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@wendy4energyrenewal Thanks for the welcome. I'm one week out now and the nausea with protein shakes seems to have lessened (I'm just already tired of them). I did figure out that mixing the shakes with water and ice made it a little more tolerable ... the thickness of the pre-made shakes is not sitting well. Wow, 2 weeks on pure liquid didn't sound like much but after a week, I'm really starting to feel deprived. I'll make it, but I'm already planning some pureed meals!!

hiya! do you have a team or doc to reach out to for guidance...you will find that calorie and macro advice will run the gamut on here, as our docs all have different recommendations! with that said, your intake will really depend you your own physiological makeup as well as if you are looking to lose more weight or maintain... at one year post, i was in maintenance, and was averaging about 1500-1600 calories with about 75g protein. i was also 5'2" and 110 lbs-ish at the time, doing about 1-2 hrs of cardio AND strength training 4-5 times a week today i am 5.5 years out and average about 2000-2200 (recently increased from 1800 because i am on an exercise kick at the moment: 1 hour of exercise 6 days a week) and weigh 118-ish on average. so the recommendation on your cals (and macros) will depend on how tall you are, how much you currently weigh, how much activity you currently participate in, and whether you are looking to lose weight or maintain.

When I had my sleeve my hunger was gone for a while but I remember that there was another member on here back then who experienced it early like you. She got a few tips from others about dealing with the hunger which I can’t remember them all but the one that does stick out was warm liquids. Soups and tea or coffee. Stuff like that. She said it filled her up for a while. I agree with the protein first too though. I have a protein shake for breakfast and it fills me up till lunch. Maybe try some of the clear protein drinks or mix plain protein powder in your food if you don’t like the shakes. Also it could be reflux as mentioned above. Are you on meds for that?

You're eating 100 Grams of protein or more and actively walking 4/5 times a week. Seems like you've got a good routine down. I would just keep doing what you're doing and follow your doctors advice.

Two mos post op 4/29. I feel like the loss is slowing down. Since surgery Im down 33 lbs. I weigh weekly and in the beginning it was 5 lbs down,etc. Now its 1.5 down or sometimes just the same. Im taking in anywhere from 750-950 calories a day, usually toward the lower side, eating 100 grams sometimes more protein and being very careful, I always prioritize protein. Also Im walking 30 min 4/5x a week. Any advice? Just keep on and trust the process?

Hi I’m 1 year post op end of this month , how many calories and protein should I be eating now ?

Have you reached out to your team? What did they think? Are you still allowed to supplement with protein shakes? At 7 weeks post op I wasn’t hungry at all. But some people regain their hunger signals sooner/later. Also some people experience what they think is hunger and it’s either thirst or reflux. I can tell you that I’m 6+ yrs out and I’m hungrier if I don’t get enough protein but focus on carbs. It’s almost like I have to start my days properly (fluids then protein) or I’m hungry all day long. This does not happen If I front load my meals with a protein. I hope you find a solution!

I'm currently 7 weeks post op today and I'm feeling better. I can eat again, but that's like all I want to do. Is anyone else having hunger issues? I have been struggling to get my protein in every day. Some days I don't want to even eat hardly because I don't know if my stomach will agree. BUT im so hungry all the time. Like before surgery...and it's so disheartening.

Yes, it’s definitely an option. Please consult with your medical provider to explore options that best fit your needs. Regarding experiences, my younger brother began this program recently and has seen significant weight loss after a gradual increase in dosage over two months. If you’re feeling nervous about administering your first dose, it might help to have a healthcare professional guide you through the process or to watch instructional videos provided by healthcare providers.

I need to get back into the swing of taking my vitamins and I’m thinking it was easiest to remember at mealtimes. Exactly how many hours do we need to wait between calcium and the iron in the multivitamin for it to absorb properly? What about calcium and calcium? I’m thinking calcium at breakfast and lunch and multivitamin at dinner but I don’t ALWAYS wake up super early so there may be less time between the two calcium’s on occasion. I used to do the multivitamin with breakfast and calcium at dinner and bedtime BUT now I make my protein shake into a Proffee (protein shake and iced coffee) and my tummy doesn’t like the vitamin with it diluted that way.i suppose I could try taking the multi with my evening snack which is a Greek yogurt? What do you guys do??

