Search the Community

Just wanted to come back after I had my surgery! I healed up well, I am walking everyday, already down 2 pants sizes, I have more energy, my kids are happy to have a mom that is happier, my husband is happy to have his confident wife back who slowly starting to love herself again. Is this hard? F*%$ yes!! The discipline to not eat junk food or overeat is a mental game. But I meal prep, I track and my dietician is probably annoyed with me I email her all the time LOL. But my life is much easier, I wake up with ease, not hurting as bad, and excited to get up get some cute clothes, do my hair and makeup. I know my experience isn't like everyone's but I am so happy I did this!

I didn’t really deal with a ton of hormonal changes as far as I can recall but yes I have heard that many women do. I am an emotional eater too and not to scare you but I have gained my weight back and I’m contemplating a conversion. If you have access to a therapist to get to the bottom of the emotionally eating. I STRONGLY suggest it. There aren’t any in my area so I am working with my regular therapist but I don’t know how well it is working. One of my questions for the surgeon is if he can make some calls for me and find someone who will try to fit me into their schedule. As far as tool or equipment I had sleeve and didn’t need much. I bought those little cups that your dressing comes in at restaurants for the very beginning just to measure things out and store in fridge but you can use anything that is the right size. Some people do use a blender in the purée stage. Personally puréed food that isn’t normally purées kinda grossed me out so I didn’t use that. I did buy a few flavors of shakes and keep others ready in my online cart for my husband to pick up if I needed him to. I did buy a scale but honestly don’t recall using it much. One thing that someone told me that you didn’t ask about was what to pack for hospital. I found pajama pants, a sleep mask and a extra long phone charger to be helpful items that weren’t on the list. The pants come in handy when you get up to walk since the gowns are open on the back.

If you don't already have some bariatric cookbooks, I can highly recommend these three of the several I bought: Bariatric Meal Prep Made Easy by Kristin Willard The Bariatric Diet Guide and Cookbook by Dr. Matthew Weiner The Easy 5 Ingredient Bariatric Cookbook by Megan Wolf All three have sound nutritional advice as they are written by bariatric experts, as well as some really nice recipes. They talk about portion sizes and what to aim for nutritionally as you go through the honeymoon period and into maintenance, and even give you different portions for different phases. None of the books give specific calorie goals, but that's rather standard with many programs. The focus is often for you to discover what works for you and not get sucked into a dieting mindset by counting everything so closely you drive yourself crazy. But the basics are generally to fill one half of your (small, child or luncheon sized) plate with a 3-4oz portion of lean protein and no more than a 1/2 cup serving of starch/grain, and the other half with non-starchy veg. Consume 60-80g protein. Drink at least 64 oz water. (Apologies for not having the metric measurements). Using a small plate is a really great visual cue. Check out the Portion Perfection plates, which are 8-inch melamine and printed with exactly how much of each food goes where. If you need to retrain yourself, this is an easy tool to use. They have bowls, too. (All the books and the plates can be found on Amazon in the US). Going back to liquids is extreme. I would think it would be sufficient to go back to three meals per day as described above, and either no snacks or only fruit and veg or a protein shake as a snack if truly hungry, and make sure you weigh your portions and get all your water in every day. The other thing is to look for processed foods that have crept back into your diet and get them out of your house. You can't be tempted by what isn't there. Good luck to you!

Yep, baby spoons or teaspoons. I used to sort of just dip my teaspoon in - nowhere near a spoonful. Think of the teeny taste a child will take of a food they don’t like or have never had before & think they won’t like. Your purées may be too thick for your healing tummy to tolerate yet. Try adding more liquid (water, stock, gravy, milk, etc.) & thin it down to a thick pouring consistency like custard or thinner for a while & see how you go. All because your plan or doctor says to move to the next stage, sometimes your body just isn’t healed enough to move on. It’s not uncommon for people to step back to the previous stage for a couple more days. We all heal at different rates. Keep it slow. Leave minutes between bites. Don’t be surprised if it takes 20 or more minutes to eat that 1/4 cup. And if you can’t eat it all, that’s okay too. It will get easier. A lot if this may sound like a bit of a faff but there is a lot of good learnings in these seemingly strange behaviours we’re asked to follow. For example taking small bites helps you to appreciate & think about what you’re eating. It takes a good 20 minutes for your full signal to get through to your head. Eating slowly helps to make sure you’re not eating to excess. So the message you’ve had enough gets through before you’ve eaten way more than you actually need & aren’t ever at the OMG I’m stuffed stage. It helps you to reassess & avoid that mindless shoveling in of mouthful after mouthful of food in a short period of time.

