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I am doing well thank you! On purees now, which is great after weeks of liquid, feeling good, learning my limits and healing nicely! I have not lost a lot of weight for a week, but am taking that in my stride, desperately close to.my first mini goal, but not quite there yet! Overall going very well, I can see the differences already, clothes are starting to hang off me! 😁 Thanks for asking, how are you doing?

How is everyone doing?? I am 22 days post op VSG and feeling great at the moment. 25# and several inches, tolerating all my liquids and hitting my protein goals. Currently on puree diet and excited to be moving to soft diet next week 😍

I definitely had some burning in and around my incision the first week when changing certain positions. It goes away, but please check with your surgeon.

This makes the most sense to me. I will eat whatever is in the refrigerator already prepared. If it requires me to “put it together” after a stressful whatever that day, I am less likely to make the correct choice. It’s weird to say but I can eat the same thing over and over and over and over again. It’s easier to just eat leftover leftovers than to have to make another decision. I’ve been trying to meal prep on Sundays for hubby so he can have healthy lunches for work but his food plan and mine don’t always mesh. I did make a plan for this week and so far it has been easy to follow because most everything is cooked for breakfast and lunches and he sometimes cooks the dinner, especially if it is something that I can’t tolerate(tuna, anything spicy, bbq anything, Asian & Mexican are all hard for me. I love it but it doesn’t love me right now). I guess I just never equated making my meal plan at the beginning of the week can also be my tracker. I thought I had to do both and I was failing miserably in my mind… I am at least following my meal plan 75-80% of what I had originally wrote down. I don’t work tomorrow, so I think I will plan out the weekend and next week… then cook and put it in my single serving containers.

I had MGB a week ago and all and all I feel good BUT.. when I go to sit up from laying down, stand up or even sit up straight all the way it burns about 2 inches to the left of my belly button. BAD. It feels like something is going to rip apart. I don’t have any incisions there either. Has anyone else experienced this? TIA

I am here to add my vote for meal planning. I also have ADHD tendencies and I LOATHE food tracking. In the early days after surgery when I absolutely had to make sure I got in my protein and water, I managed to track by keeping a physical tracking notebook next to me at all times. I had to see the book to remember to do it. I stopped tracking around 5 months when I was consistently hitting my goals. Now that I am almost a year out, my weight loss has slowed (as expected) and I am finding it too easy to make poor choices if I don't plan ahead. I forced myself to actually track for a couple days and was shocked by how many calories I could eat and what I was choosing even when I "thought" I had been pretty reasonable. So, instead of tracking, which I am still terrible at, I've started meal planning and prepping ahead. For breakfast and lunch, I came up with a selection of maybe three or four choices I liked that have around 20g protein and entered them into my meal tracking app. For example, a spinach frittata for breakfast that I can slice into several servings, fruit cups that I make ahead for the week, single-serve packets of protein oatmeal or a protein bar for those days when I have to grab and go. For lunch, I make homemade chicken veg soup and also salad jars. I also like to make a batch of turkey chili to have on hand, which I store in single-serve containers. I also came up with a few snacks I like such as Greek yogurt with blueberries, or an apple with cheese. I also entered in my typical favorite 6 or 7 homemade dinners as recipes or meals in the app so I could easily add them to my day with one click. Before my shopping day, I try to plan my meals for the coming week. If I see my calories going too high or my protein not being enough, or whatever, on any given day, I can adjust accordingly. On a day that I eat oatmeal, I make sure my other choices are less carb heavy. If I have eggs for breakfast, I might plan to have a carb at dinner. I have the tab easy to get to on my computer, but printing it out each day would also work, as would entering each meal as a reminder in your phone's task list or calendar app. It is so much easier for me to look at my menu and follow it than it is for me to decide what to eat every day in the moment. It also means that if I can eat what I plan most of the time, I can have a restaurant meal or a dessert a few times a month without worrying about it or trying to track it. And since I tend to package up most of my make-ahead meals in single-serve containers, it's pretty easy to grab something to take along if I'm going to be out and don't want to have to hunt for food on the go and risk being off plan. The worst days for me are when everything in the house is an ingredient instead of a meal. That's exhausting and inevitably leads to snacking or poor choices. I find I need to set a regular day of the week for shopping when I can also have time to prep some items right away, before the food even goes in the fridge. I have the most success for the week when all my produce enters the fridge already washed, sliced, and portioned into fruit cups and salad jars, and when I can kick off a batch of chili in the slow cooker, a frittata in the oven, and a batch of taco meat to store for later in the week all at once. Freezing complete single-serve meals is another great strategy for those busy days when you might otherwise get off track. Like any habit, it takes a while to establish and may not be 100% perfect all the time, but I definitely find this helping me.

