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( I had gastric bypass surgery on January 23,2023. Right after my surgery I was able to walk the halls of the hospital and get a thousand steps in at a time. When I got home reality hit and I felt exhausted! I know I had pain meds during my overnight stay- but- when I got home, I’d sleep all night, wake around 8 am, and then nap from noon to 3. This was my first week home. I barely was awake enough to drink my protein shakes, and sincerely considered trips to the bathroom or to fill my water bottle exercise. The second week I walked almost everyday- one trip around my pond- 1,080 steps. When I’d get inside, I collapsed into my recliner to warm up and rest. But- I still felt tired and not peppy, nor did I see massive weight loss. I am at the end of week 3- beginning of week 4- I’ve lost 20 pounds, am getting my protein requirement I, and 60 plus ounces of water a day, I take my vitamins- but, honestly, I still don’t feel energetic. Oh, I also had a 5 cm hiatal hernia fixed at the time of gastric bypass surgery. I am letting my body sleep when it needs too, respecting that I must exercise , feed and hydrate my body and am just…allowing this journey to unfold at its own pace. I want to be thin, healthy and active, but at this stage- I respect that my body must heal from the trauma of surgery- which is a big deal. I am just grateful to be on this side of surgery, grateful that I had the opportunity to go through it and looking forward to the wonderful life ahead, being healthier, enjoying my family and experiences without unhealthy co morbidities that haunted me before gastric bypass. These are just my thoughts!

19 pounds in one month is in no way slow. If you’re comparing your weight loss to others’, (a) don’t and (b) they probably had a higher starting weight and therefore more to lose. The more excess weight you have, the faster you can lose it, but as you get smaller, it slows down. Each pound is harder to lose than the last. Be patient. You didn’t gain all the weight in a month, and you won’t lose it all in a month. There are many factors that affect your rate of weight loss, and 19 pounds in the first month is excellent.

First of all, give yourself a break; being 2 1/2 years out and having maintained most of your weight loss is a win, so give yourself credit for that. You said yourself you're under a tremendous amount of stress. Any of the options you mentioned (your surgeon, your PCP and your OBGYN) would be good options just to rule out anything that could be contributing (menopause, stress levels, or even just taking a good hard look at where you can make do-able changes that would help). Maybe even all 3. I know you occasionally hear of people doing what they call a "pouch reset" where they follow an abbreviated version of their initial post-surgery diet (i.e. doing only liquids for a few days, then moving on to purees, etc), but I haven't done it and can't speak from experience how well it works. There's information out there on Google if that's something you'd like to read more about.

19 pounds in a month is fantastic; there are folks on this very board who would love to be able to say they had lost that much their first month. I wouldn't put too much stock in how your body reacted to losing weight prior to your surgery, your entire system has just gone through massive changes and is still very much in a healing phase, so you've got things like fluid retention, inflammation, etc at play.

Hello all, I had GS in Aug. 2020. I lost just over 100lbs, but never made it to my goal weight of 125lb. I got down to 138lb, which actually almost seemed a little too thin, and people thought I was starting to look sickly. That was at the end of October 2022. Since about December, I have gained 20lb, and I have NO idea why. It's so incredibly disheartening. I'm 50 years old, so I think menopause could be a real issue, as nothing else has changed with my eating/drinking/exercise habits in that time. I don't know if I should reach out to my surgeon, my OBGYN or my regular PCP. I'm also under an INSANE amount of stress, so I'm guessing cortisol is a contributing factor as well. Has anyone else been down this road? What's the best way to address it? Soooooooooo depressed!!!!

Hi all. My sister is getting married in November and I’m her maid of honor. I will need to order my bridesmaid dress for her wedding by late May. I will likely wait until as close as possible to deadline to order. I am going to probably err on the size of larger size and rely on tailoring or even possibly get two dresses. I roughly know what size I was when previously in the weight range I think I may be by November but it’s all a bit of a guessing game. Anyone have first hand experience doing something similar?

Starting weight: 262lbs Height 5ft Hi all, I'm just over 1 month post-op (Mini bypass). I lost 14lbs on LRD (2 weeks), and since surgery I've lost 19lbs. I've pretty much had stalls throughout this month and I'm so disheartened that the scales aren't shifting much. Literally everyone else I know that's had surgery lost at a fast rate in their first month and meanwhile I'm chugging behind. I healed extremely fast, tolerate anything I'm cleared to eat and drinking as much fluid as I can. I'm also walking more with my dogs and soon to be cleared to go to the gym. I feel hunger still as well, and to be honest drinking water makes it worse for me. I didn't expect this to be a quick fix but if I have to work out 5 days a week to even go near my target, then surgery was a big waste of money as that just isn't suitable for my lifestyle. The reason I'm saying 19lbs is slow is because before surgery I could easily lose 2st in less than a month, obviously would gain it back but that was the norm for me. Has anyone got a similar story to mine where they started off slow but still hit their target? Thanks

You will do great, remember the preop diet is not for weight loss but for liver shrinkage. Try not to weight yourself so often and you will see the weight fall off.

