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Thanks @RonHall908 I’ll try and keep that in mind if I start working out! I’ve done a few 5k runs and have been walking as much as I can since operation (27km (16.7 miles)Saturday on a hilly Greek Island ) but a part from my physio appointements in Paris I haven’t worked out. Following the fantastic advice I got here I opted out of hotels for my travels after Cairo and have been opting for airbnbs since - this means kitchen but no gyms! But hey strangers things have happened, one day I might work out …. Who knows! I did climb up and down this sort of cliff thing to a beach yesterday. I had a bit of a panic, ripped my dress ( not a special dress so not sad about that) and got some extra bruises… but it was worth it and I was proud of myself because 3 months ago I never would even had considered it! Climb back up was a bit scary too … but I made it! My hair had dried on the beach after my swim but by the time I was back up at the top of the cliff my hair was drenched from “stress sweat” again #notsexy! The beach, the cliff to get there and my savouring my “victory

Has anyone experienced an increase in their cholesterol levels? Before surgery, mine sat around 5 regardless of my weight (healthy, overweight or obese). In the first 3 years post surgery it was about 4. Then it went to 5 again. Okay I thought just where my body wants to be. But it’s 5.7 now. Like what?? My surgery follow up doctor suggested I speak to my GP about a coronary artery calcium store test. My dad had a higher cholesterol level but not enough for meds. One brother’s is about what mine is now but he follows one of those fat is good diet (I swear he slathers his toast with butter like an inch thick). My mum, other brother, aunts, uncles, grandparents levels are/were ok. Rest of my blood work was great.

I have a sleeve and as the others have said, yes, you will be able to eat a larger portion than what you do after surgery but that’s what’s supposed to happen. It’s how we are able to consume the calories & nutrients we need to maintain our lower weight. However, the larger portion is more like what a recommended portion size is nothing like you may have eaten before surgery. You’ll be looking at about 3-4ozs of a protein & around a cup of vegetables. You’ll be able to eat a lot of the same foods & old favourites as you used to. The difference is how frequently you have them & how much you eat when you do. You may even make healthier choices around the ingredients or cooking methods. Like instead of battered or crumbed fish & chips you have grilled fish & salad or air fried or baked vegetable chips, Instead of a burger on a bun have a bun less burger or a lettuce wrapped one or just eat half of the bun. There aren’t foods I can’t eat just foods I choose not to, choose to eat small portions of or eat infrequently & I feel better for it. Your stomach is a muscle and there is the potential to stretch it again but you’d have make a concentrated effort & eat large portions, many times a day over a long period of time like you did in the first place. It’s not easy & can cause a lot of discomfort (even vomit) to force yourself to eat that volume of food. Why would you want to though? Second the advice to watch the videos of Matt Weiner & John Pilcher.

I had a similiar but different issue in the fact that i got loan from bank to cover the out of pocket - it was a secured loan against my car and the car insurance was under the bank's provider but the left hand couldnt talk to the right hand and the document they kept supplying me would go through - eventually someone sent me the policy document and that was accepted but i was literally ripping my head off ...with annoyance. Anyway I'm 3 months post surgery tomorrow and I'm finally happy with how I'm tracking.... sw was 118.6 now 96.4 so heading the right direction. I want to get into the 80's by my 6 month appointment in August

I had it removed 3 years post TDS. I ate the same but found my stool was not the same and things felt a bit off. That took about 6 weeks to get back to normal.

I’ve managed to move the scale about 3lbs this week. Not much but since it wasn’t moving at all I’ll take it. I am down several Jean sizes though and the other day I put a shirt on that looked ridiculous it was so big. My hair has started shedding pretty bad so I’m really watching my protein intake and not missing any vitamins. Hoping it slows down soon before it becomes noticeable. It’s usually pretty thick so I have a little to spare. I think maybe I’ve managed to get rid of a chin or two also lol. Here’s a current picture I don’t have many from right before surgery but the one where I look like I might pop is at my granddaughters birthday present last July courtesy of my daughter 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Woohoo way to go, great end to the week.

WOW!!!!!!!! I bet you had times where you thought this would never happen, but here you are! Congratulations! I feel like these big milestones can mess with your head sometimes. Like, I hit 201.6 lbs 12 days ago and was just certain I'd be under 200 in no time... and I'm still waiting! I instantly bounced back to 203, made it to 201.0 after almost a week, stalled for a few days... At least I dipped to 200.8 this morning. But to finally see that 199... that has to feel so good. When was the last time you weighed this little? For me, the last time I was below 200 was when I was 28 (22 years ago!).

