Bufflehead

My surgeon won't do the sleeve on people with Barrett's Esophagus. It's like inviting cancer into your body. There's no reason to be afraid of RNY, it's a great surgery with terrific results.

I was never part of that movement or culture. I don't believe it is possible to be obese and healthy for an extended period of time. It will catch up with you eventually. That said, I don't believe in treating people badly, shaming them, stereotyping them, or discriminating against them based on body size or composition. I think that is terrible behavior. I also don't think that a health care professional telling an obese person that they need to lose weight is "shaming" -- but everyone else needs to STFU.

The best protein bar in the world has nothing on a packet of tuna.

Wow, the instructions I got from my dietitian are completely different from the "don't change anything, your body decides what weight it wants to be" stuff I am reading here. These are the instructions I got, and they have worked well for me: 1. When you hit your goal weight and want to maintain, start eating your body weight x 10 in calories every day. 2. Continue to weigh, measure and track your food religiously. 3. Weigh yourself every day. 4. After two weeks of strict maintenance eating, assess. If you have lost more than 2 lbs, add in another 100 calories per day to your eating. If you have gained more than 2 lbs, subtract 100 calories per day. 5. Repeat for another 2 weeks and assess. Again, either add or subtract calories by 100 calories per day. 6. Keep repeating until you find your target calorie range. 7. When adding in calories, focus on adding in high protein or high fat foods -- jerky, dark meat instead of white meat poultry, avocado, cheese, nuts, olive oil, grass fed butter, switch from nonfat to full fat yogurt or milk, etc. Do not raise your calories with high carb foods such as grains or fruits or sugary foods. Do not raise your calories by grazing or snacking. 8. Weigh yourself a minimum of once a week once you hit maintenance. Every day is better. If you are weighing yourself regularly and sticking to your eating plan, you can stop weighing and measuring your food and tracking it in MFP. 9. When/if you find yourself 4 lbs over your target maintenance goal, or outside of your maintenance range at all if you set a range instead of a specific number as your goal, immediately drop into weight loss mode. This means: lowering your calories by 500 per day (more if that does not result in weight loss), weighing and measuring your food, tracking everything in MFP, and stopping eating all grains, starchy vegetables, and sweets. Once you get back into your maintenance goal/range, resume maintenance eating but be mindful of why/what behaviors you got out of your range and stop doing that. This worked really well for me. If I had just given up on being in control I would have been an utter failure. YMMV of course.

1. Walk 2. When you are not walking, sit in a rocker or glider. Cross your arms across your abdomen and lean as far forward as you can while rocking back and forth in the chair. PS I assume you are talking about surgical gas -- CO2 -- not intestinal gas. For intestinal gas, try Gas-X for the symptoms. Gas-X doesn't work on surgical gas though, at least not according to my surgeon.

@@Amelie2016 nope I do not, at least not on purpose. I don't drink more than a couple of glasses of wine during the year, but that's because I'm not a fan of alcohol, not because I'm trying to avoid reflux. I also don't eat a lot of citrus fruits because of the carbs. Chocolate and other candies are out. So to some extent my diet is naturally controlled against reflux. On the other hand . . . Garlic, onions, peppers, extremely hot sauces and spicy foods, tomatoes, nuts, cheese, avocados and peppermint are all regular parts of my diet. And let's talk about coffee. I drink black coffee the way a lot of post-op people drink water. My body seems to love it. My doc says the most important thing in preventing reflux is to not eat too much. That's very important post-sleeve anyway -- you need to stop seeking the "full" sensation in your stomach and eat just enough to be satisfied, not like your stomach is "full." Good luck!

I had GERD prior to surgery, but I found out that it was likely caused by a hiatal hernia (your surgeon should have you do an upper GI series or endoscopy prior to surgery which will diagnose whether you have a hernia or not). Because my surgeon would be able to repair the hernia during my sleeve surgery, he felt like my GERD would not be problem -- and it hasn't, it's been gone since my hernia was repaired. If I had not been diagnosed with a hiatal hernia, I would have gone for a gastric bypass. No way would I have a sleeve surgery with GERD unrelated to a hernia. Gastric bypass is a great surgery and there is no reason to be afraid of it. If you haven't, you should meet (in person) some people who have had gastric bypass and discuss the surgery and their results with them.

Use the search box here and search for "3 week stall" "third week stall" or "week 3 stall" You'll see you haven't messed up, EVERYONE stops losing for a few weeks at three weeks out. Stay off the scale for a couple of weeks. I am amazed and appalled at how many doctors seem to recommend that their patients eat potatoes (of all things!) but that's a rant for another day, and if your doctor told you to do it, it's not messing up. Unless you are nibbling on potatoes all day long, it didn't cause your weight loss to stop. That happens on its own and is completely normal.

Yes, that is pretty normal, due to the risk of blood clots.

I would suggest calling rather than emailing your team if your email isn't getting a response. Sure, email is easier for the sender, but in my experience, many medical practices rarely check or answer their emails. You're much more likely to get a response if you call. There is growing evidence that the kind of food you eat and the type of macronutrients you take in are important in weight loss -- possibly more so than going strictly by calories. I am personally a firm believer in eating low carb, high protein, moderate fat. When I was 4 weeks out of surgery I was eating in the 500 - 700 calories per day range, minimum of 75 grams of protein and max 60 carbs per day, and completely avoiding grains, fruit, and starchy veggies (potatoes, sweet potatoes, peas, etc.). But this was the plan for me from my team, it might not be your team's plan for you. btw "eating too little calories will stop weight loss" is a myth according to lots of people -- if it were true, no mammal would ever die of starvation and sadly we know that is not the case.

