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I really get this. Its your body and if you need a lower buffer weight then its your business. If your hubby did not know you had intentionally dieted, Would he have said anything ? I can tell you now that my husband would not know. We have been away in Spain for 2 weeks so my husband saw a bit more of me than usual. I was laying in bed without covers and clothes, it was so hot. My hip bones and ribs were prominent. My skin hangs off me, its not pretty. He said I think its time you gave up trying to loose weight now, you are skin and bone. My local doctor wants me to loose at least 40lbs more to get in a healthy range. I am happy where I am, I look good in my clothes. Who is right ? Me ! So congrats on your loss and bugger everyone else

Hey there veterans! I'm 18 months post-op, in maintenance for 9 months. My weight has remained rock solid stable with maybe a 1 lbs. regain. I'm very pleasantly surprised... and... I don't want to be lulled into complacency. For those of you who have had significant regain, when did your regain start? What do you think led to the regain? Thank you for your insight.

Congratulations and good luck on your surgery!!! As long as the scale is going down, it doesn't matter how quickly we lose the weight!

i very much agree with you, congrats on no longer being diabetic. That is the greatest news! I would have done the surgery many years earlier if i would have taken my primary care doctor more seriously when he first suggested it!!! Some times i have to refrain from giving others my input if they are overweight. It is just such an amazing tool, i wish everyone with a weight problem would consider having the surgery cuz i know what it has done for me and so many of us on here.

Start taking body measurements if you haven't already. Every month i take my monthly picture, and then take my body measurements. Sometimes even though the scale may not move as fast as we like, you will notice a difference in inches lost. I agree with others on here, don't obsess over the scale. I have to remind myself of this also. I still weigh myself daily but dont record my weight if it is the same. As everyone always says, stick with the program and amazing things will happen for you!!!

so i recently lost 3 lbs. not the downside-of-a-normal-daily-weight-fluctuation-loss, or a oh-i-just-had-a-mega-poop kinda loss, but an ACTUAL 3 lbs loss that has stayed off based on a 2 week moving weight average. now everyone and my mother has said something or other in the past couple weeks in the tune of "omigod are you losing weight?!?" or "you're not on a diet AGAIN are you?!!". didn't give it much thought until this AM when i asked my Mr this morning if he thinks i look thinner these days and he nodded (i can always count in him on a low-key, no-big-deal kinda response). so i guess it is noticeable? anyway the point of this is that when i was much heavier, no one would even notice (nor comment) on any appearance change in me if/when i lost up to 20-25 lbs (including Mr.). but now, at 3 measly lbs loss, somehow the world is ending to the busybody-nation. sometimes i feel like i have to defend being thinner as much as i had to defend being heavier. not really an NSV, more of an annoyance (the comments)...and also just another thing that thought u were done with, but not really. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I think you were one of the lucky ones. Ive also taken all my protein, vitamins, ate what i was supposed to etc and my hair is still falling out. Doesnt matter how we eat, it is just a natural thing that happens after losing so much weight so quickly. Happens to many but not all of us. It was also one of the best decisions ive made even though my hair is falling out. Ive lost 65lbs in 5 months and loving every minute of it! I feel (and look) so much better! Hair grows back. I feel better than i have in many years!

I just turned 60 and am scheduled for VSG on October 2nd. My BMI is 40, so I'm expecting a slower rate of weight loss. Maybe I'll be surprised and will lose weight faster than I expect.

As everyone has said, stalls are very common. They actually are Dan important part of your weight loss. It’s when your body takes stock of your constant needs & readjusts things like your hormones ( hunger, satiety, etc.), metabolic rate, etc. The stall will end when your body is ready. You can’t force it, let it take the time it needs. Still frustrating though. Fluctuations are also perfectly normal. We all fluctuate. You’ll eventually work out your usual fluctuation swing. Mine is about 2 lbs. Some are greater, some are less. Fluid retention, constipation, diarrhoea, hormones, etc. all contribute. I mean you don’t eat & drink exactly the same foods & fluids in the exact same quantities every day either. Nor do you the exact same activities to burn calories. Congrats on your weight loss so far. Yay!

My surgeon's assistant and I had a long talk about it and she was like, unfortunately it's not uncommon for some people to take longer to be able to eat certain foods and some may never be able to. And truthfully, I'm actually kinda grateful that I can't just go and eat whatever I want so there is less risk of me falling into the trap of bad eating habits again further down the road. I'm losing weight consistently, and my last bloodwork was fantastic, so, so long as I'm mindful of the nutrients I'm getting- I'm ok with not being able to eat other foods. But the nausea does suck when I -try- to eat something. At least it doesn't hurt when something DOES have to come up. (just the lead up to it)

