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I am having my surgery on the 29th and I just started my second week of my liquid diet. I am down 12.5 pounds and have 107.5 to go. I was going to get the realize band but have, at the last minute, opted for the lapband ap system. I liked the realize support but when I saw it inflated and looking a bit triangular I liked the look of the ap better. I am very excited about starting this journey. Currently I am just working out with my Wii Fit which is quite a work out! I have purchase a heart monitor to keep me in zone as per the exercise physiologist at the docs. I also use a really cool pedometer to keep track of my steps. I am a bit underwhelmed doing my post op shopping. I am finding nothing but artifically sweet things and things that are very salty. I am spending this week making broth, Soup and home-made popsicles. Glad to be here and be a part of the September folks Laura

I had my surgery February 18th so that makes me a little over over 6 weeks post op. I have been doing great but I haven't lost a pound in over a week. What am I doing wrong?

So I had my surgery 2 weeks ago today. I have lost 18 pounds since that day and 5 pounds on pre-op diet so a total of 23 pounds in the past 4 weeks! Overall I am very happy! I am a little moody and a little tired. The surgery pain is very light now and I have no problems drinking tons of water and seem to be able to swallow anything that I chew up good. I have not been nauseous one time. I can swallow small pills with out even noticing I had surgery. Nothing seems to really hang up on the way down. I am very tired of sweet protein shakes. Everything tastes VERY sweet to me. I always had a sweet tooth but I think that is over!! With the exception of a day or two out of the past 14 I really do not have desire to eat and usually have to just make myself do it to get the protein in. I would say overall so far so good!!

Three more hours I will be going back to into surgery. I'm hoping to wake up with getting through the procedure this time with no complications. It was truly disappointing and a set back for me the first time due to low heart rate. My whole focus was thrown off and depressing. I'm asking all buddies to please pray that this time around be successful.

Hi guys, I understand that I am supposed to consume 60-80g of protein daily, but I know it will be complicated with the recommended amount of water I have to drink. Has anyone doubled up on the dose of protein powder, like two or three scoops to get the required amount of protein?

My surgery is in mid-February and I have done three weighins so far at my hospital program. The last one really threw me, because I was up two pounds. I mean,I was just starting a period and it doesn't help that the weighins are all at night. So this month started out pretty well and I am keeping faithful to my log, but the last week I have been just giving in to the carbs. I am having a heck of a time sticking to 1400 cals a day and I am getting crabby and nasty. I keep asking myself if I want to do this or if I just want to give it up and die fat. It's a long haul and I am really worn out. I have 15 days to lose the two pounds (which I think are now FOUR pounds, according to my scale). 1. How did you manage to get through the insurance mandated diet and be sane at the same time? (Note: I am allergic to dairy, soy, whey and due to diverticular disease, can't eat nuts, seeds, corn, etc.) 2. What is the best way for me to take my morning weight, which is always lower than evening weight and carry that forward on the weighin day? Should I not eat for that day? I have two more scheduled weighins, Dec 9 and January 9th. I meet with the dietician on Dec 4th and she might weigh me then. Can I wear a bathing suit? Weigh in naked? HELP!!

Hello, everyone. This is my first post. I'm aware that stalls occur, however, I am just starting my seventh week after gastric bypass surgery on October 20, 2015. Two weeks after my surgery I stalled at 352 pounds. It took me two weeks to lose down to 348, and today when I got on the scale I weigh 351. So basically for the last month what little I've lost i've gained right back. I've been monitoring my food intake and I have not eaten more than 800 cal each day. I've gotten in most of my protein but not close to all of my water. Could you please analyze what's going on here? I started my liquid diet pre-op on October 8 at 385 pounds and I was 372 pounds on my surgery date if that helps. Thank you for your time.

I will be 2 weeks post-op this tuesday, and my steri strips started falling off two days ago. One of them looked fine, just a little red, but the other one wasnt fully closed, and it looked like it had a little collection of yellow drainage in it. It wasnt seeping, it was just sitting there. And then today another one of my steristrips came off and there was the same problem. The top part of the wound was closed but the bottom part was still open. it wasnt as if you could see into my abdomen but it was just a little crater. Is it due to my weight? [the girth of my stomach is towards the bottom, so everything drags down] We put an ointment on it and put medical tape over it. did this happen to anyone else?

Hi everyone. I'm so hungry for a salad-lettuce, little dressing. When can I have it?

Inquiring minds want to know!

chilling ode happy :-) ... I'm feeling great yay ... How are y guys doing?

