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Congrats on taking the first step! As @FifiLux pointed out, the keys are really going to be reducing portion sizes and making good food choices. These will be really important after surgery, so getting started on them sooner rather than later is the right approach. By the way, fad diets like Low Carb and Keto may work for some people, but as you said, they don't work for you so there's no point going there. It's also really critical you don't try to make drastic changes all at once. What you need to focus on is one sustainable positive change at a time until it becomes the new norm for you. People almost inevitably fail when they make wholesale changes to their diet and activity level simultaneously. Also, If after implementing a particular change it still feels like a challenge to you, then keep at it until that one is just part of what you do. Once you get to that point, only then is it time to try to make another change. My suggestion is to pick no more than 2-3 things per month you want to change about your diet and activity level and start with the ones you think will be easiest first. Changing subjects a bit, let's do some math here. To lose 6 pounds a month, you'd need to reduce your energy balance by -750 calories a day. This can be made up of lower intake, greater activity, or most likely both. At your current weight, walking ~3 miles an hour would burn ~200 calories per mile. Thus a 30 minute walk would burn ~300 calories and an hour walk would burn ~600. Add in smaller portions of the same things you're eating now and 6 pounds a month will be easily attainable. Keep us updated as you progress and the smart folks here will be glad to help.

I have my surgery on the 18th if you ever want to talk! I am also working on figuring out some plans on what to eat the two weeks before surgery gets here. You are going to do amazing!

I was self pay at a surgical center and had to go to a hospital 10 hours later for another surgery because of internal bleeding(nicked artery), needed several transfusions and spent 3 days in the hospital plus had to have more blood and iron transfusions after leaving that hospital. I’m now stuck with over $175,000 in hospitals bills and more still coming. BCBS is denying the claim because they don’t cover bariatric surgery or complications. The hospital billed it as complications of lap band instead of complications of gastric sleeve. I’m told it doesn’t matter because they won’t pay either but what if I want to appeal it, shouldn’t it be billed correctly?

Thank you so much! I actually use Parrot Pal app to track my calories and it gives me an average each week of my calories and protein! That’s the number it generates for me from all my tracking, which I do pretty religiously. I’ll try adding a little more cals it’s just hard because I can’t fit in a lot each day. Thank you again.

2024 was a great year. I lost a sh*t ton of weight and became HOT and athletic again, landed a dream job, my relationship transformed and its the best its ever been, I am thriving and thankful. 2025: Travel (3 trips booked) Build my booty back Manage my anxiety through guided meditation Read 40 books (read 38 in 2024) Save more (have been so reckless with my spending) Continue eating the way I do, never depriving myself of anything but never going overboard with anything either, taste and put it down if I didn't like it, prioritize protein, nourish my body and continue to be anxiety free regarding food and lifestyle

6 days Post surgery update! Feeling great! 🥳 no problems tolerating fluids *touch wood* I have had some delicious home made soup which I strained, red lentil and veggies made on home made bone broth is delicious! I had prepped a large amount of bone broth and soups for Post surgery, but we had a Natural Disaster level storm through, which took out our power for 3 days!!!!!!!!! Lost everything, so have had to make more. Tonight I thought I would try Thai flavours and a bit of spice to see how my tummy reacts. Had a few sips whilst making it, and no dramas! Red curry soup with powdered peanut butter and coconut milk. 141 cals for small bowl. Taking it very slowly in case my tummy rebels.

Some people tend to have more diarrhoea than constipation in the beginning. A friend did - she wore disposable knickers for a week after her surgery. It’s just one of those things we can experiences differently. It could be related to stomach acid (it takes a while for our body to realise we don’t need as much as we did because we’re not eating as much & the excess irritates the bowel). A PPI will help with this if you’re not on one. Could be a lactose intolerance. Some people develop an intolerance temporarily or for life after the surgery. Try a whey free shake if it might be this & see if it improves. Could also be your body excreting old blood from the surgery (especially if your poop is darker) or another way to excrete all the fluids. Or it could just how your body is reacting to the change to your digestive system until it gets used to the new system. If it persists check with your team though. All the best.

