Search the Community

Hey all - So like many of you, I am still trying to figure out what normal means, six months post surgery. First off, I am so happy I did the VSG - no complaints, I feel great, surgeon was fantastic, their office is responsive and follows up and I am down from an all-time high of 305, 261 on Surgery Day, and 195 Today. Hoping to get to 185. That's where my difficulty is: In the past 10 weeks, I have lost maybe 5 pounds. I find my weight fluctuates daily +/- 5 pounds, so I only track the lows as benchmarks. (IDK: water retention, lack of BM, salt...). My low was 194, today 196, the other day 200 (which is a number I hate!). I think I am spoiled by the rapidity of weight loss early on and feeling a little discouraged now that things are slower. More than that though, my fear is that my portion size is starting to feel almost normal person normal... not my pre VSG by any stretch, but not terribly restricted. I also am getting hungry again... and craving things like sweets again. After a filling dinner at 6, by 9 I think about dessert - and sometimes succumb. Thus far, I havent done anything too terrible, but the idea of making a batch of chocolate chip cookies has been on my mind for weeks. I feel like I could fall off the wagon at any time. And now that I can eat almost normal amounts again, its not like the little cheats along the way that didnt matter due to space restrictions - I COULD DO DAMAGE! (BTW- still dont understand the "2nd stomach" when it comes to dessert. If I think about having another piece of grilled chicken, I know I am full, but a bowl of iced cream, suddenly I am starving!) With slow weight loss, which I understand is normal as I am getting close to goal weight, and growing portions (8-10 oz at a time), cravings for sweets, and inter-meal hunger, I am terrified that I am a few months from seeing an uptick on the scale. Ten pounds from the finish line - which I might hit, but for how long? So, for my version of the "is this normal" questions: 1. 5 lbs in 10 weeks? 2. 8-10 oz portions 6 months out? 3. How long till 8-10oz becomes, 12, 14... 4. Is this in my control (am I stretching), or is this healing and normal? 5. Why am I hungry - is it psychological bad habits or physical healing and ok? 6. I have no problem getting enough protein, but are carbs still the enemy, or calories, or fat? 7. Macros, Keto, Calorie counting - academically I understand them all. I cant reconcile the conflicting info. Even my Doc and my nutritionist seems to differ (though they obfuscate to be respectful of one another). Anyone in a similar phase of this process with insight on this part? And tips: 1. Least harmful desserts that have worked for you? Mathing things our has been getting me a little crazy. I have gotten back to espresso/lattes lately, which I find to be a filling snack, but even with skim milk: 100 calories x 2/day x 7 days per week = 1400 calories = almost half a pound a week. Same with the 100 calorie dessert. Thus, if the I'm doing the math right: I am basically eating a neutral calorie amount at this point - evidenced by lack of meaningful weight loss. Avg 1/2 a pound a week for the past 10 = 1750 calorie deficit per week = 250 calorie deficit per day. Does that mean I am a skim milk latte and an apple a way from not losing weight. Then any excess is gain!?!? I think all I have left in my arsenal is more exercise, which frankly, doesnt seem that probable. If I liked the treadmill, I would be on this forum now would I? Welcome thoughts & feedback! Thanks all!

Hello All, I'm anxious and pretty excited about my upcoming surgery! 🙂Counting down the days...Just 9 days left! I can't believe it's almost here! When I went in for my final dietician appointment today she told me that my BMI was in close range that I may have been able to forego the 5 day liquid diet but it didn't happen. I still have to do it. No worries...I am prepared for it. For those that have gone before me...Any tips or suggestions to make it easier or more tolerable? I assume preparation is the key! Any tips and for day of or post op surgery pain relief? Praying that everyone has great success with their surgery and weight loss!❤️

This is so true. My surgery date is 3/2/22 and it has been a long journey getting here. I have all of these feelings as our weight loss may change relationships. I have been in much prayer that all will go well. Be blessed.

Good morning, in pre-op. Made it through the 2 weeks of clear liquids. Went from 270 to 255 during the time. Look forward to getting my pre-weight before weight loss become a problem. So glad to be part of this group. I know I’m not alone. May God bless us all.

