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I'm sorry about the stalls. No matter how much we know they will happen, it doesn't make it any easier. I know in the past, the closer I got to my goal weight, the slower it would come off. @BlueParis this could be the case with you? How are things feeling... your body? Your clothes? My dietician told me that these things will continue to change even during stalls.

My surgery is scheduled for the 27th. I am on day 3 of my liquid diet and boy am I struggling. It's very hard to break old habits of just snacking but even now on the liquid diet I want a healthy snack but unable to have it. I think it's the chewing sensation I miss. I am able to have one health meal a day and usually have protein shakes for the other meals. (breakfast and lunch) I try to save my healthy meal for dinner so I can eat with my family but with being on summer vacation it has been hard to not want to just snack all day. I have been going back and forth if this is something I should followed through with as I will not be able to enjoy the things I used to after surgery. Maybe I'm over thinking and it's just nerves for the post op life.

I've been stalled for 3 weeks. I contacted the dietician and had her look over my food logs on the baritastic app. She told me stalls can last a month, sometimes more. She went on to tell me I wasn't getting enough fiber. So, I bought some Flaxseed and going eat more fiber foods to see if that was the thing keeping me stalled. How many grams of protein and carbs are you getting per day? I'm curious, every doctor or nutritionist seems to have a variety of how they do things. I believe you had the sleeve which would be a different nutritional guideline than mine since I've had gastric bypass. It's frustrating to work on doing the right thing, only for a lingering stall. It has been getting really hot in Oklahoma. Mid to high 90's. I have a hot job as it is. Sweating all the time, I thought just by the heat and sweating I would lose a few pounds. It truly is a marathon

@BlueParis Oh, what a nuisance! The long stalls are so hard. I'm sure it's just that your body needs some time, but that doesn't make it any easier to deal with emotionally. Will you ever have a point where you don't have a lot of travel, or is that pretty much your normal schedule?

Sigh.....I need to figure out how to maintain and not lose more weight. Wanted to stop at 190....but now I can't figure out how to stop losing!!!! Never in a million years did I think I would ever have this problem. I can't add more carbs because I'm SUPER sensitive to them and too many make me REALLY sick. I tried adding more calories, but because I work out 4-5 days per week, it's actually causing me to lose still. So weird. I tried eating more small meals and snacks more often, but honestly, I already have 3 meals and 2 snacks per day, and eating more just makes me sick to my stomach because I'm trying to force myself to eat when I'm not hungry. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. I know my secret goal was 180, but I actually like how I look and feel at 190, so I'm not really looking to go lower. Yet here I am....going lower.....

Got home. Got naked. Stepped on scales. Back at 70.4kg. So up 1 kg (2.2lbs) since last Friday .One full month of being stalled today. Starting to get very very very fed up. No way am I consuming over 1000 calories a day even counting every drop I drink, every splash of milk I put in a coffee. So p*ssed off at still seeing a 7 on the scales. Doing my head in. Going to have a nap and reflect.

Interestingly, i just watched a medical program (hosted by the late Dr Michael Mosley) and a top UK gastro consultant said 2hrs is pretty average time frame for your tummy to empty of food. (His patient had delayed emptying - less than half after 3 hrs.)

