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I had my op October 2021, Doing great, the weight loss is coming off. 5 and a half stone so far, I feel so much better and able to move more, I am happier thats for sure! However I do have a question......Just recently when I eat, straight after I get all hot, sweaty and shaky and have palpitations almost like a diabetic Hypo(low blood sugar) . However I checked my blood sugar, and it is normal. Am I eating too fast? I have no other symptoms. This is just weird!!! Love & Light

I’m 11.5 months post op and I have lost 175 lbs total since this process. Starting weight was 358, surgery day weight was 331, current weight 183! Prior to my surgery, I was terrible at logging food, exercising regularly, and had a terrible relationship with food (addiction, portion control, etc). Of course I knew what to do conceptually but the follow through was the issue. I told myself (and truly believe) that the surgery was not the fix! It’s just a tool! A tool that allows me to fix the broken things. What I’m getting at is, although logging food is “difficult”, it’s necessary! You have to be willing do do things differently and consistently if you want to reach your goals. Set up your environment to help you be more consistent: meal plan, log your planned foods the night before or first thing in the morning. Proactivity rather than reactivity is key! I treat my food log like I budget my finances, I track input and output and plan ahead! You got this! You just have to tell yourself you’ll do what it takes. The habits that got you in this situation won’t get you out of it! Embrace your second chance at becoming the best version of yourself and focus on the inputs and the desired outputs will happen! Don’t be afraid to consult your medical team and seek mental health help if need be. We all decided we can’t do it on our own which is why we took this journey. You owe it to yourself to be better than you think you can be! Good luck!

thank you both for the comments! nice to know people are reading my musings @Stella S thanks mama and congratulations on maintenance! @MiniGastricBypassDude thank you! i find it easy to maintain late 170s no problem i did for over a year. i actually would like to drop pounds and get to say 160 if i dont look too small. im about 5'8 and around 180 i look pretty normal. wearing a US 8 or UK 12 in jeans and US6/UK10 on tops. i often crave popcorn and i think thats to do with zinc. cookie dough currently because there is a chocolate orange version i saw and chocolate orange is my absolute favorite LOL. Yesterday i went running, and then just ran errands with my friend, i havent brought a new scale or been able to locate a battery so just really thinking about what i am eating and physical activity. im sure calories came in at about 1300, so i do need to watch it more. I have a friends birthday tonight and will be drinking. my day should look like 2 protein shakes, 2 cocktails, and small amounts of what i want to eat, im off to Hakkasan! i think from monday i will stop eating at 7pm, also want to reach out to my GP as i think i might be reactive hypoglycemic,

mine isn't chronic, but I was experiencing occasional reactive hypoglycemia (RH) when I got to be about two years out (it'd hit me about two hours or so after eating - not all the time, but enough that i knew something was going on and had a complete work-up). My PCP recommended eating something about every three hours - preferably a protein - and if I DID eat a carb, to be sure to pair it with a protein. Seems to have helped - I rarely have that issue anymore. btw - if yours is due to RH, that's not unheard of with bypass (not sure about the mini version of bypass, though...)

You look wonderful! Do you mind me asking if insurance paid for any of your plastic surgery? If not, how much did it cost? I am currently pre op (surgery date is 1/18/22) so I know I'm getting ahead of myself but I am 54 and anticipate lots of loose skin. Hopefully you are feeling better these days and have figured out your reactive hypoglycemia issues.

Exactly this! Now I literally eat what ever I want because I exercise a lot. Early on, my cravings were for protein, fruits, and veggies. I do not eat much in the way of concentrated sugars at this point, due to reactive hypoglycemia, (said as I munch on some teddy Graham’s). 🤦🏼‍♀️With that said, I am in maintenance, ran 4 miles today, and do not want to lose weight. In maintenance, you can eat foods you want to eat providing they do not make you physically ill or cause you to gain unwanted weight.

While I wouldn't call it "weird", as this topic asks (and I can't find a regular-NSV thread): My rosacea has gone! It literally vanished about six days out of hospital, and hasn't come back. My skin hasn't been this clear in a LONG time, and I can't recall the last time my face was the same colour as my neck. Was not expecting this bonus, as I have reactive skin, but I am thrilled.

Ugh. Your poor thing, that sucks. I have reactive skin and will welt up with some adhesives, so I know how that feels.

