Biddy zz 🏳️🌈

Just to be clear - “all meat all week” - what role veggies? In or out (low carb veggies, obviously)...?

I had gallstones 7 months after my bypass. At my surgery (which was open) my surgeon palpitated my gallbladder checking for grit - but I was all clear, so he didn’t remove it. I had given him pre-surgery go-ahead to do so. I had reached my goal weight - but rapid weight loss is correlated with gallstones, so it is a known possibility. I have also never heard of an increased oancreatitis risk...

One of my surprise delights about this surgery - WAY less farting that when I was fat! And way less smelly, when one does make an appearance. With exceptions - like some others have said, certain foods seem to affect me. As to fart+ - or, as I think of it, fart-with-follow-through - yep, from time to time that is a reality, especially for me when I am eating out of routine. But if I am in routine, no problems...

Great you are here, committing to be better The thing about this surgery is that we still have to make good eating decisions. Every single blooming day. And you know, if I was good at that, I wouldn’t’ve Got so fat to start with! But, now we have a tool. Use it. Stick to some good basic guidelines. Get your nasty food out of the house. Then, if you buy some, you have two or three different opportunities to rethink, and dump it! Throw those Doritos out the car window while driving home from the store! And no snacks. Ever. For me this is the simplest rule. Simple because there is NO fudging over whether I broke the rule or not. Anyway, it is no biggie just yet - we have all slipped out of the saddle - now slide right on back in and sort it. And maybe do penance - I do this - if I slip up, I make myself have time on the elliptical at the gym (I HATE the elliptical!) I want my slips to have consequences, and for me to commit to putting in effort to making it up. xx.

If you go into a Health2000 shop, they have many different types of protein powders.Tell them about the effect the optifast is having, and they’ll help you find a substitute. Also - you said the shakes give you a reaction - what about the optifast bars? If not, just eat the bars!! Remember, there is nothing special about the optifast itself in readying you for surgery. It is just one rapid-diet option. You just need to quickly lose some weight so the fat around your liver gets reduced, thus making the surgery easier and safer. So rigidly sticking to a Jenny Craig diet, or the bars/shakes that life pharmacy sells will work just as well. You just need to really commit to it, get those pounds off. And then you begin this wonderful journey!

I think you should be REALLY proud that you have come here. Really proud. There are numerous folk who have had regain, and done a “reset to the beginning” to get that off again. You have done it once, so you KNOW you can make it work. And just like the first time, it is a nasty first month of having to change your eating impulses time after time after time - but it gets easier. You’ll remember the joys of not snacking. Of finding new and delicious healthy food. And the highs of fitting back into those lovely clothes! Even with crap knees, you can do seated weights and core strengthening - so get back to the gym! YOU GOT THIS.

Hiya @Sasha Cyrus I am a year out. I have no plan from my surgeon any more, but four simple guidelines: Strictly three meals a day, forever. No snacking. Ever. Protein - at least 70g a day. I start every day with a coffee/protein icy slushie, but the rest of the protein is from chicken, beans, nuts etc. No potato, rice, pasta. Or hardly ever, anyway. Calories without substance. And I try and keep the sweet treats to a minimum because I know that I have a sugar addiction, and never want to be on THAT eating path again! This works really well for me. That and exercise every day. The exercise is good, but I regularly remind myself - this battle is won in the kitchen, not the gym. What about you? How are you eating?

Hi @Netty1967 It would be great to know a bit about you! There is a place you can enter details about your surgery, weight before, weight at lowest etc. then we get a good sense of that journey, and I think are better equipped to walk with you on this one. Assuming your sleeve was successful, you reached goal weight? So you did it before. You know what made it work. And then - what has changed? Because there is your issue! You have done this before, you can do it again! Talk to us about your history, your current habits.....

Well done you!! I have sat around 61.5 kg for a couple of months but after a good week of running, I must say I felt absurdly pleased this morning to have shed another 400g - because that means: I HAVE LOST 100 POUNDS! I might be a bit OCD - that ‘99lbs lost’ was really irking me!

