Search the Community

I'm in the same boat right now. I got VSG on Dec 20 2021, I am 2 weeks post op, my plan wanted me on pureed foods only 3 days after surgery... which I personally felt was way too soon, so I stayed on protein shakes and broths only for the first 10 days. I had lost about 12 lbs from surgery date up to when I started puree on day 10, but just noticed I have gained about a pound last couple of days. I have been having a hard time getting things moving though too (smooth move tea actually did literally nothing), so I'm sure that has a little to do with it, Miralax takes the full three days once a day before it does anything at all. I'm sure it gets better after the 3-5 week hump from what I've heard.

Howdy y'all! Happy 2022! So it did it end up being a solid 6+ months for me to get myself back on here. The thought even crossed my mind to do a 1 year exactly post and then I got distracted and here I am like 3ish weeks late. Whatever, I digress. So 12 months have passed and with it I have shed 116lbs(that was the total about a month ago at the 1 year surgeon's check up). He is very happy with my progress however I know I can do better. Remember how I said 6 months ago sugar was an issue? Yeah, still is. More so since I got covid back in August and lost my taste/smell--it's back mostly but it has changed flavors and most of it isn't for the better. I can't stomach tomato based foods, I can't explain what it tastes/smells like but it is not good. Cooking garlic makes me gag but I can eat it okay which makes zero sense to me and then of course sugar based foods (especially candy) is almost normal-I suspect is why I have continued to gravitate to it so hard these last few months. Anyway, I decided tonight after posting in the forums for some help and some tough love/encouragement that I would sign myself up for the box of the month from the BariatricPal store--let me try lots of high protein/lower calorie snacks/foods without just blindly spending money on products that are nasty. Figure I'll try it out for a few months and see what it yields, I need to add in some new products to my repertoire. My water intake is back to around 100+oz a day most days. I made it a HUGE priority when the plasma center opened up in my town since my dog is looking to meet at least another two of the specialty departments at the local specialty vet in the next 6 weeks. I take a insulated mug with a straw, fill with ice cubes and I have a 50oz water bottle I fill and put in flavoring (my taste buds settled on the more 'tart' flavors like strawberry lemonade/cherry etc) and make it a point to drink at least 2 of the water bottles a day. I have had zero issues donating both with hydration and iron(hematocrit) numbers. Iron is always on the forefront of my mind since I went into this surgery already on once daily iron tablets due to low grade anemia I got from my mom and she got from her mom. I had tested at 38 which is the absolute lowest you can be at and still donate the first 3 times but today after I had upped my iron tablets to 2 a day as well as my normal 2 Flintstones the last 10-14 days I tested at 44 today! I obviously don't want it skyrocketing since you can actually have it to high so I will go to every other day 2 tablets and see if I can hold my iron steady in the low to mid 40s. I have ZERO regrets from this surgery and look forward to FLYING to see my dad over Father's day weekend, my goal is to be at or below my surgeon's goal for me (193lbs)-still sitting at 225lbs so not an overwhelming amount of weight to lose in 6ish months. I did buy myself a solidly decent treadmill that I have started using several times a week-I enjoy my 'treadmill shows' like The Witcher or Game of Thrones- shows I really enjoy but can only watch if I am up on the treadmill-gives me motivation to lace up the sneakers and go for a power walk. That said, I do plan on finding a chiropractor to do a consult with because my hips and back aches after only a few minutes of going at a solid pace, I assume it's from everything shifting and hope I can get adjusted and/or get some stretching exercises I can do to help get things aligned and make moving much more comfortable than it is currently. I am still in school but maybe just maybe work seems to finally have eased some and we have a new CSR starting in mid-January so I don't feel so exhausted and overwhelmed as I did 6ish months ago. I finally feel like I have the time to get things I want and need to get done, done. My ADD still makes focusing hard sometimes but my annual physical is in February and I plan on discussing ideas/strategies with my PCP. My goal right now is to buy myself a 6-18 month planner that will help me keep track of schoolwork deadlines I want to make for myself, work scheduling, personal/off time to make sure I don't waste my days off wandering around going "I know there is stuff I need to do but I don't remember what it was" or alternatively doing things like starting to clean out my closet-doing that for 4 hours then getting distracted by something else or ending up napping when the cat comes and lays next to me while I am looking through boxes(that's happened more than I'd like to admit). Anyway, moving along. Long story short here, I am very happy with my progress but know I have a lot left to learn and more weight to lose. I think when I hit Onederland and I have the funds, I will seek out beginner Krav Maga classes for fitness but also I haven't been below 200lbs as an adult and self-defense is something I've always assumed my weight would help with and now I won't have it. Maybe a solid firearm handling class and getting my concealed carry license as well. That's all I've got at this point, can't wait to see where I am and what thoughts I have in a few months! Keep on trucking everyone, we've got this!! -Amanda

