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I've put on 10 lbs in 7 mos. and too ashamed to go back to the Dr.

Why would you be ashamed? Did you have a setback? Yes, are you human? Hopefully! If you were able to do this completely on your own, you would not have had the surgery in the first place. That is true for most of us! Think of yourself before it gets out of hand. Do what is right for you to get the weight back off. Admit that you had a weakness and the weight gain was preventable, or not. Get back on track and quit beating yourself up! A little secret....I bet you are not the first to have a gain....a bigger secret...you are probably one of the few that admits it! I admire you for that. Now, do what's right for you!

:omg: I went to California for a week to vacation with family. Hmmm, I'm afraid to step on the scales although I earnestly tried to limit my intake of food. I am still eating portions I probably shouldn't. Can't seem to get that under control yet. Now I can eat regular type food again, so it's like an open door. I must get help, must get fill! :omg: I am anxious to get my fill. I get my first fill next week in hopes I will see some real progress. I am feeling well after the surgery with two months out. It appears all the healing is completed. Once in a while I will get kind of a odd pain on my left side but nothing that seems of real concern. It's hard being patient while the healing process is going on. You just want to see pounds start shedding. I felt fairly miserable around my thinner family members, but I am trying to remember this weight gain didn't just happen over night. I sure have blown my exercise routine, I just can't seem to get into the groove. Maybe due to a few factors like; I had the surgery, looking for a new home, vacations, my husbands illness, etc. Can we say stress! However, no excuses, just want to see what a filled band will do for me. I am in great need of limiting portions and getting some exercise. My knees and joints hurt so bad that exercise is no my strength. Hmmm, maybe this site will give me some much needed suggestions. :tired

Hi. I've been lurking for months, but this is my first post. I've come to an abrupt end of my pre-surgical rigamarole, and am just waiting for the bariatric clinic to call me in order to schedule an appointment with my surgeon for the final consultation before scheduling surgery - I wasn't expecting it to be so soon, as I only started the process on April 11th. My insurance - Excellus BCBS - requires a 6 month stretch of supervised weight loss only if they don't feel that your previous attempts at weight loss were serious enough. I guess 25+ years of constant struggle was adequate, because after my 2nd nutritionist follow-up (a group seminar and 2 follow-ups scheduled a month apart are my clinic's required minimum) I was handed my post-surgical diet info and was told to expect a call within a week. Yikes! Anyway. My name is Amanda, I'll be 38 in a month (sigh) and am 5'7" and currently about 282 (and an increasingly snug size 22.) I'm married and I have a 5 year old daughter and I live in Rochester, NY. I'm an MFA grad student and work (incongruously to the MFA) in inpatient pharmacy compounding services at the big hospital in town. I have been fat since I was about 6 years old. When I was a teenager, I was about 170-180 and thought I was the fattest thing on two legs. I look back at pictures of myself and my heart breaks for all that self-hatred, sadness, and lost time - not only because I realize now that I wasn't fat at all (you wanna see fat, 16 year old Amanda?? I'll show you FAT!! flubflabflub) but also because I realize how much it never mattered to my friends and family. This is stuff I still struggle with, though. I started gaining rapidly around 18, and have more or less hit peak mass. I was abut 245 when I met my husband 11 years ago, 270ish after having my daughter 5 years ago, and was 291 when I was weighed at the beginning of the bariatric surgery process. I've attributed my weight gain over the last decade to the insidious "domestic spread" - both husband and I have gotten fatter in that time. But that doesn't explain away all the years before that. I have a progressive, hereditary autoimmune connective tissue disease that is treated sort of like cancer - I get infusions at the cancer center every month through a port in my chest and take a low dose of oral chemo at home every week. Women with autoimmune diseases sometimes see a worsening in disease progression after pregnancy, and this was certainly my experience. I've been having to treat my disease aggressively over the past 5 years, and I've recently reached a really stupid cyclical point where the more I weigh, the less effective my treatments are, the more immobile and depressed I become, the more weight I gain, the less effective my treatments are, and so on. This decline in my health and quality of life is what pushed me to reserve a spot in a bariatric seminar in April. As the reality of surgery looms on the horizon, I've begun to worry about some stuff. Somehow I managed to avoid that certain heartbreak that is endemic to fat kids - I was never bullied for my weight (I was popular in my high school, even as a weird kid with green hair and combat boots,) I have never been (obviously, anyways) discriminated against because of my weight, I've always been lucky in love and never had a problem with finding romantic companionship, and so on. The only person that has ever had a problem with my fatness is me. It's been the thing that I've blamed for every disappointment or unhappiness in my life, even though, intellectually, I know that's total nonsense. I worry about what will occupy my thoughts once the fat is gone. What will it be like to thoughtlessly sit in a chair without anxious thoughts of weight limits and chair-smashing public humiliation? What will it be like to not have to obsessively strategize my wardrobe for maximum chub-concealment? What will it be like to simply take up less space? I feel as though I have never not been fat, and I have no idea what to expect. So, Hi!

