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I had never gone to a spa until about one week before my sleeve surgery, a little over 2 1/2 years ago. My friend and I were on a girls weekend in Vegas and she wanted to treat me to a massage. I was absolutely against it. Embarrassed and ashamed of my body. She told me it would be one of the best pleasures I would ever know. "Besides," she said, "nobody knows you, they will never see you again." So, reluctantly, I agreed. When we first arrived and they took us into the back to change, they told me I could go full nude if I wanted to, but--at the most--I had to strip down to my underwear and bra. I think I turned beet red. As they gave us a tour of the facility and its amenities, so many women were in the nude! Sitting in the sauna, steam room and hot tubs. Ugh! The movies were not so far off. I was so uncomfortable and I felt like I did not belong. I was surrounded by women who were comfortable in their bodies. I was not. But alas, there I was, so I stripped down to my underwear and bra, put on my robe, wrapped it around me and held onto it for dear life. I was offered some wine...which I gladly accepted to calm my nerves, and when I was called back into my massage room to meet my masseuse, I was MORTIFIED! The masseuse was a GUY, and I wanted to die. He told me he was going to step out of the room and allow me to take off my robe and get onto the massage table, under the sheets. When he shut the door, I seriously contemplated leaving. However, my friends words echoed in my head: I would never see this person again. I did as I was told and got under the sheets (and trust me when I say that I wrapped them tight, like a human burrito). He came in and talked to me in a very soothing voice. However, he noticed that I was fidgety and avoiding eye contact. He asked me if I was nervous. I admitted that I was, and I even confessed that it was my first time and that I was very insecure about my weight. He graciously told me, "Sweetie, every woman is beautiful. No matter her shape or size. This is going to be a relaxing and enjoyable experience, and I do not want you ruining it with such nonsense." Oh my goodness! What a wonderful and beautiful thing to say. I loved him from that moment on. My nerves and reluctance melted away and I REALLY enjoyed the experience! My-oh-my, that 80 minutes felt like 20 minutes! I wished it lasted longer (actually, I think he added on an extra 10 minutes; tipped him big too!). So, here I am. 30 months post-op. Learned to work my sleeve, eat right, religiously spending 8-10 hours in the gym a week, lost all of my excess weight, completed plastics, and loving my body. So, the girls and I had a spa day over the holidays and I decided to go fully nude in the hot tub, in the steam room and on the massage table. I wasn't uncomfortable. Totally owned it. I even had one of the girls who joined us (mind you, she is 10 years younger than me) say, "Jeez...what I would do for your body." [Mind you, yes I had the sleeve. Yes, I had plastics; but, I work my butt off in the gym lifting weights and sticking to an eating regime that is healthy 90-95% of the time. Some people love to say that I cheated to get this body, but I say all the sleeve did was give me QUANTITY control. The sleeve does not control QUALITY and it does not dictate my fitness. After 4 kids, major weight gain, rapid weight loss, there was no way that my skin was going to put itself back together. I am not ashamed of my plastics and praise my doctor for helping complete my weight loss journey.] Okay, mini rant over. So, anyway, I felt AWESOME. I have never, EVER, had the confidence that I do now. And my ability to confidently lounge around in the nude was my biggest NSV yet. For the first time I realized I was just like those women in that Vegas spa.

