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I have a sleeve and as the others have said, yes, you will be able to eat a larger portion than what you do after surgery but that’s what’s supposed to happen. It’s how we are able to consume the calories & nutrients we need to maintain our lower weight. However, the larger portion is more like what a recommended portion size is nothing like you may have eaten before surgery. You’ll be looking at about 3-4ozs of a protein & around a cup of vegetables. You’ll be able to eat a lot of the same foods & old favourites as you used to. The difference is how frequently you have them & how much you eat when you do. You may even make healthier choices around the ingredients or cooking methods. Like instead of battered or crumbed fish & chips you have grilled fish & salad or air fried or baked vegetable chips, Instead of a burger on a bun have a bun less burger or a lettuce wrapped one or just eat half of the bun. There aren’t foods I can’t eat just foods I choose not to, choose to eat small portions of or eat infrequently & I feel better for it. Your stomach is a muscle and there is the potential to stretch it again but you’d have make a concentrated effort & eat large portions, many times a day over a long period of time like you did in the first place. It’s not easy & can cause a lot of discomfort (even vomit) to force yourself to eat that volume of food. Why would you want to though? Second the advice to watch the videos of Matt Weiner & John Pilcher.

Thank you to you all for the wonderful feedback! I am very fresh into my journey and I honestly thought it would’ve taken me the entire 12-18months to get to the point to where I am at. I notice that 1000 calories is easy to attain some days and harder to get to the others. I do workout hard and burn on my lowest days 650calories and my highest 1000cal. Which would completely make my calories for the day really low or at zero. But I feel really good, I wake up alert and am able to do 5am workouts, I eat pretty well I think, I try not to drink my calories but man do I miss a full fat mocha 😂. I am trying to deter from the mindset that I need to weigh a certain number and like you all said I need to ride the ride and focus on how I feel. I do want plastics so I know my body is going to change even more which honestly is TERRIFYING! Going off on a tangent, I have so many emotions about about this process and it happened way father than I anticipated. Again, thank you all for your feedback it helped!

I had RNY rather than sleeve, but it's probably similar. I'm nine years out and can eat a "normal" amount of food, but my "normal" now is a lot different than my "normal" was when I weighed 373 lbs. Which means, no one now would guess that I had WLS. At. most they'd think I'm a "light eater", if they even notice at all. If I go to a restaurant, I'll often order an appetizer or a salad or maybe soup & salad. Or if I order an entree, I'll eat half of it and bring the rest home. If we go out for pizza, I'll have 1-2 pieces, whereas before I'd eat half a large pizza. This really is no different than most of my female friends who've never been obese. So it's "normal" eating. The way I was eating before surgery was not normal. Maybe that's what your doctor is trying to say. of course, it's possible for us to scarf up a lot more calories than that. Surgery basically restricts how much you can eat at one sitting. You will probably not be able to eat as much as you used to at one sitting. You will likely be stuffed after eating 1-2 pieces of pizza, for example. BUT...nothing but you will stop you from grazing all day. For example, you could eat 1-2 pieces of pizza at 5:00 pm, and 1-2 more at 7:00 pm, and 1-2 more at 9:00 pm - so in the end you would have eaten just as much as you did at 400 lbs. So that's why some people end up gaining a lot of their weight back - it they can't control their grazing. That's where the head work comes in. P.S. years ago when I was first contemplating surgery, the two choices were lap band or RNY (it took me ten years to finally get surgery - by then, the sleeve was on the scene, rapidly replacing the lap band). Anyway, at first I wanted the lap band because it was reversible. Some of the WLS patients I talked to said "why would you ever want it reversed? You'd gain the weight back". True. So I decided maybe that wasn't such a bad thing (although RNY technically IS reversible - it's just that it's a very complicated surgery, so they only do it in extreme situations). Anyway, I love my RNY and would never want it to be reversed, so I'm fine with the fact that it really can't be (or in my case, only in an extreme medical situation)