I’m going to jump right in & focus on your inner child sugar & snack craving & ask if you saw or still see a therapist? If not it may be worth asking your medical team for a recommendation to a one who specialises in supporting bariatric patients, disordered eating, etc. The battle to overpower those cravings will only be won when you deal with that inner child. At the moment that child is winning. Are you eating because you are truely hungry (because your body needs the calories to function) or is it just your inner child wanting to be satisfied & comforted? Honestly, I didn’t specifically crave sugar or salt - I was an equal opportunity treat eater: sweet & savoury. 😉 I got them out of my house. If I don’t buy those foods & don’t have them in my house, I can’t eat them. I know it can be hard when it’s in the work place but try to avoid the break area. Go outside to eat if possible. I also try to prep most of what I eat myself so I can control the ingredients & how it’s cooked. While I was losing I ate pretty simply & a lot on repeat. It wasn’t boring. I actually found it less pressure because I didn’t have to think about what I was going to cook or eat. I had one snack a day: cheese, yoghurt (tub or drink), chunk of cucumber or fruit. Once you have those meals & food snacks in your app you can just select them each day. You don’t have to recreate them every time. So a little hard work to begin. Go back to only eating three times a day & no snacks or only one a day. It won’t be easy. Snacks add the calories which will slow your weight loss a lot. If the child screams at you, sip water, have a cup of herbal or green tea, eat a little chicken, ham, or other deli meat, have some yoghurt, or a little piece of cheese as your snack - note they are all protein dominant. Watch the fruit because of the high sugar content (though natural) so be selective - berries are best. Try to avoid traditional style snacks even if they’re high protein, low fat or low sugar versions - they keep the snack habit & craving alive. Try to avoid artificial sweeteners for the same reason - they continue to feed your sugar craving. You can explore them when you’re maintaining. You don’t have to jump in with both feet & go cold turkey. Even making one change to what & how you eat at a time helps. Drop something this week. In a week or two swap something else out. Little changes are easy to accept & are little wins. Just some suggestions. Feel free to ignore them all. Congrats on your weight loss so far.

Hello … 10 days post op for RNY and I am still in my two week post op liquids phase. The protein shakes are making me gag and I found two things that help get around it. First, I discovered bariatric high protein soup . You can find it on Amazon or Bariatric Pal. I also discovered I can tolerate PB Fit , made kind of runny. These things have drastically improved my post op liquid phase life. I still choke down a protein shake in the morning, but in the evening instead of a gross second shake I have my high protein soup . Amen!!

Hey friends! Here I am a year out and over 100lbs lighter than I was, but stalled because my inner fat kid still loves sugar and snacks. I am moving more but I need to get with a chiropractor I think since walking is painful mostly in my hips although now I find myself able to jog for over a minute at a time! 😮 So here's my need, I have about 30lbs to go to hit my surgeon's goal of 193lbs, I wanna be there by June. 30ish pounds in like over 5 months, I think I can do that but I need some help. I KNOW I'm off track on my eating-I blame my lack of power over my sweet tooth and the holidays. I plan on quitting sugar cold turkey but to that I need ideas for protein heavy, calorie light snacks because when I quit sugar I snack hardcore. I want to have foods I can track (prepackaged-I find being able to scan bar codes the night befoer into Baritastic app allows me some peace of mind that I can eat whatever I have in my lunch box anytime during my 12-15 hour day and not have to worry about continually getting my phone out to log. Also, I can always delete foods if I don't get around to eating everything I bring with me) and have me around 900-1200 calories a day. I have used P3s, greek yogurt, Quest chips (the sweet chili ones are my favorite!), apples are my commute home snack I share with my dog(she gets to go to work with me everyday ), raspberries, Sandwich Bros pita burger things as some of the examples--they are also what I find myself using on a normal basis. I do have an issue in that I had covid back in August, I lost my taste and smell and it has come back mostly all the way but it has really messed up my taste buds namely for tomato based foods(although ketchup is okay, go figure), there are other types that have an 'off' taste to them but I eating those isn't as much of an issue, and of course anything sugary/sweet has not had that wonderful off putting taste in it, in fact because they taste so close to normal that may be another reason I have gravitated so strongly to the sweets. Also I work at a vet clinic and all clients have gotten us for the past couple of months has been sugar(brownies, chocolate, doughnuts, etc etc--we joke you look at the break area and you get diabetes)😬... I don't need lectures at this point....okay, maybe I do. 😐 I know I'm off track. 😕 I am getting in around 100oz of water a day (made the water a priority when a plasma center opened up and my lemon of a dog decides she's going to need a few of the local specialty departments at the vet hospital and I have had zero issues donating at all), protein around 60-90 grams and my vitamins are on track BUT for the most part I have gotten lazy tracking my food intake-another big no-no so calories could be anywhere from 900-1400 maybe more if I'm snacking all day. So what are your go to snacks? Any help quitting sugar? I plan to do so when I am off since I know I'm a raging b*tch when I have quit sugar-at least the first 3ish days and my job is heavily customer facing. Is it worth it to just nix the snacks, stock up on a crap load of water, protein shakes and do the almost fully liquid diet I had to do preop(it was 2-3 protein shakes with one healthy meal) to help reset my taste buds? I have unflavored protein powder-anyone successfully add that into like a muffin cup(like a Kodiak Cake brand)? What about adding it into water with crystal light-kind of like the gatorade protein drinks but less chalky? Thanks for any insight/help/tips etc you can pass my way, I appreciate it all!

