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My doctors told me 4-6 weeks. I work a desk job from home so I went back to work after 2. It was doable, but the exhaustion you feel between weeks 2-6 is wild, because of how few calories you are consuming, so that's something to consider.

Hi all, I am new here, 41F, from Edmonton, Alberta Canada. Having gastric sleeve in the next 3 months, just waiting on a phone call to make a date with the surgeon! Has anyone here had a sleeve done with liver disease? I have well-compensated cirrhosis, and my consult with the surgeon was this morning. He said I am not a candidate for RNY due to the liver issues, but I am a candidate for a sleeve gastrectomy, and he wants to do it sooner than later as he feels it will slow and possibly reverse some of my liver damage. He said that the benefits of surgery far outweigh the risks, although I'll have to be hospitalized for a minimum 3 days. I am feeling rather nervous, as he said that in the program I am part of, I will be the FIRST patient that they do a sleeve on with cirrhosis, and that makes me worry. Anyhoo, just wanted to make myself known, as I've been lurking/reading/researching for the past 2 weeks...

2 weeks roughly Back on track now but my size is shrinking. I've put in my head that as long as I don't gain I am going the right way Xxx

I'm sorry you're struggling. Hitting a plateau or weight loss stall is so frustrating. It's a time when we are very vulnerable and likely to give up on ourselves, go back to unhealthy habits and resist support or advice. It feels like nobody understands what we're going through, or how we feel, and that old self-loathing starts to rear it's ugly and counterproductive head. Please don't give up on yourself. You made a decision to move forward with surgery because you wanted something very badly, don't let it go. Now that it's done, give yourself some grace and try to get back into the headspace where you can take advantage of the benefits. You've made changes, but are not getting the desired results. So, you need to make some tweaks to nudge your body back into the weight loss track. In order to make those tweaks, you're going to need to buckle down for a short time and track your eating. There's really no other way to go about figuring out what has you stalled without taking a very close look at that. It's a major pain int he a$$ and it takes discipline, but it's not forever. Commit to doing it 100% for just one week, that's long enough to reveal where the pitfalls are and find a solution. It's entirely possible that you are not eating enough. My longest stall was broken when I made a very moderate increase to my protein and fat. It was literally a difference of about 4 ounces of food a day that flipped my weight loss from stop to go. Tracking can be approached in different ways: you can either use an app to track things as you eat, write things down each time you eat then log everything into an app or website at the end of each day, or make a menu, log it at that time and stick to that religiously. I cycle through these methods depending on the other things going on in my life at any point. The last scenario is easiest to manage if you put aside time to do your meal prep for the week, so the food is ready for you to just reheat (if necessary) and eat. I can never stick to a planned menu unless I have the food ready to grab n go. I've tried a few apps, my favorite is MyFitnessPal. After tracking for 7 days, take a good critical look at your macros - calories, protein, fat, carbs, fiber and sodium (my personal demon) - and see if anything jumps out at you as higher or lower than you were assuming. Share your diet and macros here and you will find advice on making adjustments that will have you back on track in short order. You could find that a small change can net big results. However you decide to move forward, I wish you the best and hope you enjoy the holiday season with your family and friends.

So I'm 7 weeks post op now and I've been stalled for a week. Do you know how long your stall was? I had the surgery when I weighed 279 and I lost 30 so far.

Hi I'm 8 weeks gastric bypass on Wednesday. 34lb at moment but my surgeon and team say slow and sure as I was like wow people loose far more faster but I started at 266lb. I stalled at some point but I take a picture every month on the first and the difference is showing. My mobility is so much better and I can now buy clothes in normal shops and stopping to hide under my baggies. Your doing great keep up the fantastic work Xxx

Congratulations! My preop was 213. Day of surgery was 205 and I’m at 186.6 5 1/2 weeks out.

6 weeks today. Surgery weight on Oct 20th was 213.2 so 20 lbs. I started at a relatively low height/weight and am 59. Plus I had a stall that lasted an entire 3 weeks! Except for the darn stall and the frustration/trepidation associated with it, I'm happy with my progress so far. I know some people lose far more, but I'm taking the middle road on diet (average 800 cal/day) and can't really exercise much due to arthritis.

