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Applesauce? Are you not on a liquid diet for 2 weeks? Did it hurt? That is a little low but honestly mine is usually about that low normally so I wouldn’t be super worried about it being that low. Are y’all having to do the Blood thinner shot? That thing is a *itch!! It burns….does it for y’all?

Exactly this. I commented to my dieticians when I asked about eating out and suggested that perhaps it would be beneficial if they're familiar with basic menu choices in the local restaurants, or that they get menus from the restaurants so they can go over them with their patients. They should educate their patients on good and bad choices or how to look for hidden calories etc., opposed to what mine do - showing me the same empty container of Fage yogurt, asking what I'm eating and suggesting celery for a crunch every single time I go in. After all, their job is to educate and guide patients, not make patients figure it out on their own and make every appointment redundant and pointless. I've asked about possible menu choices at restaurants to which they said they have no idea! You'd think it would be required knowledge to at least teach "real world" eating out situations. Most people don't ask their servers or research the menu choices or are aware there are off menu choices. Dietitians should have this knowledge, I know if I was a dietician I would. As far as meal prep, good for you if you're one of those people who do this, I personally detest cooking and doing a weeks worth may help with the next week..but it requires one long day of cooking to do it, which I don't have the time nor inclination to do, so eating out is what I do.

2 days until surgery! So excited and petrified! Anyone else that has that first postop week under your belts, what was the easiest clear liquid item to eat or drink? I want to stock up. Any words of advice?

2 weeks, 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, 1 year, and then annually after that (unless there's an issue). At around five years out, my clinic turns the reins over to our PCPs, unless the person is having issues.

I'm so sorry you're having a difficult time! Fortunately, if people develop anxiety and depression after the surgery, it tends to be a temporary thing. Your body has gone through a major shock, and you're also burning fat, which is where you store hormones such as estrogen. It can sometimes become a perfect storm for mental health stress until things start to stabilize. When my brother had the sleeve several years ago, he ended up flying across the country to stay with me when he was about 3-4 weeks post-op because he didn't want to be alone and was so emotional and anxious at that point. It eased up little by little over the course of a few weeks while his body adjusted, and by the time he went home, he felt so much better. It's really common in the early stages to fear that this is your new life and you will never feel normal again, but remember this is just healing time. Give yourself grace to get through it as best you can. Take friends and family up on offers of help. Don't do things that really can be put off. Let yourself go to bed early. Play your favorite songs when you go for a walk. Go for a pedicure. Even writing down your thoughts in a journal can help a lot. It really is going to get better over time, even though it feels horrible and scary right now.

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

I will be turning 50 exactly 1 week from today and had RNY surgery 2 1/2 weeks ago. The surgery went well and I'm doing fantastic! If it weren't for the incisions on my belly and the desire for a quick afternoon nap when that wasn't my habit before, I would almost forget I had surgery at all. So far the recovery has been far easier than I imagined. A few days of pain managed with Tylenol, some fatigue, and that's it. My blood pressure, which has been high even with meds for a decade or more, has been back in the normal range without meds since the minute I woke up from the anesthesia. I'm not sure age is as important as your general health, immune system, etc. I've been lucky in that I generally don't get sick when others do, never had food allergies or digestive issues, and am in fairly good health except for the obesity related concerns I was hoping to reverse/ward off.

I wish I ate more of the things I loved pre-op LOL!!! Nah jokes aside, WLS is a tool that we utilize towards - hopefully - permanent life changes, if you see it as a means that'll all it'll ever be, if you see it as an effective tool, it will get you where you want to be. I would say, clean up your act, get moving, change your daily habits and get into the fat loss mindset. This doesn't mean going completely cold turkey on everything, but whatever bad habits that led you to needing the surgery in the first place need to be thought of and turned around. I didn't need a liquid diet, my BMI was on the lower side and I worked out consistently my entire life so I didn't much change anything and boy I wished I changed some things because dealing with the discomfort of the surgery, the huge changes in your diet and all the restrictions afterwards is no fun all together. I wish I cut back on caffeine (I had caffeine a week post surgery because I had terrible headaches), I wish I cut out diet soda prior to WLS because I love diet soda so very much and it was tough to think that I can never have this without any mental preparation beforehand. I wouldn't change much else because fortunately for me, I had a good experience post op, the weight dropped off very quick, I never threw up or had severe food aversions and have very effective restriction. But I also had a very balanced diet and workout regimen before WLS and that helped me tremendously and I know that might not be the case for everyone. Also, prepare yourself for a new life and new you, it's cliché but it's very true.