Loose bowel motions are ok - all that liquid you’re consuming. You’re lucky you haven’t experienced the sudden, very unexpected, no warning signal watery diarrhoea. I got up to pee took a couple of steps then gush. Very unpleasant & embarrassing. Expect some constipation (may persist for months) but don’t worry until it gets to three or more days then take something. You aren’t consuming much that needs to be evacuated every day especially to begin with.

Praying you recover from Covid soon. I had my RNY surgery a little over two weeks 12/15/21. Trying to work on 64 oz of liquids and it’s a struggle. Still on full liquids. You got this !

You’ll have headaches and brain fog those first few weeks anyways, may as well ride that wave too and call it quits, hahaha. I didn’t even want a Diet Coke during those first few weeks. But everyone is different and thats ok! Don’t be so hard on yourself when you slip (because you’re human, and likely a food addict like most of us, so you will slip and you’ll pick yourself back up and learn. I’m learning everyday.) I wanted salty and hot things, and even licked a cool ranch Dorito I think like day 5 or something crazy like that. When I started purées (I think day 10 maybe) I finally thought “oh ok I won’t be miserable forever”. I never knew just plain ol’ refried beans with a pinch of cheddar cheese could taste like a slice of heaven. I had a whole new appreciation for food, haha. I also didn’t do a pre-op diet, just clear liquids 24 hours before surgery.

Hi fellow Diet Coke addict! I’m 2 months out and haven’t had a sip! Which is crazy because I used to think longingly about my beloved Diet Coke. I had a craving for a Diet Coke last week, but I didn’t have it. Plenty of people do drink it post op, but I sorta said “hi craving, I see you and boy do I miss your crispy zing in my mouth, but I’m good”. Will it also be that easy for me to say no? Probably not. But right now it is. The same can’t be said for food. I’ve pretty much had it all at this point, and I’ve enjoyed it, regretted it sometimes, and moved on. I eat something yummy everyday, just not a lot of it. I’m still figuring this out. Sometimes I eat too fast and just have to ride that wave and tell myself “ok remember this for next time and remember how little your stomach is now”. i focused on drinking water those first 10 days. The first 2 days were tough because of nausea. I did a play by play of the first 2 weeks on here called “post op day 2” if you’re curious about how it felt day by day. currently I mostly eat canned chicken with Mayo (like I truly love it, hahahaha), an egg in the morning, tiny sandwiches (see post, comically small sandwich), honey roasted peanuts, and dinner is just a small portion of whatever my husband is eating… sometimes it healthy, sometimes it’s not. I’m not as strict as most people on here, and that’s ok. I’m learning and living. I’m losing about 2 pounds a week now (with stalls here and there, including the 3 week stall). i have incorporated the premier protein latte flavor daily now (3 weeks post op until I was suppose to wait for caffeine). I sorta have just choke it down bit by bit, but I’m ok with it. i took omeprazole the first month as prescribed and haven’t needed it since. I brought a pair of crocs to the hospital to walk about my room, wet wipes, a medicine cup to sip water, 2 bottles of water, pads (because you’ll likely get your period out of nowhere), night time toiletries ( I didn’t shower there, was only there 2 nights), iPad, phone charger (long), ear buds, and pj pants, tank top with built in bra, and sweater (I was ridiculously cold for a month after surgery). good luck!

I’m about three weeks out and totally had the emotional roller coaster several times so far. Still not sure what I’ve done but here I am! Hang in there dear - sounds like the peaks get easier!

