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Hi all. When I was on round one journey this came From the dietician when I had my stall. The stalls are normal. A lot of you are getting active and building muscle. You’ll notice more in the measurements then the scales. Spoke with the Dr this morning and he said I can try soft soft diet. So I got off the phone and went straight for the scrambled eggs( haven’t been able to stomach them in the last 17 months) oh they were a delight and how I missed them.

I’m not sure how I am doing I started at 145kg Op day 31/5 I was 135kg Today 19/7 I am 121.6 kg I’m losing 1kg per week but just seems very slow especially when the first 3 months your suppose to lose the most.

Like the above poster stated little fluctuations are completely normal and they can be due to a number of factors (water weight, hormones, a full bowel, etc) . I am two weeks post op from a differnt procedure but I am assuming the post ip diet is quite similar and that happened to me as well. I attributed it to my body coming out of ketosis. The liquids on my diet were all zero sugar and the purée foods did contain some sugar which is a carb. It also could have been because I was constipated from the supplements and not getting any fiber from my diet yet. Either way I went a few days maintaining that gain and then dropped 4’pounds overnight. The advice above to weigh weekly is really good. Monthly would even be better but it’s really hard to do. I had the sleeve 3.5 years ago and what I did was to weight myself daily because I just had to but to record my weight once a week so that I could see a downward trend more easily when I looked back at the log.

Post Gastric Bypass RNY, I had something similar. Kind of a tight, sore thickness / heavy-feeling strip down my right abdomen. It took about a week for me to feel it. My care team also said it was basically healing pains, but also nerves & pain receptors coming back online after the 'physical trauma' of surgery. Definitely keep an eye on it to see if it changes or if you get other symptoms, but it's very likely to be your insides doing their job healing. (Honestly, if I overdo stretching/twisting even today at 12 weeks, I feel it in the same area -- just a lot better now)

Short update: I had my gastric sleeve procedure done in November 2019. I lost around 85 lbs and then stalled eventually regaining around 50 lbs back and a horrible case of GERD. I had never had symptoms of GERD before my surgery and about 3 months later, I had to begin taking omeprezole daily to deal with it. If I forget a dose I can tell by the afternoon. During the first year post surgery, I lost my husband (not unexpectedly but it DID happen 10 days post-op for me), moved across country from Florida to New Mexico, bought a new house and started a new job. My daughter is 1 year post-op and lost approx. 150 ibs on the DS. l just started the process to obtain a revisional surgery. Will be discussing the benefits of either the DS or ByPass. I had the upper GI completed which showed a small hiatal hernia with evidence of GERD. It also showed mild cricopharyngeal hypertrophy. Any suggestions regarding which of the 2 procedures would help with the GERD and to help lose the 130 lbs. that I still need to drop to get to my goal weight?

So today I hit a milestone I didn't expect so soon---I've officially lost 50% towards my goal weight!!! 😭 I've lost 76 lbs since my highest weight (320) and 63 lbs since surgery (307). I'm stunned honestly. I've had some stalls and my weight loss has been slower than some others but my doctors kept telling me to stay the course, that my weight loss was right on track. Well, now it seems I've caught up and am ahead of the game! It feels so unreal... Here's a pic of me pre-op and two from today!

I'm pretty sure I was told 2 weeks also, though I don't work full time so I was able to go back part time, and I was tired. I can understand not feeling up to it, though standard is 2 weeks. I think the significant piece here is that you have a few issues that are also affecting your recovery time, and it's unfortunate that you weren't able to feel heard about your specific situation. How are you feeling now?

I found a stock cube in water with some protein powder had a bit of a salty flavouring to it. I am more savoury than sweet for my taste buds so I know how you are feeling. The thing that got me through was knowing I was able to swallow very little of the liquids and it was only for a couple of weeks.

There's a very high likelihood your weight stall has nothing to do with what you are eating, and it would definitely not have anything to do with too much protein. This is your body's natural reaction to severe calorie restriction. In a nutshell, when you are on liquids only, you rapidly lose mostly water weight as your body burns stored glycogen for fuel. Once the glycogen runs low, your body turns to burning fat, which is what you want it to do. This takes a few weeks. However, when you start to introduce solid foods again, and especially carbs, your body is very keen to restore those glycogen stores. So it burns fat while also replenishing glycogen. Glycogen is bound to water, which means the water weight you lost in the pre-op diet and right after surgery are regained, which is fine. You need glycogen. It's what helps us get through short periods of lower food intake, like when you have a bad cold and lose your appetite for a week. Your body is still burning fat because you have a major daily calorie deficit. It will show up on the scales in a few weeks when everything else balances out. My advice is to just do what your doctors tell you, stop tinkering with your diet, and don't weigh yourself for a few weeks. Your doctors have advised hundreds if not thousands of patients just like you. They know what they're doing.

