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I am one week after lapband removal after 19 years. I had to have an iron infusion as my iron was extremely low. Apparently iron deficiency and in many cases nutritional deficiency is a consequence of bariatric surgery (good to be aware of) as no one tells you this. I had very little weight loss on lapband surgery. I am so glad to be rid of it. Very sick of the intermittent choking and vomiting. Very annoying. I wish everyone all the very best on their decisions - I think I would rethink lapband surgery (unless it has changed dramatically in the last 19 years). Good luck.

So one thing I’ve learned is that the dont’s vary WIDELY between each Bariatric doctor/clinic. The do’s are pretty much the same; mainly, focus on protein and water consumption. The dont’s and other instructions after surgery for me (per my doctor) includes NO ALCOHOL; no drinking from straws; no chewing gum; no carbonated drinks; no caffeine; no beef/red meat for the first year; deconstruct every meal; every meal to be low cal; no drinking liquids for 15 mins before and 30 mins after a meal; chew your food for 30 seconds before swallowing; eat your meal within 30 minutes; exercise/weights at least 3x a week. TAKE THE PRESCRIBED VITAMINS EVERY DAY WITHOUT FAIL - especially thiamin. Soooo - I’ve lost 140lbs - sleeved December 2019. ONE OF THE TOP BEST DECISIONS OF MY LIFE. Wish I did it sooner. I struggle now with the type of foods I put into my body - I have a hankering for chocolate and cookies. 😩 BUT! 99% of the time it’s because I’m bored and will mindless eat. I have to reel it back in. It will always be a recurring process for me.

See if your bariatric group has a therapist they recommend who works on food addiction issues with folks who have had weight loss surgery. Get someone on the job who is better aligned and more knowledgable about your needs.

It really depends how much you like what your current therapist is doing outside of the weight topic. If you feel like you want her to be in your life, then just don't talk to her about weight loss and use bariatric support groups for that. If she's turning into one of these preachy, teetering-on-the-edge-of-anti-science types, maybe now's a good time to thank her for what she's done for you and find someone who aligns better with your goals. It is YOUR life and not open to anyone's—not even your therapist's—judgment.

I've maintained almost 4 years at goal by eating a TON of carbs. So...there are a lot of ways up this mountain dietarily. I eat high fiber, keep my calories under 1600 a day, and eat very little refined sugar or white flour. (I keep my refined treats under 200 calories once or twice a week) Stuff I eat a TON of: Oats, Fruit, Veggies, Beans, Chickpeas, Lowfat/Nonfat Diary, Potatoes, VERY lean meats, whole grain breads. Lots and lots of fruit and veggies. (and it shows...my cholesterol and all labs are excellent...and this matters as we get older) Stuff I don't eat: Anything with animal fat. Fried stuff. (I do stir fry with a little olive oil) I don't eat Refined sugar. I don't eat White flour. Substitutions I make a lot: Plant protein instead of animal. Olive Oil instead of butter. High fiber...I try to get 25g a day or more. Oatmeal in food processor in place of white flour in recipes. Best advice I can give.....three of them actually: 1. See a bariatric therapist. The causes behind disordered eating are not addressed by your surgery. 2. Get active! Increasing your activity, even if it's just adding a couple hundred more steps to your routine every day...it will keep your metabolism singing. 3. Count calories. It sucks, but it's necessary. Wishing you the very best!