Hi guys had my surgery 02/02, start weight was 21.9. I got down to 20.9 before my op on the LRD. first week weigh in after surgery was a loss of 8 pounds and this morning week 2 I’ve lost 3.5 pounds. However I got on the scale Sunday and it showed a 3.5 pound loss then, so in 3 days the scale hasn’t moved and I’m still on liquids? what do we reckon, I’m going to be a slow loser? Or I’ve hit the dreaded 3 week stall early? thankyou.

Congrats on 100+ pound weight loss. How are you doing maintaining progress?

I have a half cup of sugar free chocolate jello pudding each day. I mix in protein powder and use fairlife milk so that it’s 15g of protein. It doesn’t mess with my weight loss and helps me get closer to eating enough.

Welcome and Good luck! These boards are AWESOME! I joined when I was about 6 months before surgery. I learned so much. But remember, your results may vary, and people have different experiences. And, always ask your surgery center for medical concerns. I would recommend start tracking your progress now - take pictures of yourself in a doorway, take your measurements, etc. You'll want to look back on these "before" and "during" pictures as you go along. Sometimes you will get frustrated when the weight loss is going slowly and it's so nice to see that you've made a lot of progress. Its' great that you've already lost 11 lbs! Any weight you lose now is weight you won't have to lose after surgery. I lost 50 lbs before surgery (although I got a bit stalled by food funerals towards the end, which is very common). Keep us posted!

My pre-op appointments have begun! I had my pre-op physical with my GP today. She was super happy for me, which was so nice to experience since the GP I had when I had the sleeve 7 years ago wasn't happy for me at all. My current GP made sure everything was ready to go and even asked if I had post-op food ready. I'm not expecting a ton of weight loss but I know I'll have some just because of the food restriction the first couple of months. My surgeon has her patients see their GP 2 weeks after surgery for a general wellness check. I always enjoy seeing my GP because she's so good and her nurses are awesome too. Next up is fasting labs at 7:10am this Thursday morning. ugggg, I am not very nice at that time of the morning. LOL I see my therapist at 9am so no real chance to go back to bed. I'll be taking myself out for steak and eggs, the one meal I've been craving for ages. More like 2 or 3 since I won't be able to eat it all at once. No pre-op liver shrinking diet for me. I'm not going crazy with food. I'm eating up the food in my fridge and freezer, which is mostly healthy anyhow. I may order a small pizza from a local pizza place, but that's it as far as anything special. Next Thursday I see my surgeon's nurse for 1 hour then I'll see my surgeon for 1 hour. I hope I get to enjoy these long appointments this time. When I had them 7 years ago my homecare client who I was VERY VERY close to died that morning so I was beyond sad. I have zero anxiety about surgery day. The pre and post op nurses and anesthesia are WONDERFUL. I'm not looking forward to waking up after being knocked out for several hours, but after I finally wake up it's usually smooth sailing for me. I'll be in the hospital for a day or two then get to go home to my 2 kitty nurses.

I am cold all the time with the bariatric weight loss RNY Sent from my octopus using BariatricPal mobile app

If you can not tell anyone....... GO THAT ROUTE!!!! I had the lapband in 2009 and everyone knew... of course, everyone also had an opinion on what they thought I SHOULD DO. I got the "lap band is the easy way out".... or "someone they knew, knew someone who died"... "it won't work".... blah blah blah. It did work and I lost 89lbs. So when it had to be removed....... again, I told everyone it was gone. Here's where it changed..... from 2017-2019 I put back 30lbs of what i lost. I had divorced (26 years of marriage), moved states, changed jobs, got into a new relationship (married 2019). No one here knows I at one time had WLS..... So when I told them I was going on a diet for my upcoming wedding and I was working out.... No one gave it a second thought. So about 3 months before Sleeve I told everyone I developed a "hernia" and needed SX to fix it. Day of SX comes (Wednesday, back to work on Monday), and Dr goes in, does the sleeve and fixed an actual HH that I didn't know I had........ Slam dunk. So the first year of weight loss was explained this way. After losing weight for the wedding I just decided to keep going. No one ever asks further questions after............. I had HH SX. I'm now 50lbs lighter and so happy. So tell no one and I guarantee you will be happier for it. But, remember if you tell even one person outside your home (even family)........ everyone will know. People love to gossip and when you start to lose, there will be that one jealous person that will say something.