When people choose a goal weight, many of us choose a weight we’d attained in the past & were ‘happy’ at. Others choose a weight they think might be okay for them. Others use BMI or readjust their goal as they progress. Most surgeons tend to recommend a weight that sits within the statistical weight loss range. You can choose any number as your goal weight but it doesn’t truely mean anything. You really don’t get to choose your final weight. It depends upon factors like your new set point (which is the main one), your lifestyle & lifestyle choices, when your calorie intake & activity levels align, age, health & medications. You end up where you end up. You can start maintenance early but you can’t easily force your body not to be in maintenance to lose more weight if it doesn’t want to (your set point). As you can see in my profile, my final weight is 11kgs less than my goal (which was the low weight I usually attained over the years of losing & regaining, it met the stats & my surgeon endorsed it). Before surgery, I would never expected to be this weight. I mean I was 12 when I last weighed that & was almost 54 when I had surgery. I would have thought too thin, skeletal, etc. I’m not. I certainly didn’t intentionally work at getting here, it was where my body wanted me to be & where my calories, my body’s needs & activity level aligned. This means it’s easier to maintain. I still work at it but never feel like I’m ‘dieting ‘ or missing out on anything. Let your body tell you when. You’ll likely find you naturally slip into maintenance. PS - Congratulations on your weight loss. Fabulous!

Ideally, maintenance is achieved when you are living the lifestyle (in terms of intake and movement) that you can foreseeably do for the "rest if your life"...even more ideally, is if you can adjust your lifestyle as your circumstances change... when u get to goal weight, you can start upping ur calories until weight loss stops. you may find you go under ur goal weight by a bit, but more likely than not, you will regain a few lbs until you stabilize (at, below, or over goal weight...u won't know until u know, unfortunately). lots of us on here worried about losing too much weight...unless u have medical conditions, this worry doesn't last long lol. i got to about 20 lbs below goal weight at my lowest. regained about 10 of those extra lbs within a year. and while i thought i was too small when i was at actual goal, i don't think that anymore, even weighing 10 lbs less. long story short, if u can leave the worry at the door, do it. Unless u are sick or your med team is worried, just enjoy the ride! you look awesome, you look like u must awesome. bask in your awesomeness!

I got a Ninja Creami in December and now I eat delicious, low-calorie ice cream every single day! A lot of people use protein shakes to make protein ice cream with the Creami, but I get enough protein from other food, so I focus on low-calorie. If you’re an ice cream lover, the Creami is worth its weight in gold.

Snack: I don’t usually snack but I barely had lunch and was ravenous. A mini slice of multigrain sourdough, smashed avocado, spicy pickled onions, crumbled feta cheese and red pepper flakes. Ate most of it, it’s quite fascinating how much more I can eat when there’s minimal protein in what I’m having. Around 180 calories. Oh and it’s my first time having regular carb loaded bread post op.

I love Rebel ice cream. Very low calories, lactose free, low to no sugar, very low carbs, amazing flavors. I get them at WalMart.

I can eat it, but not much of it because it makes me feel sort of sick. I know a few bypass people who don't tolerate it at all. Some people can handle it, though - but it's got a lot of sugar and fat in it, so even if you tolerate it, I wouldn't eat much of it. Just an occasional, small treat. I do eat sugar free fudgesicles occasionally. Or I'll stir some unsweetened cocoa powder into some low-calorie vanilla yogurt and top it with a couple tablespoons of sugar free Cool Whip and a few berries to make a "sundae".

I eat Yasso bars.. I highly recommend them. They're Greek yogurt, decent protein and have 100 calories and taste just like ice cream - mint chip and fudge brownie are delicious. I also have a iCreami and make "ice cream" protein shakes. But if all else fails - fudgcicles at 40 calories low sugar.

I completely understand your frustration, in the last 8 weeks I've lost and regained the same two pounds. I'm 9 months in..so very close to your timeframe. I read in my bariatric clinic handbook to contact the clinic if weight loss stops longer than 4-5 weeks. I have an appointment next week at which time I will be asking for answers. Like you, I am always at a calorie deficit, I watch every single calorie, fat, sugar and carb gram sticking to my 800 calories a day, 80 protein grams, 50 net carbs a day. My labs are "perfect"... So yeah I do understand, I'm sorry you're going through this, especially for longer than I have. What did your doctor recommend/say? As far as being cold, there are numerous posts here on the forum with other WLS patients discussing being cold all the time - do a search to find them. In fact, as I type this I have a heating pad on my back and an electric blanket on in front - its 56°F here too cold!!! Before surgery I would have been fine, I kept my heat on during the winter at 55° and was comfortable where as everyone else was chilly. So, its completely normal. I was wearing a long sleeve shirt in 76° sunshine the other day and was still chilly. So rest assured your being cold is completely normal! Let us know what your doctor said and keep us updated!

