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Hi, I'm new here. Let me give you a bit of my history. I'm 43, weigh 290 pounds, and have diabetes. On November 24, I experienced stabbing pain on the right side below my rib cage. I went to the ER, where the doctor gave me pain medication and an ultrasound, which revealed gallbladder stones. He scheduled a visit with a surgeon for mid-December. I had another gallbladder attack before the appointment, but luckily, apple cider vinegar (ACV) and Aleve helped relieve the pain. On the appointment day, the surgeon suggested I consider getting sleeve gastrectomy along with gallbladder removal. I was shocked to hear that and, in a panic, declined the VSG. However, after researching, I found it's a potential solution for weight loss and reversing diabetes. Now, with only three days left before my surgery, I'm trying to add VSG to the gallbladder removal. I'm unsure if it will work out with the surgeon, and it might be too late to make changes. I don't want to go through another laparoscopic procedure and double the cost. I'm feeling nervous about how this week will go.

At the start of my healing, I had to switch to sleeping on my back, which was tough. It took me about 3-4 weeks before I felt comfortable enough to sleep on my stomach again

I have a tentative surgery date of June 17th so I'll be starting my 2 week liver shrink / pre-op diet the first week of June. My nutritionist said I will have to drink meal replacement shakes for breakfast, lunch, & supper. I have Premier Protein powder at home, but he said that is not a meal REPLACEMENT, it's just a high protein shake. What meal replacement shakes do you recommend? Which ones tastes the best? I don't think I can drink the ones that have a heavy vitamin taste.

Just jumping in to say that 60lbs in 3 months is a tremendous amount of weight to lose! Have you ever lost that much in three months before? Or at all? Pre-surgery, I could never lose more than about 40lbs before I plateaued and then slowly started to regain. But, I understand you have a long way left to go, so it probably feels like you'll never get there. Focus on building the good habits now, like you are. If you can, go for a daily walk. That may be plenty of exercise for now if you are currently sedentary. But protein, vegetables, and fruits are great choices. Also, take photos of yourself to see the progress. I swear that even at over a year out and within 10 lbs of a normal BMI, I still FEEL obese sometimes. And then I see a recent photo of myself and I am shocked to see a normal weight woman who kinda looks like me. How can I see myself so wrong in my own head? In the first year, I took a progress photo every month on the 21st so I could compare. I'm so glad I did.

I am the same. I did count a few times a week during weight loss phase, and for a whole month when I stabilized at 9.5 months out but then I ditched it. I know roughly how much I eat, and I do random checks too. When I was at my fittest I never tracked calories and that worked for me through adulthood and motherhood. I do however, weigh myself at least a couple of times a week, something I never did even while being in shape. What gets measures gets managed. Not gonna lie, the first few months are a mental challenge, while I rapidly lost weight, I was always anxious that I would stall/stop losing/gain weight. I was always worried and on edge. I know it's easier said than done, but your body will do its thing, stick to your plan and try to trust the process. I would also say that it will not always be like that. After I stabilized, I tested my body, I ate more/ate things I didn't for a while and saw if that changed anything. With time and through trial, I am much more relaxed now and my mind is at ease. That is not to say that I let go, not at all. I eat well, I workout daily but I am much more relaxed when it comes to the flexibility I allow myself. I understand my body much better and I trust myself to make the right choices with what I'm given. Another advise is, try to stick to your plan as much as possible until you've stabilized, maximize on the honeymoon phase where pounds melt off and it's easy. There will always be time to have a little bit of the things you can't now. If you haven't yet, try to find an activity you enjoy, walking, jogging, pilates, yoga, swimming, cycling ...etc. whatever it is that you can and enjoy doing, it makes all the difference. Also, freeing your mind of anxiety is the biggest gift you can give yourself. Good luck 💓

I take the same vitamins and minerals. I’ve always taken, but I take 50% higher dose. I have found that my vitamins that I take pre-surgery were higher end doses than a lot of of the bariatric medications so I don’t pay for those high prices when they have less in them than what I already take. I am a female in my 50s and I take a Centrum Silver for men because it has higher doses than the one for women I do not take shoes or Gummies because the pills break down slower and have a chance to actually get absorbed better than a gummy I take calcium chews at night three of them instead of the recommended two and in the morning I take everything else along with my iron and vitamin C . again 50% higher dose and my blood work is fine

sounds like the infamous "three-week stall" (it's not ALWAYS the third week, but it usually happens sometime within the first 4-6 weeks after surgery). Almost all of us have our first major stall then. If you do a search on the three week stall on this site, you will find over 17,000 posts on it (and no, I am NOT kidding!). It'll likely be the first of several stalls during your journey. The best thing to do when you hit a stall is make sure you're following your eating plan to a "T", and stay off the scale. Instead of every day, weigh yourself once a week. As long as you stick to your eating plan, the stall WILL break. Usually takes 1-3 weeks. But it'll break. Mine lasted two weeks, and once it broke, I dropped like 6-8 lbs practically overnight. it's just a way for your body to come to terms with what's going on and re-calibrate before heading down again. It's a natural part of losing weight and happens to almost all of us.

