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I can speak to this from personal experience. Please reconsider getting a Lap Band. I had one and it didn't turn out well. There's way better weight loss options available than Lap Band.

Soooo pleased for you @DaisyAndSunshine You deserve every last pound of your loss. Bring on the next phase! And remind me I said that this time next year, LOL).

Really glad you didn't come to any harm and I totally understand that craving - I've had so many different cravings at different stages! Could you try some clear stock or bouillon when the others around you are eating proper food? Or just take yourself away from the dining room for a few weeks? It's such a short time and it's so important for your long term health, as the others have said. Otherwise - forgive yourself, you are human as we all are. We're all here to support you - all the very best on your journey - you'll be telling us about your 100lb loss in no time I'm sure

Hi guys - we've done 8 months now, how are you all doing? I like this thread because I can look back and see my journey - never did a thread all to myself. All good here - I'm 8 months and a week post op, current weight 173 and total loss 103lbs. BMI 25.5. In the last month I have averaged a loss of 1.25lbs a week, which I'm thrilled with. Ideally I would love to lose another stone but that's in the lap of the gods. Either way I'm extremely happy to have had this procedure. Eating a bit more (volume-wise) in the last few weeks as my hunger has properly returned now - it never really left, but I had a few weeks of what I called full-hunger, when I had eaten what would have filled me up before but it just didn't any more, even if I waited 40 minutes or so, so I've been upping the portion sizes - just a little - and I'm feeling properly full again. I suspect this is going to be a pattern until I reach my new weight. I'm eating more or less all foods now - still protein first veg second most of the time but I have had occasional bread, no pasta no rice but a small slice or two of pizza etc. and it's all sitting well with me. Trying to average 1200 calories a day still but at weekends I go over that and I'm not beating myself up about it. Would love to hear from you all - or at least the people who are still visiting this board 8 months on. Hope you're having the time of your lives - I certainly am.

Thank you all for your suggestions! I actually found out my employers insurance (which I don’t currently have now) covers Bariatric surgery! So my plan is to enroll in Nov & start my journey in January! Anything I can do prior to get me ready? For the weight loss program is that something you wait for and your dietician gives you or can you pick one and do that ahead of time? Appreciate it!

This sounds like what I went through!!! I hear a lot of people say the revision makes you stall on weight loss! Is it true? Did you have to work harder after your revision??

Just keep reminding yourself 2 things: 1)I just had major surgery is more then OK to take it easy, it's necessary. My body is healing. 2)I need to follow my eating plan so my stomach can heal properly. J B. It may not always be easy but in the long run you'll be happy you did. This is an amazing tool towards your weight loss. You got this!

I had a sleeve to bypass revision this past August. If it is anything like my experience, I think you will love the bypass. I wish I went straight to the RNY too. I had developed severe gerd and esophagitis with my vsg in the later years. I feel far more normal physically with the bypass than I did with the sleeve because I don't have any side effects. I feel similar to before any WlS but have better appetite control and therefore, good weight loss. I wish I was like the others who never had problems with my sleeve but sigh, here I am.

Thanks, guys Even though all of us are HELLA sick right now, it feels good to have something to celebrate. 39 pounds and I'm under 300!!! I now have less weight to lose to get to my first goal than I've already lost. That feels REALLY good to say Edited to add: I'm averaging 16.66 pounds per month lost. That's 5.55 pounds per week. Average weight loss is roughly 2-3 pounds per week, and I'm double that! When I break it down like this, it really helps me recognize and celebrate my accomplishments. Especially when it sometimes feels like it's taking soooo loooong.

Yes! Between the weight loss and getting started on HRT (I’m 52 and menopausal) my libido is as high as it’s ever been. One of the many benefits of this surgery :)

Congrats on your weight loss. I feel you about the stalls. I'm glad yours broke.

Congrats on the weight loss!!

My plan lists 3 months of medically supervised weight loss program and nutrition classes, nutritional counseling, as well as psych eval. It was the 1 year @ BMI 40 and evidence of attempted weight loss which threw me. I think I found a good program, but will wait to see how the first consult goes and see if I need another. I just got a new PCP and didn't discuss with her... but also doesn't say a referral is required soooo 😬

Hi love! It sounds like my insurance and I have Blue Cross Blue Shield. They're pretty lenient on what considers a comorbidity. Mine is PCOS and just having the disease of being obese. I basically told my program "Throughout my whole life I have tried numerous diets and it is always the yo-yo effect of an up and down weight" Not really evidence I had to show but a good amount of backstory of why different diets and other weight loss program didn't work. Do you take any medication for high cholesterol?

