Search the Community

I actually don't know how to cook my wife takes care of that to be completely honest. I told her if I ever lost sny weight that I'd be interested in learning so that I could make some things to eat while she is at work. Right now I am so heavy and out of shape that I cannot do pretty much anything by myself anymore and I need her help with everything. But if I lost 150 pounds I might give cooking a try and see what I can make. I definitely do not want instant food anymore so she is probably going to have to prepare me something to eat while she is at work for the first few months. I can make my own protein shakes but that's probably going to be it.

Getting up does kinda seem like a chore when it’s painful and you’re not hungry or thirsty anyways but it’s good to get up to avoid possibility of blood clots. When you do get up try walking a bit further than just to the kitchen too. You will see that you can do a bit more each day. Don’t rush it, of course but do get up enough to prevent clots. My goal was every hour but if I’m being honest I didn’t quite make that. Also, don’t forget to do your spirometer thing. The walking, spirometer and fluids should be the priority. Protein and vitamins are important but not nearly as important as the others. Take each day at a time this first couple of weeks. You will get in your groove soon enough.

I did keto a lot before surgery, it was vogue as we’ve all done a million diets in our lives... It works, but cravings. The preop and post diet are similar. Just way more liquids. For the fatigue and headaches, broth was the key. You would dehydrate rapidly and would suffer without the salt. The sugar detox is real, often once it passes you are a ton less Hungery. For those like me, and sugar can start the cravings. 100% agree with others who posted. It takes me about a full week for those to stop. Distractions help, exercise helps, just going to bed helps. I am always less hungry after mild exercise, mostly sweaty and thirsty. It helped stopped the food focus more than plain distractions. Heavy exercise increased the hunger the next day. This might sound crazy, but I had to constantly know when my next meal was. Lunch done, wait 2 hours then sugar free jello, then 1 hour and sugar free popsicle, then start to prep dinner, etc. knowing I was eating something in 1-2 hours helped. I tend to panic eat. Food was scarce as a kid and I tend to stuff myself if it’s not readily at hand and I’m hungry… my next meal is 3 bananas as fast a I can shove them in and I remain food panic triggered and have to talk myself down. I’m working through my hunger panic. I’m 100% not super thin now, I’m huge and need help… it’s why we are all here. :). To give and get support. And trying to not be a clean your plate club, eat any meal you are offered, all meals need a dessert, eat till you have pain and call that “full” kinda gal. I’d also make sure I got all of my sleep. I’m a 10 hour person. Plan a small exercise before you know your mega Hunger hits (I’m lunch). A 15 min walk helps divert my blood to my limbs and gets me craving fluids. Call your food what it is. A popsicle is a dessert. A pudding is a dessert. Sometimes reframing these help, ok in 2 hours I’m having protein pudding as a dessert, followed in 2 hours by a dessert popsicle. We are all different, so need different things. If after dinner I have a popsicle every night before bed, I call it dessert and I always know it’s coming and I will be getting more food… and I’m ok not being as full at dinner. This.. might have been too personal, but… helps me.

I am sooooo anticipating my soft foods beginning on Monday. I have been working on my menu and my grocery cart for a while. This is my menu so far. Monday-Snow Crab with skinny scampi sauce and mashed cauliflower Tuesday-Turkey Meatballs with peppers and onions (low carb marinara) Wednesday-Chili with side of zucchini, butternut squash and onions Thursday-Blackened Salmon with Brussel Sprouts Friday-Turkey Taco Fillings with fresh Pico and fresh Guacamole Saturday-Mahi with Jerk seasoning and green beans Sunday- Black Bean Veggie Burger Patty with carrots Lunches Monday- MUSH overnight oats (with protein powder) Tuesday- Spinach and onion Skinny Omelette Wednesday- Egg Salad Thursday- Greek yogurt with berries (and protein powder) Friday- Tuna Salad Saturday- squash and onion Skinny Omelette Sunday- Chicken Salad

