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Here is one of the sitting articles and another and one from the Amercian Cancer Society and another from Mayo Clinic researcher I'm trying to get myself up out of my chair every hour. it's hard at night when I settle into my easy chair, though!

Elfnow, you are still healing. Your tolerance for things will change considerably. Try broccoli again in a month, you may be surprised.

Taco Bell sauce has a lot of vinegar. I like vinegary things, too. I agree about bready stuff, grind and grumble. A few tiny bites very slowly are OK, but I usually avoid breads most of the time anyway.

Personally, I would try to really shake your system up with a very different feeding pattern. Some ideas: 5:2 plan. I hear about lots of success with this. Search on it here and you'll find a lot of threads. Very low carb/high fat. This is about 10% carbs, 50% fats and 40% protein. You want to shoot for less than 20g carbs a day. Lots of people have success with this one, too. The fats are excellent for satiety and the lack of carbs forces your existing fat to break down into energy. Lower your calories to 900 or raise them to 1200. Try it for a week and see if there is any movement on the scale. Try interval training for your exercise. That is basically mixing up steady activity with short bouts of hard activity. You can search on that here for more info. I mostly walk for exercise, but I'll run for a minute or two, then go back to walking. Same type of thing on a bike. I read that you shouldn't sit for more than one hour at a time because it slows down your metabolism. There are some studies on it if you want to google it. If you have a desk job, try to get up every hour for at least 5 minutes and walk around. Good luck!

For the first 5-6 months I never felt hungry. Now I have something sort of like hunger, but it's more like I know my body needs to eat something as opposed to "I'm hungry." It's weird, hard to explain. It varies a lot from person to person and a number of people still have hunger after the sleeve, but I think it is safe to say that most everyone's hunger is considerably diminished after surgery, and find it much more managable. If I am hungry at all, I just eat a couple of ounces of something (preferably Protein like Jerky or deli meat or cheese) and it's gone like poof! That's a pretty slick thing about the sleeve. Very helpful keeping me on plan.

Try this thread lots of Protein powder conversation there... any of the unflavored powders will work, like unjury, Beneprotein, etc.

Hi Erin, Welcome to the community. I will try to answer some of your questions, but the best thing to do is learn how to use the Search function on here. The Search box is on the top right and you can look for all sorts of different topics and read many answers from the history of this site. What is my pre op diet like? Dr Neil Floch is my surgeon. Your surgeon will give you a pre-op diet specific to his practice. Not everyone has a pre-op diet, it usually depends on your BMI. People under 40 sometimes do not have a pre-op diet, they just can't gain any prior to surgery. If you do have a pre-op, it may be a liquid diet for 2 weeks before surgery or it may be a low calorie diet for 6 months. It varies a lot. How long are you usually in the Hospital? If all goes well, a day or two. If you have complications it could take several more days. If you have bad complications, it can take much longer than that. Most people stay one or two days. What should I pack? There is a great list of what to pack on here - do a search on "What to pack" and you'll see it. Does it hurt? Well, yeah, it's major surgery! Of course it hurts. They give you pain meds, though. I recommend getting off the morphine and vicodin as soon as possible, though, because it causes severe constipation that is really painful after this surgery. You get over the pain in a few days. Anything specific you guys have found that you needed when you got home from the hospital? Protein powder, Crystal Light, comfy clothes that don't bind around the middle. What were the best ways to stay positive through the pain? The pain meds help, as does walking to get rid of the gas build up, not to worry, the pain is really the least of it IMHO. You'll be too busy worrying about getting in your Water and Protein. When did you begin to feel normal again? 6 weeks post surgery, but I'm a lot older than you. I think you'll bounce back quickly. Are there certain foods i will never eat again? Carbonated drinks. Caffeine. You may find other things that don't agree with you specifically. Of course, there are lots of people here that still drink soda and caffeine on a regular basis, but for your best chance at success, it's best to avoid them. Good luck on your journey

20 something vets - I would love to hear your input. My son turns 21 shortly. He is considering the sleeve. He has been heavy since 5th grade, and all that entails.... I had the sleeve last year and have been very successful with it, which he sees. He also knows first hand that it isn't easy, what I can/can't eat, etc. He says I eat like an ant. LOL He is considering getting the sleeve. He is a low BMIer - just 35, but he is diabetic. His self esteem is so low, he has no confidence, and few friends. Girlfriends are out of the question. I do think losing the weight would change his life and I want to support him in this decision, if he wants to do it. I also don't want to push him into it just because I did it. We are scheduled for an informational seminar this month. He doesn't eat junk food or drink soda, as we have always had a healthy home food-wise, but he eats so much! At a meal he will eat enough for 2 or 3 normal people. He is also pretty lazy and doesn't like physical activity. He was a little tornado when he was small, so I think a lot is due to his size. Getting him to exercise will be an issue. Can you share your thoughts? Pros and cons of having this surgery so young? I worry that there are still health risks with the sleeve long term that we don't even know about yet. I didn't worry about that for myself, but I'm in my 50's. Does this mean a lifetime of PPI's for him? What else? Thank you for responding.

