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Today is the day! Hope all went well, welcome to your new life!
- Today
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Mvryan1208 joined the community
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Mvryan0115 joined the community
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To be clear, the gas used in abdominal surgery is not inside your digestive tract, thus medications to address that issue won't help. Typically they use CO2 and it's actually pumped into your peritoneal cavity to help create space between the abdominal wall and your organs. This gives the surgeon room to work more safely, as well as help visually distinguish everything. The reason it hurts so much is because basically your abdomen has been blown up like a balloon. This pushes up on your diaphragm, which in turn irritates the phrenic nerve. It's not uncommon to have referred pain in the chest, shoulder and neck as a result. Eventually the surgical gas will be absorbed into your bloodstream and you'll breathe it out, but until then this can be quite painful. Walking helps, but won't fix it. Overall, it should pass in a few days. I'd also make sure you're drinking enough because headaches are a classic symptom of dehydration. Dehydration is one of the main reasons bariatric surgery patients end up back in the hospital in the early post-op period, so please do everything you can to keep up with your fluid intake.
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lmvtgrad joined the community
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Erica89 joined the community
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It could be from the gas used during the operation and if so it is totally normal and takes a few days to leave the body, walking helps. I had it when I had my gall bladder removed many years ago and it was so bad I felt physically ill. I was expecting it again after sleeve was prepared with wind-eze which I did indeed need for a couple of days to help.
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jacks1984 joined the community
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I had gastric sleeve 3 days ago and I keep getting these intense pains in my back, shoulders and neck. It’s practically unbearable. Does anyone know how long this lasts or why we get it. I keep getting really bad headaches from the pain in my neck.
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I'll do my best to help, but I'm going to have to start by asking some questions: When you say the weight is "barely coming off", can you be more specific? How much in the last week, two weeks, last month? Can you clarify what your goal weight really is? In your profile, you're showing that you're currently at 78kg and your goal is 75kg. That's only about 6-7 pounds, not the 33-44 you listed. I'm thinking you probably have a new goal and have not updated your profile, but it's important to understand what you really are trying to do. When you say you are "eating pretty well", can you give some examples of what a typical day looks like? What is your daily caloric goal? What about protein, fat and carbs? How are you determining your what you caloric and macronutrient intake should be? How are you tracking your intake? Do you weigh everything in grams before it goes into your mouth? Let me explain why I'm asking these questions. Typically when people are struggling with weight loss, we see a few common issues: Unrealistic expectations. Especially if weight loss early on after surgery was easy, people tend to think it will continue that way until they reach goal weight. Unfortunately, that's not how this works. The heavier we are, the more we'll lose at first. The closer we get to goal, the harder it becomes. It can take months just to lose a few pounds if you are already pretty lean. You also have to really have your nutrition dialed in at that point.. I won't get too deep into the physiology here, but there are multiple reasons for this and it's 100% normal for this to happen. My point is that you may be right where you need to be. It's hard to know just that just based on what you posted above. Eating more than you think. Study after study shows that almost everyone thinks they eat less than they really do, even those that log their food using calorie tracking apps. It's sometimes simple things like those little tastes while preparing a meal, or that handful of nuts they forgot to log. Others, they just guess at calories because accurate tracking is really hard. Burning less than you think. Most people have absolutely no idea how many calories they actually burn in a day. We often use estimates based on height and weight, but these can be off by may hundreds of calories depending on age, lifestyle, percent body fat, etc. Further, your calorie burn isn't the same all the time. It can vary by hundreds of calories per day even before you consider exercise. Speaking of exercise, we drastically overestimate the impact of exercise calories. For the vast majority of people, the calories they burn in a day don't actually change all that much due to exercise. Blaming things outside your control. It's natural for people look for causes for problems. If we take ownership of the problem, we can then take steps to correct it. It's when we place the blame on something we perceive to be outside our control that we can run into serious problems. Let me give you an example here. We can't escape simple physics. If you burn more calories in a day than you consume, you'll lose weight. Eat more than you burn and you gain weight. If I take responsibility for this, then it means I need to eat less or burn more to lose weight. I realize that's easier said than done, but without first taking responsibility for the problem, I'd have no hope of fixing the issue. If on the other hand, I were to say "I have a slow metabolism", I'd essentially be saying this issue is outside my control, even though the solution is the same as before: eat less than you burn. Thinking a particular diet/macronutrient is more important than calories. I noticed you hinted at that in your post. Calories are king here. Specific diets that emphasize one or more macronutrients can help, but they never trump calories. I can go into more detail later, but this post is already getting overly long so I think I'll stop here. Please provide some additional detail and I may be able to provide better guidance.
