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I just got my labs and EKG today. I’m really hoping that’s okay because the lady put four of the little sticky things under one of my boobs. They have always put them on both sides so that was weird. The dr looked though and didn’t say it was bad or anything. I actually just had one like a month ago but they said they wanted the labs to be within a month of the surgery so I said let’s just do it again just in case. I don’t want anything to push my surgery date. Im trying to get back into the habit of taking my vitamins too. It’s really hard to remember them. I take the procare health multi and bariatric advantage calcium chews but i did try the bariatric pal ones and they aren’t bad. I just want to ask the NP about them before I make that switch. I bought the bariatric advantage chewable multi for the first month. That’s awesome to hear about the smoking. I quit a while ago and it’s definitely an accomplishment. I remember it being kinda freeing that it was one less thing I always had to keep track of and worry about. And now I don’t now how I ever was a smoker. I smell it and it takes my breath. It’s so weird. I meet with the NP tomorrow to verify but I think my liver shrink diet is supposed to be a week long. If so, that means next week I will do a low carb diet to prepare. That’s not required but I just don’t want to go from eating like I do now to the LSD. If I’m correct, I will be starting that process this Tuesday. I am trying to tie up all my loose ends by next week. I don’t want to have anything extra to do the week I am on the liver shrink diet. I figure I will take that time to get my house in order. Every surgery I ever had I sit here and look around at what I could be doing if I wasn’t physically restricted so I hope to get it all done this time.

I didn’t have significant issues immediately after the surgery. I know a lot of people experience, dumping, nausea, and vomiting. I had one experience of vomiting, and it was simply because I made a bad choice to drink a drink that had too much sugar in it. I really had, other than the inability to eat big portions, no issues at all. Since that was what I was going for to begin with I was pretty happy and felt very fortunate. I followed what I now know to be a pretty typical less fiber, diet as the lettuce and other things seem to not do well. But vegetables that were cooked were fine. About three years ago, I started to experience extreme, explosive diarrhea - at first I thought it was random… Maybe I was sick, or I had eaten something bad. At that point, the occurrences were about a month apart. As this started to occur more often, I started eliminating things from my diet. Last summer, it was every day. I also had cramping and it would continue until my bowel was empty. At that point out of complete necessity I changed everything I wrote down what my habits were, anything that was consistent that I was consuming. I started systematically removing. I had stopped drinking diet sodas about five years ago, and it never occurred to me that artificial sugar could play a role in this however, I did find out that as I added, sugar-free vanilla to my coffee each day, that was playing a huge role. As soon as I started drinking, just black coffee I felt some relief. I thought that maybe I found the solution. It went from every day to every other day basically. So I started cutting more things out. And then I started having more symptoms. My stomach hurt when I ate. It felt like my esophagus hurt. I started having food come back up. I had to eliminate anything with oil in it. Almost everything I enjoy eating in anyway is off the list. Which is fine, I’m 63. I don’t need to enjoy my meals, exactly. However, it makes selecting food very difficult, especially as I travel a lot. I’ve now started adding gas, more cramping, and the symptoms are better one day worse than next. as to what my team says, lol… My gastroenterology appointment is next month. I have been waiting four months for that appointment. My blood work is perfect better than it’s ever been. I’ve had an ultrasound on my abdomen. Everything is fine except for my gallbladder has some sludge in it. I am well aware that my gallbladder perhaps is part of the problem. However, my PCP thinks that I should just lose weight and my gallbladder will be OK. With that, I can’t lose weight. I’ve actually gained during this whole time. Which seems almost impossible as I spend a tremendous amount of time eliminating everything I eatalmost immediately. The other amazing part of this is I feel great other than the diarrhea/other stuff. I go to the gym, I travel every week for work, I am in different environments with different schedules and somehow I have been able to work around my situation. I have had to cut out longer flights, which has made me really sad because I’ve missed several opportunities to go places I’ve wanted to go, but the risk of not being able to being in a bathroom for a half hour is too high. my current list of what I can eat with no issue is toast, sharp cheddar cheese, cooked green beans, chicken noodle soup, and Parmesan cheese crisps. It’s not a diet that anyone really wants to live on lol. Nor is it actually possible to live on.