I gained 100lbs in recovery for an bulimia so I mean this just isn’t true.  You speak about weight gain, and consumption as a compulsion and love affair as if they are inherently the same things and they just aren’t. No one calls alcoholism a love affair with booze, nor is a love affair with food is not inherently the same thing as binge eating disorder or the compulsive eating, addictive behaviors you describe. That’s not love that’s disordered eating and to many people who experience it it feels more like a prison than a romance. Further there are plenty of reasons people gain weight or struggle to lose not limited to medical issues or life long yo-yo dieting socialized in people since childhood resulting in an insurmountably low bmr. It also ignores the idea of a body’s set weight which numerous medical studies have pointed to as a valid hypothesis and part of why wls is one of the only weight loss tools with long term sustainable success. Let’s try to be sensitive that everyone’s story and struggle respect their own personal reflections of it.

Screw peoples' judgement. If they had to go through what we do, they would never breathe a word of "easy" about the process. I felt at times like I was walking through hell barefoot when I was recovering; I literally almost died to get here. The only people I've experienced derision from are either a) completely uninformed about what the surgery entails and thinks I had all the fat sucked out or something (aka idiots...like yeah I just went back every week for a year and had a pound removed at a time? GTFOH with that!) or b) people who have never been fat and probably have never had a family member be fat either, and have no understanding of how someone ends up gaining weight. Good on them for being genetically blessed but that doesn't give them the right to judge anyone.

if you're sticking to your food plan and not losing weight for a few weeks (generally 1-3 weeks), then it's just a routine stall. If you're frequently going off your food plan, though, then you need to get back on track. I looked at it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to lose a massive amount of weight, and I didn't want to blow it!! I know it's hard - but I was determined to do whatever it took to get rid of that weight once and for all!!

I have a sleeve, and when I was experiencing severe acid reflux in the beginning, I had some regrets about not going for bypass. At over a year out I seem to have less difficulties with various foods than my friends who had bypass (I can more or less eat whatever I'd like in reasonable quantities), and I feel like in my own particular situation, I may have had even more difficulty than I already do with keeping what weight I have left ON...I have been attempting "maintenance" for about 4 months now and still am losing 2-3 pounds a month, and I am done actively trying to lose. It's actually hard to eat enough to maintain my current weight.

P.S. weight loss does slow down a lot the further out you get from surgery. After i hit the year mark, my weight loss slowed down to a crawl - some months I'd lose like a whopping 2 lbs. But I kept at it, and it did eventually come off. The issue is, the smaller you get, the fewer calories your body needs to function. If at your previous weight your body required say, 3000 kcal/day to function, and you were only eating 1000, you're going to lose weight fairly quickly. But if at a lesser weight it only takes 1600 to maintain that weight and you're eating 1000, you're still going to lose weight, but it's going to come off slower.

to gain 4.6 lbs in a week, you would have had to have eaten 16,100 extra calories - that is, calories above and beyond what your body needs. So unless you've eaten that many extra calories this week, then the "gain" is likely due to water retention or very full intestines. In either case, it should be gone in a couple of days. and yes - you do have to monitor your food intake for life, unfortunately. I gradually put on 10 lbs over the course of a year because I wasn't monitoring myself as closely as I usually do. Working on taking that off now (have lost 7 lbs of it it so far - YAY!). This is a lifelong battle.

I cant read that but I have cigna open access plus and it was covered, minus meeting your deductible and all. It will of course depend on your specific plan (not all are the same) and I know that we have EXCEPTIONAL insurance. With my plan, you have to have a BMI over 40 or if under 40 but over 35, at least one comorbidity. In my case, the arthritis in my back and hip was my comorbidity (BMI was 39). I dont have high BP or diabetes, or any of the common ones. My plan did not require a period of attempted weight loss, but did require a letter from my PCP stating I had multiple attempts to lose and would not lose or lose/regain.

