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I'd say some bounce back is expected and fairly normal. I'd say that eleven pounds in three months is probably a bit more bounce than you want, though. If you're comfortable with your weight and can maintain it there's not an issue. The concern is that you don't get complacent and slowly allow yourself to put 20, 30 or 50 pounds back on. I'd start by tracking your intake as it is, right now, with no changes for at least three days. Log onto myfitnesspal or a similar site and record every single bite or sip you're taking. If your numbers look like they're where they should be, I'd say you have a choice to either attempt to lose the weight and get back to your goal (which is absolutely possible and will simply take time) or you can accept this larger weight as normal and move forward. If your caloric intake is higher than you expected or higher than you feel it should be, well, at that point you know what to do: address any bad habits that might have crept back in and keep yourself accountable. The best part about the sleeve is that the restriction stays forever. There is no trouble dropping ten pounds at 18 months, 2 years or even 5 years down the line. Good luck, ~Cheri

There are some great threads on binge behavior and grazing right now. I think the problem isn't carbs...it's the KIND of carbs. I think we need a more balanced diet to feel good mentally and physically, but I acknowledge that many people find that white flour and sugar are huge triggers for them. Detox, first and foremost: cut the crap choices out. If you're already doing a very low carb diet (with the exception of grazing on poor carb choices) try incorporating more of the good quality carbs into your diet to see if that can give you a sense of control and curb your desire to graze on those lesser quality foods. You are absolutely not alone in this. Again - there are SO many good threads full of people struggling with the same issue out there right now. I think it's important to not just think of your goal weight as the final goal. Consider how you'll stay there, at that weight, in maintenance for the long haul. Can you low carb it forever? If you can and you respond well to that, by all means, go for it. But if you think it will be a struggle, it's worth struggling and putting effort into a more moderate approach now, by addressing grazing/emotional/boredom eating behaviors so you can stop them once and for all. Best of luck - it's not easy for any of us, but you can overcome this. ~Cheri

Haven't experienced it but I hope that everything gets resolved quickly and you're back to normal soon. Keep us posted! Good luck, ~Cheri

Heck, I WISH I'd have more seriously considered the sleeve as a lifelong tool to control my weight and help curb my appetite when I was "only" fifty pounds overweight! Instead, I yo-yo dieted for years, developed diabetes and wound up at a high weight of 280ish on my 5'1" frame. I can see your the question because the bigger you get, the larger your goal weight number gets! I have a friend that "only" needed to lose fifty pounds but her self esteem was just as shot as mine, her eating habits were crap and she was on her way to joining my pre-op self in the high 200s...along with the comorbidities that come with that type of excess weight. Diets fail in most cases. The sleeve is not a diet. This is not an accompaniment to Atkins or Weight Watchers. This is a tool that can finally help people reach and remain at goal and it's far more successful at doing so than any of the hundreds of other diets out there, many of which even the lightweights here have tried and failed at. And that same mindset is what kept my doctors from taking my weight seriously for years. The idea that a diet will magically work when you're 60 pounds overweight but that surgery is necessary once you're 100 pounds overweight is ridiculous. If more doctors would help us with this issue BEFORE we get seriously ill and live our lives unhappily, everyone would be better off. I got tired of waiting around for my doctors and self-paid and couldn't be happier! ~Cheri

DAIRY. Check the dairy. Cut it out completely for a few days and see how you feel. I say this because I felt the exact same way after a spell of feeling just fine post op. All of a sudden food repulsed me and I felt nauseated all the time. I was starting every day with a Protein shake that was messing up my day. Then I'd follow it up with yogurt or cottage cheese most days! Once I eliminated dairy I felt a hundred, million times better. That said it was a serious challenge for me to get enough protein and I had to fiddle with my shake for a while to find one I really liked that mixed well with Water, coffee or tea. It could also just be that slump we hit when we're tired of forcing ourselves to eat, tired of the same old food choices and food just isn't appealing. I know, wanting to not care about food is a reason so many of us even have surgery, but it's not great to experience it when you're trying to be healthy, feel good and hit nutritional goals. If this is the case and it's not dairy, it's time to mix it up and go to new places with your diet. Try new foods and eat things that might not have appealed to you prior to surgery. Add in stronger spices and get creative. It can help break up a slump and get you back in the swing of things. Oh and at some point one year post op, dairy stopped bothering me as much. The lactose intolerance is back full swing now that I'm pregnant, but prior to this I was able to consume a normal diet again, with small portions of milk, cottage cheese and yogurt. Sadly (or luckily?) ice cream remains on my "avoid at all costs" list. Good luck, ~Cheri

