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I went shoe shopping for dress shoes today... first time in a LOOOOOONG time I've thought of having anything but sneakers on my feet. I got 3 pair! And not only are they nice looking I went from a size 10 wide to a size 9 1/2 regular! And did I mention they felt nice? So excited to be able to wear nice clothes to work and match with nice shoes.

I was not allowed anything to eat or drink on my surgery day. They had some lemon swabs I could use to moisten my mouth, but that was it. The 2 days after surgery were clear liquids only. Starting day 3 until day 23 I could have "full liquids" like protein shakes.

I was discharged on Thursday morning; RNY was Tuesday morning. Thursday (post op day 2): 1 fl oz clear liquid every 15 minutes Friday-Sunday (post op days 3, 4, 5): (3) portions of 2oz full liquids per day + 64 oz water daily My full liquids have been: Fairlife Chocolate Protein Shake + Isopure powder SF Vanilla Pudding made with Fairlife Vanilla Protein Shake + Isopure powder Oikos Pro Greek Yogurt thinned with Fairlife Vanilla Protein Shake + Isopure powder Since the 2 oz portions are so small and I'm only eating 3x daily, I haven't even made a dent in these. Hope this helps!

I hear you there! If I could provide one piece of advice it would be this: We have to start where we are. Forget about all the guidelines like "you must get x amount of cardio per day". While we all want and need to get to that level, some of us just can't do that right now. As long as this week I do a little more than last week, and next week I do a little more than this week, I'm trending in the right direction. I recently saw a video of a 700 pound man and his weight loss journey. For him, exercise was walking from one side of his very small kitchen to the other side. He literally started off with one "round trip". After a while, he made 50 round trips. Before long he was walking outside, which was a major milestone for him. Up to that point, he'd been house bound for years. Maybe for you, it's an extra trip or two up the stairs everyday, or walking to the end of the block and back. Whatever challenges you today, is where you start. Once you establish this, forget about "routines" and do this every day until it's no longer such a challenge. That's when you progress to the next challenge, either by extending the distance or intensity.

My RNY was on August 9th! So far (today is post-op day 4), recovery hasn't been easy, but also hasn't been difficult. I don't seem to have any complications yet. It's REALLY difficult to get your water in when you are back home and not connected to the hospital IV 24/7. Pain has been managed with the prescription they gave me to take home; I take it every 6 hours. I did 1 week of OptiFast (I got it from my doctor's office) and it was just shakes for a week. I lost 11 pounds. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. There is an August 2022 thread over in the gastric sleeve forum. I've seen both sleeve and bypass patients post there.

I am a little more than a year out from my gastric sleeve an initially lost around 75 lbs. I recently started back on my antidepressant and seem to crave carbs. I have put back on about 20 lbs and really need to get my snacking under control. In the past being on antidepressants was a major cause of my weight gain and I am trying to tame the carb monster since I started back on the meds. Any suggestions besides getting back to religiously tracking calories. I still work out about 4 days a week. I think focusing on my protein intake may help with the carb cravings but I thought I would see if others have any recommendations. Sent from my SM-G998U using BariatricPal mobile app

I am only 3 months out and Haven't stopped enjoying going to restaurants. I usually just share whatever my husband gets (with my input) since I can eat so little - but still very much enjoy the experience. I still get to eat food prepared by someone else! It is just as satisfying as eating at home, except in different surroundings and ambiance. Mind over matter!

This is good advice. What you're experiencing is something called adaptive thermogenesis in the scientific literature. In effect, your body adapts to your restricted intake by also reducing the amount of calories you burn. As much as we hate it, this is actually a evolutionary advantage. When our bodies detect "lean times", they adapt to make sure you survive long enough to make it to the next time of plenty. This was important over most of human history because we we didn't always know where the next meal would come from. To break out of this adaptation where you body is "helping" you survive, you should try to do something different. Varying your macros as suggested above, varying your exercise routine, or potentially even upping the number of calories you eat for a while can all "reset" the metabolic changes that caused the stall. Now that said, even if you changed nothing, it's unlikely the stall will last forever. At the end of the day, your body can only slow your metabolism so much. If you prefer to wait it out, that should eventually work as well as long as you are sticking to your plan.

