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Hi all. I am six weeks post-op from VSG and met with my doctor's team today. I have lost 22 pounds since surgery, which the team is very happy with. There was no concern about my progress at all and they said due to my weight on surgery date being 231, that I should put my expectations at 170 for my final maintenance goal. I was asked the usual questions and asked if I am hungry between meals and I said yes. I am finding myself hungry about 2.5 hours after (some) meals. When I said I was getting hungry, I was told it was gastritis, not hunger. I said "do they feel the same?" because it sure feels like hunger to me. It's my stomach making noises, and feeling hungry in my actual stomach. It's not head-hunger because I KNOW what that is. I do understand that eating can get rid of gastritis discomfort just like it can obviously make you feel like you are no longer hungry. I do acknowledge that it's possible this is gastritis, but wondering if it really is. (?) Per my doctor's orders: My current meals are 1 oz protein and 2 tbsp veg or fruit for 3 meals per day. Absolutely No Snacks are allowed. Today I was told I can move down to just one protein shake per day. Up until today, the only "snacks" that I was permitted were protein shakes. I am trying to follow the rules here, but got home and I feel so confused and even though I asked questions in the office, I have all kinds of things swirling in my head. I want to be successful, but feeling a little lost here. I know everyone's program is a little different, but wondering about the following: 1. How the heck do we know this is gastritis and NOT hunger? And, if it was hunger, do we just ignore it? (They have increased my PPI medications for now to see if it solves the "gastritis". ) If it's hunger and the increase in acid reducing medications doesn't help, am I just living with being hungry all the time? (YES I am seriously asking this because I honestly don't know what the expectation is). Unfortunately I am not one of the lucky ones who lost their feelings of hunger. I have not had any heartburn at all. 2. I don't know if any of this matters, but I swim laps pretty intensely 5 days per week for 1-1.5 hours. I suspect that part of the reason I am feeling hungry is due to the swimming. I could be wrong, but curious if anyone else thinks it has something to do with it. Prior to surgery, I was always hungrier on days that I swim. 3. My protein goal is 80 grams per day. With one single shake @ 33 grams of protein and a total of 3 oz of protein during the day with 6 tbsp of veggies, how am I supposed to meet this protein goal? My calculations tell me it's not possible. I'm still early as I just transitioned today to "regular diet" from soft diet. So, I am still trying to figure things out and how everything will work moving forward. Your kind replies are appreciated.

Happy Friday! I am recently sleeved - about 3 weeks ago. All my life I've had leg-shin-ankle-foot cramps off and on and usually remedied them by upping my hydration, drinking Gatorade, eating bananas or avocados, and taking magnesium supplements. After the surgery I've had them EVERY NIGHT/EARLY MORNING. I'm hoping to stick it out till my next appt to bug my doc about it, but I wondered if any of you take supplements (like magnesium or potassium) that help with this? If so, do you have a recommendation of a brand that worked well for you? I can't just eat half an avocado anymore - I'm only up to 4 tbs per meal....so while I can certainly have a Gatorade, I'm not really sure how to handle this effectively. I know I should consult my doc and plan to - but any tips are greatly appreciated.

I’ve been very lucky I didn’t even get gas pain like everybody else I have never been sick the only thing I can moan about is the constipation and insomnia. I would definitely tell myself to do it again. I’m just waiting for my first follow up appointment with surgeon and I need to speak to them because I haven’t lost anything in about 3 weeks and I’m now 7weeks post op. x

Hey guys! I also had my op (MGB) on 27/01/2025. I think for me, now 3 weeks po I’m doing ok. My tolerance appears to differ day to day. I’m not hitting my fluid levels either. I guess I t’s all a learning curve isn’t it and I’m struggling with the not eating and drinking at the same time which isn’t really helping.

2 month update: Down 11.1 pounds as of yesterday. Clothing is fitting much better. Feeling healthier already. Goal for this month is 4 pounds which will put me at 15 down in 3 months and solidly in the 240s.

