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My stomach growled for two months. Before, during, and after eating. But it stopped as suddenly as it started. Try to limit yogurt to 8 oz. at a time. Light and fit dannon 2x protein is my fav for only 80cal. Love that you and your stomach ARE CONVERSING!! Too funny. : )

My first week postop I was getting between 350-450 calories per day on clear liquids. I added smooth liquids on Tuesday which included puréed creamed soups, drinkable yogurt, ect. I have gotten between 600-800 calories a day by adding those. I intentionally chose some of the higher calorie soups because I felt I needed the extra calories. Such as a bean and bacon cream soup and New England clam chowder. I am also adding a tablespoon of unflavored protein powder to my 1 cup serving to that extra little 5 gr of protein.

I, too, used the Premier Protein Shakes and was getting sick of them after surgery (I am about 9 weeks out). I read someone else's tip to add instant coffee to the chocolate premier shake and now I drink that every morning because it tastes sooo good I add ice to water it down just a bit and add a Tablespoon of instant decaf coffee (before I add the ice)...it's like having a mocha coffee. I usually have a Fage yogurt for breakfast and by the time I am done showering and getting ready for work, I can start drinking this shake while I drive to work...easy routine! and 43 grams of protein by the time I get to work

That sounds like classic lactose intolerance. Go to the store and get you some Lactaid pills and take 1-2 with your first sip of the shake or first bite of yogurt and it will stop.

I try to keep dairy to one serving a day which is usually yogurt. However, I have a soft spot in my heart for cheese. It seems to end up on appetizer plates. I will have a few servings of cheese in this setting.

1 week post op what saved me was going to sprouts and getting there chicken noodle soup mainly broth , straining it and measuring 2oz every few hours was soo amazing! And 2 weeks post op i could no longer do protein drinks so i ate protein yogurt some brands were higher protein less sugar than others i always made sure to stay under 15grams of sugar per anything. Best of luck!

Try the Greek Yogurt in a smoothie - it masks the taste and the texture. This one has 10 grams of Protein and about 95 calories: 1/2 c. Fage 0 Greek Yogurt ( I buy it at costco, comes in a giant tub): 65 calories 1/8 c. OJ: 15 calories 2 strawberries: 15 calories Splenda to taste ( I use a couple tablespoons) Lynda

I would recommend trying different brands of greek yogurt. I've heard great things about the Trader Joe's greek yogurt. I like the Yoplait greek yogurt and the Lucerne brand (store brand). I bet if you really want to have cereal you could mix some cereal into your yogurt (just not too much so you don't get too many carbs). What about cottage cheese? It has a lot of Protein and is pretty easy on the tummy.

Find a good Protein bar. The RTD shakes won't go thru airport security (unless they are under 3oz I believe) so the ziplocks with the Protein powder is probably a good option. I think most aiports have deli places where you can grab a yogurt or even a hard boiled egg. Have fun on your trip!

I agree, the commercials are a little cheesy and almost make you think the weight falls off by itself. There is still work involved. Yes, I am still hungry sometimes. If I go an hour after my usual meal time I feel very hungry, sometimes eat too fast and pb. Skipping meals is a definite no no for me because then I seem to stay hungry off and on throughout the day. However, in general I am not hungry if I stay in plan. I am almost never the same hungry as I was pre-band. Pre-band I could be starving and looking around the kitchen for something to hold me over for dinner immediately after work. On a scale of 1 to 10, I could reach about an 8 (i could eat a horse) on a daily basis. Now, unless I am not eating on time, maybe it is only about a 4 (a yogurt would take the edge off). Hunger for me is now manageable with the band.

