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Try Syntrax nectar or Isopure. They are more like koolaid rather than a milk shake. A lot of people like Premier that's available in most grocery stores as well as costco and Sam's. I dilute all RTD shakes with milk or Water and use twice as much liquid as what the powders called for. Otherwise they were just too thick and sweet for me. Personally I hated Bariatric Advantage. They got a two thumbs down in my taste testing experiments. Those and Isopure were by far my least favorites and wouldn't drink them if you paid me. I really like Syntrax, Premier, muscle Milk, Spirutein, unjury, syntha6, body fortress and Quest. Some flavors of Jay Robb were good, too. Taste and preferences are individual, so just keep trying new ones. You can get samples of dozens of Protein powders from Nashua Nutrition

Mine was 2 weeks 3 Protein shakes/day and leafy green veggies. (Kale, lettuce, Brussels sprouts, etc). Lost 22 pounds and had a complication-free, pain free surgery and recovery. I'd say either go to the other diet or find a different Protein shake....there's dozens out there with extreme variations of ingredients, taste and palatability. 5 shakes a day is a lot, but you'll have to find some thing that works for postop anyways. What can't you stomach about them?

Of course. It's actually a very easy and generous preop diet compared to mine. What part are you thinking isn't possible?

Like others said, do whatever you need to to get in at least 60g Protein.....even more if and when you can. Like @@VSGAnn2014 I was getting in my 60g by 5 days postop. And I needed shakes to do this for at least the first year. I drank 2-3/day for at least 4 months until I could finally eat more than a couple spoonfuls of solid food at a time. At 26 months out I still have a daily protein shake. Makes it so much easier than having to always eat protein at every meal/snack.

Exact same thing happened to me. Had my first attack 8 months out. Incredibly painful....curled up on the bathroom floor, just trying to breath. Had 3 more attacks over the next 14 months. Each one lasted just around 2 hours. One was close to 2 1/2 hours and I had called someone to take me to the ER but the pain subsided just as they got to my house. My pancreatic enzymes became elevated after the last attack, so I finally scheduled surgery. Had my gallbladder out 23 months after VSG. Wished I hadn't waited so long because recovery was a piece of cake. Surgery at 8am on Wednesday. Discharged at noon, went to the grocery store on my way home. Thanksgiving dinner at grandma's the next day and I was pretty tired but totally back to normal by Friday. Pathology reported 15 stones in my gallbladder!

What @@Babbs said.... I've never "excercised" at all since surgery. I was self pay, too, but I knew I would never adopt an excercise regimen. I hate excercise and always have. Wasted hundreds of dollars on gym memberships. I have a recumbent bike and Nordic track collecting dust in the spare room. But I do do all those things Babbs mentioned....I park in the farthest spot away from the store, I take my dog for hikes. I take stairs, never an escalator or elevator. I walk between terminals in the airport rather than use the people movers. I have a physical job that involved a lot of bending, squatting, kneeling and lifting. Studies show that diet, not excercise, is responsible for weight loss. Sure, excercise will increase your strength and stamina and improve muscle tone, but you can actually lose weight without it. So as for your stall, don't worry about it. They are normal and it will pass. As for your energy levels, what are you eating? Meeting Fluid and Protein goals every day? Getting in some healthy carbs and fats? (Adding pureed fruit to my protein smoothies really helped with my energy early on) What supplements are you taking? Have you had bloodwork done to check for deficiencies?

4 months glass of wine 5 months Bloody Mary (didn't sit well and couldn't finish it) 6 months vodka cocktails Since then I've had everything from Twisted tea to Apple Crown, vodka, rumchata, Kahlua, wine, bloody Mary's, margaritas, and flat hard cider. Mostly just on vacation or over holidays. Unfortunately Alcohol does not effect me any differently than preop....I can still outdrink a football team. I was really looking forward to being a lightweight, but unfortunately am not. I was an alcoholic preop....drank every day, got seriously drunk on the weekends. I often drank more calories than I ate. But now the calories just aren't worth the buzz. I basically treat it like any other carb....limited occasions and in moderation.

It's acid. What's your antacid med and dose? You may need to take more for awhile or switch to a different one. I was on 40mg omeprazole daily for two months. But even at that dose it would sometimes flair up. Rolaids or Maalox were a quick fix when it did. After 2-3 months I no longer needed any PPIs. Now, when I occasionally get gastritis or a bit of acid I take an H2 blocker like famotidine or ranitidine or even just a couple Rolaids. They are faster acting than the PPIs and I only have to take them for a day or two.

