Search the Community

Curious to hear what people who had surgery in December 2023 are eating or what you ate when you were 5 weeks out? Sticking to protein and veggies?What is your general calorie consumption?

I can relate to the acid reflux issue due to having a hiatal hernia too. I was daily suffering with it for years until WLS. My stomach was also pushed up through my diaphragm. Docs found the hernia during pre-op testing and repaired it the same day as my RNY. I think your doctor was hoping by fixing your hernia, it might take care of your reflux along with you losing the abdominal weight from the sleeve surgery. I also carried the majority of my excess weight around my midsection and was told that my reflux was because excess fat was pushing food back up into my esophagus. That was before they discovered I had the hernia. But both problems contributed. After losing over 100 pounds, I'm finding that even though I am losing weight all over, my stomach is still the last place it is coming off. Very frustrating but I still have 40 lbs. to lose. And that's where it is sitting. I chalk it up to genetics. Sadly, the hernia repair didn't take care of your reflux and the sleeve is notorious for causing it. Even in those that never had it. One of the reasons I opted for the bypass and haven't had reflux since. As for your weight loss stall, maybe try backing off from hard workouts unless you are getting an adequate days rest in between. Increased levels of cortisol can cause abdominal weight gain. I lost all my weight from leisurely walking outdoors 2-3 miles 5-6xs a week.. GL. Your pics look great.

I would second the idea of trying warm liquids - I found it much easier to hit my fluid targets this way. Have you thought about VLCD-type soups? They are high protein (because they're intended to contain a whole day's requirement in 3 servings). Alternatively greek yoghurt/skyr or protein yoghurts? One tub of the latter has 20g protein and I could usually manage one in two or three sittings at your stage. I also quite enjoyed the pureed food phase, although there's no way I would have come anywhere close to my protein goals on the volume I could manage a month post op. There are so many things to juggle with your new stomach. The first few weeks can be difficult, and we worry about everything at the start. I think you'll relax into it and be absolutely fine. Keep trying your best and asking for advice - there are so many people here with loads of experience to share.

I follow all WLS guidelines so what does any of that really matter. I am allowed to eat some carbs as it’s limited and I don’t weigh my food. I use a small plate and I know what my measurements are. I do drink 30 minutes before and after. If I want sugar I’ll eat it within my own guidelines since I’m working out and that’s only once a month cravings. I’m only 5’3 and carry my fat in my belly. My surgeon has no problem with my stall since I workout 4-5x a week. I’m more worried about the daily medications I take for GERD for the past 13 yrs which isn’t good. They have me on 2 acid reflux pills and antibiotics so idk if that’s an issue too. I can lose weight I’ve always been thin all my life except after having my last baby which caused my hernia and issues; by then I couldn’t exercise no more gained weight plus perimenopause belly weight gain on top of that has been hard. The first pic on top was 1 yr before surgery the second pic is recent on new years.

The guidelines lines I’m referring to are : Limiting sugar intake to 5g or less per serving, protein forward meals, limiting carbs and fats. Separation of meals and drinks (30 min rule), limiting calories from drinks, etc. (I’m sure others can chime in with more Bariatric specific rules that they were given to follow). What is your doctors recommendations now that you have stalled? How tall are you? What does your exact calorie intake look like weekly? Do you accurately track it or eyeball the amounts? Have you used any online calculators to figure out your BMR, visceral fat, lean muscle mass, etc? These can help you figure out your excess body weight . Also InBody and DEXA scans will tell exactly how much excess fat you are carrying.

Just by way of alternatives: My plan never included protein drinks. I'm one of those folks that gets their protein from "food." Google it if necessary. My plan from day 1 was/is 3 meals per day of 3-4oz protein + 1oz veggies. First 6 weeks it was pureed. Granted, I never completed a meal until about 5 or 6 months post-op, but I did the best I could and my team was happy with that. At any rate, just a different take on the whole protein thing. Good luck, Tek

We all need to be a drama queen some times. 😉 But it’s pretty common & understandable that you might have some trepidation. As you said you’ve never had this surgery or any major surgery before. Fear of the unknown. Perfect opportunity for some drama & attention seeking - LOL! Write down any questions you may think of & ask when you have your appointment next week. Hopefully that will help ease some of your nerves & clarify what you should/might expect. All the best.

No one tells you really how difficult it is to get in your protein post op. I am unable to drink the required Protein Powder it makes me sick to my stomach. Everything protein powder, protein water, protein yogurt seems to all have a chalky aftertaste. Can you guys give any suggestions or highly recommended products to get in protein that don’t taste chalky and disgusting ? Most ready made shakes taste overly sweet to me now . One month post op next week surviving on water, Jell-O, pudding and broth.

