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I made this recipe once...it was a bit too much work for me but this website has a few cookie recipes you might be interested in. https://ketodietapp.com/Blog/lchf/keto-cinnamon-swirl-cookies

Sorry for the novel folks, but maybe before getting to tips and tricks, let's talk a bit about what causes plateaus: First, the most common reason for any stall, including the dreaded 3-week stall is simply that you are retaining more water. There are a few reasons this happens, but around the 3-week mark it comes down to the fact that your body is adjusting to a low carb intake after converting from glycogen to ketones for energy. More water is needed to burn glycogen, so you were retaining more water pre-surgery than you are now that you're using primarily ketones for energy. At about the 3-week mark, your body eventually recognizes that the water loss is long term, so other mechanisms have started kicking in to start holding on to more water. This water loss due to the change between glycogen and ketones is the primary reason for "keto flu", and something that increases your risk of dehydration early after surgery. The other "reasons" for plateaus really don't apply as much at the 3 week mark, but will become more important later in the process. Let's cover those too though so you're prepared: As you lose more weight, your overall metabolic rate will slow down. People sometimes think fat is not metabolically active, but that's not true. Less fat means your metabolism slows down, even if you retain the same amount of muscle. As you lose weight, it takes less effort to move, so the amount of calories you burn from activity also drops quite a bit. As you progress, you'll be able to eat more and especially if you're not tracking intake closely by weighing and measuring your food, you can easily be eating a lot more than you think. This one may be TMI for some, but you may simply be retaining more stool. This is going to be hard for some people to hear, but I can tell you one thing it's not, and that's hormones. Yes, various hormonal processes negatively impact weight loss in a myriad of ways, but they don't overcome basic physics: if you eat less than you are burning, you'll lose weight. What these hormones can do if they're out of whack, is not good things like slowing your metabolism, increasing your hunger, screwing with water weight, or even fooling you into thinking you're eating less than you are. So, with all that sciency stuff out of the way, what do we actually do if we're in a stall? Well, I think it depends on when it happens and how long it lasts: If it's early (a.k.a. the 3-week stall), just keep doing what you're doing and you should be fine. I know people don't like that advice, but as I said, it's just water, so don't worry about it. Later on, especially if the stall is lasting longer than 2-3 weeks. that's when I think it's important that you look closely at what you are actually burning, as well as really tracking what you are eating. If you don't know your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate), you should. The closer you are to goal, the harder it is to get the balance right between intake and output to make sure you're not eating too much, so fixing this starts with knowing your BMR and accurate food logging. There's a lot of anecdotal advice thrown around about "ways to break a stall", but there seems to be little scientific evidence for any of it. Most of it certainly won't hurt to try, e.g. breaking up your routine in terms of diet or exercise, but just understand that this change may or may not have had any impact. If it makes you feel better to be proactive, go for it. Longer term, there is one piece of solid advice that's backed up by lots of research: Even if you don't really like working out, do it anyway. Those WLS patients that make a regular habit of exercising for 45 minutes to an hour most days a week are significantly more likely to reach their goal and maintain the weight loss. (One caveat here: significantly changing your exercise routine can make you retain water and possibly even add muscle, so don't freak out if you see a stall or even a gain.) I'll take that exercise advice one step further and say you really should be doing some form of strength training. This is also backed up by lots of studies, but the great thing about strength training is that it makes your burn more calories even at rest (in other words, it increases your metabolic rate). There are lots of other benefits, but the metabolic benefit is the most germaine to the stall question. Those that do strength training are less likely to stall during weight loss.

So what did your Drs advise you do as far as carbs? Mine says that they don't really limit carbs and that they believe that carbs will give you energy and then you will be more active which will then lead to weight loss. They believe that balance is the key. Looking though through threads and youtube, most of the people seem to be on a low carb diet like keto without the added fat. I do want to be successful but if I could be successful and still eat more carbs I think I would be happier. Carbs are the only thing I am craving but I'm only a month out from surgery and carbs to me seem to be a slippery slope and I'm afraid that if I allow myself to eat carbs then I'll start eating them too much and snacking on crackers or something. Since surgery I have limited myself to 40 or less carbs per day and yesterday I had my one month visit with the dietitian and he said I needed to up my carbs to around 30 per meal. So what did your plan say about carbs and if you were allowed carbs, did you lose weight fast or was is slower? The speed of weight loss I know is individual, but if it seems to be a factor I want to know.

