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Do you have ice in your water? My dr said no ice because many people are sensitive to the extra cold. I'd say you may be taking too big of a sip. I get a feeling like you've explained if I'm eating too fast, or took too much at a time.

Yeah, I'm admittedly a "lazy loser" myself. I've never been ANY good at counting/tracking calories, points, whatever. I eat things I enjoy because I know that one of my mental shortcomings is that if I try to force myself to eat things I don't enjoy just because they're healthy, I know I will cheat. I will *have* to eat something enjoyable, regardless of what other "healthy" things I've eaten... so rather than compound the calorie intake, I'll just cut to the chase and eat what I enjoy, healthy or not, but in moderation and smaller portions. Not everyone's brain works the same way, and I know this perspective is likely anathema for others, but it's working thus far for me. 1 year out from surgery date my weight has plateaued as expected, but knowing my propensity to enjoy food, I'm deliberately keeping a closer eye on the scale. I have my fast food and my occasional sweets, but If I see any long-term trend upwards more than about 2-3 pounds, I immediately tighten things up. So far, so good. Just this morning I hit a new low weight, so the the trend is still downward, and IMO that's what's important, no matter the methods employed. Different strokes, yadda yadda yadda...

Ok…so i have an odd experience on this topic: Years ago (2005 if I remember correctly), i had a breast reduction, and i lost practically all sensation in my nipples. One side was more affected than the other. It was even a very rare event for my nipples to get erect/hard (sorry, that may have been a little graphic, but its all in the name of info sharing! Lol) Anyhoo, fast forward to my breast lift in 2019 and a few weeks after surgery, I suddenly got sensation back. Totally weird. Now, just a slight breeze can blow and you can totally see my nips under my shirt. I don’t know if this is a normal thing, but there you go.

I had a VSG done back in October 2016. Since, I have developed unbearable reflux to the point where I'm waking up in the middle of the night with my throat on fire and a mouth full of bile. I had a swallow study done in August of 2020, which I was told was normal (recently found out it was FAR from normal...). Fast forward to this past Spring, I saw a new surgeon who said that this anatomy is absolutely not normal for post-sleeve, and that I have an extremely dilated fundus and the beginnings of a hiatal hernia. Has anything like this happened to anyone else? (the part in pink is circled because I wanted to point it out to a friend I sent it to, but obviously, that whole dark bubble should NOT be there)

I am going on a year now trying to have a revision done due to GERD. Last August, I saw my old surgeon's nurse practitioner who told me that omeprazole daily was my only option. She ordered a swallow test which she reported looked "normal" and she could see no reason why I had GERD - so, again, continue with omeprazole. This past April, I finally had had enough and decided to advocate for myself a little more and saw a surgeon in another facility. He took one look at my swallow study and said it was far from normal - I have a huge dilated fundus and a hiatal hernia. He, too, tried to push the meds vs. a surgical intervention but I told him that I could not go on like this nor did I want to take yet another medication daily for the rest of my life for an issue that could be fixed with a revision. Fast forward to THIS August, I'm waiting on insurance approval with my fingers crossed. I'm frustrated that I was misdiagnosed, as this could've been taken care of almost a year ago... bottom line, push, advocate for yourself. You know your body best. The only trick is getting insurance to deem the revision medically necessary. Good luck!

I admit I am having similar issues. My goal was reached and surpassed so fast, so early and so easily I have this mentality that “I’m good for life.” I hope I am and I’ve been maintaining well for a few months now. But to be honest I could be thinner. My wife and mom (seriously I’m 47 and still her baby) got worried I was too thin…. Damned if I do damned if I don’t scenario… so they’ve been conspiring (out of love and concern) to feed me more, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a voluntary participant in this game of theirs. But I know I need to be very careful. The “bonus m&ms” to keep calorie count high but food volume low can very very easily become a significant problem. I’m ready to sit down and reevaluate my food choices and make sure maintenance doesn’t turn into regain, because I know once it starts it’s so much harder to reverse the trend.