As far as getting ready: I've got a binder my doctor gave to me. It has basically all the information that I should need going forward. I do look at it periodically to refresh my memory about what is expected of me. For the dietary changes and stages, I write everything I need to stop/start on a calendar. For example: I need to stop drinking coffee and need to taper off to avoid headaches. I am also weaning myself off carbonated water and need reminders. I'm struggling with a few things such as taking small bites, so I like to put reminders in my calendar so i have to see them every day. I'm also changing my vitamins over to different brands and also needed reminders for that as well. (I'm forgetful!) I've made a list of the things I need to buy such as different kinds of protein powder, unjury protein, chewable vitamins, calcium chews, small utensils, small plates, a drink blender, etc. I've made a list of things to pack for the hospital (thanks to several threads here on this website, I have a list going). As I purchase them, I mark them off. Along those lines, I have fairly good ideas of the types of things I will be eating in each dietary stage so that I can plan ahead for grocery shopping when I get to that point. I purchased several books off amazon that were used, and very inexpensive. Things like bariatric cookbooks and bariatric mindset success books. I do try to read a little bit each day and then journal about what I read. I drive a lot for work so I have plenty of time to listen to podcasts. There are several that I enjoy that I feel are science-based, supportive and informative. I've learned many things from these podcasts about bariatrics. They're free and it's easy to just put one on a few times a week. Besides bariatricpal, I am trying to avoid other websites that deal with bariatrics at this point. It felt overwhelming and felt like I kept going down a rabbit hole of horror stories and it was not helping with my anxiety. There is one person on youtube that I enjoy watching because she's many years out and is very inspiring. Now that I have a date for surgery, this all feels very real and scary. I am trying to not give into the fear too much and remember why I am here at this decision. I need to take charge of my health. I have ONE precious life. I want to live the rest of my life in the best health that I can. I've tried desperately since I was about 20 (in my late 40's now) to lose the weight and keep it off. I've had high blood pressure for 15 years and no matter what I do, It continues to be an issue for me. I've been warned that I am pre-diabetic and likely someday soon that will catch up to me and I'll officially be diabetic. I cannot do this on my own and maintain it. It's that simple. This is my second chance and I will not turn back. This is honestly a story about saving my own life by asking for help. I hope this helps.

For me, I live on 1100 - 1200 calories on non work out days and 1300-1400 on workout days. On my weight training day, I tend to go up to 1500 calories. I work out 5 days per week. I also have 2 rest days. My protein, fluid intake, carbs, healthy fats, and calories are all higher on workout days, but I still can't get anywhere NEAR 2100 per day. 1500 is really pushing it, but I only do heavy weight training once per week, so it's ok. For quite a while, my calories on non workout days were 800-900 or so and workout days were 1100-1300, depending on what workouts I was doing that day. As time has gone on, my calorie and food intake has increased, but I still stick to the rule that I eat until I'm not hungry anymore, not until I'm stuffed. It's normal for our stomachs to hold a little more and our calories to increase as time goes by. What's important is to be selective with where those calories and carbs come from, not to overeat, and to be mindful of moving your body and getting in enough fluids.

I think in the last 2 years I talked to my nutritionist 3 times. And that was because I had to. It was included with the surgeries and she worked in my surgeon's office. She's nice and helped me come up with some cool recipes, but that's really it. I stayed mostly within the surgeon's dietary recommendations, but as time went on, I learned what my body likes and dislikes. For example, I'm extremely sensitive to carbs but not at all to sugar. I still stay away from sugar for the most part, but I'm not afraid of it like I was. I won't turn something away if it has sugar, but I typically go sugar free as much as I can. As for carbs, I use to do keto, so I was ok with low carb meals (I would have maybe 60-80 carbs per day). Now, though, I can't have more than 25 without feeling sick. On heavy workout days, I tend to go higher (45-50) but I pay for it because, again, I'm SUPER sensitive to them now. I respond well to high protein, moderate healthy fats, and high fiber foods. I'd say just do what you're doing, ignore the nutritionist, and keep kicking ass and taking names. You're doing AWESOME, so don't worry about the rest of it.

I'm in the same position, I've got two incisions that won't heal either. I'm four weeks post-op. Luckily I've no infection but the stinging and pain under the wound are unreal sometimes. I'm down 32 lbs including pre-op diet.

Mine came after an open conversation with my sleep doctor of all people. I was seeing him because I was getting set up with a CPAP machine due to my sleep apnea. In addition to my sleep apnea I had developed several other obesity-related health conditions including pre-diabetes, chronic pain in my knees and back, some minor heart issues and the worst of all, scrotal lymphedema (I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy). My doctor pointed out that losing weight would help all of those issues and he added that his mother was quite heavy and was dealing with a lot of health issues and that the sooner I could lose weight, the better my long-term health would be, and he recommended I look into bariatric surgery. That was the first time the idea had even crossed my mind. I did some research on it, but found out my insurance wouldn't cover it and it would be around $20,000 to pay for it out of pocket. But 3 years later I started a new job and got on their insurance, and it covered the surgery, so I began the process at that point.

