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So I was sleeved in July 2014, and lost 70 pounds in 5 months!!! Then it stopped...it has been 10 months since I have lost anything. What's worse is I have gained 10 pounds! Now in July this year I saw my surgeon and we discussed my weight and he said to up my exercise and I have....work out at a gym now with a trainer 3-4 days a week....I am very careful as to what I eat. I guess my question is has this happened to anyone else?? My surgeon did tell me that if in 6 months there is still no change he would do the bypass revision...just scared to have another surgery...

You are putting too much pressure on yourself. 126 pounds in a year is a tremendous accomplishment and you deserve to give yourself a huge pat on the back for getting to this point. There are "stalls" in the process, I am only five weeks out and had my first stall a week ago and I am sure there are more to follow. If you are doing everything that is being asked of you, why do you feel it is not enough? Could it be that way because you have emotional struggles that need to be addressed by a therapist? Or could it be that you are comparing yourself to a version of yourself that may not exist (for the time being). Or is it that you have established muscle which weighs more than fat and switching your exercise routine may be the answer? Instead of beating yourself up, look for solutions in unexpected places. Maybe visit your nutritionist and get some feedback about your diet; she/he may suggest something different. Stress, sadness, the feeling of being overwhelmed won't make the scale tip in the direction you want. It may also contribute to weight gain and even worse a general feeling of malaise that will lead you down the path of turning to food for comfort. It is going to be okay and the number on the scale does not define who you are, your worth or take away any of your previous successes.

Yes, I am scared of regain...I am scared of"disability" as I love my body, my freedom to do things, my pleasures of daily living. However, I have decided to shift gears from anxiety ridden helplessness (my history of regain) to pragmatic tactics. I don't need to be anxious or fear ridden as long as I use my accountability strategies. When I do go off course, I still love myself...and I correct my course. So far, this is a much happier way to live than fretting or obsessing over it. It's weird, we screw up lots of times in life...but weight gain seems to be the unforgivable sin to many. I choose to think differently. It is hard, partly because my friends are all skinny people and I am STILL bigger than them. I can't let my self worth be guided by that comparison.

I gained 8 lbs. in two weeks and it was my last appointment yesterday. I have Anthem Blue Cross of CA so I hope they don't deny me because of that. I was also on steroids for 5 days for walking pneumonia. My NUT was not happy about the weight gain.

I am still in the pre-op phase of dieting. I am doing what my nutritionist recommended and can't have any weight gain prior to insurance approval. I am really struggling with eating of boredom or "mindless" eating. I have a desk job and used to just snack during the day while at work. I'm stuck at my desk and it's a real struggle to not think about food. I feel hungry, but think it's just mind hunger, if that makes sense. Anyone have any tips on how to get past this?

