Bufflehead

Cut out grains, sweets, alcohol, and tropical fruits. Have limited quantities of dairy, beans. legumes, starchy veggies, and other fruit. You should do just fine.

Mine were/are a digital food scale, immersion blender, mini food processor, and small ramekins and plates.

I used an immersion blender to make protein shakes because it doesn't put any air into the shake -- no foam or bubbles. You can use it to make as much or as little as you want.

What does your food plan say? They would not have been allowed under my plan (I was on liquids only for a month) but I don't know what your plan calls for. If you are allowed pureed food, sardines would be fine as long as you pureed them (smash with fork is not the same as puree). If you are allowed soft foods, I would imagine sardines would be fine, although I would probably stick with the skinless and boneless ones for now. Good luck!

I've lost just about 200 lbs. For me the keys were weighing/measuring all my food and logging it in myfitnesspal to make sure I stayed in a calorie deficit. I also exercised regularly but did not eat back calories burned. You can absolutely lose 200 lbs. I won't tell you it is easy, but you can do it.

There was a post on this earlier today that you may find helpful. I am too lazy to re-type my response, I apologize! http://www.bariatricpal.com/topic/376842-hospital-stay-what-should-i-take-with-me/

Here is a link to an article about a very recent study published in JAMA Surgery: http://corporate.dukemedicine.org/news_and_publications/news_office/news/gastric-bypass-is-better-than-other-procedures-for-sustainable-weight-loss Upshot: any kind of weight loss surgery has FAR better results than no surgery at all. This study looked at one year and four years after surgery. At the four year mark, gastric bypass patients had lost 27.5% of their total body weight while sleeve patients lost 17.8 percent of their total body weight. Lap band patients lost 10.6% of their total body weight. Obese patients who did not have surgery but tried to lose weight with diet and exercise lost 1.1% of their total body weight.

I got up about 15 lbs at one point, and occasionally stray over into the "red zone" by a couple of pounds. The basic principles of how I lose weight are the same: --eat less than 1200 calories per day --weigh or measure all food and track religiously on myfitnesspal to make sure I am confident about staying under 1200 calories per day --eat at least 75 grams of protein per day --avoid: grains, starchy veggies, sweets, processed meat (sausage, bacon, jerky, deli or lunch meat), liquid calories, and tropical fruits --moderate intake: beans, nuts, fruit, dairy --eat mostly: lean, dense protein, green veggies, eggs --vigorous exercise for at least 30 minutes per day, 5 days a week, but do not attempt to 'eat back' calories burned via exercise. Ignore them. When I have gotten uncomfortably over my goal weight, I may start with a "3 day meat test" or "5 day meat and green veggies test." They are just what they sound like: three days of eating nothing but lean, unprocessed meat (and eggs) and small amounts of healthy fats -- no counting calories or restricting amounts to eat, eat as much as I want, but very severely limit the kind of food I eat. Alternatively, I can do this for five days if I add in green veggies as an "allowed" food. But in either event, if at the end of three or five days I haven't gotten back to where I want to be, I restrict amounts and journal all calories, carbs, etc. faithfully. A few things I do to make it easier -- 1) get all off-plan food out of the house entirely (no one needs to eat that crap, the rest of your family can live without immediate access to it for a little while); 2) recognize where I tend to struggle and stop myself from being able to "give in." For me, I really want to snack on junk food at work. So, I stopped taking any form of money with me to work. No cash, no credit or debit cards, no checkbook, nothing. It's scary to leave the house without money, but it's never caused me any sort of emergency. Other people might have trouble with driving by their favorite doughnut store -- in that case, change your route so you don't go by it. I call these brute force methods -- they are tough, but they work (unless you are willing to rob the snack shop at work, which I am not). Good luck everyone!

I second the thought of just wear hospital gowns. Wear a second one facing backwards and you won't flash anyone. You may have IV poles, drain tubes and bulbs, and/or catheters trailing around you and attached to your body. Your own nightclothes are not designed to accommodate all that, hospital gowns are. Plus, you can have blood and IV fluid etc leaking out, do you want to deal with that or let the hospital laundry cope with it? I voted for hospital laundry. One thing I will mention -- if you are more comfortable wearing a bra, bring one that is a cotton "leisure" type bra that fastens in front and has no underwire. Many surgeons will leave you with an incision right at the bra line, and underwire or even stiff fabric pressing on it can be excruciating. Good luck!

No hair extensions for me -- I wear a topper, which is kind of like an toupee for women. I had severe hair loss even before surgery (thanks bad genetics!) and the hair loss associated with surgery made me realize I really needed to do something to fix the situation. Mine looks great and I have received tons of compliments on my hair. You do need to work with a specialist hairdresser or salon. Extensions typically will cause more of your hair to fall out due to the trauma, plus I really didn't have enough to work with -- so they were not an option for me. Also, if you haven't you might want to look into a concealer such as Toppik or Nanogen (microfibers that you shake into your hair, they make it thicker and cover up thin spots). They work really well to just hide some scalp that might show through, and are much less drastic than either extensions or a topper. http://cornerofhopeandmane.com/hair/hair-toppers-for-women/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_W5uqy5K3Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bamB1j9f5Y

How many calories are you getting each day? Cheese, salad dressing, rice, etc can add up.

I wasn't allowed raw veggies on my plan for six months. NBD, salad is not high on my priority list. I don't find it nutritionally worthwhile or particularly interesting or tasty. I'd rather have some salmon . . . or scrambled eggs.

