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Yeah, it seems normal to me that you're second guessing this, as it is a major decision. What I will say is that I really haven't had to give up much of anything. I can't eat as much as I used to be able to, of course, but I don't stop myself from having something if I REALLY want it. If I want chocolate, I have a small piece. If I want pancakes, I have half of one, which ends up being more than enough....I could go on. No, I don't eat these things all day, every day, but I do let myself have them occasionally. I do drink coffee everyday; I do better with the cold brew variety, as it's less acidic, and I use a non-sugary flavoring with stevia for sweetener, so I'm not adding a bunch of calories or carbs, but I DO get my caffeine fix daily. I wasn't able to have it for a while, while I was healing, but I'm now 7 months post-op and can enjoy my glass a day. I also drink alcohol now. Do I do it a lot? No. But I do allow myself to drink occasionally. I don't keep liquor at the house, because I don't need it that often, but when I go out with friends, I may have a drink. I do vodka and water, and I bring Mio to but in it, so I'm still getting a yummy drink, without adding calories and carbs. I really wasn't a soda or sparkling water drinker before, so I don't miss that. I'm 32, and I wish that I would have done the surgery when I was your age, instead of waiting.

It's completely normal to second guess any major life changing thing you go through; marriage, weight loss surgery, cosmetic surgery, buying a first home, even kids. I know once you're pregnant and about to go into labor, there's nothing you can do. But I seriously questioned am I ready? And many other questions. Some of the things you are worrying about can still be enjoyed after surgery just not in huge quantities. I'm a vape person and no longer smoke cigs but every now and then. I drink a pot of coffee every day. Sometimes (mostly) it's decaf. I will drink a diet coke here and there. I don't drink alcohol because I'm an alcoholic, but I have friends that do.

This is a rant and a rave. Firstly I would like to say that I have always found the people here to be in the most part helpful and supportive. The same cannot be said for all other sites. Some of the sanctimonious BS from some peeps is unreal. Example Wow reading this thread is depressing. So many people saying never to drink alcohol again. Absolutes ( never )are very hard to accept. I got my band 9 years ago and was never told I had to give up alcohol. I enjoy a glass or 2 of wine a couple of times a week. Maybe I'm lucky I didn't become an alcoholic! Now looking at revising to RNY so I understand that I am going to have to give that up, at least for the foreseeable future but I would hate to think that I could NEVER have a glass of wine again. alcohol is pure sugar. The body uses that pure sugar to function instead of burning your stored fat for energy. Maybe ifvyou had not used alcohol you would be at goal weight and not looking for a revision. You are a perfect example of the truth of what those who are saying about alcohol use are saying. Alcoholics and drug abusers in recovery use the never absolute every day. They have to, no other choice. Not using absolutes, like never is often just an excuse.

We are actually all supposed to drink at least minimum 64oz of water, not just wls patients. I can completely tell a difference now when I don't get in my minimum. I feel so sluggish and tired. Using the bathroom is good because you are flushing out your body. I have an overactive bladder that my urologist is wanting to do surgery on but is waiting for me to get to my maintenance weight. It sucks, but they sell panty liners and things for that, so I'm ok with peeing on myself and having energy vs still peeing on myself and no energy. When I first started, I could have a 20oz coke and drink on it all day, or even a bottle of water. I wasn't much of a drinker except when I was an active alcoholic. But now, I have my 32oz infuser bottle with me all the time. I drink 2 of it at least, 4 cups of black coffee at least a day and sometimes other things on top, but I dont' even have to force myself now. It's second nature and I'm only 6 months post op.

I think it is hard for anyone to give an objective answer on this because most people haven't had both. Those who have will have been revising from another surgery so that will skew their opinion as well. Some things to consider. Sleeve Is a restrictive only procedure, apparently there is a quite high risk of reflux,it cannot be reversed but it is possible to revise to a DS bypass. Bypass Is restrictive and malabsorptive, risk of reflux seems to be very low, certain foods e.g alcohol and sugar may cause dumping. It can be reversed if necessary but this is complicated.

Unfortunately I don't get dumping so I wouldn't know about the sugar substitutes. Sugar alcohols leave a bad taste in my mouth so I stay away from those. If I eat too much sugar I'll kind of feel icky but it's not the typical dumping symptoms. I found a great sugar free chocolate substitute that doesn't have sugar alcohols either and it really tastes good. It's ChocZero's Keto Bark and can be found on Amazon. Good alternative, especially since my appetite may have gone away, my sweet tooth apparently has not.

