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I wish you and your dear daughter well and pray that the decision that you make is the best all around....I fully understand how you feel since one of my kid's sufffered all of the same issues....he was born large and due to many factors(medical as well as emotional) the weight krept up through the years....I found the best teaching hospital with a pediatric program( they have them) and worked with a comprehensive team approach to deal with the underlying issues(medical and emotional)...there were medical tests that yeilded problems in the pituatary and adrenal glands that helped create the weight gain........ had to change the kitchen(as a family) and eating habits....had the kid in a program that taught self worth and good eating habits....and an exercise program geared to young kids....and regular meetings with a good therapist......it was a long road .....and hard work.... going to Mexico is a gamble.....on many levels...iif you could try and find a good program that is part of a teaching hospital.....you might be able to receive funding for the help......wishing you good health and every success in your journey........i

Hello Sleevers, I weighed myself in the am and was 238. Yay!! 10 pounds in 8 days. Now I weigh myself this evening and I'm 240. I'm only drinking Protein shakes and a half cup of Soup for lunch. Total calories is about 470. I'm also walking at a brisk pace for an hour for exercise. It's not the calories. The only thing diffrent today was that I managed to get about 58 ounces of Water down. So, I think this could be just water weight and it will all work it's way out eventually. Has anyone else had or seen this?

Same here, my weight gain is from my choices and lifestyle- don't think anything is wrong with my pouch. I had gastric bypass so I didnt have a bougie as far as I know. Good for you on cooking at home and being conscience of what you are putting in your body. You are right, it's doable!!! We can all do it and I want this thread to stay alive also!! Let's be accountable, good, bad or ugly. We are all here for each other and understand the struggle. May God bless you and keep you[emoji173]️ -Mariela

I had gastric bypass in 2013. My regain began February 2015 because I stopped exercising, watching what I was eating etc. completely went back to pre surgery eating habits. After surgery I picked up a substance abuse addiction since I could no longer abuse food. In January 2015, i came to know Jesus as my Lord and Savior and He delivered me from all drugs. At that point I went back to food (hence the weight gain) but now with His help I am getting to the root of why I abused food and other things in the first place. Our weight is byproduct of something deeper going on and getting surgery and losing the weight will not solve the root. It's important for us all to get healing from whatever it is that was causing us to abuse food in the first place. This journey has been a wild ride but I wouldn't trade it and where I am for anything.

I didn't notice the weight gain until I started back to work. I did forget to add the exercising in their. I work out on the days I have less hours to be at school... Doing cardio so far and looking for a private personal trainer that doesnt charge so much. I am about to be 3 weeks out..

I'm certainly no expert but if you went from 1200 cal to 1600-1800 cal and gained weight then maybe that WOULD explain the gain... I'm no doctor or anything but the addition of calories and the weight gain seem to be linked,... Perhaps a trip to the nutritionist might be in order... Good luck mate...

Dr Schulman, First, thanks for taking time to answer all our questions! This thread is very informative. I had my lapband in August, 2006. I've lost a little over 100 pounds and seem to have stabalized at 210. Over the last year I've stayed pretty consistent at that weight, gaining and losing the same 5 pounds. I have a rather large apron and a bulge in my upper abdomen that will not go away, no matter what exercises I do! So my first question is, how common is it to do a full tt on someone over 200lbs? Will it cause any further complications? I'm very healthy, low blood pressure, exercise, no diabetes, and a non-smoker. I had a consult with a ps this week and he recommended a full tummy tuck using an anchor incision to take care of the bulge in the center and remove the apron. He also recommended doing a breast lift at the same time. Is it safe to do the lift and tt at the same time, as he recomended? And what kind of recovery can I expect? I sit at a desk reading books all day for work, and he said it should only be a week or two before I can go back. Will the drains be out before then? Also, do you know where I can find pictures of tt with the anchor incision? I've found a couple on the web, but not many! It's hard to find info on tt for heavier people, which is frustrating. I really want to have this done, as the results he thinks I can expect sound promising! Thanks for your help.

carrie - every slip is different. mine was sharp stabbing pain after eating which lead to sharp pain all the time. sort of in my chest where you feel pressure after eating something wrong. lots of vomitting. i definitely knew something was wrong. i didnt know what at the time but i was aware that it was severe. really thought i just had stomach irritation. some people just lose all restriction and then have weight gain. hope you are doing ok. tngirl - i didnt have restriction until my 3rd fill. congrats on your surgery.

