Advice please :-)

[Guest sydneyjonno]

Hi all I had my gastric bypass on the 10th of May and lost 6kg (13lb) in the 1st 10 days post op and was over the moon. I have stuck to the dietitian's guidelines to the letter but in the last 10 days I have only lost a further 1kg (2.2lb). So total in 20 days 7kg (15.4lb) I've started to exercise have exercised 5 out of the last 7 days, I'm doing a 12km (7.5 mile) walk / jog each morning before work. Have just progressed from 3 optifasts with added fat free, low carb powder a day to 2 optifasts with added fat free, low carb powder a day plus one small puréed fish meal. Small meal, about 4 tablespoons. Takes about an hour to get down. No real restrictions with fluids. Good restrictions with the pureed fish. Taking sugar free liquid Multivitamin daily, 2 x chewable Calcium and vit d tabs. Taking a liquid sugar free Biotin supplement (just prophylactically) for skin / hair / nail health. No sugar, just stevia. Fat free added calcium milk in tea. 2-3 litres of fluids a day. Is this small amount of weight loss normal? Is this just a stall? Is this all I'm going to lose? If it is a stall, has anyone else had stalls this early on? Any advice would be gratefully received. This is may average daily intake:

Total Fluid 2400ml

Protein - 92gm

Fat - 14.8gm

Carbs - 64gm

Cals - 738

Thanks :-)

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Edited May 30, 2016 by sydneyjonno

[Daisee68 2,493]

It is the famous 3 week stall. You have lost 15 pounds in 20 days! That is amazing! I actually gained coming out of the hospital due to the all the fluids (and imagine you did too) so given that, the loss is great! I thought I was a slow loser too and I will be 1 year out this week and down 120 pounds since surgery (145 total including pre-op diet). Those losses add up! Here are some suggestions:

1) Stay off the scale for a week (admittedly, I was never able to do that but just thought I would throw it out there ). Hopefully the stall will be broken in a week and you will see the loss and can decide how you want to weigh going forward.

2) Are you able to eat more than 1 meal per day? Seems that is a little low. If you are able to eat more than once, I would look in to having at least 2 (maybe 3) small meals per day at this stage. Take no longer than 30 minutes to eat. If you are not done with your 4 Tbsp in 30 minutes, put it away and have it at the next meal. Do you need some suggestions for foods other than fish or were you instructed to just have fish?

3) Are you able to drink something other than Optifast for shakes? I think there are some much better options - but it may depend on what your dr instructed and where you are located geographically.

[Daisee68 2,493]

One other thing - I just read your other posts and see that you are a revision patient. My understanding is that revision patients tend to lose slower. Given that information, I would say you are doing OUTSTANDING! Give it some time. You have been through this before and I can only imagine how anxious you are given the past surgeries, but try to put that behind you and just press on. You got this!

[Guest sydneyjonno]

Thanks for your reply and words of encouragement. It means a lot. I haven't told any family or friends about my weight loss ops. Just my partner. So don't have many to talk to or get advice from. I've already been researching the procedure of going from bypass to BPD if this one fails in the future. Stupid I know. I'm only 3 weeks out!

I think your right about being a revision patient. This is my 3rd weight loss op. 1st SAGB, 2nd Sleeve, now Bypass.

Maybe I'm expecting too much too soon and fearing the worst after past failures / complications.

I'm in a remote off shore location with limited shopping options and and have a few boxes of optislim and Optifast and a couple of tubs of whey Protein powder so was just planning on using them up until they're all gone then was hoping to be on more regular style food by the time I've used then up. I have about 6 weeks worth left.

I just used the fish because it was what I had in the freezer and knew it was a good Protein source. I just poached them in a little fat free Calcium added milk with peas, onion and garlic and pureed it. Enough to last a few days.

Then I have some chicken breasts in the freezer, was going to slowly boil them and throw in some roasted garlic, carrot and onion and blitz them up with a bit of stock and eat that for a few days then see how I'm going.

Yes absolutely if you have any recipes that would help me out I'd be most grateful.

Also I guess I could try to eat more than one meal a day but I'm thinking the longer I continue with high Protein shakes and less actual food the better my chances of losing weight?! Also I am sipping on Water all day, few cups of tea here and there, optislim / Protein Shakes, then my 4 tbsp fills me up for over an hour then I'm almost relieved when the hour is up and I can get back to my fluids.

BMs are also being a problems. Going from constipated. Almost unable to pass to diarrhea taking daily coloxyl and senna but never know if I'm going to make it worse or better by taking them if you know what I mean. I was taking lactulose and prune juice initially but stopped that when I realised how much sugar / carbs where in them.

Jeez you'd think by now on my 3rd op I'd be more of an expert with these things by now!!!

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Edited May 30, 2016 by sydneyjonno

[Daisee68 2,493]

Well you have come to the right place then. Tons of advice and support on here regardless of your geographical location!

Eating too little can actually be counterintuitive and slow your weight loss. Remember that you have to start thinking of this as a lifestyle of new habits and eating - not a "diet".

I don't know that I have any great suggestions for food given you have different types of food than we do. I ate things like hummus, soft cheeses, refried Beans, cottage cheese, yogurt, sugar free pudding, etc. in the soft food stage but I struggled with that for a while because I had a stricture (which I didn't discover until the 3rd month) so I had difficulty keeping too much more solid things down until after that. Hopefully some others closer to your part of the world can make some suggestions.