Bunches of Questions

I'm 4 weeks post op, and while I know I've lost weight I don't feel it yet in my clothing. I'm about 25 lbs down, but still wearing the same size. The clothes aren't so tight, but I'm not ready to go down a size yet. Is that normal? I know that's not a major issue, but I'm just curious.

I really struggled after my surgery, and I still have a hard time eating some foods like cereal. I'm constantly thirsty, and it feels like I have bad breath now, when I never did pre-op. Is that normal? When I mentioned my breath question to my doctor, he said he hadn't heard of that as a "side effect" before.

Bottom line, I'm glad I have found this board. I'm sure I'll have many more questions, and look forward to the day when everthing I'm experiencing is just normal to me. Thanks!

Hi Debby!

I'm no expert, but it sounds to me like there's a lot of variation in how people's bodies respond to the surgery, especially immediately following.  My body, for example, shifted around a lot post surgery - I lost weight, but my measurements didn't change much until several months after. 

I wouldn't worry about this.  At nearly 6 months out, people on this board are now sick to death of me complaining about my pants falling off (and not in a good way).

I was thirsty too - on my post-op schedule I was only allowed 6 oz of liquid an hour.  Even that was hard to get down at first, but I was so thirsty I kept going for it.  Check with your doctor, but this doesn't sound overly worrying to me.

Lastly, the bad breath.  Nope, that's not a side effect I'm suffering from now, but while I was on the atkins diet I noticed very bad breath when I was in ketosis.  Make sure you're getting in enough protein and this problem may lessen.

Also...cereal?  Interesting.  I'm still not allowed to have cereal for a few more weeks, and even then I'm supposed to really watch the portion size.  Still, every program is different!  

Welcome to the forum!

Hi,
Welcome!
I did not really see a change in my measurements or clothing size for 3 months post-op or so.  It depends on where you started for sure.  For me, with a starting BMI over 50 (320ish), it took a while to become noticeable.  Once I hit about 250, the clothes sizes started dropping rapidly.  Now, i don't know what fits . . . . My pants are falling down too . . .

As for cereal, we were allowed cream of wheat/rice 5 weeks out.  I could not eat it easily either.  I can just barely eat a packet of oatmeal now.  Don't pu****!

As for bad breath, it seemed to be a bit of problem for me during the most rapid weight loss period (up to 6 months) but is not a problem now.

Meg

Hi Debby.  It took at least a 30 lbs. loss before I could change a size.  After that, it will change quickly, you'll see.

The bad breath is caused by ketosis.
Make sure you are always sipping, sipping, sipping.  We are not getting fluids from foods like we used to, so your fluid intake is very important.
Some foods will not be comfortable for you to eat for a long time. You are only 4 weeks post op.  Take it slow and if something bothers you, stay away from it and try it again in a few weeks.  We all progress differently.  Don't be surprised if you can eat something now and then later on it bothers you.  That happens alot.

Hope I've answered some of your concerns.

 

Hi Debby, Welcome!

As mentioned, everyone's body changes differently. Some, like me, lose from the top down so I was in medium shirts with no boobs long before I could fit into smaller pants. Sucked for a while but now that I've within 2 pounds of goal, it's all evened out nicely and actually is continuing to change. I don't have the skull-bone face anymore and some of the fat that is coming back there (which is good) must be coming off my now-flat ass. LOL I've been told that our bodies continue to morph for about a year even after hitting goal.

As for the bad breath... I experienced that the entire time I was losing my weight rapidly as well as the hair loss. I combatted that with drinking as much water as possible to flush the ketones out. Ketones are the waste product from muscle wasting. Yes, you will have muscle wasting during rapid weight loss. It's not a lot if you exercise but it is inevitable. I just brushed my teeth more often. Now that my weight loss has slowed down my breath is fine (I've been told) and the hair loss has lessened back to what I consider normal for longish hair and it's starting to fill back in. It wasn't that big a deal and well worth being able to wear a size 6.

I've never been able to do cereal. I can nibble a few cherios dry but never oatmeal or cereal with milk. I could do cream of wheat during my super soft food stage but my program doesn't allow us to do soft foods like that once we are past that point. I'd say if it hurts... don't do it. Try to get as much protein in as possible, eat really slow, chew each bite 20-30 times before swallowing and don't drink with your meal for for a period of time prescribed by your program after (mine is one hour, some are 30 minutes, some more). But then when you can drink, sip, sip, sip all day long. I even drink when I get up in the middle of the night to pee. LOL

Thanks everyone! I guess I didn't realize that everyones programs are different. And THANK YOU for letting me know that what I'm experiencing is "normal"!  I'll up my fluids - proteins are tough for me since I don't really eat alot of meat and the protein shakes are chalky, but I am continuing to work on it.

Again, thanks you guys! I appreciate you!

There are some things you can do to make your proteins more easily digested... according to what your plan calls for in amount of course.

~ Use canned chicken. It's more moist. The more moist your proteins the easier they go down.
~ Don't microwave. This dries food out. Steam or broil or bake. If I do need to reheat something, I put in it a microwave dish, add a tsp of water and cover it. This keeps the moisture in.
~ Make salads... (not with veggies) but chicken salad, tuna salad, egg salad with mayo, FF mayo or greek yogurt. Coating your proteins with slick stuff helps. One recipe I ate for several months after surgery was canned chicken or tuna with a hard boiled egg chopped up, a tiny bit of onion, mayo, salt and pepper. This would make enough to last for many meals as I was only eating 1/4 cup at a time for the first 12 weeks.
~ Chop all your proteins very small, even puree them and consume that way. Looks gross but tastes fine and goes down much easier. I started back eating beef this way... bites of steak in the food processer with a tablespoon of mayo... yum! 
~ Use deli meats rather than cooking your own. They tend to go down a little better. I love smoked turkey from the deli along with a little cheese.

Don't forget that tuna has the highest amount of protein per oz than any other food. Eat lots of it!

Also... look at your portions. What is recommended or you at this stage? Are you measuring carefully? Even one more bite over can be painful.

I never eat fat free dairy/cheese/mayo since the amount I eat was/is so little and we need good fats to keep our nervous system functioning. We didn't get fat from eating fat. I much more satisfied with the food I do get because carries the flavor to our taste buds from the food we eat.

How are you chewing? Are you thoroughly pulverizing your food before you swallow. This is especially important for proteins/meats.

Remember you don't have a stomach with all that acid to break down food anymore. Do it on the counter top (prep) and in your mouth (chew) before it goes into your pouch.

My food for the first 12 weeks was egg salad for breakfast, chicken or tuna salad with egg for lunch and cottage cheese for dinner. Just to be sassy and daring, I'd have the tuna for breakfast and the egg for dinner. woowhoooo

Hope this helps.

I really didn't see a change in clothes for a while. Then I couldn't keep clothes on. Since I more or less stopped at month 7 I have been able to stay in clothes now.

I was never really thirsty. Prolly the reason I was in the ER about 4 times for dehydration. I had "dragon breath" while I was losing the most. My advice is to get a tongue scaper. It works wonders. Someone told me it was protein building up on my tongue. I did have a white coating on it so who knows.

BAD breath,  If you are using chewable vitamin that may be it...soon as i switched to regular multi vitamin, the feeling like I had bad breath was gone.