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WhitneyO changed their profile photo
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I did the Fast Metabolism Diet (Haylie Pomroy) to reach my goal weight. I wasn’t able to eat the amount of foods it requires but eating them in the phases was enough & I dropped the last stubborn 15 pounds!
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Cottage cheese 1 c is 30 (mix with with a savory protein powder for more), tofu is 1.5 cups for 30g, Greek yogurt is very different per brand but around 1.5c and will easily take on protein powder for flavor. Salmon and tuna are about 1/2 c per 25 but adding protein is harder. 5 eggs is 30. So for low volume boost… cottage cheese or Greek yogurt with the highest protein with a powdered protein mix in would likely be best. Using Seeq or another water flavoring protein powder is also great. Just remember don’t cook or dump your powder into hot stuff or it’ll separate and get grainy. Hall a cup Greek yogurt with a protein powder scoop is 40g of protein and is kinda awesome 20g per 1/4 cup for those with tiny tummies. Like a small planned snack or meal to bump you into the .8-1.2 g/kg of protein many shoot for with diet or lifting to save their own bodies’ protein from getting chewed on. I find only 60g or protein is needed to reduce/suppress my hunger though. Caution with using protein powder with cooking… it can separate as it heats and 2 often the fake sugars it’s packaged with are not allowed to be heated as they change to not so great chemicals. I need to look up which. I forget. But there are protein peanut butter bars, tofu pies etc if you want alternative solids. Pinterest has a bunch
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Hi, I have not had the surgery yet, I'm in the very first stage. I do have some questions though, and one of them is about acid reflux. I have heard you can get really bad acid reflux or even GERD after surgery. Is that true? And if so, what can be done about it? Just medication, or something else? Thanks for any and all info!
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Nisha Mei joined the community
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6 week update: Down to 252. So officially 10 pounds down. I feel good. Clothing is fitting better. Snacking habit broken. More energy from eating better foods.
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Thank you for the support! Once I put my mind back in track it’s actually felt really good to refocus and put myself 1st. I've also been much more aware of medications and side effects that affect weight and advocating to not use them. I should have listened to my guy originally, I would have saved myself a lot of pain.
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Kayla0725 joined the community
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PSA Laboratory Furniture joined the community
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Hi all, I am almost 8 months post op bypass. I'm down 68 lbs (31 kg) I feel and look fantastic and I'm quite happy but I still need to lose 33-44 lbs and well it's barely coming off these past months. Now my question is I'm eating pretty well and counting calories and protien content. I'm focused on calories mostly but I think that's where the problem is. I should focus on my protien only which means I should eat 115g of protien daily which might mean more calories and it scares me.. I m active and go to the gym too (not as gym rat but not lazy) so what am I doing wrong? Do I need to up my protein? Also how much of the food is actually absorbed? Does bypass really mean ill def lose and maintain the weight? I need reassurance. Help me understand what to do now and if I'm safe
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August Surgery buddies
Justarwaxx replied to Averdra's topic in PRE-Operation Weight Loss Surgery Q&A
It sounds like a very stressesfull time and the only way we know or remember how to make ourselves feel better is food! It's just so comforting and I'm so sorry you're going through it but I can feel the strength through your words and u will fight this .. I think it's smart that u want support to maintain ur weight and make u eat better it will help ur health too so yes let ur doc speak to the bari team to support the idea if it won't harm you. Health is health weather losing the extra weight or being cancer free im rooting for you -
Deidra Myers changed their profile photo
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Yes, it's Bariatric Fusion brand that I used, NOT Bariatric Pal! Bariatric Fusion chicken soup is 27g protein, 10g carb (check with your team because their guidelines say less than 10g carb but they may be okay with it being 10g) and 160 calories. The Cappuccino flavor is 27g protein, 8g carb and 150 calories. I bought mine from Amazon and a tub runs around $45. All the flavors on Amazon fit the guidelines with the possible exception of the chicken soup. Celebrate also makes a meal replacement shake with several flavors that work with your guidelines, but their chicken soup is 24g protein instead of 25g (carbs and calories are within the guidelines). I tried that one and it was okay. I liked the Bariatric Fusion slightly more, but the benefit of the Celebrate brand is you can buy a variety pack directly from their website with 12 single serving envelopes of different flavors so you don't get bored. I also like their Tropical Twist flavor chewable bariatric vitamins if you're still looking for one, and their cherry and raspberry lemonade calcium chews are very tasty.
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I use Quest brand Milk Shake Protein replacements with 45 grams of protein. I also get 30 grams of protein from various flavors of Premier Protein, these are both meal replacements. Be careful with anything bought in a store, make sure it has 3g or less of fat and 3 g or less of sugar, and make sure that they have NO added sugars. Gotta read the labels. I agree with SpartanMaker, you need to be very careful when looking for what you need in the guidelines you shared. That's page 19, I wonder if there are other dietary guidelines within your packet. Wishing you the best.