Thanks everyone it has helped. I am having mine done privately in the UK in 2 weeks. Really excited but just trying to get my head around what I should and shouldn’t do. yes they have said I can eat up to 850cal but maximum of 80g carbs each day. good point about having liquid before and then straight into the liquid diet, might eat more food whilst I can 😆

I thought about that. I just worry I'll start looking too skinny an sickly. That happens if my weight goes too low. Maybe I'll go 2 weeks and then weigh and see what it looks like.

Nope you didn't ruin anything. Your journey will be all ups and downs and it is really best to get used to it. Throw in lots of stalls and you will be worrying like crazy if you don't believe your teams advice. You should be in a calorie deficit. Once you are on real whole foods as against puree your restriction will kick in big time. Then you will be on reduced calories again because you just can not eat much. You could have gained three pounds because of a few reasons. Have you been eating salty foods, Having a really stressful time, Have a full bowel or is it just the time of the month.

Week 11 tomorrow, and I definitely notice more shedding now -- and all of a sudden, the ends of my hair seem to be getting drier and more brittle. I guess it's 'begun' 🙈

Tonight I went to the required education session that my NHS Trust has as a non-negotiable requirement of being accepted for surgery. I will be honest and say I was left feeling completely underwhelmed with it. There was about 16 of us, all pre-op but at different stages of the required tests etc plus some family members (hubby went with me) There was also a Bariatric nurse, a dietitian and a former patient who had had the bypass in 2022. She explained her journey but it seemed very…I don’t know, sterile? Wrong word I know but I don’t know how else to explain her approach. She’s obviously happy with how it all turned out for her but it all seemed very whitewashed, which I found odd. She only mentioned one case of dumping syndrome but everything else was a walk in the park, which had me internally questioning things. She said she was currently in a months long stall but again, everything was hunky-dory. Someone asked about a typical days eating and it seemed really carb-heavy - toast for breakfast, sandwich for lunch, cheese and crackers for a snack, sausage and chips or mash for dinner etc etc. I asked about what additional protein she had - didn’t/couldn’t answer, asked about exercise - some walking and that’s about it. She mentioned hair loss being an issue but that it all grew back and was great. I know I’m being picky but I honestly wanted a more rounded discussion about of lots of different challenges that we could face with WLS and living the life post-op. I’d say out of the group that was there, maybe 5 had done any wider reading or research. I did find out that the hospitals approach to caffeine post-op is you can have a couple of cups of tea/coffee a day but they would rather patients filled up on foods/drinks that added protein, especially at the beginning. I also found out about the vitamins they give you and that they put the timings on the boxes to aid patients with timings etc, which was useful. Something that was bothering me was if my BMI dipped below 40, would I still be considered for surgery as I don’t have any co-morbidities like diabetes, heart issues etc. I need to get it below 40 before I will be considered for knee surgery, and I’m hoping that will happen end of Oct/beginning of Nov all being well. I was reassured about that, saying that they go off the booking weight reported by the GP when referred initially 🙂 I will be completely honest and say that, apart from some very specific questions I had of my hospital, I actually find this forum of much more use and beneficial to me personally. I have found out so much information from people who are further along in their own WLS journey, plus I know I’ve felt really supported by lots of very lovely and helpful users. There is such a wealth of experience on here that I know that if I have a question, someone will be along to answer it! Roll on the dietitian appointment next week 🤞

Thank you so much for all these suggestions! Yes I feel hungry sometimes after 30-60mins of a meal. So I drink water or protein shake. I do take PPI, that could be a possibility of why I still feel hungry. Most of the time it’s my head hunger craving for certain food. Also my tummy does rumble but don’t really feel hungry. I’ve been able to tell what type of hunger I am feeling. when I drink liquid, I literally sit there and drink with small sips through out the hours….when my tummy feel full from it, I come back to it later. I can feel the liquid traveling down when I drink. Yesterday was my first day being able to reach 60oz of liquid, but at night I didn’t feel well. Had my dinner at 6pm, went to sleep 11pm. I woke up feeling something up my chest and when trying to get up, I vomited. Sorry if TMI. It’s was all slimy mucus. No food. I was shivering, chills, migraine. I vomited a few times then vomited foamy bubbles… well after that I felt so much better. In search to see what is going on with me, it seems many bariatric patients go through this, but usually right after eating if they didn’t chew well or had too much food. I have tofu last night tho. It’s soft and should be easy to break down. On the bright side, It seems I am breaking my stall. From 241.6, I am now 240.6 lbs. even it’s only a little bit I am happy, because I am on this stall since 2 weeks ago, only 1 week after surgery.

