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You mention your high weight was 360 - when was that? It looks like you've lost a lot of weight! I think that regardless of how much we have to lose, after a while, it just slows down. Our bodies get more efficient, it takes fewer calories to sustain us, so the defecit of calories is less than it was at a higher weight. But, to answer your question, I don't think you are a slow loser, I think you are doing great!

The 20-25 pounds you are referencing is not lost fat. Maybe a couple pounds ... yes, but let's look at this objectively. It is widely accepted that 1 pound represents 3,500 calories. Consume 3,500 more calories than you burn, you gain a pound. Burn 3,500 calories more than you consume, you lose a pound. So: 3,500 x 20 (lbs) = 70,000 That means, over whatever period of time your chose (1, 2 weeks) you need to run a deficeit of 70,000 calories ... Hmmm ... So, hopefully you can see there is no possible way to do that, even with the sleeve. So, what could it be? Water. Water is heavy and easily moved in (pre-sleeve) and not so much after sleeving. So, just listen to your Dr, do what you are supposed to do and get rid of the scale. It is completely meaningless at this point in your story. You are losing fat, but not much. You are also going to be losing muscle, so be sure to get your Protein in to help combat that. Good luck and keep us posted on how you are doing.

Sorry I didn't respond. I haven't been on much. Here is something that I have sent to a couple people about what I followed. First...you do need a combo of exercise and food, but I didn't start REALLY exercising until I had lost 50 pounds. My secret...I followed every rule! 1. I NEVER, EVER drink while eating. 2. Proteins first, veggies next ...and then I was pretty much done! I put 1 cup of food on my plate and I ate that. I never learned to stop when I was full. So I still have to treat myself as a 5 year old child. I give myself what I can eat and that is all I do. Yes it takes a lot of self discipline, but the empowerment you get from telling yourself NO will change your life forever. It has made me a better wife, sister, daughter, teacher and friend. I would overwhelm myself in the past and spread myself to thin. Now I can confidently say no, and things are much better. 3. I never deprived myself of any food so as to eliminate any cravings. The only thing I eliminated was rice because I just can't eat it any more. It gets stuck. And milk and ice cream...gone as well...I became lactose intolerant. I would have spaghetti...mostly with just sauce and ground chicken (my secret ingredient in everything), but I would have 6 penne noodles, just so that I didn't feel like I was being left out. 4. I had chocolate everyday...in the form of a pure Protein bar(that is the name of the bar...but I would stay away from the fruit ones...I thought they were disgusting.) It is low carb, high protein and cut the cravings for sweets, because I had one everyday. I get them at wal-mart. Make sure to look for the 190 calorie ones...not the 300 calorie ones! 5. I ate at 4 distinct times everyday. For my schedule (I am a teacher) it was 6:30, 10:30 (my prep period), 2:30 and 6:30. The 2:30 was the Protein Bar. 6. Shhhhh...don't tell...I did NOT focus on Water. I am a scientist...you dont need 64 ounces of water everyday. Drinking makes me hungry, so I only drink a half hour before I eat. I have to drink more now because I am training for a half-marathon. 7. Exercise...Once I added it, I did walking, strength training, elipticalling and now running. In fact yesterday I just ran 10 straight miles. But that has taken me since January to do that. Take it slow...injuries will sideline you for a long time. Don't over do it because you will get angry at the amount of time you have to spend and stop. Start slowly and start to kind of like it. I still will never LOVE it, even though I train 6 days a week. 8. Set attainable goals. Little things that you can Celebrate. 9. Find what works for you. Not everything I did here will work for you. Find what does and you will have solved the mystery for yourself. 10. Make a menu for yourself for the week, and eat only what is on their. On Friday, if you have followed the menu exactly give yourself one food that you would not normally have, but that still fits in your calorie count. Make sure it is not something that will cause you to binge. I have 1 bag of popcorn.

I used mydailyplate.com and figured out that my protein shake is 429 calories. Might that be too many? Chocolate soy milk protein powder 2 tbsp peanut butter (10g of extra protein) It's delicious!!!!

Hey all, I am getting close to 4 months post op and I am only taking in 400-600 calories a day. I don't feel hungry, even when I do, since I don't crave anything I don't want to eat. I know I've not been taking in enough protein and when I remember to try and 'catch up' its later in the day. I can't eat at my desk at work and my work never gave me any accommodations to help with meeting liquid and food intake which makes it a lot harder. I feel like I've gone off the rails but also having a bad mental night so focusing heavy on the negative which I was doing well at combating the last couple weeks.

