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That statistic, besides being an average, reflects bounce back weight gain which is pretty common, general diet complacency where after a couple of years we let things slide a bit, adjustments to the way you eat to better complement your lifestyle, general health, changes to medication, etc. It’s not the highest amount of weight you may lose but where you MAY end up at the three years point. It’s the same stat that says the a average weight loss at three years for sleeve is about 65% of the weight you have to lose. The most I lost was 43.8kgs (141%) . Then I settled at around 42kg (135%). Now at three years it’s 40 (129% - damn HRT & I had to up my protein intake.) Yes, my gain is minimal & I lost a lot more then the stats suggested but others do experience less loss & greater gains. Treat averages (stats) & BMIs for that matter as a guide only not a hard & fast rule. They just give you a bit of an idea of what might happen.

I was just banded a couple of days ago, and I was one of those who was not much over 200. Of course, define "not much". Our ideas may be completely different. I feel that if your bmi is in a dangerous zone, and you have done what everyone else has done then yes, one should consider and qualify for wls. Why wait until they are any heavier???...and YES, if they don't do something about it now, chances are very great that they will only get heavier, and have more health risks. Should one wait until they are 20 or 30 pounds overweight to go on a diet, or should they work on it as soon as they become aware of the extra weight gain? It's the same with wls. One shouldn't have to wait until they are at a larger weight than they are ready to combat. I have had people tell me that I'm not big enough to do wls, but they don't know me and the battle I have fought all my life.

Hi July, have you been given a date yet for your operation. Good luck and much success with it! Geri, hope you haven't been caught up with the flights situation. What date are you due to have the op? Keep telling yourself that you are about to do something really worthwhile and life changing! Brenners, thats great news that VHI should pay for the gastric bypass! It must be a huge relief for you. Good to know that you are healing well from the band removal. Don't be hard on yourself over weight gain. You've been through such a difficult time. When you have the bypass the extra weight will fall off! Its probably frustrating you now but keep telling yourself its only a temporary gain. Just a quick update on my progress! Really pleased with how things are going. I have lost inches right below my bust, lots gone from my thighs and bum. Friday is my last day for soft/mushy food. I've had more fish in the last 10 days than what I had in the previous 3 months. At times I'm forgetting to eat, me, who was a compulsive emotional eater. Ina way its hard to believe that its only 3 and a half weeks since the op as I've been so active that Im hardly at home now. Hence the reason why I haven't been posting here much recently. Maree

@starrspunn I've been on Lyrica for almost 2 years. Started out 75mg 2x per day but now 200mg 3x per day (max dose). Sleepiness was my #1 issue. Every time they upped my dose it would literally put me out for the day. By day 2, I'd be better. Never affected appetite or weight gain.

@@Puppypaws57 good luck to you and please accept my apology. As I read my reply above to you, I come across to myself as preachy. I do not judge you, I want to be clear about that. I should not have made statements like "It seems to me..." I am passing along some advice that someone gave to me. He was very instrumental in my emotional healing. I think ! will always have a challenge with weight gain. I have a book on my shelf that says weight gain is caused by suppressed emotions. I gained some weight this year after my mom passed and I am finally at a place where I can take it off. I pray you find inner peace.

A question for any of you who have done the 5 day pouch test. My husband has been out of town and I have had a nasty cold and not really hungry nor can I taste much...so I figured what a perfect time to do the pouch test! I had been stuck/plateaued for a while. During liquids I lost weight FAST! Like 6lbs fast...now that I am finally incorporating some food back in (and good food too) I have noticed that I gained almost 4 of it back :smile:. Have any of you experiened this??

i think it's possible that constipation can cause a little weight gain. but i was wondering if being over-weight can cause constipation in adults. please sure ur thots with me. Blessings, sasha

Okay the latest. I called my doctor and a medical tech called me back. I can't eat hardly anything. She said that it was okay to eat soft foods. From what I know this can cause weight gain cause you start eating your unhealthy foods again because they go down easy. She said that eating chocolate Malto Meal was fine to eat in the morning. Yesterday I ate Chipotle and barely had anything. I did notice though you could only eat a couple Beans at a time or a tiny piece of chicken. Is this normal. That is so small! Last night I had just shrimp and it came up. So then I wanted the rest of a chocolate sundae that I have had a couple of times. Stopped eating that and forced myself to eat some turkey from a frozen meal. That went down fine. People who have gastric lose weight so fast. How is that when I see that we talk a lot about not eating enough then not losing any weight or hitting a plateu? So is my band too tight or I am just not eating the right foods and size. I had some pancakes and an egg on Friday. First time trying that with this fill (#8) and it all came up.