I'm in the beginning process of my bariatric journey, had my information session a few weeks ago and my big appointment with the surgeon, nurse, nutritionist, etc. is coming up in 3 weeks. So excited! I've been thinking about this health and wellness renewal with bariatric surgery for several years now. I've also been on a journey with my mental health (anxiety & depression) for about 4 years and have made some wonderful progress. I have a good support system of doctors but lately my therapist is making me scratch my head. For those of you on your journey - or that have experience - tell me about your journey with your mental health along with the bariatric surgery process. What I mean by my therapist is making me scratch my head.....so, for the past several years, my therapist has helped me get to a place where I can work on myself and my relationship with my parents (suffered mental/emotional as well as some physical abuse from parents). I made so much progress in 2 years with this...true healing, feeling so much more confident and content with myself. This progress finally led me to go forward with realizing that I was ready to commit to wanting to help myself and begin my bariatric weight loss journey. So, when I brought this up to my therapist, her reaction was not exactly what I expected. (I've read about people's different reactions so I'm of course trying not to let this bother me and feel like I probably need to either move on or realize that's her opinion, not mine). Anyway, when I try to discuss my wants/needs regarding my request for help when it comes to emotional eating/overeating/breaking that psychological connection, she's not really wanting to go there with me. She gives me very little help and keeps saying, "maybe you just won't have this surgery"...and suggests calling local weight loss places that focus on holistic methods of weight loss, etc. that cost $$$. She keeps telling me I need to read all of these books on "miracle weight loss", "medicine is bad", etc. ...ok, so....I know if someone is offering you some "magic unrealistic" guarantee if you "buy their program" they will promise you guaranteed weight loss for life....Ok, that's not for me. I've been there, done that, time and time again. You know the story...the diets we've all tried, the books we've all read, the shakes, you name it. I'm pushing 50 years old...been around the block with weight loss, like all of us here and I'm just not buying it. But, I did try to hear her out. What I'm disappointed in is that I feel that this relationship with this therapist is not helpful. I think I probably need to find another avenue of therapy. I know my hospital offers some group therapy, which I plan on doing. I'm grateful for this website and forum for help and support. If anyone has any advice - therapy suggestions, books/podcasts, etc. to work on my mental health with the emotional eating connection - I would be so grateful. I am working hard already at trying to change these things for myself now so I can be successful. Thank you again for your help!!

Thats great Bariatric boy. Ive gone back to gym for last 1 week and getting stronger each week starting to feel normal most days.

I thought about it and went back and forth for over ten years before I did it. Those are ten years I can't get back. I could not be happier with my results. I'm not an overly skinny perfect person. I'm pretty average normal now. I eat about 1600 calories a day and walk quite a bit, but don't go to the gym or anything special. I eat a MUCH better diet now and still have the occasional treat (I can tolerate anything so I have to be kinda careful, but it's not as hard as it used to be) Best advice I can give a newbie....make sure you have access to a bariatric therapist. Dealing with the whys behind disordered eating has been critical for me. The stomach surgery is a fantastic tool, but you can eat yourself fat again if you don't address the reasons behind the behavior. Wishing you the best. I have absolutely no regrets.

It's individual and everyone's nutritionist will say something different. At your stage I ate 100-200 calorie "meals", but I ate them about 6 times a day spaced apart. A lot of people eat less early on. If you have questions about nutrition, the best place to take them is probably your bariatric group. They'll steer you in a good direction. Many will have sample menus available for each eating stage to use as a guide. Best wishes!

I am hoping the collective wisdom of the folks on here can help me out! A year and a half post surgery, I developed an ulcer. I have been on medication for a couple of months and doing fine. However, my bariatric vitamins are a trigger for severe back and stomach pain, which lasts up to an hour and a half and at times makes work impossible until it passes. I have tried opening the capsules, taking them with food, taking them with yoghurt, taking them later in the day, drinking water before I take them. Nothing works. I need to have a multi-vitamin with iron, so I know some discomfort is probable, but for the first year and a half I was fine! Hoping someone had a similar experience, or knows of a good multi-vitamin that is less harsh on my poor stomach.

Hello everyone, So I'm getting nervous now! I have Ahcccs w/ AZ Complete Health Plan) & I have been doing all the requirements from my Bariatric Surgeon. 6 months supervised diet w/ chart all chart notes & visit summary (lost 6 lbs, never gained), endoscopy, cardiac clearance (pet scan, echo & EKG), pulmonary clearance (chest x-ray), sleep study, psych eval & clearance, nutritionist, & letter of recommendation from Primary Care doc. I made sure to get copies of everything & sent them to my surgery coordinator in the doctor's portal. FINALLY FINISHED! My surgeon's office is submitting everything next week & I'm nervous! I'm worried if I will be approved or not. Has anyone been in same situation? I am hoping to get VGS. 5'3" 229.5 (1st weigh in) 225lb. (current weight) obstructive sleep apnea hypothyroidism high cholesterol type 2 diabetic ( I was type 2 diabetic, but last blood test reads lower levels to pre-diabetic. I am still on Metformin)

I was miserable the first two days. Then I used spanx to keep the loose stuff inside still so I wouldn’t feel pulling. I’m four weeks out and still sleep with spanx. I avoided the couch because it was too low and couldn’t get up without pain. I also bought a raised toilet seat to be independent. It was $20 on Carewell.com . Do whatever you need to do to get through it, no shame. You will get through! Talk with your bariatric professionals. They know what’s normal.