Thanks you so much! I am home recovering....not too bad so far. It's actually easier to keep up with my liquids and protein this time. I have not felt any GERD and I'm down 3 pounds lol

I'm sure this is normal, but it freaks me out. I lost 12 pounds during my pre-op OptiFast week, but when I got home from the hospital, I was up 6 pounds! I know this has to be swelling and water retention, but it's really scary to see the number go UP. Also, I've been wearing the abdominal binder 24/7 since surgery and let me tell you how much it helps!! When I take it off to shower you can tell just how much it supports you. I highly suggest wearing one after surgery! My hospital provided me with one. Pain is still pretty up there, today is only Post Op Day 4 so I suppose that is to be expected. I'm still taking the prescription pain killers every 6 hours. My partner is getting me some Pho broth from our favorite Thai place today and I'm pretty darn excited for that since it will count towards my liquids. We are going to strain it and he's going to get all the good bits and I'll get the broth!

Hello and welcome in the forum. The first month is hard but passes quickly and you will soon be flying along. You may have a stall in your weight loss in a week, lots of us commented on the 3 week stall. Browsing the back pages will give you lots of ideas and inspiration, it kept me going. Good luck

I am two weeks out following Gastric Bypass surgery. I started my journey at 288lbs. and now I am 270lbs. It’s been trying these last two weeks but, the surgery has worked miracles in my life already! For that I am very grateful. I have never been less than 200lbs in my adult life, and I am anxious about that possibility. Yet, my health takes paramount and is the reason why I made the decision to have the surgery done. I have joined BariatricPal for a bit of insight and inspiration. It is my hope that by the end of this, I may inspire someone too.

Random food the last week(?) or so. All keto. The mini bagels also happen to be vegan! Cough @GreenTealael cough. Also, I didn’t get that job I interviewed for but I wasn’t willing to take a pay cut either so. Their loss.

I had "delayed dumping syndrome" after eating Culver's batter fried cod (which was delicious). 24 hours later I had severe abdominal pain that kept me up all night and in discomfort for several days. I never suspected dumping syndrome. I feared a bowel torsion and called the surgeon's office after the first night and went in the following day. I did have bowel movements so I was reassured that it was not torsion but rather delayed dumping syndrome. It happened again 2 weeks later when I ate smoked whitefish. Excessive fat is what triggered the attacks, and I learned a convincing lesson about avoiding fried foods and fats. I don't eat things with sugar, so have never had that kind of dumping syndrome.

So it may be time to take a little break from the ongoing saga of why it’s taken me over two and a half years to get to surgery and instead talk about how I got to the point of wanting to have bariatric surgery in the first place. My lightest weight as an adult was while I was in the Army. Just sheer physical activity and regular PT had me lean down to around 175 from maybe 185 when I graduated high school. Unfortunately I was severely injured in a training accident while in the service and left the military with a bad limp and a knee brace as a constant reminder. Weight wise, things went downhill from there. Being somewhat disabled made it hard to exercise, but meanwhile I was still eating like I did when I was in the service. (Lots of food, very quickly.) This was obviously not a good combination. Several other health scares and life events later, I shot up to around 240. I managed to stabilize things at this point and was even able to get into strength training pretty seriously for a while. Most cardio was still out, though. Life went on for several years, until I got a new job that paid me very well, but also took it’s toll on me physically and mentally. Within 3 years in the new job, I was up to 285 or so and climbing. I knew I needed help, so my wife and I tried just about every possible diet program imaginable. Interestingly, I’ve kept logs of every one of those diets. For at least the past 15 years, the typical pattern was for me to be somewhere between 285 and 300 pounds lose 30-80 pounds, then yo yo right back to my starting weight and then some. In about 2017, I finally asked my Doctor for help. We did all the things you’re supposed to do: talk to dietitians, try medications of various kinds, and even do physician monitored diets. None of that worked any better. The problem was, they just assumed like everyone does that I was weak-willed or to stupid to know how to eat properly. That’s never been my problem. I actually eat pretty well overall, with lots of fresh veggies, and plenty of lean protein. The problem is, in addition to all the good food, I’m also an emotional eater that soothes with sweets. I knew I’d reached rock-bottom when I started hiding food from my wife. As an example, I might buy a box of donuts and plow through it in a matter of minutes. Or buy the boxes of chocolate intended for Valentines day and devour them all in a morning. No box or bag of candy or pastries ever had the dust settle on it around me! About this time, I got up to 330 (my highest weight), and knew I needed to take a different road or I would never live to see my grandchildren. (I may never actually have any grandchildren, but that’s a story for a different day!) This takes us to late 2019 when I discovered, quite by accident, that my new insurance plan starting in Jan 2020 would finally cover bariatric surgery. After about a millisecond of research (okay, maybe a little longer), I decided this might be the thing for me. I think you already know what happened in my saga in 2020, so we’ll stop there for now and start back up next time in the summer of 2021, when I finally got the cardiac clearance I needed to get WLS.

