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I had surgery 3/22/2024 and have only been able to drink a few ounces an hour. This morning I woke up hungry and drank a 12 oz Protein Drink with 35 minutes, I have NOT been able to do that since before surgery. Have I inadvertently stretched my stomach? My eating yesterday was still only 3-4 oz per meal and Water in between. I really don’t want to mess up this surgery. I am 8 weeks post op and I thought my stomach could only hold 4 oz - but the drink is 12 oz.

they do create a pouch at the top of your sleeve - so yes, physically it'll probably be smaller. Although pouches (and sleeves) can temporarily stretch to accommodate food. So I don't know - maybe in your case, you'll notice a difference. Hard to tell.

I had mine removed 2 years & 1 month after my sleeve. Could have been because of the weight loss, menopause, my high bilirubin levels or simply my past eating. Had a stone about 1cm diameter but it certainly made itself known. That pain is the worst! Never changed what I was eating after surgery. Was eating the same the day after it was removed. Some people struggle with fatty foods in the long term after (my aunt describes it as feeling liverish 🤷🏻‍♀️.) but of course I don’t eat a lot of fat so wouldn’t know if it sets it off. My sister-in-law doesn’t have any difficulties with foods post her gall removal. Probably a case of just how your body reacts. Only thing to watch for the first month or so (again depends upon you) is you may have more stomach acid & have issues with that. Your gall regulated the acid entering your tummy & without it you may have a more constant stream until things settle again. Eat small meals more regularly & try a PPI for a little while to reduce the acid. The excess acid can cause diarrhoea & some discomfort in an empty tummy. I had regular bouts of diarrhoea & I remember my surgeon saying to comeback if it persisted for more than a month. It didn’t but every few weeks I’ll get bout of it. Don’t really get cramps or any of the other usual diarrhoea warning signals just a bit of a grumbling & need to go.My sister-in-law is the same.

Yes to breakfast. Have it around 9am. Any earlier it doesn’t sit as well & I don’t eat as much which means I get hungry again sooner. Pretty narrow on breakfast foods. Oats with seeds, dried cranberries, blueberries, yoghurt & milk every day. Eat the leftovers as an afternoon snack. Used to eat scrambled eggs as well until last year when my tummy decided it didn’t like eggs in any form any more. Probably time to try them again. If out will have a granola or muesli when I used to have eggs. Not into the pancakes, waffles, etc. American style breakfast foods though your waffles look great @GreenTealael. And dare I say it … never really liked bacon.

Blueberry vanilla (Semi scratch made) protein waffle. With the added yogurt and blueberries it was a little tart but still good. I think pre WLS I would eat 2 of these, or 1 with sides but I can’t remember anymore. I think the biggest change is that I prioritize protein in meals now and pre WLS I didn’t even think about it. How does everyone feel about breakfast? Skip or no? What about “breakfast foods”?

I had surgery on 3/6 of this year and am doing really well - losing steadily, no food issues, etc. I am still sleeping a ton though - feeling best getting 10 hours of sleep, which seems crazy to me. I used to go on 6-7 and never felt tired. I’m assuming it’s the extreme calorie deficit and will ask my doctor at my next appointment, but wondered if anyone else had the same experience?