I’m four, nearly five years out and had out some weight on because I rediscovered sugar. I’m now involved in a running battle with sugar and eating. intermittent fasting really helps, low carb helps but I now have this intense reaction to carbs and I’m at a loss. the extra weight - just a few pounds now, goes if I fast. The obsession with food goes too. But I get cramps and am sure I’m not eating enough when I do fast. feel a bit stuck! Had chips last night and my blood sugar shot up to 20 just after then down to four within 3 hours. But, if I do intermittent fasting, blood sugar stays constant at around 6. anyone dealing with similar?

only about 30% of RNYers dump, and for those who do, it can be prevented by limiting or avoiding sugar (which we all should be doing ANYWAY). A minority of dumpers dump on fat, so they can prevent it by limiting their fat intake (for most dumpers, though, it's sugar - or rather, too much of it at one setting - that sets it off). I've never dumped - and many of us haven't. I wouldn't call it a horror story, to be honest. It's mostly preventable, and again, a majority of us don't dump. blood sugar issues: Not sure what exactly you're referring to. Some people develop reactive hypoglycemia (RH), but like dumping, that can be controlled. I have it. I just have to eat something every 3-4 hours - and if I eat a carb, I have to eat a protein with it. Haven't had an episode it probably three years. So it's not a horror story - it's kind of a minor issue that can be controlled. In my mind, dumping in RNY patients (30% of them) vs acid reflux in sleeve patients (also 30% of them) is kind of a wash. Although at least dumping can be controlled. RH is a lot less common, but again, it's largely controllable. I've been really happy with my RNY - I'd do it again in a heartbeat! P.S. there seems to be a Wisconsin theme going on here...

Ultimately, it's no one's job but yours to figure out the best stuff to put in your body. People will always eat awful stuff because it's readily available and tastes good. People will equate offering food with offering affection, support, etc. (even though for someone trying to lose weight, this is backwards and crazy...it's just habit and they don't think about it) For some people it's a manners thing...I can't eat in front of someone else without offering to share, regardless of what I'm eating. Doen't matter if I'm eating a protien bar or a donut...if you're hanging out with me and I think you might be hungry...I'll offer you half. You can always say no. Sometimes, I make a mindful decision to eat junk food. I budget for it in my daily calories and I like proving to myself that I control food and food doesn't control me anymore. I like eating junk now, because I don't enjoy it as much as I used to and I don't feel out of control. I know that sounds crazy....but seriously...there is a satisfying victory in consuming 200 calories of something I used to be totally out of control with...and go...you know what? That's good, but I can take it or leave it now. I LOVE that I can take it or leave it now. And I really love that I'm being dead honest about that, because I have spent a lifetime lying to myself about food. I very honestly am not as reactive about food as I used to be...and that's a HUGE victory. Yep, I still like fat, sugar and salt. Most people do. But I can take them or leave them, and I can budget a sensible serving and not have my nutrition day ruined. I credit part of that to revamping my eating habits and microbiota due to the surgery, and part to food addiction work with my bariatric therapist. Both have been incredibly important.

dumping syndrome is pretty rare with sleeve, but it does happen to some people. However, it occurs very shortly after eating - like within an hour or so (usually less), so yours might be something else. Reactive hypoglycemia (sometimes called "late dumping") happens to some people who've had bypass - not sure about sleeve. Similar symptoms (well, the rapid heart rate, anyway - and dizziness), but that happens two or three hours after eating a bunch of sugar - but that doesn't sound like what you have, either. Not sure what's going on. Maybe you should check with your bariatric clinic and see if they know what might be causing it. I'm wondering if maybe you've developed an intolerance to certain foods or something (??).

I am 5 months post op sleeve and 2 weeks post op Gall bladder removal. Just wondering if anyone who had wls and Gall bladder surgery takes any enzymes or made any major changes to diet due to not having a gall bladder anymore. I like to be more proactive than reactive.

Wow, I just looked at my license and it's 100 pounds over where I am now. When we came back to AZ 6 years ago they just reactivated the license from 25(?) years ago, when the weight was a terrible, terrible lie. Oddly enough, it still has my height from 25(?) years ago. I've since shrunk by a couple inches. I don't want to be shorter on my license so I'll live with the weight. Tek

Thanks for the NSV shares folks - I love stopping in on this thread for a little inspiration. below are some more recent NSV I've had: yesterday I was on my feet in the kitchen for 3 hours cleaning and doing food prep. I still had enough energy to go for a walk afterward. Previously, I would have been exhausted and in too much pain after that much time on my feet to even contemplate more activity. I've seen some of you mention this...revved up libido and increased "romantic joy". It's really really really REALLY true. Everything about sex is just way more fun. DH and I celebrated our 25th anniversary this week like it was our honeymoon! 😂 I reactivated an old back injury recently and was able to do the rehab exercises much easier than when I was 60 pounds heavier and I started feeling better in less than half the time than I would have prior to WLS. I'm fitting in size 16 bottoms and large tops and was able to buy clothing for myself at Costco for the first time ever. I got a couple of cute shirts for 6 bucks, an unheard of price for the plus-size clothes that Costco doesn't even carry. My husband can pick me up and has decided that his new workout is called "wife lifting". I'm perfectly fine with this, you know...gotta support his fitness goals! 😂😂😂

