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I agree everything don't work the same for others. However I feel that there is way too many women that actually suffer from the side effects from Depo. My eating habits didn't change. I didn't even have cravings. Plus I got started right after my daughter was born so I was actually trying to lose my pregnancy weight by dieting and working out! But I kept gaining...then that's when my OB told me I should consider different methods. (He was actually against the shot in the first place) after I came off it I still couldn't lose all the weight and it took 5 years to become pregnant again after my last shot. Too many people have had the same side effects to blame it on the individual eating. There has been many women that has never had weight issues till getting the shot. Just do a quick google search and look how many women experienced awful side effects besides just weight gain. With all options out now compared to when Depo first came out I'd urge anybody to pass on Depo. Sent from my iPhone using VST

OMG...I just thought of another one...from my dad. He is not skinny though. He had always tried to express his concerns to me about losing weight as best he could. Lose weight for your health, please lose weight so that you do not have to be like me, I love you and I want you to be healthy, etc. But one day out of the blue...I guess I had been on a weight gain or something and my dad pulls me over to him. "You know i love ya right?" "yes", I reply...then he says "well I know that you like boys but as your father, I do have to tell you that guys don't like fat girls...I know this because I AM a guy...baby, you have got to lose weight!" I was like "no he did not just go there"!

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.

Are you feeling hungry and grit your teeth to loose? Or is it that you just don;t have any appetite? That is a good loss of weight. I do own a scale and am addicted to weighing every morning. I also weigh in with a buddy my age(non band dieter) every Sunday over the internet. She weighs once a week. I also weigh to see what foods cause me to retain water and have water weight gain. Even some low sodium foods cause that in the summer with me.

I just had mine done and from the day I talked to my doctor I 100% knew this is what I had to do! I could lose weight on my own but never could maintain it for any large amount of time, me and my body were so sick of the yoyo weight gain and loss that I knew this would be the only way for me to maintain a healthy weight! Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

It depends on how soon you get pregnant and it's very individual in any case. Most that wait experience a normal weight gain. For instance, I gained 32 pounds. Right on track with a normal pregnancy and the first time I gained a normal amount. I've seen posts from anywhere in the low twenties to more than fifty pounds. Much of it is individual and whether or not you have complications will effect your gain. Those that get pregnant while still in their early stages post op might continue to lose for several months of their pregnancy. Some simply stall out and start to gain. Again, it's very individual. We have a few cheerleaders here for just getting pregnant right away, and that's fine if you're willing to do it. I would not intentionally get pregnant if you still have trouble eating your nutritional guidelines, though. I'd very carefully weigh the pros and cons of where you're at in your loss as well as nutritionally and make a smart decision that will work for you. I was seriously deficient in several vitamins/minerals until more than a year post op. Additionally, I had tremendous restriction until almost 1.5 years out from surgery. I still get an overfull feeling from eating one hard boiled egg. Because I'm also lactose intolerant and developed an aversion to meat while pregnant (I had terrible morning sickness for almost six months of my pregnancy) I had a hard time eating. If I hadn't had the capacity to eat what few carb-laden meals I could manage I would have had a real problem. I'm actually amazed I gained weight at all because I felt sick almost the entire time. And my baby was born small - 6 pounds, 7 ounces and they induced me a week early because they were worried about IUGR. Again, it's an individual thing and you aren't going to know how it will happen until you've already made the choice. But weigh that against your fertility, too. For instance, if your fertility is definitely decreasing (say, for age or poor egg quality that will only get worse with time) you should move ahead sooner rather than later. I can say that it's always possible to pick up and lose weight again. However, weight loss does seem to slow down a bit once you pass a certain point. I am having a heck of a time losing the last few pounds from my pregnancy. They have come off and gone on again more than once in the past three months. It is not easy to transition back into losing weight once your body has been eating more and gaining, that's for sure. If you're close to a year out and close to goal I'd say jump on and do it. If you're still in the early stages of loss or having a sleeve it's one thing for it to happen unexpectedly and quite another to choose to do it. I'm just putting that out there, because there are a lot of women that have surgery to increase their fertility, and who knows who will wind up here reading this? Both of you are far enough out that you should be okay but make sure you're prepared. Good luck! ~Cheri

I was curious how much weight gain is expected during pregnancy. I know everyone probably has different numbers I'm starting to plan for my little bean and curious how much most of you have gained. I'm 8 months post op and down 76 pounds bringing me to 182. I know in my heart i should probably wait till I get down some more but truthfully I can't get this thought out of my head. I want a baby so bad this was the reason for my surgery..

