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I follow a girl on YouTube who is on a weight loss journey and she does Grocery Haul videos and she says it's very good.

There is a bariatric one that does the same and made for bariatric patients. I started using mine on the liquid stage and it counted down to surgery day now it counts out how many days since surgery and what I lost the month on liquids preop, what I’ve lost post op plus the combined loss it’s pretty awesome!

I live in Burnsville, Minnesota and was wondering if anyone else lives in Minnesota. If so, which weight loss center are you going to? I am going to Ridgeview Weight Loss Center.

Excellent progress pxt. And great top too. Shame it will be swimming on you so much soon you’ll have to consign it to the donation bin. 😉 Congratulations on your weight loss so far.

Hello All, Sometimes it is nice to know that you are in a group of the "world's best" at something. It is my opinion that we are the world's best at losing weight. I do not mean to imply that once we have had bariatric surgery, we are good at losing weight. I am willing to say that, prior to your surgery, you have lost (and gained) tens and tens of pounds over your lifetime. You have tried at least six or more diets and you were probably successful in losing a significant amount weight on each of them. I have done this too. The problem is we are world class weight gainers also ...ugh! Thankfully, we have weight loss surgery to help us eat fewer calories. However, each time we lose weight, we must face the "STALL." You know, that period of time when we don't lose weight even when we think we should. Everyone dreads these time periods. If you are interested, I would like to share with you some information that has helped me over the years to overcome and understand stalls. First, I am not a doctor nor am I offering any sort of medical advice. I am simply trying to provide you with information from my own personal experiences. You are free to believe or not believe. Every single person is different. If you know something that works, please share. I would love to learn from you. Until then, here are my thoughts. Vary your exercise routine. This is pretty simple. One must understand that we come from a long, long line of survivors. Just think, there is a very good probability that several of your ancestors survived the black plague which eliminated almost half of the population of Europe. Over time, our bodies have learned to adapt to new "challenges" so to speak. Here is a secret to assist weight loss: YOU MUST CHALLENGE YOURSELF to avoid your body's natural ability to adapt and become more efficient to your routines. If you are doing any kind of exercise, you will need to vary this exercise every few weeks. For instance, I am currently using an elliptical machine for cardio. Every two weeks, I change my routine. I went from just moving for 30 minutes at any speed for the first two weeks to adding intervals of going as fast as I can for one minute and then slowing down for three minutes. I have also changed the interval times. For example, I went fast for 30 seconds and then slower for two minutes for a period of two weeks. Next week, I will be changing to a stationary bike for cardio. In a few more weeks, I will be heading outdoors for walking/jogging, etc. The point is to change it up so your body must adjust to new challenges. Build muscle. These are the facts. Muscle burns more calories, even while resting, than fat does. Did you know that Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson eats more than 5000 calories per day? The man is a beast and definitely is not fat. He is able to eat so much because he has a huge amount of muscle mass. That muscle burns a lot of calories. Check out what he eats in a typical day here: The Rock's Diet. I wish I could say the phrase "build muscle" and, magically, I would build muscle...