For those getting ready for your surgery (YAY!) I just wanted to pop in with my experience (I am 2 weeks post op tomorrow). I see a lof of 'problems' and sometimes I think its easy for us to talk about negative or 'not great' things trying to help others, but then it makes it seem like everyone has those issues, when im not sure thats the case. For ME.... no nausea. not once. no vomiting. no tiredness. no dizziness. I did have more pain than i expected, but it lasted less than a week. Food wise.... I am eating around 700-800 calories a day. hitting protein goals on puree/ semi soft diet. Struggling to get in enough water, but doing my best. Not back at the gym yet but thinking probably next week, based on how i feel (obviously no weights yet lol). My tastes in foods have not changed at all. I have not had any bad reactions to any foods. All in all.... sometimes i wonder if i HAD surgery, aside from I can't eat much at a time. But, really.... I kind of think thats ideal LOL I haven't lost much weight yet but I remind myself that my body is still healing, With a (relatively) low BMI, I will lose slower anyway, and the slower you lose, the less loose skin you have. so.... #perspective All of yall are amazing and strong! ...............................

oh sweetheart..... the surgery has NOT failed, I PROMISE! put ALL the scales away. old ones. new ones (which by the way, those things are not as accurate as they would like you to think). Lets look at this from a SIMPLE SCIENCE AND MATH viewpoint, okay? Lets say you are eating 700 calories a day. That is not MAINTENANCE for ANYONE. Not even my 5' self who has a below average metabolism. Add on to that, our bodies are retaining water and hoarding fluids, to HEAL our bodies. We had MAJOR SURGERY, even if it doesnt look or feel like it. That takes WEEKS AND WEEKS to heal. Theres a reason we are on exercise and lifting restrictions as long as we are. So we can HEAL. That healing takes a lot of water and a lot of our bodies energy. Add on to that, depending on your age, you may be holding on to water due to your cycle. Hormones, which go all kinds of out of whack with surgery, also can make us hold on to weight. Think about it this way... No one who went into concentration camps came out big. not even average. not even thin. Right? Our bodies WILL FIGHT to hold on to weight as long as they can. its life support at its most basic. but it can only do that so long. I know it is hard. I am in a very similar spot to you. I too, and looking at the scale not moving and sticking my tongue out at it. But heres the thing.... it WILL move. BE PATIENT. FOLLOW YOUR PLAN. Get in as much water and protein as you can. move move move. and know it WILL come off. We are BOTH doing everything right... and it WILL come off. ((((hugs))))

I decided to buy myself new scales that included fat/bone/water mass etc, and found out that my water percentage is 35%, meaning I’m incredibly dehydrated. I don’t know if it is water weight I’m holding onto, as my water weight is so low already. I’ve always found it incredibly difficult to consume liquids, especially water as my stomach can only hold so much - even before the surgery. At the moment it takes me about 10-12 hours to drink a litre at most and I’ve tried things like fruit juices and teas etc…I just feel like I’m constantly forcing myself - on top of forcing myself to have protein shakes and soups and all the purées, I spend most of my time having to think about food and drink - planning my days around it - this was the opposite of what I wanted out of my surgery. Anyway, today I hit the 3 week mark and excluding the weight loss from the liver shrinking diet, I’ve lost a grand total of….. 1.1lb. Thank you all for your kind messages of support, but I think it’s safe to say that maybe this sleeve has failed me. I guess it won’t work for everyone, and I’m annoyed at how much money I’ve wasted on this procedure that could have gone towards a house deposit. Apologies for the negativity, I’m just incredibly frustrated and disappointed in myself.

Over the past year, I have truly enjoyed BariatricPal Ready To Shake Instant 15g Protein Drink. They have assisted me with my 75lb weight loss. My question is why are there sometimes clumps of powder in my shakes? I insist that I am doing the same prep every time but not every shake comes out clump free. Anyone have any suggestions?

It depends a lot on your situation. I chose the sleeve because I don’t have as much weight to lose and didn’t want the risk of dumping. I also still hope to have kids, and the sleeve is favorable for that. Part of why the bypass is recommended for those with a higher BMI is because of the malabsorptive factor. It’s not a “bad” thing it’s simply one of the facts about the surgery. The body has less time to absorb and use the calories consumed. There are definitely pros and cons to both surgeries, so discuss with your surgeon what would be best for you.

I am not criticizing you. People do not become morbidly obese if they have an adversion to food. If you never had a "love affair" with food, how did you reach a weight of 372 pounds? You may CURRENTLY have no interest in eating as a result of WLS but; as all of us who are in the process or have had WLS, we have or had an unhealthy and excessive consumption of food. The majority of obese individuals suffer from addictive and/or compulsive disorders. The energy from one activity (in this case, eating) has to be transferred to another to fill the void previously occupied by food and eating. This is why therapists encourage adding new healthy activites and interests to shift our focus on not what we have lost but what we are gaining.

