NickelChip

So, let's say you aim for 80g protein, that's 320 calories. 50-60g carb gives you another 200 to 240 calories. If you set a goal of 1000 calories per day, that leaves you with about 53g of fat per day. But if you track carbs and protein, the fat falls into place because those are the only 3 sources of calories. Oh, dry roasted or raw nuts are a nice source of healthy fat. And you can play around with your ratios of macros a little bit to see what works for you to keep you satisfied and give you enough energy.

At 5 months post-op, 500 calories per day might signal your body to be in starvation mode. Most programs seem to recommend between 800-1000 calories as a benchmark until you reach maintenance. For example, my dietician told me 80g protein and that protein should be 40% of my calories, which works out to around 800 calories per day. Do you have any theories on why you can't eat real food after lunch? You should be able to eat most food by now. I'm only at 3 months post-op and the only foods I've been told to be careful with are asparagus (very fibrous) and steak (but ground beef is fine). Have you tried crockpot chili, or pulled chicken? Maybe navy bean soup with ham? Greek yogurt and fruit? I also like tuna salad or smoked salmon.

I would say prepackaged foods are fine for popping in your bag when you go out in case of emergency, but for work, you might want to figure out a better option because that's multiple days every week. Personally, I like baby carrots, red peppers, snow peas, and mini or English cucumbers. Mushrooms are good, but they make me feel ill right now (too dry). If you like ranch dressing, get the container of ranch powder from the dressing aisle and buy some low or non fat cottage cheese. Put the cottage cheese in a food processor or blender and blend it until it's totally smooth. It'll look like pudding, sort of. Add in about a Tbsp of ranch powder per 16oz container of cottage cheese. This makes a fantastic and really healthy dip. I bought a set of parfait cups from Amazon like these: https://www.amazon.com/CRYSTALIA-Breakfast-Container-Colorful-Set/dp/B09N8K6CZ5. I put the veg in the big section and the dip in the small section, and then I store them upside down so the dip doesn't get all over. You can make up 4 days' worth at one time for convenience. Instead of the protein shake, could you make a green smoothie? You could do a frozen fruit blend, a handful of baby spinach, and a serving of Greek yogurt (thin with water to your preference). I like to add a squeeze of minced ginger that comes in a bottle in the produce section. I get a blend of frozen peaches, strawberries, blackberries, and blueberries that comes all in one bag and is so tasty.

Given the troubles I've had with dry food, I think it will be a while before I risk eating jerky, which is a shame because I love it. But I do like those roasted, salted edamame beans @gracesmommy2 recommended! My order of them arrived the other day and that little bag is very satisfying!

My suggestion is eat more vegetables and drop the packaged, processed snacks and protein shakes altogether. You are no longer healing from surgery or dropping a ton of weight quickly, so you don't need 120g protein, or even 100g anymore. If you can eat 3oz chicken breast twice a day, plus a serving of Greek yogurt and fruit for breakfast, you've hit your protein needs and then some. Get your protein from lean meat, beans, nuts, and seeds (not as much from dairy). Have a leafy or non-starchy vegetable at every meal. Eat fruit for dessert and raw veggies and nuts for snack.

Weighed in this morning at 199.8 lbs! Finally under 200! I'm going to NYC this weekend, so lots of walking will be a guarantee, but I'll have to be mindful of hydration and not give in to the temptation of grazing all day on little snack foods. I've already chosen my dinner from the menu of the place we're going Saturday, a lentil soup. Afternoon tea on Sunday will be a nice treat.

That's good to know! Thanks for the update.

@BlueParis Still stalled I had my 3-month appointment yesterday. It seems I'm on track based on the numbers my doctor wants to see, which is losing at least 10% of your day-of-surgery weight at the 3-month mark. For me, that would be 22.3 lbs, and I've lost 22.4 lbs. So, I just have to trust the process, I guess. I have to go in Friday morning to have blood drawn for iron and B-12 check, and I need to redo my TSH (thyroid) from my physical earlier this week because Biotin messes up the results! So I have to stop my multivitamin and my biotin supplement for 72 hours before retesting. And @Noelle74it's so true that the weight does not just "fall off." Maybe the first few weeks, but after that? It's a struggle. Lots of ups and downs. Lots of frustration. I think a lot of trial and error, too, until you find what works for you. My plan is to just keep tracking protein and water, as directed by my dietician, for the next month. I have a vacation at the end of June. If I get back from that and don't like my progress, I will try limiting carbs to under 50g per day until my 6-month check-up at the end of August. If I'm worried at that point, I will talk to doctor about adding GLP-1. But hopefully there will be no cause for concern. My next thing is to learn how to use my resistance bands! That's my goal for the coming week.