It's similar to most WLS, I believe. I was advised to take 2 to 3 weeks off but I was up and about in no time (the next day) but I was tired a lot due to much lower calorie intake, after effects of the surgery, healing.... Etc. Depending upon the type of job you have, you can't lift anything heavy the first 6 weeks since your stomach will still be healing. Congrats on your recent approval!

Hi Fifi0523 from FifiLux I am in a similar situation to you, 8 months post surgery and between January 11th and February 12th I only lost 4lb. On Jan 11th my surgeon said my goal was to lose 10kg (22lb) during the rest of the year so I guess he based that on his knowledge that my loss would slow down. My goal is to lose 17kg (37.5lb) and that seems way off, if not impossible, given the stall I have now. This is even after I have upped my exercise, not by much due to suffering from exhaustion, but certainly by more than I was doing pre-op. I have started to track my food and drink to see if there are places I am slipping up and it has already helped me highlight areas as I was eating more carbs that I realised and I hadn't been counting my protein correctly at times. I also have started to go into menopause in the last couple of months and I am not sure if that is impacting the weight loss as I know it is already impacting my energy and sleep. I hope and think it is just our bodies recovering from rapid loss and now that it will continue but at a slower pace - I just hadn't expected it to be this slow!

I bet I will be right there with you in a week, honestly, so please don't feel alone. I DO feel that it is totally ok to be looking forward to *real food* and wonder if your therapist wasn't using that word to prepare you for the fact that maybe food will end up tasting differently once you DO go back to it? I know my taste buds have changed a lot just during this liquid diet phase, and it makes me think of how when I stopped drinking soda my mind would be like 'Ooh a Coke sounds so NICE' but then I'd go to take a sip and it just.. tasted awful. My Chantix has caused the same effect for me regarding cigarettes. Once in a while I get to thinking that I want one, but because of the medicine even if I take a puff it doesn't taste good or satisfying AT ALL. There are some things that I used to not particularly enjoy that I'm now finding I like, though, like hot lemon water, well salted vegetables, and chicken/salmon much more than say - a burger. I'm not sure what is causing my change in preferences, I know in part is is the no-sugar, but it's also just across the board. I even rinse my mouth after the shakes and don't like the drink mix I used to use very much. I agree wholly with what others have posted here - It's fine to enjoy food, we'll just be enjoying it in a different way once we ramp back up to being able to eat it, and any sugary indulgences will have a cost-ratio we'll have to consider when we DO decide to treat ourselves. So glad you posted here, and hope you're doing well! My surgery is the morning of August 5th - I'm having a virgin SADI - a sleeve plus revision style surgery to my intestines all at once as my first WLS.

Hi Joe! My surgery is in 4 days. I am 5'6" and at my highest weight, I was 250 pounds, which gave me a BMI of 40.3. Since starting the nutrition program and pre-op liquid diet, I am down to 228 pounds, so a BMI of 36.8. I have high blood pressure, prediabetes, and high cholesterol. Like you, I've dieted countless times. In fact, I was enrolled in the nonsurgical program at my hospital for 7 years, starting when I was 42. I found it relatively easy to lose up to about 15% of my total body weight, around 40 lbs, by counting calories, exercising religiously, and not letting my guard down for a minute. After that, I would stall. Then the weight would creep back up. My doctor would prescribe meds (including Wegovy for a while, but it's too expensive for longterm use for me), and I'd lose 10 pounds. Then I would stall, followed by regain. Or the nutritionist would suggest a new approach, and I would lose a few pounds again, followed by regain. A little more each time. After 7 years of trying, I was back to my highest weight ever. I feel like I wasted a whole lot of time with nothing to show for it. And now I'm nearly 50. My blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol all have gotten worse. My feet hurt. My joints ache. I feel older than I am, and I don't want to be old before my time. I know from reading the latest studies in weight loss science that my chance of long term success in reaching and maintaining a healthy weight without the metabolic reset of bariatric surgery is around 5%. I'm fortunate because I've seen my brother go through sleeve surgery 15 years ago. He lost a huge amount of weight (about half his body weight) and though he has regained a fair amount of that, it's nowhere near where he used to be. His appetite is now what I would call the smaller side of normal. Nobody looks at him having dinner and would guess he had surgery. So I know that the most drastic parts of this (like a liquid diet!) are phases you have to get through to get somewhere better. I feel nervous, too. I've never had surgery. I worry about complications. I'm hardly ever sick, so I sometimes think what if I'm trading decent health for problems? But realistically, problems are in my future. I've seen it in countless family members. The writing is on the wall. And the surgery is very safe. So for me, the risk is worth it. I've tried on my own long enough to know it isn't going to happen for me without this. And a BMI of 40 might not be as big as some people, but it's big enough to rob me of good health in my future. I really hope this helps at least give you some things to think about to help you make your decision. Wishing you all the best!

