Arabesque

I found warm drinks more soothing & easier to drink. Cold drinks made my tummy cramp but that was me. I used room temp water or hot water for my shakes too but I believe some don’t dissolve as well in hot water.

Water can seem heavy at times. Try a warm drink. I found warmer drinks (like herbal or green tea, soups, broths, etc.) more soothing & easier to drink. And yes definitely try some anti nausea meds to tide you over until your surgery. Hope the surgery helps.

The stress, change of diet, weight loss, hormonal changes, etc. accelerate your natural hair loss cycle. So the hair the you lose you were going to lose anyway. And yes your new hair is still growing but just at is usual rate. This is the same sort of reaction some women experience after child birth & if you are experiencing a lot of stress. The hair you’re losing is already dead so taking supplements & additional ‘hair growth’ vitamins aren’t going to save it. (Doesn’t matter how much fertiliser you use you can’t save a dead plant.). The additional supplements may only benefit new growth. Many of us cut our hair if it was long. The hair loss isn’t as noticeable & it takes less time for the new growth to catch & be the same length. Keep meeting your protein goal, take your multi vitamins. And don’t worry too much about it - you don’t need the additional stress & anxiety which could only make it worse. Some temporary hair loss is a small price to pay for your weight loss. All the best.

Breaking those habits & identifying what may be behind the head hunger is one of the hardest things you’ll have to do. I go to mum’s & I want to nibble in the afternoon - 4 o’clock is the devil’s time. It’s not that we don’t get on but we can have interesting discussions. A lot of it is years habitual pre dinner drinks eating. I’ll visit my brother & his wife & family to get out of the house for a while - a distraction & a break from my mum 😉. You’ll find ways to take your mind off your desire to eat. Go for a walk, water your garden, check your socials or this forum, read, craft, play a game. Since your devil time is at night, try having a shower or even cleaning your teeth can act as a distraction & the the minty taste can be satisfying.

It actually is quite common & for most it’s temporary. I’ve never had an issue with my blood pressure, 120/80, regardless what I weighed. Though I did always have a tendency towards a low BP - a family thing - where it would drop & I’d get light headed, loss of vision at odd times. Now my BP is low all the time & I experience orthostatic hypotension (postural pressure drops) daily. (And a lower heart rate too.) The vision loss, slight throb in my head, is just part of my life when getting up (from sitting, lying & crouching/kneeling), doing too much, etc. I think carrying weight kept my BP at a healthy level & the low BP is actually normal for me. My GP isn’t too concerned. I guess because I manage it. Keep your fluids up, add a little salt too your diet. Take your time getting up giving your heart a chance to get the blood back up to your head.

It’s perfectly normal to have some concerns & worries. It is a totally new experience even if you had a band before. But, yeah, stop reading the horror stories they only screw with your head & truthfully they are very rare. People who’ve had a complication often post more because they are seeking help & support. You can find horror stories about anything if you look for them. I’ve a good one about a friend who had a pedicure. I eat out regularly (at real restaurants) & socialise often with friends & family & it doesn't cause me any issues or impact my enjoyment of the occasion. I usually order a main now through while I was losing I ordered entrees. And I’m not afraid to ask to take home the leftovers either. I’ll have a glass of wine or similar when socialising but I take ages to drink it. I don’t enjoy it as much as I did before but that’s me & again it doesn’t stop my friends enjoying several more glasses than me. The short time you have to be the most vigilant & restrictive with your eating & drinking is exactly that - a short time. The staged return to eating is only about 6 weeks in total. After that, you slowly introduce other foods back. Use the time while you are losing to explore new flavours & textures as well as trying healthier food options, cooking styles, recipes, etc. I actually wasn’t really interested in eating anything not nutritionally dense while I was losing & I never felt like I was making sacrifices or giving up any foods. I didn’t want to go back to my old way of eating - it’s why I was obese. But that’s part of the being mentally ready mentioned above. As for dumping, if you do experience it you’ll learn to eat around it. Same with any other idiosyncrasies your body may have post surgery. It’s much like how anyone with an allergy or sensitivity to certain foods or food types acts. Don’t be afraid to question your surgeon further about what you may expect with your surgery. Regardless of whether you decide to go ahead as scheduled or decide to wait a little longer. You have to do what’s right for you. All the best.

