ms.sss

My go-to song is Kelly Clarkson's "Since You've Been Gone" lol. Its def a challenging one, but for what I lack in talent, I make up for in ENTHUSIASM 😂

My go-to song is Kelly Clarkson's "Since You've Been Gone" lol. Its def a challenging one, but for what I lack in talent, I make up for in ENTHUSIASM 😂

i don't have any real answers for you other than echo what others have said above and to get more tests done and continue to work with your doc to find an M.O. to give you some relief. however, i do want to say that at 5 months post, i think i was sort of where you are at. I could barley eat very much in terms of volume. it was really quite a ridiculously small amount of food that I could keep down at one sitting, and if i went 1 bite above that, I would barf...or spit up more like. I ate probably 1/3 - 1/2 cup of food in TOTAL in one sitting (where a "sitting" would last about an hour of taking tiny bites at a time). this resolved itself over time, probably took about 1.5 - 2 years before i could eat the amounts which i can eat now in one sitting. Mind you, its still a small amount compared to what "normal" people can pack in. And i'm over 5 years out today...and other than my odd eating habits (compared to others), i'm totally fine. Oh, i do take 20mg of Omeprazole a day religiously though. if i miss my morning dose, i can feel discomfort in my sternum by 1-2pm. i also make sure I go to bed on an empty stomach. further, regarding the diarrhea, i was already lactose intolerant pre-surgery. After surgery, i got even MORE lactose-intolerant, if that makes sense. perhaps a diet consisting of only mozzerella and yogurt could be doing your digestive system a number. just a thought? Hope you figure out something soon. Good Luck! ❤️

that part of my brain is remembering which bars/restaurants offer buck-a-shuck oysters each day of the week. oh, and when which bars/restaurants have karaoke nights during the week... 😂😂😂😂

PERIODS: I had my WLS when I was 47 and i *thought* I was already menopausal, as I hadn't had my period in a couple (few?) years before that. Well. 2-3 weeks after surgery, I got my period...heavily...for like 8 days or something like that (which for me is an anomaly as when I used to have periods, they would only last 4-5 days max, and were very light). Then I got my period like clockwork every 4 weeks after that for about 4 years. Go figure...I wasn't menopausal at all, I was just fat, lol I am actually going through it now i think as my last period was in the spring 2022 last year (i'm 5 yrs post op now). So yeah, i raise my hand for weird period happenings. HAIR LOSS: Yep, i lost a significant amount of hair. It all grew back eventually, and I feel like its actually thicker now...but that may be due to the fact that my diet is better? I dunno. Bonus as well is that my hair now has a little wave to it, which i love. Unfortunately, I don't think there is anything you can do to prevent it. My advice if it happens to you, is to just ride it out. its temporary and just a drop in the bucket in the grand scheme of things. STOPPING WEIGHT LOSS: My not-so-surprising answer to this: EAT MORE. lol. It took me few months of increasing my calorie intake until i figured out what calorie amount i needed to maintain. I lost 10+ lbs while i figured this out, but at least i did, ha! Now in my case (and alot of others) my restriction was still very much in effect, so I had to invoke the strategy of eating more higher-calorie foods vs. just more food in general. It was a little bit of a challenge as I was still in weight-loss mode thinking so switching mindsets to allow myself eat things i avoided for 7 months was a bit of mind f*ck. I'm really good at it now though, lol. Good Luck! ❤️

Like mentioned above it depends when exactly post-op you are asking about. I too was one of those weirdly low volume eaters (which, during weight loss phase, equated to being a super low-cal eater) According to my logs at week 6, i averaged 423 calories A DAY (vs. weeks 1-2 when I ate less than that for an ENTIRE WEEK) sloooowwwwwllly worked my way up to about 700-800 cals a day by the time I reached goal (about 7 months post op). I am 5 years post op and maintain now at about 1800 cals a day. (5'2", 51 yr old female, 113 lbs this morning). You will find that the number of calories each of us require to maintain or lose (or gain!) weight varies greatly. The trick is to find out what calories YOU need to lose/maintain/gain, and work that into your eating habits. Note also that this magic caloric number FOR YOU is forever a moving target and will change depending on your health, activity levels, metabolisms, time of year, amount of sleep you get, stress levels, medications, mood, etc., etc., etc. Good Luck! 😍

Covid, arg! i'm still testing positive but my symptoms have improved exponentially.

more food for me! 1/2 a dinner roll with sliced avocado and a butter-fried egg. (i cut up a some of the sandwich first before i remembered to take a pic - oopsies) 364 calories for it all...eyeballing it, i probably ate about 2/3 of it, but i plan on eating the rest later so the cal count stands. p.s. my scale shows a 2.2 lb increase since i started eating relatively normally again yesterday . i do know its not actual fat or anything, and most likely just the food taking up space in my intestines and colon since i had probably nothing in there for the past little while. which you know, as an aside, makes me realize i haven't pooped in a really long time....

same happened to me. i had to buy my supply of protein shakes from my surgeon's office. i was green and eager and didn't even question it. but yeah, looking back i realize they probably (at best) just wanted everyone doing the same thing, and (at worst) just wanted my money. i didnt end up buying more after surgery (because thier shakes were just too sweet for me post op) and also i smartened up a bit and read the label. i bought my own preferred brand after surgery (Isopure) and turned out just fine.

