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I went through a period of having dizziness & blurred vision in my early days, specifically when getting out of bed in the morning/standing up. Now I just tend to have a bit of dizziness when I stand up too fast. Definitely check with your healthcare provider though, I hope you are okay x

Hi! Sorry to have found your post so late! There's not a lot of NHS patients on here as this is mostly an American website. I had my surgery in October 2024 on the NHS. I remember the dietician appointment was a video call with other patients before any surgeries were finalised. I will admit that I don't feel like I got much out of it. The main message is eat slowly and prioritise protein first when eating a meal. The session with the psychologist (a ten minute phone call) was probably the least helpful as she just said I need to practice mindfulness and learn others ways to cope with stress other than eating. (Gee, thanks! Where was that advice when I was a fat 8 year old? 🙄) I had a higher BMI than you currently do and the privilege of living in London, so I think I was bumped up a few tiers and fast tracked (I don't know if this true in general, but London seems to get the lion's share of the funding so hospitals are less strict. My Gloucester based friend has a BMI of 44, but because she has no comorbidities, she can't get any weight loss referrals because her BMI isn't 50+) But I digress. Once I had the surgery, it was a year and a half from the initial referral, it's mostly been smooth sailing. I had the gastric sleeve and had no problems. So far, I've lost 39 kg and more fatty liver has improved significantly. My mother had the gastric bypass (also on the NHS). She had a complication, St Anthony's private hospital did the surgery, but the NHS covered it but once they operated again, she had no problems. She never shared exactly how much she weighed with me, but she went from a size 28-30 to a 22 and reversed her diabetes. She passed away in 2023, but if she hadn't, she would be much smaller I'm sure. I've had a great experience so far with my procedure and weight loss. I really do recommend going the NHS route if you are able to do so. Well done on making this decision to change your life! You've got this. Sometimes, just making the decision to get help is the hardest part!

Hi.. I’m so sorry you have had problems with your GB and the pancreatitis🙏I had my lap band in 2005, original surgery, SW-325 and had my 1st revision in 2008 SW-263. I had problems with my port and pain on my left side where it was, had many tests, but nothing came up. I started having major autoimmune problems like a connective tissue disease, a fast growing case of Rheumatoid Arthritis,Celiac Disease and Sjorgens Syndrome… come to find out , my lapband was the cause!! I had it removed and my Surgeon did the sleeve on me 8/18/23, SW-260, CW-163, GW-150! This was the Best Decision I’ve ever made!! I no longer have problems with my Autoimmune Stuff!! Nothing!! Don’t be afraid!! You can do this!! Plus you have a community to fall back on!! We’ve all been there at one time or another!! Good Luck and keep me/us posted!!

Hey y'all, Haven't posted in a while but I need some insight from the community. I was sleeved December 2020, took RX strength omeprazole for 90 days post op since that was what my surgeon did., had zero issues with heartburn incidences. However, heartburn runs in my family---in the males, I didn't have issues beyond maybe once in a frozen blue moon I MIGHT have a mild case that 2 Tums fixed before surgery. Fast forward a couple of years-heartburn incidences starts getting worse/becoming more numerous, would get up choking on acid if I laid down to soon after eating and everything seemed to cause it. Water, protein shakes, sugar/no sugar, etc it's just stupid. I had a bad attack of pain and nausea a few months ago that honestly had me worried about a heart attack but ended up with a CT scan and was diagnosed with a hiatal hernia--the ER doc I saw said my surgery site/stomach looked fine though. I have regained about 35-40ishlbs from where I was but I have maintained a loss of close to 80lbs. In order to survive mostly comfortably, I am living off of a lot of days multiple famotidines sprinkled through the day. Sometimes NOT eating also causes heartburn. I'm over it 120%. Here's my question---my current insurance covers NO bariatric surgery for ANY reason. Should I pursue JUST the hernia repair in the US or should I look into going to Mexico for a revision to the Bypass with maybe also a hernia repair if that's offered? The reason I went with the sleeve in the first place was my already mild anemia that is genetic-runs in the family on the women's side unfortunately and I didn't want to contend with possibly getting really anemic or not being able to keep up with the nutrition/vitamin requirements but I can't live with this heartburn issue for another 50-60+ years (currently 35 years old). Thanks for anyone who wants to give me some thoughts/input!

