Arabesque

From about the age of 14 I’d routinely skip meals to try to control my weight. I never ate the same volume of food as my friends or my family. All skipping meals did was kill my metabolism & I battled my weight bouncing 60-75kg until I was in my late 40s. That seemed to be my max & min weight range I always gravitated to. When I reached menopause I put on 30kg in about 2 years without changing my diet & couldn't lose an ounce over 4 years. I think I eat more now then I did before surgery. I certainly eat more frequently then I ever did & that’s how I get my calories & protein in. I reach my fluid goal by sipping throughout the day & at night (always have water beside me). By drinking regularly I never seem to reach that oh my god I’m thirsty point anymore. Nor do I reach that I’m starving point either. For me the surgery has been wonderful. It kick started my metabolism again & sorted out my hormones. It also made me truely analyse what, how & why I ate. Even though I ate pretty healthily before, I eat even better now. Dropped some food choices that were bad for me, added some that are better. We are all different. We react differently to the surgery. We have different life experiences. We have different health issues, genetic makeups & physiological & psychological differences. They all influence how we are able to benefit from the surgery. The surgery isn’t a cure. The average weight loss after about 5 years is only 65% of the weight you were to lose (to put you in the healthy BMI range). Some lose more. Some lose less. Some get to a weight higher then goal & are happy. Some get lower than goal. Some experience small amounts of regain while others regain more. Some maintain. Some causes for this are beyond our control. Some causes are in our control. You can’t predict your outcome but just be aware of the variables. Best advice is to grab this opportunity & see how far you can take it.

There is a lot of conflicting stories & advice out there about whether you can drink carbonated drinks after WLS, but apparently there’s little scientific evidence to support either the yes or no position. The only evidence is that drinking carbonated drinks increases weight gain. There’s also information coming out that artificial sweeteners are just as bad if you go down that route. (Basically they trick the body into thinking it’s getting sugar but isn’t so it stores more fat to compensate for the perceived reduction of glucose - which the body does need.) Plus artificial sweeteners continue to feed your craving for sugar. As with many things after surgery, some can & some can’t. It’s really your choice if you can & it works for you. Personally, I gave up carbonated drinks years ago because they aggravated my reflux & gave me horrendous hiccups. I only had bubbles in a gin & tonic & champagne but too many of them & urrgh! So no change for me (though I drink less alcohol & drink it less frequently now).

I never suffered from PCOS but I did have my gall removed. It was only three months ago but my weight is what it was before surgery. I lost a small amount afterwards because for about 3 weeks I wasn’t really hungry or interested in eating but when things got back to normal I settled back at my usual weight. When was yours removed? When did you notice your weight loss slowing? Are you still following your same diet plan & recommendations for portion size & calories? Are you still meeting your protein & water goals? Have any of your meds changed? Have you spoken with your dietician & medical team? Have you had blood work done since your gall removal? Removing the gall can affect absorption of some nutrients. I found out at my 3 month follow-up appointment last week that my protein level has dropped since my gall surgery (was high before my gall was removed but now low yet still meet my daily protein goal). I was prescribed pancreatic enzymes to help with protein absorption.

I’m a sleever & I’ve found vomiting is different too. I wonder if it’s because we have fewer stomach muscles as well cause, on the handful of occasions I have vomited, it doesn’t feel like all my muscles are heaving. A win is I don’t have sore muscles after like I used to either. Plus I only need to throw up a small volume of food to empty my tummy. I hate the foamies! I get them if my food is too dry, too coarse or fibrous. Begins with my restriction being more severe, followed by hacking & then spitting up small amounts of that foamy, gunky saliva. Can occur up to an hour after I’ve eaten. My dad was told the same thing about the flattened cola with his chemo. It’s also useful for getting rid of the bad taste & reducing the coated tongue after chronic vomiting with chemo. Best of luck with your continued recovery, @Jacks133. PS - Personally, I’ve never understood the whole ‘pouch’ description thing. Our tummies are exactly the same organ as they were before the surgery. They function in the same way as they did before (maybe a bit fussier). They are only smaller & for bypass have had a little shortcut rerouting to the intestines. They’re still stomachs.

