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I haven't (I'm not any psych meds), but I've been hanging out on bariatric forums for the last seven years, and many people are on them. They sometimes have to adjust your dosage, but that's about it..

Well I just found out about this forum so I saw this post and wanted to reply as I am older than a lot of people who have this surgery. Let me tell you that age is just a number. You can be young, have this surgery and be less successful then someone older. I think it depends on the individual. I was not overweight as a kid, and I weighed about 100lbs in high school. I started putting on the weight with each pregnancy and it got harder and harder to loose it as the years went by. Bad eating habits of course played a role, as well as genetics. My body killed my thyroid when I was pregnant with my son, and it just got harder after that to get the weight off. When menopause hit, I really started to gain. I had RNY surgery in Oct/2020 at age 61. I had high blood pressure, severe sleep apnea, sore hips, knees ankles, and feeling short of breath from just vacuuming so you get the picture. Could not walk 5 feet without having to sit down. Crazy awful. (I have asthma too) I have hypothyroidism, IBS, and was also border line diabetic. Yep...time to smarten up and take control of my health. I am 62 years old now and at 10 months post op. Best decision I have ever made and I wish I had done it years ago. I talked myself out of it every time, telling myself I can loose this on my own. Who was I kidding. LOL It was hard at first and I was not prepared for the mental side of it. I sat and cried the second day home from hospital as my brain was screaming at me, scolding me for what I had done. It wanted food, and I felt a lot of depression and remorse. I was not expecting that. It got better as time went on and as the weight started to drop, I felt much more in control, and very happy to see it go. Time to take care of me. I have hit a stall and have not lost any weight in 2 months, but I know this is normal and I am trying not to panic. I expected it would be more challenging to loose this weight because of my age. I do not exercise, but plan to start in the fall, I still have about 60lbs or more to go to reach my goal weight. No going back to my old habits, and If I do, I have this tool in place to help me. Any questions? just ask me. I am happy to share my experiences and happy to hear everyone's stories as well. BTW, You should check out Dr. Weiner's YouTube videos. He is a bariatric surgeon and has good sold advice on this whole process.

I was starving after surgery also. Moving towards real food helped - particularly the step from full liquids to purees. This is where I started to be able to eat some normal protein containing foods, like eggs and cottage cheese. (I really, really hated protein drinks until I discovered my protein powder latte.) After 1-1.5 months, when the amount I could eat also increased somewhat as the swelling went down, I went from starving to really full. Now I'm 18 months out and I still feel much reduced hunger. Personally, I think when people feel starving right after surgery, it is often because they aren't getting enough protein and their body has started to eat its muscles. I was reading a study the other day that says out of all the muscle mass you'll lose in the year after bariatric surgery (about 10-15 lbs on average), you lose half of that muscle mass in your first two months. That's almost certainly because people aren't getting enough protein at the very beginning because of the liquid diet/small amounts you can eat. Sure, it may be head hunger. But either way, I'd try increasing your protein first. Any time you feel hungry, start with whatever you can tolerate/is currently on your diet plan that contains protein.

I'm four years into my journey and like many here I too experience the same trials and tribulations of bariatric weight loss life. I'm a strong proponent of support groups as I had to form my own (with friends/family0 who have had WLS. It has helped me and I hope them immensely. Just by offering a tip on a method to help really makes all the difference in our success.

Stall and Loridee, out of necessity I had to form my own support group. Are there others that you know who have had the surgery that you can talk with? I found that just by talking and bouncing ideas around we all benefited. I told my surgeon that he should try to set up a way for his patients to exchange emails so we could network. Prior to covid he had two group meetings a month. He tried zoom meetings but they were not effective. So far he hasn't done it. I subscribe to Dr. Becky Gillespie on you tube. She doesn't give bariatric specific weight loss advice. Hers is geared more for us mere mortals and it's usually backed up with the science behind it. I find that fasting for 12 hrs a day helps me control my weight. I don't eat between 7PM - 7 AM. I'm also considering a longer fast but don't want to try until I'm absolutely sure that I can commit. One thing I've found out from not only my experience but with others, if you do not commit to a plan it will never work.

