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Hi everybody, A little background info: Had vsg in Fall 2012, lost 120 lbs, felt amazing! I got married, had a baby in Fall 2014, gained weight. Had another baby in Summer 2016, gained even more weight. I sought the advice of my bariatric surgeon, he recommended full bypass, and gave me a goal to lose 15 lbs, before he would schedule. Well, I've lost 40 lbs. I feel like I should be able to get back to my goal weight (165lbs) without having a bypass...but the task of losing another 80 pounds seems almost impossible. Has anyone on here, lost that much weight, without additional surgery? Thanks for reading.

im on the pill and its working fine. NO weight gain at all.

Congrats on five months out. I like that you divided your goals. I understand the fear. I had doubts because I would lose weight gain it back with extra pounds. I'm grateful that I’m still maintaining this far out from surgery. I wish there wasn’t pressure about choosing/achieving goal weight. I agree 100% It doesn’t matter where we end up on the BMI chart. Healthy is the goal.

I have been on birth control for years due to irregualr menstrual cycles. I don't know if it contributed to my weight gain before surgery, but I do notice I tend to eat more the week prior to starting or I get the urge to eat when I know I'm not hungry.

You've got lots of company on this one! Not cheating on diets is a major cause of weight gain! Haha! This one, too! Congrats on deciding to take charge of your future. Good luck on your surgery and best wishes for a speedy recovery!

Many of you probably don't 'know' me from these forums, but I have been around for several years. i'm almost 4 years post VSG. I have struggled through many chapters in my life since my surgery and have regained a good amount of weight. since I carry ALL my weight right around my middle, I look horrible and my self esteem has tanked. Since my surgery I changed jobs and moved, lost a parent, had to change doctors, and gained a master's degree. I'm currently in the final few classes to become a Family Nurse Practitioner. on top of all that, I had managed to lose enough weight initially to be off all my medications-GERD and BP. Now i'm back on both. My GERD has worsened with the weight gain and i'm at the point where I can't lay on my left side if I've eaten within the past few hours because the food and acid will backwash into my throat. i'm miserable. I have been to the psych doc, the NUT, to the surgeon, and to my GP. none of them can give me an exact direction of what to do. my GP says they simply don't know enough about bariatrics to guide me. The bariatric team trialed me on Contrave, I got so sick I had to stop. I tried Keto and spent two days in misery from all that fat. My brain is the issue and I don't know how to get it back under control. I am taking straight Welbutrin for the time being to see if that will help with behavior AND with appetite. my surgeon is very concerned that from the GERD, i'll need a revision. I don't really WANT a revision, I know that the GERD has worsened because I carry ALL my weight in my waistline and it's pushing up on my sleeve- badly. I have an EGD this week with my GI doc which will look at the GERD and also the condition of my sleeve. I have no excuse, the regain is completely my own doing. One day about 20 months ago, I thought that drinking a diet ginger ale at work would be ok, and it has spiraled out of control from there. I am trying badly to get off of soda again, which I think is really the first step. As I walk this very difficult road to get back on the path where I belong, I ask for your prayers, positive thoughts, and vibes.

I have a required six months of dietary visits with my doctors dietitian. I have my last visit before my packet is sent off for approval on the 16th. I had gained weight the last visit, and im afraid I havent lost any from the last visit. Did anybody have weight gain before they start their liquid diet? Am I going to be denied because I gained?

You need to speak to your ins or verify their exact policy on their portal. Some ins can and will deny based on weight gain during the 3/6 month period you are working up to surgery.