Oh wow, French onion dip is my downfall. That sounds so delicious. I had some big reusable parfait cups in my cupboard with two sections to them, where you could do your yogurt and berries in the big section and then keep your granola or nuts in the other to keep them crisp until the last minute. I used 4 of these to portion out the blended container of cottage cheese dip into 4 servings with about 8oz of carrots, cucumbers, mushrooms, red peppers, and tomatoes. Turns out that for an evening snack, I actually can only eat half. Which is fine. That gives me a week's worth of veg already prepped. Once the ranch dip is used up, I'm doing French onion! And I'm going to try those pepperoni chips. I also want to make some kale chips. Those are so tasty. I need an air fryer. I think I want to replace my toaster oven with one that has the air fryer built in, but I keep waffling on which brand to get.

Wow 3 weeks post op and only 2oz? I would contact your clinic and see if they have any recommended plan. Did they tell you how many meals a day? For my program they told me to have 3 meals a day. I use my shakes as snacks. My meals at 3 weeks post op is 5oz tho. 3oz pf protein, 1oz puree vegetable and 1oz of starch. I can’t finish all, but I would stop and go back to it.

I have 3 kids 12, 6 and 2. I did not tell them. The day that I went my mom stayed over and hubs and I told the kids that I had to go to the doctors because my stomach needed to get checked and fixed. Now all they see is that my eating habits have changed, and I workout every day. So they just think that I made a lifestyle change and got thinner that way. My oldest is my step son and his mom is very very body conscious and body shames? She struggles with her weight and has made comments how my daughter has slimmed down, or how the 12 has finally lost his baby weight and will barely eat. I nip that in the butt quick! I have to tell her that we cannot speak negatively in front of our kids, its going to cause a complex like we have. I grew up with my mom always talking about weight and she still does. I try my best to not surround our conversations on negative body image. I do home work outs 2-3x a week and sometimes with my daughter who is 6 asks to work out with me to get skinny, I tell her its not to get skinny its to get strong and stay healthy. So I try to just surround our convos around that. Its tough with kids!

Congratulations on your decision. Unfortunately I don’t have that insurance but do you usually need a referral to see a specialist? I suppose If you were to call a surgeons office and ask to schedule they would let you know if you really need to wait until you see your primary. Then again if your appointment is soon it may make sense to just wait anyways so they can give you a recommendation for a surgeon if you don’t have one in mind For me, it was the surgeons office that let me know what all the requirements were. I have seen them vary slightly from one person to the next. It depends on insirance but also varies by the program as well as your medical history. For my Sleeve the requirements were a 6 month medically supervised weight loss attempt, psyc eval and a nutritionist appointment. Ooh and you will need medical clearance for surgery which depending on your health may be just routine lab work or it may be additional appointments like a cardiologist checkup. They may also require you to sort out the sleep apnea thing and make sure that the cpap is working to treat your sleep apnea sufficiently if you do have it but i’m not 100% certain on that (just seems like I heard something about that). I am currently pending a revision and this time he required an ekg that he didn’t ask for last time. I guess maybe since I’m a little older. They wanted the labs to be drawn within a month or less of my surgery date so I scheduled them and the ekg at my primary doctor at two weeks out from my surgery. Listing it out it seems like a lot but you will have a While to get it all done and they should walk you through it step by step.