The truth is exercising only contributes to a maximum of 20% of the weight you have to lose. You’d have to walk 6km in an hour or run 8km in 45 mins to burn 360 calories (about two slices of pizza). Of course there’s lots of other benefits to building & maintaining your fitness. Making adjustments to your diet & reducing your calorie intake is the real key coupled with portion sizes to weight loss. If you consume fewer calories then your body needs to function you’ll lose weight. Work at reducing your sugar intake. Stop the candies for a month but avoid sugar rich alternatives. Then drop any cakes or biscuits. Look to fresh fruit for a sweet treat. Make other small changes to your food choices like @lizonaplane suggested. Again you don’t have to change everything at once. Swap out a couple of things at a time & give yourself time to get used to it. You’ll likely find it much easier to make & adopt small changes to your food choices. You may not see changes in the scale straight away but it will happen. Go back to tracking your food - calories & portion sizes. It’s easy to let these slip especially if you’re guessing or not being as vigilant. Check your protein & fluid intake & increase if needed. Did you have a therapist when you had your surgery? Maybe get back in contact with them or ask your bariatric team for a recommendation. The therapist may help you better manage your stress & what may be driving your cravings. You can get back on top of this. Good luck.

I suggest working with a bariatric therapist (see if your surgery center can recommend someone) because the cravings will not go away on their own, and if you had problems with binge eating before, it will hinder your progress, even if you lose weight in the beginning, you will start to regain. Good luck!

Yeah, my weight loss has basically been like yours; really stable at about a lb a month for about a year now. It seems like it's a good idea to make changes slowly and mostly try to make good eating habits we got used to right after surgery into a lifestyle. For me, I sought out bariatric surgery because I was pre-diabetic and had gotten to the point where I was absolutely starving all the time. It made it so hard to stick to a healthy diet over the long term. Taking that ravenous hunger away made it so much easier to make a permanent adjustment to my diet over a long enough time period where it really became habit. But I also was able to add in a bit more carbs daily and eat sugar once or twice a week, and still keep up this slow but steady pace. I enjoy food so much more now that I feel in control!

Personally, I've never had any problem with drinking before meals, even immediately after surgery. But I still find that it's a bad idea to drink much during and right after meals. A few sips is fine, but much more than that, and I'll feel some pain and/or faintness. For about 4-5 months after surgery, I would always feel a bit faint after eating and have to sit and rest a bit before doing much of anything. Now that feeling comes only occasionally, when my stomach has gotten too full. A couple of times that's happened, say, at a holiday meal, where there's a ton of foods and I want to try a bite of lots of things. But usually it happens when I drink too much fluid with/after a meal. When I eat at home, I simply don't serve myself a drink when I eat. But when I go out, they always bring a drink and if I haven't finished it before the meal comes, it's easy to forget and take a few drinks. Studies of gastric emptying show that when you drink water on an empty stomach, it empties from the stomach very quickly. But when you eat a meal, the stomach contents take 2-4 hours to fully leave the stomach. A liquid with a lot of calories (like a protein drink) empties a bit faster than a solid meal, but a liquid meal is closer to a solid meal than water. Even if drinking during/after meals doesn't cause you pain or discomfort, I'd recommend that you still do it. Both patients who have had bariatric surgery and obese patients who have not had surgery are more likely to empty their stomach too quickly (see the linked study). If your stomach empties too quickly, you start to feel hungry again more quickly. Drinking extra water can hurry this along. Doctors suspect that your stomach emptying too fast is actually one of the causes of obesity and/or the reason why some people don't have as much success with bariatric surgery in the long run. This is why different bariatric doctors all suggest not to drink with/after meals (though many differ about drinking before meals.) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/26774242_Scintigraphic_Evaluation_of_Gastric_Emptying_in_Obese_Patients_Submitted_to_Sleeve_Gastrectomy_Compared_to_Normal_Subjects

I am glad that it seems like it is getting better. I did find a paper talking about this kind of thing happening after bariatric surgery, so apparently you are NOT alone : https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32558689/ It actually seems like a fairly common problem, which I wish I had realized before I ever had surgery.

