catwoman7

once you get that far out, you have to play around with different calorie ranges to figure out about how many calories you need to eat to maintain your weight, and how many to lose. That range really varies for everyone depending on sex, age, activity level, metabolic level, how muscular you are, what weight you'd like to be at, etc (e.g., you can eat more if you're fine with weighing 180 lbs as opposed to 130 lbs). I can maintain my current weight by eating about 1600 calories - although I can eat a bit more if I'm exercising a lot. To lose, I have to go below 1600. And since I'm pretty close to a normal BMI, I'd have to eat quite a bit less than 1600 to lose a somewhat noticeable amount each week (otherwise, I'm losing just a couple of ounces - and it's hard to distinguish that from normal fluctuations). There are some women on here who can eat 2000 calories to maintain, and others who can only eat 1200. It's really sort of trial and error given how far you're out from surgery. Maybe start with a range - like 1300-1500 and do that for a couple of weeks. If your weight isn't budging, drop the range down by 100 calories. Rinse and repeat until you start losing weight again. P.S. if. you're losing inches but gaining weight, it could be that you're putting on muscle. Or if you've recently started doing more and/or heavier lifting, it could be that your muscles are holding on to more water (since they need water to repair themselves). If that's what's going on, once your muscles are used to that level, your weight should start dropping again.

I had my husband take photos of me - all four sides -- every month on my surgery date from the night before my surgery until the day I hit maintenance. It's great having that documentation of my journey. Plus when you get to the point where the weight loss slows down and you're not seeing differences from month to month, you can look back at photos taken three or four months earlier and DEFINITELY see the difference. It helped keep my motivation up!

I've heard/read of this before - so yes, some people do seem to develop lactose intolerance after weight loss surgery. You could try something like Fairlife milk. It's ultra processed although it has higher protein and less sugar than regular milk, and it's lactose free. There are other brands of lactose free milk on the market, too.

as I've said before, just remember that most of us do have a 10-20 lb bounce back regain during year 3. Not only that, but even before that, your fat distribution starts to change and shift around and you start looking better, even if you don't gain any weight. I, too, got too thin - but I sure as heck am not thin anymore! I gained back more like 30 lbs. I really did need to gain a good 15 lbs or so, but not 30! (I still look OK, but I'd love to lose those unwanted 15 lbs. Which isn't easy when you're at or near normal BMI...) I felt very weak when I was at my lightest as well - but I no longer did after that rebound weight started piling on..

that sounds more like orthostatic hypotension (OH) than dumping syndrome. OH is not uncommon the first few months after surgery. But your doctor may want to do a full work up just to be sure. I had some dizziness issues when I was about a year out and they checked for a UTI, OH, inner ear issues, and post-prandial hypoglycemia (also know as reactive hypoglycemia, which can also happen to bypass patients). But given your drop in blood pressure, it sounds like it's most likely OH - but check with your doctor. The "cure" for that is just to get up slowly.

I'm not sure how you define "veteran", but at nine years out (and that would definitely make me a veteran!), I don't eat tiny portions. I eat about the same amount as my never-been-obese women friends who are watching their intake. So more like a "light eater". I can eat 3 oz of meat, but I'm not sure I could eat the vegetables and fruit with that. I would probably eat half the meat and the whole cup of vegetables - and save the berries for a snack. So yea - I guess less than what you listed, but not what I'd consider tiny portions. P.S. I could eat 1.5 C of yogurt. But meat is pretty dense and it really fills me up (and I actually rarely eat it - I'm mostly veg)

you're forgetting that the SADI is a malabsortive surgery (so is DS. RNY has some malabsorption, but not as much as the other two). That's what makes it so powerful. You won't absorb all the calories you eat. This doesn't mean you can eat with abandon, BUT...a percentage of the calories you eat won't be absorbed. So I guess I wouldn't worry too much that they won't be doing anything to your stomach. A lot of the action is going to be in your small intestine. As long as you stick to your plan, you should lose weight.

you won't always have to sip. I can't remember how long I did that (I'm 9+ years out), but maybe a few weeks (?). At any rate, it's not forever.

