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Welcome all! I have to say, that I thought this would be harder (its not easy, just not as hard as I expected.) I fully expected to be cranky, dizzy, headachy (I do get some headaches due to no caffine) and hungry all of the time. I find the protein shakes do a pretty good job of filling me up...which honestly worries me a bit...I feel like I may not be doing this right. I guess we will find out in 2 days, but for now, I will keep following the guidelines set out for me by the docs office. I won't lie, I cheated a TINY bit...I ate some olives, not to fill me up but for the texture I think. It has stopped and I wont eat any more, but I do feel bad about it.

Hello Everyone, I had surgery on 3/29 and my scale is telling me that I have not lost any weight. I initially had lost about 6lbs, but now I am back at the weight I was the day of the surgery. I must admit that I have not been drinking the Protein shakes....could this be my problem? I know that I am not eating over 1000 calories a day, so I can't figure out why I am not losing??? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Apralfool

Brian , My surgery was 11/5/08 and it was a breeze, i'll tell you why. My doctor and staff are second to none but since you aren't in New Orleans to see them ,i'll let you in on the secret's they gave me As soon as you get home start your pain med's and your gas-x strips . Continue taking them every 6 or 8 hours, whatever your bottle says, even if you don't feel any gas or pain. The objective is to have the med's in your system so that you don't have to feel the pain or the gas . You are beating it to the punch. If you wait for the symptom it is then to late and it will take forever for the med's to kick in. Also, walk as much as you can around the house, this will move the gas and also help in healing. Drink your liquids at least 2 ounces every 15 -30 min. I had no surgery pain or even gas pain but I did have slight soreness around the port sight. I used a heating pad on this area and it worked wonders. Also you may need to sleep on a few extra pillows at first. It was much more comfortable than lying down for me. Watching TV will become hard because every other commercial is about food. Get your spouse to go down to the local library. They loan out usually up to 6 DVD's at a time for free. You can keep them up to 2 weeks . Just relax and heal . Stay out of the kitchen because by next week if you see food you will want to devour it. Out of sight , out of mine. If you want to shove something in your mouth keep those Blue Bell sugar free pop-sickles in the freezer and just suck on that . Oh and I read about alot of people hating protein powder and I hate it mixed with water but I buy the EAS at Sam's and mix it with milk and it is great. I could't drink it if I had to do it just with water. I hope I was of some help. :biggrin:

I am curious to know what is everyone eating when they are gaining all their weight back? What's your daily intake? How many calorie are you eating a day? What's your protein intake?

If you use a tracking app like My Fitness Pal, you can type in what you are eating and it gives some close proximations of calories and usually several options to choose from. That is better than just guessing if you do not want to calculate every ingredient.

Hi 👋 You’re right. I did list everything for the first few weeks - and I was at the 500 calories mark. Now that I can eat more solid food I’m making family meals and eating just small amounts. If I scramble an egg for myself then I can count that no problem, but I’m not sure how to calculate a ladle of home-made stew, for example. I’m assuming I’m under the 700 because I don’t drink calories, I don’t eat anything off-diet like sugar. I certainly don’t hit my Protein mark by far though.  I am drinking a lot more. Is that what you mean by water weight?

Good luck! I was banded three weeks ago. It really wasn't that bad. I teach First Grade and I was back to work in 6 days. The two days before that, I was cleaning my house! The worse part was I was soooooo hungry and by the third day I did not want another liquid!!! My headache from hunger was worse than the surgery and it went away in 1 day. Make sure to have clear liquid protein. I drank Isopure. Good luck.

Those are good tips I'm gonna try that !!! Thank you all for your support !! Means a lot and you are all right what is it to my coworkers they are just my coworkers!! I really need to focus on how I'm going to get my fluids and proteins in whole I'm at work that's gonnna be hard nurses dobt really get much breaks that's more important then what people say ill let you all know how it goes

