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So I’m 5 weeks post op and have only lost 13 lbs. I feel stuck and wondering if that’s normal to lose only that amount in a month? I feel defeated as I only have protein shakes for breakfast and lunch while I’m at work . but dinner is where i incorporate a soup or broth. I just don’t know if I’m doing this right? I’m supposed to be in the pureed stage and then go into soft foods next week.. I need advice on how to help my weight come off faster /better.. this has been a crazy mind game for me ..

I just can't stop eating too fast! Everyone suggests waiting 1 minute between bites, but I just can't seem to do that. So many years of only having 20 minutes on my lunch taught me to eat fast and I can't break that habit. I'm just always miserable after I eat because I'm so full! Any other tips?

I realised my response above was a bit lacking on practical recommendations. Let me try to summarize what I'd suggest: Since you're right where I'd want you to be in terms of weight loss per month, don't change anything at this point. Only consider changing if you find the weight loss completely stops for 2 months or more. If weight loss does stop for at least 2 months, I'd actually recommend UPPING calories by 250-300 calories a day. I know that sounds counter-intuitive, especially considering that a negative energy balance is the only way to lose weight, but let me explain. Remember when I said above that one of the main jobs of our metabolic regulation system is to keep us from dying? No matter what we do, our metabolism slows when we diet. The rationale behind upping calories (by a small amount), is that we want to convince that system that the "bad times" have passed, and it's okay to ratchet up metabolic processes again. I'd recommend eating this increased calorie amount for at least a month, but two months would be better. Somewhat surprisingly, most people won't gain weight if they do this because their metabolism will increase to compensate. After that diet break, only then do we drop calories for a month or two in order to drop some more weight. You can keep up this intermittent dieting (not to be confused with intermittent fasting), until you get to your goal weight. I know this sounds like a slow process, but I promise, in the long run it's actually faster than if you just tried to keep cutting calories to get to your goal. Please keep exercising for your health, but also so that once you do get to your goal, you'll have a much easier time maintaining the loss. I would strongly recommend a minimum of 3 days per week of aerobic exercise and 2 days per week of strength training. This will set you up really well to maintain weight, as well as for excellent health as you get older. Don't be afraid to seek out a good mental health counselor. None of us got as big as we were by having a healthy relationship with food. The vast majority of people that fail to lose weight or that regain lots of weight after bariatric surgery do so because they fall back into old poor eating habits.

Nope, I’ve avoided straws like the plague. I know I’m not drinking too fast or gulping. The only other thing that makes sense to me would be a stricture? But it seems to be too early to deal with that.

@AmberFL love this for you! Major WIN. Thanks for getting on the fasting train with me. I've been fasting the past 10 months now and it has changed me in a lot of ways. I tell people my favorite part of my day is my fasted part of my day and they look at me crazy. Yes I agree with you. It cuts down that food noise by a ton but I guess I'm still in a honeymoon phase because I have minimal food noise hallelujah😂 almost a year out thank goodness I'm gonna hate when that returns. Keep winning chic!

I did the Fast Metabolism Diet (Haylie Pomroy) to reach my goal weight. I wasn’t able to eat the amount of foods it requires but eating them in the phases was enough & I dropped the last stubborn 15 pounds!

I'm not talking natural sugars that occur in fruit etc. I'm talking processed. Totally understand what you're saying about sugar's role in a balanced diet, but for me, with my ADHD and tendency to get fixated and addicted fast - avoiding processed sugar is my fix for my situation. As always with all things, YMMV.

if i ate too much or too fast, i feel it in my solar plexus area, like it is expanding uncomfortably. if i ate WAaaaYYYYY too much too fast, i feel it up higher, like near the base of my throat. 9 times out of ten, if i feel it this high it is closely followed by some vomiting. the goal is always to never have to "feel" it, but even at almost 7 yrs post op, it still happens. i do notice this happens more when im "starving" because i forgot to eat or something and i end up wolfing something down cuz i suddenly realized i am hungry (sounds ridiculous, i know, but it happens to me all the time). so i "try" to eat more regularly, but this is in direct contradiction of my mantra of "dont eat unless u actually want to". so yeah. still trying to work it all out after all these years... do the best you can while minimizing the amount of angst you experience, is all i can say, i guess. good luck ❤️ (sorry, not sure this was vey helpful...may delete later, lol)

