catwoman7

yes - I was going to say I think capacity might be more of an individual thing than surgery-dependent. I know sleevers who are 2+ years out who eat as much as i or any other bypasser does - some more, some less. One would think it would have something to do with how big the surgeon made the sleeve, but I've heard that doesn't really matter, either...there's not a big enough difference in the various sleeve sizes to make a difference.

the stuff the dietitian told you is puzzling. She must not have much experience with bariatric patients. First, you have to take vitamins for the rest of your life regardless of which surgery you have. And yes - it seems overwhelming at first, but you get used to the routine very quickly. I don't find the vitamin routine difficult or confusing AT ALL. I'm pretty much on autopilot with them. also, the 1/4 C thing is really just during the first few weeks after surgery. At four years out, although my portion sizes are that of a standard "light eater", they're not 1/4 C or anywhere near as restrictive as they were for the first few weeks or months post-surgery. No one would be able to tell anymore that I'm a gastric bypass patient if they were to watch me eat. I eat about the same amount as my "light eater" normal weight friends - which is of course much less than what I ate pre-surgery - but certainly more than 1/4 C. For example, for lunch today I plan to have half a turkey sandwich and a side salad with light dressing. For dinner I'm thinking a "Beyond Meat" sausage with sauerkraut wrapped up in a Flat Out Fold It wrap....maybe with another side salad (although one of those sausages usually fills me up - so I may skip the salad). About 3 oz of meat plus some vegetables or a side salad with light dressing is a pretty standard dinner. At restaurants I'll often order an appetizer - or if I'm really hungry, I'll get an entree and take half of it home. Really no different than my normal weight friends who are watching their calories. so suffice it to say, you're getting incorrect info from that dietitian. She must have some bias toward the sleeve - or just hasn't really worked with bariatric patients before. Edited to add that I've been hanging out on various bariatric boards for about five years. The diets for sleeve and bypass patients are the same - both early post-op and years out. As for vitamins, some surgeons have VSG patients taking fewer than bypass patients (but others, like mine, have them on the exact same vitamin regimen). But either way, you are taking vitamins for life. Pardon my French, but I think the dietitian you saw is full of crap...

RNY...

stalls are a normal part of weight loss. I'd just stick to your surgeon's plan. The stall will eventually break and you'll start losing again.

Water retention - constipation - hormones - all of those would do it.

watch out with the drinking. Not only can you sabotage your weight loss, transfer addiction is REAL. Alcohol tastes way better to me now that it did before surgery - so I avoid it like the plague. The last thing I need is an alcohol problem...

M1 -16.4 M2 -11 (-27.4 total) M3 -12.4 (-39.8 total) M4 -12.2 (-52 total) M5 -11.8 (-63.8 total) M6 -11.2 (-75 total)

I'm over four years out and still take a capful of Miralax every morning. If it gets to be three or four days without "going", then I take MOM. That probably happens once or twice a month these days...

I was cleared for everything except for weights at four weeks out. (I think I had to wait until eight weeks out to do weights). So for that first month, I just walked.

I had glue, not tape. It took about four weeks before the last of the glue flaked off. I had surgical tape with my plastic surgery, though. I think it came off (on its own) at around three weeks out.

I lost 16 lbs the first month - most of that the first two weeks. Then I had the infamous three-week stall - after that broke, I started losing again, but it was a lot slower than the first couple of weeks.

I had those in the hospital, but I don't think I had to do them at home. As I recall, those don't really hurt that much, though. The needles are pretty short.

No brainer. RNY. I've seen WAY too many revisions from sleeve to RNY because of worsening GERD. Yes of course there's a chance that that wouldn't happen to you, but the risk is real. Go with RNY.

30 is also rare among those of us "normal" bariatric patients. It happens, but it's the exception rather than the rule. You see that more among the "600 lb Life" crowd, since they're starting at a much higher BMI than most of us are. You are doing fine!!

I lost 16 lbs the first month - and I ended up losing ALL of my excess weight - over 200 lbs. People lose at all different rates for all different reasons - most of which you have no control over. The one thing you DO have control over is whether or not you stick to your program. If you stick to your program, the weight WILL come off, whether fast or slow. And to be honest, since the average weight loss for us "non-600-lb life people" seems to be in the 15-25 lb range the first month, you're going to end up in that range. So...you're normal!

PPI

we were told not to count calories at first - just focus on protein and fluids. It'll probably be awhile before you'll be at risk for eating too many calories. I don't think I was ever given a calorie range, but after the first few months I tried to stay in the 600-800 range, and after a year out I was around 1000=1200. I stayed there until maintenance when I had to experiment to find my "maintenance range".

check with "The World According to Eggface" (blog) - she has a lot of recipes for every stage

ranitidine (Zantac) is actually an H2 blocker rather than a PPI - and a lot of people got moved over to them when all the bad press started coming out a couple of years ago about PPIs. They say Tagamet - another H2 blocker - is still OK, so you could ask about that. But I don't know what on earth people are supposed to do now...

yes a lot of people seem to be pretty carb-sensitive. I'm pretty sure I'm not - but I know a lot of people on here *are*.

I think people are more likely to eat those kinds of things (or a limited amount, anyway) once they hit maintenance. Or at least I hope so. I didn't touch anything like that while I was in weight loss mode - and I don't eat much of it now that I'm in maintenance (actually, just bread - occasionally. I still don't/won't eat pasta)

people's tastes are so different that you're bound to get a bunch of different recommendations. I got a bunch of individual packets to try to see what I liked - cheaper than buying those big two-pound tubs and discovering you hate it after plunking down $30+ for the tub. that said, my personal favorites were Unjury and Syntrax powders. But again, you're going to get a lot of different answers...

are you on a PPI, such as omeprazole (Prilosec)? A lot of surgeons have their patients take it for the first six months or so post-surgery.

oh yea - pineapple is pretty acidic. I couldn't eat much of it even BEFORE surgery...

I believe stenosis and stricture are the same thing. I haven't heard that they can heal themselves - they usually keep getting worse until they're stretched, but of course your surgeon would know way more than I do...