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some information: I'm 24 73kg/160,9lbs 179cm/5'10. So I had my surgery around August of 2019. I lost around 50Kg from than till now but I don't wanne lose any more. I started going to the gym last week but before that I also did 3-4 month at home training because I didn't wanne go to the gym before i could at least do something. (stupid to think like that but yeah...) My arms looked like twigs and still do but at least there is a some muscle to see compared to 4 months ago. All the information I find online regarding gaining muscle is all about "eat big to get big" but that's the thing i can't eat big, like probably most of you guys. I have been drinking protein shakes 2X a day protein bars... and other food that contain protein to at least get as much as I can let's say around 80g of protein But I don't see much progress (counting the 4 month workouts at home) and I don't know if I should just trust what I’m doing now or change something... Sorry about my writing, I would say sorry about my English but even in my langue I write with many spelling mistakes.

I had the sleeve don in 2010. I was lacto ovo vegetarian the whole time. I lost slowly for the first two rears, then started to gain. I employed 5-2 semi fasting program and lost to goal (90lbs) by year three. I maintained for less than a year, then slowly started to gain until around 2019 when i platoued at 20 lbs under my initial weight. Around that time i was diagnosed with breast cancer. I went to a “surviver clinic” run by my medical plan(Kaiser). They recommended i go whole food plant based to reduce most causes of premature death. I was motivated. That was 4 years ago. I am currently down 35 pounds from my high. I wish i had done this insted of surgery, because whole food plant based relies on eating a lot of food to work. I can eat quite abit now… i guess my stomach has stretched out quite a bit, but i still cant eat as much as i could before surgery. Check out nutritionfacts.org for lots of current research on nutrition, weight loss and health.

All liquid as well. I’m struggling with the sweetness. I’m not a fan of artificial sweeteners. I’m on day 2 of my 10 day. No coffee either. That’s hard

For most it is just temporary. Keep your fluids up. Add some extra salt to your diet. If you’re going out or being active take an electrolyte drink with you to sip. Get up slowly from lying down or seated & wait before moving. March on the spot or your feet up & down to get your blood back up to your head. Usually waiting or marching, etc. for 10-15 seconds is long enough to avoid it occurring. I’ve always had a predisposition to low BP (it runs in the family). Now my BP sits around 80/60 and sometimes lower all day everyday & I regularly experience further drops causing loss of vision & lightheadedness. I can feel it coming on just before my vision starts to narrow. I usually stop moving & reach for a wall, chair, table, even a person to ground myself. I sometimes bend over at my waist so my head is lower than my heart & come up slowly. It passes quickly - a few seconds. Occasionally I’ll have a drop, recover then have another one straight after. It’s not debilitating. Just know it can happen. Never fainted either. I have been put on medication but it didn’t help. They were concerned it was so low after my gall surgery they gave me a shot of adrenaline. My BP went up for like three minutes and five minutes later it was back where it was. For me it’s normal.

This sounds about right. There’s something doctors and others call a “3 week stall” where your body is recovering water lost and rebuilding the stores it expended during the first week or so of very low calorie/healing. The stall can happen earlier for some (it happened at the 10 day mark for me), or a week or two later. Regardless of when it happens, it usually lasts 1-3 weeks (mine lasted a week) and breaks as long as you stick with your guidelines. YouTube has some great info videos on this stall, worth checking out!

I'm 3 days out of surgery and on protein liquids. I can't figure out how fast or slow to be eating in order to satisfy my hunger and make sure I don't stretch out my new pouch. I ate a 1/4 cup of pudding in about 10 minutes and am feeling guilty that it was too fast. My stomach gurgled and I felt it stretch. Am I damaging the pouch? How do you all eat slowly and satisfy the hunger?

That’s great to hear!! Yes Mounjaro got me going again. Lost another 30ish pounds since the Fall!! I also joined HotWorx in the Fall and have also dropped lots of inches!! I’m on 10 mg currently!

I am struggling with over eating after 10 months post op. Lost 90 pounds quick from May to October then stopped. Trick or treat, thanksgiving, Christmas, now Easter causing me to fall off the program and has carried into my daily eating. Anyone else struggling with binge eating?

Had my sleeve yesterday. Got home this afternoon. All went well and even with a tiny cheat during my liquid pre-op diet, I lost almost 10 lbs and surgeon said it made a big difference as she was in and out in less than 30 minutes. On the bad side, I’ve been in substantial pain. Walking as much as I can but man, this gas pain is no joke. I woke up from anesthesia pretty much screaming. Every hour tho gets better and I’m finally starting to see the light at the end of the gas pain tunnel. Gas X (dissolvable) is def your friend. I also packed a bunch of stuff for the hospital and used 3 things only - my chapstick, my beloved pillow and Evian water spray, which helped with the dryness. Oh, and my toothbrush. Everything else was a waste tho.