The only "hunger" moment I've experienced post op was during this pregnancy. Otherwise, the empty feeling or dizziness will set in before I realize I've missed a meal or gone too long without eating. Gurgling is normal early out - my sleeve was noisy as all get out for most of the first year post op. Just watch the acid and take a PPI if it turns into a hungry tummy rumble. If you at any point start to feel that hungry growly stomach you had prior to surgery odds are good you need a PPI because you're either not on one or the one you're on isn't doing the trick. I bring this up because even as a sleeve vet it's easy to get confused by this. I had to restart my PPI recently due to pregnancy and the "OMG I'm starving all the time" went away as soon as I was back on one. You'd think I'd connect the dots more quickly, but nah, I had to suffer for a few weeks first. ~Cheri

Everything sounds perfectly normal - all the way to the frustration with the liquid diet and lack of energy. It improves rapidly as you get to the point where you can increase your Protein intake and get enough fluids each day. I went from always sweating to freezing within a week of surgery, even without losing much weight in that time frame. It gets better but I no longer wander around without a jacket on in the winter, that's for sure. Caffeine withdrawal and losing the food crutch that we often don't even realize we're leaning on is a challenge and will remain one in the early stages of your journey. You can and will overcome this. And just to prepare you, once you're on mushies you're likely to experience frustration all over again when you realize that you can only eat two or three bites before feeling full. This entire part of the process passes far more quickly than you think it will and before you know it you'll be several months out giving advice and support to people in exactly the spot you're in now. Good luck, and congrats on your new sleeve, ~Cheri

You don't need help unless your diet is the reason you're losing slowly. There are a huge number of active threads right now (I've even replied on a few!) that address slower loss. If you're eating a balanced diet of Protein, good carbs and quality fats, you're doing everything you can. We love to read the superman/woman losses while we're researching surgery, but the reality is that many more people lose slowly than quickly. I took 17 months to lose 107 pounds - that's just over six pounds a month but many of those months I had less than a three pound loss. I'm no less a success for the longer journey. Focus less on how quickly you lose and more on what you're doing to overcome the bad habits that made you obese. Learn moderation and build healthy eating habits so that once you do achieve goal you have the ability to stay there without a struggle. And definitely read the recent threads about binge eating and grazing! It's a behavior that you will have to address in order to have a better relationship with food. Good luck, you're not alone. ~Cheri

Yep, if you didn't get a nutritional guideline, ask for one. It's an important part of the healing process. That said, despite three weeks on liquids (ten days on clears) and getting the okay to start soft/mushy foods after three weeks, I didn't eat anything more "normal" than cottage cheese, cream of wheat, yogurt or Soup for a while. I just didn't have room and didn't have the desire to eat. ~Cheri

I only told people that would be worried about me having major surgery (my parents, for instance) and didn't tell anyone else until much later. My in-laws still don't know, because my husband is very private about things like that. It wasn't until after I was already showing success and after I'd lost a considerable amount of weight that I started being open about the fact that I had surgery. Now, at goal (or at least, having reached goal before getting pregnant), I have no qualms about sharing information about my surgery. I will say that once you're already successful, people are less likely to say judgmental things about the "right" vs. "wrong" way to lose. And anyone that really knew me (and therefore mattered to me) already watched me struggle for years to control my weight the "right" way only to fail time and time again. I'd say keep it to your intimate circle for now. It's exciting news and we're tempted to share. But the reality is that too many people think that knowing about your surgery gives them a pass to offer opinions and judgment, as opposed to their support. And really, nobody wants fifty different people asking them each week how much they've lost or to babysit how much they're eating during the loss phase. Good luck. Everyone encounters this choice, you'll have to do what you're most comfortable doing. ~Cheri

I can't speak to shifting with Mirena being solely due to weight loss, but mine did fall out. I can say (from experience) that the hormones in Mirena can cause issues with loss post VSG. There are a few old threads about this if you do a search. I had to have mine removed. I used it solely to control endometriosis because surprise pregnancies aren't in the cards for us. Mine fell out while I was in the loss phase. I had it placed again a few weeks later. The only time I lost weight during that time frame was when the Mirena was out of my body! Now, many people use it and love it. In fact, I loved mine - nothing has ever worked better at controlling the endo. But it was definitely causing problems after my WLS, so keep that in mind IF you notice something isn't quite the same or working as well. That said, I think that applies to all hormonal birth control. You'll find even more threads about this. Some women have no issues and some of us have real reactions to things that worked well previously. Just be aware of it and be prepared to address it if it comes up. In any case, my post isn't to scare anyone or worry anyone needlessly. The fact is, it's better to directly ask your doctor about potential issues than to risk an unwanted or unplanned pregnancy that will cause you stress and unhappiness. ~Cheri

