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A high protein yogurt was my go to in the puree stage & you can make it into a smoothly y simple adding some extra milk. Add powered flavours or protein if you want. That an instant oats (very milky),runny scrambled eggs (again lots of milk to keep therm thin) and soups. Your tummy can be very fussy in there first couple of months and your taste buds and sense of smell can become very sensitive. For me shakes were unpleasantly grainy and many foods were too sweet or too salty. Also I struggled to eat any meats I pureed but if you go down this route ensure to add enough gravy or stock to keep the pureed meat thin ( slurping off a spoon thin). So beware & tread warily when introducing new foods. Yes plans can be different. Mine was probably the most common of two weeks liquids, two weeks, puree, two weeks soft food but there were differences in what foods were allowed or not allowed at the stages from other plans. Another thing to consider is we all heal at different rates and while your plan may say you can move forward to the next stage at a certain time your digestive system may not be ready. Don’t be afraid to stay longer at a stage than your plan says if this happens to you. If you don’t reach your protein goal in the first weeks don’t panic too much. As long as you’re making an effort and getting closer as the weeks pass you’ll be okay. The volume of food you’ll be able to eat those first weeks alone hinders your ability to get all your protein in. It would take me three days to eat 2 scrambled eggs and the same for a single serve of instant oats. But work extra hard to get your fluid in. I could count shakes (but I stopped them after liquid stage) but I also did things like count the extra liquid I added to soups or yoghurt, the extra milk I added to the instant oats and scrambled eggs - not the recommended liquid you might have to add but any extra I added. All the best.

I think I'm going through what they call postop blues or postop depression. This is week three and my left side, which was my smaller boob and smaller side is perfectly fine but the right side where he had to manipulate it more and do my under arm fat is giving me hell. Well, I guess one good thing is I'm not turning to food. In fact I really don't feel like eating and it's really bumming me out. I think because I can't really work out and do the things that I normally do around the house, I think that's what it really is. It's annoying the **** out of me to be honest. And I really also hadn't had any surgeries in my life that requires a lot of downtime so this is new for me as well. With my bariatric sleeve hell I was up walking in the very next day. I think I walked like 3 miles and I walked pretty much every day ever since then and that was a year and a half ago so yeah.

I'm glad you don't have the 12 week milk diet. It was difficult and I slipped up occasionally, but it was helpful for losing weight and shrinking the liver. Because of the 12 week diet, I lost 12.9 kg (28lbs) in those three months. My NHS trust just flat out said "no ozempic" At the time, it was because it hadn't quite been approved for the NHS But I wouldn't have wanted that anyway as it would mean injections for the rest of my life and a lot of people have endless diarhoea on those meds. I had one session with an NHS psychologist and one group session. I don't really know about what tiers I had. I asked for a referral for the weight loss team, then I had an information session which was via zoom where each the nurse, dietician and psychologist gave some advice about the programme. Then I had an individual session with each one. Once I was approved, I had fortnightly appointments with the medical team to check how my weight loss was going with the milk diet, pre surgery vitals and then the surgery itself. I had a one month and 6 month follow up with the surgical nurse. Next month, I have a phone call with the psychologist. It sounds to me like you are getting a lot more psychological support than I did, which I think is great. It really makes a big difference.

It was a big shock to me that I wouldn't loose every day/week after my surgery. I also asked on here and the answer was, You will have stall weeks and the further out you are the longer they will last. You can't break them by diet or exercise, you just have to be patient. I eventually got used to it. The fact that you have a different type of tool will not make a difference. You are eating a very reduced amount of food, 800 calories. You are in a huge deficit, remember that. Weight loss is inevitable. Like everything else in life, it does not happen as we dream it to be. It is highly annoying though. As long as you are tracking your food and drink and are moving more every week then you can't fail.

How’d surgery go? I go in Dec. 26 and have been a ball of emotions this week. It doesn’t help that I’m a special ed teacher and had three IEP’s to be ok to take two weeks off after break. (I’m zooming in for one Jan. 14 still 🤦🏻‍♀️).

I don’t know why I’m suddenly getting messages again I deleted myself from this form as I found it toxic. I came here for support and was told no one believes me my body went into complete starvation mode. They sent me home until they had test results, everyone said they didn’t believe me because they sent me home three days later my kidneys failed. I missed Christmas with my kids because I was in the hospital. Spent three weeks there on IVs. They eventually had to make my pouch bigger. miss a hell of a lot thought this form would help me and I got responses that no one believed me great support deleting myself from this again just know this form can be toxic. I cried hysterically after the responses I got thank you all for not supporting me. Good luck to all of you.

