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Hi Everyone I am one month post op today (3/23/21) from my laparoscopic VSG surgery. Everything is going fine. I was a low BMI patient and my weightloss seems to be in the normal range with a -19 lb loss in the month so far. I am eating soft foods now and getting my 64oz of liquid in. My incisions have healed fine. However, a few days ago i started having intense pain about 2 inches above my belly button. Its continuous and very tender to the touch. It feels like a very painful bruise or a sore muscle. Has anyone experienced this? Its hard for me to wear my usual leggings because it sits right where that pain is. I was able to sleep on my stomach soon after surgery but not anymore. Any insight is appreciated. Lucy

Yeah I def understand. I'm 7 weeks in and stalled for 4 of them. Lost weight the first 2 weeks... stalled for 3 weeks... lost again the week after... been stalling for 10 days now... I was down .5lbs this morning. Crossing my fingers that I've broken this stall and will drop another 7-10 lbs like a did last time. We all know stalling is normal but it still SUX! It's hard not to start comparing when you read post about people who meet their goals in 6 months. I feel like if the first 3 months are when I'm supposed to lose the most weight... its going to take some time before I reach my goal. My only positive thought is that losing weight slower might lead to less loose skin... hopefully... and since I didn't tell anyone about the surgery, I guess it looks more natural this way... sigh... Sending good vibes your way! Hopefully your stall won't be as long as mine!

It's interesting that the responses are so varied. I know that I'm exceeding the caloric intake of my nutritionist; she said I should be eating 850-1000 calories per day right now. I'm at 1200-1500... but the weight is still coming off, albeit at an increasingly slower pace. When I started this journey in June of 2019 I said I would be content if I could get down to 250 pounds. As the weight has come off, I set the goal lower at 225. I've just passed my original goal at roughly 8 months from surgery, and with any luck I'll hit 225 sometime this summer. I figure that as long as I'm still losing, all is well.

Hi,  I’m not sure if your familiar with the YouTube channel My Level 10 Life, but the lady who has the channel had hers done there and had nothing , but good things to say! She also talks about the payment process and challenges etc. good luck!

Hi I got the gastric sleeve on the 5th of March 2021. Weight was going down steadily for the first 10 days and now it just remains the same or increases a little. Any advice on what to do ?

I only needed an EGD, EKG, and chest x-ray pre-op. I did have a sleep study done a few years ago, though. When I started this process (end of 2019), my surgeon was splitting his time between two hospitals (same hospital network). I knew then that I could do all of my appointments locally, but I would have to have my actual surgery at the other hospital. Their program was more established, so my insurance required it. Same doctor/program, same hospital network, same/comparable equipment, but I still would have had to have surgery at the other hospital. So I guess it would not be that strange for different doctors within the same hospital network to have completely different programs. Thanks to COVID, my surgeon consolidated his offices and is back to only one- the one far away. Thankfully he had so many patients in my local area that he came a few more times to do EGDs. But it sucks that I have to drive so far for all of my appointments.

I think that was me. At least I can remember posting the link to the free PDF and I mentioned the concept of "best weight" more than one time in the past. IMO the concept of "best weight" acknowledges some very important things: - food is not only seen as fuel in our culture (and that's not viewed as something pathological here but as something common and perfectly normal) - there is more to life than a diet and an exercise schedule - not everyone can be thin without tremendous effort and it's ok to decide that going below a certain weight is not worth the effort to a person Again, there's nothing wrong with wanting to be e. g. BMI 19 and being obsessed with eating and exercise (if that is what that person truly wants) - it just irks me that extreme and radical approaches are touted as "the way to go" on this board way too often, putting/leaving people struggling with their eating in a rather bad place to be.

