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Hi So I’m two weeks post op and currently struggling to get keep my water intake and vitamins intake. Whenever I take a pill I feel severe discomfort like heartburn for 20 mins and need my husbands help to rub my chest off to move it down. This makes it difficult for me. I have restrictions to have only a spoonful of water each time and wait for 3 mins between the next spoon. This makes it tough to get enough water and my skin is becoming flaky. I also find it difficult to swallow anything with protein powder in it . I think I am losing ideal weight 1lb per day but it also includes muscle loss which I would like to avoid. Any advice or tips that I could get on taking multi vitamins and water intake. Thanks in advance.

And you would have. I realized this past week while going thru years of stuff that I'm finally cleaning out, how long I actually struggled with dieting and weight loss. I found journals and food diaries and counting calorie lists, diet books and recipes etc. It made me sad. I could have avoided a lot of that if I had decided to get the surgery sooner. But I'm a firm believer that everything happens for a reason and am happy with where I am now, I can honestly say, and I've said it before...my only regret is not getting the WLS sooner.

I was more aiming at the fact that most patients having WLS don't reach a normal weight. I don't know, however, how many people get out of the obese BMI into an overweight BMI. With the drugs it's the same. What you said is definitely something that's worth considering though. I don't know if we're cured or not after having WLS. With drugs that answer is IMO easier to answer: you have to take it for life just like e. g. antihypertensive drugs. These drugs don't cure high bloods pressure. When patients stop taking them, blood pressure is high again.

It’s pretty common for your menstrual cycle to be a bit screwed up with your weight loss (longer, shorter, more or less frequent, heavier or lighter). Like the others have said it’s the estrogen stored in your fat being released into your blood stream as you lose weight. I was in menopause too & all my menopausal symptoms disappeared yay! - they came back though when I got close to my goal unfortunately. You can’t stop the hair loss. Your hair naturally sheds & after surgery your rate of loss temporarily accelerates (it’s quite common after bigger surgeries, pregnancy, stressful periods). It often starts around month 4+/- & lasts about 3+/- months. Some people say take biotin or other supplements & use special hair treatments but their hair loss all seems to last the same 3 months or so. How much you lose is individual. Your new hair is growing as it always dies at the same time & at its usual rate. I too cut my long hair to just above my shoulder. Shorter hair is bouncier & looks mor full than long hair. It also takes less time for your new growth to catch up in length to your shorter length than your long length so your hair will look & feel as thick as it always did more quickly. Only way to slow your loss is to eat more calories. If you get to this point work with your dietician to ensure you’re following a way of eating that is healthy, still nutrient dense & is sustainable. Remember too, the surgery changes your body weight set point. We don’t always end at a weight we wanted or expected but is the weight your body is happiest at & is easiest to maintain.

I stall all the time dont stress. Then other times lose rapidly. It’s just the body trying to hold onto fat as it knows you’re losing weight. Trust me just keep at a calorie deficit and I promise it will come off. My nausea has finally settled (5 months in)!! Wow that was a long and rough recovery. Recently did a CT scan which showed my stomach volume was only 100ml. Absolutely nuts!

If only insurance would cover the weight loss meds like they do the surgery. Not sure why they don't. It would still be cheaper for them in the long run than treating all the health issues and meds that come with obesity.

With my now being six weeks post-op, I'm curious what others' calorie intake has been in the early stages of typically rapid weight loss after surgery and am well aware that intake increases and body weight decreases. I realize everyone is different, and clearly stated in my original post that I have already spoken about this with my dietitian for my own case. I'm not seeking medical advice from an internet forum on what my target should be; I'm opening a conversation about the topic to see where other bariatric patients have found their own successes with respect to their caloric intake as one metric.

Ouch you tore your toenail on the refrigerator? 😶😖 Yeah...I'm thinking its the weight loss...even if its still just a small amount. I'm going to bring it up at my 3 month check up..just to see what they say. Thanks for responding.

Just did my 3 month check up yesterday (my actual 3 full months is on October 10th) ... I've lost 60 lbs since surgery day on July 10th... I've actually gained more muscle also (I've been lifting weights while on this journey. I had a goal to lose 100lbs in the first 4 months but I'm satisfied with the path I'm on now.

first of all, 18 lbs in three weeks is normal. Most of us lose around 15-25 lbs the first month post-op. Thirty pounds in three weeks is way above average - did they start out at 400+ lbs or something? If so, that would explain it. Starting BMI is a huge factor in how quickly you'll lose weight - at least at first. soup and cheese both have a lot of sodium in them. So does store-bought bread. That three lbs might be water retention from the sodium.

