JamieLogical

I lost all respect for Dr. Now when Skin Tight started airing and he started billing himself as a plastic surgeon. You are either a bariatric surgeon or plastic surgeon. In all of my research of both (and I did a lot) I never heard of any reputable surgeon claiming to specialize in both. To anyone cosidering plastics, DO NOT go to anyone who claims to specialize in anything other that plastic surgery! It is a HIGHLY specialized field and deserves a surgeon's full focus and attention. Would you go to an orthopedic surgeon for a heart transplant?

I see your ticker on your post.....

Do you have a count on the calories and sugar in that? My nut gave me a limit on the amount of sugar my shakes were allowed to have.

How did you do with hair loss with the higher calories than most? I'm pushing to get up to 800-900 a day. I'm 3 weeks out. I didn't lose too much hair. Just from 3.5 months to about 5 months post-op. It wasn't noticeable to other people, but there was a lot of hair all over my bathroom! It started regrow in right away and I think maybe all the baby hairs sticking up all over might have been obvious to others, but no one said anything.

Do you track your food? I'd be curious to know how much fat you are getting in your diet.

Wow, that IS a lot of calories! Even if you are doing skim milk. My nutritionist would have had a fit if I DRANK anything close to that many calories! I get about 60-70 calories a day from creamer or soy milk in my coffee and she's not even thrilled about that.

You really do get used to the not eating and drinking at the same time, but it's tough in those early days as you start on more solid foods. I remember the first time I tried tuna salad post-op and I thought I was going to die from not being able to wash it down with something. The best technique is to just not have any water in reach while you are eating. Eventually you'll get to the point where you can have it sitting there and just not touch it, but that takes a while. Now, when I go out to eat, I ask for water and it just sits there in front of me the entire meal and I don't take a single sip.

You'll get there! I dumped the Protein Shakes as soon as I was allowed solid foods. Still have to do Protein Bars to meet my 100 gram per day protein goal, but they are MUCH preferable to the shakes.

That would be allowed under my plan. As long as I'm having some protein in there.

No to everything. I'll go through my tracker today and see how much calcium I've been getting, and start experimenting with supplements. I just find the whole thing depressing. I think I'm going through the five stages of grief, but I went straight from denial to depression. I take the generic store brand equivalent of Citrical Maximum +D3. Make sure that if you start taking a calcium supplement, you get calcium citrate, not calcium CARBONATE. The citrate is better absorbed by bariatric patients. Also, make sure you do not take calcium at the same time as your multi-Vitamin. Iron in your multi-vitamin and calcium will compete for absorption.

PS: I was told to avoid drinking calories in general, no mater what their source. I was cleared to do a little creamer in my coffee and that's it. The rest of my calories are supposed to come from solid foods.

Are you taking calcium supplements? Are you tracking how much calcium you are getting per day to see if you can continue to get enough without the milk?

I have had beer a couple of times, but I do try to avoid carbonation, so have really limited it to just that handful of times. I mostly drink "girly" drinks now post-op. I get drunk SUPER easy, so I can't do shots anymore. If I drink, it's usually some sort of mixed drink, but they have so much sugar, it's a very rare treat.

Are you post-op? Your total cholesterol is 425?!?! That's crazy high. Not to panic you, but you should definitely get in to see your PCP as soon as possible. PS: It's been proven that dietary cholesterol (like what is in eggs and shrimp) doesn't raise YOUR cholesterol. So not sure why laying off the eggs would help. The do have SOME fat I guess and fat is what raises cholesterol in your body... but still they are a good source of Protein so I don't see the benefit of cutting them out.

I was told not to have any snacks that had no protein. That being said, I do occasionally fit some in between my regularly scheduled high protein meals/snacks, but not often, as I don't want to get into a habit of grazing. Also, I'm in maintenance now. Definitely would not recommend no-protein snacks during the weight loss phase.

Well, now I feel like I need to make a distinction between "can" and "should". It sounded to me like the OP was asking if WLS patients are physically capable of eating any type of food eventually. And the answer to that question is "yes", with the few potential exceptions already mentioned. If we want to get into a discussion about what a WLS patient SHOULD eat long-term, that's a whole other topic.

My insurance policy specifically states that it won't pay for skin removal surgery after WLS. Here's the line from my policy: "An expected outcome of successful bariatric surgery is redundant/excessive skin. Surgery to remove this skin is generally not considered medically necessary and therefore not covered."

My nutritionist didn't give me a calorie goal, but I pushed hard to get up over 800 before I started exercising regularly and over 1100 once I really started doing intense exercise.

My surgery went great. I had the usual hard time in the early weeks post-op (very common). Not a lot of pain, but gas, discomfort, difficulty drinking, fatigue and emotional challenges. All common stuff. Ultimately though, it was well worth it. I reached my goal weight right around my one year mark and have been maintaining successfully for over 5 months. No complaints!

It depends on the type of weight loss surgery you have. With gastric bypass, many patients never go back to eating any sort of sweets, as they can cause "dumping syndrome". With lap-band some foods can more easily become "stuck", making them a no-no. With sleeve, barring any new, post-op sensitivities, you can go back to eating anything eventually. I had sleeve and I can eat almost anything. Bread or crusts with yeast fill me right up and don't leave room for anything else, so I rarely eat them. And raw vegetables make me burpy, so I stick to cooked veggies if I have any at all.

I don't do shakes anymore. Haven't since the day I was cleared for solid foods, because I was sooooo over them by then. Plus once I was all healed up and didn't have any restriction while drinking, I felt like shakes didn't fill me up. I eat protein bars when I need to supplement protein. I started with Quest Bars, but they changed one of their main ingredients and don't agree with me AT ALL anymore, so I switched to Combat Crunch. Not sure I would recommend Combat Crunch to someone who is still in the weight loss phase though, as they are a little higher in carbs and sugar than the Quest Bars were.

So far I have only found 4 episodes of weight loss ward on YouTube. Let me know if you find more! I really like the show Darn. I just looked it up and it seems there are only a total of 5 episodes.

You might try again in another couple of months. I'm 17 months post-op and I can take several big gulps of water now with no issue (as long as I haven't eaten in the last hour or so).

I watched all of Fat Doctors back when I was first looking into WLS and shortly after my sleeve surgery. I just recently got turned onto another British WLS show called "Weight Loss Ward", if anyone is interested. It's on YouTube. Not sure how many episodes there are. I'm only on episode two, but someone else on here mentioned the show last week, so I just started watching.

I think if you CAN get in that many this early out, then more power to you. One of the main reasons people experience fatigue post-op is not being able to get enough calories in early out. The sooner you can get up to a reasonable amount of calories, the better you will feel!