I agree with the others! You just had major surgery and your calorie intake is still super low. I was so tired the first 2 months, I remember sleeping like before motherhood. You probably still have little ones waking you at night so you’re not getting any recovery time! Listen to your inner voice and trust yourself. At one week I was pleased to get out of bed, do some simple house chores, move around hourly, and take a shower. I went back to work after week 2 and went to bed as soon as I came home. My kid thought it was great playing outside longer living free like a Gen X kid! Lol, seriously sit in the shade with a fan on while the little ones play outside with water. Send the older ones off to friend’s houses with bikes. Enjoy your pause in life :)

You might have (temporarily) gotten lactose intolerance. Most medications have lactose as a binder and if you’re sensitive, look out! You’ve sure been through a lot! It’s only been a week so I guess you’re on liquids. I used OWYN shakes because there’s no lactose in them. Others on here turned me onto Fairlife milk and shakes, there’s no lactose there either and both are high in protein but less than 5gms carbs. Who’s at home with you now?

I wonder if the joint pain could be from your muscles, tendons & skeleton readjusting to a your new posture & other odd twinges and spasms. They had changed to support your larger body before & then they have to adjust again. I remember upper back pain about 2/3 to my goal and it took a while to stop slouching (had to consciously sit or stand straighter if I noticed I was slouching) & my body learnt how to stand upright again. As for the ‘phantom’ gall like pain, I don’t know. Maybe request an ultra sound to check your kidneys, liver & bile ducts just to be sure. My energy isn’t great. Always better in the morning than the afternoon. I seem to go, go, go then stop now, can’t do anything g more. Though that is pretty much how Gilbert’s is so I put it down to that & my low blood pressure more than my sleeve and I was a lot like that before my sleeve. Would push through then - didn’t want anyone to think I was lazy because I was fat! No I listen to my body. Apparently Gilbert’s is more common than people realise. What’s your bilirubin levels like. High levels are a sign of it. It is genetic so does any one in your family have it? Congratulations on your weight loss. Yay! Don’t worry about what weight you end up at. (I know easier said than done.) Remember that weight will be the weight your body is happiest at & is easier to maintain.

So I'm in the liquid phase, post op surgery and am a little over a week in and I miss food. I understand attachments to food is what got me here, but is it really wrong to miss food? I spoke with my therapist this morning and she said to be careful not to glamorize food. I'm not sure how to think about this. I told her I still want to enjoy food, or get enjoyment out of food later on. Am I wrong to feel this way? I understand it's more about fueling our bodies and of course I want the right foods to keep improving my health. But are we expected to never enjoy food again after bariatric surgery????? thoughts?? thanks

I had a total abdominal hysterectomy 5 weeks ago, but I was never put on a special diet so I just ate what I wanted. I still eat 3 meals and 1-2 snacks per day, like always. But the Orthostatic hypotension sounds exactly right.