Coming out of the shadows Hi - MojoCAMI here.. So I think I am going to be a November Sleever as I had my final decision appointment with my Surgeon yesterday, who gave me the all clear and stated i should hear from her scheduler in 24-48hrs. She also mentioned they usually schedule 1 month out from final decision. So for those who choose to read more I shall detail my journey thus far (not my whole life, Just the last 10-12 months) After finally making the personal decision to seek surgical support for weight loss, I only knew of 2 types Gastric bypass and that fill tube thingy they put around your stomach. I have seen folks at my job go through full gastric bypass and loose weight and some only lost a quarter of there weight and they are grumpy.. I have read far to many lapband forums (fill tube thingy) that ended in multiple trips to the doctor for more saline or 2nd surgery due to the band slipping off the stomach.. (noooo sir not for me).. so when I heard about the sleeve, saw some videos, did my research, chatted with actual people in person who had the procedure, i am now on the train to be sleeved. Why has it taken this long since first seeing my surgeon in October 2014? Well due to may weight at the time being 430lbs+ my insurance did not require the 6x medical weight loss visits, they wanted to fast track me, but i opted instead for the visits before going straight under the knife..Strangely all the staff asked why I wanted to do the visits vs jumping to surgery and my response was, surgery is here to help me, but I first must prove I can help myself. So once a month for 6 months i saw my wonderful Physician Assistant who threw tons of info at me from types of Protein poweders, to nutritional guides, free classes and most all, shared her struggle and connected with me as a person first, patient 2nd.. After the 6th visit I said I was ready for the surgery, i had gotten my weight down to 389lbs. they gave me all these labs to get drawn, i was feeling great about the decision, i proved I can loose weight on my own...and then about 2months later i came back for follow up on the labs and my weight went from 389lbs to 406 (stopped working the food plan).. Surgeon then stated I need to be at 397 to proceeded..I mentally plummeted, and my weight went from 406 to 412lb.. had a few primary care routine visits, weight went from 412 to 419lbs.. i was able to stop the hemorrhaging at 422lbs, but now I needed to loose at least 23lbs before i could move forward. Geeze...so i cancelled my next 2-3 visits and i told them i would not be back until I dropped this weight..that was in July 2015. I then started a mission- Breakfast and lunch = Protein shake, then dinner and a shot of vodka .. by September 1st I got to 410lb and by end of September I was 399.. visited my surgeon's Physician Assistant Sept 24th, and was cleared to proceed.. I got high-fives and way to go from all the staff who thought I would give up due to the weight gain. so now i sit at 397, waiting for the schedulers phone call to let me know when the 2 week pre-op will start, I am happy and mentally equipped for the days ahead. now some praise..This site is awesome, i have visited many different sleeve and general gastric bypass forums, but I find this to be the most active, most accurate and tremendous in its support of its member's. i hope to not only rely on some of that support but also give back where I can. Thanks for reading all that and I am happy to be here. ~MojoCAMI

Something you need to remember. At some point, the "honeymoon" period where hunger is less and restriction is great ends eventually. Yes, your hunger will return and restriction wanes over time. No, your stomach will never be the size it was pre surgery, but at some point you will be able to eat a normal, albeit smaller, portion. That is why it is so important to cement healthy eating habits during the honeymoon period for when that time comes. Because believe me, the "little bit of this and little bit of that" eventually turns into weight gain. The purpose of this surgery isn't to just lose weight. The purpose is to change your lifestyle enough to keep the weight off. Otherwise, what's the point?

I'll never forget when I was listening to a podcast by Jillian Michaels (I know some hate her, but I love her).. and she said, the muscle makes you gain myth is total bunk.. its something people to say to make someone feel better and that its really, really hard to gain that much muscle. People are explaining it wrong. Jillian is right. A pound of muscle and a pound of fat weight exactly the same. A pound. A pound of muscle looks better than a pound of fat because fat takes up a lot more space. Muscle makes you look leaner and harder. Plus, the MORE lean muscle you have, the more calories your body burns. You can weigh the same if you are muscular and look significantly smaller than the person of the same height and weight standing next to you who has half the lean muscle you do. The part about gaining "muscle" weight while weight lifting being really hard to do is completely true. It takes significant effort to become jacked up or bulked up. Like eat 2 pounds of chicken, 2 pounds of potatoes, etc per day while following a crazy workout schedule. It's like having an extra job. A very thin person who starts weight training would experience a small weight gain without trying to become bulked up, but anyone else, not really. You would get an increase in blood volume and muscle gain but that would be offset by a much more significant fat loss.

This is a very important topic, and no doubt some people used their physical shields as psychological ones. The fact that I am not in that group is both lucky and unlucky. My relationship to the outside world never really changed throughout the years of weight gain, and I didn't tend to assume people were viewing me differently. Now that I am losing rapidly, I also tend to think that the world and it's denizens have enough to think about and I am really not high up on the list. That said, there have been comments at work, but none that would cause me to think a channel to the world that was previously closed is gradually opening up.