18 days post surgery and I'm feeling great. I'm excited to start mushies this week but not as excited as I thought I'd be. This week I added zero fat yogurt, pudding, and creamy soups to the menu, thinking I'd just be snarfing them down. Nope. Anything more than a quarter cup and I start to feel my throat seize. I'm becoming more food apathetic but I'll still add eggs and tuna. Down 40!

After 3 weeks of weight stall the scale finally moved some. I think the exercise specialist pointed out a flaw. I would eat something 2 hours before working out, she told me to eat something with a good protein and carb mix 20-30 minutes before my workout. also told me to drink a protein shake after the workout. I've done that the past two weeks. After a 3 week stall I'm not certain if it was that little change or the fact that it was going to have to move anyway. But, at least it moved. Hope everyone else has some scale or non-scale victories.

Hi, @AnyaC! I'm Andrea. I haven't been scheduled yet, but given the requirements of my insurance, I think I'll be having surgery in August or September. So if we're not exactly September surgery buddies, we're probably going to be close. Right now, I've had my surgeon consult, a zillion blood tests, and my first dietician visit. I have several other required pre-op appointments scheduled, including an endoscopy (tube down the throat to look at my esophagus and entrance of my stomach). Not looking forward to that, but it's my surgeon's standard and he's done about a million bariatric surgeries, so I guess he knows what he's doing. I've just gone from drinking tons of carbonated beverages to 2 cans a day. Thought it would be really hard since I get my caffeine from diet Coke (don't like coffee) but it's been easy so far. I'm reading everything I can get my hands on, trying to learn all I can. I'm about a month into my new exercise routine. I work from home so I got a treadmill and I walk during meetings. I'm doing 20 minutes, 3 times each workday, so it's a mile and a half currently. Monday I will go to 25 minutes. I want to be in the best shape I can for surgery! So what do you have to do pre-op? How are you feeling about it all?

@gracesmommy2 I'm so sorry about the insurance issues. What a nightmare! Praying it is resolved soon. As for the goal weight, I used the weight loss calculator on the Pound of Cure website and took the lowest weight in the range, which also happened to get me to a "normal" BMI. So, it's pretty arbitrary but it sounded good. I based it on the weight I had reached before starting my pre-op diet, which was after dropping about 12 lbs from my highest point. My own doctor didn't discuss goals or percentages with me, although I don't know if that's standard practice for him or not. My experience has been odd. First, I was with a different weight management center for years, first managing through diet and meds and then switching to the surgical route, but it closed very suddenly. I had my December surgery canceled 3 weeks prior to my date and had to rebook for February with a surgeon at a sister hospital. So I came in very last minute and only met the surgeon and nutritionist at the new place twice so they could sign off on me as quickly as possible. And right after I had my surgery, my surgeon had a nasty ski injury and was out for several weeks, so I did one follow up with his colleague and one with him via video. I'm glad I was able to get the surgery in a timely fashion and they did a good job, but I sometimes wonder how my experience differs from if I had started off in their program. A nice NSV today. I had a dress I wore on my birthday back in March that fit me but with no room to spare. This was a victory in March because I had purchased it for a trip out of town the year before for my birthday but the dress didn't come close to fitting me back then. Well, today I needed something nice to wear to my daughter's dance competition only it was cold and rainy so my summery stuff wasn't going to work. I remembered the birthday dress, which is long sleeved and has a sweater. I put it on and it was so roomy! I'm actually glad I got a second wearing out of it because I'm hopeful it will be much too big when the fall rolls around and I need cool weather clothing again. In fact, my summery dresses that were skin tight two summers ago are already very loose, too. It's the little things that keep you going when the scale decides to stall, right?

Hello! I had VSG to bypass in Sept 2023. For me, it’s been a tougher learning curve figuring out what I’m tolerating and what will trigger upset. Sometimes it’s day to day. However, the last week or so, everything has been causing upset and the last few days I have become bloated and cramping every time I eat. My belly becomes distended and feels like I have gas trapped. After about half hour to 45 minutes or so, the pain eases and my belly starts to go down. Has anyone had similar experiences? TIA!

Please don’t apologize! I’m so sorry to hear your insurance are being dicks. I hope it gets sorted soon. As a European I can’t imagine the stress that must cause. I personally find that the US health insurance system is evil incarnated and will pray that whoever is responsible for temporarily refusing your claim has ingrown toenails forever more. As a smoker I feel you. I haven’t given up because I don’t feel strong enough yet, I just avoided smoking 3 weeks prior to surgery. But hold strong, it’s worth it. Take care and be kind to yourself and keep on posting here! I’d read a novel!