At 5 weeks post op I was just having 3 teeny tiny meals and lots of fluids. When you say you *want* a snack in between meals do you mean that you fancy something in particular (head hunger) or that you can't distract yourself from proper hunger with fluids or random activities, or that even if you do that you still feel proper hunger? 5 weeks would be super early for proper hunger to return! In any case, and to answer your original question - I stuck rigidly to the 30m before *and* after rule for about 18 months. I found after that that I could drink right up to the point of eating so I relaxed that part. However I still wait for more than an hour after eating before I drink fluids. It seems to prolong my satiety. Best of luck - I hope you can find your way through.

I only had that machine attached until that night because it broke, then I just rotated my legs/ ankles and moved my toes. i still was wearing the compression socks though but the following day after surgery I took them off. i work with doctors and I went in 6 days post op and he looked at my incisions etc and felt ny legs to make sure everything was okay and it was so unless you had any health issues that they recommended you to continue using them I have no idea why 2 weeks post op? they want you up and moving for that purpose as well

My god that is terrible and I wish you all the best. I had sleeve surgery in 2023 and had side effects but nothing to that extent and I am not sure what was due to possible hospital errors or just bad luck for me. I ended up with severe pancreatis and then infections because of a hole in my stomach. The hospital tried a few attempts of clipping the hole but that didn't work and now I have a coil/tube in the hole to hopefully have the hole heal around it over the next few months. If that doesn't work I may have to get bypass. I spent three months in hospital instead of just the one expected night, some for weeks on a feeding tube , had to get a transfusion and a lot of antibiotics. I am suffering severe exhaustion, not sleeping well and at times feeling quite down. I can't walk far without feeling weak and if I do something one day (like go to supermarket) I need the next day to recover. At times I question if I would have been better going down the medication route, but as I don't have diabetes and there are no studies yet available on how the injections impact long term I thought surgery was the safer bet, I really doubt that now. I still get stomach pains at times and I honestly don't know if that is due to the surgery complications or if everyone gets them. I nearly called for an ambulance on new years day I was in so much pain. I keep trying to be strong for my family, as they don't live in the same country as me and get very worried, but I find it is adding to my exhaustion. Some days I just have a bit of a cry as I feel there is no-one to compare myself to and it is all such an effort.

I actually did the math and took it to my surgeons office asking exactly how did they expect me to do it!? I further explained I'd have to drink right up to bedtime and sleep was just as important in the healing process, so if I drank just before bed..I'd be getting up several times in the night. I was told they "know right out of surgery there is no way to get in the entire water requirement." They just want you to try. My math (basic because I suck at math): Average "day" (excluding time for activities you can't be actively drinking water i.e. driving, showering, different tasks at work): 12 hours No drinking water 30 mins before and after and during a meal: 90 mins+- 90 x 3= 270/60 = 4.5 hours per day you aren't allowed to drink 12 hrs a day +- - 4.5 can't drink. = Leaves you 7.5 hours to get down 60+-oz each day 7.5 hours to get down 60oz each day @ 2oz. max each "drink" = .12 to get your sip in. In other words not real easy or possible if you also add nauseous! This isn't taking into consideration snacks (which I didn't do and still don't). Needless to say they found me funny. I wasn't going for "funny!" Said they'd never had a patient break it down before. I told them I'm a Histologist who manages a laboratory measuring in microns/millimeters/centimeters etc. everyday what did they expect?.. Perhaps they should have done the math before asking patients to do something! I asked who has time for that!? That's when they said to work up to it, its not expected for awhile, to just try..its a goal to shoot for. Eventually you'll be able too. So no worries, just do the best you can! 😆

I definitely understand. Mine will be two weeks after yours, and I also have my final meeting with the surgeon on Jan 23. It's a big step, and it's a good sign you're not taking it lightly. Is there anything specific that scares you, or just the whole situation? The only time I've ever had a surgery or anesthesia was when I had my wisdom teeth out. It's definitely a good cause for some nerves, but don't let yourself get freaked out!

I had revision May2023 due to stage 2 esophagitis the herd was extremely bad. Since May I’m down 74 lbs it’s definitely much different from the sleeve . I HAVE NO HEARTBURN!. I went to a new dr for this and his program has helped me tremendously. I just stick to their guidelines and exercise 4-6 days a week.