It's up to your sleeve, really, but I'm more than two years out and still can't eat iceberg. It just doesn't go down well and causes discomfort. I eat salads that are veggie based or I use romaine (when I can find it here) or spinach for my salads. Go slow with lettuce. This is another food like bread, rice, Pasta, etc. that might seem like it's sitting well but you can go from enjoying your meal to discomfort in one small bite. And definitely wait at least two months to start trying - you want that sleeve to heal and any "roughage" food should be avoided during the beginning period. I couldn't eat lettuce or spinach until some time late in the first year. Other fibrous veggies were fine by around six months post op. And a portion will be whatever you can fit in without discomfort! I go easy on salads made with lettuce and would say that it's far less than even half a cup for me to feel satisfied without discomfort. I can eat a greater portion of salads where lettuce isn't the base (1/2 cup) and where I live that's more common anyway. ~Cheri

I also did it - I've been a lifelong insomniac and found that I'd eat an entire meal in the evenings, usually sometime around midnight. Even on nights when I could sleep I might wake up hungry halfway through the night, which always struck me as completely bizarre. I started curbing it early out when food wasn't appealing. Nowadays I try something protein/dairy before bed and it tides me over. I'll do string cheese, or a handful of nuts, a hard boiled egg, or maybe an extra Protein shake, whatever it takes. I now eat a protein snack before heading to bed. I am careful not to snack in bed and I only allow myself to drink Water at night but I admit that even with a sleeve there are times (especially during my cycle) when I have to resist the urge to eat a late meal. I've also found that my insomnia is far better now that I've lost weight. I cannot even begin to guess at why because I was an insomniac as a skinny child. But maybe I'm more active now or I'm just sleeping more soundly. Whatever the reason, I only have occasional bouts of insomnia these days. I had a real problem immediately post op and found that it got much better when I cut/curbed my artificial sweetener use. Good luck - and thanks to the posters that linked to this disorder. This is something I've always done, that my mother does and that my younger sister does, too. I had no idea that it was common and always figured it was simply a behavior I learned from my family, but it's interesting to know that it might be part of a larger issue. ~Cheri

Honestly? Everyone's body reacts differently but you're probably starved for carbs and energy, hence the compulsion to eat afterward. If anything, I'd say the sodium in the crackers is the culprit, not the carbs. That said, I urge you to work moderation in slowly before reaching goal. Everyone approaches their sleeve differently and it's important to understand that we're not all the same and our bodies react differently. That said, waiting to learn how to eat more normally once you're at goal results in regains and trouble maintaining for a lot of people. I would do an experiment. Track your food. Incorporate more and more good quality carbs (I'm not taking Cookies and cakes, here) and see if it negatively impacts your loss. Counter higher sodium treats like crackers or popcorn with extra Water that day. I am willing to bet that you can probably at least double your carb intake (maybe more) without sabotaging your loss. In turn, I think this will help you be better prepared for life at goal. I've read in so many places that men do well on Atkins and extremely low carbs but women do best on a more balanced diet and experience a lot of issues when they low carb it too long. For me, crankiness is a definite issue but I also have hypersensitivity to carbs and if I avoid them too long my sugars skyrocket once I eat them AND they stimulate the urge to binge. I eat about 40% Protein, 30% carbs and 30% fat and never feel deprived and it didn't cause me to lose any slower than I was losing on 20 grams a day. Just my opinion, of course. For what it's worth, when I eat popcorn I see a bump up on the scale the next day every single time. I know it's the sodium and I increase my water so that it falls off by the day after. Good luck! Remember that it's a learning process and that it takes time to learn how/what to eat for ideal results. ~Cheri

In a few days you'll forget this phase. At this point I was restricted to clears and like you (like almost everyone!) was having trouble getting enough liquids down. Sip all day long. If cold drinks bother you or take longer to drink, move to room temp or warm beverages. The only unjury product I liked was the chicken Soup, but if you don't have any of that just spice up some chicken broth and sip that, too. Focus on hydration and liquids and worry about Protein later, once you're more healed. Take it easy, and congrats on your new sleeve, ~Cheri

