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Hi, I got my band on the NHS in Glasgow. I waited just over year for it. You have to start by going to see your GP and having them refer you to a surgeon. Then when you see the surgeon they'll let you know how long the waiting list is. I think you need to have had some complications from the weight gain too, such as diabetes or high blood pressure. I haven't seen your other thread so just ask and I'll help if I can. Take care, Yvonne x

Hi Carlene, My weight gain came during the pregnancy of my first child. I gained 50+ with my first, 30 with my second and 20 with my third. In between the pregnancies I gained and lost. Unfortunately, I gained more than I lost. I think being under 130 is fantastic. I would be thrilled to be there. It is people like you who give those of us just starting the journey hope that we can succeed. As far as PS, if I am financially able to get a TT, breast lift down the road than I will. These are the 2 things I definitely think I will need to be comfortable with myself. I know I will never had that pre-pregnancy body. I can live with that. I will be happy just to feel better and fit into my clothes. My NSV is to be able to tuck my shirt into my pants without my stomach hanging out.

I am addicted to the scale and have put it under my bed so far that I forgot where it was and when I really wanted to weigh myself for my weekly weigh in I had to climb under the bed. That caused me to notice how much I needed to dust. It's just not fair! Best of luck and don't worry about the slight weight gain. It will be gone in a few days as soon as that gas thing goes away.

Don't do it! The number one driver of weight gain is juice and sugared drinks. You need to find something that works for you. Try Water with fruit infused in it if you don't like crystal lite. Used lemons, limes, cucumbers, raspberries, strawberries and leave your water sit in the refrigerator with the fruit. It will not be sweet but it should quench your thirst. Honestly I cannot do any of those non sweetener drinks either so I had to get very used to drinking water. It is all I drink and is the most important thing in your diet besides Protein. I would hate to see you sabotage yourself. Try doing things to get your mind off of it. I crave chocolate a lot and have to entertain myself or convince myself that I would rather have nuts or Jerky. If I do that often enough my brain believes it and I can move past it. Good luck to you!

Hi All! My name is Jennifer. I am 44 years old. I am a wife and mother of 2 boys (24 and 16). I live outside of Houston, Texas and help run our family owned trucking company where I am a bookkeeper, sales manager, and A/R supervisor (we are that small LOL!). ​I had my VGS in October of 2011. I went from my highest weight of 308 (as far as I know - I don't know many who want to check the scale regularly at that weight ) to my lowest post surgery weight of 213 in 2012. I had hit a plateau in between and began training with a former college running back. I was doing well. Around 2013 I ran into a series of health setbacks. I was able to maintain my wait or close to it (didn't go over 217) for well over a year, perhaps 2. Within the past year I began gaining weight. I am currently struggling with this, and this is why I have come here. I am looking for advice, accountability, and to be a good WLS buddy to anyone who needs one. I am interested in what you guys are doing to meet your goals, what successes and what slip ups you may have dealt with, and how you are getting back on track now. Today is my first day here, and I can't wait to hear the journeys you have been on! I welcome any advice, shared experiences, or whatever you may have to offer! Thanks for having me! Jen

To all who have commented.... i thank you for your input... but, i'm finding that many of those who have had the surgery seem to be a bit harsh and may have lost their understanding - or are just too different from me to relate to. TwinsMama - I have researched this EXTENSIVELY for three entire years. I would be a moron not to have done that. In fact, my knowledge base on both the physical and mental aspects of the procedure and lifestyle required are so extensive that two doctors I've spoke to thought I had a medical background. i've been on chat boards, blogs, seen nutritionists, doctors, and know I'm not "alone" - i was just hoping to find people who felt the same way i do, and have/had the same concerns. It is the "process" i find to be bu*****. it is the moneymaking i find to be bul****. THAT is what i have a problem with - along with the new statistics that show over 50% of people gain the weight back throughout a period of 5 years - and that those numbers are likely much higher considering the people that don't report back to their doctors and aren't included in the statistics. My own doctor's staff member has had staggering weight gain - along with multiple other people I know. Nobody is immune to the possibility that this weight will come back. Yes, I considered making changes prior to this. I tried making changes - and my inability to do so is what makes me a true candidate for the surgery. i have an eating disorder. i need help. it takes a desperate person to go get more than half of their stomach cut out and give up so much for the remainder of their lives. The fact that i'm fully aware nothing can prepare me is what makes me exceptionally nervous - exceptionally cautious - and exceptionally uncertain. If I could have gone through the prep easily I wouldn't be having this surgery at all. I'd be continuing the prep as a way to lose weight rather than having someone make me physically unable to overeat. No one can be 100% certain as to what their actions will be until they are in a situation. Accepting that as a human being leaves me room to be comfortable with my uncertainty. I'd be an a** to go into this saying "Oh Boy - this is going to be great! I'm going to be skinny and life will be grand." In short, everyone is entitled to their thoughts. I woke up this morning feeling very positive about the situation and after reading a few comments on this site i'm a little floored. Now I understand why a few people pm'ed me instead of posting publicly. There are a handful out there with the same concerns I have - they just didn't make them public. Good luck to all of you. May your journey be smooth and your goal come to you.

