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Yes! In fact, my entire weight loss since surgery has been slooooow. I don't recommend kicking the scale - it hurts 😋 I even talked to my bariatric "team" who just didn't seem concerned. It only added to my anger..to go through all this to lose 4" lbs a month 3 months in and still at 6 months! Where did my honeymoon period go?? Only 80 lbs since starting the pre surgery weight loss portion... 80 lbs in 9 months, that's less than 10 each month! 😠 So yeah, I understand your frustration. I at this point wouldn't be to worried, you retain lots of fluids for several weeks following surgery, plus the standard response you'll read on here is the "your body is going through a lot and could be doing a self check reset reevaluating" at this point. I'd give it at least a month and as long as you're hitting nutritional goals and nothing feels off you'll be fine - (sigh) slow or not..its a downward trend. 😀

I was told by a RN not to use Metamucil after Gastric Sleeve Surgery but to use Miralax instead. One week after surgery because of constipation I took a half dose of Miralax. MISTAKE...... I spent 3days either on the toilet or wearing pads to keep from leaking. Now I see in this forum that I could have taken my usual daily Metamucil.

Yes!! I did. My surgery was on Feb 14, and I had lost 16 pounds in the pre-op stage. After surgery, I did weigh myself and I had gained 8 lbs! I am positive it was all fluid. It took me a week to lose the water weight, so then I was at the same weight as my pre-op weight and very discouraged. I'm 16 days post op and have only lost 8lbs (plus the 8 of fluid). I reached out to my dietician and she said those with a lower starting weight (I was 240) will lose it slower. It's perfectly normal. Since starting the pureed phase, I increased my calories to 600/day and I get about 90 grams of protein. It's more steady at about 1lb every 2 days. I hope that helps you, and thanks for sharing this. I thought I was the only one.

I know I shouldn't complain because I'm feeling great and hitting my protein and water goals every day since I got home from the hospital, even tolerating soft proteins really well. If it weren't for the incisions and the lack of hunger, I'd almost forget I had anything done. But man, I would check my scale for bad batteries if I hadn't just changed them. My preop diet was a very exciting time as I was dropping weight like crazy. 15 lbs in 14 days! I was 238.8 on February 7, and the day before I went to the hospital, February 20, I weighed in at 223.4. I stayed off the scale after getting home because I knew I had IV fluids and all of that to flush out of my system. But I weighed myself today, 10 days post-op, and I'm down exactly 1 pound at 222.4. Color me underwhelmed. I know it's probably just an early appearance of the "3 week stall." Logically, I understand all the reasons for it to happen. But it doesn't stop me from wanting to kick something, specifically, my scale. My body will never miss an opportunity to mess with my head. Anybody else have a slower start after surgery than you were expecting? How long did it take to pick up the pace?

You may not feel full or feel full accurately for a while. You have to wait for your tummy & the nerves that were cut to be healed (around 8 weeks). It’s why sticking to the portions you were given vey important at this time & also the eat slowly. It takes at least 20 minutes for the full signal to get through (this is everyone not just us) so if you eat quickly you will have eaten way too much by the time the signal gets through. You may feel some pressure or at worst the foamies if you eat too much now. Later you may develop the runny nose, hiccup, etc. signals. It will be a little while until you feel your restriction which is really the stop, stop, too much warning. I only feel pressure if I’m full or something is sitting too heavily in my tummy. I also ask myself if I need the next bite or just want it because we should stop before we feel full. I also discovered my full signal can be really slow, up to an hour, so I usually take 30-45 mins to eat.

When hair thins after surgery, is loss more noticeable with shorter or longer hair? I’ve had a pixie style cut for years and just started growing it out. Now I’m wondering if I should keep the pixie cut until after the thinning stage? Surgery is next week so I have some time to let it grow

March 7th here for Gastric Bypass! Less than a week to go!

I'm a week out from surgery and have started on pureed food. I'm trying to figure out when I'm getting full without getting too full. Today I think I overdid it and it wasn't comfy at all! I get discomfort right between my breasts... the first few days after surgery, I was really sore there, and liquids hurt going down. They found a hiatal hernia and fixed that during surgery, and I figured that repair was causing the pain. But it's kind of in the same place where I get uncomfortable when I think I'm full. With that said... I'm curious about what full feels like to others. Thanks!!

