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I was just thinking this today. I'm about a month post op and everything has gone smoothly. I had pain the first few days after surgery, then it just went away. I've been able to get my protein and water in no problem, and so far I've tolerated all the food I have tried. I'm so thankful I'm off to a good start!

I already have some sugarfree gatorade, but it makes my heartburn worse. Today I tried some thin tomato soup, and it was pretty good and went down well. I'm doing better with liquids today, with the soup I've managed to down almost a litre of liquids (33 oz) and the day is not over yet. I know I'm not hitting either the liquid or the protein targets yet, but I tried a different protein shake, a banana/pineapple one that's not as thick and sickening as the one I had before. So at least I'm doing a little better.

Aside from the worst gas pain I have ever felt post op (upper right shoulder) that motivated me to get to walking asap, which in turn probably aided in my recovery. I have no complaints about my surgery or the road I've come down. Can't say I've really been hungry yet(10 weeks post op and down 65lbs) but if I forget to eat and I'm super active I will feel weak. I'm lucky if I get 600-800 calories, usually get between 65-80 protein and 20-40 carbs. I take colace and Benefiber because otherwise I "back up". Most days I burn what I eat in walking because of my job. But I have good energy and I'm thriving so it's all good. ☺️

Ours was much the same as in the hospital, after getting through the leak test. Generally soft and sloppy but fairly varied - soups, strained of any chunks at first, yogurt, eggs, oatmeal, cream of wheat, chicken or tuna salad, flaky fish, protein drinks, of course, as that is a major protein source for a while. We could go back and forth between liquids and soft stuff as we could tolerate, some could progress a bit quicker than others and that was expected, Then most anything else added in after a month.

I find a mixed salad easier to digest, hence the nibbling on a tomato 🍅. Breakfast is usually a poached egg. Maybe a 1/2 small slice of toast to mop up the egg, but 2 bites of the toast, and I am full. I sometimes will do a berry smoothie with a protein powder, but it takes me all morning to finish it, and then it's lunchtime, and I am stuffed. Lunch varies, as where I work provides free meals. They are different each day, and it's a choice of 2 soups, 3 or 4 hot dishes, vegetable sides, a salad bar, sandwiches and a selection of fruit. So, soup is good, fruit is ok, and everything else is meh. But I try to force myself to have some fish or chicken. I don't cope with high protein very well, like red meat, as I still get dumping syndrome. Large amount of sugars will do the same thing. I had a couple of bites of a muffin the other day, and nearly passed out in the bathroom. Absolutely drenched in a cold sweat, my vision went dark and the room was spinning. My heart was absolutely racing, and I had terrible diarrhoea. From experience, it usually lasts about 1/2 hour, and I just ride it out. My evening meal is often non existent. I am just not hungry. I hadn't thought of the dry retching as a symptom of an empty stomach.. that's a strong possibility. I never throw anything up, because my tummy is empty.

I was not allowed anything to eat or drink on my surgery day. They had some lemon swabs I could use to moisten my mouth, but that was it. The 2 days after surgery were clear liquids only. Starting day 3 until day 23 I could have "full liquids" like protein shakes.

I was discharged on Thursday morning; RNY was Tuesday morning. Thursday (post op day 2): 1 fl oz clear liquid every 15 minutes Friday-Sunday (post op days 3, 4, 5): (3) portions of 2oz full liquids per day + 64 oz water daily My full liquids have been: Fairlife Chocolate Protein Shake + Isopure powder SF Vanilla Pudding made with Fairlife Vanilla Protein Shake + Isopure powder Oikos Pro Greek Yogurt thinned with Fairlife Vanilla Protein Shake + Isopure powder Since the 2 oz portions are so small and I'm only eating 3x daily, I haven't even made a dent in these. Hope this helps!

Hi, I recently got the gastric sleeve this past Monday. The night in the hospital I was allowed ice chips. The following day I had beef broth and sugar free jello and sugar free crystal light. Once I was home it was clear broths and sugar free Gatorade for the first three days. I am now able to have Greek yogurt’s and protein shake and cream soup.

Went for my pre-op covid test today. I need to quarantine until Tuesday (surgery day). We made hotel reservation to be closer to the hospital (it is an hour drive from the house). Today and tomorrow still on the high protein liquid diet… Monday is all clear liquid and I start my blood thinner shots. I need to get my overnight bag packed pack yet, but I’m trying hard to not over pack (like I always do). I’m super nervous and ready to be on the other side of surgery. How is everyone else doing?

