MinaT

I never eat the "extra" calories.

Mine goes in waves and I'm at 4 months out. I also color my hair and I swim and have lupus so it does cause more issues for me. I take Biotin daily and I get regular hair cuts to help with breakage. I expect it will get better in the next 2 months.

I think a lot of us have this issue. I had lost five pounds fairly quickly as I was having a lot of liquid bm's. Well, after that problem passed, I gained a pound a day for five days and kept it on me for 2 weeks (on 700 or less calories) less than 40 grams of protein and almost 80 grams of protein. It took me about 2 weeks to lose that 5 pounds and I stayed the same weight for over a week. I finally just got under that month long stall by 2 pounds, but this was rough on me mentally. I knew I was doing everything right and my body didn't follow through. I am 4 months out today.

Each doctor is different. We were allowed to purchase 14 day supply from their office of different types of shake flavors. Find out what kind they recommend. I do suggest mixing it up because the same kind will get boring. I never liked strawberry shakes and those ended up being the easiest for me to get down though, which is weird. My biggest suggest to you is this. This weekend DO NOT CARB BINGE before you start. Repeating this again....do not carb overload this weekend. Stick to high Protein foods, it's for your own good truthfully. If you carb overload thinking that your protein fast starts on Monday, it will be horrendous on your system. The more carbs one eats, the more carbs they want, so come Monday, when you aren't feeding it carbs, your body will hate you. Wean from the carbs now, to make the transition easier on you. Realize that the first three days are going to be rough. You may...or may not have a headache. I did as did many other's. Drink lots of Water. Things that helped me. Lots of walks. Reading. Brushing my teeth. I know weird, brushing your teeth, but it helped....a lot. When you are on the Protein Shakes for the two weeks you go into ketosis and it does affect your breath, and also protein shakes sort of bind on your teeth and to me it became a bit like elmer's glue. I brushed my teeth and it helped immensely. Don't focus on it. Change your meals with your family. Let your family eat, while they are eating go for a walk, march in place, find a show on the Dvr. and walk in place or stand and dance while you watch a show. I did the gazelle when they ate. At work, don't eat in the break room where all the smells are of other foods. Find a place to have your shake away from other smells. Bring a package of Summer's Eve Feminine Hygiene Wipes with you to work, the one thing you need to know about day 4-10 is....NEVER trust a fart. There's so many posts regarding this for a reason. You will be standing there and realize you have to go....quickly. At night, take a bathroom towel and put it on your bed, just in case night sharts happen, be prepared. This could happen day 4-10. I was allowed sugar free Jello, sugar free popsicles, crystal light, and decaff peppermint tea (with truvia) during the 14 days. I don't handle sugar-free products well so I avoided them and stuck with the decaff peppermint tea. Attitude --- your attitude dictates how hard or how easy the next two weeks are going to be. If you go into thinking it's going to be too hard, it won't disappoint, it will be really hard. If you go into this thinking you can handle it, you are strong enough and you are worth doing this, it will go faster and be easier. It's not super duper easy, we all know this, but it's not the end of the world either, and so many have gone through it and made it through. It strengthens you. Keep in mind that the next two weeks while you are on this Protein Shake diet, you are probably going to be getting BETTER nutrition than you have in the last six months lol. You are not going to starve to death, you are not starving, there are elderly and many people that live on liquid diets and thrive because of it. As the day of surgery approaches, use the SAME attitude going into it. If you keep telling yourself you are scared or terrified or afraid, that day you will be. Keep the good attitude going into surgery. Keep telling yourself you are worth it, you can do this, this is a good thing, going into surgery with a smile on your face and positive thoughts will help you when you wake up and will help you through the 5-6 weeks of healing that you will have and carry you through. Doing a good job with the protein shake fast does help promote confidence in yourself and makes you feel like you truly are taking full control of your life, health and destiny. Best of luck to you. PS - If you drink pop or coffee and haven't stopped yet, do so before Monday too.

Praying is helpful but so is believing in yourself. Start working on your liquid intake, the more Water you drink it helps with hunger. Get off the couch, march in place, turn on some music and dance and chart your food with something like myfitnesspal.com Good luck to you.