First of all, you CAN stop eating those sweets. It's hard and sometimes you'll go crazy knowing they're around but you really are in control of this behavior, even when you feel like you're not. The desire to eat you can't control yet, but the acting on it? You can stop that. First I'd check out the recent thread on binge eating. There's a lot of info there on emotional/binge/overeating and it's always good to know that you are not alone with this struggle. http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/topic/63618-if-you-were-a-binge-eater-before/ I posted there about how I overcame my own habits and the process I used to do it. It worked for me and might be worth considering. I "stumbled" twice on my journey. Essentially, I hit two nine week stalls. And both times, about four weeks into that stall I got a "what the hell" attitude and ate what I wanted. I never did experience a gain (luckily) but I am sure my stall went on because it took me a while to focus on kicking the habit. None of us had great eating habits prior to the sleeve or we probably wouldn't have opted for this surgery. It takes time and real effort to recognize the why behind those behaviors and then to break the ingrained habits. Your caloric intake is going to be the amount of calories you can eat in a day without slowing or stopping your loss. For me that was much lower than most - I think I did best on 700-900 calories a day until maintenance. Some gals can eat double that and lose fine. The best thing to do is track your intake (every single bite, even half a cookie!) and follow your body's patterns. If you incorporate more good quality carbs into your diet you might gain a sense of control over the desire to graze on sweets, though. Good luck. We're all here to help. I, personally, overcame this obstacle and feel confident that you can, too, if you work on it. ~Cheri

It's a long learning process complicated by the fact that certain foods will bother you at certain times and go down easily at different times. I had to re-learn my capacity (with lots of tossing up food) when I got pregnant. I felt like I had more room and sure, I do, but that means ten bites of steak instead of six...not fifteen bites. Certain foods make this harder - if bread, Pasta, rice or flour tortillas are involved they swell once they hit the stomach. For me, I can go from perfectly fine to discomfort in just one small bite. So always watch those foods until you learn your limits. Don't be so hard on yourself. I was a fast eater that took big bites for nearly 30 years prior to surgery. I didn't just unlearn that habit in only a few weeks! You'll get there. I'd say lesson learned but sometimes it takes a while. ~Cheri

I see VST less as someone's personal cheerleader and more as a place to share information, ideas and strategies on life with a gastric sleeve. It's a forum full of strangers from across the globe and I cannot expect everyone here to think and act the way I might. I don't know, but as an adult I suppose I'm just used to dealing with both nice and not so nice people, with people that are blunt and with people that are delicate, and with people that take everything very personally and with people that let things roll of their backs. It's part of life. In the real world, I interact with those people just fine without the need for someone else to back me up or intervene. I think what frustrates many people isn't that people don't search out old searches (though many people never bother to search at all), it's that on any given day you can find four active threads about the same exact topic in a forum. Most often, I simply ignore these repeats, but yes, seeing the same questions and information (and sometimes misinformation) being continually revived gets annoying. I think what frustrates people here the most is that those of us that don't need to be here come back to help. We want to share our experience and we genuinely want to see people succeed. Finding repeated posts from people that simply want validation for what they know are poor choices gets aggravating and I'm sure you'll understand that once you've been here a while. This isn't kindergarten where we need a moderator to separate us into opposite corners because we disagree on occasion. We're all adults here, right? It's very easy to simply ignore someone that posts something you don't like or don't agree with and to avoid posts where you know that particular member has been active. Oh, and I'm not only a meanie, I'm a hormonal pregnant woman. ~Cheri

I sincerely doubt your diet is the culprit as you are almost assuredly eating far less than you did prior to surgery. Some people really do just lose more slowly. You can fiddle with your diet if you need to feel more in control of the situation. Counter to what you'd likely think, if anything, it's more likely you need to increase calories/carbs to jump start yourself. At that point post op I was struggling to consume 400-500 calories and 60 grams of Protein a day. At some point around four months I was struggling mentally and started to incorporate more calories, carbs and protein. I started with additional shakes because that was easiest for me. I noticed no increase in the rate of my loss, but mentally I felt much better. I had more energy and did feel less deprived and more in control of my diet. I lost 107 pounds over the course of 17 months, with two 9 week stalls along the way. I lost at a rate of just over 6 pounds per month. Prior to surgery the only stories that stood out in my mind were swift losses and I was certain that I'd get to goal in roughly nine months. The fact of the matter is that I lost slowly and nothing I did changed my body's pace. I am no less a success story for reaching goal more slowly. In fact, I maintained my weight (prior to my current pregnancy) with very little effort and reached goal happy and healthy both physically and mentally. Nobody wants to hear it but the real truth is that you cannot control how your body loses. There is a reason for many of us having years of failure on various diets before we choose surgery as an option. I could not have reached goal without my sleeve. Try to focus on the fact that every pound you lose is one gone forever, and be grateful that you've chosen this surgery that will make your goal achievable. The 1,200 one-size-fits-all diet and expectation to lose two or more pounds a week does not apply to many of us. If it did, we would have reached goal our first round of Weight Watchers and kept our stomachs! Good luck, and try to stay positive. I won't offer up a sample menu as you'll see plenty of them and could search them out in any case. Many, many of us lose more slowly. If you search these boards you'll find that you are not alone and that there is really no need to get so frustrated over a time goal. Focus less on how quickly you'll lose the weight and more on building the foundation you need to stay at goal once you achieve it. ~Cheri

