ChunkCat

I've read that caloric intake for a bypass patient at that month mark is not unusual. However, if you are more active than the normal bariatric patient, it is possible you are burning so many calories that your body is experiencing more of a caloric deficit than your dietician has estimated for you. Some dieticians are VERY good at individualizing their care to each patient's intake, activity, and dietary needs. Others stick to the book and will give everyone the same plan regardless of how many calories they are burning. That can be a detriment to you if you are burning more. If you are walking several miles a day, or intensely working out, you may need more protein than your current calories are allowing for. It might be worth messaging your dietician to ask if they took this into account. Stalls definitely happen, I had one last 6 weeks pretty early out after surgery, and I'm losing a little slower than I like, though they say it is right on target so I'm making my peace with that. It is good to stick to the plan you are given by your team, just make sure that plan is taking into account the whole picture of YOU, not just what patients average in general. Many bariatric patients are quite sedentary and averages account for that, not for active patients.

I am SO excited you were able to eat eggs!!! How is it going? We're you able to keep them down?

Honestly 3 days out I was in the zone! 🤣 I missed chewing things, and other people's food smelled amazing, but I had a variety of shake and broth flavors, prus flavored waters, so I was doing pretty good! I was nervous about the surgery but excited! I was working on getting my house in order for post op life and I spent a ton of time pinning recipes for the post op phases. 🤣 You are almost there!! Good luck!!

Yeah, very common... I gained like 4 lbs. I was so offended. LOL Then I proceeded to gain and lose the same 2-4 lbs for 6 bloody weeks!! I've just now started to lose a little again. *sighs* Weight loss is not linear and fluid changes and stalls can really play with your mind. Put away the scale for a bit!!

I took it before surgery. A powdered form mixed in water. I didn't care for it which is funny because I LOVE beets, especially pickled or juiced with parsley and such. I worked my way up in dose. I tried to stick with it though since I bought the whole jar, might as well use it. It didn't help my blood pressure or my diabetes any unfortunately. It gave me a bit of energy, but honestly, having the DS surgery has given me FAR more energy in 2 months than anything I ever tried for the chronic fatigue. Plus I have been off my diabetes meds and blood pressure meds since surgery, all my numbers are perfect now thanks to that intestinal rewiring. 😂

@Courtnay You aren't being a downer at all. I can relate to what you have said more than you know! I'll message you tomorrow so this thread doesn't go too far off topic! I'm glad what I said helped. I appreciate you too! 💚

Courtnay, I am so sorry you had such an awful experience... I had some nurses that really irritated me and treated me poorly but an orderly found me crying because I was in so much pain and stressed by the nurse and so she reported the nurse, which was uncomfortable in the moment because I had to talk to a bunch of people, but really made them treat me decently the rest of the time! You can definitely have the bypass later once the sleeve takes off some weight. This happens sometimes with DS surgeries where they end up doing the sleeve first and then the intestinal part later once some abdominal fat is lost. Livers can be really tricky. Mine was still "plump" during the surgery, I just happen to have an extremely skilled surgeon who was able to work around it, but he told me sometimes that isn't possible. And I really want to say this, what happened to you IS NOT YOUR FAULT!! I'd find a therapist that deals with trauma, specifically medical trauma if possible, to help process this experience. Later down the road if your weight loss isn't stable you can consider converting to bypass or DS, you have options now with the sleeve! I know it isn't what you wanted, and I don't understand why the doctor didn't just close you up and try again later if you felt so strongly about it, but hindsight is always 20/20 and the good thing is that the sleeve DOES take off weight and that weight loss will help you feel a lot better. You should be on a good PPI with your heartburn, twice a day if needed. Omeprazole was always useless to me, so I use pantaprazole in the morning and Dexilant in the evening, both are prescription and they work wonderfully, no food triggers at all. You don't have to suffer with heartburn and reflux, they really should sort your meds out for that. It will make nausea and eating a lot easier. Oh and a few weeks out my digestive system was very testy. I had IBS before and it was grumpy post surgery. Fairlife shakes make me run to the bathroom for days for some reason! I like the Syntrax Nectar fruit flavors, they are like juice. Seeq is also good, it is like juice too, they are water based protein drinks, not creamy milk ones, and my digestive system handles them both better. You can get samples of Syntrax from Bariatric Pal and samples of Seeq from their website. Sending you lots of love... I hope things ease up soon and those hormones calm down, they are really rough after surgery! ❤️