Congrats on your loss. Glad to hear you are doing well. Did you see all the attachments that you can get to put on a Stanley. To hold your phone and chapstick and all sorts of things. Like you wouldn’t need a purse I’m not kidding. I don’t know if I could do a month of fasting. Fasting for lab work is enough for me. Im trying to schedule some and they are all after 9:30 and I’m looking at a whole other lab just so that I don’t have to wait as late to have food. 🤣

My number one piece of advice would be not to compare yourself to others. I get it, it's comforting to know someone else went through the same thing as you, but when you factor in genetics, epigenetic, diet, exercise, starting weight, % lean mass, etc. any comparisons will fall short. This will become even more important after surgery when the process becomes really hard and you feel like it's not working like it should. We see multiple posts a month from people who are losing weight, but it's coming off slower than they expected and they want to know why. The response is always the same. Trust the process, we're all different and how we lose weight is going to be different. I think it's fantastic that you're losing so well right now. Keep in mind that the rate of loss WILL slow down some as you lose more. That's perfectly normal, so don't let that discourage you from continuing to eat well and exercising. I would caution you about fasting. There's no scientific evidence that it works any better than any other method of calorie restriction. Normally I'd say do what works for you, but fasting is not something you'll be able to do post-WLS (at least early on), so it might not be the best thing for you right now. Especially since your real goal at this point is to learn how to eat better, I'm not sure fasting is the best plan currently. I also think you need to include more cardio into your exercise routine. I love resistance training for lots of reasons, but cardiovascular endurance is the number one predictor of all cause mortality, so please don't skip it, even if you don't like it as much.

I didn't expect this much hair to be coming out. I don't want to lose more. I know I don't eat enough protein but making it a huge priority now and ordered collagen pills. I get full too fast and so can't add it to coffee.. I never can finish a cup. Anyone losing hair or lost it around this time? What helps? I'm 190.6 today. And in Nov last year before surgery I was 244. Feeling way better but I want to keep my hair too! LOL! Thanks for any advice and insight!

Talk to your medical provider. Yes, GERD occurs in some SG patients, in some others it improves. There are too many factors to have hard and fast simple rules. I’m pre operative and totally geeked out researching, and the more I learn the more I understand our knowledge is evolving and the best we can do is get as much information and make the best choice with the information at hand. Find a good program that does multiple surgeries and talk to them about your concerns l.

Hahaha I've been seen those videos of the attachments hahaha it's so over the top 😂 I can't wait to be one of them but for now. Carrying this stanley is hard enough lool Hahaha I get what you mean about fasting but it's so weird how EASY it is!

What you need to ask yourself is something I used to help me when my weight appeared to not be fast enough; did I put the weight on in just a few months? No, so I need to be patient and let the process work and do my part while not expecting the weight to come off in such a short time! Give yourself the gift of being patient with your body. I know its difficult, especially being that we're an instant gratification society now, but you deserve the grace, time and patience knowing you made the right decision for yourself having had the surgery! Follow the guidelines you were given by your bariatric team. But f you still don't feel the weight is coming off as fast as you think it should - schedule an appointment with your dietician/surgeon and ask for they're advice. You've got this! Lastly 13lbs is an average/"normal" weight loss for 5 weeks 🤗

I’ve had surgery at a few hospitals and I’ve never seen anyone with family in recovery. You may not even remember it. They want to get you out of there as fast as possible and since they know that you’re going upstairs instead of Home, they basically do it as soon as you wake up. The nurse to patient ratio is very low and someone should be like practically sitting right there with you, though you will not be alone.