Start by making small changes. Drop one or two of those snacks. Swap out a poor cooking style to a healthier method. Swap out a less nutritious food for a more nutritious one. Check your protein intake & if it’s low, add more protein to your diet. Same with water. Check your portion sizes too. And so on until you are back to eating much like you were when you were close to or at your goal weight. You don’t have to make all the changes at once. Make one change & then in two or so weeks, make another change. Small changes are much easier to cope with & manage.

I had no gas pain with my sleeve but after my gall i did. But it wasn’t a throbbing aching pain more discomfort. A bit like strained muscles after a hard workout. My back hurts way more when it goes out. The gas pain took about a week to disappear. Really had no surgical pain after three/four days with either surgery. But of course everyone is different & we tolerate different levels of pain. For gas pain, walking is best. You don’t have to walk miles - even lapping your yard a few times a day helps as does going up & down steps, marching on the spot & lifting your arms up & down. A heating pad can alleviate pain too. The gas is used to fill your abdominal cavity not your tummy so very little escapes through your digestive system (burping & farting). The gas is actually absorbed by water in your blood stream & is breathed out. Which is why walking, marching in the spot, etc. helps as you breathe more heavily with the activity. The excess gas rises & often gets caught under your upper lungs which causes the upper shoulder pain.

How low is low? How tall are you & what’s your BMI? I was 200lbs but at only 5’3 my BMI was 35. I lost all my weight and more. Got to my goal in 6 months & lost another 11+kgs over the next 11 months or so. I maintained at about 49kgs for a year. I put on 2kgs in a month because of a necessary dietary change & a change of a med & have been sitting at about that 51kg for almost 10 months There have been posters here who started with BMIs of less than 35 & had the surgery because of existing health issues & they were able to lose weight. The main difference between people with higher starting weights & those with lower is that those at a higher weigh lose more quickly at first. But their rate of loss slow as they lose weight just like everyone else. Recovery is an individual thing - just how your body reacts to the surgery & heals. Nothing really to do with your weight as such but existing health factors may influence your recovery. Some people who carry a lot of weight in their abdominal area sometimes struggle with more discomfort when getting up & down & generally moving as the weight around their tummy pulls at the internal & external surgical sites. A binder is often helpful as it supports the tummy & abdominal muscles.

Fear of the unknown is real & an understandable reaction to something like this surgery. Mine went all so quickly, that I really didn’t have time to worry about anything: 6 weeks from initial GP’s appointment to meeting the surgeon, the dietician, doing the pre surgery diet & then the surgery. Though I’m also not a big worrier. If I have questions I’ll ask or research it myself. Knowledge is power. Think I was more concerned about telling my mum. Lol! A friend had recommended her surgeon & on meeting him I was confident about his ability. I was going to a good hospital. I had a supportive GP. And, after years of watching my father suffer with cancer, treatments & complications, I sort of learnt you can’t worry about something that MAY happen. It’s a waste of effort & emotions. Be aware of possibilities but you can’t be certain of what will happen until it does & then you can plan to move forward.

Best check with your surgeon & dietician because plans have different requirements. Plus we can only do what we can do within those guidelines. I was advised only 1/4 - 1/3 cup to begin slowly increasing to a cup over time but that was my plan. I remember it took me three days to eat two scrambled eggs for months. At about 8 months I could eat one egg. That was all I could do. I was able to eat two scrambled eggs for the first time last weekend & I’m more than 3 yrs post surgery.

Made Jamie Oliver’s ricotta fritters & rich tomato sauce yesterday. Of course I made some changes to the sauce like no chilli, added onion & celery & used button mushrooms instead of porcini. Shame is only about 10g of protein. But tasty. The fritters would be good for breakfast with a poached egg.