Hi there, Can I assume that u all are from US? Im from UK. I started with an overactive thryoid (Hyperthyroidism). After suffering for over 4yrs, and no of carbomizole can help, doc put me through radioactive threatment which after 1 month, I went straight and became underactive (Hypothyroidism) When I was overactive, I can eat anything I like and not put on any weight. Once I went underactive, within 3 years, I put on nearly 3stones. In that 3 years, I kept going back to my consultant and GP and beg them to do something cos of my weight gain but they would not increase my thyroid tablets and kept confirming all the tests are show that they hv given me the correct dose of thyroixine. In the end, after weight watchers, gym, all kinds of diet, I gave up and went for the lap band operation. I had my lapband op last Sept, and my weights has gone down to 12 1/2stones now, I have 1 1/2 - 2stones to go before it goes back to my previous weight when I was overactive. U can also find all the info on thyroid on this very good book by Mary Solomon (I think thats the author) She wrote a book on how to control your weight when u have a thyroid problem. Very good info book, even though it didnt help me to lose any weight. So, for all those with underactive thyroid, and have had the lapband operation done, did you all managed to lose a big percentage of weight???

Hi everyone, I am 4 days post-op from having a Gastric Sleeve. The decision to go for the sleeve was a very easy one, "the band was completely awful"! I was originally banded in May 2012, the band slipped & adhered itself to my liver in around March 2013. I persisted with it for a few months (where I couldn't eat or drink anything without vomiting it back up) & eventually had it replaced in June 2013. There was no improvement in the pain I was experiencing or the reflux either, two weeks later, I had it removed completely. Although the weight loss was amazing - 40kg in 13 months, the constant battle with 'right amount of fluid' was a nightmare for me. So I was flying solo for 10 months & it was so hard to keep the weight off. If I wasn't literally starving myself & exercising 14hrs a day, I was gaining weight. Then my gallbladder packed it in! I had been passing gallstones for a couples of years & they never bothered me until now. I was kept heavily sedated in hospital on Morphine, Ondansetron & diazepam for 11 days (due to long wait lists & surgeons being on holidays!). Finally got a ERCP & they perforated the Common Bile Duct , which lead to Peritonitis & then waited a further 2 days to have the gall bladder removed. After this saga, my poor body was hurting & just grabbed out at everything I ate & stored it as fat (in case it got starved again). A trip back to my surgeon was booked & I was excited! It turns out that in the 11 months that I had no band, I gained all of my weight back & a bit extra (this was not good). Total weight gained: 43.8kg. My surgeon wanted me to get another band put in & I refused (there was no way I was going to re-live that painful reflux nightmare)! So a Bariatric Sleeve was booked. Pre-surgery, and in particular, the week before my surgery date, I did not sleep, at all. I constantly had all the risk factors (that were discussed with my surgeon) running through my head 24hrs a day. Three days before my surgery, I actually thought that I was going to die in theatre, I proceeded to make a will!! When surgery day finally arrived, I was still terrified of dying & leaving my husband & young daughter behind. When I was wheeled in to the Operating Room, my surgeon turned around & asked "how you doing?", all I could say was " please don't kill me", to which he replied "I'll make you a deal, if you don't die, I won't kill you". A few seconds later I was out. To my relief, I actually woke up!! I am day 4 post-op now (only 1day at home from discharge), 4kg down & I haven't had any of the horrible pains associated with the laparoscopic surgery that I had in the past, even with having a lot of adhesions severed from my liver (due to lap band damage). My tummy is constantly grumbling & have some diarrhoea, but that is pretty much it. Compared to the band where I experienced port site pain, shoulder tip pain, immense pressure in my chest, migraines & incision sites busting open, this last surgery/recovery has been a breeze so far I am able to drink a descent amount of Water (finally) & feeling pretty great! I do get tired & require an afternoon sleep, but it's early days. That's my story so far

