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Hi, Just wanted to say I too was surprised that I could eat literally a whole can of anything when I was about 3 or 4 weeks out. Water is a big way to help things move along but too much water can also make me full. I would not worry about the 'ability' to eat more than the size of your stomach, all it means is that by the time you finished your last bites the first bites were NOT in your stomach anymore, they were sent along and thus you had room for more. I did a small test with the water thing and if I sip water with my Wendy's chili I can finish a large chili and be full, if I don't drink I can only eat about 2/3rds of it and be full and full for longer. Luckily my doctor has this as one of the 'rules' to successful weight loss (his rule is no drinking for 30 min prior and up to 1 hour after though I will start to drink around 30 minutes cause I need lots of water and I can only sip it!). So your lil tummy should be just fine as I did the same thing you mentioned LOL. Still now I think 10 weeks post op I can only eat less than I could at 3 or 4 and I am not sure why but I'll just go with it. Best of luck on your journey!

Congrats! When I tried to post my before swim suit pics the computer crashed and said "Out of memory, hard drive not big enough to process you" Hehe I really need to dig out some of my pics, really scare the kids you know? Problem is even after all the loss so far I've still got a long way to go. Hang in there, get them last 7!

Hi and welcome! Just a quick comment cause your not the first in the last 2 months that I've seen post about a stall. The founder Alex wrote an ezine article on plateau's you should read too but here are my comments... First don't weigh yourself daily, weekly at most, trust me on this. Water weight fluctuates and daily is too obsessing imho. Also I too hit a small stall when I started reintroducing some foods into my diet and it turns out it was most likely water weight as sodium gets added from all kinds of sources. Once my sodium level balanced out I resumed my weight loss at a rapid weight until about week 6 then it scaled way back from like a 6 pound weekly loss to about 2 pounds now. I can't comment too much on the diet as we are all different but I will say that for day 11 the amount and types of food you are eating was not typical for me. My surgeon and nuts had me on a liquid diet for 14 days, no cheeses, yogurts, fruits etc. I drank only Protein shakes and water for 14 days then started adding the yogurts, soft purees etc. I say this not to criticize yoru diet but you posted it and it surprised me that you could stomach that much food and that type that early but again we are all god's creatures and different in what we can and can't do/eat. Even now at 10 weeks I try to keep my calorie count to 1k-1.2k, protein at 50-60g and water/liquids above 60oz. These are guidelines my doctor gave me. As for salad my food sheet that my Nutritionist gave me said fruits and vegetables at day 45 for I started my salads with iceberg lettuce then and it goes down fine. Energy level is a tough one. I am struggling to just stay warm, my pregnant wife and I have completely changed positions, I was always hot and she cold, now she is cranking the AC and I am bundling under the covers. It appears pretty obvious to me that my body just doesn't have enough calories to maintain itself and so it just gave up trying to keep me warm. Energy to move around is hard to come by cause it has to be metabolized first from fat so I'd say get use to it but try to remember the reason for it, your using fat stores now not carb/glycerin stores in your muscles so your body has to work harder to just survive. Anyway I wanted to let you know that your not alone, stalls are common enough and the key is to work through them. Again read the article on Plateauing by the founder Alex, he has some great ideas there and best of luck on your journey!

Actually your cat is calming, after reading this entire thread I will say no more.

Well I am happy to have said goodbye to my boobies!

Hi, The site creator wrote an ezine article about this exact topic a few weeks back regarding plateau's and if I recall correctly I think he mentioned like five different things one can do to get through it. Other things that I have read were changing up the amount of calories consumed either more or less than normal. Changing your activity levels, type of activities and time of doing them and finally changing the type of foods you eat. I also remember something about attitude and sticking the course. I have my motto in my signature as remembering it's a marathon and not a sprint. Every day, week or even month that you do NOT regain any wait is a POSITIVE. Stick with your programs, tighten up your 'clean' eating and recommit, focus and stay positive. You've done great so far and best of luck in the upcoming 5k, I am still just trying to walk 1k LOL so put that into perspective and I hope you do well.