Everyone's journey is different, you will see those that started to loose fast at the beginning and slowed down, and others that were the opposite. Surgery was end of month, so I count the calendar months to be easier. I lost 1st month 18.70 (including preop), 2nd month 17.4, but after it has been 8-10 per month. I did review my diet and cleaned it up a little and added exercise so I think this month will be different.

I had to have my hiatal Hernia repaired separately as it was so extensive. I originally went in on august 16, 2022 to get sleeve but they found massive Hernia. 1/3rd of my stomach in my chest. So I had to wait until that healed all the way. Had my sleeve finally 2/1/2023. Doing well. When I decided to do this in July 2021 I weighed 347. I changed eating as I did research and at time of surgery 19 months later weighed 293. So lost 54 pounds before surgery I now weigh 266 so down 27 pounds since surgery. So a total of 81 pounds since process started. But also tons of inches! Looking for a surgery buddy to follow this process with... Sent from my SM-S901U using BariatricPal mobile app

Can’t wait for this. I lost 90lbs presurgery and I’m down about 10 more post ( just over 2 weeks). And I feel I should be happy with 100 down, but I’m struggling to find NSVs and this is a big one I’m looking forward to.

Things have been super annoying lately. I had surgeries for all the polyps in my stomach in Jan, Feb, and March. Thought I was done, then the doctor looked down through my duodenum and found nodules all through it, so now I have a surgery on the 14th of this month to remove them. Hopefully he can get them all, if not, then I'll have 1 last one in May. THEN I will be cleared for revision surgery in either June or July. On the plus side, my A1c is now 5.3, which takes me out of even being pre-diabetes and is now officially normal. My blood pressure stays around 110/70ish. I'm in size 18 clothes now (from size 28), size 7 ring (from size 10), have a lot of annoying loose skin (the only real skin that bothers me is the loose skin on my neck/chin). I'm back to being able to do my normal work outs again. All in all, I'm doing well. Just want these surgeries to be finished so I can have the revision, recover, and get back to living my life normally. There will be new adjustments with the bypass (my main fears are strictures and malabsorption) but I'll get the hang of it like I did with the sleeve. Just ready for everything to finally be finished.

The first month I lost 30 pounds. Then I hit a stall. Now at 11 months out, I lose around 8-10 pounds per month. But I have more shape and definition in my body, a lot of excess skin, I'm way healthier and stronger, and as long as I don't gain, I'm happy. I've had some complications and I need to have a revision to the bypass, so I assume I'll lose the rest of my weight then. I just do what I can now. But it's normal to hit stalls and slow down losing weight.

I am about 9 months post op. I have lost close to 200 lbs. I took a very long break from work and have taken a job with much physical labor. I am beyond sore and care barely walk after about 10 hours of my shift . So bad that I walk like I’m about 100 years old. I didn’t have this pain when I was bigger. It’s been over 2 months at this new job and my body doesn’t seem to be feeling better with this. Any tips? What is happening?

When you guys are talking about how much weight you've lost, are you including what was lost during the pre-op diet as well, or just strictly what you've lost since surgery day? I've been a bit disappointed. I lost 10 before surgery, and 11 after surgery (3/24/23), which I was very pleased with. Week 1 I was still on clear liquids, and this week on full liquids, I actually ended up the exact same weight as last week. Just seems really early to be stalling. I'm trusting the process and sticking to the plan, but man it's discouraging.

I started at 373 lbs and lost 16 lbs the first month, and then about 10 lbs (give or take a couple of lbs) per month for about six months after that. Then it gradually dropped. After the first year, there were months when I only lost about 2 lbs. I ultimately lost over 200 lbs, 100% of my excess weight. people lose at different rates for all different reasons, many of which you have little or no control over - such as age, gender, starting BMI, your percentage of muscle, your metabolic rate, various genetic factors. The two factors you DO have control over are your activity level and how closely you follow your clinic's food plan. If you do well with those, you'll lose the weight, whether fast or slow. In the end, your success depends on how compliant you are with the program, not how fast or slow you lose the weight.