I'm almost 14 months out with the Loop DS, but I developed a wheat allergy after surgery. Likely due to the malabsortion bit in my surgery (they don't mention that's a possibility when you're learning about the surgery, and that irritates me). Anyway, I went through a similar thing about only eating salad on the menu (minus croutons because wheat flour is in just about every damn bread in existence except gluten free) because everything else either had bread in it (which has wheat), was an egg dish (I DESPISE eggs), was fish (HATE fish, minus tuna which is the only fish I like), or a beef dish (I don't eat beef. haven't had it in 19 years and that's not changing). So my choices were salad, salad, or... salad. So every time I get asked to go out I say no. But yesterday we went out to a different restaurant and they had chicken marsala on the menu! There is only one other restaurant that we go to that has that and we rarely go there since they shut down for a while due to covid so finding another restaurant that has that option made me really damn happy. It was delicious. Chicken, mushrooms, marsala sauce, zucchini, squash, broccoli, and garlic potatoes. I only ate like a fourth of the plate but it was delicious and I had leftovers so... I'm glad I have at least one more restaurant I can actually go to and not get... salad 🙄

I’m new to this forum. I’m scheduled for a gastric bypass March 29. I also feel scared and excited. The scared part is because I’ve had a few major surgeries in the last 10 years with post op complications. So I have a little PTSD when it comes to major surgery.

Hello, I am new to this site. I am 48 years old, female, 5'2 and current weight is 216. My official weight at doctor's office was 221, however I am ashamed to say that when I knew I was approved, I ate any/everything and my highest was 226. This crazy pre-op liquid diet helped me lose 10 lbs! Side note: Fairlife has the best testing shakes that fit into my pre-op criteria. They are so tasty and do not tasty "diet". My surgery is tomorrow 3/23 and I am a little nervous but I guess more excited. Tomorrow morning I will ask my daughter to take pictures of me from all angles so that I can compare as I lose weight.

I don't normally buy flavoured yogurt...I prefer to get plain greek yogurt and just add my own fixins. BUT...picked up this lemon flavoured one by request and OMG its delicious! Gonna make a sweeping declaration here and state that this is the best store-bought pre-flavoured yogurt I have EVER had. Yummer. 189 calories for this cup with 10 almonds...ate it all

Hi all, new to this app. I originally had sleeve in 2014 and lost almost 100lbs. I maintained my weight for a year, happy, healthy and exercising. I was diagnosed with Epilepsy and put on medication. I became very depressed and started packing the lbs back on. After several years of getting seizure meds regular and 10-15 lbs gain each year plus Covid.... I gained 65-70 back. I have my final appointment 4/14 hoping for surgery date ASAP. Can anyone share pros and cons from VSG to Bypass? Thanks Tiffany

I am 8 months out and up until the last month or so, I usually needed protein powder to reach my goal of 60 grams of protein per day. It varies from one person to the next (and your surgeon may recommend a different protein goal than mine), but it could be a while before you can eat enough to get all of your protein from food. That doesn't necessarily mean you need to drink protein shakes every day (I know we all get sick of those); you can mix protein powder into other foods or beverages (a lot of people like to use caramel protein shake as a coffee creamer). My go-to breakfast for a long time was half a scoop of protein powder mixed with half a container of triple zero Greek yogurt, for a total of 19 grams of protein (my favorite combo is birthday cake protein powder plus vanilla yogurt, topped with raspberries). Another good one is protein oatmeal. The BariatricPal store sells some with 15 grams of protein per serving, and you can add some more protein powder to that. There are a lot of protein pancake mixes on the market (and you can even buy frozen protein pancakes and waffles). Eggs, chicken sausage, and turkey bacon are always good high-protein options for breakfast. For lunch and dinner, I usually have about 2 ounces of meat and 2 ounces of veggies, like a salad with chicken, or BBQ chicken (with sugar-free BBQ sauce) and air-fried veggies (green beans, asparagus, carrots, or broccoli), or lettuce wraps (like PF Chang's). Another favorite is Mexican-seasoned chicken with cauliflower rice, salsa, black beans, cheese, and nonfat Greek yogurt. And taco bites, with Quest chili lime protein chips topped with Mexican-seasoned chicken, lettuce, tomatoes, and nonfat Greek yogurt. You can't eat much at this point, so you have to keep it simple and focus on protein. I love my air fryer and Instant Pot and I make a lot of recipes with them, but if you don't have those, you can find similar recipes that use other cooking methods. Here are some great recipes that I've made recently: Chicken Divan with cauliflower cream sauce (the cauliflower cream sauce is fantastic and can be used as a white sauce in a lot of recipes) Instant Pot Carnitas Instant Pot Mexican Chicken Instant Pot Lemon Garlic Chicken Garlic Parmesan Carrot Fries Buffalo Cauliflower (I make it in the air fryer) Turkey Ragu (excellent with Shelly's Ricotta Bake, roasted spaghetti squash, or shirataki noodles) Instant Pot Egg Bites Instant Pot BBQ chicken White Chicken Chili I have a freezer full of bariatric portioned meals and Pinterest boards full of more recipes that I'm dying to try! If you don't already use Pinterest, you definitely should -- it's a gold mine.

