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A perspective on what it is like YEARS after gastric sleeve. I was sleeved in January 2018. Start weight was 265 lb, and I am now 174lb. I wanted to get to 160, but haven't got there. I am 5ft 9. Am I glad I did it? I'm conflicted on this. It's SO permanent. I get very tired of not being able to eat a normal size meal. Going out to eat is expensive and frustrating, cause I can only eat about 1/4 of what is on my plate. Cooking seems to take away any appetite I might have (it's like the smell kills my appetite), so by the time I am ready to serve a meal to my family, I cannot eat a bite. I still suffer nausea and vomiting, yes even 6 years down the track. Even if its just dry retching and there is nothing in my stomach. I suffer from reflux which I never had prior to surgery, so I take a PPI every day. I also take vitamins, because my food intake is so tiny. But a lot of the time, I throw them back up. I am chronically anaemic due to lack of red meat or substantial leafy greens. The only thing that seems to help is to take tiny sips of iced water to try and settle the retching. Eating a small meal can take an hour, because I have to wait for my stomach to empty before I can take another bite. Eating sugary or carbohydrate foods makes me sweaty and shaky, and I still battle bouts of dumping syndrome (I am not diabetic). I suffer from irritable bowel syndrome due to the surgery, and I burp lots! Hardly ever prior to surgery. This is all awkward in company for lunch or dinner, and I don't feel I want to announce to all dinner companions (who may just be friends of friends) about my surgical history! I have lost 90 lbs, dropped 3 dress sizes, but if I had my time over, I wish I could have lost the weight through diet and exercise. I really do. So just know... there is no going back from this surgery. It's totally permanent.

First congratulations on your life changes and healthy goal achievements! I very much enjoy working out and being active too. Just don’t trust whole heartedly what sport devices say word for word. They are really tracking trends and general steps. They tend to overstate actual calories burned. They also don’t account for older-than-50 bodies that burn calories far more efficiently. Several things could be at play so you will still have to do your detective work. Try talking with your dietitian or nutritionist. You may need more protein. You might be triggering your body into starvation mode too, and need to slightly increase your food intake. Make sure you aren’t coming down with a cold that increases inflammation like Covid. Are you getting 7 hours of sleep per night regularly? Is your bloodwork good? Taking probiotics? I stalled at the same time and found my bloodwork was off. But, I also talked with my surgeon who “walks his talk.” He suggested switching up my workouts. I used to live for the weightlifting high, but only lift 2 days a week now. I do more outdoor activities like rowing, biking, and hiking. Walking with poles burns far more calories. I’ve rediscovered walking with all my daily water in a backpack ups my morning walk too. Two years out I’m still finding my balance of food to exercise and still loosing weight. You’ll find it too.

First congratulations on your life changes and healthy goal achievements! I very much enjoy working out and being active too. Just don’t trust whole heartedly what sport devices say word for word. They are really tracking trends and general steps. They tend to overstate actual calories burned. They also don’t account for older-than-50 bodies that burn calories far more efficiently. Several things could be at play so you will still have to do your detective work. Try talking with your dietitian or nutritionist. You may need more protein. You might be triggering your body into starvation mode too, and need to slightly increase your food intake. Make sure you aren’t coming down with a cold that increases inflammation like Covid. Are you getting 7 hours of sleep per night regularly? Is your bloodwork good? Taking probiotics? I stalled at the same time and found my bloodwork was off. But, I also talked with my surgeon who “walks his talk.” He suggested switching up my workouts. I used to live for the weightlifting high, but only lift 2 days a week now. I do more outdoor activities like rowing, biking, and hiking. Walking with poles burns far more calories. I’ve rediscovered walking with all my daily water in a backpack ups my morning walk too. Two years out I’m still finding my balance of food to exercise and still loosing weight. You’ll find it too.