Planning on another donut anytime soon? Dumping can last 3-4 hours, depending on how far you went. When the diarrhea works it's way through you are prety much done. Best to just give in and sleep it off. Dumping is great, it teaches you in no uncertain terms that you don't want to eat whatever you ate ever again. Yet... soon enough you will try. You will eventually learn your limits. I'm a big fan of dumping. It has kept me on the almost straight and moderately narrow even all these years later. Good luck, Tek

I completely agree that I think the protein shakes I've tried so far have been pretty disgusting. I have been drinking chicken broth for the three days, and that goes down the best. Water on its own makes a bit nauseous at times. I'm having fantasies of greek yoghurt and oats that I will (hopefullyI be allowed to have next week.

Yes, water logged is the feeling! Today I did a Vitamin Water Zero in Lemonade and it just didn't seem to want to go down. I'm doing Powerade Zero Fruit Punch now and it's much easier. How weird is that? I was so happy to have my IV out at the hospital but now I'm like "I want the IV back!!" My nutritionist said adding protein to the liquid foods (pudding, yogurt, skim milk) was fine, but for now she didn't want me to add any to my water, so no protein waters. She said eventually I could do that, but not within the first couple weeks because anything with added protein is technically a food and your body metabolically processes foods differently than water. She said to focus on hitting the water goal over any other food goal for the first couple of weeks. There is no way to reach my protein goal when I'm only consuming (3) 2oz portions of liquid food per day.

I had my surgery on Monday and had a really hard time the first day at home also. I barely got any liquids in and had a bunch of gas pain. On post-op day 3 I went in to my doc's office for IV fluids with vitamins and that really helped! I'm trying to hit my fluid goals every day now on my own, but I get really tired and feel water logged. Just want to let you know you're not alone.

Hi Everyone, I was posting over in the RNY August thread, but it doesn't seem to be very active. I had my surgery on Tuesday, so today is my Day 3 Post Op. The surgery & hospital stay went very well, but I had a rough first day at home yesterday. I think it was mostly because I no longer had the IV for hydration and it takes forever to drink enough water on your own. The barium swallow test at the hospital was pretty gross. Plus, it didn't move very fast through my bowels so I was sitting around for like an hour while they kept trying the x-ray; they finally sent me back up to my room and had a mobile x-ray come up a few hours later. Everything was fine, it was just slow moving. It made me really nervous that something was wrong though. I was on a pre-op liquid diet (OptiFast shakes only) for 7 days, clear liquid only the day before surgery and until this morning, I've only had clear liquids. I haven't been hungry at all, but I can tell my body is pretty weak from not taking in many calories. I've been really tired. Today I started full liquids, which for me is 3 servings of 2 oz per day until my 1 week post-op appointment. I had 2 oz Fairlife Chocolate Shake this morning which went down well and I'm working on a 2 oz portion of SF vanilla protein pudding right now. It's been difficult for me to get my 64 oz of liquids in. I never thought it would take this long to drink! Before surgery, I was a person who drank 100+ easily before bed.