Some people undergo WLS and lose significant weight only to gain some or all of it back years later. I asked my nutricianist "Why". Her response was grazing. Grazing is to eat small portions of food, as appetizers or the like, in place of a full-sized meal or to snack during the course of the day in place of regular meals. A recent study by University of California, Berkeley, may have found a correlation between sleep and body mass index (BMI). Breakfast and breakfast skipping is associated with weight gain.” This study seems to go hand-in-hand with another study. Another recent study found that reducing the eating window (the hours per day that one eats) reduces weight. http://acsh.org/2015/09/picture-this-a-food-app-that-could-improve-public-health/ The results from this study published in Cell Metabolism showed that the majority eat over a 15-hour period each day. Some research suggests that limiting the “eating window” to 10-12 hours per day may contribute to weight loss. Their sample size was small, but of their volunteers interested in weight loss researchers set the smart phone app to help them restrict food intake to a 10-hour window. Without changing the types of food they were eating over 13 weeks, this volunteer group lost an average of 3.5 percent of their initial weight per person. So it appears that to maintain the weight loss after you reach the Maintenance stage, one needs to control "Grazing". This includes limiting your "eating window" to around 10-12 hours per day and getting the nominal 7-9 hours of sleep each night.

Best thing to do is reevaluate what caused the weight gain, immediately structure your diet around the good and bad stuff. Seeing a NUT again is a great place to help establish a visual end goal, they can cater to your dietary or health restrictions. Surrounding yourself with the right people will make a difference on your mental outcome, toxic relationships with people, intimate or not, won't help your situation. Depression is a contributing factor to weight gain, unfortunately, so focus on making yourself happy and finding some inner peace. Congrats on getting married, I hope your spouse is supportive of your desire to improve your health, that will be a big motivator to staying on top of your regimen. Just remember what you did to get to that point, cleanse, start up those shakes and count those calories; resorting to a secondary surgery (if that is even a possibility) would be horribly unhealthy.

Just plain Water. Absolutely no sugary beverages. I would avoid fruit water because fructose in fruit is bad. I was reading something yesterday about how fructose cause more weight gain than sucrose (table sugar).

i have been placed on Lyica for fibromyalgia pain and it helps tremendously. However, I have gained a significant amount of weight on the medication as weight gain is a side effect.I have tried to go off the medication and it didn't even last one day. I asked my surgeon about this and he said it is definitely a problem me having to be on the medication after surgery but didn't offer any alternative (gabapentin doesn't work). He told me he gained weight on the medication as well. I have researched it and any medication that causes weight gain is a concern after surgery. Am I going to have to go through all of this for nothing???????? I have diabetes, hypertension and sleep apnea.

After a great weekend. I let myself indulge. I do not do this often. I am back at my goal weight. I reset my goal to a better weight gain bounce. Its always a reminder for me that I am not exempt from weight gains. I'm doing what I need to do. I'm looking forward to challenging myself to a new goal.

@@Kathy812 thank you so much for your response. There was nothing in the coverage that says there can't be any weight gain, I did check. I'm also sure I can lose it before I go to my last preop appointment on the 14th.

