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They've been pulled from the market in a few countries, they can get "stuck" or move around, and like the lap band the procedure is not permanent and will result in a higher rate of regain than a permanent procedure like the sleeve or bypass. Read here, it's been linked to 18 deaths: https://www.medtechdive.com/news/fda-18-deaths-linked-to-apollo-endosurgery-intragastric-balloon-weight-loss-treatment/576874/ It's a new device and I would be wary of it. There are already a lot of red flags that it is ineffective and potentially dangerous.

How are you doing on pre op diet...im drinking the protein drinks as instructed and I gained 2pds I pray this does not effect my surgery I've lost weight all along the way been doing keto so I'm not sure if I stalled...anyone have this issue also

Like others, it depends on how you define "stall". Every month from the start I went 10 days to a couple of weeks without weight loss and then a big drop. I'm still doing that. I don't see it as a stall. My body is just adjusting. For example, if I drank a lot more water the day before or I had more pickles (salt aka water retention). I love tracking my food too so as long as my calories were low, I know it is just a matter of time. Even people who are bed ridden need over 1000 calories just to survive. For me, I think I would be far more anxious if I didn't track calories though. Seeing low calories day in and day out gives me comfort so I don't have to worry. It's very calming. Excessive worrying just causes cortisol spikes and weight gain. Sent from my SM-S908U using BariatricPal mobile app

Something to watch is while you usually have perfect cholesterol, you may find that changes while you’re losing. Like oestrogen being released into your body from your fat as you lose weight the same is true of cholesterol. My cholesterol wasn’t perfect but it wasn’t bad just over the high side of normal but it seemed to always be about that regardless if what I weighed so my doctor was okay with it. When I was losing it went up & up & up & my liver function went weird too (also common). So while the keto high fat diet may be something you consider in maintenance, the high fat aspect may be too much while you are losing. My dietician advised keto was fine in the short term & good for kick starting weight loss but it wasn’t really sustainable. (My pre surgery diet was keto.) I did some of my own reading & decided I agreed. Do I eat fat? Yes. Do I eat high fat? No. I get a lot from animal products (meat, dairy) but I don’t add a lot more (been using the same 500g pack of butter for 8 months). Some salad dressing, a little oil if cooking. But then I’ve never enjoyed fattier foods anyway. I look at it as generally a little of everything in moderation & balance. But you have to discover what works best for you in the long term.

I just broke my stall today, started at 3 weeks post op. It lasted for 14 days, gained and lost the same 2 lbs the entire time. My dietitian said its because of my transition from liquid to soft food and now that I'm a month in today I have no food restrictions. She wants me at 900 cal a day and 60/75 g protein. No limit on carbs. With my stomach restriction I dont see how in the world I'll be able to do that. She said once I start eating more my weight will start to go down again! We've always been taught less is more. Not sure why or how more is going to work but we'll see. Lol

I had to take a test online that took at least an hour. It asked some of the same questions in different ways. It's been so many years that I forgot what was on it, but I'm pretty sure none of the questions had anything to do with food. It might have been the MMPI or some version of it - to gauge if you have any mental health issues. afterward I talked to the clinic's psychologist for about 30 minutes. We talked about my history of eating and weight, what my expectations were of the surgery, etc. It all went fine.

My dietician classifies a stall as over two weeks with no movement and no inches lost, of which I have had two since surgery. I'm now in day 5 of no weight loss so I will see if this ends up being a stall. The reason I am so concerned is the amount of pain I am in daily due to health issues that cropped up since surgery and weight loss is probably the only way to help out the situation. (without taking a bunch of pills) Kind of hard to wake up in pain and go to sleep in pain.

Exactly. I classified a stall a STALL if i didn’t lose (nor gain) any weight AND did not lose any inches for 2 consecutive weeks. Based on that definition, I had no stalls. Like another poster mentioned above, i weighed daily, and if i zoom out on that data on a graph, it was pretty much a steady downhill slope. Zooming in would show alot more little peaks and valleys. I’d screenshot and show u, but my MFP mobile app doesn’t let me set custom dates, lol)

thanks for the encouragement. My post op weight loss experience was too easy. The weight fell off and I had no interest in food for around a year. My plan to get back on track is to cut out the last things I reintroduced. I fully expect it to be much more difficult this time from the physical aspect but I dont have the same mental attachment to food that I did so the mental side should be easy.