About two weeks after surgery my friend & her husband had a combined 60th. I went, took some hydralite to sip & was home about 2 hours later (no where to sit & was exhausted). My friend & her husband knew & understood why I left early. At 6 weeks I went to my cousin’s 40th & staged for the whole party. No body there knew about my surgery. Was on soft food so I was able to nibble on a couple of things like Spanish croquetas (fish filling). Did sip on a gin & tonic for about 3 hours. I never felt hungry or was interested in eating. Both were cocktail type functions so as I wondered from one group to another, no one knew what I was or wasn’t eating or drinking. A sit down occasion might be more difficult but if you are at a cafe or restaurant most have a soup option which would be ok in the first few weeks post surgery. I did eat just the filling of a quiche on an occasion or two & the only insides of steamed gyoza. Check the menu before you go. If you don’t want people to know, say you don’t feel very hungry or you had a large lunch. Or simply say you’re trying to diet & cut back on portion sizes - which is true.

A change in your tastebuds & sometimes your sense of smell is very common after surgery making some foods taste &/or smell disgusting. It does pass.

Turmeric is supposed to be very good too. Many add turmeric to their coffee but that’s a no go for a while but maybe add the spices to your broths, soups or shakes & see if they taste ok. Green tea is good too & able to be drunk on most post surgery plans. Problem is many of the anti inflammatory diets recommend foods you can’t eat for a while after surgery. But you will be avoiding foods that stimulate inflammation. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/anti-inflammatory-diet-101#foods-to-eat

The cravings usually stay with us we just learn how to recognise & better manage them or they’re not as strong. I think cutting a lot of the foods that fed cravings out of our diets pre & post surgery helps educate us & re sensitise our tastebuds to what may really be too sweet.

There is no one wrong or right way about snacking just a right & wrong way for you. Personally, I did a lot of reading first. You asking what others are doing is good idea. You may not agree with everything people say but it may spark an idea, lead you to seek something similar or try something totally new. I snack about 4 times a day to hit my calories & protein. I personally have gone down the route of where possible trying to avoid or keep low sugar, sugar alternatives & artificial sweeteners, processed white flour carbs & pre-prepared ‘snack’ foods & meals. So I snack on combinations of fruit, nuts, cheese, yoghurt, protein bar, multi grain crackers, etc. This is what’s been working for me. It may not work for you & your lifestyle & that’s ok. If it doesn’t complement your lifestyle it’s doomed to fail.

Soft food should still be pretty moist & should not require a knife to cut it & not much ‘biting’ or chewing. You should still be treating your tummy gently. Dry or fibrous & course meats & vegetables can be hard to swallow & digest. If something is too dry I still get the foamies. Steamed or poached soft flesh fish is good & easy to tolerate. Fish or soups were often my go to if I dined out in the first 3 or so months. I also used to order steamed gyoza but only ate the filling. Then I started on scallops (which I love) & calamari (not crumbed & not over cooked). At home I did a few slow cooked casseroles, braises & soups & easy to flavour up. Though watch your fussy tastebuds & tummy. I made a chicken chasseur, cooked it until that chicken was really broken down (thigh not breast meat) but that splash of wine was all I could taste & it was disgusting. Such a waste. As @catwoman7 said, you’ll soon be eating a much wider variety of foods & introducing a lot of what you used to eat or healthier versions of them depending on what it is.

If I want sweet I go to fruit. If I want salty then nuts. On rare occasions, like when I have friends over for drinks on the deck, I’ll have hummus on whole grain rice crackers - can be moorish though. I did find a seed, nut & dried fruit cluster ‘no added sugar’ snack but the reality was they’re sweetened with honey so the sugar content & calories were actually quite high comparatively. You really have to look carefully at the ingredient list & nutrition panel when making your decision. If I want something sweet or dessert like I make chia pudding. I keep it simple just the chia seeds & milk (low fat, full fat or nut if you prefer) & flavour with vanilla only. On the recommendation of my dietician I used to also add some powdered milk to up the protein but I found that made it too sweet. I haven’t gone down the high protein biscuits or chips route because I just felt it would be an easy step back to eating the high fat high sugar versions for me. Some eat them without any issue. PS - I love Dr Weiner’s you tube videos @Sunnyway. Simple, plain speaking.