I'm ~3 years in after revision to RNY, My normal is about 4 to 6 oz of food, depending on what it is. I have to eat slow, chew well, listen to my fullness signs, otherwise I'll get the foamies. I drink up to the point of eating, but don't drink anything at least an hour later. Most of the time much longer. I never had a formal exercise routine, but I live an active lifestyle.

Thank you! I know that feeling of shutting yourself down and not wanting to interact with the world. Even though it sounds dramatic it feels as if you're already dead but just walking around like a zombie. I'm glad you were also able to come out of that and found your turning point. Proud of you as well. And I'll say this, this morning I finally had breakfast. It was just a scramble egg with like 2-3 ounces of grilled chicken. And like I told my best friend, Hilary Duff(my celebrity crush lol) could have knocked on the door looking for me and I would have been like "Not now, I'm having the best breakfast ever" lol. It taste like heaven. Thank you again, you got this as well!

Going pretty well! It’s forcing me to exercise 3 days a week and I dare say I might enjoy it.

Agreed, your temper-tantrum-toddler-tummy is likely to go back and forth on things. The slower you eat, the easier it'll be to tell when something is even beginning to irritate your insides -- hopefully so you can stop before it leads to cramping or other nasty symptoms. For me, the transition from purees to soft foods was (and still is) a bit of a battle. I couldn't handle tuna or egg salad (unless it was completely pureed with greek yogurt / light mayo) until... uh.... well I'm 12 weeks in and I still can't? LOL, my body gets angry at anything not exceedingly moist, so canned fish and any egg other than poached just won't go down. Mayo and yogurt have been fine though. Anyway, whenever you run into digestive issues, just take a step back. Eat some things you know you can handle for a few days, and try again -- or try a different method of prep. I've found that steaming most of my foods (even found an awesome microwave steamer) helps keep them moist enough 8/10 times. Healthy sauces or dips are your friend. Don't rush yourself, you'll be eating more satisfying textures soon enough. (I've also found that for egg salad, if I puree half of my serving and then hand mash the other half, the consistency changes enough to give me less problems. I also throw in some mashed avocado and more greek yogurt than is probably needed.) (Have you tried egg drop soup? You beat an egg or two, and drizzle that in a spoonful at a time to simmering / lightly boiling broth. Simple, but can be really satisfying.)

Hi Calli, I’m 2 weeks post op and same here two wounds refuse to heal and one behave infected. So I am not on Antibiotics and ointment. Surgeon said they will need to close by secondary intention, so will need dressing and salt baths. Pretty annoying. However I have lost 17 kg so far including the pre op diet

That's wonderful!! You did it!! How is it going? Still keeping up with the vitamins and hydration? How frequently would you say you use the protein shakes as opposed to eating mechanical soft foods, etc? I'm trying to figure out how many I ought to plan on needing for the weeks up to and after my surgery at the beginning of August.

When I had my initial sleeve surgery, my kids were 24 and 15 and my granddaughter was 1. None of them had ever seen me thin. I was 240 pounds when I had my son and his first real memories are from when he was 2 and I weighed 270. When I had my daughter, I was 315 pounds and her memories are from around 3 years old and I weighed 340. My highest weight, when I had my initial consultation, was 421 pounds. I lost 33 pounds pre-surgery and I was 388 on surgery day. I knew I had to be open with them, so I just came out and told them the truth. I went over my goals for health, getting off medications, increased mobility, weight loss, etc... They were both surprised but really happy for me and supportive. Now my kids are just so proud and impressed with not only my weight loss, but the improvements I've made with my health, my overall fitness (one of my son's favorite things to do with me is go on hikes now). My granddaughter only knew me as 421 pounds. She's 3 now, so it's taken her a little bit to get use to me being thinner (she lives in Arizona and I'm in Colorado, so she doesn't se me a lot, so the changes are more dramatic for her). I'm glad I was open with my kids, because it taught them about the real struggles with morbid obesity, the tools available, and they saw first hand the changes that have to be made, the relationship with food that has to improve, and the work that has to be put in. My son said he always looked at the surgery as a way for someone fat to be lazy and take the easy way out. Now that he's seen what it REALLY takes, his whole opinion changed.