I actually had virgin sleeve/SADI surgery nearly 4 years ago now. I don't think SADI is an option for the "my surgery" part of the profile on this site so I listed DS as the closest. Honestly, I had a pretty easy surgery and recovery. Of course there is soreness and healing like there would be with any other surgery but I felt well enough to go back to (extremely sedentary) work in a week. Really, the worst thing for me was a sore throat from being intubated. My doctors gave me a three week eating plan to follow one week each of clear liquids, any liquids, soft solids before eating a regular diet. I followed this faithfully even though I felt like I could eat more and was a little hungry at times. Now, I eat pretty much exactly the same things that I ate before surgery, just smaller amounts. If I have a lot of sugar or simple carbohydrates, I will get gas and loose stools. It's not painful though, it's just . . . happening. Still, I usually try to avoid it but treat myself now and then. My iron got very low about two years out from surgery. I was getting lightheaded and they ran some labs to find out my iron/hemoglobin was tanking. I had to get a series of IV infusions and then take extra iron supplements. Almost two years after that now and I am able to keep my levels in the low-normal range with just the supplements. I take three doses of an adult multivitamin per day, no special bariatric formula (don't tell the admins!). Be prepared to explain your surgery to any non-bariatric doctors you deal with. Unless they are bariatric specialists, they will NOT be familiar with the different kinds of surgery and they will likely have no idea what SADI is. A lot of them generically call any weight loss surgery "bypass" (e.g. the hematologist I see for my iron tests). Get a big plastic tote and put it on the floor of your closet. When a piece of clothing is too big, take it off, put it in the tote, and don't think about it again. When the tote is full, bring it to your local women's shelter or similar. If you can, get one new piece of clothing for every two you put in the tote. Build your new wardrobe thoughtfully. My only regret is that I didn't do it 15 years earlier.

I am 8 months post op from RNY and what I can tolerate has expanded quite a bit even in just the past few months, after I made it past the 6-month mark especially. You're still healing right now and the next 12 months or so will be very different than the rest of your life that comes after. I love tacos, but instead of filling up on tortilla, I often make a taco salad and just crumble a few tortilla chips on top. Or I order fajitas and eat the meat/veg/cheese but leave the tortilla (or just eat a bite or two if I really want it, which is all I can really manage without getting too full). Ice cream, chips and queso, guac are all fine and I do eat them sometimes as a treat. Try eating guac with carrots when you're okay to have raw veg. It's delicious and very healthy in moderation. Falafel is still a bit filling and too low in protein, but I would take a bite or two. Mac and cheese and pad thai would be pretty low on my list as the noodles are just so heavy. Like, they don't even sound good any more. I do like spaghetti made with spiral zucchini, though. Maybe you could make homemade pad thai using spiral veg instead of the noodles? You could eventually try the Banza chickpea mac and cheese as it's much higher in protein, though right now, I find it's so heavy I don't like it. Over the next several months, you will be able to eat a lot more, both in types and quantity of food. My advice is focus on developing a good routine and keeping your food at 80-90% of the healthy foods like lean protein, veg, and fruit. If you do that, you can indulge in a favorite snack every few days, or maybe one meal a week that isn't so nutritious, or go for ice cream a couple times a month, and it's no big deal. You just can't do it every day. And I suggest not buying anything tempting for your house. I go for a scoop of ice cream at a local farm but I won't keep it in my freezer because I would want it every day.

According to my post of instructions, we weren’t allowed to eat regular foods until 8 weeks post op. Maybe try to go back on pureed/soft. Then once you get to 8 weeks introduce regular food.

I just had my first appointment with the surgeon. It went really well, and I’m glad I took the first step. We are leaning toward Gastric Bypass as the procedure for me. It’s a 3 month process to surgery with his office, 3 visits with him, 3 visits with dietician, plus clearance by Cardiology, Pulmonology and sleep medicine. My next visit with him and the dietician will be in about a month and he’s sending out the referrals to the offices for the clearances and working on prior authorization with insurance.

So, this is probably way more common than I think, it is just the first time I have experienced it 🤣 Yesterday I was able to eat more than I normally do - probably around 700-800 calories, which is really good for me as I wasn't getting much more than 300-400 in the past few weeks. Today my restriction feels very high. I ate a few mouthfuls of peanuts and some light babybel as a snack, didn't sit well at all despite these things never giving me problems. I gave it a little bit of a break, around 1 hr, then had some of my sandwich I'd made (wholemeal bread, ham, cheese, salad etc), and could only manage a few bites. Then my heart was absolutely racing. I'm talking about 115 bpm just sitting down, and then I just had to sleep. At work. I feel better now since waking up, but I am scared to eat again right now 🤣 Wtf was this 🤣