Hey You! You are the one who gave me my pretty signature...in case anyone ever wondered. How are you?! I have seen your sister's Before/So-far pics on the Before/After thread and she looks wonderful. Did you ever get any weight gained? Good to see you, girl.

I am the queen of soda! Literally drank nothing but soda for years, Water rarely if ever passed my lips. A friend once drew a picture of me and it included a pepsi bottle in my hand. I literally would wake up in the middle of the night and go to the store to grab a coke sometimes. This is despite chronic dehydration, kidney stones, weight gain, and being Pre-diabetic for ten years. I was ADDICTED for realsies. So, when the time came I realized I was gonna have to give up pop for keeps I went balls to the wall with it. I didn't mess around with diet. I didn't mess around with carbonate calorie free juice. I just decided I had no other choice but to nip it in the bud and say sayonara. So what I did was I went out and bought a huge box of bottled water, but half in the fridge and half in my car. I also bought four of the naglagene (or however you say/spell it haha) bottles and kept them on a constant rotation. I basically just tried to keep as much water around me as possible at all times and forced mysel to drink it. I didn't chug it or anything I just drank it through the day. And found that I was drinking close to 80 oz a day. In the first few weeks it was excruciatingly difficult. I felt awful, had some killer headaches, felt like all that good in life was being deprived of me. But hey that's the nature of drug withdrawal (and believe you me caffeine and corn syrup are drugs) This was about a month and a half ago. I since can't live with out water, I don't really crave soda at this point, feel soooo much better, my face looks way better, I sleep better and I've lost 15 pounds (I was banded a little under two weeks ago.) I drink crystal light in an emergency. I have an occasional ice tea at the bar (I don't drink booze). Also, a friend in trying treat me brought me a coke slurpee today, I literally took two sips of it and felt sick. It didn't taste good and I couldn't believe I've been drinking that crap for years. So yeah, from the former Empress of Cola - you can do it! It may suck for a while but trust me you'll learn to love it. I say ditch it and the caffeine pronto cold turkey and you'll be surprised to find how much better you'll feel.

Tabatha - I was banded on April 10, 2009 and weighed 300 lbs at my heaviest. I am now at 146.5 lbs with an "ultimate" goal of 145. The lapband has been very very good to me. I do not do low carb, but I do focus more on Protein and Fiber. My weight loss has been steady since banding with a few bumps along the way while it took my body time to adjust. What has worked for me is adjusting the band to fit my lifestyle and needs and....yes EXERCISE. I'm not hungry in the mornings and usually in a hurry so I mix myself up a Protein shake with skim milk and drink that. Mid morning a few teaspoons of high fiber/high protein granola. At lunch, I try to eat sensibly and keep my calories under 400 for the meal. Late afternoon I usually have a yogurt with granola topping and then dont' eat dinner until around 7:30 - 8:00 pm. This helps me to stave off the munchies late at night. I don't eat alot of red meat anymore...more chicken, fish and pork. I also don't drink anything with caffeine or carbonation (although I have to admit that once in awhile I just crave a Coke, but rarely have a sip). Hubby and I also do some sort of daily exercise, mostly walking and hiking. If the weather is crappy, we go to the YMCA. Strength equipment really has helped to tone my arms and I will say that I have pretty darned good shoulders. It also has helped to tone up my lower body which used to be way bigger than my top, but I'm now the same size. I can eat anything, but usually reserve treats for the weekends/special occasions. I don't eat alot of Pasta, bread, potatoes, or rice, but they are not eliminated from my diet either. I just find that pasta, pizza, rice, potatoes tend to lead to a short term weight gain for a day or two because of the carbs. I don't keep alot of Snacks in the house that are tempting to me. The best advice I can give is find what works for you. If you're not hungry in the mornings, have a shake. If you get the late night munchies, eat dinner later. If it's a long time between lunch and dinner, have a small snack to tie you over. Incorporate some activity into your daily life. Drink plenty of fluids, focus on Proteins and fiber - they help keep you fuller longer. My life has changed alot in a year and a half. I have more self esteem. More energy. My thighs don't rub together. My feel don't hurt when I wear heels all day. I look good in clothes. I have a more positive attitude and handle stress better. My joints don't hurt (very often). My bloodwork is phenomenal. One NSV I had last weekend is from my postal carrier. I went outside to get a package from her and she asked if I was visiting. I said "no, I live here". She didn't recognize me. Couldn't believe I was the same person. That's a big change in such a short time. I really wish you the best. I feel so blessed and grateful to have the life I have now. It's what I wanted my whole adult life - to feel like I fit in and am "normal". I want the same for all.