I too travel with a cooler when able. I take deli meats and cheese,sometimes lettuce to make wraps,if band tolerates of course Apple sauce Greek yogurt cheeses and cottage cheese Protein drinks and water Some times salads like egg tuna or potatoes salad or just plain old dressed up with all fixings... salad

I travel a lot for work so I carry a cooler every day. I bring Mix1 Chocolate Protein Shakes (90 calories, 9 grams protein), Isopure Zero Carb Shakes (60 calories, 15 grams of protein),Greek Yogurt, lowfat string cheese or lowfat sharp cheddar sticks from Sargento Cheese, Doctor Kracker Crisp Breads/ Crackers (100 calories, 5 grams of protein) and even hard cooked eggs. Have a good trip!

Ok, so lets share snack ideas. I'm a salty food lover, but have had a hard time finding the right Snacks. I've tried baked potato chips (small amts) and they don't sit well with my stomach anymore. I bought some baby carrots the other day, but haven't tried 'em yet. Anyone have any ideas besides yogurt and granola? Obviously looking for Low Cals... would love to hear what you guys are trying!

Hi Kim, I've never been able to stick to a diet for long either, BUT... the pre-op and post op diets are different, at least I thought so. You know that there's an end to it, for one thing, and you're really doing it for a GOOD reason. Not sticking to it would only make your surgery more difficult, and I found that good incentive to 'be good'. But... LOL, I of course wasn't all good. I still lost 15lbs, and it did its job (shrinking my liver). Just think of it being for the best. It's not for long, and really, the worst of it is the pre-op part. TLBC's is yogurt and cottage cheese, right? Mine was all Optifast. They both suck, eating any one thing for a long time, but... you'll live. And then after, you'll be so excited to have juices and broths and popsicles! Your BMI is a good thing to know. A 'normal' BMI is around 18.5-24.9. Up to 29.9 is overweight, 30 and above is obese, and 40 and above is morbidly obese... I believe 50 and above is super morbidly obese. You could tell us your height and weight, and we'll tell you what yours is. It's not something you NEED to know, but I guess we just use it to gauge where we want to get to. When you hit a 39 BMI, you can say "WOOO! I'm only obese!!!" You don't really need to know about the size of the bands and fills right now. Joffe/Yau will figure out what you need when they get in there. Then you'll eventually get fills, which amounts will vary. You should start working on not having a drink with you when you eat. If you're eating tiny bites like you're supposed to, you probably won't choke anyways! Practice that (small bites and chewing the crap out of everything) too! It's not that you CAN'T drink with your meals, it just defeats the purpose, because it makes the food slide out of your 'pouch' faster, and you won't get full, or not for as long. If you absolutely NEED a sip, take one. I'm not telling people.... not really. I just moved across the country, so no one I know or am around on a daily basis, besides my boyfriend knows. People really don't notice what you're eating or that you're not drinking while you're eating. They're too busy with their own food. Order smaller things... eat what you can. If you can't finish it... just say "Oh, I guess I wasn't all that hungry." If you just have a diet Pepsi once in a while, you'll probably do fine getting 'cut off' ! I'm not one to talk though, I've started having coffee every morning again. Damn you, Tim Horton's! Let us know whatever else you want to know! Mandi

I always have some almonds handy, but I like a good Quest protein bar or some Greek yogurt with a scoop of vanilla protein.

I like it with Greek yogurt and Splenda.

Due to the limited stomach capacity I am trying to eat the best nutritional foods with vitamins and minerals I can. Besides protein requirements what are some foods you eat to get the best nutritional bang for your buck? I still have a premier protein shake daily. I eat yogurt and spinach daily. I eat pumpkin seeds and or walnuts often too. I know a varied diet with different fruit and veggies is good but sometimes i want to just stick with something I know I will get a lot of nutrients from. I don't eat beans often and think maybe I should try to add some to my diet.