You’ll get a range of answers about this simply because our needs are so different. Have a chat with your dietician & /or team to see what they recommend is best for you at your current stage, current weight, activity levels, height, age, etc. As a start see what a BMR (basal metabolic rate) calculator suggests you should be eating to maintain your current weight & activity & aim for fewer calories. Try this one https://www.thecalculatorsite.com/health/bmr-calculator.php Or this one https://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/ They’re not 100% accurate of course (it’s just statistical data) & you’ll notice differences in what they recommend based on what formula they use but it is an idea of what you may need.

lunch: yep, another salad! all the usual suspects/ingredients, with the addition of avocado, some leftover steak and a chopped up Popeye's drumstick. enjoyed the salad out on my porch earlier this afternoon cuz it was so nice out! ❤️❤️ 683 calories for the entire thing, ate the leftovers from the pic just now! i also ate an additional popeyes chicken thigh with hot sauce, 2 snack yogurts, homemade guac with homemade naan chips, 2 espresso martinis, some chicharron, a small cube of bacon-brownie i made yesterday, and a handful of pistachios. which has me at 2128 calories so far today. i still may eat some chips/popcorn while i watch Bridgerton S03 tonite tho!! so calorie count for today still pending. my porch salad:

Hi can someone please help me . I have 1 stone 4lbs to lose still and I am 1 year post op (gastric sleeve ) how many calories should I be having and anyone else in the same boat ? When I put my details on a calculator to get to goal I need to eat 1200 per day which I find too less 😔 any tips and advice will be apperciated. Thank you x

Liquid clears your stomach pouch in a matter of seconds after gastric bypass. I know this because on the morning after my surgery, I had to do a swallow test and l literally watched on the screen as my new little pouch filled with a swallow of liquid and immediately started dripping it into my small intestine. By the time I took the third swallow, the first one was no longer in my stomach pouch at all and the second one was mostly emptied, too. That's how it is supposed to be. "Stretching out" your stomach is 99% myth for two reasons. First, at the early stage, your stomach is swollen and stiff. You couldn't stretch it out if you tried, let alone with a mere few ounces of liquid. Second, as time goes on, it's supposed to stretch a bit to allow you to eat a healthy quantity of food because you can't live on 400 calories forever. If you stick to your recommended portion sizes, eating schedule, and fill up on healthy foods, it won't be an issue. I highly recommend watching Dr. Pilcher's video about stomach stretching if you're concerned. Bottom line, most people do not actually stretch their stomachs, they learn to eat around the size restriction by grazing all day and eating high calorie junk, and then blame their "stretched" stomach for their bad behavior when they gain back all the weight. At 8 weeks post-op, swelling has decreased and capacity is closer to what it's meant to be. Drinking 12 oz in 35 minutes is totally normal and healthy at this point. It means you are healing. Solid foods take longer to empty, so eating 3-4 oz per meal will feel very different than drinking 12 oz of water. At 3 months post-op, I can drink 32 oz of hot decaf tea in 30 minutes. I can eat 5-6oz yogurt/bean soup or only 2-3 oz of chicken breast in the same amount of time. It's a function of how much your stomach has to do before it can move along. My advice is to follow the instructions you were given with regard to your number of meals per day, quantity of food at each sitting, macros, etc. Stop when you feel fullness cues, but don't eat more just because you don't feel fullness cues, if that makes sense. You will never need more than 4 oz of chicken at a sitting, but you will likely be able to eat more than that in a year or two. Resist the temptation, and add non-starchy veg instead if you feel hungry. Build good habits now that you can stick to forever.