Conquer Even Your Nastiest Cravings! by Bridget Kelly eDiets Senior Writer Do you eat healthful, balanced meals all day long until 4 p.m. or so, when a sudden and irrepressible craving for rich, dark chocolate or salty, crunchy chips strikes? Does your mind consistently wander to that pint of coffee-chip ice cream, tucked away behind the frozen broccoli, an hour or so before bed? Lately, a popular theory attests that craving a particular food means you must be deficient in one of its ingredients. For example, you might believe that hamburger hankering is due to your need for the Iron in red meat. But what's really behind those seemingly uncontrollable cravings, and how can you get a handle on them before they wreck your diet plan? While some cravings may indeed relate to a need for certain nutrients (as you'll see below), employing this reasoning as a blanket justification for nibbling on foods that are packed with fat and calories will only result in one thing -- weight gain. Many doctors and nutritionists dispute the claim, citing a lack of good evidence, and raise a solid point: If you're truly deficient in iron, say, why not crave other iron-rich foods, such as spinach or black Beans? When it comes to food cravings, researchers believe there are other biochemical and psychological processes at work. And they agree that understanding the cause behind a certain yen is the key to prevention. So follow these basic strategies for staving off any kind of craving, then identify your specific food lust and learn how to stop it in its tracks! Dodge the desire: Be a grazer. Nutritionists suggest that eating several small meals throughout the day (or three meals and a few light, low-fat snacks) can help to prevent cravings later in the day. Choose high-Fiber, low-fat foods to keep hunger at bay longer. Go cold turkey. Some research has shown that completely giving up a particular food can result in losing a taste for it. According to Elizabeth Somer, M.S., R.D., author of Food and Mood (Owl Books), the longer you go without eating a particular food, the less you'll crave it. Get distracted. When you feel a craving coming on, do something that will get your mind off of it. Go for a walk or make a phone call. After 10 minutes, you may notice that the craving has passed. Fast fixes for the top four cravings Although we all have our favorite must-have foods -- ranging from pickles to pastries -- there are some common threads when it comes to the provisions we pine for. Here, identify the type of food you desire, then read on to conquer that craving. The craving: sweets If visions of Cookies and ice cream dance in your head, what you may be craving more than the sugar in these foods is the fat that provides their texture, taste and aroma, according to Somer. Several studies have shown that fat and sugar may release endorphins into the brain (neurotransmitters that can produce a feeling of pleasure or euphoria). This hypothesis may explain why people crave that sweet, creamy taste -- it produces a pleasurable feeling. The solution: Guess what? Good old-fashioned exercise also appears to boost levels of endorphins (they're the same substances credited with the so-called "runners high"). So next time you feel like biting into a chocolate-covered ice cream bar, lace up those walking shoes or hop on your bike instead. You'll get the same pleasing feeling and the benefits of doing something good for your body. If you're on the job or unable to get immediate fitness gratification, you can still get the creamy taste and texture you yearn for from low-fat yogurt or cottage cheese with fruit. The craving: salt According to Somer, many women experience salt cravings related to premenstrual syndrome (PMS) since fluctuating levels of estrogen can interfere with the normal salt concentration in the body. Unfortunately, cravings for salt often result in the consumption of foods that are not only high in sodium -- dangerous for anyone with hypertension -- but also heavy in fat (think chips, French fries, pizza). Some studies have shown that people who are deficient in Calcium crave salt more frequently than those who are not. And Somer suggests the desire for salty foods, such as chips or pretzels, may have more to do with the wish to crunch than the actual salt. The solution: Try upping your calcium intake (which will also benefit your bones) with low-fat dairy foods or leafy greens. And reach for crisp, fresh, munch-able foods, like baby carrots or bell pepper wedges -- they make great stand-ins for that pretzel or chip crunch. If you can't forgo the salt, eat just one serving of