catwoman7

yep - fluids. It can take up to a week for it to work its way out of your system.

we were told to stick to whey protein isolate shakes until we were able to get all/most of our protein from food. At that point, those who wanted to continue with shakes could have blends if they wanted. Reason being is whey protein isolate is better absorbed than other forms of protein.

it was in my plan - might not be in yours. I think it was in mine because of the sodium, because calorie-wise, it would have been fine. But check with your clinic - they might not limit it in yours.

I do exercise - I'm not a gym rat, but I always tried to exercise 5-6 days a week. At first it was mostly walking and water aerobics, since I was too heavy to do much of anything else. I still do those - but I also now do Zumba and bicycling as well. I've also strength-trained off and on (twice a week) - but unfortunately not consistently because I don't really like it. But I recently started using resistance bands, which I like a lot more than the weight machines at my gym - so hopefully I'll keep up with it this time! as for calories, by the end of the first year, I was up around 1000 per day. Second year I was eating around 1200 until I hit maintenance at 20 months out. I then experimented with different ranges to determine my "maintenance range", which is 1500-1700 per day. As long as I stay within that range, I can maintain my weight. But of course that's going to vary for everyone depending on how much muscle you have, how active you are, etc. I know some women who have to eat around 1200 to maintain, and others who can eat 2000....

I lost 100% of my excess weight, over 200 lbs. And yes - I had a lot of excess skin. Plastic surgery is the only thing that could helped with it, so I went with that. I had a lower body lift, arm lift, face lift, and breast lift. I didn't want a breast augmentation - I was "well-endowed" most of my life, and I was tired of it. I wanted to be a B or C cup, which I am now. I was already post-menopause when I had surgery, so birth control wasn't an issue for me.

find a place that does the PCR test (the one you can get at pharmacies and doctor's offices - where they send your sample off to a lab and it takes 2-3 days to get it back). The antigen tests (the ones you do at home or the 15-minute ones you can have done at some places) aren't as accurate with the omicron variant as it was with the earlier variants - but the PCR is still very accurate with omicron.

mine has never been that high, so I'm not sure. But if they feel it's too high, they'll have you cut back on the iron supplements (ferritin is just iron stores in your body that it draws on when the iron in your blood gets too low) if you're not taking iron supplements, then...not sure (not all sleevers take iron). They may have you find a multi that doesn't have iron in it (the ones for seniors often don't have iron). Or again, they may be fine with your current level - I'm just not sure.

yes - sugar free popsicles and sugar free Jello can be a life saver on those all liquid diets. I made a pack of Jello every day and ate the whole frickin bowl of it every night (as in all four servings - or however many there are that a package makes), since it was the only thing I could have that somewhat resembled real food. We were also allowed to have a limited amount of broth and tomato juice/V8 (I think a cup of each), so I had some of those every day as well. The salt in them made me retain water, so that made me feel a little fuller.

how high is it? Mine is almost always above the normal range, and the surgeon just shrugs. I guess it depends on HOW high it is. I'll check my chart and update this in a minute well, the last three years it's been 69, 111, and 205. I'm pretty sure it's been over 200 in earlier years - I'll check. OK. For some reason, only the last three years were on the graph - but I manually looked back on my chart for earlier years. It was always over 200 until I hit that 69 in 2019 - which was surprising because it'd always been in the 200s. But it started going up again in 2020 (to that 111 reading) - and now back in the 200s. High end of the range for women is 200 - so mine usually runs a little above normal. They never said anything about it, so.. if they feel yours is too high, they'll probably have you cut back on your iron supplementation

the psychologist asked me what my goal weight was at my first appt with him, I think so he'd know if I was being realistic or not. I blurted out 199 lbs, which at the time seemed like a pipe dream to me after weighing over 300 for 20 years. I was shocked when he said "that sounds do-able". The surgeon never gave me a goal weight, he just said that the average patient loses about 70% of his/her excess weight. as I got closer to 199, I told the dietitian I wanted to try to get down to 170. She said if I worked really hard at it, I could probably get there. When I got to 170, I told her I wanted to shoot for 150. She told me that was kind of unrealistic, only about 10-15% of their patients get down to a normal BMI. But...I made it. so anyway, the point of this is, your goal weight can change as you go along in your journey.