*sigh* Until then, I must incorporate strength training the old fashioned way. I lift weights. At the moment, my routine consists of body weight type of exercises, pushing and pulling. My goal is to preserve as much muscle as I can while losing weight. I want to burn the maximum amount of calories possible...even while sleeping. YouTube has many, many videos to help just about anyone. Keep track of your food intake. I measure my food and keep a daily log. I know how much food my stomach can hold and I do not over eat. But my personal opinion may be different than yours when it comes to caloric intake. Personally, I cannot live for the long term on 800 calories per day. Many of us were/are eating about 800 calories or so per day after surgery. I have no plans to eat only 800 calories per day for the rest of my life to maintain my goal weight. Therefore, I have increased the number of calories I eat per day. At the moment, I am eating around 1500 calories per day. I am about six weeks post surgery. The bulk of my calories comes from protein. I try to add calories to my day without adding a lot of volume to my stomach. Here are some things I do in order to add calories. Once per day, I drink a protein shake instead of water. Also, I will add the following ingredients to meals throughout the day (not all at the same time, mind you): olive oil, avocados, sour cream, cheese, mayonnaise and peanut butter. These are generally healthy fats which allow me to consume more calories at every meal. I try to eat approximately 400 calories three times a day and then supplement with a few snacks in between meals. I typically eat 5 to 6 times per day. Set realistic goals. If you do not know, one pound of fat is 3500 calories. To lose one pound of fat, you must create a deficit of 500 calories per day for each day of the week...500 calories x 7 days = 3500 calories lost. Create a deficit of 1000 calories per day and lose two pounds per week. 1500 calories = 3 lbs. per week. This is the idea...a 500 calorie deficit per day equates to one pound loss per week. A typical male burns about 2000 to 3000 calories per day (typical female: 1600 to 2400.) You can play with these numbers all you like but the reality is: it is very hard to lose a large amount of fat in one week. Last week I lost three pounds. I believe that this result is fantastic. That loss is a 10,500 calorie deficit for the week (equivalent to NOT eating 37.5 Snickers Candy Bars.) I believe this is a heroic effort on my part...I celebrated with a quiet "YES" and a fist pump while standing on my bathroom scale. Fist bumps to all of you who have shared the same win. NOT an exact science. Things change. There is not a perfect formula. When you lose weight, you lose fat AND muscle. This is NOT avoidable. No one is able to lose 100% fat. It is not possible to do so, therefore mentally prepare yourself for some disappointment. If you do not have strength training in your schedule, you will lose more precious fat burning muscle than you would if you incorporate strength training. Either way, you will burn fewer calories per day when you, eventually, weigh less. It makes perfect sense. At 300lbs. you may have burned 2500 calories per day. At 250lbs you may only burn 2200 calories per day. You were bigger so you burned more calories. Therefore, it is harder to create a calorie deficit when you weigh less because you are burning fewer calories. Again, this concept really sucks but it explains why we lose less weight as we get closer and closer to our goal. Okay...so this turned into a much longer post than I originally anticipated. Some of the words above make it sound like I have it all figured out. But alas, no. I have issues too. I gained over 100 lbs. in the last six years eating pizza with extra cheese and trying to diminish the world's supply of beer. I am somewhere in the early stages of this particular weight loss journey. My goal is to make this my last weight loss/gain journey. I truly wish all of you the very best life has to offer. The struggle is real and I know, like me, you are fighting every day. I look forward to all of your comments and learning from your experiences. Best, AnotherGuy

