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How’s everyone doing? I’m just about a month out from surgery. I’m about to be cleared to have regular food, but I’m not hungry at all. It’s a struggle to drink and get enough protein. I absolutely hate the shakes. My sister is coming to visit today, she had the sleeve two weeks ahead of me. She likes flavorless protein powder, so I’m going to try that. Otherwise, I see my doctor tomorrow and I’m finally going to weigh myself. I have decided to just weigh in monthly, at the doctors.

I’d give the smaller a meals ago @NickelChip & @PandaMom1977 I know a few who did 6 small meals versus 3 larger meals. I was able to have one snack a day a couple of months out (can’t recall exactly when now) & I still snack now to get in calories & protein. One snack is my leftover breakfast. May be try making your plan approved meal but eat it across two sessions. It may help you get over this quirky, fussy tummy stage plus until you can eat a little more in regards portion size. Oh yes the protein shakes were awful. I discovered yoghurt drinks. So much nicer. Make your own by simply blending yoghurt with as much milk as you need to make it a drinkable consistency. Add whatever flavours you like. My high protein yoghurt brand (Australian company but they don’t make them anymore - grrr) made the ones I drank & I’d get 25-35g protein depending on the size.

I am an overthinker too, so I totally get what you're saying and feeling. A few thing I've learned in this very short journey: 1. Your body will tell you when its done losing weight, don't fight it and don't work extra hard to lose either, follow your plan and whatever weight you lose you lose. If you work extra hard to shed pounds then it's not a sustainable plan for you and you will have to work extremely hard to maintain that loss, you want your lifestyle to be sustainable for you, some people understand that they can't cut out carbs and fat completely and they know the trade off would be a slightly higher stabilized weight and they are comfortable with that. Evaluate your priorities and lifestyle and what you can comfortably maintain. Also, if your body is not done losing weight, don't fight it, it's trying to reach its new set point. 2. If you're seriously working out, try to maintain a 250-300 calorie deficit only, this way your metabolism doesn't get affected by a whole lot and it allows you to lose fat but also perform in your workouts. 3. Balance and Moderation. I know this has been said to death but moderation is truly key. If you strongly feel like eating something, eat it in a portion that allows you to enjoy but stay on track. 100 calories from ice cream or from chicken breast are the same 100 calories, yes chicken will keep you fuller but ice cream is good for the soul lol! If you have a couple of hundred calories to spare, have something you enjoy AS LONG AS THAT'S NOT A SLIPPERY SLOPE. This is something I struggled with when I was overweight (the all or nothing mindset) but I am relearning how to eat and enjoy in smaller quantities and not eating for the sake of eating. 4. Having good habits will make up for slip ups. That means tracking, working out, being active, being mindful of portions and listening to your body (including adequate rest and sleep). If you do all that and end up eating a little more here and there, having a few bites of dessert/things that are not so good, it will absolutely not hinder your results. It is a mindset adjustment as much as it's a physical adjustment, if you have a strong mind, your body will follow suit. Cut the guilt, comparison to others and the overthinking. You absolutely got this!

I’m Australian so our English heritage meant I understood them perfectly. We use whinging a lot but take the Mickey not as often. 😁😁 That’s damn ridiculous @MrsFitz. All of it: the inconsistent dispensing & contradictory stockpiling justifying for it, the system they use not coping with a brand name change, poor delivery of vital medications, etc. You have every right to complain about the situation. Hopefully they can sort it out quickly & you’ll have your meds soon. PS - Reminds me of when I had my gall removed & my medication (new boxes bought from home), which were locked away, were not returned to me when I was discharged. They organised a service to deliver them to me but of course they never arrived. The service claimed they tried but I wasn’t home. I didn’t leave my house for two weeks. Asked for them to be taken to my surgeon’s rooms at the hospital so I could collect them at my follow up appointment. Of course they didn’t. I had to walk what felt like 20 miles up & down floors, building to building, wing to wing to get to the ward I’d been in & then they couldn’t find them at first. There was about $150 worth of meds so I was not letting it go. Oh & then I had to walk back to get to my car to leave. And I was made to feel like I was inconveniencing them.

I've had moments of yay each time I was able to fit into the old clothes in my closet that didn't fit anymore. This week I took out my favorite pair of jeans from high school (during my restricting phase no less) and they were perfect. I was also happy when my waist dropped below 40 and 35 inches, which are considered cutoffs for disease risk for men and women respectively, at least in the US. I didn't start taking measurements religiously (once a month) until pretty far into my weight loss, but I ordered an eShakti dress for a wedding in 2018 at about 30 pounds below my highest weight and my measurements were 61-57-70 (chest-waist-hips). The day before surgery, my waist was 46 inches and hips 57 inches. My last measurements, from about a week ago, were 38.5-32.5-39.5. I've lost 30 inches from my hips, 24 from my waist, and 22 from my chest. (Yes, my WHR actually increased, but I've also been taking low dose testosterone for about 2 years.) Things have started to plateau, but I still have a sundress that I want to be able to fit into and I imagine I'll get there.