They sounds great. I live in Ireland so I haven't seen them. I prepare 90% of my meals from scratch - I love cooking and I have children so it's so much cheaper that way! It didn't take much tweaking for them to get what they liked and me to get what I needed in the months after surgery. I could see this sort of thing being super handy when you're out and about or just to have a healthier option when your partner is eating differently. I am like you - hate waste!

Tomorrow is the big day! May 1. May Day! On the liver shrinking diet, the first two days and the last two days were the hardest. The first two days, I was ravenous and it took every ounce of willpower I had not to eat. By day 3, it wasn't a big deal. My particular diet called for 3 shakes, 1 serving of protein mix soup, a protein bar, a banana (for the potassium), and up to 3 sugar free gelatines. Plus as much zero cal clear drink I could stand. By day 3, I LIVED for that banana and protein bar. These last two days with no solid food at all has been tough. My sense of smell has ramped up significantly. Everything smells fantastic! I'll provide an update after the procedure is finished and I'm lucid again. I'm somewhat nervous about the discomfort, but I'm sure I'll be able to weather it. Wish me luck!

Is there an option to ask for this instead of semaglutide? Also, I am wondering if anyone on here has started the program and how much success they are having? I have received my first prescription but I have been scared to give it to myself.

Has anyone tried the gardencup meal delivery service? Everything is in a cup to take to go they have soups, salads, power cups, produce cups, and dip cups as well as snack cups. They are $10-12 each so kinda pricey but I’m justifying it for myself since my husband doesn’t eat what I eat and produce tends to go bad on me before I can use it all as do all the different cheeses and stuff to make a variety of salads. That plus the convenience factor are making them enticing. I am looking at the protein and the mini cup salads have less than the regular sized ones which is unfortunate since post surgery the mini one will probably be the better portion size. The minis are around 15-20g protein. I’m Just curious if anyone has tried these or has any thoughts on them. I’m thinking I may have to switch out the dressing for a lower fat option or have no dressing but that’s with premade salad from anywhere. I usually get the southwest or market salad at chick fila with an extra chicken filet on the side. I take it home pull off the toppings and a little of the lettuce and that’s plenty for one day then the next I can make a chicken ceaser salad with the extra chicken, the leftover lettuce and my own yogurt dressing but that’s only when I’m in town anyways. I don’t like to make a special trip just for salad plus those aren’t prepared to grab And go like these cups are. They would fit perfect in a cooler to take with me when I’m out for the day

Wow well done guys, sounds amazing progress I had my surgery 6 days ago… I’m sipping around a litre of protein water and tried to have a bit of really thin soup with some added protein powder but I’m really struggling with the pain as the food / water makes its way down - really hindering me reaching the intakes I should be. Still, I just keep telling myself it is what it is, I keep trying and I’m sure my body will heal enough to get what I need soon.

One of the therapeutic approaches they use for eating disorders is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. CBT is obviously more complex but one component is replacing an undesired behavior with a new healthy behavior. This sounds so simple and like it couldn’t possibly work (to me anyways) but believe it or not this helped with my self diagnosed Nightime Eating Disorder. NES is a disorder that is characterized by waking up feeling like you can’t fall back to sleep without eating and eating more than 25% of your calories at night after dinner. I believe this is just a form of head hunger. My therapist who uses a different approach said that CBT would suggest that when I wake up wanting to eat that I do something like my crochet instead. Well. It hasn’t been easy but this has worked for five nights thus far. Not one snack and I used to have around 4-6 snacks every night after doing so well with my diet all day. Basically I have a protein yogurt before bed so I know I am not actually hungry and when I feel hungry through the night I just tell myself that I am not hungry and that I can get up and crochet instead if I can’t sleep. I haven’t even had to actually crochet many times. Apparently just knowing that there is a replacement option is enough to help me go back to sleep. That or I’m just too lazy But hey whatever works 😂 Anyways, I found it kinda absurd that the solution was that simple to just do something else like I am dealing with a kid but I’m serious. It worked. There are also CBT workbooks for disordered eating (Amazon has several) which probably get more in depth and journaling about what you are feeling at the time to get to the root of why you feel hungry helps for some. But try doing something else as well Like I said it’s been five nights for me and it’s worked. Each night it has gotten a little easier too. I put a towel through the handles of the fridge in case I forget and I have woken up and walked to the kitchen less and less each night. After the first night I realized that the yogurt was enough to get me through the night and each night after just reinforces that. My friend said it makes sense to her because It’s like when people quit smoking and everytime they want a cigarette they chew gum instead. I did lollipops but it’s true, that did work for me as well. It’s Still not easy, but it works. If your at work I guess your limited on alternate options but maybe having a glass of tea or taking a short walk (depending on your job). You said you are already drinking your water but maybe try a whole new behavior. I hope I don’t sound too crazy and you try this. I hope it helps you as well.