That's a good but difficult question. The simplest way to put it- the band doesn't change your behavior at all, it's your job to change your behavior. Very often, band patients do revert back to old behaviors if they haven't deal with the psychological aspects that lead them to obesity to begin with. There is a saying around here "the band goes around our stomachs, not our brains". If someone is eating for a reason other than physical hunger then they need to deal with that issue because the band can't change that. Another reason it's imperative to deal with the psychological issues of obesity is because the biggest weight gain "comfort foods" are also slider foods. Slider foods are foods that you can eat a ton of because they essentially liquefy when you eat them so they slide right through like the band isn't even there. For most of us (including me), chips are a slider. So is chocolate and ice cream. Some baked good are too- I found this out when I made homemade sugar Cookies last Christmas. When it comes to slider foods, you can easily binge and really sabotage your weight loss efforts. It's a slippery slope and one that really needs to be dealt with. What the band does do is allow you to be satisfied on much less food for much longer periods of time. Essentially, it controls hunger. This helps significantly for two reasons- it's a lot easier to eat less food and you're not so pre-occupied with food when you're not constantly hungry. If the band is removed, or Fluid removed, it is common for weight gain because all the sudden your appetite comes back with a vengeance. Last summer I had to have a total unfill for surgery (not band related). I got out of the hospital and I swear I was starving. I mean... my stomach was growling hungry all the time. I didn't gain weight during that time but boy it wasn't easy. Getting my band refilled couldn't come quick enough. If I'd had to stay like that long term, or worse lost my band forever, I have no doubt I'd gain weight. My personal feeling is, the better mentally prepared you are for the necessary changes with the band the better off (and more successful) you'll be. Best wishes.

I think alot of people see an initial weight gain right after they get home from the hospital because they've had you on IV fluids continuous and medications can sometimes affect things too. Hang in there, you'll see the scale go down soon.

Splenda is what I use. I hate Stevia/truvia, it makes an awful after taste in my mouth. Aspertame like in crystal light and Equal give me killer head aches. Plus Aspertame is linked to weight gain. Never liked saccarine/sweetnlow. I also use a tbsp of honey a day in tea since it has a low glycemic index and doesn't raise my blood sugars. Splenda is closest to regular sugar on a molecular level. So that is how I feel its best for me.

I got pregnant on the band and did not need to unfill during the pregnancy. With that being said, I maintained my 5cc fill throughout pregnancy as well as breastfeeding and it did not result in early drying or lack of milk/poor weight gain. Consult with your physician.

I too love to cook and bake. I found that baking dog biscuits helps tame my desire to have flour up to my elbows, keeps me cooking without any danger of weight gain and makes all the dogs around very happy! Good Luck

I am 25 years old 5’ 4’’ 240 ish lbs (~41 BMI) and I have been struggling with uncontrollable weight gain due to Hashimotos and PCOS for the last 7 years. I haven’t been told by any doctors that I should get a sleeve done and it won’t be covered by my insurance but I am willing to do financing. I will be talking to my endocrinologist tomorrow but I am afraid they aren’t going to want me to do it (Idk why I think I’m just nervous). I have already found a surgeon and location to do it Ive just got to make a final decision. Just looking for opinions!

I have BCBS also HMO in Massachusetts and they didn't ask for this form. I needed a referral from my primary and then document was submitted for approval. I just happen to be with the same doctor for over seven years and they had a record of my weight gain and lose over the years maybe that is what they used. But speak with BCBS and they asked me several questions and he said if you can answer yes to one of them then you will qualify. His questions were is my BMI over 40 - yes are you over 100 pounds over weight - yes does your doctor recommend this - yes, over the past few years have you tried any other method and list the methods - yes I named them all. Can you see if you can talk with your primary and get referal or he or she can write the letter for you to BSBS? I hope all goes well for you!

I am 5'2" tall and 180 lbs, looking for an advice which procedure best and safest. I spoke to my family doctor and suggested the balloon but my worry there, can I maintain my weight after taking the balloon out after 6 months or gain back? I did Keto for 4 months and lost 20 lbs but gained back when I traveled somewhere for 2 weeks as I used to do exercise and cook my keto food. Until I slowly feel that my weight gained back and can't keep my keto routine and exercise. My family doctor says Gastric Sleeve surgery is irreversible and if there is an infection and something wrong or not for me, I can't put it back. And later on, there must be a serious side effect. And now I am here, I don't know what to do. Please drop advise and opinion and encouragement here please!!!!!!!!!

