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Hey all! I’m new here. I’ve been doing my two protein shakes per day and one lean cuisine with 2 cups of broccoli but I’m still so starving!!! I have my date for January 22,2025! Help!

I'm sorry I haven't replied until now. Just got on here yesterday and wasn't on my computer so couldn't see everything well. My life has been so so busy since I first came on here! I had 14 dietitian appointments and other visits while working extra to help my clients get ready for Christmas then surgery was on Dec. 2. So just been crazy. Just now on regular foods. Having trouble with liquids and protein myself. Making tuna salad meal prepping this evening for tonight and tomorrow. Tuna and eggs helps. And I'm getting better at drinking all day but wasn't before and was struggling a lot. I always drank a lot when I ate food so this is a whole new world for me. And also I've noticed my tastes have changed so much! Have yours?

It’s interesting how things vary @DaisyChainOz my pre-op diet only has one stage. It’s three OptiFast products, any non-starchy vegetable, no sugar, no carb, 1 tsp oil, 100g protein.

It's going okay so far. I'm down 22 lbs. since my initial consult in late November, 5 lbs since I started pre-op diet on Jan 1st. They put me on a no-carb, protein-fruit-veggies-only diet to start with. I start my full liquid diet on the 13th, which I will be on for two weeks before I switch to clear liquids only. It'll be a challenge, but I think I'll do all right. Good luck with everything!

Well my bariatric surgeon is a general surgeon so when the oncologist asked if I had a surgeon I said yes so she called him and he also installed my chemo port two days later (thank god). Well my body “spit a stitch” which is not uncommon but the Oncology PA said it could cause infection and obviously that is my lifeline right now and requiring another surgery would delay my treatment so I wanted it looked at by the surgeon office. I seen the surgical PA. He took it out and it’s fine but it also gave me a chance to talk to him about my fitness and nutrition. He said that I am so dedicated and I have been doing so great that he is not worried about me. He said I shouldn’t be trying to run at a huge deficit right now though because the cancer actually burns carbs and so does the chemo so my body may need them right now. He said it’s more important to fuel my body to keep up being active since active people are proven to have better outcomes. I have to admit that I’ve been pretty fortunate so far with the side effects of the chemo at least 🤷‍♀️ . Anyways, I told him that since that low Fiber aka high carb diet I have been craving sugar a lot. I told him I am trying to satisfy it with veggies and fruits but I’m not 100%. He said that great try to have my sugar wrapped in fiber and not plastic. He said that he has no doubt that once this is behind me that they can get me back on track. i told him that my next phase requires really high steroids to be infused weekly and the oncologist said most people gain but they are able to lose it. I said she must not have had a patient like me. I asked if I’m having a real hard time since I will be past the honeymoon period if we could use like Wegovy to get me back on track and he said that’s an option. I told him that I think I may only need it for like a month to detox from these carbs because they really are like a drug to me and I feel like I need like 30 day rehab and then I can do it. He said that they will not abandon me and we will figure out whatever it takes to get me to my goal after I beat this. That made me feel really hopeful that I will still be able to pick this back up. I was worried that I would have to gain a lot back before anyone would give me Wegovy if I need it, but it sounds like it could be an option sooner (I’m guessing I will have to pay OOP but hopefully only for a few doses to get to the regular dose).

Exactly. If it were the men having to do it they would whine until the standard of care would change. I’m sure that they could easily give you the option to do it at the hospital under twilight anesthesia (especially if you have not given birth and it will be worse), but because most women can “deal with it” and don’t complain they aren’t going to change it. A friend of mine who has had two children just recently had an issue switching hers. The strings were cut too short and they weren’t visible so they had to go digging and searching with hooks. The regular gyno couldn’t get it so she had to go back and see the surgeon who was finally able to remove it but she said THAT was awful because it took so much longer and even when they scheduled for the surgeon knowing that it wasn’t routine anymore they still didn’t have her take anything!! I know that for some people it’s not a big deal but we all know that our bodies are different and our pain threshold’s are as well. There really does need to be more consideration given to these things. I’m glad that you have that visit behind you and hopefully have 8 years until you have to deal with it again. Maybe they will make some changes to the procedure by then. 🤞

SO I had the wonderful experience of having my IUD (hormonal coil), removed & replaced yesterday. Knowing how painful it was being fitted the first time, and having not experienced having it replaced before, I decided to take 2 30mg codeine/500mg paracetamol tablets, as pain relief for women during such procedures really is just forgotten about. I'd eaten some protein stick things too. Pre-surgery I'd taken these tablets fine, no side effects, but OMFG, as I was sitting in the waiting area before my procedure it hit me like a brick **** house. I was sweating, nauseous, my stomach was cramping and pain was radiating into my back, I felt spacy and woozy and I was clearly very pale in my face and lips as the nurse went to get me a sick bowl 🤣 Needless to say, instead of actually giving me pain relief, it actually made the entire experience so much worse 🤣 I will not be taking them again! Does anyone else have any experiences with medication effecting them differently? Note to add: this medication was given to me by my surgeon for post-surgery!

