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Consider starting social media coverage of your changes like an Instagram low carb lifestyle or Keto journey (or whatever diet plan best represents how you will eat post op long term) Your dietary changes will be very public and everyone will see exactly what you are doing to lose the weight...

Meal prep is most helpful strategy for me. It might help to put the time on your calendar to map out the next few day's or the week's meals--self-care time time. I also developed a meal time routine and three of my four meals are essentially the same every day. Instacart will deliver roasted chickens and a salad kit from the grocery store when I need something quick, and I also subscribed to Freshly (each meal is really two servings). There are similar services that do keto and low carb as well. As part of supporting your weight loss, you might try encouraging the family to eat the healthier options you make for yourself--just make it the new normal and not some strange diet plan. There is a lot more time planning and thinking about my next meal now to avoid falling back into bad habits, and I toss a ton of food in the garbage (or spend extra buying the small portion packs anyway) too. My challenge was breaking the mindset that food brings pleasure and getting used to chicken and eggs. As I accepted the food is just fuel, the monotony was less frustrating, but there are still days I feel like I am going to lose my mind. One of the counselors I work with made it click for me though. He said I am fighting a lifetime of habits and conditioning that made me obese, and this a very abrupt change to your whole being. It is a new journey and you have to keep reminding yourself that your negative emotions are likely triggered by your mind wanting to pull you back into those habits that led to obesity.

You mentioned in another thread that you are doing keto. If you are doing a genuine keto diet which is high fat, low carb it maybe that your stomach/digestive system is not able to cope with the high fat intake one month out.

I'm part of a group of people who are mostly several years out of surgery. Some have tried WW. Some of them really like it and have been successful with it, but for others, it's not their "jam" and they gave up. I guess all you can do is try it and see if it works for you. others have tried things like Keto, intermittent fasting, or going back to logging and eating protein first, etc (in other words, the basics). Whatever works! BTW - 800 kcal a day being as far out as you aren't isn't really sustainable. Start logging to find out what your calorie range is (i.e., about how many calories does it take to keep your weight where it is. May take a month or so of logging to figure this out). Then, if you want to lose, cut back from there. Maybe 100 calories at a time. For example, if it takes 1600 kcal a day to maintain your weight, try cutting back to 1500. If after a couple of weeks nothing's happening, cut back to 1400. Rinse and repeat.

What I do just as an FYI Batch cook spaghetti bolognaise, bag up just the sauce in single-serve sizes and freeze. Then when we have spag bol I just cook spaghetti for the fam and just a bit of veg for myself to go with my sauce (pasta and my gut are no longer friends). takes 15 mins from start to serving then. or I will do a big keto cheese spinach quiche, slice freeze, serve there's with whatever (fries/salad/ hot veggies etc) and have my tiny slice with a bit of salad. Again super fast to do once cooked and divided up and frozen. I do the same with curries, casseroles etc

@BigViffer Yeah, I track all my food in Metric. I wish we would just the rest of the scientific world. Also I notice that even on the packaging the grams in parenthesis are off from ounces/tablespoons, with the grams/ml being more accurate. It doesn't seem like much at one time, but over a month or a year, it adds up. @2-Liter I am really glad you like Keto. I think the key to doing it long term, is liking it. Really enjoying and understanding how it works. It makes it easy to make the right choices in various situations and you don't feel deprived. I also had a lot of bad habits that got me to almost 400 pounds. I am going the opposite now and trying to cement them as habits for life. Like weighing and tracking my food. The further out I get the more lax I want to get with it, but any time I slack off, even for half a day I suffer for it, so it just isn't worth it. If I hadn't been really serious about it in the beginning when it was fresh and I was really dedicated I am sure I would have quit by now. Also being serious about it in the beginning helped me learn that it really works and see the benefits so that also makes it easier to continue. I don't know if you use IG, but this guy https://www.instagram.com/vsg_kingtut_77 started large, he is still a big dude, but he built and fine as $%^&. If I was a big guy starting out, he would be motivation. Anyway, good luck and keep up the good work!