I had gastric bypass surgery in July 2021 and am starting to regret it. I have been really sick unable to eat or drink since. I'm so weak I can barley get out of bed most days. I'm concerned about loosening my job because of it as well. I just had a procedure done about a week ago to widen the pouch the doc called it. It was supposed to help I guess it has in a way I can finally eat about 8 blueberries a day or i pick at a banana through the day, I've also been able to down about half a drinkable yogurt. But I'm still getting sick . Alot of foods or even smells make me gag. Water tastes horrible to me for some reason. I started to drink Gatorade it has helped with some fluid intake. I don't want to be a downer for others but does anyone know if this will get better.

My program doesn't set targets like that, especially because BMI isn't really a good measure on an individual level. They worked with me to set a target goal, then told me goals can and do move. So here are a bunch of numbers for you: Heavy weight 396 (probably heavier but I stopped weighing myself) Program start weight 375 Liquid diet start weight 366 Surgery weight 357 Current weight 293 (eleven weeks post-op) Goal weight (for now) 240 "Normal" BMI weight: 184 (but I will never get there because I have more lean body mass than that) So technically my "excess weight" calculated by BMI would be 182 lbs. By that standard, since surgery (not the pre-op diet), I have lost 35% of my "excess weight". If we use the unattainable "normal BMI" number, I am 40 pounds from 60% "excess weight" lost. My PCP chose to use my lean body mass plus 15 percent (which is an ambitious, flat-stomach-and-maybe-some-abs target for a man), which would be 240. By that standard, since surgery, I have lost 55% of my "excess weight" in eleven weeks. If we use the actually-attainable goal weight set by my PCP, I am 6.2 pounds from 60% excess weight lost. But when we had our consultation last week, my PCP said he just wants me below 40 BMI (which I am) and ideally below 35 BMI (which would be 35 pounds more to lose).

Wow, that's great that you are in the green for BMI! You are doing so well, and I am so happy for you. I have read some of the veterans responses in the forum saying that the closer you are to your goal, the harder & slower weightloss can be. Stalls also seem to occur throughout the weightloss phase, so you may just be in a long stall. I hear you on the excecise, I also need to step it up! I think it will be helpful for me to increase my muscle tone & firm up. Right now, I have mostly been walking for my exercise. I asked my husband for a vibration plate for Christmas, hopefully that will be something I will enjoy using. Until I get one, I think I would like to try beginner yoga videos. Good luck & keep us posted. 😁

I'm so glad to hear it! I eat about 1300-1500 cal a day and am still losing 3-4 lbs a week, so the "yOu ShOuLd OnLy Be EaTiNg 500 CaLoRiEs" stuff just grates on my nerves. Maybe it works for some people; you and I are not those people. I am so glad I found a nutritionist who doesn't just read the n-th generation copy of the guidelines. (I work off about 600-700 of those calories just doing my work and workouts.)

Another Jan 18th here! I wished it could be before the end of the year but the more I think about the timing the more I like the date. I can still enjoy holiday cooking and start my 2 week pre op diet just as I would have started a diet in any other year LOL. My birthday is a few days before surgery so I told my family we would celebrate with a nice meal and small cake BEFORE I have to start the pre op diet. The surgery will be the perfect birthday present to myself!

My surgeon is super busy as well. I started with the initial consultation mid May and finished my pre op testing beginning of Sept. I was not able to get my pre-pre-op appointment till mid Nov. Last week I received a surgery date for mid Jan. Trying to be patient but am excited to see the light at the end of the tunnel!

You were right, of course. 3 weeks was a long discouraging stall, but I am now down 7 more lbs. in the last week. On the move again!

Following. I just drug out what's left of my old bag of unflavored Genepro in hopes of upping my protein to break my month long stall. I also went onto their website because I may need to purchase more and also noticed the new stuff. Curious if anyone has tried it.

I'm getting gastric sleeve, my BMI is 38, and I have a 2 weeks liquid diet. You're right about every doc doing things differently! Thanks for all the info.

