pintsizedmallrat

I like Epic bars as a quick protein snack (they're kind of like a cross between a protein bar and jerky/meat snacks, they're made of meat but they're softer and easier to digest than something like a Slim Jim and are a lot more natural, I especially love the bison and cranberry flavor). My go-to around the house is cottage cheese and yogurt as well, but having to be refrigerated and needing a spoon makes it harder to be truly "portable". I also like to pack slices of ham or turkey rolled up with half a slice of cheese in my lunch, sometimes with a little cup of dressing or some kind of spread to dip them in like mustard. (Plain yellow or brown mustard has, like, no calories!) I'm going to agree with whomever said upthread to try to eat whole foods as opposed to convenience items; a lot of "high protein" items out there are formulated to be keto friendly so they're also going to have a lot of fat in them too which can raise the calorie count to a point where you'd be better off probably eating a small, proper meal as opposed to treating a 300 calorie "protein cookie" as a snack.

It depends on how regularly you smoke, how much you smoke and for how long. It's also true it lives in fat cells so the more fat you have on your body, the longer it will take. IF your surgeon's office will drug test, you need to stop ASAP, drink lots of fluids, and get a stack of over the counter tests to find out if you're still popping positive in a couple weeks.

Never. Get used to it, it's your new reality. It gets easier.

It has all that but it is more expensive than Lose It by a country mile

I ditched MFP when they started dropping features (things like being able to scan barcodes) from the free version to try to entice people to pay $20/mo

I use Lose It...it is a paid app but considerably cheaper than the Premium version of My Fitness Pal, and has just as many features. If you're using pen and paper you're probably going to need to use an app or website to look up calories/macros so it seems redundant not to use an app where you can look things up and log in the same step.

I think a sort of "debunking" themed episode would be good....answer questions like "Is this the easy way out?" "Will I gain all the weight back?" (I mean honestly this forum is a gold-mine for myths and misconceptions if you go looking for them). Something along the lines of "Why am I not allowed to eat xyz yet but my friend who used a different surgeon is?" That seems to come up a lot; the question of can I eat this yet and why/why not? My biggest piece of advice for YouTube is watch your analytics to see what your audience responds to, try to take a little extra time to make your videos look polished and produced -- especially for a medical topic, you don't want them to appear amateurish. Don't use copyrighted music if you're planning to monetize later. Tutorials are your friend (YouTube taught me everything I know about video editing and cameras!)

Agreed, your starting weight is actually fairly slim in comparison with a lot of people you see on here; less to lose means it may come off more slowly.

That's kind of why surgery works: you don't really get a day off. You can't get lazy and eat too much.

At the 3-month mark I was down about 55 pounds. At the year mark I was down 121. So...yeah I lost a little less than half my weight. I would caution you against comparing your progress to others though; everyone's situation is different and there are a lot of factors that could affect that.

At 5 days post-op, your feeling of fullness is going to be hampered by the fact you just had a lot of the nerves in your stomach cut 5 days ago and they're going to take a lot longer than that to grow back. You need to be measuring what you eat for the first week or two because you may eat more than you can handle otherwise. The feeling of being full can take a lot of different forms and some people report things like their nose running or their saliva production increasing (I'm one of those runny nose people; I swear I'm spending everything I used to on food on boxes of tissues now).

Ok folks I want to pick your brains. I am 18 months out from surgery, I got really sick a couple weeks ago and my doctor put me on steroids and an antibiotic. I finished the course of meds in 10 days, and ever since then it has been nearly impossible to eat. I gained 6 pounds in water weight while ON the steroids and then proceeded to drop all that and 5 more pounds I did NOT want to lose just because I am not eating enough. I'm dangerously close to slipping into double-digit weights and I'd really like to stop this before I end up there. I've gone back to basics and have mostly been consuming things that are really soft like soup and making sure I chew everything very well, but my portion sizes are TINY (again, I'm 18 months out. My breakfast the other morning was 3/4 of a scrambled egg and a forkful of hash browns, as an example. I should be, and have been able to, eat more than that.) Every time I eat, no matter what it is, I get this sharp pain around the left side of my rib cage and my left shoulder has been aching for days. I went to my general practitioner (who himself is a gastric sleeve patient) who said that I probably am just having a harder time recovering from being ill because I'm not 20 anymore and that steroids can wreak havoc on our systems for weeks after we're done taking them, and sent me for some blood tests that I haven't gotten the results back yet from. Before anyone makes this suggestion, yes I am drinking shakes to supplement and I'm having a hard time getting even those down. I feel like I'm starving to death. I just want to not be in pain anymore.