So I follow this fitness guru who’s very very well read on everything health and fitness. His client success stories are insane and what they all have in common is that they keep the weight off. His first and foremost advice is to walk 10k steps and eat at a slight caloric deficit. His clients literally follow that and drop tons of weight. He keeps telling people that if they don’t want to lose too much weight or slow weight loss they need to not exceed 10k steps a day. I see a lot of messages directed to him from people working in the health industry who complain that their steps are beyond 30k which is insane and he always tells them to never drop their calories below 2000 for females (sometimes 2500 depending on weight and height). You probably walk a lot and you are definitely at a calorie deficit which is causing this inadvertent weight loss. I would say get even a cheap sports watch (huwaei is a good one) to get an idea of what your daily step count is. Also you might think you’re working out twice a week but it seems you’re working out daily doing your job.

Hi everyone, this is my first post. I will be having hernia repair and vertical gastric sleeve on 8/6/24. SW 295.9 CW 270 GW 150 My food education class is this coming week, and I hope to learn a lot more about what I will be allowed to eat. I do know that I will be on a 2-week pre-op and 2-week post-op liquid diet. I will actually get all my vitamins and protein powders during my class. I am fortunate that my insurance covers the surgery at 100% and I only had a 4 month waiting period from my first doctor visit. I stopped all caffeine, carbonated, and high calorie drinks back in April. My daily water goal of 64oz is pretty hard to reach sometimes, but I do my best. Ironically, I do better on the days I am at work as opposed to at home. Best of luck to those of you giving up smoking.

I am in a similar boat as @ms.sss and @Lilia_90 I still enjoy all the foods, desserts, Mexican food, Chinese, ice cream. Everything in moderation for sure, and I stay very active, I do track all my food and stay within my macros during the week for the most part. But I do eat ice cream every night LOL mostly my protein ice cream made with my ninja creami but sometimes I will eat off my hubbys Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream. My relationship with food has changed and I worked/ am working really hard to not abuse food like I have before. In my mind this is a life long journey and my life long journey does not look like salads and chicken till I die LOL I am in the same bought with how food brought me and hubs together, getting fast food after the kids went to bed and stuffing ourselves while watching a movie, he is slightly jaded by that and make comments "well you cant eat that anyways, or your going to have bite and waste it" But we have our own thing going on since I have lost all this weight. Anywho! yea! it doesn't have to be so strict forever, but slider foods are a thing and making sure to stay active is important I think.

Honestly, your food pictures all look pretty healthy, so no notes there. I would watch out for any mindless snacking, just in case you have fallen back into a habit of popping a handful of nuts when you walk past your pantry (guilty!) or adding a lot of cream to your coffee. You know, the type of thing your brain may not even be registering. I had a friend who thought his coffee was fine because he didn't put sweetener in it, but he put a ton of half and half, along the lines of a full cup per day, or an extra 300 calories he forgot about! But other than that, plateaus are normal. I am approaching 9 months post-op and for the past 6 weeks, I have been bouncing up and down by about 2 lbs but never dropping lower than the lowest weight I hit in early October. From everything I've heard and read, it's part of the process and is pretty common the closer you get to a normal weight and the farther out you are from surgery. There are a few things you might try, though. First, increase your protein so you are at 80-100 grams instead of the minimum 60. Try to make that from real food and not a shake. You might also increase your non-starchy veggie intake, which will provide more fiber. Add in another 32oz of water each day. Go to bed an hour earlier if you can. It's counterintuitive, but increase your calories by 100 and cut back on your exercise a little to see what happens. Sometimes, your body starts to conserve too much energy because it fears starvation and giving it a little more while asking it to do a little less breaks that cycle. Also, the fact that you fit into clothing at 195 lbs that your family members wore at 30 lbs lighter suggests that some of your weight is not fat but "infrastructure." When we get very heavy, our body grows more bone and muscle to hold it, and bigger organs to carry out their functions on a larger scale. When we lose weight in a hurry, all that architecture remains in place for quite some time, adding to the number on the scale. You may look now like you did at 10, 20, or even 30 pounds lighter back in the days before you ever became obese. If you have some old photos of a time when you were the goal weight you have in mind now, try doing a side by side comparison. You might already look really close to where you are trying to be even if the scale says otherwise.

