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YES. The first week was one of the hardest things I've done. Trust me when I say it truly gets better! Your nausea will settle, your body will begin to heal & you will FEEL okay! Hang in there 💜

It's major surgery, and it hurts. I felt like I'd been hit by a truck for a solid week. That said, my nausea and pain medication did help. Call your team if you're not able to manage yours.

Really good to hear your update. I took two weeks off after my sleeve but I know lots of people go back sooner. Please do look after yourself. Can't wait to hear how you do post-op!

i have a desk job and only plan on making a few phone calls and answer emails and go home - maybe 3-4 hours a day all week even if i feel great by then. i will have to help people that come in for me, but that just involves standing for 5 mins and right now i can handle that! (as long as no one cussed me out to get my blood pressure up- which happens sometimes because i work in a local government tax office lol) honestly expect Monday to be a lot of chattering and a little work lol

I'm glad you're able to recognize that focusing on your weight on the first week isn't ideal. I did not weigh myself at all that first week because we're sooo swollen & healing.

My surgery was also the 8th. Today I have been able to drink about 30 oz of water and about 3 oz of a protein shake. Not much. My dr told me that I would most likely not hit my goals this week and possibly next week either. Just do your best

I don't do carb cycling because I eat a lot of carbs (tons of fruit) BUT, I naturally do calorie cycling. I know both carb and calorie cycling are effective. Some days I just feel hungrier so I eat more those days. I track calories by the week (net calories under weekly goal) so there is a lot more leeway, freedom and flexibility, for those bottomless pit days. My longest "stall" ever was during my maintenance phase. It was 33 days. I'm still trying to find my maintenance calorie level but if I keep losing, I won't stress, I'll just let nature takes it's course since the honeymoon phase will inevitably end soon enough since I'm 15 months post-op. Link: "Research suggests the benefits of calorie cycling include greater weight loss, improved ability to stick to a diet, less hunger, and a reduction in the negative hormonal and metabolic adaptations of a normal weight loss diet." https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/calorie-cycling-101#:~:text=Research suggests the benefits of,it works best for you.

Hey there girlie!!!! YAY, I'm so happy for you!!! You're on the other side of it now and will just get better everyday. Your first week sounds a lot like many of us, so you're right on track. I work from home and still took 2 weeks off. No way could I focus or stay awake or sit in 1 position before that. The main incision gave the most trouble and hurt the longest. Took about 3ish weeks for the pain to stop, but it's because that's the biggest incision and that's where they pulled the stomach from. You're doing great.

Sounds like everything is going pretty smoothly. I also had a huuuuge lump under one of my incisions this last surgery. It was the size of an egg. I thought it was a hernia or something. I do everything not to go to the doctor's but I was so concerned I went in ASAP, and let him squeeze and manipulate it, and then to ultimately tell me "That's normal" lol. Been looking for your update the past few days, and hoping you'll get a speedy recovery. If you don't feel like going back, I hope you can take another week off. The post-op exhaustion is real.

Thank you!! 1. No sleep apnea. Was evaluated before surgery, and I have an Oura ring to measure my sleep. I’m sleeping through the night (actually much better than pre surgery !!). 2. I’ll def look into probiotics. This is a good idea. 3. Looked at it being psychosomatic- this was actually my first thought bc it made zero sense to me, but my therapist doesn’t believe so. I do thankfully see a therapist who recommended getting to the bottom of any physical causes. Next step is seeing an endocrinologist to see if there are any hormonal issues causing it. It was such an acute onset and nothing really has changed in my life or routine post surgery and this fatigue started abt 2 weeks ago and it’s just wiping me out. I’m confident the mystery will be solved!