You have my sympathy. Sending hugs! It is a pain, I agree. It does get better with practice. Not to discourage you from following your doctor's orders, but some studies shows that drinking before eating isn't so bad, not like drinking with or right after eating, which have very specific concerns for sleevers. Again, I don't want to encourage not following your plan, but i drink up to about 5 or 10 minutes before a meal . You might ask your doctor if this is something you could try. Just being able to walk around with a glass of Water with lemon in it would help at those cocktail parties.

Yeah, i'd like to know when it's going to stop, too. I bet madame rev would, too. i expect we'll see her chiming in on this topic, maybe she knows.

It is really unlikely that you can eat enough calories at 3 weeks to gain actual fat, i have to say. You are also coming up on possible 3 week stall.....give it time and just stay on plan. Start your exercise as soon as your doctor gives the ok, it will give you a lot of benefits.

My dr had a 30 min before and 60 min after rule. I follow the 60 min after rule religiously, and it is second nature now. In fact, i feel quite uncomfortable if I drink during meals. I stay full for several hours after a meal. The biggest annoyance is Soup, which is something I love. Now I sip the liquid first, wait 5 minutes, then eat the solids. That kinda sucks. I do drink up to 5-10 minutes before eating. It doesn't seem to cause any problems, for me, at least.

Good job! It is an important milestone and you deserve to celebrate

Howdy August folks, I see some common threads here. I am down to a normal BMI but I'd like to get down further since I still have a jelly belly. I never lost fast to start with, like 8-10 lbs a month, and now it's 3-4 lbs a month. So frustrating. It will take as long to lose the last 20 as it did to lose the first 60 after surgery i fear.

Oh yes, very common and not a lot you can do about it. Mine fell out badly for several months, just now starting to slow down a little bit, at least it's down to strands instead of globs coming out now. Lost about 2/3 of my hair.

That's an interesting doohicky. I doubt I could eat even one of those little circles now. Pre-sleeve that would have looked like a pretty dinky dinner, though

Sometimes 64 oz is not enough. It isn't for me. I usually have 16 oz of herbal tea at bedtime and I still have dark urine in the morning since surgery. Weird.

Nope. You might have loose skin issues, but you also might be just fine over time. Lots of things play into it, like age, speed of weight loss, etc. So strength training will help tighten up flab, but won't really tighten loose skin. Some people like skin tightening lotions, but the reviews on cheap ones from the drugstore are about the same as lotions that are $75 a bottle, and non of them really have a big impact.

Try different types of Protein. whey is the most common, but there are many different kinds and you may find one that works. I don't mean different brands of one more chocolate shake, I am talking about hemp protein, pea protein isolate, egg whites, etc. was a lifesaver for me. Check out whole foods or sprouts stores. I also found unjury chicken broth protein quite tolerable when others weren't. Last, you might try beneprotein brand unflavored whey protein isolate. It is whey, but very soluble. You can get 3-4 scoops into 4 oz of milk or other liquid. Each scoop has 6 g protein. You can flavor it sweet or savory. You can even add a scoop to a cup of hot decaf tea, it dissolves so well. It is very expensive, though, as it is medical grade. This is what my dr started me out on. We were ordered to mix 3-4 scoops with 4 oz milk and half a packet of no sugar carnation instant Breakfast. The best thing about it is that it is only 4 oz so almost anyone can gag it down, and gag I did LOL.

I had low b vitamins and vit d. I was scolded and told to make sure I get my supplements in.

GasX strips and walk a lot. Really helps.

Gross.

I'm trying to remember, but I think I didn't start any supplement chewables until I was solid food. I took liquid vitamins during that phase, too. Not that you have to do that, but that's what I did.

I use Eat Slower on my phone, too. It was great for teaching me to slow down. I don't use it so much now, but I did for months and it was a huge help. Remember to take tiny bites, too. When I first got to real food I would be full after 3 bites. If I ate more I would be so sick and uncomfortable. Over time my tummy stretched a tad (I can eat about a half cup at a meal now), and I found that if I went realllly sloooow with tiny bites, I could get down 3 oz. of Protein and a couple of bites of veg in a 30 minute time period and I could easily tell when enough was enough, so I rarely overeat to the sick point now. It's a learning period to see what your body will handle.

Looks great!