I'm four years into my surgery this month and here are the things that I've learned. At the beginning most will feel mixed emotions. Euphoric due to rapid weight loss, concern due to stalls and minor setbacks and trepidation due to looking at how others are doing and you feeling you're not doing enough. The one feeling we all have will be a renewed confidence in ourselves due to the fastest weight reduction you might have ever experienced. We attain our goal weight. We then transition into making wise food and lifestyle choices. No longer are we to eat the things that made us obese and unhealthy such as the three C's, Cookies, Cake and Candy. We will get more exercise. Maybe we park further from the building, maybe we join a gym, maybe we walk, run or work out. We are feeling great and we love our new selves. Next we work on maintaining the weight loss and our healthy lifestyle. One thing happens, we decide since we lost so much weight it couldn't hurt to visit our friends the three C's. If only for a short while and only in small amounts. Hey, why park so far? It's really cold/hot, I'll park closer. You're still feeling confident even if you gained only 10lbs of the 100 you lost. Hey, you're still down 90lbs. No problem, I can lose the 10lbs. I've lost far more than that after surgery. Then we realize, we are no longer weight loss super beings. We are just mere mortals who now have to work hard to lose the weight. Our bodies after time (usually after the one year mark) will not give us that rapid weight loss we once depended on. Here is when your determination and or lack of it will affect you for the rest of your life. We will all get back on a diet or healthier eating plan to lose the weight we gained. The majority will not succeed because it is not as easy it was when we first had surgery. Some will become complacent and throw up their hands and surrender. The weight will come back and the thoughts of a revision will come to our heads. Unfortunately, most insurance companies do not allow for a do over. For a few they will overcome and work on shedding those pounds. They will succeed due to a variety of reasons such as a good support group, using the honeymoon period wisely and really making better lifestyle choices or simply losing one pound at a time instead of trying to lose all of it at one time. Since my surgery four years ago I had five friends and family members undergo the surgery. We ALL gained back some of the weight. Some were able to lose it and regain their healthy lifestyle. Some never were able to lose the weight and went back into the habit of eating for gratification. This is what I did. I originally got down on myself. How did I after three years let myself gain 10 lbs. I vowed to get it off. My 1st week I lost 1/2 a pound. I was devastated, how could this be? The next week I gained a pound. Why? I needed help!! My regular group meetings were cancelled due to covid so I lost valuable support there. I decided to call my family and friends who had the surgery. I spent hours talking to everyone, I told them about my struggles and they told me about theirs. We all came away with a few good ideas of what to do. First don't look to lose the WHOLE amount in one shot. It won't happen and it will derail you from succeeding. Set a goal of 1-2lbs per week. Don't worry that some friends or family might be losing more. We aren't in competition with them. Look at the little things. One friend said she stopped putting Crystal light or Mio in her water. She only drank plain ice water. It seemed to help her jump start her weight loss. Another friend said he started taking the stairs instead of the elevator. He climbs seven flights at least once a day. Another told me her husband who did not have the surgery brought snacks home and that she would eat them. She purged her home of the unhealthy snacks as she did right after her surgery. I started to implement these and other ideas and I have lost 5lbs in five weeks. I'm at the half way point to getting back to my goal weight. We are not super humans we need help and we need encouragement in order to succeed. There are a few on here who have done a tremendous job on their own and they are to be commended and emulated. For me, I need and I will take all the help I can get. Everyday is a struggle to be healthy. I told my surgeon that all this is happening after only four years, how do people succeed at maintaining the weight loss? He said sadly, the majority won't.

SO let me start this by saying I have TERRIBLE anxiety when it comes to anything medical. For example, I pass out when getting my blood drawn. But lately, I have felt my health declining in a way it never has before, and I am also the heaviest (and saddest) I have ever been. I have been in a state of binging lately and have realized I need help. I have tried and failed many diets and I feel that before I develop any co-morbidities, I need to get the weight off for good. This brought me to bariatric surgery which I have discussed with my therapist and PCP. I got a referral and am scheduled for my first consult on 9/1/21. I am super excited, but lately little stupid fears have crept up into my mind. What if I am too young for this and it is too extreme? What if they have to use a catheter on me? What if the surgery fails? What if I die? Even typing this I know there are WAY more positives than the fears could ever outweigh. I just wanted to reach out and see if anyone else is feeling the anxiety before starting their journies? Or if any veterans recall the same fears? My stats for reference: Height - 5ft 4in Weight - 247lbs Age - 22

Approaching corrective RNY revision, I've gone overboard in research and reading so that I won't make the same mistakes again. I had no nutritional guidance when I had my RNY in 1990. Left to my own devices, I screwed up and regained every ounce. This time around I've been collecting bariatric cookbooks, too. Since this is your second time around, I strongly recommend reading The Success Habits of Weight Loss Surgery Patients, by Colleen Cook, available on Amazon. If you suspect you are a sugar/food addict, I recommend Food Junkies, by Vera Tarman. If you are susceptible to binging, a good book is Never Binge Again, by Glenn Livingston. Food Addiction Books.pdf

Hey Tony! Not sure why you felt the need to call me out on here, but I figured since I was on the forum anyway I’d be happy to educate you! 😊 The Ricotta bake is a recipe I learned about through the Bariatric forums here on Bariatric pal. It was a recipe created for those on a blended diet post Bariatric surgery. It can be found on Bariatricbits.com, and I will also post the nutritional information since you are so worried about my calorie and fat intake! And don’t worry, Tony, I only had one serving and couldn’t even finish all of it! 😉 Serving size: 0.33 cup calories: 144 carbohydrates: 5g protein: 12g fat: 8 g So far down 21 pounds with no issue! Good luck with your surgery!

