NickelChip

Yes, it's Bariatric Fusion brand that I used, NOT Bariatric Pal! Bariatric Fusion chicken soup is 27g protein, 10g carb (check with your team because their guidelines say less than 10g carb but they may be okay with it being 10g) and 160 calories. The Cappuccino flavor is 27g protein, 8g carb and 150 calories. I bought mine from Amazon and a tub runs around $45. All the flavors on Amazon fit the guidelines with the possible exception of the chicken soup. Celebrate also makes a meal replacement shake with several flavors that work with your guidelines, but their chicken soup is 24g protein instead of 25g (carbs and calories are within the guidelines). I tried that one and it was okay. I liked the Bariatric Fusion slightly more, but the benefit of the Celebrate brand is you can buy a variety pack directly from their website with 12 single serving envelopes of different flavors so you don't get bored. I also like their Tropical Twist flavor chewable bariatric vitamins if you're still looking for one, and their cherry and raspberry lemonade calcium chews are very tasty.

The meal replacement shakes I liked the best were Bariatric Fusion brand in the cappuccino flavor for breakfast and the chicken soup flavor (made with warm water) for lunch and dinner. A caveat is that I hated both of these when I tasted them the first time. I almost got rid of them. Especially the chicken soup. But after about 3 days on the liquid diet, the soup was the best thing I ever tasted. I was so tired of artifical sweetness. I also can't say enough nice things about Syntrax Nectar Naturals orange flavor protein shake (but this is not a meal replacement shake, just a protein supplement). I quickly tired of the meal replacement shakes within the first month post-op, but I drank an orange protein shake every morning for about 6 months. I had very little appetite in the mornings but specifically the lightness of the orange texture/flavor made me feel like I was having a glass of juice. It's similar to drinking Tang, if you ever had that back in the day. Or maybe like Sunny-D. Not quite orange juice, but kind of a treat. I tried the other flavors and they weren't as good in my opinion, but I would probably still drink the orange one if I needed a supplement.

I am going to ask you a question that I also ask myself when I have periods of consuming things I know I should not have. How did it get in your house? It's one thing to be in a place where temptation strikes. Maybe you go to a wedding and you are handed a glass of champagne. Maybe you go to your friend's birthday party and you take a piece of cake because everyone else has one. Okay, fine. This is not likely to be an ongoing issue unless your social calendar is booked constantly (in which case you need a plan). (But also, not fine because you are at 8 weeks out and your stomach is like a delicate baby that you are feeding trash. More like fine a year from now.) But if you are on day 6 of drinking wine while watching TV at night, all snug on your sofa... why is there wine in your house? Did you buy it? Did someone else bring it in? Is it left over from something? The easiest way not to drink alcohol casually is to have no alcohol in the house. The easiest way not to eat chips, or chocolate, or ice cream is... to not have it around. Get rid of it. I know a lot of us have issues with "wasting" food or drink. What I've come to realize only slowly is that there is no difference between me eating junk I don't need that is not good for me and putting it down the garbage disposal. Except in the second scenario, I don't gain weight. After Easter, I bought a big bag of jelly beans on clearance. They weren't very good. Even so, I kept eating them. I put them in the cupboard and kept getting a handful every time I walked past. And then I would eat a few and say these are really not very good. And then I would KEEP EATING THEM! Finally, after I did this several times, I stopped and asked myself what I was doing. Why was I eating these? Why did I buy them? And my only answer was because I was bored, and a little stressed, and they were there. Also, I like jelly beans. Only I didn't like them. So, I threw them away. An almost full bag, in the garbage. I know! The waste! But I didn't need them, I didn't like them, and they were making me crave all sorts of other sweets. I just kept thinking about the fact they were there. It made me want them. When they were gone, I could no longer eat them, and I didn't care enough to go buy more. For the first year, I did most of my grocery shopping through curbside pick up. I planned what to buy based on a menu plan, and that's all I got. No impulse buys. No clearance bins. No getting a dozen bags of something bad for me because it was on sale. I gave away all my alcohol or poured it down the drain. I threw away the junk food and organized my pantry so I could find things at a glance. I made a list of healthy things that were easy to eat or take along because I know I will always eat what's easy and not what's difficult. I meal prep for the week so that I don't have to cook and prep every single day and I have no excuse to eat out. I'll also be honest that the hardest times for me were before surgery when I was trying to follow a nutrition plan but had a lot of hunger and cravings, and from around 9 months out when weight loss had slowed and my appetite was becoming more noticeable and my weight loss naturally slowed. The fact that you're feeling like this at 8 weeks is concerning because this is the time when your ability to stay motivated should be highest (constant reinforcement when you step on the scale and lose weight almost every day), and your ability to eat is the least. Don't let this drag on without addressing it. Talk to your team. Because it's only going to get harder. Maybe you're bored. Or scared of change. Or you don't believe the surgery will work and you're turning it into a self fulfilling prophecy because that's easier emotionally than trying and failing. Or you just can't help yourself when the food or alcohol is in the house because you're addicted. Whatever it is, the best day to fix it is today. And ask your family and friends for help. Be accountable to others and to yourself. Because you can fix this, but if you don't, you won't reach your goal.

Just jumping in to say that 60lbs in 3 months is a tremendous amount of weight to lose! Have you ever lost that much in three months before? Or at all? Pre-surgery, I could never lose more than about 40lbs before I plateaued and then slowly started to regain. But, I understand you have a long way left to go, so it probably feels like you'll never get there. Focus on building the good habits now, like you are. If you can, go for a daily walk. That may be plenty of exercise for now if you are currently sedentary. But protein, vegetables, and fruits are great choices. Also, take photos of yourself to see the progress. I swear that even at over a year out and within 10 lbs of a normal BMI, I still FEEL obese sometimes. And then I see a recent photo of myself and I am shocked to see a normal weight woman who kinda looks like me. How can I see myself so wrong in my own head? In the first year, I took a progress photo every month on the 21st so I could compare. I'm so glad I did.

The effects of surgery appear to be more durable than meds. So if you take Zepbound and stop, most people regain most to all of the weight over a relatively short period of time because nothing about your body has changed once the meds are gone. It's like your blood pressure going back up after stopping blood pressure meds. If you get surgery, it's permanently altering your physiology, so it keeps working for you long after the surgery is done. You don't go back to having a larger stomach or your intestines being rerouted in the case of a bypass. Your hunger and capacity do increase, so if you don't make lasting changes, yes, you can overeat and make poor choices over time that can lead to weight regain. It's a tool, not a cure. Some doctors will say that a bypass is more durable and "stronger" than a sleeve in terms of how much weight you can lose and how easy it is to keep off over time. The combination of surgery now plus adding GLP-1s sometime in the future (if you need them) seems to be an approach that more doctors are looking at for longterm maintenance. Of course, this assumes nutrition and exercise guidance is being followed.

"Surgery is cheating? Oh no! I didn't know there were rules. Have I forfeited my eligibility to be awarded a weight loss trophy? I guess I'll just have to take looking good in my clothing and not dying prematurely as a consolation prize." "You can either be supportive of my decision or you can stop talking because I didn't ask for your opinion and am not seeking advice at this time." "Oh, is today the day we're sharing what we disagree with about each other's life decisions? Hold on, let me go get my list. I've got a few things for you that I'm sure you'll want to hear." The bottom line is, you have the right to live your life the way you see fit. The people making comments like this are not trying to be helpful. They are trying, even if they don't realize it themselves, to control you and take away your right to do what you feel is best for you. When you try to explain and convince them, you play into the idea that they have a right to tell you what to do or that you need their permission. What they don't expect is for you to have the confidence to laugh in their face at their audacity and tell them point blank to get back in their own f*ing lane. And they will not like it one bit when you do, but it'll feel pretty fantastic on your end.

I just checked and at 2 months, I was down 20.6 lbs from the day of surgery. There's really not a hard and fast rule for how much you'll lose. Everyone is different and it depends on your starting point and how much you lost pre-op, too. I had some months when I lost a lot and other months where I hardly lost anything, but overall it moved steadily downward. My weight loss has stalled for the past month or so, now that I am more than a year out. The only guidelines I was given was 60g minimum of protein per day and 64oz water. I am now almost 14 months post-op and I've gone from 225 lbs on surgery day (251 was my highest, which was 6 months pre-op) to anywhere from 162-165lbs. My exercise consists of walking and that's it. I'd like to lose another 10 lbs but I'm also pretty fine with where I am as long as I don't gain (which is why I do hope to lose a bit more). I've gone from a size 22 to a size 12. I think I could still lose a bit more if I focused on cutting out some bad habits that have crept in with sweets/simple carbs, and if I increased my daily exercise to something a little more challenging than a walk. I don't count calories and I don't really track macros at this point, either. I just try to eat reasonable meals that focus on protein and veggies, and not snack too much or eat junk food too often. A typical day is either spinach frittata, Kodiak protein oatmeal, or a Greek yogurt for breakfast, plus a serving of mixed fruit (strawberries, cantaloupe, blueberries, grapes. Lunch is a good size spinach salad with 3oz chicken and some black beans. Dinner might be a bowl of homemade chicken, bean, and veggie soup, chili, or maybe some grilled meat and veggies. Sometimes I eat chickpea pasta with marinara and meatballs but other types of pasta and breads don't settle well. For snacks, I like string cheese and an apple, or some mixed nuts or roasted edamame. I have to be careful of overindulging in things like popcorn, candy, and cookies because they are too easy to eat without getting full (and sadly I don't get dumping from them). Red meat fills me up very quickly. The hardest thing for me now is dealing with the head hunger that makes me want to reach for food if I am bored or stressed. Getting the stuff out of the house completely is the only strategy that really works for me with that. My only real advice is don't drive yourself crazy. Just do your best each day and pay attention to your body. That's more important than counting calories. You're not on a diet! You need to figure out what you can sustain for the rest of your life, while paying attention now to the basics (protein and water, plus vitamins) to keep up your health.

