So I'm also 9 months post out now! Time sure does fly. I'm not too far from my goal weight, and I may actually decrease it to a lower number, but it has come to a turtle crawl. I would like opinions of others that are near this far out (or even further vets!) and what you think about going back and doing protein shakes again like in the beginning after surgery 3 times a day. I do the premier protein, 30 grams protein, 1g sugar). I have actually been doing this for a week now and am having no problems and my weight loss has started up again. I feel totally fine as long as I get all my water in. And before anyone mentions it, I am not really into trying the 5:2 plan even though I'm glad a lot of you love it. I may try it one day, but right now my mind is on only shakes. My dietician seemed ok with it, she just said "don't get too far ahead if yourself", not real sure what she meant. But if I could do this for maybe 3 more weeks (I'm on week 1), heck, I think I could hit goal weight. Of course I think I would have to introduce normal foods in slowly once I'm ready to stop the shakes, but I'm getting all my vitamins in and my bloodwork just came back perfect. So any thoughts, suggestions? Advice? It seems to be working just fine so far, so I'm curious if anyone else this far out, or further, has done something similar. I would love your feedback! Thanks so much!

I've never really stopped the shakes. I have a premier shake every morning for Breakfast and a Quest Protein bar for lunch and regular food for dinner plus nut Snacks and fresh fruit snacks. I'm currently 2 pounds below goal and feel great.

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I still use shakes two or three times a week, but think real varied food is always best. I try and eat food that I want to eat after goal as well, just a little less until I get there. You have to do what you think is best, but you are so close to goal, why eat artificially to get there? It may take you a few weeks longer eating real whole food....

I too drink shakes daily. Usually two a day on normal no fast days I have been thinking about this as well. I have been on the 5.2 diet, this being my 4th week and I've lost 2 pounds. I have read some articles that say that for women this diet doesn't work as well as it does for men. I'm beginning to think it may not work for me. But that doesn't mean it doesn't work. I read some of some pretty good results from the 5.2. So by no means am I saying it doesn't work. Just maybe not for me. I decided today to go back on shakes. I'm 16 months out and I really want to get to goal. I've been stuck since MAY! I've lost 128 pounds. I'm going to try the shakes for awhile. Not sure if I will be able to stick to it but I'm going to try. I feel if you are doing great and feeling great, there isn't anything wrong with it. I see my PCP on Wed and I will have my blood work done then. I hope to stay on the shakes for at least a week to get rid of the sugar cravings I have. I don't do well on non fast days. I'm sure that is my problem and why I've only lost two pounds. I need to re start and cleanse!

Congratulations on your weight loss moving again.

Look at the boot camp diet I just posted. You will lose weight with that diet, and not have to starve on liquids only. Most people just gain back what they lose when they do liquids, as soon as they return to 3 meals a day.

That boot camp diet works really well, if you push the Water.

I still drink at least one shake a day, if I didn't, I couldn't get in all my protein.

I drink a shake for breakfast every day too, and have for 7 years. I wouldn't eat any breakfast if I didn't do that. i never was a breakfast eater. I love my shakes. I don't want them for 3 meals a day though.

I think finding something that works for you is great. I did the pouch test/shakes thing to restart losses, I did not regain what I lost and it helped me get back on track. It was short term tho, the key was what I did after...which was carb control.

For me 5:2 worked because it reduced hunger on nonfast days..and really I also refocused on carbs.

I'm roughly 8.5 months post op and have lost 70% of my excess weight. It has been a snail pace since 6 months. I went back to shakes but never felt right, something was different and I can explain it. I lost a little for the few days but not enough to say it was from the shakes.

This week I decided to follow the Atkins phase 1 plan for 2 weeks. I'm not paying attention to calories, only carbs and Proteins. Today is day 4 and I'm down almost 3.5 lbs from the start. I am full all the time since the foods are mostly Protein and my head it clear. Im past the withdrawal of sugar and the cravings are now gone. I plan to sick to this until I can get another 10% off. My goal is 80% excess lost by 1 year. Although I would love to be closer to 85-90% at 1 year.

My plan from after this is similar to the basic diet, I will add back good carbs until I can find the balance of what I need to continue to lose.

I do a protein shake once a day to replace a meal but still eat food. I am ten months out and have reached my dr goal but would love to lost 25 more to reach my goal.

I drink at least 1 shake a day. My hard earned muscle would cannabalize itself (known as catabolic state) if I did not due to not meeting Protein requirement of ideal weight (lb) * .92. Sometimes i try to eat 1 g of protein per ideal weight. my weight is currently 172 and my ideal weight is 180. Used to be a fan of Protein Bars because they tasted good and seemed like an easy way to up daily protein. You want your body to be in an anabolic state for muscle growth so do eat as much protein as you are able to. Protect those muscles!