So first off, if it were me (from my RD), drop the notion of "hitting all your calories." Instead focus on hitting your fluid goals, protein goals, vitamin/mineral goals (all of these are MANDATORY at your juncture). All liquids (in addition protein drinks) add up and are combined to help you meet your fluid goal. And the protein drinks also help you hit your protein goal too. My RD said she still has patients 1-2 years out drinking a shake per day. Well, I can tell you what I ate around your time so it's a little more of apples and apples. Hang on lemme go get that information.

I'm post op 2weeks and finally weighed in this week and lost only 1 pound. How can that be?? I'm still on liquid diet and have 480 calories a day! I drink 40 oz of water a day also!!! Wth ? Sent from my Moto Z3 Play using BariatricPal mobile app

No Really, I thought this was going to be easy. I guess I knew that having major surgery that shrinks the size of my stomach wasn't going to be a tra-la-di-da vacation. But you how the reality of something is rarely how you envision it. When they say decreased amount of food, did you think they meant a 1/2 cup of liquid of less. I guess I didn't realized how much overeating I was doing before. The gluttony of my lifestyle previously has become evident. I am a little freaked out that I am consuming so few calories. Ok.. That is enough of my boo-hoo. I can see that I had the thought my recovery was going to be only a few days and I would be back to life. Not so. Plus I think I jumped to full liquids to fast for my body. I am back today to juice and ice water. The journey has just begun.

Dr. Aceves gave a very detailed guideline on how many calories, carbs, fat, Protein we should be taking in each day. Calorie guideline was 600-800 per day. Most days I am in the 550 range. His guideline on carbs and fat was no more than 60 g a day and on protein a minimum of 60 g per day. I limit my fat and carbs to 30 g a day. I hope this helps!

I've never been good at (or interested in) counting calories, carbs, etc... And I've dieted successfully in the past without doing so. It seems to me that if you follow the guidelines that everyone seems to agree on, to use sugar free and fat free products and to focus on proteins first, then veggies, then occasional carbs, you won't overdue the calories or the carbs. I'm working from this standpoint right now within the guidelines of my post op diet and I hope it will allow me to live "counting" free.

Well I have been in a stall for about a month. I am about 3 1/2 months out. My carbs are 30 or under and I am drinking lots of fluids. i am getting some fat calories.... maybe those need to go really low? like under 20 a day? Trying to exercise but the stamina I used to have just isn't there. When you finally make it through the stall, do you go back to losing about 2 lbs a week? In the last month I have lost maybe 2 lbs. I have tried cutting carbs even more but it doesn't seem to help. Am hoping my weight loss will start again soon. Khy

I have been trying to us My Fitness Pal to track my diet, but it won't save my entries because I am at 800 or less calories a day at this stage. The most I can do as of now is see my current day and go from there. Any tips?

A new variation tonight!! 3/4 serving Cream Wheat, 1/2 can tomato soup, 1 teaspoon jelly(Fat free Sugar Free) and 1 TBSP Choc Pudding (Fat free, sugar free)=210 calories, 525 total for the day. Surgery F/U in 3 days then maybe new foods, I hope 22.5 pounds and counting. WOO-HOO

Agree with above statement, post op we are all very excited and expected the weight to fall off. But reality sets in and we all learn there is stil work involved in this journey. I also am a year out and I still learn everyday. If I want to lose I have to eat right and 95% of the time I do. I occassionaly stray, a have something that is a waste in my calories but those days are few and far between and usualy a planned party or event. I still have episodes when I eat to fast and foods gets stuck. Bad behavior patterns are hard to break but with time and discipine we can learn new and improved habits. Take the time to learn your new body and new limitations, the weight will come off if you stick to the plan and eat lean and heathy. We all lose at different speeds, never compare yourself to another. Every pound lost is a success. Good luck and keep motivated.