I started eating like crap again for maybe 2 weeks, fell into a depression of sorts. Just pulled myself out of it Sunday and discovered a lovely 3lb gain. Which is hardly anything at all to get off but when I was half a pound from goal....ouch! The protein shakes and water bottles are back in full force and the convenience food/alcohol/coffee is OUT. Just goes to show if you let yourself slide back....there will be consequences

Hi. I was sleeved 01/28/2012 so coming up on seven years. I was 238 at my first appointment (5'6 female) and 219 the day of surgery. I was 39 and wanted to lose by my fortieth. I was down to 129 within a year. I am currently 114 but at year five I bounced back up to 160. I have been holding steady now under 120 for about six months. It was a huge adjustment the first year for sure. I was cooking for my family a lot and had two kids. We entertained almost weekly and had a very active social life. Everything was centered around food and alcohol which I now was trying to avoid. Eating out felt line a punishment watching everybody else eat. But I just kept ordering and eating the way I was supposed to because my life was getting so much better. I could do things I didn't want to do when I was heavier. Eventually I actually craved the proper foods. I couldn't believe the mental and physical changes. Now I am very content with all the changes I have made and no longer feel cheated when others eat. I swim everyday and love shopping for cute clothes. My relationships got so much better and I have been unbelievably happier. My compulsion to overeat disappeared and life became enjoyable instead of something to endure. Do I wish I had done it sooner? Sure, but I needed to hit my emotional bottom and figure out why I ate compulsively first. I don't think I had the determination to do it correctly before that time. It was the best decision I've personally made. I love my life, my stronger, fitter capable body and the freedom from my weight that was literally weighing me down and holding me hostage in my own body. Today I embrace and love my life. I eat to live and choose healthy options. This works and has been such a gift. It's not easy the first year, but it's so worth it in the end. I still have a lot of restriction and it reminds me not so gently when I overdo it. I rarely do because I know how to eat for my sleeve now. Good luck to the rest of the forty somethings. So far this has been the best decade of my life! Good luck.

I never found any chewables I could stomach, especially as most/all contain sugar alcohols, which caused me nausea post-op. Instead, I just took regular vitamins, and the larger ones I cut in half with a pill cutter.

Keep in mind that there are plenty of things you enjoy that you'll still be able to eat. You might just have to modify how it's prepared or swap out lower calorie/fat/sugar/etc. ingredients for the full versions. I recommend google searching various recipes to kind of get an idea of how easy it is to prepare foods that are perfectly fine for you to eat but can also be enjoyed in larger portion sizes by other people. That way you and your husband aren't having to prepare different meals. Two books I recommend are: The Gastric Sleeve Bariatric Cookbook and The Bariatric Foodie Holiday Survival Guide. Especially with your surgery being so close to the holidays you wanna make sure you have a plan to get yourself through a time period that is so food-centric. Alcohol is never a complete no-no. You could always do A shot or have A beer (although I wouldn't recommend the latter due to the carbonation), but maybe not so close to your surgery. A lot of people I've spoken to recommend waiting a year after surgery before reintroducing alcohol and only having 1-2 drinks a month because of how it affects you. It is not at all uncommon for WLS patients to become alcoholics as they replace their food addiction with alcohol, so be wary. I'm 1 week post-op as of tomorrow and the only issue I'm having is boredom with the limited options of clear liquids. I start full liquids tomorrow so that will open up a few more choices for me and pureed foods start on Halloween (so that'll be my little treat). It's definitely gonna be a life changer for you so don't stress too much. Get it done and take each day as it comes as a new learning experience.

Months before bariatric surgery, I started making diet & lifestyle changes, such as NO sugar, artificial sweeteners, desserts, processed food, carbonated/caffeinated/alcoholic beverages, smaller portion sizes, no drinking during meals, and minimal bread or rice. This allowed me to lose 30 lbs pre-op. I did not tell my family, colleagues, or friends (except for 1) about my gastric bypass surgery. No one noticed anything different after surgery as I had already been losing weight and was eating less in their presence. This allowed me to focus on myself and not have to deal with negative comments, energy, or misinformation. It worked well for me. YMMV

OP: The normal BMI range for a person 5’3” is 105-141 lbs. If you only lose 60 lbs then you’ll still be in the obese category. IMO, I think you should try to lose as much as possible, especially in the honeymoon period (i.e. the first 12-18 months) when losing will be “easier.” The key to weight loss is in the kitchen not the gym. You will need to change poor eating habits for life (therapy can help) as your WLS tool will not make up for overeating, eating simple carbs & processed food, too many liquid calories, including alcohol, and all the rest. This is also true for “normal” skinny people. Good luck, you can do it!

