Search the Community

I drink beer often. I have no problems with it but I count my calories. Having the surgery has not changed the way how fast alcohol affects me. I think it's different for everyone just make sure you account for your calories and take it slow when you have your first drink until you know how it will affect you. And also don't drink until you are fully healed (6-8 wks after surgery).

I am diagnosing myself here but I am pretty certain I have non alcoholic fatty liver disease I can review my labs on line and view the trends since surgery almost 6 months ago now My Alk-phos is elevated and increases each time I have my blood work done My ALT and AST are also trending upwards all three tests are elevated above normal ranges I don't drink alcohol and haven't for years and years So the only explanation is I have Fatty Liver Disease! Loosing weight and exercising helps!! but obviously in my case it hasn't My Glucose level is 111 although I have not been diagnosed with Diabetes there is a chance I do have issues there plus my triglycerides are still elevated at 172 post surgery Anybody else have these problems?

Mickey, at least it's an incision at your bra line. I've read that some women have had their port placed there! I read that prior to my surgery, and it prompted me to ask the surgeon where my incisions would likely be and where he placed the port. I know at least one woman said she had to have a second surgery to have her port moved. Good grief, you'd think they'd know better. I hope your incision heals quickly and you that you can start to wear your bra comfortably. About the sutures. I had one that popped out too, and I was told I could cut it myself if it was really bothering me, or I could come in and they'd do it. I put alcohol on my skin around the suture and on the scissors. Then I pressed down gently to make the suture stick up better, and snipped it. The place where the suture popped through stayed red until I clipped it.

I was just thinking about this. I am celebrating a birthday and super bowl this weekend. No alcohol and no pigging out. I am getting through it by going to one of my safe resturants for my Birthday and cooking a healthy meal for tonight. For a cake I got the smallest carvel cake for my family to split.

I stopped drinking before getting banded so I don't know if it effects you differently. Just the fact that you are eating less food may cause the alcohol to have a greater impact. I would be cautious for sure. And you are right, it's empty calories. Try to factor a drink or 2 into your calories for the day. Of course, this is not something you should do on a regular basis. Have fun!

I drink vodka/cran as well and did notice that the alcohol has more of an effect on me. So, I don't drink as much and try to eat 30 minutes before I drink. Julia

Hello Everyone! I am really enjoying this website. Lots of useful information. I was banded April 26th. I have been feeling great and following the diet to a T! I just have one question. I have a super busy summer coming up. Lots of wedding and graduation parties. Although I am not really a big drinkier I do like to have a couple when and where appropriate. I know alcohol is just empty calories. Just wondering what other peoples reactions are about it. Does it effect you diffently ect......

Tips? Keep saying the mantra "it gets better." Every day things get better: the pain, the emotions, the weird feelings when you drink. And before you know it, you are rewarded with weight loss! My tastes seems to change everyday. I was able to eat my chewable Vitamins for the first week post op. Now, they make me nauseous. Like they actually come back up or make me feel blah I am switching to the Celebrate vitamins you can mix together like Crystal Light (Celebrate bariatric vitamins are what my surgeon recommends). The simpler the taste the better for me. I was able to drink some Protein shakes and Carnation Instant Breakfast-No Sugar Added post op. But after a week, the only thing I want is plain skim milk with nonfat dry milk powder added (by drinking 3 to 4, 8 ounce glasses of these a day, I get my 50+ grams of daily protein needs). My best tip would be using alcohol wipes to stop nausea. I got nauseous about 4 times during my 3 day hospital stay. I would call for my nurse and she would quickly put one on my nose and I would take like 3 to 5 deep breaths and it would calm me down (meanwhile she would be putting nausea medicine in my IV but told me it would take a few minutes to work). I still use this trick regularly (my nurses kindly gave me like 30 wipes to take home). Granted I don't get anti-nausea meds pumped into me anymore but it still works (you have to realize early post-op nausea is a little more intense because of all the pain meds they are pumping you with). One more thing - friends and family act funny post op. Learn to deal with it/laugh it off. A coworker ate candy in front of me and then was like Oops! And hid the wrapper behind her back. I laughed it off but trust me, I want nothing to do with sweets right now! And then the other day my dad was driving me to the pharmacy and was mad that I didn't "eat" anything that day yet. He asked if I could have a Wendy's Frosty! Clearly that is not a good idea - but I gave him an alternative, we went to McDonalds and I got a kid-sized milk. I now use that little half pint container daily (8 oz)...cutest thing ever. I digress... Let me know if you have any other questions while it is still fresh!! Good luck with your surgery! I am sure it has been a long journey. I had to go through a 6 month insurance approval process. I pinch myself everyday that I am now on the other side!

