Search the Community

It really depends on your program and more importantly your insurance. Some companies require a 3 or 6 month medically managed weight loss attempt. Most clinics just have you go there monthly to check your weight and sorta use it as an opportunity to spread out your other requirements a bit so they aren’t so overwhelming. Sounds like you probably have the whole list of requirements though unless a medical issue pops up that they need to investigate further to clear you for surgery. It really varies whether you will get a date before or after you have completed everything and receive your approval but obviously the timeframe itself will not Change you may just know it sooner. My whole process took about 6 months from first appointment to surgery day.

there are so many factors when it comes to weight loss and gain. you can restrict too much and the body is in starvation mode and tries to conserve fat on the body. you could be nutritionally imbalanced causing problems; not eating enough OR taking too many supplements. you could be exercising more and loosing inches but gaining muscle. the body could be retaining excess fluids due to an imbalance of some nature. too bad you do not have a surgically support team following you. maybe get in touch with your gp and have baseline tests. glad you are talking to a nutritionalist. also don’t just rely on the scale… what are your measurements ? are you staying the same weight but loosing inches?

You can eat way more than I could at 6 weeks out. I had a tough time of nausea and sickness. For months I only managed about 300 calories a day. Even now at 10 months out I can only manage 800 to 1000 Cals a day. This made me have slow weight loss because my body was holding on to everything, I managed to give it. So, let's see if we can find out what's going on with you Are you on regular foods now or still on pureed? We are all given different plans so we don't know what yours will be. Can you show a food diary for a typical day ? How is your protein intake ?

21 lbs in five weeks is very normal. We started off at about the same weight, and that's about where I was at that point I think shows like "My 600 lb Life" give people unrealistic expectations about their weight loss. You have to remember that those people start off at MUCH higher BMIs than the average WLS patient. Most of us lose somewhere in the 15-25 lb range the first month. So your loss is perfectly normal! I went on to lose over 200 lbs - so the surgery works as long you're committed and stick to your plan. Edited to add that almost all of us hit our first major stall sometime during the first month after surgery. It's usually the third week, thus we call it "the three week stall". That may explain the 2 lb drop over those couple of weeks (367 to 365 lbs). If you search this site for "the three week stall" you will find over 17,000 posts on it (and no, I am NOT kidding). but overall, you have lost 21 lbs since surgery. Again, that's a normal loss for the first five weeks.

At a loss here. went to Mexico and had surgery Aug 12. Less than 24 hours after surgery I had to leave Tijuana because of the civil unrest going there. I have only heard from the dietician once they do not answer my emails or messages through WhatsApp. to the point where I paid a dietician on my own here in Canada. I went from consuming pre-surgery over five 6000 cal a day to now always sticking between 1000 and 1200 as per dietician. I used to only walk 500 to 1000 steps a day and I’m now doing 5000 to 6000 minimum a day. i have not smoked a cigarette even since before surgery. I went for a colonic cleanse last week and I’m taking many many supplements. because of kidney issues when I do take protein powders I cannot take them anymore according to my doctor and dietician so I make sure to get lots of protein through Greek yoghurt and chicken or ham or turkey or other vegetables. I started off day of surgery at 386. after surgery I was 373. When I made it back home to Canada five days later (stayed in California to rest before flight back) my doctor Weighed me at 367. Five weeks later I am at 365. I have never puked, and for over a month I would get feelings of being starving now finally I’m starting to get where my stomach says hey you’re full but I’ve always been very careful to track everything that goes in my mouth from day one. I am making sure to get all my liquids in. I am so depressed at this point I don’t know what to do and I just feel like giving up and saying screw it and going back to my old habits. I’m beginning to wonder if maybe the doctor in Mexico messed up the surgery or if there’s something really wrong with me I’ve gone to my family doctor four times and she doesn’t seem that concerned and said that she’ll keep an eye on it. has anybody else go through this?

Totally agree with that especially weight loss and moving through stages of food! But kellyarw95 and NewmeDC, here are a few practical things that I learned: You will be very, very tired when you get home. I don’t recall nausea (I know for sure I didn’t vomit) but the gas is for real. Walking helps and a heating pad on your back/shoulders. Take it slow and do laps in your house. I didn’t experience too much pain but definitely needed meds for the whole week mainly for the laparoscopic incisions and the largest one has some really deep internal sutures that are painful. Stay hydrated - tiny, tiny sips of Water. You can figure out Protein later but you will 100 legit not be hungry - it’s weird. Forget it if you are a side sleeper…invest in a back support pillow because you will need it. I’ve also seen that a lot of people lounge/sleep in a recliner…if I had it to do over again I would likely have invested in one. Roll out of bed holding a pillow to your tummy and letting gravity assist. Do not lift heavy things or reach for things overhead/down low. Hope that’s helpful. Good luck!