Hello, Wendyjane! The NHS is the National Health Service - socialised tax-funded medical care provided in the United Kingdom. The tier system is basically various levels of care for varying conditions. For those seeking weight management help through the NHS. Google AI summarised it really well for me: Hospitals are grouped into governing bodies (trusts), and each trust, I believe, decides how to invest in the tiers, which in turn impacts just how much and what kind of support is given. For example, when I went through Tier 3 in my trust, I was given 1:1 virtual support (zoom meetings) once a month for a year with a nutritionist to help me implement healthier lifestyle changes, and during that time, I also met with an NhS psychologist for 3-4 months to work through any issues I may have regarding food and mental health. I really enjoyed the support I received from my Tier 3 programme (“Weigh Ahead”). I was also held accountable for my weight, blood pressure, and body measurements. Tier 3 aims to help you lose 5-10% of your total body weight in order to be referred to Tier 4. The current Tier 3 service in my trust now allows patients to receive prescriptions for Ozempic and Mounjaro to help with weight loss. (I’m sure you can imagine I was sorely sad to find out I missed that opportunity! Whereas I think the injectables will be available to me only in Tier 4 and from the bariatric surgeon?) Also, in Tier 4, if you so desire to go forward with bariatric surgery, then you have multiple appointments with various consultants: the bariatric dietitian, bariatric nurse, bariatric psychologist, the anaesthetist, and finally the surgeon. Once your appointments with each of these completes, then they meet together as a “Multi-Disciplinary Team” to discuss each case and decide if that patient is a good candidate to go forward with surgery. If yes, you’re then placed in another waiting list. According to my trust, I am not meant to gain any weight from the time of my Tier 3 referral until surgery. This has been really, really challenging… and at times, frankly speaking, exceedingly discouraging. I hope this helps as an explanation. ☺️

First, congratulations on your surgery. No, it’s not uncommon to start having doubts, worries, be a bit emotional about things. This is a big thing. Something you have never gone edits so and have absolutely nothing to base these new experiences and emotional reactions you’re having upon. With a sleeve, about 75% of your tummy is removed. This differs person to person & depends upon the size of your tummy. Larger tummy, more is removed. I actually got an internal photo of my tummy being removed (it’s not framed up on my wall 😄). It is impossible for you to regain if you’re following your plan and the volume of food/calories you’re consuming. A very common occurrence, which almost every one experiences, is called the three week stall. Around the three week mark (could be earlier or later than then) your weight loss will stall. It may last from 1-3 weeks. It’s very normal & just your body taking a moment to adjust to the changes and reassess your new needs (metabolic rate, digestive hormones, etc.). You will start losing again. Because there is no hard and fast rule as to your rate of loss, surgeons don’t tend to set weight loss goals - interim or final. There are just lots of averages around how much you may lose and how long it may take. Your surgeon may have spoken to you about how much weight you may lose by a certain time but it’s no guarantee of what will happen but just an idea of what might happen. They may ask how much you’d like to lose and then advise if it is possible or not. Whether it is possible or not is based on stats (averages). Don’t worry about not meeting your fluid or protein goals in the first weeks. It’s not easy in the beginning. As long as you’re making an effort and aren’t too far off. You’ll notice you get closer and closer and some days will be easier & others will be a real struggle. A quarter cup of food seems like nothing to begin but is again not unusual. My advice was 1/4 - 1/3 cup from purée to about a cup at 6 months. If you’re struggling eating soft food you may need to go back a stage for a few days & that ‘s okay. Sometimes we’re ( our tummies) just aren’t ready & healed enough yet to tolerate the more & more dense food as you progress to each new stage. Often weeks 3 & 4 are purées and then soft foods in weeks 5 & 6 but plans do differ. Trust me, it does get better and easier in time.

Routinely knock out 60hr weeks. I think I took three weeks off after the sleeve and that was largely due to a massive abdominal hernia that was repaired at the time of the sleeve surgery. It was my 3rd such repair...and has held up great these last 9 years. You may be able to flip the script......and make those 80hr weeks your best weight loss weeks. There is going to be a time when the protein shakes are the ticket...then maybe those small foil packs of tuna and salmon. Food won't be an issue that occupies your thoughts. You'll laugh at the vending machines and shoot 'em the bird. Make sure you buy all your necessary supplements & shakes and tuna packs and load up your desk or locker. Having those on hand will be one more way to keep food off your mind. You'll not be wondering what you are going to have for lunch every day. You'll have that covered. 8 weeks will be a great amount of time to recover and acclimate. You'll lose a pile of weight in those 8 weeks, too. Those 80hr weeks are going to feel much, much shorter from this point forward. Congrats. Go kick some ass. You got this.

@SpartanMaker is correct. It will likely be from the surgical gas rising behind the lungs & putting pressure on the phrenic nerve. From here it is absorbed into the lungs & you breathe it out. You don’t burn or fart it out. Yes walking helps as does slow deep breathing, marching on the spot (even seated ones), lifting your arms up and down as they help you breathe it out more quickly. A heat pad can help with the shoulder & neck pain. Otherwise it’s just a waiting game. I think it took up to a week for it to abate after my gall removal surgery (I had none with my sleeve). In saying that I had a muscle spasm in my back (I have a weakness there thanks to oozy discs) on day 2 or 3 after sleeve surgery. My surgeon suggested it was likely stress I was holding from the surgery. I had a lot of pain when swallowing due to swelling & I know I was holding myself tightly every time I had to sip or take a tablet. The spasm passed later that day. If it persists fir more than a week & isn’t lessening, contact your team.. All the best.