I did keto a lot before surgery, it was vogue as we’ve all done a million diets in our lives... It works, but cravings. The preop and post diet are similar. Just way more liquids. For the fatigue and headaches, broth was the key. You would dehydrate rapidly and would suffer without the salt. The sugar detox is real, often once it passes you are a ton less Hungery. For those like me, and sugar can start the cravings. 100% agree with others who posted. It takes me about a full week for those to stop. Distractions help, exercise helps, just going to bed helps. I am always less hungry after mild exercise, mostly sweaty and thirsty. It helped stopped the food focus more than plain distractions. Heavy exercise increased the hunger the next day. This might sound crazy, but I had to constantly know when my next meal was. Lunch done, wait 2 hours then sugar free jello, then 1 hour and sugar free popsicle, then start to prep dinner, etc. knowing I was eating something in 1-2 hours helped. I tend to panic eat. Food was scarce as a kid and I tend to stuff myself if it’s not readily at hand and I’m hungry… my next meal is 3 bananas as fast a I can shove them in and I remain food panic triggered and have to talk myself down. I’m working through my hunger panic. I’m 100% not super thin now, I’m huge and need help… it’s why we are all here. :). To give and get support. And trying to not be a clean your plate club, eat any meal you are offered, all meals need a dessert, eat till you have pain and call that “full” kinda gal. I’d also make sure I got all of my sleep. I’m a 10 hour person. Plan a small exercise before you know your mega Hunger hits (I’m lunch). A 15 min walk helps divert my blood to my limbs and gets me craving fluids. Call your food what it is. A popsicle is a dessert. A pudding is a dessert. Sometimes reframing these help, ok in 2 hours I’m having protein pudding as a dessert, followed in 2 hours by a dessert popsicle. We are all different, so need different things. If after dinner I have a popsicle every night before bed, I call it dessert and I always know it’s coming and I will be getting more food… and I’m ok not being as full at dinner. This.. might have been too personal, but… helps me.

I am the outlier in this group. My surgeon was against protein shakes, pre op and post op, I had gallons of milk. When you first have the surgery, you will be in either of two camps. A few have zero problems drinking and the rest of us struggled. We just did our best, most with the backing of our teams. Drinking is a full time job What ever you do, do not over buy pre surgery. Your taste buds may change, mine did big time. Lots of people have wasted money this way. Good luck and its great to meet you

My advice is to make changes to your diet and exercise in the next few months that you feel you can maintain for the rest of your life, as opposed to trying a fad diet (Keto, paleo, etc.) that is likely to be too extreme. Focus on basics like reducing your simple carbs and sugars, increasing your lean protein and veggies. Start measuring your portions to make sure you are not eating more than you think. Start getting your 64oz or more of water every day and cut out any sugar-sweetened drinks that you might drink (and also alcohol) because it's just empty calories. Walking and light weights are really great, but remember that about 80% of your weight loss comes from your diet, and only 20% from exercise, so don't feel like you have to go crazy with joining a gym and working out, especially if you're starting from sedentary. Regular walking every day does amazing things. At this stage, small changes can make a big difference. One thing I did right away was go through my cupboards and get rid of temptations. I stopped buying crackers, pretzels, cookies, and sweets. I would still have a treat when I was out, but I would try not to bring it home. Since I work from home, not having things in the cupboards to tempt me was a huge help. I was not required to lose weight before my surgery, but by making these little changes, plus the strict 2-week liquid diet, I ended up going from 251 lbs to 225 lbs in about 6 months. You can do it!

I found a “recipe” where you mix 1/4 Cup of low fat or non fat (if you can find it) cottage cheese in with two scramble eggs and it comes out to 18g protein. It made almost 3 1/4 cup servings so 6g per serving. To me the cottage cheese tastes kinda salty so it adds a bit of salt and creaminess to the eggs. I’m not sure how soft the eggs will be leftover though (may be too dry for us right now)! so I think next time I may just make one egg at a time. I am curious to try it with just egg whites to reduce the fat and up the protein even more because I can probably use 3 egg whites for the 3 servings.

So I've been at my goal weight, but I'm still losing weight. I'm trying my best to maintain it and it's becoming difficult to do so. How do I healthily stay at the weight I'm at? I've tried the steps I found online like having more smaller meals throughout the day or adding more calories, but I don't have the appetite to do so and clearly can't eat as much as I used to due to the surgery. Would high protein foods work despite it being low in calories? Has anyone else run into this unexpected predicament? Or know of some good advice?

