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Well said, @Jaelzion. I used to be able to diet & lose weight when I was younger but the reason I regained weight after was because I went back to eating the same foods I did before. I decided to have surgery was because I was unable to lose the 30kgs I’d put on in my late 40s early 50s; damn menopause meant I couldn’t shift more than a couple of kgs even if eating 500 calories for weeks & weeks. If you go back to eating the same foods in similar quantities you will gain weight again after your surgery. Portion control is important but must be coordinated with calorie control. 1500 calories of high fat, high sugar, carb rich food is the same as 1500 calories of protein dense, low fat, low carb, low sugar food. It’s just that one is better for your body & doesn’t lead to major health complications (heart disease, high cholesterol, diabetes, etc.). If you choose to eat pizza every day that’s your choice as long as the calories you consume over the whole day are not more than what your body needs to function & will therefore eatable you to maintain your weight. I eat more often than I did before (pre surgery: 2 meals & 1 snack - post surgery: 3 meals & 3 or 4 snacks). I eat more food across a day than I did before too. And I eat more calories than I did before to maintain at this weight then I did before to be unable to maintain at a much higher weight. The difference is the nutritional quality of the food I eat & that the surgery kick started my metabolism again. And I still have times I’m not hungry or interested in eating.

Yes, I’m in a surprising amount of pills. I’m on two different high blood pressure meds despite my latest readings being 120/80. I’m on Eliquis which is a blood thinner/anti clot. Also meds to prevent gall bladder stones which can happen with rapid weight loss. Also vitamin D pills. I’m trusting my surgeon. He’s the head of minimally invasive surgery at Columbia in NY and I’m told he’s one of the best in the country.

I went through insurance but I know someone who paid privately and she didn’t have to go through all the hurdles either. I am not sure if she had to do labs or not but she didn’t have to see the nutritionist or the psychiatrist. Which was all I had to do with insurance. The other medical stuff is as needed to determine you are fit for surgery or to prove comirbidites to insurance companies so it varies person to person. If you think you may have disordered eating (like boredom or emotional eating or binge eating) I would definitely see a bariatric therapist whether they require it or not. I learned after surgery about boredom and emotional eating and I struggle with both. I wish the psychiatrist I had to see had picked up on this so I could have dealt with it before surgery. I wanted the surgery asap but I feel the process has been harder for me dealing with my disordered eating while also doing weight loss phase.

Hi all I am due to have my bypass surgery on 4th January and am ready to start my liver reducing diet. I was due to see the dietician tomorrow but she cancelled due to illness. So far all I have had is one zoom call with the surgeon and two letters, one confirming op date and one for the now cancelled dietician appointment with some info on the pre op diet. I have read through this forum and notice that people have had pre op bloods, had to lose weight to have the surgery, had to see the psychiatrist, anaesthetist etc. but I have literally seen nobody and my op is in 3 weeks! I am paying privately for the op, so not on the nhs, and it with a reputable company but I’m just finding it odd. Is this normal for such a huge operation when you pay privately? Feels strange to me

My first stall was about 2 weeks after surgery and lasted around a week. The second real stall was around 6 months, and lasted almost a month. The third real stall was late-Oct to late-Nov, which I mistook for being in maintenance (then 7 lbs flew off in a week, so nope). There's really nothing to do. It's impossible to keep your weight at the calorie levels we're on, but we often underestimate what just a little change to our hydration levels and constipation can do for our weight. We had a Christmas party at work last week. I woke up 4 lbs lighter from dehydration. Then gained them back over the weekend. All water.

I don’t have an eating disorder. He also seems a bit misinformed and I feel like I need to lie to meet his standards. He thinks I need to be spending 5 hours in the gym per week. Guidelines recommend 175 minutes per week (which is just shy of 3 hours…) and honestly I can’t become an exercise addict until my joint pain wears off - which will probably be after I lose a bunch of weight!

A true stall is generally 3+ weeks. Anything less than that is nearly always water weight, poop, or other completely normal weight fluctuations. Those first weeks your body is still healing from surgery so there is bound to still be swelling, and it will take time for your body to adjust. Just follow your plan and give it time.

