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Thats just wonderful to hear because bariatric surgery, unfortunatley does not work for everyone. You are getting there. Be proud you were brave enough to go and get the extra help

You're right. Since I was tracking i saw myself behaving haha. I probably eat way more but panicked when saw it on paper. Today I'll be more honest hopefully but I am still preplabbing my protien intakes .. I've been going to the usual classes but I did a few challenge classes which were amazing. I realzied I really do enjoy circuit training or crrossfit so I'll look into it. My fancy gym membership is ending on 24th if this month and I don't think I'll renew it now as Ramadhan is coming (holy month for muslims) so I'll be fasting from dawn to dusk so I will probably fit in some cardio for that month. Let's see how it goes! Your classes sound fun especially that there's for beginners so u don't push urself too hard. I am glad u r still in the zone!

That looks delish. Maybe you could do a bariatric food blog or something.

Well my bariatric surgeon is a general surgeon so when the oncologist asked if I had a surgeon I said yes so she called him and he also installed my chemo port two days later (thank god). Well my body “spit a stitch” which is not uncommon but the Oncology PA said it could cause infection and obviously that is my lifeline right now and requiring another surgery would delay my treatment so I wanted it looked at by the surgeon office. I seen the surgical PA. He took it out and it’s fine but it also gave me a chance to talk to him about my fitness and nutrition. He said that I am so dedicated and I have been doing so great that he is not worried about me. He said I shouldn’t be trying to run at a huge deficit right now though because the cancer actually burns carbs and so does the chemo so my body may need them right now. He said it’s more important to fuel my body to keep up being active since active people are proven to have better outcomes. I have to admit that I’ve been pretty fortunate so far with the side effects of the chemo at least 🤷‍♀️ . Anyways, I told him that since that low Fiber aka high carb diet I have been craving sugar a lot. I told him I am trying to satisfy it with veggies and fruits but I’m not 100%. He said that great try to have my sugar wrapped in fiber and not plastic. He said that he has no doubt that once this is behind me that they can get me back on track. i told him that my next phase requires really high steroids to be infused weekly and the oncologist said most people gain but they are able to lose it. I said she must not have had a patient like me. I asked if I’m having a real hard time since I will be past the honeymoon period if we could use like Wegovy to get me back on track and he said that’s an option. I told him that I think I may only need it for like a month to detox from these carbs because they really are like a drug to me and I feel like I need like 30 day rehab and then I can do it. He said that they will not abandon me and we will figure out whatever it takes to get me to my goal after I beat this. That made me feel really hopeful that I will still be able to pick this back up. I was worried that I would have to gain a lot back before anyone would give me Wegovy if I need it, but it sounds like it could be an option sooner (I’m guessing I will have to pay OOP but hopefully only for a few doses to get to the regular dose).

There also should be a thread for people having surgery in January if you haven’t found that yet search January in the search bar and it should pop up. Lots of people with the same nervous feelings that you have. Also, if you really have a lot of anxiety, I made lists and organized everything. I mean down to a tea. I got out my book that the surgeon gave me. I read it covered to cover and I made a schedule for two days before surgery. I mean every little thing I planned out. I have an anxiety disorder, so a lot of therapy has taught me to control what I can when I feel like something is out of control. Yours will be different because every surgeon is different, but here’s a copy of mine. I just found it in my phone. I shaved two days before because they don’t want you to have any fresh cuts because of infection and I’m a model patient because of my anxiety. 😆 I left my crochet bag in the car for my husband to bring up after I had a room and he seen if I was feeling up to it or not. I also had a second bag at home packed with things I would want if I was staying more than one night which was a good thing because I did stay longer. Anyways, some of these things may not even matter to you, but for me just planning it out so that I knew that I wouldn’t forget anything made me feel more in control of my part so once I got to the hospital, I was able to turn it over to them to do what they do every single day because I had done my part already. Also from my list anything that needed to be at an exact time, I set alarms in my phone and labeled them with what I was supposed to do like take that nausea pill or stop drinking liquids or whatever. Review Sunday night Two Days Before (Mon) Switch to the liquid diet. SHAVE, drop off donations and pick up Walmart order, Wash Comforters. 2:00 Therapy on Zoom Pack other bag for 2nd night (move my one rx tonight so I don’t forget and take it in the morning) The Day before: (Tues) Skip that one medication starting this morning, Pack hospital bag and crochet bag switch from full to clear liquid this evening, remove rings, change sheets, take my shower with the special soap, take the nausea pill at bedtime and of course nothing at all after midnight. Surgery Day: (Wed) Wake up at 3:30am and take my allowed meds with 12oz of regular sugar Gatorade- finishing everything before 4:30, (don’t pee) take my second shower with the special soap, toss towels in wash, brush teeth and get dressed (nothing on my body or hair at all except clothes). Then head to the hospital at 5:15. Also remember not to pee after that Gatorade because they need a pregnancy test shortly after I arrive at 5:30. *Bring bag, phone, bariatric book with questions, will, DL and ID. (Remind Hubby to bring a sweater) Surgery scheduled for 7:30am 🤞