I wouldnt do it, I think its totally the wrong way to think about eating, and you wont believe how fast you can put on weight - remember with a band you're living on a "diet" so to speak so unfill it and its liek going OFF a diet, vacations do way more damage than they do when you've already been eating a lot anyway. If it were me, I'd also ruin my vacation worrying about weight gain and moaning about how much I'm eating. I've enjoyed several vacations with good restriction - enjoy tastes of this and that and get home as thin (or thinner) than when you left - who wouldnt want that?

You didn't feel good at 115. What weight do you feel healthy at? I understand the freakout over a weight gain. It's great that you are right on top of this gain and working it back off. I have given myself a 10 pound bounce range to maintain. When the scale moves up. I go back into weightloss eating mode logging food to hit calorie and carb goals. When I get it back to where I feel healthy I try to balance it out with healthy carbs. I seem to be chasing the same 10 to 15 pounds up and down.... I maintained easily the first two years. At three years out it changed. It's easy for me to gain and the weight comes off slowly. (frustrating) I had to dial in my diet to find the point where my body loses weight. I used a tdee calculator..If interested in the info let me know. Most of maintaining has been trial and error for me. Wish you the best, Jenn

First off, congrats on being a new mom...second, sounds like you know what you need to do to stay at a healthy weight gain. It may sound like a lot of weight gain right now because you've been losing for so long but the reality is, your probably not going to balloon up to old weight anytime soon. Keep up a light walking workout and watch your food choices.

I'm only 4 months post-op and am doing fine with the sleeve. Love it. I've lost 63 pounds thus far. I think the sleeve is a big advantage to those of us who've struggled lifelong with overweight and obesity. But here's the big BUT ... 40-50% of people who have WLS (including those who are sleeved) gain back more than half of the weight they lost. So clearly they are able to cheat the sleeve big-time. And I haven't heard of anyone who's had the sleeve who says they've never had to put some energy post-op into maintaining their weight loss. Some people who post here at BP have said that 1, 2, 3 years out they are struggling with weight gain. And during the holidays some here have complained about gaining weight (even during their weight loss phases) because they indulged too much in holiday treats. So if "being 'full' has never stopped [you when] the food tastes really good," you surely could figure out post-op how to eat more than you should. But just because you can doesn't mean that you will. The sleeve is only one of many tools you could acquire to help you live healthier, lose weight, maintain your weight, and live a healthy lifestyle. The other available tools are family and friends you invite to support you, psychological counseling and coaching, support groups (in real life and online), ongoing support from your bariatric and medical team, exercise and physical activities and resources, a job/work/career that supports your new lifestyle (or at least doesn't sabotage it), avocations that support your new lifestyle, spiritual support, and other resources. Of course, there are other things in our lives we can't control that will affect our long-term success. But the list above includes are some things we can control. Most of all, there's the motivation factor: How badly do we want to be normal-sized and healthy? Best wishes to you.

I found this on bariatric source. I found this helpful as well. "The average excess weight lost following laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery is about 65% (in other words, at 100 pounds overweight the average patient loses almost 70 pounds). And many patients have seen results of well over 80%. “Most patients keep at least 50% of their excess weight off after 10 years.”Dec 10, 2016 Weight Gain After Gastric Bypass Surgery & 9 Ways to Avoid or ... www.bariatric-surgery-source.com › wei...