Dinner (and post pilates meal): Crispy maple glazed salmon, garlic green beans, egg fried rice and a steamed seafood gyoza, with ponzu sauce on the side. Ate it all. Around 250 calories.

I had surgery on 3/6 of this year and am doing really well - losing steadily, no food issues, etc. I am still sleeping a ton though - feeling best getting 10 hours of sleep, which seems crazy to me. I used to go on 6-7 and never felt tired. I’m assuming it’s the extreme calorie deficit and will ask my doctor at my next appointment, but wondered if anyone else had the same experience?

I can't even ... I am literally half the woman I used to be...262lbs-131lbs in a year. My goal was 140, but I kept loosing despite the increase in calories. I know a bounce back is coming and appreciate the cushion. My body composition test showed I went from 50% body fat to 18% with no new loss of fat free body mass since month 3. When they showed the pounds of fat vs fat free mass, I only had 24lbs of fat, which is good because some fat is healthy. I'm thrilled with the results. My first bikini in who knows how long (my daughter bought it for me for Mother's Day). I seriously do not recognize myself and I love being healthy. *Don't mind my red face. I started micro needling.

Hi there folks. I was sleeved back in September of 2023, so it's been 8 months. In 3 months, I have lost 3 pounds. This has had me in tears. I haven't been absolutely perfect, but I'm exercising 5 times a week and maintaining a significant calorie deficit (average 1400 cal at 330 pounds). For the last 6 weeks, my hands and feet have started getting cold, and I have been sweating excessively. I went to see my GP and we considered thyroid, which was a relief as it might explain the stalls AND the circulation. BUT the TSH test just came back within normal range. She's stressing that extreme weight loss can cause you to feel cold more often due to the loss of insulation, but my hands and feet are objectively cold (other people can feel it) so it doesn't seem this simple. Any ideas? If I'm back to steering my own healthcare on this, it is not a new thing for me, I'm just not sure where to start.

Funny you should mention Vraylar. I learned the hard way before I was put on Latuda that I couldn't take that. Why? It caused a 7 month long manic episode that was just terrible. It was one of the worst episodes I had ever had I nearly died from the experience and had I actually passed away from it my wife would have been able to sue the pants off of my psychiatrist for malpractice because she definitely was in the wrong. I was on Saphris beforehand and she took me off of Saphris cold turkey and then immediately stuck me on Vraylar. She later said she shouldn't have done that. Anyway, we're supposed to be talking about bariatric surgery not Psychiatric meds. I just figured I'd share my own personal story since we seem to have similar med history. The only reason I'm concerned about Latuda and getting bariatric surgery is you're right, it needs 350 calories to be absorbed properly and if im on a 1k calorie diet that's going to be problematic because thats almost half of my daily calories. But I do so well on Latuda (it really, really helps stabilize my moods and my psychotic symptoms) that it's really stupid to take me off of it and stick me on something else. So my surgeon and nurse practitioner/psychiatrist have to all work together and figure out how it's going to work. I'm not discouraged by your weight in fact, I wish I was your weight I weight almost 440 pounds lol. But I get what you mean you gained 4 pounds. But that's what happens when you don't follow the diet. I've heard lf many people regaining the weight because they got discouraged. I really hope that once I lose the 200-250 pounds I want to lose I'm able to keep it off!

