JamieLogical

This doesn't mean you are doing anything wrong at all. If I had any advice, it might be to try to increase your calories, because it sounds like you are already pretty active. You need to eat enough calories to sustain your level of exercise, otherwise your body will go into starvation mode. You didn't say how many calories you are getting, but if ALL you are eating is one Protein shake and 4 oz. of meat per day, I sincerely doubt it's anywhere near enough. Also, I would be concerned about your protein intake being on the low side if that's all you are eating. Assuming you are getting maybe 10-16 grams of protein from each "meal" and 30 from your shake, that's only 50-62 grams a day. I was instructed to try to get up to 100 grams a day as soon as possible, once I was cleared for solid foods.

Just a little advice about apple juice. Mix it 50/50 with water to dilute it. It can be a little hard on your baby sleeve. And definitely stay away from more acidic juices like orange juice and grape juice in the very beginning.

I think this is a common fear, but like most fears, it's completely unwarranted. As others have said, people go to the gym to do their own thing and they aren't there to look at and judge you. I know how it feels to be self-conscious and feel like all eyes are on you, but the truth is you aren't that important! At least not to strangers. Even if they do have a fleeting judgmental thought, it WILL be fleeting... they aren't going to hang onto it and obsess over it. They aren't running home to tell their spouse "you should have seen this fat lady making a fool of herself at the gym!" And even if they did, what effect would that really have on you? You'd never even know about it.

Let us know how it goes!

It's incredibly important to get your calories up as soon as possible post-op in order to maintain your metabolism. If you have too large of a calorie deficit daily, your metabolism will slow. And a recent study from another post showed that if your calorie deficit is too high as you lose weight, your metabolism will never fully recover. Is it possible your weight loss will slow as you increase calories? Yes! But as long as you maintain a deficit, you will continue to lose. Also, it's better to create a deficit with increased activity, versus cutting keeping intake too low. Increased activity, especially building muscle, will help increase or maintain your metabolism. I'm not sure how far post-op you are, but I pushed my calories up over 800 as soon as I was able with soft and solid foods. Once I was cleared for intense exercise, I worked hard to get my calories up over 1100. By the time I reached goal I was trying to eat 1400-1500 calories a day. And now, in maintenance, I need 2000-2400 calories a day in order to maintain my weight with my current level of activity (I run a lot). I have seen posts on these forums from people who kept their calorie intake way low through their entire weight loss phase and now they can't eat more than 1100 calories a day in maintenance because their metabolism is wrecked.

I think having your husband read posts and reviews from patients of whichever surgeon you settle on might set his mind at ease. If he sees the personal experiences of others who have gone through the exact same thing you are about to, it might seem less scary to him. Also, feel free to have him PM me or to PM on his behalf. I have been to Mexico twice for surgery (once for VSG and once for plastics) and will be going there again in September for a second round of plastics, so I have personal experience I'd be happy to share. Even if I had a different surgeon than you choose, I can at least provide some insight into what to expect in Mexico.

There wouldn't be any need to reduce carbs if you are doing exactly what your surgeon has instructed. I would trust in his/her expertise and also trust that he/she has given this same diet to dozens (if not hundreds) of patients in the past and got satisfactory results. If this diet didn't work for past patients, he/she wouldn't still be recommending it, right? Surgeons have all different plans both pre and post-op and while, ultimately, you have to figure out what works for you long-term, I think it's best to stick strictly to your doctor's plan pre-op and for the first several months post-op. That way if anything comes up, they know exactly what the potential issues might be and how to handle them.

Have you experimented with different temperatures of water? I have to have my water ICE cold (like ice literally floating in it) to be able to drink it. I know some other people who do much better with luke warm water or only hot beverages. Have you tired adding different flavoring to your water?

@@addouk That does sound like a lot of carbs for a pre-op diet, but you should definitely itely stick to what your surgeon requires. I am sure they have the plan they do for a reason.

For me the fatigue lasted until I was cleared for solid foods and could get my calories up. As for the stall, that's perfectly normal and could last as little as a few days or as much as a few weeks. You shouldn't be worrying about weight loss right now. You should be focusing on healing, getting your protein, water, and vitamins in, and getting up and moving around a little every hour or two.

I think you can minimize the damage to your metabolism and getting into starvation mode by trying to get your calorie intake up as quickly as possible post-op. I think that a LOT of WLS patients try to keep their calorie intake ridiculously low for far too long and that does permanent damage. Yes, you will lose more slowly by increasing calories, but you seem to do less long-term damage. Another great way to keep metabolism up or boost it is to do strength training and make sure you maintain your muscle mass. A lot of people lose weight very quickly post-op, but a significant percentage of that weight is muscle. By getting into exercising regularly and doing strength training, you can avoid losing as much muscle. I had actually GAINED 7 pounds of muscle by the time I reached my goal weight!

Let me know what you find out. I's always heard good things about Dr. Kelly, so I'd be surprised if he didn't offer some sort of post-op services.

It might be a rough couple of days. Just hang in there!

I am always cold too. At 20 months out now. I always have my space heater running at work, wear long pants all summer, and I'm always under a blanket at home.