I cancelled my gym membership in the month I had my surgery since I wasn't going to be able to exercise for 6 weeks after the surgery and I would be away for another 4 weeks and Christmas was coming up and didn't want to waste the money (month to month membership). I need to get back into the gym, but I've not been in months so I'm going back to complete novice stage. But I have been cycling so that's at least something. I want to make going to the gym a habit again. I haven't renewed my membership yet because it will be too crowded with all they "new year, new me" types who use the gym in January for two weeks and then never again.

I'm not a medical professional, but I will say there are some scientific studies that show many drugs are metabolized differently in bariatric surgery patients. Some you don't metabolize as well and some are much more bioavailable. I'm really just guessing here, but it's highly likely that the codeine was metabolized very quickly and more completely than it would have been in a person with a normal GI tract. In effect, you sort of overdosed on codeine. After all, 60 mg of codeine is a pretty big dose to start with. Considering your altered anatomy (and lower weight), it was probably just too much.

Bile reflux tended to be the biggie problem with the MGB back in the day. When my wife and I first started looking into WLS almost 25 years ago, the MGB was a proposed alternate to the incumbent bands and RNY but it never gained traction with the ASBS (precursor to today's ASMBS). In the meantime, both the BPD/DS and the VSG (and more recently the SIPS/SADI) have gained acceptance in the US bariatric (and insurance) industry. There are reportedly some techniques that have been developed to mitigate the bile problem, and there may be something to that, and why it may have been accepted elsewhere; but in the US, it's time has passed.

Well today was round 4 of my chemo and immunotherapy and steroids, etc. Messing with my tastes a bit on certain stuff Things don’t taste gross just not good. I came home and i did chicken breast with a little ceaser side salad and a tiny bit of spinach tortolini. I know that last one was not ideal but it made the meal go down easier if that makes any sense. I guess it’s a balance for now to get the rest of what I need in nutrition wise and it was cheese filled so still protein. 🤷‍♀️ I am about to go eat some mixed fruit now for my snack. I also did five miles walking and tomorrow morning I have yoga. I think that getting my nutrition and exercise is really helping my body deal with all of this because I did the stringer one up front so it’s been two months and i don’t have alot of side effects yet. The doctors are pretty amazed. Knock on wood I am able To keep it up because I had to do that BRAT diet for a week and I could feel myself getting weaker and my sleep was off and I wasn’t wanting to exercise. I am REALLY trying to keep to my habits as best as I can. I hope everyone else is doing well with juggling their bariatric journey with “life” as well.

Sorry that was the easy answer and what has (at least temporarily) worked for me. The hard but probably more effective in the long term answer is to address our relationship with food if it's in any way dysfunctional. A bariatric counsellor might be an excellent investment (I am currently considering but they're expensive and not easy to find).

Some people (including me) find it helpful to go back to protein first, veg second, small amount of carbs third at every meal. Cut out processed foods and sugar. As Arabesque says, check whether you are really properly hungry before picking up anything. Try to introduce more veg and fruit if you can tolerate those. Veg sticks pre-prepared have been my lifesavers over the last few months when I was trying to lose a big regain in my third year post procedure. And track absolutely everything - when I stopped that (complacency) my regain started because it's so easy for little things to add up. Some people who have regained after WLS have done well on Ozempic/Mounjaro type drugs, and some bariatric teams will prescribe those I think - worth asking your surgeon? I hope you can sort this. You've done the right thing by seeking advice - there's so much experience on this forum.

@FifiLux I got teary eyed during this read! I love it, it's such a Joy! I hope we both continue to be active in the bariatric community and would love to hear your new adventures in the upcoming new year and years to come. The disease of obesity is lifelong so many ups and downs. We got this!

This year was An awesome YEAR ...8 months post op. I went from a full ugly cry at the counter because chicken would not go down right after surgery 😂😂 and grieving all the unhealthy food that I loved, to actually learning how to eat, loving my new body, eating with Intention and loving the the things I actually can eat. I have learned to cook foods that I enjoy and make it bariatric friendly. Who knew our food could taste that good! I had no idea I could continue to enjoy all the foods in a new way! Movement is an activity that I enjoy and aided in my rapid weight loss. I hope to continue to move, I hope to add new movement skills (hot yoga, rucking, boxing). What is your year ends review? What did you learn? Any setbacks? Anything you are looking forward to in the new year?

This year I had so many WINS! It was An awesome YEAR 8 months post op. I went from a full ugly cry at the counter because chicken would not go down right after surgery 😂😂 and grieving all the unhealthy food, to actually learning how to eat, loving my new body, eating with Intention and loving the the things I actually can eat. I have learned to cook foods that I enjoy and make it bariatric friendly. Who knew our food could taste that good! What is your year ends review?

