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Hello, welcome to the Bari world! You will learn very quickly that everyone has their opinion about foods/shakes. Not only how something taste but also their opinion on it's value to your diet. (Is it healthy? Should you eat it? Don''t eat carbs.. do eat carbs.. etc.) I always say, follow YOUR teams/Dieticians plan! Period. You trusted them with your life (literally) so you should trust them in your recovery and your WL process. Every team is different, different rules, different guidelines, everything. I tried a bunch of different "alternative" foods. Some are ok, most I didn't prefer. I find it easy to hit my protein goals, so I don't need to make sure EVERY single item of food has protein. I still drink shakes every day for breakfast but that is mainly because I am not a morning person and don't like to eat in the mornings. Otherwise most of my nutrition is from whole foods. My point is, if I feel like I really want "need" some chips, I just eat a few regular ones. I eat regular cereal (usually raisin bran) with fairlife milk. With that being said I reiterate ALL PLANS ARE DIFFERENT. I am "allowed" anything in moderation as long as I am hitting my protein/fluid/ WL goals. My Dietician says "you shouldn't feel like you are on a diet for the rest of your life, you should modify your eating habits to gain a healthy life and learn moderation". Now, to actually answer your questions. My opinions: Quest chips: They are ok, the taste is good but the texture is a little weird to me. They feel powdery to me and do not hold up to any type of dipping or even to use as nachos. Protein cereal: I have not specifically tried the magic spoon brand but have tried a few others. I hated them ALL. haha Literally hated them, brought them to work and threw them on the "sharing" table in the lunch room and it all sat there till i threw it away. I have tried premier brand, they are SO HARD and taste like stale rocks. I ate 2 bites and tried to flush the rest down the toilet and they wouldn't even flush! haha I also tried the brand "wonderworks keto" and felt just about the same way although they were better than the premier. They were ok to eat dry as a snack but disgusting with milk. To each their own, you may find like some other people that you love them. I have also tried Quest protein pizza, it was actually good but not a big enough deal to me for the price. I will jsut eat regular pizza. Usually a few bites and then just the toppings. Or, make home made pizza on low carb/calorie wraps. I don't know what else I have tried other than probably hundreds of protein bars, which I still randomly try and eat once in a while. Usually more of a meal replacement in a pinch than a snack. Ok- I have rambled long enough! best of luck on your journey!!

Whoa there, The process works. You should be in such a calorie deficit that its impossible to think you can fail. Can you post your foods and drinks for yesterday [or any day] as an example. Which company did you use for your surgery? Were you self pay? I used Spire and my team are really great. I have a mobile number for the dietician and could ring anytime I needed. They really helped me in the early days. You need to talk to a team member today if possible. Dont give up yet,

Like everyone else said; stalls happen. They will happen again, follow your plan and they will also pass. But, 500-600 calories a day seems VERY LOW especially for exercising every day. You should check in with your Dietician/Nutritionist for guidance on calories. Not eating enough, could cause stalls along with other problems. Be safe and healthy. Best of luck.

This has not been well studied. One study from Scandinavia showed no difference in weight loss when people drank during meals. Many of my successful gastric bypass patients, as well as sleeve and band patients, do drink small amounts during meals. The key is not to drink liquids with the sole purpose of forcing in more food. Remember, speed-eating champions (with normal stomachs) will sip water while they pound down their hotdogs. Mimicking the eating patterns of the world's speed-eating champions is probably not a great way to eat on a regular basis. I advise my patients to drink a glass of water (or some calorie-free beverage) about 15 minutes before they have a regular meal. This prevents them from being thirsty when they start a meal. It also helps to "flush through" thick saliva that may cause food to get stuck inappropriately. If the "pipes are clear" every time they eat (band, bypass, sleeve, whatever..) their eating experience will be more consistent.

I had to do 2 weeks of 800 calories max - whatever way I wanted to do that was fine. There are so many different programmes it's almost unbelievable! Hope you get out the far end unscathed OP.

Plateaus are part of the process. However, 500-650 calories a day is okay for those of us fresh out of surgery, but it is not enough for someone who is exercising.

Don't cut back on your calories unless your team told you to. You are so low that your body will be holding onto the nourishment to counteract the exercise you are doing. Trusting the process is a tough learning curve that we all have to learn. Hold your nerve, the stall will break

So it’s been a little over 3 months since my surgery. I haven’t lost any weight for the last two weeks. I actually think I gained a lb or two! ( if my scale is accurate lol). Despite efforts of trying to exercise more. Walking up to 4 miles a day plus riding stationary bike 20 minutes most days! Also been cutting back and only eating 500 to 650 calories a day. What is going on?!?!?

The withdrawal from caffeine, sugar, etc. can be awful. Headaches, shakes, cold sweats, …. and the craving for them can be greater. Thankfully the first week is usually the worst. My surgeon recommends different diets for different patients but the all shake diet is known as hell week in his office. I’d done the shake diet twice before (two shake meals & one low carb, low fat meat & vegetable/salad meal) so I was much relieved when the dietician said I was to do keto for the two weeks. No calorie requirement or macro goals just high fat, high protein, low carb, low sugar. (She also said keto was a good way to kick start my weight loss but not as a long term diet.) I lost about 5kgs.

