Search the Community

Wow 3 weeks post op and only 2oz? I would contact your clinic and see if they have any recommended plan. Did they tell you how many meals a day? For my program they told me to have 3 meals a day. I use my shakes as snacks. My meals at 3 weeks post op is 5oz tho. 3oz pf protein, 1oz puree vegetable and 1oz of starch. I can’t finish all, but I would stop and go back to it.

Woohoo I hope I passed the stall stage for real! Ive been stuck at 241 lbs up and down for 2 weeks and it went down to 239.6 this morning. I am counting small victories. From 240s to now in the 230s! My surgery weight was 250.4lbs. So after 3 weeks 11lbs down. Yayyy This week I can add mashed or puree vegetables and grains like cream of wheat and grits. Sharing some image of my progress. Also the salmon, broccoli puree and cream of wheat was delicious as my lunch! Good source of protein too. My nutritionist advice for each meal now is 3oz of protein, 1 oz of vegetables and 1 oz of starch. Always try to eat the protein first. My daily calorie intake is between 600-800 including the protein shakes. I am drinking 1 1/2 bottle of shakes. I fell 2 shakes to be too much for me, and 1 1/2 is just right. Protein intake is about 85-100grams. I will ask on my next visit to find out if I really need that much of protein since they told me my daily goal should be 65-75 grams initially.

I'm currently almost 3 weeks post op and am on 2 oz servings of purees, but I don't know how many per day. I find that I'm not very hungry during the day but by around 7pm, I am hungry. By that time I've already had a "breakfast" puree and a "lunch" puree and will have "dinner" but after that, I am just hungry. Continuing to meet my fluid goals with water and Jello don't really do anything to help. I feel like I need more substance but I am unsure how many servings of 2 oz purees in a day I should be consuming.

Oh, hon. My grandma was like that, too. It's so hard, especially if you get mixed messages. Mind you, I take after my grandmother 100% physically. She was a bigger woman from her tee years at least, and on a diet of some kind her entire life (died at 92, though, so despite the obesity, she had a good run). But my God, she would be one minute talking about my weight and the next breath offering me food. Her idea of a portion size was a full 1lb link of Polish sausage. She would put out enough food for snacks to feed a small army. But then, "Oh, you have to watch it or you'll get fat." I swear there needs to be a patron saint for people trying to be polite to their family members under trying circumstances.

I agree with @Arabesque, track your food and see what you're eating, how much, and how often. The further out we get from our surgeries, the easier it is to slowly get off track. Our stomachs stretch out a little and we notice we can eat more, so we do. Definitely reach out to your dietician and see if you guys can come up with a way to get back on track. It's normal to have the weight loss slow drastically as time goes on, but if you aren't where you want to be yet, there's ways to fix it. But definitely start tracking your food and liquid intake, reach out to your dietician, and make sure you're moving your body. Even if you don't do full workouts, make sure you're moving every day. Park at the far end of a parking lot, take stairs instead of the elevator, take a walk a few times per week...anything to get your body moving.

