That's a very good point. I wasn't required to lose anything before surgery, so instead I used the time to identify my food triggers (e.g. stress, being too tired to cook) and develop a plan for coping with them without resorting to food. Those plans really helped me after surgery!

I didn't have any hair loss the first nine years post op. Then last year my hair fell out in huge clumps. My eyebrows even fell out! Mine appears to be related to a some significant malnutrition and I'm working on that.

The doc I see for skin cancer took a look a couple of weeks ago and put me on Biotin tablets and vitamin E, 400 mg per day. (be careful when you start the E. At that dose it can cause diarrhea). I also started protein-loading my diet. No idea if any of this will work for me or would work for you, just throwing it out here.

On the upside, my eyebrows are back.

Good luck. It's amazing how attached we can get to our hair, and how traumatic it is to lose it.

You may want to try skipping breakfast. I know we've all heard that "breakfast is the most important meal of the day", but my understanding is that medical research shows that skipping breakfast is fine. Even before surgery, I found that breakfast "woke up" my stomach early and made it more difficult to stick to a diet.

I never drank protein shakes when I was preparing for surgery. They would leave me too hungry. Protein shakes are for the period after surgery when you are not able to eat real food. Some people did very well and never drank a protein shake.

I would think about replacing that protein shake with a meal of meat, fish, or chicken, and some leafy green vegetables. For convenience, try Healthy Choice Power Bowls. Or just have some meat and vegetables. Sometimes I buy small pieces of filet mignon, cook it to medium, slice it, and then put it on top of a large bowl of greens.

A salad with hard boiled eggs is another fairly easy meal.

What my doctor told me to do to prepare for surgery was to quit the Diet Coke and anything white. So no bread, rice, cereal, potatoes, or ice cream. Nothing starchy like corn, and nothing made with flour or sugar.

After I had the surgery, it was so much easier. I was never hungry and I could only eat a tiny amount when I was. One protein shake would last me all day. By six months, I was able to eat quite a bit more, but the hunger has never returned.

If dieting without WLS was easy, so many of us wouldn't need WLS.

If I were you - I would check for carbs and artificial sweeteners in the food - drinks I was having. I know that it can stimulate my hunger and appetite. Simple one diet drink in a middle of the day or early in afternoon - may make me ravenously hungry a couple of hours later.

Some carbs can be worse for stimulating the insulin release or hunger hormones. There is food - snacks I can have late in a day because there is not much time for hunger.

Also - when I try to limit calories - volume if food even post op RNY - I may do better adding a little bit of fat and reducing carbs. I.e. instead of banana "I want -crave", I may have 1/4 or even 1/2 of avocado. Or add avocado or some fat to my shake.