I would be careful with the weight gain. It may come back to haunt you. Most insurance companies want a two year previous weight history and for you to at least show you can lose weight. I wouldnt advise you not to do something but just consider all angles. Good Luck

I appreciate the posts. I, like you "ScaredtoDeath" am in the process of trying to determine if it's actually something I will do. The Pro's definitely outweigh the Con's, but nevertheless it's surgery and the alteration of the body. My concerns? Leakage,weight gain after the first two years, but more than anything what am I to say to my kids. My son (9) is starting to eat more than his fair share and I see him having problems if I don't intervene. Question...how do you tell your kids to watch what there eating if you can't? It's a serious question that I haven't heard many people talk about. Once the surgery is done (I expect to have surgery Feb/Mar) what do I tel my son when he tells me he's upset with himself because of the habits he's engaged in. He's already had people make fun of him and will not take his shirt off at the pool. This is exactly how it started with me. I was 160 lbs in 6th grade, 300 in 9th grade, and now 350lbs at age 34. Although, I have lost 100lbs twice in my life it's never stayed off and my Doctor thinks I'm an ideal Candidate for this type of Surgery. As you can tell, I'm a bit twisted...

Hey Tbahm, I'm sorry to hear of your troubles, am I reading right that you are just 5 days post op ? Things will get better, the weight gain will be related to the actual op I reckon and the iv fluids. Give it time to settle. Wishing you well and a speedy recovery.

@@Amurillo04 And that's why weight loss surgery gets a bad rap with regards to weight gain. Some people just think it's the magic bullet, that they will no longer have to sacrifice some of their favorite foods or can continue to give into cravings.

It is reassuring to read that others have this struggle too. I know that it's a dilemma that we all share. I also know that in some aspect I just don't want to cook myself. I have cooked for many years and had just decided I didn't want to cook any more. I call it just plain being lazy. But today is a new day and I will work harder to fix my own foods. I've noticed with me, that since I can put a limited amount of foods in my stomach, I am focusing alot more on organic foods like wild salmon, organically grown veggies, and I do avoid the processed foods when I do cook. That's my new goal. Organic foods. I can't handle the thought of eating pesticides in my food any more. I also believe that processed foods contributed a lot to my weight gain. Besides eating way too much. I just realized that I have been getting really picky when eating out, not happy when I don't know the grade of meat I'm getting. Wow, I just realized that I handle my anxiety by going out instead eating at home. Oh, I know I also have to have better time management skills to do a better job with eating healthy. SOrry for the rant. Thank you everyone for your feed back. XOXOXOXO! :wub:

Read this on another WLS forum.... Slider Foods Spell Weight Regain For Weight Loss Surgery Patients By Kaye Bailey For most people eating sliders is a good thing. Popularized by the American food chain, White Castle, a slider (originally slyder) is a miniature grilled hamburger or cheeseburger on a steamed bun often served with onions and dill pickle and other condiments. They originally sold for a nickel a piece in the 1940s making it affordable to add a side of fries for just pennies. By all accounts this is a good kind of "slider" food. To the weight loss surgery patient slider foods are the bane of good intentions and ignorance often causing dumping syndrome, weight loss plateaus, and eventually weight gain. Slider foods, to weight loss surgery patients, are soft simple processed carbohydrates of little or no nutritional value that slide right through the surgical stomach pouch without providing nutrition or satiation. The most innocent of slider foods are saltine crackers, often eaten with warm tea or other beverages, to soothe the stomach in illness or while recovering from surgery. The most commonly consumed slider foods include pretzels, crackers (saltines, graham, Ritz, etc.) filled cracker Snacks such as Ritz Bits, popcorn, cheese snacks (Cheetos) or cheese crackers, tortilla chips with salsa, potato chips, sugar-free Cookies, cakes, and candy. You will notice these slider foods are often salty and cause dry mouth so they must be ingested with liquid to be palatable. This is how they become slider foods. They are also, most often, void of nutritional value. For weight loss surgery patients the process of digestion is different than those who have not undergone gastric surgery. When slider foods are consumed they go into the stomach pouch and exit directly into the jejunum where the simple carbohydrate slurry is quickly absorbed and stored by the body. There is little thermic effect in the digestion of simple carbohydrates like there is in the digestion of Protein so little metabolic energy is expended. In most cases patients in the phase of weight loss who eat slider foods will experience a weight loss plateau and possibly the setback of weight gain. And sadly, they will begin to believe their surgical stomach pouch is not functioning properly because they never feel fullness or restriction like they experience when eating protein. The very nature of the surgical gastric pouch is to cause feelings of tightness or restriction when one has eaten enough food. However, when soft simple carbohydrates are eaten this tightness or restriction does not result and one can continue to eat, unmeasured, copious amounts of non-nutritional food without ever feeling uncomfortable. Many patients turn to slider foods for this very reason. They do not like the discomfort that results when the pouch is full from eating a measured portion of lean animal or dairy protein without liquids. Yet it is this very restriction that is the desired result of the surgery. The discomfort is intended to signal the cessation of eating. Remembering the "Protein First" rule is crucial to weight management with bariatric surgery. Gastric bypass, gastric banding (lap-band) and gastric sleeve patients are instructed to follow a high protein diet to facilitate healing and promote weight loss. Bariatric centers advise what is commonly known among weight loss surgery patients as the "Four Rules" the most important of which is "Protein First." That means of all nutrients (protein, carbohydrates, fat and alcohol) the patient is required to eat protein first. Protein is not always the most comfortable food choice for weight loss surgery patients who feel restriction after eating a very small amount of food. However, for the surgical tool to work correctly a diet rich in protein and low in simple carbohydrate slider foods must be observed. The high protein diet must be followed even after healthy body weight has been achieved in order to maintain a healthy weight and avoid weight regain. Kaye Bailey 2010 - All Rights Reserved

Zoe, I'm sorry to hear about your back trouble. I really hope that the steroids help you asap so that you can feel better and not have to worry about those things causing any weight gain. I'm struggling a little also with weight gain, but mine seems to be attributed to lack of finding the oh so ever sweet fill spot A little background... I have the Swedish band that holds 10-11cc's, so it's the larger band... I flew back to Monterrey for my first fill. I was filled to 5.0cc's (no significant restriction felt) A month after that, I had my second fill with Dr. Houston. He filled me to 6.4cc's. (perfect restriction, a little too tight at first, but I hung in there and it loosened up) On February 19, I was in Monterrey with a couple of ladies who were getting lapband surgery, and Dr. Rodriguez said that he would give me a fill if I wanted/needed one. Since I was already planning on getting another fill soon, I took him up on his offer. (No restriction at all after this fill, as a matter of fact, I felt wide open again) A week ago Friday I went back to Dr. Houston for another fill. (Still no restriction) He said that I only had 4.5cc's in my band. I knew that my restriction had disappeared, not sure what happened in Mexico. Dr. Houston filled me to 6.2cc's using flouro. He said that he didn't want to go any tighter than that based on what he saw on the screen. Last Friday I went in to Dr. Houston for yet another fill, this time he filled me to 7.8cc's! I thought for sure this would do the trick, but to no avail, I still have very little restriction. I'm kind of giving up (for now) on fills....I'm going to see how I do over the next 4 weeks. I keep gaining a couple pounds, then putting myself on a stricter diet and it taking a couple weeks for me to lose those two pounds. Hopefully I will reach that "sweet spot" again with my fill level and start the losing ways again. For now, I'm just kind of frustrated, but have worked too hard to start gaining weight again so I'm going to be extra careful about what I eat and start moving (ugh) a little more. At least the weather is starting to get nicer, maybe I'll be more enthusiastic about riding my bike again. Hang in there! Hopefully you can discontinue the steroids soon~

Steph- if I am filled to a spot where I lose weight I cannot even eat 1/2 cup at a time. You will get used to it. As far as the gas, try some Gas X before bed. Also may need to increase the fiber, which could cause more gas intially but got make sure things are moving thru there well. If you get constipated, it really backs things up I have noticed Update on me- pg is going well, except i have a horrid rash and I am allergic to my own progesterone!!!!!!!!!!!! Unbelieveable! Sometimes it just makes me cry! Oh well onlt 28 more weeks to go! My weight has stayed the same even with my unfill. I thought I had gained a pound but as of this morning I am still at my lowest weight ever! YEAH Made it thru 1st trimester (almost) and no weight gain. So how much do you think I will gain on this cruise coming up in may??? LOL I will probably make up for it there! Jill

