layla33

All of this blather assumes that there is one correct answer that is universally applicable to sleevers (and all we have to do is debate until we hit on it???) Puh-leeze. 1.) There is no MORAL content in eating decisions, unless you are stealing your food or have killed someone to get it. Absent those two circumstances, whether you are big, small, or getting smaller, it's ALWAYS your own damn business what you eat. 2.) Well wishers whom we love ("Please lose weight for your health") and docs, and nutritionists, mostly have not experienced this surgery personally. Their advice and in-put needs to be heard with that fact in mind. That is, "When YOU burp 423 times a day, I'll gladly take your advice about what I should be eating." 3.) STOP BEING OBSESSED BY REACHING YOUR GOAL WEIGHT. Many poor people are slaves to their scales, to the exclusion of all other signs of health. If your weight is stalled but you've lost clothing sizes, then you are gaining muscle in place of fat as a result of exercise. This is a good thing. Muscle WEIGHS MORE THAN FAT. How are your other health indicators? BP, blood glucose, blood lipids? These things will tell you much more accurately about your health and life expectancy than the scale. I guess all this is coming from reading comments from people who have apparently made no step forward after being sleeved and having lost a good bit of weight. These poor souls are STILL in the old mind set of ridiculous diets (Fasting days???Are you kidding me???), counting every calorie of every bite, and on and on. It's a new day, folks. Your stomach is the size of my thumb! Get a grip. Of COURSE you should eat healthful foods. We all should have done that all our lives. That's a no brainer, and it's true of fat people, thin people, athletes, infants, and the elderly. Eat decent food cuz it's good for you. But for heaven's sake, GET A LIFE other than obsessing about your body. If you've lost a bunch of weight, you look and feel better. Stop with the "I just can't go on unless I get to goal." Go out and get a volunteer job. Read to the blind. Feed the hungry. Take up a hobby (other than your own inner directed search for bodily perfection.) Spend more time with your kids or grandkids. Whew! I feel much better now.

In my view, this procedure should not be followed by another weird, artificial diet. The weight WILL come off. Eat a healthy, protein heavy diet and move toward relatively normal HEALTHFUL eating as soon as you can. Why further torment yourself? Your body will eventually love a nice normal lean diet, providing plenty of healthful and satisfying foods every day. Jenny Craig??? You can't be serious.

I was sleeved in July 2011, and lost almost exactly 100 pounds. The six months ago I plateaued out and have been up three and down three every week since. I am at 155 and can't move the scale an ounce. I should get to 135 for ideal weight but to tell the truth, I'm a very happy camper with the VGS results if I stay here forever.

The clear answer to this question is documented by the wide variety of experiences of sleevers and the wide variety of advice from their docs. Folks, be sensible with what you eat soon after surgery, because you have a much smaller stomach AND there's a suture line that can trap fibers, seeds, etc. After a couple of months, try new foods and beverages in small quantities, and wait to see what happens. The idea of avoiding caffeine because it might dehydrate you is too preposterous to even consider. If the calorie free liquid that particularly appeals to you is coffee, then drink it, if it does not cause you any digestive problems. Same with tea and diet soda. The overall problem, at the risk of repeating myself, is that docs and nuts get people scared and worked up into a frenzy about what they are going to eat and drink post surg. Don't fall for their histrionics. Be prudent. Proceed very slowly as you try new things. Make sure to get sufficient Protein, and your liquids. Take your Vitamins, and have your blood work done regularly. And RELAX, for Pete's sake. After this surgery, your relationship with everything you consume, which used to be the center of all of our existences, is changed radically and forever. Realize this up front. And stop worrying.

95%, and pleased with it. I didn't hate myself before surgery at 100 pounds overweight, and I have still not fallen victim to the worship of and obsession with the body in general.

Many of my tastes completely changed after my surgery (July 2011.) Most of the changes are things like now enjoying somewhat spicy/hot food when I did not before. But it sounds as if you are upset that food and drink items no longer appeal to you. Trust me when I say that NOT being able to find appealing things to consume will NOT be a problem for any of us who have been compulsive eaters. A little farther on post surg your tastes will normalize, and regulate themselves. And I advise sleevers to "feel their way" with items that are supposedly "forbidden" by docs. For instance soft drinks. As long as they are not adding calories (I drink only diet drinks) and your particular body can tolerate the bubbles, then enjoy within reason. ...after you have healed internally. So, related to your being unable to think of anything to drink that appeals to you, you may want to try thinking a little bit outside the box that the surgeon has built for you to live in, regarding food. I determined through experimentation that caffeinated and carbonated beverages are just fine for me, and help me stay hydrated. I am completely convinced that SOME of the post-surg nutritional rules that sleevers are routinely given are based on supposition and /or, somebody's arrogant but somewhat pitiful, need to continue to dictate what we eat and drink. After all, since fat is obviously a terrible moral failing, it makes sense that fat people and even formerly fat people DESERVE to be deprived and inconvenienced for their sins. I absolutely believe that some PhD. researcher who is also a sleever will do definitive research one day that proves this phenomenon to be true. There is already research on fat prejudice which documents that "thin society" treats, or at least tries to treat, fat people as if they are morally and intellectually lacking. I think the unnecessary dietary restrictions post sleeve are a part of this prejudice. Anybody else have the same thought, experiences?