Healing pains also mimic hunger pains as well as acid reflux or gas. Your brain cannot differentiate between these at this point. The entire length of your stomach was cut from bottom to top. If you cut your finger, or stub your toe, it throbs, imagine the throbbing your stomach is doing. Your insides and outsides of your entire stomach is swollen and it takes about 6-8 weeks to completely heal. I know it feels like hunger pains, I can guarantee you it's healing pains or acid reflux though. Once you realize what this is, it is easier to deal with. As a little test, use your medicine one ounce shot glass, drink three or four in a row and you most likely will feel quite full. Best of luck and remember every day is better than the day before.

Do the best you can, drinking out of the small med cups and drinking as much as you can is for the best. You aren't going to become Protein deficient in a small amount of time. Every day gets better than the day before and it was 5 weeks before i was getting all my protein in. Mix it up if you can by trying some warm decaff peppermint tea with your favorite artificial sweetener (I prefer Truvia). It settled my stomach and the stomach gurglings and movements and all that was a lot of healing pains too. I seriously used med cups for almost 4 weeks straight. I thought I would never get to drink out of a normal glass again. Even after 4 weeks I had a rough time drinking out of a Water bottle because I was pulling in too much air. Do the best you can, concentrate priority on your liquid, the Isopure for your protein and I swear it gets better every day.

I worried internally a bit about the surgery myself and realized, I would rather die trying to lose than to lay down and die not trying. It got me through it. I am proud of my decision to this and I am proud of putting so much effort into getting healthy.

I am 3 months out and have zero problems with lettuce. I see no reason in drinking pop whatsoever, even though others do it. I was told the carbonation does expand your stomach (which it does while you are drinking it) whether or not it stretches is a highly debated issue on VSG. There are those of us that would rather not take the chance. Should you get the sleeve and start eating candy bars, I would say the answer is NO, do people do it, I am sure they do. I have read people eating potato chips as early as a week out. If you are going to go back to your old way of eating after surgery, then surgery should put off until you have enough psychological counseling to change the emotional eating issues, and get proper nutritional counseling to see the hows and why on how you gained so weight in the first place and realize that this is something you need to do for life. The sleeve is for you if you want to make lifestyle changes. Can you gain the weight back after you get the sleeve and lose all your weight? Yes, if you do not make lifestyle changes. The sleeve DOES stretch. It will never get to the size your stomach was pre-surgery, but it does get bigger and it is easier to eat more food as time goes on, so it has to be a lifestyle change. I can eat just as spicy a food now as I did before surgery. I do not drink caffeine, pop, beer. I have had a glass of wine with no problem. When I hit goal I will probably have a glass of champagne and deal with the bloating of my sleeve and come what may whether or not my sleeve with stretch a bit. The issue is, people thinking it's okay to drink real coffee, eat what they want right after they get sleeved. Your stomach gets cut from the bottom to the top and it's a massive surgery. Your stomach is extremely swollen inside and out and putting things like caffeine (which could cause ulcers), carbonation which is very rough and acidic on your swollen stomach or foods that are rough could cause a leak. After you reach goal I think what you can and cannot tolerate is up to you. If you start throwing high carb food in, you will gain weight. It's a lifestyle change, not just a diet.

I was a 34B in my 30's when I lost weight and got up to a 48DD. I couldn't breath. I thought I was suffocating 1/2 the time. I am probably a 36C now and it's a little weird going back to flat and I will lose more of it and I'm happy. I had huge boobs under my arms, I had back boobs side boobs and I'm grateful it's gone. My booty, was a firm C when I was in my 30's now my husband keeps saying where the heck is your butt. I'm short but sitting down, I used to be so much taller than everyone because my butt was so huge. Now, I keep hurting my tailbone. I have been working on the step and doing lunges, squats and stairs and I can see that it's lifting a bit, thank goodness. If I had money for any work when I finally reach goal and can maintain it, I think it would be for my arms and a TT. My arms were so huge and they are getting really muscular now, but the skin really bugs me a whole lot. I wish I wasn't so vain. I can take the flat chest, but the skin droopy arms are causing me some anxiety.