I recently got diagnosed with stage 1 type 3 Lipedema 1.5 years after my VSG. The reason that pushed me to explore because I had lost weight all overall but my legs didn’t change much compared to the drastic changes I had in the rest of my body. The pain, heaviness and bruising I had before surgery continued. I had originally thought it was related to my weight. My surgeries are booked with a Specialist Lipedema Surgeon, they will take place later this year (hopefully all goes according to plan). I was wondering if anyone else is going through this too? I would love to hear anything you would like to share.

I am five weeks post op and finally starting to feel hungry enough to want a small snack in between lunch and dinner. I was wondering if you enforce the no-drinking 30 mins before/after rule with small snacks. I've been holding firm to the rule and totally understand the rationale behind it, but it definitely is making it hard for me to reach my water goals. I have no problem drinking, but having to give up 1.5 hours of drinking time per meal really adds up! It seems like giving up another ~1.5 hours for a snack just isn't worth it. How do you handle drinking around snacks? TIA!

Yes, pre existing gerd is a hard no for sleeve in almost all cases. Sleeve won’t fix it & will likely make it worse necessitating a 2nd surgery to convert to bypass. I had reflux/gerd before my sleeve. The only reason my surgeon decided to proceed with a sleeve was because my reflux was mild & I managed it for years with dietary choices. I only took meds a couple or so times a year. If it was more severe, & I needed regular medication, he wouldn’t have done it. My reflux is worse & I take meds every day which manages it but the symptoms are different. We have similar stats in regards height & I had a similar starting weight (200lbs). Having reflux didn’t hinder my weight loss. Plus I’m menopausal (perimenopause & menopause was when I put on the bulk of my weight & pushed me to obesity). I lost all my weight plus more & have kept it off. And I wasn’t active at all Lol! Avoid comparing your rate of weight loss with anyone else. We all lose at our own rate & what is best for us & our body. Comparing usually leads to frustration & worry. Have you met with your dietician recently & gone through your meal tracking? There may be something you’re missing or need or don’t need. A stall of more than a month isn’t common. Try to increase your fluid consumption. You should aim for 64oz or likely more as you say you are very active. And yes, while muscle weighs more than fat it’s not that much more. Say a container of fat weighs 1kg. The same container of muscle weighs 1.2kg so we only talking ounces of difference. Have you been taking body measurements to better understand where you might be in regards to muscle growth?

I am a Gerd patient and got the sleeve Sept 5, 2023. My HW 210, SW 206, CW 180. I hit the plateau in November 2023 and havent lost any weight since. I did have GERD previously before the surgery with a hiatal hernia 2cm; but, my stomach was literally stuck in my chest since 2008. I was told by my surgeon that GERD patients have a harder time losing weight. I workout 4 days hard since 3 weeks after surgery, I still watch what i eat as a GERD patient not weight loss. I want to know if anyone is going through this stall as well. I've seen videos of people around 240lbs weighing 120 6m after surgery.To me that is crazy, I do eat carbs but its limited and I still keep my protein intake above 90g daily. I do track my meals and i'll have days ill eat 1000 cal or below and sometimes as high as 1200 cals. I do drink about 48 oz of water sometimes less or more. When will my plateau stop or is it cause i am building my muscle fast; I was never obese just in my belly that is my issue. the left pic is 1 yr before surgery and the pic on the right is 4 months after surgery

Wow! 65lbs is awesome. I had RNY on Oct 23. I am down 42lbs. I have had complications and my surgeon was not listening to me. I get five hour stomach aches if I try to eat food. They just sent me for a barium swallow test and sure enough… I have a stricture. Stenosis (narrowing) of the passage that leads from the stomach to the intestine. So this gets blocked and food cant get through easily. They have put me back on fluids and puree and I am absolutely miserable. I would give anything to be able to just eat food again. I go next Wed for the procedure to try to open the passage. They insert a balloon during an endoscopy and try to stretch the passage open. Im hopeful but they told me it may need to be done several times over a few months for it to work. It sounds like you are able to eat much more than most of the folks I see posting on the fb surgery weightloss support groups. If you are super active working 50 hours then maybe you can burn it off and be ok. Stalls are normal. Everybody says that. I even have them and Im literally eating no food. You would think I would be losing way more. Nope. My body wants to hold it. I track my measurements though because I did notice that even when the scale doesnt go down… the measurements are going down. There is a really cool and inexpensive tape measurer that works with an app. I got that and it tracks the measurements for me. Its all digital. I love it! Check out the app. It’s called Renpho Health. Maybe tracking measurements will make you feel better when that azzhole of a scale aint budging. lol Best of luck to you.