I echo the advice to seek help from a therapist to support you while you are experiencing emotional distress, anxiety, depression & support you to find strategies to manage your desire to turn to food during these times. The battle not to eat/ make the best choices is eternal. My brain whispering to me. It will be all right if you eat that. A small bite won’t hurt. It will make you feel better. You deserve it. Etc. It isn’t easy to fight your head/thinking though. And if there are odd times you just can’t argue your way out of it, forgive yourself. You are arguing against an intelligent person - you!

My Pureed stage is actually 2 weeks. It is so hard. But I’m going to keep the course.

Hi folks! I had surgery on Feb 27. Stayed at hospital overnight to verify I passed the swallow leak test. They also wanted to make sure I could drink. Now I’m home. Everything feels 10x better, but I’m still getting spasms in my stomach (nearly) every time I swallow something. It has prevented me from much intake since it is so exhausting. I’m never hungry though now so I just give up eating. My lack of interest in food is a bit scary. I feel like I’m flipping from an over-eater to anorexic. My doctor required a two week full liquid pre-diet and a 24 hr clear liquid only pre-diet. I lost 15 lbs pre-op. I’m 5’3” and started at 210. Since surgery, I’m down another 9 lbs. I’ve been averaging about 1.5 lbs down per day. Yesterday was the first day I was able to finish 2 protein shakes (finally)! I know this rate of decline won’t continue indefinitely, but I’ll be at my target by summer the way things are progressing. I feel like this is a roller coaster and I’m just barreling down a high peak. It is exciting and scary all at the same time.

I think the people that lose so much weight after 6 mos are people who started at a much higher weight than both you and I. The heavier one is going into the procedure, the more they lose more quickly. I do know that if a person does not enough they will put themselves into a stall so i dont think those people are starving themselves, i think they are just bigger to begin with. I am only a couple months ahead of you (my surgery was 4/12/23) but my weight loss has considerably slowed and i havent even hit one year yet. I do eat more normal foods now as opposed to "diet food" but i do still limit my carbs and fat and sugar. Regardless, in the last 3 months ive only lost 10 lbs. Kind of annoying but i also could do better on my diet so that is partially my fault. How is your sleep? I also notice that when i get more sleep i seem to drop weight quicker. Im not the best at going to bed early enough though.

Thank you everyone for your responses. I stopped eating solid food and continued with my diet plan and I can say it's terrible. I'm HUNGRY all the time! It's impossible. Everyone saying about head hunger, but no solutions how to deal with that. I drink enough water but it never helped before surgery neither now. Honesty, I'm giving up and don't know how to live normal life.

Are you on a PPI like omeprazole? If not, you may need one... Many of us experience stomach acid issues post op, especially as we introduce solid food. Our tummies are still making acid for a normal sized stomach and that can cause a lot of discomfort. If you are already on omeprazole, you may need to take it twice a day or try a different PPI. I'd talk with your surgeon about that. The pain you are describing could be from a number of things. I'd call your surgeon and discuss it. Strictures are unusual in sleeve patients, but on occasion they can happen and it is best to rule them out when experiencing pain with eating that suddenly appears weeks out from surgery. Good luck!!

