Berry78

Even though you are feeling great, your stomach won't be healed for 8 or 9 weeks. 4 weeks is longer than most, but mine wasn't that far off. For me it was a week of clear liquids, a week of full liquids, then a week of thin yogurt (pour off the spoon), then a week of thicker (sit on the spoon). So, although that last week I couldn't have sipped through a straw, it was still just yogurt, cottage cheese, and things like that. Just take it day by day, and one day it'll all be ancient history

You absolutely need to be able to get this off your chest. A counselor is a great idea. See one by yourself first, and ask your counselor whether your child should come in with you, or have a counselor of his/her own. {Hugs} You, and your family are going to be ok.

I cook the same way I always did.. pots, pans, oven. It's true I don't bake dessert much any more, and I never was one to deep-fry food. Toying with the idea of getting an instant-pot pressure cooker. Never used one, but quick, tender meat is appealing. Slow cookers are useful, but I can't stand the smell they make in the house. Looking forward to hearing what others have to say...

You are only a couple weeks postop, low energy is the name of the game this early. Took me about 3 months to feel 100%.

I'm almost 8 months out and have noticed increased hunger already. I think it's normal, (and why people tend to gain weight at some point). Try to fill up on more veggies, so the calories don't start going up too badly. I've started having either raw or cooked veggies, ready to eat and available, so when I'm starving, I can grab that instead of chips or bread.

Probably because it's still early. Wait a month and try again. Sometimes by 2-3 months we can eat everything, sometimes it takes 6 months or a year. Rarely do things continue causing trouble long term.

Good Luck today!

T'ain't 'bout me!! You'll make it way before Christmas too! (I like to keep my goals modest ). I agree.. if you still have that lovely long hair, it'd be a shame to shave it off this late in the game! Did you lose hair? (I lost at least half of mine...).

The only reason I ever pick a "goal weight" is for my ticker (you can see it below if you use a laptop). Otherwise, my first goal is to have my waist circumference less than 1/2 my height. (I am 67 inches tall, so need my waist to be less than 33.5 inches in circumference... around the smallest area above the belly button). It's sitting at 34 inches right now.... oh so close! (Started at 49") But, even another inch off my waist isn't where I want to be. I probably have 30-40 more pounds that I need to drop. I wanna see collar bones! And my thighs are still really chunky. If I can get to size 8 pant (6 in my oversized brand) then I think I'll be done. I figure I'll weigh around 165 or 170 (I'm 5'7). Shoot, I have to change my ticker again...

Woo Hoo!!! Happy surgiversary!!! Only 4 lbs... hurry! Get an enema and shave your head! You've got this!! [Hugs] right there with you. (Scale said 203.8 this morning...!) Fingers crossed for Christmas....

There seems to be a lot of people interested in putting on running shoes after surgery. I did some research to see what might be the best way to tackle this endeavor. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23790819/ Alright, so I created this chart based on the recommendations in the article. This seems like it could be a very reasonable progression.. a bariatric couch to 5k, if you will. In approximately 7 months, a person following this plan can go from walking 2/3 of a mile at 2mph to running over 3 miles straight. The chart above shows a 10% progression (and indicates the quickest we should advance. More slowly is fine). Time allotted is 20 minutes. A 5 minute warmup and 10 minute cool down are not included. Walking or running should be undertaken every other day, and if you are sore the day after running, then go back to the previous week's plan. The goal is to have a pain free experience (especially joint pain. A bit of muscle soreness is to be expected). Once we reach 5k at 7mph, then we can work up either speed or distance, gradually, from there. And, as mentioned, weight lifting is also a great thing to start to go along with the running. Weights can be super simple. Twice a week go to the gym. Do 12 reps on each machine, trying to make sure to work each main muscle group. Start at the lightest weight. Each week increase the weight one level (usually 5-10lbs). The first few weeks will feel like a joke. And it should be. Make it fun, make it a habit.. and you won't mind going back.

Sue is right. You are losing tons of fat right now, but are retaining fluid (this is normal during times of physical stress). No worries about the scale right now. [Hugs] Get better!! Good luck and a speedy recovery from your gallbladder surgery.

I started at 305lbs and my first comment came after losing 73lbs, 4.5 months postop.

Ok, so now we must talk about money. I'm in the US, so don't have a national healthcare system and do have lower taxes than the UK. I have a middle class income. I pay out about $5k a year in taxes. My surgery, done in Mexico, cost about $5k dollars. Total coincidence, I'm sure. But if 1/4 of the population went in for surgery and ended up spending all their tax dollars on their surgery, what that would mean for a nation's budget? So, anyway, that is totally off the top of my head. Would make an interesting research project, utilizing actual facts and figures..

