Berry78

It's worthwhile to also consider getting a sleeve first, and after 12-18 months, think about adding the DS component. We have several heavier patients on the board that have had fantastic results with just the sleeve. You would still need a few vitamins with the sleeve, but much less. A big question to ask yourself is whether you think you can stick with a "diet" forever. ALL of these surgeries (including the DS) require mindful eating forever. I had the opportunity to speak with a 10 year DS veteran, and she lost about 200lbs. She was still 100lbs from goal, but the scale just stopped. She was eating on-plan (meat and veggies), but wasn't counting calories. When she finally started counting, she realized she was eating 2500 calories a day! She started cutting back to 1500, then 1300. She finally reached goal. My point is that no matter which procedure you get, you'll still have to pay attention. And if you pay attention, it won't matter much which procedure you get. @Dashofpixiedust8 might be able to help here. Don't get me wrong, the DS will be extremely effective for you. But the vitamins are not optional, and if you are concerned about them now, what happens in 2 or 15 years when you get bored of the whole thing?

The preop diet is the worst! Welcome, and good luck!

Do you know your BMI? If not, here is a calculator: https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educational/lose_wt/BMI/bmicalc.htm

An insulated lunch box with a cold pack in it.. put yogurt and cottage cheese and protein shakes in it. Thermos for hot soup...

Thanks, Apple! Looks like I need to switch out my beverage.

Ok, first thing is to address your medical needs. Do you have a family doctor and insurance? If not, can you get them? You need annual bloodwork, for life. The bloodwork shows what vitamins/minerals you are low on. Hair and teeth falling out point to iron and calcium, but you are likely short on a lot of things if you haven't been taking vitamins religiously. Every bypass patient needs a multivitamin and calcium citrate. Most also need B-12 and Iron.

I think I'd spend a bit of time examining my vitamins to see if there is a cause. It's possible you are getting too much of something. Medications can cause this too...

If you type "obesity" and "malnutrition" into a search engine, it will return over a million results. The first few articles that show up are pretty much saying, hey! Obese people are actually malnourished! Who would have thought?! Then you read the articles, and they start blaming the modern agricultural methods and processed foods, soda pop and high fructose corn syrup. They could be right. But I'm interested in following this in a different direction.. or perhaps just further along the same lines. So, we'll take a person (we'll call her Cindy) that is eating the typical flour and shortening diet. She is gonna be short on vitamin C. (And D, and chromium, and iron.. etc. etc but we'll pick on C). So, now the body says, HEY, we're missing something, yo!! But, it can only say it with a nagging hunger that sends Cindy searching through her cupboards. Her eye lands on some ice cream (in the cupboard.. I know, right?).. and she digs it out and starts eating. But since there isn't vit. C in the ice cream, a couple spoonfuls doesn't quell her hunger, so she eats until she's ready to pop. Now she puts on some weight. 5'1 Cindy, who should weigh maybe 120lbs, now weighs 140. With the increase in weight, her body now has to work harder just to exist (the muscles have to carry the extra load, etc), so she needs MORE nutrients.. more vitamin C, and calcium, calories, etc. etc. But, does Cindy increase her consumption? No, of course not! She sees her pants don't fit, the scale has the wrong number, and so what does she do? She goes on a diet! Slashes her calories. But if she just eats less of the same nutrient-poor food that caused her to gain weight in the first place, then she's eating fewer nutrients too! (Imagine she was eating a big plate of spaghetti that had 2 cups of tomato sauce on it, and changes to a small plate of spaghetti with 1/2 cup sauce. The majority of the vitamins in that spaghetti are in the sauce, and now she is eating 25% of the vit C. that she had been). The pounds drop off, but so does her basic nutrition level. Eventually her body rebels and she can't keep to her diet anymore. She starts eating again, and her body is screaming for nutrients, but keeps getting fed junk, so the pounds just pile on. Now she's heavier than she was before! People that are carrying too much weight need to be FED, not starved. But WHAT they are fed MUST CHANGE! We have all the energy we need (and more).. but it's the missing nutrients that we must find and replenish. Bariatric surgery works because we are able to decrease our calories. The postop diet is designed to keep our protein levels up, and we are to take vitamins to replace those we don't get from our food. But not every vitamin comes in pill form, and not every nutrient has a blood test. We HAVE to continue working to improve our food choices so that we can fill all those needs. I have people at home that are trying to lose weight, and I'm watching my MIL grab about 1oz of pork loin to eat for dinner (with some corn). I'm like, what the *expletive* do you think you are doing? She's sooo.... clueless... when it comes to nutrition. But she won't let me formulate a plan for her.