A couple of things - I am a bypass person by the way. You say you don’t want the bypass due to cost (that is reasonable! I was mostly self-fund and it is tough - but worth every cent)), the malabsorption and dumping. Malabsorption and dumping are really a much smaller deal than people seem to imply. Re the malabsorption, I take a 10c vitamin pill every day and a 15c folic acid tablet. That really isn’t a big deal! And the dumping? Well, I had it initially, and it was a real help for me to change how I eat. I don’t know what your eating habits are like, but I was obese because I ate way way way too many sweets, as comfort or habit. A couple of episodes of dumping early on made even the thought of sweets very unappealing - so I stuck absolutely to my programme and got to goal weight in 6 months. The dumping has passed and I wish it hadn’t - not it is just willpower and I know that isn’t my strong suit!! I am only telling you things because I would encourage you to do the thing that is best for your health. Those “problems” with a bypass are really small in the scheme of things. And there are a lot of people end up having a revision from VSG to bypass - often reflux related. So maybe try and be a bit open to the idea of a different surgery even if it is your second choice? A bypass will help you get thinner (on average) quicker (on average) and any side effects you have are entirely manageable - and reflux will be dealt with, so you’ll no longer be quietly damaging your insides.

I had a moving goal. I have ended up lower than I ever imagined I might. Goal 1 - getting to ‘not obese’. Goal 2 - getting to BMI normal. Now I am BMI mid-range. I had mixed emotions. I really miss that slow steady drop 8n daily weight. In fact, I needed to work just a little to ensure I did eat a bit more to stop the loss, as I am pretty thin now. But at the same time I worried I wouldn’t stop losing! I have added a fourth ‘meal’ in the form of one intentional snack, to get the calories up a bit, especially as I am enjoying exercising so need a bit extra calories. There isn’t a lot of info here about that shift from losing to maintaining, but it had its challenges! And it’s high points - you are THERE!

Me too! My favourite de-stress activity used to be a long luxurious bath. But no more - it feels like my bum bones are balancing on the enamel bath. Very painful! So now I run instead for de-stress. I think I might grow to like that better!

I remember thinking “I th8nk they just cut me open and sewed me up, but did nothing to my insides”!! But it passes when the real food comes back in your life. Don’t worry about it, it happens to loads of us - how’s the eating programme going?

Hi bypass lady it does get better - this is the toughest patch by a country mile! The stitch is likely to be the gas they pump 8nto your abdominal cavity to separate your organs so they can do the surgery more easily. It does get absorbed, but it helps if you are up and about walking around, moving that gas. Are you drinking water? Way more important than food just now. Your best mantra just now - sip sip sip, walk walk walk. And dont forget, a general anaesthetic messes with your emotions. It will pass! And then the good stuff happens! Just stick to your programme...

We have been in the capital visiting family. Got up early to fly home, but decided I also would have a crack at not eating until 11am once we got home from the flight. yeah... nah. Don’t know how you do it - just wanted my morning protein coffee slushie! Any of you got a good link to some of the autophagy info? This loose skin ain’t no beauty contest winner, but I am not going under the knife again voluntarily, and have fasted before for other reasons. Interested to know if there is research around it’s efficacy with loose skin in particular?

Interesting re stress. I have a job that can be stressful indeed. High media profile, 1000 employees, and some regulatory roles where we stop people doing stuff sometimes. I was perusing through my iPhone ‘health’ app (linked to my watch) and noted something. I have a low resting heart rate nowadays. This weekend, 51 or 52 bpm. But last week, 63-66 each day. Last weekend, 50, 52. And the pattern is consistent. About 10-15 bpm higher on workdays. I checked out three recent days I knew had large stressful events. 71, 71, 69. And that is averaged across 18 hours... I haven’t checked weight correlation - but I eat differently in the weekend!

My cravings took three weeks to die right down. It was hugely tough - it feels like a real addiction. I later quit sweetened foods too, esp drinks like Coke Zero, because I found they were keeping alive a craving for sweet taste. Now I am in maintenance, I go through small patches where this craving returns - I don’t like it! I deal with it by having a few grapes, maybe. Of something totally non-sweet like billing. If the craving persists even though I ate, it is a good reminder it isn’t “hunger”!

