summerset

@Tracyringo Eating seems to be a bit more problematic atm. The MGB seems to be "more forgiving", so to say. But then again maybe I can't remember some issues I had during the first months after MGB. When I eat too fast or too much or too heavy foods I get a stomach ache. Can be from mild to wanting-to-crawling-up-the-walls. I never had that with MGB. However, my stomach is quite a primadonna since years so please take this answer with a grain of salt. The worst are dense high-protein/fat combinations. It's almost a guarantee for at least mild issues and a brick like feeling in the stomach. These things are very individual though. It makes me remember what one of the dietitians said to a fellow patient: "I can't tell you what to eat or not to eat. You have to find out what foods you tolerate or not. I can recommend eating dairy and chicken but when dairy makes you feel queasy and chicken makes you vomit the advice is worth nothing in the end." Regarding restriction: for me it's stronger than with the MGB right now but I guess in some months it will be about equal. Mind you, the revision was less than 3 months ago. Hunger signals are the same, they're very mild. I was supposed to start on solids three weeks after surgery in stead of four weeks. I was quite glad I could progress to solids a week earlier but have to say progression was less easy this time. While I struggled through the liquid/puree phase this time I also don't think it would have been possible to start solids earlier than this. I had awful cravings this time for "normal" foods like tofu with rice, cucumbers, whatever... Some people suggested this was because I was already at a normal weight when I got revision so maybe you're going to experience something similar, no idea. How much I can eat varies from meal to meal and that feels kind of frustrating. What's too much and causing issues one meal might be the right amount or even not enough the next time. In general foods with a high water content (e. g. fruit, raw vegetables) I tolerate best and usually don't cause issues so cherry tomatoes berries and grapes are favorite snack foods right now. I don't eat meat so I can't answer only part of your question. Strength and the like I'm hesitant to reply because I had not only the revision but also another little surgery regarding trocar hernia. The upper abdominal wall still feels strange when I exercise but in the end it was the fifth laparoscopy plus trocar hernia surgery, so I guess I simply have to be patient. I also feel quite stressed and exhausted these days because of work, lots of rather sh*tty 24 h shifts and on-call duties. I'm glad I'm going on vacation on Saturday for two weeks. After that I'm going to re-evaluate what might be surgery related and what might be stress related.

Take a look at the maintenance meals thread or the Food before and after thread. Many people who're quite far out post pictures of their meals there. If you already have a benign mass down there in your distal esophagus I wouldn't postpone any longer, especially since your surgeon also recommends it.

The key is having a diet than one can maintain relatively effortlessly for life, that lets you sit comfortably at your desired weight or close to it and that doesn't cause any physical issues. My diet is rather high in complex carbohydrates, fruits, relatively low in fat with a moderate amount of protein and I maintain a BMI of 23. I don't have blood sugar issues in any way, I also don't dump. Eating a diet high in protein and/or fat gives me stomach issues that can be quite painful. Even if I don't get pain, that brick like feeling is very unpleasant. Please stop talking about food intolerances as food "intolerances" like people are just inventing them to have an excuse to eat "carbs". For some of us food intolerance are very real.

Interestingly enough some people never seem to lose that feeling of hunger. Nobody will ever know if these patients never lost physical hunger at least temporarily in the first place or if they're confusing "head hunger" with "physical hunger". There is no test that can differentiate between the two. Acid reflux is the devil. Bile reflux is the devil's big fat mother. I got two revisions because of these issues, both times associated with hiatoplastic because of hiatus hernia. My second revision was on 26th February and this time eating is more "problematic" so to say. The MGB seems to be more "forgiving" than the long limb RNY in some way. Or maybe I just don't remember several issue I had in the first months after MGB, not sure. In general dense foods tend to give me stomach ache and sometimes sit in the stomach like a brick and I hate this feeling so I understand not wanting to eat heavy/dense foods. It's always hard to tell via internet. Regarding the vomiting after dense food it might be that you're eating too fast or too much or don't chew well enough or a combination of this. However, this is something only you can tell. Maybe you could try a denser food, chew the heck out of it, stop after a few bites or set a timer to e. g. 20 min and take your time. Regarding the reflux you could play around with different foods. I'm sensitive to e. g. dairy, dry red wine and in general very fatty foods, with nuts and nut based foods being an exception. The combination of high protein and fat is the worst regarding my stomach issues. It also can help having a time span of about 2 h between last meal and going to bed. However, if your reflux is that bad you might consider revision to RNY anyway regardless of weight.

Every superman has his kryptonite, lol.

Slices of pizza can be big or small. I have no idea how big pizzas are in your area (no kidding, they vary in size so much). One slice of pizza is not what I would say is a particularly big portion. But I'm always surprised how little people seem to eat, both in calories and amount. Never could do this.

Part of the food for 24 h shift tomorrow: fennel, red onion, zucchini, red beans in tomato sauce with peanut butter and ras el hanout spice mix. I have flat bread to go with it.

I could never stop myself at 2-3 bites unless I would feel full or queasy. This is something I guess I'll never get: the minuscule amounts of food and calories some people on here subsist on. You need a second try, and that's that. How many things in life did your family members fail at before they succeeded at second or third try or maybe never succeeded at all? It also doesn't matter if they were right or not. Still not their business. I absolutely understand. That's why I totally get that you want to lose weight really fast. Like fast. However, you're putting yourself under a lot of toxic and unnecessary pressure.

Don't get me wrong but how much weight loss did you expect during this time span? Revisions tend to lose slower. Yes, I can absolutely understand the need to get back down with the weight fast but this is not a matter of weeks as you already know. Expect at least as much time to lose the excess weight this time as you needed before. And tell these toxic family members of yours that your weight and diet is none of their business. Might need a bit of yelling but it's worth it.