A previous nutritionist I worked with, used to do this. Every 3 days, you will do 3 days with a lower calorie intake, and the 4th day, you will up by 200 calories, and it seemed to work at that time. My other nutritionist (yes, I have a few attempts ) will do carb cycling where you consumed more carbs one day/week and then lowered it.

hey there! been healing away. since i am now one week post op, thought i would give an update!!! was doing well overall with lots of soreness and some actual pain. had trouble getting liquids for about three days but finally am doing a lot better. (did about 23-28 oz those three days sipping as much as i could… then have been increasing since) was burping with every single sip for three days. also had issues with gas pains that would randomly come on and feel like my sternum would rip in half. moving makes such a big difference !!! i Tuesday and wednesday i started to have a lot of pain/tugging and difficulty with my main incision … the bruising around it spread like deep healing bruises do and i think that was part of the issue. it also felt like a hard lump under the incision area there. i talked to my surgeon and said that was all normal and just keep at it as long as i didn’t get fever over 100 or it started getting red… this morning it feels a lot better, but still hurts… big victory for today is that i can sit and stand more comfortably than the last two days!!! i was finally able to “go” 5 days po.. no real problem but had the runs yesterday… i know, tmi but it’s what we go through zero real hunger and no real desire to even drink but doing it because I have to … i am only down 4.4 lbs so far (actually went up for the two days i was in acute pain this week) … but i am ok with that because my body is healing and know that is more important during this first healing stages… i am wary about going back to work next week part time. know i am going to be slow and really take it easy… i should be fine but know how doing nothing exhausts me lol (i am in bed before 830 every night… used to be 11 easy) hows everyone else in the early stages of post op????

Hey, thanks for saying this, it gives me hope, I am almost 95 pounds down and I am back at my work this week, people do not see me for months and I have already heared a few "stop loosing weight" I feel great even though I am not at a normal BMI or my goal weight but I can tell my face looks older my neck chest and arms could use some help, and I am still loosing weight.

I just came out of a 4 week stall. I added weight training, really paid attention to my calories and carbs (added up and wrote everything down...you would be surprised how even healthy food and drinks have calories and carbs we don't even think about) and I changed up my workout a bit. And then my stall broke and I even finally made it out of the 300's.

I had the runs also for the first week or so. It is incredible the amount that exited compared to inputs. But it did get better and if you are worried call you nutritionist or surgery team nurse. I'm sure they will be able to better help you. Never be shy with asking them for help it is what they are there for. Hope you find better days ahead. Wishing you good health and success in you weight loss journey.

I am still dealing with extensive fatigue. They increased my water intake to 100 oz a day to see if that helps. I used to drink abt 128-150 pre surgery and so maybe 64 oz wasn’t cutting it. I’ve tried it this week but it is not doing much. I’m hoping it helps soon bc I can’t keep up like this. my blood work came back- they ran it twice- all of my vitamin levels are optimal so they have no idea what is causing me to feel like this. I’m forcing myself to exercise - walking or peloton - stretching / yoga etc just to keep my body moving, but it is not helping the energy levels. what a rollercoaster! edit- to top it all, I’m in a stall also. Hovering around 190-193 lbs. Trying not to get discouraged and remind myself that this is a process, but man it’s been tough!

I need your bathroom stalls....... you look amazing. I'm longing for sweater weather............. mississippi is still 75 degrees daily.

Yay, glad that things are going well! I have not warmed up any of my premier drinks, I should try that! I have added it to decaf coffee as a creamer, but your idea sounds awesome. My taste buds keep changing per week it seems. This week I like sf raspberry lemonade for my cold drink and apple cinnamon tea as my hot. I've also tried a few fairlife protein shakes and I might be leaning towards liking them more than premier even though I love premier. Mostly its because its less thick and so far I haven't gotten the occasional chunk of protein in my drink. I've been in a stall now for almost 3 weeks so not fun at all. I saw my dr, dietitian and exercise specialist and they all said I have done everything right and hitting all protein and water goals so the only thing to do is to increase calories until the stall breaks. So they want me to get to 900 to 1000 a day, I was at around 750. Its so hard for my brain to wrap around that since my whole life I've been told that to lose weight you need to eat less and exercise more. I do understand the stall too and that my body is very good at protecting itself. So I'm going to listen to the experts and just be patient and I know it will pass. Just sad because I was already a slow loser and now I've lost only 4 pounds in almost a month. How is everyone else doing?

