Search the Community

It’s unlikely to be fluid retention but it would be your best interests to have your kidney function checked before looking at taking diuretics. Have you spoken with your surgeon or your dietician? Ask your dietician to review your diet & activity. 1000 calories seems a lot at 2 months but every plan is different & if you’re more active you can consume more calories. Stalls are common through out the weight loss phase where we don’t lose but weight gain like you’ve identified isn’t. Have you continued to lose inches even though the scale has gone up? Are you weighing yourself on the same set of scales, in the same place, at about the same time? Are you weighing & logging everything you eat & drink each day to ensure you’re not accidentally consuming more? I encourage you to go back to your medical team. Good luck.

I had Sutton 2006 I have gained about 50 back from the 130lbs that I lost. Any suggestions on losing weight at this point.

I just re-read the post and realized you had a band slip....did they remove your band or put it back in place? are you filled or unfilled? Guess, getting a fill as I suggested may not work if you are having problems with the band. I can say that when I had that weight gain, I couldnt get immediately in to see my doctor, so for several weeks I counted cals/carbs and measured my food so that I could stop the weight gain and get control of my eating. Those tips the others have given are so awesome too....drink Water, herbal tea, broth, sugar free Jello or a popsicle, fruit n cheese....something light at night if you still feel hungry. Sometimes when you think you are hungry , you are really just thirsty and water should do the trick. Maybe also do an inventory of your feelings at the time you decide to snack...am I just bored? am I eating a snack out of habit? am I trying to make myself feel better/satisfied in someway? am I really "hungry"? It sounds like you did alot of work to lose all that weight and kept it off all that time...I'm sure once you put your mind and heart into it, you can lose the weight again. And just think, the weight you have gained is really nothing in comparison to what you have lost in total. Believe in your self!

Don't be sad! It's not real weight gain. That's impossible as early out as you are. It's just your body acting wacky because of the rapid weight loss and lack of food. Happens to ALL of us. Here's the scientific explanation why it happens: Our bodies use glycogen for short term energy storage. Glycogen is not very soluble, but it is stored in our muscles for quick energy -- one pound of glycogen requires 4 lbs. of Water to keep it soluble, and the average glycogen storage capacity is about 2 lbs. So, when a patient is not getting in enough food, the body turns first to stored glycogen, which is easy to break down for energy. Then when 2 lbs. of glycogen is used a patient will also lose 8 lbs. of water that was used to store it -- voila -- the "easy" 10 lbs. that most people lose in the first week of a diet. However, when the body stays in a caloric deficit state the body starts to realize that this is not a short-term problem. Then the body starts mobilizing fat from adipose tissue and burning fat for energy. But the body also realizes that fat can't be used for short bursts of energy. So, it starts converting some of the fat into glycogen, and rebuilding the glycogen stores. As it puts back the 2 lbs. of glycogen into the muscle, 8 lbs. of water has to be stored with it to keep it soluble. So, even though the patient might still be losing energy content to their body, the weight will not go down or it might even gain for a while as the retention of water dissolves the glycogen that is being reformed and stored.

I'm impressed that you're writing here only a day out. I didn't feel terrible, but definitely didn't feel like I could put together a sentence. I think the anesthesia really made me tired. The IV fluid, I think, is the reason for the "weight gain" and it will come off fast. I don't know if this will make it even more unpalatable, but could you mix the pain med into your protein shake? I didn't need it after the first night at home. Hopefully that will be the same for you and you won't have to worry about how bad it tastes soon.

if u know u r eating poorly then stop lol. the weight gain could be perfectly normal. about 3 weeks out i gained 2 lbs and hit a stall. i just kept following the plan and after 2 weeks the scale went down again. remember, protein first! at 2 weeks u shouldn't be past mushies so be careful. even if u feel ok u can still damage ur sleeve.

hope all works for ya-Im definitely a slow loser-drives me nuts-I was banded April 27th and have lost 40 pounds-18/20 was in first week/10 days.sighhhhhhhhh-actually i think im back at a 5-10 pound weight GAIN but didnt bring scale with me to ND so not sure.