I have to be honest about my experience so far with dietitians, and with post-bariatric advice and counseling in general. If you ask 100 dietitians what we are supposed to be doing, you will get 101 different responses. And if you ask them a second time, you will probably get even more. Too much protein, not enough protein, carbs are the devil, carbs are fine, low fat, don't worry about fat, count calories, only count macros, work out more, don't exercise too much... You've lost over 100 pounds. You are 12.8 pounds from your goal at only 5 months post-op, work out 6 days a week, and look and feel great. You seem really happy. I fail to see why you should change anything if you are happy with your results, unless you think the advice will benefit you. You know your body and what works for you, and unless your dietitian is a bariatric patient, she's never been through what you are doing first hand. Take what she says with a grain of salt, except salt is bad, unless it isn't because electrolytes are good...who knows?

It's not something that has been easy for the past 15 years. I used to workout several days a week for a long time, but I was just more into weight lifting, not so much cardio or anything like it. Since I've lost a lot of weight, that same drive has kicked started again. Also, I know this is going to need to be a long term thing to ensure I don't go back to what I was doing before. I have knee replacement surgery in October, so I'm trying to keep the knee strong for better recovery.

First time posting on these forums, so hello everyone. Glad to have found this space to talk about my experience as I find it very hard to communicate with everyone else in my regular day to day life. I'm exactly 15 days post op (Gastric Sleeve) as I type this. And honestly, after reading many replies on here, I almost feel survivors guilt, but I do feel blessed as I thankfully did not experience many issues whatsoever. 24 hours after surgery I walked out of the hospital on my own, sore, but proud. I guess my biggest issue has been sleeping as I move around a lot while I sleep and at the beginning it would wake me up from pain for twisting and turning while I slept, and even then, that's no longer an issue. But, I never had nausea, or vomit, did not take any pain medication past the first 48 hours, I'm not trying to brag, just feeling fortunate after reading some stories on here. Everyone has their own stories and journeys, for me I was obese my whole life. This was ok through my 20s as I felt invincible, and eventually those checks I was writing on my body came back to collect. Back pain and diabetes were first. But it wasn't until a week before the world shut down that things went really off the wall. A long term relationship ended, and as the world closed, it kept me from my support groups, and led me down a dark path of basically eating and drinking myself almost to death with nowhere to go. At my absolute heaviest I thought I would die at a staggering 407 pounds. Poetic as that's the area code for my city lol. Knowing I had to make a change or I would not make it to 40 I went to a doctor, which led to a cancer scare. At that moment my life changed, and I knew change needed to happen now. I began diet and working out and made it down to about 375-380 where I had been hovering for over two years. Bariatric surgery is what I knew I needed to help me, and after fighting with insurance for two years, I finally got a new job last November, and the insurance there covered the surgery 100%! So I began the process in January. And on May 30th, 2024, at 10AM, I went in for surgery. To say that life has changed, for the better, is an understatement. In two weeks I have dropped almost 30 pounds. I'm feeling amazing as far as my stomach (kinda weirds me out to say pouch lol) is concerned post surgery. Still in the liquid diet though looking forward to chewing something this weekend, as I'm absolutely sick of Jello. I am still not hungry, and almost feels like a miracle. My blood sugar is stabilizing without medication. My blood pressure is improving almost daily. Walking a mile a day does not leave me searching for oxygen, and I can't wait to start the gym on June 30th and really kick this into high gear. TL/DR: This is a second change at life, and I will not waste it. Look forward to learning more from others through this process. Onwards and upwards.