Hi there! I just had my surgery last Monday on February 19th! I am on day 8, and honestly, im starting to feel almost back to normal! Struggling with the fact that I can't eat anything other than soup and pudding despite being so so hungry. Everything has been going down really good. I have had no issues getting in protein. I have 3 premier protein shakes a day, which equals to 90g of protein. I just wish I could eat soft foods like mashed potato and eggs. But my nurse practitioner wants me to stay on the liquid diet for another 3 weeks. YEAH RIGHT, hahah im going to be introducing some foods next week I think. I can't wait any longer. I am so hungry! I hope you have a speedy recovery from surgery! If you need any advice or have any questions, I am always here for you! Heaviest Weight: 376 - April 2023 Weight on day of surgery: 291 - February 2024 Total lbs lost before surgery: 85 lbs Current weight (1 week after surgery): 280 Total lbs lost since April: 96 lbs Im so close to meeting my 100 lbs down goal!!

I follow all WLS guidelines so what does any of that really matter. I am allowed to eat some carbs as it’s limited and I don’t weigh my food. I use a small plate and I know what my measurements are. I do drink 30 minutes before and after. If I want sugar I’ll eat it within my own guidelines since I’m working out and that’s only once a month cravings. I’m only 5’3 and carry my fat in my belly. My surgeon has no problem with my stall since I workout 4-5x a week. I’m more worried about the daily medications I take for GERD for the past 13 yrs which isn’t good. They have me on 2 acid reflux pills and antibiotics so idk if that’s an issue too. I can lose weight I’ve always been thin all my life except after having my last baby which caused my hernia and issues; by then I couldn’t exercise no more gained weight plus perimenopause belly weight gain on top of that has been hard. The first pic on top was 1 yr before surgery the second pic is recent on new years.

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

First time posting on these forums, so hello everyone. Glad to have found this space to talk about my experience as I find it very hard to communicate with everyone else in my regular day to day life. I'm exactly 15 days post op (Gastric Sleeve) as I type this. And honestly, after reading many replies on here, I almost feel survivors guilt, but I do feel blessed as I thankfully did not experience many issues whatsoever. 24 hours after surgery I walked out of the hospital on my own, sore, but proud. I guess my biggest issue has been sleeping as I move around a lot while I sleep and at the beginning it would wake me up from pain for twisting and turning while I slept, and even then, that's no longer an issue. But, I never had nausea, or vomit, did not take any pain medication past the first 48 hours, I'm not trying to brag, just feeling fortunate after reading some stories on here. Everyone has their own stories and journeys, for me I was obese my whole life. This was ok through my 20s as I felt invincible, and eventually those checks I was writing on my body came back to collect. Back pain and diabetes were first. But it wasn't until a week before the world shut down that things went really off the wall. A long term relationship ended, and as the world closed, it kept me from my support groups, and led me down a dark path of basically eating and drinking myself almost to death with nowhere to go. At my absolute heaviest I thought I would die at a staggering 407 pounds. Poetic as that's the area code for my city lol. Knowing I had to make a change or I would not make it to 40 I went to a doctor, which led to a cancer scare. At that moment my life changed, and I knew change needed to happen now. I began diet and working out and made it down to about 375-380 where I had been hovering for over two years. Bariatric surgery is what I knew I needed to help me, and after fighting with insurance for two years, I finally got a new job last November, and the insurance there covered the surgery 100%! So I began the process in January. And on May 30th, 2024, at 10AM, I went in for surgery. To say that life has changed, for the better, is an understatement. In two weeks I have dropped almost 30 pounds. I'm feeling amazing as far as my stomach (kinda weirds me out to say pouch lol) is concerned post surgery. Still in the liquid diet though looking forward to chewing something this weekend, as I'm absolutely sick of Jello. I am still not hungry, and almost feels like a miracle. My blood sugar is stabilizing without medication. My blood pressure is improving almost daily. Walking a mile a day does not leave me searching for oxygen, and I can't wait to start the gym on June 30th and really kick this into high gear. TL/DR: This is a second change at life, and I will not waste it. Look forward to learning more from others through this process. Onwards and upwards.