The only thing I can suggest is to be honest and don’t try to rush the process. I don’t think the therapist asked me the right questions and I didn’t know enough to volunteer info and I passed the psyc evaluation and only learned after surgery about boredom and emotional eating. These things have been a big struggle for me and I wish I had addressed them prior to surgery. It looks like I will still be able to reach goal but it hasn’t been easy at all. Not saying that you have any of these issues. But some of us do and racing the clock in therapy trying to do both parts at once has not been fun. As much as I couldn’t wait to have the surgery I can only hope I can finish the emotional work before the honeymoon phase wears off so I don’t gain it all back.

Thanks for the reactions much better food day today, weighed this morning and a disappointing 185lbs, i used to weigh daily and im going back to that, i think its better for me to keep tabs on my weight. My scale broke about 3months ago when a friend came to visit, and i replaced it about 6week later, it said id gained about 5kg and i thought it was wrong LOL. Todays food was protein shake, protein meal (like space food), chicken (A LOT), low fat yogurt and a half a mars bar, 3 crackers and a lollypop. Calories should be about 1000 for the intake. I had about a litre of water, and about a litre of coffee. ill be going for a run shortly, 3 to 4miles maybe i realize i eat because im bored, im working from home because of covid and currently in the UK, nothing really going on out here. will write again tomorrow, im buying myself a gucci bag at 10lbs weight loss because i need the bag and body.

Please can someone recommend a good app available on App Store to track food and fluid intake? Weight loss progress? Maybe give tips, recommend vitamins etc? Something other than baristatic cause that’s not available where I live

Do you “feel” you haven’t lost weight, or actually haven’t lost weight? Any meaningful feedback to ur post will depend on your answer….

It can and does happen, I also know people who lost weight and gained it all back and are now at their starting weight plus have the challenges being sleeved gives you. You still need will power and commitment to make this work long term and it doesnt come easy

it's a stall. Almost all of us experience them - and the first one is usually within the first 4-6 weeks after surgery (it's usually the third week, but not always - sometimes it's the second week and sometimes it's the sixth week. But if you want more info about, search this site for the "three week stall" (it's so common to have it the third week that we call it the three week stall). There are over 17,000 posts on it here on BP (and no, I am NOT kidding..). best way to deal with it is to stick to your program and stay off the scale for a few days. Stalls typically last 1-3 weeks before you're on your way again. And just so you know, this is likely the first of several stalls. It's a normal part of weight loss.

UPDATE: So, on Friday I contacted my nutritionist. I sent her a lengthy message through my health portal online and attached a copy of my most recent food logs for her to go over. She quickly responded and told me the following info. First she thanked me for the included food logs with macros as they were very helpful. She was happy to see that I still log my food as it helps when trying to figure out what you could be doing "wrong". She said that, although she could see that I was trying to keep my protein up, I was still being VERY inconsistent. Once she looked over it all and averaged it out, she said my protein was drastically ranging from 49-98 grams a day!! Yikes! Didn't pay attention enough to that to see that myself. She said my carb intake was also inconsistent. She told me I was using the net carb amounts, but also getting the calories from the total carb amount. She wants me to keep the carbs between 50 and 75 grams a day but NOT over 100. At least not now. She said she understand the use of net carbs from a diabetic standpoint, but in my case my blood sugars are improving and my medication has decreased. Of course she said carbs should be from fruit/veg/whole grains. Which I was doing but in wrong amounts, I guess. I also had been lacking in the veggie department cause I somehow inadvertently was replacing veggies with these new carbs (i.e., rice, quinoa, etc) that months ago she suggested I add in. So yeah, was doing things sorta right, but not really. LOL She said it looked like most of my calories were coming from carbs and lacking in protein that your body needs to preserve muscle and continue to lose fat. She said there was no need to cut them out completely, and that that's not likely to be productive. She also told me to keep my calories down to about 800 a day for now too. Which I was usually between 800 and 1000. Most days, 900. And finally, when it comes to my fitness she said that walking (which is what I've been doing) is great cardio, but that's all. She suggested I start including some light weight or body weight strength training that's metabolic active, meaning I'll burn calories/fat and preserve muscle and strength. Often times including that helps get through stalls, she said. She told me to make sure there's variety to my activity. She told me to correct these things for the next few weeks and see if that helps. If not I will make an appointment with her and we can go from there. So, FINGERS CROSSED this works!!! I have made the corrections starting this past Saturday so we'll see. I have yet to figure out an exercise/weight plan. I'm having issues figuring out what exercises I should do with what I have here at home (weight bands and free weights).

