Biddy zz 🏳️🌈

Yep, I was on mashed and shredded fish, beef, before I left hospital. Smoke portions, mind...

I can drink carbonated, no issues (thankfully because I hate the taste of still water!) My mate with a bypass can’t even have 50ml without pain, nausea. She is 4 years out. Looks like you might be in her camp! But no great loss I reckon - nothing in soda or diet soda that is good for our journey!

@skinnylife I am pretty sure that @johnsons13 means 500 calories in her diet now, 6 months post surgery. I’d be struggling with that too! @johnsons13 do check with your surgeon. My surgeon tracks all his patients’ eating and in general the vast majority are 800-1000 12 to 18 months after surgery - 800 gives you room for some great food choices. I too had an unhealthy relationship with food. I didn’t eat for hunger, but for stress, anxiety, loneliness, habit. I ate rubbish till stuffed. I ate when I wasn’t enjoying the taste any more. Now I eat tasty. Healthy. I have used the 10 months since surgery to fight so hard to change my habits - but only because I saw a elative lose loads of weight post a bypass - and then put it all back on by eating the same as before. I an so so stoked to be smaller, it really helps motivate me to stay on track. Most days! I have bad days too but they are fewer than they were. One thought. Do you track your food? An app like Myfitnesspal (and there are others) is a great way to log your weight each day, and your food intake. You can seriously stay on top of the food choices, see the effect they have. You can chat with others in the communities like baribabes. You can get great tips on eating options there and here in bariatricpal. One thing - change your eating and your tastes change. I still want to eat when I am stressed but get comfort from watermelon now (who’d’ve thought!!!) instead of chocolate and crisps! But it does take a bit of time, any sticking to your eating plan more and more consistently...

Thanks fluff She has been low carb for most of this year, as I moved to a low(ish) carb life following the surgery. That said I mean under 50 a day - her was a little higher (largely because she is physiologically attached to her morning granola, although she has given up the pre-bed granola helping!), but gone are chips, crackers, pasta, rice and most bread. That is how she has dropped down to 60.5kg - the lowest in the 18 years we have been together. And exploring it with her yesterday after we watched the video (and have bought the book) she is pretty sure the shakes have become a much less frequent thing, which all fits. So today she is moving from 14:10 to 16:8 fasting. In fact, last food by 7pm and then missing breakfast all together, and starting her day with an 11am lunch is the idea. Q - does 1/2 sweetener in evening tea stimulate insulin production? You say avoid sweetener, and I just wondered why...

Me too. It is a whole different headspace, and all the BariatricPal posting and reading really didn’t prepare me for some of it: * giving away the daily weight drop * planning to add a snack a day to get calories up a bit * how to deal with the endless line of people giving you advice about not losing any more weight. But those niggles are drowned out by the great clothes, the thrift store purchases, the sales items I can now buy that were never available in size 18, the jogging, the room in an airplane seat, not going through and deleting every photo of me, etc etc etc...

You are well past the phase of a leak in the new cut edge of your stomach. That said, any of us can get ulcers, diverticulitis, other ‘leaks” just like non bariatric folk, but we can also get any of the other many many types of (more common) infections too. Sounds serious - I’d see a doctor. You can’t go too long without food and, in particular, fluid so you need to stay on top of that... Best of luck.

Like many other people here, eggs were really hard for me, no matter how I did them. Still not great, to be honest. Tuna was tough too - it is a bit dry. It gets easier but don’t stress - there are options. Yoghurt is protein, and there are high-protein yoghurts available too. Cottage cheese is worth persevering with. I don’t care for it but it is delicious savoury - add chipotle, or sriracha, or a bit of chilli flakes. Or have it sweet - add mushed banana, apple sauce, pineapple purée, berries (strained). I really got to love my different flavours of cottage cheese in soft food stage! Steam a bit of fresh fish and mush it. Much easier than tuna from a pouch. My surgeon had me eating that from day 2. Hummus. Feta whip. Mashed edamame beans with a bit of mayo - yum. All high protein... Remember: This stage, too, shall pass...

Thanks but my signature wasn’t a mistake calling a revision a decision. I wasn’t referring to ‘revision to bypass’. I was saying ‘I made a decision to bypass’. I have tidied to clarify. As for RNY means bypass - well, I am ok with it. If you look around this site, even the ‘official’ descriptors of the various forum boards regularly say RNY bapass’ - I reckon you’re on a losing campaign fighting that one!

