Search the Community

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!

I also thought I ate "very little" at the time I signed up for the program and start the process but when I started logging everything I ate, the areas for improvement were very clear. I also have the issue of being a very small person whose maintenance calories are only 1500; 3 meals a day that are "average sized" to a person of normal stature was always going to be too much for me. It's also common for people with weight issues to think they EAT very little but are also drinking a lot of calories throughout the day and don't count those because it's not "food". Juice, sweetened coffee with cream, sodas, milk...those are all calories, and it would be beneficial if you're one of the people who drinks their calories to start treating those things as food in your mind, not beverages. I hate saying this but most of us pre-surgery probably thought we ate much less than we did, and quantity isn't the only thing that matters: especially when we try to space out our meals we often find ourselves eating more calorie-dense food when we do finally eat. If you have decided to start a relationship with a surgeon to see if it would work for you, this needs to be something you discuss with them during your first visit. One of the first things they're going to ask you to do is keep a food journal and the best thing you can do for yourself is be brutally honest so they and you have an accurate picture of what you are ACTUALLY consuming, and being honest about your portion sizes is a huge part of that.

I’m on week 5, what calories should I be aiming for? ❤️

I had surgery 2 days before you. nothing (literally, lol) makes me sick. I take the barimelts. Theyre... okay. initial taste is fine but have a terrible aftertaste/burp. lol im on all solid foods (soft/chewed really well). about the only thing i havent tried yet are raw veg/salad. I figure ill give that a bit longer just because I know its a bit harder to digest. I am getting all of my protein from food at this point, 60 grams and am eating around 7/800 calories a day. losing around 3 pounds a week (lower BMI), which I am good with. Slower rate of loss means more muscle kept and less loose skin

Hey y'all! Glad to see some updates around here. It's been 4 months and some change, and I've lost 70 lbs since surgery! Almost 125 since my highest weight. I feel better than I have in years. I started off as a 5XL and now can wear 3XL and even some 2XL! Went from a 30 in jeans to 24 (which are loose on me, so I think I may be 22 or lower now - I still need to update wardrobe) I had a stall in mid-December and just recently had another that lasted 10 days where my weight only went up and down or stayed the same! Finally started trending downwards again a few days ago. My pouch tolerates everything I've given it. No problems there. I eat whatever I want at this point but still do 1 protein shake/day. I'm hovering around 800-1000 calories per day. Pros: I used to get horrible pains in my lower back and hips and now I have a ton of stamina and can actually walk around a grocery store to go shopping! Sex is a lot more fun! ☺️😆 I can feel my bones. Especially when I sleep on my side at night, my kneecaps actually touch each other (can also be a con lol) I can cross my legs! I can sit on the floor and not feel like I'm going to fall over backwards! It's fun to jiggle parts of my body 🤣 Physical hunger still gone and full cues still intact. I know to stop when the hiccups start. Food bills are so much cheaper!!! I'm content with a happy meal. No heartburn (yet)! Cons: My mood is ALL OVER THE PLACE. Hormones from fat loss make me up and down all the time. I never know what kind of day it's going to be when I wake up. I also have a mood disorder to begin with, so that doesn't help either. Loose skin everywhere!! If I'm too "active" it will make a clapping noise. Like it's cheering me on. 😂 I'm a bit self-conscious about the skin under my neck The rest of it I can deal with, lol. My boobs and butt are leaving. Mental hunger is rude! I have to carefully watch myself from grazing. Some days are harder than others. I think my food addiction has turned into a shopping one. I'm still lazy and don't really work out. I do a lot more than I used to though, so it balances out I think. 😅 Food isn't fun anymore. But that's also a good thing... I can say it has been way easier than I expected it to be though. I thought I'd be more upset about it. Here's some before/after pics! They're from last month, but I don't think I've lost much more 10 lbs since then anyway due to the stall I had. This one was right before the liquid diet and the after is the end of January, so about 75 lbs difference. This was on my way to my first appointment in early 2022 and then last month. I've lost 105 lbs between those 2. This is a fun graph of my weight loss since the beginning of the liquid diet. I weigh myself everyday using this app (Libra) so I can see the trends. Then I only record my actual weight every week in MyFitnessPal. It's worked well for me so far. My current goal is to hit 100 lbs lost before my 6-month surgiversary! 30 lbs to go!

I'm 5 days post op now and I also felt really weak and light headed. I think cause I slept in too long. I felt much better after taking some deep breaths. It's really hard to get all of my requirements in and I'm kind of worried about what would happen if I can't get it figured out. I need at least 64 ounces of fluids, 60 to 80 grams of protein and up to 1200 calories. Ahhh! I have bariatric fusion complete chewable vitamins and for bypass I need to get 4 or those in a day. I only got one today (I know if I got up earlier I'd have met that goal). Tomorrow is a new day and my son goes back to school so I'll be getting up earlier and hopefully I'll be able to get everything in. I'm gonna try to track things again. How does everyone get things in for the day? It seems hard.

Wow, there's clearly more to this than I had considered! I hope to lose around 30kgs, I eat one small meal a day and will usually have one snack, I haven't counted calories nor do I know my MR, I rarely exercise (very sore joints), I have an exocrine disease and some of my meds are renouned for weight gain. I suppose I wonder if moving ahead with the operation will actually help on my circumstances.

(surgery 2/22) I was indeed released on Thursday! I had the bright idea to go on a long walk outside on Friday which I realized was probably a mistake since I hadn't had much for calories and I also only made my water and protein minimums that day. I didn't measure the distance beforehand and it was nearly 1.5 miles and around 9 degrees outside. Saturday I met goals and working on that for today as well. I was ordered oxygen for sleeping (they said 75% get sent home with oxygen orders, but I am in Colorado so that may be a factor) and I'm also giving myself Lovenox/Enoxaparin shots twice a day. Today I'm able to get out of bed a lot easier, so I think my incisions and everything are healing well. My surgeon used anesthetic and Dermabond on them and I have had no issues with fluid escaping or anything. I'm back to pre-op weight on my home scale, the hospital weighed me much closer to my first appointment weight but I was fully clothed with shoes on.

Can you better explain what you mean by "help me"? Do you need to lose weight? How much? When you say you eat very little, do you know how many calories you're consuming now? Do you know your Resting Metabolic Rate? Do you exercise? What types and how much? Do you have any other medical conditions other than your digestive disorder? Especially disorders that impact your metabolism such as PCOS, Hypothyroidism, Diabetes, etc? Sorry for all the questions, but details matter.

It gets better. I am on day 6. The first 3 days sucked bad. It took that long for my body to adjust to the calorie deficit but it did. Caffeine headaches didn’t help. Hang in there, try not to cheat as the diet helps shrink the liver making surgery easier. One cheat leads to two, etc etc. Be strong, you can do this! I also lost 8 lbs so far…

I had VSG surgery in September 2021, and had a REALLY rough go of it recovering. I had a really rare set of complications, ended up in the hospital for a week, and generally felt like I was starving to death for 4 or 5 months. About six months before my surgery, my husband had purchased me a motorcycle. I'm very short, and it was one of the few bikes I had even a prayer of being able to reach the ground on and be able to hold up on my own. I attempted to take the class to learn how to ride and because of the stress of attempting to hold up a 400 pound machine when it was clear my pre-surgery body was still struggling to just carry 150 extra pounds. It was too much. I couldn't finish the class, never got my endorsement on my license, and the bike sat while I was completely terrified of it. After my surgery and I got to a point where I was alert, able to safely drive my car and didn't have concerns about fainting...we traded the too-tall bike for a three-wheeled one that I didn't have to worry about being able to hold up, that fit my dimensions perfectly. At the time I was doing much better than in the beginning, but I was still struggling to eat. I was 5 months out from surgery and still only eating 4-500 calories a day because it was all that would fit. Once I got my license and started being able to ride my new toy, though, I was hooked. It BECAME the reason I pushed myself to eat more, the reason I pushed myself to keep myself hydrated, because I needed to make sure I was nourished enough to be safe, and properly fueled enough to keep going as long as I wanted to. Operating the bike also helped build back a lot of the muscle mass I lost while recovering because it's quite a workout on the shoulders, core, and hips to steer and corner. In a matter of a couple months I went from still incredibly weak, and almost still regretting the surgery, to being stronger, more confident, and having successfully lost more weight than I could have imagined when I started this process. 18 months out, I'm in so much better shape than in the beginning, I'm already considering giving two wheels a shot again, and the confidence I gained by coming out the other side of this life-changing process makes me wonder what else I am capable of that I never dreamed I would be. TL;Dr this is the story of how my weird little motorcycle helped me recover from bariatric surgery. What is your weird thing that helped you recover and get to know your "new" self?

I am starting a hybrid liquid for breakfast and lunch and a 400 calorie dinner effective Sunday 2/26 through 3/5 and then 3/6-3/7 full liquid ahead of 3/8 surgery. I have hit food fatigue though after having eaten at my favorite restaurants in December and January in preparation for my life change (but while still losing weight and reaching a calorie deficit).

Some foods are easier to eat in a bigger quantity than others. Pizza may something you're able to eat more of. For me, I can now eat three Vietnamese rice paper rolls in one sitting. I'm very full after, but I can eat all three. But if I try to eat a sandwich or other bread-based meal, I can manage a couple of bites before I have to tap out. Thin crust pizza sounds like something that could be a slider food for you, perhaps. So I don't think it's unusual so far out from surgery, it just depends on the food and why calorie counting remains so important. Ask your surgeon anyway, just because you should get the thoughts of your team on anything you're concerned about.

