Search the Community

I remember my hands especially were so puffy with fluid. It took over a week just to get back to my day of surgery weight because of all the fluid. But you're still losing fat even if the scale doesn't show it, so don't worry!

It’s been ok, I’m ready for puree stage next week. I want something different to eat. Good luck to you with surgery, let me know if you have any questions

The period pants remind me a bit of adult nappy pull-ups @ShoppGirl but I’m hoping they’ll be more comfortable and less bulky than pads. They say you bleed for about a week like a normal period after the hysterectomy but I guess with all things it could be longer or shorter or heavier or lighter than they say because what the hell is a ‘normal’ period. The surgeon actually says to bring your own pads for after they remove the plug of wadding they insert after they remove everything (my friend described the plug as the biggest tampon and it hurt like hell to remove it - yikes). Yes, the wounds will be lower: one just above each hip bone, one above the pelvic bone & one in my poor belly button (that will make three there - but worried about scar tissue with that more). Thanks for the Amazon ice pack tip just in case.

@melissa i am on a low fat high protein (definition-eat nothing) for two weeks. I am struggling and its only day 4.

I live in a rural area. I too hate the gym but love walking. I get out at least 3 times a week, I need the alone time. I come home refreshed and ready for anything the family can chuck at me. I also work 1 day a week in a Charity Shop and oh boy this is physically hard work ! I come home battered after 9 hours there. Whole body and mind exercise This is all I did for weight loss and how I maintain

Hey there @Star1234 ... I think a lot depends on your starting weight and BMI and your goal weight and BMI. I'm nearly 4 months out and have lost 21.9kg and have 15kg left to go until I hit my goal but I've been pretty much stalled for the last 3 weeks.

I am sure you have just reached a stall period, don't let it worry you, EVERYONE has gone through it, or is going through it, as it is raised as a topic here every few days it feels like. Your body is trying to adjust to the new you, new routines etc. so even if the scale has stalled (or even goes up a bit) you may be loosing inches etc. Over the last year I have had a few stalls and it is frustrating but part of the process. It also gets harder/slower as you get closer to your natural weight as there is less to loose. When it has happened I have upped my exercise (an extra walk or longer walk, more time in the pool etc.) to try and give the body a little nudge to get loosing again not sure if it helps or not but makes me feel better. Try not to stress and just keep up the positive changes you have made. It is seriously not that long into this part of your journey.

Hello! Thank you for posting here as well! I'm scheduled to have my 'virgin SADI/sleeve' on Monday morning and I was SO happy to read your post so I could get a realistic idea of what my life will be like post-surgery. I hadn't gotten much feedback yet on what to expect after a couple of years and had only read that the malabsorption would diminish after 18 months. Your experience seems to match up with that pretty closely. I've got the same three week diet guidelines to follow post-op; do you remember any particular foods that gave you trouble as you were adjusting to life post-op initially? Or do you have any suggestions on what to start with in the soft food week? For the liquid diet I've almost entirely relied on shakes and a few helpings of sugar free jello. Today I got some zero sugar yogurt and added that, and had a sugar free popsicle. I know that I'll have to be eating / drinking room temperature for at least the first week if I remember right.

I am about 18 months post gastric bypass surgery. For about the last three months I have developed a condition where one or both of my eyes sting between 5 and 7 pm each evening for a period of about five minutes. At first, I thought perhaps I had something on my hands and I had touched my eyes and it had caused them to sting, however it happens without touching my eyes. It's the same kind of sensation as having sweat in your eyes. However, I'm not sweating. One thing that I have noticed is that in the evenings if I touch my forehead my skin feels very oily. So I do wonder if perhaps my eyelids could also be getting oily and therefore getting the oil onto my eyeballs. I have tried eyedrops for Dry eyes but they don't seem to work. The only relief I get is actually by rubbing my eyes, which when I was growing up my parents told me not to rub my eyes. But it does seem to give me a relief and it seems to make the sting go away faster. Has anyone else experienced anything like this?