My dumping and my gall bladder/bile duct stones were extremely different symptoms. Not sure if that is the same for all. Dumping from sugar - sweats, fatigue, some diarrhoea, yawning, maybe nausea but pain free or very mild cramps at worst, lasts 30-45 minutes and suddenly stops. Unpleasant but manageable. Occurs as a set of symptoms but in degrees - mild for small sugar overdose, stronger for big sugar eating screw-up. Gall bladder - extreme pain- seriously painful. Worse than labour pains! Nausea and retching, esp just before bouts of diarrhoea, pain level at 6/10 for 45 minutes then 8/10 for 15-20 minutes when I cannot sit on the toilet even, just would lie on the floor groaning. Hot sweats from the pain, that stop in the lower-pain parts of cycle. Repeat cycle every hour or so for 12-36 hours. In my case, the difference was chalk and cheese. Mostly - gall bladder = overwhelming symptom is bad pain; dumping = nasty but almost no pain.

Good advice above. My surgeon tracks calories in his patients, 1800 or so of us. The vast makkority are 800-1000 calories still at 12-18 months after surgery. At 6 weeks out I was having to work really hard to get in 800 calories a day and 700 was comfortable. If I was doing it again, I would just be content with the 700 and stop worrying, stop listening to the people telling me to increase my calories to break a stall. I really used this time in my journey to take sugar out of my eating habits. To make treats of things like fish, bacon, cheese not bagels, donuts, toast. I have consistent habits where, compared to my old habits, I eat more protein, a bit more fat, and way less simple sugar although good complex carb/fibre intake. These are good habits I will keep for life and will be effortless to maintain because the food is delicious! Nowadays a cafe treat is a haloumi side-order, not a chocolate caramel slice. And I love that.

Ok, finished that link. Most excellent. A couple of questions for my missus. 1. She gets ‘the shakes’ when she goes a few hours without food. I have never had that, but I see it in her hands, knees - and she responds by eating a snack. Although she thinks ‘the shakes’ is a response to high carbs food she used to eat - bagel, bread etc. which she eats less of now, so she has less shakes anyway. Will she just ‘get over this’ with IF in time? 2. Dr Fung talks of whole day (alternate day) fasting. Does anyone have a link about the ‘stop eating at 7pm, start eating later - say 10am’ fasting that she is trying? How long does insulin take to break down! Will 12 hours fasting be good? 14? 16? Thanks!

Thanks for the link. We are enjoying it. We are half way through - but heading off to early-Sunday-morning-gym - full upper body, lower body and core workout today - and modest-HIIT (MIIT?) on the elliptical in the middle. What to do about the non workability of the persistently failing of the ‘eat less and exercise more’ school of advice - which is pretty much every single school of advice, is the take home from Dr Fung - who, I must say, is very believable, authentic. Other famous doctors, like Dr Gundry, when I watch I feel like he is a bit of a shyster just selling a mystery ‘secret herbs and spices’ product. Fung isn’t selling anything (that I have seen yet) but his facts and figures on metabolic rate so fit my 40 years of annual weight-loss/weight-gain cycle. So post RNY our basal metabolism is lower. Sure. My resting heart rate has dropped from 58/59 to 50/51 this year. I am always cold. Always. My question is - after two, three, four years - does it start to lift? If our calorie intake lifts to say 1200 or 1400 does our metabolism lift too? Does anyone know?

Tucking my shirts in! I have never ever done this but now! Flat tummy, no bulges, no bum... feels like a million dollars to do this.

Well, it is Saturday here, and beautiful spring. Over three days this week, my weight went to 135, then jumped to 137 and now back to 136 - maybe the salt in the salty chilli and lime cashews I have been having to lift my calorie intake. Feel very relieved to have my surgeon say ‘don’t bother, 800-1000 calories is fine, you’ll stop where you will stop’. Bought great tan coloured trousers at a second-hand shop yesterday, and a couple of work trou too at end of winter specials. You’re right @GreenTealaelthe ‘normal sized’ clothes sales are amazing (and used clothing availability too) - big girls are seriously hampered in these! Clothes shopping, jogging days and and gym for developing bits that are starting to look like muscles - my three new obsessions! Tonight, making smoked chicken, leek, mushroom and pea pie with cheese-stuffed jalapeños for dinner. Good protein - doc says I need to up it, so tried a milk/peanut butter/cocoa/vanilla protein shake. Nasty... but good protein! Thanks for this thread. My wife has lost about 5kg (10lb) since my surgery, wants to lose another 3-5lbs so is trying IF following you all. No dietary change (except no late-night snack like muslei) but no food after 7pm, or before 10am. Hope it works for her.