I’m considering a balloon and want to see how others have faired. Mostly interested in the middle bit since it seems like most people get better but some still struggle with nausea etc. and nausea is the worst. And I’m a toddler teacher which is impossible to do when you’re not feeling 100% Nw I’ve got two girls. How many weeks/days until folks started to really feel like themselves again. Thanks!

While I have always been an avid exerciser (think everything from running, cycling, weight lifting, marital arts, HIIT, hiking ...etc.) I have always taken up a supplementary form of exercise that is fun and that I looked forward to. A few years ago I played tennis twice a week, then hiking, then taekwondo (reached the blue belt then had a very bad ankle injury that cause a lot of my weight gain), now I do Pilates twice a week in addition to my gym routine and these two sessions are the highlight of my week. Once you find something you enjoy be it tennis, padel, hiking, cycling, swimming or even walking it will be easier to build on that routine and do the things you don't so much enjoy (like weight lifting for example). It is also always good if you have a group you can exercise with (or play certain sports with) or a gym buddy. I also made sure to build a gym studio in my new house and that has been wonderous, I wake up early and workout and don't need to worry about the commute or how to shower and do my hair before work, so a set of dumbbells and a bench at your home can do wonders (if you have that option). I was always asked by friends and family why I am so adamant and a freak about my exercise regimen and if I get bored or sick of it, and my answer is I do it more for my mental wellbeing than for my physical appearance. Nothing comes close to that post workout feeling, it is literal therapy to me. I love to challenge myself and I love to work hard and feel like I've earned it, and I feel sluggish and not great on days I don't workout. Once you commit to a sort of movement daily, it will become a healthy addiction and the feeling that that brings is euphoric, if I say so myself. Just make sure you start easy and build on that.

Your feelings are valid @Nan CC, surgery is stressful and the idea that we have done so much for so little loss in the beginning is discouraging and depressing!! I have some thoughts to share about your experiences... 1. That hunger you are experiencing is normal. It doesn't go away for everyone. I woke up in the recovery room ravenous which pissed me off because all they kept saying is I wouldn't be hungry! And I ended up more hungry than I'd been in years!! The first two months I was hungry all the time. True hunger. I think it is because the body is panicking and trying to figure out what is going on. Plus we've been lied to, that growling sound is often not hunger, but just our system digesting and moving air and fluid through our system. After surgery our internal digestive process sounds louder to us for some reason. Maybe because we are paying more attention?? I don't know. But I had true hunger constantly. One thing that will help this is a PPI (proton pump inhibitor). Our tiny tummies are still making enough acid for a normal tummy and that can irritate it as it heals. That gnawing hunger can often come from this and gets worse at night... 2. No, you aren't supposed to automatically feel full with 1/4 cup of food. A lot do, but not all by any means. The reason for this primarily is because all the nerves that communicate fullness to us were cut during surgery. It takes at least 3 full months for those to heal enough to accurately communicate again. The 1/4 cup portion size is to keep you from inadvertently overeating and stressing your healing stomach. At about 8-10 weeks you may notice you can eat more, that's because the internal swelling has gone down. By then you should be able to start gauging your fullness signals. They are often different post op and can look like sneezing, a congested or runny nose, hiccups, pressure in your breastbone, nausea, etc... By 3-4 months out you may be eating more like 1/3 to 1/2 cup of food at a time. Not everyone progresses that way, some have high restriction all the time and have to stick to smaller portions. But the key here is to start building that relationship of listening with your body and learning that the feeling of hunger does not mean you are starving. If you are eating 1/4 cup of food 5-6 times a day, you are getting enough nutrients for your stage in the process. As @AmberFLmentioned, I suggested Millie's sipping broths (you can get a sample pack of all the flavors on Amazon) they help a LOT when you want something, the warmth and savoriness can really soothe the extreme hunger until it balances out on its own. 3. Stalls are normal and can happen early and often. I lost about 15 lbs in the first 3 weeks and then proceeded to stall for 6 weeks and gain and lose the same 4 lbs!! I was horrified and really worried my surgery wasn't going to work. I lose weight VERY slowly, my body is resistant to losing, and I have diabetes and such like you, which I think makes losing hard too. This stall was normal, even though it didn't feel normal. DS patients are known for losing dramatic amounts of weight and my surgery weight was 307, there was no good reason for the stall. But my body needed to take a break and recalibrate and heal, so it did. Finally after those 6 weeks I SLOWLY started losing again. Then at the beginning of February the weight loss finally started to pick up! A lot of people lose a ton at the beginning, I didn't. Apparently my body needed 3 months before it felt safe to start dropping weight steadily... All you can do is get good movement, good sleep (sleep is crucial to weight loss), good hydration, eat every few hours, and stay off the scale for a bit...it will break when it is ready to. 4. Hunger does eventually return to normal, or whatever is normal for you... I'm almost 4 months out and mine is back to what is normal for me. I still have to eat every 3 hours, if I don't I feel drained and irritable and my weight loss slows... I drink plenty of fluids during the day, it helped with the hunger. I feel my fullness signals clearly now, I think all that healing is finally done. I just have to eat slow enough to allow those signals to get to my brain (it takes longer than you think!). Broths, milk, coffee, tea, flavored waters, all these will ease hunger pangs, but the best cure is time and learning to heal your relationship with your hunger so you can feel it and not feel stressed about it. The great thing about eating every 3 hours is the next meal is around the corner, so I can drink something and tell my system to wait until mealtime. This helps heal the insulin resistance too by allowing your body to go through the full insulin response cycle post meal. I'm sorry this feels so hard. I hope your stall breaks soon! And I hope it helps to know you are not alone. ❤️

