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Hi everyone. This is my second day on full diet and I have been sick all day. I had Turkey sausage and boiled egg and the pepperidge farm oat light bread toasted. I tried to eat the protein first but I would take a small bite of the toast intermittently. Needless to say I could not finish it all. When I felt myself approaching full, I stopped. But shortly after, I started feeling a little nauseous and my stomach argued with me loudly. Was I doing to much with this attempt to eat a meal?

I agree with @lizonaplane. The experience has likely been more painful because you are still healing. Go slowly with the foods you add to your diet. You may find your a few weeks into real solid food until you are fully healed & your tummy is less sensitive. I’ve found after surgery that the odd times I vomited it was different. More bubbling up not heaving, & straining muscle spasms. The cause was eating a little too much, or too fast while I was still learning & once simply because my tummy said ‘no’.

# 1 rule - don't compare yourself to others. People lose weight at all different rates due a bunch of different factors, many of which you have little to no control over - starting BMI, age, gender, genetics, metabolic rate, body composition (how much muscle vs fat vs bone you have), how much weight you lost prior to surgery, etc. The only two things you DO have a lot of control over is how closely you stick to your clinic's eating plan and your activity level. If you do well with both of those things, then you WILL lose the weight, whether fast or slow. I was a slow loser from the get-go. I was behind my "co-hort" pretty much the whole time (I know this because of an insensitive comment by a medical resident who did a couple of my follow-up appts). But I kept plugging away and ended up losing ALL of my excess weight, over 200 lbs. if you follow your program, stay active, and your general weight trend is down, you're golden.

Hi Nov, Buddies, I had my sleeve procedure on Wed./Nov.3. A few thoughts to share. I had been warned that the gas they use during surgery would be "uncomfortable and unpleasant." Well when I woke in recovery room I thought I must be having a heart attack, it hurts so much. The nurse assured me it was just the gas. They got me to my room and medicated me and it eased off. I stayed in the reclining chair the entire time - never got into the bed. So much easier to get up and down. Really walked the hallway on our floor and the gas pain began to lessen with each lap around the unit. I have to say I was amazed that my incisions were not bothersome at all. I am home now and I have just used Tylenol for discomfort/ no pain to speak of. I am having an issue that I shared w/ my surgeon and he urged me to slow down my sipping. I know I have to get in 48 oz. but it is hard when you are drinking 1 oz every 15 mins. And I wonder if any of you who have had surgery have experienced this. While drinking I can spit up clear fluid but its mainly bubbles. Now I do have asthma and hadn't had my meds so that might account for some of this. Again my surgeon said I was going to fast with my small cups and need to slow down. just wonder if its a thing for any of you. Otherwise it has gone great and I now only have some of feeling that I worked out muscles in my tummy and hope moving around today will help relief that.

This is one of those times when being a guy is a blessing—we tend to drop weight FAST after surgery. (There are exceptions!) You'll be shocked how quickly your health problems resolve. I was off ALL of my blood pressure meds (amlodipine 10 mg - a calcium channel blocker; losartan 100 mg - an angiotensin II receptor antagonist; and hydrochlorothiazide - a diuretic) within a month after surgery. I'm curious to have my cholesterol checked. I've never had bad cholesterol, usually it's firmly in the 140 range though it's been as low as 110 which apparently is bad for your testosterone if you're a guy. Like you, I am pretty active, both athletically and in a side thing which is fairly physical and outdoors.

I thought I was being clever with the lentil pasta, dang lol. If its not you in the bushes with the binoculars at dinner then who is it? I mean maybe I still am eating to fast, I didn't really think so but its always a possibility I'll keep that in mind thanks, I know its not that I'm eating too much, could just be what I'm eating. I wouldn't know how to eat healthy on the road, that must be a big learning curve?? Chicken isn't agreeing with me atm so I might move over to tuna for awhile, last time I tried that I don't remember any problems. Thanks for getting in touch ❤️

Your body is relearning how to hold itself with your lower weight. Back, hip & knee pain and balance issues are not uncommon since your muscles, tendons, skeleton used to compensate for your excess weight & now it doesn’t. Your centre of balance is changing & your posture is improving. I had upper shoulder pain & then I realised my bras were too big for my shrinking breasts & were not supporting me correctly. Got fitted for new bras & my back pain vanished. Otherwise try acupuncture, therapeutic massages or a physio to help ease the postural transition. I tend to agree with the others @jadj65 & the cause of your discomfort could be from eating too fast &/or eating too much. The restriction usually is felt across the chest but your signal for eating enough maybe discomfort across your back. It takes time for the message to get through that we’re full & we get full much more quickly, so it is easy to eat more than we need (past eating enough) especially if you’re eating too quickly. Don’t be afraid to put your cutlery down & sit back from your plate.