So, I started my LRD (pre-surgery diet) today, and I am really seeing what is meant by 'head hunger'. I had my shake this morning at around 8:30am, and I am sitting here staring at this protein bar (which is my snack), really having to think about WHY I want to eat it. I keep flitting between: "I am hungry, I should eat it", and then just drinking some water and realising that actually my "real" hunger is quite minimal at the moment, but my cravings, my "head hunger" is telling me I NEED to eat that bar. So far, I haven't, and I will try and stay away from it until I actually am hungry, but it is quite intimidating to realise how strong my cravings actually are. Does anyone have any advice around cravings and if it gets any easier?

So I was given a month to research the SADI procedure by my doctor and told to come back prepared with questions so we could make up my mind between revision to SADI and Bypass. I have been All over the Internet and this forum asking all kinda of questions to get as much info as possible before today about the SADI. I show up to my appt and my first question promoted him to say the SADI may not be appropriate for me. Even know he has prescribed them for me in the past and it was on the list of current meds he didn’t realize I have to take OMEPRAZOLE DAILY for heartburn/ GERD. So now he wants to do a scope to see if SADI or bypass would be better for me. I know that I need to learn to be more patient and roll with the punches but I thought today that I was the one who was going to be making the decisions and that I would be leaving with a surgery date. Instead I have to get a scope the last of May and follow up early June at which time I will hopefully be getting a date for some surgery. I am just frustrated that he was the one to present me with this option that my research made me really want it and I already wasted a month to do that. Now I have to wait another month for the scope and probably can’t get the surgery I never would have known I really want. If he has just read the chart this could’ve been avoided. If we were just going to end up with bypass we could have set a date a month ago. Idk. Just frustrated and a little sad.

Hi, welcome! I read the posts here a lot before my first post too and felt like I knew everyone even though they didn't know me! LOL It is a funny feeling... My first thought is you aren't eating enough to be physically active. The body is pretty particular about how much energy it gets and after bariatric surgery our metabolism gets a nice reset (it is part of what helps us lose the weight) but to maintain that nice, new metabolism we need to EAT. And what is enough when you are mildly active isn't near enough when you are doing things that strain your heart, muscles, and burn a good bit of fuel. So I agree with the above, I'd eat more on days you work out. 65 grams of protein isn't enough for working out, I'd add in at least a protein shake, a little healthy fat, and some complex carbs. Second, it is normal to stall for a few weeks at any point, but it is especially normal if you start working out, or if you increase your workouts. This is because it changes the fluid balance in our bodies and the body takes a bit to even out. Some people even see increases on their scale when they start adding in more workouts! So if that happens, don't panic. We can also stall when our food intake changes. This is commonly seen when you go from fluids to solid food, but it can also happen if you jump in calories at any point, even if it is a needed point. My stalls seem to last for 6 weeks at a time. It is super irritating. At 4 months out you are not likely to be done losing weight yet. You may lose a little bit more. But weight loss slows WAY down the closer to goal we get and you are on the small end at this point so I wouldn't be surprised if it slows now. The most rapid weight loss is the first 3 months, then it tapers off slowly depending on how much you need to lose. Since you are used to being at the lower end of your BMI it is reasonable to expect you may drop a bit more to have the space you want if you rebound some. Just be careful not to starve yourself to get those extra lbs off, if it isn't sustainable for your body you'll really have to fight for it and it could damage that nice new metabolism in the process! Oh, and weight redistributes after weight loss. So you may look a little thin now and it may balance out a bit in the next year. This happens especially around the face for some people.

