with food will change. I think I was trying to find ways to go back to normal but I can’t. I just eat to live now. It’s weird and slightly sad. but reading this thread made me realize that I am on a journey and I am changing currently. Hence why I feel low.

Hi! Just created my account. Had my rny on October 2. I just vomited a tilapia and green bean meal and I think I am developing food aversion. Tomorrow I’m just going to drink milk ( fairlife) all day. Not enjoying the protein shakes but I’ll try to mix them in there. Today just seemed like a hard day. I was doing fine until now. I really enjoyed cooking and working on recipes and trying new foods. But, I just don’t want to eat anything anymore. I don’t know… putting myself to bed and starting the day with a glass of milk but wow. I feel so defeated and low today. Decided to create an account to share my feelings to see if this is normal. My follow up appointment is on October 30. Thanks for listening.

Hi catwoman. Thanks for your reply, and for your reassurance. I've been thinking about this for a while, and I've basically reached this decision today, on the weekend lol. I guess I'm also nervous that my surgeon won't agree as he seemed pretty confident about the sleeve. I know I'm usually not really ever satisfied after eating a normal portion of food and I "feel" hungry soon after and that I crave sweets regularly. I need more help with my hunger pangs.

I was sleeved 14 years ago and then got a revision 4 months ago. With my sleeve, I would get the foamies (hyper-salivation), my forehead would sweat, or my nose would start running (or all 3). Now, with with my bypass, if I forget I had a surgery and try to eat like a regular person, I get nauseous, my stomach makes SUPER LOUD noises, I'll feel pain, and sometimes have to run to the bathroom (dumping syndrome). A lot of people think this happens when you eat the "wrong" foods (super sugary, super greasy), and they're right. BUT, it ALSO happens if you eat too much, or even just too fast. You could be eating a super healthy, super small amount of food, but if you eat it too fast and don't chew it down to mush (like people at work who have really short lunch breaks), you'll still experience these things. As time goes by, we start to forget to take our time to eat, to really chew our foods to a paste before swallowing, or to wait a while after eating to drink something. The longer it's been, the more we forget. Sometimes, we need to reset our eating habits back to taking a full 30 minutes to eat, to eat healthy foods again, to over-chew our food, and to wait at least 30 minutes to start back on fluids.

You make some really good points about needing to be a little selfish. I think of all the people in my life who need things a certain way, and how I go out of my way to accommodate. Oh, you go to bed really early, or you must eat dinner at 3pm, or you only like Italian food, or can't meet up at that time because you need to workout? Okay, I can be flexible! I'm turning 50 this coming year and it's only in the past few years I feel like I've started to learn to advocate for my own needs. And it's definitely a learning curve. It's so hard to remember that just because you could be flexible doesn't mean you always have to be. As for relatives and food, my strongest childhood memory is probably my very obese grandma, who seemingly passed down 100% of her genes to me (thanks, Grandma!), saying within the span of two breaths: "You know, you're going to be overweight like me and you have to be so careful with what you eat...want more Polish sausage?" I mean, bless her heart, she lived to 92 and was sharp and reasonably active until the last year or two, so if she passed that gene along to me, I'll take it. But you can't tell a person one minute that they have to eat healthy and the next minute present them with an entire family-size Tupperware filled with grapes as a snack because "grapes are healthy." Which I would eat all of even if I didn't want them so as not to hurt her feelings. Meanwhile, my mom was rail thin and always going on some sort of "eat grapefruit for a week and melt the fat off" women's magazine fad diet my whole childhood. Yikes. Family can do a number on you. And you're right, all that stuff will still be there to deal with emotionally even after the surgery...