Like others said, you do not have to be a helpless bystander throughout your weight loss process. You can lose as much or as little as you want. In the beginning it's all going to come off very easily. Eventually you will hit stalls and you may even hit a long plateau where you aren't losing anymore. But if that's not the weight you want to be, it's up to you to be proactive and find a new formula that works to shed more pounds. I have been in maintenance for over 1 1/2 years and am happy where I'm at. But I also know what works for me if I do want to lose more. Which I have, but at a lower weight I look and feel too thin, so I go back up to where I'm comfortable. @@CowgirlJane and @@James Marusek both gave excellent descriptions of how they not only maintain, but also how they can lose even in "maintenance". Take their examples and be an active participant in your journey. Learn to listen to your body and pay attention to the details. This will help you formulate a plan that works for you. There are no cookie cutter answers to long term success. You are responsible for your own success or failure. And remember....if you think you might fail then, yes, you might. But if you KNOW you will succeed then you will.

I used to get massages all the time. Back in my 20's I had a roommate who was a massage therapist and we traded them for partial rent. Even when we weren't roommates anymore I still made it a regular thing. Then life got crazy and priorities changed. Ironically, now that I need it most, both mentally and physically I'm not making the time. But I'm gonna try.....You've inspired me @@Inner Surfer Girl!

Yeah, I know. A friend actually treated me to a 90 minute massage a couple weeks ago. She kidnapped me and drove me there herself. The masseur was quite appalled and advised me to "get some more work done ASAP" . I have two more gift certificates for massages that clients have given me but just can't seem to find the time. Guess that's a goal I should work on! Your Hawaii reward sounds heavenly. Can I come? I don't even need to surf.... I'd just be happy to lay in the sand and make Vitamin D all day.

First of all, congratulations! What a flurry of goodness you have coming your way! I guess I never rewarded myself for reaching the mini goals. Meeting them was reward enough. I mentally acknowledged them, probably posted it online and moved on. Even reaching my final goal weight was anticlimactic.....I really don't even remember when it happened (the date on my ticker is my best guess). I did, of course, reward my self with new clothes, boots, and even a saddle when I settled into my new size, but these were necessities. My dozens of NSVs served as rewards as well. But I do like the above suggestion of a massage! And I keep saying I'm going to reward myself with a new truck but no one ever "rewards" me with the required $$$$

i've always believed that chocolate and Peanut Butter play well together . And thank goodness that article didn't dispute that. Thanks for the link. I work with a wholistic veterinarian and do a lot of nutritional counseling. The food "rules" are based in Chinese medicine, not western science and addresses healing from a chi deficiency/energy channel approach. I don't always understand it, but I see the results so I'm not arguing with what I call her voodoo medicine. It's interesting to see a similar thing for people from a digestion perspective.

For all you negative nellies out there..... "If you think you might fail then yes, you might. But if you KNOW you will succeed then you will." There is a similar weight regain discussion going on another forum right now. One of the best posts was from someone who suggested that once you are at goal, you make going even one pound above your bounce range totally unacceptable. You take action immediately to drop that extra pound. You do not accept 2 pounds or that turns to 5 pounds and that turns to 10 and the next thing you know you are obese again. This is what I've always done, but turned out to be an "AHA" moment for several members.

So the last link is claiming you can't get fat from eating Protein OR carbs (at least not in a "real world" setting).... "Make no mistake, the conversion of carbs to fat (a process called de-novo lipogenesis or DNL) can happen but the requirements for it to happen significantly are fairly rare in humans under most conditions (to discuss this in detail would require a full article, interested readers can search Medline for work by Hellerstein or Acheson on the topic). At least one of those is when daily carbohydrate intake is just massive, fulfilling over 100% of the daily maintenance energy requirements. And only then when muscle glycogen is full. For an average sized male you’re looking at 700-900 grams of carbohydrate daily for multiple days running." So WTH are we bothering with a low carb diet? And sorry, but do you know how much weight I'd gain if I added a couple candy bars to my daily diet? Which is far less than the 700-900g he's talking about. Sounds like he needs to get out of the lab and into the "real world"

Sorry, I was simply quoting the article you provided. And the new articles you posted continue to support my position that our bodies are indeed, limited on how much protein can be utilized over a given period of time. One of your articles specified that the gastrointestinal tract can only absorb protein at a rate of 1.3-10g/hr. It goes on to include our liver's ability to properly excrete excess nitrogen as a limiting factor of what is an acceptable protein requirement as well. Another article indicated that protein intake in excess of 30-40g post workout has no added anabolic benefit. The other articles simply confirmed what we already know....high protein/low carb diets are beneficial for weightloss. So again, thank you for your links.

