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Definitely increasing your protein and fluids will help with energy. You can also probably up you calorie intake a bit. I found that in order to really sustain my workouts, I needed to be right at or a bit above 1000 a day. I also started adding a little Kashi cereal (1/4 of a serving) to my greek yogurt in the afternoons, because I found that having a little bit of carbs pre-workout really helped me get through. Then I would have a high protein dinner shortly after my workouts. I always work out in between when I get home from work and dinner. I find that's the best time for me to work out, because instead of changing out of my work clothes and into my house clothes (pajamas basically) I would change straight into my workout clothes. Once my pajamas are on, I know working out is NOT gonna happen, so by changing into my workout clothes right after work, it forces me to go ahead and do my workout!

Unless you develop an eating disorder (see @@miller1109 's post above), it's quite simple. Every few days or every week or so you just eat an extra 100 calories ... until you stop losing. For those who don't track their calories / macronutrients / food using a tool like My Fitness Pal and who don't really know how much they're eating, it can be challenging. But even they can add a handful of nuts to their daily menus or an extra Greek yogurt or some bread at dinner. For me, the challenge in maintenance has been to eat a little more nutritious food and not just over-processed foods. I have so learned to appreciate since I was sleeved which foods are full of nutrition and which are full of ingredients that just make me crave sugary, high-carb, over-processed crap. Slider foods will push all your craving buttons, making you struggle not to regain.

Here I go...cover your ears: Woooooooohoooooooooooo! I am NOT alone in this BATTLE <<insert dramatic battle music>>. Fact: I have YET to get in 80g of Protein a day Fact: I must be a weirdo 'cuz I can't stand the protein drinks, shakes, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, cheese slices, unflavored powder, skim milk Fact: I get about 30-60g of protein a day. And that's IF I totally focus on it. Fact: I LOATHE the word 'protein' Fact: I'm only a month post-op and I'm FREAKING OUT that I will be BALD Fact: Again, I'm only a month post-op and I'm FREAKING out losing muscle mass Dream: that someday, some scientist will invent a GOOD TASTING protein that I can take in 1 gulp...once a day. I suppose the closes to that is the Bullets. 42g of protein in 3.5 ounces. But...OH MY GOODNESS....try smelling those and tasting those. VOMIT!!!! I eat chicken. The only fish I like is blackened fish...but have you ever had spicy fish and not allowed to drink with your meal? ON FIRE!! Apparently, my taste buds no longer like tuna (LOVED it before). BUT....I do like Peanut Butter. Some of you can put a spoon in it and eat it like that. I can't. I need a cracker. So, I do that and get at least 5-6 protein with a TBS and 2 crackers. (and I love it) You're not alone.

well i traveled to my fill doctor on tuesday for my second fill. Before the fill I could eat without getting full. what a horrable feeling! so I went in, I already had 1.5cc in and he added .75cc to bring me to 2.25cc in a 4cc band. I am still on liquids till about lunch time (but I did break down and have a yogurt last night after church, I was hungry). I just want to get to onederland before thanks giving. I have a lot of family coming in and want to show them a big healthier differance. Im sure I can get there it is only 24 more pounds! Oh but still having a little trouble with my fills. My first fill they couldnt do becasue they thought my port was flipped over. Then I went to a differant doctor who did it under flouro and after an hour of trouble he told me my port was turned sideways. He layed me down and pushed extremely hard on my portsite to lay it down and then was able to do the fill. Well this time he imediatly had me lay down and said it was still on its side so he still had to push extremely hard to lay it down and then still had problems with the angle and bent the needle but did get it in. He recomends I have the port resutured to my stomach because he said some of the sutures that tie it to the stomach have come undone and I will continue to have problems with my fill. Im not sure if I want to go through with surgery again or put up with a more difficult fills. what would you do if you were in my situation. by the way I am self pay and would have to pay out of pocket to get it done. Look forward to your input!:w00t:

I have a dry gallon of them on my counter (they have been there for 6 months no issue -1/3 of the way done now) so I add them to everything, dry.I cook then into bean dishes, falafel, salmon croquettes, smoothies, on yogurts, in salads. I add a dry sprinkling to almost everything (they fluff up quickly depending on the food it's added to) that hempseed, and tumeric goes into almost everything I eat. VSG2017 HW 249 SW 238 CW 167