My preferred bar was pure protein because high protein and low carb. The only problem is that they are slider for me and have recently been tasting really bland and overly processed. After tastes stick out like a sore thumb. So I do not eat them any longer (except in emergency) and instead eat a good quality source of protein and a small serving of veggie. For example, at snack time today (10 am), I had 3 ounces of bbq pulled pork (fairly lean) and an ounce steamed broccoli. Filled me up just fine.

On most days, I do eat most of my meals now from real food and have a casein shake before I go to bed. Casein shakes are awesome at night because i always wake up feeling lean. On training days (5 days a week), 40 g of Protein Shake is mixed in with a serving of 1/2 cup steel oats 2x a day (once for Breakfast and once 1.5 hours before training is to begin). Not sure if you want to count these as "shakes", but I guess you can, placing my daily shake count at 3 on those training days. Sometimes I have a shake after training, but not so much any longer. Instead I eat an AMRAP bar which is higher in carbs (17 g) and a little lower in protein (14 g). Just what i need after a hard WOD. as an aside, Most doctors will recommend eating high protein and low carb to lose weight regardless of WLS.

I think this approach is fine for trying to get to goal. I recommend that you consider a cycle something like this:

1 month Protein shakes

2 - 4 weeks low carb, regular food

2 months of eating how you were eating prior to starting the Protein shakes

If you don't have any regain during the 2 months of normal eating, then you could repeat the cycle again if you wanted to lose any more weight. If you regain weight during the cycle then you may be at as low a weight as your body can sustain, and so I don't recommend repeating the cycle in that case.

Of course you have to do what you think will work for you.. I agree with ITsMe switching it up may help you keep moving. What ever you do.. physically, the most important thing is to keep your head in the game, which it sounds like you are. Good Luck!! you can do it

I drink a shake a day, too, even a few years out. I like my Protein to be around 90 grams a day.

I think that dieting - and going all liquid is definitely a diet - is something you should not do. Not only because it will be very challenging and perhaps discouraging. More because I think that part of what we do wrong prior to our sleeves is mess with our bodies. There's kind of a delicate balance, and I think that confusing your body by starving it all of a sudden might help you lose weight, but might also screw things up once you start eating again. I also think that our diets should be something we can maintain for life so that we can stay consistent. It's one thing to shave a couple hundred calories off and another thing entirely to cut your calories and carbs down the to bone.

The reality here is that even though that final stretch sucks the real goal isn't hitting your goal weight. It's being able to stay there, long term. Read these threads here in the vet forum. You'll see a lot of us struggling with our old destructive eating habits. You'll see plenty of regain posts. You'll see a number of people still not at goal, too.

You might very well hit goal on such a restrictive diet. But what comes next? How will you maintain that loss? If you think that you can do this and your number one priority is actually reaching goal, then do it. But my honest opinion is that you're hung up on just "getting there" and not really seeing what dieting to lose does to us. The real goal for us should be getting to goal and staying there, not getting to goal and bouncing up again only to have to diet back down again. That's a cycle many of us repeated for years (without ever reaching goal!) before surgery.

Do what works for you, though. For me, smaller changes can jump start my loss more effectively and are easier to maintain for the long run. For instance, I am still trying to lose seven stupid post baby pounds. I've shaved my daily calories back down to just above my loss phase intake (I did 700-900 to lose before - I'm between 1,000-1,100 a day right now). I don't count carbs. I do a modified version of 5:2 and add in my fast days as well, though I am considering dropping 5:2 altogether until maintenance because it doesn't really do much for me if I'm not eating 1,600+ calories a day. In any case, the loss is slow, slow, slow (as usual for me) but I'm dropping tenths of a pound each day, the scale is FINALLY moving again and I'm doing it eating real food without feeling deprived. If you can do the shakes, good for you. For me, after this much time eating "normally" there is no way I could do it without losing my mind and feeling like I was on Medifast again!

~Cheri

I have to agree with Cheri...

To the OP, it's been a month since you wrote this? Do you have any updates for us? What did you decide to do?

You've gotten a lot of great advice here...

Hi everyone. Yes, thank you all for your advice. I did do protein shakes for quite a while and I indeed hit goal. In fact I am a little below. I added food back in slowly and am now eating high protein/low carb and maintaining just fine, probably losing actually. So far so good, but I am past the protein shakes now. I'm on real food trying to hold steady where I'm at, but I won't complain if I lose 5 more pounds. I agree that the real challenge is maintaining not hitting goal (now that I have hit goal, hehe). I am going to do everything in my power to not gain.