Thank you for being so honest. I'm concerned about the weight gain years down the road...it's a true reality.... Sent from my SM-G935T using the BariatricPal App

@@NatashaSaysRawr Can we have sugar free ice cream? I know I can have sugar free jello. I basically wanted opinions an how others tolerate it. My sleeve can tolerate about anything..(The exception is brown rice. its not my friend) So it all comes down to food choices. (1) is it on my plan? (2) Am I getting the best nutrition to fuel my body with this choice? (3) Is their a healthier option? (4) Is this food choice going to cause food triggers and weight gain? (5) Be willing to except the consequences of your choice.

Hi! I was sleeved in 2014...original loss was 185 lbs. Regained 40 lbs during the pandemic. I started Saxenda in January of this year and lost 35 lbs. I moved to Mounjaro last week (off label, as I am not diabetic) because I was tired of Saxenda's daily injection. I don't view GLP-1s as a pouch reset, but they definitely help turn off the "food voice" in my head. I am on the beginning dose of Mounjaro, so haven't experienced the full power yet. I still have decent restriction, so capacity wasn't my problem. Slider foods/snacking caused my weight gain. I know medication isn't for everyone, but I honestly believe GLP-1s should at least be mentioned to WLS patients dealing with regain. I see it as a 1-2 punch for me.

I decided against the depo shot due to the potential for weight gain and possible issues with getting pregnant after stopping. I'm getting the Mirena IUD very soon, my gyno estimated the cost to be $800-900, but it's good for 5 years. Hoping it's a good choice, looking to avoid for another 2ish years.

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

Hello everyone! I started my journey in March with initial consultation. I was right on the border of 39 BMI weighing 240 and 5'6". No health risks. I was facing my 60th birthday May 2nd and did not want to take a chance of poor health after 60. I am a social worker who serves drug exposed infants. The stress and overwhelming workload has contributed to my weight gain. I jumped in with support group, record transfers, nutritionist, psych eval all within the first two weeks. My doctor requires a endoscopy prior to the sleeve which I had this morning. Thank gooddness everything was normal! I have been approved and my surgery is June 11th! I am so excited but a little concerned with loose skin and aging. I keep trying to convince myself longevity is first and foremost! I enjoy reading your personal experiences!