I am a tracker and I have ADHD so I have to meal prep and I track most my food (breakfast, lunch and snacks) for the week once I am done meal prepping. This is kinda crazy I know, I use mynetdiary, I have it on my phone and you can access it on a desktop which is important for me so I can look at it while at work. This leaves me my calories for the day so I know around what I can eat for dinner and a dessert if I want (which I always do like a sweet treat to end my night LOL) I am a little over a year out and I feel like tracking keeps me focused, I am not comfortable not tracking yet, its something that keeps me focused. I even track on the very high days. Like on my birthday, I tracked it was NOT pretty but I tracked it.

It was a big shock to me that I wouldn't loose every day/week after my surgery. I also asked on here and the answer was, You will have stall weeks and the further out you are the longer they will last. You can't break them by diet or exercise, you just have to be patient. I eventually got used to it. The fact that you have a different type of tool will not make a difference. You are eating a very reduced amount of food, 800 calories. You are in a huge deficit, remember that. Weight loss is inevitable. Like everything else in life, it does not happen as we dream it to be. It is highly annoying though. As long as you are tracking your food and drink and are moving more every week then you can't fail.

Don’t be discouraged at the stall. I had surgery on 12/18/23 at 219. A year and 1 month later I am at 180 and have been here for 6 months. Sometimes I dip into the 170’s but I bounce back to my current set point of 180… Currently… I am ok with that because I can see the changes in how I look and how my clothes fit. I have struggled with eating the proper amounts of protein since having a set back in March 2024. I am struggling really hard with acid reflux and getting enough sleep. It is getting better and I am willing to put my weight loss on hold while I try to get this under control and avoid a corrective surgery. Give yourself some grace. This is hard to do. 💖 Just try to stay positive, be focused and talk to your care provider. Ask lots of questions, don’t leave until you feel like you truly understand which direction to go next when they help you lay out a new plan. … and take notes because it’s hard to remember everything they say during the appointment.

I think so long as you have a handle on how you may react if those scales don't budge or go up, then it is entirely up to you how and when you weigh yourself. I am in the same boat as you in terms of ADHD brain telling me I need to weigh everyday, but it is having quite a negative effect on me at present! The scales just haven't moved (apart from up 2lbs and then back down those same 2lbs) for about 1.5 weeks now. My surgeon hates scales, and has told me just to throw them out as the number is unimportant 🤣 I am actually trying to get my partner to hide them from me so I only weigh myself 1-2 times a month...lets hope that works!

That is AMAZING! Nothing beats the feeling of achieving a new PR! And it feels so good to discover that your stamina has picked up and that you are able to go for longer (whatever that is you're doing), or do things you were never able to do before. Disclaimer: it is addictive. While I worked out my whole life, including while being obese, I was never fond of running. I did all sorts of cardio (Spinning, HIIT, BodyAttack, BodyCombat, Step, you name it) but I hated running with a passion. Found it boring. Although I was able to run for 6-7 km straight I rarely ever did. Fast forward to my foot injury, I was so immobile I was in pain walking, so I did a lot of jump rope and spinning to compensate but my weight never budged. 4 months Post VSG I started getting into serious fitness again and I discovered this newfound love for running that I run every single day now. I do 5-6k once a week and 3k every day after my lifts and I LOVE it with a passion, how times change LOL. I have a feeling you will too. Although I don't know you, I am very proud of you and hope your journey is full of such pleasant surprises.

Thanks for the detailed reply. It makes perfect sense that the loss is going on in spite of the lack of movement on the scales. My Dietician said the same to me yesterday at our first post surgery apt last night. I don't agree with the "don't weigh everyday" mantra myself. It would be no less disappointing or frustrating to find out after a week the scales haven't moved. for me it would be far worse!! YMMV of course.