According to the benefits brochure in the bariatric surgery section an "individual with a BMI of 35 or more with one or more comorbidities" is eligible for the procedures listed. What are the specific comorbidities have you been approved with if you had a BMI between 35-40. I have had documented high cholesterol in the last year, but I am not sure it is enough. I am currently at a BMI over 40, but that was only documented at a doc visit in May, I've been over 35 for years though. Additionally, were you required to show "Evidence that attempts at weight loss in the 1-year period prior to surgery have been ineffective". Has anyone used their data from Peloton classes? I did those consistently last year, but not this year... regardless, they didn't move me below a BMI of 35. Hoping all this plus that I am now over BMI 40 is in my favor. Meeting with the doc in the next couple weeks.

Every Aetna plan is different. Choice POS II is the network, meaning you can see in or out of network providers. If you have coverage through an employer sponsored plan, you need to review the plan details because some employers exclude bariatric surgery. Aetna does require six months of an approved weight loss plan as part of their clinical review-this seems to be standard across the board. Your best bet is to call Aetna Customer Service directly who can give you the rundown on if it's covered, what is covered, clinical criteria, estimated out of pocket expense, and recommended providers.

Well my BMI is only 35 and now I’ve lost weight my surgery is about at the end of the year. I know I can get off my weight even 10% but it comes back soon. So I’d like to hope surgery helps to remain weight loss as my body doesn’t feel so much hunger after MGB? Am I right?

Good afternoon, I have Aetna. I was told that I have to complete 6 months of an approved weight loss plan. I started an approved weight loss plan a couple of months ago, but not sure if it's acceptable or not because it wasn't with a dietician. Prior to consulting with the surgeon, I contacted Aetna directly and asked what were some of the requirements, and what my out of pocket expense would be. I wish you much success!

I have Aetna Choice POS II and it paid for everything connected to my bypass three years ago (aside from my annual deductible). They did require six months of a structured weight loss program. I had finished one six months earlier (a last-ditch effort to lose weight), and they counted it even though it wasn't right before surgery. I would also note that Aetna turned me down the first time and my surgeon had to call them directly before they finally approved me. Good luck. It's worth it, no matter how long it takes to get approved!

I was post-menopausal when I had surgery, so I wasn't affected at all, but many younger women experience changes in their cycles, moodiness, etc the first few months after surgery. It's supposedly because estrogen is stored in fat cells, and a lot of it is released during rapid weight loss. It stabilizes again after the first few months, though.

you need to watch this. It's very easy to slip back into old habits and stall your weight loss permanently - or worse yet, gain all the weight back. I almost never went off plan until I hit maintenance at 20 months out.

