blizair09

Right now, you need to focus on meeting your protein and water goals. Nothing about your weight is likely to be accurate for the first month or so. Stay off of the scale. Post-op life is HARD WORK. Take this time to settle into it, and the weight loss will come as a result of your efforts.

My plan called for strained cream soups (e.g., cream of chicken, cream of mushroom, cream of celery, etc.).

Cook and strain the soup and then let it chill in the refrigerator. When it is cold, then mix the protein powder in completely, and then heat it in the microwave to make it lukewarm. You can't mix the protein powder in when it is hot, and then you can't heat it up to much when you put the powder in the cold soup. That is just part of it...

I've been taking this approach for the past year. But at this point, I am finding hitting the sales at the mall at the right time gives me new clothes at just slightly more than the thrift store price. It is amazing the phenomenal deals you can find in size large shirts and 34 waist pants and shorts as opposed to the bigger sizes! (And I'll get the tax write-off when I donate them later on...) I'll always love going to the thrift store, though. We have a huge one in one of our NOLA suburbs. It is like a fun treasure hunt every time we go there. You never know what you will find.

As are you!

Milk of Magnesia always does the job for me!

Interesting...

If you're hungry, have some more protein. The recommendation of the strained cream soup with the unflavored protein powder was an excellent one. I relied on that big time during the full liquid stage post-op. I know the liquid phase is not fun, but it is crucial to getting healing and getting yourself on the right path. Good luck!

Frozen yogurt is not a good choice. The carbs and sugar are going to impede weight loss, and there is no protein in it. Protein and water should be your main focus right now.

You are right. Meeting your protein and water goals is a full time job in the beginning, and it stays that way for a long time. I took 6 weeks off work after my surgery, and one of the biggest reasons I did was so that I could devote myself 100% to the protein, water, and food stages. Even at almost 6 months post-op, tracking my intake is very time consuming, but it is worth all of the effort! Good luck!

I agree with @_Kate_. Call your surgeon.

How about cologne? Or a new T-shirt or baseball cap?

Like others said, it depends on your insurance. For me, I had to do six months of doctor-supervised weight loss. My first appointment was in March 2016; my last was in early August 2016. I was cleared for surgery by my PCP in late August 2016, and my surgery was September 28, 2016. During that time, I also had to meet once with the nutritionist and have a psychological evaluation.

These are a cheddar equivalent to ParmCrisps. I'll have to look for them. I have ParmCrisps a couple of times a day, and I love the crunch. The 0 carbs and 3 grams of protein per 5 crisps rocks, too! The variety these could bring would be nice!!

The key is having the grit and perseverance to change your relationship with food. For me, that started with working to stop food from being the centerpiece of my life. I started looking at food as fuel, where the macros drove my decisions about what to eat rather than what I liked to eat. As has been stated, the sleeve is merely a tool. It will provide restriction, yes, but you are going to have to make the tough decisions about what to ingest, because it is easy to eat around the restriction. It doesn't take long to explore these forums and find countless people who have not changed their relationship with food and who will not be successful with getting to and maintaining a healthy weight longterm. It is important to have a serious conversation with yourself before the surgery to determine if you are willing to embrace these necessary changes. Also, I would determine whether or not you need the help of a professional psychologist as you embark on the mental battle. Good luck!

Was this a typo? Do you really have to be on a liquid diet for 3 MONTHS??

I go about once every 3 days. If I haven't gone by the third day, I take 1/2 dose of Milk of Magnesia and that always does the trick.

How many carbs do you eat each day? How much protein and water are you taking in each day? It seems incredibly unusual that you haven't lost anything in 4 months at 1000 calories per day. Have you talked to your team about it? BTW -- at 6 months out, 600 calories a day is way too low. I get that you want to restart your weight loss, but there has to be another way to do it.

I do agree with you that keeping the big picture in mind is always important, but "numbers on the scale" are important and a big part of the long term journey, too -- especially if you started out at 400 pounds and are still in the loss phase...

On my own. The only time I met with a psychologist was the insurance-required psych evaluation.

When you do weight training, you are building muscle, and muscle weighs more than fat. It is a positive thing, but from what my partner went through, it sometimes affects the number on the scale (e.g., you have actually lost fat, but since you replaced it with muscle, your weight stays the same or goes up). This was a personal decision on my part. It is no better path than working out during the loss. It just fits my needs better.

I would do it again any time in a heartbeat. I have lost 182 pounds (and counting) since I began my journey with my six month pre-op diet program on March 21, 2016 (a year from this coming Tuesday). I lost 99 pounds (from 397 to 298) by surgery day, and I have lost an additional 83 pounds (from 298 to 215 just this morning) since my surgery on September 28, 2016. It has completely changed my life -- personally, professionally, and health wise. All that being said, I made a commitment before the first day to change my relationship with food, to fight my mental demons, and to get myself in a position to be successful. In my opinion, you need to ask yourself if you are willing to make that kind of commitment before you even get started. If you're not, you might lose a little weight while the tool does the work for you in the first few months, but ultimately you'll gain it back and not be successful. WLS (the sleeve in my experience) is an amazing tool. But that is all that it is -- a tool. It is only as good as the hard work you put with it. Good luck as you make your decision!

I made the decision a while ago that I wanted to get to my goal weight and then hire a trainer and add muscle. I know me well enough to know that if I start that now, it will affect my loss, and even though I'll still be burning fat, the scale numbers will bother me. That being said, my partner, who has lost 115 pounds himself, took another approach and started working with a trainer last fall. He actually went through one of the local universities and was able to buy blocks of training time at a more reasonable rate. I want to say that he ended up getting ten one-hour sessions for $300. When he used those ten, he bought another ten and so on. His trainer is certified and is a PhD candidate in kinesiology, so he is very conscientious about their work together. He's been pleased with the results. Good luck!

During my six month pre-op diet program, I reliably lost 3 pounds a week. My weight loss was modeled by a linear function almost perfectly. I'll be 6 months post-op in 10 days. My weight loss has become more of a step function. I'll lose 8-10 pounds in 1.5- 2 weeks, and then I stall for 1.5-2 weeks. Then the cycle repeats. At first, it was super frustrating, but then I accepted that this was the way the journey was going to be for a while. This morning, I woke up to a 2.2 pound difference from yesterday, which is an almost 11 pound loss in the last 15 days. There is no way I lost 2.2 pounds of fat since yesterday morning. But this signals to me that this loss cycle is probably winding down. That's how it usually works. The body is a complex machine, but it is also a funny one. I have had to learn to just keep on doing what I know I need to be doing, and just roll with the rest. Good luck!