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Hi everyone, I’m about 2 years post-op from my sleeve gastrectomy, and I’m honestly struggling a lot. I feel like I need to reach out because I’m not sure if what I’m experiencing is normal or if something has gone really wrong. Here’s what’s happening: I burp every single time I drink water—even the smallest sip triggers it. I feel discomfort or pain every time I eat, even if it’s a tiny portion. I deal with bloating and a kind of sneaky, constant stomach pain that never really goes away. I believe I also have IBS (I had signs before surgery), but now my whole digestive system feels messed up. Food has become a chore and, honestly, a source of shame. I avoid eating in social settings because I feel uncomfortable and embarrassed. Has anyone else felt this way, even years after surgery? Is this just how it is now… or could something else be going on like a hiatal hernia or something fixable? I’d really appreciate hearing from others who’ve been through similar issues or have found ways to cope. This surgery helped in some ways, but in others, it feels like I’ve traded one struggle for another. Thanks in advance for reading.

I am 3 years out this month. I track my food religiously every day. I try to eat clean and cook almost all of my food. My calories are on average 1500 a day and as this was my first trial number at maintenance, I was lucky. I don't restrict myself to diet foods. I eat full fat versions. It eat good quality food, even chocolate. I weigh myself every few days. My exercise is limited to walking a few miles, a few times a week. Oh and window shopping in town, once a week. I also stay on this site and read it almost every day as it seems to keep my focus.

Everyone has different plans from their doctors but in all of them I have never heard of being on regular food after 2.5 weeks. Do you mean non liquid phase and that you are normal food but soft? I hope so as that is all your stomach should be handling now as you can't digest normal food at this stage, which is what may cause the vomitting and pain. It should be no water 30 minutes before and after a meal so maybe if you are only leaving it 10 minutes that is causing the problem? I did have gas issues but it was caused by complications so not the same for you I am sure. Could you ask your doctor about taking something to help with reflux?

You’re not going to feel the restriction until you are much further along in your healing (takes around 6-8 weeks) & eating solid foods. A lot of nerves are cut or damaged during the surgery so messages simply aren’t getting through or are distorted if they do. The staged return to eating is to protect your recovery and to ensure you don’t damage your healing digestive system (think of all those sutures and staples holding your tummy together- I believe it’s around 12inches of sutures+staples with a sleeve. You should only progress your stages if your surgeon advises you to. It’s also one of the reasons why we’re advised to eat slowly and are given portion sizes we should stick to. Also remember that liquids go through the tummy much more quickly than solid food so you don’t really get full in the same way as you know sipping your shakes slowly. Purées go through a little more quickly but nothing like solid foods.

No! No! No! Besides why would you? Let’s be honest. We enjoy eating. The smell, the textures, the flavours, the look and sometimes the sound of food ( like the crunch of an apple) is appealing & gives us pleasure. We celebrate with food. We share food with loved ones. We give thanks with food. Why would you sacrifice that to drink a protein shake for every meal? Yes, you may be prescribed shakes in your pre surgical diet and you will be prescribed them for usually 2 weeks after surgery. The pre surgery shakes are to increase your weight loss to improve your surgical success odds & to shrink your liver so the surgeon can see the surgical field more easily. Post surgery it’s to support your healing & not strain your digestive system (remember all those sutures & stables holding it together). Short term reliance on shakes. The goals of the surgery include you changing your relationship with food and establishing a healthy, nutritionally dense, sustainable way of eating. Drinking shakes for any extended period of time is simply not sustainable. It’s not nutritionally sound, only gives more power to cravings, creates new bad relationships with food and will highly likely result in weight regain & poor health. Key word here is supplement. If you are struggling to get your protein in via the real food you eat, sure a protein shake can be beneficial as a supplement to your earring. Same with any vitamin or supplement. If your body is lacking in specific vitamin or minerals, sure take a supplement but they should never be what you totally rely on to get the nutrients your body needs to function unless you have a specific medical condition that means you can not eat real, solid food. I never touched another shake after I began purées (start of week 3). My goal was always to get all the nutrients I needed through real food. And I do. I don’t even take vitamins now (except in winter when I have a dip in my vitamin D - I feel the cold so hibernate in winter & rug up if I have to go out so little sunlight for me then). Ask your nutritionalist, surgeon & GP. I bet they agree with all of us.