I had put on weight with menopause pushing me from 75kgs (always my highest bounce back weight) to 91kg very quickly. Could not shift it at all and after three years I woke one morning & said that’s it. Enough! Rang my GP straight away for an appointment to get a referral to a surgeon & not quite 6 weeks later I had my surgery. Had a friend who had surgery a good year before, but it wasn’t really on my mind until that morning. I didn’t have any comorbidities (except for my feet which would get sore from carrying my weight if I stood for a couple of hours or wore heels). I knew it was likely they were ahead of me though.

Me too. I used a fine mesh tea strainer.

I agree. And the surgery would remove fat cells as well as loose skin if that was a concern. Plus fat cells don’t make you gain weight & become overweight. We do that to ourselves by overeating & making poor food choices. (It’s a lot of why I said I have to work harder than friends & family who’ve never carried weight - too easy to slide to bad habits again.)

HRT! (That’s likely what your mum was on too @ShoppGirl.) I was menopausal before my surgery. It was the reason of the sudden 15kg weight gain I had that pushed me to the surgery. The hormonal flush from the oestrogen released from my fat as I was losing was fantastic. No menopausal symptoms at all. Once my weight loss slowed they came back though. ☹️ I’ve had symptoms since about 2016 & still do. Still have breakthrough hot flushes even on HRT though they’re not as bad as when I’m not on it. And I’m not as ‘feisty’ on HRT. My 82yr old mother is still on HRT - if she goes off it all her symptoms return & you don’t want her feisty! I wonder sometimes if I might end up being the same. Lots of benefits. Good for supporting calcium absorption & therefore your bone density. Can reduce the risk of heart disease & strokes too if you start before you’re 60. Certainly worth a conversation with your GP &/or gynaecologist.

There are lots of exercises you can do seated which wouldn’t impact the healing of your ankle. Google is your friend. Resistance bands are really useful too. Sure won’t stretch you from a cardiac perspective but will work your upper body muscles. And yes, exercise only contributes to about 10% of any weight loss you have to lose. Have 50lbs to lose then exercise will be responsible for about 5lbs. Unless you start running marathons! If your calorie consumption is less than your body needs to function, you will lose weight even if it is a little slower with your reduced activity. Maybe check in with your dietician to ensure you’re on the right path. Sometimes a small tweak can be helpful. Am a little surprised you’re being advised to still be getting protein from shakes instead of real food alone this far along even if you have weight you still wants to lose.. I didn’t have another shake once I began purées. My calories were still low & I got my protein in. Even now I get in 70g of protein & consume about 1300/1400 calories a day in maintenance. Oh & I didn’t really exercise while I was losing & apart from some stretching exercises I still don’t. Wouldn’t burn 40 calories a day. Hope your ankle heals quickly & you’re up & moving easily soon.

So sorry you are experiencing this. Your PCOS is the likely suspect or at least a contributing factor to your struggles. Also check your medications. Many common meds are renown for resulting in weight gain. There is not one diet/way of eating that works for everyone. So your nutritionist saying you eat healthily & gave you no other help is pretty poor. Like @Sunnyway, I made changes to what I eat. I did lots of reading. And as I was slowly introducing foods back into my diet, there were some I didn’t start eating again, some I started & dropped again. I really listened to my body & what it needed. There are foods/food types I avoid, others I restrict or reduce my intake. Much like @Sunnyway, I cut out a lot of added sugar, artificial sweeteners & sugar alternatives (so no desserts, cakes, biscuits, sweets, etc.), little starch (no potatoes, bread, rice or pasta). General keep to fairly low processed foods prepping most of what I eat myself which allows me to control the ingredients & how it’s cooked. I eat some carbs - about 2 serves a day but whole or multi grains. But I found this is what works for me. I feel better: no bloating, less gas, more even energy levels, etc. Don’t really miss anything. Eating this way works for me. It may not work for you. Question the nutritionist further - they are there to help you. You may benefit from a eating plan that incorporates aspects of anti inflammation diet, or to reduce foods naturally high in hormones (soy products, lot fed beef & chicken, etc.) There may be additives in more processed foods that are fighting your ability to lose weight too.* Again the nutritionalist should be able to advise you. *- Watched a great documentary earlier this year which showed that a high processed food diet actually increases the hunger hormone in your body & decreases the hormone that tells you you’ve had enough. Gracious knows what they do to your other hormones.