I agree with the hernia repair. My immediate family knows (husband and kids) and a few select others. I told work that I was having digestive issues and needed a hernia repair...which I do so not a lie just an omission. I work from home and have for several years so I won't need to explain rapid weight loss. To everyone else I know, I just changed my eating habits and started exercising. Which will be true as well 😉

Maybe when you go to LA you could find a zipline to do to celebrate you 100 lb loss.

you're probably just in a stall. They typically last 1-3 weeks. I had several on my journey, especially as I got closer to my goal. Frustrating - but as long as you stick to your plan, they eventually break. the above poster is correct - exercise doesn't really help that much with weight loss (it's helpful for weight maintenance, though), but it's great for your general health. I wouldn't give it up, even if it seems it's not doing anything. Because it most likely is. you're where a lot of people are calorie-wise at the six-month mark - although some are a little higher. Depends on your program.

No direct experience, as the surgeons I am associated with primarily do the "traditional" BPD/DS, but the process would be the same. As to whether or not the sleeve is redone as part of the revision depends on the surgeon's preference and what condition the sleeve is in. The surgeon who has adopted our local support group only does the resleeve if it is needed, if there are any problems or defects with it. There were a lot of sloppy sleeves done in the early days of the VSG (say, 8-12 ago) as surgeons worked up the learning curve getting their techniques right ("twenty years of doing bypasses and they think they know how to do a sleeve...." to paraphrase one prominent surgeon.) As with any revision, count on weight loss being slower and less than with a virgin WLS (I like to think of it this way - our stomach was originally 32-64 oz capacity, and after WLS, even with some stretch and adaptation it may hold 6-8 oz,, so don't expect as big of a change the second time around.) If you are doing the revision for additional weight loss or correcting regain, try to seriously get a handle on why the first one had problems and correct those before proceeding. Good luck ...

It sounds like you're tracking your food. I'm at 5 months out at I'm eating between 800-1200 calories a day, and still losing weight, but not every day. Maybe try going up to 1200 for a day every few days? Sometimes that can "shock" your system into more weight loss, but not sure if that really works. Also, working out isn't really for weight loss; it's for general health and also to reduce muscle loss. it's also good to help keep weight from coming back. You don't have to do too much, but it's good to do something most days of the week. Finally, the closer you are to a "healthy" weight, the harder weight loss gets. Good luck!

Hey surgery twin :)!! We got this! I’ll be sure to check up on you the day of!! I’ve tried everything as well; keto, low fat, low carb, etc and they would just make me less motivated because I wouldn’t see much weight loss. Due to trying to prevent hereditary issues, I need this push! New beginnings are coming, good luck on surgery!!

Just because someone is in the medical field doesn't mean they know anything about bariatric surgery or even nutrition. Most doctors are given very little, if any, training in nutrition. If the schedule was working for you, you should keep it. In fact, most of the nutritionists I've seen in my life (including for weight loss surgery) have suggested I keep a schedule as well as tracking my food. It's hard to say how many calories you need; it depends on your height, weight, age, gender, and how active you are. There are calorie calculators on the web (try this one: https://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html although I have no idea how accurate it is). We are told after surgery to get at least 60 grams of protein; I am for 80. I try to minimize carbs, but I don't have a precise number, as long as my carbs are not coming from added sugar. As far as constipation, it's an ongoing battle for many people. I find that coffee does the trick for me usually, but sometimes I need Miralax, especially after traveling for a few days. Many people like magnesium citrate. Eating and drinking more fluid, as well as more exercise, should also help. At least that's what my surgery center told me.

Hello April Sleevers, Can you believe it. We are in February. Which means that some of us are getting close to the 1 year mark for our surgeries. My VSG was on April 6 so I'm at 10 months. I just celebrated my birthday and treated myself. Things are moving smoothly at 10 months. I met my goal, and I am maintaining my loss without any issues (minus my birthday celebration, lol). No complaints here. I cant believe that we are almost at 1 year. I'm still very happy that I had VSG done and that I committed to doing everything to make changes that have me at goal and staying there. 🙂 How are you all doing? How are you doing at 10 months? Hope all you April sleevers are ok.😁