I went to town today to buy a plastic floor mat for my computer chair and then I began to think of all the little things, outcomes from Bariatric Surgery that make a big difference in my life. I underwent surgery 11 months ago. I lost 20 pounds pre-op and 80 pounds post-op for a total weight loss of 100 pounds. I thought I would start this thread off and others who are far enough along might add to this list. 1. Replacing plastic floor mats. The floor mat is only 2 years old but it is all cracked and now chunks have broken off in the middle. This is due to my former weight. So now that I am down to 160 pounds, I may never have to replace one of these again. 2. One thing I really hated before I had the surgery was poking a hole in my finger each morning and squeezing out a drop of blood for my blood sugar meter. I was diabetic. It is now in remission from the day I left the hospital. 3. When I retired I bought a small little sports car. The kids are grown so a 2 seater is fine. I bought a Mazda Miata, a blue hardtop convertible. Its a great car to drive. It handles curves like a go-cart and we have a lot of curves where I live. The only problem is that I could barely squeeze into it. I wish I had a video of me getting into the car, it must have been hilarious. Now that I have lost the weight, I can get into the car without even thinking about it. 4. I can go shopping for clothes in a department store again. Prior to surgery, I was a size 3X in shirts and 46 in pants. I was outside the range of clothes offered by most department stores. It meant that I had to go to specialty stores to buy clothes such as Big and Tall. But now I am a size S in shirts and 33 in pants. I can go shopping again. 5. Over my lifetime I have probably traveled the equivalent of a dozen times around the world on airplanes. But lately the seats are getting smaller. (I know that some of this is due to my weight gain.) It is terrible sitting in the middle seat and extending to the seats on either side of me. Just praying that the other passengers on either side will be skinny. Well flying is no longer an issue. 6. The high cost of dining out. I went to Olive Garden today and ordered Tortellini al Forno. It was on their small plate menu so my tab was only $4. It was the right amount of food for my size stomach and the food was great tasting. Can you add anything else?

The amount of sugar will probably vary by patient. I strictly avoid processed sugars. I have a sweet tooth and that is one of the major causes that contributed to my weight gain over my lifetime. I limit myself to artificial sweeteners (such as Splenda and sugar alcohols), to natural low calorie sweeteners (such as Stevia) and to the natural sugars found in fruits and milk. I had diabetes. That went into remission when I left the hospital two days after surgery and I have not taken any diabetic medicine ever since and my blood sugar levels are good. I test my blood sugar levels periodically. I read the labels of all food that I consume. I look at the grams of sugar per serving. If it is above 5 grams, I look at the ingredients. The ingredients are listed in order by highest percentage, and if the first 5 ingredients contain processed sugar (in any of its many forms), then I avoid this food, like a plague.

Is there any way you can see a counselor? Maybe some of the issues that caused your weight gain in the first place, are resurfacing? It sounds like you are slipping back in to the bad habits. Maybe talking with a professional will help you. New Year....New Start!

I have regained a bit as well and have been wanting to do the two week reset. I have heard from others that it works, but am not sure myself. I keep telling myself "I'll start tomorrow" then lunch rolls around and I am so hangry that I give in to food and not the shakes. I don't have a "team" and have never really had one. My doctor's office has always seemed uninterested and very in and out. The last time I talked with my doctor about the weight gain, they suggested I take multivitamins and do some crunches. I have IC so going to the gym is difficult for me, so I feel like the reset would be most beneficial. When I finally do start, I will share my results.

Losing 10 lb in two weeks is a tall order, particularly if you have already been losing some in the months before. Those who report losing that much are either doing so during a longer pre-op diet/exercise program that many docs and insurance companies require, or they had no significant prior weight loss effort so that their 2 week program loss was their initial loss. It is not unusual to have a fairly large initial drop the first couple weeks of any kind of weight loss program. What happens is that most of the initial loss is from your limited stores of carbs and Protein, which lose at a rate of around 2000 calories per pound. After those first couple of weeks you will often experience a stall when your body realizes that something serious is going on starvationwise and works to adjust things before tapping your fat reserves, which then burn at a rate of around 3500 calories per pound, so your rate of loss slows some, but you are then burning mostly fat, which is the whole idea. You have likely already gotten into this fat burning mode from your efforts since June, so there really is nothing to worry about - things are going as they should. Also, don't be surprised to see some weight gain when you get home from the hospital - they are going to keep you well hydrated with that nice IV bag feeding your arm. I think I gained about five pounds during that time, but it comes off quickly in a couple of days as you literally pee the weight away! Good luck with it all - you already have a great start.

Week 10 no weight loss. Week 11 I had a 6 pound weigh loss. Week 12 I gained 2 pounds. I do not understand. My eating has not changed and I am working out more. Is this normal?

