Search the Community

I’m going to jump right in & focus on your inner child sugar & snack craving & ask if you saw or still see a therapist? If not it may be worth asking your medical team for a recommendation to a one who specialises in supporting bariatric patients, disordered eating, etc. The battle to overpower those cravings will only be won when you deal with that inner child. At the moment that child is winning. Are you eating because you are truely hungry (because your body needs the calories to function) or is it just your inner child wanting to be satisfied & comforted? Honestly, I didn’t specifically crave sugar or salt - I was an equal opportunity treat eater: sweet & savoury. 😉 I got them out of my house. If I don’t buy those foods & don’t have them in my house, I can’t eat them. I know it can be hard when it’s in the work place but try to avoid the break area. Go outside to eat if possible. I also try to prep most of what I eat myself so I can control the ingredients & how it’s cooked. While I was losing I ate pretty simply & a lot on repeat. It wasn’t boring. I actually found it less pressure because I didn’t have to think about what I was going to cook or eat. I had one snack a day: cheese, yoghurt (tub or drink), chunk of cucumber or fruit. Once you have those meals & food snacks in your app you can just select them each day. You don’t have to recreate them every time. So a little hard work to begin. Go back to only eating three times a day & no snacks or only one a day. It won’t be easy. Snacks add the calories which will slow your weight loss a lot. If the child screams at you, sip water, have a cup of herbal or green tea, eat a little chicken, ham, or other deli meat, have some yoghurt, or a little piece of cheese as your snack - note they are all protein dominant. Watch the fruit because of the high sugar content (though natural) so be selective - berries are best. Try to avoid traditional style snacks even if they’re high protein, low fat or low sugar versions - they keep the snack habit & craving alive. Try to avoid artificial sweeteners for the same reason - they continue to feed your sugar craving. You can explore them when you’re maintaining. You don’t have to jump in with both feet & go cold turkey. Even making one change to what & how you eat at a time helps. Drop something this week. In a week or two swap something else out. Little changes are easy to accept & are little wins. Just some suggestions. Feel free to ignore them all. Congrats on your weight loss so far.

Hello … 10 days post op for RNY and I am still in my two week post op liquids phase. The protein shakes are making me gag and I found two things that help get around it. First, I discovered bariatric high protein soup . You can find it on Amazon or Bariatric Pal. I also discovered I can tolerate PB Fit , made kind of runny. These things have drastically improved my post op liquid phase life. I still choke down a protein shake in the morning, but in the evening instead of a gross second shake I have my high protein soup . Amen!!

Curious what insurance do you have? Mine wont cover any bariatric surgery so i am paying almost $20K out of pocket. as for the eval thanks for the link. I will contact them. I have tried other locations for the eval but my surgeons office is extremely strict and have rejected every single other one i have tried to get it thru.

Just looking to see if anyone in this group is in my area and got their surgery here locally. Jacksonville, Florida. (I am getting mine done at Baptist Bariatric Center)

I'm curious how this turned out. Did you end up having the surgery? Did he change his mind? My husband was incredibly supportive of my decision to have surgery and is still supportive of my post-bariatric needs. I can't imagine going through this process without that support. Thinking of you.

I use BariatricPal Multivitamin ONE "1 per Day!" flavorless capsules from https://store.bariatricpal.com/collections/bariatricpal-multivitamin-one! BariatricPal has a special offer where it'll cost you only $99 for an entire year supply! Check it out at https://store.bariatricpal.com/99 With just ONE convenient & affordable BariatricPal Multivitamin ONE each day, you can get the bariatric vitamins and minerals you need to stay healthy! BariatricPal Multivitamin ONE was designed and developed by a team of the world's leading Bariatric medical professionals. Please take a calcium supplement separately to prevent interference with absorption of iron. You can view a large selection of bariatric-friendly Calcium supplements at https://store.bariatricpal.com/collections/calcium. You can also find MANY other brands of bariatric multivitamins at https://store.bariatricpal.com/collections/multivitamins.