Hi, Amy. Congrats on your weight loss! Real Good brand makes a frozen chicken crust pizza.[emoji4] Sent from my Pixel 3a using BariatricPal mobile app

elevated liver enzymes are common the first year or so after surgery, even without Seroquel. Rapid weight loss is really tough on livers. Mine were high that first year and then were back to normal sometime during year 2, when I was at or near maintenance.

Awesome. Glad to hear you are having a good recovery. Congrats on the loss. Keep it up.

I had a lot to lose (175 lbs) but I went with the sleeve anyway. I ended up losing all the weight. Either surgery can be great for you, it’s just a question of what you want and what your surgeon recommends. I liked the “simple” nature of a sleeve, and I knew people who had gotten it and had great results. A bit over a year later I am still happy with it, still maintaining my full loss. I don’t have to take bariatric vitamins anymore, I just take standard vitamins from Costco now. Honestly there are some valid medical reasons for one over the other but if those don’t exist it’s just a matter of preference and both are great surgeries that can be super successful for you.

My gastric sleeve was done 1/22/22. I had a 10 day pre-op liquid diet which was a lot and lonely. My nurse was supposed to call and check on me about half way thru- she never did- nor did she return my voicemails. I also was in a weird schedule shift at work so I worked 8 of the 10 days- which I think was a blessing in disguise since I was busy and not focusing on what I was or wasn’t eating. Due to COVID it was a drop off pick up situation. So my mom dropped me off at 5:20 am. I was in communication with her until my nurse anesthetist came in and they put my phone in my bag. I don’t remember anything after the operating nurse coming in and putting my hair net on me around 7:20 am. The next thing I knew I woke up in recovery with a nurse sitting on either side of me. They were super great- my mouth was very very dry so they let me suck on a sponge. I was also very close to the desk in recovery so I could tell my mom was on the phone with them. I immediately requested my phone from my bag and called my mom. It was about 11:30am and she hadn’t heard from my surgeon- she was not happy. But had a lot of relief hearing from me. The conversation was short as I was still out of it. The nurses also put some Vaseline on my lips since they were super dry. My room wasn’t ready yet so I was able to just relax in recovery for a bit. Lots of naps in and out and some texting with friends. Once my room was ready the wheeled me away from recovery. Once I got to my room I was given goals. -Manage nausea -Manage pain - go to the bathroom -take a sips test -walk around -sit in the chair I didn’t find my self nauseous until they gave me a different pain med via my IV. Luckily I didn’t throw up and they gave me some spearmint patch on my gown which was nice. Pain was managed via IV for the first bit. I really felt like I had to go to the bathroom so the nurse helped me on my feet within about 2 hours of being in my room. No luck on the bathroom- but I found I could get up and move. After that we did my sips test at 1:15 which went really well. After that I got white grape juice watered down and water to sip on. Goal was 5 med cups (2 tablespoons) an hour. After that another nurse came in wanting my to start walking. He helped me into my really comfy pj pants- no open booty walks for me! We did 2 laps around my ward. I ended up in the locked pediatric location so they were a little more lax with me about walking on my own. During this time I also attempted to go to the bathroom a few more times. Finally before 8pm my nurse came in turned the sink on and basically told me to relax and I was in my head about not going. ALAS- it worked- a ton of relief happened from being able to go. That night I walked more- drank more- slept more and prayed I was gonna be able to go home. I swear every time I was falling asleep the nurse aid came in to take my vitals. ☹️ the nurse aid also had no knowledge base in what I had done so when I asked for broth she told me to order… there were no ordering food for sleeve patients. The broth was in the kitchen on the floor so that was a bit of a run around but it all worked out well. The next morning a different bariatric surgeon came in to talk to me- mine didn’t come in on Sundays…. But he was cool and told me I could go home! So I got my paper work and then a nurse came in unhooked my from my IV so I got dressed. My nurse came in gave me a cart and some directions and away I went. I got my meds filled there and then waited for my mom to pick me up. The first day I was home I was very slow moving. Ended up sleeping in a recliner because it hurt too much to get out of bed. Monday and Tuesday went similar- very quiet working on getting liquids in and moving around as much as possible. Today I can get up much easier and moving around a lot more. Since I’ve been home I’ve only taken Tylenol for pain killers- they gave me more but I haven’t felt like the pain was bad enough to use them. Here are my number so far… Starting process- 270.9 Surgery day- 258.6 2 days home- 256.6 So far I’ve lost 14 pounds. I can’t wait to see where I am in a month. I’ll definitely keep posting my journey here. Wish me luck!

I had fruits in smoothies pretty early out but I waited a while before having whole fruits because I worried about seeds and skin. A lot of programs introduce fruits and veggies earlier though. Dr wiener who is a surgeon who wrote a couple books on eating for weight loss and weight loss surgery is one that starts fruits and veggies earlier.

I eat fruit every day, usually high-fiber fruits like berries. I'm going to respectfully disagree about keeping it under 1000 calories the first year—work this out with your nutritionist and make sure you are fueling what you want your body to do as well as setting yourself up for fat loss. 60-70g of net carbs sounds really low. I track all carbs and don't net out the fiber, but I eat 120g of carbs on "low activity days" and 150g of carbs on "high activity days", plus 60g of fat and 140-150g of protein, for a total of 1580-1740 calories a day. I am four and a half months out.

September 14 here. I am down 78 pounds since surgery and 87 since the start of the pre-op diet. Weight loss has definitely slowed as I replace fat with muscle, but it's nice to be able to buy clothes and have choices again.