It's funny reading something I wrote only a couple months ago, and I would say something a bit different now. You are right.. the losses preop have little to do with the success/failure of the surgery. I think I was going to say that the losses preop could predict the RATE of loss postop. Oops, my bad. There is a line of thinking that the surgery will lower our "set points". This is a theory, there is no real way to test it. If our set points are lowered, then our bodies stop constantly trying to regain the weight... thus the losses after surgery tend to be durable. My original response was basically saying, hey, the surgery moved your set point only so much, now it will be much harder to lose. I think I've had a new epiphany over the last several weeks. I now think the surgery works because of the caloric restriction it permits. I'm sure there are lots of chemical/hormonal/metabolic changes as well, but those are things that we, as patients, can't control or interact directly with. So there is no point in talking about them in stall/regain posts. The thing that causes fat loss is consuming fewer calories than we burn. It's easy to eat very few calories for the first 6 months postop. But, then our stomachs relax, we can eat more, and hunger comes back. Calories can increase, weight loss slows, then stops. And we wonder why we haven't reached goal. If this is true, then "set point" only means the weight that an individual carries based on their average daily intake (in relation to their metabolic rate). So, if you want to lose more weight, you have to eat fewer calories. It's as simple as that. The trick is to still feel like you've eaten while minimizing calories. This means eating whole, unprocessed foods that have a lot of bulk and nutrition for relatively few calories. I think my epiphany came when reading posts from patients that had surgery, then immediately were consuming maintenance-level calories (1500-2000). They didn't lose any weight. If the surgery does something really special, it wouldn't matter how many calories we ate, we'd still lose. Ok, so with all of that.. those people that are eating very few calories and are stalling early in the process have something else going on. Their bodies are retaining fluid. I don't know why we retain fluid (there are theories), but we do... and we can hold onto it for a couple weeks, then it'll leave with a "flush", sometimes 5lbs overnight. The way to tell if you're just hanging onto fluid is if the scale stays the same but your clothes get looser. Also, if you are eating fewer than 1000 calories a day, I can pretty much guarantee it's fluid. The only way I know to limit these fluid-retaining stalls is to eat more calories and exercise less. The body is less stressed and doesn't retain as much. BUT, you might be setting yourself up for poor overall losses if you do it this way. Personally, I've eaten an average of 1100 calories since 8 weeks postop (I'm almost 8 months out now), and haven't exercised, and haven't really stalled. But, I also am not losing as quickly as someone that eats 800 calories and goes to the gym. (And since I'm not at goal yet, I can't say whether I'll even get there, or how maintenance will be. I do plan to start exercising for strength and fitness though).

Oh, I'm sorry you've had these complications Let's hope it'll all be up from here. I have seen someone else on the board have a blood clot... wanna say it was near the spleen, not sure. Pretty sure it turned out ok for them. [Hugs] One day you'll be on the other side of this, and say it was a rough start, but all worth it!

Apple! I didn't realize we were practically neighbors! (Ok, I never get down there anymore, but grew up in Calvert County, so used to go to Annapolis all the time!)

Usually a bypass is "one and done". You could have your pouch evaluated to see if it or your anamosis has stretched out. If there is a problem, insurance might be willing to pay for something. If everything is fine, then insurance may not cover anything (you'd need to call to find out their policies). If interested in self-pay, I do know Dr. Illan worked on a bypass revision patient (in Mexico) while I was there. I don't know her pouch's condition, just that she was getting a revision due to regain.

What you may be saying to yourself right now is: "but you don't understand! I lost 25 of those pounds during the first 2 weeks!" The thing is, the body likes losing slow and steady. When you drop more than an average amount (say, 1-2lbs a week)... a LOT of your losses are water. Water comes and goes, and can play havoc with the scale. For example, let's say you DID see a 25 pound shift on the scale over the first 2 weeks. Sorry, it wasn't 25lbs of FAT. A good chunk of that was just water (probably 15-20 pounds of it). Over time, your body has cycled through water and fat, and by now, you probably HAVE lost about 37lbs of fat. It looks like you are 11 weeks out. I had lost 36lbs during the first 11 weeks postop. (I started at 305lbs). I'm now 8.5 months out and have lost 101lbs. You've just got to give it time. I figure it might take me another 8+ months to get to goal. But who cares? What else am I gonna do?

Your tastes WILL change after surgery. The trick is to only introduce those foods that you want to keep eating. There will be a wonderful window of time when sweet is too sweet and salty is too salty. If you"push through" and eat the foods that don't taste good, and aren't good for you, your tastebuds will soon adapt, and you've missed an opportunity. You may wonder why anyone would push through, eating junk they don't enjoy. Habits, cravings, social expectations, hunger, stress eating, addiction... all of these motivators are more powerful than your tastebuds. I don't worry about whether you eat veggies now. It'll be a month or two postop before you are eating them much anyway. After weeks of protein shakes, dairy, and eggs... veggies will be a welcome addition. Just be sure you are open to trying them. (It may take multiple times, cooked different ways to figure out what you'll like). Lots of people don't like fish preop, but crave it after surgery. That's a tougher one than veggies!

Not exactly in the neighborhood, but reasonably close... (I'm a couple hours northwest of you in Cumberland, MD).. Welcome! I had my sleeve 7 months ago in Mexico.

Thank you for the motivation to restock and organize my freezer!

Oooohhhhhhhhh... ok! Thank you for this! I have been known to buy the frozen pre-chopped onions.. so this makes perfect sense!

I like to see everyone getting a minimum of 700 calories after the first month or so. That would be 80g protein, 33g fat, 20g net carbs. This still results in ketosis, but provides the minimum fatty and amino acids required. (I set protein a bit higher to offset the low carbs and fat. More calories (1000) allows less protein.. but never drop below 60g protein). A true ketogenic diet provides a lot more fat and calories than 700. Personally I was over 800 at 4 weeks, and 1000 at 8 weeks (non-keto), but some people can't lose well on a thousand. 700-800 is a sweet spot for maximal losses while still hitting nutrient goals.

You need to read the article. It states that the obese patients need only reduce their weight by 10-15% over a 9 month timeframe in order to qualify for elective surgery. This wouldn't effect bariatric patients since we lose weight preoperatively anyway. And smokers only have to stop smoking for 2 months prior to surgery. It's a hurdle, but not an insurmountable one.