Hello all! I’m on day 6 of a 2-week pre-op diet and can feel my brain working against me. I’ve got it a little better than most with the diet requiring less than 40 carbs per day and no more than 1200 calories. My nutritionist said she doesn’t mind if I go above the calories limit so long as I don’t exceed 40 carbs. I’ve been squeaky clean so far, even when I went to the movies last night (salivation is real lol), but I just cut caffeine completely and my body is not having any of it. I started to negotiate with myself - “Just one Oreo isn’t going to screw up the whole plan” and then snapped myself out of it by making a cup of decaf tea. How did you all do on the pre op diet? I feel like I must be super weak if I’m struggling to do this for 14 days 😂

I am a sucker for a cara cara orange and I am always the person who uses lemon juice to deglaze everything! I have been severely missing the deglazing especially cuz the pop of citrus is just me in a nut shell. I have been following my docs rules to a T which says no citrus until 3 months and I have been trying to track down the reason why to see if I can maybe just incorporate it into my cooking. Not sure if I should give it a whirl or not. Doesn't add that many calories. Sent from my SM-N960U using BariatricPal mobile app

I’m on day 6 of liquids for breakfast and lunch and a 400 calorie dinner. Only craved food yesterday when I saw the “word” of a particular food, and it triggered a desire for it lol. I’ve lost 6-8 lbs in the 6 days, just depends what my starting weight was exactly. My surgery is next week Wednesday and I had a scare this week where I had to redo one of my labs. I nearly had a breakdown (it was also my birthday) as I felt so overwhelmed. But feeling better since then as my lab test came back normal now.

I had a period of time I was ‘doughy’ in the head. Poor concentration, etc. I put it down to the surgery (anaesthetic can do odd things), reduced calorie intake, low energy & tiredness & low blood pressure (was pretty woopsy woo at times). It improved over a month or so. Oh, & are you on any anti nausea meds? They can often make you forgetful … well they do me. I suffer from vertigo & had a bad bout so was taking stemitol frequently for two days. Returned to work & a man started chatting to me in the lift. I had to ask him who he was & it turned out we’d had a two hour meeting only three days before & there was only three of us in the meeting. 😱 Felt so terrible.

I never lost feeling hungry. But very little filled me up. Like a teaspoon of minced chicken salad every two hours, once I got to semi solid . Even now, 12 years out, I can eat a very small baked chicken thigh and a couple ounces of sweet potato, and 1/3 c of applesauce for dinner and i am soo done. What I realized when I gained back some weight, was that I NEVER learned in my entire life how to maintain my weight - I was always either losing weight or gaining it. BAM ! total mind blowing experience. So I started losing the weight I had put on, and after 10 pounds gone; I purposely stopped losing weight even though I wanted to lose 30 more pounds. And I maintained that 10 pound weight loss. I ate more, I ate higher calories. I found out what I needed to eat/how much I needed to move to stay at THAT weight. MIND blown. After a couple months, I purposely. With INTENT lost another 10 pounds. Slowly. Then stopped again. 2 months at that weight. And so on. Then I got to the down 40 pounds which was my goal. I stayed with in 5 pounds of that weight for a YEAR !!! A few months back, I decided to do 5 more pounds. That was harder. But I did it. And another 5 pounds. Right now I am a pounds under that, and pretty happy. Might do another 3 pounds but very slowly and carefully because at 67 years old I haven't weighed this since the 1970's !!! And I am loving it, I eat well. I have some dietary limitations and eat low fiber and low residue as a medical necessity. Darn. But I had to figure out what would work for ME. Took me most of a lifetime. But so glad.

"high protein calorie deficit" because it's still true!

174 is so incredible wow!! It absolutely should be possible with the sleeve. Remember the general rule, calories in vs calories out. Stick to that & you'll be good!

It is also important to remember that weight loss surgery is not a quick fix and requires significant lifestyle changes, including a healthy diet and regular exercise, to achieve and maintain weight loss. Your healthcare provider can help you develop a comprehensive plan for long-term success after surgery. In general, prior to surgery, your healthcare provider may recommend a low-calorie, high-protein diet to help prepare your body for the surgery and promote healing afterward. This may include lean proteins such as chicken, fish, and tofu, cucumber sandwich recipe as well as vegetables and fruits. It is important to avoid high-fat and high-sugar foods, as well as foods that are difficult to digest, such as fried or greasy foods, tough meats, and raw vegetables. Additionally, you may be asked to avoid caffeine and alcohol in the days leading up to surgery. Make sure to follow your healthcare provider's instructions closely and notify them of any changes in your health or diet prior to surgery.