So I had my surgery on September 30th and I'm happy to say that things went relatively well. I only had three things I struggled with after surgery. 1. Immediately waking up I was miserable. They gave me everything they legally could and I still thought I was going to die for like 4 hours. 2. My heart rate. At "resting" it was at 115. When I wasn't feeling good it would get over 140. So they watched my heart really close. I think a lot of it was hospital anxiety. They finally got it to calm down with Valium at like 3 in the morning but by calm I mean 110. 3. Peeing. I know tmi but honestly it was the hardest part. My sips were fine. Swallowing was easy. But when it came to going to the bathroom I couldn't go. On surgery day I had to have a catheter because my bladder reached 800cc (catheter requirement is 500cc). I had the catheter over night and when they took it out the next morning I couldn't go on my own. Eventually my bladder got over 500cc again so they used a straight catheter. I didn't go on my own until late that night. THEN I got to go home. I still struggle now. I have to have Water running and use a wet cloth to get me to go. It's weird but it works. In the hospital they tried peppermint oils, showers, everything. It was so frustrating. Now I'm home and I weighed myself. I've lost five pounds already which is odd. Not complaining but I was expecting a weight gain from fluids and swelling. I struggle with Protein. Yogurt feels good in my pouch. The hardest part about being home is my family honestly. All I hear is: walk faster, walk more, you don't need your pain pills, how's that baby food taste?, don't you wish you could have a pop tart. They actually went grocery shopping specifically for junk food because they know I can't eat it and then ordered pizza. When I said something about it "I wasn't being compassionate" and "I knew what I was getting into".... Mk so let's send an alcoholic to a 12 step program just for them to come home and be like "look at all the booze we bought". I literally just cried. This whole process they were supportive saying we "are all making changes together" and I come home to this. I feel alone. I feel like it's not fair. I've worked really hard to change my life and I feel like I'm being punished because I chose wls. can anyone else relate?

I'm so nervous I gained 2 pounds in between my 2 required NUT appointments. I was also on 2 steroids for bronchitis surfing this time. The NUT said it could be from that, but I am extremely nervous that my insurance will now deny due to the gain. Ugh. Anyone else have this happen? Wht was your outcome? I have BCBS of SC.

Hi! So I received the RNY gastric bypass on September 23, and just got home out the the hospital yesterday. 11 days in the hospital. I'm in a crazy amount of pain and it's really hard to do simple things like getting out of bed and going to the bathroom. My surgery journey isn't at all what I had planned. What happened was after the first surgery, on the 23, I was throwing up, weak, and other gross things. The doctors checked on me every few minutes because they were worried they were going to lose me. So they rushed me to a different hospital for surgery number 2 to fix the problem found in the c t scan. They said I was born with an abnormally shapened stomach and it has always been larger, and that the weight gain my entire life hasn't been my fault and it was a medical issue! If I hadn't of gotten the surgery they said my stomach would have crushed my spleen. So the second surgery gave me a Omega Loop to help alter routing of my insides. So many things are horrible and went wrong, and I'm really starting to think this was the wrong thing for me. I'm eighteen, and this has been an abnormally amount of anxiety in my life. I have to drop out of classes this semester and quit my job to focus complete on healing. I just needed to share my story so far and look for some encouragement. Also, I'm hungry, is that normal? I'm worried that this didn't work. I eat my puréed food plan me always feel hunger after and like I can eat more. Advice?

6 months, lost 86lbs, I'm at my goal weight as by bmi is normal, now I need to maintain hopefully for the rest of my life. Getting scared of possible weight gain, I'm still going down, I'm eating about 1200 cal a day, 60/80 gr of protein, light exercise. Gradually I'm eating more so I'm worry if I could gain weight terrify by that idea. I'm finally happy with myself.

That is what I'd expect, too. How worried are you ? Let that worry motivate you.....and not just for insurance reasons. Does your surgeon require a pre-op diet of any kind ? Only you know where you stand in terms of BMI, health issues and comorbiities. Only you know the real risks at this point. For me things were fairly straightforward. I was told by the staff of both surgeons that I've dealt with along the way this Summer-Fall that they would delay surgery if they saw weight gains as they believed it's a sign that you aren't ready. The two that I've dealt with were real sticklers about this and each went out of their way to show actual surgical films that show the liver of folks that did the pre-op diet successfully vs folks that didn't . It really hit home when you see them lift up the liver and suspend it out of the way so they can work. I was convinced that I wanted to do whatever I could to allow my liver to get smaller and less prone to damage when lifted. It makes sticking to this short pre-op diet a piece of cake. That footage scared me. I'm not kidding about the difference in patients, either. It was hard for many in our class to watch.....but it was powerful stuff to see. Sh!t got real. I try to keep in mind that the goal is weight loss......before a& after surgery......weight loss. Giving my back, knees a much needed break. Anyway....not trying to be a jerk......just hoping that you'll keep in mind that the insurance guidelines aren't the ones that really matter. There's a compelling reason you are doing this surgery that is unique to you. It's important to you for some specific reason. Tap into satisfying that need and let it drive your behaviors towards positive results. I wish you the best. You can do anything.....anything that your mind gets behind and wants.