A good way to remember the difference is to ask yourself "Is this processed? If so, how much?" For instance, white flour is a simple carb, it has had the fiber and such stripped from it, which causes the carbohydrate in it to hit the system faster and spike blood sugar rapidly. Stone ground whole wheat flour is more of a complex carb, because it has the fiber intact along with all the nutrients that come with it and spikes the blood sugar less rapidly because of that fiber slowing the release. Eating it with protein and fat will slow the spike of blood sugar even further. Potato chips? Simple carb--they are white, starchy, and fried. A baked sweet potato? Technically a complex carb, though it does have a lot of sugar in it. Still, much better choice nutritionally than potato chips! Most fruits and vegetables are complex carbs, as their fiber and nutrients are intact. But some can be higher in sugar than others, so it is good to be mindful of their glycemic load as well. Whole grains like quinoa or brown rice and beans are complex carbs, though due to their high carb content they are best eaten in moderation. Most white, starchy, processed things you buy in boxes or bags are simple carbs. Cakes, cookies, white rice, sugar, semolina pasta, ice cream, all simple carbs. Most SADI and DS patients have issues with simple carbs causing gas, or large amounts of complex carbs. So, a big slice of cake may cause gas. A large fruit salad could also cause gas. Their sugar sources are different, but the digestive system sees sugar as sugar and reacts in kind. Apples in chicken salad? Probably fine once you are far enough out to digest fruit. A wedge of watermelon with a bunless hamburger? Also fine once you are far enough out to digest fruit. A few bites of cake or fruit salad? That may also be fine if you are able to practice restraint! Personally, at 6 months out, I have never had any issues with onions like I used to. But I cannot eat beans in any form, not even pureed on the soft food diet, they immediately went through me and caused gas! I can eat small amounts of a cooked fruit, like blueberry muffins, or frozen blueberries microwaved and stirred into yogurt. But I cannot yet eat fresh/frozen fruit. The nutritionist suspects it is because berries are really fiber dense. This is likely to change in the next year. But that first 18 months is prime weight loss time and prime weight loss is boosted by being in ketosis, which means I have to keep my fruit portions small anyways for now. Once I'm at maintenance I'll worry about adding fruit and complex carbs in. Right now I focus on protein, then low starch veggies, then a bit of starch if I have room, like a bite or two of potatoes (I'm Irish, I can't cut them out forever), or a few bites of quinoa.

You're only 5 days post op, so it could be constipation, gas from the surgery (it travels and causes A LOT of pain until it finally dissipates), your body recovering from the surgery, the weight starting to come off...any number of things. Make sure you're walking, getting your fluids in (especially fluids with protein in it), and take Miralax in your drinks to help move things along.

