I am 1 year post-op (exactly today!)

In the months after the surgery, I have not had any significant issues with taste or food aversion. There were a couple of changes with foods that I used to love that, now, I could take them or leave them.

I travel a lot for business, and when I am away from home eating in restaurants, I have started having experiences where certain foods taste like... seafood. I *hate* seafood in all forms, and always have. Meat is the most frequent problem, especially beef (except ground beef which is fine). Chicken is never a problem.

I was just in China for 3 weeks, in many different cities, and everywhere I went, things were tasting fishy, especially meat. It wasn't just that something was prepared with fish sauce - I checked. Over and over and over again in city after city and restaurant after restaurant. (I have traveled to China before and loved the food; this time not so much.) But this wasn't just China - it has happened in other places as well - just not as often as in China.

Now that I am back home with my normal food and normal recipes, there is no problem at all, however, at home I eat primarily chicken so maybe I would have an issue with beef tasting like seafood here too.

Of course, I will discuss this with my doctor at my 1-year post-op appointment, but I am curious about other people's experiences with taste-related changes.

Edited July 25, 20242 yr by AnneMarie1970
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It's pretty common. Happened to me after my sleeve and again after my revision to bypass. I was told it would likely be temporary, but so far, nothing has gone back to how it was before. Super weird. Things smell differently to me, too. And taste differently. Hate foods I use to love, actually like stuff I use to dislike. Very weird lol

I have it with smells. So many things smell like fish or tobacco to me. My dad will make himself a coffee, and I smell cigarettes. He'll be frying up eggs or a hamburger, tobacco. And for some reason, a lot of medicinal scents smell fishy to me: my metformin makes me gag because it smells so strongly of fish -- as does my children's grape-flavoured allergy liquid. ?

As for taste, I've been lucky enough not to experience that -- although my taste buds are definitely still out of whack / different than pre-op. I can taste chemicals in SO many things now -- even items that I was fine with (twice, just last week) suddenly taste chemically. (I'm looking at you, lemon pudding....)

On 7/25/2024 at 7:25 AM, JennyBeez said:

I have it with smells. So many things smell like fish or tobacco to me. My dad will make himself a coffee, and I smell cigarettes. He'll be frying up eggs or a hamburger, tobacco. And for some reason, a lot of medicinal scents smell fishy to me: my metformin makes me gag because it smells so strongly of fish -- as does my children's grape-flavoured allergy liquid. ?

As for taste, I've been lucky enough not to experience that -- although my taste buds are definitely still out of whack / different than pre-op. I can taste chemicals in SO many things now -- even items that I was fine with (twice, just last week) suddenly taste chemically. (I'm looking at you, lemon pudding....)

Smells for me as well! Yeah...cigarette, fish and urine (maple is totally urine smell now) ?

I had Hyperosmia before surgery and now its just so much worse. My husband says I could make millions working as a "nose" for compounding fragrances or the government ...sniffing for drugs or bombs! I even sniffed out a gas leak at work no one was able to detect..including the gas company employee, they brought in a detector and the employee said "wow" your sense of smell detected gas at a level usually only the detectors can find right up next to it. So, this is NOT a welcome change!

I haven't had any major taste problems, I still find eggs nasty - but that's more a texture issue. I was hoping eggs would change for me. I also taste chemicals in things lol yours is lemon pudding, mine is ANY sugar free pudding. Lemon taste like Pledge furniture polish smells, chocolate pudding tastes like nothing but chemicals. I still like the things I did before unfortunately... and have absolutely no stomach reactions to anything I used to eat (I tested hoping I would).

I didn’t have any real taste changes with my sleeve except for with sweet stuff immediately post op but that was only temporary. I am curious to see if it’s the same with my revision. I hope if I do it’s not to any of the healthy things I like since they are already so limited. I never did think to try stuff I didn’t like prior to sleeve though. I guess I should do that after my revision. Maybe I can expand my menu which would be a welcome change.