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so i just "ate" for first time since surgery (my plan is 2 week clear liquid, 2 week yogurt/cottage cheese, 2 week soft/puree, then regular) I had a quarter cup of yogurt and i can feel my tummy gurgling lol its like it is cutting flips in there

I can see how this can be alarming. I'm trying to remember all this as I go through the process. I still have the worries in my head that this won't work and I'll be one of the people who don't find success... my body so darned and determined to hover around 290 pounds for life. Logic is what you're all talking about with stalls, calories, water retention - but the mind can be so tricky. ' ♥️

Hey! I got my surgery on October 6th and I'm doing fantastic. I'm here if you need any support or suggestions on things to eat or anything like that. I'm now on phase two where I can have cream low fat soups and a couple other things that I wasn't able to have last week. Let's help support each other on this journey Sent from my Pixel 6 using BariatricPal mobile app

I love this thread! LOVE LOVE LOVE IT! Everyone's story is the same but yet SO different. I have been obese my entire life, even a fat kid. I literally NEVER remember seeing "100 something" on the scale. I was 250+ lbs in middle school. I did some extreme **** as a teenager, starved, salad with fresh veggies and no dressing and water only.. the list goes on. My mother basically threatened to have me admitted because of my extreme obsession with trying to loose weight in an unhealthy manor. Gave up...again... got fatter. Young adult into future adult: Lost over 100 lbs multiple times but could NEVER keep it off! In high school is when WLS became known and my best friends dad was upwards of 800 lbs and he was the first person I knew to have it. I don't know what procedure he had, or if there was even options back then. Anyway, he had MAJOR complications and in about 2 years was wasted away to around 100 lbs and in a wheel chair. Almost died but pulled through and from there I don't know because I lost touch with this friend when she became a drug addict. Anytime anyone ever mentioned WLS that is all I could think about.. was him and how it just about killed him! Now grown adult: It came up a few times, by myself or other people and I always convinced myself I don't need surgery I KNOW HOW TO LOOSE WEIGHT! I know how to eat healthy. I know what to do, I have done it, too many times actually. Then 2 years ago, I broke my record breaking 400 lbs! I was depressed, hated myself, hated doing anything, hated seeing people I knew.. just hated everything really. Thru those 2 year till I made my decision I was actually trying to convince myself to have it and always talked myself out with the same reasoning... "I know how to do it and have done it.. so just DO IT AGAIN and stick with it".. we all know how that ends! About a year ago I was at my doctors office and during conversation he asked me if I had ever considered WLS. I told him everything I just told you. Plus, he has been my doctor for about 15 years, so he has seen it! My weight fluctuating from 250 to over 400 lbs... constant struggle. He explained his side of things to me, never once said things like "you need it" or anything else like that. Just provided information. I left that appointment and couldn't stop thinking about it. At this point in my life I knew a few other people who had WLS surgery, the problem now is that only 1 of them were successful! So then that gave me doubts, because that was really my only issue. Loosing the weight wasn't the problem, keeping it off was ALL the problem. But then, I started paying attention, to what they did, how they ate and I realized it is because they don't try. I suddenly convinced myself! (KINDA) I researched WL surgeons in my area, found an amazing team and called them up. They said I just need to verify my insurance will cover WLS and that they will cover it at their hospital. They did, I had my first appointment. i still wasn't sure, but I decided "what do I have to loose to just do the classes" so I did... honestly most of it I already knew. But i did learn a lot more about the "surgery" itself and life after surgery. But, what actually "convinced me" is health. My family history is the worse! Literally. Everything. My mom has EVERYTHING, half or more of my family is diabetic. High blood pressure, heart problems, liver problems...EVERYTHING! Even cancer runs ramped in my family. I was 400 lbs and had MINOR high blood pressure and GERD (which may or may not have been weight related) and that was it. No other problems, but I kept imagining waking up one day and BOOM! Diabetes.... or heart attack... My mother was 55 and looked 70 and in the worse health you could imagine. On more pills than I could count... I just always saw that being my future and HAD to STOP IT. Or, at least do what I COULD to try to stop it! So.. I did it.. ashamed... and told VERY few people... (like 5 people) I think for me I didn't want people to know I had WLS and then fail at it.. then everyone knows... etc. NO REGRETS! BEST DECISION I EVER MADE FOR MYSELF! I WISH I WOULD HAVE DONE IT 15 YEARS AGO!!!! Within 3 months, off ALL meds GERD is gone... Blood pressure is actually TOO LOW at times! the NSV are off the charts, I can't even begin to list them all. Sorry for my crazy long post, but I was excited about this tread and wanted to throw out all of the details of my reasoning and thoughts!