I'm older, have alway had thin hear, so it is more os an issue for me. I thought I had dodged the bullet until last month. It fell like rain! It may have been my reluctance to take my vitamin, due to all the nausea I had. Know the song "I'm a believer"? You betcha those vitamins go down now. And the hair loss has slowed down, and it is coming back in...

Just a tip from an ex-stylist. Thin hair looks better and will have more volume when it's shorter. And darker hair will look even thinner due to scalp contrast. So If you ever wanted to go lighter, its a good time to try it out!

My hair shedding started around month 3 and is finally decreasing a bit. I had already had massive shedding before surgery so maybe that's why it slowed down so fast. I see lots of scalp now but I'm going to wait until it stops then see the hairdresser about what type of cut I want. Hang in there it will start to decrease and eventually stop. As for the stalls I usually get one every month and of course this month was no exception. I reexamined my diet and found I was drinking way too much Crystal Light (approx 50-60 oz) and have switched back to plain water and have started losing again though a bit slower. Stay safe out there in Florida!

I chopped my hair off in preparation of the thinning. I have a lot of hair, but figured it would be a good thing to take off the bulk.

Stay safe out there! We have a vacation planned for Florida the first week of next month, hope it is cleared out by then. My hair is thick and has always had a lot of shedding so I can't really tell if it is more than normal or not. My ponytail seems a bit smaller so maybe it is but not enough to stress. Hopefully it stays that way! I think I am in a stall too, my first one since 3 weeks post op! I thought for a minute I was dodging stalls. haha (yea right). I have lost 3lbs over the past 3 weeks. THIS TOO SHALL PASS!

So i am about 5 and a half months post op. My hair is starting to thin out. Knew it was coming, Oh well lol. It will grow back eventually. Lost almost no weight so far this month. guessing i am in a stall again... gotta hate it lol. anyways prepping for a hurricane here in Florida. Should be here by the end of the week.

I think everything is normal because everyone is different. It could be so many things that effect weight loss. . Just keep following your program and give it more time. Everyone looses at different rates and maybe next week you will have a large loss or maybe you will be slow by steady and still reach your goal. Hugs! Its hard not to have huge losses after going through all of this. But its going to be a long journey so don't stress too much, just keep at it and every little pound will add up.

Ok so you did not get weight loss surgery for the weight loss. It was due to this tumor on your stomach. Ok now i get ya. You may need to end up getting revised to bypass if your reflux is getting this bad. Its always a fear for most that get the sleeve on having to revise it to bypass and its something i fear because my insurance does not cover these surgeries. Maybe talk to your doctor about other PPI medications. There are better ones than Omeprazole.

what is your weight and height? Why did you get weight loss surgery if you were already underweight and on a permanent liquid diet due to other health issues?

A bypass is usually revised to a sleeve if the bypass fails: weight gain, unmanageable vitamin malabsorption issues, excessive dumping complications,... Much like a sleeve can be revised to bypass because of weight gain, GERD, etc, As others have said, any weight loss surgery can fail if you don't make permanent changes to how, what & why you eat. Post surgical benefits like loss of appetite & your restriction don’t last. They should help you to kick start your weight loss & give you time to assess your eating & establish new eating habits. Sounds like you relied on the side effects of your bypass to influence what you ate. I’d expect your bypass would have failed sooner if you didn’t experience dumping (50-60% don’t with bypass). You mentioned your tummy has stretched. It does because it is a muscle & stretches & contracts. Can’t believe any doctor would say it can’t. Consistently eating larger portions will cause it to stretch more & contract less. But is your tummy as large as it was before you had either surgery or about the size of someone who never had a weight issue? The success you have with either surgery is dependent upon you, with consideration of any complications you may have of course. We all have our reasons for choosing the surgery we did & the effort we put in to make changes are reflected in the success we have or didn’t have. Excluding the life changes that can sometimes sabotage our intentions. I chose sleeve because of the lower risk of malabsorption & dumping. I lost all my weight & more. I don’t eat like friends & family who carry weight. I don’t eat exactly like friends & family who never carried weight either. I have to work a little harder & listen more carefully to my body (what it needs, how it reacts, etc.) because it’s easier for me to gain weight. I’m sorry you are unhappy with your revision.