morbidity rate is 0.3% with bypass - which is super low. These aren't the same surgeries as they were years ago. They're only slightly more risky than the sleeve. Complication rate is really low, too. The most common (other than dumping) is stricture, which happens to about 5% of bypass patients, and that's an easy fix - they just do an upper endoscopy and stretch it out (I had one of those). Dumping happens to about 30% of bypass patients, and you can prevent that by not eating a ton of sugar or fat at one sitting (most dumpers can eat *some* sugar and fat, just not a ton of it at one sitting). I've never dumped, and I know lots of other bypassers who've never dumped, either. yes you do need to take supplements forever because of the malabsorption "feature" (which makes it a more powerful surgery than sleeve). But you get used to it pretty quickly. I don't even give it a thought anymore - taking them is now just part of my regular morning, afternoon, and evening routines, Most sleeve patients have to take vitamins as well - although slacking off on them has more dire consequences with bypass than it does with sleeve. Missing a day here and there - or even a few days in a row, isn't likely to cause problems. But simply not taking them can cause huge problems over time. To be honest, cutting off 3/4 of your stomach and throwing it in the garbage doesn't really seem that less radical to me than stapling across the top of your stomach and re-attaching your small intestine, but I know that thought seems really radical to a lot of people, so you're not alone in thinking that. Although unlike the sleeve, the RNY is reversible (although they'll only do that in extreme circumstances), which seemed oddly comforting to me. I chose RNY because I had GERD prior to surgery - and it did "fix" that. I'm very happy with my decision - I've had a lot of success with mine and no problems other than the aforementioned stricture I had at four weeks out. I'd make the same decision today.

Yeah. It just says fluid. And I usually have a cup of decaf tea in the morning that is equivalent to three cups. I never put that in my tracker. I am just figuring what I count in my tracker which is more 8 oz cu I use to drink. From my large water bottle (64oz). I’m sure it will be fine. It will all work out. I just have to watch fats that I am taking in. Even if it is “healthy “ fats

I'm 4 weeks out and started having this issue the past couple days off and on. This morning I had a scrambled egg and it ended up not staying down (despite no trouble with eggs in the past). Lunch was okay but then at dinner I went from being totally fine with 2oz smoked salmon to taking a single bit of veg and having pain and fullness, that stuck feeling, that again eventually led to the food coming back up. Now I just have a painful full feeling that's lingering for hours and is miserable. If it continues a few more days I will reach out to my doctor.

I love to see what people typically eat in a day. I am 8.5 months post op. I've trying to maintain but still losing (eating around 1300 calories a day). Working out 4/5 times a week. Pilates, weight training, walking/jogging and some plyos for cardio. A typical day would be: Pre-breakfast: an oat milk flat white (I can't have anything before my coffee). Breakfast (mind you, was never a breakfast eater before but now I need to eat in the late morning otherwise I feel famished): 1 protein toast with lite cheese, 3 turkey breast slices OR 1 egg and 1 egg white omlette OR light halloumi, with some light mayo/pesto, lettuce and jalapenos. Some days I can eat that in one sitting, some days I need an hour to finish this portion. Snack 1: Fruit, Novo protein chips and a zero iced tea (over the course of 2 hours) Lunch: A chicken salad with baby spinach/arugula, cucumbers, bell peppers, pomegranate seeds and feta cheese. No dressing. Snack 2: 5 sugar free chocolate almonds OR a square of 80% dark chocolate. Occasionally another oat flat white Snack 3: a handful of roasted almonds or cashews Dinner: I eat the exact same food pre WLS and what I make for the family sans the carbs most of the time. our dinners are usually elaborate. Protein and Veg so smash burgers (I wrap mine with lettuce but sneak one or two sweet potato fries), Big mac tacos (I use mission low carb mini tortillas), Marry me chicken, steaks, salmon poke bowls, Thai spicy basil chicken, ceviche, stuffed poussins, enchiladas (low carb), soy glazed chicken, etc... it's different every day. Dessert: Chocolate protein ball, or any other healthy dessert I've made (protein cheesecake, protein brownies) My portions are very small though, and it feels I'm eating all day. On weekends I surprisingly eat less, skip breakfast and go longer hours between my meals, but I do eat out and have a little fun with carbs (sushi, noodles, a little bread).