Sorry, wanted to make one other comment here. Please don't approach your weight loss as something that will inevitably stall short of your goals. Plenty of us make it to goal and below, and have maintained this lower weight successfully. There are two things that will really up your chances here: You need to eat better and move more. If you slowly start making better food choices, you'll find you'll lose weight more steadily and be a lot less likely to regain. By making better food choices, I mean eating less ultra-processed foods and focusing instead on: Protein: High quality legumes Lean dairy Lean meats Carbs: Mostly veggies Some whole grains Some fruit Fats: Try to make this primarily monounsaturated fats This is not to say you can never have a treat, or have to eat only the above, but the more you focus on less processed foods, the better off you'll be. I also recognize that you can't make changes like this overnight. Take your time by just making small changes here and there until they become your new normal. Once those small changes are the new norm for you, it's time to make another small change. Keep at this process of making just small changes and eventually, your diet will be a lot better. In terms of movement, we now have lots of data to show that people that are successful in maintaining after weight loss tend to be very active. Once again, I know you're not going to be running any marathons tomorrow, but you absolutely can start small and focus on doing more and more over time. The CDC recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity per week, which works out to 30 minutes per day for 5 days. They also recommend 2 days of strength training per week. Some data suggests that formerly overweight and obese people need to do even more than this, so my personal recommendation would be to shoot for at least 300 hours of moderate-intensity physical activity or 150 hours of intense physical activity, or some combination of the two per week. If you are over 65, the CDC also recommends you do some sort of regular training to improve balance since this can have a dramatic impact on fall risk. I know that sounds like a lot, but again, if you start slow (even 5 minutes a day 3 days a week), you definitely can get there. For reference, moderate intensity physical activity is walking a brisk pace, or similar activities such as a slow bike ride. Intense physical activity is more like jogging or riding a bike up a hill. If you didn't work up a sweat, it definitely does not count as intense.

Bring snack I can eat is a good idea! I have a 7 hour layover at some point so I'd rather not wander around for whatever fast food they have at Sea-Tac.

Lynda486, that doesn't sound like a STAT CT if you can't get in to get one until Tuesday!! And liquid diet with soft foods when you can't even take in fluids without it hurting. I for sure would look at maybe going to their hospital where you had the surgery, to the ER, and see if they can get an emergent CT to find out what is happening. I know there is an insurance situation, but the old job should have COBRA for you for at minimum of 3 months, you can choose to do that if you are still in the right time frame. Either way, I'm more concerned about the health than the money, right? Being out as long as you have, do you remember what you may have done with your workout or walking, fall, or twist your body then it was a problem or it just happened for no apparent reason? I would seriously get some pictures and get them now. Not knowing where you were for your surgery vs. where you live now, indicating that you needed to stay in town...I'm assuming that you live quite a distance. Instead of paying for a hotel or motel room, go to the ER of the hospital your practice uses for surgery. That way you have the care you need and the pictures done via x-ray or CT. Let us know your progress!!

Yep, also in this age group! I am getting sleeved on Jan 16! 🥳 It's been a long time coming with a few false starts, but great to get all the little duckies in a row! 😁 Just got to make it through Christmas, which is pretty boozy and lots of food here in Australia!! 🤪

I grieve solid food in general, but specifically pasta. I'm fairly low income and pasta is cheap to buy and prepare. Whole-wheat alternatives are rare and unaffordable for me. Once I can eat solid food again, I'm going to have to find cheap alternatives.

It sounds like your going to be very busy so maybe you wont be so focused on food. A part of my success is attributed to meal prepping- I meal prep every single week. Sometimes I meal prep meals for grab or go or I will meal prep items for those tempting nights at home where I want to eat cereal or something that is not so great instead of cooking. you will get quicker at meal prep too, I used to take 2+ hours now I can whip up my meal prep in 1hour. I also learned to not complicate it. Easy meals can be just as delicious! I bulk prep chicken breast, and ground beef, hard boiled eggs, wash and cut up veggies/fruits, make sure to have Greek yogurt and cottage cheese on hand, It does make life easier when your prepared! Also having better choice snacks stocked up in the fridge/pantry helps too! Cheese sticks, jerky, flavor packets for water (if you like that) protein shakes, protein powder, protein bars (recommend Built bar or fulfil bar), unsweetened almond milk. skinny syrups for coffee...theres more its just off the top of my head these things lol

Food. A lot of listeria contamination warnings lately but maybe it has always been this way and I’m just noticing.