It has been 7 months since I had my ESG procedure in March. What a weird ride. I guess I'm just posting this to muse on the situation as a whole. Wall of text time! Six Weeks of Suck A six week liquid diet was awful. It went in 2 week chunks and degraded over time. The first two weeks, it was amusing. I got to tell people what was going on! The first entire week I was basically sleeping anyway and took sick days, so it was just me, in bed, playing Pokemon Sword. A weird sort of vacation, really, even if half of it was crippling nausea and whining to my husband. The next two weeks was boring and a bit annoying, but I at least got to sip chicken broth and relish the fact that my food tasted like actual food. (I bought a jar of low fat chicken gravy at the store at one point and sipped it in the car while feeling like some kind of jewel thief having pulled off a heist. It was the best food I have ever eaten.) The last two weeks, I just wanted to strangle the doctors for not letting me eat solid food. Six weeks! People who have literal stomach removal have less time than that! But no, the surgeon said that six weeks was because the sutures are internal, and thus are constantly disturbed, so in a weird twist they take longer to heal than gastric sleeve surgeries. Did I mention basic recovery sucked for the first few days? When I came out of anesthesia, the doctors said I had been under for a long time, because I was just too sleepy to actually wake after I was technically conscious. They kept me until I could walk, which was way longer than they thought. Even walking down the driveway made me so tired I had to lean on someone. Going to the bathroom and back to bed was enough to take a nap afterwards. I had to rotate constantly to stop feeling nauseous or crampy. I emergency-called the doctors for some more anti-nausea meds because the first ones just didn't work well enough. Then, like magic, around day 7, it all stopped and I could get up and do stuff normally. Not being able to lift more than 15 pounds or whatever the limit was, was almost a deal-breaker. I work with heavy machinery a lot, but I saw that problem coming. My long-suffering (but kind) coworkers carried things for me. But at home, do you know how many things weigh 20 lbs? Stuff full of liquid is right out. A gallon of water by itself weighs 9 lbs, heaven help you if you have to carry anything else with it. My husband had to haul our pet food and litter bags, which we buy in 50 pound sacks because we hate having to shop a lot. Even normal grocery shopping bags can approach 15 pounds if you fill them full. When I was still exhausted, I had to get a very confused Target employee to help me carry a single bag out to the car. I'm sure this guy had no idea what was going on, with a 30-something woman shuffling up to him like an old lady and holding out a fairly light bag and asking if he would be wonderful and carry this to her car because she had picked up too much stuff and now her body was saying it was time to sleep right here on the floor if she didn't hand it off. Did I Cheat on the Diet? Yes. 100%. I absolutely cheated. I cheated like a soap opera spouse. Honestly, the lesson I learned was that this really caused no harm whatsoever. Probably a bad lesson, but in the end, it made those last two weeks bearable. The doctor said clear liquids only, but I added in pureed chunky soups, Greek yogurt, and scrambled eggs. I chewed for a long time and made sure everything in my mouth was blenderized into pure liquid, and I still ate incredibly small meals. But really, anything to get me off those fake-ass protein shakes. I didn't tell my team the extent of the cheating, but I never felt any pain, and I still made my calorie and macro counts. The first day I let myself eat tuna from a can was the day angels sang in my ear. I furtively snatched it up at CVS, a tiny can the size of one of those Fancy Feast cat food tins. I snuck it in the car and dumped the can in a recycle bin before my husband could see it and wag his finger. Oh, it was good. What I'm getting at is that I was losing my bananas during the last 2 weeks of that dang liquid diet, and I needed something to eat that felt like real food, or I was going to crack. I think this worked out. Have I Lost Weight? 45 pounds so far. From what I can tell, there is really no way to beat the "1-2 pounds per week" rule. No amount of surgery was going to take my resting metabolic rate of 1800 and somehow get 5 pounds a week out of lowering it to 1000 cal/week. I think all the "omg I lost 10 pounds my first week" is water and glycogen, no matter who you are, unless you're very obese. Water weight will get you early on. If you gain weight or have not lost weight even 3-4 weeks after the procedure, it's probably still water weight. There's no way your body can retain fat on 1000 calories a day unless you have a disease/disorder. You will gain weight abruptly when you start putting food back in your body. I'm shocked at how much food in various parts of digestion weigh. That said, according to the Mayo Clinic, food takes about 36-48 hours from entering, to exit your body. Think about how much you eat in 48 hours. Let's say, for round numbers, you eat a meal weighing 3/4 lb, 3x/day. So that's 2.25 lbs a day. 48 hours is 4 days. Before the meal on day 1 exits on day 4, you've put a total of 9 pounds of stuff into your body. 9 pounds! That's like 4 weeks of weight loss, supposedly gone immediately! But it's not. If, like me, your last weight reference was right before the surgery, you fully blasted those 6 or so pounds of food out of your system with the absolutely awful colonoscopy cleanse they made you drink. You know how much you ate at each meal before surgery, at least ballpark. Add those "phantom" pounds to your hospital weight, and you have your "actual" weight. So my actual weight was really around 260, not 251, because it was 251 with my entire intestinal tract scrubbed to a bile-yellow liquid shine. (Ew.) Basically, expect water weight to cover up early weight loss and food weight to cover up weight loss about 1-2 months in, depending on when you're allowed to eat solids. Frustrating Points I am still not particularly lower in my dress size. I have absolutely lost some inches, but it seems to be coming off relatively evenly, so I'm still a 16-18 in a dress. I'm frustrated, because part of the point of this was to fit into my old college clothes, but I expected to lose a couple of dress sizes in 45 lbs of weight loss. I still have a bunch of clothes sitting around waiting for me to be able to fit them. That said, women's clothing sizes are stupid, and I really don't know what my dress size was when starting. I thought it was 18, but I gained weight over the pandemic, so I have no clue anymore. Awesome Points I can eat what I want. Seriously. The physical size of my stomach limits me from eating a lot, but I can eat single meals, and usually they last me the entire day. I routinely take home leftovers now. But in the end, the food I want isn't fast food and pizza -- though to be fair, I still do eat pizza. I just eat way less of it. I don't have to optimize now, and my body seems to actually obey calorie counts now without getting hungry. I still eat pizza every so often. I still have dessert. I had candy on Halloween. I still don't eat salad. In the end, I feel like this was what I wanted: the ability to eat the food I actually like, socially, while having my body go in a direction I don't hate. I have actual hunger cues now, and I'm not constantly thinking about food. Would I Recommend ESG? I will tout ESG from the tops of mountains now. Some suck early on for a feeling of actual control over my body and a sense that I finally obey physics as I know it? Yes. Yes, please. I should have gotten this years ago. When my parents offered to cover weight loss surgery when I was like 23, I should have said "YES NOW" instead of "ugh why would you offer that?".

