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I am seeing others who aren't required to do the two weeks either but then there are others who are required to do it. So I am just following what my surgeon told me to do which is the two weeks. I think either way is going to be good, just depends on the surgeon.

Well, I've lost 82 in 6 months. If I wasn't in a 3 week stall, I probably could have gotten there. Stupid stall....

2nd week in and I didn't do well last week. I'm struggling and thinking about food all the time. Is this normal? Sent from my SM-A505U using BariatricPal mobile app

I understand your concern - took me years to get my endocrine issues diagnosed because I wasn’t cookie cutter either. My endocrinologist is amazing working with my weight, thyroid and other issues. Find a good one and I would bet they can be supportive and helpful - even if it’s not 100% fixed. Take one breath at a time and I can’t imagine you’ve blown your chance - at worst let’s hope this is just a side step and you will soon be back on track. Let us know how things are going. My progress has been slow and tedious, but between the looooong stalls - I am still making baby steps forward I’m getting there. You will too!!!

Thank you! I will look into the compression sleeves also. The first week was such a blur I don’t even know if I thought it through. He said just ace until drains are out but, just a sleeve should be okay since it won’t affect any drains. I’ll check. Let’s hope some of these 7 drains come out Friday. 🤞🏻

my body does that too!! i will stall for days/weeks then all of a sudden i will have a drop of 5-15 lbs over a couple of days (the 15 lb drop was fantastic lol) …. i also (tmi) notice that i go pee a lot more for a day or so before a stall ends

I guess I'm the weirdo that found the pre-op diet easy and struggle more now post-surgery. Let me explain my theory on why: I actually started a restricted calorie diet about 4 months pre-surgery. I then started substituting a shake for one meal a day about a month before the pre-op diet. I feel like doing both of these allowed me to ease into the pre-op diet without missing a beat? My pre-op diet, by the way was full liquids. No meals. I knew from previous experience with drastic dietary changes, I'd likely regret it if I didn't ease into it, so that's why I did what I did. The biggest challenge for me pre-op was actually just dealing with my emotions. I was constantly worried something would delay the surgery I'd been waiting so long for. Now that I'm ~6 weeks post-op and "allowed" to eat anything, I find my head-hunger talking over sometimes. I didn't have this pre-op because it was so restricted. I basically had no choice in what I was eating then. Now however, I find myself sometimes making bad food choices. I'm not actually hungry at all and so when I do feel like eating, I gravitate toward things that sound good, rather than are good for me.

The last time I had a 2 week stall, I came out of it and dropped 9 pounds in a week, then 4 pounds the following week, then my body freaked out lol When I lose slowly, my body is ok. But when I lose a lot quickly, my body freaks out and I hit a stall. I know it, I recognize it, but it still sucks LOL

Sorry you're going through that and sorry you missed that goal (it was a nice goal), but at least you're better prepared for understanding stalls than a lot of folks. That said, even when we intellectually know the reasons these things happen, our emotional selves still get frustrated! I've written a few times on here why physiologically stalls happen, but I still had the same emotional reaction when, like clockwork, I hit the dreaded week 3 stall.

This is the longest one so far, but each time is a little longer so I was expecting this. STILL...... my 6 my 6 month follow up is Wednesday and I really wanted to be below 300 when I went in. I know I'm still doing well, it's just a personal goal I had that I'm bummed I won't meet. I won't see them again until my 1 year follow up, so maybe I'll have a big jump for them to see by then. Have I mentioned how much I hate stalls? Because I do. I really do. Gotta just keep on keepin on and eventually the stall will break and I'll drop again. Just super annoying.

You can ask your clinic for advice, but it's probably going to be up to you to figure out, mainly because you have to work it around your schedule. It can seem complicated at first, but you get used to it. I take a multivitamin with iron plus an additional iron supplement, calcium 3x/day, B12, biotin, and D3. Calcium and iron are supposed to be at least 2 hours apart, and I also take a prescription thyroid medication that's supposed to be 4 hours apart from calcium and iron. I use a free app called Medisafe to track my medications and remind me. It's really useful because you can track what time you took everything, and it also tracks how many of each you have left and reminds you to refill. You can set reminders at whatever time you want. I set reminders as follows, but I usually stay ahead of schedule. 6:00 am - Thyroid prescription 10:30 am - Multivitamin with iron, B12, Biotin, D3 1:00 pm - 1st calcium 3:30 pm - iron 6:00 pm - 2nd calcium 8:30 pm - 3rd calcium I also recommend getting a pill organizer with 3 or 4 compartments for each day, where each day has its own removable box (the one I have looks like this one: https://smile.amazon.com/Organizer-Compartments-Moisture-Proof-Medication-Supplements/dp/B07Q9JSHMP). I distribute my pills in that once per week, and then I can just grab the box for the day.