I think the thing is people get frustrated. You're right, if you really could control your eating you wouldnt have needed the surgery. But if surgery and the possiblility of mucking it up isnt enough to keep you on the straight and narrow, I really dont know what anyone can say to you. Everyone goes through it, true, but really, how committed were you? Were you ready for this? That's not judgemental but for heaven's sake, pick yourself up, dust yourself off and get back on the program. Support is not going to come in the guise of people validating what you're doing. That does you absolutely not good. Support comes from people suggesting what you can do to make this easier. Just becuase you're on liquids is no reason you have to starve. Liquids can be calorific, contain fat and Protein and keep your body going. Make yourself some Soup with real meat and some Pasta in it, for example, blend it up really well, thin it out with broth to a consistency you can handle now, and have as much of it as you can handle at a time, as often as you need not to be hungry. Make a real smoothie with real fruit, yogurt and milk rather than a Protein shake, get some fibre into yourself to feel some satisfaction. You can even blend up family dinners with broth to get the flavour or real food - NO food is off limits, just in solid form! There. There is no reason to go hungry. And as for "wanting to chew something" as so many people say, you just have to suck it up. Its only a couple of weeks.

I could not even have meat the first 4 weeks post op per our guidelines and it said skin was distressful and to avoid it. In this case you would had been better off to grab a yogurt to eat once you got there. I was stuck in the ER room the other week with my husband who had a gallbladder attack.. I did not plan and did not bring any food and the vending machines did not have anything I could even think or want to eat. I did finally go down to the cafe and got just a single chicken breast. I cut it up but still ate too quickly so I could get back to him. He is having surgery on the 11th so I will plan much better in taking foods I know I can eat. A hard lesson to learn but thanks for sharing so we can learn from you.

@@Hey Man Losing weight is such a SMALL part of WLS. It's actually the EASY part. We get very short sighted as newly sleeved or bypassed patients. It's all about the scale, how fast we are losing, stressing about stalls or small fluctuations in out weight. But the main thing we should be focusing on is how we can change our eating habits enough to keep the weight we lost off and live a healthy, happy life. At almost 2 years out, I can eat SO MUCH MORE than I could even a year out. I find myself over eating frequently, and have to actually force myself to weigh and measure most of the time to prevent it. I feel almost like I didn't have surgery at times. ESPECIALLY when it comes to snacking. I have to be very mindful. This is the reason I am choosing to eat edamame instead of chips for a snack, or eat a chocolate Greek yogurt as opposed to a cookie or two or three (because that's what it will end up being) I couldn't utilize moderation before surgery, so what makes me think it will work for me now that I feel like I can eat almost normal amounts of food? It won't. If I did a cookie here and a few chips there, I guarantee it won't stop there because I don't have my precious restriction and lack of hunger to count on anymore. That leads to weight gain. Ask anyone who has gained weight back, they will be the first ones to admit it. Like I said, it's not the amount of food that makes us successful, it's ultimately what we choose to eat that does when the honeymoon is over.

I had "The Last Supper" before I started my liquids only. It was a grilled steak, baked potato and salad and I didn't feel guilty one bit. I was super strict for the liquids after that and ended up losing 20 lbs pre-op. It didn't affect my surgery at all. You'll probably be surprised and not be able to eat as much as you used to. And you're right, it's gonna be a looooooooooong time before you eat that kind of food again. I'm almost 2 months post-op and still eating soup, yogurt and oatmeal. So far I'm down 67 lbs and going strong. (So enjoy you're meal today (and have a little bite for me please)!!!

I recommend sticking with a line about recent tummy troubles for those that don't want to share sleeve stories. Covers why you can't eat pizza and wings. Just throw that line out there and order the most bland soft thing on the menu or if there is truly nothing that will work, sip your drink and chat everyone up. I also recommend a blender ball cup, Protein powder and some flavoring. I used vanilla Protein Powder, starbucks instant decaf and Water when traveling. Mixed with room temp water, it tastes like a latte. I also packed sugar free drink mixes to blend with water. I had a Protein Drink two to three times per day to get me to protein goals while traveling. Easy protein food choices include fish, yogurt, string cheese, and cottage cheese. Enjoy your trip! Lynda

I'm almost a year out - Protein shakes to this day are my most filling staple. Tuna Yogurt Fruit Lettuce Seafood- fish, oysters, shrimp, crab. Also all work too - but NOTHING gets me like a Protein shake. Sits in me like a brick.

From the very beginning I have had zero problem with liquids & pudding, jello, yogurt, etc...now that I"m on to soft food, it feels a little like it gets stuck in my chest and there is some discomfort. Some foods are easier than others - I had a hard time with scrambled eggs but was fine with chicken salad, go figure. But I'm keeping calories under 700, watching the carbs and sugar, making sure to get enough protein & water, and am losing pretty well with little to no hunger. I don't know how to explain it; I guess I should be grateful. I'd definitely talk to your surgeon about it next time you see him though. That's what I plan on doing Good luck!