I want to say that there isn't a day that goes by that I don't look to this thread for support and encouragement.. Even if I don't post every day, I am always reading and learning from everyone. I am grateful to have found a place of acceptance and encouragement. Thank you to everyone on here for the way that we show respect and friendship... it means soo much!! Fenton- this is for you... (actually all of us) I came across this on the home page and thought it would be a good reflection for all of us as we experience struggles with ourselves at some point or another. Please read and enjoy: Get rid of your Dieter's Mentality MacMadame Published by MacMadame 07-04-2008 Get rid of your Dieter's Mentality How many of us have been "on a diet" for most of our lives? Too many, in my opinion. Not just because it's bad for our health or because diets don't work. It's bad for our mental health too. It leads to something I call "Dieter's Mentality." If you have Dieter's Mentality, you need to cut it out because it's going to sabotage your success. This is true whether or not you have had Weight Loss Surgery, are on your pre-op diet or are doing it the traditional way through diet and exercise. Diet Mentality is evil and it puts you in a bad place! What is Diet Mentality? It has four major components: 1) Putting food into Good and Bad buckets First of all, food is not Bad or Good -- it's just food. Some food is a better choice than others, but even then it's really just all food. If you are getting in enough of the essential nutrients and you account for your calories each day, you are doing good no matter if you have a bite of dessert once in a while or not. All food is bad food if you eat too much of it or only eat one kind. It's just as unhealthy to eat nothing but Protein as it is to eat nothing but birthday cake. A healthy diet is balanced and can even include a certain amount of junk food as long as it's a small amount and it doesn't trigger you into bad behavior. 2) Judging your worth by what you eat Making bad food choices does not make you a bad person. Your self-worth shouldn't be tied up in what you eat. Good people make bad choices all the time. Instead of beating yourself up when you make a bad choice, hating yourself, seeing yourself as a failure and otherwise engaging in destructive behavior, just figure out how to make a better choice next time. It's not easy to be dispassionate about your own behavior, but telling yourself that you made a bad choice and next time you'll make a better one is a good start and much healthier than telling yourself you are a bad person and you'll never lose the weight and you hate yourself. 3) Judging your worth by how much you weigh/how much you've lost this week The scale is just part of the picture. If you get too tied up in the scale, you get a distorted view of the world. Weeks where you lose are good weeks even if someone close to you died. Weeks where you don't lose are bad weeks even if you got a big promotion at work and did everything "right" in terms of diet and exercise. One of the dangers of measuring everything by your weight on the scale is that you can convince yourself that making bad choices is okay because sometimes you can make bad choices and still lose/maintain. You can also convince yourself that making good choices is pointless because some weeks you make all good choices and the scale doesn't move. But clearly making more bad choices than good will lead to weight gain in the long run. Anything thinking that leads you to conclude otherwise is destructive thinking. 4) Waiting until you are thin(ner) to start living Stop waiting until you get to goal to start living or loving yourself. Love yourself now. Live your life now. It's easy to fall into "when I lose 25 pounds, I will start..." type of thinking. It's a fine line between thinking about how you will reward yourself when you meet certain goals and putting your life on hold until you meet certain goals. Many of us have had the experience of thinking we were so fat back when we were in HS or college or a young adult and not being happy. But then we got even fatter and we look at those pictures from back then and we realize that we were actually pretty hot. In fact, we'd give anything to be "that fat" right now. Why not love yourself now while you're living your life instead of waiting until 10 years later to tell yourself how good you had it back then?

good morning! The ups and downs of being banded. Well, I am working on getting my weight down again. It is a constant struggle. I am not sure, but I think I would trade my love of food for a decent weight. It just seems wrong for me personally to have spent so much of my life dealing with food and weight. sigh! I find that liquids for a day or so help get my pouch back to size. I have mentally considered a different surgery as well. It is very frustrating! I am not really as negative as this post seems. I still am down from where I was. Even with my recent weight gain of a few pounds, I am still in the same clothes. For me to "catch" myself this early in the weight gain is very good. Maybe I am learning?

well, I was divorced before my lapband, but will say it has given that boost of confidence to meet others.. In fact almost 1 year with my someone special.. I didn't tell him about my LB until August...felt the right time would present itself and it did. he has been supportive of my choice and there for me when I struggle. Have to something about my "holiday" weight gain.. but working on it..with the hrlp of my recent 1cc fill.

Hello everyone. I’m so glad to see this forum. I’m planning a revision to the mini bypass as well. I was originally sleeved in 2013. As with everyone else, I’m plagued with heartburn and weight gain. I’m planning to self pay and return to my original surgeon. I’m hoping to have my surgery sometime this summer.

Take it easy and let that band area rest, the good sleep proves you were too tight. Glad to see you are sleeping well! That's just as important as weight loss! I'm amazed at the difference a mere .4cc can make. I'm curious what the doc will fill you to when you go back. Surely you can't do too much weight gain damage in 3 weeks. I guess it's time to test your dieting skills! Good luck. And keep us posted!

I didn't lose weight my first three weeks, in fact I maintained the hospital five pound weight gain. Now its six weeks and about forty pounds down. Be patient with your body and kind to yourself. Good luck, it will come.

I am three weeks post op, started work on Monday, since then I have gained each day!!! What the hell!!!!! Need to quit work?