I had a stall one month out that lasted for 5 weeks. I gained and lost the same 2-4 lbs every week. It was so discouraging. One thing I highly recommend though is MEASUREMENTS. I discovered that though I wasn't losing weight, I was losing inches!! This is rather common during a stall because our body composition is still changing even though the scale is at a standstill or going up a bit. The stall will break eventually. Keep doing what they told you to do, make sure you are getting your protein and hydration daily. Go for a walk. Try to ignore the scale for a bit. This is a marathon, not a sprint. I know it is hard, I'm 10 weeks out and have to remind myself of this every day!

Just for a little perspective, a good rule of thumb is that on average people lose about 50% of their excess weight by 6 months, then it will take the following 6-12 months to lose the remaining weight because loss slows the closer you get to goal. Your 50% mark is 45 lbs, so you are technically ahead of schedule probably when it comes to your weight loss. Take a moment to let that sink in and celebrate it! That's a big deal! Yes, working out for some people slows their weight loss according to the scale because they are exchanging fat for muscle and their fluid balance changes. But, another issue is that some people don't eat enough to fuel their body and workouts when they are in a losing phase, which will also cause weight loss to slow down. You need a session with a bariatric trained nutritionist to help you work out what your target calories and macros are so you don't end up in starvation mode and ruin that nicely reset metabolism you got compliments of the surgery! Stalls are a normal part of it. I stalled one month out from surgery for 5 weeks. It was really lame and I have way more to lose than you do. But it is all part of the game! Putting too much stress on your body and emotions will definitely trigger slower weight loss too as was mentioned above. This is a marathon, not a sprint... ETA: Almost forgot---are you monitoring your measurements?? Most of us lose inches when we aren't losing pounds according to the scale. That's because even when the scale is at a halt, our body composition is changing! Take those measurements!!

Try an electrolyte powder in your water. It is common for the liquid diets to trigger "keto flu" from the lack of minerals and nutrients compared to a normal diet. I found a packet of electrolytes a day really helped keep my energy up and the muscle cramps and headaches at bay. Good luck! ❤️

I have had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome for over a decade, along with Fibro and an autoimmune disease, so fatigue is a daily companion of mine. Pre-op I could generally pick one thing in a day and anything else was too much, not enough spoons!! Just walking from the car to the flat was exhausting. Before my fatigue was disability level and I slept on and off all day and all night. Post op at about week 3 I started feeling more energy off and on and it was so strange, I couldn't figure out where it was coming from. I just noticed I wasn't falling asleep in the middle of the day anymore... Then I noticed I had enough energy to make a meal. Then several meals. Then I noticed we'd go run and errand and I could still pick something to do around the house afterwards. Walking to and from the car was easy. I've gradually started adding steps in, increasing by 500 each week. I'm at over 2,500 steps a day now (which is a bit more than a mile) and I'm not wiped out by it!! I can still go run errands or go to an appointment, and still no naps. Honestly, I haven't felt this much energy in my body in decades... I still pace myself some to respect my limits, but man, it is a miracle, I swear. I had NO idea that the surgery I had could impact my chronic fatigue. I'm incredibly grateful, it just feels unreal. I'm almost 10 weeks post op. I can't imagine what I'm going to feel like a year post op!! ETA: I do still get tired, but it is a good kind of tired from a productive day. And I sleep much better too, before sleep never did anything, now I actually feel refreshed a bit in the morning!