I am glade you are doing fantastic. I finally made up my mind to get the hip replacement because I could barely stand for more then a half hour without being in a lot of pain and it was effecting how much I could exercise. I was getting cortisone injections in the one hip four times a year and my other hip was very quickly because much worse so I had gotten two injections in that one as well and in January I got no relief from the injections so I said ok time to try because I didn’t go through the Bariatric surgery just to be stuck in a power chair for the rest of my life. So one year and one week later after Bariatric surgery I was in surgery again . I was scared to death. Much more scared the withe VSG surgery and hiatal hernia surgery. However I have to tell you I had the hip replacement on July 13; 2021 at 7am. I was up n walking two and half hrs later and home in my bed by 5:30 pm. I was in house Physical Therapy next day. Driving myself to PT the following Monday which was only six days later and back to work two weeks later. I only needed pain meds for two days. I used a walker for about a week maybe week and a half and Cain for another week and nothing after that. I have PT three times a week. I have to tell you this was wayyyy easier surgery n recovery then my Bariatric surgery. I ham hoping my other hip stops falling apart now that it’s not compensating for the other one. I’m 49 yrs old so not young but I would definitely say don’t fear the hip replacement surgery because you have most likely gone through rougher surgery with Bariatric. Great job so fare . It was nice hearing from you.

Also, just from (very) recent experience, make sure your bariatric clinic's insurance coordinator knows their stuff. I got a letter from my insurance after they submitted saying "hey, we need X, Y, and Z before we can determine," except I know for a fact X, Y, and Z were submitted. So when I called the insurance coordinator, she said this is normal, what happens is they open a request online which generates an automatic letter to be sent with what's needed, but it happens before the process allows them to upload the clearances, so it appears "missing". I had my answer back in 3 business days.

I use this one. My surgeon's office wanted to know that I was taking bariatric vitamins, to the point that they waited while I looked them on Amazon to see which one I was taking. At $30 for a three month supply, these aren't too costly, and I can get them the next day. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07HZ3YQ5X/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Is there a way to ask for a different dietician? Because she sounds like an absolute nightmare! My dietician is nice and encouraging and if I end up eating something off plan she just tells me that it won't hurt me if it happens as long as it doesn't become a habit or something I do all the time. She tells me every time she sees me (usually when I'm dealing with a stall) that I'm doing great and as long as the trend is downward that no matter how slow the loss is, I'm still losing and that's that what matters. My dietician has me eating 1200-1400 calories and I'm almost 19 months out. When I was 5 months out I think I was probably eating about 800-1000 calories. I think your own dietician is pushing you to eat too much too fast, imo. I would see if it's possible to ask for someone else. I haven't gone to my own bariatric clinic since my 9 month appointment because there is this front office lady that kept rescheduling my 12 month appointment and pissing me off. She made my stress go from 0-100 pretty damn fast and was bugging me about my labs and how they hadn't received them and how she wanted me to call the lab and have them fax my paperwork over, which I'd done, so I kept having to tell her to do it her damn self because I'd already called them and they'd re-faxed it twice already so something was getting lost on their end and they needed to deal with it. Her response was to tell me they needed to reschedule me so I just never rescheduled after about the 9th time because she pissed me the hell off! I get stressed with just the idea of having to call the bariatric doctor because if I get her on the line I will hang the damn phone up! That's why I never made my 18 month appointment and just relied on my PCP to do my labs because of that b*tch! I wish I'd gotten her name on the multiple times she'd called me so I could report her for her incompetence! So yeah, I'd ask for a different dietician, personally.