ok! so for the first time in almost 2 weeks, i woke up hungry! i've been sick for what feels like forever so i guess this means im officially better! so i felt for salty things so i made a weird plate of food reminiscent of my pregnancy days: toasted dinner bun with butter & cheddar, a handful of sour cream and onion chips and a peice of chicken skin cracklin'. 508 calories for all of it, ate all the chips (of course, lol), half the sandwich, and just a bite of the chicken skin cracklin' (it was NOT yummy). i'll probably eat the rest pf the sandwich later, but im def tossing the cracklin'. im looking forward to eating some food again now that i actually want to! and to regain the 7 lbs i lost while being sick (i look a little deathly at the moment, boo)

i was at a pool party and i couldn't put sunscreen on my feet without doing some sort of backwards bending while sitting on stairs. i happened to look up and notice people looking at me with what looked (to me) like pity. i scheduled my surgery the following month AND finally went through with it (after backing out twice previously)! best decision ever.

my weight stabilized just a little after one year post post mark, but this was due to a months-long effort to stop weight loss by slowly increasing calories. reached goal at 7 months post (consuming sub-800 cals a day). upped calories after that lost another 10+lbs until around 14 months post when i stabilized (around 2000 cals a day) BUT this is NOT to say i stopped losing and/or gaining forever. i am 5 yrs post now and i have recently lost about 10 lbs in the last few months. it really just depends on one's metabolism and food consumption...the trick is to figure out what your sweet spot is (given your current activity level)

it may not be just the corn (aside: i had no probs with corn when i first tried it around 3 mnths post), but all the other stuff thats on the elote? the mayo, with its high fat content may be a culprit? or maybe the dairy in the cheese? or the butter if there was any on it.....

dupe

im 5 years post. at this point i eat what i feel for, when i feel for it. i don't avoid anything except large amounts of sugar in one sitting (or on an empty stomach cuz im a dumper) everything else is fair game. yes i eat chips and chocolate and hot dogs (with buns!) and all sorts of deep fried stuff and drink alcohol along with my salads and roasted veggies and sashimi and grilled chicken breasts. normally (not right now cuz im super sick), i eat about 1800-ish cals a day without gaining or losing any unintended weight, and can consume roughly 1 cup-ish of food "material" in volume in one sitting. more if its salad, less if its dense meat or fluffy bread. give me a couple hours and i can down another cup of food. so long as my cals stay around 1800 a day, it doesn't matter whats its made up of...at least from a weight gain/loss perspective. from a health-wise perspective, well that is likely another story...cuz im sure 1800 cals of chicken breast is better for my body than 1800 cals of buttered popcorn. so far so good as my last labs (this time last year) were a-ok. we'll see what this years labs say when i get them done at end of month. i realize i haven't really answered either of ur questions. for the latter, i can't really comment, but for the former, below is a screenshot of what i ate when i was 8 months post op (trusty ol MFP!) note i had already reached goal and was in the process of upping my calories to settle into maintenance at this time. it took me another 2-3 months and another 10+ lbs lost before i figured out what my maintenance calories were. (sorry this was so long!)

same. i've weighed myself every morning for the past 5 years (when i have access to a scale...sometimes i don't when im on vacay). and i still track what i eat daily (granted not as meticulously as before...i eyeball alot now vs busting out the scale and measuring cups every time. and i often use pre-set items in MFP vs listing out individual ingredients for foods now) its not for everyone, but it works for me as well. i credit this MO (along with regular-enough exercise) with how i have stayed below goal weight this entire time. Aside: granted im actually waay below goal weight at the moment due to a combination of quitting smoking, going on vacation and then currently being sick as a dog; but i know this is temporary. 🤞🏼

if comparing pre-wls me vs post-wls me, today, (5 yrs post) im not sure if im more or less "hungry", because looking back, im convinced i wasn't actually as hungry as i said i was back then, i think i just wanted to eat. lots. i think i enjoyed or chased that "stuffed" feeling? i dunno. now, i HATE that stuffed feeling. so yeah, i do get hungry still, but i tend to not overfeed that hunger cuz i dont want to feel the icks. i do remember feeling ravenously hungry before. i haven't felt that since. however, if we are comparing 1st year post op me vs todays 5-yrs post op me, im definitely hungrier now that those first few months cuz i had food aversion for a while.

so ive been sick for almost a week now, and the fact that the sight of @Arabesque's flatbread actually stirred something (positive, lol) in my stomach makes me think im finally getting better and wont die after all! so i cut myself a slice of baguette for my first foray into solid food since last week tuesday. i've literally been living off tea, orange juice and cough syrup for the past 6 days. good news: it was yummy. (kinda) bad news: this is as far as i got. p.s. and yeah, im looking a little death-ish again, like the good ol days. sigh.

agreed!!

always! i probably eat less than i think i do...

im not as cold as i used to be like those first couple post op years...but no where near as hot/warm as i was pre-op. i feel like i seem to have the same tolerance for temperature like most of those around me...dare i say "normal"?

i would be wary of any dietician that prescribes the same maintenance caloric amounts to all their patients without taking individual size, weight and metabolic rates into account (among a multitude of other factors!) i would be especially be wary of any dietician, when asked for a reason for his/her prescription, answers with "i don't know". as with all things, listen to what you are told and advised, but also make informed decisions on how to deal with your body based on observations of its responses to stimuli (i.e., caloric intake in this case). the 2000 calorie suggestion is an AVERAGE and does not apply to all. STATISTICALLY, only a small very very small percentage of the population actually requires exactly 2000 calories. the vast majority of the population fall above and below 2000 cals. thats MATH people. with that said, i am a 5yr post op, 5'2", 51 yr old, currently 117 lb female that maintains at about 1800 cals a day...and has been doing so for about 2+ years. (i used to maintain at 2300+ cals a day, but i was exercising like a fiend those days so it made sense). everyone will have varying maintenance calorie levels...if u can figure out yours and adjust as necessary, you are golden. Good Luck! ❤️