I have definitely had the hungry/not hungry feeling since surgery, so I totally get where you are coming from @Arabesque! 🥰 Anything too greasy has been completely unpalatable. I am very thankful I tolerate protein bars and shakes or I would be in a bad place for getting enough protein. I know I need protein to heal, but meat has not sounded good at all since surgery. We had dinner at some friends’ house last week. They served salmon and flank steak. I only manage a couple bites of the steak and gave the rest to Husband. I managed about 2 ounces of the salmon. 🤷‍♀️ I bought a jar of no stir peanut butter to keep at work to eat with fruit. The fat and protein should help with the reactive hypoglycemia to stabilize my blood sugar from the fruit. 🤞🏻🤞🏻I also have walnuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, dips, cheeses. I already use high protein milk for my protein shakes, so they are protein packed. My goal is to maintain my weight at 130-135. I need to gain a pound 🤣🤣 I plan to start working out as soon as I am healed, which will help with appetite, but conversely burn those extra calories. 🤦🏼‍♀️🤷‍♀️ So many skinny girl problems! 🤣😂🤣

So I had plastic surgery 3 weeks ago tomorrow. My surgery included belt lipectomy/360 tummy tuck, and breast lift with augmentation. Recovery has been tougher than I expected due to fatigue. I went back to work (RN in a large clinic) last Monday. The fatigue was unreal. On Tuesday, one of the doctors I work with decided I should be checked for anemia. I popped over to our lab and had a quick blood draw. I had finished lunch about 45 prior to getting the blood drawn. The next day when I received my lab results, I was surprised to see my blood glucose was 59. 😲 I do not dump, so I have been eating more simple carbs and sugars to try to keep from losing more weight. I had been eating some candy on Tuesday prior to lunch. Apparently, I have reactive hypoglycemia. No more simple carbs and sugars for me, except small amounts with meals. The bummer part of this, (aside from feeling extra crappy with low blood sugars), is that I am really anxious about not losing any more weight and don’t know how I am going to keep the weight on without the extra calories. I guess I need to increase healthy fats to make sure I keep my calories up. With that said, I have lost about 3 pounds since my plastic surgery. I never thought I would be stressed about losing weight. 🙄🤷‍♀️ I have an appointment with my surgeon’s office in a week and I am looking forward to discussing this with them. My labs also show some iron deficient anemia. I was not iron deficient nor anemic prior to plastics, so this is directly related to blood loss in surgery, and fairly simple to correct with diet and iron supplements (I don’t normally take any iron supplements). Over all, I am doing very well post-plastics. My pain has really been minimal since about day 3 post-plastics. I have had a bit of trouble with my incisions separating (dehiscence) in a few small spots. My husband is a wound nurse, so we have been managing the wound care with pretty good results. I am thrilled to have breasts again after going from a 40 DD to a 34 A. 😬😬😬 Anyhow, here are bikini pics to show off my post-plastics body…swelling included. 😂

Absolutely. When I had my VSG ten years ago, most bariatric surgeons were just learning how to do them - while they are in concept simple and straightforward to perform, like anything else technical, there are subtleties and techniques in doing them correctly - "twenty years of doing bypasses and they think they know how to do a sleeve..." was the refrain from one prominent surgeon at the time. While the sleeve does have some predisposition toward GERD (much like the RNY is predisposed toward dumping, reactive hypoglycemia and marginal ulcers,) this was compounded in the early days by surgeons who hadn't yet figured out the technique to consistently get them right to minimize that predisposition, and to some extent continues today in areas that were slower to adopt the sleeve and are behind the learning curve. This is a good part of the reason that I travelled 400 miles to a practice that had been doing them for twenty years (at that time) rather than a local practice that had been doing something else for twenty years. Talk to your doctor on interpreting this. Hiatal hernias are common with morbidly obese people, and a common cause of heartburn. They can easily be fixed during the WLS procedure, so if that is the cause of your heartburn, things look better for you. A hiatal hernia can be described as a diaphragmatic hernia, but not all diaphragmatic hernias are necessarily a hiatal hernia - so get some clarification on that.

Yes I regret it and I wished I have never done it, I lost weight , I am thin but I'm not healthy. 3 years post op gbp and I'm battling what I suspect reactive hypoglycemia and dumping and vitamin issues. I am a wreck, I would advice nobody to get the surgery.