My sister has been on a keto diet for about a month and has broken out into a pretty bad rash. (No WL surgery). Anyone ever dealt with this? Any tips on losing the rash but sticking with the diet?

I chose the sleeve over the bypass knowing that the bypass had better results for diabetics. If the bypass was my only option, I just wouldn't have surgery. Touching my intestines is not an option. Prior to surgery I was already controlling my diabetes with diet mainly. Keto will keep your sugars in the normal to low range. So knowing that I could do it with just food prior to surgery, I decided the sleeve would make it easier for me too continue to do so. It is a personal choice you have to make with your doctors.

On a keto . Fats should be first . Then Protein . Still low carb . Better than crappy carbage Well done Sent from my GT-I9195 using the BariatricPal App

OK, some of you know I've adjusted my macros to follow my dr's plan instead of doing my own version which is much lower carb. Basically he has me eating way more carbs a day than I was comfortable with but the carbs are the 'low or lower glycemic impacting' ones. That being said, while it has helped the scale move down a bit...it is like I will go for let's say...8 to 10 days weighing about the same..maybe inching up or down by less than a lb. Then I will drop 2 or 3 lbs. I get leery of updating my 'progress' as I'm still distrustful that the next day or 2 the scale won't just 'jump up' again.. Since I have increased my carbs, I have noticed a direct increase in hunger pangs...growly stomach. Hitting my water finally so ruled that out...I never had relief (except for 2 days) from hunger so I've had to deal with it this whole time but I try to double check whether it is head hunger, old habits cropping up, etc. but honestly...I did not have this same hunger in the weeks where I kept my carbs under 20 grams a day. I felt more..let's say 'satiety' when I was eating more of a keto based diet. I've been a bit frustrated at dealing with the increase in hunger and the DECREASE in feeling well..not fullness...but feeling like I had eaten 'something' and had no desire to even eat another bit. So, I decided the other day that I was not going to wait 30 minutes to drink water. This was a particularly rough day..actually one of the days that I have felt the absolute hungriest since the initial week of pre-op liquid diet. After I have gotten my protein in, then veggies, followed by carb/fruits...and my pouch is not feeling 'yucky', I have started to drink after 10 or 15 minutes if my stomach is still growling. This usually takes care of the feeling of hunger. Anyone else resort to drinking (WATER!) as a way to 'cut their hunger' after eating?

Boiled eggs carrots cheese Cucumbers hummus olives Cuts of cheese & meats of your choice Yogurt and fruit Soup in a thermos Cauliflower rice or mash and meatloaf Meal prep will be key to a lot of these. Do you have Pinterest Instagram etc? There are TONS of people giving out great free advice and examples. Usually its under Keto meal preps

Drink a cup of bouillon (with sodium full strength) and hydrate. Also take a tsp of MOM (milk of magnesia for 425mg of magnesium per day). According to the low carb docs this is the prescription for getting past the "keto flu" or carb withdrawal and headaches that happen when getting off of sugar-burning and onto fat-burning. As bad as it sucks, it's far better to feel craptastic now, than to experience this withdrawal and transition AFTER surgery. Dear God, the humanity in doing it the other way. Hang in there.

I told my general GP last week about how I wanted to start doing keto at some stage although I'm sort of doing it now anyway and she's so against it. My husband is keto and she wasn't impressed. Although she's a great dr she knows bugger all about what keto really is im sure. This is a dr that told me muscle weighs more then fat !!!!... ummmm hello lol Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Glad to see so many people are doing this. I was sleeved 3 weeks ago and have been enjoying eggs with cheese. Lox with cream cheese. Tuna or egg salad with mayo. I ate an avocado plain and it upset my stomach. I even did bullet proof coffee. I still do a protein shake mixed with cold cinnamon coffee, even though they don't encourage whey protein on keto. I can't choke down a protein shake by itself anymore though. I might be ruined from all the protein shakes ???? I also started walking today. I don't even think about bread or sugar really. I think I've just told myself that those are foods that don't fit into my lifestyle anymore. So far so good!