if yours is all liquid, plus protein shakes, it'll be tough - but it'll get easier by day 3 or 4 when your body goes into ketosis. If you're allowed some food, it won't be as bad (some people have a couple of protein shakes during the day and a small meal for dinner). My clinic's plan was the first - the all liquid one. It's tough - but then again, it does get a bit easier by the 3rd or 4th day.

mine was the latter - (not even sure if they did vitals, but maybe they did. I think it was mostly discussion, though)

it's hard to say because it's dependent on a few things - and now you can factor COVID surges into the mix (a lot of surgeries have been delayed/rescheduled the last couple of years when we've gotten hit with a surge and the hospitals are full). The above comment is correct - if your insurance is covering it, it'll likely take longer than if you were self-pay since insurance companies often have you fulfill requirements above & beyond what the surgeon requires. A lot of insurance companies require a six-month supervised diet before surgery (supervised by a PCP or registered dietitian). Surgeons, on the other hand, often require sleep studies, endoscopies, blood draws, classes, and sometimes (cardiac) stress tests. mine was covered by insurance, but I did my six-month supervised diet before I formally joined the program. I joined in early January (2015) and could have scheduled my surgery as soon as late March, but since I worked in education, I waited until June. If I hadn't done the diet beforehand, then I wouldn't have been able to do it until the summer *anyway*.

most people get that stall at or around the three-week mark - so it's late for you. Don't do anything besides stick to your program and stay off the scale (only weigh yourself once a week or so until you get through this). It'll break and you'll be on your way again. Since they typically last 1-3 weeks, you're likely near the end of it.

our gym had a special last fall where seniors could meet with a personal trainer three times. I got enough out of that that I was able to put together my own strength-training program, so you should do well with those 12 sessions.

constipation is an issue with a lot of sleevers, too. You're right - it's the high protein diet - plus calcium and iron supplements don't help, either...

not only is it acidic, it's carbonated. Not a good choice at less than a month out. You're still healing. Plus transfer addiction is unfortunately a real thing - some people develop issues with alcohol after bariatric surgery. So I'd be careful. we were told to wait a year after surgery to indulge - some people are told six months. Some may not have to wait as long, but 3.5 weeks is way too early.

unless you ate an extra 7000 calories above and beyond what your body needs (3500 calories = 1 pound), it's likely water retention (from excess sodium) or full intestines (maybe you ate more fiber than usual?). If so, it'll be gone in a day or two.

I think I met with the surgeon at my first appointment as well. And the next time I saw him was the morning of surgery - although I worked with the rest of the clinic staff A LOT between those two appointments!

elevated liver enzymes are common the first year or so after surgery, even without Seroquel. Rapid weight loss is really tough on livers. Mine were high that first year and then were back to normal sometime during year 2, when I was at or near maintenance.

yes - it's related to the surgery. It affects your hormones. A lot of women experience screwed up menstrual cycles (and/or have weird moods) for the first few weeks or months after surgery. Estrogen is stored in fat cells, and the theory I've read is that it's released during rapid weight loss (don't know if the latter part of that is true, but it IS stored in fat cells, and lots of women DO have hormonal issues after surgery because of it). It'll eventually stabilize and things will be back to normal. I don't know the answer to your second question, though.

^^^^ I was just going to say that! A lot of bariatric patients from the NYC area have used him and been very happy with the results.

only about 30% of us dump (I've never dumped - and I know a lot of people who haven't), and even if you turn out to be a dumper, you can prevent it by limiting your sugar intake (or for some people, fat - some people dump on fat). So yes - it's a potential complication of bypass, but the majority don't experience it, and it's controllable if you do. So I wouldn't worry about it too much. Also, I think that flatulence thing isn't very common, either. And the scars are tiny - smalller than VSG scars since they're not pulling anything out. I really can't see mine at all anymore. You'll do fine!

you're losing a lot faster than I ever did. and as far as the four weeks, you're most likely in a stall. They usually last 1-3 weeks, but a month is not unheard of.

at almost seven years out, I think I eat almost as quickly as I did pre-surgery - but just remember that it takes 15 or 20 minutes for your brain to get the signal that you've had enough. So if you scarf everything down in five minutes, there's the temptation to overdo it since your brain doesn't know yet that you've had enough. At this point I pretty much know how much my stomach can handle, but the temptation to eat more is there. Eating slowly allows the signal to get to your brain by the time you're finishing up. Actually, I should probably try to get back to this.... anyway, back to your question. I don't think there's any harm in doing that - it's just that you're more likely to overeat if you eat quickly.