Well... this past weekend was not as good as I should have been but I didn't eat that much. I might have made a couple few bad choices. :rolleyes Overall I have been eating much better. The trainer at the gym told me to stay off the scale and that a weight gain is very possible at first since I am doing weight training along with the cardio. But the scale is soooo addicting!

I'm single, and my mom is always saying after my surgery I may want to start dating. I tell her I doubt it, if a guy does not like me now because I'm over weight, I will not give him the time of day when I'm thinner. Plus I can not wait to become thin and see my exhusband who left me because of my weight, and flant myself in front of him, and then tell him where he can go. JERK I agree with mini-me, why should we be treated any less because we are over weight. I say they are the shallow ones, and we maybe come thin, but I think we will all treat overweight people like everyone else because we have been there. I can say from personal experience that when I was younger and thin, I did treat overweight people different, and I was a very shallow person, and I guess you can say maybe the Lord made me this way for a reason, because with the weight gain, I became a good person on the inside, and now I feel what all those people I made fun in high school felt, because they were over weight. I hope this made sense. lol

Fried shrimp is not a sin. I know you are being facetious, but the drama decreases your ability to put things in perspective. Less than perfect choice? yes. Going to cause weight gain and undo your WLS? no. Put it in perspective, learn from it, and move on. Maybe you are not a horrible person because you ate fried shrimp. Maybe the truth is that you gave in to a craving and you are panicked that this is the beginning of the end for you? The thing about humans is that we are not perfect. The thing about successful WLS is that it's what we do 95% of the time, and that we do it for the long haul. One last word of advice - be honest with yourself. Was it 3, 4, or 5 shrimp? As you get closer to goal, it gets harder and harder to lose. If you don't learn in the early days what it takes for your body to lose, you'll find yourself befuddled as to why you are stuck. I do applaud you for taking it seriously. You'll be fine.