Hello :-) I'm 9 weeks post surgery and honestly this has ruined my life I don't feel this is ever going to stop and I'm so scared. So my story is a little different. I had a laparoscopic gastric sleeve because I had a benign tumour growing on the outside of my stomach. My gastric sleeve is a smaller op than normal because they didn't take as much of my stomach away but I can't understand why I'm suffering so badly. Due to other health issues I've also got dysphagia and have been on a permanent liquid diet since 2016 and already very underweight. This is unrelated to the benign tumour and still being investigated. I never had any issues with acid before surgery. Anyhow, after surgery I was doing really well. The first few weeks I was building up to 4 300ml ensure shakes a day quite well. I felt great but this might have been the painkillers I was on for a pneumothorax. I wasn't taking the anti reflux medication as they couldn't prescribe it in liquid form and the orodispersable ones had hundreds of tiny hard capsules in them which made them difficult to swallow. But I was ok. No reflux problems. Then suddenly everything changed. I started getting the general foamies at first. Which I could deal with as they were quick in passing and after a google search I eased off the ensure shakes a little, drank more slowly and drank more water. I was started on omeprazole capsules that I have to open up and dissolve in water so I'm not really getting the full 40mg of it. I never miss taking this though. Over the past 6 weeks its gotten to the point that I no longer have foamies I have this constant thick sticky slime in my throat which is so bad I'm now losing sleep due to waking up choking and trying to hack it up. Every night is a nightmare. I go to sleep and start producing more thick slime and breathing in acid that I wake up choking and covered in sweat. I'm panicked trying to get the slime up to breathe, coughing up acid, gagging, choking on the slime, gulping on the huge lumps of slime that I can't hack up or swallow and sometimes vomiting. Its now gotten to the point that I'm living on a few cups of tea a day and water as I can't get the ensures past the slime during the day. Even an empty stomach has made no difference. I saw my surgeon and nutritionist finally a few days ago who treated me like I'd had something as simple as a tooth extraction and were unbothered by my weight loss, the fact that I can no longer get ensures down so I'm basically not eating at all and that I'm becoming depressed dealing with this choking slime and acid despite taking omeprazole. He's scheduling an endoscopy but in the meantime I'm honestly just so done with dealing with this. Its completely ruining my life. I can't eat, I can't sleep and I'm tortured every second by this choking slime in my throat. I have a young child to look after and I feel so tired and panicked daily. Has anyone dealt with the slime constantly? Rather than just when eating too much? Has anyone found a way to reduce stomach acid if already on anti reflux meds? Thank you in advance for any replies.

I think sometimes it's easy to forget that the surgery is a *tool*, not a substitute for self-control. The most important weight loss tool any of us have is between our ears.

Oh OK you're almost there then. No need to panic. If you have soup mixes leftover just drink/eat those? Good luck with your surgery and weight loss journey.

Iv'e had BOTh the ruen-y bypass surgery that was successful FOR over 10 years, after having a baby, gaining weight back and having vitamin deficiency issues I had a revision to a gastric sleeve. The sleeve has been a joke, there is no stopping me from over eating sweets or fried foods, I was sick when I ate those things with a ruen-y. I had an upper gi last week (I am 7 years post op of revision) Dr says my stomach looks like any other non surgery stomach he sees. So much for my surgery dr saying stomachs dont stretch. 1.Ruen-y is more evasive but it keeps you from eating sweets/fried foods without becoming so ill you have to lay down for 2 hours. (not dangerous, just very uncomfortable) 2.If you have weight loss surgery be SURE to have lipo suction after you've lost most of y our weight. Once you grow a fat cell you NEVER loose it unless you have it removed by having lipo suction or cool sculpting. A fat cell will lay flattened until you have extra calories that need stored then they pop right up. Get rid of them b&&*$ right away, you can still grow more cells if you over eat but it takes time to grow them new, old cells are like little saboteurs waiting to fill up again. 3. If you don't like aerobic activity try chill-aerobics. Sit somewhere cold.. shiver and ur body burns fat. 15 min. of shivering equals 30min,. of aerobic activity. Your body will burn fat to try and warm you up. (it's actually opposite in a polar bears body)