- Yesterday
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Just be careful with selecting meal replacements since a lot of them won't meet the guidelines as outlined by your team. As an example, the Bariatric Pal creamy chicken soup meal replacement mentioned above is too low in protein. While there are a few products out there that will meet those guidelines, most won't. They'll either be too low in protein, or too high in carbs. This includes the vast majority of products you'll find at grocery & drug stores.
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Sidemudia joined the community
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@NickelChip Thank you so much! I am THRILLED to find out the is a chicken soup flavor!! LOL
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Jbernal5481 joined the community
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The meal replacement shakes I liked the best were Bariatric Fusion brand in the cappuccino flavor for breakfast and the chicken soup flavor (made with warm water) for lunch and dinner. A caveat is that I hated both of these when I tasted them the first time. I almost got rid of them. Especially the chicken soup. But after about 3 days on the liquid diet, the soup was the best thing I ever tasted. I was so tired of artifical sweetness. I also can't say enough nice things about Syntrax Nectar Naturals orange flavor protein shake (but this is not a meal replacement shake, just a protein supplement). I quickly tired of the meal replacement shakes within the first month post-op, but I drank an orange protein shake every morning for about 6 months. I had very little appetite in the mornings but specifically the lightness of the orange texture/flavor made me feel like I was having a glass of juice. It's similar to drinking Tang, if you ever had that back in the day. Or maybe like Sunny-D. Not quite orange juice, but kind of a treat. I tried the other flavors and they weren't as good in my opinion, but I would probably still drink the orange one if I needed a supplement.
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Best of luck to all of you. My surgery is the best thing I have ever done for myself. Hope it works out really well for you guys too.
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This is what I have for my pre-op diet. It does give some guidelines for what they want the shakes to have. I'm just trying to find out which ones people prefer as far as taste before I buy some. pre-op diet.pdf
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Is it just me, or is it really odd they'd tell you what not to use, but didn't tell you what you should be using? Surely they must have some suggestions that fit what they want here? As far as I know, all meal replacement shakes contain added vitamins as that's sort of the point. They also contain added carbs and fats that most protein shakes don't have. I'd say the vast majority of people here were told to just use protein shakes. That's typically for a few reasons: First, especially if you also take a vitamin supplement, you're not going to suffer any long term harm using protein shakes instead of meal replacement shakes for a few weeks. Second, most meal replacement shakes are lower in protein than a typical protein shake. We want as much protein as possible to help prevent the breakdown of muscle tissue when dieting. Third, most bariatric doctors don't actually want you consuming very many carbs, since one of the main goals of the pre-surgical diet is to shrink your liver to make the surgery safer. The best way to do that is a very low carb diet. (The liver is one of the main ways your body stores glycogen, so by depleting it of glycogen (carbs), it will get smaller, even if no other changes take place.) TL;DR: Ask your team what they want you to use.
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FINALLLYY PLASTICSS, Advice? Stories? Successes?
FifiLux replied to fourmonthspreop's topic in POST-Operation Weight Loss Surgery Q&A
Congratulations. Look forward to hearing your updates. -
I have a tentative surgery date of June 17th so I'll be starting my 2 week liver shrink / pre-op diet the first week of June. My nutritionist said I will have to drink meal replacement shakes for breakfast, lunch, & supper. I have Premier Protein powder at home, but he said that is not a meal REPLACEMENT, it's just a high protein shake. What meal replacement shakes do you recommend? Which ones tastes the best? I don't think I can drink the ones that have a heavy vitamin taste.
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Kprescott changed their profile photo
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Thank you! 💙
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Food Before and After Photos
GreenTealael replied to GreenTealael's topic in General Weight Loss Surgery Discussions
Recent meals: Tofu Katsu, keto french toast and an iced london fog with a cookie. - Last week
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Self sabotage - already??
Spinoza replied to Claire D's topic in POST-Operation Weight Loss Surgery Q&A
Incredibly honest post. You know that your current approach won't (can't) help you reach your weight loss goal and stay there. It's so good that you're stepping back and evaluating that before your prime period for weight loss flashes past (which it really really does - mine is already way back in the rear view mirror, LOL). I live in Ireland where access to proper bariatric therapists is limited, as i think it probably also is in the UK. But I echo the advice above to find one and work on what's going on in your head so you can make the most of what you've changed in your body. I really hope that you can get back on track. We are all here to help - all human and have all made mistakes as we went along. Lots of us have hit little blips when we find we *can* do things that we shouldn't. What matters is that we stop and call those out and get back on the horse. Keep posting and let us know how you're doing.
