Search the Community

Oh, @draikaina8503, I'm so sorry to hear that! Sending all the healing your way and hoping you feel all the way better very soon. If you have the option, you might want to check in with your medical team and ask if they have any suggestions in terms of vitamins, zinc, etc. to help boost your immune system while you fight the germs. Hang in there and be good to yourself!

It was between the SADI and Bypass. I wanted the SADI but if not the Bypass. They did the SADI but that’s not an option when you fill in the stats so I just selected DS since that’s the closest.

@SpartanMaker I am not wanting to lose weight really, I am at maintenance however since I got PS surgery I am on the higher end of my maintenance and I would really like to get down to 160-165 as opposed to 165-170. I know not much of a difference especially with my height and build but in my head it makes me feel better. LOL When I was working out (which I will get back into hopefully soon) I was eating anywhere from 2200-2400 calories and staying in that 160-165 number, now I am eating anywhere from 1700-2000 and I am on the 165-170 end. I have to assume that my lack of working out is keeping me where I am at. Which I do want to recomp, I want to get a 360 body lift but want to see how lean I could get before making that decision. I may just want to save the money and pain if I look decent enough LOL For reference yesterday my day was 1961 calories, 185g carbs, 175g protein, 72g fat, 34g fiber. If I was working out and burning 700-800 calories like I was then this is great I would stay at the lower end of my maintenance. But what I am gathering I should be focusing more on the carbs, protein and fat as opposed to calories?

Just jumping in to say that 60lbs in 3 months is a tremendous amount of weight to lose! Have you ever lost that much in three months before? Or at all? Pre-surgery, I could never lose more than about 40lbs before I plateaued and then slowly started to regain. But, I understand you have a long way left to go, so it probably feels like you'll never get there. Focus on building the good habits now, like you are. If you can, go for a daily walk. That may be plenty of exercise for now if you are currently sedentary. But protein, vegetables, and fruits are great choices. Also, take photos of yourself to see the progress. I swear that even at over a year out and within 10 lbs of a normal BMI, I still FEEL obese sometimes. And then I see a recent photo of myself and I am shocked to see a normal weight woman who kinda looks like me. How can I see myself so wrong in my own head? In the first year, I took a progress photo every month on the 21st so I could compare. I'm so glad I did.

Has anyone had experience with needing to take amino acid supplements because most of the 'complete' protein powders they are unable to have? I'm pre-surgery but allergic to the whey protein in milk, and in trying some other protein powders, found that soy, pea, and egg protein powders cause digestive havoc of the TMI variety. I've found that collagen protein powder and hemp protein powder I am perfectly fine with, but I know collagen is missing one of the essential amino acids and hemp protein while complete is low on the essential amino acids. The dietician seem flustered that I can't have whey protein and I've not been able to find anyone talking about using amino acid supplements to make an incomplete protein complete. Also totally open to other suggestions for protein in the weeks pre- and post-surgery while on the liquid diet.

Did you have the same problems during your liquid and pureed phases? If not it might be worth going back a step to purees as summerseeker has suggested. I do understand that chewing food really thoroughly is basically the same thing, but it takes the guesswork and possibilities for errors out of the equation. I know I am weird but I quite enjoyed my pureed food (because it was my first non-protein drink intake for almost a month). So tasty 😍 At 2.5 weeks I was just just onto pureed food, made with a LOT of liquid, and I was eating about 40-60mls (1-2oz) of goo for a meal, depending on how much protein was in it. We are all so different. I have seen people here thrive on solids much earlier. If your surgical team are confident that it isn't a post op complication you might have room to experiment a little. At 2.5 weeks fluids are paramount - there is wiggle room with protein and other macros in most programmes. I hope it all settles really quickly for you - sounds unpleasant.

My sweet tooth is still alive and well..I guess that's why I never had issues with the protein shakes during this journey. Today I am making a bariatric friendly homemade peanut butter cup/cashew butter cup. So good!

I had the sleeve and I started gaining just months after I reached goal. I was too embarrassed to reach out for help and ended up gaining it all back and had no choice but a revision. Good on you for reaching out here. My biggest piece of advice is to reach out to your team and get an appointment. Start logging your food again if you haven’t been and give them an honest picture of what you are eating so they can help you make tweaks. Also if you have a fitness watch, pull it out of the drawer and get a real picture of you current activity level. I thought for sure that my team was going to be so harsh on me and make me feel awful but they couldn’t have possibly been more understanding and all they wanted to do was help. For me the only real option was revision but for you some tweaks in your food and exercise may help, could be hormones so they may want to check that, weight loss medications in tablets or the newer option if the GLP-1 injections may even be an option. The other suggestion of support group meetings is a really good one too. I am doing so much better this time around because I am reaching out for support anywhere I can get it. This time I told more people so I have more people cheering me on and I have the in person support as well as on here and I am going to see the NP more of they than they usually require. I know that I need all the help that I can get. lol.