The LA Times had an interesting article on weighing this morning. Thought I'd share it here for those who don't get the Times and see what you guys thought. Dieters, step on your scales <LI style="LIST-STYLE-POSITION: inside; LIST-STYLE-TYPE: square">Those who weigh themselves regularly have a better chance of losing extra pounds, a recent study finds. But not all experts agree. By Rosie Mestel, Times Staff Writer Losing weight is hard — and you might say hardly studied. Only recently have scientists clinically shown that the widely used Atkins diet actually works, and they've yet to definitively weigh in on another diet-related question: Does regularly stepping on the scales help a dieter lose weight? Sure it does, say many weight loss experts. Weighing yourself is a clear way to monitor progress or catch (and nip in the bud) a slow, steady uptick in lardage. Not so fast, say others. The glacially slow nature of weight loss, plus those spiky daily fluctuations in body weight, might actually make dieters more apt to throw in the towel. ADVERTISEMENT Now, just in time for the waist-expanding holiday season, a new study has come down on the side of daily weigh-ins. Published in the December issue of the Annals of Behavioral Medicine, it reports that dieters who weighed themselves regularly shed more pounds over a 24-month period than people who didn't regularly weigh themselves. Those who weighed themselves daily lost the most. To the authors, the implications are clear: Dieters should be encouraged to weigh themselves — and often. "We talk to people about monitoring calories daily, about monitoring their exercise daily…. if we're asking them to do those … on a daily basis, then why not add this other recommendation?" says Jennifer A. Linde, lead author of that study and an assistant professor at the school of public health at the University of Minnesota. Yet there's a chicken-egg caveat here that some critics point to and that even those who believe in the findings acknowledge. Sure, successful dieters may weigh themselves more. But the studies don't tell you what caused what — just that the two things correlate. It's fun to step on the scales when you're succeeding. When the numbers are nudging upward or stubbornly refusing to change … less so. "They're assuming that weighing yourself frequently leads you to lose weight. I think losing weight makes you weigh yourself more frequently, because — 'I'm losing weight, yes, yes, I'm down another pound,' " says Janet Polivy, a professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Toronto, who is not a fan of the bathroom scales. That confusion is why, to this day, you'll sometimes get roomfuls of PhDs and MDs sitting around discussing an issue you'd think 21st century science might have put to bed by now. A curious study from the 1960s points to the potential effect of frequent weighing. Eight overweight women in a small private college were enrolled in a weight loss plan, part of which consisted of coming in to be weighed four times a day. By study's end the women had lost an average of 40pounds each. The study was small; it lacked important controls. But it was intriguing. "People in that group lost more weight than any study since then in nearly 40 years," says Dr. Joseph A. Risser, director of clinical research for Lindora Medical Group, which runs the Lean for Life weight loss program. The scales couldn't possibly have registered real loss from one weigh-in to the next — but maybe, Risser muses, something else was going on, such as a reminder of the mission the dieter was on. His own studies of more than 600 clients show that those who were weighed five times weekly lost more weight (24 pounds) than those weighed twice weekly (19 pounds). The new study by Linde and colleagues tapped statistics from two populations. One was a group of 1,800 obese or overweight adults enrolled in a weight loss trial. Participants were asked at the study's start and at intervals thereafter how often they weighed themselves. After one year, monthly, weekly and daily weighers all lost weight on average, but those who weighed themselves daily lost the most — about 8 pounds. (Those who never weighed themselves gained weight.) The other data came from 1,226 adults in a weight gain prevention trial. At 12 months, those who weighed themselves daily had lost about 2 to 3 pounds. Those who weighed themselves less often, or not at all, actually gained weight.In both studies, significant differences were also seen at two years. People who weighed themselves also did other healthy things such as exercise more, but the self-weighing effect was statistically significant on its own, Linde says. James O. Hill, director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado, says the findings fit with a registry of adults who have lost at least 30 pounds and (even more impressive) maintained that weight loss for a year or longer. A key thing those succeeders report, Hill says, is regular self-weighing — at least weekly, and often daily. (They also have an emergency plan of action for when the reading creeps above a crucial number of pounds.) Focusing on the long term Psychologist Patrick M. O'Neil, director of the weight management center at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, says he's a strong proponent of daily weigh-ins, based on Hill's data and his own clinical experience — but that the practice should be paired with a weight chart that focuses on trends, not short-term, zigzag fluctuations. "It's sort of like tracking stock prices," he says. "You know they're going to vary day to day." Regular weighing is one thing. But every single day? After all, hormonal changes, Fluid intake, sweating, medications and salt intake cause day-to-day, hour-to-hour differences in body weight of up to several pounds. At Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers, dieters weigh in each week with their personal consultants or at meetings. "We encourage them to take a break from daily weigh-ins because weight fluctuates," says Jenny Craig spokeswoman Gail Manginelli. "It can be demoralizing." Meanwhile, there are some specialists who think either daily or weekly scale-hopping may have downsides. Psychologists and psychiatrists who treat patients with eating disorders note that encouraging people to weigh themselves might exacerbate such pathologies. Other scale-doubters, such as psychologist Michelle Dionne of Ryerson University in Toronto, believe self-weighing can also be counterproductive in psychologically healthy folks who just want to shed some poundage. Among the studies she points to: ones in which students were brought into an experimental clinic and weighed — but on fixed scales that actually recorded their weights as heavier or lighter than they truly were. Students led to think they were 5 pounds heavier than they had thought scored significantly lower on psychological scales measuring mood, selfesteem and body satisfaction. In one of the studies, students were also provided with a tasty snack right after the weigh-in — and the ones who'd been bamboozled into thinking they were heavier than they were ate significantly more of that snack. "I would suggest there are some people who are going to receive really helpful feedback and reinforcement from self-weighing," Dionne says. "But there's another group of people, whom we call for lack of a better word 'vulnerable,' who … may feel worse about themselves, dislike their body to a greater degree and start engaging in behaviors that may lead to weight gain." Experts debate how students given false information in a lab relate to real-life dieters using scales to monitor their progress. But even proponents of weighing advocate restraint. "I don't think anyone in a responsible professional position has argued for weighing oneself more than once a day," says O'Neil. "We do not want to encourage people to turn this into a fetish." If you do weigh in With that caveat in mind, here are some tips from various specialists about the best way to weigh yourself if you choose to. • To minimize variation, always weigh at the same time of day, such as in the morning just after having used the bathroom. • If you are weighing yourself daily, understand that your weight will vary day to day. It's the trend that's important. You may find it useful to make a graph of your weight. • Put the scale on a flat, uncarpeted surface so the readings don't wobble. • Use a scale that is consistent, giving the same weight when you step on, then off, then on again. That's more important than the type of scale you buy. Use the same scale each time. • Don't get fixated on the scale. Monitor your body change in other ways, such as the fit of your clothes, a tape measure or how you physically feel. • To the best of your ability, try to gauge how the weighing makes you feel, and if it is reinforcing — or undermining — your efforts.