At what point post op do you mean? Your calorie intake increases as you progress with your weight loss. I was a low calorie consumer and therefore my stats are very different from others but I am different from others too. I was never given calorie goals just portion sizes & wasn’t told to count calories - I did it randomly for my own interest & still do it like this. Was barely eating 300 calories in soft food & I think I was barely at 900 calories by 6 months. I stabilised at about 17 months (about a kilo less than I am now) consuming around 1300. I eat about 1500/1600 to maintain my weight now. Everyone has different caloric needs. (Metabolic rate, activity levels, age, weight, height, etc. all contribute to what calories you need.) Please check with your dietician as to their recommendations for what caloric goals you need while losing & then maintaining.

I went through similar, op in July and only finally home from hospital start of November. While in hospital I found it difficult to hold anything down and was put on a feeding tube for a couple of months and then the second time I was put on a tube it was because I had a leak and they wanted to bypass the area so it could try to heal. I am also on daily medication for my stomach, have to take before I eat anything, and I have strong meds for nausea if needed. Over the last few weeks I have slowly started to increase the calories I take and exercise I do, gone from about 500 cal a day to approx 900 cal but for me the more important aspect is ensuring I get enough protein. I am able to now hold food down but it is hit and miss, like Sunday my dinner did not stay down but it was something I had eaten before without issue, it just depends. I have to push myself to eat three meals a day as I just don't feel the hunger (or interest at times). I don't sleep well and am exhausted all of the time which is why I have tried to push myself the bit more on food intake and exercise. I do see small improvements but I am not where I thought I would be this far out from the op and it can upset me at times but I try to focus on the good things. My weight loss as slowed down over the last 6 weeks or so but I am hoping it is just my body is still in recovery mode after going through so much stress since July. I would think your body is probably going through the same, a lot of trauma has occurred and it is trying to cope. Don't compare yourself to others, everyone has a different experience with the op and we all recover in different ways, just try to focus on the progress you can see in yourself. If your doctor is ok with how you are doing that is important and it will get better for you, just need time to recover and destress. Hopefully you will be slowly able to up the food intake or find a source of high protein that you can keep down. I don't know how you are on fluids but for me I can now take coffee again (even the smell of it turned my stomach for the first six months or so) so I take it with protein powder which means I am getting protein through fluids as well as the food I can eat. Same for collagen, I put it in my coffee also and it is another dose of protein so in two coffees a day I get 20g of my protein requirements. Happy to chat if you want. We can do this. 💪

Hi everyone. The mid-year sales are everywhere these days and I was trying to buy new shirts and pants online (my latest addiction). The "problem" that I'm facing is that it seems all the brands that I like only had sales on the big sizes (L, XL, XXL) but not M, S or XS. I don't recall this being a problem in the past haha. It must be a good problem to have then. This made wonder what other "good problems" I had since WLS. Here is what I could think of so far in addition to the one above: - I'm now working size S shirts. I need to find a brand that makes size XS shorts that fits nicely without being too tight. Two years ago, I was on the other end of the size chart / having custom-made shirt - We had a refresher safety training at site last week and I was chosen more than once to demo what we learned. I had to climb ladders, go into manholes (mock ones), confined spaces etc. I was never asked to do this before - I can't use my weight as an excuse for not doing stuff around the house that requires climbing on ladders etc. It would be interesting to hear yours.

The thing to watch out for when doing a minimally malabsorptive RNY is the prospect of bile reflux instead of the acid reflux that you had with the sleeve. When I was looking into this for a non WLS reason (it's has long been used for maladies such as gastroparesis and gastric cancer,) was that one of the most common problems reported on the patient sites such as Facebook was bile reflux. Talking to the surgeon about it, he said that as long as he keeps that roux limb at (IIRC) 80cm or more, it's not a problem; it seems that many surgeons going for minimal weight loss for such patients go overboard on shortening things. The extreme of this would be the "mini bypass" that attaches the pouch directly into the intestine without the roux limb, and that is well known for bile reflux (and why it was never adopted here in the US as a mainstream approved WLS. However, there are also definitions and standards of care wrapped into the CPT codes that the docs use for billing, that define these things depending upon usage. I know this came up in one of the support groups with my wife's surgeon, and he noted that when he did the RNY, which he rarely did preferring the DS, he liked to make it as malabsorptive as the codes permitted. So there are standards that the surgeons are obliged to follow if it is to be a WLS procedure, and it doesn't seem to be a problem with most RNYs that we see as WLS, but could have been for what I was contemplating (but never proceeded with.) There's always an up side as well as a down side with anything we do.