Hi, I had VSG on 2/1/23. I'm down 27 pounds so far since then. I've had a stall of about 4 weeks. But back to losing. Prior to surgery when I started this process I changed my eating habits. It was 19 months from beginning to surgery. Anyway, I lost 52 lbs during that period so I'm down 79 pounds so far. I just thought I'd lose it quicker at first after surgery. I started out at 347, down to 266. I'm pleased with where this is going but thought it would be more, anybody share their 2 month loss? Thanks [emoji4] Sent from my SM-S901U using BariatricPal mobile app

Water stays in your stomach 10-20 min. I was told to sip slowly and it may take 10 min to drink an ounce at first, and to try to work up until I get 64oz per day, no chugging, and no drinking 30 min before or after a "meal". Fairly loose guideline. I am blessed that I don't have a hard time eating or drinking (yet) and I have a hard time drinking that slow. I am not trying to challenge myself to see how much I can drink before it hurts, so I usually limit myself to 4oz per 30 minutes because that turns out to be evenly spacing my 64 oz out between meals. When I fall behind it's because I'm absorbed in a work project and will sometimes sip 4oz and pause 10 minutes, then sip another 4 oz. Seems to work for me.

I hear. My headache went away on day 10. Gatorade was a lifesaver.

April 6th will be exactly 3 months post op (sleeved 01/06/23). I'm down 60.6 lbs. Overall, I feel great. No food restrictions and can tolerate everything I eat. 1000 calories a day with a minimum of 80 grams of protein.

Hi. I had VSG on 3/27. I weighed 335 at my first doctor visit and lost 19 pounds presurgery. Anyways, I have been reading on here and I'm worried that my doctor should have recommended bypass vs. sleeve since I have so much weight to lose. He set my goal at 170. That's nearly 150 pounds. I haven't found anyone in here that has lost that much with sleeve. Am I worrying needlessly?

First, your BMR is a bit of a guesstimate, but 2100 isn't unreasonable for a guy. Some calculators/formulas are way off because they simplify things by using body weight, while it is lean or muscle mass that is the important factor (all that extra fat we carry around does little to BMR, though whatever extra musculature we may have to carry around that extra fat does help. There are some tests that they can do (VOx, etc.) that can give a closer reading to your personal BMR, and many body composition scales give an OK estimate based upon their reading of your lean mass. The most important thing is at what caloric level is your weight stable - that gives the best clue as to where you stand metabolically. My BMR was probably around 2100 also, though my stability point by experience and tracking intake was in the 2600-2800 range (consume more consistently and I would gain, consume less overall and I would lose.) BMR represents our resting metabolism, while the extra burn if from exercise and daily activities; most calculators and tables (and ourselves) tend to over estimate the burn from exercise. After surgery, and you lose what you are going to lose, you will likely have lost some muscle mass, I lost around 10 lb) as you aren't carrying that extra 100, 200 or whatever pounds around with you 24/7, so your BMR will likely decline some, but not a lot (maybe down to 2000). This is why most programs emphasize getting in adequate protein, and doing some load bearing exercise, to minimize the loss of muscle mass, to keep our BMR up. If you can maintain a diet of 1100 calories (not at all difficult for the first year or so post op) that will yield a caloric deficit of around 1000 calories to your BMR (and likely more considering activity burn,) which will equate to an average loss of around 10 per month (more initially, and tapering off over time) - that's about what I did at 1100 calorie average, and my final few months before goal was a consistent 10lb per month loss; after goal and into maintenance, I settled into around 2100-2200 per day to maintain a stable weight. Some people, particularly the shorter ladies, may be stable at 11-1200 per day after all is done, so they will need to go much lower to lose their excess weight - this is why we see 6-800 calories as a common intake for the loss phase, and they will often lose more slowly because they have a lower caloric deficit (figure about a pound per month per 100 calories in deficit, on average.) In short, figure on 1000 calories or so while losing, and probably around 2000 or so, give or take, to maintain, as a quick guesstimate.

I will ask your doctor to confirm since surgery does mess with your hormones. It took me a month to get my period which I didnt have for almost 10 months before that, and then I had a period every 2 weeks until I hit my 4th month. Sent from my SM-S916U1 using BariatricPal mobile app

Hi there! I am 4 weeks post op from my VSG. I started at 195, lost 12 lbs pre surgery, and 15.4 lbs since surgery. So down 27.4 lbs total. I am now at 167.4. I am hoping to lose 10 lbs in the month of April, to get me to 158 by end of the month. I’m am just coming out of soft foods phases, and am taking it very slow— still very focused on getting fluids in. I have been drinking two protein shakes a day with several VERY small “meals” a day- but am starting to think through how i can up my protein with real food and drop to one shake a day. No real hunger driving me, just trying to get the basics down before branching out too much on the food.