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My dietician always writes on my record "unknowledgable about eating correctly".... LOL It used to get me mad,but now I just laugh at it. Maybe she does it for insurance purposes or to justify her job ...who knows. She makes me write down everything I eat ,which has gotten to be a pain ,but I do it . It does help me keep up with my protein intake. I see her on Oct.25 of this month . I've written everything down and I've been at a stall for 3 and a half months now .I'm anxious to see what she'll say .

Honestly, this seems way off-base, with the exception of 60-80 grams protein, which is completely sufficient for most people (but not all!). Your calorie estimations are much too low for the vast majority of people in maintenance mode. So rest assured, you won't be on 650 calories for life! Also, 25g carb is extremely low carb and not a lifestyle most people are eager to embrace. If a doctor insisted on 25g carb for life as the only way to succeed, I would seek out a second opinion for sure. From what I see people saying around here, 1200 to 1500 is a much more realistic calorie range for the long term, although that is for maintenance, not for weight loss or for early days after surgery. If you eat to maintain your current weight right now, that would seem to go against your goal of losing 20-50lbs more. I have two suggestions. First, check out some bariatric cookbooks because they will tell you appropriate portion sizes for maintenance as well as give you some ideas for what types of foods to be eating. My favorite is Kristin Willard's Bariatric Meal Prep Made Easy: 6 Weeks of Portion Controlled Recipes to Keep the Weight off. She's a registered dietician specializing in bariatrics and every recipe has a gorgeous color illustration. Second, take a look at the Portion Perfection brand bariatric plate. It's kind of expensive, so you may not want to buy it, but the concept is really good. Basically it's an 8 inch plate (with a one inch rim all the way around, so a 6 inch circle of eating space). There are lines and illustrations to divide up the plate and show you where to put your foods and how much. If you're a visual person, this may really help. Other than that, you may want to check out some of the nutrition videos as well as the weekly podcast done by Dr. Matthew Weiner (Pound of Cure). I find them so insightful and he and his dietician, Zoe, are very keen on plant-based nutrition, which may be perfect for you. Edited to add: Here is a link to a dietician article about post-op goals that might help: https://www.mybariatricdietitian.com/mbd-blog/portion-sizes-after-weight-loss-surgery

Yeah, I was not told to count carbs either. Just was told to avoid pasta, bread & rice, like we usually all are, & to keep carbs lowish. I still keep my carbs lowish & still don’t eat bread, pasta or rice. I look to multi or whole grains & mostly those that are low processed (which will give you extra fibre) like traditional oats. Remember your vegetables & fruit have fibre which will compensate for having fewer carbs because you have to count whole carbs. Our bodies have different needs which is why someone may lose weight following one way of eating & someone else can’t. Low carb may work for you or may not in the long term. Now you are getting closer to your goal you can start to work out what your body needs in regards to nutrients to function effectively. What you discover can be quite interesting. I discovered I feel better with lowish carbs & very low sugar. I also feel better if I eat breakfast a little later (around 9am) after years of not eating breakfast or feeling blah if I did. Oh, yeah, you can’t break a stall. It’s a natural & important part of your weight loss. The stall will break when your body is ready & has adjusted (digestive hormones, metabolism, etc.) to meet your new needs. You’ve been putting it through a lot. Best thing is not to make changes which will stress your body more.

I'm looking forward to following your progress. My surgery is scheduled for 1/12/24 in Tijuana. Dr. Rodolfo Castillo. I found him on RealSelf.com and researched him. I'm spending 6 nights in a recovery home (Casa Linda), then a week at my Dad's in southern California. $12,699 for 360 belt lipectomy, lipo, breast lift with gummy implants. He's going to do a bbl for no additional charge if he can, but he isn't sure from my pictures if I have enough fat in the areas he is working to do a bbl. I'm planning on going back to do my inner thighs and arms. My package includes all pre-surgery tests including cardio evaluation and lab tests, all surgery expenses and 1 night at the hospital, 6 nights at the recovery house with meals and nursing 24/7, all pain meds and medical supplies, compression garments and post surgery consultations. It doesn't include transportation to/from the airport because I have family and friends in Mexico and Southern California who I will be visiting before and after who will provide that.