That is AMAZING! Nothing beats the feeling of achieving a new PR! And it feels so good to discover that your stamina has picked up and that you are able to go for longer (whatever that is you're doing), or do things you were never able to do before. Disclaimer: it is addictive. While I worked out my whole life, including while being obese, I was never fond of running. I did all sorts of cardio (Spinning, HIIT, BodyAttack, BodyCombat, Step, you name it) but I hated running with a passion. Found it boring. Although I was able to run for 6-7 km straight I rarely ever did. Fast forward to my foot injury, I was so immobile I was in pain walking, so I did a lot of jump rope and spinning to compensate but my weight never budged. 4 months Post VSG I started getting into serious fitness again and I discovered this newfound love for running that I run every single day now. I do 5-6k once a week and 3k every day after my lifts and I LOVE it with a passion, how times change LOL. I have a feeling you will too. Although I don't know you, I am very proud of you and hope your journey is full of such pleasant surprises.

Congratulations to everyone for what you've achieved and what we know you can achieve! I'm 61 and had my surgery August 20, 2024. The weight has been coming off and I've been exercising regularly (Orange Theory Fitness), taking walks, walking the dog, line dancing. The pre-and-post surgery fast can be a challenge but I think it prepares you for next stages. I'm still eating about 2oz/meal. I'm definitely in an exploratory stage as far as playing around with foods and understanding when is too much. I returned to a habit of snacking before bed by eating a small piece of cheese or an ounce of nuts... that was definitely the wrong idea. I paid for that by feeling very uncomfortable. I kicked that habit to the curb quickly. So I'm working on eating dinner earlier and making applesauce the snack. I'm open to ideas. We've got this!

Is not just an Iron Maiden song, lol. 😁 27 yrs of marriage, now closing in on 5 years as a widower finding my way in facing the ever-present painful loss, yet continuing forward 9 yrs post op from gastric sleeve emerging from isolation and stepping out from the cave into the world around me interested in living again...enthused about it, in fact. interested in meeting people and possibly dating. Things have changed over the last few years. For example, Facebook. When I was mildly active on there before my wife became terminally ill it was more or less updates from friends on the goings on in their lives. Fast forward to a couple months ago when I reactivated my account I quickly discovered things were way, way different. Bombarded with fakery and insidious marketing schemes. I guess being naive (aka FB ignorant) had a quick learning curve. For example, I had an inbound messenger from a recently added "friend". She'd invited me out for a meet. We met the next day at a coffee shop. I almost didn't recognize her when she arrived. She walked over and introduced herself. Her profile pictures only vaguely resembled her. I am quick to joke about stuff, but resisted the impulse. Otherwise I'd have asked if she was involved with a witness protection program. It was difficult to get comfortable with someone whose first move was a disguise. Now, perhaps there are legitimate safety reasons why she would take such precautions. I can understand the concerns. The next half hour was a conversation that revealed a number of incompatible views on things. Mentioned the meet to a buddy. He laughed and told me that FB is, in fact, a minefield. Working long hours and rotating shifts doesn't lend itself well to dating. I suppose it will be an obstacle that I'll figure out. Certainly expanding my in person outings beyond just work & the shooting ranges. Who knew that the supermarket was a place to meet and chat ? Not me. Who knew that swapping over from a barber shop to a different place for haircuts would also be a meet & greet spot ? How about a doctors office visit for annual physical....new nurses...another coffee shop invite. Or another unexpected introduction & follow up....when buying cologne...for the first time in forever.... I guess the best way for me is to simply live life.....show up in person for any shopping needs vs no more online shopping. Get out there in the daily grind and simply be real. Anyway.....open for suggestions from folks who have been there and found success.

