Hello everyone,

I have been lurking around for a bit and finally decided to dive in.. thank you in advance for the feedback I am hoping to receive.

I had my surgery in June 2011, lost about 50lbs between then and early October.. since then I have just been up and down and I am getting really discouraged. Part of it I know is because I am getting off track, part of it I am not sure why/what is going on..

1. I get full quickly,after small meals, but even after my Protein.. I am hungry again maybe a 2 hrs later.. why?

2. Sweets have always been my demise .. and I have realized that they go down VERY easily with the sleeve, I just cant have nearly as much as I used to. I feel like I should have gotten the Bypass rather than the sleeve, as I have heard you cannot do much sweets/sugar at all with that one. Is this true?

The fact that I can eat sweets is becoming a disaster.. granted, I cannot eat like I used to (got carried away once with chicken and was miserable for a good 30 min after until it went down) .. but I had NO IDEA that they would be so easy to eat.

3. Water - I am never thirsty as I was prior to surgery.. and its hard to drink more than 30 oz of water a day

Does anyone have any suggestions, help they can provide. Please address all 3 of my points if possible.. thanks so much

It is a common problem, you are not alone, sweets craving always find their way back. The good thing is that you know the problem and definetly there is a way out of this sweet dilemma. I find myself going on curves with my sweet tooth. Somedays I have the power to just say no.. other I just take a bite or two of a chocolate cake and the rest of the days I JUST CANT STOP! I use to suffer from dumping when I eat sweets but now I can go extra further before feeling the dumping syndrome attacking me. SO it will all be in ur will power to say no and find scale changes, which will keep u going forward on saying no to ur head hunger for sweets.. u may then allow urself a small indulgence but the scale victory will keep ur willpower going strong.

Try tricking yourself when u feel the need for sweet.. by just filling on Water which is gonna make up for the lack of ur Fluid intakes. I dont believe in low calorie/carbs Desserts so I Will never suggest to someone indulging on them instead.

As for the hunger, I think at this stage it is totally normal cause your stomach capacity is just getting to its finish result, It doesnt mean it is stretching but all it means is that your swelling is going down and u are having ur real final capacity, so may be u are still confused by ur new capacity and eating less but quicker.. so u need to start chewing really well, adding more Protein to ur meal and checking if that will fill u up better for more hours. I dont see it a bad thing to eat every 3 hours BUT then you will need to be really strict with ur QUALITY of food.. so why not snack on REAL protein like chicken/beef/fish.. give urself a time to know if you are really hungry or just confused with head hunger.

FINALLY! EXERCISE .. u need to tick ur body and poke it once again to start giving up on the pounds its hanging on.

There is no way too much weight or way too less weight with the sleeve.. everything just take a time and honestly some if not a lot of mental effort before physical effort.. Keep visualizing your goal weight and work on it:) U WILL DO IT:)

I can completely relate to the OP! I was sleeved in June too and find the carb monster has come home to roost. Especially at certain times of the month. I can't find the motivation to exercise every day even though when I do I feel much better. What's up with that?

I'm hovering just over 200 now and have decided to exercise every day until I'm below 200. After that maybe I hope I will be motivated to keep doing it everyday.

I just need to get off my butt and stay out of the carbs! I have a houseful of people that are all sweet junkies so it's really hard to keep them out of the house. I need to be firm though. I should only allow the stuff I don't like. vanilla ice cream could sit in the freezer for years and I wouldn't touch it. Bring chocolate in though and it's gone like that!

We can do this. Let me know how you're doing and we'll get there together!