I wondered if it was just the to be expected slowing or a prolonged stall too. Though I am leaning towards stall because your calorie intake is still low. Certainly too low to be maintaining for your activity level. (Though a little taller than you, I eat about 1400+/- calories to maintain at my weight & I really don’t exercise.) I slowed right down & the last kilo to my goal was a b*tch to lose. I was only eating a bare 900 calories like you but I did keep slowly losing for another 11 odd months (another 11kg) until my caloric intake equalised what my body needed to maintain. Have a chat with your surgeon & dietician. They know you & your needs best.

I feel like you may have a misunderstanding here? (Unfortunately a very common one!) From the sound of it, you're expecting restriction to be the thing that keeps you from gaining weight, but that's rarely true for most post-surgical patients. A cursory glance at these forums should be proof enough of that. Look at all the posts from people asking for help because they gained a bunch of weight back and don't know what to do now. Some recommendations: Consider finding a therapist that specializes in eating disorders and work with them to reset your relationship with food. As long as you have a desire to be "full" and keep pushing the envelope, regain is going to be a real possibility. Talk to a nutritionist to get a handle on proper amounts and types of food that will work for you to maintain your weight. Track your calories and macros. If you don't know how much you're really eating, it's hard to know how much is enough, and how much is too much. Find a way to have your Resting or Basal Metabolic Rate tested (Google it). This will tell you how many calories you're actually burning per day. Use this, along with your food log to make sure you're not eating more than your burning.

We all are able to eat more as we progress. It’s how we get reach the calories & nutrients we need to maintain our weight & for our body to function effectively. Though all because you can eat more doesn’t mean you should. How much you should/need to eat is an question best answered by your dietician. Some need more defined guidelines about eating & food choices. Check with your dietician as to what portion size, caloric goals, etc. are best for you & your needs (age, gender, losing or maintaining weight, activity level, etc.) & to ensure you are on the right track. Do you track your food. If not, it may be an idea to do so for a couple of weeks so you can review it with your dietician. PS Congrats on your weight loss.

I have not had surgery yet, but from what I am learning, the focus for long term success should be protein first. If eating four slices of pizza was something you did once it’s probably isn’t the end of the world, but it is also not going to provide you with the nutrients you need. Is it a slippery slope for you? If you pull the meat off two chicken thighs, it doesn’t seem like it would be to much. That may be a better option. What plan did your surgeon give you? If the surgery is a tool, the work lies in sticking to the plan. Eating whatever I want has ultimately got me thinking about having surgery. if you are eating what you want, are you tracking calories? What do you need to be eating to maintain?

To be honest, I don't have a plan. I allow myself to eat until I'm satiated and lately, I've allowed myself to eat mostly whatever I want since I'm fine with maintaining the weight that I'm at now. My concern is that I have the ability to eat four slices in one sitting, not so much the nutrition (however many calories, carbs, etc.). When I first started eating pizza again, I could manage to eat only the toppings off of two slices of pizza and now I'm able to eat four full slices. Because of this, I'm worried I might gain weight in the future because I'm able to eat so much more now

Had gastric bypass 10/3. Down 77 pounds total. 19 of that was before surgery. Anyway, I am barely getting in 600 calories a day at this point and can only handle about an ounce and a half of protein with a couple bites of veggies at meals. I have a very clear full signal and don’t eat past it. I haven’t had sugar or carbs since surgery and I intend to stick with that. I cannot tolerate cheese, nuts, butter, basically anything but lean proteins and some vegetables. I even struggle with fruit. I don’t have a dietician so I have no idea if I am on track or not with my eating so I just take each day as it comes. I am happy with my weight loss. As most everyone I wish it was faster. But I have only stalled once and that was at the 3 week mark. I am exercising some but with the low amount of calories I am eating it is hard to have a lot of stamina. If anyone has any pointers let me know. I also still rely on 1-2 protein shakes a day to get protein up to around 80 grams.

"I am eating around 900 calories per day with 30 minutes of exercise. Is this enough or do I need to revamp my calories down?" You might be experiencing an extended stall. Often when a person loses a substantial amount of weight in a relatively short period of time, we have reached a set point and our bodies need to catch up to the loss before restarting the next losing phase. If the stall continues much longer, I would definitely talk your doctor.