I had Gastric Bypass. I did it for the malabsorption and the dumping. Never had GERD, never cared about GERD, don't have GERD now. But I did have more than 1/4 ton to lose. The only consideration is what one surgery could give me the best chance of success. I didn't want a do over. In fact my surgeon made it clear, no do overs. Malabsorption is one of those things you don't know if you have any or too much until you get blood work done. Generally my labs are great, aside from some anemia that comes and goes, but nothing that can't be dealt with. I take plenty of serious meds that my medical team were not worried about in the slightest. They knew they could adjust whatever would be needed whether from malabsorption or weight loss. Fortunately, when it comes do dumping I lucked out. I dump like, well, a big dumping dump truck on sugars and fats. It's amazing how few times you need to dump to learn to stay away from certain foods. And stay away. For 20 years, so far. I've also maintained my weight loss for 20 years. Not a single regret about my surgery choice. Having said the above, my choice fit my priorities. Make sure your choices fit yours. Good luck, Tek

Hi, I am scheduled for sleeve to bypass in March. I Am doing this because of severe GERD but also I gain over 50 lbs. I had a revision from band to sleeve due to complications with the band. I stopped working in 2018, I was very depressed and I didn’t do anything. Then COVID and the isolation and depression caused me To go from 170 - 235. So basically I’m having surgery for the GERD and I am afraid of this surge. If I had been told about the reflux I probably would’ve had the bypass first. good Luck

Hello, So, I just called, and they stated that they didn't require the weightless medical plan, nor does where I am getting my surgery done. I am nervous! Just waiting on my EDG to get sent over.... I'm hearing from people that the policy plan for weight-loss surgery states they don't need weight-loss diet plans, and are finding out last minute even if they actually need one..

Welcome! You have some very good questions, and the fact that you are thinking about these things is great. Weight loss surgery isn't for everyone, and I think it's really important to make the decision with your eyes wide open and be prepared for the good, the bad, and the ugly. This forum is a great place to read about other people's experiences with WLS so you can know what to expect. Pay particular attention to catwoman7's posts -- she is a great example of a WLS success story, who lost all of her excess weight and has kept it off long-term (and she is a true bariatric guru with lots of excellent advice and insight). Just about all of us have had many failed weight loss attempts in the past. Most insurance companies require evidence of failed weight loss attempts before they'll pay for surgery, because surgery is a pretty drastic solution and few people would want to go through it if they could lose and maintain weight loss without surgery. But many of us who have failed so many times before have been successful with WLS. It is true that some people gain back some or all of the weight (or don't lose as much weight as they need to) after WLS because, as you've figured out, WLS isn't magic. It still takes a lot of work and commitment and (as much as I hate the term) lifestyle changes. I get the impression that in the early years of WLS, the emphasis was on the restriction (and, to some extent, malabsorption) of surgery -- the physical limitations that made it impossible to overeat and/or that made the patient ill from eating too much fat or sugar. Patients mainly relied on eating smaller quantities to lose weight. This works in the short term, but the restriction loosens up over time (so you can eventually eat more in one sitting), and if you continue eating high-calorie foods and/or get in the habit of eating around your surgery by eating smaller portions more frequently, you can easily increase your calorie consumption back to the point of regaining weight. For me (and many others), WLS made the initial weight loss much easier than dieting alone because I had no hunger for several months after surgery, but I do get hungry now and it's a challenge to stick to my plan. I think that these days, most WLS clinics have a more comprehensive approach and provide more guidance on dietary changes. After WLS, you pretty much reboot your eating patterns, almost like a baby. You go back to consuming only liquids, then pureed and mushy foods, and tiny bites of soft foods before you get back to eating like an adult. I think this process is the turning point for your long-term path after WLS. You can either take advantage of this opportunity to get into good habits of eating nutritious food, or you can get back into your old eating habits once you are physically able to eat normal foods again (which can ultimately lead to regain). As far as how WLS affects mental health, that is very dependent on the individual and not necessarily predictable. I think it's safe to say that most people's mental health benefits greatly from weight loss because living with obesity is incredibly difficult, but of course there are instances of unexpected negative results. If you have a history of mental health issues, that's something to discuss with your provider as part of your decision (and most insurance companies and clinics require a psychological consultation to make sure you are mentally/emotionally prepared for surgery). I did my surgery completely alone. I'm 2.5 years post-op and haven't told any family, friends, or coworkers about my surgery. I live alone and had no help after my surgery. I was fortunate to have a pretty easy recovery, so I had no problems taking care of myself (although I later developed bradycardia due to the rapid weight loss and had to get a pacemaker). In a way, I think living alone makes the post-op life easier because I have complete control over the food purchasing and preparation in my house. I simply don't buy foods that don't fit in my plan, so it is easy to avoid temptation. I encourage you to continue to research WLS and read about other people's experiences as you make your decision. Good luck!