I took Latuda for bipolar when I had my sleeve three years ago and my prescribing doctor was concerned about me not getting enough calories in the beginning for it to absorb properly as well. (For those who don’t know about this particular medication it’s not about it not absorbing due to the surgery itself like many controlled release meds. This med needs the 350 calories in order to absorb fully for anyone, not just people who had surgery). Anyways, My doctor switched me to vraylar for a couple of months prior to surgery just to make sure I was stable on it and then a short time after until I was back to being able to consume 350 calories at one time. The vraylar is quite expensive but luckily they were able to get enough samples for me. The plan was to switch me back once I was eating enough. What was weird and unexpected was post surgery when he tried to switch me back to the Latuda all of a sudden it caused me a great deal of anxiety and I couldn’t tolerate it anymore (even though I was on it for three years before surgery) so he kept me on the vraylar a little longer until things got back more normal for me and then made another change. I am now on a completely different medication. Neither the surgeon or prescribing dr could explain that anxiety except that when you alter the anatomy things just happen sometimes but I just worked with my prescribing dr and he sorted it out. The most important thing is that your prescribing dr and your loved ones are very aware that you may encounter some issues and that everyone is on top of it. If you feel the slightest bit off, you may need to be the one to contact your Dr. You mentioned “the switch” as an option. Not sure if you are speaking if the SADI switch or the Duodenal switch but both of those are restrictive and malabsorbing surgeries. The reason they suggested the sleeve for me was because they were concerned about my other meds not absorbing fully just because of the malabsorbing component of the other surgery. Fast forward three years and I gained my weight back and we are now considering conversion to the SADI or bypass because I gained my weight back. I gained it back because I ate the wrong things though so don’t let that scare you. I only mention it because I’m guessing you can see my current weight and may wonder why I didn’t lose. I did lose quite a bit and maintained it for a while but I was discouraged I didn’t lose it all and I let that get to me. Which is something you should be aware of, you may not lose as much as someone who is not on all these meds. Just don’t get too caught up in comparing your journey to others. I am 5’8” and I got down to 168. I would be so much happier and healthy now if I had just accepted that win instead of getting it in my head that I failed by not making it to where others did.

i love food and still do. there where a couple months in the beginning when i hated food, but it didn't bother me because, well i hated it, lol. then for another couple months eating food was more like, meh. but i did like looking at it and cooking it...(thats a whole other story lol) i eat basically whatever i want (except too much sugar at once), whenever i want. just in much, much smaller quantities at a time. dont get me wrong, im 5'2", 118 lbs and i can pack in over 2200 calories a day these days (im on an exercise kick), it's just spread out. but in the end, you are ready when u ate ready. i will leave u with this small tip: book your surgery if you can. if u do end up not wanting to go through with it when the time comes, you can ask to postpone to a later date. then see is you are ready then. if not, rinse and repeat. this way you may not have to "restart" the clock for qualifying purposes. this is what i did (not on purpose, just accidentally lol). i backed out of surgery dates twice...then finally went through with the third) but not going through with it that first time is my single solitary regret of the entire WLS experience. good luck! ❤️

WLS patients can easily increase daily calories by drinking them. That may be an option for you instead of trying to consume additional solid food. Liquids just go down easier and pass thru the stomach quicker without making you too full. For example.... a protein shake of milk, protein powder, fruit and no sugar added yogurt could get you there. GL

So I'm considering getting the gastric sleeve surgery. I'm almost 40 years old and weight almost 440 pounds and have a BMI of 67 and ive tried literally everything to lose weight and nothing has worked. I've never lost more than 20-30 pounds at a time.Bariatric surgery is really the last option for me. So I'm in a bariatric program right now and we've decided that the gastric sleeve would be the safest operation for me. The problem my team including my surgeon is trying to address? I'm schizophrenic and Bipolar and take Antipsychotics. I've maybe gained 100 lbs over the course of trying meds since 2011 to find the right medicine combination. Right now I'm taking Latuda and Seroquel for antipsychotics. My GP has stated over and over again that Latuda might not be the greatest medicine for me to be on because it requires me to consume 350 calories in order for it to work properly. But reallym the medication does wonders with me. When/if I get bariatric surgery that's going to be a challenge for my bariatric team finding a meal or snack that I can fit those calories in. Not to mention my surgeon has mentioned that it will be an extra challenge for him to try to work around my anti psychotics. He didn't say it was impossible but he did call it a great challenge. I guess why I'm posting here is to ask is, is the gastric sleeve an option for me? Or should I consider the switch instead? My bariatric team pretty much flat out said that the bypass would be too risky of a surgery to do with me and they don't do the lap band anymore and my bmi is too risky for the lap band anyway. But before I go and permanently change my stomach I'd like to know what my options are. My team hasn't really been forthcoming and just seem to want to do the surgery as soon as possible. But, I'd like it to be a success as well. Especially when the sleeve is a permanent change to my body.

Dinner: Cheesesteak filling with caramelized onions, mushrooms and light cheese on Boston lettuce. Ate this entire one and 2 broccoli florets (around 150 calories)