Sorry ahead of time, this is going to be a long post! Let's talk a bit about what causes stalls/plateaus: The most common reason for any stall (including the dreaded 3-week stall), is simply that you are retaining more water. There are a few reasons this happens, from hormonal shifts, tissue repair, illness, or changes due to glycogen vs. ketone metabolism. This post would be even longer if I spent too much time here, but suffice it to say that for many people (especially early in the process), they are just retaining water and not actually failing to lose fat. As you lose more weight, your overall metabolic rate will slow down. People sometimes think fat is not metabolically active, but that's not true. Losing fat means your metabolism slows down, even if you retain the same amount of muscle mass (which most people don't). This means that as you lose weight, it takes less effort to move or even just live, so the amount of calories you burn both during exercise and just living also drops quite a bit. On the intake side as you progress after bariatric surgery, you'll be able to eat more. This isn't a bad thing and is by design, but obviously you should be able to see the problem here. Your metabolism has slowed down and now you can eat more. This can lead to you basically eating as much as you're burning. When that happens, weight loss stops. Especially if you're not tracking intake closely by weighing and measuring your food, you can easily be eating a lot more than you think. Some studies have shown people underestimate caloric consumption by several hundred calories on average. This is more than enough to cause a stall. This one may be TMI for some, but you may simply be retaining more stool. Feeling constipated? That will definitely impact your weight. This is going to be hard for some people to hear, but I can tell you one thing it's not, and that's hormones. Yes, various hormonal processes negatively impact weight loss in a myriad of ways, but they don't overcome the basic fact that if you eat fewer calories than you are burning, you'll lose weight. What these hormones can do if they're out of whack, is bad things like slowing your metabolism even more, increasing your hunger, screwing with water weight, or even fooling you into thinking you're eating less than you are. So, that's all great, but what do we actually do if we're in a stall? Well, I think it depends on when it happens and how long it lasts: If it's early (a.k.a. the 3-week stall), just keep doing what you're doing and you should be fine. I know people don't like that advice, but as I said it's just water, so don't worry about it. Later on, especially if the stall is lasting longer than 2-3 weeks. that's when I think it's important that you look closely at what you are actually burning, as well as really tracking what you are eating. If you don't know your RMR (Resting Metabolic Rate), you should. The closer you are to goal, the harder it is to get the balance right between intake and output to make sure you're not eating too much, so fixing this starts with knowing your RMR and accurate food logging. There's a lot of anecdotal advice thrown around about "ways to break a stall", but there seems to be little scientific evidence for any of it. It certainly won't hurt to try things like breaking up your routine in terms of diet or exercise, but just understand that this change may or may not have any impact. If it makes you feel better to be proactive, go for it. Longer term, there is one piece of solid advice that's backed up by lots of research: Even if you don't really like working out, do it anyway. Those WLS patients that make a regular habit of exercising for 45 minutes to an hour most days a week are significantly more likely to reach their goal and maintain the weight loss. (One caveat here: significantly changing your exercise routine can make you retain water and possibly even add muscle, so don't freak out if you see a stall or even a gain.) I'll take that exercise advice one step further and say you really should be doing some form of strength training. This is also backed up by lots of studies, but the great thing about strength training is that it makes your burn more calories even at rest (in other words, it increases your metabolic rate). There are lots of other benefits, but the metabolic benefit is the most germaine to the stall question. Those that do strength training are less likely to stall during weight loss and are more likely to reach and then maintain their goal weight long term.

Same to you!!! I know! I've been so excited about it - didn't even mind the 2 week liquid too much - but now that it's here, I'm super nervous and questioning... I know it's just my brain playing mean tricks, but man I have the jitters this morning!

Do you track your food intake? I would say if not, start there. If you are eating 1200 calories a day, try to cut it to 1100 a day. Not a huge amount but maybe enough to give your body a push to burn it. My Dietician says a lot that sometimes people aren't eating enough which will make you stall or gain. He will have people up their calories for a few weeks and then cut them back down to trick the metabolism. I honestly don't know if any of it works but these are things he has suggested in our support group.

Change your diet or your exercise. But not both. If you did that you wouldn’t know which thing worked 🤣 I usually eat a few more carbs or walk a little farther that week to break a weight range.

I get so jealous of those that were able to have some food pre-op. My surgeon had me on a strict clear liquid diet with absolutely nothing to eat. I am so looking forward to day 1 of week 3 post-op where I can some dang mashed potatoes down the hatch

I’m at this exact weight and also at a stall

Thanks so much for letting me know now I don’t know if I should skip this week and ask my endocrinologist about it as well.