Hey Warren, I'm presuming because they would only look at fixing the opening if they did feel it was contributing to the pain and other issues I'm having 'downstream'. This would not be a true revision in the sense of reducing the size of the pouch. My insurance company also only pays for 1 bariatric surgery in your 'lifetime'. They would only pass for the revision of opening if it were medically necessitated, and they would not consider 'failure to lose weight' or a 'weight regain' as medically necessary. My GI wanted me to talk to the bariatric surgeon who specializes in revisions. The surgeon does not think what is happening to me is 'dumping due to widened opening'. He said it doesn't sound like dumping to him and if that happened to everyone whose opening widened, everyone would be having "dumping" issues after a couple of years. He did point out that both the upper and lower GI I had done do not look at the inside of the pouch so if there is a hernia that is causing the on again/off again pain and on rare occasions bleeding (looks like coffee grounds), then the GI doctor would not know as they never 'scope' the pouch for a routine upper/lower GI. He also indicated that depending on the scope size a GI doctor uses, it doesn't go through every single space that we have (due to us having been um "modified"?) so it would take a doctor who uses an extra long scope. That last part I must confess I do not understand at all. He does have me scheduled right now for a laparoscopic investigatory procedure to take a look inside my pouch and see if there is scar tissue or a hernia that needs to be addressed. He also gave me prescription acid reflux meds and said if i got better after 'taking' them, I could cancel the procedure in 2 weeks. What he fails to understand and I've tried telling his office, I can go a month with no pain. Then I go back to back days in extreme pain. Have not been able to tie it to specific food, time of day I'm eating, etc. My right side starts with a stabby/cramping pain (closest I can compare if it feels like the pain I used to get when I ovulated or that 'stitch in your side' type feeling. It often goes downhill from there. I have tried to get it figured out now for 2 years but taking ANY medicine and 'not having an episode in the next 2 weeks' does NOT give me a definitive answer as I do not have this pain all the time, it is just enough to be frustrating and has lasted LONG enough to be concerning. The 'coffee ground' type bleeding that I have observed is one and off for the past 3 months (maybe it started a while ago but now I know what to 'look for'. I don't like going under anesthesia but I'm probably going to keep that procedure scheduled as I have no guarantee that ANY medicine given for the next 2 weeks has 'fixed' any issue. I wonder if anyone else has ever had their opening revised but not their pouch out of curiosity.

If that medication is the one I am thinking of that includes Wellbutrin and one other drug it may be your culprit. I don’t have experience with the weight loss drug but I do know Wellbutrin by itself can be a very bad one to go off of too fast. I realize you weren’t prescribed it for depression but you say you have always been depressed so if it was actually treating your depression and your no longer taking it or your body is not absorbing it now it’s possible that your depression has worsened due to the dose of an antidepressant decreasing too quickly. I am not a doctor and not certain that’s how it works with the other drug involved but i do know I have been cautioned about needing to wean off of Wellbutrin slowly and not to ever stop it cold Turkey. Like others have mentioned it could also be post surgery blues plus you are going through a lot of changes between having to cope with things without food and the situations you are dealing with in life but if you don’t feel better I would reach out to the doctor who prescribed you the weight loss drug and/or your surgeon and see if that makes sense to them. Keep posting here and try journaling to get your feelings out. Perhaps consider talking to a therapist as well if you continue to feel this way. They will instantly expand your support network and they can help you work on some new coping strategies that don’t involve food.

@NickelChip I resisted getting an airfryer for ages ( in quite a snobby french food way I must admit) but now I have one I wouldn't live without it ! Go for it! If not it's still raining and cold in Athens ...

I dont know what it is exactly. I work a lot and I study. I’m a nurse. I got into a fight with my mom and the guy I like isn’t interested in getting into a serious relationship. It’s a lot to deal with. I feel just lonely because I go through all of these new moments by myself, no one truly understands what this surgery has changed in my life. My body and the relationship I have with food is constantly transforming with time. I was using a weight loss drug that included an antidepressant, so I think it could be related. But I’ve always been depressed in my life, it’s just that I feel lonely going through all of these new changes. Losing weight isn’t easy, but people never really understand how much effort you have to put in, even if you have a tool like the surgery. I try to follow my diet as much as I can, but sometime let myself have some meals/snacks that I like. I’m stressed because I don’t know if I’m eating too much. My mind never shuts up, and it’s so exhausting. im just writing my thoughts, thank you for you answer

thanks I’m drinking my liquids, and eating all low carb, high protein food (limited to soft proteins, so chicken, yogurt, etc). I think since I’m not eating veggies right now, I don’t have regular bowel movements ( or as usual as before).

For apps, I didn't like myfitnesspal (free version) myself, but I use Cronometer to track food/nutrition and Medisafe as a reminder for my supplements. Both are pretty basic but that works for me. (Plus they're free with no ads and no fluff) I've only newly started on this journey, but I've been there in the past with non-WLS weight regain. You can do this -- you've done it before and you can definitely do it again. It's like any other habit addiction (smoking, biting nails, whatever) -- routine and muscle memory make it easy to get into bad habits, but are just as important when getting back into gear for the good ones. Rooting for you!