That is crazy. This is the first I am hearing of a “max lifetime benefit” for Bariatric - I’ll have to look into that. I still have time I have three options for insurance. BCBS is one of them but I’ve had them before and they were honestly a complete nightmare constantly messing up claims from a pregnancy, so I won’t go with them anymore haha. That also makes it seem like your surgery is crazy expensive lol which procedure are you getting done? My OOP max across the board is 3000 so I’m hoping that’s all I have to pay out of pocket. Hopefully you only end up paying $400! This whole process seems stressful, and long. Hoping to get my surgery summer on 2023! Good luck in your adventure!

Hi all! I'm having some trouble finding an app that meets my needs. I want to log my food, but I am very much planning to meal prep (so cooking one bigger item, and having it across multiple meals). The issue is that most apps seem great for logging food as consumed, but not creating recipes and dividing into servings so that it's easy to track calories and protein individually. It could be user error, but I tried MyFitnessPal and Fitbit tracking. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I am a little more than a year out from my gastric sleeve an initially lost around 75 lbs. I recently started back on my antidepressant and seem to crave carbs. I have put back on about 20 lbs and really need to get my snacking under control. In the past being on antidepressants was a major cause of my weight gain and I am trying to tame the carb monster since I started back on the meds. Any suggestions besides getting back to religiously tracking calories. I still work out about 4 days a week. I think focusing on my protein intake may help with the carb cravings but I thought I would see if others have any recommendations. Sent from my SM-G998U using BariatricPal mobile app

Thanks you so much! I am home recovering....not too bad so far. It's actually easier to keep up with my liquids and protein this time. I have not felt any GERD and I'm down 3 pounds lol

Hi! Just wanted to see how you’re doing and if the weight loss has kicked back in!😁 It’s very frustrating, I know! Just hang in there, keep pushing your water/fluid intake and if you have to incorporate protein powder or liquid to boost your protein intake then do! Hope everything is going well!

The only things I know to do are to sip on Swansons chicken (or beef) bone broth (9 grams protein) and/or to add unflavored protein liquid or powder to your drinks/ broths. You can order protein liquid from Amazon and it will really boost your protein intake. Maybe incorporate some Pedialyte in your water or no sugar Gatorade or Powerade to help with the dehydration. My dietitian told me soups, broths, and Powereade all count towards my fluid intake. I’m so sorry you’re having nausea. That is so miserable. If it gets really bad and uncontrollable then call your doctor for sure. I hope you feel better soon. 💕

I'm having real problems with nausea today. I can't stomach another protein pudding or shake. Last night I tried some clear soup and it went down fine. I've been using myfitnesspal to keep track of my water and protein. I've only been able to get 8-25 grams of protein per day, and around 1 liter maybe of water and drink (33 o). I'm supposed to aim for 1.5 l of water (50 oz). I can tell by the color of my urine (hope that's not TMI) that I'm dehydrated, as it's more orange than yellow. It's just so hard to get more down with constant nausea. Do you have any tips or tricks for getting more fluids and protein?

How far out are? Can you eat regular or soft foods yet? Any way I'm 8 months out I don't see an issue with beef stew or a bit of rice my surgeon said have more protein than carbs in a meal and fruits and vegetables with carbs don't count against you. Not to mention if you deny yourself everything it makes it harder find alternatives on somethings eat small portions of others. It's not an easy path and everyone handles it differently. All I can say is do you. Your feelings are yours real and should be acknowledged. Hope you feel better and it works out for you Sent from my SM-A716U using BariatricPal mobile app

So it may be time to take a little break from the ongoing saga of why it’s taken me over two and a half years to get to surgery and instead talk about how I got to the point of wanting to have bariatric surgery in the first place. My lightest weight as an adult was while I was in the Army. Just sheer physical activity and regular PT had me lean down to around 175 from maybe 185 when I graduated high school. Unfortunately I was severely injured in a training accident while in the service and left the military with a bad limp and a knee brace as a constant reminder. Weight wise, things went downhill from there. Being somewhat disabled made it hard to exercise, but meanwhile I was still eating like I did when I was in the service. (Lots of food, very quickly.) This was obviously not a good combination. Several other health scares and life events later, I shot up to around 240. I managed to stabilize things at this point and was even able to get into strength training pretty seriously for a while. Most cardio was still out, though. Life went on for several years, until I got a new job that paid me very well, but also took it’s toll on me physically and mentally. Within 3 years in the new job, I was up to 285 or so and climbing. I knew I needed help, so my wife and I tried just about every possible diet program imaginable. Interestingly, I’ve kept logs of every one of those diets. For at least the past 15 years, the typical pattern was for me to be somewhere between 285 and 300 pounds lose 30-80 pounds, then yo yo right back to my starting weight and then some. In about 2017, I finally asked my Doctor for help. We did all the things you’re supposed to do: talk to dietitians, try medications of various kinds, and even do physician monitored diets. None of that worked any better. The problem was, they just assumed like everyone does that I was weak-willed or to stupid to know how to eat properly. That’s never been my problem. I actually eat pretty well overall, with lots of fresh veggies, and plenty of lean protein. The problem is, in addition to all the good food, I’m also an emotional eater that soothes with sweets. I knew I’d reached rock-bottom when I started hiding food from my wife. As an example, I might buy a box of donuts and plow through it in a matter of minutes. Or buy the boxes of chocolate intended for Valentines day and devour them all in a morning. No box or bag of candy or pastries ever had the dust settle on it around me! About this time, I got up to 330 (my highest weight), and knew I needed to take a different road or I would never live to see my grandchildren. (I may never actually have any grandchildren, but that’s a story for a different day!) This takes us to late 2019 when I discovered, quite by accident, that my new insurance plan starting in Jan 2020 would finally cover bariatric surgery. After about a millisecond of research (okay, maybe a little longer), I decided this might be the thing for me. I think you already know what happened in my saga in 2020, so we’ll stop there for now and start back up next time in the summer of 2021, when I finally got the cardiac clearance I needed to get WLS.