Love, love, love this advice!! I can personally tell you that you are 100% correct. I was not drinking enough water (i was relying on Coke Zero) which i know actually dehydrates you. I also got into the bad habit of staying up way too late on my phone while watching Netflix so I was not getting enough sleep. My weigh loss stalled. I have now been drinking a lot more water and making sure i get between 7.5- 8 hours of sleep a night. By doing this i have broken the very long stall/very slow weight loss!! I know this is common knowledge about getting enough water/sleep, I just got into very bad habits for a while. I had my surgery 4/12/23 and have lost 82 lbs so i am doing good, but i knew i could do better!

Congrats! Make sure you take things slow and don't rush to the stages. I was told after week 3 I could have dairy, My stomach couldn't handle it and got sick immediately. Also if you don't end up losing a lot right away, remember everybody's body is different and takes time. You are doing the best thing for you and best of luck. 2 months post op and haven't regretted it!

No you have not stretched your pouch with just one 5 oz meal. Fact In a few weeks your restriction will kick in. Your internal stitches and staples will have healed and you will begin to feel so full. Its easier then to know your signals. Now you need to look for sneezing or a runny nose as full signals. Thats why you are given the weights to stick to. You could tear your stitch line its so new. It is often said on here, Just because you can does not mean you should

Hello Everyone, I am a little past, 3 weeks post op and I am currently on Soft Food Phase. For dinner, I ate a couple of meatballs, broccoli and cauliflower rice. The total weighed 5 ounces on the scale. I didn't finish the meal though. For some reason, today I thought 5 oz was okay; but when I looked at my notes my md wanted me to eat 3-4 oz per meal. I made a mistake and am scared my pouch may stretch or I might sabotage my weight loss! Moving forward I plan to follow the guidelines, but my question is , is there a possibility that I stretched my pouch? Will this sabotage my weight loss? Should I contact my md?

Sure, I was really distressed about the amount of food I ate two days ago I think it will be a decent example. 1 icelandic skyr coldbrew yogurt 1 cup coffee + sugar free cream 1 capri sun 4 oz of steak cooked in 1tbsp olive oil & minced garlic 1 chocolate premier protein shake 1 strawberry atkins protein shake (it's half the protein of the premier ones) 1 scoop vanilla isopure protein blended with 1/4 banana, 1 strawberry, 4 blueberries, 8 oz darigold fit protein milk 3 oz chicken, 1/4 cup macaroni this kind of is similar to a daily menu. the steak happens maybe once every 3 days, chicken is an every day staple. coffee is a one or two time a week option. yogurt is typically every day, but sometimes is subsituted with oats overnight bottles that are mixed with the protein milk. -edit- I'm stuck in this cycle of feeling hungry, then feeling guilty after I eat because I realize i ate food and I haven't been losing enough weight, then i don't want to eat again for a long time because I want to lose the weight, then i feel starving, then i eat, then i feel guilty, etc etc. It's a really shitty loop I'm stuck in.

My Dr was different and said to work towards eating 1 cup by 6 months and up to a cup and a half per meal with 3 meals per day at maintenance. While in the losing phase I found out that if I was under 800 calories per day I would stall and if I went over 1200 I would stop losing. So for me personally I had to sit pretty strictly right around 1000 calories per day. I was told to have the protein goal at 60-80 and they did not want me limiting carbs too much and said to aim for 100 per day. They felt that a low carb lifestyle was not something that they saw people able to maintain so they want people to practice eating a sustainable diet and still able to lose. So many different ways to do things that its very confusing. I hope you are able to find something that works for you, good luck!

So I am 5 years and 2 months post-op RYGB. I made it beyond my goal weight of 170lb to 160lb. Technically I was as low as 145lbs because I was very sick in 2020 then again in 2022, but after getting better, I stabilized at a steady 160lb. Last July I started online streaming/socializing with people. I started snacking more because of nerves and also began drinking quite heavily because being silly tipsy in front of strangers is fun! I had NO IDEA how many calories was in alcohol. Over the course of 5 months, I gained 20lbs. Even more, I noticed that I can eat almost a "normal" plate of food the same size as my family's. I broke the rules and had started drinking fluids with my meals. I think I thought I could get away with breaking rules because I was at a stable 160lbs. Now I am FREAKING out! I hate exercise. I never did it, even with my prior weightloss. I am using a tracking app my husband's VA dietician told him to use called Fat Secret. I am trying to stick to 1600 calories, which is super hard. I feel hungry all the time now. I think I caused pouch dilation. I refuse to be heavy again. My clothes are already getting tighter than I like. I was doing research today on weight gain after years post-op. I basically am reading that I need a bariatric reset. I am going to do a 2-week "Pouch Reset Diet." It's not to make my pouch smaller, but it's to retrain my body to feel full with smaller portions again. I need to go back to the basics, and it's really hard. I also don't get DS with sweets like I used to. Don't get me wrong, I still get sick, but I noticed that my sugar tolerances have changed. It really worries me. 40% of bypass patients fail and bounce back to within 10% of their original weight pre-surgery. I will NOT be a part of that 40%. My support system at home is tricky. On one hand, my husband does support me outwardly. But he himself weighs 415lbs and isn't doing much about his weight. He watched my struggles and drustrations and outright refuses surgery for himself. He's on some stupid intermitent fasting diet, but he still eats way too large portions at meal times. My 15 y/o son is pushing 285lbs, and his only exercise is video games. For me, it's like living around all these food temptations is a struggle. It's like being an alcoholic and living at a bar. I just ordered a crap ton of protein powder so I can jump start this Pouch Reset Diet. I started to push myself on working out at least a little bit. I have a mini stair stepper and an eleptical bike. Anything is better than nothing. I am just wondering if I am alone in my struggles?