So today I was walking down the hallway at work and I realized I could see my legs... silly but pre-surgery I had a Buddha belly, almost pregnantish. I could only see belly if I looked down. It was a treat to see something else. Another victory is my 16 year old seems to be warming up to me being around her in public, like at her band events and such. Not 100% if that weight related or her maturing or a combo but a good feeling. Nice not to embarrass the kiddos.

While tracking certainly helps and appeals to those of this mindset, there is another side-benefit to tracking: data collection and discovery of trends. I am one of those regular food trackers and daily body weighers and all-around spreadsheet lover (almost 4 years now and still going). By looking over the historical data i can easily figure out what foods/days/activities (or lack thereof) /macro combinations/eating schedules/etc work for or against whatever state i am looking to be in. You can see on your screen that these many calories don’t make a diff to your weight loss rate, or that those many carbs leads to stalls or swooshes. Or that these amounts of sugar make you eat less the next day. So much info! Lol I realize this may seem like a lot of effort to some, but (1) i like doing it, and (2) honestly takes less of my actual time than i spend on this forum, lol. I get that seeing black and white numbers may scare you cuz u are “getting to close” for comfort to your already accepted max goals, but maybe its better to be aware of facts than to live in angst of the unknown? Kinda like when we (or at least *i*) would not get on the scale in my pre-op days cuz I didn’t want to freak out over the number i would inevitably see. Then next thing u know, oopsies i gained 25 lbs. But yes, i get it, easier said than done. Hopefully your continued work with your new therapist will help you trust yourself and your abilities to peacefully face whatever comes your way, regardless if they meet your expectations or not. Goof Luck! ❤️

Hey all. Just wanted to post a 1 week update. I have dropped 12.6 lbs since surgery last Thursday. And when I include my pre-op weight loss, I'm down 40 lbs total. I am definitely happy with my progress and anxious to see where this goes in the coming weeks. My 3XL shirts are fitting much looser and I'll need to see where we put the 2XLs this weekend. I'm tracking my food, protein and water in my MFP app. It looks like I'm only consuming 450-500 calories a day. I am not doing a good job of tracking my water yet, but I'm trying to get with the program. I think I'm getting 6 cups (3 bottles) or 50 oz per day, so I need to remember to do better at some point. Today I moved on from clear liquid to full liquid, but I haven't done anything too different as of yet. I am putting a full day of work (from home office), so I didn't have much time to prepare anything different at lunch. Maybe I'll get a little more creative this evening. I did have one of those chocolate Fairlife protein shakes for my breakfast. Those taste really good, so I I savored it. I will go back to my BodyTech 24 protein powder and water when I work from home and save the premade protein drinks when I'm on the go. Overall, I think I'm on track with this thing. No regrets. Heading out for a walk now. Go July Peeps!

My psych consult was actually very comforting. I see a therapist of my own… but the hospital program required one visit with theirs. She was very nice, conversational and requested to meet with me again - to touch base and make sure I was comfortable in the program and was having all my questions answered and needs met. I had previously gone through another program and withdrew because I didn’t feel it was a good fit for me… she wanted to make sure any issue I had were being addressed. Thankfully I had none - it’s been a positive experience. We mostly chatted about why I wanted the surgery, my expectations, prior challenges with weight loss and any concerns I had about the surgery. We also talked about my support system at home and challenges I anticipated (and how I planned to handle them). She also reiterated the program resources and made sure I was aware of where to find information.

So it seems like my weight is stalling since a few years out from post OP (got gastric bypass in 2018), I was having issues with swelling and inflammation mainly in the lower half of my body and some of my upper arms, only to get an appointment with a lipedema specialist to find out if I have lipedema. Long story short, I have stage 3 lipedema. So the doctor (Dr.Amron) told me that lipedema is hard to treat, it's a misunderstood condition and not all of the treatments are covered. So I will probably have to pay out of pocket even though my compression garments and compression pump might be covered by insurance. I'm glad I got to the bottom of it, I've been suffering since I was 13 with this problem. I'm glad it's getting close to getting taken care. I have a question though, anybody else that has had lipedema treatment did it help and how did it benefit you?

I felt like I had a few minor stalls, but looking back at my charts it was really a pretty steady decline. I weighed myself every day & only added it to my tracker if it went down. A few Lbs up or down is not usually weight gain, its usually just normal fluctuations based on the time of day, fluids, etc. I would keep tracking, focus on whole foods & add walking to your routine- that always helped me.