I have that when I eat too fast. Does eating slowly help? Did it just start or has it been going on since surgery/starting solid foods? But, it could be just from losing weight - I've had back pain since starting to lose significant weight and I've never had back pain my whole life.

My clever way of thinking when I first started using straws again - around 3 months post op. Take a sip through the straw, let it sit in the mouth for a moment and exhale as much air as possible out through the nose before swallowing 🤣🤣 I thought I was winning - not sure who I was winning against? the straw?? Haha, I never had any issues unless I drank too much or too fast - just like when I drink out of cup or water bottle

1. It's a newer procedure, so some insurances don't approve it. 2. Not every surgeon does the Loop DS. 3. The surgeons who DO the Loop DS tend to have a guideline where you have to have a BMI of 50+ or two or more co-morbidities because there is a higher statistical weight loss at 70-100% verses the statistics for gastric bypass which is 60-80% (but this is just the statistical average. People can lose more or less then the average depending on if they work with the surgery or not). I chose the Loop DS for my surgery because I have hypothyroidism and I'm disabled so I had to rely on statistical average for my weight loss and the DS and Loop DS have the highest statistical average for loss. I chose the Loop DS over the traditional DS because of the diarrhea issues associated with the traditional DS since the Loop DS fixes that issue. Mostly. Also the vitamin requirements for both the DS and Loop DS are much higher. You have to take more vitamins and thus it's more expensive and you also have a higher protein requirement (80-100g protein a day for women or 100-120g for men) which, in my opinion, deters people away from the Loop DS or the traditional DS. I'm happy with my choice, personally. I was able to meet my weight loss goal and even went a little under it (I think I'm near maintenance, honestly. I lost 1 pound last month and only 1 pound the month before so... yep, very close to maintenance). My advice is to do your research, weigh the pro's and con's, and decide what YOU feel is the right surgery for YOU! You are the one who has to live with the surgery that you go with. Not your surgeon. Choose what makes YOU comfortable! Also, I warn everyone of this... they don't tell you, but any surgery with malabsorption (Gastric Bypass, DS, Loop DS) has a 3% chance of giving you either a wheat allergy or Celiac's Disease. I mean, it's UNLIKELY to happen to you as it only happens to 3 out of every 100 people, BUT my luck is terrible and I ended up with a wheat allergy. I mean, it's a blessing in disguise because it ensures that I can't eat fast food even if I wanted to, and it really forces me to think about every little thing that I put in my mouth, so I, personally, am grateful for my new allergy, but I still would have liked to be WARNED. So yeah, just so you know. It's unlikely, but there's a chance it can happen to you. Also, like most people will tell you, my only regret about my surgery.... is that I waited so long to have it done. I wish I'd done it years ago! If you have any questions about my own experiences with the Loop DS, feel free to ask!