Thanks a million. I think I get a two week sick cert and was then going to do two weeks homeworking and possibly add in some annual leave (seeing as the surgery is instead of a vacation) to not put too much pressure on myself or risk doing too much too soon. I also think I will hire a nurse/aid for an hour or so each day for the first few days, figure it might help ease my family concerns.

Hello everyone! I kind of disappeared during the holidays but came back by to poke my head in and see how others were doing. Seems like most of us are plugging away at this 'getting healthier' thing. Reminder (and FYI for any who read this and didn't know) I got the SADI surgery, which is the intestinal revision with the sleeve all in one go initially. This makes me feel extra obligated to update for some reason - maybe because I had to dive so far into my journey to find this option and how eager I was to hear about the results from others. So - my surgery was Sept 5th, and I lost 10 lbs in my pre-surgery liquid diet, which I had for one full week. On the day of surgery I was 352 and now, about four months out, I've lost right at about 70lbs. The weight loss has slowed a bit as I found my balance but I'm still losing 1-3lbs per week on average, about 7 lbs lost in the last 30 days. I got through my weight loss stalls by eating more, as I was only getting around 500 calories per day for a while as I maintained ketosis, with VERY few carbs. That was nice, but my energy was lacking. I shifted to included more fruits, veggies, and upped my protein from 60g per day to more like 75g. Now I get around 900-1200 calories per day, try to really focus on getting my water for the day, and angle for simple protein snacks with a small carb total when I get hungry. I have found cottage cheese to be a life saver as a replacement 'side' - and stirring it into my salads gives the salad more bulk and makes it easier for me to feel full. Eggs are not quite as weird for me as they were for a while - I still prefer boiled eggs over scrambled or fried. I do aim to get at least 5k steps per day and usually make that goal.I definitely slacked on exercise around the holidays and did snack more than a few times on things I shouldn't have. I feel lucky that my intestinal malabsorption keeps me accountable for poor choices. I have gotten the foamies once - and have overeaten like three times by a few too many bites. I feel like my relationship with food is much healthier and am far more likely to cook now as opposed to grabbing greasy garbage food. However your path feels like it's going - this is a great time to correct the course if it feels a bit off track. Your bodies are working for you, and you are working for those bodies! Kudos to all of us for taking these steps to a healthier lifestyle! Remember, too, that no one day of slipping up is going to sink you. As I said to my perfectionist son the other day - an A in school is 90%-100% (generally, anyhow!) so it's still an A even if you slip up one out of ten times ❤️✨

I am 2.4 months post op and have lost only 39 lbs. I was wondering if this was normal amount of weight to lose at this point or if it should be more. I have been stuck between 198 and 200 for over 3 weeks now. I would like to know others experience on this topic.

It *could* be hypoglycemia. To prevent that, you're supposed to eat something about every three hours. Preferably a protein if it's WLS-related. Even a thing of yogurt is fine.

4 weeks in going to update the stats: SW: 262 CW: 254 GW: 200 Down 8 pounds in a month which I’m happy with. Hoping for similar results for the next month!

Twelve days to go for me now... How are you all doing with your diets? I had to do mine for four weeks total.

Well done! It's really good to take measurements. It helps with the stalls!

For some… cami is hyperemisis syndrome can be problematic as well. Also during your first few weeks… there is a lot of mental health triggering with coming off your food addiction, from conversion to new addictions, hormonal changes, poorly studied effects on gastric motility and canibus mixed with a kinda ridiculously large surgery, and taking what is considered a depressant and appetite stimulant…cannibus is great for many folks and diseases I am sure, but… until we know more of what we are doing….it’s not a great idea. Sorry. For some it may be great, but it’s another bump in the road and we’re not sure about the car during the first few weeks.