Hey everyone 👋😊 I hope you all are doing well. I had my surgery on December, 13th, 2024. I went in expecting the gastric bypass but woke up with the gastric sleeve due to my liver still being a bit too big. This news has sent me into a spiral of emotions as I wanted the option to reverse the surgery if needed and now I can't, and because I battle GERD so I did not want the sleeve for this reason as I heard it can make it worse. I already battle IBS before this, but now it seems almost everything I have triggers it. So I am finding less and less things I can have. Even fairlife shakes sets it off. I'm now on the pureed stage and so far everything I've tried has also set it off. The good news is I've lost 39 pounds. So that has made me happy. Trying to see the positives. To be honest I have been miserable. I hope things get better.

same, same, as the other posters above. i am really, really good at losing weight. I am (was) also really, really good at finding that weight again. i've lost 50-75 lbs three separate times prior to wls, and each time managed to regain it within a year or so, plus a few more pounds for good measure, until i finally hit my highest weight of 235 lbs (i'm 5'2" so thats alot of weight for my height). with WLS (sleeve for me), i lost 120-ish lbs and kept it ALL off (give or take 5lbs) since reaching goal...almost 5 YEARS ago... whats more, maintaining this weight seems relatively effortless compared to before. because i eat so very little in volume (added to the fact that i somehow developed an affection for exercise and activity!), i have quite a bit of leeway in food choices to reach my maintenance calories. i am very grateful for this aspect of my surgery experience, i tell ya. BUT... i will add a disclaimer here that not everyone has the same WLS experience. you won't know what yours will be until you know. though we all of us here already sort of know that low calorie diets alone aren't sustainable long term for us. i mean, that's why we are all here, no?

I can really only share what the experience has been like for me, and the positives that have come into my life. I was in a very similar spot as you, both mentally and physically. The doubts and fear doubled, trebled, quadrupled to an infinity even as I was being rolled into the OR for surgery. I am now six months and two weeks post-op. I can pop off for a 2 mile run if I feel like it. A 10 mile hike. A long yoga session. I am signed up for getting an open-water SCUBA certification. My cholesterol is normal for the first time in my adult life. My mental health has improved. I've also enjoying seeing my physical transformation. Attaining a high level of fitness remains a strong motivation for me. But eating small portions, managing supplements, timing my water intake, and tracking food? It has gotten easier and easier. I truly wish you well on your journey, no matter which path you decide to take.

The staged return to eating is in place for a reason - to protect your healing tummy. There are a lot of sutures & staples holding your poor digestive system together. If you had a 12 inch wound with stitches on your arm wouldn’t you do all you could to protect it & ensure you didn’t damage or strain it or hinder your recovery? It takes about 8 weeks to be healed from the surgery. Yes, foods (liquids) can taste awful after surgery & it can continue for a while until you are more fully healed. I found the shakes disgusting but you have alternatives. Thin soups like broths (bone broth are high in protein), consumes & cream soups (tomato, pumpkin, chicken, etc.). Just strain them to ensure there aren’t any random chunks of meat, vegetables, herbs, etc. in it. Make your own yoghurt drink by blending Greek yoghurt with milk to a thin consistency & add any flavour powders you may like. Protein water is another option. All these count towards your fluid goal during the liquid stage. Just sip, sip, sip. The portion recommendation I was given (1/3 - 1/4 cup) didn’t begin until purées so liquids were just three ‘meals’ (shake, soup) a day so a cup each. I diluted them to help with the flavour & texture (for the shakes) & didn’t care if it took hours to drink them. Plans can be different about caffeine but if yours is no caffeine try decaffeinated or green or herbal teas. I found warm drinks much easier to tolerate & soothing to drink.

Just hit 3 weeks post-op today. I’m also on 2oz purée food to be SLOWLY eaten over 30 minutes. At this stage, protein shakes no longer count towards water goal of 48-64oz. I have also still been hungry and felt like I needed more substance. Met with my surgeon yesterday and he said the hunger hormones are still adjusting in my body, and it may take a few more weeks to feel less hungry. Also, I know some of the hunger is mental. Some things that have helped me are to actually take 30 minutes to eat the 2oz- which is quite difficult for me to slow down that much. I also stick to 16oz of water slowly sipped until around 8am. Protein shake slowly sipped 10am-12pm (I started adding a serving of collagen peptides to my morning protein shake (my program says collagen peptides are not a complete source of nutrition, so should not be taken as a full meal)- this has put me at more calories and protein earlier in the day. Lunch around 2pm, dinner around 5:30/6pm, another protein shake or 1oz purée a little later if needed. Goal is 60-75 grams of protein