I have an Apple Watch and installed an app called Mindful Eats. So at least it helps keep me to a bite a minute. I aim for 15-20 mins per meal. I was a very fast eater before. There are stil moments I eat too fast. At least I don't get the nausea or vomiting, just sits "heavy" in my stomach.

I am wondering if you could have a stricture. I can't remember at what timepoint they happen, but it usually makes it hard to eat/swallow things you used to be able to tolerate. I had surgery just a few days before you and I had pain at that point, but not when eating or drinking, unless I ate or drank too fast - but that is just my own personal experience. Glad your partner is being better. Hope you find the cause and get better!

Yes! I was surprised at how quickly I felt better!! I am so glad you are feeling good also! OMG... bread...I miss it too!!! and coffee...even just a cup of black coffee would be heaven right now lol. That all sounds great! I am looking forward to getting to the part where I don't have to throw stuff in the blender anymore. The water is hard to get down...I do want to just chug when I am thirsty and it seems like if I drink it too fast it makes my bowels move too quickly! 😐 Well hang in there! And I am excited to share this journey with you! Appreciate you responding!

1) you've hit the infamous three week stall. Happens to probably 90% of us. Just stick to your program and stay off the scale for a few days. It'll eventually break and you'll be on your way again. It usually lasts 1-3 weeks (that "gain" is likely just water weight) 2) yes - fluids go right through you. Some people have a hard time getting them down, but I never did. I didn't drink any differently than I did before surgery. Your stomach will tell you if you're going too fast.

Hello everyone! I know this may sound crazy but I’m actually concerned about losing too much too fast! My surgery was February 24, 2021. In eight months I have lost 111 pounds. On New Year’s Day 2021 I weighed 295…. Current weight 173! Went from a size 20W/22W to an 8/10. The comments I’m getting now after eight months range from you’ve lost too much weight, to how much more weight can you possibly lose? It’s hard to explain to people that I’m just following the plan, I’m not hungry, and I feel like I can’t control this weight loss. If I’m only eight months postop can I expect to lose at least another 20 pounds by the first year? I know I sound insane but I just want to weight loss to stop and level out how long did it take for you guys to finally hit the bottom of the weight loss?

I’m doing okay too. I had a headache the first couple of days. I guess due to no caffeine. It’s gone away now and I feel back to normal, other than feeling deprived. Living on protein shakes isn’t fun. I mixed a premier caramel shake with decaf chai tea and it was pretty good. So far I’ve been able to resist temptations. Have you got your vitamins yet? I’m researching the chewable vitamins and think I’ll go with those. I’ll probably order them tonight or tomorrow. The big day is coming up fast.

It does get better. The first few days are the absolute WORST and I swear to anyone you like that it gets better, and fast. And yes—you have to walk around, it hurts but it helps much more than it hurts.

I wonder if the cravings, especially sugar, occur in response to the emotional roller coaster of undergoing surgery, the restrictive diet & low calorie intake, etc.? You’re experiencing so many changes that you seek something that likely soothed & comforted you in the past. In times of stress we look to things that are familiar & offer comfort. This is just a thought. We all have different experiences. @Sleeve me alone! & @lizonaplane have offered some good suggestions that are worth a try. I have found if I feel hungry (head hunger) I make myself wait for 30 minutes & this breaks that craving. I do something to distract myself during that time - read, do a puzzle, fold the laundry, watch something on tv (streamed is best - no ads to further tempt us 😉), etc. Don’t be too concerned by your rate of weight loss. We all lose at our own rate - some fast, some slow. Many factors influence your rate (age, gender, starting weight, how long you’ve been overweight, genetics, etc.). Every pound you lose is a win. Good luck.