@AmberFL that period hunger is a different beast! I allow myself to indulge as well. Everything in life Ebs and Flows. Some weeks I don't even want to eat, some weeks I'm ravenous. Obesity life long disease we have to manage 😐😐😐😐

It wasn’t too hard. My appetite wasn’t 100% gone like with the sleeve but given that I was already on the low-carb for a couple weeks before and the changes it made it was quite a bit easier to stick to it. In fact, it was night and day. The surgery was so much better for me. It actually made metabolic changes that got me up and exercising and that made me feel good. I was eating 100% clean for four months. Then I had some other medical issues that have sort of just put me in the stall mode but I am going to get back to it. I’m actually not allowed to eat like I was eating. I have to maintain my weight because I am in chemo, but I’m still exercising through chemo and before surgery, I was like 100% sedentary so the surgery definitely made some changes, not just to the stomach or the intestines, but to my metabolism to make me start up my exercise again, multiple times when I’ve had to stop because I was in the hospital for 10 days with pneumonia and then I had to stop because of different scans that they didn’t allow me to exercise for a couple of days and then I had to stop because I developed hyperthyroid, and my pulse was dangerously high for a couple weeks and every time I have started up again with my exercise so it’s kind of insane because without the surgery there’s no way I could’ve done that. I really hope it’s the same for you. I mean minus the chemo, of course, but that it changes your metabolism and that it works for you for me I could tell from very early out that it was gonna work this time. I lost 75 pounds and the first four months and I was so motivated that I kept exercising and eating clean through my first month after a cancer diagnosis going to all of the doctors and PET scans and all of that stuff even traveling all around the state I still stayed on my plan. Then with chemo, they didn’t want me staying at a calorie deficit so that threw things off a little bit but I have maintained the 90 pound loss and tomorrow is actually my last chemo treatment so hopefully I will be allowed to start losing again, but we’ll see. According to my bariatric team I need to continue eating enough for radiation, but I’m gonna see what the radiation doctor says. Anyways, I’m not talking about the cancer thing for any reason other than to say there’s no way I could’ve maintained any kind of loss before the surgery because I would’ve been eating for comfort. For a situation like this and definitely used it as an excuse to not exercise. And I have had a couple of days where I’ve eaten for comfort and I’ve used it for an excuse to not exercise, but unlike before when that meant everything was out the window for good I’ve gotten right back on track. Best of luck to you. For me it has been a life changer.

I got to move to the purée stage so that’s amazing but still in my stall which sucks!

I'll trade you, I went 3.5 months on a stall!

I overslept by an hour missing my morning but I feel like a million bucks! I have been back to consistently working out 6 days a week, 3 days lower body weight lifting until I get the go to upper body. 15 more weeks till Summer! I wanna be in a bikini 😝

Thanks to the replies I received, I spoke with my Dr this morning who has referred me back to my puree stage for 2 weeks which he says should take care of the situation I'm having

Congrats! Welcome to the post-op club! I will be 2 years post-op next month. I can't believe how fast the time has flown! I am now at 132 pounds and feeling the best I have in years. To be honest, I have not had many issues so far, the most difficult one being my hemoglobin and ferritin levels were down to 8 and 5 respectively back in February. So my nutritionist said I needed to start iron (nature's way ultimate iron) that and along with iron infusions for 5 weeks brought me up to hemoglobin 13 and ferritin 22. To be fair, I've been anemic most of my life, but a gastric bypass makes iron harder to absorb as it is. I have a membership to the YMCA. I dance and I love Zumba and Pilates. I've also started Vinyasa Yoga. My biggest chunk of weight came off last March after a 3-week stall. I don't have dumping syndrome as much. I like to stay active and now that I have way more energy it is doable. It's been a year since I'm off of CPAP. Prediabetes gone, A1C at 5.5. Inflammation is nonexistent in my lab draws. I love buying smaller clothes and I love this new me. Maintenance has been fairly easy, I keep in mind that I never want to be obese again.

@SpartanMaker okay I have all my food prepped and ready for this week so I am going to follow up with you next week, once I figure out my foods for the week! Thank you for all the advice and taking the time to go through this with me!

Been back on the bariatric / keto train for a month now. Feeling much better already. Getting sugar out of my life has been a relief. Took me a couple weeks to get through the cravings. Once gone, they've stayed gone.

I set a my goal for what the BMI chart considers "normal", but really, I just want to get down to a UK 12 dress size. That was a size I just skipped over. I went straight from teenage sizes to size 16. I've been overweight all my life. When I feel like I'm stalling, I tend to panic and think I've failed and I'm trying to stop that so I take my measurements and remind myself how far I've come even if the numbers don't match what I wish they did.