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I got my date yesterday! 1/22/2022. Excited but nervous. My surgeon told me he had never seen anyone go thru the process as fast as me….

I will be happy to tell you my experience since it is very recent history. However, everyone's doctor and experience is a little bit different. I elected for the gastric sleeve. It was a personal choice. Prior to surgery, my doctor requested that I begin a special diet to reduce the size of my liver. From what I have read on this forum, these diets very greatly, from surgeon to surgeon, in the types of foods you can eat and the length of time you must diet prior to surgery. However, I believe that, in all cases, one is required to consume more protein than carbohydrates or fats. Apparently, your liver, while overweight, is large and fatty. The diet reduces the size of your liver. This reduction allows the surgeon more room to operate. (I have no idea if this is true...just forwarding you what my surgeon told to me.) On the day of the surgery, I arrived at the facility at the appointed time. I was prepped for surgery with an IV. I chatted with the various staff who needed information and chatted with the surgeon prior to the procedure. According to my doctor, the surgery would take a little less than one hour. At the appointed time, I was taken to the operating room. My last memory was meeting the staff in the operating room. I was put under anesthesia shortly thereafter. For me, anesthesia is like time travel. My last memory was in the operating room but I woke up in a recovery room a short time later. I know that time had passed but it feels instantaneous...perhaps like time travel would feel. At this point, there are numerous posts on this forum from people who will recount their experience with recovery. I can only share with you my personal account. I awoke in a recovery room with a little discomfort. It wasn't pain per se, just a feeling of being bloated. I was not nauseated nor was I in any real pain. Again, I only felt bloated discomfort. Apparently, the surgeon inflates your abdomen with CO2 gas in order to have room to perform the surgery. Not all of this gas escapes prior to the end of surgery. This gas was the cause of my discomfort. My assigned post-op nurse encouraged me to get up and walk as much as I could to help relieve the gas pressure. I spent a good amount of time pacing about the floor trying to relieve the pressure. The process works but not as fast as you would like. The remainder of the time, I spent eating some ice chips and taking fluids intravenously. After a few hours, since I had no complications, I was released to my nearby hotel room. This was an outpatient procedure for me. However, an overnight stay at a hotel was required. I was instructed by the surgeon to immediately contact their surgical center if I experienced any issues such as pain, discomfort, etc. Otherwise, if I felt good in the morning, I could go straight home. I awoke in the morning and went home. I had no real issues. My surgery was on a Wednesday. My follow up appointment was exactly one week later, the following Wednesday. I was instructed by the surgical staff that during that week, I could only consume clear liquids. The only things on the menu were clear broths like chicken or beef, no sugar sport drinks, water, protein water and diluted, no sugar cranberry juice. Again, every doctor is different. There are many posts on this forum which provide different details about the immediate post op diet. You can find both positive and negative experiences. In my case, the one week follow up appointment allowed my doctor to assess my situation and determine if I could move on to the next phase of food consumption. At my follow up appointment a week later, I had experienced no pain or adverse effects from the surgery. I was permitted to move on to the next phase of food consumption. I could move on to pureed foods. This phase is to last for a period of three weeks. I am currently in the pureed food phase of my recovery. I was given a list of acceptable foods that I can eat. I was also given nutrition goals to achieve. That is, I am expected to consume a certain number of grams of protein, carbohydrates and fats each day. The acceptable foods on my list would be considered "soft" foods. These types of foods are on the list but this is not the entire list: Scrambled and hard boiled eggs Pudding Yogurt Cottage Cheese Certain canned vegetables Certain creamed soups Protein shakes There are acceptable meats on the menu as well. Items such as chicken, turkey and different types of fish. However, this is the "puree" portion of recovery. I am to puree these foods prior to consumption. That is, I put most of these items, like meat and vegetables, in a food processor to puree them before I eat them. I believe the idea is allow your stomach some time to heal. So there you have it. This is my experience to date. I have followed the doctor's program in its entirety. I have not experienced any problems or issues. I am about two weeks from my next follow up appointment. I expect that I will be able to go back to eating solid foods again at that time. I will leave you with something that I read on this forum. Someone's doctor told them that gastric surgery will give a person about one year to lose weight. During that one year, one must learn how to eat properly to maintain a lifelong weight loss. My plan is to change my past eating habits to more permanent, healthy choices in the future. I have about 11 months remaining to learn. Best of luck to you.