I actually got upset about it and was very close to just going to a dealership and buying me a new jetski with the 20 grand i have put aside for this surgery lol. Its annoying because they are sooooo specific with the psyc evaluation. I found other licensed Psychologist that do bariatric evaluations and my doctors office rejected them all. I have to go with who they approve. I am like seriously??? LOL and the next available appointment for the psyc is in March. I even tried to bribe them and be like "I will pay double to get a sooner appointment" I got shut down haha.

Hi Courtney, I would say that, what with having a diagnosis of gastroparesis, a bariatric surgeon would be the best person to discuss the possibility of having weight loss surgery. Best wishes, and glad you joined the forum!

I agree that if you can get your family on board to help support you that would be really great. You may also benefit from a therapist that specializes in eating disorders because it sounds like you may suffer from boredom eating. Basically you are stuck at home and you don’t have things to keep you busy so you just eat. When I was searching for one that is near my home I was told that there are some online websites that have bariatric therapists if you do not have any locally. I don’t remember the sites but maybe someone who responds to this will know them.

Great thoughts. If you are living together, it may be hard to hide the WLS. When I came home from the hospital, I had all sorts of literature laid out about nutrition, when to call the exchange, etc. I had new types of supplements. Even months out, my vitamins have the word “bariatric” on them. As far as others, it is up to you. Whatever makes you comfortable. For me, only my husband knows. I figure that there will be ignorant people who won’t understand weight loss surgery as a medical need, and won’t take the time to learn. If I lost weight, they would think that I took the easy way out. If I didn’t lose weight, they would think that I am a hopeless glutton, that even WLS wouldn’t work. I don’t need that stress in my life. So it was easier for me not to say anything. When people comment, I talk about my diet change, which is part of the truth. GL!

If you have Amazon Kindle Unlimited there are a bunch of bariatric cookbooks you can read for free! My program says by week 3 I am to shoot for 1200 calories a day, 60 grams protein

Please be persistent in demanding additional assessment. Ask your bariatric surgeon to refer you to a general surgeon for further evaluation. You may have developed adhesions (scarring), malrotation (twisting of a segment of bowel), or an internal hernia, and your pain could certainly be of other than gastrointestinal origin. I am a former gynecological surgeon, and your complaints are absolutely NOT “par for the course”. You should consider seeing a gynecologist and having an ultrasound to evaluate your ovaries. You absolutely must get the weight loss under control. Best to you, Newbie. Keep us posted

I am 8 Almost 9 months out and I can pretty well drink the same as I did pre surgery. It gets much better as time goes by. By 3 months I could down a drink within like 5 or 10 minutes. Also I don’t think it’s a problem that you add flavoring to your water. There are those who think that artificial sweeteners are bad but I believe most bariatric programs say that they are okay. I don’t drink anything but crystal light.

My health is in the toilet, and I desperately need help and advice. RNY summer 2019, goal met in 2020, happy, maintained/healthy/active for a long while. I'm 51F btw. But since roughly March of this year I've unintentionally lost at least 50lbs while eating exact same nutrients/calories/macros/etc as my maintenance diet. I even started adding calories to try to stop it, bc my face looked awful/old. My BMI is now underweight and I look awful and ill. Also in March, the pain started. I had NO pain or issues from surgery 2019 all the way until March this year. It started as occasional lower right side abdominal pain, like a burning, hot coal sensation. Maybe 1 x a week. As the months have gone by, it increased and increased until now it's a daily agony. I wake up okay, but as the day goes on it gets worse and worse, until I go to bed with an Ambien at 7pm to escape it. (Mornings okay, it worsens as the day goes on) For many months it was bad but not so bad as to affect my calories/nutrition/appetite/etc. It's only in the past month it's gotten unbearable. (I still eat and get all my required protein/calories, I just do it earlier in the day). Trying different elimination plans didn't help btw. Then, 2 mos ago my hemoglobin went down to 8.5 despite my taking daily iron and I required 2 iron infusions to bring it up. I never had anemia since surgery until then, out of nowhere, with the same diet plan, all my vitamins, iron, etc. So here's the deal: FULL GI workup, normal, normal, NORMAL (CT, colonoscopy, upper endoscopy, CT enterography). Finally the GI doctor was like "I have no answers for your problems. Some things are just par for the course with a post bariatric patient." Verbatim (message in patient portal). No more follow-up or more testing offered. I felt slapped, I was LIVID at that message, I feel totally dismissed. This kind of suffering and drastic symptoms should NOT be "par for the course" for a 2 1/2 year post-RNY patient right? I know 2 others personally that had RNY years ago and they've never experienced anything like this. I just can't imagine this being normal! Has anyone here gone through anything like this and gotten answers and help? Or does anyone just have any ideas at all? (FYI I did see my bariatric surgeon first, a couple of months ago, he said my issues were NOT normal - this is before the GI doc. My surgeon ordered a CT but insurance denied it, which is why I went to that GI doc instead). So now I'm sitting here, suffering, deteriorating, with no answers or help in sight. :( Please please if anyone has any ideas, I'd be so grateful for some guidance here!