You do not say when you had surgery. At 6 months post op my husband and I eat 1 boiled egg or 1 scrambled egg and cannot add anything extra because that fills us up. I would never make a casserole for the two of us and we steer clear of any kind of potato or pasta, and bread, because we do not want to go back to gaining weight. At 5 weeks post op I choked terribly on a small piece of soft crockpot chicken (thought I was having a heart attack), so went two more weeks on soft foods. We have kept our meals simple. No fuss. Tonight we shared ONE Chic-Fil-A asian salad, and could only eat half. I recommend eating a slow, small amount of anything, and see how full you get really fast. I would eat about 2-3 level T. refried beans, with melted Laughing Cow cheese melted, very filling. At 3 months I was told I was eating too much protein and I started substituting more soft veggies, especially zucchini. I did try the turkey meatballs, with a little sauce (barbecue) because dry meats might tend to stick in your chest. You could add a little mushroom soup to simmer them in, with some Worcestershire sauce or spices you like. I relied on a small yogurt every day for breakfast (less than 13 grams of sugar), no lunch, and dinner has always been very light and uncomplicated. BTW, I think my first favorite "food" was a lowfat turkey chili I made for Christmas, as I was craving something a little spicy. Had no problem with that. Best of luck!

Was in the same boat but someone gave me this thread and I am following it my weight moving but slow but it's going down try this: wish u well Quote Someone on an old,old post shared how she jumped off her plateaus and went from being a slow loser to a steady loser by adding Protein here and there to her meals. I'll see if I can find the original post and link it back here. Good luck finding what will work for you. Couldn't remember where I had posted remembering an old post--I've ended up reposting this several different places! Oh well. Here it is. Newsho posted this a long time ago, but maybe her approach will help you. I copied her post and am pasting it below. Good luck. LENGTH ALERT! (This has very detailed tips and tricks, so this is not a short post. Just a "heads up") People asked me a lot how I went from Slow Loser to getting to goal. I did better my second year of banding and when the weight came off - it really came off. This is something that worked for me, and I recommended to other Bandsters. Granted, these are tips that's not in any LapBand brochure or doctor's manual, and YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY - but if you already think of yourself as a Slow Loser like I was, then maybe you will be open to trying something to shake things up a bit. When I needed a weight-loss push, I didn't cut down on calories much (if I'd recently had a fill adjustment, that's different) but in general: I *added* protein to every thing I ate. This helped me to lose steadily (although it sped up my weight loss, more importantly it kept it steady). And it worked! Some Bandsters in my same banding date were better at counting calories - I wasn't. Some were better at counting carbs, I wasn't, but I excelled at ADDING protein. And I did well and later, other fellow Bandsters were asking me for help and tips. How did I do it? I did not reduce calories or the amount I consumed (without a fill it wasn't much need to try that) and yet, I still lost. (I added a little bit of Beans, or a sprinkle of cheese (my favorite), or eggs - whatever I could. I didn't reduce what I ate, but I "upped my protein" - and it worked. With the band, if you eat more protein, you generally will find yourself eating less overall - it doesn't feel that way but you do. Every single time I added more protein to my regular Band-friendly meals, I lost more weight, even though I wasn't eating less calories sometimes. Sounds crazy - but in my particular case, if I didn't keep my protein levels up, my body held on to calories a lot more. Who needs their bodies "hoarding" calories? If adding a bit of food meant I would lose more, it was worth a try. It worked. And I paid attention to the TYPE of protein I ate. (Even before banding, I didn't eat beef or pork at all. And the band was developed in other countries where the pork and beef consumption is a lot lower than it is here in the 'States. I'm not a vegetarian, I just eat seafood and poultry only. My doc said this helped my weight loss a lot because the protein I ate was leaner, not fattier protein like pork/ham/bacon or beef/hamburger/fatty red meat. So I didn't have to regulate my portions as much as some Bandsters did. My can of tuna did more for me than a hamburger ever would have.) Also, I'm a single/childless Bandster who lives alone, so I eat out for almost every meal. If I could make it to goal - while eating out - ANYBODY can. How did I do it? Here were some tips. At breakfast, with