Read a book or two about bariatric surgery. I recommend Weight Loss Surgery for Dummies and How Weight Loss Surgery Really Works by Matthew Weiner, MD.

I am new to the bariatric program and i have always had an issue to lose weight are there any suggestions how to proceed futher? Sent from my SM-G950U1 using BariatricPal mobile app

I was told no gummies as well. Your clinic may have samples. Bariatric advantage had sample packs I received one at the nutritionist appointment but the clinic recommended them as well. Now that I think of it I believe the sample was a chewable that contained iron though. It was the calcium citrate chew, the multivitamin chewable and something else (it may have been the one without iron I can’t recall). But most importantly, double check that you didn’t misunderstand the gummies suggestion.

I was told absolutely no gummies as well. I take the Procare Bariatric chewable formula with iron. It's never upset my stomach. However a friend had an issue with the iron in it upsetting her stomach so she started taking it at night before bed. It worked for her.

I started taking the vitamins from my first appointment with the surgeon six months prior to surgery. I started with chewables from the very beginning because I hate swallowing big pills. I stopped a couple days before surgery when I had to start the liquid diet. I resumed the bariatric multivitamin chewable about 4-5 days after surgery. I was instructed to not take the calcium citrate chewables until I could eat pureed foods. Around that time I also started the d3, b12, b3 and biotin too. My vitamin levels 3 months post surgery were higher than my values before surgery.

I will be doing self-pay in Mexico, surgery on 9/21. All in (hotel, flights, surgery, meds, spending money, etc.) will be just about $5,500. I did the math and using insurance would have put my out of pocket at about $7,000 and take roughly 9 months, versus about 3 months with my current surgeon. I wasn't so much concerned about the cost, though it was a factor, but I did take issue with the timeline. I have consulted for bariatric surgery multiple times and always chickened out. I didn't want to give myself that option this time. Putting down a down payment and a date on the calendar made it non-negotiable to me. On top of that, going the self-pay route cuts WAY down on the red tape and pre-op crap that insurance requires.

I was self pay for my sleeve - my employer-paid insurance plan had a specific exclusion against bariatric surgery. All in all, it was just under $20k. Had a stuck to my original practice, it would have been much closer to $30k (I'm in the Washington, DC area). Timing from start to finish is hard to comment on in my case... I switched practices at the beginning of COVID so that slowed things down incredibly. And then I was a bit slow in getting some of the requirements done (like getting my endoscopy, etc) because life and work got crazy. If I had been more on top of that sort of thing, it would have been faster esp with no insurance involved.

Don't forget that you may be able to have sugar-free popsicles, sugar-free Jello, and broth while on the liquid diet. (Double check with your nutritionist if you haven't been told this.) I did the two week liquid diet after reading about it, before I even met with the bariatrics team. I wanted to know if I could do it! It turns out that this surgeon does not require the two week liquid diet, just two days of clear fluids after following a high protein/low carb food plan leading up to it. The two-week liquid diet is doable if you keep drinking water and make use of the free items.