I agree those being disgusted with the original OP or the fact I have talked to my husband regarding his portion size need to take a step back too. I love my husband, but I spent the past several years eating 1/2 of what he eats and getting to 300 pounds. He loves me and wanted to help me lose weight, but by following the 1/2 rule of what he ate almost killed me. He may not be morbidly obese but his cholesterol and blood pressure is outrageously high. I don't judge what OTHERS eat, I am working on using the tools given to me by my doctor, by this process to help the two people I love and would do anything for not get to where I am. I am not disgusted by people, I am disgusted at the amount of food they are eating, because I used to that much, I am disgusted by what I used to eat, I am disgusted that I used to eat all that food, and I never really tasted it, I shoveled it in, I am disgusted that I never gave a thought to portion size. I am not going to keep my mouth shut when it comes to my husband and son. I don't call them names, I do stress portion control and truth is, they know how much I have suffered through the years, they know how much pain I have gone through and I'm lucky I have the type of relationship with my family that allows this type of free speech and they know I'm not picking on them, that I'm helping them and they are both grateful for it. As far as what anyone else eats, that's their deal, but with the two people that I am responsible for feeding and caring for, it is my business.

I admit that I am shocked at how much other people eat at times and I realize I would have eaten as much. I watch my husband sometimes go for 2nds and the 2nd portion is as big as his first portion and I can see he forces it in, and I finally told him, you need to take 1/2 the portion if you are going for seconds because you are, in all honesty, eating 4 portions because our normal portion size was usually double to triple to begin with. He started paying attention to it himself now and both him and my son have lost weight. I am also learning to cook less food and that's helped.

I had a grilled chicken leg and lots of water at the last fair I went to. I was stuffed and everyone around me was eating all that above food, but I was able to dance and dance and dance while they all were looking pekish

You have no choice but to let go of the emotional eating now. You went through six months of mandatory classes, did he give you a guideline to follow during that time? If I was you I would work on charting your food, sign up for myfitnesspal.com if you haven't, start having a Protein Shake (gnc sells them, Target, walmart) make sure they 100% whey Protein, eat your protein first, get rid of the carbs now. If you wait until you are to the pre-op shake (if you have to do this) you will have a hard time because you are probably on carb overload right now. It's time now to wean from the carbs, wean from the caffeine, wean from the carbonation. Waiting until surgery to work on your issues, is not beneficial because you will have a new host of challenges and the emotional eating is something you need to work on now. Starting a walking regemine now to release your stress. On my fitness pal try getting your calories down to 800-900 - get 80 grams of protein and lower your carbs between 30-70 and you should be able to lose 10 BEFORE surgery. Drink your 64 ounces of Water and try to get 1/2 hour exercise a day. I followed this plan during the 6 months pre-approval phase and lost 10 pounds each month and then lost 10 pounds during the 2 week shake pre-op. During the psych eval they should have gone over the issues you have with emotional eating. If you think you are still having issues maybe you can get into someone and speak with them about those issues. Having the surgery brings a host of new things and if you can start working on these things prior to surgery it will definitely help. Imagine the stress if you gain weight and the doctor then denies you. I promise you, if you work on this stuff now and for those that are just reading, if you are just starting out, use the six months wisely because in the end it's definitely worth it! Best of luck to you. If you need any support or help with myfitnesspal.com or meal ideas, please don't hesitate to ask.