It varies from person to person how much time you will have to wait to avoid any pain. I actually can eat pretty fast without pain but try not to. It is better to eat slow to feel satisfied with the tiny meal you are eating. It’s most important that you chew well. In the beginning I used the clock and waited one minute between bites. Some people on here have said they waited five minutes. But, In the beginning I say go as slow as you can. Better safe than sorry. Many people have to eat much slower than they did pre surgery or they regret it. Your body will tell you though. I think the main reason for this is so you don’t overeat so if I find myself having eaten faster than I should I take a break to let my full feeling catch up and then go back to my food if I am still hungry. Usually I realize I was actually satisfied already. It’s best to measure our food to track it, but I find it’s also important to measure it so that i don’t overeat in cases like this.

Me too! I hope it continues too. A good friend of mine had a lot of nausea, headaches and bad gas so I was really worried but I can’t say I’ve had any of that. i do get hungry but get full fast. I feel like I’m not drinking enough water though and I can’t get through 2 high protein shakes a day as recommended as I dislike the taste. I haven’t drank milk on over 3 years but these shakes are milk based so they taste awful to me.

The end of 2021 is upon us! I can't believe how FAST this year went. Anyone here planning to 'get on track', 'refocus', 'reset' etc in 2022? I fell off the rails a bit in the last several months and looking to get myself back on track. I've been doing very traditional keto level eating for the last 5 years but I would really like to go back to a more traditional 'bariatric' style eating with lower fat etc. Would like to keep my carbs low but really focus on protein again and I honestly don't really remember what that would look like-having been so submerged in traditional keto for the last several years.... Anyone have any good resources for this? I never reached my ultimate goal (came within 20 lbs). Had a health scare and although it's under control I do have some weight that I would still like to move off.

I'm 9 months out. It WILL get better! I get dizzy when either I'm dehydrated or I eat/drink too much too fast. I'm guessing yours is because you're dehydrated and healing. Just keep sipping as much as you can. Warm liquids went down better for me early on. You might want to try broth or tea. If you feel that you can't stand it, call your doc and let them know how you're doing. Good luck!

I would take chapstick your mouth will be so dry they give you things to swab your mouth out but the first 24 hours it’s like cotton balls in your mouth. I rinsed and spit with water do not swollen it the first day. I think the roughest part for me is I’m allergic to all pain meds so the first 23-36 hours was the most painful for me. The shower was amazing and helped me so much. The nausea is there even with meds but throwing up hurt so incredibly bad. When they start you in clears if you get sick ask for some anti-vomit medication they put in your iv and works super fast. Oh the other this is ice, ice, ice packs it makes you cold but ice packs saved me im still using them. Bring a pillow to put over your tummy so the seat belt doesn’t touch you on the way home. Good luck

Hello to everyone, thank you for all the information, I hope everyone is doing well, I had my surgery on 12/09/2021. I am currently on puréed for until, 01/19/2021. I am struggling to get my protein and water in, however I am doing well, I do have a hard time using the bathroom room, it’s nearly nonexistent, When I swallowed too fast I get very bad stomach pain. But I am getting my 5000 steps in most of the time. All in all it’s not too bad, no dizzy spell or light headed feeling. Wishing everyone a happy and healthy holiday season. Stay safe virus is very bad out there. take care.

You know what I say to people? I say "yeah, wow, I really admire that guy I used to be. You won't believe how much easier life is when people aren't constantly judging your weight. He lived life on hard mode, tough warrior that man." It shuts them up real fast.

I have issues with this too. My husband has to remind me to slow down. He makes a joke and says no one is going to take your food. Lol. It’s really hard to slow down though. Thankfully for me it doesn’t cause pain to eat fast. I just want to slow down so I feel more satisfied with my little bit of food. Perhaps if your alone you could set a timer to go off ever so often as a reminder to slow down.

I also get hiccups now when I'm full. I can't tell if it's because I've eaten too fast because, well, I think I always eat too fast. I also burp more now, which is funny because I don't drink much soda, which I used to drink a LOT of (my program says you can have carbonated beverages after 4 weeks, so I drink some diet soda, but very slowly).

For me it means I ate too fast. Past my 'full point' is dramatic nausea and light-headedness.

