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Hi all, I am seriously considering weight loss surgery as I have recently been diagnosed with PCOS and I have been bitterly unhappy with my weight for many years. I am 34 years old, I have a BMI of 40.8 and am a size 20-22, I am 5ft 6. I have had a referral to my Dr's from my gynaecologist suggesting some type of bariatric surgery so hopefully my Dr will refer me. I am unsure the Pros and Cons of the different types from my research I have read the Gastric Sleeve or Bypass are the main two is this correct? Also can I please have as many replies as possible to what surgery you have had, the pros but mainly the cons. How long ago you had surgery, which type, how long ago, the healing process, how much weight you have lost ect anything to help I would be really grateful! I've seen alot about only being able to eat a very small amount after surgery too is this the case with both surgeries? TIA xx

Hi, SAS. I'm so sorry to hear that you feel this forum is not a supportive environment. Aside from my surgeon's office, I actually found Bariatric Pal to be the best place to turn for support, advice and information. I learned so much from the other members here and found that as a rule we encouraged each other and cheered the successes of other members. I have seen the types of "shaming" posts you are talking about, but in my experience they are few and far between--and I think they are far outweighed by the positive and helpful posts. You will sometimes see "tough love" posts in response to people whose behavior suggests that they are not taking their diets seriously, but sometimes that's what they need. There's a difference between that and bullying or shaming. I had my surgery in February 2019, and there was a thread for all of us who had surgeries that month. We became like a social club and really got to know each other, and I found that tremendously helpful during the first 6 to 8 months. (I will admit that we are no longer very active now that we are all in maintenance.) Like you, I have not found any other sites that are as active as this one. I would urge you to stick with Bariatric Pal for a while. Hopefully you will find the support here that I have, and you can simply ignore the few people who engage in shaming. I would be happy to answer any questions you might have via a private message if you like (although I had bypass, not a sleeve). I wish you all the best going forward, and I hope you find the support you need, whether it's here or elsewhere.

I'm 8 months out from the Loop DS (or SADI-S). My surgery weight was 321 and right now I'm 222 so a 99 pound weight loss so far. -I avoid wheat products like the plague. They tell you that you won't get dumping syndrome and I call bullsh*t because wheat makes me dump. I try and avoid overly carb-y foods but I still get about 60 carbs in a day. I also try and avoid overly fatty foods because it does bring about diarrhea if I have too much. -I do occasionally have issues with diarrhea. Usually when I've had a little bit too much fat in my diet (I love my cheese a little more than I should). I used to take three bariatric multi's with iron a day but I process iron a little too well so I would get massive constipation issues and they suggested I lower to two but I still had that issue so now I do the switch as listed below. -For vitamins I take one bariatric multi with iron and two bariatric multi's without iron one day and then the next I switch it to two bariatric multi's with iron and one without. Also take two Calcium Citrate a day. And due to having a Vitamin A deficiency I take extra Vitamin A as well. -I don't struggle to maintain my loss. It's more frustration when I hit stalls. Mine happen probably more frequently than the average person due to hypothyroidism and it gets really frustrating. I've had my meds upped three times already and I really feel they need to be upped again but my doctor won't test my thyroid until November... And yeah, you are AWARE you are on a diet. But you have to change your way of thinking. It's a LIFESTYLE change. There will be times you want to cheat and if you do don't beat yourself up about it if you have a cookie or something.In my own experience though your taste buds change and you crave different things. For some reason I'm constantly craving fruit. Though I do get chocolate cravings and I bought protein bars and sugar free pudding for that particular craving. -Things I wish I knew before surgery? Well, I wish I knew about how frustrating and frequent the stalls can be with someone who has hypothyroidism. I also wish my doctor had warned me that it's a POSSIBILITY that you can vomit blood the first few days following surgery. It was scary when I first vomited blood and I thought something was wrong and then the nurse was like "honey, it's just old blood, it's totally normal" -_-' It's probably either because of my vitamin regiment or my dairy intake but every two days my system decides to empty EVERYTHING in it so I spend an hour or so locked in the restroom (TMI, sorry). And I'm sure there's more that I wish I'd known, but my brain is stalling lol. If I can think of something else I'll add to this post later. Oh, a person a few posts up said that you need 130g of protein BUT my surgeon said between 80-100 (but I'm a girl so...). I usually get around 90-95g of protein a day. And that's with only one 30g protein shake in my diet. So it's possible to do it with only one protein shake eventually. Also my labs said my protein intake was perfect so...

supposedly it resets your metabolism and set point. The professional association here in the US is the American Society of Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery. of course, if you go back to your old, pre-op eating habits, you're going to gain. I used to average around 3000 kcal/day...if not more. I'd gain weight like crazy on that now - but that's not a normal amount of calories for a 60-year-old female who isn't a marathon runner. But I can eat around 1700 (give or take) and stay where I'm at. That may be a little lower than average, but not by too much.

So sorry that you're struggling. The first 2-3 weeks were the hardest for me too. You'll find that many bariatric patients report significant changes to their taste buds in the weeks and months (and sometimes years) after surgery. One of the most common occurrences reported is developing an intolerance for sweetness in foods. So the fact that you're experiencing difficulty with artificial sweeteners is a common thing many patients have encountered. If possible, you may find luck focusing on flavors more savory than sweet for the time being to help you get fluids (broths!) or foods in.

I am 6 years out from surgery. I started out at 371. I am now at 234. I’ll answer your questions in the order you asked them: - What foods do you avoid? (Fatty foods? Carbs? Can you tolerate small amounts?) Foods I avoid: Rice! and Carbonated beverages. Both have a very negative effect on my stomach even now. Rice seems to grow once it gets in my stomach causing it to feel overfull. Carbonated beverages are to be avoided anyway but occasionally it’s the only thing around to sip and never has there been a time that I didn’t regret it! - Do you have diarrhea? Occasionally but it’s rare and usually something I know is going to happen. Constipation is a bigger issue and my go to remedy is a slice of plain cheesecake. Seriously. It works better than anything else. To help keep things moving I am sure to add real butter to any carbs I eat. Sometime I use MCT oil to help keep things moving but be careful cause it can cause very loose stool.  - How many Vitamins do you take? Have you experienced Vitamin deficiencies? Have you had to get infusions? I use PERSONA now for vitamins They do an assessment that determines your vitamin needs for me that is one Bariatric Multi, 8 Calcium Citrates spaced out in three doses, Vitamin D, and a Probiotic. I was seriously anemic and had to do iron infusions until I had a hysterectomy July 2019. Now I’m normal and won’t need them again. I take powdered Collagen in my coffee everyday to keep my hair growing, my skin from drying, and my muscle from aching. - Do you struggle to maintain your weight loss? Do you feel like you are constantly on a diet? Weight loss is a constant struggle, you will not lose on a smooth downhill slide. It will fluctuate and drop suddenly then rise and fall like ocean waves. Keeping the weight off is the challenge and with the DS weight gain is less likely it still is very possible if Carbohydrates are your source of comfort in times of struggle and stress. You won’t feel like you are on a diet, you will feel like you are a slave to your stomach. You’ll spend an hour making the most delicious meal and take two bites and be full. You’ll find that foods you once loved now don’t make your new stomach all that happy. But with all that you lose and all that is frustrating comes so much amazing stuff like feeling average sized. Shopping in a average clothing store, sitting in theater seats or airplane seats or really any seats and not worrying about what the person next to you might think. Saving so much money cause you can split meals with friends.  - Anything else you wish you had known before surgery? My words of advice: find a local support group or an online one if you can’t find one in your area and stay faithful to going to meetings and events for at least one full year but two would be better. Your family and friends will have no idea what you are going through and will say things that will be surprisingly hurtful but they won’t mean it that way, like “Wow, you look how small you’ve gotten!” (Internal thought: I must have been huge) You’ll need people who know not to say those things and instead say “You are making great progress! I am so glad to see you again!” Good Luck! It gets better! Walk Sip Walk Sip Never Trust a Fart! 😜

Hello. I am about four months out from my DS surgery with sleeve and I can answer some of your questions -- but as always, your experience may vary. Avoided Foods - I prioritize protein over everything else, and that will be the rest of your life. As a DS patient, you'll need to get in at least 130g of protein in every day, which is no small amount. Fats are not as big a deal to avoid as carbs are. Carbs should be a no-no for you, with no more than 40-50g per day. You will get all of that just from yogurt and the foods with protein. It is definitely a diet-restrictive procedure. Be prepared for it. I can tolerate these foods, but every ounce of food I can stomach HAS to be protein or I miss my goals for the day. Diarrhea - Not in any way. Prepare for constipation due to your diet. There are days I wish I had diarrhea. Vitamins - I take one Bariatric multivitamin with iron per day. Be sure to use bariatric vitamins and not regular vitamins. Weight loss - Since I am only four months post-op, I can't answer long term, but in the short term, I've lost over 100 pounds in four months. It will come off as long as you exercise and get your fluids and protein in. My friend is 18 months post-op and is at maintenance weight. He has had no issues with regain. Anything else - I wish I had known how difficult getting protein in every day is. I can do it with shakes alone, but since you can't drink anything for 30 minutes prior to or an hour after eating solid food, you're limited in your options. Also, I can only eat 3 ounces of solid food at a time, so you can imagine how tough it is to get the protein in. All in all, I am thrilled I got the surgery. I was immediately cured of diabetes and am feeling better than I have in 20 years. My non-scale victories are even better than the scale losses and I couldn't be happier. All my focus on food is gone and I eat only to accomplish a goal. If you're considering it, really be prepared for the challenges. Watch videos of people who have gone through it on Youtube. Those help.