I'm Anna, married, and the mother of three grown daughters, and one twelve-year-old son. I'm also the grandmother of two. I've been trying to qualify for my surgery for five years, and I finally have a date! October 26th. When I started out, I needed six months of medically supervised diet. I did that, only to have our insurance change before my surgery could be scheduled. Then the new insurance said my BMI was not high enough without two or more co-morbidities, and I only had one. Then I developed breast cancer and uterine issues. Resolving all that took another two and a half years. I developed the second and third co-morbidites, and managed to stay at the required BMI long enough to qualify. My main purpose for choosing RYGB is to resolve my Type 2 diabetes. The weight loss is a good thing, and will help my arthritis and high blood pressure, but if I can even just achieve a 10-15 year remission, I'll be thrilled. My husband has been through this, and I was with him every step of the way. His results were great at first, then he had some weight gain. That makes me nervous--I don't want to go through this only to regain weight, but he assures me I have more resolve than he. (I'm not so sure of that.) I'll be honest. The surgery itself doesn't scare me (not after everything I've been through), it's the post-op life. I wonder what that will all be like, how well I'll negotiate it, what the changes will be like. I've always been overweight. The goal they have me at was my weight in junior high school. I don't even remember what it looked like. I'm afraid of dumping, constipation, etc. My family and friends expect me to be tough--just like I've been in the past--but well, let's just say we'll see how tough I really am. I feel like a marshmallow on the inside. Am I the only one who is thinking about all the things I'll never eat again? And how silly that is? I'm supposed to be thinking about all the advantages I'll have. Anyway, I'm looking forward to talking with folks who are going through this as well. Anna

Honey, it's a journey and this is just part of it. Both the weight gain and having to deal with Mr. Wonderful. Try to get him out of your head. He's just taking up space there and doing you no favors. He obviously triggers alot of stuff for you so you have to minimize your interaction with him and minimize any damage he tries to inflict. Keep us in the loop...text if you need support and I know we'll try to be there if not physically, at least virtually.