hi brandi babe its so good to hear from you ,im sorry to hear that you have been so poorly and i think as wonderul as the band is ,its not without its risks and problems and we all got so excited about ability to fight the flab we didnt really consider what we were actually doing to ourselves i think i worry about long term effects but all we can do is deal with each hurdle along the way ,as you are doing now ,dont worry about the weight gain u know u will lose it again after op its just a bump in the road ive been all over the place with my weight im back up to to 174 pounds i quit smoking gained 10 lbs then had too many xmas chocs gained a few more was a bit upset but... hey im human so now drinking green tea and homemade soups ,no junk! ,i know this must have been and feels like end of world but you are a fighter you can so do this and i will definately be around for you and i hope when others see that you want our support they be back too ,take care of yourself and let me know how you getting on i want to lose 14lb but instead of being so tight i cant eat solids im going to work at the traditional method of getting it off so fingers crossed . talk soon x

I agree. Please resist the urge to restrict your food (especially your protein) when you are on a stall. It is counterintuitive, but restricting is the worst thing you can do. Embrace the Stall! http://BariatricPal.com/index.php?/topic/351046-Embrace-the-Stall Thank you so much for that link. I have read it a few times and it really helps. I believe that we are very (too?) focused on our progress and any stall or tiny weight gain can end up in a moral drama . Good news is that I am on a stall but o can fit in trousers I could not close last week. Something is still happening!

I just attended a support group and a someone asked how to prevent and reverse regain and here were some things mentioned: Start planning and timing your meals again Dont eat and drink within 30 mins of each other Hydrate for the majority of your day (calorie and sugar free) you cant over eat if youre drinking No random snacking, this is grazing and leads to weight gain Weight yourself weekly, youll always know whats really going on Attend support groups Mental health is as important as physical, dont neglect it Any major changes call your Doctor immediately

Steph I hope you will be able to eat at least something again soon I did not realize you were into big brother that is my fav reality tv show I watch the big brother after dark even I like ryan he is my fav so far jill I am proud of you no weight gain you must be doing something right Okay guys I am almost embarssed to tell this story but here goes so last night I decided I was going to start working out again so I set my alarm one hr early to get started I have not worked out since I picked my son up at the hospital 4 months ago well needless to say I lasted 5 mins on the stepper and I was worn out talk about out of shape I used to do over one hr on that thing I guess baby steps work

It seems like you are saying that you had gastric bypass surgery 8 years ago and gained some of the lost weight 52 pounds back. I am only 3 years post-op, so you are much further along than I. I looked at the question "Does birth control cause weight gain?" This is a link to an article on the subject. https://bedsider.org/features/328-gaining-weight-is-it-the-birth-control

I am looking to see if anyone has gotten sleeved with the minimum bmi standard. I have tried so many diets only to have them ending in more weight gain. I wouldn't even be as upset about my weight or bmi number if it weren't for HOW i carry the weight. I am a big ol apple! Im looking to find others who are in my boat and what their outcomes have been post op.

Well, long story short. I started my diet in October. I also started Lexapro in October. As of yesterday, I have officially gained 20 pounds since October. Anyone see a connection?? Unfortunately, I cannot even credit the Lexapro with making me feel better as it is not...I am SO depressed right now. Is it even possible insurance will think about approving me with weight gain on the 6-month supervised diet??? :scared2:

My whole life I grew up living in fear. We lived in a bad neighborhood and young males were killed frequently. The sound of a pop or firecracker would make me dive to the floor. Spent a lot of time indoors because I was afraid to go outside. Probably how my weight gain started. Also find this walking down the street thing interesting. Here it is generally considered safer to walk close to the street or even in the street.

Your PCP may or may not have much experience with weight loss surgery. What about your endocrinologist? I doubt very much that they would not check your blood sugar before sending you home without your insulin and other meds, as @RickM said. But talk to your surgery center about what your PCP said and your concerns, but don't cancel your surgery. Even if you can't immediately go off your meds, there are lots of other health benefits to surgery and you might in time be able to go off the meds. The goal in life isn't to have the fewest pills; it's to live the best life, with or without pills. I take about 18 pills a day, none of which I will be able to stop after surgery because they are for a condition that is not caused by my weight. (The meds cause weight gain, but that's another issue.) I am still having surgery, because it affects my quality of life to be so heavy, and is going to lead to other health problems down the road.