I had the sleeve in September 2020 after having struggled with my weight for years and trying to lose it on my own. I am 56 and a diabetic. My A1c has went from 7.4 to 5.7 since my surgery. I had to have a hernia repair for the second time along with the sleeve and things were going great. I was losing for the first year, around 65 pounds. Then, I found out that I had diverticulosis and have had diverticulitis4 times in less than a year. My hernia came back along with an umbilical hernia and had a gallbladder that had to be removed 18 months after my sleeve. In the 2 years since my surgery, my acid reflux has never went away and taking Prilosec and Pepcid twice a day. I also just got done with prolapse surgeries and hoping this is my last surgery. I have been having bad cravings and not losing, but gained back 10 pounds. My surgeon decided to try Saxenda to see if it would help and it has helped me lose 12 pounds in 12 weeks. Hoping that continue to lose and my health improve. Sent from my SM-S908U using BariatricPal mobile app

Yep, 2 shakes a day and then 1 meal from the list of acceptable meats/veggie in very small portions. I am using the Nectar chocolate protein powder in milk. I am continuing to see my bariatric therapist that my bariatric center had me go to for my evaluation. She's amazing. I'm so glad to hear that it normally gets better for most. This week has been tough. I don't know how people do it for longer than 2 weeks or even stricter diets pre-op.

I had a higher starting weight (My highest was 382 - down to 330 by the time I saw my surgeon) … I initially wanted sleeve because of many of the reasons you stated, but was prepared for my dr to recommend bypass because of my starting weight and reflux. After meeting with my surgeon I asked her opinion- based on my medical history and her experience of outcomes. I have IBS and for about 8 months prior to surgery was dealing with reflux. I also took a daily (2x a day) NSAID pre surgery that she advised that I stop until my post-op follow up, but that I could resume if needed after she saw me. I was really surprised when she told me she didn’t recommend bypass for me and why. She was a surgeon who had extensive experience with all of the surgery options, so I was confident she wasn’t steering me towards what she was comfortable with routinely doing. She actually recommended sleeve (with a hernia repair) and told me if I wanted a revision later - she’d recommend going with a duodenal switch. She mentioned to me that because of the extended length of the DS surgery time, she prefers to do that surgery in two stages. I was honest and told her the second phase of that surgery scared me a little. She was very understanding about that and told me that the sleeve and bypass had very similar outcomes in the 2 yr mark, reviewed the benefits and drawbacks of each and discussed with me that she has had quite a few patients have the sleeve (at my starting weight and higher) as the 1st phase who lost enough they decided not to go on to the DS, but knew it was an option if they wanted it. She was impressed with my weightloss up to that point and was confident with my history and medical conditions, I would be happy with the progress I would make with my surgery. I was 324 on the day of my surgery and at 10.5 weeks post op I’m down to 291. It’s definitely a slow progress, but I’ve had a few unrelated challenges in that time (being sick and dealing with issues from a car accident that occurred several years ago), but I’m headed in the right direction. At my followup she was very pleased with my progress and told me that she felt very good about the track I was on. I’m still very early in the process, but I’m glad I asked her what she recommended and why, based on her experience and my medical history. My husband and I were both comfortable with her explanations and very confident in our decisions because I felt like we had sound information to make a decision on. I’m hoping that I don’t decide to go in for a revision, that I can get down to a weight I’m comfortable with (I’m not sure what that number is yet, I’m hoping I know it when I feel it, lol), but if not - I know what my options are. Right now I’m still having some issues with being able to eat enough. I’m only able to eat very small amounts at a time, but other than that everything is going well. With the weight loss I’ve had - I have been able to stop my NSAID at this point. I had also stopped my PPI meds (but recently restarted it temporarily because a sinus infection stirred things up again… hoping to stop it as soon as that clears up). My IBS is still something I’m working with but so far it has been manageable. Best of luck in whatever you decide!