I am just back from a week in D.C. and I walked soooooo much every day without any exhaustion or pain so that is a huge win for me, no way I could have done that in recent years pre-op. I tried to stock up on clothes while in the US but found it very frustrating as could find very little I liked that fit me and the things I did like were not available in my size. I actually fit in to a size 0 pair of Karl Lagerfeld trousers but they were a bit big on the waist so I decided they weren't worth the price to then have to pay to be altered, but the sizing across the brands I tried was so inconsistent it was exhausting, I think I spent almost 3 hours in a Macys trying things on and just came away with a bra and cardigan!

Thank you so much, guys. I love that this is a safe space to speak our truths about this surgery. So many people think it's a miracle cure, and it's not. We have to do the work. It really is just a tool for us to use while we do the work. You guys have been so supportive. Thank you so much. I'm going to go back to weighing once per week, meal prepping again, sticking to my diet, and start back with my work out plan. I'll work to lose 10 pounds, to get back to the weight I'm happiest at. You all are awesome!!!

I also haven't stepped in the scale since I got out of surgery. For the first time in 3 months, I don't really care about number on the scale, I just want to get through the painful parts of the recovery and then check the numbers.

Second what @SpartanMaker has said. It takes a good 6 or so weeks to be healed from the surgery. This includes nerves that were cut during the surgery so messages about feeling hungry or full etc. may be distorted or don’t get through so be careful. so you will start to notice a difference/improvement as you get to around that time frame. I struggled with things being super sweet or super salty and some textures initially. I actually decided to embrace the sweet aversion and decided to not reintroduce sweet things back into my regular eating. Of course there is always a little in certain foods but I keep my added sugar low less than 6g a day. I do have some sweet things on occasions but not every day or every week but that was my choice. And yes, foods or drinks you can’t tolerate now will likely be fine again in a couple of months. And yes, you may find you develop a taste for foods you didn’t enjoy before. There may be odd foods you never can tolerate again. e.g. many struggle with eggs in the long term. Beware though, your tummy can be very fussy in the first months. I described my tummy as a petulant temper throwing 2 year old during this phase. You may eat something without issue on day and the next it’s no way. Don’t give up on any food though. Sometimes in a few days or a week or two your tummy will enjoy it again. As for the nausea, do you have any anti nausea meds? If not ask your team to prescribe some. The nausea can also be from your multi vitamins. Ensure you have some food on your tummy first so take them after you’ve eaten or almost finished. Also if you have to take a couple tablets spread them out across the day not all at once. Things do get easier and better. You’ll learn how to manage your altered digestive system and changes to behaviours regarding eating and drinking. It takes time but you’ll get there. All the best.

well...we didn't end up going to Costco...whomp whomp we got distracted house hunting and then ended up picking up Popeyes in the way home...double womp womp. an onion ring, 3 boneless chicken wings, and a scoop each of cole slaw & the mashed potatoes. estimated 370 calories for the before pic. ate the sides, a bite of the onion ring (not very good) and 1 of the chicken wings which turned out to have a bone in it, surprise! hahah.

I had a funny one this week. I was walking along a hallway at work with someone I don’t see often. This person said, “I think you are shrinking” to which I responded, “Oh, I’ve never been very tall.” 30 minutes later I realized what he meant - LOL!

i actually thought i was in menopause at the time of my surgery...i hadn't had a period for almost two years just prior to that. about 2 weeks after surgery, i got a period, omg. and lasted for like 8-10 days. which is weird, cuz when i was regular, my periods lasted 4-5 days tops. and this one was HEAVY. after that, i got my period like clockwork, every 4 weeks, lasting 4-5 days again. guess i wasn't in menopause after all, i was just fat. which sucked (the period part not the fat part) cuz i really hate getting periods. then about 4 years later, i truly went into menopause. and haven't had a regular period since 2022. yay! but yeah, i as i understand it, hormones are stored in some level of fat, so when there is rapid weight/fat loss, your hormones are released back into your body (bloodstream?), and you are effected by it. so if hormones are the cause of your spotting, this could be why. but to be safe, pls have a visit with your doc or gyno. don't mess with reproductive health: if you can catch something early, catch it early. good luck! ❤️

Hi from UK, Ive been booked in for surgery in July and was told to go on 12 week diet. I thought that's excessive as I've seen heavier people only do 2-3 weeks max. I have to do 9 weeks on milk and jelly, then 3 weeks on weight watchers soup and Muller. For example I've started today and I'm at weight I should be on 20th if I have like healthy protein based meal once a day in the 9 weeks that should be fine isn't it? I had boneless chicken today and weight didn't fluctuate thankfully so one meal a week for 9 weeks should be fine? Sorry if I'm rambling

This! I am also feeling a little bit of hunger here at there - my stomach is still not rumbling at all, but I feel a slight pang of "hmm I need to eat" and then it seems to disappear 😂 I have lost a total of 1lbs since Friday last week, so I will take that as a win haha! So desperate to get into that 12 stone bracket!