Hold on, I'm about to use SCIENCE! Your body has a set number of calories it burns even if you are completely inert (sleeping, G-d forbid in a coma, etc.). It's called your basal metabolic rate (BMR). It fluctuates with your weight and with how fast your metabolism is. For, say, a 40-year-old, 5'4" woman who weighs 250 lbs (not unusual for a bariatric patient), BMR is around 1800. Now add on any kind of daily living to that, which required calories, and you end up with a number called total daily energy expenditure (TDEE). If you're the same woman above and you're sedentary, your TDEE might be 2200; if you are one of those nutters like me who goes to CrossFit and goes running and works a physical job, your TDEE might be as much as 3000 calories. Now. You've had your surgery. You are not physically capable of eating anywhere near that amount. Let's say you're at 800 calories a day. Simply by eating those 800 calories and existing, your body will naturally be in a 1000 calorie a day deficit. Add in sedentary lifestyle, and you're in a 1400 calorie a day deficit. Generally speaking, about 3500 calories is a pound lost (this is not always true and can be overcome by fluid retention, fluid balance, hormonal changes, menstruation, eating really salty foods, vitamin deficiencies, etc.). Now let's say you're "overeating" and you're doing 1200 calories a day; you're still 600 calories short of your caloric needs just to exist, and 1000 calories short of what you need for a sedentary lifestyle. You are going to lose weight. You are not going to 'ruin' anything. What is happening to you is your body is rebalancing its fluids. That is why the "three-week stall" happens. Every body is subject to the rules of CICO (calories in calories out), and eventually CICO will take over from your body's rebalancing and the numbers will drop again. And do measure yourself once a week! Bust/chest, waist, abdomen, hips, thighs, calves, biceps, neck. This week I didn't lose a ton of weight BUT I lost a half inch off my waist, and I can tell because my trousers keep slipping and I had to put a new hole in my belt. One suggestion: don't weigh every day. And if you can't help it—some people just have to, I'm one of them—keep a running tally and then pick a day, let's say Tuesday, and average your weight over the last seven days. Then use the average weight to gauge progress, not the number on the scale that day. Where the thick smoothies and things come in is that your stomach is still healing from the trauma of surgery. But here's the thing—your body will TELL you when it doesn't like something you eat. It will clam up your stomach. Or make you nauseated. Or have unstoppable hiccups until your stomach empties. Or give you the sniffles (which is SUPER AWESOME during a respiratory pandemic, let me tell you). I ate a bite of an egg roll yesterday and got punished for it. So... tl;dr... don't worry too much about it, especially at first. Feed your body the protein and liquid it needs, and then move on to other foods.

I’m a juney! I’m still hanging on! I’ve lost 54 pounds, total since the beginning of my journey ( august 2020) is 111pounds. I’m not losing ‘very fast’, but I’m totally OK with it. I’m not perfect, but I aim for my protein and water, and get them in MOST days :) exercise at the gym at least 3 times a week.

For some people it may been they have eaten past the full point, for others maybe eaten too fast (usually my case), for others its simply the hiccups.

12th is my magic number. The only thing that i'm nervous about is that maybe the weight loss wont be so fast because of my everyday meds.

Yup, none of that, and texture doesn't matter, you stomach will still react to it as a food and start doing the things you don't want it to do. At least that's my understanding. Hunker down for now, but seriously, your chips craving sounds like protein craving to me. You'd be amazed what your body will do to get what it needs. I know I'm too low in cals when my mind starts thinking about french fries. I don't actually want fries, I just want something that'll keep me from losing too much, too fast (at this point I don't want to lose more, but COVID decided to take a few lbs too). I was depleting my iron for a bit around month 4-5-6, and developed a craving for liver patés. I was like 'what the h... why do I want that? Ooooh, let's check my iron levels' and sure enough. Just to share how specific and determined the body can be when you listen to it.

Had my mini gastric bypass on Nov 19th. As of today I am down 29 lbs. Is that average? Almost seems excessive. A pound a day…

Unfortunately, this is the way a lot of medical systems deal with obese people, and it's heavily internalized in the obese themselves. Just browse around these pages for a bit. Based on what we know about the causes for a high weight set point, childhood trauma is always #1 on the list. It's not very surprising a stressed body does what it can to survive, including driving you to stock up for worse times. Unfortunately, we don't lack access to calories at almost any stage in our lives, so this mechanism will lead to obesity. You probably never had a chance. This surgery could be that one chance to correct something that is not your fault in the least bit. Then why are you being met with this kind of punishing attitude? Ignorance. Really, that's it. There's still a lot of people who see obesity as some sort of moral defect. Those people should pipe down real fast, trust me the future won't be kind to them (think blackface). Take pity in them, step back and look at getting to the surgery as merely a way to further your healing. That's a healing that cannot come from surgery, as you know. It'll come from therapy while you get another chance at a body that isn't clinging on to every calorie for dear life. Oh, and beware: for every malabsorptive surgery patient here, there's 15 sleevers who think we all have the same surgery.