I am hypo and have PCOS. So far I am 3 weeks post surgery and down a little over 27lb. Prior to surgery, the only way I was able to drop any weight at all was to starve myself to the point where I would fast for a day a week. The pre op diet my Nutritionist put me on made me GAIN weight despite my pleas that it was not working. Per my insurance I was not allowed to go over my starting weight for a 6 month period. The frustration and restriction for so long was horrible. Now, it feels like I am finally free! Keep in mind that everyone’s bodies react differently to surgery. If you are on thyroid meds, be sure not to take within two hours of iron or calcium supplements, and 4 hours of antacids, otherwise they will not be absorbed correctly. I would also highly recommend follow up labs for thyroid at 2 months post op to see how your hormones are responding.

yes. It's probably reactive hypoglycemia (RH), which isn't that uncommon among RNYers. It usually appears when you're a year or two out. I have to eat something every 3-4 hours and limit my sugar intake. If I eat a carb, I have to eat a protein with it. As long as I follow these "rules", I rarely have the problem oh - if you're getting sweats and dizziness right away after eating, it's more likely dumping. If it's an hour or two later, it's most likely RH.

Revision is such an interesting topic! I'm hoping I can get the rest of my weight off on my own, but my Surgeon and Endo are talking about some sort of revision that might help my reactive hypoglycemia. I hope everyone does well with their revision and appointments! I would also love to hear how everyone is doing after!

One of the major reasons I had VSG was to get off my diabetes meds. I haven't taken any since immediately post-op. Yay! Now I have the opposite problem. My fasting glucose yesterday was 71, which is approaching the danger zone. I'm shaky every morning and I can't exercise or I feel like absolute garbage. Three "meals" per day isn't an option - I have to snack or my levels tank. At only 6 weeks out, I'm not eating any carb-heavy foods or anything not on my plan, and I take in the appropriate number of calories for this stage. All water and protein goals met 99% of the time. It's too early to have "reactive hypoglycemia," so they're sending me to an endocrinologist to figure out why this is happening. They also suggested I eat some yogurt before bed and before exercising (I'm only taking the dogs for walks around the neighborhood at this point) and that actually seemed to help. Their reasoning is that it contains both protein and carbs. Anyone else have this issue? Is it our bodies trying to adjust to the new normal? Is it too few calories for too long a period? I had grand plans of taking up hiking with my Life Scout son, but at this rate I'll never be able to go anywhere I can't get medical attention.

Hi all! I am 18 months post gastric bypass. The experience has been great and I have not had any complications. My biggest issue is reactive hypoglycemia. When I eat too much sugar and/or carbs, my blood sugar tanks about an hour after. Does anyone else struggle with this? Any tips or tricks to better manage? I know it is completely diet related.

That is curious, and beyond my limited experience! I suppose that is can be strictly an esophageal problem, though as I noted, I have only seen such things as they related to other root causes. No, I haven't had such a revision, though it was suggested at one time for another issue, but I have avoided having to go that route (with the help of some second opinions that basically said to leave well enough alone for now.) I do have minor GERD, which is readily treated with low level OTC meds, so there is nothing worth fixing at this point on that account. The sleeve is predisposed to GERD by virtue that the stomach volume is reduced a lot more than its acid producing potential, but the body usually adapts to that over a few months, and most surgeons prescribe a PPI for the initial few months and then wean off of them. (Similarlly, the RNY is predisposed to dumping, reactive hypoglycemia and marginal ulcers, so there is no free lunch in that regard, no matter what procedure one goes with - there is always some risk there.) I would prefer to keep the sleeve as long as it cooperates, as the RNY is a little bit fussier to live with, but it's not the end of the world, either, and certainly preferable to what you are going through; my wife has a DS which is a bit fussier still, so I'm familiar with all that entails if I need to go there. The surgeon who has adopted our local support group does quite a few oddball and esoteric revisions (like the complex RNY to DS), people come from across the country to see him, and he sometimes pulls up scans on his laptop of one of the wonky sleeves that has come his way, so we get some feel of what can be done, that other surgeons pass on. That's why I brought up the stricture idea (beyond your regurgitation sounding like that might be it,) because that is something that many surgeons prefer to revise away rather than correct. I does seem like you are heavily restricted, much more so than normal for a normal sleeve, or RNY. 500 calories isn't so bad - it's not that unusual for people with any of these WLS to still be down there, though more commonly somewhat higher in the 6-800 calorie range; it's the water intake that I would be concerned with as dehydration will get one thrown into the hospital a lot faster than low protein or other nutrients in the short to intermediate term. The vast majority of people go through this, an RNY, or VSG, or a DS, with little or no complications, but sometimes they crop up; hopefully, you have had your share of them now and that's it. In some respects, the RNY is a more familiar procedure for the surgeons,, even if they don't do as many of them as sleeves, as it has been around in bariatrics for 40-50 years, so most started out with them; the basic procedure upon which it is based has been around for some 140 years in treating gastric cancer and other GI maladies, so it is familiar territory for most; the VSG on the other hand, had more limited application until it was created/adopted for WLS as part of the original BPD/DS, so it was not as widely used until the DS guys started using it some by itself (usually as part of a two stage DS) and saw that it offered good weight loss all on its own, so I wouldn't worry too much about your surgeon's experience with it, as that was the default WLS in Canada until fairly recently.