First I want to say thank you to so many of the veteran posters on here. I hope you gals and guys know how much your experiences and feedback have helped me and I suspect many others. There's just such a fantastic mix of people and experiences - It's great knowing you aren't alone in this journey. The first few months after surgery were easy. The weight was simply falling off, there wasn't anything I couldn't eat or drink - And better yet, I couldn't overeat because of the restriction. I felt fantastic most of the time, had all sorts of NSV's and loved my new life. From August until January I lost almost 50lbs - I was so close to Wonderland I could taste it. THEN reality struck - Suddenly I was one of those "slow losers" - It took almost 2 months to lose 13lbs. UGH, I WAS going to be one of those slow losers. OK, fine, I'm 52 and it is what it is, right? From January until May, I "only" lost 33lbs. Again, every week/month I told myself that I would lose the weight, I was just in some sort of a stall and things would magically pick up. Well, they didn't, I would lose 2-3 lbs and then I would gain 2-3 lbs. Again, "it's normal" I told myself. Fast forward to a week ago - I jumped on here for some motivation (reading stories, etc.) and I took a hard look at what I was doing. Basically, I was being lazy - I was eating whatever I wanted and justifying it by saying "I only eat small portions" - Well, yeah, that was true...BUT I was grazing, I was drinking too much alcohol, and I wasn't tracking. I honetly have no idea how many calories I was consuming (especially on weekends with family and friends). I played mind games with myself and said "As long as I'm not gaining, I'm doing things right." - Well, that was a giant load of (@*$. This past Tuesday (after a weekend of Mimosa's, Crown Royal, and some really great BBQ), I woke up to a 5lb gain (BTW, yes I realize some of that was water retention). WAKE UP CALL. 5lbs? Seriously - Time to go back to basics before that's a 10lb gain. For the first time in MONTHS, I tracked every thing I tracked everything that went into my mouth (water, food, etc) - I did 3 days of liquid - In two days, those 5lbs were off. Rather than what I've done in the past, I didn't stop there - I continued tracking, I continued being cognizant of what and when I was eating. I said "no" to many things that I thought I wanted. I lost 6.8lbs from Tuesday to Sunday. What? I'm NOT a slow loser - I'm a LAZY loser. Folks, for many of us, it's EASY in the first few months, it's EASY to convince ourselves that we're doing OK, it's EASY to compare ourselves to others, it's EASY to ignore signs that you're falling into bad habits, and it's EASY to get lazy. In reality, it's HARD to stick to your plan when you're feeling fantastic and patting yourself on the back for losing so much weight. I'm choosing to be thankful that this happened now rather than 2-3 years into it. I'm glad that reality smacked me in the face and forced me to face the fact that i wasn't doing what I needed to do. Right now it was EASY to get back on track before I let it get out of control. For those of you experiencing the same - Buckle up buttercup, start tracking, weigh yourself often if you need to, and take a good look and when and why you're losing weight and when and why you aren't. Again, a very special thank you to you old timers for always keeping things real and giving out such fantastic advice.

The best advice that I can offer is to breathe and remember why you are having the procedure. I, too, freaked out a couple days before surgery. I thought to myself that if I am losing weight without having my anatomy altered, then why do it. Then I remembered that I also struggled for so long and give up when it seems as if the weight wasn’t dropping fast enough. I also remembered that I don’t want the diseases associated with obesity. Just remember your “Why”.

Congratulations on your weight loss! I posted some of my before and after pics. I was 348 at my heaviest. I was 330 in July 2020 when I began the approval process. I was 310 on December 23, 2020, the day of surgery. I am now 247. My weight loss isn’t going as fast as some. I do eat a bit more in carbs and I work out 4-5 days a week including strength training. I have never felt or looked as good as I do now.

For me, it was 18 months and 1 day to reach my goal weight. It's different for everyone though. It depends a lot on 1. how much you have to lose and 2. how fast your weight loss is. My weight loss is very slow due to hypothyroidism and I've had near constant stalls along my journey. However, I was still able to get to my personal goal weight. And I'm even passed it by a pound. If I hit maintenance any time soon, I'd be okay where I'm at now. However, now that I've reached goal I think it'd be nice to see 175 or even 170, but if I don't get there, I'd be alright with that.

The truth is the average weight loss at three to five years is about 65% of the weight you have to lose (that is the weight that puts you in the healthy BMI range - higher end if you are a larger frame, lower if you’ve a smaller frame). Your surgeon may have given you a goal weight of where you may end up at based on these averages. Better to under promise & over deliver thinking. Some medical teams discuss where you’d like to be. Mine did. Mine was based on the lowest weight I could always get down to before gaining again which was on the upper end of the BMI range (cause I thought I had a larger frame - turns out I don’t). It was deemed a reasonable, healthy & attainable goal based upon my history. I know many people poo poo BMI but look at it as a guide, not a hard & fast rule. Amend it based on your body type, frame, muscle mass, etc. Plus you know how your body works & functions best - it may be at a higher or lower weight. You know you functioned well at a lower weight when lifting so that may be somewhere for you to aim as against what your surgeon suggested. I’ve lost way more than my goal & have been working at maintaining it for about 10 months - so I’ve got a long way to go. Looking at my stats, you may expect me to be bony but I’m not. But that’s me. Someone with a different body shape & frame may be very bony at the same BMI. As long as the weight you reach is healthy & sustainable everything is great. The surgery will rest your basal metabolic rate & that will dictate how much weight you lose too. This video by Dr Matt Weiner may be helpful. He has a lot on this topic. Good luck.