I am almost 9 weeks post op and 53 pounds down! I would not change my descion to have the sleeve done.... Let's talk food. I have learned that folks who don't have the sleeve do not understand some of the frustrations of us who do have it. There are quirks, but on my end, I think the results outweigh the quirks. I have a very, and I mean very hard time with soft breads, tortillas and rice. I can actually feel the simple sugars breaking down and causing gas. Broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage are my devil. I do not touch them at all since being sleeved. Learned my lesson eating them last weekend. My insides felt like an atomic bomb went off. I had horrible acid reflux before surgery and lived on tums, rolaids and ranitidine. Since surgery, not one episode. Spicy food is iffy with me. Sometimes it makes me feel like it just burning its way thru, other times, going down is way better than the coming out. I try to maximize protein, and eat very little carbs. It's not easy, but I try to stay under 40-50g carbs daily. Again, carbs from fruits and some other foods I can tolerate. Cake, pie, anything "sweet", my body HATES! If I eat anything like that, even a bite, I sweat, my heart races and it doesn't stop until I lay down and take a quick nap or wrap a cold towel around my neck. One thing I also learned, I get annoyed very quick at how others eat now. The smacking lips, finger licking, stuffing food down the throat with out tasting, drives me nuts. I have had to really slow down on going out to eat with others because the sounds and sights make me ill. Smells of food now make my stomach turn, in particular green beans! Fried food I also a big fat no no for me. It sits like a rock in my throat. I was talking to my parents about all this last night. It seems like a pain in the butt for all this, but I am SO thankful because it's all foods I should it be eating anyways. I stick with a lot of veggies, fruits and grilled meats. I also do well with nuts/trail mix and jerky. I also live off of pickles, peppadews, banana peppers and cucumbers. One last thing...I used to love cheese, it makes me extremely ill now. I can still drink milk, so no lactose issues. Another thing that I found out...the textures of foods now can make or break me.

@@charley27 I'm just in a lot of pain. The narcotics give me horrible migraines but if I skip a dose I have horrible abdominal pain. I have zero energy and can barely walk. I can only sip water. No broth or protein...can't get past the smell.

I just bought some new soft chewables from Walgreens. The name of the product is U-Be-Livin-Smart General Health. These are made with fruits and whey Protein. It has about the same as the Bariatric Advantage ones, and taste a lot better! It does have 2g of carbs but also 2g of protein. If can take a picutre of the box later and add it I will, but this will work in the meantime: http://www.walgreens.com/store/c/u-be-livin-smart-general-health-dietary-supplement-chews/ID=prod6263786-product

My name is Michelle and in 5 days I will be 21 months post op and still think it was the best decision of my life. I had the vertical sleeve and I have not had any complications. At the time of surgery I weighed 215. I now weigh 130 and have held this weight for over a year. I still stay away from the following: Drinking with a straw, sugar, carbonation, rice, and pasta. I still eat protein first, then veggies then carbs. I try to eat 65-70 grams of protein daily. I am now ttc our first child. As for exercise, I run/walk 3 days a week and thats it.

I finally bit the bullet and did a bra fitting. The woman who helped me was great and it has made a big difference. I had been "shopping out of my drawers" but ran out of options. Without a bra still sad but the right bra is magical! And I was 44DD before and now 36D. I was always afraid to do the bra fitting but I am so happy I did.

I had VSG two days ago and I have put on 4 Pounds even though I am only drinking water and protein shakes. Anyone else experience this right after surgery?

Has anyone tried Protein NRG? It's protein flavored water - I just saw it on Shark Tank. It's sold at Walgreens. Has anyone tried it? I'm going to go get some tomorrow. I'm hopeful. I do NOT like Crystal Light. I had one flavor I liked (Raspberry Peach Fiber) but it's discontinued! This company makes watermelon flavored water. Yum! Check it out. I'll report back tomorrow. http://www.pronrgusa.com/

I have to remind you that you did just have major surgery. You need to be a little easier on yourself. In terms of the weight loss, you body is likely in starvation mode fighting the weight loss. I promise if you stick to the plan it will work itself out and the pounds will start to drop off again. You are not doing too bad on Water and Protein but if you could get some more in, it would give you more of the energy that you are looking for. I also think that going back to work might just be what you need to get past the afternoon sleepy time. I remember going through that and You just have to build your stamina up again. but it will be very important for you to focus on your liquids and protein while at work. I wish you the best of luck!

Have any of you tried the unjury Protein cheese Sauce Mix? I've seen mixed reviews online, either people really like it or they hate it. I love cheese and was hoping that this product would be a good choice for me.