Short update: I had my gastric sleeve procedure done in November 2019. I lost around 85 lbs and then stalled eventually regaining around 50 lbs back and a horrible case of GERD. I had never had symptoms of GERD before my surgery and about 3 months later, I had to begin taking omeprezole daily to deal with it. If I forget a dose I can tell by the afternoon. During the first year post surgery, I lost my husband (not unexpectedly but it DID happen 10 days post-op for me), moved across country from Florida to New Mexico, bought a new house and started a new job. My daughter is 1 year post-op and lost approx. 150 ibs on the DS. l just started the process to obtain a revisional surgery. Will be discussing the benefits of either the DS or ByPass. I had the upper GI completed which showed a small hiatal hernia with evidence of GERD. It also showed mild cricopharyngeal hypertrophy. Any suggestions regarding which of the 2 procedures would help with the GERD and to help lose the 130 lbs. that I still need to drop to get to my goal weight?

A final update for this thread: I had my gastric bypass on Feb 21! Check in went smoothly. I changed into my hospital gown, got my IV inserted, and was given a number of medications to take before being moved to a waiting area where I got onto a gurney. The various members of the surgery team came by to introduce themselves and check on various things. Finally, the anesthesiologist came by and gave me "something to relax" via my IV port. A minute later, I was being wheeled into the hallway, and that's the last thing I remember until waking up in my hospital room. I never saw the inside of the OR, and I have no memory of the recovery area afterward, either. The surgery itself took much longer than anticipated, about 6 hours. I was fine and safe the whole time, but the surgeon ran into some issues with my small intestine and a small abdominal mass (sent to pathology and was benign) that required additional steps. Because of this, I was surprised to wake up in my hospital room and discover it was already 9pm when my surgery began at 1pm! My poor mom had been so worried because we thought it would take maybe 3 hours max. The nurses checked on me several times that night. I was able to get up to use the toilet on my own, and the only real challenge was the IV pole having to be dragged along. I was very fortunate that I ended up with no roommate. It wasn't technically a private room, but no one else was assigned to it while I was there. In the morning, my surgeon came by and explained what had happened during surgery. He was concerned because some of the stitches ended up under more pressure than he considered optimal, so he wanted me to do a swallow test before I could have anything by mouth, including water. They got me in for that and it turned out okay, so about an hour after returning to my room, I was brought a bottle of water and a cup of red sugar free jello. I have to say, it was nice to have water because my throat was dry, but I really didn't care about eating. I did because they told me to, and I know at this point I hadn't had a single thing in my belly for over 40 hours, but I just didn't care. I felt zero hunger. But I at the jello, and later they brought me a popsicle, another jello, and a chicken broth. I ate it all over the course of about an hour. It was fine, but again, I just ate it because they told me to. Because I got such a late start on fluids after surgery, they kept me an additional night, just to be sure. But on Friday morning around 9am, I was discharged. I had a protein shake when I got home and worked all day on fluids. I was tired and a little sore, but my pain had been minimal enough that I was only on Tylenol. It worked well enough that I only had a few moments of real pain, mostly when shifting position that required the use of abdominal muscles. I was fortunate to have someone staying with me for the first few nights home, and my parents kept my kids (ages 12 and 15) with them for the first week so I wouldn't have to worry about all their activities and food. It took a few days to discover what worked best for me, which ended up being hot tea (decaf and herbal) instead of flavored waters as I'd been having pre-op. For the first week, I've met my 64oz fluid and 60g protein goals most days, but as time has gone on, I've become completely turned off anything with artificial sweetener and every protein shake except Syntrax Nectar Natural, which I can still manage. I definitely wasted a lot of money on shakes I won't be drinking, but I'm glad I had them for the 2 week pre-op diet and to take the pressure off finding things to try when I got home. Yesterday, I was allowed to start soft protein foods. So far, I've had tuna salad (2 Tbsp), refried beans with a sprinkle of melted cheese (1/4 cup), and 1 poached egg. No issues with anything so far. Tonight I will be cooking some haddock with pesto for dinner. I go in for my 2 week post-op appointment with my surgeon next Tuesday and hope by then my weight will be a little lower. I lost 15 lbs on the 2 week pre-op diet, but my weight was higher by about 5lbs when I got home from the hospital thanks to the fluids and swelling, and I'm only just back to where I was the day I went to the hospital. Still, 15lbs in three weeks isn't bad. As for other incidentals, I have been taking Benefiber daily in my morning tea and it really has helped. I had the first BM (very loose and not a lot) before leaving the hospital on day 2, and have managed to go at least every other day since, and daily the last couple of days, so I'm very grateful for that. My energy levels have been decent, but it's only today that I feel like I don't need a noon nap. Going without caffeine has been a struggle, but I'm getting used to it. After all the wait, I'm so glad to have this behind me and be able to focus on a healthy future!