I will share my 6month post sleeve progress.....I am 54 and 5'1. I was 230 on surgery day, and now weigh 162.5. I have lost a total of 67.5lb. I have lost a total of 54 inches all over plus more, but I didn't start my measurements till 1 month post op. As of yesterday, I have lost 9 inches off my waist, 12 inches off my hips, 7 inches of left thigh, 8 inches off my right thigh, 4 inches off right and 4 inches off left bicep. 1 inch off my neck and 7 inches off my chest. Figures we lose weight in our chest 😭😜. I feel amazing already! I will be honest and say exercise has been at a minimum since the surgery. I know I will have to start exercising regularly for muscle tone, my heart etc. My 6 month bloodwork was awesome and all in the normal zone. Even my iron was in the normal zone this time. My A1C was 5.3 (it used to be 5.6-5.7). My cholesterol is 180 (which used to be 238 for many years). My knees hurt less, I am no longer on the CPAP machine, and I feel better about myself. I have not had any nightmare incidents relating to weight loss surgery. The only thing I still deal with is constipation which seems to have gotten a little better with broadening my diet. I average 700-800 calories a day. I consume 60-70g of protein. I know I do not drink what they recommend in ounces, but I am not far below the liquid requirement. This is one of the best decisions I have made in my life to help myself. Thank you to everyone on here for the great advice and support.

Calculators are a way to get a good general idea of how much you should weigh based on height, sex and age, What it doesn't do is take into account bodyfat percentages or muscle mass. But gives you a generalized weight reference to go by. Ideal Weight Calculator A better determinate is bodyfat measurement. My bariatric team weighs me using a bodyfat scale. Between the two types of formulas, it should give you a good idea where you need to be. I only ever had one goal because I knew before I ever gained weight what I should weigh so 150 has always been it. But the number to me isn't as important than being in a healthy range and no longer considered obese. So it's subject to change. GL @earthshrimp and congrats on your weight loss so far!!

Hello Bariatric Pals! I'm a design student that is working on my Senior Capstone project. I'm designing an app + device for Bariatric Surgery patients to give support and help them be a success in their weight loss journey. Since I'm designing an app + device, my concepts thus far are about how that system could help support someone, both immediately after the surgery, and many years afterwards. I broke my concepts into 4 areas: Motivation/Inspiration, Accountability, Connection to other people who have had surgery, and Strengthening a network of family and friends. I picked this areas to emphasize because I see them as very important to a person's success or failure--if my design could address all of these areas, that would be ideal! For your reference, I'm attaching a presentation I made in class with some illustrations of my concepts. You can answer without looking at it, and it would still be super helpful! : ) My initial questions are: Which of these areas do you think is the most important? Do you think that there is an area you could have done without and still been successful? In relation to the device: What role do you think a device should play in your weight loss journey--should it be a wearable product that you can take with you anywhere? Would it feel more appropriate or interesting if it was something you would use only in your home? Thank you so much in advance for your feedback. In future posts, I'll include a link to my blog, where I'll be documenting my entire process, and you guys can see what I am designing. If there are any other things that occur to you, such as features for an app or device you think would be super helpful and make you feel supported in your journey...let me know!! Sincerely, Adrienne adrienne_pearson_concept_phase.pdf