Regarding GERD, I had it before, and I have it still...18 months post -op. I take 2 Prilosec daily, but now my insurance company says they'll only pay for one per day, so I'll reduce to one per day and we'll see. I take 2 multivitamin/mineral tablets a day. My labs are great. One thing that strikes me about the comments on this site, over and over, is that people complain about the food they can eat. Such and such does not agree with me. I'm embarassed eating in public because I can't eat as much as everyone else. First, whose busines is it what you eat or do not eat? Second, watch the people around you as you are eating in public places. So many of them eat so much too much that it is a little nauseating to watch. Now notice the size 2 women. They eat one quarter of what they are served (about what I can eat 18 months out) and take home the rest. As for hair and skin, if the lab work sys you are healthy (including a nutrtion panel), then use good qaulity moituriers and condtioners. The main thing I wanted to say is that having to watch your health for the rest of your life is that it's far, far beter than what we ALL were doing pre-op, which was pay no attention to our health. Look to this group for support, and be happy being small and looking great.

My tastes have changed significantly. I'm 14 months post op. I love spicier and spicier food, hot sauce, etc. A total reversal. Wierd.

You do not have to give up your favorite foods. You have to give up eating huge quantities of your favorite foods. THAT'S what this surgery does. I am 13 months out and I eat everything I like once in while, and in very small quantities. I LOVE eating a high protein, high nutrition diet, and feel like $10 million most of the time. I LOVE feeling like and actually going to work out hard five days a week. Besides, after living in this world among fat-phobic people, you should be pretty tough. Actually, you ARE tough, you just haven't tapped into that toughness yet. Relax a little, and be happy about your healthy future, where food will no longer be the center of your universe. It's might nice.

My surgery was 13 months ago, and I do not think the pain was very much of a problem at all. Remember, this is laproscopic surgery...tiny little holes, and minimal cutting of muscle, which is what causes pain post surgery, usually. The nausea I had was more uncomfortable than anything having directly to do with the surgery. But the meds to control the nausea soon got that well in hand. This is NOT a hard surgery. You should plan to take it very easy for two weeks at the least. Then plan to rest a LOT more than usual for 3 months after that. The main thing, you get through it and never look back. I do an hour of aerobics five days a week and Run circles around people ten years younger than I am (65). Don't let any fear make you worried. This is the best thing I ever did.

I have lost 100 pounds in a year post op and it's STILL no ones business what I weigh, tho' I'm 20 pounds from goal. You are entitled to your own personal space and privacy always...No one is "entitled" to more personal information about you and your body than you are completely comfortable with, thus coming Monday and forever, regardless of anything anyone tells you.

In my experience (1 year post op---lost 100 lbs) the acclimation to lifestyle changes is much less than the acclimation to the pesky physical changes. These include burping, GERD, sinus drip (which I am told is related to the GERD). Now that I have acclimated my body to being able to eat small amounts of pretty much anything, the main acclimation is the few times that I am socially expected to make some explanation for eating so little. This includes dinner parties, and especially when I eat in a restaurant and the server figures that I don't like the food and he/she won't get tipped. I always make a point of saying, "The food was great. I just don't eat too much." But think about it, these few things should be my worst problem in exchange for feeling and looking like $20,000,000 in cash.

What is most interesting and amazing to me is the huge disparity in advice from "experts". I've got some news which I have discovered after 11 post op months...very few docs OR nutritionists have actually had this surgery. And there is precious little research on post op symnptoms, only on outcomes. So the medical literature simply does not support, "Don't eat X or there will be dire consequences!" See what YOUR body tolerates and does not tolerate, taking tiny samples of foods you feel you MUST have. Some of us are really fond of diet sodas. I've been drinking it since post op day 3. I have some tummy issues whether or not I drink it, and no matter WHAT I injest, food or drink. I have lost 95 pounds in almost one full year. I feel pretty great and I'm back exercising regularly for the first time in years. The angst and resentment involved in "swearing off" even small amounts of the things we love are harmful, not helpful, to your ongoing goal of eating in a healthy and sensible way. Relaaaaax a little, folks. Be cautious and careful and eat tiny and often, and the weight comes off. At least all this has been true for me.

You might try the Maic Green Bottle--magnesium citrate. It's a common and easily found laxative and it has never failed me. BUT, drink plenty of fluids (yes, it really matters) and walk a lot. You will be fine.