4 weeks, 3 days Sorry for the delay in posting. The first week after I got home I slept a lot, night and day. Eating and drinking enough is hard when you sleep so much, so I haven't been meeting my goal of 64oz fluid and 100gm of protein, but I've been getting at least 48oz fluid and at least 60-80gm of protein. My protein oatmeal with extra protein added and my Pure Protein Bars with 19-21gm of protein is a huge chunk of that. 3 weeks in, after sleeping most of the day my body decided it was done with that, and since I'd just slept all day, it chose to stay awake at night. I've been trying to get my sleep pattern under control, but when I went to bed at 10:30 I awoke at 1:24am refreshed from my nap and last night I went to bed just after midnight and woke up at 4am and wasn't able to get back to sleep. I think this time I'll be able to stay awake all day though, so I'm hoping to sleep through the night tonight. I've still been having a hard time with my diet goals since I am trying to sleep at night. If I didn't have the luxury of working at home on my own schedule, I might not be having such a hard time sleeping because I'd be forced to a regular schedule. My husband has had his reservations, but has been supportive through all this because I promised I'd take care of myself. When I feel bad for being gone so long and now sleeping on the couch instead of snuggling with him, he tells me that I've just had surgery and I'm healing, sleep when my body tells me to sleep, and if the couch is more comfortable than sleeping reclined in bed, sleep there. At least I'm spending a few hours snuggling with him at night now. A couple days after retuning home I took my surgical tape off and discovered that I'd pulled a couple stitches. Remember those painful sneezes? I'm pretty sure that's when it happened. I have mighty, full body sneezes that sometimes makes my arm go numb and always said I'll probably die because I sneezed while driving. The wound didn't reopen. There was no bleeding or seeping, there were just larger scabs and one had a tacky feel. The scar in that area in front is going to be uglier than the nice thin scar in the back. This isn't the surgeons fault and nothing would have been different if I'd been there for a follow-up and he took the tape off. I'm waiting for the last scab to fall off before I start using the scar gel and massaging the scar. I have been concerned about the puffy area just above the scar across the front. I told myself it's probably just inflammation. They tell you not to judge the way you look because you won't see the final results for 6 months to a year, but it's hard. When you look at before and after pictures, the after pictures are long enough after for the inflammation to be gone. I went to a friend's commitment ceremony 2 days ago and another friend there had a lower body lift and BBL here in the states with one of the best surgeons (they have more money than me). She had her surgery 10 days after mine and she has that too, so I feel better. To summarize how I felt moving around week by week: Week 1 was difficult getting in and out of bed and it was painful. Week 2 I had the roll and push method down pat so it was easier to get up and down from bed and I could move around better, but when I'd first get up I'd walk more hunched over and this was when I had the really painful sneezes. It was easy to not push myself and to remember not to lift things or bend down because I could feel the pain in my stitches. I was very itchy. Week 3 I was able to move easier and could reach for things, but I could still feel it pull at the stitches, but it was more discomfort than painful so I was having to remind myself not to lift things and to not twist. This is when the itching was at its worst. Week 4 I'm getting stir crazy because I am still not supposed to drive and I promised my husband I'd take care of myself, which means following doctor's orders even if I think I'm OK to drive. Because of the mini BBL he did, I'm not supposed to drive for 4 weeks, then for 2 weeks only short distances "if I have to drive". I was moving normal, but I could still feel it pull at the stitches, but not really uncomfortable, just a pulling sensation. I still itched really bad, but it wasn't as constant. Now I don't really feel any pain except now that I'm sleeping without the pillows and my hips are on the bed, I am not sleeping on my right side because the incision is still a little tender when sleeping with weight on it there. Thankfully I can sleep on my left side and it doesn't hurt. Of course, I haven't slept more than 4 hours that way yet. I was supposed to wear the compression garment 24/7 except when showering for 4 weeks, then for 4 weeks I can sleep without it. I cheated and slept without my compression garment and drove a night early. It was really nice to snuggle with my husband without it even if it was from on top of pillows and just for a little bit because I couldn't sleep. I snuggled lying on 2 thick pillows with my hip/butt between them because of the mini BBL. After talking to my friend who had her lower body lift and BBL here, I'm rebelling a little bit. She was told she could sit on soft furniture without a pillow and sleep in bed without pillows keeping pressure off her butt. I'm still obeying my doctors orders regarding sitting because I can't find an entry on Google supporting that you can sit on soft furniture, but after talking to her I decided to sleep without the pillows under me. I have a thick Temper Pedic Memory Foam pad and REALLY want to snuggle with my hubby and sleep normally. I sleep on my side and he didn't transfer fat to my hips, that's where he took it from. As mentioned above, I can't sleep on my right because it's still tender there when sleeping on it. Of note regarding my breast lift/implants. I don't talk about them because they haven't hurt at all until recently. I get twinges now at the lower scar. I've had implants implanted, removed, and implanted again, so 3 surgeries and the scar tissue at the bottom of my breast is pretty thick and now that the incision is healed I need to start massaging it to break that scar tissue up. The first time I had implants (2006) it did hurt. I had to lean to the side to get one hand wet, then lean to the other side to get the other wet, then rinse the soap off the same way because leaning forward hurt, and it took almost a year before I didn't look like I had super pecs (they sit high when they are new). I'm assuming it didn't hurt this time and they have already settled because the skin didn't need to stretch. Maybe the signals from the incision from the lower body lift overrode anything my breasts might have wanted to tell me as well. When I hit 6 weeks and "can drive", I'm going to drive to Missouri. My Mother-In-Law has cancer of the esophagus and they need help taking care of her. I can work from home and they can't, so I volunteered. She needs help bathing and having her diaper changed, her feeding tube needs cleaned and feeding bag filled, and she and her house needs taking care of. She is on hospice, but not close enough to the end to have daily helpers, but she has a nurse stop by twice a week and a helper come twice a week for a couple hours, so I can save heavy lifting for the helper. I'm going to ask my husband to take some 4.5 week after pics so you can see what it looks like soon after the incisions heal. I'll post again at other intervals so you can see progress as the inflammation goes away and the scar heals. Other than that, I will post if I feel I have something relevant to say regarding my progress. I'll only post about my MIL as it relates to my being able to care for her due to my surgery because this isn't a cancer support forum.