Hi KyahRose! I just had the DS surgery on November 1st. I considered SADI-S, Bypass, and DS when deciding on which surgery to go with. In the end I picked DS even though it is the scariest of the surgeries, because I wanted the benefit of my co-morbidities going into remission which the other two surgeries can do, but the DS does best. Plus I wanted a surgery that has a lot of studies behind it going out years, and while the bypass does have that, the SADI does not. I didn't want to have an experimental surgery, enough of my medical care is experimental. LOL The DS has a proven track record and is safe for the vast majority of people who have it. That being said, it IS a serious surgery. You can make yourself very ill if you don't follow the protein and vitamin recommendations, and even the vitamin recommendations from the docs are often not enough. I highly recommend going over to bariatricfacts.com and joining the forum there to talk to the DS vets. I'm over there as Shrinkingmytiara. These are people who have had the surgery 10+ years. They will tell you the good, bad, and ugly and make sure you understand the ugly and what you are getting yourself into. There is a wealth of info on that site about DS and some about the SADI. On FB there is a Duodenal Switch SUPPORT Group (there are a number of them, but I'm in that one) which also has a lot of vets in it. It has people with DS and with SADI. You'll read a lot of complaint posts from people who are having issues (common for any support group) but it'll give you an idea of what some of the challenges are post surgery. Again, your odds of having complications are quite low (though a little higher than the other surgeries), but it is still worth seeing what others are experiencing. I'm sure you could find the same for Bypass. I have had no major complications with my surgery so far. I had a lot of nausea and ended up in the hospital an extra night while we stabilized that and my pain levels. Once I came home I've only needed my nausea meds a handful of times and I didn't need pain meds. I wasn't able to ingest whey protein drinks for the first two weeks but my surgeon told me the body has stores for 3 weeks, so to focus on water and the rest would come. He was right! I can drink them now and am getting protein in what I eat now that I'm on soft foods. I've met my fluid goals every day, some days are harder than others. I've had some diarrhea on and off but my system tends that way even pre-surgery. I could drink lactose free milk and bone broth the first week so those are what kept me going. I actually feel more energy now most days than I did before surgery which is strange to me! I do tire out a little easy though because I'm still healing. My stomach did these spasms while feeling like it was turning in cartwheels inside me for about 2 weeks. They finally faded like the surgeon said they would. I'm diabetic. My fasting blood sugar now sits at 87 which is stellar. They told me to stop the diabetes meds. I had high blood pressure but they took me off those in the hospital and my blood pressure is normal! 105/76 when checked at my 2 week follow up!! I've lost 21 lbs in 3 weeks post surgery, for a total of 35 lbs from my highest weight. I can't wrap my head around that, it happened so quickly! I had a moment post surgery when I panicked over permanently altering my body in such a drastic way, but then I reminded myself that the way my body was pre-surgery was killing me, this was the only path forward to health that I could see. I don't regret it at all. I'm happy to talk with you more about it if you want, and you can feel free to message me if you want to keep in touch! There aren't very many DSers around here active anymore!

Well done you Fred. You (YOU) have lost loads of weight after your surgery and I'm so glad you're now seeing the benefits! 😍 As an atheist I have absolutely no idea how and why you would want to attribute all your hard work and your loss to some deity or other but - yunno - absolutely good on you if you need to do that! We all get though our surgery and lose our weight in whatever way we can. I don't do that but kudos to anyone who needs to and does. Onwards and downwards.

Tenatively December 4th or 13th! I started back in June. I asked my primary about bariatric surgery and he gave me the refferal and was in my bariatric consult within 5 day. They set up all my nutrition and psychologist appts the same day. Got the all clear from my nutritionist and psych and they have submitted to insurance for approval. From the start I downloaded a food tracking app. Started tracking my food again since I'd stopped doing it years ago. Even taught my nutritionist about macros and modified body builder diets. And started upping my excerise. So far I've lost over 40 lbs going back on a modified style body builder diet and interested to see what I'll lose on my pre-op. The last couple weeks I've been pushing my protein more as well so hitting about 50% protein (around 100-110g) daily. Also calories are running around 650 - 900 daily and thats even a struggle. Slowly getting my husband on board now and started trying out all differing kind of recipes, protein powder and supplements. So far the Syntrax aren't bad (like the lemon tea and caribean cooler best), And I started following a handful of other baratric patients online (one had a DS, two had sleeves), and started aksing my friends who have undergone bariatric surgeries. Built bars will by my travel go to as well as CleanSimpleEats greens. Learning all tips and trick as well on how to get my protein in and make sure it works for my husband as well. Also, I never carry a purse, only a wrist wallet. So to help me be successful I bought a nice tote/laptop bag that will be the bag I grab when ever we go out (errands/travel/etc.) This way I will always have snacks, drinks, protein and water enhancers on hand and I don't have to settle for something not great. Also got a nice large shaker cup and it even has a pocket for my water bottle. So for my preop its 3 weeks and with my tenative date of Dec 4th, I won't be able to partake of thanksgiving unless it gets moved to Dec 13 and then I can have one thanksgiving dinner early in the week before I start pre-op. I'm actually getting more excited for the adventures my husband and I have planned and not having to think about how my weight will impact those.

I’m getting to the 1 year post operative point and just to slow my weight loss my minimum calorie intake was set to 2300 calories, very hard to do and follow my desire to only eat whole non processed food, so they have asked me to stop exercising until I can get 2300 a day and stay at a steady weight. It’s actually really hard to consume that whole foods to hit that 2300 calorie goal. Anyone else have similar problems?