It’s been a strange kind of week. I haven’t gone wildly off plan but I have definitely struggled with focus. Nothing has gone wrong, I’m not upset about anything or fed up. I just think that having the dietitian appointment and everything going OK with that sort of had me taking my foot off the accelerator a little. Then the shock of getting my appointment with the surgeon has played with my head somewhat? “I honestly don’t know” is the answer right now. I think, as others have pointed out, that this whole WLS journey became very real this week and there’s a bit of panic going on. Me and hubby have had lots of conversations this week too, about how the future may look what with the LRD to come, immediate post-surgery things to deal with and then long term. Hubby admitted that he knows he’s going to find how little I will be able to eat a struggle but takes comfort in the fact that others have done, and continue to do, the exact same thing and survive plus the Bariatric team at our hospital seem really switched on so he knows I’m in good hands. It’s a learning curve for him too, with more lessons to come! Thankfully the hospital team does welcome questions from family members because they know it can be difficult for them too. I’m not worried about anything specific, just more a case of the practicalities of things. I always do better when I have planned things, even if it’s just in my head, because it’s feeling like I have some control! I’ve ordered a mini food processor to hel with the purée part of the journey to come, so that should be here by the end of the week. Hubby has been looking at different sized ice cube trays for freezing individual portions of purée plus looking at recipes etc. I think he feels a bit ‘in limbo’ at the moment, which I do understand. Anyway, went to see Fatboy Slim on Saturday. I felt good in what I was wearing: Size smaller sparkly black jeans (with lots of stretch, obviously 😉) It was a nice confidence boost anyway! However, the gig was outside and it was freezing cold - that a UK summer for you 🙄 I had a blanket plus a wrap but it got too cold and my hips and knees just had enough, especially with being locked in one position while sitting on the scooter. We left before the end because I honestly couldn’t handle the cold anymore. Disappointing, yes but it happens. On the drive home the heavens opened and it rained so I didn’t feel too bad after that. It took me ages to get warm though. Had a hot shower, extra blanket on the bed, plus pyjamas but I couldn’t warm up. Hubby eventually made me a hot water bottle and I managed to slowly thaw out. We’ve said no more outdoor things for now, especially as the weather is so unpredictable here. Nothing else to report. I will knuckle back down and re-focus. I’ve had a weekend of pizza and alcohol so that’s my wander off-plan done with! Oh, my new weighing scales are in agreement with the dietitian’s scales, which surprised me! The dietitian suggested that I took a photo of her printout from when she had weighed me. I have no idea what everything means but she did underline a couple of things like the visceral fat number, metabolic age etc etc and my new scales match those numbers exactly 😮 So thank you @FifiLux for your suggestion 🥰 I just need to make sure that the weight numbers on the new, shiny scales start reducing again… Wishing everyone a successful, happy week regardless of where you are on your weight loss journey 😎 Onwards and downwards everybody!

I think we first need to define stall here. A true stall is when your weight does not go down even after 2-3 weeks. 3 DAYS does not constitute a stall. Keep in mind that your body is made up of lots of other "stuff" besides fat. Things that can easily vary from day to day and even hour to hour besides fat: Muscle mass Water weight (did you know that your body is about 60% water?) Food weight Stool weight Of those, the biggest culprits early on are likely water weight and stool weight. The latter one because lots of people struggle with constipation early after surgery. Water weight can vary for lots of different reasons, but hormone changes, medicines, temperature differences, fluid consumption rate, stress levels, excess salt consumption, illness and low protein, potassium or magnesium intake all can contribute to water retention. I know you said you just HAD to weigh yourself daily, but if you are expecting to always see a nice linear drop in your weight day-to-day, weighing so often is probably not a great idea for you. Remember, this is for the long-haul, so don't stress small variations in your weight. It would be physiologically impossible for you to have literally stopped losing fat at this point.

This is a toughest part of the surgery . No person in the world [or so it seems] has the same pre op diet as you, so its difficult to equate. Some have dieted before hand and some like me had lots of food funerals. I did mine for 3 weeks and lost 15 pounds. You are going well. Call your team if you have been in a stall longer than you think you should. Doing this process you will get lots of baffling losses and plateaus. Its just your body wondering why you are not feeding it the same as before. It took me 2 years to loose my weight, be patient . Stick rigidly to your teams regimen. Your liver will tell them if you have cheated or not. They won't operate if your liver is fatty. It makes it fragile to move away from the surgery site.

Exactly on point and why it was a fit for me as I was in full menopause with my hormone changes basically stalling my metabolism. I haven't experienced my appetite suppression as other have but regardless, due to my particular medical needs, it's working for me 🙂 Also, as an endocrine nurse, I have found my personal experience during all this as an amazing way to connect with my patients who are facing similar challenges. Everything happens for a reason ❤️

Your surgeon (or their team) should provide you with a list of the liquids you can consume during the pre surgery stage. If they haven’t yet, ask for a list so you can start to prepare. There are variations between surgeons as to what you can and can’t have at this stage. For example some are three meals of protein shakes a day & that’s all. Others are four shakes. Some are two shakes plus one meal of a lean protein & vegetables. Some are not shakes but milk. Mine was keto. So you can see we can’t really tell you what your surgeon may require for this diet or require specifically for you ( your current weight, pre existing health concerns, etc.) But as a help, start weaning yourself off caffeine, carbs and sugars now because when you start the pre surgical diet the withdrawals from those foods can be pretty tough (headaches, lethargy, irritability, poor concentration, etc.) It usually passes after five or so days but that first week wasn’t called hell week for nothing by my surgeon’s patients. All the best.

The only three I can stomach are Unjury Genepro Animal

My 5 penny worth of advice for what its worth - Your stall will eventually break and untill you get used to them they are scary. Do your best to eat as well as you can afford. I dont know if the news is fake or not but I beleive eggs are expensive in the US but a few boiled eggs are always handy in the fridge, eat them like apples or squash them in mayo with tiny melba toast. As @Arabesque said pre cooked chicken is super easy to grab with a small salad. Salmon and tuna is good too. I love a chunk of cheese with a sliced apple and a few grapes with cream cheese is a delicious dippy snack

Stalls are normal, and I believe 1 month is very reasonable. While I didn't stall during weight loss, I stabilized at 9.5 months only to lose weight again 3 months later! Now I believe that I was probably in a weight stall for 3 months (I was more than happy to stabilize and stop losing weight, but the point is that it was probably a stall). The best thing to do is to stick to your plan, eat well, walk your steps (8-10k a day), get your protein in and introduce some sort of exercise you enjoy. It will come off

Hi everyone, kinda new here but I figure I should share my personal experiment in the guys room since it involves "strange" elements. I’ve noticed my cut stalls whenever the late-night dopamine loop hits: doom-scroll, snack, repeat. Decided to run a one-week reset to see if trimming *stimulation calories* can help actual calories. **Reset checklist** □ 8 p.m. screen cap: phone goes in desk drawer, watchface only. □ 90 % whole-food rule (any “fun food” must fit before 2 p.m.). □ 3-min cold rinse after workouts. □ Picked up a silicone cage to keep wandering hands + browser tabs in check. (if you're wondering where it goes, the cage is from a funny shop called lockthecock so I'll let you figure that out) □ Lights-out meditation playlist, then bed. **Tracking** • Target intake: 1,950 kcal • Steps: >10 k daily • Sleep (Oura): aiming +45 min average • Craving score (1–5) each night **Starting numbers (Day 0)** Weight: 164 lb Waist: 31.8″ Sleep: 6 h 05 m avg Cravings after 9 p.m.: 4/5 I’ll loop back on Day 4 with a quick note (good, bad, ugly), then final results on Day 7. Anyone tried something similar—phone jail, NoFap streaks, cold therapy—to rein in nighttime nibbling? Drop tips! Cheers

Aah, stalls. The eternal battle of weight loss. But yes, you can continue to experience stalls of varying lengths until you stop losing. Plus you’re getting close to your goal weight (or your new set point) so your rate of loss can slow right down to what seems like nothing - like measuring loss in ounces not pounds. The last 11kg I lost took about a year so less than a kilo (about a pound) a month on average but in those last months it was almost at a dead stop with fluctuations until it finally settled & didn’t change. Did you carry most of your weight in your abdominal area? If so, this might be why you are still carrying weight there as it is where you had the most to lose. Losing an inch off your thighs will look like you’ve lost more than losing an inch off your tummy because it is a larger area. But it wouldn’t hurt to speak with your doctor about possible build up of lymphatic fluid or lymphedema given your history.

A high dose multivitamin and a nasty calcium tablet every day. Then 2 PPI's to keep the acid at bay. Then every three months I have a B12 injection. I might be able to get rid of some of these this year as I believe I have a very good balanced diet now

Hi all. I am six weeks post-op from VSG and met with my doctor's team today. I have lost 22 pounds since surgery, which the team is very happy with. There was no concern about my progress at all and they said due to my weight on surgery date being 231, that I should put my expectations at 170 for my final maintenance goal. I was asked the usual questions and asked if I am hungry between meals and I said yes. I am finding myself hungry about 2.5 hours after (some) meals. When I said I was getting hungry, I was told it was gastritis, not hunger. I said "do they feel the same?" because it sure feels like hunger to me. It's my stomach making noises, and feeling hungry in my actual stomach. It's not head-hunger because I KNOW what that is. I do understand that eating can get rid of gastritis discomfort just like it can obviously make you feel like you are no longer hungry. I do acknowledge that it's possible this is gastritis, but wondering if it really is. (?) Per my doctor's orders: My current meals are 1 oz protein and 2 tbsp veg or fruit for 3 meals per day. Absolutely No Snacks are allowed. Today I was told I can move down to just one protein shake per day. Up until today, the only "snacks" that I was permitted were protein shakes. I am trying to follow the rules here, but got home and I feel so confused and even though I asked questions in the office, I have all kinds of things swirling in my head. I want to be successful, but feeling a little lost here. I know everyone's program is a little different, but wondering about the following: 1. How the heck do we know this is gastritis and NOT hunger? And, if it was hunger, do we just ignore it? (They have increased my PPI medications for now to see if it solves the "gastritis". ) If it's hunger and the increase in acid reducing medications doesn't help, am I just living with being hungry all the time? (YES I am seriously asking this because I honestly don't know what the expectation is). Unfortunately I am not one of the lucky ones who lost their feelings of hunger. I have not had any heartburn at all. 2. I don't know if any of this matters, but I swim laps pretty intensely 5 days per week for 1-1.5 hours. I suspect that part of the reason I am feeling hungry is due to the swimming. I could be wrong, but curious if anyone else thinks it has something to do with it. Prior to surgery, I was always hungrier on days that I swim. 3. My protein goal is 80 grams per day. With one single shake @ 33 grams of protein and a total of 3 oz of protein during the day with 6 tbsp of veggies, how am I supposed to meet this protein goal? My calculations tell me it's not possible. I'm still early as I just transitioned today to "regular diet" from soft diet. So, I am still trying to figure things out and how everything will work moving forward. Your kind replies are appreciated.

Guys I'm not liking myself. I feel "fat" it's so weird how I feel .. I look myself in the mirror and I c that I've gained weight but on the scale I was losing weight and just stalled for 2 weeks (well gained 200g) so I'm just feeling shitty. I feel like I'm able to eat more (not as much as pre surgery ) but more... my husband almost smacked me to snap out of it lool and he said I was delulu n I'm not seeing myself .... I'm trying to watch my food and I'm between 1000 to 1300ish cals and maintaining 70 to 90g of protein. Sometimes my carbs are over but I won't say too bad. I'm almost 6 months post op

Make a list of all those things you want to change. Pick just one to focus on THIS week. Make sure though, that it's something small that you can measure in some way. For example, you can't say "I'm going to eat better", because that's too big and too vague. Instead, pick something even smaller and definitive like "instead of eating ice cream after dinner every day this week, I'm only going to eat ice cream 4 days this week". That's probably small enough that your brain won't make a huge fuss over it, and is also easily measurable. If you successfully make that change and can keep doing it for two or preferably three weeks, then you can more on. For example, maybe after three weeks, you decide to move to only eating ice cream once a week. Again, you need to be able to successfully do that before moving on again. If you fail, no worries, just try again. If you keep struggling, you may have picked something too big and you need to scale it back. I would also recommend alternating diet and exercise goals. Thus if you successfully made a diet change that you're able to stick with, next time maybe it's "I'm going to walk after dinner 3 days this week". By alternating in this way, you'll find the diet changes are easier to adjust to and at the same time, you'll be improving your health. Just make sure to go slow with these as well. I often see people in the gym (especially this time of year), that tried to go from basically doing nothing, to working out 5+ days a week. Sadly, the failure rate for such people is well north of 90%. Here's the thing. This will take a LONG time, but if you try to go faster because you're feeling impatient, the likelihood is that you won't be able to maintain the loss, you'll fall off the diet, and before you even realize it, you'll be right back where you were before. I also want to be clear, I do still recommend seeking out counseling for a possible eating disorder, as well as help from an RD. Dieting is HARD. if it was easy, we wouldn't have an obesity epidemic. The smart play here is to stack the cards in your favor by getting help from experts.

First, congratulations on your surgery. No, it’s not uncommon to start having doubts, worries, be a bit emotional about things. This is a big thing. Something you have never gone edits so and have absolutely nothing to base these new experiences and emotional reactions you’re having upon. With a sleeve, about 75% of your tummy is removed. This differs person to person & depends upon the size of your tummy. Larger tummy, more is removed. I actually got an internal photo of my tummy being removed (it’s not framed up on my wall 😄). It is impossible for you to regain if you’re following your plan and the volume of food/calories you’re consuming. A very common occurrence, which almost every one experiences, is called the three week stall. Around the three week mark (could be earlier or later than then) your weight loss will stall. It may last from 1-3 weeks. It’s very normal & just your body taking a moment to adjust to the changes and reassess your new needs (metabolic rate, digestive hormones, etc.). You will start losing again. Because there is no hard and fast rule as to your rate of loss, surgeons don’t tend to set weight loss goals - interim or final. There are just lots of averages around how much you may lose and how long it may take. Your surgeon may have spoken to you about how much weight you may lose by a certain time but it’s no guarantee of what will happen but just an idea of what might happen. They may ask how much you’d like to lose and then advise if it is possible or not. Whether it is possible or not is based on stats (averages). Don’t worry about not meeting your fluid or protein goals in the first weeks. It’s not easy in the beginning. As long as you’re making an effort and aren’t too far off. You’ll notice you get closer and closer and some days will be easier & others will be a real struggle. A quarter cup of food seems like nothing to begin but is again not unusual. My advice was 1/4 - 1/3 cup from purée to about a cup at 6 months. If you’re struggling eating soft food you may need to go back a stage for a few days & that ‘s okay. Sometimes we’re ( our tummies) just aren’t ready & healed enough yet to tolerate the more & more dense food as you progress to each new stage. Often weeks 3 & 4 are purées and then soft foods in weeks 5 & 6 but plans do differ. Trust me, it does get better and easier in time.

Popped into the local grocery store yesterday to pick up some yoghurt & on my way to the arctic zone I spied a garlic and Parmesan chicken parcel ready meal. I hesitated but picked it up. Can’t say it didn’t puff well but maybe that’s where the 19g of protein listed on the nutrient panel was. It certainly wasn’t in the almost non existent barely 2 level tablespoons of the creamy garlic Parmesan chicken filling. I have no idea where the chicken actually was either - I saw two or three small shredded pieces. And it tasted unpleasant. I know why I avoid these mass produced processed ready meal foods. The second one is in my fridge though it may be in the bin later today. At least my usual vegetables were yummy.

Weight loss calmed down this week - 1.5lbs. No complaints though after the losses of the week before 🙂 Feeling tired today. Visited family yesterday, 6 hours all together sat in a van and my knees are so unhappy with me. It was our first time to our son’s new home which is a longer drive than his previous place. Will try and be better prepared next time. At least we spent time with the grandkids, which is always wonderful. A NSV yesterday…I bought some (non-stretchy) 3/4 cropped jeans a couple of years ago for £5, telling my daughter-in-law that I would fit in to them eventually. I broke them out yesterday, took the tags off and they fit perfectly!! 🥳🥳 The only downside was that it was far too hot for denim but the point was made 🙃 However DIL recognised them yesterday and was really pleased for me. Hubby has been a bit weird lately. Don’t get me wrong, still as massively supportive as ever but the ‘you will probably leave me when you lose weight’ comments have popped out more than a couple of times. Why do blokes always use this?? I did remind him that I didn’t leave him when I lost weight previously so why would I now? Do they think we’re only with them because we’re too fat to bother looking elsewhere? Jeez, I haven’t got the energy for anyone new, never mind all the stuff you generally do at the beginning of a relationship like shaving my legs or wearing matching underwear 🙄 Anyway, physio for knees tomorrow and Bariatric support group at the hospital on Wednesday. Have remembered to dig out my food diary to complete this week, ready for the dietitians appointment next week. Have a slimmer week everyone, we deserve it 🥰 Onwards and downwards!