Ok...so...when you have a food allergy, even a "mild" one, take it seriously. I'm allergic to peanuts and shellfish. With shellfish, it's literally life and death. I can't even be in the room when it's being cooked because the proteins in the air set me off. It's really that bad. I go into anaphylactic shock and I was told if it happens 1 or 2 more times, I could very likely die. So...no shellfish, which breaks my heart because me an crab legs...omg. Love affair for the ages. But peanuts.....that's not bad like shellfish. My mistake was comparing it to the shellfish. I was told my shellfish allergy is the worst case my doctor has ever seen. So comparing anything to it is not smart. But that's what my stupid a$$ did. I forgot that every time I eat something I'm allergic to the reaction gets worse. Well, I'll never EVER forget it now. I ate 2 Kind bars. I bought them because there was no mention of peanuts (ordered them from the Starbucks app). Only mentioned almonds. YUMMY!!! We love almonds. WooHoo!!! Hubby goes to get my Kind bars and my drink and comes back and tells me there's peanuts in them. I think "well, there's not a huge amount because there's more than 1 kind of nut, and my reaction has always been fairly mild, so I should be ok" (tingles in my lips and tongue, slightly nauseous and mildly light headed, but over in 15 or 20 minutes) so I figured I could eat them and deal with the reaction for maybe 30 minutes or so and then be on my way. WRONG!!!!! To be fair, hubby said I shouldn't eat them but I did anyway. Within 10 minutes of eating them, my usual symptoms set in. Ok, I was ready for that. Within another 10 minutes, the nausea got worse, I got super shaky, and the light headedness increased. Sucks, but still not the end of the world. 10 minutes later, the absolute sharp, stabbing pain in my stomach started. It hurt so bad I couldn't catch my breath and I couldn't stand up straight. It increasingly got worse and worse. I couldn't sit, stand, or lay comfortably at all. It took 30 minutes for it to get this bad. I dealt with it for an hour, then the throwing up started. And throwing up. And throwing up. OMG... Once I was done and brushed my teeth, I went and laid down and fell asleep until now (3:30am). I slept for about 6 hours (not peacefully, but still slept). I feel a lot better except I'm weak, tired, and a little nauseous still. Hoping to go back to sleep soon. But let this be a reminder that even MILD food allergies can escalate out of nowhere and become major ones. Anything peanut related is like the devil as far as I'm concerned. Now I know I have a major peanut allergy and will NEVER even think about testing it out again. Hoping to feel better soon because OMG this is absolute bull$%#t!!!.

Update....still only at 228 as of a few minutes ago....although I started my period nice and a week early. So maybe that's it? Idk....but it's been almost two weeks with no loss....kind of disheartening BUT I'm still holding out hope that this will work! I know I'm not overeating...so it's not that..

So glad your continuing to feel great!!! I've been able to get 2 Protein shakes & my water so far. But, that's about it. I can have creamed soups(strained) if I've met the shake& water goals. I'll probably have a bit more energy if I could get a littler more calories. Which creamed soups do you like? And that's a good point about the supplements. I haven't started taking them. My doctor starts vitamins 2 weeks post surgery. I bet that will help a lot! I need to order some. Was planning on getting chewable (all in one). Which type do you like?

I did stick to very soft protein and veggies at 5 weeks. I needed a lot of liquid (soup or gravy) to get it down. I loved fish, it felt a lot lighter than meat for a main meal to help with my protein goal. Tiny portions though. Also I was still relying on protein drinks to make my goal. Scrambled egg (less than one) were a godsend. I was probably consuming 400 calories per day between 4 and 6 weeks. I soon progressed to 600, maybe 2 months out? Hope this helps OP.

I have a wedding to go to in a few weeks and went into my wardrobe to see if I needed a new outfit. My last summers posh frock still fits beautifully. The jacket that didn't fit yet - fits beautifully. Its such a revelation. The shoes are a different kettle of fish. My old shoes drown my feet and are flats. My new style is heeled and a narrow size smaller. So new shoes and of course a bag is now mandatory.

You've got this! You definitely haven't stretched anything out. The first few weeks figuring everything out is tough and it's pretty easy to freak yourself out. I will say that once you start eating real/solid foods, you'll notice that you get full VERY quick. A word of warning - Eat SLOWLY ... as in VERY slowly. Otherwise, you will generally feel absolutely miserable. I'm just over 3 years out and I can pretty easily drink and eat at the same time, so don't worry about that part. In the beginning, it's much harder to do. Only other warning I might give you is to be careful with grazing throughout the day. It can be a slippery slope to take what was (pre-surgery) a normal size meal for you and eat on it all day (been there/done that) thinking that you're only eating a little bit at a time. It can quickly add up in calories and sabatoge you.