Considering there are a multitude of thyroid disorders, without a specific confirmed medical diagnosis, it would be impossible to offer an opinion as to how WLS could affect your prognosis. As someone who has dealt with the extreme swing from stroke-level hyperthyroidism cause by the autoimmune disorder of Grave's Disease to a partial thyroidectomy during the early weeks of an unknown pregnancy which placed addition stress on my remaining thyroid causing the destruction of all thyroid function; I have run the gambit of thyroid crisis scenarios including a couple of life threatening emergencies with myxedema comas. I am closely monitored by a team of endocrinologists who specialize in unique cases. How WLS could affect your particular thyroid issue would be best answered by an endocrinologist who specialize in thyroid disorders. As far as my 40 years of experience dealing with the thyroid roller coaster, my tsh, uptake, t3 levels and thyroid medication dosage were never affected by my weight. Good luck to you!

Thank you summerseeker that is a really clear description. I’ve 4 children and avoiding those things in the house isn’t easy though I try, that said I find my biggest problem is the portions of things I eat more than what I eat if that makes sense so that makes me thing even more that this will work for me I hope you are super helpful I’m so glad I posted @bariatricks thanks for the honesty here, was it the ESG or the sleeve you’ve had? Can you pinpoint what the thoughts are at the times you feel regretful? I do have a worry about missing food, for instance last night I cooked the tastiest meal and I kept going as I just loved the taste, I think I’d have felt disappointed if I had to stop, that sounds ridiculous now I’ve actually written it down. I’m also worried about how much it will affect my social life as most meet ups are around food etc. all I know is my weight and discomfort takes up my thoughts 90% of every day and I’m hoping that can change

I’ve been in maintenance for a couple of years now, so like @catwoman7 can’t really answer your first question. Mind you I don’t eat all that differently. Just larger portions (& probably a little more good & bad fat 😉). Don’t be afraid to widen your meal selection & food selection. It may need you to do a little work to make a recipe healthier, lower in calories & to complement your plan (ingredients, cooking method). Don’t forget to check the nutrient content too. And it’s working towards how you’ll eat in the future. As to the stall issue - you can’t break those. It’s your body’s reaction to your weight loss. It’s the time your body needs to takes to assesses your current needs & adjusts things like your digestive hormones, metabolism, etc. Your body will take as long as it needs to do this. Stick to your plan. Don’t stress your body more by making changes to what you’re eating or your activity. Your stall will break when your body is ready. Still is frustrating I know.

What about adding a higher calorie shake like the Ensure Complete Nutrition, which has 350 calories in a 10 oz serving? It's generally considered too high in calories for using if you're trying to lose weight, but if you had three of those per day, you'd be getting 1050 calories and 90g protein right there before even having soft foods. You should be able to manage that amount capacity-wise with no problem. They have 8g fat and 15g added sugar, which might cause some risk of dumping, but I would think it would be worth a try. It seems like you'll need to hit about 1400 calories per day minimum to stop losing weight, whereas in the early days the guidelines you get from the doctor that are intended for weight loss may put you well under 1000.

There was a very active maintenance thread a few years ago. I’m glad someone is starting the discussion again! I’m a few years into maintenance. I never forget that I had WLS but it’s really only in the forefront when I’m dealing with food. When I prep my meals I have full control and prefer it. If I’m eating out I scan the menu and immediately go to small plates or side orders. Very rarely will I get an entree because I’ll never finish it and I don’t really like leftovers (even though I take them). Otherwise this is my new normal. It doesn’t feel like a burden. I actually don’t even remember what it felt like before when I was obese. I feel like I was always this size (I think that must be a form of body dysmorphia). Sometimes I think I may not even notice if I gain/lose a substantial amount of weight. So I keep measurements and weigh often for peace of mind. So my lesson learned is to confront any WLS related issues very very quickly.

I think in my case it was due to my insurance requirements. I have Medicaid, so they have very specific demands. I had to have six meetings with my surgeon's nurse practitioner and the bariatric dietitian. I ended having many many more than that, since it's been nearly 2 years since I started. And I had to get all the medical clearances and psych eval and everything. I have only met my surgeon once, but I will have another meeting with her 6 days before my surgery. I didn't have to lose any weight either, but like you, I couldn't gain any weight. But I did gain weight, plus the dietitian required me to be 3 months binge-free before approving me, so it took a lot of extra time. But looking back, I think I needed that time to really figure myself out (with the help of my counselor)! So I feel more confident going into it now.