Sleeve Oct 2024. Band remove March 2024. Did all pre & post instructions, After solid eat stage I can eat large amounts of food without feeling full. For example, 3 turkey wraps with cheese and lettuce, had a T Bone for Thanksgiving. I'm stalled right now and don't know if drinking more water will help. Dr said need to loss 15% the first 3 months which is 56lbs, I'm only at 10%. With the band I could feel the restriction up high but now it's like relearning how to feel full, it's in my belly not my throat like before. I wish doctor would have use a smaller bougie, he uses 40's Last visit the nutritionist said "He does not do revisions" like to warn me. 383 start now 344 Need to be 325 by this month.

I think I'm going through what they call postop blues or postop depression. This is week three and my left side, which was my smaller boob and smaller side is perfectly fine but the right side where he had to manipulate it more and do my under arm fat is giving me hell. Well, I guess one good thing is I'm not turning to food. In fact I really don't feel like eating and it's really bumming me out. I think because I can't really work out and do the things that I normally do around the house, I think that's what it really is. It's annoying the **** out of me to be honest. And I really also hadn't had any surgeries in my life that requires a lot of downtime so this is new for me as well. With my bariatric sleeve hell I was up walking in the very next day. I think I walked like 3 miles and I walked pretty much every day ever since then and that was a year and a half ago so yeah.

I got several boxes that are for Bariatric patients that have 3 compartments, one for the big protein and then the other two for veggies/fruits and carbs. I go to work with one for each meal every day I go to work and I have what I am allowed to eat and that's it. When it is gone, it is gone. If I get hungry later, I may have a snack and that snack is a Protein shake. I like Premier Protein, and through Amazon you can get the variety pack and they have "sweet" ones that curb the urge to go to any vending machine or reaching for the chocolate on your bosses desk. Or mine. I prep for the whole week on Saturday and Sundays. I will bake chicken and then weigh out the appropriate amount of chicken and put it in the box, then the veggies and then the carb. I have them stacked in the fridge so when I pack my lunch, I just grab one or two and 2 Protein Shakes and I'm set for my long day. Hope that helps!

I ask the real haters if they know anyone who has lost 150lbs or more AND maintained that loss 3+ years without surgery or medication? Crickets …

I don't remember exactly, but it was crazy fast (like how we lose in the first months after WLS). It was around 10lbs the first week, then 3 lbs a week after that...so maybe 4-5 weeks in total? You are doing great, and yay that you are already looking ahead to a little plastic surgery as a reward for your hard work. I also think PS helps you maintain b/c you look so freaking good that you aren't going to mess it up! LOL!!!

My win for today was being able to eat some pancake I am 4 weeks post op gastric sleeve.

Yep, I'm 9 months post-op and may or may not just be coming out of about a 3-week stall. It's very normal and expected to start slowing down, stalling, and having small weight gains at this point. I hit a low of 170.2 toward the end of October, immediately bounced up a pound, and didn't drop below that low point until 3 days ago. Personally, I find that whenever I hit a new low after a little bit of a stall, especially if it involves a large one-day drop (I went from 170.8 to 169.0 in a day), I'll usually bounce around a little before seeing any steady declines. Most people continue losing weight until at least 12 months, and sometimes a little bit more until 18 or 24 months. But with a lot more stalls, especially the closer you get to a "normal" BMI. (I'm about 14 pounds away from not being considered overweight by the medical charts). The important thing is to develop a healthy eating and exercise routine that is sustainable no matter what the scale says. If you're doing what is reasonable and recommended, keep doing it. There's no need to change what isn't broken. On the other hand, if you know you've been straying from your good habits, focus on getting back to where you know you should be. Eating healthy foods in the correct portions on a regular schedule, moving your body throughout the week, getting the right amount of protein, taking vitamins, and drinking water are all things you will be doing for the rest of your life, even though at some point the scale will stop going down. The advice I am giving myself these days is to try to separate those good things I am doing from the number on the scale. Because for me, if I start seeing weight loss as a "reward" for "being good", it makes it harder to continue the good lifelong habits when that "reward" inevitably goes away. It also won't do you any favors in the long run if you try to introduce a bunch of things you know you will never be able to maintain just to get the scale moving faster. I might be able to drop a few pounds really fast if I went back to 500 calories per day or re-did my 2 week liquid diet, but I can't live like that forever, so it's a false victory. I think we all have to find the right balance of habits we can maintain fairly steadily for a lifetime and a healthy weight we can maintain without torturing ourselves. And remember that just because you hit the 12-month mark doesn't mean the game is over. You can always introduce improvements to your nutrition or your exercise that will result in slow and steady changes over time. You don't have to workout 5 days a week for 2 hours a day if that isn't your thing, but if you add some resistance training a few times per week or an extra walk after dinner, you will see those results down the road.