Well hi everyone... I have had a fabulous week. I spent a wonderful 4 days away with 5 of my best friends, heading up to Nelson Bay in NSW and heading to an outdoor concert to see Roxette. I definitely did not hold back this week and still managed to lose .5kg bringing my total to 17.6kg lost. As I said, I did not hold back one bit and enjoyed all kinds of food and wine - just a lot less volume than I would've consumed 6 months ago. I think this may be what I love most about the lap-band. There really is no restriction to what you eat just the amount of it. I still need to enjoy life and the band allows me to do this. I had so much energy for the concert and the whole weekend that I had lost, and thought would never get it back again - but I've found it and I am so happy. I am also heading for a little holiday to Thailand on Tuesday of next week so will have an early weigh in and won't have another for 2 weeks - so stay tuned for my next post...

No liquid diet required thank God so relieved my surgeon only put me on a 1000 calorie diet before surgery I'm so happy I wish the 21st would get here the anticipation is killing me by the way I don't think I ever posted where my surgery will be its going to be at University of Pennsylvania by doctor Noel Williams he's the head of the dept which puts me more at ease with his experience but does any one have any suggestions or something I should know before surgery?

Ok embrace the stall, done It. Been reassuring myself daily for the last, ohhhhh I dunno, 3 weeks? I went on a work trip the 25-28 of last month and gained 2 lbs. I don't know how, I ate right and didn't drink with even though everyone else did. But the worst part is that I haven't lost a single pound since!!! I am only 2.5 months post op! This should be my honeymoon period right? Someone tell me their story or similar experience. I need to hear some good news so I can have some reassurance that I'm not stuck at this weight forever. I know it's ridiculous to think that like but I'm sure everyone has had their discouraging and depressed days throughout this journey and just needed a little reassurance. P.s when I left for my trip I was 3 lbs from ONEderland. So I fully expected to be under 200 when I came home. I about cried when my scale said 205. I DID cry this morning when my scale, once again said 205. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Hi Everyone, I have a few concerns: A) it’s time for me to start the soft food stage and I am still struggling with getting all 70/80 grans of protein in plus my 64 oz of fluids The scale keeps moving up/down 2 pounds (im about to kick the scale out!!) and Yes, I’m walking 10-20 minutes every day.. I’m C) I can’t seem to get a schedule with drinking and eating because I seem to forget that I’m thirsty and need to eat D) Anyone ever hiccup after eating and is this normal? E) Am I worrying too much? Help! Pre surgery weight: 303 Surgery weight :294 Weight now: 277 Mid goal weight: 250 Mini goal weight:200 Goal weight:180

It is been 4 days without any loss and actually 1 pound gained. I am eating properly, increased my protein, drink a lot... I know it is the infamous 3rd week stall but it is still disapointing and frustrating. How do I get to break this stall faster?