A couple small wins yesterday. Small, but I take note of them and small wins encourage the behaviors that lead to bigger wins, right ? So...this 'un is a two parter. Several months ago, a few weeks before I had taken action to burn off the regains and dig my way back.... I was goofing around on the web... looking through a certain company's website. They make gear that is hobby related. I happened to notice that they also had some logo T-shirts that looked cool. So I ordered two....but ordered them for two sizes smaller than I was wearing then. They arrived and were stashed away with some other clothing, all smaller sizes, that I'd been ordering. The stash had made it's way upstairs to be put away. Soon afterwards... I started putting in the work....burning off the regain and get in better overall health. Kitchen discipline being the first step. Fast forward to yesterday.....laundry day at the hacienda. Grabbed a shower and started getting dressed so I could go knock out some errands. Almost dressed but remembered my normal day off work stuff was on the drying rack. Damn. I spied the stack of smaller sized stuff still in shopping bags....sitting there. Hmmm. Screw it...let's find out, dude...either it'll fit or it won't. Grabbed one of the new cool guy t-shirts and some new flat fronted cargo pants. Cut off tags & peeled off stickers and began to.....WTH !!! This shyt if fitting. Bamsucka. Got dressed and strutted around the room like a bantam rooster....chest poked out....big grin. Small Win Numba One Achieved. While running errands I wheeled into a parking space in front of one of the local gyms I'd been considering. Took my bantam rooster arse up in there and looked around. It was clean, plenty of open treadmills and recumbent bikes...just what I need for pre-habbing my knees. Gonna build up the muscle tissue before getting those suckers replaced over the next couple years. I joined. Small Win Numba Two Achieved. I plan on never having to eat an elephant (although I used to look like I could)......but....but if I did....I'd eat that thang one bite at a time. Thankfully getting healthy may prove to be easier than elephant eating. 🤣

So just wanted to pop in and give you my short experience. I never ran, until 6months ago, I started out with walking outside, then stair master, then walking on incline a little faster to a short jog. I too would jog for 2-3min at a time then walk for a min and continue that pattern for about 15min. Now I can run 3.5miles on my lunch break and it takes me about 30-32min to do so. I started really slow but running really helped with my body composition, my mind is more focused and overall has really helped my moods too. I also lift weights 4 days a week so that has helped. My only thing I noticed with all the working out is that I eat more LOL however when I was only eating 1200-1500 calories I was not building the muscle I wanted, and not looking how I wanted. So if you start eating more remember its the working out and your muscles is burning off all that fast! Now that I am not able to work out how I like due to PS I am slowly dying LOL but soon enough i'll be back to it. Enjoy this journey its so fun!

Well, I guess the OP isn't coming back. 🙁 If any of the rest of you are thinking about trying something like this, I'd encourage you to read up on what dopamine is and isn't. It's not a drug or a chemical that you can diet, detox, or fast your way past, regardless of what the social media influencers may have told you. You can't make it go away and no amount of deprivation is going to lessen your bodies ability to produce it on demand. In fact, contrary to popular belief, dopamine isn't a even the "pleasure" hormone it's portrayed to be. It has a number of functions in the body, but one of it's key uses is as a neurotransmitter (think of it like a messenger from one brain cell to another). Dopamine job as a neurotransmitter is in reinforcing reward-seeking behavior. Said differently, dopamine does not actually "cause" any pleasurable sensations, it simply triggers the brain when we do have pleasurable sensations to remember those and reward the behavior that caused the pleasure. You can think of it like a feedback mechanism. If you do something pleasurable, dopamine kicks in and says: "hey, we liked that, let's remember what caused it." Dopamine is easily manufactured in your body, so as I said, trying to remove pleasurable stimuli in the hope that this will keep you from seeking these reward behaviors in the future just won't work. Plus, once that reward mechanism is triggered, removing the stimuli after the fact makes no difference. Your brain still remembers the pleasurable sensation. If you have concerns about unhealthy behaviors such as late night snacking, the best plan is always going to be talking to a mental health professional. Through counseling and some techniques they can teach you, there are ways past these behaviors. If counseling isn't in the cards right now, I'd also recommend seeking out a book called Atomic Habits by James Clear. This book can teach you to trade out bad habits for good ones. If sleep is a concern, we do have a pretty good idea of things you can do to improve the quality of sleep. As I mentioned, sleep is absolutely critical to weight loss and franky to just staying healthy. If you're looking for tips on improving sleep, I recommend Googling "sleep hygiene". There's a wealth of information out there. Finally, I want to close by mentioning that late night eating is not necessarily bad and is not actually a cause of poor sleep. it depends more on what you eat, but multiple studies have shown that going to be hungry may be WORSE for sleep than eating before bed. It all comes down to what you eat and how close to bedtime you eat it. This is another one of those "common knowledge" things that's just wrong.