I wish it were that simple, but it's not. We have to keep in mind that our weight is made up of a lot more than just fat. There are multiple body composition models used, but the one I recommend most people use when trying to lose fat is a 3 compartment model that consists of the following: Fat Muscle Bone I recommend this one since it's easy for most people to visualise those 3 components. Keep in mind however that roughly 70-75% of muscle mass is water. Why is that important? Because sometimes we can be fooled by the scale into thinking we're not losing fat, or that we're gaining fat when we're not. Most likely, what you're seeing is simply changes in water weight. A really common scenario is for people on low calorie diets (like most people here), to see a plateau and think that means they need exercise more and/or eat less, but when they do that, they actually gain a bit according to the scale. The reality is they didn't gain fat, they retained more water. I think it's important to keep in mind that we all have something called a Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). This is the minimum number of calories your body needs simply to stay alive. It can be thought of as the number of calories you expend per day even if you were completely sedentary. BMR is a complicated subject, but on average, the bigger you are, the higher your BMR. Yes, it goes down as you lose fat, since fat is not completely metabolically inert, but fat loss does not have nearly the effect on BMR that losing muscle does. This is one of the main reasons bariatric patients are told to focus on protein intake because protein is needed to help prevent excessive muscle loss when dieting. More muscle = higher BMR = faster weight loss, or being able to eat more at goal weight The average BMR for women is ~1400 k/cal per day. Higher if you are taller or more muscular, lower if you are shorter and/or have lower muscle mass. Men, for obvious reasons tend to have a higher BMR that's more in the 1700 range. My point in telling you all of the above is that it's highly unlikely that someone eating 900 calories a day needs to eat even less if weight loss has stalled. Frankly, if that is the OP, then I'd actually recommend exactly the opposite: try upping your caloric intake a couple hundred k/cal per day and see what happens. I know it seems counter intuitive, but your body is not a simple machine where the calories in vs. calories out paradigm actually works. Happy to discuss more and provide additional info, but this post is already overly long. Best of luck.

Has anyone else tried the genepro clear protein powder? I have some and I added jr to pudding and it wasn’t bad but I’m wondering about adding it to hot stuff. Wondering how it heats and how much I can add before it changes the texture.

Oh my god that sounds amazing 🤤I have so been craving cake lately 😂 I've ordered some things from the Skinny Food Company, and they have a muffin & mini doughnuts that are high protein & really low sugar so I am excited 😂 Glad to hear you had such a lovely time ❤️ That is very true! I am gonna try and wait as long as I can, but I am in dire need of some work clothes! I will be going this week I think! My boyfriend shouldn't need my car after today so I will be able to get there safely as I don't want to be walking in the dark!

Thank you for this timely post - I'm 4 years out and have gained ~25 from my lowest. For months I've stuck my head in the sand and pretended it wasn't happening. Got on the scale Sunday, felt sorry for myself - blamed it on work stress, home stress, etc - Decided to log in here on Monday and this was the first post I saw. THANK YOU again for the wake up call. I restarted tracking yesterday (let's hope it sticks this time!) and rather than "just eat", purposely made better choices, got my protein in - Found that if I eat what I'm supposed to, I really do get full quickly. The tool works, you just have to let it.

Yes, please don’t be embarrassed to talk to your team. They understand onesity is complex. When I finally went back to my team I weighed more than when i started out before my sleeve and they did nothing but want to help me figure out a plan. For me the only option really was revision but you get to avoid that if you make the steps now. I know you can do this. Just take ONE step today. Even if it’s just setting a reminder to call the Dr. tomorrow.

Yeah, the warm face flush is another sign I’m dumping. I can get it from one bite of something. I had 5 almonds for a snack yesterday and it set me off. I’m going to ask my WLS doctor more about it. It’s just more reason to eat protein first and stick to proper meals.

I had my bypass in 2018. Many foods still don't taste the same. My sense of smell and taste never really returned. That alone is worthy of mourning. I have a problem getting enough protein and calories. I am currently suffering from anemia (my hemoglobin had dipped to 5.2 at one point, requiring hospital admittance and blood transfusions.) The cause was determined... two ulcers slowly bleeding out. Eating is a chore... very little pleasure left.

Yep, I agree with asking your surgeon & then discussing your options to manage your intake with your dietician based upon what the surgeon says as @NickelChip suggested. Not everyone who has their gall removed has issues with eating fat. As i’ve shared before, my aunt does (she describes it as feeling liverish if she eats something too fatty) but my sister-in-law & I don’t have an issue. I think I have an issue processing it in so far it doesn’t make me sick instead it maybe raising my cholesterol. Or the creons I take (which slow the passage of waste through my intestines so more nutrients are absorbed so it takes longer for the excess to be pooped out) is contributing. Maybe the type of fat (good fats vs bad fats) or added fats (like in fried foods) or naturally occurring fats (like in dairy) also play a role or has to be considered. Who knows. I’m just musing.