Thank yall so much for the support! Even though you have me crying again, it is great to have someone to vent to. I can’t afford the surgery without insurance help. I can reapply next year, problem is, I need to be losing weight for my health not gaining to wait another year and reapply. I am back on Keto this week... not losing yet, but hope to. I am 50 yrs old, much harder to lose than it used to be. I have probably gained and lost 1000 lbs in my lifetime. I NEED the restriction to keep it off. I have never done keto before because doesn’t seem heart healthy at all, but I have to get the weight off. Yall know of any good weight loss support groups online? Thanks again for your support.

So Irma has opened my eyes to the gaping hole in my meal Prep Armor. Whats 4 days right I mean I lived 43 years eating that way right, Wrong those 43 years almost caused me not to make it to 44. I am not very Tech Savvy but I plan to compile everyone's favorite Healthy Hurricane Food choices and Make it available on this Post. With Coolers that hold Ice 7-10 days not all items have to be non perishable. So to start off the list i will put some of my Favorites. Almonds Cocoa Covered Walnuts Protein Shakes Lunch Meat and Cheese Rolls Pickles Pickled Eggs Keep adding to the list...

I'm 46 and have been on mild hormone therapy for years (I had way too much estrogen, very little progesterone, and no testosterone at all). Losing weight on the 6 mos supervised messed things up; going full keto for the pre-op sent me into a tailspin. After surgery we kept raising my progesterone to try and counter the massive weight loss estrogen dump, but after getting sent to the hematologist at my 4 mos post op visit, we started further investigation into my then constant heavy bleeding. Like, couldn't drive or leave the house and eventually needed a blood transfusion. Turns out I had large inconveniently placed fibroids that ruled out a uterine ablation and suspected (later confirmed) adenomyosis. Yay, me! So I spent my 6 mos surgeversary recovering from a robotic hysterectomy. I never thought I'd have two major surgeries in less then 6 mos. I still have my ovaries, so I'm trying to find a new hormonal equilibrium, but it is SO much better now. All the tiredness I thought was from wls? It was severe anemia. So get that stuff checked out at the obgyn pronto! Hopefully they can help you out with less drastic measures (hrt; ablation; etc.) but don't let it spiral out of control like I did. In my case, my uterus had turned into the Death Star and was using severely enlarged arteries to suck the life out if my surrounding systems. As my surgeon said, "It was evil and had to go." Best of luck![emoji106]

Okay, so I was doing keto. I went to see my dietitian and she advised me to stop keto and to eat balanced meals with veggies, protein and a starch. Well, I've started doing that. Been tracking my calories and I stay under 1400. The past 2 days, I've had about 120 carbs a day. Now my ankles are swollen and I'm bloated and just feel ewww. Well I want to learn to eat healthy so I can carry that on after surgery. My question is, is keto okay to do after surgery? Or even low carb?

I'm a sleeve, I hit goal in 6 months. 254 to 133 maintaining for three and a half years. My plan was low carb. I was getting in 1100 to 1300 calories. 80g to 100g+ protein in weight loss mode. (My instructions may be out of date) _______________________________________ How far out from surgery are you? Did your dietician give you clarification on how many calories, protein and carbs to get in each day? How many carbs are you allowed? Are your carb sources coming from vegetables? Are you allowed potato, rice, pasta, bread? Your question...Well I want to learn to eat healthy so I can carry that on after surgery. My question is, is keto okay to do after surgery? Or even low carb? The only person that has to be happy with your surgery outcome is you. Your decisions are yours.... trust the professionals to learn the basics in weight loss mode. The goal is healthy, lose weight and keep the weight off long term.