Since you've been doing your homework, you probably already know that your chance for any complication is just under 6% and your chance for a serious complication is about 2.5% with the RNY. On the flip side, you have about a 74% chance of curing your sleep apnea and a decent likelihood of reaching a BMI in the healthy range. I am scheduled for surgery next month, so I can't tell you about my experience with it yet. What I can tell you is why I am choosing it after almost 7 years in my hospital's non-surgical weight loss program. I am 5'6 and 49 years old, with 2 teen/tween daughters. At the start of 2017, I was 249 pounds and on blood pressure meds, no other co-morbidities. My primary care doctor referred to me to the weight management center. They said aim for 1500 calories per day, 30 minutes of exercise 5 days per week, and check in with them every month. I was motivated and started tracking my food and exercise. I went in for nutrition, psych, and medical meetings as directed. The weight came off. I was thrilled! I got down to 202 in 6 months. I was so close to being under 200, and I was certain I could easily get to at least under a BMI of 30 to no longer be "obese." Piece of cake! Or rather, some suitably healthy cake alternative. Like apples, maybe? And then I stalled for months. I never hit that magical 199 on the scale. I kept doing everything the same and my weight didn't budge. I ate a little less. I exercised a little more. I gained 5 lbs. I gained a few more. I became discouraged. Life happened. I would lose 10 lbs, gain 8, lose 5, gain 15... I tried various meds but couldn't afford them longterm. I lost health insurance for a year and couldn't afford to go to my regular check-ins, which I know were partially responsible for keeping me at least a little motivated even when the scale didn't cooperate. I got health insurance again, and went for my physical. My blood pressure had worsened and now I was prediabetic. My doctor urged me to go back to weight management. I had to wait 3 months for an appointment, and despite wanting to lose some weight in the interim (so the doctor there wouldn't be disappointed in me), I weighed in at 251, which tipped me over to 40 BMI. That was the most I ever weighed. When the doctor recommended I consider weight loss surgery, I knew that was the answer for me. One thing I learned in all this is people can lose weight, even a lot of it. The likelihood of keeping it off longterm without meds or surgery is around 10%. Between a 2.5% risk of a serious complication or a 90% chance of being obese and on blood pressure meds the rest of my life, and risking diabetes, I prefer to take my chances with the surgery. It's not the losing weight that worries me, but the keeping it off that I don't think will happen without it.

Yup! Feels like you've been on a sit-ups binge or really worked your core muscles hard! There isn't much you can do but be gentle. You can try ice if you want to, but they told me not to do heating pads over the abdomen for obvious reasons. Or you can try tylenol, sometimes it works on muscle pain. I just decided to live with it. I'm a little over 2 weeks out and the soreness is starting to fade. Hang in there!!

that's not slow at all - that's pretty average. I was about where you're at the six week mark, and I started out at almost 400 lbs. there are so many factors the affect your rate of weight loss, most of which you don't have much - if any - control over. Gender, age, starting weight, what percentage of your body is muscle, whether or not you lost a ton of weight before surgery, genetic factors, metabolic rate, etc. The only two things you do have a lot of control over is how closely you stick to your clinic's plan and how active you are. Do well with those, and the weight will come off, whether fast or slow. I considered myself a slow loser the entire time, and I lost 100% of my excess weight, over 200 lbs (I've gained a few back since then, but I'm still over 200 lbs less than when I started). don't worry about it - just stick to your plan and the weight will come off.

Hi everyone! This is my first post on the boards. I had my surgery on 10/23. I'm feeling pretty good but I'm nervous about going back to work. I know I still need to have my protein shakes throughout the day. But I guess I'm just nervous about being tempted by the things people bring in. Going back to work next week so wish me luck!

Did my shopping for my 2 week post-op diet today. Surgery is on Friday and I am so excited to get to have creamy soups after two weeks of nothing but protein shakes and jello.

Did my shopping for my 2 week post-op diet today. Surgery is on Friday and I am so excited to get to have creamy Soups after two weeks of nothing but Protein Shakes and Jello.

It took me 2 long weeks! Pretty sure I took Colace and still had to strain when going. Then another 2 weeks. It was still hard at the time to go, but soon after things went back to normal. I did have to try a home enema, but what worked best was glycerine suppositories, also Prunelax cleared me out the last time I was backed up. So much so I've been regular since.

If we are honest with ourselves, we all feared the surgery. We also feared continuing to live as a very obese person. Just because we elected to have this surgery does not mean it was more or less life saving than other emergency procedures. BUT, we are jumping into the unknown and this scares us. It will change your life. It should change your eating habits. We have had plenty to learn along the way. Am I thrilled that I overcame my fears 2 years and 2 weeks ago ? hell yes. I am half the old woman I was and have 4 times the life I used to have. You can always back out of this surgery, right up to the operating theatre doors. A few people in the forum have been honest about this. It may not be your time. If you need too, give yourself some breathing space

It usually takes about a week. It’s a slow process as the gas rises up behind your lungs & puts pressure on a nerve which causes the discomfort. The gas is then absorbed into your lungs where you breathe it out. Walk, walk, walk slow & gently for short periods of time a few times a day. March on the spot, do arm legs & slow deep breathing. Anything to get you breathing more without straining your body, damaging your sutures & staples, etc. Using heat pads can help with the discomfort. All the best.