Congrats on your success so far and it is a big plus in understanding your struggles to be able to work on them. Glad the Euros kept you distracted through the first few weeks. A year out I find that my eyes are still bigger than my stomach and it takes me having to really think about it sometimes to realise I am full. Another win you will be able to add to your list soon is that when you go out for meals you will probably be able to bring enough leftovers home to do a few meals 😀Two weeks ago a work lunch in the local Chinese meant I brought home enough from my one duck & rice dish to do another two lunches, three dinners and even my cat got a bit.

I've often thought of moving there, or the South East coast, but the house insurance rates in Florida have made me think twice and three times about it. I've seen insurance rates as high or higher than the mortgage each month! Wowsa! I'd still love too..but dang I don't know how ppl do it.

I pureed many different family dinners - just whatever was being made for everyone else! I loved them because they smelled and tasted of actual food after 4 weeks on nothing but protein shakes. They're not for everyone though - mine were smooth baby food texture and lots of people just don't like that. I still used shakes to meet my protein goals for those 2 weeks, or at least get close.

I've had this happen! My body seems to have some set points it is familiar with and I have noticed myself stalling at them or at least holding there for a week or two. My first stall post-op lasted 6 weeks and was at around the same weight I got to when I took Saxenda. I hope your stall is gone and over WAY before then!! It is interesting that your body picked that spot to stall at. I really wonder if the body has a variety of set points within it as opposed to just one. The way I understand it is that stalls mean our body has reached the point that we've lost enough it needs to reassure itself we aren't starving to death. So it stops weight loss, recalibrates, and assesses things before moving forward. It makes sense to me that for some of us this may happen at previous points of stalling or previous weights we stayed at for a while...

I've been surprised by my lack of constipation. I was so prepared for it to happen that I ordered the biggest value container of Miralax to keep on hand... and I used it twice in a year. I am regular like clockwork and have been since about the second month or so. BUT, I have had the vomiting I mentioned in another post, which I wasn't really prepared to have happen. I have been surprised by how different it feels to eat different types of foods in various quantities. For example, if I eat 3oz of chicken or beef, I'm very full and sometimes can't finish it or have more than a bite of a side dish. But I can eat a very large salad or other non-starchy veggies and it doesn't make me feel stuffed. A few bites of bread can sit really heavy but I can eat crackers without feeling that way at all, where I would have assumed they would be about the same. Also surprising is that what you eat, how much you exercise, and how much weight you lose in a week do not necessarily go hand in hand the way you think they will. Some weeks you will drop several pounds, other weeks you will not lose an ounce. You can do exactly the same thing both weeks. Your body will do what it wants. Beyond making good choices and sticking with a healthy lifestyle you can sustain (longterm sustainability is the MOST important thing), there's not much you can do to make a meaningful difference in how much weight you lose and how quickly.

I am one week post op and an STRUGGLING to get water in. I’m not worried about food just yet, so just nibbles throughout the day, but I’m forcing water and still can not get my recommended 64. Help!!!

Sorry @BlueParis! Stalls suck balls! I hate them too. 😘

Congrats and my very best wishes to you! Today is my first day of the 2-week pre-op liquid diet. Hope all continues to go well in your recovery. Keep us posted!

@ShoppGirl my biggest incision is kind of dented in also. My surgeon said it will flatten out. It is also where they removed my stomach. Steristrips: I did not have them, or staples. My incisions all have stitches and a strange purple glue covering them. It is slowly wearing off. Food: We had a vegetarian potluck at work today and I did have a small teaspoon of ranch dip, one bite of a very spicy hummus, and a bite of a veggie meatball. I knew I could tolerate the food and did not want to punish myself by not having anything. Today I am 3 weeks and 2 days post-op and wore jeans for the first time. Not the brightest idea but I survived the day. LoL going to change as soon as I get home. I have lost 16 pounds since my surgery day. I am a slower loser and have had a couple of 3 day stalls. I like to weigh daily to see if a certain food or activity affects my weight loss. It also keeps me accountable. I know this may not be good for all people. I can’t wait for my 6 week checkup so I can be cleared to go to the gym. We have a large department move at work coming up in a couple of weeks and know that may pose some problems with my weight restrictions. Hope everyone is doing well and it seems like we are progressing along from all the posts. Keep up the good work. We’ve got this!