Ok, I am still confused..... 1)Your surgeon wants you to get up to 200g of Protein? That's insane and nothing I've ever heard of before. Are you sure those are your instructions? 2) you mentioned before you get in one Protein shake and a bit of farina or Beans. That isn't even close to 60 or 70g. So what are you eating?

That is one of the reasons I chose to be open about my surgery. I was not ashamed and didn't want to perpetuate the stigma of WLS by hiding it like a dirty secret. I don't shout it from the rooftops, but when asked my answer is "I had surgery and I eat high orotein/low carb." I give credit where credit is due.....my results would not be possible without surgery. It's NOT just from diet and excercise and I don't think it's right to mislead people into thinking that. Instead I am the success story that hundreds of people can talk about next time they are confronted with the subject of weight loss surgery. I know honesty isn't for everyone, but for me it's the only way I felt comfortable dealing with all the questions. Not to mention the support and accountability that I now have because of it.

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@@BarrySue thank you. The examples you posted actually support the favt that the body has a limited capacity for utilizing the amino acids from Protein for muscle synthesis..... "Protein beyond what your body needs to replenish its amino acid pool (or can put to use for muscle building) is metabolized into glucose and used for energy. And whenever you have more food energy than you need, the surplus is stored as fat. Nothing is wasted" So no, the protein you eat isn't "wasted", but if you consume too much too fast, it's no different than eating fats or carbs. Essentially only a certain amount of the protein you eat over a certain period of time can be utilized as a muscle building block. The excess is burned for energy or stored as fat. In other words, you shouldnt consume more than 10-20g protein/Hr or you might as well be eating candy bars. Your links actually support this theory.

My insurance didn't cover WLS at all. I paid $6500 at Obesity Control Center in TJ. Dr. Ariel Ortiz is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and a Bariatric Surgeon of Excellence. His facility is an International Center of Excellence. He's proctored dozens of US and Canadian surgeons in laparoscopic technique, performed over 16,000 bariatric surgeries and has a complication rate 1/10 that of the US average. I had an easy, pain free recovery and was back to work in 7 days. Excellent postop communication and even at 2 years out they continue to monitor my progress. My PCP is so impressed he is recommending OCC to his patients that dont have WLS insurance. If you can't get things straightened out with your local doctor and insurance, you should look at the great surgical options offered elsewhere.

There is no way I could have met protein goals even in the first year without protein shakes. And at 26 months postop I still drink them at least 5 days/week. I also eat a quest bar every day. It is an easy way to know I'm getting 40-50g protein before I even start eating. It also gives me the freedom to eat more veggies and fruit and not have to eat protein for every single meal/snack. Besides, 100% whey isolate is the number one, best absorbed form of protein available. Why wouldn't I want to give my body the best?

Are you seeing a therapist or counselor? Attending a support group? If not, you need to. You sought the help of a medical professional to "fix" your stomach. If you can't overcome the mental/emotional/psychological part of WLS by yourself then you need to seek the help of a mental health professional to help "fix" your head, too. You need both the physical and mental tools to win the war against obesity. Unfortunately, as you are finding out, the surgery was the easy part.

You still haven't given an answer to how much Protein? How many fluids? Those really are the only numbers that matter right now. If it's less than 60-80g or less than 64oz (minimum!) then you need to work on those goals. Your priorities should be healing and being healthy, not starving yourself to see how fast you can lose. I didn't WANT to eat or drink for nearly 4 months, it was an unwelcome chore. But I MADE myself do it because that's the only way to stay healthy. I was meeting goals by 5 days out and never stopped. And yes, I gained pounds occasionally and I stalled, just like you are going to. but eventually I lost over 100% of my excess weight. Just be patient and don't worry about what the scale says right now.

Not only is it excess, your body converts excess protein to glucose, so anything more than 10-20g protein/hour is basically just real expensive sugar water.