Yeah, so I chose the RNY gp because I liked that it has a stronger metabolic impact than VSG while not being too malabsorptive like DS. Based on the risk calculator, there was a somewhat higher likelihood of addressing/resolving my hypertension and blood sugar issues, and I didn't want to risk developing GERD and requiring daily medications or a revision. I need this to be a one and done surgery if possible for financial reasons. Given that a full 20% of my surgeon's practice is revision (mostly to RNY, but they also do DS), this revision issue felt like something that is common enough with sleeve patients to give me pause. Also, my brother had the sleeve 15 years ago and while his overall weight is still well under where he began, his weight regain has been significant. I wanted the additional threat of dumping syndrome to keep me in line where sugar is concerned. And also, the more I thought about it, the more I preferred the idea of rerouting instead of removing parts of my organs. As for not telling people, I was tempted to do that, too. But the more I thought about it, the more I decided to just own it. A lot of people out there mistakenly believe obese people can "just" eat less and exercise more to lose weight and keep it off. How many of their real life examples are people who quietly got WLS and then credited their diet and exercise for their transformations? I don't want anyone using me as an example in the future to tell some other obese person what to do. Thankfully, I turn 50 in a few weeks and have therefore reached the age where I officially no longer give a fig about what anyone else thinks and am happy to direct naysayers to a wide selection of their own body orifices where they are welcome to stow their unsolicited opinions. Also, luckily, my close friends and family are very supportive, which helps immensely.

You have a great reason to get to your goal. Have the IVF team said you need to be at 175lbs ? Huge congratulations on your progress so far. You need to have a little patience now. The easy part has ended and the work begins for you. I started at a similar weight to you almost 2 years ago. I have just upped my cals from 1200 to 1500 a day. I am still loosing but at a micro pace. I had a 3.5 month stall, a stone ago. I keep thinking I am done and then chunk ! the scales go down again. If I am truly honest with myself, I love the continued weight losses but my family and friends are saying whoa stop.

TW: Mention of ED I’m about 4 weeks out from having this gastric sleeve surgery. Right now I am on the soft foods stage. I have one week of it left. When I was on the liquid diet I was craving food watching food videos and just could not wait to eat again. Now suddenly I am disgusted by all foods, and I do mean all foods even my “favorites.” I look in my fridge and most days I’m just like “I would rather not” and I have to force myself to eat but normally halfway through I’m like I can’t do this anymore. Ive also been experiencing a “twisting” feeling in my stomach when eating or drinking which is very discouraging trying to get the food down. I’ve even been doing this thing where I’ll chew something up only to spit it out. I struggled with binge eating disorder pre surgery and got treatment for it & what is making me nervous is that I heard a lot of people with anorexia/bulimia explaining their eating disorders and some of the things I’m experiencing are red flags for anorexia and I’m just afraid of going from one spectrum of eating disorders to the next. Did anyone else have this same repulsion with food? I am currently seeing a therapist and am planning to tell her all of this so I can get the help that I need. Sorry this isn’t so positive but I am just wondering if anyone else experienced this and if they had any advice or if it got better? Thank you!!