I just ordered some. I love cheese so I am hoping I can use this to increase my protein in foods when I can start eating again

The vertical gastric sleeve surgery is what actually got me to consider weight loss surgery to begin with, after my husband had been bringing it up for 2 years prior. The weight loss is supposedly faster, but tapers off sooner than gastric bypass. I was going to have VSG myself until the surgeon did my EDG and said it wasn't an option for me (I have an unusually shaped stomach). So for the first 4 months on this journey I spent all my time over at gastricsleeve.com and it was an awesome forum with wonderful people. Highly recommend checking it out.

Mix the egg into the grits as it cooks, add fat free cream cheese or low fat cheese. you can amp up the Protein in a safe way. Grits, cream of wheat and oatmeal made me sick.

Thanks! Im not a huge egg lover so I thought 1/2 packet with one egg might be an option. Im making a list of things I can eat so post op I don't have to think.

Mine did not like pintos and cheese. I think it was too high in fat. I'm gonna try homemade next time. I ate 2 T of hummus tonight and it was heavenly. If anyone had told me I'd eat hummus without crackers/bread Ida told them they were nuts. But just to taste something not sweet and not soup was heavenly! Not much protein but oh well.

Thanks @@Inner Surfer Girl! I haven't heard of a stall this soon in. I will try to focus on getting enough protein because I'm doing everything else right, especially my h2o intake.

I made the most amazing dinner for my family tonight, grabbed my protein shake and went into my bedroom to eat it. Most days I'm good. Today I was a bit resentful. The full liquid phase is pretty tough. We work to get the surgery, we have these dreams of how amazing it will be, and then we go home to the reality. The reality is losing weight is hard and it requires self denial. Until we accept that we must deny ourselves no weight will come off even with a tiny tummy. You've started a process that requires an "all in" attitude to work. So have I. And some days it's hard but most days I'm in it so succeed. When you get the notion to go off plan use distraction to change your thinking. I visualize how I see myself in a year, or I head to Hulu and watch Hungry For Change or the Perfect Human Diet to motivate me. You can do this. We all can. Take care

I mind as well post my story because I hastily did so at the start and I feel that It should be said.. hey! I decided back in January that I were to get sleeved and then in may I was diagnosed with stage 2 cancer of the gallbladder.. so my surgery was literally a twofer.. I also suffer from PTC pseudo tumor cerebri which is the buildup of spinal Fluid in the brain causing me to black out and have a migraine everyday mostly caused from being a heavy girl.. I was also sleeved the 22nd and I was released at 9am today.. I am 21 years old and my highest weight was 307. I lost 17 lbs on my preop diet and my surgeon says my surgery went flawless. the funny part is my hair got died during the leak test and I have blue tips!! ahaha night one was literally the worst for me.. nothing could stop the gas pain I was experiences and I began walking as soon as I got to my room. I suffered from terrible dry mouth and couldn't keep any Water down.. I literally rubbed the ice chips on my lips put them in my mouth and spit them out... I literally forgot how to pee as well.. but as soon as my body got caught up from the anestisia I peed like 8 times every hour.. I found the best way to take in water besides the iv was the "lollipops" but honestly that night was very uncomfortable. day 2 was a lot easier I began burping and I got to drink my first Protein shake and the nausea was pretty much non existent.. my pain from the gas was still there but walking is the most important!!! it may be terrifying to get out of bed but indepence is key! my throat was and is still killing me.. day 3: I was released at 9 am on day three I would recommend who ever is bringing you home gives you a pillow to hold to your stomach for the ride home... I felt fine until the car started going and with every turn and bump I felt so sick.. when I got home I sat in my recliner and as soon as I sat I had to pee.. it was pretty difficult to get out of the seat because of my fear of a tear or leak.. I then decided since my restless nights in the hospital a nice nap in my bed would be perfect I ended up calling my dad almost crying because my bed felt so low to the ground and I couldn't figure out how to get into bed..but little did I know that that was just the beining.. getting out of bed was the hardest thing I've ever had to do.. and my throat feels like knives every time I swallow still.. when will this all pass I am so panicy... before findin this ap I was completely alone.. I do have my parents but they can only help me through so much.. thank you for talking to me..