Surgery 12-3-18 weight 228. I got down to 132 and after this winter being stuck indoors and bored, 10 pounds have found there way back in. Time to tighten up and get moving!!!

The longest stall I had was 29 days. And then in the month following that I lost 10 pounds so... it made up for it. My most recent stall was 27 days and I've lost 7 pounds in the month following it. Stalls happen, but a two month stall means you may have hit maintenance. If you want to get your weight moving again you'll likely have to adjust what you eat. Cut your calories, carbs, fat intake, sodium, etc. until hopefully something works to kickstart it. Or call your nutritionist for advice on what to do with your diet to start your weight loss back up.

I am two weeks post op. I started the puree diet phase today. My surgeon did not have me on pure liquids for the last couple of weeks though- I could eat jello, pudding, apple sauce, thin soups w/out chunks, yogurt, instant mashed potatoes, etc.... I have been putting my food in a 4 oz paper cup- usually about half full, sometimes a bit more. Never to the top. So about 2-3 ounces every time I eat. I usually eat 3-4 times per day. As I introduce new foods, I am concerned about how I feel while/after eating. I am not sure if what I am feeling is normal for this point, if I am overeating, or if the food is not agreeing with me. I have never thrown up and only once felt like I was going to. I don't experience pain, but discomfort sometimes. Like an acid reflux feeling or I feel like I need to burp. It feels like the food just sits there for a bit. The feeling typically does not last long- a couple of minutes. Never more than 10-15. Since I am not in pain or vomiting, I just kind of assumed this is just something I have to deal with for a while. But since I can now add more foods to my diet, I thought maybe I should ask. I don't go to the doctor for another week. I can tolerate the feeling, but just am more nervous about doing damage of some kind.

those last 20 lbs or so are a BEAR to lose! The last few months I was only losing about 2 lb a month, so it took FOREVER to get them off. But even for people who've never had weight loss surgery, losing 10 or 20 or even 30 lbs when you're close to a normal BMI is SUPER hard. Before I had surgery, I used to listen to women at Weight Watchers who were like 10 or 20 lbs overweight b***ch and scream and complain about how hard it was to lose 10 or 20 lbs. I used to roll my eyes whenever I heard them. Yea...right...try losing 100+ lbs. But now I totally get it... It can be done, but it's tough. Just keep working at it (that is, if you want to - like Creekimp said, if you're happy where you're at and it's comfortable maintaining your weight at that level (because the lower you go, the harder it is to maintain it), then there's nothing wrong with staying where you're at, either...)

Had gbp 2019... over 18 months I was able to lose 100 pounds. Since loosing the initial 100 lbs I still have approximately 30lbs to lose. But it's not budging. I carry all my weight in midsection. I think the last weight i need to met is my stomach. I work out and eat healthy. Any tips on how to loose that last 30lbs? All suggestions are appreciated. Sent from my SM-N960W using BariatricPal mobile app

Maybe ..... never. I'm about 10 months out and some things that I loved before I still have no desire to eat.

The closer to goal and lower your bmi, the harder it gets. It has taken me 4 months to loose the last 10 pounds. Partly due to a low bmi (current bmi is 21) but mostly due to deciding to slowly enter the maintenance phase - a more realistic, long term sustainable way of eating. I increased my daily calories and carbs/fats and the weight loss slowed to a trickle. The last several weeks I actually increased both daily calories and macros and was able to loose 4.4 pounds so I'm 0.6 pounds to my goal of 135. I told my nutritionist that thin feels better than a whole cake tastes but not better than a piece of cake once in a while. She agreed, everything in moderation.