My weight fluctuates 3-5 lbs a day also, and has always done that. I have to force myself not to weigh in everyday. I can understand why you are right now with worries about the weigh in for surgery. My doctor is known for canceling surgery due to a weight gain.. My last appointment with my regular dietician I had gained 3 lbs and was devastated. Hang in there and watch your sodium intake,, I went back to salt sense and can already see a difference,,, (and it tastes good)

I've only been at goal for 3 months, so it's all still new to me. I talk to my Dr quite a bit about some of the questions I have, and this was one of them. I was told: even though you have reached goal, you still need to maintain a high Protein diet (for the rest of my life) and drink the Water (64 oz at least) for the rest of my life. Still no snacking or nibbling between meals. Was also told to weigh my self daily, so If I see a weight gain, I can get it back in controll before it gets out of hand. (I was really hoping he would tell me, now that you have reached goal, eat what you want' just in smaller quanities...lol..nope!...grrrr) So, basically, nothing's changed for me. I'm eating this way for life, staying away from all the foods that have no protein value.

Hi, my name is Jennifer I am getting sleeved today actually and very nervous. I have been reading different blogs on this site prior to my decision to have the surgery which helped me make the final decision to go through with it. I started struggling with my weight after having my first child over 22 years ago but really hit my highest in the last four years. I suffered from depression from it and now beginning to have health problems due to the weight gain, so I need to do something that will help me get my health back on track. I think as many others I tried every diet you could think of and I was going to the gym, but nothing was working. I am ready for a fresh start and I am confident this time I will finally be able to succeed. I have a great support system and I have been doing a lot of research to try and prepare myself as much as possible. I am very nervous about surgery I must admit, but I have to look at it as a means to an end.

This is a great thread. The only book that has really helped me is the Beck Diet Solution. I really need to get the work book. I like it because it gives you stuff to do to try to combat snacking and learning to say no to weight gaining foods.

I'm confused as to why your surgeon would lecture you. Some bariatric doctors are just downright mean... Hate that! You may want to try liquids for a couple of days and "restart" so to speak. I would not worry about the weight gain. That's to be expected with your unfills and stuck episode. Log your food, try to stick to low salt, natural foods, and keep up the exercise. Things will go back to normal soon. You're doing great!

I have my second pre-op appointment next week, and will be having surgery on the 22 of June. I guess I should confess my history with being overweight. I tried weight watchers for the first time when I was eight years old, and have been trying every diet known to man since. My mother has gastric bypass a few years ago and is now thin for the first time in her life. My mother and I decide, after a 30 pound weight gain after my first year at college, that I should go ahead and do something that we know works. I am so excited about lap-band, because I am so young (only 19) I was concerned about the side effects of gastric, but this seems like a much better alternative. My only concern with the band is it failing, like all of these other diets I have tried have, but I am trying to have faith.

I am wondering if my fill level is where it needs to stay. I have not had a fill in over a year, but I have gained weight. The reason for the weight gain is that I have found foods that I can get down easily and eat a lot of. I have had my band for over two years. My current fill level does restrict me from overeating most foods and I still throw up if I do overeat a lot of foods. So, I am wondering if my level is okay. I do know that I have to stop eating those foods that I can eat so easily that are so bad (candy, sweets, pasta).

Thank for reply... In my case the low levels have caused weight gain.

Hi all, I'm 5' tall and went from 125pds to 198. The weight gain began 5 years ago during a nasty divorce. I developed health problems from the added weight--High Blood Pressure, severe back problems, gout, high triglacides. I have been able to lose 10pds over this last year. My BMI is 36.7. I'm on 4 medicines for the high blood pressure alone and medicines for the other problems. I take 2 antidepressents and Seroquil 300mg for bipolar 1 and PTSD. All of these medicines are a major factor in the weight gain. I heard about lapband several weeks ago and was shocked that I could have it done at 36.7 BMI, because of my medical conditions. My doc said absolutely and says he will do whatever he can to help me get my insurance to OK it. So, now I begin the adventure of getting a lapband. PS, my insurance sucks when it comes to approvals.:help: