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Right after surgery I was able to lose weight faster than a speeding bullet, my restriction was more powerful than a locomotive and my metabolism could easily leap a tall building with a single bound. Today, my kryptonite is time. Time has made me once again a weight loss mortal. I am able to gain weigh even though my diet has remained healthy. I don't lose the weight gained as fast and I am able to eat more. What to do? I actually fore saw this problem. The first year of my WLS journey when I was researching and going through the process to be approved I went to as many group meetings that I was allowed to attend. I always picked the brain of the people in attendance. Like many on this board they were ALL newbies with the success stories only newbies can tell. Not a single failure in the group. That is until one day a woman showed up and started telling us her story. She was five years out from surgery lost a lot of weight and put most of it back on. She warned everyone that things would change as you get further out from surgery and that it wouldn't necessarily be for the better. She had wished that she did not get caught up in the euphoria of her early success. She said that it's like winning the lottery. One day you have more money than you'd ever dream of having. If you don't plan on saving it you'll go bankrupt. That's what happened to her. She won the weight loss lottery. She lost more weight than she could have dreamed losing. Trouble was, she didn't plan her long term weight loss and now, she went "bankrupt". As I went through my daily routine I came across others who had WLS and many had indeed gained the weight back. I was in my doctors office and the medical attendant there told me about her failure when I told her that I was going through the process to get approved for WLS. She told me that it creeps up on you. Two pounds turns to four, four to eight than you're back to where you started. You start to Feel helpless and give up. As I went to the group meetings pre and post surgery I noticed not many people stuck around. There were no veterans in the group just eager newbies who can attest to the success of WLS. Seems as if the veterans drift away and either gain the weight back in silence or just get tired of hearing the same stories of success over and over. I knew that I would probably lose my WLS super powers someday and I had hoped to plan for it. First, I did lose a lot of weight in the mid 90's and I never thought that I'd get back to being obese. I was so wrong. Like my medical attendant experienced, five pounds turned to ten then to 20 and you know the rest. It took me less that four years to gain back the weight and then some. It took another 17 years to get WLS. I decided that I would use every tool that I could in order to keep the weight off and maintain my health. I joined Over Eaters Anonymous. It's another support group away from the support group my surgeon has. I started seeing a therapist who specializes in eating disorders. ( I'm a compulsive over eater) and I have family and friends who have had WLS who I can call to get and give support to. I also weigh myself every week at the same time on the same scale and set a "Red Alert" weight of 160lbs. ( Have a log since the day of my surgery) If I go above the 160 I know that I must redouble my efforts. Here is where my lost WLS super powers comes in. Despite all this I am having a difficult time losing the five pounds that I am over. I feel as if I am now a mere weight loss mortal who has to work two to three times harder to lose and maintain the weight loss. I can't say it wasn't expected. From all the people I spoke to I knew this day would come. It's that, I was once a WLS immortal and now I have to struggle like all others to lose weight. My saving grace (I hope it is) I planned for it since I went through it before and I took the advice of those who went before me seriously. For all of you newbies who are experiencing the euphoria of being WLS immortal plan for day like me when you lose that super power. Just a note, there are many who do maintain their WLS super powers. They are on this forum and they are truly superstars. They unfortunately are the exception to the trend. I find their advice to be invaluable and I look for their posts for such advice. To everyone, good luck with your new found health.

I’m thankful that my body is teaching me to pause, listen, learn and renew. Thankful for this website and the lovely souls gathered to empower and encourage one another. Thankful for my sweet, gentle, strong, self confident, funny, tender, courageous, wise, spiritual and handsome hubby. Thirty years together and still crazy for each other.💖

this is something ive been scared of since i joined this forum -- regaining weight. when i did my pre-op class, there was a woman who was going back through the process and it's .. scary. i do tend to recognize my unhealthy habits now better than before.. I managed to lose 70 lbs from keto 2 years ago and gained all, and more of it back. im almost 50lbs down from surgery, but the stalls come so easily. i know that this is a lifelong commitment.. i understand that.. and it's hard to see much further than the end of the day for me sometimes. But this forum is a good place to be reminded that life doesn't end when the weight is gone..

I do not and I’m very happy with my results. I’m attaching two photos - one from the night before my surgery in November 2016 where you can see from the drawn lines what was being removed, and one I took just a moment ago in regular daylight. You can see from the recent photo that the surgeon went all the way down to the elbow; he also went all the way up through my armpit almost to my bra band. Hope this helps!

Nice gentle reminder

this seems to be very common, actually. Most people have a 10-20 lb gain after hitting their lowest weight, and I was prepared for that - but even after that, you have to really start monitoring yourself or you're very likely to gain even more. I'm pretty much resigned to the fact that I'll have to diet for the rest of my life or I'm going to put on a bunch of weight. Luckily I figured that out before much damage was done, since it's hard as heck to lose weight now 😞

Not only did I have "bat wings" I had the same thing on my forearm with a pocket of fat at the elbow. When he was marking me he showed me what would be left if he only went to the elbow...a lower arm smaller 'batwing." I told him I didn't care if he went to my wrist, I didn't want that left. So, I have an extended brachioplasty. The incision goes from my bra line, through my armpit all the way down past my elbow to midway to my wrist. I'll take a scar over hanging skin any day! I still have a lot of swelling (6 weeks post op tomorrow) but I love the shape of my arms!

Yes, that's the biggest issue is people thinking I'm dying of something (I am a pretty pale person too so that probably doesn't help). That is very good to know thank you so very much. I may have been being a bit sensitive as well due to it being *that time of month* lol. I appreciate your reply! Sent from my Alcatel_5008R using BariatricPal mobile app

Awesome that is a fantastic response, I may have to use it!! Thank you so much Sent from my Alcatel_5008R using BariatricPal mobile app

My choice as well