I had my bypass a week before my 51st birthday. I am 4 weeks post op now and I can honestly say everything has gone text book. Did my tender age of 23 make a difference, I believe so because I am at that stage in life where I can just focus on me, and everyone else is able to look after themselves. I was one of the lucky ones as I had no pain afterwards, just a tiny bit of discomfort in my left side but not enough to warrant taking any pain meds. And I was expecting to feel like I had undergone 12 rounds with Muhammad Ali after being stabbed 6 times and my stomach cut apart. But maybe I have a higher pain threshold than most, I really don't know. Ok I will stop rambling now as i dont want to tempt fate. All the best Sent from my SM-S918B using Tapatalk

was sooo hungry last night...i dont normally eat past 8pm, but i was hungry, AND i was determined to binge watch Bridgerton season 3, part 1 (spoiler alert: i did lol) so i fixed myself a plate of leftover thai food and ate it over 3 or so hours: clockwise from top: thai basil crispy pork belly, chicken massaman curry, deep fried taro tofu with chili oil sauce, coconut rice and a piece of roti. im totally guessing maybe 600 cals for the plate? imma also gonna guess i ate about 2/3 of it (i didn't like the curry so left most of that alone, and just had a taste of the rice and roti. pretty much ate all of the rest. p.s. am now waiting impatiently for june 13, when the remaining episodes of Bridgerton are released!!! i love me a period show.

My goal weight when I first started this journey was 190lbs, I wanted to under 30BMI and felt that this goal was obtainable, I changed it to 170 since that would put me in the "healthy range". However, I feel like I am getting too small? I am wearing a size 6/8 pants from a 18/20 (NEVER IN MY ADULT LIFE HAVE I BEEN ABLE TO WEAR THAT SIZE!) Medium shirt from a 2/3xl, skivvies are Medium from a 2x, I am working out and trying to focus on toning. But Idk when I should enter Maintenance? My WLS team is so non-existent, I had one post op appt at 2 weeks and haven't heard from them since.

It's not just you! I have had a similar experience... I've never been a big drinker, and even when I was 300+ pounds, I had a pretty low alcohol tolerance. I typically only drink a few times per year, usually a glass or two of wine on a holiday (I don't normally keep alcohol in my home). After surgery, I went a long time, I think 2+ years, without drinking at all because I've been told that gastric bypass makes alcohol have a stronger effect. Then I had house guests and bought a bottle of red and a bottle of white for two different meals. Tried a small glass and was ok. Then I had leftovers after the guests left and drank the rest over the course of the next week or so. And like you, I noticed that it felt nice going down -- which really concerned me because I didn't want to develop a drinking habit. So I enjoyed finishing off those two bottles, but once they were empty, I did not buy any more. Since then, I've continued to have only a few drinks per year (wine on special occasions) and I've noticed that I have a VERY low tolerance. A single glass of wine leaves me barely able to stand up. I'm not even sure what point I'm making here, but I guess I'm just saying that I don't think it's your imagination that wine can be soothing to the pouch, but the negative effects outweigh the benefits, at least for me. And of course you want to be careful of developing a transfer addiction.

I don't know why, but something told me to check my weight today. I had no intention of doing it for another week, but because I take Linzess for IBS-C and it pulls water from the body to help with pooing, I thought maybe I was shedding the water weight a little faster. Not only that, but I wanted to see if I lost the 3 pounds from the surgery I had, so I checked this morning. Omg almost there!!! 5 more pounds until I hit my official goal weight!!!! 😁

unless you're the size of someone on "My 600 lb Life", most of us lose somewhere in the 15-25 lb range the first month, and then it's about 10 lbs +/- for a few months, then it'll drop down to 5 lbs +/- for a few more months, then about a pound or two a month until the loss finally stops. So yep - you are perfectly normal. and yep - stalls are also perfectly normal. The best way to handle them is to make doubly sure you are following your plan to a "T", and stay off the scale for a few days. As long as you're compliant, the stall will eventually break. EDITED to add: I see you're now under 200 lbs. Yep - things really slow down at that point. The last 20 or 30 lbs were a BEAR for me to lose - but I kept at it, and they eventually came off.