I recommend loggin your food in myfitnesspal, so you can track calories, carbs, protein, fats. My surgeon tracks almost 2000 patients. A year after surgery, most are still eating under 1000 calories a day. They are healthy (some need just vitamins, some also need folic acid and B12 supplements). Did you put on weight at surgery time? Often people do and it takes a bit to shed that. And many many people have a ‘three week stall’ where the weight loss slows at the 3 week (but can me 6 or 8 or 10 week) mark. Stick to your programme. At first blush your eating sounds fine at this point - you can’t help but lose. Are you walking? That helps too...

It is a good call to cut it. Some surgeons tell you not to have fizzy drinks after the op (some say forever after the op). My surgeon says fizz is fine - but not soda. Even Coke Zero - because it keeps alive the craving for sweet. For me, changing that sweet tooth was the hardest thing. It took a few weeks, but my tastes changed. Now I think Coke Zero is intolerably sweet and wonder how folks drink it! And it makes it easier to avoid sweets in general. Sometimes I have a mouthful - but the taste is a bit overpowering. And I love different stuff! Hummus, unsalted cashews, smoked mussels, sardines... Now pretty much the only thing I drink is lightly carbonated water - if I want something fancy, I add a few raspberries, or strawberries, or lemon slices, or watermelon pieces. The fizz is fine in my tummy - and helps me drink because I still really don’t like the flavour of still water. So - the sooner you can kick the sweetened sofas (artificial sweetener or otherwise) the quicker your new habits will grow... Good luck with your op!

Oops - that was meant to say ‘gentle course correction’ not Bentley! Too late to edit it now...

Hi there I wouldn’t beat yourself up over it - the fact you are posting shows you haven’t lost your way. As you get well, just stay on top of the Bentley course correction back to proper food! Your stats are great - feeling proud? Gorgeous?

That is good advice. I also use a good barrier cream and that helps a lot with chafing.

Look at those skinny pin legs! You are a whole new (nearly half the old) person!! Extraordinary! AND you have inspired me every single one of those months!

I had the fear of waking up with no band AND no bypass too - I had bad liver scarring from some mesh. But all good - my surgeon did the full business, and I have never looked back! The bypass is SO much easier to ‘drive’ than the band - wish I had done it years ago! Good luck with the approval process. Thinking of you.

Surgeons hugely vary in the plans they give us. Most would still have you, 5 weeks post op, on a plan. The plans seemed designed to A let your new tummy settle in gently and B even more importantly, give your brain a chance to learn some new behaviours. Because in the end, we have a new tool but unless we change how we eat, weight regain is a distinct possibility. We all (or most) start out wishing this wasn’t true, but we soon learn it is - BUT with the tool, it is easier than we imagined! Go look on the forums dealing with food, eating plans. Look around - you’ll find a few that people helpfully post. They’re kinda similar but vary a bit - find one that feels right. Use it to guide your eating - meals a day, meal size, protein/fat/carbs. My surgeon gave me NO guide (I was eating solids before I left hospital. He didn’t even support protein powders! Just “stick to three meals a day”) but I adopted one to help my thinking,my meal planning, my shopping, my new habit formation. It made the world of difference!

I have had dumping - two different types. Firstly, excess sugar. This is easy to avoid - check labels, don’t push what you can do. 10g added sugars in a serving is my max and I have no desire to see if I can stretch that because I don’t want to go back to eating sweets. Sugar dumping at worst is hideous - sweats, retching, diarrhoea, and feeling awful. I had it twice early on, and never ever want to experience it again. A mild form if I Push the boundaries - sweating, yawning uncontrollably, and feel a bit off. For me overeating is a bit different. Stomach pain but not for 10 or so mins until I stop eating, so I really need to keep an eye on my volume. Easiest when I put my food on my plate. The pain is accompanied by a slight nausea, a bit of hot skin, and fatigue but maybe not yawning. This I have experienced a few times as I sometimes misjudge a food portion size...

Oh, that is good! I thought it was only me!! It SO isn’t what I was expecting!

Oh no! Pepitas, spicy, are a common go-to for me when peckish. I have never had any ill effects. BUT - some people do develop odd inteolerances after surgery, and suddenly react against things like dairy that were fine before. So play it cautious. Have a 100% safe meal. Add a few pepitas and see what happens... be your own careful lab rat! Let us know!!