Heatherr

You were glowing - simply stunning! Your forever photos came out beautiful.

My group has us going to stage 2 fairly quickly as well and I transitioned fine. I still gurgle sometimes, but I can eat tuna, eggs, cottage cheese, yogurt, puree meats if they have lube of some sort and Soups very comfortably. I can get 1/4C down before I feel restriction if it's chunky and 1/2C down if it's smooth like yogurt and creamy soups. Edited to add that I have never gotten sick of felt nauseous until I ate lobster bisque last night.

I imagine everyone is different, but for me it was around 6 days post op where everything turned around. I am now 2 weeks post op and feel great. I still have to bend slowly and get in and out of bed or from sitting slowly, but I can eat and drink comfortably and sleep and sit comfortably. I have little rumbling, maybe just a bit right after I eat, but all digestive systems seem to be working normally now. Hang in there. It goes by fast.

I pre op dieted below a 40 BMI and they didn't bat an eye. Infact, they were very supportive of my initial weight loss.

I haven't had this issue at all. Maybe try to eat a little less at first? Things that sit well in my new tummy are tune salad (made with light mayor or avocado) cottage cheese, refried Beans with fixings and eggs as long as they are moist. I moisten scrambled egg with half a slice of american cheese or do egg salad. Both sit well. Last night I made crock pot chicken dinner for the family so I tried some of the moist chicken and mashed it up good with a little gravy. It was soooo good and sat well, but I try to under eat vs over eat. GL

I had my surgery on the 2nd as well and I'm only down 12lbs. I've only lost 1 in the last 4 days <sigh> I guess I expected to lsoe slow because I lost so much pre op though, but it still blows. I'm not sure why, but I can get in all protein and fluids without too much effort and Im only 2 weeks post op. I have been able to since 1 week. The good news is that I feel great, so I guess it may be worth the slower loss for now.

I have one too, but it doesnt stick out enough to cut it and now the scar tissue from my wound has grown over it. The problem with that is that now the scar is all puckered. I hope it goes down. Any experience?

So mu husband just says to me in all his eloquence "Dude, you're looking wicked skinny." I'll take it.

Currently, I am under 25g of carbs per day.

OK, I'll fess up. I made some kick butt grilled chicken teriyaki with a pineapple glaze for the family this week and I couldn't stand not eating any, so..........I took two pieces and chewed them and spit them out. The chewing and flavor was like heaven and I don't regret it for one second even if I looked ridiculous standing over the garbage can to do it.

I haven't been around in a while, just now able to really sit at the computer for long. Congrats to all of those on the losers bench and to those joining us soon. I'm still having pain and needing Tylenol every 4 hours, but I am getting around well. I was up and walking a lot right after surgery. They called me their star patient, but I seemed to have a lot of pain and bruising. sleeping is a challenge, but I have no hunger and have not regretted this once. I actually gained 12lbs overnight from all of the fluids. It took quite a while to lose that, but the pounds started melting off within the last 3 days. I am 8 days post op and down 7lbs even with the 12lb weight gain, so 19lbs in 8 days. <laugh> I was able to start mushies yesterday. Everything is going well so far, but I eat very little. I don't want to over do it especially since it's only 1 week since surgery. I can see my muscles wasting away already and cannot wait to be able to exercise and lift again. GL all.

Yeah, my practice wants us on full liquids before we leave the hospital and on mushies 1 week post op. I will probably lose more slowly because of this and not have that great 25-30lb weight loss the first month, but I am a lot more pleasant and feeling good because of it. I'm liking the way I look again, so I have no complaints. I am happy.

Follow your plan and diet. You will lose it easily. Low carb, high Protein and don't cheat. Edited to add that I was losing 12-14lbs a month pre op by just following that plan. I eat less than half what I used to now that I've been sleeved. I'm not running right now, but I don't consume enough calories yet to really expend too many exercising, but seriously, as long as I stay on plan pre op or post, the weight comes off.

I got the chicken soup from unjury. I liked it pre op. POst op it tastes too strong in a full dose, but I like it with half the protein with double the water. I also added it to cream soups, or if you add it to warm milk and belnd it, it makes like it's own cream soup and goes down quite well without the aftertaste. Can you do yogurt yet? Greek yogurt mixed with sf syrup is my favorite breakfast. And then I add isopure. The 8oz mini bottles are perfect and have 15g or protein. I can get one of those down in 20 minutes easy. Between the chicken protein powder, greek yogurt and isopure, I can get 50g protein easy. I can also eat purees this early out so its been easy getting in all my protein. Good luck.