What you're experiencing is completely normal. Partly your body is simply trying to heal from the surgery, so food right now is not what a healing stomach wants. Regarding the tastes changing, it's entirely possible that some foods you used to like you may never want again. Other things you'll learn to enjoy again. This is just something we all go through. The water thing should get better over time. At this point, your stomach is likely still swollen, so it just can't hold very much. Most of us had to really be religious about drinking just maybe 1-2 ounces at a time and trying to drink every 10-15 minutes while awake. This is hard right after surgery, but as I said, it gets a lot easier as the swelling goes down and you're able to drink more normal amounts. The nausea is a little unusual this far out, so I'd honestly recommend talking to your surgical team. It could just be from overeating/drinking, but it's best to talk to the experts. Regarding weight loss, you have to keep in mind that your body is made up of a lot of other "stuff" besides just fat. You may well be retaining fluid or stool and that can mask weight loss early on. It's physiologically impossible to be eating as little as you are and not losing fat, so please just have faith in the process. The best thing you can do is follow your surgical team's post-op instructions and you WILL lose fat.

I appreciate all the advice and kind words of encouragement. I bounce between the scary feelings I have about eating and being excited to lose weight and be a healthier me to enjoy life with my family as much and as long as I can. I was and am just a little overwhelmed because I initially went to my surgeon about the hernia repair. He informed me of this sleeve-to-bypass revision that would be in my best interest which I was not expecting. Hence, this isn't so much of a weight loss journey for me as it is a quality of life journey, With that being said it brought me back to confronting my unhealthy relationship with food and took me back to a time after my sleeve in 2009 where the smell of food would take me into an anxiety-riddled panic attack. All the byproduct of not taking the appropriate steps in getting my mind right before the procedure since I went to another country for my initial procedure. The hernia repair to me has now taken a back seat to the lifestyle changes needed to move forward with the bypass and everything that entails. This time I hope to do it a little better and taking the appropriate steps to making my lifestyle change more healthily. It's still very early in my journey. I don't have a date yet. Tomorrow is my initial consultation with the registered dietician and nutritional counselor and hopefully I will feel comfortable discussing my fears of failure. Again thank you for the advice I am truly humbled.

You haven't failed. This is a really hard time of year. What helps me is going to therapy and trying to recognize if I am having actual hunger or if it's my brain just wanting food. You can do this.

Spartan Maker thanks for the feedback. I am doing my best to increase my physical activity every day. I am weight training with the a trainer 2x a week and I’ve been trying to get in 30-45 minutes of cardio 2-3 times a week to. I do agree I probably need to do my best to up the intensity. I think I’ll start couch to 5k and start jogging. Lately my protein has been variable. I always get 70-80 but I know I would like to get more like 150. On a good day I get 110. My calories have been anywhere from 900-1300 depending on the day and if I work long hours. My hunger is generally fair. I do get hunger cues and what not but it’s not terribly overwhelming. I have been feeling great overall. I would say as far as processed foods the main thing I eat processed is the shakes otherwise I have been trying to eat Whole Foods. I am a nurse and work 12 hour shifts and I do need To do better about getting a little additional physical activity after my shifts. This is a journey but have been blessed with feeling good and generally have good energy.

Hi in 2days post op an I feel great I’m so hungry an the smell of foods just makes me even more hungry the spicy bowls my daughter makes smells so good ong Ian I the only one here

I attend a lot of high-quality bariatric groups and I like to take bits and pieces from what everybody has expressed and apply what's useful. Some group members have felt the same way as you and they expressed that they got back on track by naming the feeling, doing a reset, and getting back to the basics. You are doing fine and will continue to be great. So basically a lot of mind work is involved in this Journey. 1. What am I feeling? There is a feelings wheel and a feelings app to help you name your feelings. 2. Is this head Hunger, emotional hunger, or do I really need to eat ? 3. Well, I can't seem to get past this hump do I need further assistance from a therapist, etc. People with kids and spouses stated that they make them keep their foods in a separate bin in separate drawers, or up on a higher shelf where it's not at their eye level. I understand that when there are other people in the home it's harder because they do not eat the same as you. I can't sugarcoat it. This **** is hard but I know you will conquer this feeling.