Almost 5.5yrs post sleeve and also have maintained below goal. I try to eat regularly & to a schedule. Helps me avoid unnecessary snacking and making poor choices because I’m overly hungry. I try to meet protein & fluid goals every day. I don’t track but check ingredients & nutritional content of new foods & recipes where I can and do random checks to ensure I’m not overestimating portions or calories, etc. I try to ensure I eat meat (yep I’m a carnivore), vegetables, fruit, dairy, and complex multi/whole grain carbs everyday. Add beans or lentils to various meals at times. I adopted a way of eating (not a diet) that is working for me & is sustainable. It doesn't stop me socialising or make it a challenge to make food choices. I do some sort of exercise almost every day (about 20 minutes a day total & not traditional ‘exercise’ but stretches & resistance bands). I weigh myself at least a couple of times a week. I can’t control every aspect of my life every day so I don’t beat myself up if I go off piste or decide to treat myself or can’t follow my regular schedule or can’t meet my goals or whatever. As long as it’s not the norm and a regular occurrence, I’ll be okay. And if something changes (ill health, the crap life throws at us, etc.), I’ll look at my options, make changes where I can or just work with my new reality.

Hi everyone, It has been awhile since I have posted. We have been very busy around my house. I will be 6 weeks post-op on Tuesday. I can officially transition over to regular texture foods as of then. My dietician did tell me to not attempt over 1/2cup per meal. She said that is my max goal for a couple more months. Daily goals: 60-80g protein, 48+ ounces of fluids, 500-700 calories, eat 3-6 times per day. Obviously do not eat 1/2 cup 6 times per day though. Lol I am excited about being able to go to the gym and start an exercise regimen. I also do not need protein shakes anymore as long as I am meeting my protein goals. So happy about that. I have found a new product, Nurri, it is an ultra-filtered milk (shelf stable) with 30g protein and only 150 calories. It is honestly better than Fairlife and comes in a can. I have been drinking that for my breakfast and while I take all my meds. I slowly take my meds over the 30 minutes or so I drink it. @draikaina8503 hope you are feeling better. @Justarwaxx the foamies are the worst. I’m glad it has only happened to me once. @ShoppGirl the target heart rate formula is interesting. I can walk across the room and my heart rate would be higher than that. Those goals don’t really work for me but if it’s great if they help you. @Voca my date was also 8/6. Hope you are doing well. I can’t remember who asked about weight going up and down. That has not happened to me since my surgery, but in previous dieting for sure it happened. I have had a couple of days where my weight did not change. I am more of a slow loser so I weigh every day to keep myself honest and to see if something I did the day before might contribute to loss or even a stall. It works for me but might not be good for everyone. I have tried chili from Wendy’s and McAllister’s Deli and they were okay. I do not really count those as “eating out” since they were chili and I could have had almost the same from a can. Last night I went to dinner with some friends for the first time since surgery. I had not told any of them about my surgery and then they were all worried about what I could eat. I had already looked at the menu before going so I knew what my options were. Really not super WLS friendly. It’s a wood fired pizza restaurant. I ordered the best protein option pizza and had only the toppings from 2 pieces. They were small pieces and the entire pizza fit on a single plate. My choices worked because today I am down 1.3 pounds. It made me happy that I knew I made the right choice. I was also not bothered by them eating other foods and seeing them finish their entire meals. They were all super supportive and asked if we needed to go somewhere else. I recently went through my closet and started pulling clothes that are too big and adding in fall clothes. I had previously done a big purge of clothes that did not fit and I did not want to keep so my clothing options are a bit limited right now. My cousin had the gastric sleeve about 18 months ago and she gave me all of her clothes so that has been a huge help. It was like getting new clothes for free. Haha My NSV is putting something on that did not fit a month ago and now is loose. That is a great feeling. Looking at the scale and saying I have lost 25 pounds since 8/6 and that does not seem like a lot to me but knowing how a certain shirt or pants fit before and now they are loose or even too big to wear. That helps keep it real for me and helps to keep me motivated. Hope everyone has a great week and keep focused on those small goals and successes.