Certainly not against prescribed opioids if you need them. Have a friend whose spine is crumbling away & wouldn't be able to stand up without hers. But can understand you being concerned if you need to be prescribed them again for your sleeve surgery because of your sobriety. And we can’t take nsaids which were always my go to for pain. My sleeve was less painful than my gall removal though. Not sure why as same surgeon - so fingers crossed yours will be too.

Some people seem to be able to go back to drinking a lot at a time & others not so much. In my third year, I’m in the not so much camp. Two swallows is my max. If I have that third swallow I have discomfort at the least or my restriction pain at the worst. As with eating, go slowly (swallow, wait, swallow) so you stop before the discomfort. I believe if you sip all day long you never let yourself get dehydrated & then want to guzzle ‘gallons’ at a time. I rarely feel thirsty now & never get to that point that I think I’m ‘dying of thirst’.

You are not alone & you’re not a F-up. We all likely have experienced various degrees of success losing weight in the past but I’m 100% positive we all failed at keeping it off. If we had been successfully at keeping the weight we’d lost off we wouldn’t have been obese & lined up for the surgery. And I’m pretty sure at some point & in varying degrees we all worried that the surgery wouldn’t work for us either. I’ve never ever been able to maintain a low weight for longer than a month or two. I’d get complacent, think oh eating this won’t hurt. But it did. And very quickly I’d have gained a lot back & I’d be lying in bed at night saying tomorrow I’ll eat better just as @Officially Not Fatty Matty said. What’s made this time different for me is that I realised that I had to really look at what I had been eating, my eating habits & why I would want to eat. I also had to come to accept that this wasn’t a short term diet restricting what I ate for a few weeks or months but a complete forever change of what I ate. I realised if I went back to the way I used to eat, I’d fail again & end up exactly where I had been - obese. If I hadn’t had these ‘come to Jesus’ type realisations I know I would not have lost all my weight & actually be maintaining it. Yes, the surgery helped by reducing my hunger & reducing how much food I can physically eat. But most importantly it gave me the time to reflect on the what, how & why I ate & start to put in place the changes I wanted & needed to make to be truely successful this time. The change of mind set was vital. I was able to do this myself but others seek the support of a therapist. Don’t be reluctant to seek help if you need. There are lots of people on this forum who have had lots of success doing so. It can be very scary to try to imagine & understand how & what you will eat in the future & how you will cope without your old emotional crutch foods. Food grief is real. A therapist can help. The cravings, our emotional drives to eat & our own proclivities never go away, we just learn to better recognise them & develop strategies to manage them. Any one can learn to cook (my sister-in-law’s 74 yr old father just learnt cause his wife died) & this is a great time to experiment. You don’t have to get good enough to enter MasterChef. Simple basic home cooking is all you need but if you enjoy it … I always cooked but have to admit I cook pretty simply now. Food has a different purpose. I look at food more as a source of energy & not as a way to satisfy some craving, an emotional support or social activity. It still has to be yummy but the nutritional content is equally or more important. Sure I have cut a lot of things out of my diet but I still enjoy everything that goes into my mouth. Honestly, when I look at fast food ads, social media pxts of overly sweet foods, massive portions, etc. I’m revolted now. My stomach actually turns over. This is my story & what has been working for me so far. Reality is I’m still pretty much a newbie & am still learning. Like @Jaelzion, I don’t know what the future will bring. Life can throw a lot of crap at you at times. I’m in the dangerous third year when the possibility of the 10lb+/- bounce back regain is high. But damn I’m gonna work hard at continuing to watch my calorie intake & being careful about my food choices. All the best.