It could be orthostatic hypotension. Have you had your blood pressure checked? Does it happen mostly when you stand up after sitting or lying down for a while?

Cabbage Soup Diet

I didn't, the hospital loaded me up with IV antibiotics before, during, and for the two days after surgery and that was it. Maybe try calling your PCP and seeing if he or she is willing to switch you to an antibiotic that is less likely to cause nausea? Some are worse than others in that regard.

No regrets here ever, not even in the first couple days and then weeks after surgery. The best thing I ever did and I haven't had any problems. eta: keep in mind as you read these forums that people tend to come here and post about their problems, when they need sympathy or information or solutions. They don't post so much just to say, hey things are great, I love my life, I have no regrets.

Pregnancy is perfectly safe after gastric sleeve. Pregnancy only requires an extra 300 calories per day to nourish a healthy, growing fetus, and after the first 6 months getting in an extra 300 calories is nothing. Make a protein shake with whole milk and a banana and you're there. What's dangerous for both a mother and baby is pregnancy while obese. If pregnancy were an issue for me, I'd be looking for the surgery that I knew would help me not be obese and stay not obese. Of course all of this is really just fodder for talk with your surgeon about the best choice for you. Good luck!

My surgeon wouldn't do a lap band on me (not that I wanted one, but it came up at our initial consult). He's seen too many complications and too many people who never reach their goal weight and/or end up needing a second weight loss surgery. Now he only performs them on people with a BMI under 40 and only if people are absolutely adamant that they will not consider any other surgery.

I took a multi-vitamin and biotin (as well as iron which I've been on basically since puberty). As my surgeon warned me, the biotin did not help at all with hair loss. It did help me grow a lovely crop of facial hair as well as additional hair basically everywhere from the navel down. Think hard before you spend a lot of money on biotin -- there is no scientific evidence that it prevents hair loss, and while it does help hair grow in thick and fast, you can't direct it to the places on your body where you want hair!

@@VSGAnn2014 this person had DS, and they have extra needs for protein due to the high malabsorption that comes with that surgery. I agree that 150 grams seems high, even for DS, but it is not nearly as high as it would be for someone with sleeve or even bypass. At least that is what I have gathered from the people in my support group with DS.

I have certainly heard of: carrying hand weights in your pockets, stuffing rolls of quarters in your bra, wearing ankle weights, wearing your heaviest clothes (boots, fisherman's sweater, etc.). Eat a big breakfast, drink a lot, and stay far away from the bathroom. You get the idea. I have heard of this, but of course could not advocate doing it no matter how much I hate insurance companies and think they should pay for all the times they have cheated people out of their rightful benefits.

I started when my doctor told me to . . . I did not fall into the trap of thinking I could make better medical and eating decisions than they could.

I think you need to look away from adding things like adding supplemental foods to your diet (bars, shakes -- let's face it, these things are more sweet treats than they appear at first glance) and more towards changing the basics of what you eat. You can get plenty of protein -- and other nutrients -- by focusing on eating a diet of lean meats, green veggies, and healthy fats. As a bonus, eating this way will keep you more full (less hungry) and help control cravings for unhealthy foods. Instead of doing some crazy fad diet like the five day pouch test, instead try a five day six day carb detox. Days 1 & 2: eat as much as you want, as frequently as you want, but only lean unprocessed meats & fish (no jerky, sausage, or deli meats), green veggies, and healthy fats. Calorie-free liquids only. Do not count calories but make sure you plan to eat at least three meals and that you get at least 75 grams of protein by the end of the day. Days 3 & 4: eat the same way, the same foods, but this time weight and measure your portions and record them in myfitnesspal or another similar app. Set your calorie target for maintenance (your current weight x 10). Days 5 & 6: eat the same way, but set your calorie target for weight loss: your maintenance number minus 500. This should average out to about 1 lb per week weight loss. If you want to lose more, try going down to -750 or -1000 from your maintenance calories. After day 6, add in dairy, beans, and small servings of fruit, but continue to avoid grains (including corn), starchy veggies (potatoes, sweet potatoes, peas, etc.), and sweets. Weigh yourself every day. Make sure you plan your meals and snacks in advance every day. You can do this -- good luck!

Maybe try the Unjury chicken soup flavor or Celebrate tomato soup flavor if you want something more savory. Just keep in mind to use a food thermometer and mix with liquid under 140F. You don't say which ones you've tried, but you might look into Syntax Nectar flavors -- they have a bunch of flavors like Roadside Lemonade, Lemon Iced Tea, Fuzzy Navel, and Grapefruit that are based on citrus and are more on the tart side. You mix them with water and that cuts down on the sweetness. You can also add in some Crystal Light or Mio SF flavorings to bump up the flavor level and tartness. I drank a lot of these in the first several weeks post-op because a lot of the other flavors were bothering me with being too thick and too sweet.

I found some by word of mouth (here and on other wls forums) plus my bariatric team included a list of suggested protein powder brands in the pre-op notebook that every patient gets.

Bodies are weird and wonky things. As are scales. Could be anything from water weight to time of the month (no idea of your gender, sorry) to needing to poop to just weird fluctuations with no real reason. Don't get concerned unless it's a long time trend. And believe me, your body will continue to do weird things. If it's going to stress you out, weight less frequently or use a site like trendweight.com so that you focus on the big picture rather than day-to-day fluctuations. I promise you you haven't gained four lbs of fat though!

I had a small glass of wine on Christmas, 6 months after surgery. I didn't have anything else for at least another 6 months.