Just because you are allowed to eat anything does not mean you, personally, are able to do so. There are a few likely culprits to your issues with discomfort and vomiting. You may be eating too much, too fast, not chewing enough even though you think you are, or the food you are eating is too difficult for your system to handle right now. Check your portion sizes, how fast you are eating, and focus on soft foods. You may need longer between eating and drinking. Some people can handle 10-15 minutes. Some need 30 minutes. If I feel a stuck feeling even an hour after eating, I do not drink anything because it will make me sick. I had enough issues with vomiting that my doctor put me back on liquids at around 4 weeks and I did that a couple weeks just to give my body more time to heal. Even almost 9 months out from RNY, I sometimes get sick. It's usually texture/dryness related. It's gone from once a week to just once in a while, and instead of all the food coming up, it's usually just mucous now. I try to pay attention to why so I can adjust. Basically, you need to listen to your body and make changes based on what is working and not working for you because we're all different.

Why do you think its not what he said? Just curious. You didnt mention how far out you are or where you are at in your journey. In my experience even as far out as I am from my surgery if I eat too fast, I can experience these same symptoms.

I had to teach myself by literally only giving myself exactly what I'm supposed to eat for each bite. I'd set a timer and when it went off, I would get myself another bite worth of food. Or my hubby would do it. It's drastic, but I ate too fast and too much at first and REALLY paid for it. I had to do this for about 2 weeks until I got used to it. Once I did, I was able to put my full meal's worth of food on the plate or in the bowl. I also used toddler utensils so I couldn't over-eat.

I'm finally on the other side of the surgery! I'm abou 10 hours post-op! I've never been so thirsty in my entire life, but otherwise I'm doing OK. I'm in some pain when I try to stand op and I sipped water too fast so that cause some pain, but I don't have any regrets! This is the beginning! I'm so ready!

i used to hate him with a fire of a thousand suns too...until i watched Masterchef Junior several years ago and realized TV is fake (who knew?? lol). He employs TOTALLY different persona on the Junior shows. He's actually kinda sweet and nurturing on them. I figure his ass-hole-ery on Hell's Kitchen is all for show - or maybe it his schtick on Junior that is...either way, he's probably just a regular guy. 🤷🏻‍♀️ (plus those people that appear on the shows probably already know what they are getting themselves into and have their own share of schtick going on...) ...in any case i watch it anyway cuz i love the food and cooking! i'll just fast forward if it gets to cringey.

I had my surgery on 11/13/24 I am 5’1 my Sw:211 pre op: 196 Current:171 Goal: 140 I’ve been having a few issues eating most days, I am at a stall right now from not eating or drinking much for like 2 weeks. Im back on track and I get full full for the day after one meal so been doing more drinks. I wasn’t using straws until a few days ago, only way I can get enough daily fluids in me. I am a Cali girl, I do use THC to help me eat these days, otherwise I’m not hungry. I’m trying to force myself to do more weight lifts for my muscles which I’m loosing fast, but I do walk 1-2 hours a day. I also don't like the calcium chews, gonna see about switching to pills on my next visit. Anyone in SW Houston that work out or belong to a gym?

