Hi all! I’m entering my 2nd week after gastric bypass and generally feeling pretty good (knock on wood!). The only thing I’m really missing— like, making me sad, missing— is coffee. I keep trying decaf but I can’t do the taste and all I want is a sugar free pumpkin cold brew cold foam. So my question is… how bad would it be to get one? I know I could only do maybe 3 or 4 sips of it but man, I want it. Thoughts? Experiences? Thanks in advance!

So I have a work around!

You will need:

1. vanilla protein shake

2. sugar free pumpkin spice syrup (Jordans skinny syrup as a yummy one)

3. sugar free pumpkin spice sauce (Jordans skinny syrup as a yummy one)

4. pumpkins pie spice

Recipe:

1 vanilla pre-made protein shake (such as premier or fairlife)

10 pumps of sugar free pumpkin spice syrup

mix them in a jar together and you can use it as a creamer.

Then I take a pre-made protein shake (about 1-2 oz) and use my frothier to make the foam

THEN I assemble. 2oz on the bottom of the glass jar, ice to top it off, sugar free pumpin spice sauce, add decaf cold brew, then add your foam and sprinkle some of your pumpkin pie spice.

ITS DELICIOUS! I drink one almost every day and its 36cal!

I would definitely try the recipe above. I was an iced coffee junkie, and I learned to make mine with a caramel protein shake, and I have used the skinny syrups and they are quite tasty as well. I’m sure the pumpkin will be delicious and then you can have it every day with no guilt plus get your protein in early in the day. That’s what I have what I call my proffee which is my caramel shake that has 30 g of protein and a little coffee over ice every morning. That’s my breakfast even after I had the sleeve and gained all my weight back. That was the only thing that stuck and I still did it before my revision and now again after. If you don’t wanna go through all that they also make one called Café latte that’s premier protein makes it and it’s like a latte but it’s 30 g of protein and it has caffeine in it.

10 minutes ago, ShoppGirl said:

I would definitely try the recipe above. I was an iced coffee junkie, and I learned to make mine with a caramel Protein Shake, and I have used the skinny syrups and they are quite tasty as well. I’m sure the pumpkin will be delicious and then you can have it every day with no guilt plus get your Protein in early in the day. That’s what I have what I call my proffee which is my caramel shake that has 30 g of protein and a little coffee over ice every morning. That’s my Breakfast even after I had the sleeve and gained all my weight back. That was the only thing that stuck and I still did it before my revision and now again after. If you don’t wanna go through all that they also make one called Café latte that’s Premier Protein makes it and it’s like a latte but it’s 30 g of protein and it has caffeine in it.

yes!! I drink my profee every single morning after my workout. Café latte over ice, squirt of Jordan's skinny salted caramel sauce, cold brew with my collagen. I drink it in a big 32oz mason jar. Its soooo delish!!! Then my little sweet treat. I actually made skinny peppermint mocha too!

2 hours ago, AmberFL said:

yes!! I drink my profee every single morning after my workout. Café latte over ice, squirt of Jordan's skinny salted caramel sauce, cold brew with my collagen. I drink it in a big 32oz mason jar. Its soooo delish!!! Then my little sweet treat. I actually made skinny peppermint mocha too!

Ooh. That sounds really good.

When I woke from surgery they asked what I wanted to drink and it was coffee. Never had an issue

Okay, so as I see it, you have three potential issues with coffee. The first is caffeine, which is the main reason some (not all) doctors say not to drink it. It's a mild diuretic, and if you are struggling at all with hitting your fluid targets, you want to avoid anything that will make it worse. If, on the other hand, you easily can surpass 64oz water in a day, you're probably good to go. I never had issues hitting my fluid targets.

The second issue is acidity. It's possible the coffee may upset your stomach (but if you are already drinking decaf without an issue, you're probably fine here too). I had to stop drinking coffee except for a few times a month well before I ever had surgery because the coffee was making me sick, so I switched to tea. And I started drinking regular tea at around 4 months because decaf was just sad.

The third issue is all the stuff people love to put in coffee and forget has calories. That's just something to be mindful of, because if you mix up a large coffee with tons of real sugar, sugary syrups, and cream, you can easily consume hundreds of calories without even thinking about it. This happened to a friend who had VSG and didn't use sugar but would add a ton of cream to a very large thermal cup of coffee. He honestly thought he was just adding "a splash" of cream. Like, dude, that's 400 calories you just put in that coffee. And it's liquid, so it just goes right down without filling you up at all.

Coffee wasn’t restricted for me after WLS but I absolutely used the protein shake as creamer work around daily. It was the absolute best option to make sure I got all the protein I needed because coffee made me have even less of an appetite.

While it's probably fine to have, I get the impression your surgical team told you no caffeine at your current stage. (Otherwise why would you even ask this is question?)

If my assumption is correct, you really should first talk to your surgical team about it. They probably had a reason to tell you to avoid it. Following their guidelines is best, even if they differ from what others have done or were allowed to do.

I hear you. Fellow caffeine addict here. My team allowed coffee immediately post op. It was probably the last thing I drank pre-op and the first thing post-op. I feel your pain.

If your team's caffeine restriction is arbitrary/a blanket ban because it's necessary for *some* then it might be worth asking them if you can restart now. If there are specific reasons YOU can't have it then probably best to avoid. Try other hot drinks that you are permitted instead? I did have a nice thing going with peppermint and camomile tea at one point when I was struggling to reach my fluid goals with cold liquids.

Also - I echo the other poster who says be careful what you put into it. A big part of the post op restrictions are intended to guide you to a better way of eating for life. If you replace sugary hot drinks with pseudo-sugary hot drinks immediately you might just retain that taste and find it easier to slip into bad habits down the line? No evidence for this, just spit-balling at this point.

Anyway - I hope you can get your caffeine fix authorised soon, or that you can find other things that replace it and contribute to your weight loss.

THANK YOU everyone! A lot of great insights and advice.

Ultimately, I figured out that Starbucks has decaf espresso (which I didn’t even know was a thing because, well, why…lol) and got a sugar free decaf espresso with a drop of pumpkin cold foam. The decaf espresso was far better than the decaf roast I was using. It was heavenly and just having it made me feel better— I didn’t feel like it was wrong and I didn’t feel completely restricted. I’m working on my relationship with food and “dieting” as I recover (aren’t we all?) and it felt like a win. I also wrote down some of the concoctions and great ideas y’all gave, and started planning my own sugar free healthy concoctions to try. And I will follow up with my doctor at my post-op appointment in a few days.

It’s fascinating that every single person and plan is so unique, depending on your body, your doctor, hospital, state, country, etc. It’s nice to gather so many perspectives and be able to feel *in control* while weighing your options because you’re not starving all the time. Just a thought. Thanks again!