Agree, chewable supplements taste and feel gross to me. I had a lot of nausea and vomiting post-op (uncommon), but even from the first week, I took a 1-a-day Bariatric Pal capsule. I ordered the ones with no iron at first, and took it with a separate slow release iron pill from a pharmacy. After a few months, I was able to tolerate the ones with iron.

Try a one-per-day capsule! I use BariatricPal Multivitamin ONE "1 per Day!" Bariatric Multivitamins from https://store.bariatricpal.com/collections/bariatricpal-multivitamin-one! BariatricPal has a special offer where it'll cost you only $99 for an entire year supply! Check it out at https://store.bariatricpal.com/99 With just ONE convenient & affordable BariatricPal Multivitamin ONE each day, you can get the bariatric vitamins and minerals you need to stay healthy! BariatricPal Multivitamin ONE was designed and developed by a team of the world's leading Bariatric medical professionals. Please take a calcium supplement separately to prevent interference with absorption of iron. You can view a large selection of bariatric-friendly Calcium supplements at https://store.bariatricpal.com/collections/calcium. You can also find many other brands of bariatric multivitamins at https://store.bariatricpal.com/collections/multivitamins.

I also found it disgusting and asked for a refund from Bariatric Advantage. They gave me a refund and I ordered the capsuled from them which I use now. They are also bad tasting but you swallow them quickly and it is fine. I just could not chew that disgusting pill.

I had the RNY bariatric surgery Sent from my octopus using BariatricPal mobile app

I did not, however I do break out in hives if I take amoxicillin. Hives are generally not a big deal but they do require finding out what the allergy is and treating it as you seem to be. Normally an antihistamine should do the trick as long as you remove the allergen. The hives could be food or medicine related and have nothing to do with the surgery itself. Like any allergy you may have to write down when the hives begin to show again and track what you are consuming. I also know most bariatric patients don’t realize that there is titanium staples left in your body for life. I believe there may be minimum nickel in the staples as well which can cause allergic reactions for some. Point being, even if you locate others who got hives after surgery, it doesn’t mean their hives are from the same source as yours. Hives are a common allergic reaction, unfortunately. Best of luck!

I am just over 3 months out and most days I am able to get all of my protein from whole foods. I always eat my protein first, then veggies if I have room. At this point, I'm still not eating any starchy veggies or simple carbs, simply because I don't have room for them after my protein & fibrous veggies. Occasionally, my restriction is higher which further limits how much I can eat, or if I'm out and about, I'll drink a shake or have a protein bar, but that's definitely not the norm anymore. As for bariatric foods, I do not and have never used them. When I decided to have surgery, I committed to eating regular, whole foods as much as possible and completely get rid of "diet" foods. I don't do keto/bariatric/low carb/low fat/whatever diet foods or substitutes. I didn't have surgery to eat crappy diet food for the rest of my life; I want to eat GOOD food. Stuff that tastes good and is good for my body. That is just a personal preference though, and lots of people use bariatric foods with great success and truly enjoy them. You have to find what works for you!