Depression and anxiety are two things that can not only derail our weight loss success but they also undermine our general health. Despite getting WLS and succeeding for a long time you are facing a health crisis due to your depression and anxiety. I have always been a person that family and friends come to for advice and comfort. When I experienced something in my life that caused me anxiety I had no one to turn to. That was until I met a 90 plus WW2 veteran when I was volunteering at a veterans event. What an amazing person he is. I am able to talk to him about my problems and he seems to always have the best advice or a perspective that I didn't see. By being able to talk honestly with someone and "lay bare my soul" I was able to begin the healing process. I suspect that you too need a person to talk to. Is there someone that you know who can offer you unfiltered advice? It's important not to bottle up your feelings and to let them out. Depression and anxiety are silent unlike a heart attack, they creep up on you without you knowing and then you're in their grasp. Fight back, find someone who will listen and offer advice and most of all a sympathetic ear. The one person that I thought would help was my therapist, unfortunately I see her for 45 minutes every two weeks and I needed more counseling than she could offer. Attack the depression and anxiety and you will overcome the weight gain. I wish you and your family the best.

I would be having a heart to heart wil your doctor!! If you are gaining weight because you are eating too much, you need a fill. In fact, weight gain is one of the indicators that you need a fill. Don't forget, you are a consumer that PAID for him to assist you in losing weight. You did not pay him to chastise you for eating too much. I think journaling what you eat is a great idea and you should do it so you are more aware of what you are putting in your mouth. Don't be afraid of disagreeing with your doc and questioning his decisions. ( I am married to one and disagree with him on a regular basis : ) ) If you are not pbing regularly, push for the fill. I felt no restriction at 6 cc, I now have 9 cc in a 10 cc band and really could use more!! Good luck!

I've been reading this forum for a couple of weeks and decided to register today. There is a lot of good information here, but some of it scares the daylights out of me! :omg: It was recently recommended by my Endocrinologist that I consider this surgery as my diabetes has progressed rather rapidly. Those of you who are diabetic and on insulin know the weight-gain that accompanies insulin. I am at my heaviest ever, and I know that losing weight is the only way to reverse the path I am on. The more I read about side-effects, the more leery I become about trying this technique. I have a delicate GI system to begin with, and don't want to spend the rest of my life vomiting or in pain.:sick What is PBing? I cannot seem to figure that one out.:cry Anyway... does anyone regret getting banded? Do most people have problems? Can you live a normal life after?

Another thing to consider: Are you constipated? If food is going in, but not coming out, that can lead to weight gain, or at least not losing.

Hi, I just found this site because I am considering lap band surgery and have been diagnosed as PCOS. I hear your story and sounds too much like mine. I battled weight problems as a child and around age 18 I became very athletic and muscular- weight was 140 for a little while. After college the ability to exercise 2 hours a day slowly diminished and the weight crept back up. After a rough time with work and a feeling of depression I settled on taking an antidepressant. Within 4 months I gained 40 lbs and the weight has slowly crept higher and higher to my current 235 lbs. It took only about 2 years or less to make it to 220 and then the 235 in the last couple years. I have been off the medication a few years now- fearing it caused the weight gains. But haven't lost any weight since being off it. I was diagnosed last year with PCOS only after bringing it to my OBGYN's attention because I could not understand why- no matter what I tried- I could not lose weight. I knew there was a problem when I trained for (5 months) and completed a century ride in 2000 - among several bike rides that were 50+ miles. Then in 2007 I trained (5 months) for and completed a 1/2 marathon (walking). My clothes actually felt tighter! I was going out of my mind!!! Why didn't I lose ANY weight?? I think we have all felt the devastation of saying "this is the last time I am trying another new thing to try to lose the weight." And if you're like me you keep doing more and different things just to see if it will change life because you really can't give up. I still haven't given up exercising because that is the one thing that keeps me from laying in my bed and feeling sad. Not that I don't feel it some days. It's also hard because alot of friends and family really just want to believe "if only you ate this way" or "you just have to keep up with the exercise." They don't understand and I've worked harder than they have- only to feel like I achieved nothing in batttling the weight problem. Alot of people see it as willpower- I only can smile at them and say "thanks for your advice." I still have a hard time believing that all my efforts resulted in almost zero weight loss. Today is a good day for me and I feel okay about my weight- tomorrow might not be so happy- but I at least hope you see that you are not alone. There are a generous number of women out there battling the same problem- It sounds like you will find a good handful of them- with support- if you need it on this site. I'm hoping I can get alot of support as well because I have tons of questions!!! I do hope you feel better- sorry for the long post, I just didn't want you to feel alone in this battle- I'm right next to ya! :ohmy:

Hi everyone, I am not yet banded but after thinking about it for the last year, I want to do it and I am working on insurance approval right now. I am doubtful that they will do it, so if I have to self pay I am sure that won't stop me. I have a 37 BMI with Acid Reflux, depression from the weight gain (I am sure that covers a lot of us and I was gestational insulin dependent diabetic when I was pregant (3yrs ago). I check my sugar and I have had numbers in the 200's-300s at time but it goes pretty low like 78 after eating too so my A1C is I belive .1 away from being considered Type 2 Diabetes but I am taking the Glucophage to keep it down currently. I have Priority Health and you have to have <35BMI and two comorbidities. I am not real hopeful that I will be approved, although my Dr. is.... Anyway I was wondering if anyone is in a similar situation and my biggest battle with keeping the weight off is hunger - the glucophage is helping with that - but I feel hungry all of the time and fighting with that is very hard. Do you feel the banding does a good job with reducing hunger after a while? I have a son turning 3 and a supportive and loving husband that I want to be able to keep up with. I find that my body image/self esteem keeps me from doing so many things that I did before. Well, I hope to learn a lot from everyone here. Thanks and I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday weekend:laugh:

Seroquel is usually prescribed for serious psychological conditions, not for sleep. It can cause substantial weight gain in some cases. There is another drug in its class, Latuda, that treats some of the same psychological conditions that Seroquel does but is not associated with weight gain. You may want to ask your doctor whether your condition can be treated with Latuda or another weight-neutral drug.

I Weigh myself every morning and have noticed a pattern of a 2 lb gain the day after I've had a big workout. Yesterday I rode my bike 14 miles and supposedly burned 1200 calories but rather than drop a lb I'm up two this morning. WTF! The same thing happened earlier in the week after a very intense 75 min Yoga class and last week after a long bike ride. My weight will drop down again after a day or two but it is very frustrating. Has anyone else experienced this? Could it be some sort of inflammation? I'm not feeling unusually sore, just the usual creaky antique-y issues.

I had to take a standard personality test before the psch eval. The Pschologist then went over the test which didn't reveal anything I didn't already know. He then asked me what I thought led to my weight gain and what kind of support system I had for after the surgery and if I had a current therapist. That was about it. Took all of maybe 30 minutes. Just answer the quetions honestly and you will do great.

It is almost physically impossible to gain two pounds of fat in one day. Especially with the sleeve. I echo the above posters, Water weight gain. Any number of reasons, but it is likely the culprit. As long as you are following your plan, I couldn't see it being anything else. Also, if you've had a thyroidectomy, you will want to check in with your endocrinologist or whoever is following your thyroid hormone levels. As you lose weight, your blood levels will need to be checked and you may need adjustments in your hormonies.

I will be starting the program for gastric bypass and this app has been very helpful but the people out here near me really haven't they speak much about weight gain after an irreversible surgery. Has anyone been there or knows someone who after 3years or so gained the weight back ? Is this prone to happen Or is it only those people who choose not to stick to a program? Im nervous anxious Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Congrats on the 50 lb loss!!!! That's why you're here isn't it? Support! The only thing my mother-in-law ever seems to notice is weight gain not loss so there must be two really good ones out there, brandyII.