Okay this is long and boring at parts but here it goes. I am 3 years post sleeve and I have gained all my weight back . First of all I was on the smaller side to have the sleeve but I do still have all the same struggles and if I had waited until I was older it was just a matter of time until I was a higher bmi having the surgery. The fact that I have lost and then gained it all plus some within less than years is probably proof of that. Anyways, with the sleeve I did lose a big chunk of weight. I went from 235 to 168 which I could not have done with regular diet. But, i was always able to eat a little more than I should at every given stage and everything was easy for me. From day one I had no gas pain and water was easy to get down, then fluids and protein which were easy to keep down, I had no food intolerances and advancing through each stage. I was living my best life watching the pounds fall off but I was alway able to eat just a little more than everyone else at the same stage. Well, while the hunger hormone was gone and I was focused I was able to eat exactly what I SHOULD be eating and I measured my portions to the Amount I should be eating and I was satisfied. So lost most of the weight the dr suggested I would. i held that weight for a few months but then the hunger started creeping back and between the hunger and the extra room in the pouch I started gaining in spite of still making healthy food choices (my food was fine but my portions were too large and too frequent). Well, even though I knew I was losing control my friends and family continued to look at me as doing great..I was still on the road to getting to where I needed ti be in their eyes. I was ashamed. I was failing yet They kept complimenting me and offering me food. They were saying things like your doing so good, you can have one slice or pizza or one brownie. It won’t kill you. It’s okay that you’ve gained a couple pounds I’ve gained a couple it’s Christmas. You can lose that. Well I have since learned that no I cannot just have one of anything to do with carbs or I crave them for a week but I didn’t know that back then Anyways, was still going to my surgeon asking for help but I have bipolar disorder and the meds I take for it limit what other meds I can take so I cannot take many of the weight loss meds they had to offer. And the one I can take worked wonderfully during the day but when it wore off I ate all night Fast forward a few months and I stepped on the scale and I was back over 200. That sucked but I wasn’t giving up. went back to my surgeon asking about revision to bypass. I have heartburn gerd whatever you call it and clearly the sleeve wasn’t working so I wanted to know my options. Well let’s go back. I knew I didn’t want to have surgery if I was going to just repeat the yo-yo that had just happened so I decided I wanted two opinions this time. Well the second opinion dr had a cancellation so I seen him first. He was on board. He was going to bypass a shorter amount of bowel so i had less absorption issues and my meds Would work fine he said which seemed to be his concern even though it wasn’t really my question. I just needed my dr to say that it shouldn't be a repeat of last time and I was going forward. Well even though the bypass was an option he presented to me to start he said he wouldn’t do a bypass for me. He thought it would be a bad call with my mental health issues. This was confusing to say the least because I have one dr saying it’s fine and another dr I really respect saying it’s not and I started this thinking bypass was always an okay option in terms of mental health but worried the surgery just wouldn’t work for me. I am of course concerned about my mental health so took some time to think about it. I tried for a while to find a bariatric therapiest but none near me are taking any new patients. I even asked the surgeon and he said he would look into it but be never did. Anyways I called around for the better part of two days. They all just do the evaluations now for surgery. I have had every hormone test and lab they have that could possibly be the problem. I changed all my meds in case they were the issue. I tried everything myself and my doctors could think of but I kept gaining. When I revisited the idea of surgery I was scared. Anything that was going to upset my mental health again just isn’t an option I decided. I already know what life without my medication is like and I do not want to go back there. I continued to gain. I got back up to 245 and I am miserable. I am so depressed when I look at what I have let happen to myself. I had a chance and I blew it. I am disgusted when I look in the mirror. I decided that the weight is causing me to be more depressed so I needed to get some real answers. I went back to my surgeon. Not to ask him to do the surgery but exactly why he thought it was a bad idea. The plan was to take that info and talk to the other surgeon to make sure he had considered that and see why he wasn’t worried about it. Well, surprise…my surgeon is on board now with doing a revision for me. When I asked why he said no before he said something about a nite in my chart that said I wasn’t complaint with my meds back them and he didn’t know I have a psychiatrist and psychologist and take my meds but now he is comfortable doing surgery. So, frustrated I had to wait until I gained almost 50 more pounds to get here but excited he is willing to do it I am researching the other surgery he thinks will be a better fit for me called the SADI. At the same time I am still not buying the note in my chart thing. Cause that was never true. I guess the important takeaway for those of you here that are just starting out is even if you do regain don’t lose touch with your team and don’t give up. I feel like my dr wavering in whether he would do the surgery didn’t help but I could have asked more questions sooner and I wouldn’t have so much to lose this time. Plus, hopefully you guys can take the weight loss meds and won’t be facing a second surgery.