Yes to both questions. 🤗 It was my first thought as well and the first thing I mentioned to both doctors. I think, after doing extensive research after I thought to look at possible ties to GLP's I might have an answer to the sharp nerve pain as well as the hypersensitivity/pain on my leg. Its a very little known side effect of Ozempic-Wegovy type Glp-1's especially at the higher dosages (above .5). Apparently not so with Zepbound. Luckily, I have an appointment with my GP in few weeks at which time I'll mention it. Although, most ppl with this said their doctors dismissed it being associated... but it is listed as a rare side effect and ppl said it stopped upon switching or lowering the dosage. Luckily my doctor is always receptive to my suggestions/questions/research. Fingers crossed! As far as the joints hurting...still researching that! Thank you for your response and questions. Hopefully if anyone else ends up with this they'll find this forum topic!

One thing my doctor told me too when I inquired about a similar issue (tho for me it didnt stall until 3 weeks out), was that pre-surgery there was that very intense liver shrinking diet. A few weeks after surgery, the liver will start to build back up to a more normal size, which can cause a slight weight increase or stall. There are many other factors to the stalls, but this was just one aspect I had never considered. It all seems pretty normal! I'm at 7 weeks post surgery now, and down a full pants size, but actual weight loss since date of surgery is only about 17 lbs. I'm so happy I made this change in my life. This is going to be the best year ever!!

Make a list of all those things you want to change. Pick just one to focus on THIS week. Make sure though, that it's something small that you can measure in some way. For example, you can't say "I'm going to eat better", because that's too big and too vague. Instead, pick something even smaller and definitive like "instead of eating ice cream after dinner every day this week, I'm only going to eat ice cream 4 days this week". That's probably small enough that your brain won't make a huge fuss over it, and is also easily measurable. If you successfully make that change and can keep doing it for two or preferably three weeks, then you can more on. For example, maybe after three weeks, you decide to move to only eating ice cream once a week. Again, you need to be able to successfully do that before moving on again. If you fail, no worries, just try again. If you keep struggling, you may have picked something too big and you need to scale it back. I would also recommend alternating diet and exercise goals. Thus if you successfully made a diet change that you're able to stick with, next time maybe it's "I'm going to walk after dinner 3 days this week". By alternating in this way, you'll find the diet changes are easier to adjust to and at the same time, you'll be improving your health. Just make sure to go slow with these as well. I often see people in the gym (especially this time of year), that tried to go from basically doing nothing, to working out 5+ days a week. Sadly, the failure rate for such people is well north of 90%. Here's the thing. This will take a LONG time, but if you try to go faster because you're feeling impatient, the likelihood is that you won't be able to maintain the loss, you'll fall off the diet, and before you even realize it, you'll be right back where you were before. I also want to be clear, I do still recommend seeking out counseling for a possible eating disorder, as well as help from an RD. Dieting is HARD. if it was easy, we wouldn't have an obesity epidemic. The smart play here is to stack the cards in your favor by getting help from experts.