Im thinking of doing it because on top of the 75-80lb i also have pseudo tumor cerebri which is caused by weight gain, migraines, urinary incontinence, positional sleep apnea, joint and back pain, high cholesterol and pre diabetes so its so much more than the extra weight but i was just wondering about RNY since the friends that i know are bony skinny, thanks for your answer

I am still on full liquids, just started them yesterday so I'm having 1/4c 3 times a day plus my fluid. I am VERY hungry, not head hunger, actual stomach growling making lots of noise I feel like I'm starving hunger. Is that just because my food is sliding right through my stomach? There is no retention of the food to make me feel full? I will stay full for about 1 hour after eating but that's it. What advice do you all have? Should I have 1/4c of full liquids more than 3 times a day? One of my servings is no more than 25-40 calories depending what I have so it's not like it will be a weight gain issue. Please help.

I love my band, everybody has a different reason for getting their surgery. I am also a quantity eater and this limits you or else you suffer the consequences like getting stuck or feeling so full I can't stand myself. The sleeve or bypass does not limit the amount of food from what I have read. I am 4 years out and do not ever plan on getting my band removed unless it is definitely causing any major problems. I still gain a few pounds over the holidays but get back to business after the first of the year. I love my popcorn and tend to go overboard on that for a while and then I am good for a few months. I believe the weight gain is the salt because we do not use salt at our dinner table or in cooking. This is a choice you need to make on your own and I really don't care if anybody else agrees or not with me. This band has saved my life and that is proof to me that this was the right choice. If something drastic changed and I had to have the band removed I don't know what drastic surgery I would choose. The sleeve and gastric are very risky operations and right now I would not be comfortable with either one if I had to choose. Good luck and enjoy your band and don't let people get you down because if it works for you that is all that matters.

Beautiful before, stunning afterwards photo. Thank you for reminding everyone that the hunger can come back. I get hungry now too, much to my dismay. Making bad choices can cause back weight gain. Hugs - and keep rocking your sleeve.

Hi All, My surgery date of 9/21/09 has been postponed. My initial consultation was in July and the surgeon told me to lose 40 pounds. Two weeks later my husband had a heart attack (hospitalized for 8 days) and I coped the only way I really knew how.... I gained 10 pounds. So, fast forward to 9/7/09, when I started Optifast in prep (2 wks) for surgery...I completed 10 days of the liquied diet and lost 14 #s...but only 4, according to the dr due to the 10 pound weight gain. So, I've been out off until 10/20/09 so I can lose 30 more pounds. I'm glad the surgeon is being firm but I also feel depressed about it. My husband is fine, btw, and I feel less stressed now. So, I guess I continue to diet and now I will also exercise. Please, say something nice to me. I haven't cried yet but I'm kinda close to it...