I had a tough time too. My stomach took so long to heal. My stitch line was so swollen for months. I had to eat softer foods for ever. 300 calories a day were my normal until 6 months out. It took me almost 20 months to eat chicken. Lamb is still too rich for me. I can eat smoked salmon but not cooked salmon. Pasta is still off my menu. All the other carbs I can eat a small spoonful. I can eat a small slice of quality seeded bread as long as its toasted. These foods were my most favourite pre surgery. Very strange. Its not the end of the world for me because I love being skinny. I dont think I can try salmon again. I get the foamies every time I try and its turned my against it

"food after surgery doesn’t have to be boring, just smaller portions. 😎" Absolutely this!

oh wow!! I’ve had to do pure liquids for 3 weeks. It’s been TOUGH!!

If you eat and drink at the same time then you are washing the food out of your new stomach. You need it to get processed. Try and stick with the drinking rules, its tough when you have always had a drink with food but its so necessary. That grossed out feeling ! yuck ! I had this for the longest time. I think its because our hormones are released in a rush because they are in our fat cells. It felt to me just like being pregnant again. The thought of eating certain foods still gross me out. For some reason these were my fav foods pre surgery too. Your new stomach has a huge scar on it. If you could see it, you would be more careful. You do not want food that it can not process just sitting, stuck in there. Try to do what your team say, they are the experts. Soon enough you will be able to eat these foods. You should never get judgy remarks on here. Just help, we have all been there, done that.

Do you have a dietician? If so ask them for more specifics. We all need the amount of information & depth of detail that makes us feel comfortable & confident about we have to do. We have different needs (food preferences like vegetarian or vegan, food sensitivities or allergies, general health, current weight, age, mobility, etc.) which is why I suggest you get the specifics from your dietician for what will best complement your needs. Your surgeon may have requirements too. As some general advice, start tracking your food (lots of tracking apps available like My Fitness Pal). Increase your fluids to 2L/64ozs. Reduce or drop any carbonated drinks. Reduce snacking. Reduce the highly or ultra processed foods in your current diet. Increase your protein & vegetable intake - look at around 4oz protein & a good cup of vegetables for a meal. Modify some of your cooking styles like use an air fryer or bake not pan fry. Swap simple carbs for complex whole or multi grains. Reduce the number of sugary/sweet foods you eat. You don’t have to do all these things at once, unless you have a tight time frame but certainly start introducing a couple of these things each week or two until you get more definite information from your dietician. PS If you don’t have a dietician yet, ask for a referral to one from your team.

Hello, I want to preface saying I have not had my surgery yet but I have been losing weight in the pre-op stages as per my dietitian and doctors request and this includes me going to the gym and getting my protein/calorie goals in for the day. The important thing to know is plateauing is inevitable as your body gets used to the things you do on a daily basis. So since you know that already you going to the gym is a beneficial first step in the right direction of losing more weight. That being said weight training is an amazing cardio/full body workout and for women you actually don’t have to worry about getting “bulky” my doctor said it’s just not what our bodies do to get stacked like that (he didn’t say it in those words of course but I’m paraphrasing). Which it’s true generally unless you’re a bodybuilder you won’t get bulked up like crazy (even then it’s usually the addition of hormones that add to bulking) so go ahead and lift girl! Cardio exercises like running, swimming etc. are also great to get into your routine which I see you have and it’s important to also not forget about aerobic exercises like yoga/pilates this will also minimize your chance of getting “bulky”. Overall, I would say if you have set days of the week you work out like MWF do that for 2 weeks then switch up the days, intensity of workouts and type of exercises you do on each day to give your body that “restart” it needs in order to start losing weight. It is also so incredibly important to eat enough calories! Yes sounds weird but you actually might not be eating enough for you to lose weight and this is what my doctor told me. If you don’t eat enough your body goes into “survival” mode because it’s not being given enough food in order to carry out your bodily functions to its fullest potential. Yes you can be taking supplements and be healthy on paper but if you’re trying to lose weight and exercising and eating well and still unable to lose the weight then it’s time to evaluate if you’re eating enough during the day. I would highly recommend reaching out to your doctor and/or dietitian about adequate dietary input your should have because there are all kinds of info and pamphlets on lines telling us to be between so and so calories at this point in time or to not exceed x amount but in reality everyone is different and all bodies are different. I hope this helps sorry for the book/lecture.