Dinner. A cute little dinner roll with a slice of havarti and 3 anchovies (don’t judge me, it was YUM, lol) Ate it all: 238 calories.

I stayed completely off work for the week following surgery, then worked from home for the next week (plus Labor Day). Coming back to the office was both wonderful and challenging. Getting up and down from my desk chair was difficult, but as liveaboard15 mentioned, having a cane nearby was definitely helpful (we had a spare one from my husband's foot surgery).

This. I fit this pattern to a T. I am 14 months out. I'm working out hard, tracking calories, and have dropped into the 4-5 bs a month range. The fast loss is only at the very beginning for most people, and will slow down. You will have stalls and it will be frustrating unless you are someone very lucky. This is a long game, not a quick fix by any means.

nope - "normal" WLS patients do not lose that much that quickly. Maybe if they started off at 600 lbs, but otherwise, no. You might find some "normal" WLS patients ("normal" as in starting off in the 200s or 300s - and maybe low 400s) who lose 30+ lbs the first month, but even that's not common - and they certainly wouldn't keep up that pace after the first month. I've been hanging out on bariatric forums for the eight or so years, and just based on posts I've read (which have been thousands), I'd say most of us lose around 15-25 lbs the first month, then about 10 lbs (give or take) a month for a few months - then it drops to around 5 lbs - then 2 lbs......then eventually stops. as far as not losing any weight the last 1.5 weeks, you're in the infamous three-week stall that most of us experience. I just did a search on it here on bariatricpal for you just a second ago. Here are the 17,501 (and no, I am NOT kidding) posts on the three week stall for your reading pleasure: https://www.bariatricpal.com/search/?q=three week stall

Dunno why, but I just felt for oatmeal for breakfast this morning…which is weird because (1) I probably haven’t had oatmeal in probably 10+ years and (2) I don’t normally eat breakfast hahhaha Anyhoo, 260 calories for the bowl, ate roughly half. (Microwaved 1/3 cup steel cut oats with 1/2 cup water and 1/4 cup milk…topped with brown sugar, cinnamon, blueberries and pistachios) The after pic doesn’t look so great, sorry!

Agree with everything @kcuster83 said above. I love Crystal Light, but had to stay away the first few days after surgery. It was just too harsh immediately after surgery, but a week or two in it was totally fine. You may need to experiment. I wound up drinking a lot of warm bone broth, which was great because it has more protein than regular broth, felt nice in my tummy, and also counted for fluid. I also used to love all the Premier Protein shakes, and post op I hated everything except the Vanilla which was tolerable. The Caffe Latte is also delicious but I couldn't drink it for the first 6 months because of the caffeine. I switched to Unjury protein powders in soy milk. Yum.

I am 3 days post-op sleeve (also had my gallbladder removed and a hiatal hernia repaired) and I am getting random stomach spasms that last like 5 seconds. They make my whole abdomen tense and take my breath away for a few seconds. I am going to call the surgeon today but I'm curious if this is a typical pain after vsg? The spasms so far are the worst part of my healing experience.

5-15 lbs per WEEK?!? For the first few MONTHS?!? That is a bold (and borderline irresponsible) statement for a publication to make. If I lost 15 lbs per week i would’ve been NEGATIVE 5 lbs in 4 months. Dust Particles. Anti-matter? Does anti-matter have negative mass??…i digress… I didn’t even hit an average of 5lbs per week (for first 4 months), and from reading on here i was one of the faster losers. Pro tip: manage (lower?) ur expectations and revel in your accomplishments. It will save you alot of angst. P.S. Congrats on the 20lb loss! That is no small feat in a month.

15 lbs a week?!?!? NO WAY! Ask your surgeon about that, no way they would agree with loosing 15 lbs a week.

Well I had rny surgery and I read that it is norm to loose 5 to 15 lbs per week the first few months following surgery , so that is where my expectations came from . I am glad about losing 20 lbs but in the big scale of things was feeling discouraged since the 20 lbs was really only lost the first 2 and a half weeks then I have been stalled since not loosing anything in the last week and a half , basically since I started eating instead of drinking liquid only. Pre op diet start was 9/1 weight was 305 surgery date was 9/15 weight 294 and today 275. But again the 275 has been the same for 2 weeks now. I'm getting less then 1000 calories a day and walking a bit but not much as I have plantar fasciitis and am in pain . I fear that I won't loose the weight unless I go back to starving myself like I did the first 2 weeks after surgery. Sent from my SM-G991B using BariatricPal mobile app

Good morning! My surgery date is on the 21st and I’m trying to be prepared. I have all my Premiere Protein shakes. For water can we use crystal light? I also bought Premier protein bottles of water? Does anyone use collagen in their water? I take regularly now and it has protein so wonder if it’s an option to add PO. Thank you for any feedback it’s a week and I feel like everything is running through my head to be prepared. Any PO additional things you know of that maybe I’m just forgetting. Thank you! Good luck on your journey !