So I have been around the same weight for a little over a month. Sometimes gaining a pound or two then losing it back. My question is once your weight loss really starts to slow way down like mine did will you continue to lose weight? I am eating around 900 calories per day with 30 minutes of exercise. Is this enough or do I need to revamp my calories down? Thanks

Hey everyone, surgery was 10/24 and I’m down from 215 to 167. The last 4 weekly weigh ins the scale has bounced between 168-171 so I may be in a stall. I was in one after the first 4 weeks for almost 6 weeks. It’s annoying but I’m happy with my progress as I’m officially the smallest I have been in 20 years with all my yo yo dieting. I also know that I may be getting closer to my new size my body wants to be so the weight loss may stop. I’ve been trying to focus more on working out now. Before my surgery I lifted weights regularly. I know I’ve lost a lot of muscle these last couple months and I feel much weaker. So I’m trying to get back into that. Clothing wise I’m down from a size 18 to a 10. I haven’t really had to buy new clothes yet as I kept clothes from all my previous lose and regain episodes. I also wear uniforms to work every day which are provided so being that it’s winter my non-work clothes is mostly hoodies and sweat pants anyway 😁 Food wise it’s hit or miss. I have started to feel hunger signals again but my portions are still pretty small. My doctor never told me to track my food intake which I’m grateful for because I don’t want to feel like I’m on a diet. But I would rough guess my intake to be about 1000 calories a day. I still try to prioritize protein first which doesn’t leave much room for anything else. But I do try to snack on fruit or veggies throughout the day to get my nutrients in. Sugar free sweets and cookies have helped with any sweet tooth cravings I get. I have ate plenty of things with sugar at this point as I really don’t restrict anything, but I do try to limit it to just occasionally. I also struggle with feeling like I have to clean my plate, even when I start to feel full. So I try to start with a small amount to begin with. Then wait a couple minutes before deciding if I want more, and usually I don’t. I still eat really fast so pausing for a few minutes helps my stomach to catch up. I’ve been out to eat several times. Usually I just split a meal with my wife and it works out great. She’s not going to eat the entire dish and I only need a few bites. The weirdest part with food for me is that my tastes have changed. Foods I used to enjoy don’t sit well or taste as good. I used to drink black coffee every day, now it hurts my stomach so I’ve just quit it. I thought the lack of caffeine would be an issue but it really hasn’t been. I do occasionally drink instant sugar free cappuccino but not daily. Also hot wings used to be a favorite of mine and now they taste off. Same thing with a lot of spicy food actually. So while I wouldn’t say I restrict food, at least for weight loss purposes, I’m trying to learn how different things make me feel and structure my eating like that. Just like with overeating I tell myself while something might sound appealing, is it worth me feeling kinda crappy for the next 30-45 minutes? That helps to think of it like that. I have definitely overdone portions and regretted it. Hence why I try to start smaller to begin with. It’s hard when you have one bite left not to just eat it, but that one bite will cost you and it’s just not worth the discomfort for me. All in all I would say I’m feeling good and I’m happy. I’m starting to see myself as smaller for the first time. I’ll catch my reflection in a window or something and be like damn, is that how skinny I am? It’s a crazy feeling I’ve never felt before. I knew I was getting smaller because my clothes sizes were going down. But I’m just now really seeing it. I have more work to do, more so in the gym now than the scale, but I’m feeling accomplished and motivated.

I struggle a bit with this too, I originally said 180 because even though it seemed impossible to be that weight after 5 years, it still looked attainable with the surgery based on average results I saw online. Then I changed it to 160 because it's the lowest I remember being after puberty and I felt good, not toned at all but weight wise it felt comfortable. I just had my 3-month appointment, and I asked about goal weight, the RN suggested to wait until I'm at 6 months and see how I will feel if I were to choose my goal to be 30lbs from that weigh in, since from her experience that is what most patients say, but she did stress that the body can choose its weight and it can be lower or around what I chose. This goes on hand with my sister's experience where she is still losing past her goal weight even though she has increased her calories.

Exciting news for all bariatric patients! The BariatricPal Store has added the delicious and nutritious Protein2o Orange Mango Whey Protein Isolate Powder to its product line. This powder is perfect for those looking for a premium whey protein isolate with a burst of tangy orange and juicy mango flavor. Not only does it taste amazing, but it's also lower in calories and contains 0g of sugar, making it a great option for those trying to maintain a healthy and balanced diet. And, with the added electrolytes, it provides the fuel you need to tackle your next adventure. If you're a fan of fruity flavors, this powder is a must-try! Personally, it's one of my favorite protein powders, and I'm sure you'll love it too. So head to the BariatricPal Store and get your hands on this amazing product today!

I had this when I was not drinking enough, and eating enough calories because of a swollen suture line in my new tummy. Then I had it again when I had dropped a lot of weight and needed to come off my blood pressure medication, I just didn't need it anymore. I had it randomly yesterday morning when I got out of bed too quickly and got busy. I ate some yogurt and had a large milky coffee and I was fine. When I am out I always take a protein bar in case this happens when I have skipped a meal