Ok, so the grocery shopping this week- $76.20 after sales, coupons, and rebates. Half the strawberries are gone already and the raspberries got made into jam. We’ve had pasta salad and rice bowls for dinners and they’ve had danishes, cereal, and crescent rolls for breakfasts. And about 2lbs of carrots from a previous week, a random bunch of celery in the fridge and a huge chunk of ginger got prepped for smoothies later this week and is in the freezer. My total would’ve been $13.40 less if I hadn’t taken a child with me- they asked for the kimchi and banana pepper rings. And pointed out the caramel apples.

I just checked and at 2 months, I was down 20.6 lbs from the day of surgery. There's really not a hard and fast rule for how much you'll lose. Everyone is different and it depends on your starting point and how much you lost pre-op, too. I had some months when I lost a lot and other months where I hardly lost anything, but overall it moved steadily downward. My weight loss has stalled for the past month or so, now that I am more than a year out. The only guidelines I was given was 60g minimum of protein per day and 64oz water. I am now almost 14 months post-op and I've gone from 225 lbs on surgery day (251 was my highest, which was 6 months pre-op) to anywhere from 162-165lbs. My exercise consists of walking and that's it. I'd like to lose another 10 lbs but I'm also pretty fine with where I am as long as I don't gain (which is why I do hope to lose a bit more). I've gone from a size 22 to a size 12. I think I could still lose a bit more if I focused on cutting out some bad habits that have crept in with sweets/simple carbs, and if I increased my daily exercise to something a little more challenging than a walk. I don't count calories and I don't really track macros at this point, either. I just try to eat reasonable meals that focus on protein and veggies, and not snack too much or eat junk food too often. A typical day is either spinach frittata, Kodiak protein oatmeal, or a Greek yogurt for breakfast, plus a serving of mixed fruit (strawberries, cantaloupe, blueberries, grapes. Lunch is a good size spinach salad with 3oz chicken and some black beans. Dinner might be a bowl of homemade chicken, bean, and veggie soup, chili, or maybe some grilled meat and veggies. Sometimes I eat chickpea pasta with marinara and meatballs but other types of pasta and breads don't settle well. For snacks, I like string cheese and an apple, or some mixed nuts or roasted edamame. I have to be careful of overindulging in things like popcorn, candy, and cookies because they are too easy to eat without getting full (and sadly I don't get dumping from them). Red meat fills me up very quickly. The hardest thing for me now is dealing with the head hunger that makes me want to reach for food if I am bored or stressed. Getting the stuff out of the house completely is the only strategy that really works for me with that. My only real advice is don't drive yourself crazy. Just do your best each day and pay attention to your body. That's more important than counting calories. You're not on a diet! You need to figure out what you can sustain for the rest of your life, while paying attention now to the basics (protein and water, plus vitamins) to keep up your health.