I will add protein powder to my Greek yogurt some times or will make a protein smoothie myself to drink as a snack, but I got burned out on the premade protein drinks during my liquid phase and pretty much have not been able to stomach one since. I do love protein water though and that helps. I think I’m averaging 60-80 grams a day, but I feel like the goal they gave me is unattainable right now. I should be moving to soft food soon and then I think it will help with I can include tuna and chicken.

I am here to add my vote for meal planning. I also have ADHD tendencies and I LOATHE food tracking. In the early days after surgery when I absolutely had to make sure I got in my protein and water, I managed to track by keeping a physical tracking notebook next to me at all times. I had to see the book to remember to do it. I stopped tracking around 5 months when I was consistently hitting my goals. Now that I am almost a year out, my weight loss has slowed (as expected) and I am finding it too easy to make poor choices if I don't plan ahead. I forced myself to actually track for a couple days and was shocked by how many calories I could eat and what I was choosing even when I "thought" I had been pretty reasonable. So, instead of tracking, which I am still terrible at, I've started meal planning and prepping ahead. For breakfast and lunch, I came up with a selection of maybe three or four choices I liked that have around 20g protein and entered them into my meal tracking app. For example, a spinach frittata for breakfast that I can slice into several servings, fruit cups that I make ahead for the week, single-serve packets of protein oatmeal or a protein bar for those days when I have to grab and go. For lunch, I make homemade chicken veg soup and also salad jars. I also like to make a batch of turkey chili to have on hand, which I store in single-serve containers. I also came up with a few snacks I like such as Greek yogurt with blueberries, or an apple with cheese. I also entered in my typical favorite 6 or 7 homemade dinners as recipes or meals in the app so I could easily add them to my day with one click. Before my shopping day, I try to plan my meals for the coming week. If I see my calories going too high or my protein not being enough, or whatever, on any given day, I can adjust accordingly. On a day that I eat oatmeal, I make sure my other choices are less carb heavy. If I have eggs for breakfast, I might plan to have a carb at dinner. I have the tab easy to get to on my computer, but printing it out each day would also work, as would entering each meal as a reminder in your phone's task list or calendar app. It is so much easier for me to look at my menu and follow it than it is for me to decide what to eat every day in the moment. It also means that if I can eat what I plan most of the time, I can have a restaurant meal or a dessert a few times a month without worrying about it or trying to track it. And since I tend to package up most of my make-ahead meals in single-serve containers, it's pretty easy to grab something to take along if I'm going to be out and don't want to have to hunt for food on the go and risk being off plan. The worst days for me are when everything in the house is an ingredient instead of a meal. That's exhausting and inevitably leads to snacking or poor choices. I find I need to set a regular day of the week for shopping when I can also have time to prep some items right away, before the food even goes in the fridge. I have the most success for the week when all my produce enters the fridge already washed, sliced, and portioned into fruit cups and salad jars, and when I can kick off a batch of chili in the slow cooker, a frittata in the oven, and a batch of taco meat to store for later in the week all at once. Freezing complete single-serve meals is another great strategy for those busy days when you might otherwise get off track. Like any habit, it takes a while to establish and may not be 100% perfect all the time, but I definitely find this helping me.

Just to echo what @Arabesque has said really - little and often with drinking water! Don't be too worried if you aren't meeting your water/protein goals early on, your body is recovering and it will take a while to get used to it all! Just take it slow and within your comfortabilities, and you will get there No need to put any pressure on yourself this early on. Pain meds are something you should have been sent home with as stated above, just see how you go and if you ned them. I was sent home with co-codamol and I didn't need it in the end, but everyone is different! Remember to just try and get up every now and then and take a little walk around the house if you can, just to help with the gas pain. Best of luck ❤️

New here but usually trolling,I'm having such a hard time with food no matter what it is fish,chicken, lean meats etc. Some days or should I say most days just the thought and smell of food wanna make me gag,lately I have been passing days of not eating just supplementing with protein shakes. My situation is everytime I do eat something I'm spending the next whole day visiting the bathroom 8-10 times a day and feel terribly crabby and have no value of life as I cannot leave the house without having an accident os two. I am getting very frustrated and getting depressed of this situation. I'm 9 weeks out this coming Tuesday and have lost 55lbs and down 2 pants sizes but not very happy about this bathroom thing and my quality of life as I can barely leave the house unless I don't eat a couple of days,and I don't even get hungry or feel like I can eat anything right now food just disgust me. Any help I will appreciate.