low-fat, whole-grain pretzels. The craving: carbs Cravings for simple carbohydrates are most frequently associated with times of stress. The explanation behind this relationship? Carbohydrates found in such foods as crackers, breads, unsalted pretzels, and animal crackers have been shown to help boost levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin, shown to produce a feeling of calm and well-being. The solution: Anything that relieves stress can help to inhibit these cravings. Try deep breathing techniques, yoga or simple exercise instead of resorting to the refrigerator. When you feel the need to feed, go for Snacks of complex carbohydrates, such as yogurt or vegetables, which can help fend off cravings for simple carbs. The craving: chocolate They don't call them chocoholics for nothing. While it could fit into the "sweet and creamy" category by most definitions, chocolate's complexity and the fact that it is the most commonly craved food among Americans, according to Somer, earns it a class unto itself. Chocolate is the most difficult of foods to explain. According to researchers at the University of Arizona who last year conducted a review of the current research on chocolate cravings, the sensational combination of the fat, sugar, texture, aroma and several ingredients with addictive properties similar to those in psychoactive drugs, are most likely responsible for chocolate cravings. The researchers also suggest that these cravings can be a result of a magnesium deficiency. The solution: Uncompromising chocolate addicts may balk, but keeping other magnesium-rich foods, such as raw soybeans (a.k.a. edamame), on hand can be a quick fix. In cases where the longing is not due to magnesium deficiency, there's not much else that will fulfill cravings for chocolate, Somer says. She suggests sipping a cup of warm, low-fat cocoa, or plunging fresh fruit, like whole strawberries, banana slices and melon wedges, into fat-free chocolate syrup -- both of these approaches will add up to a lot less fat and calories than your average chocolate bar. The way you respond to food cravings just might make or break your success at weight loss and maintenance. Veering off from your eating plan occasionally will not be earth-shattering, but if you make a habit of giving in to your eating impulses, your moments of weakness will certainly catch up with you. The good news is, if you remember these tips you just might be able to conquer those pesky cravings. It will pass. Believe it or not, you can simply wait out a craving. Sometimes we may even mistake a craving for actual hunger. Playing the waiting game will help you distinguish between the two. If you still want something 20 minutes later, chances are you really are hungry. If you allow yourself a little time to take a pause before giving in, you may find the craving will disappear altogether. Get your mind on something else: take a walk, write in your journal, play a game. You may be pleasantly surprised to find time has passed and the craving has subsided. Drink up. A glass of Water, that is. While some suggest this is another method of "stalling" like the wait-it-out method above, you may find that drinking water satisfies your craving in and of itself. Sometimes we can mistake dehydration for hunger or cravings. Your body is telling you that you need something, and you assume it's food... take a chance and sip some H20, it may be just what you need. Give in... just a little. The bad thing about cravings is that when we give into them, we are giving in to an impulse. When you act impulsively you have lost some control. Which means you probably lose control of how much you eat, too. Take a moment to think about what you are doing. Try putting some scale. Never allow yourself to sit down with an entire carton of ice cream or a whole bag of chips. Take out a serving and put the rest away. Better still, purchase small portions to begin with. You will probably find that the first few bites actually squelch the craving anyway. Then, if the food is not already in your hands, you probably won't go back for more. Keep it real. You're a smart cookie. If you really want a chocolate chip cookie, that reduced fat fig bar is just not going to do the trick. Don't try to fool yourself. That's right, go for the "bad" choice. Remember "all things in moderation." Allow yourself to indulge in what you really want (just watch your portion size!) and you will not feel deprived. If you do not grant yourself this allowance, you are more likely to eat that fig bar and the chocolate chip cookie, because the former didn't really satisfy your craving.