You don't need to be a hermit because of your weight.

Food for today. Working the late shift plus on-call until 8 in the morning so if things are going bad I might not be home again until Friday afternoon should I decide to sleep at the hospital. Anyway, truckload of food because of this: Chestnuts as a muesli base (got this idea from the freeletics nutrition app a while ago and it tastes awesome), one portion with pear as suggested in the app, one with banana. Sandwiches with veg cold cuts and a mango-papaya-curry spread. Tomatoes.

Please don't compare the weight loss rate of a man to the weight loss rate of a woman. You're setting yourself up for disappointment.

Mushrooms with soy cream and flat bread. Quick and easy. They really lose a lot of volume. It always looks like a truckload in the pan when they're raw.

Variation of what I had yesterday. Pimped it up with some Ras al Hanout spice.

You've fallen victim to carbophobia.

Breakfast food for dinner. Microwaved oats with apples, raisins, chia, cinnamon, soy milk and almond butter. Later I had the rest of the ciabatta roll with butter.

The older hospital doctors even know 36 h shifts. Granted, evenings, nights and weekends weren't as busy in their days as they are today. Got about 3.5 h of sleep this time and that's not that bad. Anyway, the hospitals know how to stretch the law in their favor. Some more months of this before going into on-call only again in January. I'm too old for this sh*t.

Vegan gyros with shiitake and red onions with soy skyr dip and rucola cress. Part of ciabatta roll. Just the right thing after a semi-awful 24 h shift.

Sounds kind of interesting. Maybe if it's available on kindle unlimited one day (as pound of cure is currently) I'm going to look into it out of curiosity.

Does it provide any valuable additional information if one has already read pound of cure?

In my opinion WLS is a magic bullet. It is the game changer when it comes to losing excess weight and maintaining the new weight. We don't always succeed on the first try. Sometimes people need a second try or maybe even a third. Inadequate weight loss after lap band is quite common, revision to bypass also and many patients do quite good after revision. Maybe you want to do a quick medline search about this. You're now a few years older and more experienced. Maybe you're now being able to handle problematic things in your life differently. You might also be more disciplined now when it comes to certain things. Think about your younger self and compare it to your now-self. I'm sure you're able to handle things way smoother than you did e. g. 10 years ago. The same can be true for this whole weight loss thing. Of course there is the chance that you might fail again. There is always the chance of failing, doesn't matter if it's weight loss, learning a new language or performing at your job. If we couldn't make these changes before any WLS at all, why is it possible for so many people after they had WLS? It just is because WLS is the game changer. Lapband is different. It doesn't provide the same hormonal changes a bypass does. I always cringe when I read or hear this. "Dedicated". "Eliminate". "Avoid". Same with "struggling", "fighting" or "food is the enemy" etc. - being at war is so damn exhausting. Make peace with food. It's easier in the long run. If you don't white-knuckle things you might discover something interesting: not all lifestyle changes are a struggle or need dedication in the long run. You might indeed discover (or re-discover if you were into sports in younger years) that exercise can be fun and fulfilling. Or that healthier food doesn't taste that bad. Or the opposite around, that this junk food is actually not as tasty as you always thought it is. You might discover, that when you feel more comfortable in your body and with yourself that you don't feel that need to eat in the same strong and overwhelming way. You might notice that you say "No, thanks but I don't want it now" when you get offered French fries or chocolate or whatever and really mean it. However, there are many people who aren't able to maintain their "new lifestyle". I have no idea what makes or breaks this. I sometimes have thoughts in the back of my head that maybe some people are just lucky in reacting very good to WLS and don't actually need to watch their intake that much. They also don't live in the gym. When you browse around the board you're going to notice that maintenance calorie intake is very different in different people, even though their stats are quite similar. Nobody can tell if WLS/revision to bypass is making it easy (or less hard) for you or not. I sometimes feel it's like playing the lottery. You won't know to what group of patients you will belong before you got the revision. Short term weight loss doesn't really bring some benefits (someone correct me if I'm wrong please), however, one doesn't have to get to a normal weight to reap the benefit of weight loss. So many patients feel like "failures" because they don't get to a normal BMI. Yet, when you look at the studies actually not that much patients ever get down to a normal BMI. And sh*t on "eliminating carbs". Like really take a big dump on it. (Years ago we should eliminate all fats, now it's carbs. I wonder what the future will bring.)

But what you were doing before didn't get you the long term results you desire. So if you're planning to do the same thing as before... did your circumstances/life change in any way? Because that would most likely be the only way to get different results this time with the same approach you already tried and didn't get the desired results with.

It doesn't matter how far you're out of surgery. You have to create a calorie deficit to lose weight. How you're doing this is a preference of yours and possible at any stage. "Honeymoon phase" is scaremongering. The mantra "eat as little as possible to lose weight as fast as possible during the first 6 months because after that it's so much harder or next to impossible to lose more weight" is more harmful than it's doing good for so many patients. Sure, weight loss is fastest during the first few months but please don't think that there is "a window of time when weight loss is possible and after it's closed I'm doomed"!! Granted, there is not a mechanical problem you should still have restriction so you continue to have that advantage. If you feel that you can eat portions that are "too big", concentrate on lower calorie foods. Vegetables, legumes and fruits first, all of these meats and cheeses etc. are way more calorie dense. Depending on your personal circumstances and preferences IF can be helpful or not. If you prefer less bigger meals to more smaller meals then IF might be your way to go. If you hate "skipping meals" you're going to hate IF. Last note: if you're struggling, do something different.

As a never-sleeve I can only imagine how strong the restriction with a sleeve might be. I went from MGB to RNY and I get uncomfortably full way faster now.

Thoughts and opinions on cheese vary. "The Cheese Trap" is an interesting read.