I think as time goes on, if you are losing and building muscle, many people will get hungry sooner after eating, let's say 2 or 3 hours after eating, that's normal and that's due to an increased metabolism, which is completely and utterly normal. When you get sleeved for the first week or two, there are those that complain about "hunger pains". I had them myself, but those were not hunger pains. Those are acid, and healing pains. Cut your finger, stub your toe, it throbs, well your stomach was cut from the bottom to the top and it's swollen inside and out and of course it throbs too, which is identical to old - real hunger pains. If you realize it's healing pains and the gurgling and the moving is just healing pains or acid or gas, you get through it quite easily. I still think a lot of the hunger people are having is head hunger. I am eating my Protein first, as I am told and then I have some salad or vegetables sitting there and I get full and I don't get a chance to eat them, and mentally sometimes I feel a bit cheated about an hour later and as the night progresses I think about those delicious vegetables and feeling a little ripped off at times. If I feel hungry about 2 or 3 hours after eating, I have a 1/2 cup of milk and that usually does me, or I will have one teaspoon of Peanut Butter on a Breton Original Cracker (lower carbs) and I'm done and I feel like I got a delicious snack. I am learning to take at least one bite of my vegetable now, just in case, the protein does me in. Half the battle to me is perception and how you look at it and how vested you are in this process, that's the way it seems to me. It takes will power, dedication and it takes a positive attitude, without it, it makes will power and dedication so much harder. Good luck to you.

I agree the Protein shots are not dense protein and protein shots are just for added protein, but it's not going to fill you up. If I am hungry, it is because I am hungry and of course at times I get upset because I am full and only had a few bites of food and I missed out eating, let's say my salad, and then I think about the salad I could not eat. I find that when I get hungry a few hours after I eat, it's because my metabolism has sped up and your body wants something, so I usually opt for a 1/2 a cup of skim milk and that fills me right up.

I was allowed three of New Direction Protein shakes (made with water) and only sugar-free popsicles or Jello and sugar-free crystal light. Nothing else and it was a mandatory 14 days! Every doctor is different, what is your doctor expecting? I do have a few suggestion for this time. Most importantly be patient with yourself and don't spend time thinking negatively like I can't do this, this is too hard, all that bologne. It is hard, but you can do it. The more time you spend thinking negatively it reinforces the negative thoughts. Keep telling yourself how proud you are that you are doing this and that you can do this. Reinforcing the positive and staying positive is paramount to success. You are not going to starve during this time, thin elderly people live on shakes for months on end and thrive and survive. You will probably be getting better nutrition on the shakes than you did beforehand. You may get a headache for the first few days, that's because you are weaning from Carbohydrates, some people get it because they quit caffeine or carbonated beverages. After day 4 I did much better. Keep BUSY. Use this time to take walks or walk in your home, march in place or whatever, keep busy. I took all my biggest clothes (size 4x) and I moved them in a pile. I cleaned out my closets and my drawers and looked for smaller clothes. Remember that liquid in, liquid out, you most likely will have a day or two where out of the blue, you have to go potty, hence the threads "never trust a fart", "night sharts happen", etc. This time is a very good time to purge your body of carbohydrates and prepare yourself for the road ahead. Good luck to you and way to go, I look forward to hearing how you progress.

Good for you. I know what you are talking about, my stomach groaned, grumbled and it was so weird because I was like I know I am not hungry and it talked non-stop. Luckily it did eventually go away. I would always drink Water when it was getting bad like that thinking that it would sooth it. I'm three months out and though I went through some serious complications during surgery and my recovery took a little longer than some, it is so worth it!!

The hunger pains are not just the acid, but healing pains. You cut your finger and it throbs right? You stub your toe, it throbs, imagine what they did to your stomach, cutting from the top down, staples, they bougie, etc. Mine felt like I was having extreme hunger pains, but I knew I really wasn't hungry because I would get full drinking my one ounce cups of Water after like 3 ounces. Remember that your stomach, inside and outside is swollen and it takes about 6-8 weeks for all the swelling to go down. Mine was swollen for 8 weeks and I also had a hernia repair, so with that said, all you can do for yourself now is realize the pains you feel are not hunger, it's acid, gas, healing and when you tell yourself that, and you actually believe it, I hope the power of positive thinking, saying okay my stomach is healing, I'm not "starving" will help you get through this phase. Many of us have been where you are, and there are so many that wishes they were were where you are now. Best of luck, I hope your healing is quick and congrats for being on this side of the sleeve.