I’m having my 3rd session with the surgery psych soon and I just want to be done. Not a fan of this guy and he seems to be fulfilling a role that the dietitian is supposed to fill. He’s drawing this out as long as possible. Hoping to see my own psychologist about issues I’m having but I’ve been controlling my food intake, counting calories and have been losing weight on my own. He’s just unhappy that I told him I don’t know what I’d do if I was on vacation and needed to eat or that I wasn’t substituting my breakfast for protein shakes. I just really need to get past him as they won’t even let me meet my assigned surgeon to see if I like her or not and then face the next hump - either switching surgeons or going forward.

I’m new to the group and haven’t had my procedure yet but I will get sleeved on 1-12-22 I’m in other weight loss groups and I have never heard of not losing weight at all I hear people say they hit a stall usually around 6 months post op

For me, it was important to keep tracking everything even through the frustrating stalls: weighing myself regularly, tracking all my food and water, etc. It is easy to get discouraged when you don't see the scale move for a while (or, move slower than you want) but the key is continuing what you are doing, with potentially some tweaks depending on what your practice advises. In my case, tracking helped me ensure I was pushing toward the calorie level my practice wanted to see (at least 1000 cals/day, which was hard for me for a while) and helped ensure the choices I was making to add calories continued to be smart (prioritizing protein). It was also helpful to take measurements and pictures to see progress. In fact, I was just in a really slow period of weight loss for 6-8 weeks (after awesome weight loss the initial few months), and seeing new pics compared against the old ones from right around surgery was so, so helpful at giving me positive reinforcement. I also have been looking for other non-scale victories to carry me through, so realizing that clothes are fitting looser, or that I just have more energy than I did before. On the happy side, my slow weight loss has ramped up again after slogging through that slower period. I am exercising a bit more but also have been diligent about hitting that 1000 cals/day threshold - I'm convinced that has been the key for me, at least until my body decided to go slow again! So, talk to your nutritionist, see what they say, and also just stay hopeful (I'm not a naturally positive person so this part is really a challenge for me!) Slow is better than zero and zero loss is better than gains. Good luck and hang in there!

100% agree. Therapy is so essential to long term success. I am SO grateful for the work I did before surgery that got me to a place where I could use the tool properly. So, so much of this is mental & emotional. ETA - I'm only 3 months out, so still very solidly in the protein and veggies phase. But I absolutely know that a balanced diet, including carbs of various sorts, will be in my future. Adherence is so vital during the active weight loss phase (1 year or so). But as you reach maintenance, you will learn how to incorporate other foods that help you maintain vs. continuing to lose weight.

I feel like I’ve hit a wall. It’s like I started losing a good amount of weight for the first few weeks. Now I’m at week 6 and I feel like I haven’t lost anymore. My husband says I have. But idk. I don’t feel like I have. Anyone else have this issue ? Or have any insight ?

Hi! I am scheduled for ESG procedure in 3 weeks. I have generalized anxiety and take meds for it now. I have been reading horror stories of people who had a weight loss procedure that developed worse anxiety or a panic disorder after. Dose anyone have any experience with anxiety worsening after an ESG procedure? I have felt very ready for this procedure until last night when I think my anxiety was getting the best of me. Of course I made the mistake of googling anxiety after weight loss surgery before bed and ready lots of bad things. I pry should not have have done that, lol. I started seeing a therapist about a month ago so I can get ready mentally and emotionally for this, and she seems to think I will be just fine after. I have now started wondering if I should try the balloon or something that is reversible, in case I panic. I would love to hear others experiences. Thanks!

Hi, thanks we’re all doing well if we don’t gain… how do I share on the November buddies thread? Still figuring out this app.

I gained 40 lbs!! I maintain at or below goal (150) for 8 years!! I've already lost just under 20 lbs, but I'm on full liquids. No Gerd, no chest pain from the hiatal hernia. Right now, other than struggling with protein, this was a win/win!!