I would want to look closely at this, verifying the bile reflux and determining if there is any acid reflux component to this before getting into long term treatment options as the treatment can differ widely depending upon that diagnosis. If it is bile, then I wouldn't expect Pepcid or other anti acid meds to do much as the are treating acid and not bile, a base. I'm not sure what meds they do use but likely different ones. Bile is used to neutralize the acid coming out of the stomach along with the digested food into the intestines. Is your surgeon in the loop on these findings (I assume so, but check if you haven't heard from them yet,) as that may change his prescriptions. If it is strictly a bile problem, then a bypass will probably correct it, but not guaranteed as it moves the stomach/pouch outlet downstream into the natural path of bile secretions; the key, according to one surgeon I discussed this with, is the length of the roux limb, as that is the one that connects the pouch with the mainstream intestine and how far any bile would have to travel to reflux into the stomach. This doc noted that at 80cm or greater (IIRC) he didn't run into any bile reflux problems. The basic RNY procedure has been around for some 140 years for gastric cancer and gastroparesis (it is usually termed just a partial gastrectomy, or likely some other fancy latin names as well,) and it that use, bile reflux is a not uncommon complication. My non-MD take on it is that in those cases, they tend to keep the limbs short to minimize malabsorption and weight loss (last thing a cancer patient usually needs is more weight loss!) So, the longer limb makes sense here. Discuss this and make sure that your surgeon is up on this aspect of it. The other option if it is basically a bile problem is the DS, duodenal switch, which is pretty much a guaranteed cure for any bile problems owing to the very long path between the bile ducts and the stomach, but relatively few bariatric surgeons offer it owing to its greater complexity. Note this only applies to the "traditional" or Hess DS and not the newer SIPS/SADI/"loop" or simplified DS, which like its mini-bypass cousin has bile reflux as one of its common complications. The DS will not help any acid reflux problem as it uses the existing sleeve (though may resleeve it if it was malformed causing GERD rather than just overproduction of acid,) while adding the intestinal rerouting for malabsorption. The DS is a better choice over the RNY revision if slow or inadequate weightloss is an issue, too, as it is a stronger metabolic tool. Good luck on this - bile is surely a much less common problem with the sleeve than acid reflux, so the industry isn't quite as settled on solutions for it.

@SleeveToBypass2023 workout routing is 4-5 Times a week. 1:30hours cardio one day and 1:20 hours cardio for 3 days (40mins jogging 20mins hill walk 20mins elliptical) 5th day is more strength training and it’s up to 10 variations with 20mins cardio strength training mostly arms back core and I do a variation of 6-8 different upper body and core 4-5 sets of each variation 10-15 reps minimum weight is 15kg. had always been doing weight training when I got the all clear a month after surgery until 3months ago when I started elliptical on,y calories I drink is my protein water. Which isn’t up to 500ml per day. Along with 2.5-3liters of water 1 liter is usually covered during workout I noticed I don’t eat up to 21oz of food through the day mostly protein

I have noticed the same thing. I’m about 6 months out from my sleeve op and can eat about half of what I previously could (which to be fair was a lot!) My weight loss has stalled and I know it’s because of the type and amount of food I eat. I saw my doctor recently and they recommended getting back to basics and focusing on protein and water intake to get back on track. They didn’t seem concerned about the pouch stretching. Good luck with your continued weight loss!

It's completely normal to see a stall at any point, but yes the notorious 3 week stall can strike anywhere at around that timeframe. It's not anything that you've actually done. At this point it's almost impossible any of us has the capacity to gain real weight. Your body is still healing. I also have some trouble still at 5 months post getting in my water goals. Remember that all other liquids can count towards that goal - soups, protein water etc. Just keep trying your best day by day. Remember the scale isn't the only measure of our successes (though it is the biggest tether we have). Forget the scale for a bit and keep working your program. The drop will happen.

Greetings, So as most people do from time to time - I fell off the wagon for about two weeks while on vacation and in the process of that, I noticed that I was able to eat more without any discomfort. I wasn't gorging on food like I did to gain the weight that I had, but I was able to handle bigger portions or that 3rd slice of pizza. I screwed up and I know that. I actually feel guilty, especially considering all the weight I have lost. It was just the first time where it was harder to stay focused as I wanted to enjoy my vacation. I know next time I have to plan better. Now I am aware that the stomach does stretch again, but it is my understanding that it takes years for that to happen per what I have read from doctors - which is why some people who have bariatric surgery tend to gain some or all the weight again years later if they haven't maintained their better eating habits. I am only 5 months out from the sleeve, so I was just curious why I was able to eat more than usual at this early point. I am back on track now, but just wanted to ensure that this is normal - that the stomach can stretch temporarily in the short term and things should be back to normal now that I am eating smaller portions again/proper foods. That I haven't already stretched out my stomach a bit. I would appreciate any feedback here. Thanks, HM

Yes, very common, and here is one of the factors - In the middle of the video he goes over the typical progression of meal volume that we can expect, and it is consistent with my experience. I you simply let things happen and eat the same way we did the first year, but more, then there will certainly be the tendency to gain. While I'm not a big fan of everything this guy preaches (or any online guru, for that matter,) one of the things that I do like is his "eat your vegetables first" concept, which he applies after the first few months of protein first. My general evolution was to increase the veg content of my meals over time, rather than the protein, as the protein that we are advised to consume early on is usually our basic requirement, as we can't get that from pills like we can most micronutrients. So, I still have about 3 oz of meat in a meal today like I did the first year, but a lot more veg in there. And, it's still something of a struggle because the junk still wants to creep back in there stimulating old habits (we usually spent a lot more time getting fat, and getting used to it, than we have trying to be healthy now!) With a sleeve, or a bypass, at this point it is basic dieting/healthy balanced eating that we are all familiar with; it is somewhat easier than before as our volume rarely returns to where is was pre-op, but our old bad habits sure can come back.