I haven't been to the doctor for about a 2 months i haven't lost any weight. I was on all kinds of depression medication and stopped taking everything. I know that weight gain is a side effect of stopping medication like that, however I'm scared my doctor is going to get mad that I haven't lost any weight. I have an appointment today to get a fill, I just don't want the doctor to get at me or deny me a full... Has anyone else went through this?

The amount of belly fat is a factor, the thickness of the tissue inside the lining of the stomache is factor ... everybody's bodies are different. What matters most is that you have the proper restriction for weight loss. One of the symptoms of needing an unfill is weight gain. Too tight of a fill forces people to eat sliders which you can eat and eat and eat. You definately don't want that! Rest assured, the amount of fluid it takes for you to have restriction doesn't matter ... what matters is PROPER restriction when it comes to weight loss!

The Beginning of One Bandster’s Journey By Ivy Adamson’s Granddaughter The alarm sounded at 5:30 on the morning of January 13th, 2009. My husband leaned over to silence the buzzer, and then he turned and kissed my cheek. “Wake up, Honey. Today’s your big day.” No need to wake me up. I’d been lying wide awake since 4:00, and had only slept fitfully throughout the night in anticipation of this day. Sleep? Who can sleep on the night before surgery? And this wasn’t just any surgery. This was Lap Band surgery! This day, I would “cross over to the other side”—a term I had learned from lurking on weight loss forums. Sleep was the very last thing on my mind! Instead, a variety of surgery scenarios floated through my head: how much would it hurt? How long would the pain last? Would it be successful? These and other questions helped cause my lack of sleep, but dispersed in between the thoughts of how my surgery would play out were floods of memories. My mind forced me to relive snippets of the last fifteen years. Memories bounded back to me in random snapshots, with no respect for chronological sequence—just bits and pieces of events in my life that I could identify as times when I experienced the significant weight gains and losses that put me in a position today where I was facing bariatric surgery. I was married in the summer of 1993, and worked fulltime as a middle school English and reading teacher. I routinely beat myself up about being about 30 pounds overweight, but I was no where morbidly obese. By April of 1994, I was pregnant with our first child. This is when the first big weight piled on. I was sick with bad headaches every day of my pregnancy and developed pre-eclampsia. I gained 100 pounds by the time my son was born, and had a horrific birth, which resulted in an emergency cesarean to save both of our lives. Juggling the responsibilities of a fulltime work, and handling a tough pregnancy, and now a sickly child, who never slept through the night until way past his fourth birthday took its toll on me. However, with lots of determination and hard work, I took off 118 pounds within about 2 years. Our son was always ill, hardly ate, and was not meeting his developmental milestones. He was clingy and lived with permanent dark circles around his gaunt, sunken eyes. At 18 months, he had surgery to repair bilateral hernias. While in surgery, the anesthesiologist noticed that our son had a suspicious heart murmur. Subsequent visits to a pediatric cardiologist confirmed that he had a heart defect that would need to be repaired if he could ever gain enough weight to endure heart surgery. When he turned three and still could not speak intelligibly, we had him assessed by the school district and a pediatric neurologist. The word, “autism” was thrown around by the professionals, but we did not get a definitive diagnosis until he was at least five years old. The strain of caring for our child wore me down. I was permanently sleep-deprived, and constantly worried about his health. Additionally, I had decided to go back to school to work on a master’s degree, plus I continued to work fulltime. The weight began to creep back on. Looking back, I realize now that I was probably clinically depressed. No one ever suggested that I seek therapy, and I was too overwhelmed at the time to realize that I could probably use it. I was putting the needs of my child and my job first, leaving no time or energy to take care of me; hence, I continued to gain weight. I completed all of my course work for my master’s degree in the spring of 1999. I discovered I was pregnant with our second child in October of the same year; on December 15th, I turned in my thesis, thus completing all of my requirements to receive my diploma. And that same night, my husband, son, and I boarded a plane for two gloriously, tranquil weeks with my family in Barbados. I spent my time relaxing on the beach every day, and reading all four of Maya Angelou’s autobiographies. Each book was better than the last. Angelou impressed me with her indomitable strength and spirit to overcome all kinds of adversity. I thought I would like to have her strength; she was an example to me of the kind of woman I would want to be. Before long, I learned that I would have to summon some of Angelou’s strength to get me through the next challenge.

Hi there! I wish I could say that I am newly banded but that is not the case, I was banded in Aug 2008 and started out great. I lost 50 pounds in 4 months and was the lowest weight I can remember in a very long time. Then I got pregnant and gainned most of it back. But thankfully not all of it. Anyhow, not going to give a sob story, i blame myself for the weight gain. So this Wednesday I will be getting my first fill in over a year and would like some support and advice how to get back on the band wagon. i am really excited to get started again but I kind of feel like I have forgotten EVERYTHING. I would love someone to kind of hold me accountable, let me know what worked best for you, what does your week look like in terms of meals? And also I have a family of 3 little boys and a husband and would like some tips aswell how to make food we both can eat. I should also say I do have some very picky eaters. One thing I know about myself is that if I have guidance like a meal plan even for a couple of weeks it will really help me out. i am pretty good at following those types of things. Also if you are near Colorado SPrings that would be awesome but not necessary. Thank you!

Thanks- as to my doc(s), my endo is one of the best (I am told that other doctors will only use him and he is on staff with 5 hospitals) so who he recommended for surgery has to be good. On the surgeons website he was voted 'best of (mycity) several times. One consistent thing I have read is use an EXPERIENCED surgeon, this guys sounds top notch (in fact in making an appt last week the first available was Dec 1 (one concern I have there, is reading that folks 'never see their surgeon again...). For me its all about the 'vibe'- if I like him- thats good enough for me. As to work- I work in a warehouse environment. I am the 'grunt' for my department and regularly life 75 lbs. (tho with the weight gain I have slowed down, and also realize if I get hurt...who cares (i.e. if i wrench my back out, who is that helping). Once a decision is made (about lapbanding) I will talk to management. They have been very understanding about the diabetes (well they have to but...). So I will do what I need to do. As to the pups, I was at the dog park and a lady literally abandoned the scottie in front of me, walked out, didn't look back. I think it was meant to be. He is a year and a half old and being diabetic really gets me up and at em. We go to the dog park at least 4-5 times a week (if if were just me and he older bassetish I would be much more sedentary... I have an appt with my primary care on Tuesday. I called my insurance company, lapband IS covered, 80% + deductable.

The consequences for the caffine and liquor, other than the addiction factor, is an increase in the likelihood of getting an ulcer. Drinking after you eat will push the food through your sleeve faster, meaning you will be hungry again sonner...which leads to more calories and weight gain. Also depending on what you put in yr coffee, if anything, that and the liquor are just non-nutritional calories.

You're not the 1st patient who gained back 10 lbs. Nip the weight gain in the bud NOW, before it gets to 20 lbs and more. Your Dr. is there to help you, and get you back on track, not criticize a patient. Good luck, you got this !

When I was a baby, my father remarked to my mother: 'She's going to have problems with her weight in the future.' Apparently I was physically very similar to his mother. It turned out he was right but not for the reasons he believed. Ironically, it was his life choices that set me on the road to super morbid obesity. Whenever I want to imagine myself as slim and fit I have to go way back through the photo albums to the age of twelve or so. My thighs were so muscular, tanned and slim then! I ate normally, felt normally, behaved normally. I had friends at school, worked hard, and as the daughter of a vicar, was expected to behave impeccably. At the age of twelve my father abruptly left his children, his job and his wife for another woman and we had to vacate the vicarage quickly. We moved to a small, moldering terraced house in a rough part of Manchester. Our diet changed to extremely poor quality food as my mother struggled to care for her three children without the assistance of Child Support (I don't think it had been invented then). I ate to comfort myself, to choke down my feelings of abandonment and sadness. I stole change from my mother to buy sweets, I sneaked out of school at lunchtimes to go home and eat chips and cry on my own. My weight gain and my obvious differences in life experiences from my new classmates meant I was bullied, not only by the 'in crowd' of girls in their smart clothes, but also by my sadistic PE teacher, who on one occasion brought a tape measure into the girls' changing rooms and measured everyone's vital statistics. The closer to the fabled 36-24-36 they were, the more they were congratulated upon for being 'nearly right'. My home life didn't improve. My mother met a man who was an alcoholic and he moved in after their second date. Years of drink, violence, abuse and other horrors took its toll on my mental health and I began self-harming in secret. How is a fourteen year old schoolgirl, already reeling from changes in her life supposed to react when she comes home from school to find her stepfather passed out in the garden, his trousers to his knees, fully exposed and wet from urinating on himself? Worse still was later on when he had come round, expected to sit around the dinner table as if nothing had happened. My weight climbed and my self-esteem plummeted. At fifteen I went on my first ever diet. A quarter of a glass of grapefruit juice for breakfast, half a slice of dry toast for lunch and a quarter of a tin of mushroom soup for dinner. I lost weight, I obsessed about food constantly and my yo-yo had begun its lifelong twirling. I dieted several times in my life - sure to lose many stones then just as surely putting them back on and some. One does not simply wake up at 27 stone, it is the peak of years of food use, abuse and denial. My last big loss was in 2008 when I lost almost eight stone through strict diet and increased exercise. Four years later ... every stone is back and they, as always, brought a couple of friends back with them. I know this would have been the pattern for my almost certainly truncated life had I not had the incredible good fortune to have a mother about to receive a hefty inheritance along with a deep sense of guilt and regret for some of her life choices. I asked her several months ago if she would consider releasing some of the funds that she intended leaving to her children in the future early, enabling me to have private WLS. She said yes. It has happened very, very quickly. A medical screen by a bariatric nurse yesterday, followed by a consultation with a surgeon booked for next Tuesday. As soon as the funds come through (early December) I will have a date for a sleeve gastrectomy booked. The WLS is only ever going to be an aid, not a cure for my weight. I know I have years of poor eating habits and psychological difficulties to work on. But I have never been in a happier place personally than I am now. A husband (blimey!), a sense of direction (future children and employment) and a maturity of self set me in good stead for this undertaking. Bring it on.

So my insurance wants 6 months of medically managed weight loss. Keyword there is "loss". Thursday I go in for my 4-month check-in, and the papers that get filled out each visit will continue to show a weight gain. It was only about 2 or 3 weeks ago that I was put on a dosage of Metformin that doesn't make me sick, and I've lost about 3 pounds since then. Yet my forms will still show a 17 pound gain from when I first started my journey (Started at 360, ballooned up to 380, then got on Metformin and now at 377). I know I still have 2 months still to lose weight, but I'm afraid insurance is going to deny me and all my work will have gone to waste again, all because I wasn't back on Metformin until now.

The "advice" 3 dieting attemps ago was NEVER lacking in my case, LOL. We low carbed for 2 years at one point. (Hubby lost 100, I lost 50). Mind you most people can't get through their heads that there's a difference between LOW carb and NO carb. Even sitting across from you watching you eat salad, cooked veggies, and berries they are lecturing about the dangers. The minute we'd pass on white bread all the other stuff became invisible. Although my meat portion was no bigger than theirs the fact that I chose green Beans over baked potato meant my meat was going to destroy my kidneys. HUH? It was almost comical. Then many of the same people reminded me of how successful we were at low carbing when (after regaining what we lost and more) we decided on WLS and thought we should do that instead of surgery. ANd there were people who thought hubby should have WLS and praised his success then 2 1/2 years later made it clear that I should "consider" diet and exercise first. I really think that people (and we all do it in different ways) find giving advice and/or back-handed compliments to be a way of showing interest and care. It makes life less frustrating if I think of it that way. LOL I recently called a beloved niece who’s had RNY and has gained some weight back to tell her about the “band over bypass” surgery. I tried to think of how to bring it up so she’d have the information without coming off sounding like, “hey I’ve noticed you’ve gained a bit of weight too.” Know what? There is really no way to say it without that coming across. But I love this niece heavy or thin. AND she DOES have a pretty face heavy or thin. (I didn’t say that of course.) But knowing how much she’d gone through and how much WLS has changed her life I wanted to share that her weight gain isn’t because she failed to do what she should (as most people assume) but because the surgery had failed her (5 yrs out). I could tell that even though she still loves me and we are still close, she didn’t love that I mentioned it. She had previously mentioned her weight gain and what she’s trying to do to reverse it before I called with my golden information. Some areas are just touchy no matter how well meaning and encouraging we think we are being. Of course I also knew she was noticing MY weight gain due to having my band unfilled. But she didn’t call me to tell me to try RNY or sleeve. LOL Ironically just last night I was telling another RNY person the same (band over bypass) information and SHE was excited and is going to look into it. This whole conversation wasn’t initiated by me directly making a phone call. Maybe that made the difference? Maybe the relationship? Who knows. But I’ve obviously been on both sides of this fence. So since my comments are out of genuine love and concern, I have to assume other people's are too. :thumbup:

Tamg26k that's a good idea for a St Louis chapter for those post and pre op- it's great to read experiences but I have very little support here. Luckily my mom is slowly starting to be on board-but she's never had a weight problem-she's complaining of weight gain in her 60's and she's a size 8- LOL! I'm not sure what area would be convenient for people or what day (like maybe a Sat meet after the holidays for the StL peeps!