I had to do 4 weeks also. My live saver was asking if I could have any cucumbers or celery. They said yes. I needed something to crunch and chew on!! I found out most dill pickles are under 5 calories so I allow 2 a day of those and eat lots of sugar free jello and sugar free popsicles. Wishing you the best. I have surgery in two days!

Hi Sleeve to Bypass. good to know I never got the bypass. I was so worried cause of you saying the weight loss and all. I ended up in Emergency NYE as I couldn’t intake anything. I was in so much pain and extremely dehydrated. They went in and found I had to perforations. One just above the fundoplication on my oesophagus and the other in the stomach. A week in hospital on intravenous meds and now 1 week home and I am feeling so much better.

Thank you for your words of wisdom, I had to take Milk Of Magnesium last week but not much came out, I hoping adding more soft foods to the diet will help with something to come out. lmao I am not really meeting my protein or water goals =( I am working on it tho.

My surgeon said any liquid for my pre op. I imagine it’s different for each patient. It’s going to be a long hard 2 weeks for me.

Oh wow, French onion dip is my downfall. That sounds so delicious. I had some big reusable parfait cups in my cupboard with two sections to them, where you could do your yogurt and berries in the big section and then keep your granola or nuts in the other to keep them crisp until the last minute. I used 4 of these to portion out the blended container of cottage cheese dip into 4 servings with about 8oz of carrots, cucumbers, mushrooms, red peppers, and tomatoes. Turns out that for an evening snack, I actually can only eat half. Which is fine. That gives me a week's worth of veg already prepped. Once the ranch dip is used up, I'm doing French onion! And I'm going to try those pepperoni chips. I also want to make some kale chips. Those are so tasty. I need an air fryer. I think I want to replace my toaster oven with one that has the air fryer built in, but I keep waffling on which brand to get.

Hi congrats!!! I only took off 6 days.. prob not advisable but I felt well. i als9 have a sit down desk job- first day I only did 3 hours to ease myself in , next day was 5 1/2 etc and so on the only thing I had issue with was the sittin puts pressure so I was constantly getting up and walking. i work in a dr surgery so I also had a space to lay down when needed.

Yeah I haven't looked in to the plastics side of things as to what is covered for me. I do recall it being mentioned at one point by the psychiatrist I had to go see and I think he said it had to be a few years and then a decision process but at this stage it is too soon to be thinking about that. My big (literally and figuratively) problem area is my legs, thighs in particular. Even after loosing so much weight, with a bit more to go, there is no way I would wear anything that would show anything above my ankles. As it is I have to go back into hospital next week for a few days to have the tube in my stomach removed and them to monitor me to see if my leak has fully closed.

Now that I'm 2 years out from my sleeve and 1 year out from my revision to bypass, I can tell you that I eat around 1200 calories per day when I'm not working out and 1400 - 1500 per day when I'm working out (depending on the type of work out I'm doing). I'm on my feet all day at work, so I increased my daily calories from what they were before. Same with my work outs. I can't work out as often now, so I go harder than I used to on the days I can actually work out (now that I have full medical clearance with no restrictions). I noticed pretty early on that if I didn't eat enough calories during the day, but was still working out, my body thought it was starving and it would hold on to every single thing. As hard as it was to wrap my brain around, I took the advice I saw on here and increased my calories on work out days by a couple of hundred each day and I actually started losing again!!! I was floored!!! So as I increased intensity of my work outs, or increased the weight I was lifting, I increased my calories a bit. I didn't go crazy, but enough to let my body know it's still healthy and not starving. BUT....I had to initially give myself grace and time to be able to increase calories. Work outs or not, I had to do it on my body's timeline, not a doctor or nutritionist's. No way could I have been at 900 or 1000 calories at 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 months. There just was no way. And honestly, mine didn't expect that. They didn't want to see us above 700 calories before 5 months post op. I had JUST hit 900 calories at 7 months post op. I'm actually thinking about increasing my calories a little again, because I'm still losing, and I'm nearly 10 pounds under my goal weight, and I really would like to start maintaining lol If I drop to 179, I will definitely increase my calories by 100 everyday and see what happens.