@newbegining2024 Hi All! I can't believe how fast time has gone! I will be going to my 6 mth check up tomorrow 2/20/24. Everything is a lot better! As of today I am 173lbs, I'll update my ticker it's still at 183. I am able to eat more varieties that I cook at home. Can't tolerate beef to well but I was never a big red meat person. I am still on the fence with salads/raw vegs though I can tolerate raw onions and tomatoes. I am not doing too well with my multi because I purchased capsules that I open to put in my smoothies which I don't take every day anymore. I just purchase the multi-vitamin pack from the bariatric store, I'll update you on that later My food is mostly a diet consistency of pescatarian due to the low cal/high protein and the ease of my system digesting the food. I would occassionally eat chicken as well (ground, poached breast etc), turkey hardly ever because the meat is not as soft as chicken. My veggies are fine steamed, some legumes & beans (occasional), as far as grains or potatoes etc I try to not do carbs at all or keep them at a bare minimum with an occasional meal...I've really gotten into sweet potatoes as I didn't eat them a lot before. Swelling is gone, skin is good, and I can visually see the difference in pounds and inches loss especially from a side view lol. I still have work to do (vitamins, eat more) and I am working on it. BTW!!!! I am back in the health & wellness field as I start my new position next week. I took a pause last summer. Now as I am on my health journey I'll be helping my patients with weight loss and adopting healthier lifestyles. My goal is to lose 13 more lbs and as you all know after running so long and you can see the finish line in sight....your legs get weary and that last sprint is the hardest. Let me know how you all are doing! (this will be posted in a new thread as well)

ChunkCat. I seen on another post where to listed out your daily food log and it was super helpful. I can’t find it now but i took a screenshot and I was just looking at it. I’m hoping my log will be somewhat similar. I am wondering about the keto muffins. You said homemade. Do you mean from a box or scratch. If scratch do you have a link to the recipe by chance?! Since my appt I have been eating lower carb and I am quickly recalling that if I don’t have carbs for a few days I don’t crave them nearly as strongly. I have since told two close friends, my husband and my aunt that apparently no i can’t have just one brownie or one slice of pizza or one piece of cake even if I have this surgery and I’m doing great and please try to remember not to tempt me because it’s hard enough on my own not to have it. I honestly think I’m addicted to carbs and I have to go cold Turkey to be able to do it. I mean I had a wrap the other day and that was okay because it was still low amount I think but if I have a lot. My body screams out for them again for several days afterwards. Maybe most of you know this or maybe I’m weird but I’m hoping that if people who love me understand this about me then maybe I will have better success this time around. Ooh and my point to telling you all that is that I would love to try your muffin recipe because I am basically doing low carb now. Lol

i know several people (including myself*) who have used Ozempic and/or Mounjaro, all with great results (read: all lost probably an average of 10-15 lbs with little reported effort. From an observers point of view, it *looks* like most slowly gain weight back when discontinuing use. but some seem to keep the weight off (but it's early still so time will tell). *i seem to be part of the latter group. i took my mom's leftover Ozempic for a month in April last year (shes a diabetic and takes less than she's prescribed cuz she doesn't like how it makes her hate food...and yes i know i shouldn't be taking someone elses meds! dont judge me! it was in the name of science, ok??? 😂 ) i lost about 7 lbs by the end of it, and gained back 2-3 lbs a couple months later. to clarify, i was 122 when i stated in April, 4 weeks later i was 115, and i've hovered between 114-118 since then to today. long story short, the stuff WORKS. but you will likely experience regain without significant lifestyle changes when u stop. or not. who knows? 🤷🏻‍♀️