@Noelle74 What an amazing transformation! You look terrific! @RonHall908 That's good info about the protein after workout. Not that I exercise hard enough to need to worry about it, but if I ever decide to... @BlueParis Amazing cliff hike! I'm jealous of the beach time, although it's finally warming up this week so I guess summer really is around the corner @gracesmommy2 I have a feeling the hair loss will be coming for me, too. Mine is so thin, and I remember it being shocking a few months after having my kids that it would come out in handfuls. I actually bought a bunch of headbands recently to help hide it if it thins. I'm heading to my annual physical today and my 3-month appointment tomorrow. Looking forward to what the doctor has to say about progress and any changes I should make. I weighed in at 200.6 lbs today. Will I ever get below 200?!?!? I swear this is the hardest milestone. I hit 201 lbs 13 days ago and was so certain I would be under 200 by now.

WOW!!!!!!!! I bet you had times where you thought this would never happen, but here you are! Congratulations! I feel like these big milestones can mess with your head sometimes. Like, I hit 201.6 lbs 12 days ago and was just certain I'd be under 200 in no time... and I'm still waiting! I instantly bounced back to 203, made it to 201.0 after almost a week, stalled for a few days... At least I dipped to 200.8 this morning. But to finally see that 199... that has to feel so good. When was the last time you weighed this little? For me, the last time I was below 200 was when I was 28 (22 years ago!).

My brother had VSG 15 years ago. He lost over 100 pounds. The first few years his appetite was very small, like order an appetizer for dinner and only eat half. But as time has gone on, what he can eat now looks like what a "normal" person with a smaller appetite would eat. We sat next to each other at my cousin's wedding and he cleared his dinner plate over the course of 30 minutes, which was more than I could do and I was pre-op at the time. He had maybe a bite or two of the cake. I suggest you try the YouTube videos from Dr. John Pilcher and Dr. Matthew Weiner. They both give it to you straight and clear up myths and misconceptions about bariatric surgery, and neither of them are trying to sell you something or gain a bunch of followers like a lot of vloggers. It's just solid medical knowledge made easy to understand. I watched all the videos from both surgeons as I was preparing for my surgery and it really helped.

What a long journey you've had to finally reach this point! You've worked so hard and deserve your success so much!

I think this is the time when you stop worrying about what you weigh and you start focusing on how you are living and how your body feels. Are you still hungry even though you just ate a meal that would've been fine for you a month ago? Maybe you need to add more veggies to fill yourself up. Do you feel weak? This could be a sign your body needs more fuel. Are you getting the exercise you need? Are you eating the foods you know provide balanced nutrition? Fix these types of things if they need fixing and let your body do what it will. You still have many months to go before your weight loss journey comes to a stop, so to speak. Ride it out and don't try to steer things too much. It may feel weird to be the weight you are now because you've never been this weight before, but let your body figure it out. You'll get used to it. And if you don't like where you land in the future, you can start eating more to gain.

@gracesmommy2 I'm so sorry about the insurance issues. What a nightmare! Praying it is resolved soon. As for the goal weight, I used the weight loss calculator on the Pound of Cure website and took the lowest weight in the range, which also happened to get me to a "normal" BMI. So, it's pretty arbitrary but it sounded good. I based it on the weight I had reached before starting my pre-op diet, which was after dropping about 12 lbs from my highest point. My own doctor didn't discuss goals or percentages with me, although I don't know if that's standard practice for him or not. My experience has been odd. First, I was with a different weight management center for years, first managing through diet and meds and then switching to the surgical route, but it closed very suddenly. I had my December surgery canceled 3 weeks prior to my date and had to rebook for February with a surgeon at a sister hospital. So I came in very last minute and only met the surgeon and nutritionist at the new place twice so they could sign off on me as quickly as possible. And right after I had my surgery, my surgeon had a nasty ski injury and was out for several weeks, so I did one follow up with his colleague and one with him via video. I'm glad I was able to get the surgery in a timely fashion and they did a good job, but I sometimes wonder how my experience differs from if I had started off in their program. A nice NSV today. I had a dress I wore on my birthday back in March that fit me but with no room to spare. This was a victory in March because I had purchased it for a trip out of town the year before for my birthday but the dress didn't come close to fitting me back then. Well, today I needed something nice to wear to my daughter's dance competition only it was cold and rainy so my summery stuff wasn't going to work. I remembered the birthday dress, which is long sleeved and has a sweater. I put it on and it was so roomy! I'm actually glad I got a second wearing out of it because I'm hopeful it will be much too big when the fall rolls around and I need cool weather clothing again. In fact, my summery dresses that were skin tight two summers ago are already very loose, too. It's the little things that keep you going when the scale decides to stall, right?