It's great you have time between now and the surgery to work on things. The following is just my suggestions and ideas. I had a Protein shake for Breakfast EVERY morning. I figured I might as well get used to supplementing one meal a day with the protein. There are many to chose from, keeping it at about 25 grams of protein per shake is a good idea, making sure the shake is low carb is important too. Money was a factor for me, so I buy Pure Protein Frosty chocolate and I use skim milk and ice cubes in it. lunch, I would eat, cottage cheese or hard boiled egg, or a few shrimp. I literally cut out as much carbs as I could and saved carbs for special occasions when we would go out to eat. dinner, I always ate meat first, vegetables seconds and I would have a teaspoon or whatever of the starch was, now I don't even do that. Once in a great while I would allow myself something like a skinny turkey sandwich from potbelly or some rice, but not every day. Tracking the food is important and the one that seemed to be the easiest to use is myfitnesspal.com. It makes tracking your calories, carbohydrates and fat SO much easier. You input what you ate and as you are learning, this is imperative. It also helps you PLAN, because if you know you are going out to eat somewhere you can input what you think you are going to eat and look it up in advance to check out the carbs and protein. I kept myself at 800-900 calories a day (except on my "forespecial days" like going to Red Lobster or out to House of Kobe or something special which I allowed myself once in a while during my pre-approval six months phase). I easily hit 80 grams of protein a day and 45-75 grams of carbohydrates. Snacks or emotional eating I made sure I hate almonds, Peanut Butter & fruit. This is a way of life, not really a diet. I promise you if you work on behavior modification before your sleeve it will be so much easier after surgery. I am 3 months out from surgery and I can say I lost 120 pounds. This is because I put all effort into this way way of life before I had surgery. Treat yourself once in a while, if you want to have a special dinner that includes carbohydrates have it, a margarita or whatever, but make sure you track things, even on the days you don't do but most importantly, drink 64 ounces of Water a day, eat at least 3 meals a day, chart your food, eat your protein first, vegies second and carbs thirdly. Exercise. I couldn't exercise at first so I stood and walked in place for 5 minutes a day, then 10 minutes, then 15 minutes, then I did the gazelle, was able to make it 5 minutes a day and before surgery I was able to do an hour in the am and an hour in the pm. I believe exercising or walking 30 minutes a day is beneficial. Another trick about an hour before dinner, have a hot tea, hot decaff coffee, hot broth or something, that helps. Getting rid of your carb addiction before surgery is the best thing for you. Also wean yourself or get yourself off carbonated beverages, including diet pop. It is really hard for people to do during the pre-op shake and if you can quit now, do so. Meal planning. I made sure I had 1% cottage cheese on hand, eggs, cheese, sugar-free pudding, Jello, crackers (I use Breton Original) it's the lowest of the carb crackers and I would once in a while have a treat of peanut butter on one cracker. Meals, grilled chicken breast with one dole pineapple ring on it, turkey taco's, turkey sloppy joes, pork chops (grilled), turkey tortilla Soup, chicken tortilla soup. Meat loaf, Steak, etc. Cooking for my family I used to make a LOT of casseroles, lots of fattening casseroles, with gravy, lots of spaghetti, etc. Unfortunately, when money is tight, cheaper meals like spaghetti, hot dogs, casseroles are more fattening. Learn to buy extra when something is on sale. If you see a lean steak on sale, buy 2 extra packages, when chicken breasts are on sale buy 2 extra each time. You can make a lot of Chicken products that taste good and are so different from each other without getting sick of chicken. Boil chicken, shred it, make chicken taco salad, Chicken with Mozz Cheese & Spaghetti Sauce (go ahead and make a low carb wheat noodle if you have family. Rotisserie Chicken with Light Mayo inside a hallowed out Tomato. Tuna, Salmon. After surgery I make sure I always have a bag of shrimp here and it lasts for a while because I will have 2 or 3 for lunch once in a while. Make sure you chew each bite 20 times and do not drink with dinner and wait 1/2 hour after eating to drink. There are lots of reasons for this, but staying full longer is important. I was a chronic choker. I used to choke during dinner. It was horrible and I hated going out to dinner because of it. I could never imagine not drinking with my meal for this reason. Funny thing happened though, I got rid of my water with dinner, and I quit choking. Why is this? Probably because I focused on chewing my food more and stopped shoveling food in my mouth. These are the things that worked for me. It may or may not work for you, but from a girl that at this time last year, needed someone to tie her shoes for her, help her out of the chair, help her walk upstairs, had to park in handicapped parking, couldn't walk 1/2 a block, slept with oxygen, gave herself injections every single day, to a girl that just went to Six Flags and nobody even gave me a look as I got into the rides, went out to a fair and stood near the stage dancing for 5 hours, I don't use oxygen anymore, no more shots, I can tie my own shoes and walk 5 miles without even getting tired, I went from 4x clothes to large, you get what you put into this lifestyle. Good luck to you. Count yourself very lucky that you are working on these things before surgery. Stay positive and look at each new accomplishment before surgery as another big step or hurdle in the journey. If you can get rid of soda, applaud that, if you get your 64 ounces of water in, be happy for that. The sleeve is only a tool, the easiest way to get through this entire ordeal is to do your best, stay positive and focused.