As a general rule, the effects of supplementation of any kind on weight loss will be extremely minimal. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say for most people, 90-95% of weight loss is calorie intake alone. Other factors like exercise might make up a few percent, and supplements would be down at the bottom of the list probably only making 1% or less of the impact. Since 1% might mean something like 20 calories a day, you can see how it would be really easy to overcome that effect just by eating a tiny bit more. Keep in mind there is no overcoming basic physics. If you want to lose weight, you have to consume fewer calories than you burn. Things people worry wat too much about in my opinion instead of placing the focus where it matters on calories: Types of diets: Things like keto, low fat, low carb, intermittent fasting, etc. may help with compliance, but otherwise make no appreciable difference in weight loss. Bottom line, eat the way you want as long as you meet your nutrient goals and eat less than you burn in a day. Exercise: Exercise is critical for overall health and fitness, but as a general rule, you are not going to lose much if any weight from exercising. The reason is that your body is really good at stabilizing your overall calories burned in a day/week/month. What I mean is that studies show that for the most part, your body will slow down other processes to "make-up" for the exercise calories you burned, so whether or not you exercised won't actually mean you burn more calories per day. Exercise CAN help in weight loss for some people, but as a general rule, you'd probably need to be doing something that burned more than 400 calories a day, every day for you to see any impact at all. One place where exercise really comes into its own is in weight maintenance post-weight loss. Here the data is super clear. Those that exercise at least 1 hour per day were significantly more likely to maintain their weight loss than those that don't exercise. Supplements: As I pointed out above, at best, supplements might have a very small impact on on weight loss and this impact is really easy to negate by simply eating more. Typically weight loss supplements fall into two categories: Thermogenics (things that increase metabolism), and Appetite Suppressants. Some claim to have both effects. Without going into too much detail, the vast majority of thermogenics work simply because they are stimulants. Caffeine is the most well known and well studied (and frankly probably the most effective), but since you already are a coffee drinker, you're pretty unlikely to get any additional benefit from switching to another source such as green tea. Appetite suppressants are really a mixed bag. These sometimes work for some people, but again, the effects are really small. This is a little old, but I still think worth taking a gander: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8406948/#:~:text=A total of 1945 participants,morbidity%2C costs or patient satisfaction. It's a meta-analysis of the impact of green tea on weight loss. The conclusion they came to after looking at 15 different studies: "Green tea preparations appear to induce a small, statistically non‐significant weight loss in overweight or obese adults. Because the amount of weight loss is small, it is not likely to be clinically important." Best of luck.

I am 1 year post-op today, and I have (pretty much) hit my goal! I can't believe it has been a year already, it has gone so fast. To think that this time last year I was having surgery (BIG shout out to Simon Monkhouse), and I was starting a new chapter of my life. I have learnt that I can adapt to change quite quickly, something I didn't think I was that good at previously. I think we shock ourselves at how quickly we can adapt to our new way of living post-surgery. The NSVs have been life-saving for me. Every time I am walking about, up hills and at a fast pace, I still catch myself thinking "I can't believe I can do this". Before this I would have to stop 3-4 times just on a short 8 minute walk as the pain in my hips and back was awful. Now I can jog and I can ride a bike uphill!! I feel happier in myself and in my day-to-day life, and while I may still have a long way to go in terms of being kinder to myself, I am learning to love my body. It is so nice to be able to just think less about what I am wearing, how I will look. I am grateful to feel smaller and to have people not notice me in public (as weird as that sounds). Next part of my journey is just to see where my weight loss goes, then to look into some plastics in the next year or so, but overall, my goal is just to keep living feeling this free ❤️

Definitely don't proceed if you're having doubts. My surgeon advised against the sleeve because of my pre-existing GERD, and I got the Omega Loop/Mini bypass instead. While my GERD thankfully didn't get worse, it still happens every so often so I'm still on Pantoprazole daily (which also stops stomach ulcers which I'm prone to). For what it's worth, I also have ADHD and take an antidepressant for chronic vestibular migraines. I make sure I take them after food and ease off water for a bit so they don't go down too fast, and don't really have any issues. I can't take any slow-release meds though, so Vyvanse and extended release Ritalin are out. I take Ritalin 10, which works fine.