Are you still in contact with your dietician? Might be worth a conversation with them to see if there’s something you’re missing & to get you back on track. Maybe track your food for a week or two as well if you don’t. Can be easy to get a bit complacent about portions, ingredients, etc. as time passes. You could take this data to the dietician too. Have you see your surgeon recently? PS: Can you provide a little more information: type of surgery, starting weigh, weight lost, current weight, how long you’ve been plateauing, etc. It’s very helpful when offering any advice or suggestions.

The PPI won’t cause hunger. It reduces the acid in your tummy. You’re ahead of the game if you can differentiate between head & real hunger. Yay! Those distraction activities will help when you are experiencing head hunger. If you feel hungry after you’ve eaten, that’s head hunger too. Try a warm drink instead of a shake. They’re a meal replacement not a snack. Many are advised to wait at least three or four hours between eating & only three meals a day & maybe a snack. I still have times I can feel liquids go down. It’s a bit weird at first but now it’s just one of those things like my vey noisy, rumbling, grumbling tummy. Your experience last night sounds like late stage dumping not the foamies. The foamies (frothy, thick saliva & bringing up what you ate that was stuck or too coarse or too much) occurs pretty soon after you’ve eaten the offending food. Dumping symptoms can include chills, weakness, light headedness, nausea, bloating, heart palpitations & vomiting &/or diarrhoea. Dumping usually occurs if you eat foods that are too fatty, have too much sugar. Even dairy can cause it. It occurs when these foods go through your tummy to your intestines very quickly (dumps through your system). About 40% of bypass patients can experience dumping. Once you work out what causes yours, you can avoid those foods. Some say in time they work out how much of those foods they can eat without experiencing dumping. Worth a conversation with your team to diagnose & management.

Day 5 out of 14 on the pre-op diet and I've settled into somewhat of a routine. I do a Bariatric Fusion cappuccino shake at breakfast with a 20 oz decaf tea that has 1/2 cup Fairlife milk and a scoop of collagen in it. Oikos triple zero yogurt for a mid-morning snack. Bariatric Fusion chicken soup shake for lunch. Jello for snack. 2 scoops Syntrax Nectar unflavored powder in one cup of Pacific Foods tomato basil soup for dinner. Jello for dessert. Sometimes a Good Night protein hot cocoa before bed if I'm hungry. I also take my chewable Celebrate One 45 vitamin, 3 celebrate calcium chews, 2 scoops of Benefiber, Vitagut liquid probiotic, and a liquid omega 3. Believe it or not, all of those supplements add 160 calories and 14g carb to my day! I also drink three 32oz waters with a sugar free flavor packet in each. Total average daily macros: 850 calories, 105g protein, 11g fat, 50g carb Weight loss so far: 7lbs

Thank you so much for all these suggestions! Yes I feel hungry sometimes after 30-60mins of a meal. So I drink water or protein shake. I do take PPI, that could be a possibility of why I still feel hungry. Most of the time it’s my head hunger craving for certain food. Also my tummy does rumble but don’t really feel hungry. I’ve been able to tell what type of hunger I am feeling. when I drink liquid, I literally sit there and drink with small sips through out the hours….when my tummy feel full from it, I come back to it later. I can feel the liquid traveling down when I drink. Yesterday was my first day being able to reach 60oz of liquid, but at night I didn’t feel well. Had my dinner at 6pm, went to sleep 11pm. I woke up feeling something up my chest and when trying to get up, I vomited. Sorry if TMI. It’s was all slimy mucus. No food. I was shivering, chills, migraine. I vomited a few times then vomited foamy bubbles… well after that I felt so much better. In search to see what is going on with me, it seems many bariatric patients go through this, but usually right after eating if they didn’t chew well or had too much food. I have tofu last night tho. It’s soft and should be easy to break down. On the bright side, It seems I am breaking my stall. From 241.6, I am now 240.6 lbs. even it’s only a little bit I am happy, because I am on this stall since 2 weeks ago, only 1 week after surgery.