You are so right! So many great perspectives come out of these boards - I try to think of all the reasons why to do it (and yes, there are many!), but your point was a new one but one I know very, very well! Every single time I have launched a new weight loss program I kept telling myself "stick with this - in a year you can be where you want to be, or you can stay the same as you are now, your choice". And of course, I'm not here now because I was able to stick it out and lose the weight. There is NO fighting the new set-point we arrive at every time we lose weight, gain it back plus more. That's the new set-point and we cannot fight it - no way. I now know that it isn't lack of willpower, lack of desire to be better, lack of time, whatever I might come up. We just can't physiologically fight our body's purpose to get to a new top weight, as it does this for survival. Can't do it. And I am so tired of 'hiding', in more ways than with clothing! Thanks for the boost - I'm a lot closer to feeling good about this decision now :-)

My former PCP was always reluctant about WLS but he'd been w/me thru years of up and down scale numbers, trying different diets, health issues, etc. When I finally approached him about it, he was happy to give me the referral to the bariatric program. About the time I was finishing up, I needed to get an okay from my PCP saying I was in good enough shape for surgery and he had just moved on to another department! My 1st appt w/my new PCP was to get the surgery okay!!! I was freaking out! I had NO clue as to who this guy was and here I'd gone thru the whole program and was only waiting for this step so I could get my date and then pre-op testing done! Well, he was happy to do that for me! He'd had WLS patients in his private practice before coming to Kaiser and he'd seen good things happen. Fast forward and I have yet another PCP and this guy is typical anti-WLS, you can do this by cutting calories and exercising, blah, blah, blah. He's good but he makes me nuts too! LOL!! Didn't help that by this time I was having weight gain issues, due to problems w/my band. I did NOT have to go thru him to get my Sleeve. Good thing b/c I don't think he would have signed off on it. My surgeon told me my band had to come out and he was offering me the Sleeve as an alternative. I don't even think my PCP knows about my surgery. I would try your PCP first. Don't be nervous, they work for you. But have a plan of action to put in to play IF he gives you grief about it. Best wishes!

Congratulations!!!! Yes, the water weight gain is normal from the IV, and you will start peeing your brains out soon! LOL!!!

Hey There! I am full of all these emotions as my surgery approaches on May 25th! I'm nervous, excited, second guessing my decision, but I know that it is all going to be worth it!! I'm 24 and I just couldn't seem to stop the weight gain. Diets made me hate myself and I would do great then soon fall off the wagon. I've tried it all from the "celebrity diets" to working with a nutritionist. Until I came across this surgery and that's when it all came together. I have met so many wonderful people along the way so far and I am looking for someone who can be my buddy on this journey Looking forward to this new beginning! [emoji16]

Wow, thanks so much. That's very flattering. I wish I was a nurse but the reality is I work in my hubs law firm by day and psychic by night. lol As per having another surgery. The good thing about my TT is that even when I piled weight back on I never really gained anything in that area. There I was at 284 with no tummy, weird huh. I think I may get away with not having another one because I even had a baby with the TT and it didnt affect it at all. I will need some work done on my bum, and thighs and my boobs need doing again. I had them lifted and enlarged at the same time as my TT but a boob job doesnt fare well after several years and tons of weight gains and losses.

A big hello from Brisbane!! Your doctor is right, your fill will have settled, allowing you to eat more than you could when you were first filled. You will find that your next fill (depending on how much more your doc adds) will make a big difference in your restriction. Your weight loss will be a bit up and down at first. The weight we lose on fluids is a one time deal. We typically never lose weight that fast again. And sometimes, when people go from fluids to solids, there is even a slight weight gain. The trick is to not freak out, and keep eating right and exercising. Congrats! Sam.

I am sure we have all realized that the sleeve is only in the stomach and not in the brain. I had my surgery in February of 2015 at 23. I was so focused on getting back to "normal" that I pretty much left my program behind. I am so lucky that I did not stretch my sleeve back out or irreparably gain weight. I was eating more often than was needed and not tracking anything. I had a wake up call with a 15 pound gain, after getting within 10 pounds of goal weight (which I never did reach). I experienced the nightmare of once again not fitting in my clothes, something I prayed to avoid at all costs post-op! I discovered after getting back to basics and tracking what I ate that the issue was that while I ate often, I was not getting nearly enough calories which resulted in my weight gain! Some people are not aware that this can be an issue! If you have stopped tracking or have started deviating from your program it is never too late to get back on. Always be honest with yourself! Changing your lifestyle is hard! You have to believe it is the right thing for your life! The doctor modified your stomach but YOU have to modify your brain.

i used to be on depo but i had horrible side effects - weight gain, headaches, terrible mood swings...needless to say, i'm not the biggest fan of the med.