Hello everyone! I kind of disappeared during the holidays but came back by to poke my head in and see how others were doing. Seems like most of us are plugging away at this 'getting healthier' thing. Reminder (and FYI for any who read this and didn't know) I got the SADI surgery, which is the intestinal revision with the sleeve all in one go initially. This makes me feel extra obligated to update for some reason - maybe because I had to dive so far into my journey to find this option and how eager I was to hear about the results from others. So - my surgery was Sept 5th, and I lost 10 lbs in my pre-surgery liquid diet, which I had for one full week. On the day of surgery I was 352 and now, about four months out, I've lost right at about 70lbs. The weight loss has slowed a bit as I found my balance but I'm still losing 1-3lbs per week on average, about 7 lbs lost in the last 30 days. I got through my weight loss stalls by eating more, as I was only getting around 500 calories per day for a while as I maintained ketosis, with VERY few carbs. That was nice, but my energy was lacking. I shifted to included more fruits, veggies, and upped my protein from 60g per day to more like 75g. Now I get around 900-1200 calories per day, try to really focus on getting my water for the day, and angle for simple protein snacks with a small carb total when I get hungry. I have found cottage cheese to be a life saver as a replacement 'side' - and stirring it into my salads gives the salad more bulk and makes it easier for me to feel full. Eggs are not quite as weird for me as they were for a while - I still prefer boiled eggs over scrambled or fried. I do aim to get at least 5k steps per day and usually make that goal.I definitely slacked on exercise around the holidays and did snack more than a few times on things I shouldn't have. I feel lucky that my intestinal malabsorption keeps me accountable for poor choices. I have gotten the foamies once - and have overeaten like three times by a few too many bites. I feel like my relationship with food is much healthier and am far more likely to cook now as opposed to grabbing greasy garbage food. However your path feels like it's going - this is a great time to correct the course if it feels a bit off track. Your bodies are working for you, and you are working for those bodies! Kudos to all of us for taking these steps to a healthier lifestyle! Remember, too, that no one day of slipping up is going to sink you. As I said to my perfectionist son the other day - an A in school is 90%-100% (generally, anyhow!) so it's still an A even if you slip up one out of ten times ❤️✨

Thank you both so much for sharing flir stories and wisdom. I meet w the doc tomorrow to discuss options. In the meantime I was due for my wegovy shot on Thurs. Have been ravenous since Sat evening. Which is making me painfully aware that I may need a more permanent solution cause what if something changes and I no longer can get the meds via insurance. It's a lot to process. But now I guess I need to research more about sleeve vs band vs other options. Thanks again. Gina.

Mine is 2 meal replacement shakes/soup/bars unlimited low carb veggies, 100-150gm protein and 1 fat serve per day, under 1000 cals. Yours looks pretty manageable, how are you coping?

That's awesome, well done! Much easier to rest and get sleep at home! 👍 How are you feeling? Able to get your water and protein in?

It was so weird though that BRAT diet is Bananas, Rice (white), applesauce and Toast (white) so basically carbs and not protein and not much else. Well between the diarrhea which is why I was on the diet and the food without any nutrients I was getting weaker by the day. I was staying pretty hydrated so I think that majority of it was just the drastic change in nutrition. Just one week with All them carbs and I was up hungry several times a night (craving sugar), lazy and fatigued all day and it was just snowballing by the day. I don’t ever want to go back to feeling that way!! I can’t believe that was our normal for so long and we had no idea how much better we were supposed to be feeling. The nurse is the one who told me to do that diet and I questioned it with my history but she insisted but as soon as I seen the Dr she said she never would’ve put me on that diet and took me off. I hate when the nurses overstep their authority and won’t just ask the darn Dr. Anyways, it’s a warning for me about how that diet makes my body feel and I don’t want to do it again.