my morning egg(s), I added a bit of cheese on top. Or I would have cottage cheese added. For protein and hunger reasons, cottage cheese did better than yogurt for me - unless I just had a fill or was very very filled or adjusted. The most filled I am, the less I eat in the mornings. So especially if you are not at your sweet spot, try Proteins that "stick" with you more to keep hunger away. Yogurt alone was not good enough of a breakfast for me, with the band it just went through, and wasn't really filling. Now if I charged up my yogurt with lots of nuts, seeds, and wheat germ - then BAM! I'm not much of a cold cereal eater (I prefer hot cereals) but if I had one I made sure it was a protein-packed one (I LOVE Grape Nuts cereal best. Go Lean is awesome, and several of the Oatmeals & Cream of Wheat cereals have good protein content. I also added a few nuts to those, too. If I had a yogurt smoothie drink as a snack, I had them had a half scoop of Protein powder (a full scoop can make it too thick sometimes) or some soy or nuts. Lunchtime was easy to get more protein in. I'd eat a scoop of tuna salad or chicken salad for lunch - and have them add some shredded cheese, some seeds and/or some nuts. I also love soup. Usually a cup is a nice start to my lunch if I'm having a scoop of salad or tuna. If it's my whole lunch I get a bowl of soup and eat what I can from it. My band will tell me when to stop. Almost any kind of any soup is great with a sprinkle of cheese or nuts added. Beans, too! With my dinner I always like a cup of soup to begin. Gets me going, jump starts & 'primes' my band and it's a great protein opportunity. Then if I could, I concentrated on seafood. ANY type of fish worked great with my band - From catfish to salmon to snapper to Tilapia. Or even shrimp or my all time favorite, calamari. I enjoy oysters in season and clams all year. The weeks that I ate more seafood, I lost more weight - across the board. Usually grilled is a good choice to be honest I even ate it fried (sorry, weight loss experts) and I still did well. And with my seafood, if I could I added beans to almost everything. With my steamed veggies, I added nuts and a sprinkle of cheese sometimes. I know it's not very It really does work! See when I restrict my calories or even when I try to cut down on fat - I usually just end up cutting down on protein. And no matter how "well" or how much less I eat, if I cut my protein my body won't 'burn' up the fat. It holds on to it. I know that protein is the fuel that helps the LapBand machine work and not trying to diet or 'cut down' was a blessing to me. I've had other Bandsters try this, and yes they are skeptical at first but when they start seeing inches lost (muscle really does weigh more than fat, so your clothes tell you before the scale ever will) then they get on the bandwagon. So don't just 'cut down' - ADD some food on your plate. That's right. ADD MORE nuts, boiled/diced egg, beans, cheese, seeds and other yummy forms of protein. Your body and your LapBand will thank you for it. Also adding protein allowed me to eat fewer carbs and save them for what was really a nice treat - a nice martini or occasional glass of wine, with dinner. Yes, I'm a drinking Bandster. All the successful European Bandsters I knew drank a glass or two now and then and they were my role models. I can't drink a lot AT ALL - a little goes a long way, but it was nice to get to goal weight without ever missing a Friday Happy Hour. I got the band to enhance my life, not take away some of the things that make it enjoyable. I eat out at restaurants, I go have drinks with friends - and I feel and look great. BRAVO! Good Luck to you. (And since so many people asked me the same question in private posts - that's why I am posting it on the Slow Losers board too...) Keep up the good fight. I did it - and you can too.

Wow. I had not even thought about it until Oregon Daisy pointed it out. I don't have a prescription for Nexium, but have some Prilosec and Prevacid at home. Will start on that today. I had some greek yogurt an hour ago, and I am already 'hungry'/acid hungry'

I started protein shakes yesterday, and that did help some, but after having a cup of broth which takes 30 min or longer to finish, less than an hour later my stomach growls!! I am so afraid of getting something stuck also. I use yoplait vanilla yogurt and I have frozen fruit and bananas that I put in the blender so there are no chunks it's all smooth. I put some ice in the blender too so it's liquid, just a little more filling. Sounds like your diet is more restrictive than mine, but at this point my band is wide open. I don't get a fill until 6 weeks post op. In the hosp I had a thicker broth than I have here and also italian ice. My yogurt kind of reminds me of the italian ice, it's just not frozen. I will definitely keep in touch and keep me posted on your progress as well.