I completely agree that I think the protein shakes I've tried so far have been pretty disgusting. I have been drinking chicken broth for the three days, and that goes down the best. Water on its own makes a bit nauseous at times. I'm having fantasies of greek yoghurt and oats that I will (hopefullyI be allowed to have next week.

I’m struggling to get in my protein, all the sweet/thick protein shakes make me so nauseous… I’m drinking bone broth now, and it’s going down much easier! It’s only 9g protein which isn’t much, but I figured something Is better than nothing 🤷🏼‍♀️

Yes, water logged is the feeling! Today I did a Vitamin Water Zero in Lemonade and it just didn't seem to want to go down. I'm doing Powerade Zero Fruit Punch now and it's much easier. How weird is that? I was so happy to have my IV out at the hospital but now I'm like "I want the IV back!!" My nutritionist said adding protein to the liquid foods (pudding, yogurt, skim milk) was fine, but for now she didn't want me to add any to my water, so no protein waters. She said eventually I could do that, but not within the first couple weeks because anything with added protein is technically a food and your body metabolically processes foods differently than water. She said to focus on hitting the water goal over any other food goal for the first couple of weeks. There is no way to reach my protein goal when I'm only consuming (3) 2oz portions of liquid food per day.

I just bought some soup mixes from Keto Chow, haven't tried them though. They're high protein and low carb and despite the name, the dry mix is low fat as well.

Hey all! Still pre-op, but I was looking at buying Isopure's infusion whey protein powder to add to my water for a protein boost, and I noticed the third ingredient is citric acid. I looked around here and Google and people say citric acid is bad for our stomachs post surgery, but lots of people also say they drink crystal light, which like the first ingredient is citric acid.I looked at my post op meal plan paperwork and it says no acid liquids (specifically naming orange juice, tomato juice, coffee, and tea) but then on the list of things I can have, it says I'm allowed sugar free crystal light. If they're saying crystal light is okay, Isopure's powder should be okay too, right?

I didn't even now there was another thread SOOO glad to hear that you came out well and with no complications! The barium test sounds awful, but I'm glad everything came out all right. Yeah, I'm a 100+ ounce water drinker too and I'm not quite sure how that is going to mess with me afters. Especially since you have to wait before and after eating to drink again. Are you putting protein in your pudding and water too?

Hi Everyone, I was posting over in the RNY August thread, but it doesn't seem to be very active. I had my surgery on Tuesday, so today is my Day 3 Post Op. The surgery & hospital stay went very well, but I had a rough first day at home yesterday. I think it was mostly because I no longer had the IV for hydration and it takes forever to drink enough water on your own. The barium swallow test at the hospital was pretty gross. Plus, it didn't move very fast through my bowels so I was sitting around for like an hour while they kept trying the x-ray; they finally sent me back up to my room and had a mobile x-ray come up a few hours later. Everything was fine, it was just slow moving. It made me really nervous that something was wrong though. I was on a pre-op liquid diet (OptiFast shakes only) for 7 days, clear liquid only the day before surgery and until this morning, I've only had clear liquids. I haven't been hungry at all, but I can tell my body is pretty weak from not taking in many calories. I've been really tired. Today I started full liquids, which for me is 3 servings of 2 oz per day until my 1 week post-op appointment. I had 2 oz Fairlife Chocolate Shake this morning which went down well and I'm working on a 2 oz portion of SF vanilla protein pudding right now. It's been difficult for me to get my 64 oz of liquids in. I never thought it would take this long to drink! Before surgery, I was a person who drank 100+ easily before bed.