I had relatively little pain and no nausea. For the first few days I was very tired. I think that was the anesthesia working its way out of my system. The pain was manageable with just liquid Tylenol. I had a couple times I moved wrong and got a sharp pain in my lower right incision area, which they say is the largest one. I found having a heating pad was so helpful. I put it on my belly when I went to sleep and it helped a lot. I took it really easy the first 3 days. After that, I was mostly up and about but not mentally sharp enough to trust myself with too much work unless it was pretty mindless. By the end of the first week I was mostly back to normal but weak from so few daily calories. If you can, taking two weeks off or being able to work very minimally is the way to go.

Good luck! Are you having your surgery locally or traveling for it? Will your insurance give you any help toward the cost?

Allow me to rant for a minute. I have insurance, and I am lucky enough that it covered my surgery with a $1k copay after I hit my $2k annual deductible. So, I can't complain about my own outcome as far as that goes. But I just got a look at the hospital charges. My insurance company was billed in the neighborhood of $42k dollars for my surgery and hospital stay. They then had a negotiated plan "discount" of $32k applied, bringing the total paid on my behalf to just under $10k. Plus my copay equals $11k, or $13k if you factor in that my entire deductible was made up of surgery related charges. Why can't the hospital just say that a gastric bypass costs $13k? Because that is what they are going to get paid, and they know it, and my insurance knows it. Why the charade? Why must every single insurance policy "negotiate" different discount rates? This is stupid. And without insurance, would I just be left with a $42k bill that I had to pay out of pocket? I have a feeling I would be. Rant over.

I remember my hands especially were so puffy with fluid. It took over a week just to get back to my day of surgery weight because of all the fluid. But you're still losing fat even if the scale doesn't show it, so don't worry!

What an amazing transformation! You look great, and I hope you feel really good too!

I set my goal weight at 155 lbs to reach a "healthy" BMI of 25, partially because I felt like it would be nice to experience going to the doctor and not having my weight come up as a red flag (although my doctor is really great about things like that), and partially because it was the weight I was when I graduated high school and I was curious to see if I could get back there. My "secret" goal would be to reach 151 lbs, which would mean I lost 100 lbs from my highest weight. I'm currently a week from my 1-year surgiversary and 8 lbs above my goal, so I'm pretty happy.

Yes, I would have the surgery again knowing what I do now. I would recommend it for everyone who has struggled with being significantly overweight despite commonsense lifestyle changes. Even with the most restrictive diets, I could never lose weight and keep it off for very long. This has been the only thing that has ever worked.

I've been surprised by my lack of constipation. I was so prepared for it to happen that I ordered the biggest value container of Miralax to keep on hand... and I used it twice in a year. I am regular like clockwork and have been since about the second month or so. BUT, I have had the vomiting I mentioned in another post, which I wasn't really prepared to have happen. I have been surprised by how different it feels to eat different types of foods in various quantities. For example, if I eat 3oz of chicken or beef, I'm very full and sometimes can't finish it or have more than a bite of a side dish. But I can eat a very large salad or other non-starchy veggies and it doesn't make me feel stuffed. A few bites of bread can sit really heavy but I can eat crackers without feeling that way at all, where I would have assumed they would be about the same. Also surprising is that what you eat, how much you exercise, and how much weight you lose in a week do not necessarily go hand in hand the way you think they will. Some weeks you will drop several pounds, other weeks you will not lose an ounce. You can do exactly the same thing both weeks. Your body will do what it wants. Beyond making good choices and sticking with a healthy lifestyle you can sustain (longterm sustainability is the MOST important thing), there's not much you can do to make a meaningful difference in how much weight you lose and how quickly.

OMG, that dress!!! Also, you look fantastic! Congratulations on a very successful year!