I can relate to being afraid of gaining weight after working so hard to lose it. We all deal with that here. But it's a fine line between being mindful about it and developing disordered eating habits. I can speak to this because it happened to me. I was dropping weight like a champ, then I hit stall after stall, and each one lasted longer than the previous one. And I would panic. And I would restrict the amount I ate, I would kick up the intensity and frequency of my work outs. I would have anger and confusion and fear anytime I either didn't lose or I gained a little (turns out, I'm one of the ones that gains 3-5 pounds during a stall and then just sits there for weeks and weeks. Then when the stall breaks, I drop like 6-7 pounds all at once). I had to actually go to a therapist that specializes in bariatric disordered eating (not easy to find, btw) to get my head on straight. And it's still a struggle sometimes. Especially since these last 11 pounds absolutely fight me tooth and nail and just don't want to come off. I said all that to say just be very careful. I never started out intending to have these issues. I thought I'd have the surgery, lose the weight, get healthy, and bada-boom bada-bing, life would be great. But it's never that cut and dry, is it? We can become obsessed with losing the weight, seeing how low we can get the scale, getting into that lower size, looking thinner, never gaining weight again, getting that bmi just a little lower.....and before you know it, you have a whole new eating disorder that's even harder to get out of and we're doing even more damage to our bodies without even meaning to. And we can justify what we're doing because HEY, we got off our meds, we're getting healthier, we're losing the weight, we're EXTENDING OUR LIVES damn it!!! And that's harder to overcome and harder to recognize and going too far than being obese is. We knew we needed help. We knew we were doing wrong. That's why we had the surgery. But now? Now it gets harder to see what we're doing because HEALTH!! WEIGHT LOSS IS GOOD!!! NO MORE MEDS IS THE GOAL!!! JUST A LITTLE MORE WEIGHT OFF CAN'T POSSIBLY BE BAD!!! So please please just be really careful with where you're at now and where you're wanting to get to. Lastly, on the days you're working out (especially the really hard weight days) increase your protein and calories. Your body thinks it's starving, so you need to reassure it that you're not. The heavier the work out, the more your body needs. You can't run a car without gas and you can't run your body without food. So give it what it needs, in the amounts it needs, and it'll do what you want it to. Make sure you also have a larger amount of fluids than you normally would on those days, too. Dehydration can really do a number on the body, as well.

Congrats, LeighAnn! I also had back pains and it ended up being the gas from the surgery. It dissipated after about 4 days, and I felt much better. Remember to drink REALLY slowly and the nausea hopefully will lessen as well. I had some nausea just because at this point, I am SO tired of protein shakes! I still have a little trouble 12 days out, but trying different flavors helped some as well as the slow-paced drinking.

Hi darling, Thank you for your elaborate reply, I appreciate it. So to answer some of your questions: I had the sleeve, it was the best option for my size and BMI. I do not have any comorbidities, on the contrary, I was healthy and worked out consistently for over 15 years. My problem is kind of unusual, I maintained a BMI of 22-23 my entire adulthood through working out, eating well, all sorts of cardio and resistance training, I actually am a certified trainer and nutritionist. Had my first child and snapped back, had my second and snapped back quickly too, then 2 months later my body blew up and I gained over 20 lbs in one month and struggled to lose weight after that. Back in 2022 I had a very bad foot injury practicing Taekwondo and was in a cast for 4 weeks, I couldn't move without pain and my mobility was greatly affected and I gained another 40 lbs and since then no matter what I did, how little I ate and how intensely I worked out I couldn't lose a single gram, my weight kept going up and my foot started killing me that I needed to bring my weight down, I even tried injectables (Liraglutide) and not a single gram dropped. So after struggling for 5 years and my foot injury worsening I decided to get the surgery. I know how it sounds being upset when I have reached my goal, it is just terrifying to me to gain weight again or go back to what my reality was pre-op. I really really don't want to be overweight again, hence wanting to lose a few more KGs to ensure that I have some wriggle room I try to get in 1-1.5 liters of fluid a day, keep my carbs under 55, try to hit my 65 grams of protein. I take my vitamins daily and I try to workout 3 days a week, doesn't always happen but I get in at least 2 sessions a week. Hope this answers your questions. Thank you again

A few thoughts from my Sadi experience after nearly 10 years: - Nutritionists are like driving instructors who read a book about driving but never drove themselves. The same can be said for many doctors since only weight loss specialists understand the procedures. - Eat the basics everyday (protein, fruit, fiber), then mostly anything else. - Hydration is vital, I get mine from fruits, tea and water. I eat between 20 to 30 lbs of fruit per week (not kidding). It doesn't add weight. - Get exercise everyday, even just steps are fine. I'm a 6'1 male, 63 yrs old, weigh about 166lbs today. I lost about 152 lbs in year 1, gained back 25lbs after 3 years. Recently gained about 5lbs but working out a lot. I prioritize eating the basics daily, taking the vitamins (less than a DS'er), then eat whatever I want. I get exercise everyday by walking my dog, hikes, biking and going to the gym. It took me about 4 years to get in decent shape after surgery. Now workouts are just a thing I do everyday like any other activity.