i got alot of the same responses/reactions about my decision to get an arm lift as well. i was told my arms weren't so bad, that they were fine, and that no one noticed the extra skin. Well *i* noticed. i always disliked my upper arms, even when i was "normal sized" as a teen, in my twenties, early thirties. one if my biggest sadnesses was having to wear a shawl on my wedding day over my awesome sleeveless dress because i was uncomfortable showing them. then when i started the road to morbid obesity, i absolutely HATED them omg fast forward to post wls and my joy of wearing tank tops again were marred by not up to snuff arms. so i got me an arm lift, baby. i wont sugarcoat it: recovery was a bee-yatch. mostly self-inflicted as i didn't listen to my doc and did too much too soon. i also have noticeable scars (im over 5 yrs post plastics, 6.5years post wls), which i knew going in as i historically scar badly. BUT, omg i love my arms. weird to say out loud but true. im sleeveless like ALL the time, even in winter lol. and because i love my arms so much i take care of them with regular exercise, ha! here is a link to my BariatricPal photo album of my arm lift before pics and progress/results over the years: there are pics 6m before arm lift, day before arm lift, and 1 & 6 months after, and one from last fall (5 years after arm lift) (im trying to find old pics of arm close ups where im not flexing, but it seems i only like to flex hahhaha) long story short, if you have the means/resources and the desire, do it! you only live once, may as well enjoy it with fabulous arms (or boobs or butts or noses) if thats what you want. good luck! ❤️

So as I mentioned in my last thread, I had VSG in 2014. I did quite well for a decent amount of time but after really losing focus of my diet and lifestyle I have had significant regain. I have literally had GERD my entire life. When my surgeon initially told me that VSG WAS an option, I decided to go ahead with it thinking it was a much 'safer' option than RNY. He did reassure me that the GERD I had was directly related to my significant abdominal weight and that with weight loss it would subside. It DID, and eventually I went from a double strength PPI twice a day to a H2 blocker (at my lowest weight) a few times a week. I thought I was over the moon with this! However, fast forward about 4 years and now my GERD is worse than ever, I literally have productive reflux now. I will be sitting and talking to my husband and what I ate a couple hours ago will just shoot up to my throat without warning (I just read another thread saying this same thing). I get it SO bad when I lay in bed that I will run to the bathroom and literally spit out acid. When I had my VSG I had a hiatal hernia repair too, and I was under the impression that was a permanent fix but i'm thinking maybe not. I have EGD this Thursday and frankly, I am petrified scared of what she will find. I'm not worried about my sleeve but I AM worried that there is irreversible damaged to my esophagus or God forbid, esophageal cancer is found. IF I am found to not have anything significant, I've decided to go ahead with a revision for my longterm health. I have been on PPIs for decades. I want off of them. And I want to conquer the regain.

I’m 5 years out & I did not need to loose that much weight. I wish you the best of luck! My surgeon told me to go back to the basic, the diet of pre surgery. Liquids only. I know it is tough. Also look into the Fast metabolism diet that is how I got to my ultimate goal weight. It’s eating healthy foods in a certain order each week. You don’t need to buy any crazy pills to take every day, just eat a certain amount of foods. Even though we can’t eat the amount of foods the diet calls for, just following the food regimen was enough for me. I wish you the best of luck in your journey.

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Well everyone’s loss is different. I looked back at my logs and I only lost 20 pounds I that first months and I had a more aggressive surgery and I was exercising (not sure if you are). Also, some people do have a stall early out so try to trust the process and stick with it. I mean when before have you lost four pounds a week pre surgery? The surgery is obviously working just maybe not as quick as you would like. Your a relatively low BMI so your not likely to lose as fast as someone who started with a higher one. About the scale, Do you have a followup appt at one month with your surgeon. I bet the scale recalibrated or it could just be that you sat it back In a little Different spot. I know I have wood laminate floors and they must be just the tiniest bit off level because when I move my scale around it weighs a bit different. When you go to your surgeon and he or she tells you what your weight is and your kiss by their scale you can figure how many pounds your scale is off from theirs and go from there. Honestly it Doesn’t usually really matter if it was accurate before or now so long as you are measuring with the same scale because accurate or not it will still reflect your lost. But if it is that far off from what it was before I can see how it would be confusing. Maybe even if you don’t have an appt you can ask to go in and just weigh yourself using the dr scale. I cant imagine why that would be a big deal. That way you can sorta estimate how many pounds your scale is off from theirs.