Lost 30 pounds last summer...started to gain it back. Decided to see surgeon in November when I started gaining back and was 299 then. I immediately started following their plan and lost 10 pounds a month during the 6 month pre-approval monthly weigh ins, which equaled 60 pounds during the pre-approval phase. Lost 10 pounds during the 14 day pre-op shake fast (which was definitely less than others lost during this phase though I never cheated) and I have lost 50 pound since surgery on June 4th. Because of losing steadily for months, I have obviously lost less since surgery than others, but it makes sense having lost my Water weight and more weight prior to surgery, which = since going to the bariatric clinic first weigh in, my lost is 120 pounds. I have steadily been losing though I have had plateaus that last over a week, I'm very happy with my progress. If you count my highest weight from last summer it equals 150 pounds lost in a year, I lost an entire person.

Most juicing is very high in carbohydrates, the reason for the liquid diet is for the Protein count and low carb count. Carrot juice, Apple, anything you would want to juice, except spinach is high in carbohydrates. If this is pre-op the answer would most definitely be no and even post-op the answer would still be no. http://www.carbs-information.com/carbs-in-fruit.htm Not saying that eventually down the line you can't have a smoothie, but your main bulk of anything should be coming from protein not carbohydates. One cup of raw carrot juice is 15 grams of carbohydates. Many people are told to keep their daily allowance between 25-45 or their per serving under 6.

Even those of us required to do 14 days with nothing but liquid have felt weak during the pre-op. I worked out daily on the 14 day liquid diet and couldn't handle the sugar-free Popsicles or pudding because I don't do sugar-free stuff well, but the first 3 days I had a headache and I also had liquid bm's that would catch me by surprise. I had diabetes so my sugars dropped a lot and I also have lupus, so it was a tough the first week but, fortunately, I made it through it just fine and hopefully it will go fast for you and you will be fine too. Sometimes the power of positive thinking works wonders and telling yourself you are proud of taking these steps and convincing yourself you are doing well and encouraging yourself works. We all felt tired during this phase, so you aren't alone and soon enough you'll be sleeved and will have to work through another host of challenges and I think the preop just prepares us for the road ahead. Be proud of the steps you have taken to change your life.

Nyxa, GREAT INFORMATION!!! From someone who had diabetes and had to switch from sugar to Aspartame and Splenda type products and use them for years and continued to gain weight, someone who went from a headache every few weeks to several a week, someone who went from working out to neurological issues, being diagnosed with fibromyalgia, mixed connective disease, glaucoma, severe dry eyes, eventually lupus and I now have a lovely brain tumor, I do believe aspartame, and Splenda played a significant role in my declining health. I didn't 'have issues' with these things that I knew of, once I took them out of my life and moved over to no artificial sweeteners or if I needed to sweeten something I now use Truvia, I have less dry eyes, less numbing in my body, I still have Lupus and I still have a brain tumor, but the tumor hasn't gotten larger. I get less headaches, less migraines. The study was spot on. Once in a while, a splenda-type product will slip past me, I've had a crystal light, but I try really hard not to use these products. The artificial sweeteners can mess with insulin and I almost feel it is better to go without or go with the real stuff because of it.