My surgery was on the 17th took under an hour and was perfect. No gas! However I woke up dry heaving which lasted 28 hours turns out I am allergic to hydrocodone. Two days and 3 anti nausea medicines and I was home. My drain site was the only tender spot. Today I am four days post op and feel like myself. Still have occasional stomach spasms which are decreasing and I was able to get 46 oz of water down. I have transitioned to clears which was a great change from broth and jello. I had amazing tomato soup! I couldn't finish it but it was great. I did have one issue. The steri strips peeled off today my incisions look great one is bruised where the stomach came out and the site where my drain was is ugly but the problem is I am apparently allergic to the tape. Skin came off with the tape so I have beautiful incisions and ugly raw spots all around them. Doc said put neosporin and band aids just on the sores not the incisions so I used 12 band aids and look ridiculous. Today I took my daughter to the doctor and she asked when my surgery was. When I told her it was 4 days ago she was amazed how great I was doing. So many have complained about weight gain from the hospital I weighted at home and was the same when I went in two days later I am down 8 lbs. good luck to everyone waiting! See you in the losers bench!

@@anthonyb It also depends on what you are eating. If you go from 1200 low carb calories to 1600-1800 carby calories, you are going to gain weight, just because your liver is going to be larger. Are you drinking alcohol? Did you exercise and stop? Are you going through a stressful time in your life? There are so many factors to weight gain.

It makes sense to me as a woman that there would be a double standard. Reproduction is such an unbalanced bit of business. The male's contribution is a spasm of pleasure and then he is out of there. The female's contribution, on the other hand, is enduring the pregnancy itself, the steadily deforming body, morning nausea, weight gain, the expense of needing to eat more nutrients in order to feed the growing foetus as well as her own body, the expense of buying garments which will accomodate her new body, and of course the medical expenses. These costs do not end here, much later in life, she may suffer from a prolapsed uterus, incontinence - why, the poor woman may dread sneezing - all because of that pregnancy. There is the considerable pain of childbirth. In earlier eras, before the current advances in medicine, childbearing itself was a risky business. My brother was told in his first year of med school that historically more women died in childbirth or of its complications than men in war. One of the major birthing bed killers was puerperal fever. Then antibiotics were discovered and that put paid to childbed fever. Fortunately this was a killer bacterium and thus vulnerable to death by antibiotics. Because pregnancy leaves women so very much wide-open and vulnerable to a whole bunch of nasty consequences, I believe that when it comes to the women's right to choose, it really is that; women get to call the shots and if she is anxious to have a baby or feels that killing the foetus sits badly with her particular moral compass then the man should have no say in this matter. I chose to have an abortion even though the man involved wanted to have the baby and wanted to settle down with me. I simply do not like children and was creeped out big time by pregnancy and its effects on the body both long term and short term. You may call this a phobia, if you like. I also think that if a man wishes to avoid the consequences of having a child to support he would be wise to wear a welly on his willy whenever he enters.........! That is called taking care of business!

Have you had a blood pressure medication change recently? My doc just switched me to a med without HCTZ (it depletes potassium and I struggle with low potassium). Anyway, since Saturday I'm up 6.5 pounds. Yup - you read that right! The only "good" thing is I know I'm retaining Fluid due to my medication and that it isnt a true weight gain, but boy is it frustrating to see on the scale. Obviously I have a call in to my doc to go back to my old medication and deal with low potassium as needed. Just a thought -

Thanks for the responses. I am going to take said advice (as it confirms what I was thinking) and have a very slight unfill. Perhaps 0.2 or 0.3. I am terrified as I have have been so tight for so long, that a newfound openness will cause weight gain, etc. but I am hoping that by being better able to eat more balanced, that it will be ok...... Appt for nov 24. Thanks again.