Yes, now that I'm in maintenance, I do allow myself a treat now and then (special occasions). And my day to day diet is not as strict as it was when I was in weight loss phase. You don't have to commit to NEVER having any of your favorite foods ever again. A total abstinence approach works for some people, but it's not realistic for me. But you will need to be mindful of how and what you eat, if you want to maintain the loss. I weigh myself regularly and I adjust based on what I see on the scale. Like a lot of us, I have a redline weight limit that tells me it's time to buckle down and follow my plan more strictly until I lose the pounds I have picked up. Hopefully, I will never again eat recklessly and mindlessly on a day to day basis. But I still enjoy old favorites (just less often and in smaller portions). I hope that helps!

Before surgery, I had been obese since the age of 8. I was 54 when I had the sleeve done. In all those intervening years (decades), I was never able to lose significant weight and keep it off for more than a year (usually 6 months). After surgery, I lost 130 pounds and reached a normal BMI for the first time since I was a little girl. I'm coming up on 3 years since my sleeve and my weight is within 4 pounds of my lowest weight. I had 45 years of trying to lose weight and maintain the loss. If I could have done it on my own, I would have. To a certain extent, you're right. No surgery will allow you to eat unhealthy food on a regular basis and maintain the weight loss. The part you are missing is that for some of us, the surgery alters our appetite and reduces cravings. That makes it much easier to stick to a desired eating plan. Prior to surgery, my appetite beat me up like it was Mike Tyson. Now, it's more like a toddler. It can make a lot of noise, but it doesn't overpower me anymore. I'm not consistently relying on raw will-power, where I'm constantly struggling not to eat. That wouldn't be at all sustainable (as my 45 years of diets demonstrated). Sure, sometimes I want something bad and I have to tell myself "Not right now". But it's a heck of a lot easier to do that now than it was before surgery. It's really unfortunate that you were told you would be able to eat as you did pre-surgery. I honestly don't know ANYONE who completely went back to their old diet and maintained their weight loss. Now that I am in maintenance, I'm not as strict as I was during the weight loss phase. I eat more carbs (in the form of fruit mostly) and I allow myself a treat now and then (Thanksgiving, Christmas, my birthday, Passover, etc.) But day to day, I eat a maintenance diet that is very different from how I ate pre-surgery. Your surgeon is simply wrong. 2 years and 9 months after surgery, I still have significant restriction and my appetite is still about two-thirds of what it was before. The restriction is not as intense as it was in the early days/weeks/months after surgery, but it's there. I am satisfied with a fraction of the food I used to eat at one meal. It will always be possible to "eat around your sleeve" by eating unhealthy food in small portions, but all day long. No surgery can stop you if you are really determined to over-eat. That's why it's important to get to the root of the psychological reasons you depend on food to help you cope. Because surgery doesn't eliminate those issues. It's very unfortunate that your bariatric team didn't prepare you for that aspect of things. Different people have different experiences of what post-surgical life is like. Not everyone gets the long-term appetite reduction that I enjoy. I'm aware that it may not last forever. But almost 3 years later, the sleeve is still helping me maintain my weight loss, WITHOUT a constant will-power battle. It takes commitment sure - I can't eat everything that comes to mind, whenever I want. But for the first time ever, I feel like on any given day, I can CHOOSE how and what I eat, rather than being a prisoner of my appetite.

How you decide to maintain your weight is ultimately your choice. What I do or what someone else does may not work for you. My advice is, whatever you choose to do, make sure it is sustainable. That is, it’s a way of eating that doesn’t mean you have to make sacrifices & are able to enjoy living your life. A way of eating that is overly restrictive is destined to fail. There are always alternatives that are healthier & more nutritious. For example if you want to eat carbs, look for multi or whole grain versions & not highly processed white flours. Want pizza, try cauliflower or chicken bases or pita bread as has been suggested. There are lots of high protein low carbs pastas available too. There are snack foods that are lower in calories & higher in protein then traditional snacks. Try different cooking styles like an air fryer or oven baking versus deep frying. Some people do eat pizza, burgers, fries, etc. but they do so in small portions, occasionally. You know you best & how well you can manage eating fast foods & foods considered unhealthy. Use the time you’re losing & on a restrictive diet, to research different eating styles & reflect on your trigger foods. You may develop your own eating routine by picking & choosing from various ‘diets’. You may become vegetarian. You may switch in some vegan options or meals. You may choose to reduce certain food types from your diet like sugar or fats. You just need to develop a way of eating that works for you. Good luck.