Thank you very much! Congratulations to you as well for your successful journey. It's amazing to finally be free of the fat and, more importantly for me, the addiction to food and the total control/power I have over food now. It's seriously my lifelong dream at 55 so staying motivated was baked in.. Thank you again. I am sure I didn't elaborate or explain my reasons enough but actually I am concerned about slowing down the weight loss. I still eat very small portions and am worried it would be hard to sustain on just protein, without carbs. I like my body running more ketogenic than carbed up with the ups and downs of carbs. Without adding fat, and with our malabsorption aspect of the surgery, I am wondering if its possible or not so much..If I am being honest, at 240lbs, I started eating dirtier with carbs to try and stabilize at 240 until I got my knee surgeries, but then just dropped another 20+ within a month and a half or so. My steps and activity increased, small by normal people standards, but a lot for where I have been, after I got another Cortisone shot to the knees. This just illustrates my concern once I reach goal weight and I am rucking, hiking, and lifting. Those three things will be lifelong for longevity and mobility going forward. Obviously everyone is different as far genetically and such, but I have been extremely low calorie, plenty of short fasts up to three days, and have plateaued at certain points during my weight loss, and after doing a refeed with carbs and basically whatever I want to eat, I recharged my metabolism for another huge run of weight loss. The refeed was usually only a couple days to a few days but less than a week. Now with this approach remember I am lifting weights. I mean hard as I can weight lifting 4 days a week. It sucks! Low energy lifting is not fun but the recomp.. I really believe the built-in calorie burn from lean muscle mass is the most efficient way to permanently stay in shape. Male or female doesn't matter. IMHO if your metabolism is slow and you are struggling with the last few pounds, I mean the literally like 5-10 pounds from goal BF, man or woman, start lifting weights. The body recomp will floor you. And that weight or really I think just your body composition after significant weight loss without adding lean muscle mass leaves you looking(Sometimes) like a no muscle bag of skin. Flat. It's not fun but the results.. Anyways thank you for the reply and just to make clear if any of the vets care to weigh in, the WLS gave me the tool, the only tool I will ever need again to lose weight. It's so powerful for me that I need to think about slowing down my weight loss combined with, if possible, being low carb and more ketogenic as a lifestyle choice I prefer. I just don't know if low carb is sustainable without the fat calories. that specifically is what I am looking for. Does anyone prefer low carb/ketogenic after surgery and is it possible? I already realize that fats can be problematic, is anyone doing carnivore after DS Sadi. Not my preference but the only option it seems for low carb without the keto fat plan. Thanks in advance for any tips.

I'm now 6 days post op and woke up feeling "normal" for the first time in 6 days. As in, not immediately in pain, actually ready to get out of bed and start the day. I haven't really bothered much with food since I don't want it and just want water. I went for a walk today and started to feel a little dizzy and then realised I wanted so food so I went home and had a protein shake. Dizziness was gone and I felt better. Getting water in all day. Then about 6 hours later, I had the same feeling, had some soup and it was gone. I genuinely have no idea what hunger actually feels like. I think forn39 years I just assumed I was hungry because I wanted to eat. How do I know when I actually need to eat anymore?

That’s awesome! You handled the situation really well by planning ahead, and it’s great that you were able to avoid falling into old habits. Having shakes ready in a cooler sounds like a perfect strategy for unpredictable days like car shopping. I totally get what you mean about protein bars not being as filling—shakes tend to keep me more satisfied too. I might start keeping a couple of shakes on hand for those last-minute plans as well. It’s definitely all about being prepared after WLS! Good luck with the car shopping next weekend, and hope it goes smoothly! My weekend went really well too! We spent one day at my mother-in-law’s and the second day at my mom’s, so I got to enjoy home-cooked meals. I focused on moderation and protein, with dishes like chicken soup, vegetables, a bit of rice, and fruit for dessert. The food was healthy and clean, and I’m proud of sticking to my goal of avoiding sugar—even in small amounts. However, I had a bit of a freak-out moment when I managed to eat two chicken thighs in one sitting. I immediately thought I had overeaten and almost broke down. I realized I really need to work on my mindset, as it made me want to starve myself as a form of punishment. But in reality, I didn’t eat much at all! My husband was right there, reminding me that I was being unreasonable for thinking I overate. I think it’s time I speak to a professional about this lingering guilt because it’s something I need to overcome.

lol no, not at all i am just a ridiculous exercise addict these days. started in the summer and now i just can't seem to stop...i actually feel BAD (mentally and physically) if i don't do SOMETHING every day. i am paying the price though...my body just feels worn out every day now when i'm at rest. the only thing that makes the pain and achiness go away is more exercise. its a vicious cycle honestly. the weight loss is not on purpose. i got myself braces in September, and my total annoyance of having to clean my teeth after every single time that i eat something, has effectively stopped me from snacking. so i'm eating less overall and its showing on the scale (and my abs! lol). i started adding an afternoon protein shake about 2 weeks ago and gained back 2-ish lbs....(two weeks ago i was down 13 lbs, today i'm down just down 11 lbs since september) BUT...i have to say that i actually kinda like that i lost that bit of weight (how's that for body image issues?!?!). but i also know i need to eat more for health's sake.

