Hi Everyone, hope you are well and are loosing. For those researching, you've come to the right place. The Vertical Sleeve Talk forum has awesome info. Keep reading experiences, threads and searching by words, Drs. etc. and you'll find your info in a new or old post.

So here is my experience in a nut shell: This surgery was super easy for me (see My Great Experiance w/Dr. Watkins).

Many times I've forgotten that I have had it. At first, I was freaked out by how much I can eat.. It varies from day to day. (It is interesting to note that the stomach can be as short as 7 in to as along as 12 inches so that can affect the amount of food that one can eat - even though sleeved- due to natural lenghth) Some days, I can eat 1 cup of blueberries or 6 chicken mcnuggets from Mc Donalds. Other days, I am not hungry at all for Breakfast and get filled up from a poached egg. In the beginning, it scared me how much I could eat. Also I found it frustrating when I only ate a little, I kept getting hungry soon afterward and didn't feel satisfied.

I hope that I am fine, (maybe I am still eating too quickly?) but I find that I am much happier eatting till I am full-even though sometimes it seems like a lot. I do find that I don't get hungry as quickly. My DUH moment came when I actually forgot that I should be eatting more veggies and fruit. This sounds really stupid, but sometimes you keep focusing on protien, soft foods, and foods you've missed out (bread) on in the past few weeks and forget the basics. Veggies fill up and are low calorie. The less calories = more weightloss over time.

So even though I can eat more that I thought I would be able to, "pigging out" is like 1400 cal vs. pre-surgery probably 3000+ day. My weightloss is slow, but I can see that eventually I'll get there. I've never vomited or slimed, so for those that want surgery that is easy to hide from others in a social situation, this is a breeze. Suprisingly, I did get stuck last week. It was my own fault for trying to choke down a salad with pecans too quickly and not chewing enough. The pain passed and I was fine in a couple of minutes.

I find it pretty easy to stay below 1200 calories day. Now that I've remembered and can eat veggies, I plan on having days where the number goes down. For me, fat is probably the most filling. I don't know why, maybe its because my brain registers meat, eggs or veggies with dip/FAT in them, but Dr. Watkins recommended having some veggies dipped in olive oil and that seems to be helping.

Any other advice out there from sleevers of any sort?

Thanks for that reminder, I've been seeing the same thing lately,,, that the key is more veggies, and really low carb is helping me to lose again. I've been trying to always have a low carb high protein snack with me all the time, and when I get hungry,, i eat.