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talk to your endocrinologist and listen to your instincts. it sounds like you found the cause of weight gain and it is resolving. you can always do the surgery later if you stall out!

I don't know your stats, as far as height for the weight and medical issues but I would definitely hold off and see what happens with the meds and getting your hormones balanced. It really hurts nothing to hold off for a few months and see how it works out.

I am scheduled for surgery TOMORROW! I am working my last day before I am out and cannot focus. I just happened to stumble on this group. I wish I would have known about it sooner! So my pre-op diet seems to be different than a lot of others. I am on 700-900 cal and 70g protein per day, no sugar or carbs. I was not put on a clear liquid or even liquid diet. Han anyone else experienced this? I am asking because I have been very strict over the last 10 days and have not lost any weight. I am nervous about eating once I get home. I ordered some bone broth from amazon but other than that I am not sure what else to plan to eat? I did get protein powder and protein water. Any suggestions on things I need to get in my house to prepare? Or at this point, I should say what should I have my husband pick up while I am in the hospital tomorrow night!? Thank you for any info you can provide.

Hi, All - I recently relocated to Texas and do not know people here who have had DS. I was wondering if anyone would be interested in helping to support each other with daily check-ins, support, encouragement, tips, etc. If so, feel free to introduce yourself on this thread! I am 40 years old woman, single, and dealing with infertility (I am trying to freeze my eggs). I had DS 8.5 years ago and lost 50% of my excess body weight at the time but did not push myself to lose even more (I was in grad school and my mom was deemed terminally ill at the time). I would like to re-commit to healthy eating and working out and have been flying solo for about a month now. I am highly motivated to lose quickly (but safely!) to improve my chances with egg freezing/harvesting given that I'm also up against my biological clock! Hoping there might be some other people who want to join me!

This!! I had people suggest it to me, but I never saw myself needing it. I always thought I could do it on my own, I don't weight that much etc. Yet in those years the weight was creeping on me, every year 20-25lbs here and there. My sister had it done earlier this year because of the comorbidities that run in our family, and then it hit me. If she was advised to get it and weighs 80lbs less than me, why wouldn't I need it, why after trying for years I still think I can do it on my own? Got all the details I could from her and a close friend who had bypass (she had vsg), and once I understood my why, everything just fell into place. Now I'm getting ready to have surgery within a month.

Same here! I am 8+ years out and looking to get back to basics after minor regain but never having lost more than 50% of my excess body weight! I never really pushed to try to lose more when I plateaued.

I love this thread! LOVE LOVE LOVE IT! Everyone's story is the same but yet SO different. I have been obese my entire life, even a fat kid. I literally NEVER remember seeing "100 something" on the scale. I was 250+ lbs in middle school. I did some extreme **** as a teenager, starved, salad with fresh veggies and no dressing and water only.. the list goes on. My mother basically threatened to have me admitted because of my extreme obsession with trying to loose weight in an unhealthy manor. Gave up...again... got fatter. Young adult into future adult: Lost over 100 lbs multiple times but could NEVER keep it off! In high school is when WLS became known and my best friends dad was upwards of 800 lbs and he was the first person I knew to have it. I don't know what procedure he had, or if there was even options back then. Anyway, he had MAJOR complications and in about 2 years was wasted away to around 100 lbs and in a wheel chair. Almost died but pulled through and from there I don't know because I lost touch with this friend when she became a drug addict. Anytime anyone ever mentioned WLS that is all I could think about.. was him and how it just about killed him! Now grown adult: It came up a few times, by myself or other people and I always convinced myself I don't need surgery I KNOW HOW TO LOOSE WEIGHT! I know how to eat healthy. I know what to do, I have done it, too many times actually. Then 2 years ago, I broke my record breaking 400 lbs! I was depressed, hated myself, hated doing anything, hated seeing people I knew.. just hated everything really. Thru those 2 year till I made my decision I was actually trying to convince myself to have it and always talked myself out with the same reasoning... "I know how to do it and have done it.. so just DO IT AGAIN and stick with it".. we all know how that ends! About a year ago I was at my doctors office and during conversation he asked me if I had ever considered WLS. I told him everything I just told you. Plus, he has been my doctor for about 15 years, so he has seen it! My weight fluctuating from 250 to over 400 lbs... constant struggle. He explained his side of things to me, never once said things like "you need it" or anything else like that. Just provided information. I left that appointment and couldn't stop thinking about it. At this point in my life I knew a few other people who had WLS surgery, the problem now is that only 1 of them were successful! So then that gave me doubts, because that was really my only issue. Loosing the weight wasn't the problem, keeping it off was ALL the problem. But then, I started paying attention, to what they did, how they ate and I realized it is because they don't try. I suddenly convinced myself! (KINDA) I researched WL surgeons in my area, found an amazing team and called them up. They said I just need to verify my insurance will cover WLS and that they will cover it at their hospital. They did, I had my first appointment. i still wasn't sure, but I decided "what do I have to loose to just do the classes" so I did... honestly most of it I already knew. But i did learn a lot more about the "surgery" itself and life after surgery. But, what actually "convinced me" is health. My family history is the worse! Literally. Everything. My mom has EVERYTHING, half or more of my family is diabetic. High blood pressure, heart problems, liver problems...EVERYTHING! Even cancer runs ramped in my family. I was 400 lbs and had MINOR high blood pressure and GERD (which may or may not have been weight related) and that was it. No other problems, but I kept imagining waking up one day and BOOM! Diabetes.... or heart attack... My mother was 55 and looked 70 and in the worse health you could imagine. On more pills than I could count... I just always saw that being my future and HAD to STOP IT. Or, at least do what I COULD to try to stop it! So.. I did it.. ashamed... and told VERY few people... (like 5 people) I think for me I didn't want people to know I had WLS and then fail at it.. then everyone knows... etc. NO REGRETS! BEST DECISION I EVER MADE FOR MYSELF! I WISH I WOULD HAVE DONE IT 15 YEARS AGO!!!! Within 3 months, off ALL meds GERD is gone... Blood pressure is actually TOO LOW at times! the NSV are off the charts, I can't even begin to list them all. Sorry for my crazy long post, but I was excited about this tread and wanted to throw out all of the details of my reasoning and thoughts!