Okay here we go. 1: Pre op stats 91kg BMI 35 2: Surgery Gastric sleeve 3: Lowest weight post surgery 48.5kg BMI 18.7 at about 18 months. 4: Maintenance weight 48.5kg. Stayed there for about 18 months when I suddenly increased to about 51kg. Realised I wasn’t absorbing my HRT med after my gall removal. Changed my meds and my weight slowly settled at around 49kg after another 18 months. The last 6 months has seen me back to 48.5 again though I was 48.2 this morning. Strange is I actually eat about 300 calories more now (last 2+ yrs) than I did when I initially stabilised. 5: Fluctuation Initially my fluctuation was exactly 1kg so 48.5 - 49.5. Weird I know. It’s been more 700 - 800g the last 18months so very narrow. 6: Methods to maintain & what worked or didn’t work. Work out a sustainable way of eating which doesn’t restrict or limit what you want to do & how you want to live your life. (I know I say this a lot but it’s worked for me.) Still be flexible with your eating style. Don’t be afraid to make changes: different foods or food types, frequency, etc. If it works & you can still maintain great. If it doesn’t drop it & try something else. I don’t enjoy traditional exercising. No gym for me, running miles or getting sweaty. Around 18 months ago I started my exercise snacking (stretches & using resistance bands) habit. Not to burn calories but to regain flexibility & to support my back. Muscle toning has been a bonus. I enjoy it, it’s easy and I do it or a variation every day. 7: How my life has changed It’s just easier in a whole lot of little ways & other things are much sweeter. Yes, I work at maintaining. I’m more aware of what I put in my mouth, its nutrient value & how much I eat but a lot of this is second nature/habit now so not as much ‘hard’ work anymore. Generally I feel more confident though I wouldn’t say I was lacking confidence before. I’m honest enough to say I’ve become more vain though I was always conscious of how I presented myself to others. It’s just a lot more. Just ask my cosmetic physican - LOL! 8: Cautionary tales & words of wisdom Always advocate for yourself. Not happy with an answer ask more questions, for more testing &/or a second opinion. Do your own research & go back with more questions. Be honest. Ask for help. Be flexible. Make the best decisions you can in the situation. Don’t compare yourself to others. Don’t beat yourself up if things don’t go the way you thought. Things/life happens. It’s how you pick yourself up & move forward again that matters. Find what works for you in regards to how & what you eat, what activity you do & so on. Research, cherry pick across many strategies & plans, test them out & adopt those which work for you. There is no one right way just what’s right for you. This journey isn’t a straight, flat road in one direction. There’ll be hills and valleys, rugged mountains & deep, wide rivers. There’ll be blind corners & round-abouts. You’ll face detours, delays & road works. Your destination may not be where you initially planned but it will be a wonderful, amazing & far better place to be than where you were before you started. And there will be many other fabulous destinations ahead of you.

I used to describe my tummy as a fussy, petulant temper throwing 2 year old. Likes this, not that. Liked this yesterday but not today. Ate this much yesterday barely can eat half today. Your digestive system has gone through a lot in the surgery and it’s going to take some 8 weeks to heal. There’s something up to 12 inches of sutures & staples holding your tummy together. It’s going to be sensitive to certain flavours, textures (& smells for some). Think of that wound being on your arm & how it would be sensitive to different temperatures, different pressures, it may sting, cramp, spasm, etc. as you move about. Same with your tummy you just can’t see the wound. And sometimes your tummy simply isn’t ready to eat some foods yet even if your program says you can. Go slowly. If your tummy doesn’t tolerate something it doesn’t mean you won’t be able to eat it in the future. Your tummy may not like mayo now (too rich or acidic or sweet 🤷🏻‍♀️) but in a couple of weeks it may be fine. It sometimes is challenging to find foods your tummy will tolerate at first. You may find you’re eating the same 2 or 3 things for a couple of weeks at a time. I ate a lot of yoghurt, runny instant rolled oats & runny scrambled eggs in the puree stage. Even had baby food twice to break the monotony. By solid food I was able to eat a lot of things.

So i had egg salad and tuna salad this week. Its so annoying how my stomach reacts. Im not sure if its the mayo but i wish i could eat more before my stomach starts to cramp up. I’m 9 fays post op. Any suggestions?