Hey fellow sleevers, I've just started thinking about the fact that I am on Estrodiol for hormone replacement (total hysterectomy at 33) and also Effexor for mild depression due to hormonal changes & to help with hot flashes. BOTH of these are known to have side effect of weight gain which is no doubt why I was able to put on over 100lbs in less than a year (that's way faster than normal). So just wondering from personal experience if weight loss has still been good if on either of these or has it not even been an issue. Also have Hypothyroidism which didn't happen till after Hyster also..... Thanks for any experience....

My advice is to stay off the scale for an extended period of time. Glycogenation is the most prevalent reason we see weight gain when starting a new exercise program. For instance, someone suddenly moves from a sedentary lifestyle to working out more. The abrupt lifestyle change from being sedentary to exercising several times per week increases the muscle’s energy storage capacity. Since a physically active body demands more fuel, it adapts by storing more of the carbohydrates you eat as glycogen in your muscle. For every gram of glycogen stored, our bodies store 3 to 4 grams of water with it. This adds up to 6 to 12 pounds of water weight for the typical person. So when you start a workout program you may have lost fat, but any progress you made is cloaked by water weight gain. You may have lost one or two pounds of fat the first week but gained several pounds of muscle glycogen during that time. Then you weigh in, see weight gain, and conclude your workouts were for nothing. Therefore, stay off the scale. You aren't gaining fat. Measure your progress during these first few weeks of exercise by how your clothes fit, not by the number on the scale.

I knew that my forthcoming period might make me gain a pound or so, so I didn't get on the scale for two days. Stuck to plan, however, and kept walking. I'm still pre menstrual but got on this morning: up SIX pounds! This is so discouraging, and it makes me want to stay home in bed. This can't be normal!!!

Am I the only one that is going through weight loss/weight gain in cycles around my monthly adjustments? Is it a first few months thing or is it something I am doing? I have lost 60 lbs so far and when I get an adjustment, I do really well, though I really have never felt much restriction. I keep hoping the doc will get aggressive since I have had no issues with vomiting or even coming close. Does all this eventually level out?

That is a load of horse puckey, he's full of crap. They should know to expect weight regain. I had a slipped band that was removed. I went from about 280 (at removal, up from a low of about 215) to just under 350 in 7 months. It is not realistic to expect no weightloss to occur when you're waiting on a revision. For one, your body is wired to want to gain weight, especially if your complication resulted in extreme restriction. For two, no matter how hard you try, it's going to be really easy to slip back into bad behaviors eventually -- just because you can. I started eating a Breakfast sandwich every morning even though I wasn't hungry, because the novelty of being able to eat breakfast was just so awesome... and then it became a behavior. Here's my take. Maybe you can use some of these points to reason with your surgeon. regardless of weight, being banded has given you some tools that should help with success with the sleeve: core behavioral changes, and understanding of what the whole WLS process is like; an idea of the mental road coming; an ability to find balance rather than short-term deprivation, etc. with nothing in place to restrict intake, how are you supposed to maintain weight? It is proven that when you stop losing, your body makes it much harder than normal not to gain. So you're in a more volatile gain period, and have nothing to help you (mechanically speaking). You lost weight because you had a band, so what's his rationale for it not being OK to gain when the band is gone? When my band came out, I gained almost 20 lbs in a week. But I still felt restriction, and I was not eating much more than before surgery. What I gained was not fat. It was weight. I'd been so fricking dehydrated that the Water weight just packed on. Most people who have their bands removed are fairly dehydrated because of it. You're going to gain some weight, and it's a healthy gain (not fat gain, weight gain - hydration in this case) Instead of seeing it "if you can't do it on your own, you can't do it with the sleeve" (which, if that ws true, no one here would be anywhere near goal because I can pretty much guarantee that everyone here tried to do it on their own, yet here we are...) he should be seeing it as "you're that much ahead of someone doing this for the first time, so let's get you some help and get you healthy."

Are you logging your food? Need to see how much Protein you are taking in, how many carbs, and then calorie count. Your metabolism might be in starvation mode and you may have to jump start it by increasing your food intake. Also make sure you are excerising. I've been stalled for three weeks, put on two pounds, and now back down and am hoping it continues to drop. But I'm a slow loser as don't have much weight to lose, so it will take more time for me to get those nasty pounds off. But I can't stress enough your need to log your food intake and make sure you get all your fluids in. I look at a stall like I did with my diets and weight gain. Yo-yo instead of up and down with weight gain and weight loss, now I yo-yo food intake and if it weren't for My Fitness Pal where I can log and it calculates I would be at a loss.