Agreed, also had gastric bypass, 2 week liquid diet was awful, I felt hungry and it was difficult but did get better after day 4. Since surgery, I've felt hungry a couple of times, not in the usual way at all. I feel an overall need to refuel, usually when I've been extremely active. I've also felt hungry as in my stomach is empty, maybe two times. It didn't have the same effect, it was just a feeling, I realized I hadn't eaten as usual and should be hungry, set my timer to stop liquid, ate, and it was gone and I was left feeling satisfied. It's all just so much calmer, if that makes sense.

Tomorrow is my surgery day! I am soooo nervous! I only lost 6lbs on the prep diet. I know it was only 2 weeks but man I have been starving!! Send me good vibes tomorrow! I can wait to be one step further on my journey!

Lap band surgery 2004, nothing but pain & discomfort, no weight loss. Especially port sight hurt, lots of throwing up. After several attempts for help I started to just “live with it”. Married a wonderful man about 2 years ago, he said No your quality of life is more important. Went to doctors with me and he detailed everything (stuff I didn’t think to mention). I was referred to an excellent gastric surgeon. After tests and imaging, he said “the band needs to be removed and a bypass RNY performed. I was scheduled within a week, no waiting time. Best thing I ever did! The band was cutting into my liver, and other issues. I had a bit of discomfort but no pain meds other than Tylenol. I had this done May 15,2023, I have lost 70 pounds and feel great. Wear a size 4-6 jeans. I hope this helps someone. I think the band is the worst choice!

I had gastric bypass 8 days ago and I haven't felt hungry at all since waking up in my hospital room. If I didn't have times set for when I need to eat and how much, I would just not eat because if anything I feel an uncomfortable fullness like I've just stuffed myself with a massive holiday dinner just by drinking a couple sips of water. But I agree with @catwoman7 about the 2 week pre-op diet being the hardest part. Although after about 4 days, you become resigned to it and stop feeling so hungry. My advice is remove all temptation from your home and office areas before you start. You can't eat what you don't have.

on vacay this week, so every day's OOTD will be a bikini. this is the first of MANY (too many, some might say lol) that i brought with me 😉

I am just starting Zepbound tomorrow! Ihave had a long journey. I was lapbanded in 2002. I lost 130lbs. In 2014, after not seeing any doctors for 5 years, I went to a local bariatric surgeon just for a checkup. He found my esophagus had expanded. My band was too tight and I was packing my esophagus..didn't even know..no pain. Immediately unfilled and gained 30lbs in a month..eating NOTHING! LIke almost! I was refilled after about 3-4 months and then developed an infection..and to cut to the chase..band was removed in 2018 and revised to sleeve. By then I was up 50lbs. Since then I gained another 50lbs..so the sleeve did nothing. Between covid, bad eating habits and menopause, I cannot get this weight off..I tried keto..lost a few lbs..tried intermittent fasting..lost a few more..but my body just won't move the weight down..so broke down last week and saw my new primary doctor and she prescrived Zepbound..well orginally Wegovy but that is harder to find and Costco had Zepbound. I will start this Saturday.

How hungry is everyone after gastric bypass surgery? One of my biggest fears is being constantly hungry since no food is actually making it through my stomach. I have a week to go before my surgery, just starting the pre-op diet tomorrow, and a bit nervous if i can make it through without feeling like I'm starving.