I can say that the removal of my ravenous hunger, and ability to gorge myself with copious amounts of food and beverages has been the key to my success. However, this is a reply to another topic I posted a couple of days ago. This pretty much sums up my experience, and my mindset on long term success with VSG. I have been maintaining my weight loss VERY EFFORTLESSLY at the age of 34 for almost a year. I have a 5lb bounce around on the scale any given week. I can tie it to my indulgences of high sodium foods, and my "girls nights out" with copious amounts of alcohol. I do not ever get in any formal exercise and have NOT for a solid year. I've had spurts here and there of working out at home for a week to 10 days, but nothing consistent at all. I honestly I do eat anything and everything I want. Here's the kicker, I don't want to eat a lot of junk food. Why? Because my body runs best, I feel best physically when I feed my body a nutrient dense, Protein full diet, BUT I eat Cookies, chips, pretzels, rice, bread, Pasta all in moderation. Of course, about 85% of the time, I eat protein first, but sometimes all I want is some veggies. I do not count anything other than protein and calories now. I keep white carbs in moderation to some degree, but if I want mashed potatoes and gravy, guess what 1/2 cup of mashed potatoes and a little gravy didn't make me FAT, 4 cups of mashed potatoes with gravy on top of a 12oz ribeye with mac-n-cheese, 3 dinner rolls, and 3 glasses of sweet ice tea made me fat. Moderation is the key. I will add that I have zero metabolic issues, nor is my body sensitive to carbs. I do not get the "eat a carb, crave a carb" nor am I an emotional eater. Therefore, going into this, I feel I beat the curve quite a bit. I was a volume eater. The sleeve will work just like any other weight loss surgery works. RNY and DS can be considered failures as well. Not one single weight loss surgery is bullet proof. So, a tool working long term is only as successful as the person using the tool. Just like a hammer to a nail. You can choose to keep your eyes open, steady your arm, and aim with precision as you go to drive that nail in with just a couple of dings, or you can wield that hammer blindfolded, with a swagger in your swing, and you'll more than likely miss the nail, hit your finger or dent the wood. Make sense? ? ? I will add that I am eating the same amounts currently that I was eating a year ago, but that quantity is double what I could at 2-3 months. The sleeve matures over time. There is minimal stretching. When I say double amounts, I was able to eat 2oz dense protein at 2-3 months out, today I can get in about 4-5oz of dense protein with a couple bites of veggies. You can cheat any of the surgeries, and the sleeve can be eaten around. I know the tricks, I employ them on occasion. Drinking warm fluids or having a glass of wine with my meal relaxes my stomach, therefore I can fit a bit more in, a bit more = 1-2 ounces of mashed potatoes, or mac-n-cheese on top of my chicken. To this day, I can NOT eat an entire chicken breast without stretching my meal out over 40 minutes. I can barely eat 1.5-2 poached eggs. What I'm saying is that there is a max capacity to the sleeve, but the restriction you have the first 6 months will change, ENJOY that time, maximize your weight loss, and become diligent with changing your lifestyle. Any weight loss surgery success is defined by either compliancy or complacency and with some mechanical failures on the other surgery types you can find that a specific tool "didn't work properly". It's a choice you make. No one else, the surgery doesn't fail UNLESS it's not performed properly because there is nothing mechanical to fail with the sleeve like there is with the band or RNY. The other issues can be metabolic issues, or carb sensitivity, or some people lose differently. Stoma and pouches stretch, malabsorption of calories, fats and carbs stop after the adaptation process occurs in the intestines, and then RNY patients are having to rely on restriction only with a stretchy pouch, a blind stomach left behind making ghrelin at a higher level vs. Sleeve patients. With the band, the list of issues with it are long, detailed, but the reasons the band can and does fail are numerous. Pouch stretching, not being able to get a decent fill, then there's the physical issues with the band itself. I can go on and on. But, I know plenty of VSG'ers that are 2-4 years out (mainly on obesityhelp.com) that share my opinion on weight regain with VSG, their experiences are pretty similar to mine. There are several out there maintaining fairly effortlessly as well, and live a life of moderation. I've seen 20-40lb weight regain on a couple of patients that are 3-4 years out, and every time, they admit, I quit eating the proper foods, life happened and I turned to my old friend for comfort, or they just gave up and expected to eat ding dongs and hos hos without consequence. Most naturally thin women I know don't eat packages of hos hos on a regular basis. Most naturally thin women do watch what they eat, and do not shovel shitpots of craptastic food into their body without consequence. At least none of my naturally thin friends can eat like I did pre-op and not see weight gain.