Yup! Sometimes eating more, for some magical reason, definitely triggered weight loss for me.

yes - it's related to the surgery. It affects your hormones. A lot of women experience screwed up menstrual cycles (and/or have weird moods) for the first few weeks or months after surgery. Estrogen is stored in fat cells, and the theory I've read is that it's released during rapid weight loss (don't know if the latter part of that is true, but it IS stored in fat cells, and lots of women DO have hormonal issues after surgery because of it). It'll eventually stabilize and things will be back to normal. I don't know the answer to your second question, though.

Hi all, Hope you are all doing well. I am 5 weeks post-sleeve and take the pill as contraception. I take this back to back and don't usually allow myself a period (this is totally safe). For the past few days I have been experiencing heavy painful bleeds, do you think this has anything to do with the sleeve or weight loss? Does the sleeve have any bearing on how medication (the pill in this case) is absorbed by the body? I would appreciate any help/ advice! Thank you!!

We all lose at our own rate. Some are slow losers, others fast. Both are fine. Your weight loss seems great so far @rgwtwins. About 40lbs over 10 weeks is about 4 lbs a week. That’s pretty damn good. Celebrate those pounds you’ve lost. Yes, stalls can be damn frustrating but they do happen & unfortunately can occur a few times. Usually a stall will break in its own time without you doing anything different. If you’re worried, meet with your dietician just to ensure you are not missing something. Sometimes a small tweak will kick start your loss again especially if it’s persisting for more than 4 weeks. Yes @Cheryl A, the higher your starting weight the faster you tend to lose at first but it will slow. If your medical team is happy with your rate of loss, enjoy your weight loss too. It’s probably a bit of a shock but you’re doing well.

Sindibee I'm having an issue getting enough water also. Fluids have been a struggle. I checked in with the Dr on the 18th and I've hit the bariatric plateau. Now I'm going to start things all over to see if I can restart my weight loss. I'd hate to think I did all of this for nothing. Especially considering all the meds needed.

My sleep apnea, pre diabetes, and hypertension completely resolved with my weight loss. I was off my blood pressure med by month 2, off my CPAP by month 5, and my A1C was below 6 by my 6 month post op labs.

There is so much fatphobia and anti-fat bias in healthcare. So many doctors default to seeing us as obese only, and can’t see past our weight so they end up prescribing weight loss as the cure to anything and everything. So your story doesn’t surprise me one bit ☹️ They’ve done that to me so many times, to my fat friends, to many fat influencers I follow on social media.. it’s one of the reasons I got surgery in the first place. It’s so dehumanising to realise you will never really be treated like a person if you’re fat, be that in healthcare or out and about by strangers. Wishing you well and I truly hope that you end up getting relief for your symptoms, be that through continued weight loss or doctors who finally listen instead of judge. 🤗

Dr. Joseph Capella comes highly recommended and specializes in body contouring after weight loss surgery. He has offices in NYC and NJ. Please let me know if you come across any other great surgeons in the NYC area. I get asked this question often and would love to offer other alternative suggestions.

It’s been 1 year today since i had RNY bypass surgery, i’m down 4stone 3 pounds, would like to lose another stone ideally but seems like i’m stuck at this weight have been for the past 4 month, can’t budge any lower, so happy with my loss though.

You can experience many stalls as you’re losing so you’re likely experiencing another one now. Frustrating I know. If it persists more than 4 weeks, check in with your dietician. Sometimes a small tweak to your diet can kick start your loss & also ensure you are still following your plan (it’s easy to get a little complacent as the months go by cause we think we have it all under control). A change to your exercise program (frequency, duration or activity) can also shake the stall. Good luck.

It’s as @GradyCat said: as long as the NSAID isn’t going through your digestive system you’re fine. The issue with NSAIDS post weight loss surgery is the irritation they cause to your tummy & potential for reflux, GERD, bleeding, ulcers etc. Remember you have a much smaller tummy so the effects of the NSAIDS are concentrated. Topical & intravenous NSAIDS are not absorbed in the digestive system. But check with your surgeon if your concerned.

Your migraines may have improved because of your reduced blood pressure &/or the hormonal changes. Some migraines are triggered by certain foods like pickled or fermented foods, chocolate & caffeine so the changes you’ve made to your diet may also have helped. Whatever the reason why, the fact the attacks have improved is fantastic & a great win. Congrats on your weight loss so far.