I am now 4 weeks post-op and my anxiety is MUCH better. I knew from prior surgeries that surgery sets off my panic and it certainly did with this. But I am employing the strategies I learned in pre-op therapy and that helps. Overall, I just needed to heal, feel better, and get back to everyday life to be ok. Sent from my SM-G986U using BariatricPal mobile app

Hope you feel better soon. I have 3 coworkers out with Covid. I just had surgery 2 weeks ago so I can’t imagine what you are going through. I def have that fear though since it’s hitting way too close to home. Wishing you a quick recovery. Surgery is enough to deal with and now Covid too. I’m so sorry

My surgery was December 28 . So today I noticed after I ate I got a stomach pain . And had to use the rest room right after . Is this dumping ??? I tend to over think or stress so I’m trying not to do that about everything.

I didn’t have much pain at all. I don’t think my dr used the air or gas that they fill you up with cause I had no gas pain and I had the nerve block on my stomach so I didn’t even need pain meds. I Did have to go back as an outpatient to the hospital to get fluids the first week. I am not really sure why cause it didn’t really hurt to drink. I just couldn’t drink as much and it takes a while to get used to sipping all the time all day. I may not have needed to if I had just stayed at the hospital the second night but I was ready to go.

Thanks for the feedback. I'm so glad that your surgical procedure went so well. How did you feel the first week?

Hey everyone! I am scheduled for January 24th! I’m nervous because I don’t live in the US (I am in Prague, Czech Republic) and so I’m paying out of pocket. The experience is so different. I basically sent an email and they sent me a surgery date and a basic post-op meal plan. That’s it! No consultations, no pre-op anything. I’ve opted to roll out my own pre-op diet that I started on the 1st, and then I’m going to follow a 2 week liver shrinking diet leading up to surgery. The surgeon told me no diet needed, but from where I’m standing, it can only help me.

Hello All, Happy New Year! I need help from those experienced sleeve folks What are your biggest recommendations to prep for a successful surgical day and what's really important (to you) two weeks after. I'm fighting a diet coke addiction, no joke.

Bathroom scales aren't precision devices. Let me give you the advice my nutrition coach gave me. Weigh as often as you want, but pick ONE day a week and average the last week's worth. Then track your average. Because maybe you slid your scale and it's balanced differently. Maybe you ate something salty or drank a little wine and you're bloated. Maybe it's almost time for Aunt Flo to visit, or you overdid it at the gym, and are retaining water. But the average won't lie to you. And so, on days like yesterday where I had a bunch of salty food for NYE and then weighed in heavy, it averages out over the week, and I see I am losing about 2 lbs. a week.

I was allowed to take solid capsules 3 weeks out from surgery.

yes - normal. The big drops that many of us see initially are mostly "water weight". After my first month, I was losing about 10 lbs a month, give or take. So that's about 2 lbs a week. On top of that, at your weight, you're what we call a "light weight". You're not going to lose as fast as someone who starts out at over 300 lbs.

So eating 700 calories a day, one is creating a calorie deficit of 7K calories per week, if their maintenance is around 1700 cal/day. That sounds about right depending how fast your metabolism or activity. If one wants to eat more then they have to burn 500 to 1000 calories more a day instead. For me to lose 2 lb/wk, without any additional exercise, I have to eat about 700 cal/day too.

Hi. I’m in the pre-op phase for gastric bypass and am freaking out because I thought my pre-op appt was next Wednesday (1 week before my surgery) but it is this Wednesday. I still have to get my ekg and X-ray done and have the results for that appointment or I may have to reschedule my surgery. How long will it take to get my results to the surgeon’s office if I can somehow miraculously get the tests done tomorrow? Anyone have ideas of how to get the results quicker? Thanks!

Way to go, man! Beware of the stalls, they'll mess with your head a lil bit, but just take it in stride and trust the progress!

I do of course realize that scales only measure a specific point in time. And I also of course realize that I shouldn't obsess over a number on a scale or weigh myself multiple times a day. That being said . . . How is it that at 4:30 am I can weigh one thing, then at 6:30 am be 1 pound lighter, than at 8:00 am be 1/2 pound heavier even if I haven't eaten or drank anything? Plus don't even get me started on weighing after a bowel movement . . . my weight actually goes UP! How is that possible? I WANT to weigh just once a week, but I find myself checking the scale every morning as soon as I wake up. Just venting . Anybody else want to throw their scale through the window?😁

I've just come back to these forums and caught up with your progress. I too am refocusing and starting over. Well, not from scratch, but back to the basics. I started back to the gym on Nov. 22nd and have been 36 out of 41 days since then doing 45-minutes to an hour a day. I started Weight Watchers 3 weeks ago and am actively tracking food and water intake. We can do this!!!!