Hi Mary, Welcome to the forums as I see this was your first post. I'd suggest you ask your doctor and get a medical explaination for this. However the one thing I've noticed is that my stalls can come and I can usually attribute a large loss or a stall to either too much sodium and Water or not enough sodium and water. When I average out my losses they seem more stable with the obvious exception of the water retention or lack thereof. However having said that I agree that 5 weeks plus of a stall seems long to me as well. Again I am hopefull some other members can add to this post and contribute to help you and/or you do need to discuss with your surgeon and/or his/her staff. Either way, stay the course! Don't let anything stop you from being the person you want to be. We ALL suffered in our own ways with obesity and I can only hope you gain enough emotional support here to stay the course. All my best and good luck with the struggle!

Hi, I understand. Psychologically I feel that I 'want' to eat but realize that I don't 'need' to eat. It's been almost 7 weeks for me and just wrapping my head around my new stomach size takes some getting use to. On the positive side you are here and you recognize your issue which is half the battle and your asking for advice so kudos to you! Hope you do well!

Hi, I am 6 weeks post op and hit my stall not long ago. It happened to occur with the introduction of some real food and not just Protein shakes and Water. I am pretty sure that it involves sodium and water retention though I am not doctor and after my body lost fat but gained water weight I balanced out and started losing again. Monitor your salt/sodium intake for a week and see how that works for you and keep us posted. Best of luck next week!

Hi, It was nice to have some help for the first day or two but not necessary but of course I am sure each person and their surgery is different. I'd say try to get some help but if not don't sweat it and be strong. Good luck with it!

Hi everyone, Well I am just over 5 weeks post op for the sleeve and it's a Friday. Even though I spent over 3 months seeing a psychologist and preparing myself for the mental challenges that go with the sleeve I found that I looked forward to the weekend cause it meant special EATING! Oh it was a nice restaraunt or pizza and a dvd or movies and popcorn and nachos or the late night run to the border... You get my drift? Now it's 'let me try a different soup' and 'which flavor Protein shake tonight'. It has me in the blues, a bit depressed and trying (maybe too hard) to replace my food addiction with something else. My problem is that most 'other things' that I did involved either food directly or indirectly. Was hoping any of you longer term post sleevers could post some work arounds for the weekend blues... and Easter to boot, no chocoloate bunnies for this sleever So how do you vets cope with the weekend blues?

Thanks everyone, great ideas. Easter weekend kept me busy but the last few weekends have been harder than I thought. I'm going to look for ways to incorporate your ideas into my life. Happy Easter!

Happy Easter you two and yes, retraining the brain is more difficult than I thought!

Well I guess I am in touch with my feminine side so thanks accepted

Good answer Butterpants. I posted something similiar for someone else. For BobbieKatie I'd say read my signature, it's about the marathon not a sprint. Keep working harder at the exercise and the diet. Read the websites mag article called "Plateau? Get Over It! to get some further ideas, great article too btw. Hang in there and enjoy the weekend!

Welcome to the club! Now enjoy your Protein shake! Gas-X !! Worked wonders for me. Give it a try. Enjoy your weekend.

Hi, I had two dressings. The lower one where they removed my excess stomach stayed on for almost a week and no covering was required to Water proof it. The upper one is where I had my drainage tube for the anti bacterial Fluid that was inside my ab cavity and I had to change that one every day and water proof it. It was a pain in the arse but I did it daily. I'd say you really need a medical professional to explain to you why your dressing can stay on. Maybe it was like my lower one just not water proof. I was wondering why they couldn't just do the top like the bottom but the top was a hole and the bottom was a stitch. Best of luck and hope you get an answer soon.