Okay so tonight I had cauliflower crust pizza. I didn’t make the crust. It was frozen. Not the absolute greatest but not terrible either. I made it with ricotta, mozz, chicken and onions so I got my protein at least. I have a battle between my brain and my stomach trying not to eat too terrible in these next couple of weeks Before I start my preop.

once you get that far out, you have to play around with different calorie ranges to figure out about how many calories you need to eat to maintain your weight, and how many to lose. That range really varies for everyone depending on sex, age, activity level, metabolic level, how muscular you are, what weight you'd like to be at, etc (e.g., you can eat more if you're fine with weighing 180 lbs as opposed to 130 lbs). I can maintain my current weight by eating about 1600 calories - although I can eat a bit more if I'm exercising a lot. To lose, I have to go below 1600. And since I'm pretty close to a normal BMI, I'd have to eat quite a bit less than 1600 to lose a somewhat noticeable amount each week (otherwise, I'm losing just a couple of ounces - and it's hard to distinguish that from normal fluctuations). There are some women on here who can eat 2000 calories to maintain, and others who can only eat 1200. It's really sort of trial and error given how far you're out from surgery. Maybe start with a range - like 1300-1500 and do that for a couple of weeks. If your weight isn't budging, drop the range down by 100 calories. Rinse and repeat until you start losing weight again. P.S. if. you're losing inches but gaining weight, it could be that you're putting on muscle. Or if you've recently started doing more and/or heavier lifting, it could be that your muscles are holding on to more water (since they need water to repair themselves). If that's what's going on, once your muscles are used to that level, your weight should start dropping again.

You've gotten some good advice already, but reading your post, a few things stood out to me. These are in no particular order: 1200 calories sounds high for 15 weeks post-op, but if that's what your plan calls for, who am I to question it? I think the bigger question is does this 1200 number include all the alcohol? One of the reasons alcohol is not recommended post bariatric surgery is that it's got a ton of calories and will definitely slow weight loss. The other huge concern on alcohol is that a substantial number of post-op patients develop alcohol use disorder. (Some estimates are as high as 20% or even 30%.) You didn't actually specify how much you drink, but when I see "active social life", I interpret that as "I drink a lot". Maybe try drinking non-alcoholic drinks when you are socializing? If you find that you can't give it up the alcohol, this is a major red flag and you really need to seek help. Taking another approach here, I noticed that you are being more active, which is fantastic! I did want to make sure you knew that changing your activity levels like that (starting a couch to 5k plan), will cause your body to retain more water. This means you may not see the results you are expecting on the scale, even if you are still losing fat. Keep in mind that the your weight is made up of lots of things other than just fat, so variations are normal and are just part of the process. If you are eating less than you burn in a day, then you are 100% burning off fat reserves, even if the scale does not show it. Best of luck.

Question. I am about 2.5 weeks after surgery. Earlier this week I was feeling good. Minimal pain and all. Now I feel like my deep stitch hurts more than it did before. Sitting here I feel fine but it is definitely sore to the touch and when I get up and walk. I did a lot of walking today so maybe that’s it but it’s making me a bit nervous. Trying to stay on top of Tylenol every 6 hrs bc I definitely cut back on those since I was feeling better. Anyone else experience this?