Yes, I had a simple gastroplasty (stomach stapling) in 1980. I lost 75 lbs by 6 months and then stopped losing. Over the next ten years I gained it all back. I had NO nutritional or psych guidance at all. In 1990 I had Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, and the same thing happened. I lost about 75 lbs by six months and stopped losing. Again, I had NO nutritional guidance or follow up. I returned to my original set point of over 300 lbs, where I remained despite many attempts at weight loss. Fast forward 30 years... Just before COVID hit, I met a man who told me he had RNY revision as a prerequisite for knee replacement surgery. I had no idea that a revision was possible. I was certainly interested, but then the pandemic arrived. Six months ago, I started thinking about it again and contacted a bariatric center 90 miles from my home. A barium swallow and an endoscopy revealed that the staples from the prior surgery had given way allowing a fistula (opening) between pouch and stomach, which back then was not cut away, just separated from the pouch by staples. It was obvious that there was a physical cause for the failure of the earlier surgeries. The surgeon assured me that the staple failure was not my fault due to up-chucking or pouch stretching, but was actually caused by the peristalsis of the stomach. He said that about 75% of the earlier WLS failed for this reason. Today, different kinds of staples and closure protocol are in place to prevent this kind of failure. I was put in the bariatric program to have a revision. I've lost 44 lbs to date and still have a couple of requirements to complete before revision surgery is scheduled. I'm hoping to have it in October. I'm excited but wary. Deep down I am afraid that the same thing will happen. My age (73) and prior surgeries are hurdles so I don't expect miraculous results. My hopeful goal is to get under 200 lbs. My dream goal is to reach 175 lbs. or lower. In the past six months, I've read over a dozen books about bariatric surgery and food addiction and collected a slew of bariatric cookbooks. I'm much better prepared than I was for the earlier surgeries. I now realize that I am a sugar/food addict, that "maintenance" doesn't work for me. I have to be continually vigilant about avoiding sugar, flour, wheat, rice, and processed foods. The only successful way to conquer addiction is abstinence. How Weight Loss Surgery Really Works, by Matthew Weiner ** Weight Loss Surgery for Dummies, By Marina Kurian, Barbara Thompson, Brian Davidson ** Food Junkies: Recovery from Food Addiction, by Vera Tarman *** Weight Loss Surgery Does Not Treat Food Addiction, by Connie Stapleton *** Why Diets Fail (because youʼre addicted to sugar), by Nicole Avena & John Talbott *** Bariatric Surgery & Food Addiction, by Philip Werdell *** (written for the clinician, but I found it valuable} The Success Habits of Weight Loss Surgery Patients, by Colleen Cook*** A Pound of Cure, by Matthew Weiner (Focus on plant-based eating, not as restrictive as Bright Line Eating) Bright Line Eating, by Susan Peirce Thompson (similar to Kay Shepardʼs food plan without the 12-step program) Food Addiction: The Body Knows, by Kay Sheppard (12-step program, Focus on binging) From The First Bite: A Complete Guide to Recovery, by Kay Sheppard (12-step program, Focus on binging) Never Binge Again, by Glenn Livingston Lick the Sugar Habit, by Nancy Appleton (A bit outdated)

that's weird. If it were me, I'd think the same as you - too little, too late. Is she still willing to prescribe the scripts? If not, I'd contact the surgeon - they'll probably be willing to do it (in fact, I'm pretty sure the bariatric clinic prescribed all my pre- and post-surgery scripts)

Did you use Torrance Bariatric?

You're in a miserable situation for sure. I hope you and your family and friends came through the storm OK. I was on liquids for a week, then moved to puree stage. Some docs like their patients to stay longer on liquids. During the liquid phase, you can have protein drinks, thin cream of wheat, Greek yogurt, strained/blended soups, things like that. I would eat/drink slowly and stick to half a cup or so. It will take a while to learn what "full" feels like, but pay attention to the slightest feeling of fullness, and don't eat even a couple bites more, or you will regret it. During the puree phase, you can eat things that are blended to the consistency of applesauce. At that stage, I was grinding up dishes like chicken marsala or chicken curry and thinning them with a little chicken broth to get the right consistency. I would also grind soup and add chicken to get the right consistency and also add some protein. My doc said I could have soft fish and scrambled eggs during the puree phase if I chewed them well. One of my first mistakes, though, was trying to eat one egg and one egg white scrambled. It was too much and I didn't know to stop. If you have protein drinks, you can probably exist on those for a while. It will also help if you have power to run a blender. We could probably offer suggestions if you tell us what you have on hand and whether you have power or not. In Houston, Ike was a bad storm for us. I can't imagine how it would have been if I'd been recovering from bariatric surgery at the same time.

My Dr told me I could take ANY kind of multi vitamin, that it didn’t have to be bariatric specific. Does that sound right to anyone else? Also, I use a B12 nasal spray (prescription) once a week. It’s awesome, no injection and no sublingual.