Try to stay away from any "pureed" foods that contain sugar or other carbs like Applesauce, etc. Get a Ninja and puree fresh produce and lean proteins and you'll be good to go. Also, make sure your yogurts and snacks are as fat and calorie free as possible.

how far out are you? I had my sleeve Sept 2 and can basically eat anything I want. at home sometimes I have a vanilla Protein shake with some ice cubes and frozen strawberries lunch, a couple slices of cold cuts and cheese on a few crackers snack, a handful of grape tomatoes dinner some chicken/fish/meat I made an amazing chicken the other day. I used white meat but you can use any kind. I mixed one individual size cup of plain greek yogurt with three finely diced garlic cloves, tsp of salt, tsp of oregano and the juice of half a lemon. Marinade your chicken in t his mixture for 2 to 4 hours and then roast the chicken until it's done. So good! Also if you like salmon I love this simple ceviche recipe, I make this whenever salmon is on sale, I buy half a pound and munch on it all day long. Cut the salmon into bite size pieces, and finely dice half a red onion (you can use less but I like a lot of onion in mine) then mix the salmon and onion with 1/4 cup of fresh lime juice and a tsp of salt. I love the simplenness of this but you can also add diced tomatoes, avocados and capers

I eat shrimp cocktail often. I make my own cocktail sauce using reduced sugar ketchup (had to search for it, but it is usually available in small bottles), horseradish, lemon juice. Just thaw and then serve the shrimp chilled but not frozen. Super easy. My big go-to is chicken salad. I do canned chicken, low fat mayo, green onion and grapes (cut up), with some curry powder and celery seed if I am out of actual celery. I only do about 3-5 grapes depending on size and just cut them up into small pieces, but they add so much flavor along with the curry... makes it taste AMAZING (my husband now requests this in his lunch - so I know it's not just me). Just made a pretty amazing fritatta the other night too. Tasted nice hot, but tasted way better room temp, so we only heated up the leftovers to take the chill off... sooo good! I did sort of a "kitchen sink" version where I threw in grape tomatoes, celery, bacon, onions and green peppers. Then added some cheddar cheese and followed these directions (had to add some cooking time as mine still was REALLY jiggly in the middle at their time, but you want a little jiggle as it continues cooking in cast Iron, but a pie pan would work well too): http://www.epicurious.com/expert-advice/ultimate-easy-frittata-recipe-article And when I'm not feeling like cooking anything, I have morningstar farms sausages or griller patties in the freezer. I love eating the sausage with a scrambled egg, and the grillers are really nice topped with some cheese and a bit of mustard and with onions on the side (I love onions any way you can think of - raw, grilled, caramelized...). I also have a large amount of Kroger's carbmaster line of yogurts in my fridge at all times. They have some nifty flavors and are under 4 carbs I believe with only 60 calories per serving. And I also keep mootopia milk (there is also fairlife milk if you don't have mootopia available) as a fridge staple. I usually just drink that in the mornings for breakfast sometimes.

At two weeks out my NUT was not worried about me getting in all my protein. I was lucky if I got in 20-30 grams a day at two weeks. It's more important to keep up your fluid intake and get in protein when you can. As you get farther out, you'll be able to add more and more protein in, especially with foods. I think it took me almost two months before I was getting in 60 grams of protein. Now, at three months out, I'm getting in 60-80 grams a day because you can eat more things heavier in protein like chicken, tuna, meats, cheeses, yogurt, etc. I also throw in a Quest or Simple Truth protein bar occasionally if I feel like I'm a little low on protein - especially if I am going to be working out later as I need the energy. While most protein bars also have higher carbs, they are okay in moderation especially if you are going to be active.