Oh, how miserable! Fingers crossed for good news on Friday....

There is a difference between "fear of", "power over", and "just don't care". An Average Man walks by a table. Upon said table resides a bowl of M&Ms, free for the taking. The Man glances at the colorful confection, and moves on, hands and belly remaining empty. 1. What struggles (or lack thereof) does he face? 2. What is he thinking or feeling? 3. What would you want him to think and feel? But what if "Average Man" was instead "the Heavyset Man"? How does that change your perception?

The body has to process your rapidly breaking-down fat. Your altered blood values might be reflecting this. Your doc should tell you if they are concerned.

I started coffee again about a month postop I think. It was so funny how jittery it made me the first time I had it. I got used to the caffeine quickly again, though. Now I drink 1 caffeinated and the rest decaf. The only problem for me is it seems to increase heartburn a bit. Working on transitioning to tea...

If y'all are only getting 20oz of fluid a day, you need to go to the ER for fluids. Never consume more protein grams than ounces of fluids. You can't digest it. If you are getting 40oz of fluid (the bare minimum for keeping you out of the ER), then don't take in more than 40g protein. Once you can get your 64oz fluid, then you can have your 60-70g protein.

My legs are still a bit chunky for folding them up. Looking forward to that!

Vitamin A (retinol) and vitamin D both work as a patch. Not sure about the others.

Every time I sit down I cross my legs. Because. I. Can.

Welcome! It's a whirlwind, and surgery day will be here before you know it...

11/15 202lbs.

Oh, goodness! Did the doctor say how long he/she expects you to need the tube? What was happening before they put the tube in?

I have that too! Uuuhhgggg... I'm 39, and had been looking younger, but as I lose more, my face is getting older... Funniest thing. Get a mirror and put it in your lap. Look down at it. (This puts 50 years on my face!)

If it were me at 6 weeks at Christmas... I'd eat 1-2oz of turkey and a little gravy. Then an hour or two later go back for mashed sweet potatoes (It's Christmas after all!).

Talk to your team about adding liquid Mylanta or Maalox to your acid control regimen. Not sure what to think about your lack of feedback. The stomach nerves were cut, but usually we get a full feeling around the stomach someplace. (I get full low in the gut, others feel it in the chest).

I had really thick hair as a kid. It was average before the surgery, and now it's so thin! It hasn't started regrowing yet, but what is there did get a little curlier (I think because there is less weighing it down). It's always been curly though, so not a huge change. Oh man, if it all comes back in grey, I'll have to punch someone... Straight grey hair is sexy. Curly (wiry/frizzled) grey hair... *sob*

I was reading, just today, about re-feeding anorexics. Basically, for them to gain weight, a typical 2000 calorie diet isn't enough to make significant changes to their weight. They need to eat 3500 and 4000 calories to make much headway. This is because the first 2000 calories are used just to continue living.. the extra is needed to make repairs and gain weight. Bella, even eating whatever she wants, is still restricted by the size of her stomach and her rule of stopping when satisfied. She isn't eating over 3000 calories a day, therefore can't gain a ton of weight... yet. I believe that once her body has healed the starvation damage, (may take years with limited calories), then she'll gain weight like the rest of us. Assuming "satisfied" comes a smidge too late As for what "most bariatric patients" do or don't do with rules.. you are probably right, summerset.. I just know that at some point, in order for us to be morbidly obese, we couldn't have been following rules. Whether burnout, or lack of attention, or a rebellious attitude.. whatever reasoning was behind it.. doesn't really matter... cuz here we are! The key to long term success is going to look different for each of us. But ultimately, we all are working with the same fundamentals. If we eat too many calories, we will put on weight. (how many is "too many" will vary wildly between us). If we find we are eating too many and the scale goes up, then we have to change something so we aren't eating too many any more. Much easier when we've gained 10lbs, then 100.

The demon isn't food though, sweetie. The demon is the hurt your child experienced, and the hurt you are now experiencing because of it. Write out a menu for the next few days, make a plan of what you are going to eat. Then stick to the plan. Once that plan is in place, then you can focus on finding another coping mechanism for the emotions. Moving your body really IS the best one for most of us. It allows that hurt and anger to be "worked off". The more you think about food (even thinking about NOT eating)... the more you want to. Do what you can to put it out of your mind as much as possible. You are a wonderful parent, and all of you are going to get past this.