Guys I'm not liking myself. I feel "fat" it's so weird how I feel .. I look myself in the mirror and I c that I've gained weight but on the scale I was losing weight and just stalled for 2 weeks (well gained 200g) so I'm just feeling shitty. I feel like I'm able to eat more (not as much as pre surgery ) but more... my husband almost smacked me to snap out of it lool and he said I was delulu n I'm not seeing myself .... I'm trying to watch my food and I'm between 1000 to 1300ish cals and maintaining 70 to 90g of protein. Sometimes my carbs are over but I won't say too bad. I'm almost 6 months post op

Well I’m early out yet so I’m sure the hunger will be back soon enough. If only it could stay gone forever!!. Yea the chomps does make minis too but they don’t come in the pepperoni flavor and that’s my favorite so I just do half and save the other half for later (I literally have a box of ziplocks in my car for that purpose). It’s 12g protein and 80 calories though so I do half of that with either a baby bell light or a Sargento mozzarella stick which is another 5g protein for 45 or 50 calories. 85 or 90 calories for 11g of tasty protein on the go is pretty good in my book. I will have to try the mini archer beef ones for something different.

It’s great to hear about the positive changes you’ve experienced since switching to a plant-based diet! Staying hydrated through water-rich vegetables like cucumbers is a fantastic benefit. Craving cucumbers and apple cider vinegar also shows your body might be responding well to these healthy foods. It’s interesting that after hitting your goal, fresh fruits and vegetables have become more appealing. Surgery and lifestyle changes can sometimes alter taste preferences, making healthier options more satisfying. Does anyone else have similar experiences with cravings or new food preferences post-surgery?

How’s all my December buddies recovering? I am 4 days post op. I will say until today I was having bad buyers remorse. This procedure was way more painful than the sleeve I had a few years ago. The pain was excruciating but I feel I made a turn today. I have weened myself off of pain meds and started my vitamins today. Struggle is real getting liquids and protein down but this will get better. Gonna sail into the new year in my pajamas for sure!

Yes. 5-6 Protein shakes and clear liquids. Sugar free jello, sugar free popsicles and low sodium broth(which is disgusting). That is it! I think it is ridiculous. I am trying my best, but it is not easy. I would love to have just a bite of anything!! They said I could have 1 bite of protein, but I know I won't be able to stop at 1 bite. Especially after not eating food for a week now.

Yes I went yesterday and got my protein drinks but I didn’t buy a lot of premier protein because the last ones I tried I didn’t like so that way if I don’t like them I can try another brand. I just forgot the broth so I’m going to go today to buy some.

On the flip side.... I have to chuckle at the responses here. Most are from those that openly admitted to hating protein shakes and wanting "real" food. To each his own. Hahaha! I may be in the minority here along with @waterwoman I'm 1 1/2 years out and still drink protein shakes. In fact just last night. I made one that tastes just like a strawberry shake. Way healthier than eating ice cream. I think if you struggle with eating real foods early on like I did and still do on occasion, the shakes are a godsend. When I have a day where food does not agree with me I go to my shake to get my protein in for the day. Forcing food to meet a daily quota is bad if you can't keep it down or you end up making yourself sick. As for total meal replacements? It has it's place in this journey. For a time. Although I have drank my fair share of them, I have always tried the foods suggested for each phase. You will find that some days the food goes well and another not so much. And if not, I will revisit that food later on down the line and drink my shake. It's a long slow process but I've come to a place that most foods are tolerable for me now but I still have those days where my protein drink is my best friend. LOL

You will need to strain it extremely well: no little bits of egg, tofu, scallions or anything which may be added. Straining through muslin may be best to ensure you get everything especially those wispy bits of egg. You can also strain pho, wonton soup, etc. They won’t have as much protein as bone broth if you were looking for an alternative to only drinking the shakes so don’t make it your main source if protein & nutrition during this stage. You’ll be able to eat it (without the tofu or scallions) in the purée stage. But always check with your team. There can be differences in plans. PS - congrats on your surgery!

I forget if you have had your surgery or not but if not or for anyone that has not if you are allowed the option of food on the LSD I suggest eating it. I didn’t and between that and the post op liquids it got REALLY old. I was so sick of shakes they made me feel almost ill.

Looks yummy!! I have a bad sweet tooth as well (Love chocolate). I make my own peanut/cashew butter cups. I found the peanut butter cup molds on Temu. The protein shakes I love because it's chocolate and satisfies my deadly sweety tooth. I am almost 6 months out as well and the protein shakes is mostly how I get my protein from a restrictive pouch. No complaints here:

I had a revision surgery Dec 18,23. After surgery I have lost 62 pounds and now I am struggling to get my protein and water in. And I am trying to lose the 4 pounds i gained and lose 10 on top of that