Hi there! It's been over a week since I've last posted, and I've spent that time transitioning from liquids, to pureed food, and am now eating soft solids... but it hasn't been without it's trials... The first three days home from the hospital, my surgeon's plan calls for a pureed diet. For me, this consisted of mostly Greek yogurt, protein drinks, and some delicious pureed mushroom soup that my husband made for me. I'm sorry, but the idea of pureeing meat or fish or something just turned me off, so I didn't go there, but I feel like for those few days, I actually was doing well at getting in my protein in. Managed to get about 50 grams most days. And I have never had an issue getting my fluids in. I always get 50-64 ounces of straight fluid, not including my protein shakes. No, my big issue those first few days was with swallowing my pills. I was still having a fair amount of pain, so I was taking the Vicodin my surgeon prescribed probably twice a day, plus trying to take all of my vitamins, and the Pepcid. No matter what time I tried to take them, or what I took them with, I would inevitably get something "stuck" and end up "sliming" until I eventually vomited. More times than not, the pill itself stayed down and just water came out.... weird. This is a huge change from the pre-op me, who could swallow all 6 of my vitamins at once, and not flinch. Needless to say, I've stopped taking my vitamins in pill form, instead I got some calcium chews, and some Biotin chews (I'm very worried about losing hair), and I found these cool things at Costco that are like a Crystal Light powder that you put in your water, but they are chock-full of vitamins! I drink two of them a day in my water. So the only thing I'm still a little worried about is my Iron, but I just can't tolerate plain Iron pills, it makes me nauseous... and I've been doing enough vomiting lately without adding in anything that may upset my little tummy more! So on Post-op day 4, my surgeon's plan called for me to start trying some soft foods. On the list of soft foods allowed was soft baked fish. So my husband decided to cook dinner for us on Sunday, and made me a beautiful, tiny piece of tilapia, which he served over some soft polenta. It looked and smelled so delicious that I dug right in, and ate more than half of it without any regard to how my tiny tummy was handling it! With about one bite of food left on the plate, I realized what I had done, and knew I was in trouble. I spent the next two hours running into the bathroom. Every time I thought I was through, more would come out! It was awful, but not unexpected. I knew what I had done, and vowed to eat more slowly next time. Well, the next time turned out to be the following night, when I made what sounded like a wonderful recipe for a Ricotta cheese bake. But, yet again, it smelled and looked so good, I ate about half of the 1/4 cup portion that I had served myself way too fast, then got sick again... So, long story short, I am becoming a professional vomiter. I keep a pillow next to the sink to splint my incisions while I puke out whatever it is that I took one too many bites of. It's gotten better over the past day or two, as I've kind of learned to take one bite of something, and then wait about ten minutes to see how it will sit. If it seems to be settling well, I'll eat another two bites. But three bites of any soft or pureed texture food seems to be my limit. I've also become more severely lactose intolerant than I ever was pre-operatively. During my two week protein shake diet, I was able to enjoy at least one of the Premier chocolate shakes per day, as long as I took a lactaid pill with it. And I never had any issues with yogurt. Not the case post-operatively... I've sworn off of the Premier shakes entirely (too bad, because they pack 30 grams of protein in each one!), and as of yesterday, decided that the yogurt wasn't working either. So there went two big sources of protein. Between the vomiting, and the lactose intolerance, I've been really struggling to hit the protein goals set by my surgeon. I'm probably averaging about 40 grams/day, with a goal of 60 grams. So with all this talk about what's not working, this probably sounds like a pretty discouraging post. So let's talk about what is working! Foods that I can eat in small amounts with no issues: Eggs, refried beans, powdered protein shakes made with almond milk, and bananas. Sounds like a pretty short list, but here's the thing: I'm never hungry. Like, never. If I wasn't worried about my hair falling out, I would happily just drink my vitamin water all day and not eat at all. Once in awhile I get a craving for something, like yesterday I kept thinking about bagels, but it's never accompanied by actual hunger. It's just a craving, and it passes. Pain-wise, I haven't taken a Vicodin in three days, and prior to that I was only taking them at bedtime, and taking Tylenol during the day. Now I don't take either. I get an occasional twinge of pain under the incision on my left side (where they took the stomach out), but it goes away in a few seconds. As far as my surgical incisions go, all of my steri-strips (the little tape like things over my incisions) have fallen off, and I have to say, they look good! Three of them are completely healed over, and the last two just have tiny scabs on them. I've been putting vitamin E on them. And now... the big scale question. I have lost (drumroll please) 24 pounds since I started the pre-op diet, with 11 of those pounds having come off since surgery. So that's 11 pounds in less than two weeks, 24 pounds in less than a month. I am pretty pleased with that. And, hey, I just realized that 24 pounds is more than 10% of my starting weight, which is something I never managed to accomplish in months of sitting through meetings at Weight Watchers! The pictures below were taken yesterday. I decided after looking at someone else's before and after pictures to wear the same clothes in all of my progress pictures... I can really see a difference in how the shorts fit around my butt and thighs. My husband can't get over how much thinner my face is already. So overall, very pleased, despite all of the challenges! I have my first follow-up appointment coming up this Wednesday, and then I go out of town for 10 days, so I'll have some info to put in another update pretty soon!

I know I'm a week behind, and I'll get my Week 4 measurements up soon, life has been crazy. But here they are! Waistline: 39" Weight: 237.3 lbs Bust: 46" Hips: 49" Neck: 15" Wrist: 7.25" Bicep: 16" Forearm: 12" Thigh: 30" Calf: 18.5" Weight Lost: -17.7 lbs Total Inches Lost: -13" BMI Reduced: -2.7

Hello Sleever People! I had my surgery January 25, 2010 with Dr. Aceves in Mexico and have never once looked back. I was on this board pretty much 24/7 pre-op and for a long time post op and one of the things that I desperately wished for more of was feedback from people that were "long term" sleevers. We seem to be few and far between and I swore I would provide regular updates... fail!!! And I apologize to any of you that, like me, wish for more of the "big picture" - no pun intended! It's true that we simply get on with life after surgery and before we know it, life has been blowing by and suddenly it's been some fantastic years gone by - you'll see, trust me! So, the long and short of my sleeve experience has been incredible – there truly are no words to describe one of the absolute best decisions I’ve ever made for myself. I started at 254 and lost exactly 100 pounds well before the end of the year. I ate low carb and drank Protein shakes forever it seemed. About a year and change after surgery, after maintaining a size 4/6 154# for months, I started gaining – eeekk!!! – I attributed this primarily to nursing school (which I started the same week of my vsg and have since finished and am now working in an ER – whole nuther story!) and grazing all day. Cashews are the devils work, btw!! I was scared and worried but stopped gaining after slowly putting back on 20 pounds. I’ve lost five of that since, am now in a size 8/10 and have been holding there for some time. I truly eat what I want within reason. I’m in a good place mentally and physically. I have been at this weight for over a year now. I 100% BELIEVE THAT EXERCISE IS CRUCIAL TO YOUR SUCCESS LONG TERM!!!!! So commit to it, the sleeve, while a fantastic tool, WILL NOT solve all of your problems if you aren’t prepared to take care of yourself and having the sleeve makes it easy!! Like any “diet” or whatever, the long term is the trick; you will be able to eat A LOT more as time goes on yet nothing like before. You WILL be able to eat enough and often enough to gain weight if you are not aware. But it’s different. I would have easily gained that 100# back by now, that I know. So, for me, to compensate for eating so-so, I bicycle competitively and long-distance; average 50 miles every other day at about 19mph. I have a group that I ride with but do it often on my own too. Burns a gajillion calories. I guess the bottom line is that your life is going to be absolutely incredible post-op BUT, you will always have to be aware of what’s going in and out. The story about the woman who gained all her weight back cuz she would order an xl pizza and work on it all day? I can see that!! Yikes! But, you know what? Don’t buy the stupid pizza!! Easy!! I wish you all the very best and please feel free to contact me to vent, ask questions, whatever, I’m happy to help and happy to be here for you. richcoast@yahoo.com Carol