Getting back to the OP's question about what do do: If they really feel they are accurately logging and are also having a hard time eating less, then the option would be to take steps to increase metabolism. Yes, GLP-1 drugs can do this, but there are other options. First, would be adding muscle mass from strength training. Estimates are that each pound of muscle increases calories burned per day by roughly 6 calories, Each pound of fat contributes ~2 calories burned per day. This latter fact surprises some people, but fat is metabolically active tissue. It's just that muscle is more metabolically active. If someone were to gain ten pounds of muscle and lose ten pounds of fat, that would lead to an increase in BMR of roughly 40 calories. That doesn't sound like much, but it adds up over time. If you also add in EPOC (Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption), from the strength training needed to add muscle mass, then I'd estimate this would over time lead to ~400-450 extra calories burned in a week. That would lead to a loss of ~6 pounds in a year even while eating the exact same amount of food. If this is not a sufficient amount, then one can always reduce calories a bit as well. Alternately (I know this will sound counter-intuitive), but the OP might well want to consider UPPING their calories a bit for a while. Our bodies were designed to upregulate our metabolisms slightly when calories are available and downregulate it when calories are scarce. This means our bodies can maintain weight at a wide range of calorie intake. If we're constantly in a calorie restrictive diet, our bodies do downregulate metabolism to keep us from what it perceives as starving to death. What I'd recommend instead is going up 200-300 calories per day for about a month. After this "diet reset", drop down again to 1200-1400 for no longer than 2 months before cycling back up again. You can keep this cycle going on indefinitely. One of 2 things will happen here. Most likely the OP won't gain anything during the increased calorie intake diet reset because their metabolism will increase to compensate. However, when they start back at the ~1300 calorie range, their metabolism may not drop immediately, meaning they'll lose a little bit in the following 2 months. If they do find that they gained during the diet reset, but fail to lose when back in the diet phase, then worst case it shouldn't be more than about 2 pounds (less than 1% of body weight). This isn't likely, but even if this does happen, it will at least tell us that 1300 won't work for weight loss for them and they'll need to go lower. I'd also be remiss if I didn't come back to exercise here. I mentioned that low levels of exercise (30 minutes of cardio), really are not going to do anything toward weight loss. It's obviously going to be different for everybody, but current research seems to suggest that the tipping point is about 400 calories per day. What I mean by that is if you can burn OVER 400 calories in exercise in a day, the body can't suppress your metabolism enough in other ways to keep you from going net-negative for the day. Said differently, you'd need to do something that burns more than 400 calories before it "counts" for weight loss and the only part that counts is the part above 400 calories. Unfortunately, 400 calories is A LOT for most people. The good news is the heavier you are the more you burn, but even at 215 pounds, you'd probably have to run over 3 miles to hit 400 calories. Keep in mind, this would just be to break even, so if you're actually trying to burn more calories this way, it will take even more. I'll use myself as an example here. I'm not trying to lose weight right now, but I have found that if I run over roughly 28 miles in a week, I tend to lose weight. If I run less miles, I maintain. Do the math, and for me that's right at about the 400 calories a day mark. In my use case of one, I'm pretty close to the statistical average as shown in the research. Best of luck whatever you decide.

Reporting my win for the week: Since surgery on 4/11/24 i have remained with steady weight loss about 2 to 2.5 pounds per week. I do not own a scale and went to my parents to visit this weekend and stepped on their scale im down another 13 pounds from last month. I think my walking about 5 miles daily also helps if not helping with weight management definitely helps with my mental health. I feel so good after working out! 🏋️‍♀️. Let's us all win for the future weeks ahead!

the aforementioned bacon as a garnish to butternut squash soup! soooooooooooo yuuuuuuummmmmm! (me and Mr. shared this, not exactly sure how much i ate of it - probably 1/3 - but i did eat all the bacon, ha 😂 !)

@Odougz I feel you on that! My surgery is next week and the anxiety is getting real. I think its completely normal though. I mean, who wouldn't be at least a little concerned?! It's a major life changing surgery! You're right though, we've got this! Stay Strong December buddies!

I made a post about being on semaglutide shots. There aren't working as I weighed at the weight doc's. and I gained 4 pounds since last month. I don't know what to do. But I will be honest. I have eaten nothing but a crispy chicken salad from the Publix which last me for 3 days since I still the restriction with the shots and surgery. I am over year out from surgery. My salad had peppers, cucumber, cheese and tenders with ranch. Only sugar drink I drink is sweet tea no sodas. What am I doing wrong? What should be eating. Dietician aren't helping.

Yep, still waiting for my surgery date @Spinoza The dietitian had warned me that I could end up doing the liver reduction diet over Christmas and I was wondering if anyone else had managed the same 🙂 When I had my appointment with the surgeon, we both agreed on having a bypass so now I wait for the date for the op! Definitely glad I’m over Covid though 🥳 @FifiLux isn’t it odd how the there are so many different approaches to WLS? Some have no pre-surgery diet, some have a couple of days, mines 3 weeks plus there are longer ones etc. It’s hardly surprising that some people end up totally confused with what they are supposed to be doing! Oh, how was your break? Did you take your travel scales? Did they help if so?!

I have the same concerns going into the holiday season; all 3 holidays in a row always feel hard and gluttonous. I'm going to avoid candy on Halloween and for Thanksgiving and Christmas, I'm going to ask for a salad plate instead of a big on and just take small scoops of what I really like; planning on starting with my protein first.