Maybe some of you need to read the entire thread titled "Weight gained after having gastric sleeve surgery". These are from vets 1 or more years out and having to lose some lbs gained back. Just a few ppl who are being honest and reporting their issues about maintaining and gaining. Unless you got the Magical Sleeve Surgery then great for you! I'm so jealous Eat your Wendy's and Carry On

To add to @Jaelzion excellent list: 9. You’ll lose some hair. The surgery & reduced caloric intake accelerates your natural hair loss cycle. It generally starts around month 3 or 4. You can’t stop it cause it’s a normal process. It does stop & your hair is regrowing as you’re shedding. How long it lasts is an individual thing. 10. Constipation is common. Add benefibre or similar to your diet & have some gentle stool softeners on hand. You’ll become regular again once you get close to or are in maintenance. 11. After surgery you may experience some nasty & very sudden attacks of diarrhoea. Pack some incontinence knickers so you’re not caught unaware & forced to toss your own knickers. 12. You will have lose skin. How much depends on how much weight you have to lose, your age, gender, weight gain/loss history, how long you’ve been overweight. 13. A lot of hormones, etc. are stored in your fat & as you lose your weight they’ll be released into your blood stream. You may experience changes to your menstruated cycle like heavier periods, increased cholesterol levels, incidences of low blood pressure, etc. Things will settle once you reach goal. 14. You will experience tiredness & loss of energy at times. Rest, nap as you need it. 15. Take each step slowly. Your tummy can become very contrary & throw tantrums like a 2yr old child. You may not enjoy foods you did before surgery. Food you ate successfully for weeks may suddenly upset you. Don’t give up on those things. Take a break & try them again later. 16. Yes, there will be foods you won’t eat again but they are the ones you won’t be able to tolerate after surgery &/or got you to the weight you are now. There will be foods you will only eat in moderation & foods that you discover healthier alternatives for or healthier ways of cooking them. 17. Listen to your body. It will tell you what you can or can’t tolerate. You may experience tightness or heaviness, vomiting or diarrhoea, even dumping. 18. You digestive system may gurgle, groan & whine like the ghost of the part of your tummy that was removed is haunting you. 19. Eat slowly. Put your cutlery down between bites, sit back & wait. Then ask yourself do you really need the next bite or do you just want it. 20. Don’t eat until you are full. Eat until you’ve had enough. There is a difference. 21. Sometimes, you may think you are having hunger pangs but it’s actually too much acid in your tummy. You likely will be prescribed esomeprazole to take at the beginning. If you weren’t, ask for some. My surgeon told me I’ll always be taking one every day. Of course you may not experience all of these things but it’s better to be aware of them in case you do. Good luck on your journey.

Just a quick warning about the board. There are MANY very sincere people here with great insight and experience. However, there are a few who seems to have a chicken little view of things. You really have to view things over time to be able to discern the difference, so be patient and try to get a good feel for those that really want to help and those that are looking for playmates to their pity party. Here is my opinion: The band works for some and not others. If your expectation is that the band is a tool as part of a larger solution, then you have a GREAT chance of success. However, if you are looking for a fix that will allow long term weight loss with no change of the emotional and psychological reasons for your weight gain, than your chance of success is MUCH lower. Also, be very sure that you have a decent basic health and fitness education. If you are not aware that eating a large Big Mac value meal (with an extra Big Mac just to be sure) is a bad thing, then you are not ready for the band. Keep in mind, even the band doesn't prohibit me from grazing all day on really bad things. For me, the band is the best tool for me to control my portion size and assist me in making better choices for the limited space I have.

For me, it was starting on birth control pills. They kicked off an uncontrollable weight gain. Decades later, I found out that what they actually kicked off was a hormone disorder called PCOS. Years of getting diets from doctors only to gain more weight on them. Once I was diagnosed, I was able to lose some pounds, but by then the damage had been done. Morbid obesity, Type 2 Diabetes, High Blood Pressure and arthritis.

@@mrsbailey921 an article on webmd says tonsil removwl can can leqd to weight gain http://www.webmd.com/children/news/20110201/tonsil-removal-may-lead-weight-gain