I, for one, don’t believe i feel bad nor harbour any shame about my wls (or any other medical/surgical procedures i have had). I think its just not my bag to share my business to all indiscriminately (i mean, i have even been known not to tell new acquaintances my real name for months lol 😉 ) I have a friend who does keto/low carb. Whenever we go out to a meal together, she has a several minute conversation with the server about her food choices and why, and sometimes shares how much weight she has lost to date (or gained recently by “cheating”). Meanwhile, i just quickly ask to swap out my potatoes or whatever for salad and internally hope (while simultaneously outwardly looking like i’m waiting patiently, ha) for my pal to finish her discussion so we can get our food already!! 😂 But i get it, she is passionate and proud of her lifestyle and progress, and she’s a sharer, so of course she wants to share. And if/when she finds an eager listener, then score! Win-win. At the same time, there are others (like myself) who prefers to discuss aspects of my life to a curated audience. Ain’t nothing wrong (nor weird) with either.

My surgery is scheduled for Tuesday as well! Everyone keeps asking if I'm nervous. I haven't been nervous for the surgery at all, but I have been more worried about failing at the diet changes needed. So far I am killing this preop liquid diet though, so that has helped me feel more confident. My only issues is that I have some sort of rash or break out developing on my face and back. It doesn't itch like people say the keto rash does, but the one on my face kind of burns like a sunburn. Not sure what all that is about. Looking forward to seeing everyone's journey!

You might lose your hair. But what will you gain? Why are you having this surgery? Would you be willing to lose your hair, if it meant adding 20 years to your life? I lost half of my hair when I did keto and it never grew back. I might lose the other half of my hair after I have surgery. The way I see it, my hair is a small price to pay for better health and a longer life. Would I be willing to be bald, if it meant being able to see my grandchildren? You betcha. The people whose opinions matter to me, will still love me even if I don't have hair. Everyone else can kiss my grits. I'll invest in some fun wigs. My husband can have a different woman, every night! LOL! But, chances are, my hair will grow back - and yours will too.

I purchased some keto cookbooks like southern keto by Natasha and keto comfort food. I made the soups and pureed them down. I had no issue. This was closer to my soft food stage though.

Your story sounds very similar to mine! I'm sick of yo-yo dieting, as well. I've been off and on keto for a few years, too. I actually lost 62 pounds doing keto, but it wasn't sustainable for me and I was STARVING ALL THE TIME. People say they're never hungry on keto. Ha! I wish! I couldn't eat enough food. And I think it changed the ghrelin and leptin in my stomach. Because now I'm either STARVING or I'm full - there's no in between. After going off keto, I gained back all but 15 pounds. Thankfully I didn't put on even more weight than I lost. I've tried other diets and I failed all of them. I have diabetes and high cholesterol. My blood pressure, while still normal, is creeping up. I'm going to say that I have metabolic syndrome. I'm 52-years old. With my co-morbidities, I don't think I'll make it to 60. Desperate times call for desperate measures. I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired. I have a life to live and I need energy to do it. Gastric bypass in 34 days!!! Woo hoo!!!

I have been planning for this stage for a long time. I daily drink one of my 32 ounces with a grass-fed collagen and take a real food vitamin C with it. The vitamin helps to get the best benefit from the collagen. My massage therapist has been massage my scalp and stimulate the hair roots to keep a good blood flow supply. So far, so good, I have not loss much of my hair. When I was on strict keto several years ago, I lost a lot of hair then and it regrew. I did a lot of research and am hoping these extra actions will help curb some of the lost this time around.

I don't know how many of you are in your third week, but I am concerned about my calories. My doctor has us do 3 meals and 3 snacks. Shooting for 60 grams of protein and 64 oz of water. I have no problem with the protein. I make a lot of keto soups and blend them down. I am concerned in the calories. I was hovering around 5-600 calories. Today if I eat everything, I wrote I should end up around 800. I couldn't believe it. I have not had any issues with food until yesterday. I am in my soft food stage and yesterday I had a few of Russel's sugar free chocolate. My TOM started yesterday, and I think I was just craving. That did not sit well at all. So, no more off that. Where are you all at in terms of calories?