If you've been losing steadily up until now, you are probably due for a stall. I had one after 1 month of surgery that lasted 5 weeks. During those weeks I gained and lost the same 2-4 lbs. The gains really freaked me out! But as others have said, it is probably water weight, especially if nothing has changed in your routine. Our bodies need time to recalibrate from the rapid weight loss and yours has lost a LOT of weight in a short time, so this may be it rebalancing. That often involves changes in fluid levels, which reflect in the scale. Maybe skip weighing for a week or two to give it a chance to settle down? Caloric intake is very individualized and not all doctors agree that it is important... I don't track calories at all due to my malabsorption, I track macros. But each team has their own thing they like tracking. It seems like you have a good relationship with your team and they are generally happy with your progress. So I'd give it two weeks and if you continue to gain throughout that, then it might be worth a talk with them. My stall broke a week after I increased my steps. I don't know if that was coincidence or had something to do with it, usually the advice is to steady on during a stall as changing things up causes the body to sometimes take longer to adjust... Good luck!!

Congrats on your surgery and welcome! I had a 5 week stall with losing and gaining the same 2-4 lbs. I'm 9 weeks out now and it just broke!! I started being really obsessive with getting as much protein as possible (I'm a DS patient and we need alllll the protein), and making sure I was getting at least 64 oz, more like 80 if I could help it. And then I added steps in, increasing by 500-1,000 steps a week. And then 2 weeks later the stall FINALLY broke! I don't know if it was a coincidence or if what I did helped, but I'm really thankful it broke. I lost 5 lbs! Hopefully it'll continue down from here, the stall weeks are stressful.

If you had a DS you are thought to absorb about 20% of the fat you eat, 60% of the protein you eat, and 100% of the carbs you eat. Your doctor should have explained this to you... The intestines can adapt some to the surgery over time, but most studies have shown DS patients continue to have malabsorption. That's the whole point of the surgery! In rare cases, there is a small number of patients who will lose more weight than they intend, or have excessive muscle wasting. The muscle wasting is normally due to not eating enough protein post surgery. A DS patient needs around 120 grams of protein a day, more if they workout trying to gain muscle. Are you taking your vitamins? Have you had your labs checked recently? In the case of someone who has lost more weight than they intended to with a DS, certain enzymes can be given to help them absorb more of the food they eat, or a surgical revision can be done to lengthen their common channel, giving them more length of small intestines to absorb calories from. Of the two, I'd try the enzymes first. If you gained up to 240 with the enzymes, clearly they were effective for you! So why not consider taking them on an alternating schedule, titrating the dose to slowly gain what you need, and then taper off of them and see if you can maintain?? If you want to do this with food you are probably looking at over 4,000 calories a day. That is going to be tough. You can only eat so much food in a day! DS patients usually don't count calories at all, we count macros because it is the macros that help us stay in our target range, since no one really knows exactly how many calories an individual with a DS surgery is going to absorb, we can only ballpark it. But you should be getting a LOT of protein and around 120-150 grams of fat, according to vets who have lived with this surgery for decades. To bulk, most people I know load up on carbs, which is not easy for a DS person unless you want to spend a lot of time in the bathroom, or you are lucky enough to actually tolerate a decent amount of carbs. But carbs will usually put weight on. If you want more people with DS to talk to, check the bariatricfacts.org forums. We are mostly DS people over there and most of the regular posters are vets. But be prepared, they are fans of straight talk and not everyone likes that!

It's clear we are kindred spirits. 😂

I'd suggest kindly saying to them "I appreciate your worries about how I will change, change is scary! But what I need from you right now is your support, it will really help me succeed going forward and I know we will find many more ways to have fun together!" I went to see my family for the holidays. The road trip down and back was hard but I packed all my protein goodies (shakes, meat sticks, protein bars, protein chips) and the trip was a breeze from a post-surgery perspective. We went out to a pizza and beer place when we got there and yes, everyone else got pizza, except my sister and I, who got wings! Everyone else had cider, I had unsweetened tea. Everyone worried if I'd have something to eat or drink but it wasn't an issue in the end, and the best part of the meal was not the food, it was the conversation and laughter! I haven't lost that capacity post surgery! There is a thread around here where I wrote about my first post surgery experience eating out, I'll go find the link for you, it might be worth the read. https://www.bariatricpal.com/topic/444708-sick-after-eating/?do=findComment&comment=5014658 Last week I ate out with friends post Christmas so we could exchange gifts. I'm 2 months out. I had a red thai curry, no rice, and fried tofu. It was delicious and again, the best part of the meal was visiting with them and exchanging gifts! I didn't miss anything in the meal and they didn't try to push me to have anything that wasn't good for me. I really value how much support I've gotten since I've let people know about the surgery. Not everyone is supportive, of course, but they don't matter. The majority support me and celebrate all my wins and that is what I needed from them!