Zero regrets. I’ll be three years out from my VSG next week. I’ve met my goal and maintained it. I’m happy & healthy. This was life changing. I only wish I’d done it sooner.

I'm a fan of the ones that have both footpads and handles that you hold. I don't have any data to suggest that they are any better, but it just seems like having more sensors in more places would be a good thing. The one I have now in an Omron, but I recently saw on Amazon that InBody also makes one for the home market. InBody is the brand my Bariatric Center uses, so I'm tempted to get one of those as well. One thing to keep in mind: none of these home BIA scales are all that accurate. In reality, that's not super important to me. What's more important is that they are consistent; meaning I can actually track from one week to the next if my percentage of body fat is trending in the right direction. When I want a more accurate number, I'll go get a bod pod scan. .

I had a bypass earlier this year and so far zero regrets. My weight loss, even with bypass, has been slower than average due to a screwed-up metabolism from years and years of dieting. I know if I had gotten a sleeve I may have had slower weight loss and more stalls, so I am happy with my choice to get the bypass. Since the surgery, I have a really strong sensation of restriction, next to no hunger, food aversions (sweet and fried foods) and I can taste things way more intensely. I can eat very small portions of junk foods like ice cream (1 or 2 tablespoons). Anything more than that and I just feel icky so I just avoid them. I lost my sugar cravings, which was the cause of my weight gain in the past. I hope those sugar cravings are gone for good because not having them will help a lot with maintenance. The only struggle so far, however, is dehydration. I have to be so focused every day on meeting my water goals. If I don't, I wake up in the middle of the night with the most awful dry mouth. Other than that, all is good.

Same story here! VSG June 14 with Bhatti GI & North Memorial in MN. Recovery has really been a breeze. I took 1 week off from my desk job for surgery recovery. At almost 8 weeks, 32.5 lbs down. Including a recent 10-day vacation, eating normal foods at restaurants, but small amounts. On vacation we walked 3-6 miles a day. Normally I barely exercise…yeah…I know I need to do better, but I do physical farm work too. No food intolerances, nausea, pain, hair loss, or dumping. I get my 65-90g protein, hydrate, and have my vitamins & probiotic. 900-1200 calories/day. Too often my carbs are too high (>75g). It’s hard to get fiber. The “hardest” part for me and the only deviation from the plan that I have committed (besides erratic levels of exercise) was clear liquids. I was prescribed 3 days CL before surgery (lost 4lbs) plus 2 weeks CL after surgery. 2w after was way too long. I got dizzy and weak because I couldn’t get enough protein. Switching to full liquids was like paradise. Did that a week early with no issues. North Memorial’s diet plan is very conservative. I also got Covid for the first time at 4w post-op. I only had a scratchy throat for 3 days and was tired for a week, but had no problems keeping to the dietary guidelines. Almost zero movement b/c I did strict quarantine for 10d to not spread it. I am surprised I’ve done so well given how crazy it all sounds in retrospect. Major abdominal surgery, FT work, life with 3 kids, Covid, harvest season on the farm, and lengthy travel all in 8 weeks. But it’s been great! I have tons of energy! Fear of complications and lack of insurance coverage kept me from doing this for probably 8+ years. It’s nice to hear positive stories collected in one place. I feel for those of us struggling. I still fear something will crop up. We are fortunate.

We all come at different angles with this issue. I had no choice, I had to pay up. I couldn't wait till the NHS recovered from Covid and I finally found a Doctor who would recommend me for the surgery. I have been asking for 25 years and several had already side tracked me onto yet another diet. If I had been given your choices then I would wait for the free option. It would be only 4 months longer than I had to wait anyway. The $18,000, I would save towards skin surgery later down the line. What do you spend on food in a week ? Times it by 52. Shakes, protein powder and bariatric vitamins are extra costs that you may need to factor in too. Keep chatting to us on the forum and read the back pages while you decide. Good luck