Things that happened that i did not already know or read about beforehand: 1) 1 month post: my period would come back (i hadn’t had it in 2 years…thought i was in menopause..i was wrong), and continue to come like clockwork every month…im 4 years post now, and its still as regular. 2) 1-2 months post: my armpit stink would disappear (I don’t even need to wear deodorant anymore) 3) i no longer needed my ADHD meds. I had to pause taking them after surgery as advised by doc, but discovered i didn’t need to get back on them. 4) 1-2 months post: super human bladder control. I used to pee 1-2 times an hour during waking hours and got up from bed 4-6 times a night. After 1-2 months i noticed i could sleep the entire night with no bathroom visits and can go for several hours without during day. 5) 2-3 months post: the endless amounts of energy. In would have thought i would be dead woman waking given the so few calories i was taking in, but it was just the opposite Thats all i can think of for now. Im sure there were plenty more but its been so long i forget, lol.

That awful pain is from the gas that was used to plump you up so the surgeon could see what they were doing in your abdomen. In my experience (I have had at least 7 surgeries with the gas) is that nothing helps. Some surgeons are better at getting all the gas out & some of us are more sensitive to the pain. The only thing that I have ever found helpful is Tens unit (Google that). Pain meds, muscle relaxers, heat, ice & gabapentin don’t help mine at all & mine lasts for 3 weeks. Good luck!

It’s from the carbon dioxide gas they use to inflate your abdomen during surgery. This gas escapes by rising & being absorbed into your blood before being breathed out. When it rises it usually ends up under your diaphragm & puts pressure on a phrenic nerve which causes the shoulder pain. It can take up to a week +/- to disappear. Walking, deep breathing, marching in the spot, lifting your arms up & down all help move the gas. A heating pad can help with the shoulder discomfort too.

20 lbs in four weeks is great. I lost 16 lbs the first month, and I started out well over 300 lbs. Unless you're the size of someone on "My 600 lb Life", a 20 lb lost during month one is pretty normal.

20lb in 1 month is amazing... Just keep at it. you will slow down in weight loss as you progress out. I am at 6 months and the previous month i only lost like 7lb and so far in two weeks i have lost 2lb... just keep working on it!

My doctor recommended it! I have a couple of chronic illnesses & I've been on doctor monitored diets two times. My doctor noticed I dealt with a lot of stalls & my PCOS was not letting me workout & lose weight like normal. I managed to lose 40lbs during that time but with all of that effort I should have lost double. My doctor referred me to the Bariatric program, did a 10 week class & decided it was for me! I'm 2 weeks post-op, I'm hoping its the solution to my PCOS & that I finally get to slim down like I want to

I'm 3 days post op. The only thing that hurts is the shoulders. I move around, I drink water, I try to get my protein, my stomach is sore but isn't unbearable. The thing that is unbearable is my shoulders. If it's not the right it's the left or is both. What are some things that helped this and when does it stop?? Sent from my SM-S906U using BariatricPal mobile app

You did the right thing! It didn't take me long to decide. My sister told about the surgery first week of January 2022, spoke to the doctor on Skype the week after and flew to Egypt and had it done end of the month. Best decision ever!

I'm 4 weeks post op tomorrow and starting to feel a little discouraged. I can't do the puree so I start eating real foods . Just small portions small bites and chew chew chew . Which is working great and I finally have energy again . The problem is I have only lost 20 lbs since my surgery and I feel like I should have lost more by now. I am not able to get in the protien I k ow I need so I'm worried I am failing. Sent from my SM-G991B using BariatricPal mobile app

Tonight’s dinner. Asparagus, some stuffing and 1/3 a smashed potato. I felt that the default MFP entries didn’t account for the butter and olive oil I used to cook so I logged them separately for good measure. Still not the caliber of “healthiness” i said i wanted to get to, but whatevs. Like i said, im lazy, arg. Ate all the asparagus and stuffing but just had one bite of the potatoes (the Kid ate the majority of it…she liked it better than i did, ha) 202 calories for what is shown.