Man, if I had a dollar for every critic who said this to me on these boards. It's a past time of a certain type of dieter....to send me hate mail and try to shame me for being outspoken. "You're still overweight! You shouldn't be telling people what to do! How dare you not feel ashamed at that weight!" Shakin my head over here. If I wanted to be 140, I could be. Have been. Looked god-awful and felt like I was starving all the time. If I wanted to be 160, I could be. Have been. I wasn't particularly hungry, got a reasonable number of calories, but thought I looked older. I like a little more round to my angles. I like less sag, fewer wrinkles. Not real interested in cosmetic surgery. Picked the best option for me. I like eating 1600 calories a day. I like having space in my diet for a couple pieces of fruit because I think phytonutrients are beneficial and important. I like how i feel eating a high fiber diet. I like room to be a vegetarian some days. I like flexability. It's how I can face this as a lifelong change. It's how I can make peace with food forever....cause I know this plan is WORKABLE in pretty much all situations. I can eat on my plan during a holiday, a funeral, a birthday party....during a power outage, while recovering from an injury, during extreme emotional stress, on the road, and while dealing with my inlaws. LOL. I typically weigh 165-170 pounds. I LOVE this weight. It is NOT "the best I could do because I couldn't get to a "healthy weight" ", it is an intentionally chosen set point. It's a choice. This is, I am 100% certain...the MOST healthy weight I can choose for myself. That whole...Arnold Schwarzenegger's BMI was technically Obese when he won Mr. Universe figures in. BMI is flawed. It doesn't differentiate between light muscle frames and heavy muscle frames, bigger bones, smaller bones. Different ethnicities. Different body styles. My feet, depending on the manufacturer are size 10 or 11. My shoulders are more broad than most men's my height. My butt, thighs and calves are overdeveloped because I rode huntseat and jumped horses for decades, even when I was quite heavy. My husband says they have a kinda superhero quality now. LOLOLOLOL So here's the thing....If you feel inclined to send me a snarky note about how I shouldn't say anything....because I'm not American Media model skinny, you might have a problem. As it happens, I have a good friend who models. He's 5' 10", weighs 157 pounds soaking wet, and they STILL wanted him to use coke for a week and fast...to look more sickly skinny for his last national ad campaign. Our impression of body image in the media is grossly distorted and unhealthy. And a lot of folks here....get a grossly distorted and unhealthy obsession with their eating habits, their BMI, the number on the scale, and how it defines them. Please, please, please remember....health. Physical health, strength, endurance, good labs, fewer medications. Emotional health...loving yourself, enjoying your life, feeling challenged and happy. Mental health...finding balance you can live with for a lifetime. Love your strong healthy body. Love your good food choices that provide good nutrition to nurture that body. Love the flexability to make it work though the tough spots. Avoid the fixations, the extremes, the inflexable rules, the disordered eating (and disordered not-eating) You can trust yourself to get to where you need to be....without punishment. Love yourself. Love yourself. Love yourself.

I basically give about 90% of it away. The other 10% the fam eats (there are 3 of them + me)....I also sometimes eat some of it myself, though there are lots of times I don't even have any of what I make. I just find baking therapeutic! 2 or 3 times a week, I go out for my "dessert fairy" delivery runs and drop and dash goodies at friends' and families' doorsteps...gives me all the feels 😎.