For the longest time I wasn't even eligible for any bariatric surgery, by the time I reached BMI 33 (which still doesn't make me eligible in some regions), I also had no comorbidities and no past history of obesity (only was overweight for the past 5 years and most of my weight was gained after a very bad ankle sports injury). I needed to lose weight to relieve my ankle pain, so my surgeon only agreed to VSG. Surprisingly though, I've occasionally gotten very bad indigestion pain that caused me a lot of discomfort, which is considered a symptom of GERD, but I haven't had any episodes except for maybe twice this entire year post VSG and only took medication twice, which I'm thankful for.

HOW Long does this thirst thing last???? So 3ed week after total gastrectomy, similer to bariatric surgery; but the whole stomachs out. My body is telling me thirsty All the time, it lessens when i eat something but i am going insande. I will try popsicles and ice.

While I absolutely do not agree that it’s likely you will GAiN weight on 800 calories, 800 Calories can be a pretty good amount of food depending on what you eat. for example this is 757 calories and it’s 100 g of protein. breakfast: Caramel “Proffee” made from a premiere protein caramel shake with iced coffee mixed in. (It’s really good and filling with the protein btw). lunch: three eggs omelette with 2% cheese (1 ounce) and tomatoes and onion (1/2 cup). dinner: grilled chicken breast (3 ounce) and zucchini and onion (1/2 cup). snack: oikos triple zero yogurt I use the Baritastic app and I always have the same breakfast but then before I have lunch I plug in my plan and an idea for dinner to make certain it’s okay macro wise. I do pay some attention to calories but protein, added sugars and fat are more important. I also pay attention to my carbs because on some days my exercise is higher and I actually need to increase them a bit. If your dietician is not asking about your activity and your food choices and inky giving you a cookie cutter plan without real guidance I would be asking more questions. These plans need to be tailored to you specifically. if you are having a difficult time finding foods you like that meet the criteria you are definitely not alone. I had to do a ton of research and trial and error with recipes to find a couple weeks worth of meals that I enjoy and I was doing 900ish calories. I scoured the web and found low calorie recipes and also ways to cut calories from things I knew I enjoyed. Basically type “healthy” in front of anything you like and you should find ways to make a more bariatric friendly version. Some days you may need to reduce calories further by having two shakes or egg whites instead to budget for a higher calorie dinner. I don’t love to cook so I make double batches of things and freeze them in individual portions. this has been my lifesaver. For the 800 calories you may have to do a lot of lower calorie lean meat and veggie type dinners unless you cut calories during lunch. For instance instead of 3 eggs you could do five 5 whites and you could even omit the cheese if you need to cut calories further. i would imagine you could still lose on a little higher calorie budget and you have more flexibility in your menu but it may not be as fast as you would like. Either way, check out Baritastic (or another calorie tracking app). It’s very helpful to see exactly what’s in different food and to play around with these meal ideas on an app because you can add and delete and adjust the measurements to figure out how to make things work to fit your plan.

What about Milk? Fairlife makes both full fat and reduced fat milk that has extra protein in it. It's not as much as the protein drinks, but it's not that far off. Eggs might be another option? I couldn't tolerate and still don't care for scrambled, but over-easy and boiled eggs have worked well for me for a long time. On the hair loss thing: I don't really think protein intake makes a ton of difference honestly. At least if you are getting the minimum recommended amount per your surgeon. My point is that there are more factors at work here than just protein intake. For most people post weight loss surgery, at least some hair loss is inevitable. Stress and hormone imbalances probably contribute at least as much hair loss post bariatric surgery as protein intake issues. Keep in mind that any hair loss post-surgery is likely temporary, so you'll do yourself well by not stressing over something you may not have any control over. IMO, the bigger reason to focus on protein intake is because it will help stave off muscle loss. This is a bit overly simplistic, but the more muscle you maintain during your loss, the better your weight loss will be because it will help keep your metabolism up.

This is a very good point about having a different procedure. I went with the SADI because it was a revision to an existing sleeve and revision surgeries do not produce the same results in terms of weight loss and durability, but the SADI offered more. In terms of other medical issues, though you will constantly have to have your bariatric doctor in the loop with any issues that may even remotely have to do with your gastro system and this can be complicated because the doctors don’t want to step on one another’s toes. But in terms of family doctors or doctors of any other specialty, I have not met one since I started researching this surgery or since I’ve had it that I have even heard of it. If you do go with this one, you need to educate yourself so that you can explain that to them. And it is possible that you find yourself in a position where something could get messed because the doctor just hasn’t seen it before where it’s more likely if you had something as common as a bypass they will have seen it. I mean there’s pros and cons with everyone. There’s no perfect answer or they would only do one and we wouldn’t be here naming off a handful of surgeries that are sort of commonly done and in terms of revisions, they do even more. I think they just make up names for them as they go along, honestly. My best advice would be to educate yourself as much as you can and go back a couple of times to make sure you get all of your questions answered by the doctor. They usually only want to give you one appointment but if you say you’re not ready to choose, they should give you another appointment with the doctor or a PA or NP. But that is a very good point about having the less common procedure does present obstacles or potential ones down the road. I mean if you raised the fact that you have it to any good doctors attention, they know where to find the information and should be able to still provide you adequate care but in an emergency situation it’s better for the information to already be in the doctors head.