Yeah, that's pretty much every single experience I've had in the last twelve years with a stateside doctor. No joke. I get so frustrated with people that tell me it's not the norm...well, in my world, it really is. I've had to fight tooth and nail for some of the dumbest things - like a referral to get some physical therapy after I'd broken my leg in five places. My doctor wanted me to lose fifty pounds first! Um, how am I going to exercise and lose fifty pounds if I can't get out of bed without walking like Frankenstein?! I had the same doctor refer me to a dietitian FOUR times in a two year period because it was easier than just believing me when I said I was having trouble losing weight. You're lucky if you can find a new doctor. In Tricare, it's incredibly difficult to change PCPs if you're using a military hospital and if you do, the old doc will hand over your file along with tales of how difficult you are so that your new doc has a bias before even seeing you. It's happened to me twice. In my experience, this is much like any other service field. With a surplus of customers with no choice on where to go and a guaranteed payment from the insurance company, there's a decline in quality of service. ~Cheri

It resolved a lot between one and two years post op. I was able to eat everything but ice cream, which still caused a lot of problems. If I was reasonable about portions of dairy in a day I could even incorporate a small amount of milk, yogurt or cottage cheese. I just had to keep in mind that I couldn't have a lot of dairy at all meals - I could only do it one or two meals a day. Now that I'm pregnant, the intolerance is back full force and I cannot drink milk, eat yogurt, or even use butter on some days! I get nauseated and if I overdo it I experience gas, bloating and intestinal distress. I have no idea how things will be once the baby arrives. My intolerance first made itself known during my twin pregnancy and afterward because just a mild nuisance that bothered me once in a while. I'm hoping for the same outcome this time. ~Cheri

Yes, a doctor and some blood tests are probably all that can help. It's not unheard of for people to develop an allergy later in life, but I haven't heard of your specific reaction after VSG. I know that my lactose intolerance got much, much worse immediately post op (it went from a nuisance that bothered me once in a while to an outright inability to consume any dairy for several months) but your reaction is much more serious than that. My friend developed a seafood allergy late in life and I've heard of people developing serious reactions to artificial sweeteners all of a sudden, after years of using them with no issues. After my twin pregnancy, I developed an allergy to sulfites. Just all of a sudden, one evening at dinner, a favorite wine caused hives, swelling in my throat and trouble breathing. It was easy to pinpoint the cause and a trip to the doctor confirmed what we suspected. Good luck and be careful until you do get into a doctor. ~Cheri

I mix with Water, coffee or tea. I tried samples of almost all the fruit flavors (got mine on Vitalady's site) and hated every one. I was surprised but my tastes have changed. I like vanilla, chocolate and cappuccino, as well as the unflavored. I mix two scoops into 10-12 oz. of liquid and get my Protein boost in that way. I still don't like to eat Breakfast and I like to keep my protein high (90+ grams a day) because I feel better with higher protein. I'm more than two years out and of all the many Proteins I've tried this is my favorite brand. ~Cheri

I would have told everyone but my husband is a very private person and prefers not to share things like that. Add in an ex-wife that tries to count our pennies for us so she can get more out of us, and I can kind of understand. I told my family because I tell them everything. Now that I'm so much farther out from surgery most people do know but his parents still do not. It's fine with me but seems silly at times because it's obvious I lost a great deal of weight and it's obvious I cannot eat much any more. But with time anything can become normal, so to them this is just normal Cheri behavior now. It's up to you. I see posts all the time where people regret telling people outside their intimate circle of friends and family, because knowing does tend to make people think they have license to criticize, offer unwanted opinions and babysit your eating habits as well as your progress. It's nice to have cheerleaders but not so nice to have a team of people micromanaging your weight loss surgery. Good luck, ~Cheri

The Ahi Carpaccio is the only thing I ever eat at Cheesecake Factory anymore. If you only use a tiny bit of the sauce, it's a serious Protein meal and tastes fantastic. The sauce has mega sodium, of course. I was so disappointed to eat there when I was back in the states over the summer because I'm pregnant and supposed to avoid uncooked fish. I had to find something else to eat, and while there were dozens of other options it wasn't the flavor explosion of the dish I usually order. Online menus are my best friend post VSG. I almost always have an idea of what I'll order before we hit a restaurant these days, which definitely makes things less frustrating when you're on a more limited diet in the beginning. ~Cheri