I had my VSG back on 3/3/23, with a heavy weight of 195. (Im 5’2”). Surgery day, I weighed in at 184 after a two week liver shrinking diet- two shakes a day/one meal. Yesterday I had my 6 month check up, an things are going really well. Weighed in at 129- and BMI in healthy range. Hair loss has been significant, but hoping that turns around soon… fingers crossed. Since I had my surgery in Mexico, this was my first meeting with Bariatrician and he says that im having really nice success- and that 8-10 months is about how long someone would expect to see results from VSG. (I’d heard longer). He also took labs, and all seems to be in good range- saw the results this morning. First two pics from today, last pic is before (I hated having picture made and can’t find one really near that time except this one. My goal this next few months is to take up a more structured exercise routine to build some muscle— so much of the pain I was having pre-surgery is gone. So glad to have taken this step for my health!

So, post-op he is definitely not advocating for a pound of veggies per day, at least no time soon. That goal is for a person who has not had surgery or is years out and has regained a pretty standard appetite. What he does suggest for bariatric patients is that for that honeymoon period of the first year or so, you focus on protein first. But as time goes on and your hunger returns and you have more capacity to add foods, you should increase the veggies you eat while keeping your protein and starch servings small by comparison. He likes to say veggies should be the star of your meal. In other words, instead of going from 3 oz of chicken to 6 oz so you can feel more full, you would eat your usual 3 oz of chicken and fill up the rest of the way on healthy veggies (but only to your personal capacity, whatever that is). Same with snacks. If you get hungry and need a snack, make it a healthy one with veggies instead of a junk food snack. From what I gather, the strategy is one that really helps to combat that weight gain in later years when it becomes a little too easy to eat a lot more like you used to (the way that got us all into trouble to begin with!)

Personally, I never much cared about a goal weight. I had quite a bit of weight to lose and I could decide on a goal when I got there. A less obvious reason was in how my mind works. Not reaching a goal weight could have turned a 500+ pound weight loss into a failure. Just part of the joy of having OCD. Many folks make the mistake of thinking that getting back to the nice weight they were at several years ago is a reasonable goal. It's not. After obesity, mileage and years our bodies are different. You may end up looking very much as you did and still have many more pounds than before. My goals were about how I felt, my health, my happiness. These also happened to be what my surgeon asked me about. The actual number on a scale was never a topic unless I brought it up. Good luck, Tek