Hello @pintsizedmallrat I had my sleeve surgery in December of 2021. Hence, I am about 14 months postop. To date, I have lost 153lbs. from my highest pre-surgery weight. Interestingly enough, you had your surgery at the same location where I had my surgery...that is if there is only one Dr. Trace Curry who does bariatric surgeries. I did not have any complications from my surgery that were any different than situations that have been described on this site. As a male, I haven't experienced anything different than what others, male or female, have described. I will try to highlight some of the things I have experienced. I only used the pain medication for the first day. The gas from the surgery was the worst part for me. Once the gas went away, everything else was pretty smooth. I stayed at a hotel near the surgery center the first night. The next morning, I went home with someone else driving. I followed the doctor's instructions very closely when it came to food, vitamins and movement. I count every calorie for which I eat and/or drink. I was very cold for the first few months. Approximately 30 days after surgery, I was permitted to begin exercising. (walking) Once permitted, I began other forms of cardio like biking, jogging and the elliptical machine. Once permitted, I began to lift weights. I have continued the exercise regimen every week since. I weigh myself every week in order to track my progress. I don't know if any of this will be helpful to you. I hope your husband has a great experience. Best wishes to you and your family!

On week 5 you should still really only be focused on your protein and hydration 60+ gr of protein 64+ oz of water. At 5 weeks out my food tracker tells me I was getting around 600 calories a day, but I wasn’t counting calories per my team’s instructions… only focusing on protein and hydration.

I’m a little over 2 years post surgery and have gained 20 pounds back. I just logged my calorie intake the other day to see how much I was consuming. Over 2500!!! And I also drink while I eat too. I’ll be starting the pouch reset to get my mind back to what it was after surgery. Hopefully that will help me get back on track. Hang in there. We are all human

carrots wouldn't be considered slider foods. Slider foods are things like ice cream, popcorn, and various other junk food that you can eat a lot of, and most have a lot of empty calories to boot. I eat baby carrots when I'm trying to ward off a potential binge. Reason being is that if I eat enough of them, they often irritate my stomach so much that the last thing I want to do is eat more. Not only do i not want to eat more carrots, but I don't want to eat ANYTHING! carrots are very nutritious and have very few calories. They also don't go down all that easily - as in comparison to something like ice cream. So definitely not a slider food.

My pre-op diet doesn’t seem super strict. 2 protein shakes (Premier recommended) and then a 400 calorie dinner. On MyFitnessPal premium I inputted 720 calories as my target with a mix of 50% protein, 30% fat, and 20% carbs to yield 90g protein target. Just finished Day 2, so it’s early days but not bad so far. I typically wouldn’t eat during work hours anyway due to stress and being over consumed by work so it’s not a huge change for me.

This is very common this soon after surgery simply because you’re slowly sipping all your ‘meals’ as well as additional fluids to meet your goals. Once on solid food this will change. It happened again when I was trying to maintain. Because my meal sizes were still smaller (couldn’t eat more at a sitting) I couldn’t get in the calories I needed to maintain so I was snacking (on nutritious foods) several times a day. It felt like I was eating all day then too. Then when my portion size increase a bit more I didn’t need as many snacks it didn’t feel as much like all I did was eat.

I am obese. I also have severe hypothyroidism resulting from emergency surgery of a life threatening Hot-Toxic thyroid in hopes of avoiding a stroke at the age of 20 due to advanced Grave's Disease. My hypothyroidism is so extreme that even with being constantly monitored and regulated with medication by specialists, my numbers have unexplainably plummeted and I have spiraled into a myxedema coma on several occasions. My BMR is ridiculously low at 830 calories a day. I had no choice but to accept the limitations and circumstances I was dealt. Through extreme deprivation and avoidance of carbs, I stayed slim until a head injury in 2012. The TBI shifted my focus and I found I was unable to maintain the tight control of my consumption that I had previous mastered....I gained 80 pounds in 4 months plus a few more over the next decade. I truly understand health conditions and their effect on our weight and metabolism.....I have battled it for 40+ years. Knowing there is no cure for my health issues, I have to adjust my life to live within its constraints. Health conditions can affect the amount of calories we can burn but obesity results from consuming more than our bodies burn. Removing and lessening the desire of food allows many of us to regain the control necessary to avoid the wrong foods and excessive consumption to achieve our goals and improve our health.....eating for need not desire.

Hope everyone is doing well. I’m officially 3 months and almost a week out of surgery and 60 pound down since first thinking about WLS and that puts me at 50% weight loss from what I put as my goal weight. Had my 3month appointment last week. We went over calorie goals, macro distribution, any issues we are having and learning curves. We went over goal weight and the RN said that most of the patients say they have 20-30lbs to go on the 6-month appointment and during that appointment is when we go over the goal weight we should be aiming for and what we need to change to reach that. I should be able to get back on track with protein, fluids and exercise this week. I’m going to start with having protein shakes again at least daily (some days I was trying to meet it only with food) and carrying my 48oz water bottle with me every where and go back to weighing myself weekly. Wishing everyone good and positive energy in your journey!