Hi, I can't give you recipe tips cause I had to show weight loss and how I did it was up to me. I was on weight watchers for a year prior and just kept doing that and watched my points. My actual pre op diet was one day of me not eating and just cleaning out my system. Still under the ww plan you can eat what you want to but you must watch your points. Others watch calories and some like my friend and I have done in the past watched our carbs (Atkins). I think your key to a successful pre op diet is to not deprive yourself but seriously practice smaller portion control. Try using an actual measuring cup to eat your rice with broccoli, chicken and cheese. Measure out 2 oz of low fat cheese and 4 oz of chicken and 1 cup of rice with... ta da! Unlimited broccoli hehe Try working that way (not fun but not depriving either) and make good choices about candies, sweets and other trigger foods and let me tell you why... After my surgery with a few exceptions it did not take away the 'hunger between my ears'. You will have to adjust. Sure I can't eat nearly as much as before but I noticed I kept some bad habits like wanting to finish my bowl of food or my bag of whatever or my Protein shake etc. You'll be better prepared later if you address this now. Good luck!

NEVER is a good word as in... "I will NEVER be overweight again!" or as in "I will NEVER neglect my health again!" Of course pre op for me it was PEPSI MAX! Whoo hoo! Man at my weight watchers meeting the leader confessed to drinking one two liter bottle of soda in a day. My at work ww meeting was mainly women and they all gasped at her confession. I started to chuckle and one coworker thinking me mean or cruel asked me what was so funny and I replied "Only one two liter bottle of soda in a day? On a weekend I've finished my first two liter bottle by 2 pm!" Most of the ladies laughed at that but it's all relative. I use to drink two liters of soda a night and 2-3 bottles (4-6 liters) on weekends. Now 5 weeks post op I just don't have a craving for it. Also all those vitiman waters, gatorades, sweet teas, juices etc. all leave me with a chalky feeling inside my cheeks so usually it's just Water for me now and it feels great drinking it. FYI in case anyone else can't stomach some of the flavored drinks I just found this week that Lipton diet green tea seems to be like water, no chalk

Throwing in my 2 cents... I feel that I've gone through too much pain to not try to maximize my weight loss now so with mayo I go light as it's only 35 cal for a tbs and like most other posters if the cal count is down and it tastes comprable then I go with the reduced fat/cal brand but if not then why not go for the taste? Good topic too as I wonder if we know for sure just how all those SF items will affect us down the road with all them chemicals they put in them

Hi again and congrats! My nutritionist told me later that they wanted to 'wean' me off of the protien shakes if possible during the soft phase of my eating around week 4 and get my stomach used to thicker foods. So I think if possible you should try to eat a little bit each day to help the stomach adjust. I am only a few weeks ahead of you and I'm working on tuna, eggs, thicker Soups etc. I did get sort of a manual with all the phases in it and am working on that for now. I do my six week check up on Monday the 21st then won't do another till June. Ask you doctor or dietician what they think at your next check up. Congrats again and hang in there. Weight loss is a marathon not a sprint. I think I'll try to add that as a signature

Hi, I am no doctor but my surgery was on March 12th and at around the 4 week mark instead of losing a typical 6 pounds I only lost 1.8 and I think it has to do with the sodium content we eat. My first two weeks were high weight loss and most of it was Water I am sure. My PA told me that for every gram of glycerin in my muscles I had like 3 grams of water. Once our two week 'liquied phase' is over with and we start to reintroduce some regular foods, Soups, etc. I think we also reintroduce sodium which helps us to retain water so again this is not a medical opinion but I think the stall is people losing fat but gaining water which leads to the scale sort of stuck until the water gain stops or balances out and then the scale starts to move again. I'm pretty sure most of the other posters know more about this than I do but I swear I saw my mini stall happen when I went to soft foods and some sodium was reintroduced to my diet from literally like no sodium. Just my opinion, like I 've posted before it's a marathon not a sprint. Look one year out not one week out. Good luck!

Er how bout boxers?