Not every one develops gall stones after weight loss surgery. Many actually had them already. They are caused by high cholesterol or high bilirubin levels & can develop during menopause. As you lose weight cholesterol, which is stored in your fat, is released as you lose weight & can cause stones to form. They found a stone at about my 6/7 month mark after a ultra sound to check my liver function. Don’t know when mine formed as I was menopausal before my sleeve, my cholesterol had gone from a steady for years 5 to 5.6 as I lost weight (it’s 4.1 now) & I have high bilirubin. I won the lottery of causes. Never had symptoms before my first attack 25 months after my sleeve surgery. I had my gall removed about two weeks later. The gall removal surgery recovery was similar but different to my sleeve. After sleeve, I had no gas or pulled or strained abdominal muscles. I had a lot of gas pains & muscle strain affecting my movements for a good week after the gall surgery. But no restricted diet, constipation or diarrhoea, no swallowing issues of course so that was a plus. My surgeon used the same incision sites he’d made for my sleeve. I was home the next day. Same weight restrictions for lifting & same no driving for a week again. He sent me home with some opioid pain meds but I didn’t take them. Did take one nurofen, with his permission, on day 3 but no pain meds at all after that. Just put up with the gas & muscle pain. Haven’t heard about a potential for weight gain. I have gained 2kgs in the last five months but continued to maintain my weight for 6 months after the gall was removed. I attribute the weight gain to starting a higher dose HRT & working on increasing my protein in that same five months. Plus I’m at the 3 year mark & there is always a potential for weight gain during that 2 or 3 year mark. Since my gall removal I don’t absorb protein well anymore which was unexpected & is likely just me. We tried medication (creons) for 3 months which didn’t seem to help hence my increasing my protein intake. I’m back on creons to give them a longer go. I am noticing my hair is thinner (not shedding like after the sleeve) & my nails are weaker because of the protein issue. The other odd side effect of no gall is I have random diarrhoea attacks. Usually every 2 or 3 weeks. Almost like there’s a build up acid, which the gall used to regulate. It irritates the bowel & causes the diarrhoea. My sister in law is the same & she hasn’t had weight loss surgery. My aunt says if she eats anything fatty she gets nauseous. Not everyone is prescribed meds for gall stones after surgery. Personally, it seems odd to prescribe meds to dissolve gall stones before you have them. I did ask my surgeon about dissolving the stone after my attack but he said: if you grow one stone you will grow another so it’s best to remove the gall. I have three friends who have had sleeve surgeries too within the last 4 years. None of us were prescribed urisidiol or similar & I’m the only one to form a stone. But your surgeon must have their reasons for doing so.