Hi. I know that we all had our different reasons for having WLS. I did it because I was fed up with yo-yo dieting. I was on-off Keto diet for over two years. I've lost some weight and gained it all back in the end. The longest I've stayed on diet was 5 months and that paid off really well (lost 25 kg). But then Covid-19 hit. I was about to go back to Keto diet in January 22 when my sister called to tell me she was going for the mini gastric bypass. That was the first time time I've heard of it. Fast forward three weeks and I'm on the plane flying to Egypt to have mine. My "breaking point" was finally going back to work in the office and having to remove the arm rests of my office chair because it somehow "shrunk" and was squeezing my thighs. How about you? What made you decide to have the surgery and what was the breaking point?

Food is such an integral part of who we are. I teach cooking classes, etc. I decided I was going to prepare for this and bought several keto cookbooks and I am already planning menus and cooking out of them. Who says we can't enjoy food while on this journey? The head hunger is real though, you are not alone.

I bought a cookbook called Southern Keto and it has an awesome taco soup recipe in it. I am leaning towards soft foods though. I made it and then blended it down to pureed. Soooo good. Making it again this week. My family eats it not blended. I am also making a recipe from pinterest right now. Look at soft foods and then blend.

I'm so upset. In the last 9 days I've gained 9 pounds!!! Nothing has changed with my diet and workouts. I take my vitamins like I'm supposed to. I never cheat on my diet, I work out 5 days a week. So I called my dietician and after we went over everything she said "remember when I told you that having pcos would cause you problems with weight loss? Well here it is. If you remember, you lost 100 pounds on keto and then the weight just started coming back no matter what you did? It looks like it's happening again." I literally started to cry, because nothing I did stopped the weight from coming back. I asked if I could do a pouch reset and maybe reverse it now and she said "you certainly can try, but you aren't gaining because of over eating or cheating on your diet. You're gaining because of a hormonal imbalance that seems to like you being fat". I don't know what to do. I had such high hopes that the surgery and weight loss would help improve the pcos, but it looks like, once again, it's out to sabotage me. I guess it's not enough that it caused me to have 10 miscarriages through the years, or need fertility meds to have my daughter, or never be able to get pregnant again after her. Now it won't let me lose weight and keep it off. I feel so defeated. All my hard work and once again, it's all for nothing.

I am one to say follow your program because there are differences as well as similarities. Though I often also say, if the program isn’t working for you, speak to your surgeon or dietician. I recognise there are weaknesses in the American health system & the ridiculous power of insurance companies: If you don’t do what they say & get all the right boxes ticked you can’t have your surgery power. Through reading posts here, there also seems to be many medical practitioners who do not look at each individual case & don’t make adjustments to their program to suit the individual patient’s needs. And dieticians often seem to promote their own ideologies & current fads. I saw a documentary a few years ago that spoke about the influence of large food production corporations on the curriculum in schools & in medical courses at colleges/universities - scary stuff. Things aren’t perfect in Australia, & I’m sad to say, we’re slowly going down the US path, but my experience was much different. I’m sorry yours has been so negative. My surgeon & dietician did consider me, my needs & circumstances. For example, my surgeon puts different patients on different pre surgical diets. A friend was on all shakes while I was put keto. He said I didn’t need to see a therapist (he gave me the name of one if I wanted or needed) but he sent her for several appointments before her surgery. My dietician, though not perfect, was at least open to my preferences & needs. She advised the keto diet only for the two weeks pre surgery saying it should only be followed for the short term to kick start weight loss (something I already believed). She didn’t give me specific macros to reach (apart from protein) but only recommended low fat, low carb (multi or whole grain low processed only), low sugar. I did a lot of my own reading & discussed my thoughts & what I wanted to do. I eventually devised my own way of eating & what foods I wanted (& needed) to eat, avoid, restrict or reduce. She’d make suggestions about alternatives & things I could add to make sure I was getting in my nutrients (she always checked my blood tests). I guess the big difference was my surgeon & dietician wanted to support me & help me achieve my goals. If yours aren’t supportive, don’t listen to your needs & are simply following a genetic ‘one program suits all’, find a new team (if you can). And especially in your case, if they don’t recognise you are an intelligent, well educated & are highly knowledgeable in the medical field, give them the boot. All the best.