If you are following your plan that is all you can do. Stay off the scale for at least a couple of weeks and keep doing what you are supposed to . . . the weight loss will pick up again, I promise, but you can't force it and there is no use stressing yourself out over it. Good luck!

I mean this in a totally kind way . . . the only thing you are doing wrong is not knowing that virtually everyone stalls between about weeks 3 and 5. Seriously. You can search the forums here for "three week stall" or even just do a basic Google search for "third week stall weight loss surgery" or "3 week stall vsg" or anything like that. You'll see that this is pretty much the most common thing ever after surgery. I think it is a shame that more surgeons don't educate their patients to expect it! You are not doing anything wrong with respect to eating, exercise etc. Just stay off the scale for 2-3 weeks (maybe measure yourself to see if you are losing inches -- yes it can be true that you lose inches but not pounds!). The weight loss will start up again I promise, and don't stress out or beat yourself up over doing anything "wrong." It sounds like you are doing incredibly well, but are stuck at the third week stall like we all were and all future wls patients will be. You are in good company

Getting healthy pre-pregnancy is probably the best thing you can do for your future children. I think you have an excellent plan. Good luck!

Are you trying to lose weight still, or have you willingly transitioned to maintenance mode? When I am in weight loss mode, I stay under 1200 calories per day, get at least 75 grams of protein, and avoid high carb/high sugar foods (grains, starchy veggies, sweets, tropical fruits). Other than that I don't pay much attention to carbs or sugars in terms of absolute numbers. I find that eating lean, dense protein and green veggies keeps me more satisfied for longer, so it is easier to stay on plan. I also stay away from liquid calories other than occasional protein shakes. In maintenance mode, I go up to 1600-1700 calories per day and allow myself a little more leeway in terms of grains, starchy veg, etc. In either weight loss or maintenance mode, I exercise regularly but DO NOT eat back exercise calories. You may need to play around a bit and find what works best for you. I don't think it's a one-size-fits-all type of solution -- different people will end up with great results using very different plans. I do think that what is key is being willing to push yourself beyond your comfort zone and make the effort to do things and eat in ways that may seem like a pain or overly restrictive or something like that. Sometimes you have to suffer a little to reach your goals. Good luck!

9 ounce meals? That's insane, I couldn't eat 9 ounces in one sitting if you paid me -- A LOT -- and I'm over three years post op. Do not eat so much that it hurts, that's dangerous. I'm usually all about following your doctor's orders but I'm sorry that sounds loony tunes if not downright physically dangerous. Good luck to you.

No.

I think your new surgeon probably means that someone of your size is more likely to be successful in losing all her excess weight with the bypass rather than the sleeve, hence being "too large" for the sleeve. And yes, the sleeve is often performed as a surgery that is safer for very large people than the bypass. It can be the first step -- you get the sleeve, lose a significant amount of weight, then have the malabsorption component added in a longer, more complex surgery. That surgery is typically the duodenal switch (DS) rather than the gastric bypass, though. Good luck in your decision!

Coffee all day every day here. Black coffee so no worries about added calories. And as has been pointed out here, actual science (yes, real published peer-reviewed science) shows that coffee won't dehydrate you and in fact hydrates you just as well as water does. I am perfectly healthy and not dehydrated despite having coffee as my main source of liquid (by far) for the vast majority of my life, starting at age 11. Including since surgery. My PCP told me that living off black coffee may well have saved me from having even the smallest inclination towards diabetes even when I was over 350 lbs. Coffee is good for you!

For the first six months I stayed under 800 calories. For 6 months until goal, I stayed under 1100 calories. So it sounds like pretty similar to what you are doing.

@@turtle5569 I know it seems like forever now* but I promise you in the future you'll look back and this time will just be a blip. Hang in there! *I remember the first time I got to eat something that required an actual utensil after 4 weeks of liquids. I was so happy and grateful I almost cried! Now I look back and think I was being kind of silly but I remember it meant a lot to me at the time.

What did I do in the first seven days post-op? I followed my bariatric team's orders to the letter - liquids only, high protein and low carb -- and that was for four full weeks, not just the first seven days btw. Why would I think I know better than they do? My track record proves that I'm not good at making smart choices with respect to food and my health. Why would I override the health and medical judgment of the people who I trusted with my life? I really hope the person above who is talking about eating ice cream, pizza, prime rib and coke 10 days out of surgery is a troll, and based on that hope I'm not responding any further to them. When did I start losing the lbs? Not really sure, I stayed off the scale until my post-op 4 week weigh-in. Why would I stress myself out by getting on the scale so soon after major surgery? That's a trauma to the body that is going to cause weird metabolic responses, and I wanted no part of freaking out over it and getting tempted to toss my team's plan for me out the window. I'm glad I stayed on plan and resisted temptation to just do what I felt like doing. Minus 200 lbs, went from a size 6X to a 6 (okay really more like an 8 or 10 but in some brands I can wear a 6 so I like to claim it!). My team knew what was best for me, I trusted them, and it worked out great.

You *are* losing, you just aren't losing as fast as you want to. It sounds to me like you are doing a good job with your eating and recovery, I think you should give yourself a break and let go of expectations of exactly how fast you will lose. Keep up the good work with your intake, be kind to yourself, and keep going -- the weight will come off and you will get to goal.

lmao I got a minimum of 75 grams of protein per day starting within 24 hours of surgery, and ate high protein for several weeks pre-op. I got my iron. I got my biotin. I got my zinc. And still, massive hair loss. Let's face it -- if there were a sure fire way to avoid hair loss, none of us would lose hair. It wouldn't be a secret. It's not like people just don't care about losing hair and haven't tried basically every formula you can think of.