Ha ha! I STILL wear leggings and tops almost all the time - not because I'm fat, because I'm not any more - I just like them!

some people experience hormone-related depression for a few weeks after weight loss surgery, but weight loss surgery would not have caused bipolar disorder.

you'll probably get different answers from different people. I prefer Fairlife because I can taste the protein in Premier shakes, but there are lots of people who love Premier shakes

I used to hear about bypass patients getting longer "channels" or whatever (i.e., they'll bypass more of the small intestine so you'll malabsorb more - I think they call it a distal bypass), but I haven't seen anyone post about one of those in a long time. I think normally when people revise from bypass, they go with the DS or SADI.

like someone else said, only 30% of bypass patients dump, and it's not common to dump on fruit, even though it contains sugar. People who dump tend to dump on things like ice cream, cake, etc (and often they can eat SOME ice cream, etc - like maybe a few bites - but just not a lot) I'm several years out. The first few months I really only ate berries (once I was able to, that is - anything with seeds I was supposed to avoid the first few weeks post-op). I've been able to eat pretty much any fruit ever since - although sometimes acidic fruits like pineapple and citrus fruits irritate my stomach. I still eat them occasionally, though. P.S. I do know someone who dumped on pineapple once, so it IS possible to dump on fruit - but that was the only time I've ever heard of anyone dumping on fruit - so I think it's pretty uncommon.

most VSGers do take vitamins. There's at least one person on here who no longer has to take them, though - but she wasn't told she could stop until she was a few months out, I think, and had had normal labs (i.e., blood tests) for a while.

your surgeon is nuts - you just had major surgery! Of course you're going to get easily fatigued! I had to take naps in the afternoon for the first couple of weeks - and it was probably two months before I felt back to normal (although it got a little better every day...)

by the way, since you have acid reflux, did your surgeon suggest gastric bypass (RNY) instead? That's often recommended for patients who have reflux issues (I was one of them...). RNY usually improves if not outright cures reflux. With sleeve there's about a 30% chance of it getting worse. Some people are comfortable with those odds and have gone ahead with sleeve and lucked out. I wasn't comfortable with the odds.

that's not why some insurance policies require a six-month supervised diet. They require it because they want to see if you're able to stick to a diet long-term, because they don't want to fork over thousands of dollars for patients to have an elective surgery only to blow it big time by not following their clinic's plan. On top of that, some surgeons require that you lose a certain number of pounds before they'll let you have surgery. I lost 56 lbs on my six-month supervised diet, and no way were they going to tell me I couldn't have surgery because I could obviously "do it on my own" (and honestly, fewer than 5% of people who lose a lot of weight can maintain it for more than a few months. Bariatric surgeons are well aware of this fact)

there have been a few Europeans on here who've had weight loss surgery in Turkey. As long as you do your research, you should be OK. As is true anywhere, there are good surgeons in Turkey and likely some not-so-good ones. Read reviews, check with people who've had it done there, etc. And make sure your GP is willing to do your follow-ups (regular blood tests, etc)

sounds like the infamous "three-week stall" (it's not ALWAYS the third week, but it usually happens sometime within the first 4-6 weeks after surgery). Almost all of us have our first major stall then. If you do a search on the three week stall on this site, you will find over 17,000 posts on it (and no, I am NOT kidding!). It'll likely be the first of several stalls during your journey. The best thing to do when you hit a stall is make sure you're following your eating plan to a "T", and stay off the scale. Instead of every day, weigh yourself once a week. As long as you stick to your eating plan, the stall WILL break. Usually takes 1-3 weeks. But it'll break. Mine lasted two weeks, and once it broke, I dropped like 6-8 lbs practically overnight. it's just a way for your body to come to terms with what's going on and re-calibrate before heading down again. It's a natural part of losing weight and happens to almost all of us.

I'm not sure if that was actual dumping or not. Nausea CAN be part of dumping, but it's not one of the more common symptoms. Usually it involves heart palpitations, cramping, sweating or chills, and diarrhea - and it can go on for hours, or so I hear (I've never dumped). It's also pretty rare in sleeve patients (although it's not unheard of), so I'm not sure if it was that or some ingredient in those foods that your body was reacting to. Although you could be right. I'll be curious to hear what others say/think.

Have someone take pictures of you once a month (I had my husband take them from all four sides). You may not detect a difference from one month to the next, but if you compare a picture to one taken three or four months ago, yep, big difference. Plus it's fun to have a pictorial documentation of your journey.

wow - they didn't knock you out? I've had two or three of them and they always sedate me (and you're right, it's not general anesthesia - it's the same type of anesthesia they use for colonoscopies. You're technically awake, but you have no idea what's going on and don't remember anything afterward). I've never heard of an endoscopy without any kind of sedation. That would be awful!

like others have said, a majority of us lose our appetite and desire to eat for a while after surgery. It can take up to a year to come back, although with some it's a few months (mine came back at five months out). So the liquid diet AFTER the surgery is way, way easier than the liquid diets some of us have to do BEFORE surgery.

I also started using them once I was a few months out

I wouldn't worry about it. As the others said, well-chewed cooked vegetables usually aren't a problem. Plus leaks are rare and almost always happen before you even leave the hospital.