I love this post! I have a love/hate relationship with my old pictures. I really did not realize how big I was in the day to day until I saw pictures of myself. I knew my weight, but honestly didn't see such a HUGE person in the mirror. But always saw it in pictures, it was strange. Now, I see skinn(ier) in pictures but still see fat me in the mirror. I however love looking back at pictures because it "wows me". In 6 months I have lost 112 lbs and 143 since the start of my process. To look at pictures from last Christmas is amazing to me, that I can (or anyone) have such a drastic change in 10 months! Some people change so much I hardly recognize them in the "after" photo whereas others look the exact same but smaller. I was worried about this, I didn't want to not "look like me", if that makes sense. But then i saw a recent picture of me and my best friend that she posted on FB and I was like.. shiiitttt I don't look like me BUT oddly enough the smaller I get the more I look like my little brother who was the ONLY skinny person in my entire family and passed away in June. Then I thought it was my mind messing with me but then suddenly another friend and 2 family members commented on the picture stating how much I look like my brother now. I wanted to look like me, but if I have to change, I am 100% MORE THAN OK with me looking like my brother. ❤️

It's good to read about your positive attitude toward the operation! I'm sure everything will be ok. I fully understand you guys here because it's always a weight problem for me after giving birth to my first lovely child. My tummy got bigger, and nothing I could do to save the situation because the problem was in the skin that stretched out. It was a big problem for me, and I decided to have an operation at some point. Via Google, I found out about the company https://gartnerplasticsurgery.com/mommy-makeover/ that could help me with my problem. The doctors did everything at the highest level, and now I'm very satisfied with my body and tummy shape.

I've been lurking this forum for a long time now, both in my phase of questioning WLS as an option for me (for a good few years or more now on and off) and since I started the official process. Happy to say I have a surgery date set for October 20th. I'll be getting the sleeve done. Weirdly, this will also hopefully help resolve a couple of issues I didn't even know I had until recently due to required pre-op testing (such as mild delayed gastric emptying -- had to do a motility test pre-op which is how I found this out). I've been on the liquid skim milk diet since the 6th and it has been absolutely brutal for me. Making me do a motility test that required me to eat scrambled eggs and toast with strawberry jam 5 days into it was also pretty brutal in itself. I'm looking forward to my surgery though and I'm really looking forward to changing my life. Working out is really hard at my current weight and I'm looking forward to shedding a bit so I can get back to personal training. I've already dropped a good 10+ pounds since I started this process, looking forward to anymore I lose in the future. Grateful to be here!