i picked my consults based on before and after photos (their work), and the NUMBER of before and after photos (their volume/experience), and if they had any (unresolved) complaints or sanctions or investigations on their records. (i went to 5 consults) then i shortlisted based on a combination of price, evaluation of aftercare, whether or not they were willing to do all my procedures (3 of them: tummy tuck, breast lift, arm lift) all in one shot...this left me with 2. tie breaker was based on my perceived VIBE of them. One seemed more serious and by-the-book-ish and other was a bit more chill and easier-going. i chose the chill one. i'm sure i would have been perfectly fine with either of them, but i had to choose one, so i just went with someone i was more comfortable being around. p.s. i had my plastics 7 months after reaching goal (14 months post wls) . i would have preferred it done earlier, but he was booked up for almost a year (which i booked), but later he decided to open up a day just for me over the xmas holidays a few months earlier than my almost-year-later-booking. i am thankful he did that because my original PS booking would have fallen on the beginning of COVID and would definitely had been postponed as a non-essential surgery for several months. he had no requirement of maintaining any sort of weight wls or not. nor did the other 4 original consults. in the month or so after plastics, i lost about 5 lbs and hit my lowest weight of 109 lbs. since then i've bounced up and down between generally 115-120 for about 5+ years (so a net gain of about 5-10 lbs depending on the day), and i still look as awesome, if i say so myself.

For me, the head hunger never went away after both my surgeries. I also never lost my real hunger at all, so I had A LOT of work to do to retrain my brain. I eat 3 meals and 1-2 snacks per day. I know I'm eating enough, so when the urge to eat a specific food hits, or the desire to eat outside of those specific meals, I know I'm not actually hungry. My old habits are creeping in. I was a grazer as well as a binge eater. I was able to eat more than most men I know. In 1 sitting, I ate an appetizer, a 24oz porter steak with 2 sides, and a dessert in full by myself. That was on top of a full breakfast of 4 eggs, 2 sausage patties, 8 pieces of bacon, and 2 hashbrowns, a lunch of 2 roastbeef and cheese sandwiches that also had bacon, pickles, lettuce, and tomatoes on them, and multiple snacks throughout the day. If I craved it, I ate it. If I was bored, I ate. If something sounded good from a commercial or even just a conversation, I ate it. I rewarded myself for things with food. Everything in my life revolved around food. Had a bad day? Food. Had a good day? Food. Had an argument with someone? Food. Kids or hubby drove me nuts? Food. So learning that food was necessary to live but not necessary to be happy and fulfilled was a big deal. That took me the longest. I need food to fuel my body to allow me to live the life I want, but it's not the thing that drives me or controls my happiness anymore. It's just fuel. No more, no less. Once you learn that lesson, it becomes easier. Not easy, because the head hunger is always there in some form. But ignoring it and taking stock of your body's actual needs becomes easier.

Big hugs. Contact your team ASAP. Do you have nausea ? vomiting ? You need your teams advice You may have a stricture. If it is, its nothing major and is a quick fix. Or you could be like I was, really very swollen internally. I struggled for about 3 months and survived. I ate and drank very little but as soon as I could make the goals given, I felt so much better. Try thinning your shakes, Add milk. just keep trying to do better every day. You will get there in the end.

My sister is going in for her sleeve surgery tomorrow. I’m praying everything goes well, and that God blesses the doctors and nurses caring for her. Our poor mom is a wreck worried about us having wls two weeks apart.

First, don't panic! And don't compare your progress to others, if you can help it. I agree with everything Nickel said -- including the book rec. Kristin Willard's Bariatric Meal Prep is a great resource, and I also really like "The High-Protein Bariatric Cookbook" by Stacey Gulbin and "Fresh Start Bariatric Cookbook" by Sarah Kent. I think a good Bariatric book might help cover some of the information you've been missing from your 'care-team'. Is it possible that you've been focusing extra/too much on calories and not enough on what makes up those calories? My team told me that calories can be important (especially later on) but the first several months it was definitely more about making sure you're getting enough nutrients. 60-80 g protein per day minimum -- my team told me for me personally, she'd actually recommend 70-90g -- and definitely 3 meals a day (+ 1-2 protein-geared snacks). If you have to make them smaller at first since you're used to eating two meals, that should be ok. Maybe while you get back into a regular routine, make one of your meals a protein shake or protein bar? It was suggested to me that both my day (and each meal) should be 50-60% protein, and the rest of my plate should be mostly non-starchy veg -- with any starchy veg or complex carb coming in at 10-15% (20% max). The types of carbohydrates can be really important too. A whole grain/whole wheat item or a starchy but nutritious veg is going to put you in a much better place than a processed corn taco or white tortilla. Are you taking any supplements? Also, maybe check out local nutritionists and see if any of them have experience with bariatric patients.

Don't worry about calories for a while. Once you are on the last phase for maintenance etc you will monitor more. I want to say by the time you are around 6 months you should have up to 1000 calories a day, and then with maintenance it is 1100-1500 calories a day. You aren't going to be able to eat enough (if you follow their guidelines) for the next while to worry about it. I am 5.5 months PO and I am between 600-800 calories a day. I only have my 3 meals, plus a snack if I am low on protein.