Not only can you do it post surgery, I actually highly recommend it! The caveat is that you do need to really focus on Protein immediately post surgery because your body needs it to heal. If you research low carb / high fat diets, you will find the Ketogenic diet, which has been around for a long time used in medical treatments-- not specifically for weight loss. There's a lot of current research suggesting that not only can it help with weight loss/ maintenance, it also is promising as a cancer treatment, Alzheimer's deterrent, and to manage symptoms of ALS and MS . It was originally created to treat children with epilepsy who weren't responding to medications. So, it's a medically sound diet. I know, sounds too good to be true, right? I'm not making this up! Low carb/ moderate protein/ high fat is actually how you go into ketosis. I lost 106 lbs in the first 8 months or so after surgery, then I stalled until a month ago when I started tracking my net carbs. I have lost 10 lbs in the last month. I'm in the gym 6 days a week, strength training, and running. Because I know what you mean when you say you want to be healthy and strong! I am excited to say that I am truly becoming healthy and strong!!! We grew up being told that fat is the enemy and the food pyramid we were given said we should have 6 servings of grains a day.....and now we are beginning to see this is wrong, and carbs should be limited! Of course we are going to think "ewww!" when we hear "high fat" but this is referring to the good fats -- the nuts, the avocado, the olive oil. I started doing it to get myself to goal, but the more I research it the more I see the additional health benefits. Here's some suggested reading: http://authoritynutrition.com/10-benefits-of-low-carb-ketogenic-diets/ http://www.ketogenic-diet-resource.com/ and, my favorite: http://www.ruled.me/guide-keto-diet/ This plan is really working for me. Please discuss it all with your nutritionist (aka your NUT) and figure out what your best approach will be.

Some things to try. Years out, Some go back to bariatric real food plan. Others find a new diet plan (keto, paleo, vegan,whole30 intermittent fasting) Choose a plan that works for you. Log your food in an app. You can dial your calories up or down to find where your weight loss zone is. Weight loss calories are different for each of us. It's not a one size fits all instruction. Do you have a protein and carb ratio to stay in?

The problem is when you are type 1 on a pump and you disconnect your body gets zero insulin. You can get very sick in a very short amount of time with zero insulin. People have gone into comas and died from DKA (diabetic keto acidosis) . I had it once and spent three days in ICU.