Give your meds a chance to kick in. Do some therapy. Try eating some soft foods and drinking your protein for now (protein shakes, protein gatorade). What do you mean when you say your body is falling apart? How far out from surgery are you? The symptoms you're describing sound pretty normal the first few weeks out from surgery. They do get better. If you're further out, it may be because you aren't meeting your fluid and protein goals. How close are you to hitting them? What are you eating and how often? We need more information before we can offer any real advice. I will say that there isn't any doctor that will do a surgery to stretch your stomach back out, so that's out. Instead of sabotaging your surgery, let's see if we can come up with some suggestions to help you through this.

You have done so well and you look fabulous. I had a blip at Christmas too and its the first time that I had put a little weight back on. I was so mad at myself. It took me until all the festive food was out of the house. I could then shop better. I left carbs off my diet . Once I knuckled down and got my calories under 1200 for the day, it came off again. If you want to reply to someone's comments, just press the quote button. Or you can put @summerseeker for example and pick the persons name out of the drop down list

I agree. Take a breath & celebrate what you have achieved so far. Then, yes, get back in your surgeon/dietician's plan as you were before the holidays. Make an appointment with your surgeon & your dietician. They’ve seen it all before & shouldn’t judge especially if you’re asking for help. Do you track your food? If you don’t maybe do it for a week or so to make sure you’re not missing something. It’s easy to miss something especially if you’ve let things slide or you’ve got a bit complacent about portion sizes, etc. And you can review it with your dietician. Maybe make an appointment with a therapist too to help you reflect on what was behind your slide & help you get back on track mentally & emotionally. All the best.

Liquids won’t fill you in the same way as more solid food simply because they pass through your tummy more quickly. As for your hunger, yes there are some people who continue to feel hungry after surgery. You just have to work out if it’s real hunger or head hunger. If you’ve recently eaten you really would be hungry. If you are hungry for a specific food, taste or texture it’s not real hunger. If your tummy is rumbling (hunger pangs) that’s not real hunger either (just your digestive system working). Are you on a PPI? Tummy acid can make you think you’re hungry. The surgery is hard on us emotionally. Plus we experience hormonal flushes which can mess with us emotionally too. Many of us used food to comfort & soothe our self during emotional turmoil but you can’t. And of course you always want the things you can’t have more. It’s not easy to work all this out. It will take time & that’s okay. If you feel hungry, try distracting yourself. Play a game, go for a short walk, water your plants, craft, read a book, ring a friend or family member, check your social media or this forum, etc. Are you just sipping your liquids & leaving a couple of minutes between sips? Try a warm drink. Many of us found a warm drink like a green or herbal tea easier to tolerate as plain water can almost seem heavy in our tummy & for some cold liquids cramp our tummy.

I had the lap band for a long time, and there were definitely days that food would go down much easier. Then I had days I couldn't eat but a few bites, and other days that it felt like there was no restriction at all. Many times, it depended on what type of food I was eating. I don't think you need a fill unless your weight loss has completely stalled, and even then, a common problem is being too aggressive and getting too many fills and ending up causing serious long term side effects with the esophagus. As long as you are still in the general ballpark of say, your calorie goals, I wouldn't worry about the day to day fluctuations. You can get a barium swallow and see if you pouch has stretch or not, I did that yearly to make sure the band didn't slip and/or if I stretch the pouch above the band. Sometimes that can cause people to be able to eat a lot more when they have the band.

I know I post the same thing all the time but I was never given ANY goals - protein, fluids, nothing! It was totally reach your stages by texture. Eat as much as you can of: clear liquids; thick/full liquids; puree; soft foods; proper endgame food. That was it! I've done fine but that was with the help of everyone here. Think my surgeon's 'hands off' approach is probably fine for some people but not others.