The hair you’re losing is hair you would have lost as part of your natural hair shedding cycle. The cycle has just been accelerated because of the stress your body has been undergoing (the surgery, reduced calorie intake). You would have shed that hair eventually it’s just happening way more quickly so is more noticeable. You are growing new hair it’s just that it’s growing in at its usual rate & you don’t notice the new hair but then you likely never have been aware of it. If you look carefully you may start to notice some fluffy, wispy bits of new hair in a couple of months when it’s long enough to be seen. Most experience this loss from around months 3 or 4 but some start earlier like you. Just like some lose a lot of hair & others very little. Generally it seems to persist for 3 to 4 months regardless of whether you take supplements or use hair growth treatments or not. It’s up to you whether you want to take additional supplements than just your prescribed vitamins or not as long as you make sure you’re getting your protein in. Oh, I did cut my long hair to just above my shoulders so it wouldn’t take as long for my new hair to get to that length and the hair loss wasn’t as noticeable with the shorter length.

I’d say ketosis too. When on a low calorie diet, your body starts to break down your fat for the energy it needs - ketosis. As the fat breaks down keytones are produced. These cause the unpleasant odours as they escape the body via sweat, saliva & urine hence the bad breath, bad body odour & for many women a smelly crotch. It can be really embarrassing. Apparently keeping your water consumption up can help - dilutes the odour & flushes it from your body more quickly. It does improve when your body adjusts to fat burning but it just takes time. I found it only lasted a couple of days after my surgery & was much milder than when I was on a low calorie diet a couple of years before - I was a walking stink bomb then. 😱 Presume I adjusted more quickly because my body had experienced it before. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Shower regularly, reapply deodorant frequently, maybe get some body wipes for quick refreshes during the day & keep breath mints handy.

I agree that no one should feel pain & there are different ways of managing the level of pain someone may be experiencing. But I don’t think @Summermoose surgeon was saying pain helps healing. Rather that feeling pain like on movement (versus continuous pain) can indicate you’re doing too much & are risking damage which would impede healing. Well I hope that’s what they meant. 🙂 There’s pain & there’s pain & we all have different pain thresholds. Personally, I delayed taking my opiate meds when I got home after my sleeve surgery & my gall removal to assess how much pain I was actually experiencing & if I really needed to continue with opioids to manage it. In both cases I didn’t need the opioids any longer & an over the counter pain med was enough - one dose a day for a day or two & then none at all. Any discomfort I felt didn’t warrant pain meds - just being more careful. 🙂

Aah the joy (not) of trying to break our cravings, habits & dependencies. Back when I taught in another life, I often mindlessly grazed when I was prepping or marking work. I had a jar of lollies on my desk & would be constantly eating them so I understand that desire. Now, I find it helps if I make myself wait or do something to distract myself for say 30 minutes before actually satisfying the craving helpful. Often by the time that 30 minutes passes, I don’t want it anymore. You could say, I’ll have something sweet after I mark X more papers. Sometimes a cup of tea, a shake, an electrolyte drink or similar you can sip as you work can help & give you a little boost. In time you’ll be able nibble on nuts or fruit likes blueberries - more nutritious hits of sweet & salty. Congrats on doing so well so far.

It’s really an individual thing cause we all react & heal differently to surgery. (I also think some surgeons may be more gentle than others.) I didn’t use or need a binder & had no problems sleeping - on my side or twisted half on my tummy from day one. I had more abdominal discomfort after my gall removal - like pulled muscles. But it was only noticeable when I was specifically using those muscles like as I got up or down. I just supported the area with my hand. Once I was standing or sitting there was no pain. Good luck with your surgery. PS - Oh yes, this forum is helpful & supportive. Always learning something here.

There’s a lot of variations in the pre surgery diets. Mine was real food too - specifically keto. So I ate meat, eggs, full fat dairy, low carbs, non starchy vegetables & berries. Yours sounds like it may be keto or similar to keto too. My surgeon requires different patients to follow different pre surgery diets based on various factors - weight, blood work, results from various medical tests, etc. Sometimes the diet is not only to reduce the fat around your liver, but to lose some weight before surgery, break some addictions/cravings (caffeine, sugar, carbs, etc.) & /or get you thinking about what you eat. Best advice is to follow the plan you’ve been given.