Yeah I do have extra skin but it’s easy to hide under clothes. Maybe someday I will get the extra skin removed. i am still actually losing weight… I haven’t stabilized yet. My goal weight was 195 but I just kept losing. My intake that I can do seems to be more in line with the limited quantities of bypass patients rather than sleeve. But everyone is different, so who knows. i am told it is impossible to lose “too much” and that the weight loss will eventually Peter off and stop. I revised my goal weight down to 165 pounds which would put me at ten pounds more to go. the way my body seems to work is I stall for a long time, then drop a ton of weight quickly (ten pounds) …. Then stall again for a while… then drop more…. i have sensitive skin and the excess skin does cause rashes to occur. I get them under my breasts, in my midline area by my belly button and with the skin overhang in the pelvic region. They say that if you have documented skin conditions like I do then they will take care of the extra skin… but it’s recommended to wait a couple years. I think it also has to be overhanging by a certain amount. (I think I remember my pcp saying it has to hang lower than the pelvis bone)

Yeah, I've been reading a lot of posts about the long waits during COVID. Hopefully since things are starting to get more stable, it won't take as long. Things have moved pretty fast so far for me. I just had a PCP visit on 2/1/22 and she put in the referral; the Metabolic clinic called me the next day! Not even a full year and you're down 155 lbs!! That's wonderful! If you don't mind me asking, do you have a lot of extra skin from the major weight loss? I'm 310 now and will be getting the sleeve. I worry about the extra skin and really don't want to have a bunch of surgeries. Thanks for sharing ❤️

I had sleeve to by-pass surgery two weeks ago today, as well as repairing a hiatal hernia. My doctor told me that, without the by-pass, the hernia would reappear, possibly within 6 months. It’s been wonderful to wake up each day without all of the problems related to the hernia. The weight loss is a happy side benefit!

Why are you worried about a tablespoon of sugar free ice cream? I assure you this will not affect your weight loss. It has almost no calories. If you start eating the whole carton, then you might reconsider. I have a serving (about 2/3 cup, 79 g) of Breyer's sugar free ice cream every few days as a treat. I don't feel like I need it every day, but I certainly want more than 1 tablespoon when I want it. Everyone's weight will drop and plateau; that's just how weight loss is, whether with surgery or without. This has to be a life-long sustainable journey; you have to enjoy your life or you might just go overboard in reaction to being super strict.

I will be 8 weeks out tomorrow and I have not thrown up yet other than right after surgery. But i have eaten a bite or two to many and it hurts like hell but im still learning my new tummy {I had the sleeve) and its limits. I didnt eat much red meat before surgery so no biggie for me but i honestly tolerate tuna or other fish better than any meat. Again Im still a newbie post op. I wish i could have done this weight loss with diet and exercise but once you get a certain overweight exercise is hard especially since I have severe arthritis. Since post op Im moving better - been grumpy the past few days I have no idea why - but honestly Id take never eating meat over being obese any day of the week. Its a big change for sure! But its worth it. I am down 35 pounds as of today!  i threw up the first 3 days post op but this is pretty common but not everyone does this. My sister is 25 years out bypass and her daughter is out 2-3 years bypass they never throw up.  SW: 227 Todays weight: 192 VS surgery: 12/22/2022 Total Loss 35 pounds

I agree with everyone who recommended seeing a therapist. So important. I'm not sure which surgery you had, but as you said you can only eat 3-4 ounces at a time. You're choosing to eat low nutrient foods that isn't going to give you the nutrients you need. I'm going to go out on a limb here, but I'm thinking since you are already not taking your health seriously, you aren't taking your vitamins and supplements that your team has recommended. Malnourishment is a real issue with obese people. Because so many binge on fast food, and junk food, they aren't getting proper nourishment. Since we can only eat small amounts, it's vitally important to eat nutrient dense foods. A balanced diet. With wls surgery comes a certain responsibility for ones health, and when you dismiss what your surgeon has told you to do, there will be dire consequences to ones health. Are you tracking your protein? You're only 3 months out. If you're not getting your protein in, there can be hair loss. If you're anemic, you might require blood products. Not minding your calcium, you can encounter fractures. Sure you're losing weight now, it's a caloric game. You probably don't have true hunger due to only being 3 months post op, but you're feeding your head hunger. Seek counseling before your health is adversely affected.