Dear All, Well I finally took the plunge after fighting to keep my weight under control with diet and exercise for over 20 years. I am a low BMI bander (36 at banding) but I chose to use this tool after years of failure and in anticipation of deteriorating health and more weight gain as I aged. I am one week in and very excited about the future, while at the same time very apprehensive. I chose to use the band to assist me primarily with portion control. I have decided after many years of assessment that I love exercising and I love my unhealthy foods and that my main issue was lack of portion control with bad foods (i.e. eating the whole pizza instead of just one slice!). So my goal is to lose weight slowly but try and live a relatively normal life with a wide variety of food selections, just eating much less of them. So I am not too concerned about making sure my diet is perfect and healthy, just reasonable. Perhaps I am naive but given that I exercise 5-6 days per week and don't mind that and given that over the next couple of years I only want to lose 50 lbs, I think the balance and trade off can work. So that having been said I want to ask all of you (and this forum has proven to be a fantastic resource I must say) for your guidance and experience on the eventual diet (after recovery); 1. How do you find eating melted or sliced cheese? Can you? 2. How about a piece of garlic bread? 3. How about some potato chips while watching a sporting event? 4. Can you EVER go to a fast food restaurant and have a hamburger again or do they always get stuck? 5. I hear so many conflicting things about Pasta? Can you or can you not eat pasta? 6. What about rice dishes? Can you have those? I look forward to hearing from the many of you who have taken this positive and life changing step.

I admit I weigh myself compulsively too. Normally I am 2-3 lbs heavier at night. I use my weight each morning to monitor my progress. I only log weight lost if I maintain it for 3 days straight, the same with weight gain. Otherwise, I contribute any change to water weight.

If you are consuming enough calories in sliders to gain weight then I don't think you are really at your sweet spot. That is a classic sign of being overfilled. My best friend has a band to and she fights this battle but it is a mental battle. She gets fills to "fix" her eating problem and can't eat anything but drinks cokes, ice cream, chips, etc. Then she starts getting food like Tacos and nachos down but continues to say "I just can't get anything down except the foos I can't have". One day I went to lunch with her and she ate the entire plate of Mexican food then later was upset about her weight gain. I finally called her out on how much I watched her eat and that she is over filled. My advice would be the same to you as to her... go back to basics. Start back with day 1 post op and if you aren't mentally ready then for goodness sake get the band deflated (quit hurting yourself just to gain weight and get it filled when you are mentally ready to start back. You would probably stop gining if you get deflated and just eat normal for a while. It really does seem to be a mental thing with some people..... I hope you find your Mojo again

Hey Everyone, I have a question for those of you using Protein powder as a Meal Replacement for 1 meal a day. I am getting my first adjustment in two years tommorrow and i know i wont be able to eat Breakfast because my band gets very tight in the mornings. I have been looking through the many posts regarding Protein Powder and their is so much debate about wether or not it helps lose weight or causes weight gain when you use it as a meal replacement for 1 meal a day. So i was hoping that any of you who USE protein powder on a daily basis can share your experience with me as to wether it helps or hinders you, i would also like to know if you find it filling? Thankyou in advance for anyone who can help me, im so confused and really dont want to use weight loss Meal Replacements. Bel:thumbup:

Up- And DON'T be alarmed about weight gain. Its just Water weight it will come off. Mine took a week. Your on a IV. I have my 1 month post-op on Monday. And I lost a total of 14lbs since I started the liquid pre. My cloths fit normal instead of feeling like I an going to burst out of them. I am happy with the slowness of the weight loss. Its exactly what I hoped for. I see such a difference in my body shape. Awwee i am so excited for you. My hubby was a troop ( no punt intended he is a sgt. In the army) he was there for everyday and made sure I walked at home and helped me down the stairs) make sure you have loose fitting items to where at home. ( I had no shame going out in my pj's and robe to stores for the first 4 days). They fixed a hernia while they were in there so I ended up with 7 incisions. No outside stitches so barely any scares. :-) Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