Can we pretend this is an Overeaters Anonymous meeting and it's my turn to stand up front and bare my soul?...especially since I never had the balls to set foot in a live meeting during my 35 years of having a BMI score higher than my IQ. There's donuts in the back...JOKE😁 It's been almost a year since my sleeve surgery and I couldn't be happier with the physical results. I was 60 years old, 5'4" and weighed close to 210 when I finally made an appointment with a bariatric surgeon. I'm now 61 and 134 pounds...I'm still 5'4" though. The past few days I've been in deep thought mode and was just hoping to use this forum to vent and hopefully get some feedback, positive or negative. Dining out: It's going to happen. It was probably part of your life pre-surgery, so it's naive of you to think it won't be a part of your life post-surgery. So maybe it's just me and my family (obese mother) and significant other (F, normal weight), but the minute the menu appears, I get a barrage of "Oh..they have plenty of appetizers and small portions you can order. Be careful, etc. Did you see the vegetable plate?" OK, so I know my significant other and my mom love me and are probably just concerned about my health and eating habits post-op, and if I'm being overly sensitive, just tell me and I'll shut up, but when they say things like that, it's not helping! If anything, something deep in my primordial starving "fat" brain wants to order the biggest thing on the menu and attempt to eat it. When it happened yesterday at lunch, I calmly and nicely asked both of them if they could refrain from offering me ordering advice, as I assured them, thinking about the ordering process and the actual eating of said meal in a healthy manner was the number one priority on my mind pretty much 24/7. They didn't seem to take it too well. Which leads me to my next thought... I might be stereotyping, but I'm willing to bet that a lot of us here were never/are not selfish people. I'm sure there are pages of psychological data written about the personality traits of the chronically obese and the myriad reasons we ended up as we did. My point is, after bariatric surgery, you might have to become a little selfish. You may need to put yourself first, sometimes to the detriment of others. Obviously, it helps if you can do this in a nice manner, but with certain people and situations in your life post-surgery, you might just have to be a selfish a*****e. If your new lifestyle (diet, whatever you want to call it), exercise regimen, food habits, etc don't quite mesh with those around you, too bad. This is your last chance at success and you need to make YOU the priority. I walk a lot now...and it takes a lot of time. Some of that is time I used to spend with other people...now it's not always like that. Some have mentioned it. I don't care. I always invite them to walk with me but I'm not going to not walk because they want to do something else or don't feel like walking. When I think about some of the healthiest people I have known in my life, they were/are quite selfish when it comes to exercise. One of my friends has been to the gym every morning from 5:30-7:30 for 35 years. He never misses. It's not an option. That's amazing to me because despite the genetics of obesity, there's no question that having some type of exercise regimen helps at some level. Did I ever have that level of commitment? Only to stopping at Whataburger several times a week. So as much as I read pre-surgery and even with the psychological profiling the doctor did, I never read much or heard anyone talk about some of the changes I needed to make mentally to make this work. It seems like most of the pre-surgery discussion is about how to eat before and after the surgery and most of the psychological discussion is about not letting one addiction (food) be supplanted by another (drugs, alcohol, etc). The crux of this dissertation, if you're still reading, is that there couldn't be more truth to the phrase bantered around here...."They operated on your stomach, not your brain". Prepare yourself for some mental challenges that being thinner does not make any easier. I must look a lot better because everyone tells me so...but I don't always feel better. Some of the same issues I've dealt with all my life, totally unrelated to weight, are still around. It's not that I expected them to disappear, but I think at some level, deep down, many of us think/thought, "Oh, if only I weren't so fat, I wouldn't have to deal with this problem [insert the problem/issue of your choosing]". Maybe I was just being naive or stupid, or both, but even being "thin" comes with plenty of challenges. I know these are "first world" problems and I'm not trying to sound like a complaining, spoiled brat. I just wanted to let off some steam here in the hopes that I'm not alone. Thanks for listening.

I cant say for everyone but I was not able to eat beyond my stomachs capacity. I did not try the slider foods. Still can not. When you are healed enough to get the full signal, about 6 - 8 weeks out, if you have one mouthful more it will sit in your chest like a brick. You will probably become very nauseous and will be unable to drink for hours till you have got rid of the extra food. It will be a very unpleasant feeling. There is no way that I can eat when I feel this way. As for worrying if it was the right decision ? yep I did. Its lots of money to take away from the family. It cost me over £12.000 so that would have been lots of holidays they would miss. It was a huge leap into the unknown for me. All I knew was at my age and size my heart was struggling with the most simple household tasks. Then they told me I was diabetic .... no brainer anymore. I booked a appointment with the surgeon the same week. Everything has failed for all of us before. Doctors now believe that Bariatric surgery is the only way to keep weight off. I am not at maintenance yet so can not say if its easy to do it but I know it takes work and regular monitoring. I am overjoyed that I was able to do this. I am a different woman now. TBH I feel blessed

The last pounds are the hardest to lose. A real b*tch. But could you be experiencing a stall. I recall you were prone to them with your sleeve. Also don’t forget your new set point. Could this be the weight your body is happiest at?? How long has it been since you lost anything? For those who are interested, Dr Matt Weiner posted a video about set point (metabolic thermostat) a couple of days ago. Others, like Dr John Pilcher, will likely have good videos too.

Hi there, Generally doing okay but have had a couple of bad days where I’ve struggled with cramps and bloating. Drinking water going well but some foods still upset my tummy. Weight loss has been steady. Lost 26kg ( 57.2 lbs) since my surgery on the 17th of July. Have my 3 month check up soon.

Hi there, Generally doing okay but have had a couple of bad days where I’ve struggled with cramps and bloating. Drinking water going well but some foods still upset my tummy. Weight loss has been steady. Lost 26kg ( 57.2 lbs) since my surgery on the 17th of July. Have my 3 month check up soon.