I had my surgery on 8/15 as well. I am still losing steadily. I am still around 400 calories a day, even on soft foods. First week after surgery was 3.4 pounds down, 2nd week was 14.4, 3rd week was 6.8, 4th week was 6.2, today was 5.4 lost each week. 36.2 pounds lost since surgery (I am on the larger scale for loss tho LOL). 56 pounds down since Pre Op started. 75.2 pounds down since life style changes. You will get there, my daughter had the surgery the same time I did, and she has hit stalls where she gained .5 pounds one week. I weigh in about 3 times a week, but only 1 is what I record. I am going to start weighing in only once per week. Your body is adjusting so it will take some time.

weight gain is really common if you let bad habits sneak back in. Happens to a lot of people. Most people don't gain everything back, but it's not uncommon to gain 30, 40, or 50 lbs. You can lose it again, but it's definitely more challenging than the first time around!

I know how discouraging stalls/gains can be . I'm still at a 2 and a half month stall

Thanks everyone! I haven't exercised in about 1 month so I have to get back into that. I'm sure it will help. I'm incredibly happy with my weight loss, I just really want to get to goal. Mostly because I want to prove to myself that I can do it. I have loss large amounts of weight in the past (pre-surgery) only to get 20 ish pounds to goal and fall off the wagon so now that I'm close to that point... I'm afraid of a repeat. Although I keep telling myself that this time is different.

First, great job on the weight-loss. I've noticed I can eat more and I'm starting to get my appetite back. It's so important to follow the plan... get in your protein (and some extra if needed). I aim for 3 oz per meal or about 80+ grams per day. Keep it lean- chicken, fish, shell fish, and plant protein. Make sure you're getting your veggies in. Cut up a veggie tray for the week and enjoy with a tablespoon of hummus or guac. Low fat cheese and yogurt. Keep measuring your food. It's so easy to overeat. Fluids are really important to stay on top of. Another thing that helps is to stay busy and keep your mind off food when you're bored. Exercise is also helpful to boost your mood and metabolism. Just be careful of the after workout munchies. It's totally a thing for me. A once on awhile treat is important too. My nutritionist said that if we always deprive ourselves, we'll regress back to old eating habits. So, for example, I love onion rings. And we we go to dinner that my husband orders them, I'll have one... or whatever I may be craving. Small amounts of something special once a week is totally within the plan. Everything they taught you before surgery is for life. Focus on not deviating from that too much.

It's been 4 months since my May 15th surgery. I am down 72 lbs, though the last month I have stagnated a bit. I actually gained 6 pounds (which I have now lost again). I know that I am able to ingest more than I had been for the first two months and I already fear regression. Anyone have any tips to get back into the groove, I do not want this journey to end now.

Hi! I had vsg 8.15 and have lost 24 lbs. This am I seem to be up 3 lbs. Not off course. Still eating pureed. Cals are between 6 and 700. I meet protein daily but water is tough. I usually get 52 ounces vs 64. I eat 3 meals daily plus 1 snack of string cheese. I still have some muscle discomfort in tummy area but find I'm emotional a lot. Dr is happy w progress but I'm super upset with stall or gain when I'm not even eating or drinking off program. Any thoughts?

I'm 6 months post gastric sleeve and even though I haven't lost a lot of weight unfortunately, (65lbs or something like that) I've noticed a dramatic loss in my boobs. I've always had saggy boobs but at least when I was bigger, the fat evened it out. Now that I'm lighter, they have deflated completely and look absolutely ghastly and my confidence has completely disappeared. It's also made the side fat around my boobs even worse, and my arm fat is also quite a lot too. I want to have a breast uplift as well as an arm lift, but I don't want to have to separate surgeries to have them - is it possible to combine them in one procedure? Have any of you had both done at the same time and what were your experiences/would you recommend? I'm based in London, but I don't know whether to find somewhere in Turkey or something to have it done as I can imagine the cost of having it done here may be expensive. Thank you in advance!

I had my VS in 2012, lost 150 lbs and maintained that loss almost effortlessly for 8 years, then Covid hit and in a matter of 3 months I gained 80 lbs back WITHOUT CHANGING MY EATING HABITS!!! I feel like I’ve been robbed. By no fault of my own, the weight came back and stayed. I still can only consume 4 or 5 bites to eat and I’m full. I just don’t understand why this happened and if I do a revision to a DS will that help?