BariatricPal offers affordable GLP-1 options if you don't have insurance at https://careglp.bariatricpal.com/

Many of you know my story. Was two months shy of turning 54 in 2019 when I got my sleeve. Lost all my weight & more and was successfully maintaining that low weight. I began gaining weight from puberty: about a stone a year. Then I started my 60-75kg weight diet/regain swing from my early 20s until peri menopause & menopause hit and then seemingly overnight I was 91kg. Nothing I did moved that weight. Hence my decision to get a sleeve. I experienced some weight regain (good 2 almost 3 kgs) almost 4 yrs ago after I had my gall removed. We worked out I had an absorption issue and wasn’t absorbing protein well or it turned out my HRT tablet (hot flushes, etc. had returned). Switched to a patch and lost the weight without doing anything & no menopause symptoms. Had a hysterectomy in September 2024 & then couldn’t access the HRT patch I was using (damn supply chain issues) & this is when my body turned against me again. ALL my menopausal symptoms returned: hot flushes, night sweats, poor sleep, headaches, creaky joints, acne, etc. & weight gain. Only three kgs so far but that’s in the last three months. And so here we go again. My body working against me. Since this regain began in January (used my last HRT patch in December & was my usual weight at the end of Dec) I’ve made some modifications to my eating. Dropped a snack, reduced some portions (which were still only recommended portion size or a little less). I eat pretty carefully anyway & stick closely to my plan of eating. Was eating about 1600 calories a day and now am probably at about 1300/1400. So at the very least I should have slowed the regain but nope. It’s scary & upsetting. I recognise it as being how my body & my hormones work (or don’t work!) but that doesn’t help. My doctor is trying to help me sort out alternative HRT but nothing is working yet as it all involves at least taking one tablet. I wish I was completely past all this hormone crap & I wish supply chain issues for pharmaceuticals were a thing of the past for everyone affected. I so wanted to be my maintained slim self when I turned 60 in 4 months. I always have been overweight at significant birthdays. This one was going to be different. The way I’m going I’ll be a stone heavier. Not overweight but more than I want to be & have been happy at. Very sad face.

Found a healthy recipe for Spring Rolls that are good. They are not super high in protein (around 5g each) but I just make certain to have a really high protein breakfast and lunch on days I’m going to have them. Anyways it’s from a bariatric site so I guess they think we don’t need the peanut sauce. I searched so many sites for a recipe for the sauce and somehow I didn’t even save the link but it’s so easy I can remember. It’s just equal parts soy sauce and peanut butter. I used the nut butter that is literally just fresh ground peanuts from the grocery and it is so good. If you don’t like salty you may want to use reduced sodium soy sauce but I actually like it and a little goes further with the saltier taste. I just mix up one tbsp of SS and one tbsp PB and that’s enough for two servings which is four spring rolls. Of course you can always just double or triple that if you like more. Here is the spring roll recipe if anyone is interested. https://www.bariatricfusion.com/blogs/recipes/bariatric-recipes-chicken-and-veggie-spring-rolls I mix up a batch of the veggies in a bowl and cut the chicken and measure. Then I portion enough of each for two rolls into each little baggy and I wait to roll them before I intend to eat (adding the avocado at the end) They were okay the next day but they stuck to the container so they fell apart trying to pick them up and then the second day the wraps were hard. Some days I just eat the filling with the peanut sauce. Honestly it’s almost as good without the rice paper. Today is the second time I have made them and I didn’t use any fancy cutting tools this time. I just cut them small with a knife and it was just fine. That site has some other good recipes for us as well. Enjoy 😊

Can you add in some eggs? I have made egg muffins/bites in my air fryer and I do not like eggs but by the time I had in some veg (last time I used tiny bits of onion, some spinach and green beans) and a dash of sriracha sauce I can manage them. As they are small they are only about 2 or 3g protein each but handy as a snack.