There are things you can depend upon. Stalls happen & you can experience several of them. Our rate of weight loss slows as we progress (as our calorie intake slowly increases & gets closer to the number of calories our body needs to function & maintain our weight). Our weight loss is never a straight downward line on a graph. It zigs & zags, up & down. And everyone’s weight fluctuates & women fluctuate more thanks to our hormones. It can be fluid, constipation, what we are, how much we drank, or just your body. Not sure how much you want to lose & what your weight currently is but it’s likely you’re in a stall. But chat with your dietician. You may need to tweak your diet or activity.

Once your weight stabilises you should be ok to get your rings resized. I had one resized but it turned out to be too early as I continued to loose. Can’t get it any smaller though because of its design (I got it down to a H but it needs to be a F.5 now). I use those clear spiral resizers (got mine from Amazon) as I still have rings, which had been small, I haven’t resized - can get expensive if you have a few to do. Good interim solution to loose rings. As a side note, I recently had a monogram ring made & sent my mum a pxt. She said she liked the ring but went on & on about the loose skin on my hands - as if I didn’t know! Sigh!!

Aah the foamies. For me they happen if I eat something too coarse, too dry, too rich or too fast & it gets ‘stuck’. I don’t vomit as such any more but I regurgitate. The offending bite or two of food sort of bubbles up - sorry sounds a bit gross. But there’s no real clenching of the stomach muscles because the food hasn’t really got down into the stomach yet. The only good thing is once you spit up the saliva or regurgitate that last bite you feel better pretty quickly after (unlike dumping). It doesn’t necessarily happen when I’m eating though. It can slowly build up over a little time afterwards: restriction, coughing, saliva & then sometimes regurgitation. Salmon can be too rich because of how naturally oily it is @Hazel40. I can’t tolerate oily fish now though I wasn’t great with it before either. Try poaching it in milk (add herbs of choice) as a lot of the oil will go into the milk & give it a milder taste.

I agree with the suggestion to go back to liquids for a few days. It’s not uncommon for people to do this - we heal in our own time. And yes certain foods like eggs can be difficult to tolerate for some. I’d also talk to your surgeon just to be sure especially because of the pain. Oh, and being able to feel water go down, I get that at times & I’m three years post surgery. Only with water though & especially if it’s cool/cold. I also gurgle a lot - a very noisy digestive system.

My also gall less sister-in-law & I both experience the too much acid diarrhoea attacks. It comes on us more quickly than usual diarrhoea & the cramping feels a little different. Doesn’t hurt to ask if it could be contributing. I also over produce acid so if I don’t eat regularly I can have issues too.

I think they would. I have to keep my protein high because of the protein absorption issue - hence the dietary change to counter the increase in calories from the increased protein. I hate protein shakes & I can taste even the flavourless protein powders making going back to a low calorie diet using shakes challenging. Plus the med is hormonal & my weight gain was always strongly linked to my hormones. I actually did reduce my calories initially to try to lose the kgs but it didn’t do anything. Sounds like what happened most of my life - ha! When I see my GP in a couple of weeks, I’m going to see if I can go back to a lower dose HRT & see if that helps. I’m actually experiencing more hot flushes & acne - boo - on the higher dose. Of course the gain could just have been my body settling again. It is only 2kg & I’ve been stable at this weight for 9 months.

Actually I was advised to increase my salt intake to help boost my low blood pressure. You are eating so little at the moment & wouldn’t be adding additional salt to your diet, that any salt intake from the broth you are consuming would be minimal. Your daily intake would be considerably less than the general recommended level anyway. Why not ask how much you can have on a low sodium diet (& ask about the reason for it) & then do the maths & adjust your food choices accordingly. Our bodies need some salt, more if you live in a hot environment, exercise heavily & sweat a lot. (My uncle’s cardiologist put him on a low salt diet but didn’t take into consideration he worked outside in central Queensland. He collapsed because his levels were too low.)