I would also monitor how many calories you are eating. It’s important to track your macros, but ultimately weight loss depends on how large your calorie deficit is. It’s easy to meet your protein, etc goals and be eating too many calories for sustained weight loss.

i am at 3 months post op and i am in a stall. I actually gained a pound. its annoying but it happens and will happen again

I'm curious about stalls. My weight loss has stalled many times in the 3 months since surgery. I'm curious as to how many stalls everyone had in the first six months post-op?

When I was going through this early post op phase, there was a group on one of these forums from a particular surgeon who did very well with combining the sleeve with extreme dieting, and he got overall very good results with even very high BMI patients (lost track as they all disappeared, so have no idea how they are doing now, however!) There was one guy on there who was very similar to my stats who was following this program and got to his goal weight at a bit over four months. Wow, but so what? I was working on slowing things down at six months to ease into maintenance, and wasn't doing any of that extreme dieting. I wonder now how well that guy is doing - did he learn how to maintain his weight over the long term, or was he one of those who "gained it all back"? It really isn't a matter of whether you can do better, or lose faster, but can you meet your goals, and maintain yourself in the long term? This is a marathon, not a sprint. so what happens to you over the next 5, 10 and 20 years is a lot more important than how you lose over the first 4, 6 or 12 months.vsg Overall, the bypass has very similar performance to the VSG in overall weight loss and rate, so there isn't much to choose there - one might lose a bit quicker with the bypass owing to its' malabsorptive component, but that dissipates after a year or two and you are metabolically in the same basic place that you would be with a sleeve, but you still have the added nutritional deficiencies to make up for. Have there been some challenges in maintaining my weight over time? Yes, much the same as there would have been had I gotten a bypass (my second choice was the DS, which does make weight maintenance easier as it is metabolically a stronger procedure, but I felt that it would have been overkill for my needs then, and still do.) We see just as many come through here who struggle with being "slow losers" or "gained it all back" with the VSG as with the RNY. With the VSG, I do have a bit of GERD, which is easily controlled with low level OTC meds (some are not so lucky, others are more so and have no problems.) OTH, I do not miss having any of the comparable RNY potential side effects - dumping, reactive hypoglycemia, marginal ulcers, bile reflux (pretty rare these days with how they structure RNYs) low iron requiring periodic iron infusions, osteoporosis (already have a family tendency towards that, so don't need more risk added,) or the other limitations in medication and medical treatment options as I get (even) older that come along with a bypass. These are not insurmountable problems if one needs to go with a bypass owing to preexisting conditions, but are things that I don't think are worth risking for whatever very small difference there might be in weight loss performance. I don't miss that at all. YMMV

I just mean water weight, some people retain a lot of water weight. You can build recipes in the my fitness pal app too. Exactly how you make them and then you know exactly what you are eating. If you are not hitting protein and eating such low calories your body may be in starvation mode too. Try to focus on getting that protein in, it is important for lots of reasons.

Hi 👋 You’re right. I did list everything for the first few weeks - and I was at the 500 calories mark. Now that I can eat more solid food I’m making family meals and eating just small amounts. If I scramble an egg for myself then I can count that no problem, but I’m not sure how to calculate a ladle of home-made stew, for example. I’m assuming I’m under the 700 because I don’t drink calories, I don’t eat anything off-diet like sugar. I certainly don’t hit my Protein mark by far though.  I am drinking a lot more. Is that what you mean by water weight?

You say "I must be under 700 calories" as if you don't know for sure?? I would highly recommending tracking your intake. People are usually surprised at how many calories they are actually eating when they are tracking it. Then you will know for sure what your calories are, if they are that low and you continue to gain reach out to your team. It may be water weight also, which will pass.

Hey guys, I lost 14kg (30 lbs) in the first month and the pre-op diet combined. Average I think. But in the last 2 weeks I’ve put on 5 lbs!! I’m wondering if more movement could do it. It’s only in the last few weeks that I’ve been able to move around much. I really suffered after the surgery and had no energy. Anyone else put on weight? I’m frankly mortified. I must be under 700 calories per day easily.

Nice! Isn’t it amazing how much easier it is to get up the stairs without hauling all that extra weight? I lost 200 pounds, and it’s mind-blowing to think that I was basically walking around with a 200-pound person on my back everywhere I went.

Does anyone have any input for me regarding the cost for gastric bypass surgery at the OCC in Tijuana? I’ve been thinking about weight loss surgery off and on for a couple of years now, and more recently have been considering OCC.