Hi @texasmade88 Welcome!! Congratulations on the 22lb weight loss!! is that after your surgery? Currently, I have been stalled and I am trying not to get stressed out (although there is a small thought of omg what if I did this surgery and nothing changes for me). I won't be a month out until November 27th so I am just telling myself to chill. How are you feeling about the upcoming holidays with food and stuff? I am actually glad I will not be able to eat Thanksgiving dinner this year, it takes a lot of pressure off of me to hang out with the family.

I made it down to 144 on my own but I finally reached goal thanks to plastic surgery. I'm still recovering from my surgery 3 weeks ago. I actually went to mexico because I found a great Dr that I loved his work and he is board certified in the US as well as Mexico and Cuba. He is known for being very safe and I had to be pre screened medically twice before he would even operate on me. He also works out of a hospital so I thought I had all of my bases covered but my luck is always bad lol. I had complications but I still received amazing care. My only symptom after surgery was a fast heartrate. They brought in all the guns and had a cardiologist, the surgeon himself, a radiologist and the surgeons partner all come in and test me and discuss on my care. My blood came back with a hemoglobin level of only 6.9 and the ultrasound showed a large hematoma. So they immediately wrapped me in a compression garment and then taped me even tighter and I was given 2 blood transfusions through the night. Early the next morning at 7 am I went in for a second surgery to remove the hematoma and to see if I had any active bleeds which I did end up having an arterial bleed which they then fixed. I was also given one more bag of blood. I have the pictures of me opened all the way up during the original surgery and you could not see any bleeding at all so I don't know how this bleed happened but they acted quickly and I felt safe and taken care of the whole time. My dr always has everyone stay at least 1 night in the hospital and I think that is what saved me. So many people go home right away and if that had been me with no other symptoms, I am afraid to think of what could have happened. I was never dizzy or nauseous or even really tired. Just a fast heart rate of 120 with spikes to 150. Unfortunately because I had to have 2 surgeries my front tummy tuck scars are taking forever to fully heal but they are still doing great. No infections, just slow healing. I had a lower body lift which is the cut that goes all the way around and is great for tightening the front and the back. Lipo to my back and flanks, a small bbl and breast reconstruction. So I did have a ton of stuff done and with hind sight I may not have chosen to do it all at once because I wonder if that was increasing my chances of complications After the fact though I'm so glad to have it all done and not have to face any more surgeries. They removed about 8 lbs of skin and 2 in fat. I haven't weighed this little since middle school and I'm still swollen so who knows what my final weight will be. I'm so happy with my results and will have to share pictures once I'm fully healed. My youngest daughter and I went shopping this week and bought crop tops to wear together to celebrate. I've never worn a crop top ever. So I'm looking forward to wearing it in the near future. Gastric bypass certainly has changed my life in amazing ways

First and foremost, if you are religious person, pray. Pray for God to deliver you from the situation, and to give you the strength to face these most difficult times. Second, try to find some quiet time and meditate. Go back to your time pre-surgery in your mind. Try to evoke the feelings you felt and the reason for getting the surgery…try to put yourself in your body, how you felt all the emotions and the feelings. Then live each day after the surgery again, thinking about how good you felt with losing the weight. Try to reclaim the positive feelings and the motivation you had to be that new person. Find that place again…live in it…let it be a part of you. Third, find distractions. Exercise, walk, hobbies, etc. Find anything to get you away from the biscuits. Fourth, don’t buy them! Walk past them. Buy something more healthy to snack on. Finally, know that you are not alone, there will be ups and downs in your journey. Weakness and strength will come and go…come here often…ask for help…ask for support… ask for motivation and don’t forget the most important thing, PRAY.

at the time I wanted to be normal-sized so badly that I knew I had to do whatever it took - and I made it. But you'll eventually be able to eat most/all of those foods again. All my food restrictions were dropped once I hit the six-month mark (although I still was very careful about what I ate until I hit maintenance - I didn't want to blow it after all that work!!). But now if I want something, I'll eat it - but I'm careful to eat small portions of high-calorie foods and/or make choices if several things are calling my name (instead of eating all of them, like I used to do). Sometimes I do splurge - but I know if I do that for more than a day or two, my weight will start heading north again. That keeps me in line.. And honestly, the way I have to do it now isn't any different than the way many of my never-been-obese women friends eat. They monitor what and how much they're eating, make choices when confronted with many not-so-healthy treats calling their name (instead of eating them all), recover quickly from the occasional splurge, etc. They have to or they'd probably end up looking like I used to. It's work - but unfortunately it's what most people have to do.