I think those stories are more than the exception than the rule. I have a virgin RNY, not a revision, but I've been hanging out on this and other bariatric sites for several years. Most people's revisions, from what I can tell, have been very successful. not everyone with RNY surgery dumps - I never have. The usual stat that is thrown around is that about 30% of us do, although Tek checked some peer-reviewed articles recently and estimates in those were anywhere from 20-50%. So...still not everyone. Even if you're one of the ones who dumps, you can control it through limiting sugar (even most of those who dump can tolerate SOME sugar - just not a lot of it). I can drink wine and champagne, but it hits me really quickly. I've never been much of a drinker, even before surgery. I used to have many five or six glasses of wine a year. Now I probably have two or three. No problems with it other than, like I said, it hits me a lot quicker than it did pre-surgery.

They are available on Bariatric Pal. Might be cheaper there.

Hi Everyone, This is my first post. I have been having a lot of health issues and health scares this year. I had pnuemonia earlier this year when covid first came around. Recently had a biopsy of the endometrium which came back normal. Now i am waiting for a biopsy to be done on my left breast. All while breaking my foot almost three weeks ago. I weigh 240 and can't help to think my weight has had an effect on all these health issues. Im 40 and want my life back. I am in month 4 of my weightloss pre-op program before gastric sleep. Still need to have tests and finish my 5th and 6th monthly appointment with the bariatric PA. However, i am scared to the core of having surgery due to possible short tem and long term complications. I would appreciate any advice possible on how to get though my concerns and fear. Thx! Stephanie

you know you are a bariatric patient when you look at a "normal" plate of food and calculate how many meals this will be for you !

hi im about 1 mo out and had some incision pains for 2 weeks. a couple of mine came back open though. first always let bariatric nurse know about incision issues. if after 3 days post op you have redness let them know it indications inflammation which should only occur during the initial healing (up to 72 hours or something my surgeon said). Next i would get a heating pad and plop it on there. sometimes that helps me.gas pain was generally shoulder. you can help gas pain along by walking but also by taking gas x my surgeon said some does go in bowel. there is a chewable simethicone you can get over counter my surgeon approve ..ask yours. My surgeon decided to prescribe it to me so my insurance would pay which is great lol. I had some deep cuts like you. I had some adhesions under there they also had to cut through. as far as back pain i would wonder if you might need a pee test from your pcp just to check kidneys (because of your back pain). sometimes they can check through something called a cbc and what you want to look at is your white blood cells to indicate infection. are you getting in your water? its hard not to worry much the first few weeks because it is all new (!) but alot of what you are describing i went through and read others went through except the back pain which is why i think its a good idea to check the pee. hope any of this helps and hope your pain gets better. p.s. your incisions also might like some ice if the heat dont work. you gotta find what works for your body

Addiction transfer is a very real risk and one that should be kept in mind. As an anecdote, my best friend is able to drink tequila like water with very little intoxication. It's kind of fascinating. Give her one shot of rum and she's nearly three sheets to the wind. Please do be careful, though. As @MsMocie said, bariatric programs almost universally say to limit alcohol consumption to 3-6 months post-op and likely for very good reasons, regardless of type of surgery.

tarotcardreader and Pandemonium This site is for the benefit of bariatric patients not to wage your own personal war. This thread is now closed.

There are several different types of bariatric surgeries. The requirement for protein shakes will vary by the type of surgery. I had RNY and dropped 120 pounds in around 7 months. Weight loss is a function of meal volume control. Right after surgery I was limited to 2 ounces of food per meal. It was impossible for me to get in enough protein from my meals alone. Thus I began using protein shakes. I didn't like them but I drank them. And I figured ways to improve the taste. So the first comment is do not be too concerned if you fail to meet your protein and fluid requirements in the beginning. During the first few weeks your body is in a major heal mode. Just keep working towards your goals and eventually you will get there. In the following article, I discussed my approach to protein. As far as protein shakes are concerned, I found that by blending in a half a banana into the shake helped improve its taste substantially. There are many different types of protein shakes, experiment and try the various types until you find one that you can tolerate. You do not have to like them, just tolerate them. And there are many different tricks to enhance the flavor. How
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Look what showed up on my doorstep this morning!!! So they are only 4 inch tortillas, so pretty much street taco size...but also a great bariatric size. They smell great, but I won't be able to do a taste test until dinner, but am already adjust my dinner planning to be able to include them. Instead of chicken salad in a ramekin, I'll do a couple of wraps. I'm absolutely excited and hope that they taste as good as they look because this will be a game changer. EDIT: Okay the little recipe booklet/newsletter that came in the package has given me my new favorite food idea:

Yes, this a VERY common problem for post-op bariatric patients. If you search this site, you will find a lot of helpful info. Here's a recent thread that may help: I am curious, though, why you are starting your pre-op diet so very early? If I understand correctly, you started this about 3 months before your surgeon said you should? It's great that you're an overachiever and working hard to prepare yourself for the surgery, but I'm not sure it's a great idea to do the pre-op diet for so long. The purpose of the pre-op diet is to shrink the liver to make it easier for the surgeon to access your stomach, and the purpose of the post-op liquid diet is to allow the stomach to heal. Once the stomach is healed, though, most surgeons want us eating real food. My program recommends the "3-2-1" rule (3 bites protein, 2 bites non-starchy vegetables, 1 bite complex carbs), which is a pretty common thing, although some programs focus more on vegetables. I am not a medical professional, but I encourage you to discuss with your doctor the best diet to follow before you get to the pre-op diet. Eating more fruits and vegetables and fewer protein shakes may help with your problems.

I wanted to do celebrate but the softchew made me sick from their sample bag so i went with forum and nutritionist recommendation of bariatric advantage soft chew. I did order other samples but none came in time and the strawberry bariatric advantage was actually tasty

I started out with Celebrate Chewables high ADEK (I had the LOOP DS), Bariatric Fusion calcium (caramel), vitamin B1 sublingual, and Bariatric Fusion cherry flavored iron chews. I didn't mind the Celebrate chewable, but the iron and the calcium tasted awful to me. My surgeon recommended Procare Bariatric vitamins. They're just one a day and they have everything I need in one capsule, except for calcium, which I now take Citracal tablets. So I only have to take the Procare and Citracal now. It's so much easier! I just had my first labs drawn today, so hopefully the results are good. I highly recommend Procare. Sent from my Nokia 7.2 using BariatricPal mobile app

Hi . I use a really nasty multivitamin that only has to be taken once a day and it is what my program requires it is bariatric advantage ultrasolo. I also use really yummy calcium chews 500 from bariatric advantage. Strawberry flavor is greattt caramel second fave. I have 3 of those a day.

Have you tried a protein broth? Bariatric Eating has a lovely broth, mostly clear, with 25g of protein per serving. It's yummy, salty, savory with no "protein shake" smell or taste. Sipping a nice warm beverage might help you get in the protein required.

So I had my surgery out of the country about 2 years ago and am now 7 weeks pregnant! I had my first prenatal appointment, which confirmed that I’m pregnant and all is well. I am with Kaiser and they enrolled me in a program they have for people who are pregnant after bariatric surgery. They are going to make me speak to a dietician once a month. Has anyone done this? Is it useful? I don’t know if I can opt out, but I’ll try if it’s just going to be monthly phone calls where they say “Keep taking your vitamins. Eat healthy. That’ll be $200.” I don’t know if this service will be covered or how much it will cost, but once a month calls seem unnecessary. TIA for any advice!

@calliekaine Prayers and hugs to you! Sounds like you've had a rough road. Based on your description above, you have a PEG (percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy) tube, aka a feeding tube. In my understanding, this is unusual after bariatric surgery. Not unheard of, obviously, but not common. You must have had some pretty significant complications to require this kind of intervention. BTW: it's relatively normal to have no appetite or desire to eat after sleeve surgery. My experience was a lot like catwoman7's (above). I had no appetite and I ate on schedule because I knew I needed nutrition. That lasted about 6 months or so. I wish you a speedy and healthy recovery!

I’m in NYC. Go to NY Bariatric group. They do revision surgeries, that’s who my surgeon is through.

Greetings! I'm new to the group and praying for some advice. My sleeve surgery was 10 days ago. My daily protein recommendations are 60g – 90g. I am struggling to get in 30g, and I do mean struggling. The only thing I can keep down is ice water. The smell and slightest taste of protein shakes, protein water, and even unflavored protein (three different brands in 10 days) make me gag. I literally cannot tolerate anything sweet since surgery. I have tried sugar free jello, sugar free popsicles, thinned sugar fee pudding, sugar free juice, Crystal Light, etc. I have tried adding protein powder to soup, protein bariatric soup, and even made my own, all with the same result. When I plug my nose to force myself to drink the protein, my body actually tries to vomit but there’s nothing to come up. Has anyone had this happen? Any suggestions? I start pureed foods in 5 more days but realize I can’t sustain on ice water alone for much longer.