Yep, doing that too! More fluids, more salt, no alcohol (not that I was drinking any anyway), regular exercise to promote blood flow, smaller more frequent meals... etc etc etc

So, I did see my doc about this - she practices alternative as well as traditional medicine. She started me on a product called Gaba Ease - intended to reduce the "adrenal response" - ie panic chemicals from our body. Well, I took 3 doses, and it wasn't until the 3rd dose that i figured out it was making me worse. I had a temporary but very very scary reaction - twice I was driving down the road and had to pull over because i thought i would faint - both times happened about 20 minutes or so after taking a dose. I felt like I couldn't breath and I actually considered calling 911 while i still could. It passed fairly quickly, but it wasn't good. The last time it happened I felt ill for hours and when I met a friend for a big hike he actually told me I looked a little green. I regained my strength and we hiked just fine... but it was several hours of suckage. Their theory is that i had a paradoxical response - meaning the herbs did the exact opposite what they were supposed to. My personal theory is that since my blood pressure is normal/low - that I had a sudden blood pressure drop. We won't find out because she decided it was not wise for me to continue that. She switched me to HTP 5 but I admit I haven't taken any - it is like I am afraid of feeling worse I guess. I hate green tea, but am willing to try it. I have posted about this before, but coffee is my primary "addiction transference" substance. I figure it beats alcohol, gambling, wreckless sex and maniacal shopping etc. but my coffee consumption got crazy wicked high over the summer. I have been cutting back over the last month or so and am moving toward going decaf/no coffee in preparation for my plastic surgery. I did that before my VSG too because last thing i need is to go through withdrawals while recovering from surgery! I am probably consuming 1/4 of the caffeine that I was a few months ago and yet my anxiety is actually amped way up. I eat pretty clean otherwise - mostly meat,seafood greek yogurt, cheese, green veggies and Protein drinks. I will note another small thing. I had let my weight creep about 5# above goal early in the summer - I think i hit 163. I am down to 155 and dropping (intentially) and I can't help but wonder if some of this goes back to the food reduction, the letting go of the weight. I have been doing the 5:2 thing - but I don't notice higher anxiety on fast days, it is just that in general I am eating less. Our bodies are complicated and I am guessing that I am experiencing something that has both physical and emotional components - just as I believe my overeating and obesity had both. the point of my original post really is that i am surprised that this is showing up so late in the journey, but I do see it as another aspect of myself that "needs work" and that I continue to work through as part of my transformation. The biggest difference between the new me and the old me? I am talking to friends and family about it, I am not trying to hide my discomfort and unease. I am being a genuine person and when I was obese I think i often tried to bury many of my inner struggles and i just don't do that anymore and I feel proud of myself for that small victory.

My doctor says no alcohol for a year. You are healing and still swelled up. Most leaks happen at 3 or 4 weeks out. I would not chance it for wine. You can have a fruit drink with no alcohol and still have fun with the girls! Dont chance it!

The other aspect, beyond the basic sleeve healing and caloric intake issues, is liver health. Being obese, our livers usually aren't in the best of shape to begin with, and the rapid weight loss further taxes it by it's role in metabolizing all the fat that we're losing, so it doesn't need any more work by having to metabolize the alcohol. My doc is a liver specialist outside of his bariatrics practice, so you better believe that we are on the no alcohol program for the 12-18 months of rapid weight loss - he doesn't like seeing his WLS patients coming back as transplant patients!

I think the answers are quite obvious: portion control high calorie snack foods, chips, cookies, cake, sweets, too many carbs: bread, pasta, rice lack of exercise grazing liquid calories: milk shakes, chocolate, alcohol the list can go on we all know what not to do.