Hi, everyone, I've just caught up on posts after being away from the site for a bit. I would love to comment on everyone's posts because we're all going through such similar things. I'm really proud of us for the changes we're making. @ShoppGirl, I think you are correct about the treadmill being narrow and having to balance on it. I was shocked to find that walking on a treadmill is very different from walking on the street, but it definitely is. I have a treadmill that I walk on during meetings at work (I work from home) and that's a lot easier for me than walking on the street. But I had to set it under a stand-up desk because trying to balance on the narrow thing would be a full-time job and I couldn't pay attention in my meetings. (Also I'd probably fall off of it a lot.) My first week back to work was exhausting. I was just fried at the end of each day, even though I work from home. My hubby had his prostate out on Friday. He was able to come home the same day, which we were not expecting but it was a very nice surprise. I'm plenty recovered enough from my surgery to do stuff for him, so we're doing well. But it's obvious to me that I'm still recovering, because I get tired much more easily than pre-op. I'm proud of myself because I planned and brought protein drinks to make sure I got nutrition throughout the day. All day, I had been aware of the hospital cafeteria, which is close to the surgical waiting room, but I knew that I was not going to go in because I had no reason to. Back in the day, I would have had the perfect excuse to go nuts in there while I waited for hubby's surgery to be done! Then, since I got to take my husband home, I ended up being at the hospital later than I expected, so I had to find something to eat and ended up having to go there. So I had my first experience of eating somewhere other than home. I was able to find appropriate protein in the right amount, and that's all I had. I had my first post op visit with the PA, who told me not to worry about the fact that I don't have fullness cues. She said by 3 months it may get harder to get things down, because scar tissue hasn't formed yet, and also by 3 months, I'll have developed a much better sense of what's going on in my body. Surprisingly, she said that if I'm doing pureed easily, I could move to soft. So that was a great surprise and I'm enjoying the soft stage. I can eat more of a variety of things. It's going fine, which still bothers me because I wish I had more sense of restriction. I worry that I'm going to return to old bad habits! So I'm being careful to measure, and I tell my Baritastic app everything I'm eating! The thing I'm currently struggling with is that eating only 1/2 cup at a time, I've been eating only one thing and focusing on protein. I'm finding myself craving things like fruit and vegetables. So I had a couple florets of broccoli tonight which was great. I read a sample diet for the soft stage that had entries like, "2 bites of _______". I am going to focus on eating more fresh things, now that I understand I can just have a bit less of whatever my protein is and "2 bites" of something fresh. I'm also struggling with getting all the vitamins in, since I have to separate the calcium from the iron from the multivitamins. There are only so many hours in the day! I know others have mentioned this, so at least we're all in the same boat, and we'll figure it out. I am losing maybe half a pound a day. I know that's a lot, and I had a couple of non-scale victories the other day. I had to go in to the office for a meeting, and I put on a dress that had been too tight to wear. It fit perfectly! And the sandals I wore zip up the back. They'd been hard to zip because of my fat ankles, but now they are even a little bit loose! On paper, I've lost 30 pounds from my heaviest, but it doesn't feel or look that way to me. I'm only 5 feet, so that much weight should be quite obvious, but it isn't. That bugs me some, but I know I'm just beginning and I WILL be able to see the difference when I lose more. I'm happy that I can move around and get some exercise. I thought I'd be just weak from taking in so few calories, but I'm not. Occasionally, I'll get a little lightheaded, but it's not bad at all. I was able to do my pre-op treadmill routine (3 30-minute walks daily at 2.0 MPH, which means 3 treadmill miles a day) although I did have one day when I got a little lightheaded and had to turn down the speed just a bit. Today was the first time that I actually felt "hungry" since surgery. But it was mixed in with a desire to eat out of boredom as well as some head hunger, so I'm not quite sure what the deal was, exactly. I am trying to just pay attention to that stuff and ask myself questions about how I'm feeling, without any intention of acting on it. I think I will do better if I start eating more of a "meal" type diet with mostly protein but a little of things like vegetables and fruits, so that I have some variety and am getting in some varied nutrients from food, not just my vitamins. And yes, I STILL have a little of the sticky stuff from the hospital on my skin! What is that about?

Agreed with what the others said. Be careful lifting weight, including the grandkids, before you are ready. It just takes overdoing it once to cause a hernia, requiring additional surgery. Other than that, the movement is a good thing, but listen to when your body says its tired. Balancing exercise and rest is very important the first month or two. Would you rather have a little more rest now periodically through the day while still getting somethings done, or overdo it and force yourself into a situation where you have to have repair surgery and risk several weeks on bed rest getting nothing done in the future? To prevent overdoing it, look into the Pomodoro Technique. Basically set a timer to do a task for "x" number of minutes, and then rest for "y" number of minutes. Early on, you may want 10-15 minutes of activity followed by 30-45 minutes of rest. Then as you progress, shift more time into activity and reduce the rest time, but its most effective keeping the entire cycle under 1 hour total. As far as the internal pain goes, its likely its still gas trapped and built up. Take Gas-X, and when you're walking around, do exercises with your arms lifted or over your head. I'm not sure exactly, but it has something to do with the blood flow being distributed to all of your limbs and helping breakdown and expel the gas quicker. I would have it go from my lower left side to up in my shoulders, and it was just a discomfort I couldn't shake. That movement and the medicine helped to break it up and would give me a few hours of relief.