So, here's the backstory... in 2016 I was diagnosed with Trigeminal Neuralgia (it's a condition that causes chronic facial pain that is so horrific that it's recognized as one the most painful conditions known to mankind and has garnered the nickname 'Suicide's Disease') and I have both 'Typical' and 'Atypical' TN and I had a flare that lasted 10 months and I was in so much pain that I had many moments where I would think of ending my life to escape the horrific pain. My family was the only reason that I held out. I tried to take it day by day, but it was horrific. It's like being dropped into hell while still being alive. Having to live every moment where every tooth in my mouth hurt from the inside out and it feels like needles were digging into my jaw. And THEN I would get stabbed in the face by a scalding hot poker that twists and twists and twists and twists and then pulls out and repeats endlessly. I was in excruciating pain every second of every single day for 10 MONTHS! I felt like I was slowly going insane. I would get 'power naps' of like 5-15 minutes when I would get a miraculous break in the stabbing pain, even though the tooth and jaw pain stayed, because I was so exhausted. On average the power naps would maybe equal 1-2 hours of sleep a day. Though there were days I didn't sleep at all. AND I had to sleep sitting up because laying down was a trigger. But finally after 10 months I had something called an MVD (Microvascular Decompression) in May 2017 which is a type of brain surgery and that was the end of that particular flare and the pain. However, Trigeminal Neuralgia doesn't have a cure. The brain surgery was basically putting a patch on it and hoping that it held out for years. The brain surgery was for the left side of my face, but I have Trigeminal Neuralgia on BOTH sides (just the right rarely flare and if it did it was usually only 3-5 days TOPS and then it wouldn't bother me for MONTHS. One time it didn't flare for 22 months which is almost two YEARS. For reference, I was officially diagnosed in 2016, but I've had TN since 2010). In September 2021 I started getting eye twitches (on both sides) and then other facial twitches and I KNEW it was coming back because the twitches are symptoms of an oncoming flare. I remarked to my family members in absolute fear and panic that I felt that it was going to come back. It's been my biggest fear of it coming back. Then in April of this year it hit. The right side started to flare (with random ass flares on the left as well) and at first I could withstand the pain, but it got worse and then I was put on Gabapentin and I gained 18 friggin' pounds! I couldn't stop taking it because I was in so much pain that the meds were keeping me sane. However, I kept having to increase the dose because the pain was getting worse and worse. I ended up taking the max dose and then one night the pain was so bad that I was sobbing on my bed and the thoughts of just taking a handful of the pills hit me and it scared me. I went to the ER the next day and they were so busy that I had to wait three hours in the waiting room while I was sobbing in pain in a chair while strangers kept staring at me because I was curled up in a fetal position in a chair sobbing my eyes out because I was in so much pain and it's breezy in there and that was making it WORSE! I knew from experience that I had to do the research myself because the doctors don't know crap about Trigeminal Neuralgia because it's rare and they don't know how to treat it (it's usually treated by a neurologist. But there are none in my county that take my insurance). So I gave the doctor my list of medications and told her that Oxcarbazepine worked well with Gabapentin and so she gave me enough to last me until I could get into see my PCP. And miraculously it WORKED! I was able to slowly lower my dosage of Gabapentin by HALF (I was taking 3600mg which is max dose. Now I take 1800mg) and take 900mg of Oxcarbazepine. And because I was able to drop my dosage of Gabapentin I've been able to drop 12 of the 18 pounds I gained, but the last 6 pounds just will not come off! I'm still having a flare. I still feel the pain in my face, but it's muted (mostly. Don't stick me in a breezy room or the pain worsens. And sometimes eating sets it off and makes it worse. And sometimes lying down sets it off too. Also, cold or hot things will sometimes set it off. Yeah, eating is not fun. At all. Also, I don't sleep at night because it flares worse at night). I'm supposed to be going to have acupuncture for my Trigeminal Neuralgia next week and my hope is that it'll fully take the flare away. I also FINALLY get to see a neurologist in three weeks though I have to drive two hours away to see one because no one near me takes my insurance. I have a sneaking suspicion that the flare is actually caused by my Mast Cell Activation Syndrome because I've been having more and more issues with rashes lately (though when my face originally started to flare in April my MCAS was fine. May and June too were fine, but this month my rashes have gotten bad and so has my joint pain which is caused by osteoarthritis and fibromyalgia, which the fibromyalgia is suspected to be caused by the MCAS). To top it off I can't figure out why my face is so damn greasy. I mean I was using topical lidocaine on my face to help with pain management for my TN (in addition to the anticonvulsants, i.e the gabapentin and oxcarbazepine, I take over the counter stuff like Tylenol, Tumeric Curcumin, and Alpha Lipoic Acid to help with pain management) but I had an allergic reaction from overuse (I'm assuming) called Petechiae (which caused red spots on my eyelid) so I stopped using it, but my face has been super greasy every since. And I've been losing more hair lately almost like when I was in the weight loss phase of my surgery. I know it's one or both of the anticonvulsants, but I can't stop taking either one so I'm not sure what to do. So yeah. Just felt like venting my frustration. It's been a rough three months (almost four) and I just needed to unload. If you've read this far, thank you. If you have advice on the greasy face, hair loss, or how to lose the extra 6 pounds while taking two anticonvulsants that make it damn near impossible then please help! If you have any experience with Trigeminal Neuralgia or MCAS and have advice then please share that as well...

As @Sleeve me alone! said elevated cholesterol levels is common post surgery. Mine went up too. It’s all the cholesterol being released into your body as you lose fat & the high protein diet (especially animal proteins) & lower vegetable diet add to it. My surgeon & doctor monitored it but it started to go down when my weight loss finally slowed & I was eating a more balanced diet in maintenance. It was always about 5/5.1 before surgery (not bad but not good), went up to 5.8 (danger, danger) & is 4.1 now (gold star 😉). Try swapping in some plant proteins & rolled oats into your diet & see if that helps while you are still losing.

You’d really know it if it was your gall. That pain is excruciating. I would have thought I was dying if I didn’t know what it was. Literally rolling on the bed in agony. Covered in sweat. Could barely get up & drag myself to get some pain meds. Not that they helped. The surgery was actually pretty easy. My surgeon used the same incisions he did for my sleeve so no new scars. No special diet after. Knew what to expect post an abdominal surgery but the gas pain was pretty bad but I had none with my sleeve. I wasn’t put on ursidol or similar. Which I’m actually glad about as the side effects aren’t the best: nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, constipation, hair loss & we already had enough of those without making them worse. And you wouldn’t know if it was the meds or your recovery & weight loss causing or exacerbating them.

My team (surgeon, dietician and exercise physiologist) were all very adamant that I don’t set my weight loss goals too low. I’m 5’4” and started at 223 (age 55). When I wanted to set my goal to 120 (based on a healthy BMI) they freaked out and said it was not a realistic goal. I was then encouraged to create “phase 1 and phase 2” goals, so I picked 160 and 140 pounds. I’m on week 14 and I have almost reached 160 pounds. I feel like 140 lbs is completely achievable. I will wait and see how I look and feel at 140 lbs.