Beans: kidney, lima, garbanzo, and pinto, lentils, soybeans, and black-eyed peas fish skinless white meat chicken skinless white meat turkey skim milk lowfat cheese fat free cottage cheese lowfat yogurt

Yeah, my nutritionist told me never to eat carbs without protein. So always peanut butter or greek yogurt or something like that along with my fruits or whole grains. Of course, I'm still never really eating fruits or whole grains, so it hasn't been an issue for me yet.

Drop the carbs and the yogurt. Increase your protein. you should be able to have 3-4 ounces of meat at a time. I would ditch the premier shake too honestly, and replace it with meat unless you really just can't eat and that is your only option. Cut out all processed foods (and Protein shakes are fake processed foods), and eat lean meats you cook yourself, get up to 90 grams of protein and I am pretty sure you will see the scale moving. Even with your not intense workouts you are still probably burning more calories than you are intaking. You need more protein to fuel yourself. Thank you for all your advice. It gets so confusing sometimes, sometimes I'm told I'm not eating enough calories and then I'm told I'm eating too much ! It's so confusing !Yes I feel the same way its like I don't know how many calories my body needs. Sent from my LG-K330 using the BariatricPal App

Drop the carbs and the yogurt. Increase your protein. you should be able to have 3-4 ounces of meat at a time. I would ditch the premier shake too honestly, and replace it with meat unless you really just can't eat and that is your only option. Cut out all processed foods (and Protein shakes are fake processed foods), and eat lean meats you cook yourself, get up to 90 grams of protein and I am pretty sure you will see the scale moving. Even with your not intense workouts you are still probably burning more calories than you are intaking. You need more protein to fuel yourself. Thank you for all your advice. It gets so confusing sometimes, sometimes I'm told I'm not eating enough calories and then I'm told I'm eating too much ! It's so confusing !

During liquid I ate: Yogurt, blended soups, jello, sugar-free popsicles, Fairlife milk (has WAY more protein than regular milk and no lactose), chicken broth, sugar-free pudding It's rough - but it's really a pretty short amount of time. I just graduated to Pureed diet and that transition is going slowly. My new tummy doesn't like some of the foods. I didn't digest pureed ground turkey well...at all. It is definitely a lot of trial and error! Best of luck to you!

I also have 2 snacks a day. It's often an ounce of nuts or soynuts, greek yogurt, beef jerky, a spoon of peanut butter or low fat cheese. I try to stick to healthy snacks. I can't get in enough protein otherwise.

My NUT says 6 200 calorie meal/snack with at least 10 grams protein each I do Protein shake with coffee 2, babybell cheese, lean cusine, greek yogurt, small portion of dinner and then special K protein cereal at night. I will also change up and do some of the products from my doctors office at times or indulge at night instead of my cereal

So I got about three sips of protein drink down. And tried to eat a yogurt but only could eat a spoonfull in 20 mnts. Wow. This is going to be harder than I thought to get protein. Anyone else on this finding it hard?

When I was on soft food I ate a lot of Greek yogurt and cottage cheese. I also had refried Beans pretty often. You can also still have liquids like Soups, puddings, and of course Protein shakes. A lot of folks like ricotta bake. I found it a little rich for my taste. I know it gets pretty boring but this phase will pass. Hang in there.