I'm in the same boat as Misha. I'm pursuing it for other reasons, but have my fingers crossed that it will also help my PCOS and its ugly symptoms. I think at most we can place hope in the potential of WLS to aid with PCOS+symptoms, but I'm personally too pragmatic to get my hopes up for 100% resolution for 100% of all PCOS symptoms/side effects alone From my understanding and time spent googling studies and such, the odds are in our favor to see a lot of the irregularities and problems brought about by PCOS disappear (i.e. regularity, fertility, hormonal re-balancing or w/e...), but nothing indicates that PCOS+symptoms are resolved 100% of the time. I think stats I found were roughly around 70-85% resolution following WLS (note: none of the studies I found seemed to be conducted on more than 1-2 dozen subjects w/observations generally spanning 2-2.5 years). It may be worth noting that none of the studies I came across gave any detail regarding whether or not patients developed PCOS following weight gain or had symptoms prior to obesity... I think this information would be valuable to know -- since you don't necessarily have to be overweight to develop PCOS in the first place... **This is where I try to keep my hope for 100% symptom resolution, lol. Like "Maybe the 15-30% that didn't see improvements in their PCOS were just genetically predisposed to it in the first place"? If anything - I'd like to think: "since my PCOS developed in correlation with inches on my waist line and lbs on the scale" and as my androgen levels and other fun hormonal things went out of balance, that tilting the scale back in the opposite direction should logically reverse some of these effects. I think it's good to hope and to know that if concerns are for fertility/regularity -- that things are in our favor. However, one grey area that remains for me is with the smaller stuff such as break-outs and even worse - the unwanted hair growth I believe that acne problems should subside as my body changes and as I improve my health. I can actually place more blind faith in this. However, I have known 2 people who have had bypass 2+ years ago and know that while fertility and stuff did improve, they still have problems with unwanted hair growth... If anyone has seen resolution of this symptom as well following weight loss or WLS, I'd really like to know!? At present, I've retained a shred of hope that the hair growth will slow/disappear based solely on me preferring to think that maybe these two women were just genetically prone to growing fur or bristles... Another part of me thinks that while the hair growth may have been encouraged by PCOS, that getting my hormones and stuff back in check isn't necessarily going to tell those already established hair follicles or w/e to go away. For this reason, I'm probably best off planning to pay for laser hair removal on these areas after PCOS (hopefully) is resolved D: Note: I'm only pre-op though and know we would all love to see a collection of responses from post-op patients that had great success from hair to fertility

Not a bad glitch, but because I have new insurance since my surgery, I had to switch to a different clinic and already have an appointment to see the surgeon there AND the NUT on the same day. This clinic has a superb reputation and I know many people who had successful surgery with this surgeon, so I'm happy I was able to see him. I loved my surgeon, but the NUT affiliated with him does not take my new insurance and the new place will give me unlimited NUT appts at no cost if I am their patient. I am waiting for a bunch of stuff they are mailing me, including some stuff from the NUT that is reset info! WHOOP! i'm happy to be refocused.

sanadramae - I am sorry for your loss and other issues, I know how hard these things can be.. But I am going to tell you right now STOP STOP EATING THAT CRAP.... It really doesn't make you feel any better - no it makes you feel guility... Quit eating right this very second..... Go back to eating healthy you can do it - you did it before In our lives we allow for a margin of error – which we should also do when trying to eat healthy – if you are eating 1000-1200 calories a day – allow for some of those calories to be used for a little bit of something you really want (chocolate - have a healthy choice fudgecicle - it's s/f & 80 calories)- you need wiggle room in your diet to make it work (I save my morning and afternoon snacks for night time which is my worst time) – the all or nothing practices has to be thrown our of your mind. You can learn to reprogram your mind to strip away the guilt that comes with dieting. You have to realize that it’s not that the first slice of cake that will doom your diet – it’s the second or third or whole thing that leads to weight gain. You have to listen to your body & respond smartly to your cravings and emotions but over time you will learn how to eat right and mange your craving and that’s when you’ll train your brain to stop obsessing about eating right and punishing yourself – If you stop over thinking you’ll stop over eating.. Good Luck to you...<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>

Hello Everyone ! I was sleeved a year ago after going through gastric band first 6 years ago. I am finding it hard to eat. I have major heartburn so still taking Omeprazol each morning, i am kind of under weight now and still cant get food down easily. At time even liquids are hard to keep down as something is blocking the passage. Anyone has experienced this before ? and will it ever get better ? I hear people talking about weight gain and some people can eat all kinds of things few months after surgery, which makes me wonder why i am suffering this much a year after my surgery? What is your experience and what do you think???