Hey all! I had the sleeve in 2017 and never got to my goal weight and I had GERD. So fast forward to 2024 and had my sasi. All is well except now I can’t keep any food down. I’m having diarrhea several times a day for the past month. Any one else had issues like this? Oh and then I found out I have fatty liver. 😫🤷🏽‍♀️😵‍💫 scared! Smh

oh dear god, i bet you $100 (CAD, lol) that the Canadian version is EVEN WORSE. i still watch it though (cuz i loooove cooking shows), i just fast forward all the talking. love Mary, can tolerate Prue (but her ranking goes up if she's on a show with Noel, lol)). ree bugs me too. My fave cooking host of all time is Padma on Top chef. she's the perfect mix of constructive criticism, humour and disdain ahhahaha. plus she's super cool and dresses nice. honourable mention is Phil Rosenthal on Someone Feed Phil. while not a cooking show (more like an eating show). he's honestly so endearing. and his parent's (r.i.p) cameos in his older shows were sooooo hilarious.

I'm not entirely sure if this is a win, but let me give you a little bit of my backstory first. Thanks to a work accident many years ago, I have multiple herniated discs in my lumbar spine that sometimes cause a lot of sciatica. When this was at its worst, I had to use a walker just to get around the house because I had no motor control over my right leg. To be honest, this is one of the things that actually led to me becoming obese. I wasn't able to workout (I could hardly move), and was in a lot of pain, so I self-medicated with food and alcohol. The pain isn't completely gone now, but after losing all this weight, it's so much better than it used to be. Fast forward to this week. I spent basically 4 days (Saturday-Tuesday), trapped in a zoom class and this inactivity took its toll on my back. I'd been in a lot of pain and hadn't worked out at all since taking a short run Monday. Wednesday and Thursday I didn't get the walker out, but i did seriously think about it. Today the pain was still about a four or five on a ten point scale, but at least it wasn't radiating down my leg much. I really struggled with trying to determine if I just needed to man up, or if it was stupid to try to workout, knowing that I might make it worse. I finally decided I just needed to try to run, since I knew that once the endorphins and endocannabinoids kicked in, I'd probably be fine. Plus, the movement should actually help loosen things up in my spine and help me heal. It took a bit for me to work up to going for it, but I did finally go run this morning. (The bad thing was that the delay meant I was running in the heat.) To be honest, the run really sucked for the first mile or two. Thankfully, once I made it to about 4 miles, the pain was mostly gone and I was able to complete the 9 miles I had planned. I'm still thinking I'm going to have to skip my strength training tomorrow (I'll probably log a few running miles instead), but at least I got out there. The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that completing the run wasn't actually a win. The win was that I didn't let this pain become the start of a spiral down to a place I never want to go to again. I personally think the most important thing is not actually the highs, though those are great. It's not succumbing to the lows and letting yourself fall back into those old destructive habits. I wanted to throw this out there because i know I post a lot here and I suspect some of you might think I've got it all together since I'm normally the one giving advice to others. That's just not true. Like everyone, I have my own demons that I have to deal with and this back pain is just one of those.

Everyone is different. I am almost 6 years out. I made it to my goal weight about 1 1/2 years after surgery using the Fast Metabolism Diet for the last 6 months of that. I went back up 15 pounds but my body is happy here. I have never thought about calories. I have always concentrated on how many ounces I eat at a meal. I never go above 3.5oz total. 2oz protein & 1.5oz. I also eat 5 times a day. 3 meals & 2 snacks like cheese or fruit. You have to figure out what works best for you.