I got read the book A Pound of Cure and have started his 2 wk metabolism reset. It's easy to follow and it has moved my scale 1.5 lbs since yesterday. The 7 lb weight gain is my own fault from eating all the wrong things and letting my head hunger get out of control. I'm reversing it now and will get to goal. Also the VSG is constipating for me but with eating Dr Weiner's way I don't need to take stool softeners so far. The only other issue I"ve had from surgery is I have to take Prilosec 1x a day and sometimes every other day. It is so true that the no desire to eat stops and the appetite does return with all the bad head hunger if I let it. I would recommend the book for anyone having a struggling with weight gain or even thoughts of it. I'll keep updating as to how it's going. Good luck to all w/this weight loss journey. Sherry

Congrats to all of you who have stoped smoking, its a hard thing to do as I smoked for 23 yrs. ashame to admit to it but I did. I wanted to quit so many times before I finally gave it up but it was always the throuh of weight gain that kept me smoking, but one day I just decided on my last day of smoking and when it came I make that commitment and have not been sorry that was 6yrs ago and many lbs in weight gain but I now feel must better and have lost the cough and the control that smoking had over me and with the band the 40lbs I have lost to date have made up for the weight I gained after stopping. Good luck to all of you Angelina

Hi girls I am home---has been a rough one. I thought I would bounce right back, and it is slower going than I had hoped. Yep, the tumor was considered benign. It would have eventually turned to cancer but was growing too fast to have ever been a worry that way. It was between a golf ball and a tennis ball in size. I cannot tell you how happy it being benign made me! I kept coming inand out of the sleep from anesthesia and asking about it! Had some blood pressure issues, went too low, so they pumped me full of fluid---12 pound weight gain--full of fluid! Spending all my time in the bathroom losing weight today! For now I am going back to my ice pack and recliner. I will check in with you all in awhile. Gina, thanks for sharing my DD & DH's posts, they lost the post it I had given them with the threads to post to, so they found the Violets thread in my email. I do appreciate it, I fel great comfort knowing I had all of you out there in different corners--I felt extremely lucky to have you all! (((hugs)))) Kat

where is the edit button?

I am going to copy/paste an email that I sent to my Monday night group therapy/weight loss class. Thought I'd give you an update about my lap band appt yesterday with Dr. Forgione (the surgeon). Well, the first frustrating part was that I had gained THREE pounds in the last week. He was kind but told me that any more weight gain was unacceptable and that surgery would be cancelled. I was really embarassed and upset but realized that I ate like crap over the weekend and Monday night and didn't exercise. What did I think was going to happen???? So, last night I was back on the treadmill and have vowed to log all of my eating this week and get in my exercise. I am planning on going back over there next Tuesday to weigh in to chart my progress. He also told me that my Upper GI showed that I have a small hiatal hernia. Basically it's when your stomach starts to go into your esophagus and it's very common with overweight women. Mine is very small and I have never felt any symptoms. So, he told me yeseterday that when he goes in laproscopically he may find that he has to repair the hernia that day and not do the banding until a different time. He is quite hopeful that he won't but wanted me to be aware. I'm pretty concerned about that but trying very very hard to stay positive. Tentatively, surgery is scheduled for Feb 20th but I will hopefully know more before our meeting next week. ___________________________________________________________ Well, I wrote that email 2 days ago and I am feeling much better. If I have a hernia that needs to be repaired I would rather fix it before I have the surgery and risk a greater chance of slippage. I'm working on the food. I had 2000 calories yesterday which is too many but am happy to report that I've been on the treadmill for 30 minutes each day. I've decided that I get NO days off with exercise. Once I give myself a little wiggle room I just don't do it. I'm trying to make it as natural as brushing my teeth- wouldn't that be a wonderful thing?

Well, I was 18 then. I lost about 14 friends and a stepfather that summer is really the only trigger I know of. It was a very traumatic time for me. I did alot of partying during that time - self medicating, probably. Things changed. I met and married my husband - who was probably more of a rescuer than anything and I think I just turned alot of pain inside, but yea, along with the trauma of so many deaths close to me, the weight gain was devestating too, but I didn't have the tools to do much about it. I really think it was that comfort or hiding my body away from something. It was just a very tough time.