Yasso bars are really good, with a little protein boost and the benefit of a single-serving portion size for control. I also love making "nice cream" using frozen fruit and a Yonana machine. So amazing! You don't even have to use bananas (I'm not a huge fan). I have done just frozen mango, blueberries, strawberries, pineapple, you name it. My kids love it too. I buy the big bags of frozen fruit and it's a huge treat all summer that I feel good about. But I have also had a few bites of real ice cream as it is now ice cream season in New England and our dairies have the most amazing choices and quality ingredients. But it's very rich, so I can only eat a small bit at a time. I don't keep ice cream in the house (store bought doesn't compare, anyway), so I have to go out for it, and I won't order my own but always share with a friend so I can just have a few bites. My feeling is you need to find a balance between health and happiness, so I don't think any food is off limits forever. You just have to be sensible and listen to your body to find the right balance.

Protein water is really nice, or drinkable yogurts, Fairlife milk mixed with some decaf coffee, or something like sugar free pudding mix in a favorite flavor made with Fairlife milk. Blended cottage cheese if it's allowed (when you put it in the blender, you get rid of the chunks and it turns the consistency of a thick sour cream, so it might be okay). Oh, PB2 peanut butter powder mixed into plain yogurt is also good. The only protein shake I can stand these days is Syntrax Nectar Natural in orange flavor. It reminds me of Tang, sort of, and it looks like orange juice, so I can pretend I'm having an orange juice instead of a shake. All the rest of them are going to be going in the trash soon because after surgery I lost my taste for them completely. But basically, focus your energy on hydration. You're only a week out. If you are low on protein and barely eat anything, it'll sort itself out in the coming weeks. Try your best, but don't worry if you come up short. Your body can handle a few weeks of not getting much nutrition. If you have to choose, choose to hit your fluid goal first and don't force yourself to eat foods if you aren't feeling it. And stop with the broth. Sounds like you don't like it, and it's not required for healing. After buying a ton of really expensive bone broth, I disliked it on its own and never had it at all during the liquid phase. Now I use it to make bean soup.

Wow! I really hope that's the last surgery for a while because oh my goodness you need a break! Sending healing thoughts.

Stalls are very normal. I am a week ahead of you surgery-wise and stalled around the same time and around the same weight (bouncing between 201 and 203 for about 3 weeks). My highest weight was also similar to your, although I had lost quite a bit before surgery, so actually my post-op loss has been much smaller. I've read that somewhere in the 3-6 month range it's common to reach a stall. It generally has nothing to do with your eating or your exercise. It's just an internal metabolic thing. Remember, weight loss from surgery is not immediate. After the first several weeks of rapid loss, you will slow to 1-2 lbs per week, and it will take 1-2 years to stabilize. This calculator can help you figure out how many pounds you might lose at each month mark by inputting your starting weight, height, age, and other factors. https://riskcalculator.facs.org/bariatric/ And this one shows you the likely results for years 1-3: https://michiganbsc.org/DecisionTools/

@BlueParis I don't blame you for wanting some sun! We've finally had some nice weather here and it makes such a difference. We're in that little sliver of time where it's nice and not too hot. I know that in another few weeks I'm likely to be desperate for air-conditioning, but today I have the windows open and a light blanket on my lap and it's perfect. I hope you get better weather soon. I had a great opportunity on Wednesday night to join in on a Q&A session with Dr. Matthew Weiner. It was a small group, like four of us, and we just got to ask questions. I filled him in on my weight loss so far, including highest weight, how much I lost with diet changes, how much with the pre-op diet, and then the much slower weight loss since surgery. He told me that even though it seems slower, he thought I was pretty much on track. Apparently when you're calculating weight loss expectations for surgery, it's better to use your highest weight (especially if it's relatively recent, I think) because it's more realistic. So, for example, if I use 251lbs as my start, it suggests a final weight of 166. If I use 238 lbs (the weight I was on day one of the pre-op diet), it suggests 157 lbs, and if I use 223 (the day before surgery weight), it suggests 147 lbs. Dr. Weiner said 147 lbs is most likely not a realistic goal because I wasn't really, metabolically, a 223 lb person when I had surgery. I was a 251 lb person who had lost 28 lbs, and that distinction is important. Honestly, seeing this range of outcomes makes me feel better about where I'm at. I don't have a particular weight I "must" hit as a goal. I'm happy losing weight in a sustainable way and being healthier, whatever that ends up being. I just wanted to have a goal in my mind, and I was starting to worry I was not going to succeed because it's been so slow. But, even though I've barely lost anything since mid-April, I've still lost 50 lbs since last summer, and that should be something to celebrate!

