I am nine days post-op for a VSG.

I read all the comments about how people take all day to finish a protein shake and I just don't. I have no troubles swallowing. I don't feel full (wasn't expecting to on liquids) but do know when I am full. But it only takes me about 30 minutes to finish a protein shake.

I feel like I'm eating too much—about 600-700 calories a day, about 100g-120g of protein (which is what my doctor suggested), and getting 96 oz. or so of fluid in me. I obviously cannot chug anything, but I can take full mouthfuls of liquid.

Am I just weird? I know I won't feel my restriction until I go on foods (which is still not until the end of October, three weeks of liquid and three weeks of purées), but... am I failing?

Are you losing weight? If so why would you be failing? If not still I would ask why would you be failing? Either way you are doing the best you can and assumedly following your guidelines.

My recovery was fairly boring, no real pain, no gas and fluids purees and soft foods were fairly easy to consume. It wasn't until solid foods that I really felt my restriction.

I am not sure why we go looking for trouble when things are going well.

Forums like this can skew perception. People tend to post about problems. They want help, or support, or just to rant. It's human nature. Amazingly enough, these are the MINORITY of patients.

When things are going well or as expected, as they usually do, people just keep doing what their doing... quietly.

Thus, we read about problem after problem, or perhaps more accurately, the same problems over and over.

Understand that generally, people having problems are NOT eating to plan (yet). They are having difficulties that are preventing it and, again generally, they are doing their best to get to plan.

If you are sailing smoothly along and are following your plan, you are doing great. Continue to focus on your plan, stay on your plan, be a plan-nazi. This will serve you later.

And my personal bugaboo: Stay off the scale. The scale creates most non-problems on this forum.

Continued good luck,

Tek

you're fine. I was exactly the same. Be glad that you're having an easy recovery - I did as well!

You’re pretty tall. Maybe that allows liquids to go down easier and work their way through your body.

Sounds good to me. When people have pain drinking fluids, sometimes it is a red flag of something potentially wrong since liquids go right through all of us. I was like you with my VSG and I was that way right after my recent revision to RNY. I think the reason we hear about those having difficulty is because they are prone to write and ask about it here and I certainly don't blame them because for example, when I had a huge lump under one of my incisions, I mentioned it here. You're good. Congrats on your surgery!

Edited September 24, 20214 yr by Tomo

I was the same way and i am fine. Six months out I am 20 pounds from goal. Current stall but I think I am still losing.

Thanks everyone for not jumping all over me...the immediate-release version of my antidepressant seems to be spiking my anxiety.

I haven't lost any weight in the last couple of days but I suspect it's "the stall" come a bit early. My surgeon says it happens when fluid balance is restored, and I've been really good about fluids (100 oz or so a day). I know that there's no way I'm "stopping" this early, not on 600-700 calories a day, so I'm just going to stay off the scale and move to weekly weigh-ins and measurements on Mondays.

I had minimal post op pain, no nausea, was able to consume liquids and all the ensuing food stages with no problem. I don’t get very hungry, really, and I stick to the my bariatric program very faithfully. Not saying this to toot my horn, but just to let you know that just because it seems easy doesn’t mean there’s a problem! My biggest piece of advice is to not weigh for 3 weeks post-op, then only once a week. You’re doing great, Viking!

There is no one right way to recover. There is no only one right plan or only one right calorie goal, protein goal, etc. There’s no specific minimum time frame to eat a meal or drink a cup of liquid. There are, however, generalisations, averages, some can, some can’t, etc. things. We’re all different & have different needs & are able or unable to manage different things at different stages. If your body can manage it without causing you discomfort or pain you’re ok. Your body will tell you pretty quickly what is too much, too fast, what it likes, what it doesn’t, etc.

You’re following the plan your surgeon gave you so all is good. My surgeon considers each patient’s starting weight, health status, weight loss history, etc. when assigning plans. My post surgical plan & recommendations had similarities but also differences to what a friend who was also a patient of his had. Our pre surgery diets were different too - mine keto & hers shakes only. We’re not the same people so it makes sense our plans weren’t exactly the same & neither were our experiences but we both reached our goal weights.

There will be times you may stall or lose more one day or over one week & less the next. As long as the general trend month to month is downwards you’re golden.

16 hours ago, Arabesque said:

There is no one right way to recover.

Amen to that.