Hello everyone. Hope you are all doing well. My journey is still a bit confusing. So overall, I’m doing great. Down 65 pounds since my surgery on Oct 9th. Thing is, I was down 55 pounds after the first six weeks. And only lost 10 pounds this past six weeks. Keep hitting frequent stalls every couple weeks. Trying to keep getting my protein in. Biggest thing that puzzles me is the amount I can eat. Unless I strictly measure my portions, I’m able to eat a lot more than I feel I should be able to. For example, I can eat 10 grilled chicken nuggets in about 15 minutes. Also can drink about 10 ounces of water at a time. I had RNY surgery btw. My surgeon looked puzzled when I told him this, but then just blew it off. He told me I should be eating 4-5 bites per meal. Yeah right. More like 15-20 bites unless I strictly measure it out. But let’s face it, that’s not always possible when I work 50+ hours a week. Oh and my hair is starting to fall out. Apparently it’s normal for RNY patients around 3 months. They have assured me it will grow back later. Sure hope so. But otherwise I feel great, moving much better and no more plantar fasciitis or knee pain. How is everyone else doing?

Day and night 5, Food and Meds The website said everyone speaks English, but 2 of 3 assigned to me don't speak much of it. We use Google translate, which is close enough to get it across. I didn't take a shower yesterday because I didn't like being helped with it and I figured since I sat in bed all day, at worse, I had a few crumbs. I suggest you do shower every day to keep an eye on your incisions. The really itchy spot turned out to be a blister. I've never been alergic to tape, but I have a couple blisters under the tape they used to hold gauze on.I'm able to get in bed without hurting now. I'm hoping it isn't just because I'm on pain meds. Starting day 3, I've been walking 2 or 3 times a day for a few minutes. Today, I walked for 15 minutes. Needless to say, I walk slow and hunched over. They gave me compression socks at the hospital, and I thought I put them in my bag when I got dressed, but I didn't. I tend to sleep most of the day and work and watch TV at night and go to sleep for the night after midnight meds. Before coming, I sent them dietary needs and asked if I could bring my own breakfast. I told them I'd had gastric sleeve and can only eat 6oz at a time, and no eggs or seafood. Unless you are adventurous or bring your own food as a backup, I suggest you be specific as to what you want to eat. I've had chicken or turkey, potatoes and salad 3 times (OK); soup 3 times, veg, chicken veg with barley, and veg with a big meatball (OK); tostados with weird stuff on it twice (not OK); I'm missing one meal, I think I told them I wasn't hungry and they asked if I'd like ice cream (I said yes and they brought a small bowl). For breakfast they make what I brought for breakfast, protein oatmeal and add a scoop of collagen with the added missing amino acid (they always use too much water). In addition to the oatmeal and collagen protein powder, I brought cheese and crackers, pure Protein Protein bars, and beef jerkey (I'm a rebel. It's low in fat, high in protein, low calorie, I spit out gristle, and if they ever have to cut a ball of gristle from my stomach then I'll give up beef). In the hospital, my doc gave me meds. The 2 antibiotics were to be taken every 8 hours, but not together and with food. The pain pills was take #1 and if it isn't enough take #2 2 hours later. #3 was only 3 pills and were the strongest and only to be taken at night if the pain was excruciating. I turned them over to the nurse at the house. They give me both #1 and #2 pain pills every time (6am, 8am, 2pm, 4pm, 10pm, midnight). I didn't object because I want to be as pain free as possible and they don't make me fuzzy). When they wake me up at 6am they give me fruit or peanut butter toast so I have something in my stomach. They don't bring food at the other times, but they know that I eat my snacks between meals.

25th for me, this time next week I will be at the hospital

I won't be at three months until the end of January, but I am in a stall (two weeks now). I have been at the same weight (give or take a few ounces) since January 3. It is really frustrating, but expected. I have done really well otherwise. I have not cheated and sailed through the holidays (and Disneyland) without being tempted (well, I was tempted but did not give in). I am very proud of that (and my daughter has been making bread, cookies and muffins weekly--I have not had any of it). I think I am a slow loser, but am happy with what I have lost up until the stall. I need to drink more water and exercise more (though the last week we have had ice storm upon ice storm), but am getting in the protein. I am trying to concentrate on how to get a variety of healthy foods as opposed to eating the same thing. I also need to meal plan more. Is anyone tired. I get enough sleep but sometimes feel my energy is low. Anyone else having issues with that? I hope everyone is doing well. I too am curious to hear how everyone is doing.