hi all I have been complaining and asking the same questions for the past 5 weeks and want to repeat it again.....I am 3 days away from seeing my follow-up doctor and will then ask him about all this.....problem is when I had a temprature the first week he said nothing can be wrong he saw what was done inside and all was fine......on another board I've heard a lot of complaints about him and now I dont quite know how to aproach the man..... I am a RN and very optimistic about the operation.I have lost 28 pounds in spite of all this because I stick to the calorie counting and dieting this dr prescribed....I have no eating problems.I eat small amounts and sometimes it feels as if something gets stuck and then I have a huge pain in the chest but I expect that is normal.......however.... I still have pain in the area where I think the band is.Not all the time but when I have eaten and when I walk on my treadmill it feels as if there is stitches that pulls a lot......also the shaking gives me a big pain in the stomach.... Then I get palpitations for no reason all the time.....never had it before the operation...... I get an intense pain in my stomach when I sit down.I have to lean back or sit up very straight otherwise something squashes in there......or something pulls my esophagus.....I also get spasm in my esophagus but way less than before..... Now,people say that they dont even know that they have the band after a few weeks.I feel this band around my stomach all the time.Sometimes painfull sometimes just discomfort....... Again if this is normal I just need someone to tell me so.I dont know what it should feel like and will it get better. I can now sleep on my sides and I can breathe deeper most of the time.. I have the Cousin 9cc band and I hear that the surgeon put some saline in when he does the band...about 2 or 3 cc's. I dont know if this is true and will ask the follow-up guy....he is not the surgeon that did the band however...... OK,this is a mouthfull.......please just tell me so.If I should just shut-up and get on with it.....well say so please.At least I will know but then my expectations and the reality of this operation is two completely different things and I cannot recommend this to anyone again..... Please help....

Good evening! I had band to bypass revision on May 3 and I LOVE IT!! I am so happy with my "decision". Mine wasn't so much of a decisions as it was...if you ever want to eat again you need to get the stupid band out of you. I was very successful with my band and lost 110 pounds in 9.5 months but then right around my 3 year anniversary I started having major problems. I was completely unfilled but I kept throwing up quite regularly. Any time anyone would question it, I just made one excuse after another without realizing it: The food was too tought, I ate to fast, I didn't chew enough, etc. Finally I had resorted to eating three things: Hershey's with almonds, cheese puffs, and Pasta with alfredo sauce because those were the only things that would go down with out being rejected by my band...which we soon nick-named the "anti-gravity band"...cuz what went down was inevitably coming up!!! (TMI...but any of us revisioners have been there and done that!) After craziness with my insurance company I finally had my revision done by Dr. Stowers in Decatur, TX. The recovery was very easy for me. I was back to work as a high school science teacher 6 days after surgery. The first two weeks were pretty easy because it was just liquids. Weeks 3-6ish were a little more difficult as I transitioned to soft foods and then to real foods. I was getting nauseated all the time. Every time I ate I felt like I was getting car sick. However, that has seemed to fade unless I eat too much fat. I have avoided sugar at almost all cost except for the piece of cheesecake on my birthday which sent me over the edge. Dumping for me is a lot less about running to the bathroom (though I was in there for a while) and more about my the heart pounding in my chest. From what I have read everyone's experience is a little different but for me I know when I have too much fat or sugar because my DH can put his hand just barely touching my shirt and feel my heart beating. I can feel it in my ears and it is awful. This might sound bad but I am done counting calories, grams of Protein, and everything else so I don't. I eat things that are healthy (though I am having a really hard time even wanting meat...it disgusts me right now!) and I eat small amounts but I don't fret like I did with my band. I have lost 27 pounds in just under three months. However, I was fairly close to goal and only have 13 pounds to go to get to goal so my BMI was not very high. Both my doctor and I agreed that I would take the weight off slowly because my rapid weightloss with the band caused me some medical issues. I will tell you that your tastes buds are going to change. I thought they were crazy when they said you wouldn't crave sweets, but I haven't wanted a candy bar, doughnut, or ice cream since surgery. Salt on the other hand...that is my new "transfer addiction". I can't get enough! Please let me know if you have any questions. I still feel like a newbie myself but I will do my best to answer any questions you might have. Good luck!

Thanks Mary! Both cream of Broccoli and cream of potato sound sooo good! :thumbup: I'll definitely try this! Maybe some shredded cheese with the egg beaters/salsa would work too (even if just a little cheese, don't wanna add too many calories!).

I agree. At 16 months, Miss Tummy has a comfortable capacity of about one cup. It is more like 3/4 for something dense like beef stew, one cup for regular foods like scrambled eggs or steamed veggies, and two cups for something that is mostly liquid like Soup or salad greens that break down into nothing. I can't really overfill without stacking the excess in my esopagus, but if I eat real slow or just nibble away at something, it would be easy to just eat all day. So, I have to discipline myself for 1/2 hour meals times and quick small Protein Snacks and then have Water available to sip all day. That helps me get 80-100 ounces of fluids by defining specific meals times. An ounce of peanuts has 168 calories and 8 grams of protein, but if I mindlessly graze on 1/2 cup, that is 32 grams of protein but 672 calories. Losing control is easy to do. Even at this far post-op, I still weigh and measure when I am at home. It keeps me out of touble.