Congratulations! The first few weeks are hard. Everything is so new, and no matter how much you've read up and know the facts, the reality is enough to make you question yourself all the time. But it does get easier! And even when you make mistakes, it's not the end of the world. Use this recovery time to rest and start good habits and you'll do well!

Liquid clears your stomach pouch in a matter of seconds after gastric bypass. I know this because on the morning after my surgery, I had to do a swallow test and l literally watched on the screen as my new little pouch filled with a swallow of liquid and immediately started dripping it into my small intestine. By the time I took the third swallow, the first one was no longer in my stomach pouch at all and the second one was mostly emptied, too. That's how it is supposed to be. "Stretching out" your stomach is 99% myth for two reasons. First, at the early stage, your stomach is swollen and stiff. You couldn't stretch it out if you tried, let alone with a mere few ounces of liquid. Second, as time goes on, it's supposed to stretch a bit to allow you to eat a healthy quantity of food because you can't live on 400 calories forever. If you stick to your recommended portion sizes, eating schedule, and fill up on healthy foods, it won't be an issue. I highly recommend watching Dr. Pilcher's video about stomach stretching if you're concerned. Bottom line, most people do not actually stretch their stomachs, they learn to eat around the size restriction by grazing all day and eating high calorie junk, and then blame their "stretched" stomach for their bad behavior when they gain back all the weight. At 8 weeks post-op, swelling has decreased and capacity is closer to what it's meant to be. Drinking 12 oz in 35 minutes is totally normal and healthy at this point. It means you are healing. Solid foods take longer to empty, so eating 3-4 oz per meal will feel very different than drinking 12 oz of water. At 3 months post-op, I can drink 32 oz of hot decaf tea in 30 minutes. I can eat 5-6oz yogurt/bean soup or only 2-3 oz of chicken breast in the same amount of time. It's a function of how much your stomach has to do before it can move along. My advice is to follow the instructions you were given with regard to your number of meals per day, quantity of food at each sitting, macros, etc. Stop when you feel fullness cues, but don't eat more just because you don't feel fullness cues, if that makes sense. You will never need more than 4 oz of chicken at a sitting, but you will likely be able to eat more than that in a year or two. Resist the temptation, and add non-starchy veg instead if you feel hungry. Build good habits now that you can stick to forever.

I'm almost 9 weeks post-op and trying to figure out if I'm on track. I started my 2 week diet at 239 and was 223 the day before surgery. Since surgery, I am down to 204. (So much slower since surgery!) Here's where it gets tricky. If my goal weight is 155 lbs and I use my starting weight from the day I began my 2 week diet, I had an 84lb weight loss goal and am currently at around 41% of excess weight lost. But if I use my day of surgery weight, I had a 68lb goal and am at only 28% lost. This feels like a big difference. I've seen some sources say count your weight loss during the immediate pre-op diet, and others say no, don't count it. Are there any actual rules, or is everyone just making this stuff up as they go?

Thought I'd update this post because I just had the chance to attend a live Q&A session with Dr. Matthew Weiner. I talked to him about my weight loss so far and concerns about how slow my progress has felt post-op. He asked me about pre-op weight loss and what my highest weight had been, and explained that even though I was 223 going into surgery, I had started at 251 and lost 12 lbs from nutrition changes over 6 months, plus 16 lbs from the pre-op diet, so that all factors into the final weight loss expectations. He suggested in terms of what my final weight loss from the surgery might be that using the 251 starting weight could be more accurate, and that the pre-op diet weight loss would definitely help explain the slower weight loss post-op. Bottom line, I feel so much relief hearing this explanation from him and really appreciated him taking the time to ask so many questions to get to the answer! My surgeon really hasn't given me an estimate of what I should expect to lose, although I plan to ask at my 3-month appointment next week so I can compare.

@BlueParis I think you should try rocking the Queen Elizabeth look! I'm glad you've gotten to the bottom of the anemia and blood pressure concerns, and hopefully addressing that will help with your temperature regulation. I'm still losing so slowly, which is frustrating. But at least it's going the right direction again. I weighed in at 201 lbs this morning, which I also had hit a week ago but then bounced up for several days. I think the scale is just teasing me because I'm so close to being under 200. I'm trying not to let it bother me but it's hard. I'm only down 4 lbs in the past month, and only 22 since surgery, despite hitting protein, water, and exercise goals daily. I look forward to talking to my surgeon's office about it next week.

They will create a small stomach pouch, same as in a regular bypass. But be aware that even with bypass, the ability to eat more returns over time. If it helps for comparison, though, I can tell you that at 3 months out with gastric bypass, I can eat about 3/4 c yogurt with a little bit of fruit, or 2-3 oz chicken with maybe 1/4 cup cooked veg in one sitting. In both cases, this would take me about 15 minutes to eat.