While the following sentence may seem really odd, take a second and let it soak in. I feel fortunate that before I started the whole WLS process, I knew what it was like to be an addict. I have recovered from substance abuse and maintained sobriety/clean time (depending which ideology you prefer) since. Many of us who are obese got this way through overeating. To the pleasure receptors in your brain, food is a drug just like alcohol or opiates. Drugs and alcohol can be avoided in everyday life but the same cannot be said for food. How many times would you find yourself eating because you were sad? What about because you were stressed or angry? How many times would you eat because you were anxious or tired? I willing to bet most of us have said yes to at least a few of those scenarios. Now here is the kicker. How did you feel after you ate? Fat? Ashamed? Worthless? Now how many times did we repeat those same cycles? That is what addiction is. Sadly people don't understand the disease of addiction because, unless the examine your brain tissue, they can't see it. Addiction in all its forms is a disease that our society feels it is perfectly acceptable to blame the victim for. People still talk about this thing called "will power" which is about as real as the Easter bunny. Most people with any type of addiction have fewer chemical receptors in their prefrontal cortex. This has been studied and proven for decades. I highly suggest reading The Brain Fix by Dr. Ralph Carson. It will give you a lot of insight into the biochemistry that many of us have working against us. All of us who have been sleeved now have a great tool to help us deal with our food issues, but we need to do that work and use the tool correctly or we can find ourselves worse off than where we started. This surgery is not a quick fix. Their is no such thing for any type of addictive process. Remember in the post surgery phase that this is where the real work starts and if we get too comfortable and don't do our part, any positive results could end up being temporary. Healthy living is a lifelong process and I hope we all get to enjoy the journey.

Well I have only told one friend about the surgery. I was a person that just could not see getting gastric bypass. My sister did and she looks awful, rotted teeth, no bone density, no muscle, just flabby gross and very sickly. Then to top it off she became an alcoholic! I am not doing this for anyone but me. I went to CA with my granddaughter and just had no strength in my legs to do all I wanted to and so that was it for me. I took my 10k from my retirement acct and 5 weeks later I am done. The incisions aren't leaking badly, but the coughs still give a new adventure in pain. I was bad today, ate some chocolate covered strawberries. Mothers day gift. I am in some pain but working through. I need and want to lose weight. I am tired of being tired and fat and weak. I will resume my pool time as soon as dr says I can. swimming will tone me best! Keep smiling!

Hi Everyone, All addictions have one thing in common- they numb you out to what is happening in the moment. They offer instead, an intense sensory experience which either absorbs all of your attention or distorts reality. You may think you’re having a real moment, but you are not, because your addictive activity, such as food, drinking, or drugs, is actually disconnecting you from your true emotions and, therefore, making it difficult for you to connect with others around you. My food addictions always came along when I am happy or miserable and sometimes bored to death. Then when we get to the time in our lives and we feel like we can never lose the weight because we are so fat, we think what the heck let’s just eat anything and any amount we want, We know honestly that is NOT the answer. “People who are hungry for more real moments often us addiction to get a temporary hit of happiness” But because the feeling of happiness that that we get from our food addiction is only temporary and then it becomes a vicious circle of always eating the wrong things and overeating. So the happiness is only temporary, you can’t feel good without the bad behavior of abusing food. This is how you get hooked into you addictive behavior of using food for comfort. Addictions are so socially acceptable in America that, often people don’t even realize that they have one, especially when it comes to eating food. Food is NOT something that we can simply say I am never going to eat again. If it is an alcohol addiction then you can say—I am never going to drink alcohol again. Food is something that we are going to have to deal with for the rest of our lives. For me I had to make a lifestyle change. It is like going back to school. I had to start reading labels, planning my meal and using a journal and keep track of everything I put in my body. If I didn’t have “bad” foods in my home that would tempt me to eat them—then they would not be a problem. I learned to make healthy choice including snack and what I craved. If it was something sweet like a desert I learned how to make some healthy ones. It take a lot of effort and a immense amount of time, to plan my meals, shop for my food, and read labels and keep track of what I was eating. I know it takes a lot of time to keep a journal, but it will really be helpful to you. I use this site: http://www.livestrong.com/myplate/ . I know there are other sites that people use. Do what works for you when it comes to keeping track of your food. You also need to exercise. Having a food addiction is NOT an easy thing to deal with. Start asking yourself when you want something to eat—do I just WANT this food or do I NEED to eat this food. Most of the time it is you just “want” to eat the food. Find something else to do—like posting on this board and talking with other about their addiction. I wish you nothing but success, but I want you to know that this is something that we all will struggle with. I am here to help in any way I can. Hugs, Suzanne

What I read is that rapid weight loss puts a lot of strain on your liver, and alcohol strains it even further, so the combination is just not a great idea. There's also the fast inebriation effect you mentioned, and the possibility of a transfer addiction. I think all three factors combined is why so many surgeons advise against alcohol, at least for awhile. Personally, I've just never given a hoot about drinking, so the extra empty calories and carbs for something I don't miss aren't worth it. I'd much rather have a mini Reeses pb cup! To each her own.....