Thank you so much! My surgery was 11/26. I've lost 17 pounds. I have not gotten my daily walks in like I should. I need a new hip and back surgery. But using a glider 3 days a week.fkr about 15 minutes at a time. I walk in the house and making sure I'm up every 15 minutes for some reason. I'm an older woman that's 5'3 and now 219. Nov 3rd I was 247. I lost 10 pounds before surgery. You took so much time to explain it to me thank you. I'm at another stall. And the wonderful constipated! I take the bariatric fission and have had nothing but dark green stools since surgery.. Sent from my SM-A716U using BariatricPal mobile app

I'm post op almost 5 weeks. And I have had only dark greenish black stools. Is this from the vitimans? I take the bariatric fusion Sent from my SM-A716U using BariatricPal mobile app

I saw a study that said about 10% of gastric sleeve patients seek a revision, 5% of bypass patients have a revision & 26% of lap band. In 2019 around 256 000 people had bariatric surgery: 18% had bypass. 59% had sleeve & 1% had a lap band. (Included lap band just out of interest.) Some people develop GERD after sleeve surgery (I read it was about 10% so that seems to match the above revision stats) & consequently require a revision if medication or other management options don’t work. If you already have GERD sleeve is not for you. I had reflux before my sleeve which, like @Hop_Scotch, I mostly managed with dietary choices. Still have reflux but it manifests itself differently now. Some surgeons recommend bypass to patients who have more weight to lose or who they think need extra help to loose their weight as bypass is considered the ‘stronger’ surgery. Sleeve is a less invasive surgery (fewer changes to your digestive system). Generally though the average stats on how much weight is lost with either surgery is about the same at the 5 yr mark (about 65% of the weight to be lost). Malabsorption issues & dumping are a consideration with bypass. You’ll need to continue to take vitamins & may have to adjust medications you take. Malabsorption is rarely an issue with sleeve & dumping is not common. Sleevers often do not need to continue taking vitamins (individual health issues may mean they have to). Personally I haven’t taken vitamins since goal as I absorb all I need from what I eat. Some choose to have a revision because they have had regain or want to lose more weight. Regain can occur because of complacency, bounce back weight, medication, changes to your lifestyle, job, health, etc. or sometimes just life in general which can just throw crap at you. Have a long conversation with your surgeon as to which is the best surgical option for you from a medical perspective & which can best help you achieve your goals (health, weight, lifestyle). Then you know yourself best as to which surgery best suits how you want to live your life after surgery & whether you will need the stronger surgery to get you where you want to be in the long term. All the best.

I’m 2 years & almost 8 months post surgery & I haven’t had a protein shake (or used powders) since the first day of purées. I ate ‘regular’ food from that point on. It was always my intention to get all the nutrients I needed from ‘real’ food. It can be done. I make choices based upon nutritional content of any food I buy (which isn’t a lot as I try to prep most of what I eat from scratch). I look at the protein content, sugar, carbs, fats & artificial sweeteners & make choices based on that information. Find a good high protein yoghurt & yoghurt drink (watch the added sugars or sweeteners though) to help with your protein intake especially while losing. I still count my protein every day & it is the focus of every meal I eat including all my snacks (except fruit). At the beginning when you ate eating so little it can be a challenge to get your protein in so bariatric protein enriched foods like the soup can be helpful. Have a chat with your dietician to identify high protein food options or what you can do to add extra protein. For example I made my scrambled eggs pretty milky & same with the rolled oats I ate. All the best.

Yep! My surgeon wanted me to try plant based protein powder which I never tried so I ordered a couple different flavors of Vega protein. I also ordered sample packs of ghost protein powder (chips ahoy and fruity cereal milk flavored) mixed with 8oz almond milk…. Sooo good! I ordered Bariatric fusion chewable multi vitamins and calcium which seem to work best for me. I tested a couple pills like celebrate one and they made me nauseas. You will figure out what works best for you! I found it easier to test things out before bc it can be overwhelming after and I didn’t want to try to deal with that on top of all the physical changes. Any questions at all just ask 💜