I think the elliptical is a GREAT tool for rehabilitating knees and is also great for providing low impact workouts. However, for long term cardio I prefer either a treadmill or walking outdoors. Whichever you choose I would recommend using your target heart rate as your fat burning guide. Don't trust the machines that tell you how many calories you burned based on your height and weight. For some odd reason ellipticals are notorious for being inaccurate. http://www.shape.com/fitness/cardio/how-inaccurate-are-calorie-counters-gym

Hi jgj, I am down 46.5 pounds since surgery and 61 since my first appointment with the surgeon. I have yet to be able to get in enough Protein, fluids or calories. I "blue" so much of the time I'm actually on antidepressants and had the dosage raised in the last month. Don't understand why. Hit a stall that lasted 3 weeks at 3 weeks, so that was expected. There is very little I actually like to eat. It seems like more trouble than it's worth. Thanks for answering! Susan

I eat eggbeaters (egg whites...less calories) with a piece of cheese every morning and I'm good until noontime.

I have been battling anemia since my intake exam. It has become a problem for me. They said that if I am still anemic before surgery they won't do it. My surgeon though, ALSO asked me to lose 20 pounds (which I did.) Then the nutritionist asked me to lose 10 more pounds (Which I did. ) The anemia is worse than EVER. And they want me to go on a liquid fast for two weeks before surgery. How is that going to solve my anemia? I feel caught between a rock and a hard place. I am trying to eat Iron rich foods. I have been taking a one a day plus iron. Eating total Cereal for Breakfast and three ounces of red meat at dinner, while still keeping it to the 1200 calorie limit I've been set at. But I'm still anemic. And on nov 3 I am stupposed to start a liquid fast to shrink my liver. I expect my rbc to go downhill from there unless I cure myself real good. Any ideas? I'm so frustrated. It's like starving myself while curing a chronic problem. It's way too hard. I am doing all the nutritionist said and even she's at a loss. How long does it normally take to cure anemia? I'm getting so discouraged. Does anyone know what I can do , especially during a liquid only phase of the pre op diet, to cure myself of chronic anemia? I am taking the one-a-day plus iron pill. Should I go buy extra iron tablets and kind of take a bunch of them each day or something? I am so frustrated and I really don't know what to do. My nutritionist gve up and said ask the pcp. My pcp just shrugged and asked abut my periods. No magic shot in the arm to take it away or anything. I still feel like this is going to jeapordize getting the surgery. I've tried so hard to lose all the weight and do everythng they said. I hate to not get the surgery after all this. can you help me?

On my pre-op diet I lost 21 lbs. Then I was sleeved on July 21. During the first 2 weeks after surgery I lost about 15 lbs. But in the last 2 weeks I've only lost about 2-3 lbs. I'm really happy that I lost 38 lbs in the past 6 weeks...and I know it's going to take time. I've read lots of posts about stalls and can be patient. Right now I'm eating every 3 hours and average around 800-900 calories/day. Today my surgeon told me that I wasn't eating enough calories and that my body is in starvation mode...and that I need to increase my calories in order to lose weight...and eventually (in a few months) I need to get up to 1600-1800 calories/day. So my goal right now is to increase to 1200 calories..but honestly I don't know how I'm going to get these calories in. I don't want to start eating junk...and I don't really want to add bread, Pasta, carbs. Has anyone experienced this? Any suggestions on how to get in more HEALTHY calories? Thanks!

I hear you. The nut told me I wasn't eating enough calories too. I stalled for a whole week on the 3rd week post-op, since then I've started losing again and lost another 10 pounds since then. I didn't change a thing, it just happened. I'm right on track according to my dr. but it does feel slow. I am far out enough that the nut told me to add nuts as a snack to get more calories. But you may not be far out enough yet. I don't know what to tell you other than keep trying to add a little bit at each meal. It's hard I know. But did you ever in your wildest dreams think you would have the problem of not eating ENOUGH?

Thanks for all the great information. I'm only three months post op and have not had any pasta at all. The calories in regular pasta are ok, it's the carbs that concern me. That's why I would like to try the noodles. I'm not craving carbs at this time, but would like to know I can have a little when and if I can tolerate them.