1. It drops dramatically after surgery but it does increase for most people, but not back to prior levels. The human body is an amazing thing, and it will adapt and repair itself. I'm almost 2 years out and I rarely get hungry. The biggest benefit I had from the early drop was, it created a complete disconnect between my brain and my stomach. So even though I might crave something, walk or drive past food, or see a commercial, mentally wanting it, didn't start my stomach to working and desiring food. Prior to surgery if I thought about food, my body responded and I was hungry and wanted to eat. That doesn't happen anymore. I can think about food all day, my stomach doesn't care at all. I track my food to make sure I eat enough. I can easily go 24 hours without eating as long as I am drinking fluids. This is the study about ghrehlin. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4280419/ Most people can't tell the difference between head hunger and physical hunger. It impossible to teach people if they are food addicts, impulsive and want instant gratification. 2. Well for people with RNY, their pouches stretch and since they don't have the valve at the bottom of their stomach, the top part of the connected small intestine can act as another stomach. So much of weight loss surgery information is geared towards RNY patients it is really annoying. Properly formed sleeves don't stretch. Emphasis on properly formed sleeves, there are lots of quacks out there, but a corrected created sleeve won't stretch. Once people are healed and swelling goes down. Yes you have more capacity. Most people still have very limited capacity for dense protein. I can still really only eat 4 ounces of dense protein, if it is fatty or moist I might be able to hit as high as 6 but I am usually uncomfortable for hours afterward. Most people that are even further out from surgery than me, still have similar capacity with dense protein. I can eat basically an unlimited amount of veggies. I can eat 4 cups of baby spinach in one setting I can eat a whole cucumber. I can eat probably a family bag of chips if I tried (I eat quest chips not real chips but its the same idea, there is zero restriction). Once people vary their diet from dense protein and start adding more things into their diet, yes you can eat a lot more, especially if you eat things all together. If I eat veggies as the same time as my meat, like alternating bites, I can eat probably double my normal capacity. How much you can eat long term, is based on choices not capacity. Besides the guy last year that claimed he had a 24 ounce steak a month after surgery, I never see long term sleevers complaining they are eating 12 ounce ribeyes and are totally out of control and regaining because they are eating 16 ounces of grilled chicken at once. They are eating sliders and carbs in large amounts. When people say they have increased capacity. Pay attention to what they are eating, not how much they are eating. When I did my pre-op research that is what really stood out to me reading forums, people were working against their sleeve. It makes a nice list of foods and habits to avoid. It is better to just never start then you don't have to stop. My post-op eating plan has all these carbs and things that are allowed, but my Dr hands his patients a flyer of what he thinks creates lasting results, and he says not to reintroduce carbs. Almost all the Doctors I know personally (college, childhood friends) are Paleo, Keto, and in general low carb. 3. Regain is kind of like wrinkles. If you live long enough you are going to have some. Everyone is going to regain some weight at some point. How you want to define regain is important though. Regaining 10% to 15% of you lost is not really considered regain, that is fairly normal and as you age, and for women go through menopause, you are going to probably regain a little. The problem regainers are the people that start regaining before they have finished losing. They never get to goal or anywhere near it and they start regaining in the 6 to 18 month range. Usually people like that are never going to get their weight under control from what I have seen. They never learned good habits. They usually go right back to eating how they ate before surgery just in smaller portions. They don't weigh their food, they don't track and they think restriction is going to be the same forever and protect them. It won't. Immediately post-op is the easiest time to retrain yourself and create new eating habits. If you blow it, it is lost forever. Anyone can learn at any point, but later on you are going to have just as hard a time as you did pre-op. Also people that never get to goal or close (like 10 to 20 pounds) seem to regain more often not just because they have bad habits but also because they seem less likely to vigorously defend their loses. Being close to goal and maybe still wanting to hit it seems to make people want to defend it more. These people also usually weigh and track their food and weigh themselves on a scale often. Weighing yourself daily is the only way to see trends. Anyone can have a weight fluctuation of a few pounds between days, but when you are solidly up 5 pounds for over a week, it is time to make some changes. If you don't weigh yourself, people don't catch the regain until their clothes are uncomfortable. When real long term vets used to post here, one thing I noticed about them was that they just kept eating the same and lost until their body stopped wanting to lose. Going as low as you can possible go in the best defense against regain. Then you have some comfortable bounce room.

To answer your question, I don't think I became "obese" until about 2007. I was married and we ate SOOOO bad. That's when I ballooned up quite near, if not 300lbs. I've always been a muscular, strong person. People used to equate me to one of those Clydesdale horses As a kid I was slightly overweight, maybe just about 10lbs over. As a teenager I was active in marching band, had leg muscles solid as telephone poles and clocked in at about 170lbs my senior year. When I was 20, I got pregnant and skyrocketed WELL over 220lbs and never really lost it. Then once I got married, I ballooned up to 300lbs...got on Adderall in 2009 and lost 100lbs, got pregnant AGAIN in 2009-2010 and shot back up to 270 something. That's kinda where I stagnated until keto in 2017 and finally dropped to 240 something. Now I float between 245-250.

I tried weight watchers lost 12lbs then nothing more and I was on for 1 yr. I’ve done Keto and I eat under 1000 calories a day. I track my carbs and I only use a whole wheat, flax and oat bran pita when I have “ bread” I measure everything but my body just likes to be at 220, I work out 6 days a week. I’ve gone to Dr.’s and nutritionist and I’m still stuck here! I won’t give up tho!