Hello! I hope some people can give some advice! I have been stewing on this for a number of weeks, and I am not really sure what to do. I will start by saying that my program is in Canada, and it is set up a bit different than most Americans. I go to a bariatric clinic that includes the psychologist, internal medicine doc, Dietitian, Nurse. The surgeon you are referred to after you have jumped through the hoops with the other professions. You are assigned the surgeon who does your surgery, for the most part, you don't get to shop for one...and they have little to do with the Diet/Medical Part (vitamins, labs, etc). The surgeons are general surgeons that obviously know how to do these surgeries, but they are not solely bariatric surgeons. So essentially, if I have questions I go to the bariatric clinic, and not the surgeon. The problem is, I hate my Dietitian. I don't feel like I can ask her anything without her being weird, and control freaky about everything. She has argued with me over my food logs (aggressively suggesting berries instead of the banana I ate everyday pre-op), She got upset with me for taking psyllum husks and omega 3 after surgery because "WHO TOLD ME TO DO THAT??!". I asked her about when my protein requirement would reduce (since I am losing weight obviously), and was told never because the protein requirement was based on my height, and not weight. (????). When I ask what calories I should be at, she won't answer and tell me my calories need to be higher. She also made a point to tell me that my weightloss will greatly slow down now (at my 3 month appointment). I was never a big/fast loser since starting this. Other than the first 2 weeks after surgery...I average out at about 2.5 pounds a week. In my program, regular food started week 4 after surgery. Once I went to solid food at week 4, I eat between 1100 and 1300 calories. I have yet to eat out, the 'worst' thing I have had is a very small bite of Candy to taste it. There is no forbidden food except for carbonated drinks...and obviously they recommend staying away from overly fried, processed, sugary things. Prior to surgery, the last time I had lost weight sucessfully was in 2016 when I went to the gym 6 days a week and tracked all my calories. I used MFP and fitbit. I ruined my knees in the process of that (a whole other story lol). I still use MFP to track food. So right now, MFP has 1300 calories to lose 2 pounds...and I am still a bit over 250. How in the world am I going to keep losing weight if I am supposed to eat more? Currently, my body is doing this thing where I lose 2.5 one week....0.7 the next....2.5 the next...I feel like I stall every 2nd week or so. The dietician doesn't help at all. She always rags on me to eat 5-6 times a day. I get all my protein in, in those 3 meals and I currently still don't experience a hunger sensation at all...so why would I eat more? She wants me to eat more and I feel like what I am doing is okay. I told her I would add more snacks if I need it, and she doesn't like that. I am at 5 months out...I feel like I am trucking along...but then I get really worried that I am not going to continue to lose weight, especially when she is on me to eat more and more often when I frankly don't want to. Everyone wants to believe that they have some tailored medical diet...and we don't. Every single program is done by an expert and they are all different from each other...and it really annoys me when people say 'follow your program'...when it seems every doc has a different idea of what would be successful., and nothing is standardized. Am I too set in CICO that I am frustrating myself? How can I continue to be successful and get to the lowest reasonable point that I can?

I take Bariatric Fusion Vitamins 2 in the am and 2 in the pm and 1 B12 5000mg on Mondays because of the high dosage. Surgery was in June and I will have my lab work done in September to see if they need to revise it.

I just take drug store vitamins. I've been taking Centrum Silver (or the generic equivalent from Walgreens or CVS) since my surgery six years ago. I took the chewable version for the first few months, then switched over to the tablets. You have to take two a day to meet the requirements. as long as you're meeting the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery requirements, you should be fine. Here it is (you may have to scroll down a ways to find the chart with the requirements): https://asmbs.org/app/uploads/2017/06/ASMBS-Nutritional-Guidelines-2016-Update.pdf

I currently am taking fusion bariatric vitamins after being sleeved 10/27/2021. I take 4 a day but I see on here they have very affordable vitamins on here which ones are more effective I'm trying to switch brands?

The BariatricPal Store carries a huge selection of Bariatric friendly Calcium at https://store.bariatricpal.com/collections/calcium. Check out the newly released BariatricPal Sugar-Free Calcium Citrate Soft Chews 500mg with Probiotics at https://store.bariatricpal.com/collections/calcium/brand_bariatricpal+vitamin-form_soft-chews . They come in 6 AMAZING flavors: French Vanilla Caramel, Chocolate Mint, Belgian Chocolate Caramel, Orange Creamsicle, Strawberry Watermelon Twist, and Wild Grape.

I take ProCare calcium chews and LOVE them! They are like a tiny dessert. 😂 They have vitamin D and probiotics in them. They have a free sample pack you can order to try them out before you buy. I also use their bariatric multivitamin and like it MUCH better than the Bariatric Advantage.

Interesting thing about vitamins is that after about 6 months I had to switch from bariatric vitamins because some of my levels were too high, specifically iron and vitamin d. So my costs aren’t high at all. My husband never even stepped foot in the hospital. Dropped me off at the door and picked me up, due to covid. I was fine, and I’d probably do the same thing even if covid hadn’t been a thing. I was worried I’d never be able to eat normally again, I would have a leak, and that I wouldn’t lose weight. I’d say I eat very normally now (9 months out), I had no complications, and I’ve lost 158 lbs, so all fears were unfounded. My advice to everyone in life is to stay far away from Facebook. Your life will be better for it! This site has great advice.