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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.

Hi Valboosky, That is amazing amount to loose on your pre op diet. Now for the pills my doctor told me to lay off for 2 weeks because they started making me sick. I’ only have to take 5 pills daily. One big vitamin supplements 3 pills I got from the center. I drink protein drinks because some of the protein shakes also make me queasy.

Most stalls last from 1-3 weeks, but I did have a few past that. My longest ones were in the 40-odd day range, but then I'm also close to maintenance.

Hello there Lady Godiva! I, too, was blessed to find my 2 week pre-op liquid diet not too difficult. In fact, I did it twice: the first time, on day 13, my surgery was cancelled due to the Covid surge. The second time around, I admit I had had a few more food funerals, but when the liquid diet started, it was actually a relief to not stress about food and to know that I was on my way to success!

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

Folks - I just want to send a small positive vibe out into the universe - I am on day 5 of my liquid pre op diet and I have to say, I feel decent and honestly this is not *that* bad. I swear! I was massively dreading this. I was worried I would be nonstop hungry for two weeks and angry at the world. However, I got into a routine of shake - broth - jello/popsicle that seems to be working to manage the hunger. Am I hungry? Yes. Is it constant? No. (Could I eat any solid form of food right now? Yes. Will I? No.) I "eat" 4 times a day: breakfast, lunch, "happy hour" (oh the irony), and dinner. I have a shake at each meal and broth and/or jello. I have tried many broths and I honestly prefer the old fashioned boullion cubes or ramen noodle broth packet over anything fancy like bone broth. I am having 800-900 calories a day and I am not face down in the bed like I thought I would be. I even adulted at work today. 😂 Just want to send this note because the two week liquid preop was looming so large in my mind before I actually started doing it. Like many things, the dread was worse than just doing the dreaded thing.

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.

It surely varies by person, phases you're in, etc. I'm currently coming up on being 7 months out from surgery and have not lost anything since October 25th!!! So, that's 7 WEEKS for me! CRAZY long stall! But just spoke to my nutritionist over the weekend and hopefully things will start moving again with her help and suggestions.

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!

I had some serious energy issues and after my PCP tested, I found I was slighty anaemic. I started taking an iron supplement in addition to the iron within my bari multi, and within a week I felt better. I still get exhausted by 9 p.m. though, and of course iron causes constipation, so there's that whole thing too.

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.

My stalls have lasted up to three weeks but I am close to goal. Early on they were 1-2 weeks. I think it varies quite a bit person to person.

So as expected I lost about 12 pounds in my clear liquid phase which was for a week post-Op. But ever since I started full liquids (Day 6 of full liquids), I haven't lost anything instead put on a pound 😂 So question is how long do these stalls last? Is it different for different folks? Or there's an average most expect to move beyond the stalls? How long did you stall for?

Oops…1/19 is the date. I’m anticipating 2 weeks out from work with possibly working remotely the second week. Dreading the drains but nobody near by does the drainless TT.

I too had a GSV with a hiatal hernia repair AND I also take Synthroid and Omeprazole. I began taking Omeprazole 20mg 5 years before my GSV because I did have acid reflux - and it was further suggested that I have GERD. At almost a month out... I still have Acid Reflux. Nothing has changed - Same amt of acid pours into the smaller pouch. I forgot to take my Omeprazole pill one morning and OMG did I suffer. Now that our stomachs are smaller, it is by far easier for developing gas to be pressure released upward and along with it, some stomach acid. So, I am still taking Omeprazole (as directed) and I'm "back to normal." I strongly believe those who have had GSV and a subsequent RNY procedure AND/OR RNY or MGB out the gate do not have the same problems with acid reflux post surgery and beyond. After two weeks, I also experienced insufficient intake and moved to soft foods. Bare in mind, you can use your food processor or your given process (your teeth) to chew chew chew chew. I moved to FF refried beans, a little bit of cheese), avocado, and Sweet Baby Jesus... if you enjoyed pudding as a kid... get some FF SF Jello Chocolate Pudding. 2, cups of FF milk (if you can tolerate milk products) and stir yourself up some yummy goodness. I have small containers and I split the batch into 4 and have two per day. I just could not do some protracted all liquid diet without suffering dizziness, light headedness. One thing I need to look into is if I am insulin resistant. Those who have normal levels - eat food and their system processes food and their body is able to utilize that energy more efficiently. So, that has been on my mind. As a side note, there is a LINX device which can be implanted around the lower esophageal muscle that surrounds and closes the opening to the stomach which helps to prevent the contents of the stomach from back up into the esophagus (which is what reflux is). I know I'm a candidate for that but I don't think the surgical group that performed my procedure does the LINX procedure. Drink, Drink, Drink... gatorade zero has helped me immensely. Take deep breaths and you are still healing and will continue to do so for another 1.5 months. Talk to your NUT if you need encouragement to replace what you are eating with something that has a little more kick. Avocado - that does the trick for me. Best wishes.

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).

Yes, it does get better with daily improvement. It’s not the majority but some of us have a rough start, prolonged pain and delayed healing but turn out just fine! I felt a lot of pain the first 2.5 weeks after VSG and then one day I felt significantly better. If you feel like things are not getting better in a reasonable time or getting worse let your team know. Congratulations and speedy recovery

Hey October '21 friends! Checking in. How is everyone doing? Things "feel" good over here and I'm healing well. Started hitting Orangetheory two weeks ago and it feels good to be working out again (I was an avid fitness person for years pre-op, so it's part of my identity). I feel like I've been slow to lose- which honestly, I'm OK with. I'm following my surgeon's office orders, but I feel like they'll tell me at my next appointment I'm not losing quickly enough (they mentioned it a little at my previous 1 month appointment)- anybody else struggle with that? I know I'm getting smaller, but my office doesn't measure me each time I come in.. only weighs. Been meeting my hydration, protein, and calorie goals. Starting on the 29th, I'll be asked to up my calories again and pay attention to carbs & fat as well (I'm already paying attention to these as I've set the recommendations in my Baritastic app already). Anyway, that's how it's going here in my 9th week. I am about 1lb away from a 50lb total loss since starting my journey in May, so that's something to celebrate.

First, apologies for asking so many questions. I look forward to the day when I am farther into this journey and will be answering more questions than asking. Tomorrow will be two weeks since I had gastric sleeve and hiatal hernia repair surgery. I think I might be expecting too much too soon and I am wondering if the following things will improve: * Reflux. It's gotten worse the past couple of days. * Eating is difficult. It feels like food gets stuck, it's also difficult to gauge when full. * Gas/burping. * Constipation. * Fatigue and hunger. I can say that I am feeling slightly less hungry in between my 1/4 cup meals. I do feel like my body is not accustomed to eating so little, so I often get lightheaded and feel tired. Will this improve with time? * I take thyroid hormone replacement in the morning and wow, does that first sip of water hit my stomach like a ton of bricks. I think I need to remember that I am still healing. I'm just looking forward to when eating is a bit less painful and when I'm not on such a restricted diet. Don't get me wrong, even though I can't a variety of textures, food does taste wonderful and it's amazing to feel so full on so little, it's just that everything seems a chore right now and I certainly haven't quite got the hang of it.

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!

Most of us have stalls. It’s not at all uncommon. Just keep sticking to your plan and the stall will break.

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!