Hi,

(This is a long one - sorry) :help:

I am just 2 weeks out from surgery, and have to confess that my food intake has become more mushy consistency than the thick liquid I should be on for the first 4 weeks. I have also had a few bites of solids (soft solids, and well chewed). I have had no problems tolerating anything I have tried, and I have been very careful to stay below 1000 calories - mostly below 800.

The problem is I am not losing at all - I lost 1kg in the first week post op and have now put that 1kg back on. I did 2 weeks of Optifast before the surgery, and lost 10kg (22lbs) but now that I am banded I am not doing well.

It is so demoralising - at my weight I should be able to eat way more than I am and still lose weight. I am using optifast shakes and Protein powder to make sure I get my protein in, but I am still hungry with the small portions. It was this which made me increase the texture of my liquids to more mushy in the hope that it would fill me up more.

This weekend I was really bad - only time I may have exceeded 1000 calories. We had friends visiting on Saturday night and they got pizza, so I got a Turkish take away (quite soft rice with a spinach and feta filo parcel. I pretty much ate 1/3 for one meal, 1/3 several hours later and 1/3 for my evening meal next day. I also had a smallish dish of hotcakes with rhubarb and apple for my lunch on the Sunday. All the "solids" I had were quite soft, and I chewed them well and took it slowly, but had no problems at all. Now I am scared that I will have done some damage by taking solids too soon.

All in all I am feeling like a complete failure - rushing the post op diet and not losing anything since surgery. My mum paid for my surgery and will kill me if I don't succeed.

Please be gentle with your responses - I am feeling pretty low as it is.

Thanks for reading my whinge.

Firstly many people do not start to really lose until their first fill. Also are you excercising? That is the true key to weight loss.

Secondly, you should be following your doctors advice and doing the post op diet. Maybe you have caused some damage by having solids too soon (or maybe not) so you need to stop now. You want your sutures to heal to help your band stay in place and that is not going to be helped by eating solids. A soft solid is still a solid no matter how much it is chewed. Sorry if that is not what you want to hear, but it is what it is.

Make sure you follow your doctors prescribed diet. It is really important for you to continue to heal. Don't focus on the weight loss as it will come once you start getting fills. I even gained 7 lbs between fills in the beginning. Good luck.

Hi,

Thanks to those who replied.

I spoke to the nurse yesterday - it is her who takes care of the dietary side of things.

She has ok-ed me to have soft foods with plenty of chewing, as the swelling around my stomach has obviously gone right down if I am hungry and able to tolerate soft solids. She has also said that she will do a fill on my next appointment (in 3 wks - 5 wks post op) so the future is looking brighter.

RE: the weight gain. We have come to the conclusion that it may have been caused by the fact that the Optifast diet is designed to put your body into ketosis, and now that I am on mushies a lot of the easy mushies are quite high carbs. Hopefully my body should sort itself out soon and continue to lose.

Thanks for your replies.