Today is day 1 for my liquid diet: protein shakes and clear fluids only (Plus sugar free popsicles, 0 calorie flavored waters, clear broths, sugar free jello) I have ~80-100 lbs to lose. Yesterday I cleaned out my fridge and freezer, and stocked it with just the shakes/foods/drinks I can have. It's nice to have a clean fridge, and 0 wrong choices available. Mentally, it will be much tougher. I've written down 3 motivator/values in my planner so daily I will be able to refocus and remind myself why I'm doing this and what the outcome can be. Carbs are a precursor to the production of serotonin in the brain, and I know for myself that low carb diets will make me depressed. I'm worried about that. @huskymama had reported that she's already lost 10# in a week on this diet, and of course, that it's really difficult. But 10# is a lot, and that gives me hope. So thanks, huskymama! PS-does anyone know what percentage the liver shrinks on the preop diet?

The first few days are the hardest! After day 3 I was a lot less hungry. You can do this! It’s only two weeks. Just count the days. :) good luck 🍀

How is it I just started the liquid diet this morning and I'm hungry and my belly hurts already I have 2 weeks of this hope it gets better Sent from my SM-A426U using BariatricPal mobile app

I don't have Medicaid and went through Blue Cross, but I actually gained a small amount of weight during the phase leading up (5 lbs or so). However, during the pre-op liver shrink diet, it is virtually impossible to not lose weight. I lost 20 pounds in three weeks. If I had shown up and gained weight or maintained after I was supposed to be on that pre-op diet, I'm sure they would've turned me away, because it would've been clear that I hadn't done the surgery preparation without even seeing my liver.

I only have/had 80 pounds to loose I have been on the liquid diet for a week now and already lost 10 pounds. My surgery isn’t until December 22. I have been starving for a week where my hubby can hear my tummy growling and my blood sugars are in the mid 200s with medication! I meet with my dietician in the morning. I am hoping she will shed some light on what more I can do. I’m only allowed 2 protein shakes a day also. Anyone else starving? If so what do you do that helps?

Whole bunch of non-scale victories lately. 1. I am no longer morbidly obese because my BMI is under 40. Combined with the resolution of my comorbidities, I no longer qualify for surgery. 😁 2. My A1c is 5.1. A physician friend of mine said he hasn't seen anyone under 5.4 in a long time. 3. I needed to get into the bed of the ranch truck today and the tailgate was blocked off... so I went over the side using the (not small) tire. My balance is so much better! 4. I can do burpees like I'm on springs now, at least 10 in a row. Before I would do what are popularly known as "grief burpees" (look it up on Google Video search). 5. I got in trouble with my sleep doctor. It took me 6 weeks to get a video appointment and my CPAP (technically APAP) was choking me with all the air it was putting out. It's locked down, so I found the manual (in Russian), translated it, guessed the password, and reset the lower bound. I sleep better now (and my suspicion was correct, previous range was 10-20 cm H2O, now that I've lowered it, I average about 8 over a night). 6. I ran a mile for the first time ever in my entire life. It wasn't very fast (10:26) but it was a real mile and there was no walking or stopping.

One thing I can tell you from my very experience is, you can have 20 physicians in a room and still won't find 2 to agree on anything. So evidence shows that to decrease the size of the liver, there is no consensus on how long the diet should go on for. With bypass, given they have to access the gastro-esophageal junction which the left lobe of the liver can obscure, this will definitely warrant a diet of longer duration. In the paper I read, generally the longer the diet the more shrinkage, however... A greater decrease in size was noted with higher protein diets. Also you risk being in a catabolic state (this is not good for healing) if you are on these low calorie liquid diets for too long. All this to say, some surgeons change their practices to reflect the evidence. Some were just trained a certain way and stuck with it. Im on a week long diet and my BMI is 41

I'm a fan of Matthew Weiner, MD, and his website & videos. I've been following A Pound of Cure philosophy since I began going to my bariatric clinic. I've lost over 50 lbs pre-op. I think his nutritional advice is better than my clinic's. For example, my clinic didn't want me to eat fruit! Can you imagine 8 months without fruit? I'm not totally following his food plan, but am inching my way through the the stations. My vegan friend has shared some of her favorite recipes so many of my meals are animal protein-free. I've cut out sugar, flour, rice, potatoes, pasta, and processed foods. I'm still dependent upon artificial sweeteners, but once I've graduated from protein drinks I'm going to work harder on that. My RNY to RNY revision is just three weeks away now!