Gonna attempt what @Hiddenroses has taught me about tagging and see if I can make it work lol. @AndreaJD Hey, I write the fanfics too when I have time. Mostly Star Wars and LotR fanfic, but I have been thinking about a fanfic involving Bucky and Sam for a while. (Not a ship fic, just a fun writing experience.) People make fanfic out to be a terrible thing, but honestly it's what got most of us started in writing. As for your question about the surgery not working, I can't speak from that experience YET. (soon, so soon) But I think it is health to remember that everyone is different and everyone will have a different experience. @ShoppGirl Thank you for the recipe! I'm going to see what I have available at the grocery store for dairy alternatives. I would prefer not to kill myself immediately after surgery lol! I do agree with AndreaJD that it does sound amazing though, so hopefully I can find something that works for me. I struggled yesterday and did not meet my protein goals on the clear liquid diet. But I survived it and now I'm on to day 2. I have a better plan in mind for meeting my goals today, so hopefully it works out for me. I have to work 2 of my 3 jobs today, and one of them is a grocery store. Pray for me, y'all! lol

I feel like you're exactly right and your post was really well worded. I bet that's what the therapist meant as well - and boy oh boy are you on target with an 'adjustment period' being needed when you're used to turning to food for comfort! I had a couple of weepy episodes during this week quite unexpectedly when I didn't even feel hungry. Maybe it was the thought of an upcoming major surgery (I've never had major surgery) but I also think it was the sense of 'forced control' and the knowledge that I couldn't turn to chocolate or pizza to make me feel better, even if I wanted to. Maybe I was kind of 'mourning' the lost of that coping mechanism -- but I do think the fact that my taste buds are changing is going to be helpful, personally.

Egg whites & eggs themselves are still giving me problems. (And chicken. I give one or the other a try every week or so but even two or three small bites induce foamies, no matter how slow I take it or what other foods I bite in between. Ooh, how did I forget pea protein existed? That sounds like a win already. The mashed up chickpeas was... an experience. It wasn't bad, but definitely left the oatmeal with a different taste that I wasn't fond of. This morning was oatmeal with raw sunflower seeds and some chunks of apple. It was delicious but heavy, and still more fat than I want so early in the morning. The brightside of the experiment was when I remembered (gasp!) that I don't have to eat classic breakfast foods for breakfast. I was looking at the portion of un-mashed chickpeas in my fridge this morning (after I already made my darned sunflower seed oatmeal) and finally had the fecking epiphany that I could just toast them up as is -- or as a patty -- and eat them seperately (or instead!) of my oatmeal, and it still wouldn't take much effort in the morning when I'm dragging my feet everywhere I go. Like. WTH. I knew this. I knew this when I was on purees. I had sweet potato with bone broth powder puree for an entire week back then. Why am I overcomplicating my life trying to solve problems that don't have to be problems at all. So, these surgery hormones, can I blame them for making me slower on the uptake or is my age finally catching up to me? XP

Oh Dear- I hate it when the assigned health care provider is not up to the task -or even just a poor fit- my favorite example from my own life is when I was discharged a week after the birth from my daughter a d the doctor discharging said the following - you need to get this vaccination.. what is it- I do not know but it is standard at discharge ( it was for whooping cough and I had had my booster les than a year prior-) And then he said - oh and since you had a regular (ie vaginal birth) with no stitches you do not require any follow up- no dude I had an emergency c-section under total sedation after failed progression and now have a smiley face of staples i told him to leave and find me a doctor who could read a chart but since it seems you are nicer than I am, I would ask your surgeon- who you get along with quite well- to refer you to a registered dietitian (not just a ‘nutritionist’- as there is a difference where I am from)- preferably one with extensive bariatric experience you have a lot of knowledge but we all have blind spots - a good dietitian can be your nutrition partner in this journey. Good luck!

I can answer a couple of your questions. Yes, you will likely need to get your dentures re-fitted. I’m a nurse and have patients who have had large weight losses and they have needed to have this done. Protein shakes will depend highly on your taste. What tastes good to you now may change post op. I wouldn’t buy a large quantity of anything, Rather, just a single serving to try out post op. I personally really like the premier and fair life protein shakes, but others hate them. I took three weeks off work, but could have gone back after two. I really only needed someone there with me for the first couple days then would have been fine on my own. The sooner you get back to gentle activity, even just day to day care of yourself, the quicker you’ll recover.