Really interesting to read about the “starting weight”. I booked my surgery on January 30th and was 96kg (my highest ever weight - stepping on the scales and seeing I was closer to 100 that to 90 was a real shock - I dug out some insurance papers from February 2020 - I was 58kg then and allready heavier than I like to be). My surgery was 3 weeks later because I had to stop smoking first. The day of surgery I was 91.1kg so I lost 5.9kg in the three weeks prior ( I basically did a broth fast and didn’t eat anything solid, only clear broth and tea and coffee). Im now 70kg so since January 30th I’ve lost 26kg (57lbs) in 16 weeks (average of 1.6kg or 3.6lbs a week) so I’m very very happy with the weight loss even if I’m over the weather! I do have a goal weight which is my pre pandemic weight of 52-55kg (114-122 lbs) because I know that that is the weight at which I function best and that feels the best for my legs ( I mentioned earlier in the thread that I have very minor cerebral palsy - I have the impression that the extra pain I have for every gram I weigh over 55kg just isn’t worth it and really impacts my standard of living and my mobility. Because of the CP I have very minimal flexibility so being even slightly over weight just makes moving so so much harder for me as I can barely bend my knees as it is and have no upwards ankle flexibility what so ever. I’m easily out of balance and I fall over often ( the best way to picture it is to imagine the mobility of someone who has had about 3 beers too many), I’m used to it and my physiotherapist always says I’m a very good « faller », a part from bruises and a bruised ego I’ve only ever seriously broken things ( shoulder, wrist and double arm fracture all in one go!) once since being an adult. But being heavier has meant having more issues getting back up after falling over and more and bigger bruises. So my goal isn’t an esthetic one ( even though it will be nice to not be the fattest person in the room anymore - and because I live in Paris where the average female BMI is 21.3 the bar is low!) but a functional one. So I have 15kg (33lbs) left to loose, I know the rate of loss will slow, but I’m hoping to be at least nearly there in September when I take a new position, I really want to do my transition speech feeling ( and looking) like my old self ( just with some extra wrinkles and grey hair). My handover is September 16th - that leaves 17 weeks so I’m not sure I’ll be at 55kg by then because it would mean continuing to loose an average of 0.9kg ( 1.95lbs) a week which is a lot given my current weight. However if I manage to loose an average of 0.5kg (1.1lbs) per week ( which seems a more attainable bar) I should be 61/62kg by then, and I can live with that! ( I’m an unapologetic numbers girl - I don’t track what I eat because that’s not sustainable for me long term - I try to eat protein but other than that - YOLO - but I do track my weight every day if I have a scale and my steps and my activity) A very long post once again. Thanks all for being here. And here is a picture of a Greek island morning! That’s the 9.30AM light!

Dont feel pressured to share your personal life. I too have struggled with what to tell coworkers, boss, etc…. I also said i have a hernia (not lying) and i just need some time to take care of myself. I have only told 3 people outside of my immediate family. (So max 7 people) when you are ready you will know. I feel it is a deeply personal lifelong struggle. When i am ready to celebrate it will first be with the people who know and love me now.

Protein water is really nice, or drinkable yogurts, Fairlife milk mixed with some decaf coffee, or something like sugar free pudding mix in a favorite flavor made with Fairlife milk. Blended cottage cheese if it's allowed (when you put it in the blender, you get rid of the chunks and it turns the consistency of a thick sour cream, so it might be okay). Oh, PB2 peanut butter powder mixed into plain yogurt is also good. The only protein shake I can stand these days is Syntrax Nectar Natural in orange flavor. It reminds me of Tang, sort of, and it looks like orange juice, so I can pretend I'm having an orange juice instead of a shake. All the rest of them are going to be going in the trash soon because after surgery I lost my taste for them completely. But basically, focus your energy on hydration. You're only a week out. If you are low on protein and barely eat anything, it'll sort itself out in the coming weeks. Try your best, but don't worry if you come up short. Your body can handle a few weeks of not getting much nutrition. If you have to choose, choose to hit your fluid goal first and don't force yourself to eat foods if you aren't feeling it. And stop with the broth. Sounds like you don't like it, and it's not required for healing. After buying a ton of really expensive bone broth, I disliked it on its own and never had it at all during the liquid phase. Now I use it to make bean soup.