Actually you only need to continue with vitamin supplements with a sleeve if you personally need to i.e. blood work show you’re low in specific vitamins, etc. The sleeve only changes your tummy not other parts of your digestive system. The additional changes that occur with a bypass does increase the impact on your ability to absorb the necessary nutrients. I had sleeve surgery & haven’t taken a vitamin since month 8 when I was in maintenance. But digestive systems can work differently cause we have different physiologies so you may need to take vitamin supplements regardless of the surgery you have. Generally the post surgical diets for sleeve & bypass are pretty similar. The staged return to eating (liquids, then purées, then soft food & finally more solid foods) is to support your sensitive & healing digestive system. There also are certain foods you introduce more slowly into your diet because they’re just too harsh to begin. Both surgeries tend to focus on high protein, low carbs, low fat, low sugar, nutrient dense foods. This is a lifetime thing if you want to maintain your weight loss. In time you can eat most foods just depends on how your body tolerates them but this generally is an individual thing.

Is it a haematoma? A swelling caused by bleeding in the area from the removal of the port damaging the area. If it is protruding it’s from the amount of blood that’s clotted. Generally they disappear but if it persists give your doctor a call. Give your doctor a call/visit anyway to find out what it actually is.

Unfortunately the glorious & heady weight loss of the pre & immediately post surgery days doesn’t last. Think of this time as the kickstart. Around month 3+/- when your weight loss starts to slow is when reality begins to set in again. You’re eating solid foods, there are more foods you can eat, your portions are getting larger & you’re consuming more calories. Just stay your course. It’s not a race. You’ll reach your goal in your time which is the right time for you. You can’t control factors like gender, age, metabolic rate, weight loss history, etc. which influence how much & the rate at which you’ll lose. Remember the axioms: the more you have to lose the faster you’ll lose to begin & the closer to your goal the more slowly you’ll lose.

Oh, I’m sorry @Pyxis. NSW is really struggling at the moment. So, so many cases and you’ve been caught in the fallout. I agree with @catwoman7. Up your protein intake, your vegetables & your fluids. Cut back on processed carbs & introduce or swap them for whole or multi grain alternatives or vegetable based alternatives. Reduce your portion control. Don’t reintroduce things you’ve already cut out or reduced like caffeine, sugar, etc. You’ve already broken a lot of your dependency on them. Look at this time as a bonus & start to refocus your diet & explore alternative food choices, ingredients, cooking methods. Look at this as a place to start. You don’t have to do everything we’ve suggested. Little changes tend to be easier to adopt & make permanent than changing absolutely everything you eat. Good luck. Stay safe & well.

I kept very closely to the plan I was given & the recommendations from my dietician & surgeon. They knew what they’re talking about. Your plan would advise when you can start to try to include certain foods in your diet as your tummy can’t digest some things to begin - too coarse, too fibrous, too dense, too rich, etc. When you’re able to eat solid foods again it’s not a free for all. You need to be careful not to stress & strain your tummy & digestion. It will be sensitive & as you’re discovering may not tolerate some things you used to enjoy. (It does improve but it takes time.) We’re advised to avoid nutrient poor pasta, rice & bread because they tend to swell in your tiny tummy & fill you up so you’re unable to eat the protein & other nutrients you really need. Remember you physically are only able to eat small portions if anything. There are pretty good alternatives about. A lot of people swear by a ricotta bake which reminds people of pizza or in time you could try pizza made with a cauliflower rice or a shredded chicken base. Try zucchini noodles instead of pasta. You will be able to eat salads in a little while. Some people will say they ate bread, rice, pasta, etc. without issue at some point while they were losing. Some successfully with careful portion control incorporate these things & foods like pizza occasionally in maintenance. Personally, I decided that the weight loses phase was the perfect opportunity to change the way I ate & what I ate & I still stay away from lots of foods - I realised they were danger foods for me. But ultimately, it’s your decision. You have to do what works for you. Good luck.