I concur re eyebrows. I have had no hair loss since surgery (was expecting it) but have lost the outer half of both my eyebrows!!!

You wait! You just wait! I am also in existential crisis about this - and several other things. Now I am a size small, I can shop ANYWHERE!!! or, perhaps is should say, everywhere! When I got in non-overweight weight range, there was this weird mental thing I noted. As a big girl, if a decent piece of clothing fitted and looked half way decent, I bought it. Having a decent work wardrobe was important, and not much looked ok. But now - everything looks ok. Everything fits. And I had to learn to undo the “oh it fits, buy it” mental model. I am having to learn what my style is, what I like most, what sort of things are good for this body shape. I hadn’t anticipated this! As for the sort of shops - if you are like me, you’ll start noticing clothes shops that you mentally glazed over before. And it is a nice thing!!

I have lose skin. Under my arms and even below the elbow a bit, I really dislike. My tummy, though? Well that’s ok by me. I am 56, no one ses it apart from my significant other who says it is a gloriously soft pillow! My thighs look a bit like elephant skin. Not fond of it, but I most-of-all am annoyed that my calves, not at all wrinkley, have lost NO inches at all. Hence no wrinkles. If I have to chose - I happily take the wrinkles and lose folds in exchange for the 100 lbs of fat I lost since RNY, or the 130-odd since high-weight. I LOVE being half myself! And I show it off. Gardening at goal weight - love my new dungarees, second hand, $10 - some Idaho farmer chick who’re them before me!

I had my band put in during 2009. Like you, when they emptied it (in my case to ready me for chemo) afterwards I never again found that sweet spot. I had lost 40kg, and saw 25 creep on over 5 years. So last December I took the plunge and had an RNY. I so wish I had done it at the start! The surgery, if it is keyhole, is similar. I had band out and RNY at the same time, and recovery, eating, drinking - a breeze. But - it has been so much easier for me to make the RNY ‘work’ for me than it ever was for the band! And now I am over 45kg down from RNY surgery weight - about 60kg down from my highest weight. Now I weigh 61kg, I am running and scuba diving and I now cook, and it is fabulous low-carb, healthy and supremely tasty food - I am a new woman! It is a great transition. I wish you as smooth a journey as I had!

Nice @Matt Z. I have a matching pic. Don’t you love this new life?

Hi there this place is full of people who start this trip wondering if the surgeon didn’t really DO the op! I certainly wondered it - seemed I could eat a lot, was hungry. My doc advised me to cut my meal portions back to the 3oz meal 3x a day that he had recommended, and give the new stomach a chance to heal, settle in. Sure enough, the hunger went and I settled into my new, more delicate portion eating habits. Within 6 months I was well past my goal, I now have really healthy eating habits and have had a great, easy journey (apart from a tiny diversion with gallstones!)

@GreenTealael I set up to make these this morning but ... how much water in that first stage? Missing from ingredient list and I suspect the amount is critical to the recipe!

Firstly, I selected the weight I had comfortably been able to maintain when my gastric band was working 9 years ago. About 180lbs. Knew I could achieve that and was pretty comfortable with it. When I overshot that following my bypass, I chose the weight at the threshold of my bmi not saying overweight. So I set my new goal at 156. When I overshot that, I just watched and tried to slow down the loss! I tried to slowly bump up my calories, and eat good protein and eat an extra meal. I love my healthy cooking plan and don’t want to change it - and I seem to have levelled off in 134-136 range. Funny, I grew up chubby, believing I was ‘big boned’ (my anorexic mother’s term). But now I am 135lbs, a US size 4, generally an s or xls and I find I am, in fact, small boned. I have really very narrow boyish hips - so I wear smallest size men’s Levi 501s for example - they have way better pockets than the women’s!! Everything about me (apart from my skin LOL) is small. Except my blasted calves that haven’t even shrunk 1 centimetre are are now visibly the widest part of my legs!