This is such an interesting observation. I have never regretted it since the day after the surgery. I learned about it in Jan. 2020 and had my surgery in March 2020. For me, it was the fact that my metabolic symptoms were getting worse, and I was nearly the age when my dad got diabetes, and he seems pretty miserable now. Maybe you are right. The people who think about it longer may still be less sure about their decision, even after they've made it. Nevertheless, I do want to tell the OP and the other posters who are feeling regrets - for me, the painful/uncomfortable physical effects and some of the negative emotions (like feeling left out and feeling like a failure that you had to do this) were still very strong over the first ~9 months - but they are much better now. I don't feel pain when I swallow even water too fast; I rarely feel faint and need to lie down after meals. Also - at first you have rapidly changing hormone levels from fat-soluble hormones being released as you lose weight, and this WILL affect your emotions. In a year or too, you will likely start to feel better physically - much better than you do now, but also better than your old body did to at a year or two out. I'm 1.5 years out, and generally very happy with my decision, but I am still getting used to my own body and my new life. I still sometimes feel partly like an alien in a new world. That is a rough process. It takes time. Emotionally, it's normal to mourn when you undergo a major life change. The old you IS dead. There is no going back. Change is always hard, and that causes anxiety because you don't know yet how it will turn out. And while you hope that the future you will be healthier than the old you, of course you're also having trouble envisioning how happy that future will be. Certainly some of the pleasures the old you enjoyed have been lessened. Of course you'd rather be fat and happy, than slim and miserable! I would too. Let yourself mourn that. Sadness is a real, natural, normal feeling. Feel it. But don't forget to put some effort into the new you also. Right now you're taking a LOT less pleasure in food. But don't let yourself just wallow in depression forever. (Unless you can't help it - then seek outside help.) Think about having some new experiences and finding new pleasures. Or, perhaps think about if maybe there's something really painful in your life that you've been using food to avoid - perhaps there is a better way to solve that problem. Then, later, when most likely some of that pleasure in food returns, you'll be in a better place. I actually take much more pleasure in food now because I don't feel guilty and out of control around it, and the new changes in behavior have finally become habit. I can just focus on actually enjoying the flavor of food, not to mention the satisfying journey between anticipation and completion, hunger and fullness. I was always so hungry before - I never felt 'full' - I always just felt 'uncomfortable'. Also, there will be people who actually do feel worse in the long term. If that happens to you, seek out a therapist, or a particularly good friend, whatever you need to be able to talk about it. Feel free to send me a message if you need to talk. I may not regret this particular decision, but have certainly been other changes in my life that were irreversibly negative.

I lost 16 lbs the whole first month, and i started out at almost 400 lbs. People lose at all different rates due to a bunch of different factors, many of which you have little to no control over, including age, gender, starting BMI, metabolic rate, percentage of your body that is muscle, whether or not you lost a bunch of weight before surgery, etc. The only two things you have a lot of control over are your activity level and how closely you stick to your clinic's program. If you do well with those two things, you WILL lose the weight, whether fast or slow. I was a slow loser from the get-go and ended up losing 100% of my excess weight. if you havent' lost any weight in a week and you're following your program, then you're just in a stall. Happens to most of us - and you're likely to have more along the way. When you hit one, just stick to your program and stay off the scale for a few days - and know that it'll eventually break and the weight loss will start up again. They typically last 1-3 weeks.

Just start my liquid diet yesturday!!! Friday I have to go to the clinic to do my gastroscopy! Nov 9 is coming so fast!!

It gets better FAST but the first few days are the worst. Did they say you had to take liquid tylenol or can you take pills? The liquid is so gross. That would have made me puke for sure! Try to keep getting up and moving SLOWLY just a little bit every hour or so when you're awake. Hang in there!

I’m ok now as not hormonal but I got irritated when I couldn’t do what I would normally do before a period. I don’t regret it now. my surgeon said that our hormones are out of whack when we have surgery because as we burn fat the hormones react differently? I’ve been very emotional some days. anyone that thinks this is an easy walk in the park are very mistaken. you have to work for it. I’ve lost 15lbs in 2 weeks and 3 days and before op I lost 16 pounds on the milk liver shrinking pre op diet so I can’t complain although everyone loses differently. I think we all think sometimes it should be faster but losing this fast has never happened before and for that I’m grateful.I’ve been doing walks again finally I feel so much better other than pain on one side the incision where they take the stomach out. I know every day will get better, change isn’t easy but it will be worth it.

Some really great responses on this thread. At the end of the day, the sleeve is a tool. It is possible to lose all your excess weight (plus more) and it is possible to lose very little, or even regain. It is all about how the tool is used, and the person who has control over that is you. Some people lose fast, some people lose slow, but again, we have lots of slow losers on this board who have hit goal, but they had to persevere in using the tool and staying focused on their goal.