Hi. What if you buy a portion control plate maybe it will help you keep your solid food under control 🤔

@bahuber5477 Great job, it sounds like your doing all the right things! I too make an exception for protein shakes. The nutrient profile for most of them is fantastic and for many of us, it would be next to impossible to reach our protein goals eating just whole foods. I know I can't eat that much and I'm over 2 years out. As an aside, I just wanted to say thank you for what you do. Nurses are the unsung heroes of the healthcare system and I for one really appreciate what you all do.

Thank you so much for your replies, my tummy has calmed right down now and I am managing to get in at least 70g of protein a day. I am also getting in at least 2 litres of fluid daily too. I am having 3 small meals a day - half a cup each time. I am trying to space them out as well. The head hunger is worse for me, I didn't realise how obsessed I was with food until now! Every time I pass a shop, go out for the day and loads of others scenarios! Any tips for that guys? x

Basically eggs lots of different ways, and soups and stews. I loved adding lentils to lots of dishes at the soft food stage. And yes - loads of minced pork, beef, turkey, again in as many different ways as my family would tolerate. That list above from @AmberFL looks amazing. It ended up lowish carb eating focusing on protein too. And as much home cooking as possible so you really know what you're getting!

To be fair, that's soup sounds amazing! Very different to what I've been having. If I have another cream of chicken soup in this life, I may throw a hissy fit. Seriously, I know it's all temporary and I'm going slowly because I don't want anything I do to mess this up. The puree stage makes me feel more full than I have in months. After a few bites, (maybe 3 tablespoons total) I was full. But my eyes, are still bigger than my stomach and my eyes were telling me that's not enough. I went for a walk after I was done to make sure I wasn't tempted to have more.

I guess I shouldn't respond late at night like I did above because I left out some common mistakes people make when logging calories: Mindless eating: either failing to log those little nibbles here and there (including when tasting food during prep), or trying to log it, but guessing after the fact as to how much they actually ate. Not understanding that raw vs cooked food can have vastly different calories. A classic example: The USDA says 100 grams of raw chicken has ~106 to 120 calories per 100 grams. The problem is that when cooked, 100 grams of this same chicken is ~165 calories. The primary reason is due to water lost during the cooking process. This is not an issue if you properly portion out how much of the chicken breast you ate, but if you are using the raw calories and weighing it when cooked, you'd actually be eating a lot more calories than you think. This is a big one: not counting liquid calories. for reasons I don't fully understand, a lot of people just either ignore or don't log liquid calories. That juice they drank for breakfast? Didn't log it. The milk in their coffee? Nope, not logged. That energy drink they had in the afternoon? Not logged either. I think you get the idea. If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm not a huge fan of logging calories since it's really hard to do correctly and even when done to the best of our ability, it's still often wrong. I think, as it may be in your case, it also can become a crutch. There is no cheating physics here. If you eat more calories than you burn in a day, you'll gain weight and if you eat less, you'll lose. As I hope you'll see from what I've posted, in all likelihood, you're eating more than you think. Let's just for the sake of argument say you're really great at logging and you really are just eating 1200-1400 kcal a day. The only other explanation would be an exceptionally low BMR. This would really suck if it's true, but if we assume it is true, then that would still mean you're eating too much. Either way, you have to eat less than you're eating now if you want to lose.

@Dub That was an incredibly moving story. One thing I have learned is that therapy is important and community is therapy. To deal with being mindful and keeping the focus, I attend groups several times a week through BariNation. It has my people, like this forum does but with medical/psychological experts and meet ups with others. Just being and sharing helps keep from the regain as well. I spend less on food now, so I use that for my membership. My health has improved, I feel better mentally and emotionally, and feel useful again as I get treatment, and am helpful with my fellow Bari Friends at BariNation. I have yet to get what I get from BariNation anywhere else, and believe me I have searched and today I am calm and happy because as I said, community is therapy, and once you find your people, you know you are where you belong. This forum is good, but it isn't live. There is so many life lessons we will deal with as we live our lives and we need the capacity to handle those that come our way. Have some love for yourself and just try it. Be mindful and help to minimize stress through compassion and fun through BariNation.MN.CO