My win is getting back in the gym and back on track! I have been cleared to do lower body, biceps and triceps. I have been prioritizing cardio which is great but now that I am back in the gym I feel so much better! I cant wait to hit back and shoulders but all in due time. I have been tracking and making sure I am staying in my calorie deficit. I started to interment fast, not a crazy one just 12:12, but its helping the food noise and helping me be more structured.

Just adding to my accountability post! Had a reality check recently. As I was going over food log I noticed that I was letting too much processed stuff creep into my routine – protein bars, powders, low-carb bread, cookies (not just 1) fast food (small amounts but still) – and my gut wasn’t having it. I had to get honest with myself about what I was actually eating. So, I hit the reset button and went back to whole, real foods. I even started making my own sourdough again, and let me tell you, the bloat is basically gone, my energy is up, and that annoying food noise is finally quieting down. The scale is moving down, but more importantly, I just feel so much better!

Hi! I got a SADI 5 weeks ago and have really been fighting nausea ever since. The nausea pills make it worse for me, and I'm on the double set of PPI to keep the GERD down (which is only working moderately well). I'm not nauseous constantly, but it's inconsistent enough to confuse me. I've been struggling to know what's causing it when every issue seems to come with nausea as a symptom. I'm trying to stay hydrated but not drink too fast, eat but don't eat non-tolerated foods, take my meds but do it with food, etc. Since the nausea goes away each morning I'm guessing it's not an ulcer or something like that. I'm in talks with my surgeon ofc, but I just wanted to reach out and see how you all deal with this? I thought it would be better by now and I'm really miserable. I'd love to stop eating but I know my meds will give me more nausea on an empty stomach.

Yeah I agree with you! Or it can even depends of car that you are riding, because one day I rented a luxury car and my sickness was on a really low level but when I got taxi OMG! I wanted to run away from that car as fast as I can!

A couple things related to my weight gain - when I gained weight it was due to eating fast food/junk food during nursing school and then the pandemic (people sending goodies to hospitals) and the stress of the job. I also had two traumatizing relationships in that mix - what was 30lbs would have been 60lbs pre-wls When I was gaining weight, I wasn't stepping on the scale. So now, I do this often to keep me accountable. You are going to regain some, your stomach is tiny and then the swelling goes down and you can eat more (and you should)! I feel like wls is the only way I could have kept this off. The best thing is that the food noise is gone! I would redo the surgery once a year, every year, if I had to. That's how important is been to me.

I had been part time following the pre ops diet and cutting down on my food sizes a few weeks before I got news of my operation date : may 26, the same date 5 years ago I knew I was going to gain weight because of pregnancy complications. So the first two and the half weeks I just did more pre- ops eating (modifast in 4 different flavors) . They are quite tolerable. I usually had a normal (small sizemeal) in the evening with the kids. Now starting last Sunday, (18 may) I am on a full water fast for 5 days. Meaning my fast ends today at 19:20. I have my modifast oatmeal ready should I really need to eat something at that hour. Tomorrow Saturday I shall be on liquid pre ops meals as prescribed. Sunday will be another day on liquid only in preparation for my operation on Monday. I tell you what this is my body and I am determined to get it back. The operation is not a magic pill. It is just a tool in my toolbox. The way I think about food and how and why and when I ingest it- that to me is the magic. I am focusing very much in discovering my cues and knowing what triggers my eating habits. I am learning to say no all together when I am invited to that snack moment at work to eat what so ever what when I truly know I do not need it. - I am learning to say ’No’ and knowing it will be okay. I take it a minute at a time. We shall get through this and we will not turn back. I want to be able to jump into every photo without cringing I want to feel good and run about with my kids without feeling pain, exhausted and above all guilty. I am doing this for my boys and then for myself. We will be alright guys. We got this.