Actually most people lose closer to 25% - 30% of their weight in the first 3 months. You may not see half the weight gone until closer to 6 months. And the last chunk can take another 6 months or longer to come off, depending on your surgery, your activity level, your starting weight, your goal weight, etc... To put this in perspective for you, I started at 320 but my surgery weight was 306. My goal is 180-170 lbs. I've lost 28 lbs since surgery and 42 lbs since my highest weight. I'm 2 months post op. I've been losing the same 2-4 lbs for the past month. I'm losing slower than a lot of other people, but I am still on track. I've lost at least 25% of my weight and I still have a month to go before the 3 month mark. So I am trying to just be consistent with my protein, consistent with hydration, consistent with activity and consistent with sleep. These 4 things are the most impactful things for weight loss. Percentages matter more than the numbers themselves. And I finally measured myself and have lost 26 inches since surgery!! Big progress. even if others are going faster than me.

Two Month Update!!! How is everyone going?? I have been losing and gaining the same 2-4 lbs for a month now. Stalls are stupid. They swear the weight comes off the fastest in the first 3 months but that has not been my experience past the first two weeks. It is frustrating. But I feel a lot more energy and my underwear keep trying to fall down even though the rest of my clothes still fit, so I figure something must be happening. I got out my tape measure to do my month two measurements (I skipped the first month because I figured it wouldn't have changed much) and great balls of fire people, I have lost 26 inches!!! In two months!!!! I've lost 28 lbs since surgery, I had no clue it would add up to that many inches lost... I've lost 8 inches from my chest 😭 and 6 inches from my waist alone!! That means I'm losing a lot of visceral fat, which has me sooo excited. And is probably the cause of my underwear falling down. LOL Everywhere else (hips, thighs, arms) have lost 2-3 inches each! Moral of the story?? BE SURE TO TRACK MEASUREMENTS!! I have them in my Baritastic app and also on paper in case the app does something stupid with them. In other news, I've decided I can be more active now, so I'm adding in steps at about 1,000 per week. Last year with all the injuries and illnesses I averaged about 1,000 steps a day, can you imagine?? That is so low it is scary to me. So this week I'm doing 2,000-2,500 steps a day, and will increase it by about 1.000 a week until I hit 10,000 steps consistently. Steps are excellent cardio because below 5,000 you are considered sedentary/low activity. Over 5,000 is considered medium activity, and once you hit 10,000 daily you are considered highly active! So that's my goal. I can't do lifting or an elliptical or anything because I have a shoulder injury we are still assessing for surgery. But once that is taken care of and healed I'll add weights into my workout. I have a gym phobia but my partner is lovingly encouraging me to face that, as it will be the only way to get those steps in, we don't live in a walking friendly area. So to celebrate my progress so far I ordered a few funny sarcastic gym tanks and sweatshirts to cheer me up for when I have to go face the gym. Sarcasm always helps. 😂

YES!! When I was on the pre-op diet and on all liquids I kept dreaming I'd walk by the counter and auto-eat a cookie, which is weird because I never have cookies in the house. I legit woke up in a panic attack and really had to think back and realize it was a dream, not a memory! LOL It was so vivid man... It happened twice! I thought I was going crazy...

Does your machine have a "ramp up" design where it starts off with very low pressure and gradually increases to the normal rate once you are asleep? That could help. I had to discipline myself to keep my mouth shut and breathe through my nose only, long, deep breaths until I acclimate. My mom uses a chin strap because her mouth opens during sleep and has issues with keeping the mask on. There are also nasal tabs some doctors can prescribe for sleep apnea that are not a C-PAP at all and I used those for a while and liked them. You might ask your sleep medicine doctor if they still use those, I used them years ago. I'm sorry it is so hard to get settled with a machine!!