When my wife and I were first looking into WLS 20+ years ago, there were several newer procedures, including the MGB mini-bypass, DS duodenal switch and the VSG vertical sleeve gastrectomy, that were circling the periphery of bariatrics, which at the time was mostly lap bands and the RNY gastric bypass. These were the only procedures that were endorsed by the ASBS (American Society of Bariatric Surgeons) - the predecessor name for today's ASMBS. Since that time, the DS, VSG and newer SIPS/SADI/"Loop DS" that have gained endorsement from the ASMBS and general insurance coverage in the US. The MGB never made it past that hurdle here in the US, so isn't commonly done or covered by insurance. Bile reflux seems to be the major legacy problem that caused the profession to move away from it at the time. There are claims that some new techniques have been developed to minimize that problem, and maybe they do, but it's a hard sell to make it mainstream in the US. It has become more accepted in other countries. Overall, being in the States, I wouldn't be overly eager to go with the MGB as it is not commonly done here, so there are fewer MDs around who are familiar with its' care over the long term; the RNY, in contrast, has been done for around 140 years for reasons other than weight loss, so is a well known configuration in the medical world, as are the problems one may encounter over the years. If you have an unusual configuration like an MGB or BPD/DS, it can be harder to isolate any health problems one may have years down the road owing to the general unfamiliarity with the procedure -at least the DS has significantly better weight loss and diabetes results than the other procedures to make that a worthwhile consideration. If you live in a country where the MGB is commonly done, then it would be a worthwhile consideration, but the US has too many other mainstream procedures commonly available and accepted that do as well or better than the MGB that it doesn't make much sense here.

My goal is just to stick with my fitness and nutrition as much as I am able in the midst of my other medical stuff. I actually just left my doctors office today because I didn’t like the plan the nurse had for me that took me off my bariatric diet and I was gaining weight. We came up with a new plan that hopefully will get me back on track for both goals. Well after I detox from all of the carbs anyways. 😩

Kindle unlimited is great if you don’t have it already and don’t mind electronic books. It auto renews so I put it in my calendar as a recurring monthly reminder for a while to make sure I didn’t forget to cancel it if I wasn’t using it (I am the worst with them subscriptions things). I get my moneys worth for sure, though. You also don’t have to buy a special device. You can just download the app on your phone or tablet. I also learned about an app that the library has that you can check out audio books on for free. I thought that was pretty cool too.

So sorry to hear about your loss. You look fantastic though. If you do get a reduction you may want to wait a bit just to make certain your weight had stabilized. Insurance does cover it sometimes if it’s medically necessary because of rashes and such as mentioned by @NickelChip which requires alot of documentation but your bariatric dr should know what to do for that and also for back pain but I was told that they have to remove a pretty significant amount of breast tissue that may not leave you with the cosmetic result you desire to do it for back pain through insurance. It’s certainly worth doing a consult with a cosmetic surgeon though to get their advice though.

Well I'm still pending results but they think that the immunotherapy is causing colitis and if so and we can’t control it that I may have to stop the med. This med of course is the most effective treatment along with the chemo for my type of cancer so it’s not good. Well I talked to the oncology dietician and she gave me a low fiber diet to start with. If that doesn’t work there is an even more strict one for me to try but it’s basically everything complete opposite of what we have been doing with the bariatric diet and I am so worried it’s going to make me gain all my weight back. I mean I have no choice but to do it but this just sucks. I have worked so hard. I am supposed to eat like saltines, white rice, white bread, white pasta, etc. Basically carbs and fat with some protein options. Hardly any fruits or veggies. I can have lean meats but without anything with them they are hard to get down right now. I gotta do this though. The doctor mentioned an even stronger steroid to reverse it or having to stop it alltogether and I just can’t let that happen. Part of me is tempted to just not eat a lot but I know I gotta keep my strength up to keep doing these treatments. I’m having a bit of a pity party this morning since I stepped on the scale and of course I have gained. 😢 I know that I know how to lose it now though so I’m just hoping that once I get through this I can. Maybe I can get the GLP-1 if not to help with the appetite suppression to get me started. It’s another year at least so hopefully they will be cheaper and more accessible by then.