I was one of those "model patient" presenters at my clinic for the three years before COVID! I loved doing that! I had a partner - a VSG patient (I was RNY). I'd had a stricture at four weeks out - she never had any complications. I'm hoping we didn't sound too "vanilla" - but neither one of us had any issues (other than my stricture - which is a mild issue and very easily fixed). We were both super happy with our surgeries and both lost a ton of weight (she lost 100 lbs, I lost over 200). Although I think people found us entertaining (we were quite a pair!) and most groups asked us lots of questions. We always told the groups about the three-week stall (since it happens to almost everyone, and very few clinics mention it to their patients, so people freak out when it happens to them). Also told them about how we ate a month out, a few months out, a year out (our clinic's plan wasn't low-carb, like many of them are - it was balanced - although even given that, the typical eating YOUR presenter does sounds carb-heavy even to me). We mentioned how we typically eat when we're at a restaurant. Talked about the extra skin (my partner even lifted her shirt to show them her extra skin). Also talked about our experience with hair loss (since extra skin and hair loss are huge concerns among pre-ops). Also talked about constipation (we both have chronic constipation) and how we deal with it. And how we dress to "hide" all the extra skin (although I've since had mine removed). We always mentioned how most people lose their interest in food and hunger for several months after surgery, and how they should milk that for everything it's worth since it's way easier to lose weight when you don't give a flip about food. Basically stuff they likely would not have picked up during the classes they had with dietitian and the health psychologist. when I went through the classes in 2015, the presenter was kind of underwhelming, like yours. I'm sure he would have answered some of the questions we addressed when we were presenters, but he didn't, and the "students" wouldn't necessarily know enough at that point to even know what to ask. Shelli and I decide early on to talk about the issues they SHOULD ask about, but wouldn't know to. P.S. now I'm sitting her wishing I was still doing that - it was great fun! But COVID hit, so everything went online, and they didn't have the "model patient" class. Since everything is in person again, they may have some people doing it, but the two of us are pretty far out now (nine years), so they may have gotten people who had their surgeries just a year or two ago.

you might just be in a long-ish stall. You should be losing even at 1000 calories a day, so unless you're undercounting, you're probably in a long stall. I'd give it another week or two.

Yep, yep, yep! I had pcos (I say had because I had a total hysterectomy including my ovaries removed and am on hormones now) and would gain 3-5 pounds EVERY SINGLE TIME I would hit a stall. And every time I hit a stall, it lasted longer and longer. And then when it would break, I would drop like 5-7 pounds all at one time. It's normal, and sucks, and frustrating.

What else are you having ? I start soft on three days

Hey there! I'm glad you did see some benefits from the stall. My dietician told me that would happen. The scale will stall, but our bodies will still lose inches. I'm doing well here. Nothing much new, really. It's so freaking hot out, and while I can handle it a bit better than I did with 50+ more pounds on me, it's still miserable. Especially the horrible humidity we get here. My birthday was last week, and my hubby and I ordered me an Electric Bike! It won't be here for a while, but I won't really ride it until it cools off outside anyway. We are building a new home and will be moving in about a year and a half, and that's when I really want it. We will live where it's more conducive to riding. We live on a mountain right now, and I'm not sure I'll be able to ride it down the hill. I'll try! Hope everyone else is doing well!!

I think I was just so happy to be out of the stall, that the possibility of going back into it a week later sucked the spirit out of me. I didn't have the emotional energy in me to even feel properly upset -- or maybe, some part of my brain is trying to protect me from that? But clearly I am still having the feelings somewhere deep down -- cause last night, man, the nightmare I had about anxiety and eating half a box of Fruit Creme Peek Freans in the dark. I've gotten through enough mental health issues in the past that the logical part of my brain knows I'll get through this kind of shut-down phase, but sometimes its just harder to waddle through the mire.

Coloxyl is a stool softener. A bottle has had a regular place in my bathroom cabinet since my sleeve - LOL! I’m going to take another one (not doing two again 😱) tonight @Spinoza as there was nothing again today. I only took one in the past if I hadn’t gone for two or three days and that would be enough to get things soft and moving again but two is obviously too much and cleans me out. Probably why I haven’t been for two days - had nothing left.