5 weeks?!?! That seems super early for alcohol. I wasn't even on solid foods at 5 weeks. I wasn't cleared for alcohol until 3 months post-op. I personally have found that I get drunk very quickly, but I also sober up really quickly. So one drink will have me feeling buzzed, but for only about 15-20 minutes tops.

My surgical team included a nutritionist who I can still call or email any time day or night 20 months post-op.... If you do your research, you can find programs that include nutritionists as well as other post-op resources. I know that BariatricPal requires all of it's partners to provide those things. Edit! Well I probably should have read your whole post before I started typing my reply! I see you are already post-op. Who was your surgeon. Is it possible that he/she could provide you with additional nutritional resources if you called or emailed?

Glycogen is stored in the liver. Most obese people have a fatty liver. The liver sits on top of the stomach and has to be moved out of the way in order to access your stomach. A fatty liver full of glycogen makes that harder to do. So the idea of the pre-op diet is to deplete your liver of glycogen, making it more manageable to move out of the way. Many people don't have to do a pre-op diet, because either their surgeon suspects they don't have a fatty liver or he/she is confident about working around a fatty liver. EVERYONE has some form of 1-2 days liquid diet because your stomach needs to be completely empty for the surgery to be preformed safely. That is unrelated to the liver-shrinking pre-op diet. It's also worth noting that, while many people do lose some weight on the pre-op diet, weight loss is not the goal. Some surgeons will use weight loss during that period as an indicator as to whether the patient actually stuck to the pre-op diet, but it is a side effect of the diet, not the purpose of the diet.

I am definitely one who is "working for the weekend". I don't hate my job, but I certainly wouldn't do it if I didn't have to! I like most of my coworkers, it's usually pretty stress-free except the rare project deadline or crisis, I like the environment, and I get to do my own thing a lot of the time. But I still wish I didn't have to come here every day. I kind of feel it's like serving a prison sentence.

I can't eat lettuce at all post-op. Any raw veggies cause me to be very burpy. So count yourself lucky!

Both can be very successful and both have their pros and cons that apply to different people in different situations. Maybe if you give us a bit more information about you, we could better evaluate which is the best option. Though it's still really between you and your surgeon to decide. What is your current BMI? Do you have any comorbidities? Do you have diabetes? Do you currently experience acid reflux? Are you currently on any medications? What are your current issues with food? Are you a binge eater? Do you have a weak spot for sweets?

The thing about the pre-op diet is that the lack of carbs puts your body into a state called ketosis, where you are burning fat for energy, because you no longer have glycogen stores to pull from. The process of transitioning into ketosis is a pretty miserable one. It is the source of the headaches, fatigue, and crabbiness. If you cheat with CARBS once your body is in ketosis, then it kicks your body back out and you have to start the whole process over again, which means prolonging the headaches, fatigue, and crabbiness. So if you do feel you absolutely need to cheat on your pre-op diet (which I 100% advise against) then at least make sure you are doing so with high protein/low carb foods. Otherwise you are going to just make the whole things worse for yourself in the long run.

My go-to foods at fast food are usually things like a grilled chicken sandwich minus the bun or even a hamburger minus the bun if need be. For packaged foods, I rely probably a bit too heavily on Protein bars, but still if you are going pre-packaged, you could do a lot worse. I use Combat Crunch bars, which are available at GNC (Cinnamon Twist is my favorite), but a LOT of people on BariatricPal use Quest Bars, which are becoming more and more widely available ever day. I saw some at a gas station the other day! And they are available at pretty much every grocery store now. I used to LOVE them, but they changed out one of their main ingredients and now they make me SUPER gassy, unfortunately. Anyway, if you are looking for Protein Bars, make sure you get low carb. Some of them have a TON of carbs. Stay away from fruit and nut-style bars like Kind. And Lara Bars and Clif Bars are also full of carbs. You want to look for something with maybe in the 3-10 net carb range (subtract the Fiber and sugar alcohols from the total carbs to figure out net carbs). Other quick things are greek yogurt, cheese, turkey sticks (like beef sticks but with turkey), turkey Jerky, and nuts (but go easy on those, they are high in fat and calories). You can get individual serving packs of seasoned peanuts from Lance at a lot of convenience stores. I love them! They have flavors like BBQ, Ranch, Jalapeno Cheddar... they make a great, quick snack.

It might be a good idea to start tracking your food. It's easy to lose a handle on how much we are eating. Especially if we are just grabbing convenience foods and eating when we can. The "good" thing about convenience foods is that they are generally pre-portioned and pre-packaged, which makes it easy to track them. Apps like MyFitnessPal, SparkPeople, and FitBit even have barcode scanners where you can just scan the code off the package to track the food.

It is absolutely safe to get pregnant post-WLS so long as you wait a good 1-2 years. As others have said, you need to be careful about getting pregnant TOO quickly, since you will likely have increased fertility pretty early on. You want to be sure you aren't pregnant before you are fully healed up and able to get proper nutrition. So it's best to wait at least a year. As for actual pregnancy, I have read that pregnancy needs trump WLS needs. So you would want to switch to a prenatal Vitamin from your bariatric Multivitamin.