OK so this reflects the weight gain from my junk food frenzy and the again lost. I went up to 294! and am back down to 292 after one day of being good and back on track All I have to say is that logging my food in fitday makes a huge difference for me. It forces me to acknowledge everything I eat. Name..........................Starting…...…..Current….…..Goal…....To Go Juliegeraci......................238............. ...... 238.................228.............10 Lapbandit.......................231............... .....226………….199.............27 Waterlily.........................300............. .......292.................264.............28 Roiansmom.....................299................. ....299.................270.............29 Libra...............................248........... .........242.................228.............14 JulieNYC........................212............... .....205.................185.............20 Elisabethsew...................282................ ....276........... ......264.............12 PeaCeJ...........................338.............. ......338.................318..............20 RidinMyHDDream......... 297.....................289 .................281...............8 Babygirl1234..................260................. ....253.................240..............13 Leecelove70...................228................. ....228.................200..............28 Josette............................351........... ..........351.................335..............16

This weight gain is normal. But different for everyone. Week one weight loss was 8lbs week two- 4lbs week 3- 2lbs gained 9 this is where I decided to go on the 5 day pouch test until out of bandster hell.) week 4- 2 lbs re lost plus 2 pounds week 5- 2 pounds lost- First fill at the end of this week still little restriction so I will continue on the 5 day Pouch test on monday. 16 pounds lost total in 5 weeks. every body is different but this is what I have experienced.

I saw Al Roker on another T.V. show (Not The Today show )He admitted to a weight gain of 20 pounds and he was working out with Oprah's personal trainer.....But I saw him this AM on the Today Show in a wet suit and bless his heart he looks like is struggling with more tha a 20 pound gain :-( I also noticed as he was walking he has a much more pronounced limp again. He had a hip replacement about 5 yrs ago and the extra weight is putting a real strain on that new hip ! It just proves that the Gastric Bypass is not sure proof either. I have a friend who is going to Jenny Craig again after having the G.B. and losing 120 lbs she kept it off for 4 yrs and it just started creeping back on as she was able to return to her old eating habits. She has gained about 80 lbs back and is very depressed ! She is NOW asking her surgeon for the Lap Band but he says it is not possible. Just my 2 cents, Joanne

Hey Karen, thanks for your note. My surgery is Monday, and nothing was said about the weight gain. I'm all set to go. I didn't have to have the liquid diet or a pre-surgery diet, so guess I was pretty lucky. I'll keep you posted on how it goes!

Thanks everyone! I avoided it the first two weeks because my doc told me to not weigh myself until my first post op appt. He told me about the weight gain first and didn't want me to get discouraged. Even now I only get on once, maybe twice a week. I've never been one to get on the scale everyday. I think I'm going to tell people my scale is broken lol.

I think I felt it shrink, two times already. ..!!!lol !... I felt pain like when your uterus is shrinking after child birth!! Lol.. I just excersided with y son's, and am really watching my food intake..but the weight gain is fast....and Totally scary..(and uncomfortable)

My surgeon explained to me the that the muscle tightening portion of a tummy tuck is to basically sew the gap between the abdominal muscles together. See those six packs on super fit people? Im referring to that vertical line between the “packs”. pregnancy and midsection weight gain push this gap apart resulting in outward bulging. Sewing the gap together give a tighter, flatter look.

The issues come back. You must be prepared for that. Like I posted earlier, you WILL still have a smaller stomach, so that's a help, but empty carbs and sugar slide down with no problem and weight gain is EASY if you're eating the wrong foods.

Hiatal hernias are common in obese people and common in people with reflux, whether or not they're obese. The band can resolve reflux by acting as a barrier between the stomach and the esophagus, but a band that's too tight can also cause reflux. You need to ask your surgeon about why. Also, it's not uncommon for hiatal hernias to develop after massive weight loss. Again, ask your surgeon why. I know several bandsters that's happened to. The gastro doc who diagnosed my hiatal hernia 20+ years ago told me that hernias usually develop in people who were born with the potential - they have a weakness in the diaphgram, and weight gain can aggravate it enough to encourage a hernia to develop. Finally, large hiatal hernias are considered a contraindication for band surgery, but most surgeons repair the hernia during band placement.

I would appreciate if we could keep this thread from being hijacked to a "weight gain challenge". This thread is for weight loss and those who are serious about the challenge I'm sure all of those in this challenge will agree. Thanks!