I'm a week out from surgery but have been having rib to back pain (maybe spasms). At first, it was if I had sipped too much liquid, but now it comes and goes on its own. Has anybody else experienced this? Is this normal? Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

My Costco keeps running out of Fairlife. I’ve been ordering from them online but it is a little bit more to have it shipped. I’ll have to try the cafe latte. I’ve been off Ozempic for a few weeks. Good news is that I haven’t thrown up for over a week a the bad news is that some of my hunger is coming back here at the end. I’m trying to drink water and remind myself I’m already down 30 pounds from this month of preop (my wife and others have made comments about looking skinnier). I’m still trying to mentally prepare for Monday. I actually read a few of the papers my surgeon wrote about bariatric surgeries and his view on the process. It was interesting. Tomorrow is my last day of work and I just want to get to it.

Thanks for all the replies, everyone. On the advice of my therapist and my surgeon's nurse practitioner, I stepped away from bariatric social media for a bit before my revision. The surgery went OK - it did take 6 hours, as my surgeon found a considerable amount of irregular tissue on my sleeved stomach that had to be removed and biopsied. Thankfully it turned out to be benign - probably was scar tissue from my sleeve surgery. I did have more pain and nausea immediately after surgery this time than the first time around and ended up staying a second night in the hospital until that was under control. It got much easier from there, and I only took 2 of the oxycodone they sent home with me (right before bedtime on the first two nights at home), and then minimal Tylenol for the next few days. I've been able to get all my fluids and protein in from the start. Pain is now minimal, my incisions are healing well. I'm starting to get my energy back albeit slowly. I'm now on soft foods and have tolerated each new food I've introduced without any problems, My biggest issue is constipation - I don't remember it being this bad after my sleeve. I'm using Colace, Benefiber, and Miralax. I wish I could drink coffee, that would help! 😫 My surgeon also left my pouch a little on the larger side, saying she doesn't want me to lose TOO much weight. I'm pretty disappointed about that, since I had 40-50 pounds to lose. I'm definitely already on the upper end of the amount I'm supposed to be eating at this point - 4oz. per meal (3oz. protein + 1oz. fruit/veg). I am down about 10lbs since surgery at 3 weeks post-op and just got back out of the OBSESE category. Hopefully I'll continue to lose at least something over the next few months.

I had my surgery July 4th and the good news is that I am down 60lbs but the bad news is that I ended up between July 3rd and Nov 1st spending 12.5 weeks in hospital with complications following the surgery. I had pancreatitis and then also got infections as the surgery didn't completely close my stomach so I ended up with a small hole. Ended up having a number of gastroscopes, tubes fitted to my stomach and back to drain the infection and now have an internal tube fitted in my stomach, which will eventually (I hope) make its own way out as my stomach heals. Had really bad reflux until about two weeks ago when I started taking tablets with simeticone so it has eased considerably. Still in pain often, feels like my stomach is either bruised or pulled muscles. It is great to have lost the weight, especially as the hospital had me on feeding tubes with nutrients etc., but at the present time I feel like I would not recommend this surgery to anyone unless it was life or death. I lost the last few months of my life basically and know that the trauma is effecting me, can't sleep much (partly due to the pain and partly due to not being able to shift the hours the nurses would wake me), feel exhausted and also feel a bit weepy at times.

I’ve had the gastric sleeve January of 2015, gained a good amount of my weight back. Decided to take another approach and do it RIGHT this time around. 2 week pre op was tough but possible.. Now I’m post op 11/9/23 I had the switch. Thanks god everything went well! Just here with some pain and anxious to start my next phase :puréed 🤮

Oh yes, the letdown or after effect of all the craziness. All the fear and anxiety about the surgery, the relief of getting back to normal and feeling more normal again, can feel like depression, or just wading through quicksand, teary and easily emotional. You have been on a such a roller coaster for a while now and it's just stopped and returned to the station. You are likely just letting down your guard because everything is okay and now the emotions that stayed under the surface are coming up. Honor your body for the journey it has taken and survived, honor your self for being so resilient and steadfast, pamper yourself and do all the little things that feel cherishing like extra sleep, foot baths with spa treatment, comfy clothes and cheerful movies, music that makes you feel good, books that make you think. Anything that feels good, and just give it time and know that it will ease once you've felt the feelings and let them go. If it lasts more than 2 weeks or gets worse, or severe, please contact your team and let them know, they will likely have resources for you, in fact, no reason to wait if your team has a psychologist you feel comfortable with, go ahead and talk to them. It would likely be very helpful. Take care.

I feel you!! I started all liquids today after two weeks of a modified pre-op diet. I'll be on all liquids until the surgery and for a few weeks afterwards so I might as well get used to it! This is gonna take a bit of willpower...