Thanks for filling out a little more info about your journey! So your revision from band to MGB was also laparoscopic and more recent and would also provide you with the advantages of the latest techniques and surgical advances in WLS! Good for you! And you make a great point about being able to fake anything on the internet. I remember the "Kimmer" scandal and class action lawsuit. She set herself up as a guru, charged money for a VLC diet and forum membership and said she was this total fox. She turned out to be well over 300lbs, and was a regular consumer of candies/chocolates like Snickers etc and an alcoholic.

How about iced tea with fruit in it, and it would be a mock Tom.Collins. Here's a story about the real thing. I tended to being colicky, probably got on my parents nerves, they were to have a cousin or aunt to watch me for a while. Went down to the neighbor good pub to have a few. Mama drank a double Tom Collins, came back home, nursed me , evidently the strained amount of alcohol was just enough to cure my colic and I never had it again!

Wow! So let me get this straight...lifestyle and diet modification is a MUST in order to experience long term weight loss? You really won't maintain long term if you continue to eat the things that "brang" ya to the Obesity Ball the first go-round? I'm actually pretty stoked to see this study. Thanks for posting it. I've believed that we had to change, and change fast and permanently since the year leading up to my surgery, and despite no matter how kind and gentle I shape my responses about this, I'm constantly slammed by "people who know better." People who want their proverbial cake and eat it too...(I'm not talking about the occasional "cheat" meal. I'm talking about people who think this is magic bean surgery that does all the heavy lifting for life and requires no effort or help from them. Who deny responsibility for their own behaviors re: food/alcohol/drugs/etc). This is most especially true on FB...not quite so much here in BP online community. Thanks for posting this. I'm def. gonna save it!

Adults who experienced childhood abuse have different recovery needs after bariatric surgery than those who were not abused. Children who experience physical, sexual, or verbal abuse sustain long-term consequences, studies have found. Abuse, neglect, witnessing crime, parental conflict, mental illness, or substance abuse can create dangerous levels of stress that can impact healthy brain development. These Adverse Childhood Experiences can increase the risk for smoking, alcoholism, heart disease, and many other illnesses and unhealthy behaviors throughout life.

Wondering what alternative drinks people order when at a bar or restaurant if you aren't drinking alcohol. Most of the low cal options are highly carbonated e.g diet coke Non alcoholic drinks such as lemon lime and bitters or lime and soda are generally quite high in sugar and calories. Plain soda water is boring and plain water even worse.

I had been sober for 9 years before weight loss surgery. Everyone told me I had to be careful after surgery and really protect my sobriety. About 3 months after surgery I ended up relapsing and almost died. Like literally almost died, had to be taken to the ER in an ambulance. I have since regained sobriety but it has been very hard. You have two choices, continue to drink like an alcoholic and see where that takes you or get into a program of recovery. I got sober in AA and I know the program works if you are committed to it. Ultimately it’s your choice and no one else’s. If you choose to keep drinking then more power to you. No one can make you get sober.

As far as I am aware the following things can all cause cancer :- Too much protein Too much fat Too much sugar Too much sun Too much stress Too much alcohol Sex Genetics Breathing Being alive

I am 6 months post op and I slid off for a bit and then I got angry at food for taking over me and being in control over me. I have to put my recovery over drugs/alcohol/food first or I can't be the wife/mom/friend etc. It's crazy living life on life's terms and doing what's right, but I have to be selfish or I can't be there for others.

My PCP has been involved with me getting approved, so I still see her for my other issues. I see my surgeon every 3 months for a check up of the suture site and check my weight loss. He does labs now every time I go but that just started. The labs he does also checks to make sure I'm getting the vitamins recommended and if I need to add any or can stop any. His office provides weekly online meetings and face to face meetings plus I see a therapist once a month for my mental health issues and am involved in AA for my drugs and alcohol recovery. I see my dietician every time I go too and can call them anytime. These regular checks by my surgeons office is until I reach my goal weight. Then he will see me once a year.