Not being able to eat much at one sitting is normal. But waiting until 5-6 pm to have your first food of the day does not strike me as normal. Before surgery, it's possible to go all day without eating and still end up taking in a good amount of calories because we could just stuff ourselves at dinner. You can't do that now. Your stomach holds the same few ounces, regardless of how long it's been since you last ate. So why not have something in the AM with your vitamin, something during the day, something around dinner time, and maybe a last snack in the evening? Are you going without food during the day as a weight-loss strategy (like intermittent fasting)? Or just not making time to eat?

So I initially went in to start my bariatrics process at the hospital in February of 2020. They estimated the time was 6-8 months start to finish (surgery). This was right before the pandemic hit. Now being in Canada by March everything was starting to shut down. Panic was in motion and my initial consultation in Februarg followed by a group orientation in late February was all I had got to do in person. The next appointment I had wasn't until July! Like you it was on zoom. That I believe was a consult with the social worker. Basically someone who talked to me and asked me a bunch of mental health questions. Mostly to see if I was of sound mind, not super depressed or suicidal and if I was mentally prepared to go forward with surgery. She had one follow up over the phone a month later then signed off on her end. Next was the dietician who did what dieticians do, ran me through a PowerPoint presentation about the 3 food groups. I was given a little homework to do over the next 6 weeks. I had to fill dietary sheets saying how much I drank that day, what I had for breakfast, lunch and dinner plus snacks. Times and a note about what type of food that was (ie protein, carb, vegetable). Just basically making sure I understood food groups. Once submitted she reviewed them and another couple weeks later we went over it on the phone. She made some corrections, went over food groups AGAIN.. and gave some suggestions on what I could have to balance a meal. She discussed briefly the phase 1 pre-op diet, phase 2 liquid diet and phase 3 pureed diet. Gave suggestions and ideas about what to eat, to avoid etc. Nothing you can't find online with a little research. Finally she signed off. Then the 2nd wave hit in November and everything shut down again. Fast forward I finally did my second doctor consult in January of 2021 and he reviewed the dieticians notes and social workers and then signed off. Throughout this entire now year that had gone by I was only ever initially weighed in and measured the first month. Blood work done that first month. A year had past and no updates to either were requested. More time goes by and I did a surgeon zoom meeting and he just asked me basic questions. I think the most in depth thing he asked for was to visibly see my stomach and move my head around so he could see my neck function. Then I had a brief phone call with pre-op questions. Finally a surgery date in May was issued. Again a third wave hit and that was cancelled. Finally I had my surgery July 23rd 2021.. nearly a year and a half after starting the process. That's socialist free health care for you though.. so I guess I can't complain. Anyways that's the process I went through and I too was concerned at no point they asked for updated blood work or weigh ins. There was no real monitoring of diet aside from just telling the dietician I understood and showing her a brief demonstration. Throughout that year and a half I fell off the advised diet a bunch of times. I was very dedicated at first, then the delays discouraged me. The additional delays and run around and feeling like this is simply never going to happen really made me fall off. By the time my May surgery date came around I was eating like I ate before, I kind of just didn't care any more. I was also drinking a lot of calories. At some point I fell off the diet drinks and went back to regular and with no bloodwork monitoring or being held accountable, I drank myself into diabetes type 2. Which was found a 3 weeks before surgery when I was checked for the first time ever at a clinic for my blood sugar, which was a 26.8 on the meter. My own fault entirely, but had they done more in person check ups and diagnostics they might've noticed I wasn't losing weight, my sugar levels were getting high. Maybe steps could have been made to help me be accountable and stay on track. After all I'm an addict to food and flavor, leaving me for a year and a half with no support to do it all on my own just didn't work out for me. So I do hope your process goes faster and smoother than mine. But you are not wrong in being concerned by the lack of in-person check ups. Do yourself a favor and speak up and don't just stay silent like I did.