I'm 6 days into my 2 week pre-op diet. Surgery is the 7th. I didn't expect the pre-op diet to be so difficult. The first 4 days were absolutely horrible and had me rethinking everything. It's tolerable now. But my question is since starting it, I've had heartburn, indigestion, burping, and nausea. Anyone else experience this? The hunger pains were terrible the first few days but have gotten better but definitely still there. I'm getting about 550-700 calories a day as required with the diet guidelines. I had a few days where I felt sorry for myself because I couldn't have the food my family is eating (I still have to feed hubby and 4 kiddos) but told myself that is same the food that made me this way. I had to morn my unhealthy relationship with food for a few days. It was crazy because I kept reaching for food or getting ready to plan to go out to eat out of habit until I was like wait, I can't have that. Please tell me this gets better after surgery when the diet is even more strict? It's the hunger pains, cravings, and indigestion that needs to go. Sent from my SM-S115DL using BariatricPal mobile app

Congratulations! I’m 16 weeks pregnant. Have only gained 5lbs so far - bypass was Mar 8 this year. Feel free to ask me any questions you might have.

OMG! I got sleeved April 18 of this year and this past Friday October 28th I found out I’m 6 weeks pregnant😳🙌🏾🥰🥲 Guys, I’ve been with my husband for 12 years, married for 8. We have been trying to conceive for 7 years now. I was diagnosed with PCOS from a very early age and never had regular periods. We started fertility treatments in 2016, got pregnant via IUI 2017 and miscarried 1 month later. I was devastated and waited 3 years later to try again. Unfortunately I had to get uterine polyps removed that year and had to wait. Fast forward to 2021 where we started again and was told both tubes are blocked and we would have to do IVF but had to lose a significant amount of weight to be below the max BMI to do it. That is when I decided to get sleeved. It’s now Jan 2022, I started researching Dr’s, found one in February and we started the entire process. Surgery was a success, lost 86lbs reached my goal weight about 3 weeks ago and then BOOM this. Guys I’m so scared! I’ve read horrow stories of complications and etc. I do want to be excited for this miracle but I also feel like what if? Please share your stories with me, share any encouraging words, anything guys. I have waited what seems like a lifetime for this moment, for this blessing, for this miracle and I want to enjoy every single moment of it!

Hi friends! I had my surgery last Monday! Completing a week tomorrow. What is everyone's diets like? Anyone else having cravings seeing the rest of their family eat regular dinners? Sent from my EML-L29 using BariatricPal mobile app

I only take a multi with iron and two calcium citrate and my rx meds. I am able to take the rx meds with the multivitamin in the morning and I take the calcium at noon and three. I just set alarms. Some people like to use breakfast, lunch and dinner and/or bedtime. It really is dependent on how many doses you have to separate and what works best for you to remember.

I’m 8 weeks out and my team says 1000-1200. I think I’ve hit 1000 maybe once. I’m usually around 800-900, but I’ve seen many posts where people hit 1200 or more and are able to actually drop weight faster. Of course, each person and body is different, you have to find what’s right for you.

I am going in for my last prep appointment on 11/8 , so hopefully will have date then shooting for 2nd week of December (wish me luck)😊I wanted to ask about loose skin have heard so much about collagen but there are so many choices and does the cream work well or is it all oral? I also heard to use a brush on areas to circulate the skin - is that something anyone has done? I thought about going ahead and starting the collagen definitely going to talk to my team about it . Thanks for all of your support.

I was officially 4 years post op last week, and i was gonna go do a 4-yr anniversary post with pics, but alas i got lazy. So for now here is my OOTD at 4 years, 6 days post op, wearing my laze-about-at-home clothes (when its too hot to wear a shirt, lol). Surgery Oct 2018 - 235 lbs Goal May 2019 - 127 lbs Today Oct 2022 - 119.2 lbs

I’m almost 5 weeks post op as well and I have been exhausted as well. I am meeting my protein and exceeding my water and taking my vitamins so who knows? I have two small children and it makes it so difficult. My husband just yells at me for being “lazy” because I sleep in on the weekends. I get my labs drawn and see the doctor this Friday so hopefully it will get better.

Does anyone else’s doctor do the glucose test two hours after a “big meal”. I am supposed to do this this week sometime and he said instead of drinking the sugar drink I can have a big meal. Since I can’t eat a big volume I assume something with a lot of calories? I was thinking of a bacon cheeseburger with avocado and ranch would be really heavy even if I only eat like half. Do I need to have actual sugar though? I tried to google it but I think my dr may be a bit old school cause I couldn’t find anyone else who does the test this way.