I thought I would post an update on my surgery. I'll be one week post-op tomorrow. Everything went fantastically well. I had the procedure on Monday and was released from the hospital on Wednesday afternoon. I have had very little pain, even in the hospital, and didn't ask for pain meds after they removed my morphine pump on Tuesday morning. I was up and walking on Monday afternoon, and did my best to walk a few laps around the hallway every 2-3 hours as proscribed by my doctor. I swear, that makes all the difference in the world! I'm convinced that my surgeon, Dr. Wier, is the most compassionate, caring surgeon around. I would highly recommend him! We had a great, funny moment in the hospital when Dr. Wier came by on rounds on Wednesday and found me talking to @hirskborn, another of his patients, who was there visiting me. The look on his face was priceless. Thank you to everyone for your kind words when I last posted about my journey to having this surgery. Through VSTalk, I have made at least one RL friend in addition to a supportive online community. This forum is invaluable. Before she died, I promised my mom I would have this done by the end of the year, and I have.

My last experience with a liquid diet was the pre colonoscopy liquid diet. I’ll never forget projectile vomiting at 10pm. I understand that the pre-surgery liquid diet encourages protein, but it also lasts much longer. Any reassurance? A reality check? Thoughts???

I know this is posted on here time and time again but I'm so frustrated. I'm getting ready for a cross country move. I really imagined that by this time I'd be in the 230s. I have stalled out for the last 3 or 4 weeks and am so frustrated about it. I keep going in between 248 and 251. I don't know if this is maintenance because im only a bit over 4 months post op from gastric bypass. I have definitely increased my calories but am eating in a deficit. My BMR is around 1900 and I'm eating in between 1000 and 1300 a day plus exercise. I have been slacking in water and have not been having protein shakes at all because I'm getting a decent amount through solid food and don't want the extra cals. How do I get past this? I'm going to stay off the scale until the end of next week but I'm still feeling really down and bad about myself. I feel like a disgusting fat mess honestly. I haven't had these feelings since pre op and I just need to vent about it. I was experiencing a period of mania a week ago for a good 2 weeks straight (I'm bipolar) and missed some of my meds. I think I might be crashing and going through a depressive state. It's not super bad but the weight loss stall is making me have a lot of negative self image and feelings of failure. Should I just get back on liquids for a week or something? I'm losing my mind and getting depressed as hell. I'm taking my meds regularly again. I really only missed like 3 or 4 days and I take a small dosage. So I'm hoping to even back out soon but the stall is messing with my brain and confidence. What do you do? Sent from my SM-G975U using BariatricPal mobile app

It's been 4 weeks since my surgery and I am finally beginning to get the hang of things. Started the gym last week and even though it's a slow process it felt great to walk on the treadmill. I am down 37 pounds since surgery and it feels great. Im hoping not to catch this stomach bug that's been going around. It's already entered my home just trying to keep far away from my family. Other than that feeling great with my progress. Sent from my SM-G930T using the BariatricPal App

I am 3.5 weeks post op and have had a 5 day plateau... I'm wondering if this has happened to anyone else?? I'm exercising and eating and drinking perfectly... I'm getting frustrated with the scale:/ Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

I'm 3 weeks and 1 day post op. I have had this happen before, but it is really bad now. My tongue is swollen and i have rub spots on the sides of my tongue (they aren't sores, they just hurt). my dh says it is because when you are thirsty, you suck on your tongue. ok, that could be it. since surgery, my mouth is so dry. it kills me when i'm working out, because there is just NO saliva in my mouth. (i take cymbalta also, that doesn't help) so my question is, is this a Vitamin deficiency or is this from being dehydrated, or what?