Not to dis on your friend, but that's just not how this works. The ski slope chart itself may be about what your weight loss looks like for many people, but I promise you, you are losing fat the entire time. You just can't overcome basic physics. Think about it. If you eat less calories than you burn, your body has to make up that difference from somewhere. Even the leanest people on the planet have something like 40,000 plus calories of fat stores. This is what your body uses to stay alive when intake is less than output. Do the math: Your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE), is made up of your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR), your Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (EAT), and your Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT). The average normal sized person has a resting metabolic rate somewhere between 1200 and 1800 calories. It's even higher for overweight and obese people. This is just an estimate, but yours is probably somewhere around 1900-2000 based on your height and current weight. EAT obviously can vary quite a lot from basically nothing if you don't workout, to well over a thousand calories per day if you exercise a lot. NEAT is important as well. The basic idea is that very few of us are completely sedentary. We are moving around cooking, cleaning, doing chores, etc. This is what we sometimes call "Activities of Daily Living". This tends to add another 15% to 20% to your overall calories for most people. The point of me adding all that is because very few people really understand how many calories their body needs per day just to stay alive. If your body needs 3000 calories per day and you are only consuming 800, then the rest of your energy needs for the day have to come from your tissues. If we do things right, the vast majority of that will come from fat, though no matter how hard we try, some of it will come from muscle tissue. Regardless, (and here's the point of all this), there is never a period of time when eating a very low calorie diet like we do after bariatric surgery, when you just lose water weight, or stop losing fat. Early on, you will lose a lot of water weight, but what you are losing is not JUST water. Later, you may experience stalls, but that's not a period of time when you stop losing fat. Instead, you may be putting more water weight back on (this IS part of the healing process), but you're still losing fat underneath that water gain. Note that there will be other times when your weight plateaus or even goes up some. This is 100% normal and not a cause for concern. If you are following the diet plan your surgical team sent you, you WILL lose fat. It's impossible not to. This is why I said it's just not healthy to weigh yourself daily. Scales LIE. They don't measure our amount of fat loss, they just measure weight, and weight is made up of so much more than just fat.

I had the Orbera 365 inserted 2 weeks ago. In the first week I lost 3 pounds and this week I haven’t lost anything at all. Is this normal? I am eating around 800 calories and walking 30 mins a day. Has anyone else had the same experience? Thanks

Just a bit of a follow up to this it seems it's is perfectly normal and to be expected. A friend who had the surgery last year sent me this when I was telling her I haven't lost for a week. Sorry I don't know the Author, or which site it is from. It did make me relieved to see its not that my surgery didn't work! Phew!

Hi, sorry I have been absent. I was sleeved a week ago today. I stayed in hospital two nights and didn't have any real problems. Liquids went down pretty easily and I got 1litre in on the first day and the drip was taken off that afternoon. They left the cannula in and it started bleeding - it was in my elbow bend and I think I did something when I bent my arm too quickly - so they took that out too, which was great! I tidied up my room, put on clean clothes and took it easy. I even got let out for a couple of hours to visit my father-in-law in the public hospital next door. He is nearly 90 and the end is coming - they thought it was close on Tuesday although he has picked up a bit since then. Slept intermittently the first night and rang the bell for pain killers a few times. The second night I slept fine - but they woke me up for obs at 11:30pm and 5:30am! Ugh! Then I went back to sleep after the 5:30am ones and my surgeon woke me at 6:30am! I gave up after that My husband turned up 9ish so I got up and showered, dressed and packed and was sent on my way with Palexia (opioid painkiller) and a reflux medication. We went to visit FIL for an hour or so then got an Uber to our short stay apartment. I had to go to Sydney for surgery - I live in Canberra - and the doctor said I should stay in Sydney for four more days. So that was Thursday, day 2 post op. I didn't do anything else that day. Friday was ok, I'm not having any trouble consuming liquids although plain water is the hardest - it gives me a temporary lump in my chest and sometimes hiccups. One thing that really bothered me on Wednesday and Thursday was that when I lay down to sleep at night I felt like I had a tennis ball in my chest. I had to sit up for a while. The surgeon said it is common with the surgery and I also had a small hiatus hernia repaired and it can be part of that too. I found that not taking tablets and drinking water immediately before lying down was best but I haven't had it since. Saturday I hit a wall mentally. I think it was a lot to do with being away from home - I always feel a bit "wrong" away from home but usually I'm travelling which means (a) fun (b) eating and drinking what I like and of course post surgery none of that was happening. I went for a short walk with my husband in Hyde Park Saturday evening and it helped a tiny bit. I felt really depressed and like I'd done the wrong thing and that I'd never lose weight etc etc. Because I'm autistic I had a couple of autistic meltdowns at my poor husband who copes with them quite well. So unfair, he was doing his best to look after me. Sunday I said I didn't want to do anything but after a while I said to him we should go for a walk. Unfortunately it was hot and humid in Sydney (Canberra has an inland elevated dry climate so I don't do humidity well), but we went out for two hours. I had to sit down a lot - no energy plus the humidity ugh - so it was slow and I only did about 5,000 steps but it was a good thing to do. We walked through Hyde Park, down to the Art Gallery, through the domain, up to Macquarie Street, round to Circular Quay. It was Australia Day so there were heaps of people out, which made me nervous about someone walking into me and hurting my incisions. We had lunch at the Quay - fish and chips for him and a banana smoothie for me - I ate the tip of a chip with aioli but I chewed it to death first, and chewed some fish and spat it out (I know, gross). We caught the light rail back up to Town Hall and went "home". He went back to visit his Dad and I watched YouTube videos and even edited one of my own (I have YouTube channel on, don't laugh after what I said about being away from home, travel). Monday we packed up and came home. The relief of being home! I still felt a bit funny bit it wasn't too bad and last night I gave the kitchen and butler's pantry a really good clean so I was obviously feeling a lot better. Our cats (6) sit all over the bench and leave hair and dirt so after a week of being away it was pretty grubby. Plus my husband cooked me some soup and he is messy to say the least. Today I'm back at my desk getting on top of things and having that shower in my own bathroom was unbelievably good. I'm shaky and weak this morning so sipping on an Optifast shake. I've been tracking food in My Fitness Pal. I was craving hummus for lunch yesterday - I saw it in the Qantas Lounge on the way to the plane haha - so when we went shopping for food I bought a tub and ate half of it for lunch. Then I tracked it and the calories are unbelievable! I thought it was mainly chick peas but the half a small tub was about 850 calories so I won't be doing that again. Michael is going to make me some and put only a tiny bit of oil in it so it should be a lot lower in calories hopefully. I hope all this is of some use to others about to undergo this procedure! Or else I've just been rambling to no purpose I think I can start puree today but tbh I've been eating thicker stuff like hummus and yogurt already.