Well today was round 4 of my chemo and immunotherapy and steroids, etc. Messing with my tastes a bit on certain stuff Things don’t taste gross just not good. I came home and i did chicken breast with a little ceaser side salad and a tiny bit of spinach tortolini. I know that last one was not ideal but it made the meal go down easier if that makes any sense. I guess it’s a balance for now to get the rest of what I need in nutrition wise and it was cheese filled so still protein. 🤷‍♀️ I am about to go eat some mixed fruit now for my snack. I also did five miles walking and tomorrow morning I have yoga. I think that getting my nutrition and exercise is really helping my body deal with all of this because I did the stringer one up front so it’s been two months and i don’t have alot of side effects yet. The doctors are pretty amazed. Knock on wood I am able To keep it up because I had to do that BRAT diet for a week and I could feel myself getting weaker and my sleep was off and I wasn’t wanting to exercise. I am REALLY trying to keep to my habits as best as I can. I hope everyone else is doing well with juggling their bariatric journey with “life” as well.

Check with your Dr. There may be options to get you back on track and losing.

Day 2 of my preop liquid protein diet  Surgery is next Wednesday, January 8, 2025.

Love it! This is a very reasonable menu for the day. I like that it relies mostly on real food and supplies a lot of nutrition from veg, fruit, and beans. My dietician would be thrilled with the macros. If you wanted to avoid the protein shake, you could maybe add 3oz of ground turkey to the chili to make up the protein. I'm 10 months post-op and this would be a manageable/very filling amount of food for the day.

So, I never had lapband, but I was exactly your starting weight and height last year and chose gastric bypass after 7 years of nutrition work and trying Saxenda and Wegovy with varying degrees of effectiveness but too high a cost and too hard to get with shortages. I was 250 in 2016. I got down as low as 205 in 2018. I slowly regained until I was back to 250, despite my best efforts. I'm now 11 lbs away from being back to a normal BMI for the first time since I was 18 years old! What I can tell you from my experience is obesity is a disease that never goes away, even if you lose weight. Your body will always want to be bigger without constant intervention. Surgery is the strongest intervention you can give yourself. Personally, I chose gastric bypass because I didn't like the idea of completely removing my stomach. It's still there, hanging out, not doing much. All my intestines are still there, just in a slightly different configuration. Plus, I know that bypass offers a somewhat stronger and more durable metabolic response, making it less likely to need GLP-1 meds in the future to maintain weight. If you have the lapband removed and do nothing else, realistically, you will probably be back to 250 within a few years and never be much lighter than that again FOREVER. If you continue meds, you might stay where you are or lose a little more as long as you keep taking the meds FOREVER. If you get surgery, you can reasonably expect to get down to 160 or less and maintain that for a very long time with reasonably good nutrition and exercise, hopefully with no other interventions needed (although you may eventually need meds). But no matter how you look at it, the struggle with obesity is forever, so you have to choose the option you are most comfortable with in the longterm.

Tomorrow will be a year since surgery, I've lost 62 lbs since the surgery, a total of 100 lbs since the beginning of the journey. This started for me with gastroparesis, hiatal hernia, and bile acid reflux with normal GERD. All of that is now better and other than a slight hiccup (hernia repair in November) I've done very well. Overall the first few weeks are still a blur, and life just got easier as the months passed. I continued to walk and work out, and the difference is amazing. My feet feel better, my back feels better. I have plantar fasciitis, and have had spinal fusion at 2 levels, so that is an incredible relief, the pain is much more manageable now. I used to get relief only from NSAIDs, now tylenol works well. My prediabetic situation is now gone, my A1C went from a 6 to a 5.2. I've recently discovered I can have a bit of chocolate or regular cookies, any more than a bit and I'll have sweating, nausea, etc. It's not that bad for me, but not pleasant which is actually helpful. I can eat anything I want to, but I don't feel driven to eat the things I know I shouldn't eat. Head hunger is a thing but I deal with it by eating protein and if it doesn't taste good, I'm not physically hungry. Not to say I haven't had a few slippery slope moments, I have, but it's much easier to get back into the good habits now that I've been doing it for a year. I just feel like myself again, physically I feel normal again, and that is life altering. I wear stupid cute clothes, mostly thrifted because I didn't know where I would land, but I think I'm there now. I loved trying different styles and colors from what I've been wearing, and now I'm back to my style, just different sizes. I wear softer colors, loose and comfortable styles, and I just feel good. I have to say that this site, and the people on here that take the time to answer questions and discuss the experience has been extremely helpful, so thank you!!!! Happy New Year everyone!