I am a high BMI girl (over 60 ) but have changed my diet, worked on eating disorders and just tried to change my life this year. Been doing pre op keto diet since late august waiting on my surgery date. Down 70 lbs this year so yay there.. My NSV was my wardrobe changes! i was buying mostly size 34 shirts ( a few bigger). I saw a shirt on amazon that i liked that was biggest at size 28. I ordered it for “later” after surgery- but as a lark i tried it on and it fit quite well!! I wore it yesterday and got asked for the first time if I had lost weight. Guess clothes that fit make a difference;) I went and ordered four more size 28 shirts. If they fit too, I am going to purge most of those size 34 and higher and never look back! I am trying to get below 60 BMI for surgery (somewhat a stall right now, but that’s ok - i am staying steady) but I am really enjoying this victory!!!

As of today, I am 4 1/2 months post op and I have lost 76 pounds. I work out 5 days per week, I eat keto, I had gastric sleeve, and I am VERY strict with what goes into my body. My iron, blood sugar, and blood pressure are all normal and I'm no longer on any meds for them. Here's a pre surgery pic and a pic my hubby just now took of me. Notice a difference? LOL

I could not do the shakes much more than a few months. I went to other forms of protein like the Unjury chicken soup which is 20 grams in a glass of warm water. Much easier to deal with the taste. I also like the protein bars that have low calories..there are a couple out there. Be careful of the keto bars though, they have higher calories. The brands I use have between 130 and 140 calories which is right about where most shakes are. The unjury is only 90 calories or so.

Hmm. I don't have any protein shake recipes, per say, because I don't like protein powders. I only drink Fairlife protein shakes. And I do add a strong shot of coffee to a whole shake. For instance, my favorite is salted caramel Fairlife. I use the reuseable Keurig pods. I fill the pod to the top with Dunkin ground coffee, and brew it on the strong setting and only 4 oz. Usually I drink it iced. Then I add sugar free Skinny Syrup in the flavor Salted Caramel. I do the same thing with Vanilla Fairlife and add Pumpkin Spice syrup. I've done this with Chai as well. I added a sprinkle of cinnamon and some sugar free Skinny Syrup in vanilla flavor. I do the same with strawberry Fairlife and use Strawberry Skinny syrup, and the same with chocolate Fairlife... I tried to add unflavored protein powder to jello. I couldn't eat it, it was so disgusting to me. And I'm not super picky. So I never got around to trying it in pudding, but a lot do that. As far as the frozen fruit added to the lean shake with honey... there's sugar free keto honey substitutes. It's about half the calories of honey but still has about 11 carbs per tablespoon. You should ask your dietician about what will be acceptable for after surgery. Every surgeon seems to vary. My team wouldn't want me to add the frozen fruit or honey. That's why I use the skinny syurps. Lots of flavor, without calories or carbs. I mostly drink the Walmart brand Crystal Light sticks in my water. Blackberry Lemonade is my favorite. I never seem to get tired of those. I've drank them for probably 16 years now.

i transitioned to my pre op diet in august. Mine is 50 carbs a day (total, not net). I knew with my eating disorder issues I needed to slide slower in it so I would not backlash into binging so I transitioned down over a couple weeks. Been about three weeks at 50 carbs a day (ok, had about two days that i did less than 75) and it’s going well. I can eat a wide variety of things to keep it interesting. Early on i was ravenously hungry despite eating plenty but my brother (who has done keto before) told me to up my fat content and the hunger disappeared. I totally miss some foods, but not a lot. Beans used to be a big part of my diet and they are too carb filled for now. Rice, pasta/noodles and tortillas were also staples and are now not good choices. And most fruit is very carb filled, but occasionally I will carb budget for a lovely apple which tastes so sweet now. I had already cut out most bread so that wasn’t a big deal. following the diet I have lost 18.6 lbs in three weeks (69.6 in 2022 total) … so worth the shift in eating!