On 1/22/25 I had surgery initially to bring my remnant stomach down from my chest and they said while they were in there, they'd repair a hernia.. It was done robotically, so I anticipated the dreaded CO2 shoulder pain. I was up & walking, doing what they recommended & was discharged the next day.. After about 48 hours, it had subsided but had occasional twinges.. Unfortunately, I wasn't informed that I would need to be on straight liquids, but I had a Roux-en-y in 2008..so piece of cake. What wasn't so simple was taking my various pills & having one get stuck 3 days post-op. I had no choice but to throw it up. Apparently that caused swelling, so I ended up in the ED... After about 10 hours, the swelling reduced & I was able to swallow again. After a few days of taking bare necessities, I flew home to CO. I will be doing my 2 week surgical follow-up via tele-health. However, I am now 10 days post op & I am having intermittent what I assumed was CO2 shoulder pain. It is excruciating and extends up my neck & radiates into my ear. I couldn't figure out why I was suddenly having shoulder pain again as the CO2 should be out of my system by now. After reading about everyone else's experiences, at least I know I'm not crazy but hope that the stress and swelling after the pill incident didn't mess things up. Needless to say, I will be calling my surgeon first thing in the morning. BTW.. Even though I had some complications after my bariatric surgery in 08..I would do it ALL over again. No regrets.. I was 333 pounds the day off my surgery and 169 today.. And here's something only a bariatric patient will appreciate.. At 5'8", I was no longer considered OBESE, just overweight.. That is until osteoporosis hit and I am now 5'3, still 169 but back to being obese.. It sucks cuz I have maintained my weight between 167-169 for over 15 years but I can't control the fact that I shrunk 5 inches in the past 6 years.. The joy of getting older 😁 Thanks to everyone for sharing and saving my sanity..