I meant to post a follow-up to my post on Thursday, but this darn tropical storm/hurricane popped up and we decided to start hurricane prep. Live in the FL Keys and it looks to be tracking west so I think (hope!) we won't get a direct hit. Thursday I had appointments w my surgeon and nutritionist. My loss is right on track, my surgeon stressed that rapid weight loss early on is indicative of muscle loss and that is not what we want to see. I was bumped to 1000 calories, and my nutritionist stressed the most important thing we can do to ensure maximum weight loss is to eat 5-6 meals, eating every 2-3 hours. Also, to start weight training now and to focus on weights, not cardio. I love weight lifting, so I don't mind this. I had been eating 4 meals and one snack and he wants me to bump it to 5 meals. I'm good at meal prep, which is essential with such frequent eating. But it does feel like I'm eating constantly! Surprisingly, he does want me to drink one protein shake a day to really up protein consumption. I've been averaging 110 g of protein a day, he wants at least 80. But craziest of all, they want me to weigh myself every 3 days!

Wow what a weird angle on the first pic. I promise my arms are normally shaped. The scar goes all the way through my armpit and connects to breast lift. I lost all the hair on my right side, I have about a one inch strip left on my left side. 🫤. Not wearing deodorant right now because of scars, but thus far it doesn’t appear I sweat on underarms through my peloton workout. Might come back, but nothing for now.

Since you're still in the investigatory stage, something for you to think about is are YOU really ready? Your concerns about how to feed your family are legitimate, but IMO you need to get control of your own eating whether or not you have weight loss surgery. Keep in mind that WLS is just a tool. You still have to put in the work. There are plenty of people that regain after WLS and the main reasons center around not eating healthy foods and lack of exercise. My point is I STRONGLY recommend improving your diet before WLS. Trying to completely change your diet after surgery just makes the entire process a lot harder. Prove to yourself that you can consistently provide healthy meals to yourself and your family and only then have WLS to give you a tool to help you reach your goals. It's been said a thousand times, but losing weight is a mental game, not a physical one. I strongly recommend you start working on the mental part now. So many of us have unhealthy relationships with food. Now is that time to address that, not after surgery. Best of luck in your journey.

Hi everyone. I found this forum from a friend. I had to have emergency Gastric Sleeve surgery on 25th August as my hiatus had been strangling my stomach. Part of my stomach had died or diseased he said, it was all a blur for me. Anyway it was another kick I needed for weight loss help. I had been going to gym 4 days a week for a month prior to help me loose weight. So on surgery day I weighed in at 103kgs. I didn’t get the chance to do any pre op I have read. I was basically thrown in the deep end. I’ve been on liquid diet since surgery and still could not tolerate soft puréed foods unless it was able to go through a straw. Today ihad to go back for surgery as I had stricture from the hiatus repair and the sleeve done. They removed some scarring and ballooned my oesophagus. So I’m on liquid diets for another week the dr said. I am over the “smoothies”. And puréed fruits/soups. Is this normal?

Hello! I’m new here in the investigation stage of doing sleeve surgery. I met with a weight loss Dr in May and started naltrexone (I was already on high dose bupropion) and a high protein/low carb diet. We discussed sleeve surgery for later this year. I lost 10lbs that month despite going on a cruise , but found out just before the cruise that we would be moving over the summer. I pretty much put my weight on hold and went into survival mode dealing with the move and kids who didn’t want to move, etc. But now we’ve moved and settled in and I’m miserable - I can’t be active at all with my kids, clothes are uncomfortable, autoimmune disorders and pain are out of control, and life in general is hard! My new PCP let me go back on naltrexone (I already take bupropion) and I’m looking for the best surgeon near Manhattan, KS (seems like there’s a great option in Topeka and I watched their video yesterday ). Best news is that our insurance here actually will actually cover surgery after the first of the year! I’m concerned about feeding the rest of my family after surgery though. My 10 year old has behavior issues and food or not getting foods she wants is a big trigger. She wants carbs, carb, carbs! She eats me out of house and home. We’re working portion control and body positivity with her. My 8 year old has sensory and feeding issues, barely eating, very underweight, and we’re trying to get his caloric intake UP! And my husband…well… We do convenience foods/fast food often. I have so many questions about how this will all look if I have surgery! Are you making 2 completely different meals for yourself and your family? (I already often make something different for the one who doesn’t eat anything!) How do you manage family food needs while meeting your own as well? I’m afraid of turning to even more convenience foods for family. This seems selfish though. It feels like such a hard balance as a family after surgery! Can anyone relate and tell me how you’ve managed? Sorry so long - thanks for reading!