I am currently almost 6 months post op for my original procedure and am writing this from my hospital bed. I am unable to tolerate oral intake of food or fluids of any kind and am being fed via a nasojejunal tube (NJT) and TPN via a peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) My surgeon along with many others that have consulted on my case are at a complete loss for what is going on and why I can't tolerate anything. I'm reaching out to fellow people who have undergone bariatric surgery in the hopes of finding someone else with a similar experience to maybe get some opinions/answers. In order to do this I will start from the beginning and tell you all my entire story. I know it's long but I am desperate so please bear with me and read to the end. I will try to explain everything but also be as brief as possible to keep it as short as possible. I had surgery at the end of November 2023. It was a One Anastamosis Gastric Bypass or "mini" bypass. The surgery was routine and there were no issues whatsoever. I couldn't tolerate fluids and my intake was too poor to be released from hospital and progressed to vomiting every time I drank anything. Was diagnosed with a stricture and it was dilated and I finally started progressing. I was discharged from hospital finally almost 2 weeks post op (booked in for further dilatations at regular intervals to slowly stretch the stricture) and was home for less than 24hrs before it began again and my surgeon readmitted me and I underwent another dilatation. Upon getting back to my room I started violently vomiting and no amount of antiemetics would settle it. Emergency CT scan confirmed the stricture was perforated and my stomach contents were leaking into my abdominal cavity. I developed sepsis and had a nasogastric tube inserted for drainage. I underwent IV antibiotics and was later rushed to surgery to repair it, however due to the damage from the infection, it required a conversion to a Roux EN Y Gastric Bypass (RYGB) and I needed my abdomen washed out and other infected tissue removed. It took about 5 hrs. I spent a further month in hospital recovering, initially on TPN to supplement my oral intake but was wraned off as my tolerance improved and was finally discharged. At this point in time I had progressed to a pureed diet. I was by no means meeting my requirements but the benefits of being home vs hospital given everything outweighed the negatives and my surgeon planned on seeing me weekly as well as my dietician. Now here is where is starts to get weird and my real troubles began. Just over a week later I woke up one morning and had a sip of water (with a few drops of cordial to break the surface tension) however as soon as it went down I experienced a wave of nausea. It was different from before, I can't really explain the difference but I just ignored it believing it would go away (Denial as I just wanted to get on with my life and get back to work and due to the conversion surgery, my surgeon had created an extra large opening to account for my body closing the join so that it would end up a normal size.) I started experimenting with foods and fluids, different textures, consistencies, temperatures, etc. I tried absolutely everything I could think of. About a week or so later and my intake was getting progressively worse and I was once again admitted and went straight for an endoscopy (My 3rd since 1st surgery) to dilate the suspected stricture but there wasn't one. I then underwent a barrage of tests and every general and GI surgeon/specialist in my town came and consulted on my case, as well as my surgeon consulting doctors from all over. A NGT was eventually inserted and enteral nutrition (EN) started but was not tolerated and the tube was advanced into my intestines to be a NJT, which was then tolerated but the focus was on trying to get my oral intake to be adequate. I spent weeks in hospital trying different medications, getting tests and ruling out different conditions. I was discharged on EN with the NJT on 16 hour feeds at a rate of 50ml/hr which was not enough to meet my nutrition requirements but was the Max rate I could tolerate and the belief at this stage was that the nausea would go away and I'd be able to eat again. On the 8th of May I was admitted for a gastronomy tube insertion into my remnant stomach via laparoscopy as it was finally decided that this problem was not going away and by this stage I had lost 38kg (84lbs) and was severely malnourished, despite increasing my feed rate to 60ml/hr (still not enough to meet nutritional requirements) The purpose of the gastronomy tube was not only to have a more discreet way of feeding and for comfort and whatnot but because the tube is in my remnant stomach, I should be able to tolerate a much higher rate to actually meet my nutritional requirements and spend less time attached to the feeding pump. Feeds were commenced at 20ml/hr the next day but I developed severe pain and discovered feed had soaked the dressing around the tube. I was yet again rushed into surgery as the tube was leaking. Another NJT was inserted along with a PICC line and both EN and TPN were started to maximise my nutritional status while we wait for my body to heal around the tube in order for that leak to stop happening again. I've been on IV antibiotics and whatnot since as well. I developed a fluid collection in my abdomen and needed a percutaneous drainage which failed as the fluid was too thick to aspirate and a minor infection at the insertion site and it was believed that there was a fistula however luckily that was not the case. However yesterday I had a fluroscopy in which contrasted was put into the tube to see what happens and whether it's now working correctly and that caused me to violently retch as my body tried to expel the fluid from my stomach but as its not connected to my oesophagus anymore, it was unable to do so. This has now lead me to start worrying about whether whatever issue is preventing me from tolerating anything going into my pouch is affecting my remnant stomach too. I'm now facing the prospect of permanent EN and TPN for the rest of my life and I'm not even 30. So if you or anyone you know has any ideas or similar experiences or literally anything, please let me know. Even if it's just a chat because I feel so incredibly alone in this. To anyone that made it this far, I appreciate you taking the time to read this and thank you in advance for any responses. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have as well.

Glad you're doing better! My hysterectomy was by far way worse than my bypass (was in the hospital for two weeks) so I understand the issues one can have from removing lady plumbing! You're on the backside now and things are looking up for you! Take care of yourself, looking good!