As I've written previously, most people would recoil in horror at what and how I've eaten following surgery, as it violates all of the normal "rules" for successful weight loss surgery... but I'm 14 months out from surgery and hit an alltime adult low weight this morning. I've reset my target goal twice now.

It appears OP, that you and I have very similar frame sizes, starting weights and goals weights. My high adult weight was approximately 410. My original weight goal as discussed with my surgeon was 250. I'm not sure what your age is, but I'm 55 (taking early retirement next week in fact).

I've been exceeding the daily caloric goal written in the surgery manual since about day one (but not excessively so), and well exceeded the target fluid intake goal. Fluids were never a problem for me.

I would say it's far too soon to try to assess success or failure. See if your weight loss continues as you progress through the food re-entry phases. You'll be able to better gauge your progress. IMO it's the long-term trends that matter as opposed to week-to-week loss.

3 hours ago, PolkSDA said:

Amen to that.

As I've written previously, most people would recoil in horror at what and how I've eaten following surgery, as it violates all of the normal "rules" for successful weight loss surgery... but I'm 14 months out from surgery and hit an alltime adult low weight this morning. I've reset my target goal twice now.

It appears OP, that you and I have very similar frame sizes, starting weights and goals weights. My high adult weight was approximately 410. My original weight goal as discussed with my surgeon was 250. I'm not sure what your age is, but I'm 55 (taking early retirement next week in fact).

I've been exceeding the daily caloric goal written in the surgery manual since about day one (but not excessively so), and well exceeded the target Fluid intake goal. Fluids were never a problem for me.

I would say it's far too soon to try to assess success or failure. See if your weight loss continues as you progress through the food re-entry phases. You'll be able to better gauge your progress. IMO it's the long-term trends that matter as opposed to week-to-week loss.

Thanks for this, it helps a lot. Yes, it seems like we're similarly framed ("brick chicken house" type). I am 45 years old and active, work two jobs, one of which is outdoors. I just see everyone saying "stick to the script" and I'm trying but I'm honestly hungry if I eat just 350-400 cal a day (I am 11 days post-op). Not head hungry—stomach-shakingly hungry.

I chose my goal weight because it represents about 15% body fat on my frame, and I'm curious to see whether I can get there. So... 94 pounds to go!

On 9/25/2021 at 7:27 PM, vikingbeast said:

. I just see everyone saying "stick to the script" and I'm trying but I'm honestly hungry if I eat just 350-400 cal a day (I am 11 days post-op). Not head hungry—stomach-shakingly hungry.

YES! I am two weeks out and I'm so hungry. It's actually better today since I'm back to work (sedentary, work from home) so I'm distracted. I'm eating about 550 calories a day and I could eat more. I've heard it gets better once you can eat solid foods, so I'll know more tomorrow.

Also, I had a lot of pain and gas the first few days, but now it doesn't take very long for me to drink a protein shake (longer to eat a yogurt, but I also had a tooth removed, so that is painful), maybe 15 minutes. It took me almost an hour the first night home to take 10 pills but now it's less than five minutes. I can drink a swallow of water that feels like a real mouthful, but I still can't guzzle or drink a full glass in one breath like I used to.

56 minutes ago, lizonaplane said:

YES! I am two weeks out and I'm so hungry. It's actually better today since I'm back to work (sedentary, work from home) so I'm distracted. I'm eating about 550 calories a day and I could eat more. I've heard it gets better once you can eat solid foods, so I'll know more tomorrow.

Also, I had a lot of pain and gas the first few days, but now it doesn't take very long for me to drink a Protein Shake (longer to eat a yogurt, but I also had a tooth removed, so that is painful), maybe 15 minutes. It took me almost an hour the first night home to take 10 pills but now it's less than five minutes. I can drink a swallow of Water that feels like a real mouthful, but I still can't guzzle or drink a full glass in one breath like I used to.

I'm in the same boat. My surgeon, when I brought this up, sort of smirked a little bit and said, "I will tell you what. Go and scramble an egg. See how much you can eat."

Three bites later I was DONE. Like, maybe a third of a scrambled egg. This, from a guy who would easily knock down 6 or 8 if I was in training for a competition. So strange, yet so strangely comforting.

He also was completely nonplussed that I was consuming 600-800 calories. Quoting verbatim: "You were probably eating 5,000 before, so the difference between 400-500 and 600-800 is negligible for you. When you lose more weight the calories will be more important. Right now, eat protein."

The hunger is a lot better two weeks out than it was the first few days.