How long have your stalls lasted?

Sadly experience does not always mean education to back up advice, and it's entirely possible to have new people in established practices who don't have experience of their own. We see this on a regular basis with new people to this site who share the eating plans their doctors have given them whi*****lude things like cream of wheat, mashed potatoes, toast, and flinstones vitamins.

I, personally, chose to stop imagining that my providers had experience and pertinent knowledge once I realized that many of them don't. I certainly take their advice into account, but I also realize that I need to do my own research and that there are lots of great resources out there both in the form of anecdotal evidence from those who are maintaining long term and keep coming back to OH to scientific research on sites like pubmed.

I hope that you figure out what works best for you and I'm sure you will. You've come a long way so far!

The most successful people that I have seen in this venture started out with mashed potatoes cream of wheat, oatmeal, etc. (though not the Flintstones!) Granted, I started in the bariatric world in that transition phase between yesterday's low fat fad and today's low carb fad. The point that this really drove home to me was how little all of this really makes to one's long term success. The people that I know who are 10-15 years out or more and still successfully controlling their weight never agonized over carb counts or keto sticks. If one has an appropriate caloric deficit and adequate protein and hydration, the fats and carbs really don't matter as they are both at very low levels for any weight loss effort. If one has a therapuetic need to go lower due to some morbidity, it is appropriate to seek the guidance of professionals familiar with those maladies rather than depending upon what "everyone" on the net is doing.

It was a very rude awakening for me when I realized I was going to have to give up veggies and fruit for a while. It is counter to everything I've ever learned about healthy eating. This surgery business is a different animal. I think we may get closer to "normal" healthy eating over time, but right now we need to focus on "normal for early post-WLS". You aren't like a person with their original anatomy intact anymore. So what works for them, isn't going to work for you for a while, if ever. I am just beginning to make peace with that. And that's after reading A LOT beforehand. Living it and understanding it theoretically are so different.

OMG THIS! Exactly, Cecily. I just came here to say pretty much the same thing. I studied VSG and all the info about pre and post op for years prior to making my decision. My nutritionist was so impressed during my meetings with her. How funny that I've realized in the 5 months since surgery that, although my plan guidelines were great for the first 9 weeks, afterward I have had to make major adjustments.

The long-term nutritional guidelines from my plan, although well-intentioned, turned out to be very unrealistic for the real world of post-op VSG. I, too, realized that I had to give up veggies, never even started fruit...waaaaay too many carbs. I've resigned myself to the fact that I will have those things once I'm finished losing weight and in maintenance. It's worth the sacrifice to see the pounds continue to come off.

The thing that really sticks out in my mind is that my nutritional booklet said I should be able to eat a cup or 8oz by the time I hit 9 weeks. Now THAT is funny! I was barely able to eat 3oz by that time. And at 5 months I can manage 6 oz if the food is not very dense--mostly I'm a 4oz gal still. I'm guessing I might be able to eat 8oz by a year, but who knows.

When I go for my 6-month checkup, I plan to tell them my reality. I doubt it will prompt them to investigate or make changes but at least I'll feel better.

I think often times they will acknowledge that recommendations they have are bad or outdated but will fail to make changes to them until whatever higher governing body grants them permission to do so. I know that's totally the case with my dietician, whom I love, but often eye roll at (what she's saying at least, not her specifically).

At my 6 week post op visit she told me I should eventually be eating 150-200g of carbs per day, "but no more". I eye bugged at her and she said "I know you want to stay low carb, and I support that, but this is the "normal recommendations".

I also had a bit of a back and forth with her about fat content. I asked pre-surgery why, if I was eating 2-4 TBSP of something, could I not eat full fat foods? She didn't have an answer, and eventually said that the insert governing body here was currently editing guidelines to include higher fat intake, so I wasn't wrong.

Another notable thing was that all the guidelines I was given showed that I would be eating 3oz by 6 weeks. So when I went in eating 1.5oz I was ready to defend myself. She told me that was "totally normal" and I wouldn't expect a full 3oz meat portion until 6 months. BUT, that's NOT what the paperwork said.

Your therapist's advice is not inappropriate, though I would make sure that she understands what your particular limitations are during this time. There are often disparaging remarks made on these forums about RD's and other professionals because their advice may not be consistent with the latest fad diets promoted by some YouTube diet guru, even if they have many more years experience at this game than some "vet's" months of research and personal experience.

In general, most RDs will acknowledge that might increase the rate of weight loss in some cases, and definitely has therapuetic uses for some maladies, they tend to temper their enthusiasm due to the common problem of people adopting poor eating habits over the long term (like not eating your fruits and veggies...) that offset whatever benefits might be provided in the area of loss rate. We do see this frequently in these forums with many who have gone through those diets coming back with regain or yo-yo dieting problems because they never learned how to eat sustainably while they were losing.

Since our diets are typically half or a bit less protein during the loss phase, that still leaves the other half of the calories to work with in establishing good long term habits, even if it may often be just an "homage" to a normal, healthy human diet, it can still pay big dividends in the long run when it comes to controlling your weight once the excitement of the loss phase fades. By all means, once your protein (and hydration!) needs are satisfied, do what you can with the remaining part of your diet to live for the long term. Work through your disorder rather than adding to the problem with fad dieting.

Note that I was raised in a bariatric environment that preached skepticism about nutritionists for a very good specific reason - that most hospital and bariatric dieticians, if they had any WLS experience at all, it was with the bypass, which has a very different nutritional needs profile than the DS, which was the primary procedure of this practice. This doesn't really apply to the VSG, as we generally have less restrictive nutritional limits, though many dieticians do tend to go a bit high on their caloric advice due to their bypass experience.

I was sleeved 2 days after you. My stall was about 8 days but ended about a week ago.

Have you tried increasing you water intake ? That worked for me

For the first couple of weeks it is completely about healing, then protein, protein and more protein. My surgeon said with the vitamins I am on, I would be very healthy just eating protein, vitamins and water.