If you have been prescribed one and diagnosed with sleep apnea, most surgeons will want a compliance report of the last 30 days at least. This shows you are using it, as you are a risk under anesthesia and in recovery if you are ignoring your machine and don't disclose you have sleep apnea. If you are taking it off in the middle of the night you need a different style of mask, or your pressure needs to be recalibrated. I use the nose pillow that runs under my nose like a cannula, it doesn't cover my mouth and nose like a mask does. I can't sleep with masks. The nose pillow one is a game changer for me. It attaches to the hose on top of my head and the flexible side parts are hollow to allow air to flow even when I'm sleeping on my side. It isn't heavy either. A compliance report will show you are trying to wear it and for how many hours a night you are successful, that may be enough for them, it depends on the surgeon. But seriously, if you have sleep apnea you really need the CPAP for your cardiovascular health. My partner has the whisp mask that fits over the nose only but even that one was too much for me! This is mine https://www.thecpapshop.com/respironics-dreamwear-nasal-cpap-mask I am super claustrophobic and it doesn't bother me at all once I got used to the feeling of it.

Please do feel free to reach out and message me!! Even if you just want to vent. LOL I have Discord and FB and Instagram too, if you prefer one of those platforms instead. Thank you for the kind words. I really believe mindset shapes a lot of our experiences in life. **** happens and we can't always account for that, but we can to a certain extent control how we BE with it and that can make all the difference...

The things people feel they have permission to say never ceases to amaze me... Fat phobia is deeply ingrained in our society. It is a sad thing because being fat is still seen as lazy or a morality issue instead of the medical issue it truly is. Just because we need support and sometimes surgery to deal with the weight doesn't mean it isn't a medical issue. People who are thin and have been thin all their lives can be really narrow minded about weight. They think they are incredibly self controlled and virtuous to maintain their weight, instead of realizing that most times it is luck of the draw... No one in my immediate family is as heavy as I am by any means, and in fact my sister barely touches 100 lbs. She's healthy, she's just naturally tiny. She's always been angry at the comments I get because she knows that she eats more food and more crap than I do, especially when we were younger, and yet she struggles to maintain weight and I can't keep it off. I adore her because she celebrates every win I have regarding my weight because she understands how hard it is. People can be biting to naturally tiny people too... My brother on the other hand is supportive but is very fat phobic. He gains 15 lbs and calls himself a fat ass and obsessively works out at the gym until he can get it off. He doesn't understand the struggle at all. I've been very open with everyone I know about the surgery because that's just how I live my life. Most are wildly supportive because they know how hard it has been for me... I'm sure a few silently judge me but they can keep their thoughts to themselves. I don't make space for their bullshit. The best way to deal with that crap is exactly what you did, to tell them to stop and show visible disgust. I react that way to other discrimination too, it is very useful for shutting down a conversation! LOL

Welcome!!! I gained two pounds over the holidays, but then lost it. I've been gaining the same 2-4 lbs for the past month, it is a little annoying. LOL

Great post!! I remember reading your original post. I'm glad things have worked out so well! I'm sorry it hasn't resolved the diabetes. I had the duodenal switch primarily to deal with my diabetes and so far, so good! Unfortunately the gastric sleeve doesn't have the same metabolic effects that the bypass and switch do which comes from altering the small intestines and for some reason seems to put a lot of diabetes into remission. But some get lucky with the weight loss and dietary changes alone putting it into remission! It sucks your wife isn't one of those. I love that you found a way to really show up and support her. My partner is showing up to support me and it really means the world to me! These are hard changes to go through as an individual, even harder when you have another person (or a whole family) along for the ride... Priorities change. Relationships with food and our bodies change. That can't help but impact those around us. I'm glad it has made you two stronger than ever, and made you even more devoted to celebrating the beauty that she is. Props to you for leaning in and meeting those challenges together! I'm sure there are a lot of spouses that could benefit from reading your before and after posts!