It was about a week for me before I looked normal in clothes. I am 1.5 weeks post now and I still have some swelling around the large incision where they take the stomach out. It's a little lopsided and noticeable if I am wearing something form fitting, but nobody would notice a difference in most of my normal clothes. I found great success using frozen bags of veggies as ice packs. It really helped with the surgical swelling.

size 40 here I don't need the extra discipline of the tighter sleeve, so I'm happy with it. I am 1.5 weeks post op and haven't had any problem getting enough protein and fluids down since day one. Don't get me wrong, it was very tight the first week, but I could sip just fine. I physically feel good and I know it's because I can get enough nutrition and fluids in. I think 36-38 sounds perfect. Any smaller would have worried me, so good for you!

1. Did you have a lot of pain? Do you have a surgical history? It was a lot more painful than I expected. It wasn't from gas, but from surgery. I had my gall bladder out a couple of years ago. 2. Did you have a preop diet to shrink your liver? A 9 day liquid diet was expected, but I dieted on my own and exercised to the tune of -53lbs before surgery by following the post op diet of no caffeine, low carbs and high Protein. 3. Did you keep up your pain medication? I had to beg for it in the hospital and once you get behind, it took an hour to get relief. Stupid way to do it, really. Once I got home and was able to take it on the clock, it was much easier, but it wore off after about 3.5 hours and I was quite uncomfortable the first few days. I was off the vicodin by 6 days post op and Tylenol handled the pain ok, though I still needed it every 4 hours round the clock for a few more days. 4. How old are you? I am 37 and very healthy other than being....er.....<cough> fluffy. Before surgery, I was running and weight lifting regularly, though it took me a couple of months to work up to that point. GL!

I had the same thing. I'm sure it was the narcotics and the anesthesia. I took milk of magnesia about 6-7 days post op and it worked. I felt much better.

I also followed the low carb, high protein diet pre surgery and lost 53 lbs while I waited for paperwork to go through. I had surgery less than 1 1/2 weeks ago and will continue with that until I am close to goal. I expect it'll be 6 months(ish) I see others eating whatever they want and then complain of slow weight gain. Like everything it's what you put into it to a point. Others just lose faster or slower no matter what they do. But I will say that it seems those that put the effort in and follow the guidelines seems to lose most of the weight within a year.....a little more for those that have 200+ lbs to lose, and most seem to lose the bulk of it within 6 months. I'm down 63lbs in 5 months and I've only been sleeved for 1 week. Most of that was on my own dieting. The sleeve just makes it faster. Good luck, hun!

Just from reading this forum, it seems those with a lower BMI to start get closer to goal than those with a higher BMI and those with a higher BMI tend to lose faster in the beginning.

I am in this stage as well, but less than 2 weeks post op. My pouch likes eggs. I did a scrambled egg with some american cheese to moisten it and it went down well. I also did egg salad smushed to a puree and that was tasty and good too. I ate the crab/cheese filling of a few crab rangoons that sat in my stomach like a lead weight. I won't try that again, but it was silly of me to try that so early out. The family had goulash and garlic bread one night so I took some of the meat sauce before the Pasta was added and tossed it in the magic bullet (blender) until it was the consistency of cat food. I sprinkled some parmesan cheese on it for added Protein and ate about 2 T. of that. It was delicious and sat well. Today I am going to puree some lentil Soup for lunch. I have a sweet potato for later in the week. I will bake it then mash it up with some liquid to thin it out. I prefer to stay away from white potatoes because they are a waste of space in the tiny amount I can eat at this point. I also plan to make chicken chili later this week and will puree some of that and add liquid of needed. I've only been doing real food for a couple of days so I haven't tried much and can eat so little, but everyone is different. My pouch likes Greek yogurt best and I can actually eat a whole serving of it. You may be different. Search the boards for ideas. Ricotta bake seems to be popular. It's like no pasta lasagna, just layers of ricotta mixed with an egg and seasonings, layered with sauce and cheese and baked. I also have some refried Beans I'll try next week. They seem too thick to try this early out for me.

You all think those numbers make you a slow loser? It seems good to me. What am I missing?

Two thumbs up

Good for you! ANd I second what the others said about losing well ahead of time. I lost 53lbs before surgery and am soooo glad. Now, people see me losing and won't notice as much and also I am dropping sizes already at 1 week out. I got the big sizes out of the way. I went shopping today and was buying 16's, 14's and 12's.....at one week post op!! I also recovered fast, not sure if that is the reason why, but I"m glad. You will be too.