Me too...this has been so horrible, i've missed almost two weeks of work because of this and am only just now starting to be able to actually eat again (I've felt like I'm starving to death, no joke. I've been eating spoonfuls of peanut butter because my capacity is so small it was about the only way to get any nutrition in me!).

I had two very heavy periods very close together following my procedure and then didn't get a period again for six months. Our bodies are wily things.

I went through this thought process before my procedure and came to the conclusion that my history said I could probably lose 30-40 pounds on my own with a ton of difficulty...but would probably NOT be able to keep it off, because I never have been able to before. This surgery is far from the easy way out but it's like having a diet coach living right in your own body to keep you on track. I may have only been able to lose 30-40 pounds without help, but I have lost 130 with help. The definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over expecting different results. If you have not been able to lose the weight "on your own" this is probably the way to go.

No, I just weigh it before I pack it and/or bring portion controlled, single-serving items (I am very guilty of eating Lunchables and leaving the crackers behind in a pinch LOL). I actually pack both my breakfast AND lunch AND snacks when I go into the office, a 10 hr day that starts at 6:30 AM once a week. The way I figure it I need to take care of Future Me's needs so I don't feel tempted to go poking around in the vending machine. My lunch usually looks like this (I am 18m post op and am in maintenance, but my calories are low because I am a small person): Breakfast: Zero sugar Chobani, 1/4 oz of chopped walnuts or pecans, Super Coffee protein shake as a mid morning snack. (all in, about 200 calories and 25g of protein) Lunch: Veggies, some kind of dip (if you aren't making dips with greek yogurt what are you doing with your life?), usually a couple of "lunchmeat roll ups" that are each one slice of deli meat and half a slice of cheese, another 1/4 oz of nuts (usually pistachios this time), a couple pickle slices (usually somewhere around 250-ish calories and another 25g of protein) Snacks: Options include Babybel light and a couple triscuits, Campbell's Well Yes sippable soups, protein shakes, or half a protein bar (I usually end up with leftovers)(any of these would give another 10g or so of protein). I eat dinner at home with my husband on these days and it's usually something protein-heavy

This happened to me too; I had diarrhea for like a month

Update: I had a really stubborn case of pneumonia and the pressure of my swollen lung was pressing on my stomach AND heart (it was in the lower left lobe of one lung). I've been on heavy-duty antibiotics for a week and I'm slooooowly starting to be able to eat again and have actually gained back 4 of the pounds I lost (that I DID NOT want to nor was I trying to lose).

It wasn't specifically that brand but it was a similar sort of deal. I think they do that because it's completely idiot-proof.

Half and half and a scoop of Vital Proteins Vanilla Collagen (and before anyone jumps all over me for even uttering the word "collagen" I AM NOT COUNTING IT TOWARD MY PROTEIN GOALS, it just makes my skin look nicer), and a couple splendas.

My pre-surgical diet consisted entirely of packaged items like bars, shakes, soup mixes, etc. and we were told to only eat one bar a day because in comparison with the other items they had more carbs and calories. I wasn't told I had to break them in half though. Just only one a day,

I'm not new to this; I want to reiterate that I am 18 months out and have reached and exceeded my goal weight, and this does sound awfully similar to what I would "normally" eat. However, things are not normal right now. At this time, I am not able to tolerate a lot of things. This is a specifically difficult period. I know what I should be eating but it is very difficult to even drink shakes right now.

That's an easy thing to try so I will definitely be giving that a shot this morning to see if it makes a dent in anything.

Most of the "protein infused keto friendly" alternatives to that sort of thing taste awful and have a weird texture. No joke I would rather slowly nibble on one regular Dorito than eat an entire bag of those Quest chips.

It's going to depend a lot on your own unique chemistry and situation; I'm 18 months out from VSG and while I am "allowed" to eat whatever I'd like, I still don't tolerate bread, potatoes, rice, or pasta particularly well so I avoid eating more than a bite or two of any of those things.