First off, kudos to you for wanting to regain your strength and build muscle post-surgery. It's important to start slow and progressively work your way up. Since you're 7 months post-op, you've likely received guidance from your healthcare provider, but here's a general idea: Start with low weights or resistance bands to ease into it. Focus on full-body workouts to maintain balance. Try 3 sets of 10-15 reps for each exercise, gradually increasing weights and reps as you get stronger.

I started at a lower weight than you & I reached goal at 6 months. I kept losing for another 11months or so (albeit very slowly). I wasn’t trying to lose more & in fact I was eating more & more. The lower weight was where my body wanted to be - my new set point which is the weight my body is happiest at. Your set point is the weight your body will gravitate back to & is easier to maintain. It is reset through the surgery but it may not be reset to a weight we want. We used to have much higher set points which is why many of us used to lose & then regain it back or struggled to lose at all. You mentioned you are eating fewer calories in an attempt to lose more. Remember you will have to continue to eat fewer calories & be more active to maintain a lower weight. This is not always sustainable & can impact you long term (including slowing your metabolism). Have you spoken with your team - surgeon, dietician? They should be able to advise you on how to best get closer to your ultimate goal.

I have trouble with a lot of pasta, rice, potatoes and bread still because they always feel like they "swell" in my stomach, so gaining weight was hard for me after I too found myself underweight following a health scare. I'm also a sleeve patient who dumps, so eating things like ice cream was out of the question. If you are ABLE to eat those things without issue, I don't see there being anything wrong with consuming a little extra treat here and there to gain weight, unless you are concerned that once you get back to a weight you're happy at, you won't be able to stop eating those things. I was eating peanut butter quite a bit when I was trying to gain; I found some high protein waffles that agree with me (Kodiak), so I'd eat one of those with peanut or almond butter on it, maybe a LITTLE drizzle of honey, a few dark chocolate chips, or some sliced banana. It was giving me more calories with a nice healthy dose of fats and protein vs carbs, which felt "healthier" to me.

Nerves & feeling anxious before surgery isn’t unusual. You are doing something that requires many changes to you physically, psychologically & emotionally. And you don’t have any experience with any of it. I didn’t have any co morbidities at all before my surgery but I knew they would be in my future simply because I was obese. Being generally in good health bedside surgery puts you in a stronger place for your surgery & recovery so a plus. The very small portions are only in the beginning during the staged return to eating. As you progress you are able to eat more until you are eating what is a recommended & appropriate serving size. Not those large servings that are two, three or more times we been acclimatised to think of as normal but the portion size we should be eating. Doesn’t mean you won’t ever eat your favourite foods ever again either. In time you work out how much you can eat of that food & how often. Or you may make changes to the ingredients or the cooking method to make it a healthier & more nutritious choice. We talk about having to do the head work while we are losing. This is the most important step. Working out the why, what, when you eat & changing your relationship with food. Reflecting on what drives you to eat & the food choices you make so you can mange those cravings & work out a way of eating for the future that is sustainable, doesn’t restrict or limit you & allows you to enjoy your life as you want. This is the difference between the surgery and every other diet I’ve been on (& I was almost 54 when I had the surgery & had been on a lot of diets). I’ve never been able to lose weight & maintain it for any length of time like I have after the surgery. Yes, I work on it every day but it doesn’t mean I don’t or can’t enjoy my life or miss out on anything. A lot of it is routine & I look at it as not being on a continuous diet (so many negative connotations) but this is just my way of eating. Like how people who have food allergies or may be vegan or vegetarian eat & the food choices they make. Ensure you have access to a supportive therapist you can call on if needed & a helpful dietician who listens. This isn’t something you can really do completely on your own. Best decision I ever made. All the best whatever you choose to do.