You didn't mention this, but their flour was rationed and consumption extremely limited, as were fruits. You just listed a host of confounding items. Also limited as you mentioned is sugar. So during this time, they limited sugar, flour, fruits, baked goods. They ate high fat tinned meats, high fat butter (limited), real meat was limited, eggs/bacon as was alcohol and beer were limited...many fasted but def observed a calorie restricted diets. BUT, the issue with the people who do low carb or keto is NOT that it's our way or the highway, or that we believe and say that ALL people MUST low carb or die...the issue is with having alternate agendas so rudely and repetitively shoved down our throats and lambasted for believing in the efficacy of our woe (way of eating). The other issue is having our dietary choice misrepresented by nonfactual BS. And most of us are sick of it. Cuz the OP posts it OVER and OVER and OVER ad nauseum. Like it's being shoved down our throats with the force of Thor's mighty hammer. Most of us who are objecting are all in the same camp: THERE IS NO ONE DIET that is suitable for everyone! LOL. We pretty much all agree that we must find our own path through the woods to arrive at a sustainable liveable diet that turns into a forever lifestyle. And that is A-okey-dokey with us!!!! I'm glad this high carb diet works for OP and others. I am. More power to them. They clearly did not have the same degree of metabolic derangement or medications that necessitate a low carb, adequate protein, lower fat diet as I have. LOL. That's ok. LOL. The even bigger question is why then, if they can now magically tolerate all manner of carbs, why did they get so fat they needed bariatric surgery? And how is their lifestyle modified so they won't repeat history? But I do hope we all agree, that you wouldn't give a diabetic or pre-diabetic heaps and heaps of carbs and expect their insulin levels and blood sugars to improve. At least I hope that's a universal understanding cuz if it isn't, then someone is engaging in magical thinking. And btw, wouldn't it be fun? Let's all make a pact to meet back here in 3-5 years and measure our success with pics, weights, and tape measures.

I have a lapband, but I understand your pain. I want to tell you, failing to lose has many causes--I know, I lived on less than 1000 calories a day for years and never lost an ounce. My lapband didn't help me lose much and my first doctor wouldn't give me a fill. So I found another who did. I am practically wheelchair bound (can only hobble around the house). So I started to lose--slowly. the big help was I didn't regain what I lost. One thing I've never heard a doctor explain to me is that excessive hunger can be giving you a message. So many diets I went on ended with me lying in bed, weak and starving within weeks. What I didn't realize was that my body was telling me those diets weren't nutritionally what I needed. I've tried low fat-high fiber, low calorie, vegetarian, all raw salads, lot's of nuts, praying the weight away, self-hypnosis, bodybuilding, lots of exercise...you get the idea. All of them failed because I wasn't listening to my body. When I got so hungry I would eat nails if there was ketchup to put on them, my body was telling me I was on the wrong diet. This isn't a normal,"Gee, that looks tasty." But was more like a weak pathetic cry from my bed that I was dying and had to eat. I kept experimenting and discovered a ketogenic diet helped, but I gained everything back quickly. As I worked with the keto diet, I learned I wasn't drinking enough water, and I wasn't sleeping enough. But the high protein with lots of greens was definitely a better choice than the others. Then I got the lapband, and the slow weight loss with no restriction was discouraging. But it was a tool. And once I got restriction, I used that tool. I mostly stayed on the ketogenic diet. Lots of protein was just a necessity for me. The fat I ate made the diet more enjoyable. The lapband made me eat small bites, or I spent days puking. If I got sick, I had to reduce what I ate because sickness caused my stomach to swell, and I puked. Over the last ten years I've lived on the ketogenic diet, except for two years when I lost control, (I gained 50 pounds and found I had cancer. I believe the sugar cravings after being in control so long were a result of the cancer.) Back in control, and the 50 pounds went away. I've managed to lose 160 pounds. Not a large amount, and I still have over 100 pounds to go. But I am happy not to be the woman I was. I don't know if the ketogenic diet will help you, but I'm sharing my experience to show you have to experiment to find the right diet. And you have to sleep enough to lose weight. So, get the junk out of your house--the chips, crackers, cake mixes, candy, soda, snack food, juices (fruit juice is just liquid sugar water with a few minerals, eat whole fruit instead), and the alcohol (You can go back to 1 drink a day after you've lost weight). And start the eating pattern you feel best on. Just practice eating a healthy diet for a bit. Don't eat much at a time and keep any easy to snack on food (like grapes or nuts) in the refrigerator. Then start working your tool. go longer between small meals, see what happens when you delete starches, or what foods change how you feel. I had to stop vegetarian because beans make me uncontrollably hungry(love those beans, yumm, yumm). Your body is unique, and just because you haven't found what works for you doesn't mean you're a failure. It just means you haven't found the balance of diet, sleep and exercise that works for you. The important thing is NEVER GIVE UP. After 10 years with the band, I'm revising to a sleeve this spring. I love my band, but there is evidence it doesn't do well after 10 years or so. I feel I will do even better on the sleeve.

It depends really, it's pretty personal, not everyone is effected the same way. I haven't had much issues with Stevia and other alternatives, high levels of sugar alcohols case some discomfort, but I haven't had any classic dumping from any substitutes.

Just watch out for the sugar alcohols in a lot of the frankenfood on the market labeled sugar free. These can cause dumping in anyone with or without surgery. For some hilarious reading on Amazon look up sugar free gummy bears. I use liquid splenda and liquid stevia with no problems.