@AmberFL Thanks for the additional detail! I agree with @ShoppGirl that localized swelling and postoperative edema may be causing a lot of your gain. I do also totally understand the concerns, though! I recently had a procedure done on my proximal hamstring to treat a partial tear. While not nearly on the same scale as your plastic surgery, I wasn't able to workout at all for a full month and even now almost 2 months later, I'm still having to ramp back up really slowly. For example, I'm still not allowed to do any lower body strength training and my running mileage is only at about 50% of where it was before the procedure. Like you, I also saw my weight go up during this time. Even though I knew edema was the likely initial cause, it still messes with your head. This was especially true for me because my workouts are frankly a form of therapy for me. It felt like a double blow. It really sounds like you've got the diet mostly dialed in for now. I suspect one of 2 things will happen as you heal. The most likely eventuality is that your swelling and edema goes down and you find you're happy with where you're at weight wise. If so, be sure to up your calories as your workouts resume. If you find that you are a little heavier than your ideal, then no worries. Once you are working out again, the easiest solution would to only eat back about 50%-75% of your workout calories. This will be slower, but is super sustainable, compared to a drastic cut in calories that would get you leaner quickly, but is also a lot more likely to cause some rebound weight gain. I also noticed something you said in an earlier post and I wanted to commend you for it. You mentioned something about maintaining around 1700-2000 calories. This is something a lot of people don't understand, but you can successfully maintain across a range of calories. Many people think they've got to be EXACTLY at a certain number to maintain. That's just not true. The reason is that most people will subconsciously be a little more active when the calories are higher and a little less when they are lower. Please check in every few weeks and let us know how it's going? I'm sure you'll do great, be we are always here to help if needed.

Well, I found out Magnesium laxative works! 🥵 The evil has left the building!! 😆🥳 Thank you very much everyone, for the support, I woke up to find a 200gm (half poundish) drop today, so that's something!! I am looking forward to hitting my first mini goal this week (under 100kg) and am very close, so have been sweating it a bit!!

Well, it wasn’t exactly an AI generated recommendation. It was an AI generated summary of all the articles that applied to the question I asked Google. So basically One of the articles them gave that recommendation is below and you can read the full article of course and determine whether it’s a reputable source and applies to you. I agree with not going by a cookie cutter approach regardless of where it came from. Especially the Internet, but it logically does make sense to me so it would definitely be worth talking to your doctor about and asking for a specific plan for you. I know for me, my body is fighting cancer and processing chemo right now which both increase metabolism. Currently I’m logging like 1000-1500 cal more a day and still losing (albeit a little slower to appease my doctors). It changes your metabolism when your body is fighting something and it does burn more calories during times like this. How many that would be something your surgeon may be able to help you with a refer you to someone who can. I am very fortunate that I am at a big fancy breast center and they have an oncology dietitian that is helping me throughout all of my different treatments that I have in store for me over the next year to keep me on track for both that and my bariatric journey. i think the most important part would be to just be mindful of the fact that healing does require adequate nutrition and not to be at too much of a calorie deficit because yes, we will heal like we did from our bariatric surgery but that doesn’t necessarily mean it was the ideal circumstance or that we we’re healing as fast as we could have. I know you are itching to get out and back to your activity asap as I would be and good nutrition is very important for faster healing. I’m not saying that means you need to eat as much as you were eating when you were working out like crazy, but if it was me, I would focus primarily on fueling my body to get better faster, without gaining of course, and really focus on the weight loss once I was back on track (it won’t be that long). I mean if you can lose a bit great but if your body is screaming out for nutritious food it’s probable that there is a reason. The nutritionist that I am working with would not give me a specific calorie amount instead she told me to still try to avoid cookies and chips, but to eat when my body was craving nutritious food and she checks in with me every week to see how I am doing and make tweaks Does your surgeon have a nurse practitioner that you could talk to if you give them a call? Or was your dietician from pre surgery very helpful (mine was worthless 😂). Maybe you would get a more in-depth response from them than your surgeon who’s always super busy.

What I did and tried to type was to weigh myself every day, but I only logged it in my book once a week. That way, the small fluctuations were less of a big deal when I seen what happened at the end of the week. It would probably be better to even do every other week or every month to log. Or log it every day but just highlight it once a week or once a month something like that so that you can see that really your trend is down

I agree if you’re meeting your protein goals you don’t need to continue with them. You can keep some on hand for emergencies if you want. Personally, I stopped them as soon as week 3 & purées began. They were disgusting! I added a high protein yoghurt to my diet which was more palatable to me. I wasn’t hitting my protein goal yet but I was close and my surgeon & dietician were okay with it. I had never intended to rely on protein shakes or powders. My plan was to get all I needed nutritionally from real food. PS: You can also make a smoothie with the yoghurt by blending a tub with milk and you can add a powdered flavour or even protein powder for additional protein if you want.