Day 7. Weight seems to be stabile after a couple days with soft foods meals. 127.6 today and that is after drinking fluids this morning... I usually weigh before I drink anything at all. I am still doing protein shakes for breakfast (which was my "full liquids" yesterday) and will probably still do a combination of different consistency of snacks - pureed texture (like sugar free pudding) and soft food texture. Lunch and dinner are soft diet. Yesterday I did some meal prepping for a 2 month backpacking trip I will be taking this summer. Both meals are in the "soft" diet. Shredded chicken is the meat source.... so I used those for lunch and dinner yesterday and will again today. Today my dehydrator arrives so I need to finish the rest of the meals. The meal I was eating yesterday was a mexican style chicken and black beans and corn. The other Chicken I made was BBQ so I will be turning a lot of it into BBQ Chicken Mac and Cheese for my two kids... but need to decide what I want to mix with mine. Probably beans... I am thinking that since I will be backpacking I might use bushes baked beans... I will actually need the extra sugar for a backpacking trip. Maybe I will make half with bushes baked bean and half with some non flavored beans? I don't know. But it will be important to have healthy food on trail. And I would rather put the extra sugar carbs on beans than find myself resorting to candy on trail. BTW... when I say I am backpacking for 2 months... I am doing either the Appalachian Trail or the Pacific Crest Trail... these will be hard hikes with 10-20 mile days on mountainous terrain. So yes... I will need the extra sugar. Just making sure it is going to be in a form that doesn't derail my diet after the hike. Anyhow... doing well and continue to feel the restriction and those "getting full" signals. Will continue to eat more thoughtfully this week.

Alot of folks already said more or less the same thing, but I'll throw in my 2 cents anyway: I chose sleeve because: I was afraid of dumping (but...I dump anyway) I wanted to continue using NSAIDs (but...I ended up not needing them anymore anyway) I was personally freaked out a bit by the re-routing of my intestines (but...not cutting out my stomach? lol) I DID NOT have GERD. I only had a choice between sleeve and bypass cuz those were the only ones covered by my insurance, so I didn't consider any other procedure. I think that one's results with WLS has more to do with the person, than with the type of surgery. I'm convinced I would have had the same result if I had the bypass. But that's just me. Some background and current statuses: I'm 5'2", almost 50yr old female, started off at 235 lbs at the beginning of my 2 week pre-op diet...2.5 years ago. I got to goal of 127 lbs in 7 months (108 lbs lost at that time). I settled into 115 lbs by 10 months post-op and stayed there basically since...but not without a bit of effort on my part. 3 times I got up to 120 lbs for a few consecutive days, and subsequently made efforts to get back down to 115. And 4-5 times I went sub-110 lbs for a few consecutive days, but didn't have to make any effort at all to get back to 115, go figure. This morning I was 109.2 lbs. I consumed very little calories during weight loss phase, and exercised regularly starting month 3 (running/walking mostly, and minimal strength training daily). No complications, nor issues other than those expected (dump with sugar, foamies/chest pressure if I eat too much or too fast, need to barf if I drink with my meals, burp like a teenage boy) At 2.5 years out, up until a month ago, I was averaging around 1800 cals a day with regular exercise (running & strength training 4-5 times a week). Currently I'm playing around with calories as I'm sidelined on the exercise front, which explains my lower weight these days cuz I haven't figured it out yet. I mostly eat salads (by choice, I LOOOVE salads!) , but I also eat desserts, spicy stuff, fried stuff, fatty stuff, drink coffee, alcohol and carbonated water. On rare occasions I eat bread or potatoes, but I don't eat rice nor regular pasta. I max out at about 1 to 1.5 cups of food per sitting (more if its salad) My lab results have consistently been uneventful (my last one was in November last year). So....so far so good. I have no illusions that I will be like this forever...but that's on me, not my sleeve.

I converted from VSG to RYGB in October 2020. Recovery was similar, yet different. I had a lot of vomiting following VSG, but less with the bypass. I am one of the 30% who experience dumping, but as catwoman7 explained, it is totally controllable by watching what I eat. In fact, I'm almost 5 months post-op and even the dumping appears to have improved (or I've figured out the triggers!). I can tell you that I don't get that immediate sense of restriction like I did with the sleeve. At this point in my recovery, my body seems to know when to stop eating before I get the pain and discomfort associated with overeating. All I can really offer is my advise based upon my outcome. I am so happy that I had the surgery. Like you, I has the surgery to correct my stomach and esophagus issues. But I've lost 47 pounds, I feel great, I can sleep through the night without acid reflux and I look and feel 10 years younger. Don't let fear of surgery and complications limit your decision to improve your health and daily living.