I'm almost 15 weeks right now, and my doctor told me it's ok to continue my workouts (45 minutes, 4 or 5 times per week), but told me to keep my heart rate around 140 or less. I agree that sometimes i used to work out harder, but I still feel good about exercising at this rate. I usually do the elliptical, or walk and jog a bit on the treadmill. I do some weights, but the doc told me to go easy a bit with any of those that may pull or stress my tummy area. I'll be 2 years banded next month. I'm worried about gaining too much, so I'm trying hard to keep up the exercise. With my son, I gained a lot of weight (several years pre-band of course!). So, i'm hoping that w/the band and exercise, I can keep my weight gain at a reasonable, managable amount. . .

Anyone gain weight? Surgery Date 5/6/15 SW 275, height 5"11; LowestW 249; CW 251. I do some form of working out 6 days a week. Increased my ability to jog (and have gotten 8-10k steps many times). No fried foods, no soda, no juice, no pork, very low carbs. One cheat day I ate banana pudding while still remaining under 1000kcal that day. Typically eat 500kcal a day. WTH did I gain weight? I'd expect at the least 35lbs down thus far. Feeling like I did all of this for nothing.

Dolphin Dreams, did you even have to prove weight loss attempts, medically supervised? I am on plan 3, the supposedly best one, or at least most expensive. Here is what they asked for from me: 1)History and physical info incl. height, weight, and co-morbidities 2)Initial Evaluation 3)Documented history of morbid obesity (5 years) 4)evidence of at least 12 consecutive months of medically supervised, non-surgical methods of weight reduction with documentation that such efforts failed. the supervion must be provided by an MD, DO, or Nurse Practitioner. The weight reduction methods must include nutrition therapy, behavior modifying exercise or increase in activity, medication therapy and maintenance therapy. 5)psych evaluation 6) Documentation of willingness to comply with pre-op and post-op treatment plans 7)Documentation of procedures to be performed, with pertinent CPT codes. #4 is the tough one. the doctor in the network, Dr. Davis does provide a medically supervised weight program that costs for 6 months....$3800. I called and asked BCBS if they would pay for this (spoke to Meriah on 6/27/06) and she said "NO". hooboy:faint: Then I spoke to Janis, supervisor who Meriah transferred me to. I told her I had been to one doctor or another almost every month for the past year. I asked her did it have to be every month. Janis said no. Janis can look at their records of pay outs and see when I went to the doctors. Did they ask you for all this too? It is true I have been to doctors alot b/c I'm sick and worried about this metabolic problem and continual weight gain...:sick I'm sick and tired of being fat, sick and tired. OK this tirade is over:clap2: If you are still with me thank you for reading all this mess.

What a relief, Sherry! I'm so glad some definitive action was taken, and I understandhow nervous you are about weight gain, but face it, your health and well-being are first, then the weight loss can be taken up again after that. That's one advantage of the band, is it not???? HUGS to you, sweetie! We'll be here, like Dianne said, to hold your hand and encourage you, and remind you that your health is #1! Dianne, so glad to hear that your new position is fun and you enjoy it! I bet it's a kick to help other people who are just starting out! Yes, I do stay busy, but I like it that way, then I like some down time, and this way I'm in control of that! When I was teaching, I just had to say "no" to a lot of things I really wanted to do. Maybe now I say yes to too much, but I enjoy it! Tonight I'm going to a potluck dinner for Children's Ministry Council for our church...in fact, I've gotta put the stuffed pizza braid in the oven right about NOW! Hey Mandy, Betty, Patty, Eileen...and everyone else I left off the personals...will catch ya the next time! Hugs, Cindy