I am five months postop and think I am driving myself crazy. I have not lost any weight since November 11 right before the holidays and am terrified I messed my surgery up. I indulged a little too much with carbs during Thanksgiving and Christmas. I started this journey at 285 and am currently 227. I was 269 August 29th day of the sleeve. I followed my diet to the T until holidays How do I pick my weight loss back up?? Did I ruin this for good?? I def CANNOT eat as much as I used to but I can't seem to get back to starting point of protein and 5%carbs and 5%fat limits on food items. I'm embarrassed to talk about it with anyone except this forum. All my bloodwork is great. I am doing some cardio and weights 5 days a week but not much as I'm slowly getting into it. But I feel like I've messed up my sleeve or something!! What If I did all this just to lose almost 60 pounds but to be honest I do feel the best I have in years. I just don't wanna give up I don't even know what to think about not losing weight all these months. I did gain/lose a few pounds (was 224 then was 230 now I'm 227). Am I going to be stuck at this weight forever??? Its only been 51/2 months!! Advice please!!!!

Had my gastric bypass on the 7th. Spent one night in the hospital. The gas pain is real. From my experience it seemed more intense than others have had. I have to be on a 2 week full liquid diet before I can start the puree phase. I can only get a bite or two of Jello down before I'm done. I could only get one protein shake down until today. Seems like I can take in more water than I should be able to. But, that's good. So that I can get the minimum of fluids in so I don't get dehydrated. I had glue, no staples. Overall, still sore nothing too painful just uncomfortable.

Thanks for the tuna fish Idea! Today is my 2nd day on pureed food and I tried it. I'm tolerating it quite well and it's tasty. I tried scrambled egg yesterday and my stomach let me know it wasn't happy! Maybe it was too dry or too chunky or something, because eggs are pretty bland, and I thought it would be a good starter food, but no.

I've officially got the house to myself for the next 10 days! Since I have two kids in middle/high school and every illness known to humankind is running rampant, my parents have just picked them up and are taking them until I'm post-op. Let the self quarantine begin! I sent all the remaining food from the fridge with them, so now there's just yogurt and milk in there. And jello. I'm hoping to get a few organizing projects done while they're gone because it's so much easier to deep clean when no one is coming behind you to leave toothpaste blobs in the sink and drop their socks in the middle of the floor for some unknown reason. Seriously, why do they do that? I may start with cleaning the fridge shelves because now that it's empty, the grime is pretty obvious.

Yes, when they asked me why am I only taking 1 shake, I told them after calculating what I eat I am able to reach my 65-75 grams a day, but sometimes I can still feel hunger. Right after surgery I felt the hunger. It didn’t fix the hunger part but it limited how much I can eat. Maybe the nutritionist wants the shake to fill me up… but the shake doesn’t. Is it possible to feel hungry when I feel the 3 oz of food filled me up and I feel the tightness? That’s my case anyway. I feel thirsty many times but I just can’t drink more liquid cause I can feel it coming back up.

I had a question I've had 4 fills so far and I'm 4 months post op. And I noticed that I'm able to finish all my food sometimes and then sometimes I can't. Is this normal? Or do I need another fill? I listen to my body when I'm starting to get full or when I am full but some days I don't be full right away which I end up eat all my food and I am eating my portion sizes so it's nothing that's a lot of food.

Keep in mind that a shake also counts as liquid. That could be another reason why he recommended drinking two shakes a day - that way you can get both protein requirements AND fluid requirements met. I still drink a shake a day after nine years, but it's because my protein requirements are 100+ grams. I can probably do this with food, but I would rather drink a protein shake as my morning snack and therefore be assured I'm going to meet my goal by the end of the day, rather than obsessing all day about how much protein I'm getting and whether or not I'm going to hit my goal..

If you were advised 65-75g protein as your goal & one shake helps you to reach that goal or just exceed it as this stage you’re doing well. When your nutritionalist recommended 2 shakes did they realise you’re able to get 40-50g of protein in eating real food? To me the goal was to be get all I needed nutritionally from eating real food. I never had another shake after the2 week liquids stage, so from when I began purées. I ate a high protein yoghurt or yoghurt drink to give me the extra boost of protein to help me get near or to my 60g goal. (It did take me a while but my surgeon & dietician were okay with that.) To help reach my fluid goals, I started drinking during the night. still do. Every time I get in or out of bed I drink. Get up to pee, drink. If I’m reading in bed, watching tv, on social media, etc. in bed, I sip regularly. I get in another 8-10ozs most nights.

This is exactly what I say about my stomach right now!! LOL One day a food is fine, the next day two bites and I want to heave. One day I'm blissfully eating cucumbers and tomatoes in a little baby salad, the next day all I want to eat are protein chips. Definitely toddler territory, but I can't feed it Cherrios and Goldfish crackers and call it good! 🤣