I understand that everyone has different reasons for needing weight loss surgery. We also all have very different problems and triggers. In my case, I am a very A Type personality who lives in a world of black and white. This surgery (and some therapy) is helping me find the grey areas. I am not saying it is easy. I struggle with lack of "perfection" in the things I do every day. However, I think I am doing this in the most healthy way possible. Some of the people that I have seen and spoken to scare me. I asked my NUT yesterday how our bodies respond any different than that of an anorexic. I have asked her this question 3 times and she doesn't like it because she cannot answer it. Yes, we do not have the same mental issues to deal with, but our bodies have been anatomically altered, not physiologically. Due to this, I find that it concerns me when people who can only get in 700-800 calories a day workout so hard that they are running in the negative. Again, I ask my NUT how this can be healthy. Our bodies need both nutrients and calories to function properly. While I understand that our bodies will force us to function at a deficit, how do you sit there and tell people that it is okay to have a daily net that is negative? Calories are how we get energy. I don't mean empty chocolatey calories, I am talking about making healthy choices. I do not understand how people can look me in the face and tell me that it won't have any effects. If someone was eating exactly how we are forced to without the surgery, people would tell them about hair loss, amenorrhea, lower cognitive functioning etc. Yet, people can look me straight in the face and tell me it is ok for me because I am anatomically different now. Can someone please explain this to me? No one else has been able to, and I just am trying to wrap my head around this. Don't get me wrong. I understand the definite need for exercise. Unfortunately, so many people take on this surgery and don't realize they are treating it as though it is yet another one of their DIET attempts to lose weight. I hear about perfection, perfection. I won't ever touch a candy bar, ice cream, cookie, white carb etc. etc again. I completely understand that everyone has a trigger that they may need to avoid permanently, for me it is soda (which I can never have again), but I am talking about every single thing that may not be perfect for your health, but you enjoy. Also, I have seen a lot of people that seem to start off telling themselves "I will work out for an hour a day 6 days a week for the rest of my life" and take no consideration for life happening around them. Not only does this sound like a recipe for disaster, but to me, it just sounds like another diet. I chose this surgery because it is not a diet. As previously mentioned, I struggle for moderation not an all or nothing attitude. I may not have lost 50 lbs in my first month, but I feel as though I am making permanent changes that will serve me (and eventually get me to weight) in the long run. If I did great all week and I want a cookie, I might eat half a cookie (truth be told, I used to be a cookie monster but I don't really like them anymore, but you get the point). If I decide to take my son out for frozen yogurt one Friday, I don't feel guilty as I have made a huge lifestyle change. The choice of frozen yogurt over Baskin Robins is a huge step and I don't feel jilted. I won't sit and eat 16 oz anymore. I might have 4 and I feel satisfied. I have made a lot of friends that have also had this surgery. It really worries me that they treat it like another diet, they never give themselves a break and begin to disturbingly obsess about every single calorie they ingest (again, not saying you don't need to pay attention, but if you accidentally go 10 calories over, so what??). I feel that little changes add up quickly. Walking your child to and from school instead of driving, using your bike to make a run to the corner store, playing outside with the kids, swimming a couple laps while you are out sunbathing on the beach. I feel like I am running a lifelong marathon, not running a sprint to goal weight. It can be frustrating sometimes, watching those around me that had the surgery about the same time lose weight faster. However, I have no extra skin to contend with and I am certain that I am losing a lot of body fat, not just body weight. My struggle is to keep telling myself this. My struggle is to find a lifelong change that isn't necessarily as quick as I may like, but teaches me the moderation that in 32 years I never learned.

Well I was banded on oct 19th. I have not gotten my first fill yet. But I know my Dr. told me that whenever I get hungry and stop loosing weight to come in right away. As far as your menu I think you should cut down on your carbs and add more protein. Especially in the morning. Try a boiled egg and fat free yogurt to start you off. For the next week just try no carbs and that should jump start your loss again. I have stuck to this as well as excercise and have lost almost 30pounds in 4 weeks. Try also keeping a food journal. That really helps me stay on track. I am consious of everything that goes in my mouth. If it has no nutrional value I dont eat it. oh yeah wendys chili has lots of protein so try that for lunch. I hope this helps. Good luck on your journey.

Spoon full of peanut butter, Hummus, BUTTER yes BUTTER forget that margarine crap! IF you're gonna eat fat might as well eat the real deal LOL, Full fat sour cream, Cream cheese, Yogurt (low sugar variety) full fat cheese. DO NOT FEAR THE FAT!!! You're eating tiny quantities of food, The total fat you're going to consume is going to be tiny too. so long as you're not gorging yourself on frozen custard sundaes nightly you'll be fine! I haven't eaten dinner yes and I've already consumed 31 grams of fat today (ate some fatty fish at lunch YUM) I expect dinner will add another 10-15 grams to my daily total, I am totally and completely fine with that. Especially because a stomach bug swept through our house yesterday and I didn't keep much of anything down LOL. I eat 4-6x's per day. 3 "meals" and 1-2 Snacks...sometimes I eat 3 snacks just depends on the day and how I'm feeling.

Your story is very inspiring. I am 25 days post op. I lost 18lbs preop, 11lbs by 11 days postop and then bam... Stalled. I've lost 1.5lbs in 2 weeks. I am on full liquids consisting of 3 protien drinks and 2 yogurts a day. It's so disappointing to be on such a restrictive diet and not lose the weight. The nutritionist tells me it's normal. At this point, I regret having the procedure done. Please share any advice that you may have. Thanks!