Curious how everyone is doing? Do you have any new challenges or surprises? Unexpected hobbies or loves? I’m 5’3” and 130lbs. My weight loss has just started to taper off, which is good, because there are days I feel I look sick (not skinny sick, but like sunken in cheeks and that nonsense). I lost 4 lbs this month. Still eating a half cup of food per meal, but starting to test out a tablespoon more, as I am supposed to be at 1 cup in October and still get really sick feeling any time I eat too much or too fast. Otherwise feeling great! Loving wearing a swimsuit even with my saggy thighs and bum lol! Struggling with night time hunger on days I don’t get my water in at work. I think part of that is just needing to find ways to get in more calories, and part is that I will stay up super late to finish getting in all my liquids. hope to hear from you all!

Hello guys, This is my first post here. I stumbled upon this page on Google and was reading some of the topics and this community seemed very supportive. I thought I'd give it a try. So I'm one week out of post op gastric bypass. I was in the hospital for about 3 days and I've been home since. I have to say the first couple days I was in horrible pain, way worse than I anticipated. While in the hospital I drank very small amounts and barely ate anything. They gave us little 30ml cups to pour liquids into. We had the option of water, apple/cranberry juice diluted 50/50 with water, skim milk and ice chips. They also gave us a jello every day at lunch and a no sugar vanilla pudding at dinner. Accompanied by some sort of cream based soup with no chunks in it. I was a little surprised because I was expecting clear liquids only. Anyways long story short.. After coming home I've felt much much better. I think I stopped pain meds day 4 and I'm able to move around, bend, etc without any discomfort really. I'm obviously taking it easy but I am finding the now 3 weeks (2 weeks pre-op) liquid diet to be hell on Earth. I'm doing my best and while yesterday and today I tried a little bit of pureed foods and yogurt and it seemed to sit fine. I am trying to follow the guidelines. I personally have no felt any nausea or had any diarrhea since the first day or two. So I'm just sitting here trying to argue with myself about whether to try and suffer another week of primarily liquid diet or to try and step into pureed a little early. I don't want to cause any issues or stretch my stomach accidently. Even with puree I've been careful to have things like Liptons cup-a-soup. I pureed a clam chowder and ate maybe 1/3 of the can and found it sat very heavy the rest of the day on my stomach. I felt bloated and whenever o drank liquids it just refreshed the bloated feeling. Not trying that again. They also expect me to drink 2 protein shakes daily. The best I can do to makr a protein shake that isn't chalky is 300ml of water in the blender. But even then I struggle sipping at it for an hour or more to drink more than half. I actually feel very gassy afterwards and sometimes it too feel very heavy on my stomach. Maybe I am drinking too fast or is this normal at this stage? Obviously I want nothing more than to be back on solid foods. But I know that is at least 3 weeks away and then it will be a very gradual introduction. Sorry for this post being soo long I am just really struggling and not sure what to do. I feel like if I see one more cup of clear chicken broth I'm going to croak. I just miss and want flavour and taste back in my life. Something to get me through to where I can enjoy real food again.

I think you’ll find many on here who consciously stopped trying to lose weight before their initial/original goal weight. I’m 5’2” and had set a goal of 120. By the time 140-150 came around I was getting some “concerned” comments, but I personally wasn’t satisfied yet. When I hit 127, i decided to stop as *I* felt I was looking too skeletor-ish. Fast forward 2 years from that and I ended up losing a bit more anyway. Today I am 115, but I think I actually look less skeletor-ish than i did at 127 immediately after weight loss phase (the fam agrees). I think it’s because weight may have shifted around a tad, and because carbs are a part of my regular diet. 🤷🏻‍♀️

That sounds like an awful experience you had before! No wonder you have lingering anxiety. The good news is that your surgery is coming up very quickly, and I don't think that even the most strict states are going to be ready to do shutdowns again that soon. Of course I don't really know anything, it just doesn't seem like it happened that fast before. That day will be here before you know it!

Today was my first day! I walked 2 miles. I was shocked how fast I walked it. When I looked at my steps I was like holy cow. Tomorrow I will tackle some of the machines. Tuesday and Thursday’s I have decided will be my walking days.