I had a pretty nasty bout of blood in my stool which put me in the emergency room- I had lost a lot of blood. When the finally got the endoscopy done two days later- no active bleed. But it was depressing to say the least, and I'm no youngster at 70 years. So, I decided to stop alcohol. I've done it before- I was sober for about 35 years before I resumed drinking and went from 1-100 pretty fast. I know I'm an addictive personality, I found a program- outpatient intensive that will accept me-the real trick with this is what is called "after-care." I was never much for AA, but found groups where people can give feedback or respond to be extremely helpful. That will happen as p/o this program but it is short term and I've asked about aftercare options following the "intensive." I think my life will be better without the booze- it certainly was most of my adult life-- I got careless, figured WTF, and wanted something to calm me down. I don't like pot, it makes me paranoid. I used to drink tons of fizzy water. Can't really do carbonated drinks post surgery , I do stay hydrated and use sugar free electrolyte powder in my thermos. (Doesn't everybody have a thermos these days that they carry around? Sure seems like it). Anyway, the best path for me is the simple- abstinence and getting back to a mentality where a drink is out of the question. I gather than gastric bypass patients may be prone to shifting addictions but I already knew this was an issue for me before the surgery. Still working out at the gym-a life saver and seeing a "shrink" have both also helped, as has my internist. I'm hardly a moralist about this- if you can handle drink, fine. It's obvious that I'm in that cohort that cannot. Thanks for listening and for the feedback here. Happy this year to all.

Some people can just have a taste but I learned after my sleeve that I am not one of them. I can’t have one slice of pizza or one brownie. Even if I manage to have just one that day I will crave more unhealthy stuff the following days. At bedtime I have been doing the sugar free popsicles. That seems to be working. If you have actual hunger then something with protein would be a better option. Like a Greek yogurt maybe. Can you budget the calories so you can do that. I think the triple zero is only like 80 calories. That should keep you full through the night though.

Some people (including me) find it helpful to go back to protein first, veg second, small amount of carbs third at every meal. Cut out processed foods and sugar. As Arabesque says, check whether you are really properly hungry before picking up anything. Try to introduce more veg and fruit if you can tolerate those. Veg sticks pre-prepared have been my lifesavers over the last few months when I was trying to lose a big regain in my third year post procedure. And track absolutely everything - when I stopped that (complacency) my regain started because it's so easy for little things to add up. Some people who have regained after WLS have done well on Ozempic/Mounjaro type drugs, and some bariatric teams will prescribe those I think - worth asking your surgeon? I hope you can sort this. You've done the right thing by seeking advice - there's so much experience on this forum.

I like the compliments but I also use it as fuel to stop eating and to keep trying. After all the nasty rude comments this is a welcome change to my ego and when I’m exhausted and exercising I focus on the good changes and push on. After my surgery I hit an almost 4 weeks of no weight loss. It was heartbreaking and I almost gave up. Those positive comments kept me trying and sticking to the diet. My problem was I was on the wrong type of protein supplement but it was torture. Take the compliment as a positive. I tell people I will be the grandma on the beach wearing a thong and looking fabulous . YEAH.

As much as it would be great if we could reset our tummy to the loss of hunger phase after surgery we can’t. You can reset your thinking and your head though it’s not easy. Start by going back to tracking everything you eat and drink & maybe keep a second record of what you were feeling at the time you ate or drink to see if there are any specific emotions (boredom, frustration, anger, sadness, happiness, stress, etc.) driving you to eat or any events that occured or situations you were in (Friday morning tea at work, socialising, at the movies, a sporting game, holidays). Identify things you ma have let slide: portion sizes, protein intake, food choices, fluid intake, snaking, etc. check your activity levels. Then make a change. Drop a snack or work on reducing your portion size. After a couple of weeks make another change or two like increase your activity, or increase your fluid intake or swap out some food choices to better ore nutrient dense lower calorie options. And so on. Gradual changes are much easier to adapt to and adopt and always seem more achieveable. Become more mindful about your eating. Are you eating because you need to eat (real hunger) or just want to eat (head hunger - associated with emotions, situations or events). Eat slowly to allow time for your full/had enough message to register (takes at least 20 minutes). Slowly work your way back to how you were eating when you were first maintaining. You’ll get there. All the best.

I didn’t read all the replies but 800 calories doesn’t sound like a lot until you break it down and supply your diet with nutrient dense foods over energy dense ones. Here’s what I would do for an 800 calorie day- Breakfast- 6tbsp egg whites, a medium diced tomato, 2 cups of fresh spinach and 1oz reduced fat cheddar with 1/2 cups blueberries Lunch- a tuna packet mixed with 1tbsp light mayo, on one slice 35calorie keto bread with 2 cups salad greens and half a cup sliced cucumber afternoon snack- protein shake dinner- chili made with 1/2 cup canned kidney beans, 1/2 cup tomato sauce, 1/4 cup diced onion, and 1/4 cup diced bell pepper dessert- 1/2 cup nonfat plain greek yogurt mixed with sugar free, fat free pudding mix. Total count- 803 calories, 77g carbs (24.5g fiber), 16g fat, 95g protein

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!