Hi Bchas, this journey is all about the mind/emotions. It is because we have not been able to cope with events or reactions to life that we have eaten the pain away. Your body will become healthy with the weight loss and your confidence will increase BUT you will still have the issues which caused this food addiction. Some people swap addictions and go from food to alcohol for instance so you really need to seek help in addressing the triggers for your eating patterns. Your parents sound wonderful. It can be scary facing your issues but it can also be surprisingly easy to let go whe you face your demons. Eating became an overwhelming focus in my life, I still obsess that I am eating too much, it takes up time that could be spent living your life. Deal with it now honey, you have a wonderful future ahead of you.

I think that a more specific question would have elicited more responses. There's nothing I could say everyone hasn't heard many times already. I exercised like a madwoman and ate no carbs for a year basically. It was hard, but not THAT hard. I did drink alcohol, steal french fries from my children's plates and eat dessert in moderation and have a skim latte or two every day. My top three tips would be to lift weights in addition to doing cardio, eat lots of fish, and to banish bagels and muffins forever. Good luck! There are many many satisfied vets out there. There are also only so many "any suggestions for mushies" questions you can answer!

Your best bet is to call and ask your doctor. Most say no alcohol for a certain period (for one thing it can impair healing)...so follow your doc's advice, like ckelly says! :Dancing_sorry:

I eat those mints by the handful. They're sugar free and I can't imagine they could hurt you, except for the fact that they contain sugar alcohols, Sorbitol, etc. which are powerful laxatives in sufficient quantity, but for many of us, I doubt that's a problem :>).

Average rate of loss is 10% of your total body weight at the six month mark. Most of you are on target. I have had moments of struggling too since being banded. It was in my case completely due to my own poor choices. Are you drinking alcohol? Tracking what you eat? Cutting out refined foods? Exercising? If you can't honestly answer the above questions as they ought to be answered, then you have some work to do still. There ARE, however, people for whom the band is not effective. Everyone who feels discouraged by lack of loss needs to be talking to their surgeon.

Im 9 weekd post op and I tried a small sip of wine and i had a burning sensation on my stomach almost instantly. Has this happened to anyone? And do you know what that feeling is? Sent from my VS995 using BariatricPal mobile app

Thanks so much for this, TMF -- I'm going to hunt down the other seven and watch those as well. Nice to be up on everything that's out there research-wise. KBell, I just had my post-up follow-up meeting with the nutritionist and I asked her the very thing you have inquired about above. I was originally given the 30 minutes before and after rule -- it's in all my hand-outs and was emphasized by the surgeon. Today I asked about alcohol and going out -- saying that I assumed I would finish a glass of wine and let the other person have their appetizer then make sure thirty minutes had elapsed, etc., etc. She said not to worry about it, that it's the no liquids 30 minutes after that matters. Now this Austrailian doctor -- a leading LB surgeon -- is dispelling that science entirely. I guess it's up to me to figure out what works for my body. Moderation is definitely the goal. And I'm looking forward to my first Margarita one of these days, that's for sure! Best wishes to you.....

I am 3 weeks out from surgery today. I have gained and lost the same five pounds the last two weeks. I am the type of person that needs to see results. Not seeing them was getting really discouraging. I read about the plateau and that it can last anywhere between a week to over a month. That was slightly reassuring to find out it was normal but I caught myself last night stressing that I did the surgery for nothing and slipped into a state of self pity until I fell asleep. Thankfully, I got up this morning and I am down 2 pounds from my lowest weight. I am hoping that is the end of the plateaus for a while. It pisses me off that I still l crave all the garbage that got me where I am. I have pretty much been on a soft diet. The only foods I am supposed to avoid right now are steak, pork, white flour products, soda, alcohol, nuts, seeds, raw veggies and processed foods. I have around 800-1000 calories a day and a ton of non calorie, non carbonated drinks. I'll be cleared for a normal diet on Aug 21. I am getting in my fluids without any problem. Part of me felt like there was something wrong with me because I have been able to drink without issue since about post op day 5. I've read many posts where people can barely get down 2 oz of water at a time and here I am able to guzzle a 20 oz bottle without any issues except maybe some gas pain til I burp. I am tall and I have read that taller people have longer sleeves and it can make drinking much easier. My doc doesn't seemed concerned about it...it's just crazy how different people's bodies react to the surgery. I am not sure exactly what I expected to happen, but I am still dealing with head hunger and having to push old ways of thinking out of my head. I'ts hard and I guess I thought I had a pretty good handle on it even prior to surgery. I spent a year pre-op going to diet classes and researching the net to prepare for surgery. I must have been so busy preparing myself that I forgot to deal with my actual relationship with food. I know it will take some time and it will finally become second nature. But I would be lying if I said this isn't the hardest thing I have ever done for myself. The good news is reaping the benefits makes it all worth it.