PatientEleventyBillion

I can see why you'd say that because of OP saying they're on probiotics. Nice catch. So antibiotics would run roughshod over the flora in one's gut and digestive tract all the way to the anus, leaving open the possibility of opportunistic pathogens like bacteria to take the place of otherwise useful bacteria. There's way too many bad bacterias to list, the dangerous ones though people should know well.

I see. Okay. So.. The keto diet is about putting the body into a state of ketosis. It's effectively tricking the body, particularly the liver, into thinking you're starving, but it realizes you aren't, if you're doing this diet as it should be done. The liver first synthesizes carbs and stores it for fuels, but it quickly can be completely full of it rather quickly, so it then turns into converting those carbs to fatty acids.. those fatty acids get sent around the bloodstream generally to areas rife with fat (in men it's primarily the gut, in women it's a lot of places), but they also infiltrate the liver itself. When the liver is deprived of carbohydrates, it starts producing ketone bodies that tell areas that need energy (the brain, muscles, organs, etc. ) to start looking for other methods of energy consumption. The first method of consumption is protein. The second one is fatty acids. For the muscles, they quickly can run out of fatty acids, so need a steady stream of protein to prevent the ketone bodies from having the body burn up the muscle proteins instead as fuel (replacing them with fat). The organs like the brain, heart, etc. will easily adjust, using whatever protein it can (not much), and then changing over to burning up fat, which, in an obese person, is rife. So it makes sense from a standpoint of a perfectly healthy person to go with a normal diet you suggest, which is in line with what the government typically suggests with their food pyramid, but in an obese person due to the excess accumulation of fat, this processed needs to be reversed. Ketosis is, I find, the quickest way of accomplishing this, and when done correctly, and especially under doctor supervision, is quite healthy. And it's not to suggest eating foods rife with sucralose.. not a good idea. But the body needs protein anyways to avoid burning up the protein in muscles. A high fat diet I think is okay in the short term, because in a state of ketosis the body will burn through that quickly anyways, nothing will come from it. But yes, as a person becomes thinner and requires less energy input to satisfy what their body needs, you'll find that the high volume of ketone bodies and fat will wind up working against the person. So as they get smaller, they must adjust to what their body needs. I find a logical approach is by far what works best.. what you'll see often is people who are religious-like about diets and such.. which is counterproductive.

What knowledge does it contradict?

Yes. Make sure of a few things: 1) You're eating very small bites (finger-tip size) and chewing extremely thoroughly. People tend not to even realize they're eating too quickly for their sleeves until it hits them. 2) You're not drinking fluids within a short period before/after of eating food. This will contribute significantly to reflux. 3) You're not eating foods that contribute to reflux.. like spicy foods, alcohol, etc.

It happens when on liquids. Also for me it happens because I drink a ton of water every day.

Supplements are easily my biggest problem now. 3 doses of 500-600mg calcium citrate with vitD spread out 3 times a day, cannot be taken with iron, somewhere in there do the mv plus b12 sub, then two doses of meds at opposite ends of the day. Makes protein goals look easy.

Then you're fine. Make sure you're supplementing whatever vitamins you're lacking, and all is good.

If you're getting adequate protein. Do you know how much you're getting per day? If you're not getting anywhere you should be, definitely up your caloric intake. Your body needs to use something as fuel.. unless you get adequate protein the body will just burn off muscle proteins first before fat.

Go to the store, spend time looking at foods and nutrition labels, decide which best suits your diet plan.

I'd take a pretty good look at your relationship with alcohol.. it's such an easy thing to change from food addition to alcohol addition (addition substitution which WLS patients who have addiction issues are very susceptible to), if you find you have trouble controlling yourself, abstain from it entirely.

Wait a while before having anything with seeds. The risk isn't high but it's there.

Yep. When you starve your body of the intake it needs to run (at that many calories its virtually impossible to get adequate protein), it slows down the metabolism, converts muscle into fat (burning muscle proteins as energy and replacing muscle mass with fat), makes you weaker. So after you burn the muscle, you're still left with fat mass. That's why early on even if one cannot get sufficient protein, they still need sufficient calories that come from elsewhere for the body to use as fuel, keeping in mind that the premise of the surgery post-op is healing first and foremost, and starvation is a barrier to this. The weight will come off as you gradually can have more sufficient protein intake with less calories. The result is the metabolism is instructed to burn off fat through ketone bodies (utilizing fatty acids as energy) rather than gluconeogenesis (burning up muscle proteins), changing the liver to glycogenic state of synthesis rather than conversion to fatty acids and storage, the latter of which happens when you starve yourself, so any weight you lose under a starved state will be water/muscle mass, but your body will be storing the stuff it should be burning off and burning off the stuff it should be storing, in short. Just be careful for bad advice, like the prior post you responded to.

It really depends on what the causes of reflux are. For the vast majority it's diet related so that's why the surgery helps reflux for the majority who change up their diet. But then there are others who have reflux for other reasons where it gets less predictable. Generally people know if the cause is diet. One of the big reasons I took the advice of my second opinions is that they concurred that if any low odds complications arose I could always revise to bypass.

If you've followed the diet, if you've been losing weight, pretty much guaranteed your liver has shrunk. The mechanisms that cause the liver to shrink are pretty much identical to that which causes weight loss.

It's a normal part of the liquid diet. When you get into soft and normal phases, it's indicative of reflux caused by drinking fluids with your food.

Alberta? Where was your surgery?

I second this, although I wasn't a basketcase. I was 90% excited 10% nervous, but I'm pretty certain it's already established on the forums that I'm abnormal.

I already thought this way, but the issue presented with this thread are the snowflakes who get upset at people giving honest advice. Your contributions are easily among the best on this forum, it's clear snowflakes occasionally get under your skin. I say don't let them. Your brutal honesty is part of your personality and part of what makes your posts genuine pieces of advice, something the forum sorely needs. There's already no shortage of people who walk on eggshells for others, need variety.

That mental image I get from this. #Visuals I've lost more weight than my younger sister is (95lbs), and still need to lose almost another one of her.

Yep. I had two second opinions. All pointed out the benefits of the sleeve. I gave them a week or two so I could do more research before committing to signing the papers, and see if this was the best option for me, because until this point I was settled on the RNY. They all agreed I could do a revision to bypass if I had any complications. Given my age (34), and the fact that RNY was more complicated, along with my comorbidities being under control at the time, it didn't necessitate the increased risk of having the RNY done as a first step. So I took their advice and went VSG and don't regret it one bit. I see absolutely nothing wrong with second opinions, I just don't buy into general statements, make sure your advice is tailored specifically to your situation, and I'd also advise research on the VSG.. like legitimate research from scientific journals rather than pro-surgery sites or profiteering surgeons.

We can't say if you're making the right decision, that's all on you in knowing what's best for yourself.

Your stomach growling is likely gas and contents moving quickly through your digestive tract, called peristalsis. There's nothing abnormal about it, especially post-op.

I concur. I weigh myself twice a day. My weight changes like 0-3 pounds throughout the day. I think being inundated with information can cause us to be overly critical of it and expect faster results.

Best of luck Joe.

If you're expecting changes overnight (it appears this way given your post), you made a terrible decision. It's best to be on board with the long game.