Congrats, you've done an awesome job so far! I'm going to tell you now; transitioning to maintenance is HARD. It's scary to start eating more, it's hard to know how much to eat, and it can be challenging for some to eat all the food they actually should be eating. I would also STRONGLY, STRONGLY encourage to to work up to at least 1 hour of cardio 3 days a week and 1 hour of strength training 2 days a week if you are not already doing this level of exercise or more. The data is crystal clear here. Those individuals that get at least the amount of exercise I listed are significantly more likely to be able to maintain their weight loss. Scientists don't entirely know why this level of exercise is needed (it's almost double what someone that was never obese needs to maintain weight), but the most likely explanation at this point has to do with the fact that exercise affects your body in a couple of ways: Regular exercise changes the way the brain regulates hunger and metabolism. Simply put, most of us got as big as we did pre-surgery because our brains weren't good at telling us when to stop eating. Exercise seems to help change the way your brain understands and interprets these signals. Exercise also lowers stress and systemic inflammation, two huge triggers for overeating. Best of luck!

Weight loss calmed down this week - 1.5lbs. No complaints though after the losses of the week before 🙂 Feeling tired today. Visited family yesterday, 6 hours all together sat in a van and my knees are so unhappy with me. It was our first time to our son’s new home which is a longer drive than his previous place. Will try and be better prepared next time. At least we spent time with the grandkids, which is always wonderful. A NSV yesterday…I bought some (non-stretchy) 3/4 cropped jeans a couple of years ago for £5, telling my daughter-in-law that I would fit in to them eventually. I broke them out yesterday, took the tags off and they fit perfectly!! 🥳🥳 The only downside was that it was far too hot for denim but the point was made 🙃 However DIL recognised them yesterday and was really pleased for me. Hubby has been a bit weird lately. Don’t get me wrong, still as massively supportive as ever but the ‘you will probably leave me when you lose weight’ comments have popped out more than a couple of times. Why do blokes always use this?? I did remind him that I didn’t leave him when I lost weight previously so why would I now? Do they think we’re only with them because we’re too fat to bother looking elsewhere? Jeez, I haven’t got the energy for anyone new, never mind all the stuff you generally do at the beginning of a relationship like shaving my legs or wearing matching underwear 🙄 Anyway, physio for knees tomorrow and Bariatric support group at the hospital on Wednesday. Have remembered to dig out my food diary to complete this week, ready for the dietitians appointment next week. Have a slimmer week everyone, we deserve it 🥰 Onwards and downwards!

Thank you for replying. It seems like this first week has been dragging on and on.

But you are smaller! By my calculation, you've lost ~15% of your overall bodyweight in just 3 months! That's an amazing amount of weight loss. If you were thinking you'd be at a normal weight in 3 months, that's just not even close to realistic or in fact possible considering where you started. Most people will continue to lose for at least a year, some for much, much longer. You're doing great so far and as long as you keep following the plan outlined by your team, you'll continue to lose for some time to come.

Thank you! I get nauseous sometimes, usually the night of injection but nothing else really! I'm on 10mg atm, most people are scared of the higher doses but for me it was a massive game changer. My experience: 2.5mg for 4 weeks no supression. 5mg for 4 weeks 1 day out of 7 for suppression. 7.5mg for 12 weeks most days I had supression 10mg week 5 on Wednesday and supression most of the time. But the supression isn't severe, it's just that I don't have food noise and I don't notice the hunger/cravings now. Went from huge portions to normal portions. Chocolate daily to a couple times a week. Takeaway once a week now once a month. Feel free to ask any questions and I'll answer them for you (:

Yes, I already have my food plan for my 2 week post-op period as well as the 6 week period after. My bigger worry is the full Bariatric diet while I go back to work and making sure I can stick to something tenable.

3 lbs in 10 days sounds like water retention. Have you had more salt than usual? I gained almost 4 lbs in a week at Christmas, but it was gone within 2 weeks and now I'm back to slowly losing. If you've had a disruption to your routine, that could explain it. Or hormonal shifts. Or just your body messing with you because you were looking forward to hitting a certain number on the scale and the universe finds it amusing to taunt you (been there).

Hello! After what seems like forever (Thanks, insurance company!), I finally have a surgery date. May 7. What were you top 3 post surgery must haves?

I can tell you that my nutrition consults were easy, more educational than not. I have no idea what an NHS Tier appointment even is, let along the difference between a 1, 2, 3 or 4. How many tiers are there and what is NHS mean?