Thank you for your kind words and info Arabesque! I used food as an instant mood stabilizer and it used to give me great joy, even temporarily. As you said that has stopped now in a very radical way. I haven't seen a therapist pre op about my food issues but now I feel that I really need it. Started searching today but the one I was referred to is completely full and doesn't accept new patients at the moment. I'll keep searching for a therapist and I am sure I will find the right for me. I also have a call planned with my surgeon where I can ask him about all these worries that are bothering me. I will surely stop taking seriously opinions and comments on FB groups, I learned my lesson now. They got me panicking. All the best to you too!

i love food and still do. there where a couple months in the beginning when i hated food, but it didn't bother me because, well i hated it, lol. then for another couple months eating food was more like, meh. but i did like looking at it and cooking it...(thats a whole other story lol) i eat basically whatever i want (except too much sugar at once), whenever i want. just in much, much smaller quantities at a time. dont get me wrong, im 5'2", 118 lbs and i can pack in over 2200 calories a day these days (im on an exercise kick), it's just spread out. but in the end, you are ready when u ate ready. i will leave u with this small tip: book your surgery if you can. if u do end up not wanting to go through with it when the time comes, you can ask to postpone to a later date. then see is you are ready then. if not, rinse and repeat. this way you may not have to "restart" the clock for qualifying purposes. this is what i did (not on purpose, just accidentally lol). i backed out of surgery dates twice...then finally went through with the third) but not going through with it that first time is my single solitary regret of the entire WLS experience. good luck! ❤️

i used MyFitnessPal (the paid version). I've read of others who really like the Baristatic App aswell. i am a big proponent of tracking and I credit the practice as having a huge positive influence to my weight loss and subsequent maintenance. i have tracked my food basically everyday since since my pre-op diet, and i have almost six years worth of MFP data to prove it! more (anecdotal) proof: i have weighed below my goal weight this entire time since reaching it at 7 months post op. FOR ME, at first, i found that it held me accountable as i could see everything i ate, and then it turned into more of a data gathering exercise that i could use and examine to determine what changes i needed to make, if any. (note i also weighed myself everyday, and still do...) plus i actually really enjoyed/enjoy doing it! ha! ...am not as militant about it now, as i eyeball and guesstimate more, but i still do track..old habits are hard to break! its not for everyone though, and i get it, it takes a particular kind of person to keep doing it while keeping the angst at bay, let alone enjoy it. but anyway, try it out...you may find u are that kind of person, or, at the very least help you manage ur food intake! good luck! ❤️

Yup I've got to have a mental health evaluation as well. And my wife and I have had those concerns (latuda needing food to be absorbed to work) the lead nurse practitioner seemed to be not too concerned about it or is working on it behind the scenes. Right now I have to wait for medical tests they're doing a stress test, ekg,, blood work, and all that jazz all in June and then when we go through those results I will rebring up my Psych meds and how I can take them after surgery.

Hello Congrats on your upcoming surgery, hope it goes smoothly. I traveled 3 weeks, 3 months and will be travelling 7 months post surgery. It was all smooth, my first trip was with my hubby and kids, so I would just eat tiny bits of their food, second trip was with hubby only and we would always order a salad/veggie dish and a healthy/ish entree where I would eat a bit of protein and a bit of veggies and my hubby's mission was to clear the rest lol. As to what to pack, I only packed my vitamins and probiotics, if you can pack some high protein snacks like beef jerky, bars ...etc. then do that as I would get hungrier often due to all the walking and would need a snack, but where I traveled the supplement shops were always available so ... Don't stress it, enjoy your time and food. P.S. : If there were leftovers I would always give them out to anyone in need ❤️