Oh man, night shift is sooo hard on your mind and body. Is there any way to get a day shift? I assume you have a reason for doing night shift, either by choice or necessity, but if there's any way to switch, I would consider it. I agree with @kristieshannon that packing your meals and avoiding the vending machines and fast food at all costs is the way to go. Also, tracking your food. And aiming to get as much sleep as you can when you get home - get black out curtains and shut off your phone. The more tired you are, the more difficult it will be to stave off temptation (I am currently jetlagged and eating like crap!). Good luck.

hey, thanks GOd no just little pain when i drink to fast

Congrats on your weight loss. Woo hoo. Hiccups: Yes, I do but they are way less severe & pass much more quickly then they did before my surgery when my reflux would stir up or I’d have too many gin & tonics lol - the gas. Esomeprazole helps if they are bad. They happen now if I eat too fast, the food is a little dry or rich. Staggering: Your centre of gravity does change as you lose weight. You may even get lower or upper back pain as your body relearns how to stand & move about.(I had upper back pain for a while & I noticed I was slumping more until I got used to my changed body.) Do you have any light headedness &/or narrowed vision when you stagger as that could be some orthostatic low blood pressure. Wait a moment, hold onto something to ground you & it will pass as your BP stabilises again. New clothing: It can become rather expensive buying new clothes as you drop sizes but it does become a necessity when your clothes start to fall off. Try second hand, thrift or inexpensive stores just to buy a couple of essential pieces to get you through. I was pretty fortunate I had a few different sizes stored away so I pulled them out & enjoyed wearing them again.

1. occasionally 2. I haven't noticed it in myself 3: I bought pretty much everything except underwear and swimsuits at Goodwill and other thrift stores during the weight loss phase. I was blowing through sizes so fast it didn't make sense to spend much on clothes, knowing I'd probably only be wearing them for a month or two.

Congrats on your weight loss so far! You're doing great! 1) Yes, I get hiccups sometimes when I eat too fast. It hurts! 😢 (my surgery has a VSG stomach. Just with the intestinal bypass bit added that makes it the Loop DS) 2) I do stagger sometimes, but I also have arthritis in my knees, hips, and back so I always attribute any staggering to that. But, honestly, you've lost more than 25% of your weight. As the above poster mentioned, your center of gravity may be a bit off and you should be able to adjust over time. 3) Well, I was a 34 in jeans when I was at my highest weight (389 pounds) and my shirts were 6xl. I had clothing from about 15 years before when I was a 26 in jeans and some shirts from high school that ranged from 3xl-4xl so I put off buying clothes for quite a while lol. I went from those 26 jeans straight into an 18 (that I luckily didn't have to buy because my Mom wore this size so she just gave me a few of her pants). I also bought a few xl shirts around that time too. They were all on sale lol. Then I waited and bought 14's when the 18's were sliding off. I also bought a bunch of shirts since I figured I was close to my goal weight at the time so I bought a bunch of larges. I'm now in a size 12 in jeans and wear both medium or large shirts depending on the fit. Personally, I'd say buy a few things off the clearance rack if you can't stand how big your clothes are, but since you'll probably grow out of them pretty fast, don't buy a whole lot.

Female: 42 at the time 2009 (insurance covered), HW 232lbs. Best weight 143lbs. No problems with band till the slip due to a bad stomach virus in 2017 (diff, insur, and not covered) had to pay apx 5k OOP, still 143lbs. No doctor would do a revision as they all said.... I "didn't weigh enough". Fast forward..... 2017-2019 I put back 30lbs. Came to the conclusion that I would have to go to MEX to get a revision. May 2019, I finally got my divorce property settlement. Headed to Mex. But then as luck would have it, I found a dr. 10 min from me. I still had to pay OOP, and it would be more, but I would not have to fly and all the other humbug. So I paid OOP 14k for a revision to the sleeve 8/28/19. I was 173lbs, today i'm at 123lbs. Was your removal done in an outpatient facility or in a hospital? Surgery center. Was a hospital stay required? One night How long did the surgery take? 30 min. No scaring, no erosion, no GERD, pretty open and shut. SX said if band had not slipped, I would still have her. What was your experience after the surgery? Lots of pain? How long did it take you to recover? After SX I had a little gas. I had no pain at all. SX was on Thursday and I was back at work on Monday. Was your removal covered by insurance even if WLS is not? It was not. Sleeve SX was just as easy, less the one week liq diet. Sleeved on Wednesday and back to work on Monday.

I haven't completely decided yet but my reasons are: > I really don't want the down time that you have with the regular sleeve. I like the idea of a quicker recovery. > I like the idea of losing weight at a slower pace. I don't want to get too skinny too fast. I only want to lose 50-60lbs. Of course there is that chance I won't even lose that much with ESG vs. with the sleeve the odds are better. > I feel like if I had more to lose I would definitely do the sleeve but it seems like it is a drastic move for that amount of weight loss.