Let's see... early on, it was scrambled eggs. That one is really common. You think it will be mild on your tummy, but you'd be better off with a fried or hard boiled egg because scrambling makes it really textured by comparison and for some reason, it's not good. I also struggled with broccoli and asparagus unless it was steamed to the point it turned to mush. I had a problem with reheated foods, too, so cooking up a big piece of salmon or chicken and then portioning it out for a few meals was a no-go unless I ate it cold. I could reheat ground meat, though, especially if it had a sauce with it. I would say that 99% of the time, none of these things were a problem after about 6 months. What I do still struggle with is if I forget to eat slowly and take very small bites that I chew thoroughly. In the beginning I used a cocktail fork to remind me to take tiny bites. I would chew for a minute before swallowing. If I didn't, I would get sick. But as time goes on, you can eat a bit more, chew a bit less, and get away with it. Until, like this morning, you are in a hurry and inhale your food without thinking like you did pre-surgery, and realize after about four rapid bites that this was a huge mistake. Sometimes when that happens, you will be in pain for a while and then it will subside on its own. Sometimes, it will come right back up. On the bright side, it is not like pre-surgery with that awful vomit taste and smell. It just looks (and tastes/smells) like chewed food, sometimes with some foamy mucus, and it's fairly quiet, too. (Sorry if that's really gross to describe, but I figured it's good to be prepared). One thing I did was order a pack of the motion sickness bags you can find online. I put a few in my car and tucked one in my purse. That way, if I was ever in public and ate something that didn't agree with me, it was much easier to be discreet about it. With dumping, in my experience, every so often if I have something sugary, I will experience an increased heart rate. It's not a big deal and it slows after about 15 minutes. But on Thanksgiving, my cousin made a green bean casserole that was very fatty with a ton of butter and cheese. I had a single bite of it, and maybe 20 minutes later my heart was pounding like I had just gotten up and run a lap around the block. It went away after about 15 minutes as well, but definitely a stronger reaction. But that's it for dumping for me. I've had enough sugary and fatty foods that I'm fairly confident I am one of the 70% who only experience very minor to no symptoms, unfortunately. I wish I had something to make me not want to indulge!

Okay, so I had reached a BMI of 40 when I got the referral to the surgical team. But with 6 months of nutrition counseling and the 2 week liquid diet, the day of surgery I had a BMI of 36.3. I chose the bypass and I am very happy with it. My weight loss has not been the dramatic numbers you see with larger patients, but it's been stunning to me. I am almost a year out and am currently within 9 pounds of a normal BMI. I have not been this weight in 30 years and I firmly believe no amount of diet and exercise alone would have gotten me here. I would do it again in a heartbeat and wish I had done it earlier. With regards to the bypass itself, I am very pleased with it. I chose it over the sleeve because of GERD concerns and because my brother, who had the sleeve 15 years ago, has had a lot of regain that I think the bypass will help me avoid to some degree. I had some issues with vomiting for the first several months when I didn't eat very slowly or had something that was not the "right" texture for my picky insides. But other than that, I've been great. At this point, I can eat about a third to a half of a typical portion of most meals so I don't feel like I get funny looks or anything from people who don't know my situation. I do not experience dumping, which is sad because it means I can eat sweets if I want them without getting sick. And yes, I do want them, so managing cravings is my biggest challenge. I no longer care much for bread or pasta and I also don't eat rice. I do like a few roasted potatoes sometimes and I will steal a couple fries from someone else's plate but I won't order them for myself. I mostly prefer protein, veg, and fruit. And, yeah, sweets... My labs have all looked good so far (have to go get blood drawn next week ahead of my 1-year follow up). I feel fantastic. My one concern had been not being able to take ibuprofen because I was taking it a few times a week for pain. Well, within weeks of the surgery, even when my weight was still fairly high, my pain went away. I have had one time in the past year when I had a headache and wished I could take ibuprofen (and actually, I could have if I had really needed to because a single ibuprofen, or even one a week, is not a high enough risk to worry about).

I like Celebrate brand tropical twist chewable, but they also make soft chews in fruit flavors (and maybe chocolate?) if you prefer a less chalky texture. Any bariatric brand should be fine.

If it works with what you've been given for a diet plan, the unflavored whey powder (like Isopure) blends well into tomato soup or butternut bisque. I found that to be a delightful alternative to the sweet shakes. You might also buy Fairlife skim milk, which has 13g protein per 8oz serving, and blend with PB2 peanut butter powder (and a banana if allowed) for a really nice smoothie. Lastly, a few brands of the bariatric protein shakes make chicken, beef, or French onion flavored powders that you can heat up for a savory "shake".

Every doctor I've seen recommends whey isolate, but you should check with your dietician. Bone broth is collagen and that is not the same type of protein, at least as I recall it being explained. I was told I could have bone broth but that it doesn't count the same way. I do know, however, that certain brands might be making versions that have the missing amino acids, so that could be an option. Definitely ask a registered dietician or your bariatric team.

My tip for hydration is to try different temperatures. I found that hot decaf tea with a splash of milk was much easier for me to drink than cold water. Also, one of my favorite options early on was tomato soup with a scoop of plain protein powder mixed in. I bought the organic brand with as little sugar and added ingredients as possible. The one protein shake I could tolerate longer term was Syntrax Nectar Naturals in orange flavor. It reminded me enough of orange juice that it felt like a treat for breakfast and the tanginess kept it from seeming too sweet.