There are a few things that really made me decide to have WLS. I am getting married in August 2016, and my fiance is British. We've been together for over seven years (I am 30) and lived together in the US for three. I was around 150lbs when we met and started dating. I was diagnosed with bipolar about a year into our relationship and my doctor perscribed a medication called Zyprexa, which is great for someone having a severe bipolar episode...but it is notorious for weight gain. I think I gained 5 pounds by simply filling the perscription! In my year taking it, I gained 100lbs with no change to my diet or exercise. I was very active...I played rugby and soccer, and I ate a low-carb and low-sugar diet. No matter what I did, the weight kept piling on until I visited my psychiatrist and told her I wanted to try something else because I was so incredibly depressed due to my weight gain. She swapped me to a new medication, but a lot of damage had already been done. The Zyprexa combined with some of the other medications I was taking essentially destroyed my metabolism, making it pretty impossible for me to lose weight no matter what diet and exercise plan I went on. Fortunately, I am now on medication that is weight-neutral, so I have not really gained anything more. I could not play rugby or soccer any longer because all my excess weight made running EXTREMELY hard on my joints, and giving that up was incredibly painful for me. I still tried to lose weight on my own over the course of several years, but nothing helped, including physician-supervised metabolic weight loss. I visited my fiance last May-June, and I could barely walk into town. Getting around London was an absolute nightmare. I started looking at WLS options on my own, but was far too afraid to actually go to a seminar or talk to my family about it. This August, I went to the bridal shop to buy my wedding dress. They did carry larger sizes (I am an 18-20 at the moment) so I was able to try on quite a few. I found the PERFECT dress, and while my parents and the bridal consultant said I looked beautiful...all I could see was how overweight I was. I *did* look pretty in the dress, but when I stared at myself in the mirror, I kept thinking how much better I would look and feel if I was able to lose some of the weight. A few days later, I mentioned the idea of WLS to my parents, who were very supportive of my decision. I was still very afraid because it is a pretty major surgery in my book, but a close friend of mine had the VSG a few weeks earlier and told me that it didn't hurt quite as badly as she thought it would, and she was recovering quickly. Not only that, but she was losing weight and feeling much, much better. I decided to look into it more seriously and attended a seminar...and I decided that it was the solution for me. I went into my surgeon's office for a height and weight check, and I qualified for WLS. After speaking to the program coordinator, I decided to go through with the surgery and made my first appointment. I will be seeing Dr. Sebastien this Tuesday, and I am incredibly excited and nervous at the same time. I feel like there is a light at the end of the tunnel and I will finally be able to lose the weight so that I can get back to doing the things I enjoy as well as look great in my wedding pictures! Sorry for this long winded diatribe...I haven't really shared whis with many people, and once I started writing, it just kind of flowed out. xx, Polara

Hi my name is Mary. I am 53 years old and had Gastric Bypass surgery on Sept. 28th at York Hospital in York, Pa. My surgeon is Dr. Garber. I have been struggling with weight gain over the past 5 years. I have tried numerous diets but would only lose 5 or 10lbs and then it would stop. All my weight is sitting in my stomach. I am 5'2" and weighed 230 prior to surgery. I have struggled with sleep apnea, acid reflux, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, etc. I am married to a wonderful and supportive husband for 7 + years now. I have 2 beautiful daughters from my first marriage. My girls are 18 and 21. I work full time with York County as a Aging Care Manager. I am determined to be healthy and follow through with all the post surgery guidelines and hope to find support in this community. So far, I have been in little pain, except when I go from sitting to standing. I am able to keep the clear liguids down and have a strong support system.

Ooops didn't mean to hit POST yet... School is still going well, I have A's in both classes. The nutrition class is pretty interesting. My teacher knows I've had the bypass surgery and said we talk about that at some point and asked if I'd like to share. I said, sure! She's already called me out a few times in regards to my high Protein diet. In general, the US eats excess protein, which leads to weight gain if people aren't active enough, or don't burn off what they don't need. But obviously my case is different. She always adds, "and you're under a Dr.'s care with your high protein diet, correct?" Yeps!! I think I had mentioned before my knees were giving me issues. I've only been back to my "intense" workout class once since then. I really think I'm not quite ready for that class, unfortunately When I dread going....it can't be a good thing. All I've done is walking lately. Need to get in some weights or something! I might end up going back to my other gym I'd been going to. Frustrating because I really wanted to be able to handle that intense class. Ugh... we're supposed to go tomorrow morning, we'll see what happens. Maybe if I try it once more, I'll make my decision for sure. Okay--so a couple of "skinny person" issues I've come across. It's SO weird to have "skinny person" issues!! (sorry if I've already whined about these, LOL) Shaving my arm pits!? I don't know how to explain it, but there's like a deep concave area that I just can't get the razor into, LOL!!! Bleacher sitting....OMG, that tush padding came in a bit handy evidently!!! My butt bones literally feel bruised the next day after sitting at my son's football games! I am FREEZING all of the time!!!! I am seriously going to die of coldness this winter I think....I think I'll have to move to a warm, beach island, for sure. I was thinking I had another one, but I can't remember right now, LOL. Ok, I'd better go get some work done! I need to figure out how to make a picture thingy that shows a "Before and After" picture all in one?!