First, avoid the Facebook groups. They tend to be negative, critical & offer bad or simply wrong information. I even stumbled upon one where they told people how to purée burgers & fries. It’s why I appreciate this forum so much: supportive, great advice & suggestions, not judgemental, lots of experience. Second, 100% agree with what @ChunkCat’s said in her post. For. many of us, we used food as a source of comfort, a way to sooth ourselves when in emotional turmoil. After surgery, we can experience quite an emotional rollercoaster, all the changes, an overload of information which can cause doubts, then surgery itself is hard on our bodies & emotions, our hormones can be crazy too. Before surgery you would have turned to food to ease your panic, anxiety, sadness, etc. but you can’t now which only makes that hunger & your food voices louder. This is head hunger not real hunger. Of course knowing this doesn’t make it easier to manage or ignore. Many find using distraction helpful: read, craft, garden, go for a walk, check your social & this forum, sip a warm drink (green or herbal tea can be very soothing & count towards your fluids - yay!). Also, many find therapy helpful. Did you see a therapist as part of your pre surgical process? If not ask for a referral. You don’t have to do this alone & they will support you work through these & any other issues. All the best.

Simply put head hunger (& food noise) is not real hunger. It just often is more powerful & what we listen to. They often have an emotional cause - sad, angry, anxious, stressed, frustrated, etc. & you use food to comfort or sooth yourself. They can have a hormonal cause like craving carbs in the lead up to your period. They can get louder when you’re bored or because of habit & what you’re doing like watching tv. After surgery they can be particularly strong. You can be on a emotional roller coaster after surgery, your hormones can be all over the place, everything is strange & you can worry about doing the right thing or making a mistake - information overload, you may have some pain or discomfort for a little while after, and so on. Generally, if you’re craving a specific food, flavour or texture it’s head hunger. Your tummy rumbling (hunger pains/pangs) aren’t usually a sign of real hunger either - just your digestive system working. Real hunger feels different. Because we tended to listen to the food noise & head hunger cues we forget what real hunger feels like. I get restless like something is wrong. Don’t crave anything. And there is always a logical & legitimate reason to be hungry - I haven’t eaten (missed a meal) or didn’t eat much of my previous meal or it’s around or after my usual meal time. Distraction is the easiest & most commonly used technique to help. Read, check social media & this forum, phone a family me, ring friend, harder, craft, go for a walk, undertake a household task (clean out a cupboard or drawer), sip a warm drink. Delay satisfying the head hunger or food voice - often it will lessen in intensity & can pass after 30+/- minutes. I used to ask myself do I need this food or need the next bite or do I just want it. If I want it why? Actually I still do this a lot. Makes you really think about what’s driving you to eat, why the food voice or head hunger is shouting & it works towards understanding your relationship with food, Have a chat with your therapist too. If you didn’t meet with one as part of your pre surgery process, it may be helpful to ask for a referral to help you work your way through this. Many find them extremely helpful.

WLS patients can easily increase daily calories by drinking them. That may be an option for you instead of trying to consume additional solid food. Liquids just go down easier and pass thru the stomach quicker without making you too full. For example.... a protein shake of milk, protein powder, fruit and no sugar added yogurt could get you there. GL

I got the gastric sleeve 5/1. I heard that I would be tired and wanted to sleep all day, but I haven’t slept in the day, or sleep for long periods of time. Ive been using bands to exercise my arms, and been walking a mile a day. I can’t wait to introduce more food to my life. Lol So far, I’ve been eating Greek yogurt, broth, water, popsicles, tuna, and every now and then cream of wheat. One protein shake a day. I’m tired of the same flavors. 🤷🏻‍♀️ I can’t wait for my incision area to heal. I started getting a rash due to the glue they used.

I use the Baritastic app. It tracks food macros and fluid intake. I track EVERYTHING that goes in my mouth, even condiments and coffee. LOL It helps immensely with staying on track. My Apple watch doesn't help with intake. It helps me remember to stand hourly. It counts my steps. It annoys me with messages all day. It reminds me to take my meds and vitamins. But it doesn't help with meals. Though there might be something to set in it to help with that? I just don't because my meal times vary a bit depending on when I wake up and eat my first meal. I highly suggest you get a pill case and dose out your vitamins for the whole week, or in my case, the whole month! A dietician can provide you with a list of supplementation or you can hunt down the ASMBS guidelines for your surgery, that's what most good dieticians use. It sounds like you may need to be watching your protein, fat, and calcium intake. Many people a few years out from the various surgeries start to show nutritional deficiencies if they haven't been keeping up with their protein intake and supplementation. Good hydration is important too. If you can, it would be wise to go have bariatric labs drawn, your GP can do this if you aren't still seeing your surgery center. A bariatric practice could do this too and would be good to follow up with if you are struggling with regain and getting back on track. You can do this!!

I remember the first time I realized I have food noise. I was given Saxenda and several weeks into it as I increased the dose, I noticed that the mental pressure to eat was gone... It was like that voice that often brought up food throughout the day was suddenly silenced. I never even realized it was there before, it was such a familiar thing in my mental landscape it didn't occur to me that not everyone has that! GLP-1 medications in general are known for this side effect. Meds for ADHD like Vyvanse and anti-depressants like Wellbutrin are also known to help with this. When I went off my Ozempic before surgery, the voice came back with a vengeance!! I didn't have much of a appetite pre-op, but man did it come back post-op... For the first month I was sooo hungry. And the voice was SO loud. Thankfully I have a lot of techniques to manage inner voices, due to a decade of somatic based trauma therapy. I think without that, the process would have been so much harder for me. One thing that helps me the most is distinguishing that part as a PART of me, not ALL of me. So instead of "I'm hungry!" it is "I'm noticing a part of me feels hungry." This may seem like a weird distinction, but research has shown when we do this with emotions "A part of me is angry." vs "I'm angry!") it helps us create a little space between us and the feeling and helps us remember that there are other parts of us present and not all of them are caught up in the emotion of the moment. Remembering there are parts of ourselves that are like Switzerland helps us navigate internally when voices get loud. So I apply this to head hunger too. I identify the part of me that is hungry. I ask it what it needs. I validate its experience. And then I offer to just sit with it for a while and be present with the feeling of hunger. Then I let it know when we are next going to eat and orient that part to thinking of what we might want to eat at the coming meal. I'm sure this approach won't work for everyone, it is just what I tend to do. I notice when I hear the parts of me that feel things and give them some presence, they often start to soften, or have something important to tell me about what we are experiencing in that moment. For instance, I have severe ADHD. I get easily distracted and forget to eat. Post op it has been a struggle. That voice is there to remind me to tend my body. It may be louder than most people have it, but it still serves a purpose and when I can give it a job it tends to fight with me less. I eat every 3 hours. Without exception. If I go past 3 hours the voices get really loud and I feel sick, probably my blood sugar dropping... So I eat every 3 hours. But I eat within a 30 minute window, then I'm done. I don't snack in between. If my body tells me we need more food before the 3 hour mark I stop to reflect why this might be. If it is because I am bored, I find something to redirect the energy to and wait. If it is due to a workout or being sick and burning through energy faster. I may add in an earlier meal. Seeing my body as something to partner with, as something I have a relationship with that I want to be a GOOD relationship, seems to help me remember to treat my inner voices with kindness and compassion instead of judgment and irritation. If someone you were closely connected to constantly ignored you or snapped at you, over time you'd either get louder or go away. That is what I did to my body. So now when I hear the voice it is a reminder that this is something I'm working to relate to in a healthier way, so I choose a reaction to it like I'd choose a reaction to a friend reminding me to eat or drink water. Sorry for the long ramble, it just happens to be something I've been reflecting deeply on over the past 6 months!! ETA: I do take Wellbutrin for depression. I have never noticed it affecting that internal voice, but some notice an impact. If you are struggling deeply with this voice, you might consider a medication that can support you in this. I have a good friend who has ADHD and noticed when she started Vyvanse it significantly helped with the food noise and binging behavior. It isn't a good solution for everyone, but it is a good solution for some. ❤️