Welcome back. Do not worry about jumping in. This is open to anyone. I’m sorry to hear about your COVID and hope it doesn’t derail your surgery BUT being a week post op I can tell you that coughing does hurt quite a bit so if they make you wait that could be why and you may not realize that they are doing you a favor. I hope it all works out one way or another.

Made refrigerator pickles, dried strawberries, dehydrated bbq zucchini chips, split pea soup, and pikliz (a Haitian pickled slaw) this week. But since I didn’t have lime juice or habanero peppers I used lemon juice and sriracha instead. It’s pretty tasty and I can’t wait to have more with fish stew on Friday. (I’m currently reading a book by a Haitian author and the way she mentions fish stew made my mouth water!) Only ate half the dinner roll but all the soup and half the pikliz.

I had surgery on December 4. I rapidly lost about 13 pounds. Since my appointment on the 19th I’ve only lost an additional 4 pounds. I’ve been drinking more water add I’m still on soft foods. Is this normal or not? I’ve also been utilizing my treadmill and weights three times a week.

Today marks 1 month since my surgery. Little back history for me, my start weight in March during diet for surgery: 280#. My surgery day: 269#. Today, I'm at 256#. I started and am currently still at at class 3 obesity. Posting before and after pictures. I read and hear so many positive stories on how others lost 30+ pounds their first month. I should be happy with the fact I am losing weight but super slowly. I'm considered a "slow loser" apparently. I'm down 13 pounds in 1 month. I go 5-6 days plateaued same weight before I drop another pound. It's quite annoying. I've been drinking/drinking protein shakes, yogurt, cottage cheese and when I'm not working, I drink between 64-96 oz of water. When I'm working (I work as a warehouse worker and does get to heavy lifting at times), I can hardly down 16 oz of water. When I work, I get excited thinking, "I'm burning so many calories, I'm bound to finally lose that pound!" Just to be disappointed. I weigh daily, I have a separate nutritionist outside of the place I got my surgery as the nutritionist there hasn't helped much, doesn't respond or pay much attention when I try talking to them. So, I found a different one. I tried not weighing in each day, went a week, only to still be disappointed with the same weight. I do occasionally lick unhealthy items or chew and spit out just to get some flavor again. It's not often. Something different about me is I have a lot of muscle naturally. I also have PCOS. I've read PCOS can stall weight loss. I do for sure see changes in my stomach, not so much in my face or my arms...but why can't I be happy about this? Is this like a depression thing others have gone through? I'd love some others opinions, stories, how you're feeling right now.

My surgery is in two days so I'm thinking WAY down the road but I'm curious - does anybody use a healthy meal delivery service like Hello Fresh, Hungryroot, etc? I'm a single mom of two with a demanding job and I wonder if it might make sense to use a service like this (eventually) to take the pressure off meal prep once or twice a week. In your opinion, are any of these services bariatric-friendly, specifically the keto plans?

Happy Monday!!! Just walked 4 miles total to our local lake and back and then work on my arms with light weights and resistance bands. I have my 6 week post op appt for my hysterectomy today and then I finally get to go back to work tomorrow!!! So excited. I've been bored out of my mind being home the last 6 weeks lol I can speak to the blood pressure getting a lot lower the more weight we lose. I use to be on blood pressure meds that kind of controlled it, and now my average bp is 105/60 lol So crazy.

Did they not put you back on the schedule at all? I would’ve figured they would give you an appointment but then call you if they had a sooner one due to a cancellation. Also, At this point you have been on that diet for 6 weeks, right? I would call and make sure that it’s okay with your doctor that you continue on with that same diet. Some of these diets are only designed to be short term.