Thank you so much for this! This is coming from a man who just bought two 28oz lobster tails and 2 6oz A5 fillets for the weekend. Surgery is fast approaching and without seeing your reply I was terrified about missing out on some stuff. It’s kinda crazy since I lost 150lb naturally before and still went out and had wine and a lobster and veggies or surf and turf - I guess I have it in my head that the portion restriction means everything is out the window but it sounds like I can go back to my old eating style with smaller portions and still be successful. Here’s hoping!

Hey everyone! So I am 1 week and 2 days post-op, time feels so slow and it feels like I had the surgery forever ago! This week I am in my full liquids stage and I've been having a hard time ingesting cream soups, broths, and cream of wheat. I don't eat much and let most of what I pick up with the spoon fall off and I just eat/sip what's leftover on the spoon. My stomach hurts fast and I get pains in my chest and lots of gas while trying to eat. Is this normal? It has been so hard for me to take in my 50-64 fl oz because of the same reason. Please give me advice and tell me im not crazy!

I'm so sorry you're dealing with this. I'm suffering from intermittent nausea in the last few weeks, but nothing like what you're dealing with. For me, if I eat a cracker or some cream of wheat, it helps a bit, as does diet soda, slightly flat. I had surgery the day before you. Good luck!

I think the reason for hair loss is similar hair loss after pregnancy. After giving birth, your estrogen levels drop significantly and more hair goes into the resting stage (the hair stage prior to shedding). Since lots of hair goes into this stage, lots of hair is shed at the same time. Normally (aka non-pregnant), I think only about 10% of your hair is in the rest/shed stage. Our bodies store estrogen in the fat cells so when you lose weight fast due to WLS, your body is flooded with estrogen. As your weight loss slows, the amount of estrogen in your body drops similar to post pregnancy. I hope you don't have a problem with hair loss and I hope I don't either! I'm just trying to make myself believe that it is only hair and it will grow back. I'll take the long term weight loss with some short term funky hair than long term obesity and long term good (ish) hair 🙂

I remember that frustration well during my stalls. "Whaddya mean I gained a pound a half? I hardly ate yesterday!" A few tips: 1. Increase your water. Don't rest on "enough water." If you need to, buy some bottled water and set aside four 16 or 20 oz bottles and decide "I will finish all four of these bottles today." Increase your intake and do so very intentionally. 2. On some levels, stalls will happen no matter you do. But I think you can shorten them sometimes by shocking your body out of them. Medical research indicates that our brain has a weight thermostat where it thinks we should be at (i.e. a brain deciding that someone should be at around 275 lbs). For those of us who needed this surgery, our thermostat got messed up somewhere and decided that we needed to be grossly overweight. The surgery does alter your hunger hormones and your brain is now frantically trying to decide where the thermostat should be. Routines are great post-surgery because a routine is nothing more than developing/ingraining habits. But when you are in a routine, sometimes your brain thinks, "OK, this is the weight we should be at." So by temporarily changing your habits, you can shock your brain into thinking, "OK, this isn't going to work. Lower the weight goal." Take a day and really push yourself with your walking -- try going 45-60 mins. Or only walk your 15-30 mins, but walk as fast as you reasonably can. Take a day where you only eat protein. The next day, munch on a small handful of carbs (like mini pretzels or something). Temporarily push your body out of its routine and see what happens.

Happy to see this thread! Since having surgery in June, my 2nd child moved out leaving just my "baby" (he's 16) home with my husband and myself. Like any 16 year old, he is often gone leaving just my husband and me home for dinner. I'm quickly finding that my desire to cook complicated meals is fading fast, which, has been really surprising! I really find that I have less interest in food, mostly because I know I'm going to eat less than a half cup of it and it's just not that big of a deal what I eat now...it's just food/fuel. This feeling has been both empowering and challenging to get used to. On nights where I'm not cooking and there are no leftovers I tend to opt for: Oscar Mayer snack plates (meat, cheese and a few triscuits), pre-cooked chicken skewers I found at Costco with a veg, pre-cooked chicken or salmon patty tossed with some canned green beans, frozen meals (typically Healthy Choice or Real Good which lasts for two meals), greek salad with tuna (cucumber, onion, tomatoes, red bell pepper topped with some light dressing and fat free feta cheese), pre-cooked chicken breast bites (from costco) and a quarter of an apple or just a couple slices of good deli meat with some cheese and grapes. These are options I use for meals most days of the week. Between these and my eggs for breakfast I have no issues eating 80-90g of protein a day (which is on the high side for my program) without having to resort to a shake. Unfortunately, I am not one of the folks that can do a shake daily. I find I can do non-dairy shakes occasionally, but, more than that and my stomach starts to stage a revolt! Be persistent, try different things and hold on to the things that will work for YOU!