There is nothing wrong with you... First, when we have surgery, a lot of nerves are cut that need time to heal. These are the nerves that tell us we are full, or getting full. So you are not getting accurate feedback from your stomach right now. These cut nerves take several months to heal fully. I noticed a distinct change in my fullness cues around 3 months out. Second--just because you CAN eat that amount doesn't mean you SHOULD (I'm so thankful the regulars here remind us all of this early post-op). You aren't getting accurate messages about your restriction right now, and different foods will cause different feelings of restriction or lack thereof. Try to stick to the small portions your dietician should have gone over with you. You have a lot of sutures holding your healing tummy together, you don't want to stress them. Take your time here, there is no rush. Third--different foods will cause different feelings of fullness. Purees often don't cause fullness, even meat purees. When you get into soft foods you might start to feel restriction when you eat denser proteins. But again, your stomach is still healing, so it may take time to feel your restriction, and some people never feel strong restriction, or don't feel it until they are overly full. This is where it is important to measure out your portions and eat tiny bites, slowly, watching for any signs of fullness. For us post op that may feel very different than it did pre-op. For me, for the first few months, all I would get is violent sneezing, intense hiccups, runny nose, etc... It took a while before I started feeling internal pressure with fullness. Fourth--Hunger is a b***h! Some people lose it, not everyone does. I woke up in recovery STARVING!! I was so mad. 😂I felt like I'd been given a faulty surgery. LOL But it really made me learn to work with my hunger cues and to sit with the discomfort of being hungry for a while. I was very, very hungry the first few weeks because nothing feels like it has enough substance to calm that ravenous hunger. This will ease in time as you progress your diet. For now all you can do is learn to distinguish head hunger from body hunger and learn to deal with the fact that sometimes we feel hungry and that's okay. Lastly, many people can drink water freely post op. You don't list your surgery, but this is very common with gastric bypass patients, though I have seen it with sleeve patients too. Once the internal swelling goes down, many can drink water easily. This is a blessing, since dehydration is the #1 reason bariatric patients end up in the ER post op!

Alright guys, 6 months is upon us!! This pic is from the morning of my 6 month post op visit. I weighed in at 232 in office. That is 88 lbs since my highest weight, 75 lbs since surgery! Weirdly, I am smaller now that I was last time I was at this weight. The surgeon found this funny and said the way our bodies lose weight can be really entertaining. LOL I startled myself the other day because I pulled out my smallest clothes (the smallest I have ever been as an adult was 195) and my size 16 jeans fit, zip easily, and are huge in the waist!! That means my smallest size, a 14, will probably fit now snugly, or comfortably in another month. How insane is that?? How can I fit into clothes I had to be 30 lbs lighter to wear last time?? Magic, that's how. 😂 The surgeon estimates I'll be at around 200 lbs by my year mark, though he said if I don't get quite to 200 to not stress it. We each lose weight at our own pace and with my common channel length I can expect to lose weight (albeit much slower) through the second year and possibly into the 3rd year, though at that point it'll be 1 lb here and there. This is the upside of the duodenal switch, it is a long, slow burn. Most stabilize around 18 months to 2 years, but there are always outliers. I feel pretty great! I had a hiatal hernia repair in mid April after I starting having issues choking on my food and pills not going down (I even ended up in the ER with it, which was awful, they don't get bariatric patients at all!!). I gained 15 lbs overnight and it took 2 weeks to get it off, so that on top of my stall for most of March really slowed my weight loss down. But that's okay, I'm reminding myself I have faith that it will come off in its own time. But man, it is hard to remember that when the scale goes up!! In other news, my GP and bariatric surgeon both think I have POTS. I've had issues with it on and off since having a bad case of Epstein Barr Virus (mono) that put me in the hospital a few years ago. It seems every time my body gets stressed it reverts back to having symptoms and it seems it counts any surgery as a major stressor (understandably). She referred me to a specialist and my appointment is October 24th, 2025. Uhuh, 2025, not a typo. He's booking 1 1/2 years out. There are only 2 doctors in the state that specialize in it. So I'm not a happy camper... Meanwhile we are trying a low dose of a beta blocker to see if it helps with the dizziness when I change positions, the racing heart rate when standing/exerting myself, and the exercise intolerance... And doing the lifestyle things like compression leggings, increasing salt and fluid intake, etc... It seems that a lot of Long Covid patients end up having POTS too. Have you looked into this @SomeBigGuy ?? How are you doing? How is everyone else doing??