Can we pretend this is an Overeaters Anonymous meeting and it's my turn to stand up front and bare my soul?...especially since I never had the balls to set foot in a live meeting during my 35 years of having a BMI score higher than my IQ. There's donuts in the back...JOKE😁 It's been almost a year since my sleeve surgery and I couldn't be happier with the physical results. I was 60 years old, 5'4" and weighed close to 210 when I finally made an appointment with a bariatric surgeon. I'm now 61 and 134 pounds...I'm still 5'4" though. The past few days I've been in deep thought mode and was just hoping to use this forum to vent and hopefully get some feedback, positive or negative. Dining out: It's going to happen. It was probably part of your life pre-surgery, so it's naive of you to think it won't be a part of your life post-surgery. So maybe it's just me and my family (obese mother) and significant other (F, normal weight), but the minute the menu appears, I get a barrage of "Oh..they have plenty of appetizers and small portions you can order. Be careful, etc. Did you see the vegetable plate?" OK, so I know my significant other and my mom love me and are probably just concerned about my health and eating habits post-op, and if I'm being overly sensitive, just tell me and I'll shut up, but when they say things like that, it's not helping! If anything, something deep in my primordial starving "fat" brain wants to order the biggest thing on the menu and attempt to eat it. When it happened yesterday at lunch, I calmly and nicely asked both of them if they could refrain from offering me ordering advice, as I assured them, thinking about the ordering process and the actual eating of said meal in a healthy manner was the number one priority on my mind pretty much 24/7. They didn't seem to take it too well. Which leads me to my next thought... I might be stereotyping, but I'm willing to bet that a lot of us here were never/are not selfish people. I'm sure there are pages of psychological data written about the personality traits of the chronically obese and the myriad reasons we ended up as we did. My point is, after bariatric surgery, you might have to become a little selfish. You may need to put yourself first, sometimes to the detriment of others. Obviously, it helps if you can do this in a nice manner, but with certain people and situations in your life post-surgery, you might just have to be a selfish a*****e. If your new lifestyle (diet, whatever you want to call it), exercise regimen, food habits, etc don't quite mesh with those around you, too bad. This is your last chance at success and you need to make YOU the priority. I walk a lot now...and it takes a lot of time. Some of that is time I used to spend with other people...now it's not always like that. Some have mentioned it. I don't care. I always invite them to walk with me but I'm not going to not walk because they want to do something else or don't feel like walking. When I think about some of the healthiest people I have known in my life, they were/are quite selfish when it comes to exercise. One of my friends has been to the gym every morning from 5:30-7:30 for 35 years. He never misses. It's not an option. That's amazing to me because despite the genetics of obesity, there's no question that having some type of exercise regimen helps at some level. Did I ever have that level of commitment? Only to stopping at Whataburger several times a week. So as much as I read pre-surgery and even with the psychological profiling the doctor did, I never read much or heard anyone talk about some of the changes I needed to make mentally to make this work. It seems like most of the pre-surgery discussion is about how to eat before and after the surgery and most of the psychological discussion is about not letting one addiction (food) be supplanted by another (drugs, alcohol, etc). The crux of this dissertation, if you're still reading, is that there couldn't be more truth to the phrase bantered around here...."They operated on your stomach, not your brain". Prepare yourself for some mental challenges that being thinner does not make any easier. I must look a lot better because everyone tells me so...but I don't always feel better. Some of the same issues I've dealt with all my life, totally unrelated to weight, are still around. It's not that I expected them to disappear, but I think at some level, deep down, many of us think/thought, "Oh, if only I weren't so fat, I wouldn't have to deal with this problem [insert the problem/issue of your choosing]". Maybe I was just being naive or stupid, or both, but even being "thin" comes with plenty of challenges. I know these are "first world" problems and I'm not trying to sound like a complaining, spoiled brat. I just wanted to let off some steam here in the hopes that I'm not alone. Thanks for listening.

I'm surprised you are 2 years post op and just now experiencing dumping syndrome. Kudos to you for avoiding rich, fatty or sugary food until now. (If that's the case.) Oddly I have only experienced it if I eat refined sugar. I made the mistake of eating birthday cake a couple weeks ago and found out very quickly that I cannot. Fortunately, I didn't have the rapid heartbeat, sweating or nausea but I spent the entire evening and half the night running to the bathroom. My body wasn't having it and went through me like water. I guess now I know to avoid it, since that was my first try. I have absolutely no problem with artificial sweeteners though. Is this a typo and meant to say, I can't eat anything? If so, that's a problem that needs to be checked out by your doctor. If you meant you are cleared to eat anything that only goes to show even if you can, you shouldn't. GL

my weight stabilized just a little after one year post post mark, but this was due to a months-long effort to stop weight loss by slowly increasing calories. reached goal at 7 months post (consuming sub-800 cals a day). upped calories after that lost another 10+lbs until around 14 months post when i stabilized (around 2000 cals a day) BUT this is NOT to say i stopped losing and/or gaining forever. i am 5 yrs post now and i have recently lost about 10 lbs in the last few months. it really just depends on one's metabolism and food consumption...the trick is to figure out what your sweet spot is (given your current activity level)

First off, congratulations on the weight you’ve lost so far! You should be proud. I am about seven months past surgery and I’ve hit my goal. As others have said, weight loss is very slow. I’ve only drifted down a pound or two in the last 2 to 3 weeks. It’s important to realize that you are still losing weight, so you are still working towards your goal. Some things you can do is take a look at how clean are your calories? Are you eating good, healthy food? Eating right keeps your body in-tune in all areas…keeps all the systems working harmoniously. Makes you feel good and keeps your MIND on track. Another thing you can do is look at your exercise. Keeping muscle is important as it burns the fat and cardio will help you in your daily calorie reduction. It doesn’t take much to energize your body to help burn even more calories. And above all else remember, slow loss is still a loss!!

Not foamies. Sounds more like dumping. It occurs after eating foods high in fat or sugar & yes for some people carbs or dairy. Have you raised it with your surgeon or support team? This link has information about dumping. It is for bypass but dumping with bypass is the same as dumping with sleeve. https://asmbs.org/resources/bariatric-surgery-postoperative-concerns#:~:text=About 85% of gastric bypass,syrup) or high glycemic carbohydrates.

That's happened to me once in a while . I break out in a sweat while eating. I just chalked it up to my stomach working hard to digest my food. I'm interested to see if anyone comes up with an explanation - I'm wondering about it,too.