It really depends on your starting weight. The more you have to lose, the more you will lose at first. I have only lost 29 lbs since surgery and that puts me at 201. I had a 2.5 week stall and am only now loosing a pound a week. It's frustrating cuz I did better with Keto but now I can't really just give up. I can't eat that much. I know from reading other posts that it will pick up again.

I thought I was going to lose my mind if I couldn't chew food soon. Thank the heavens and the gods above for real food once again! My go-to favs are chicken salad, grits and eggs with butter, and I've replaced the morning cuppa joe with a warmed-up protein drink with real whipped cream. Following much more of a clean keto/low carb diet now. really focusing on my protein and water. Life is much happier now

Keto is HIGH fat, low carbs and moderate protein. Bariatric is HIGH protein, and from there depends on the surgery team. Some are low carb/sugar low fat. Others are a BALANCED low fat/low sugar diet. Mine is VERY balanced, I have never heard anyone on my team tell us we can't have carbs. Through all the classes, appointments and Nutritionists follow ups. They all say the same thing, balanced diet while making sure we get our protein first and then veggies, if you want or have "room" then have the carb. Understand this is only my opinion: I do not think it is realistic to think someone is going to stay "keto" or "extremely low carb" for the rest of their life. Isn't that how we all YO-YO? By doing extreme diets that we realistically cannot maintain long term? I have lost 100+ lbs 4 different times. (I know, ridiculous) The last time I even had skin removal surgery and still gained it back because eating chicken and broccoli every single day was not realistic! This is what convinced me to finally have WLS. I went through the classes for pre-op still hesitant to have WLS and just figured what do I have to loose by learning more about it in a formal manor. I learned that while some things we might not be able to eat, there was really not the restriction of foods like I heard by travel of words. Even on my worst days, I haven't been even able to eat more than 1200 calories. it really is the restriction of capacity that makes the HUGE difference from a diet to WLS. Eating healthy (most of the time) was never a problem for me. My problem was ALWAYS being hungry, eating 3 servings of chicken rather than 1. Eating 3/4 slices of pizza rather than a half a of slice without eating the outside crust. Again, my opinion and what works for me may not work for you or the next person. I think we all have to figure out what works for us and go from there. Everyone is so different and every bariatric team/center is just as different. I had this surgery so I can eat like a normal person and not like a 400 lb person. I am almost 6 months post op and when I eat around people, rarely does anyone notice my diet being different than their own. I think maybe 3 times someone (who doesn't know I had WLS) has commented about what I was eating. You do you girl, work with your team. Find out what works best for you and run with it! Modify it as you go if needed. We are all on the a different version of the same journey. We got this!! (Sorry for my long post, I got carried away)

Honestly, I told my husband Chinese and Italian are out till post op able… but I have contingency that I have researched in case that’s where we go. for chinese most things have cornstarch (high carb) or other breading and sugar… (even beef with pea pods is high carb due to cornstarch in dish)…ordering from a menu I can get egg fu young patties, no rice and no gravy. It’s one of the very few low carb options. (Unless they will do stir fry with no thickeners and a non sweet sauce) italian, my contingency dish is simply an antipasto appetizer as my meal and just avoid any non keto parts… I looked up each restaurant I could go to and get dishes and substitutions that fit my eating plan. Having an app on your phone helps to look up things on the fly… I use carbmaster and it works well… may take longer to order, but worth it

See, what you all are saying makes sense, but my nutritionist said I will be eating the bariatric diet for the rest of my life. That's why I was so shocked that she said keto is a fad diet but the bariatric diet is ok. I love keto. My body responds well to it. I have friends that have been on it for years and are doing really well. I lost 100 pounds on it. But I couldn't keep it off no matter how strict I was with it. With the bariatric diet, I was really struggling because my body doesn't do well with low fat. Higher fat with low carbs and high protein seems to work wonders for me. I tend to stay around 70-80 fats per day, 25-35 carbs per day, 70-90g of protein per day, and 1050 - 1200 calories per day (1200 if I work out that day, less if I don't). I may need to call my nutritionist again, because if keto and the bariatric diet both aren't meant to be followed for life, I need to see why she said it would and what I'm supposed to do once I hit my maintenance weight (nowhere near that yet).