Very few pictures exist of me at my heaviest because I always used to avoid being in pictures. Have you ever noticed that a lot of people’s “before” pictures are from weddings (either their own or a part of someone else’s wedding party)? I’m guessing that’s because weddings are among the few times you can’t really refuse to be in pictures. I wish I had more “before” pictures so I can appreciate the difference. It’s certainly jarring to see how big I was. I got passport photos taken when I was at my heaviest (one of the only pictures I have of myself at that weight), but I didn’t get around to renewing my passport until several months later, after I had already lost a lot of weight, maybe 100 pounds, so I decided to get my passport photo retaken, and the side-by-side difference was striking. Well, I look at the SECOND passport photo now and compared to how I look currently (200 pounds down from my heaviest), the difference is incredible. One of the reasons I used to hate being in photos is that I pictured myself as a lot smaller than I was, so seeing myself in pictures forced me to see how big I really was. What’s weird is that now I picture myself as being bigger than I actually am, so seeing myself in photos now is also surprising, but in the opposite way. There’s not that big of a difference between the way I imagine myself now vs. how I imagined myself at my heaviest, even though in reality, I look like a completely different person. The last time I went to my surgeon for a follow-up, the nurse called me back and looked confused when I got up and walked over. She kept looking back and forth between me and my chart and then asked me to verify my date of birth, because my chart had my picture from my initial consultation and she couldn’t see the resemblance. And this is someone who works in a bariatric surgery practice, so it’s not like she doesn’t often see people who have lost a lot of weight!

Curious if your doctor/nutritionist suggested 1700 calories or if you naturally got to that #? i am trying to get back to basics but never had a target number of calories as a guide. the focus of my dietician and surgeon was just for me to get enough protein in and to limit my refined carbs. the weight melted off the first few months (50% of my excess) til it no longer did.... i was content being at 215 lbs til it has impacted my fertility. now i'd like to drop another 50 lbs asap!! any advice is much appreciated.

Hi, Everyone! I am a DS'er who had my surgery 8.5 years ago. I lost 50% of my excess body weight at the time but have lived in 5 different cities since (and may be moving again this summer!) and honestly was not able to really focus on my weight loss as much as I had hoped in light of all of the moves and a lot of life transitions (e.g., loss of both of my parents in my 30s, completing grad school, etc.) I have kept what I have lost off with minor regain and re-loss over the years (no more than 10 lbs) so have hovered around 215 lbs pretty consistently for 6 years. I decided to freeze my eggs since I still have not met that special someone, am 40 years old, and have had pcos since high school. Unfortunately, I am not responding well to the highest dose of follicle stimulating hormones the doctors are giving me. and they are expecting to be able to freeze only 2 eggs at most, which is even less than what they had originally anticipated based on my follicle count. The fertility team has suggested doing a medical weight loss program (injections like wegovy or mounjaro) to lose weight rapidly before doing another cycle as they have seen some patients respond much better to the meds after losing more weight. I'm certainly going to explore that avenue (there is one through the local hospital's bariatric surgery program) and i have also joined a bariatric surgery support group through the local hospital. i'm wondering if anyone here has considered injections after DS or if you have some advice for me for how to restart my weight loss as i've been trying to do so with just diet and exercise for almost a month now. i'm walking 45-90 mins a day and trying to eat a lot of protein. i've been eating minimal carbs -- just from fruits, veggies, and oatmeal but haven't been dropping weight. i assume my DS still works since i have still had foul smelling gas up until a month ago when i would eat stuff like sushi (the rice!) or a baguette at panera. Appreciate the advice! Highest Weight: 328 Weight at Surgery: 290 Current Weight: 215 Goal Weight: 140 (bmi of 25) but I would be thrilled to get to 165 (a bmi < 30)

This procedure works. It’s a great tool. I meet goal weight over 15 years ago. Overtime I Gained 50 pounds back but lost 40 pounds after the endoscopy and cauterization. This along with behavior (emotional, psychological) modifications, lifestyle reset, and fitness basically I gave myself a wellness makeover. Totally reversed regain. It’s been a year and still going strong.

I will agree with the others your options are to a) accept the surgeon's social awkwardness/rudeness if the other clinic members are supportive, or b) find a different surgeon/clinic. In your shoes I would probably look for another surgeon/clinic. I do want to point out that the RNY bypass surgery is generally accepted to be more effective than VSG. RNY results in greater weight loss, resolves heartburn/GERD, and resolves, improves, or prevents Diabetes 2. Some say VSG is a "more invasive" surgery, but frankly, removing 80% of your stomach is pretty damn invasive. With RNY bypass the stomach is separated but not removed. Both are performed laparoscopically. The VSG is easier and quicker for the surgeon. However, a lot of VSG patients have to have revision to RNY later.

Due to my new insurance excluding all weight loss surgeries, I am looking for high quality/low(er) cost surgeries, Gastric Bypass or Mini Gastric Bypass. From what you have read, what is everyone's opinions on the differences between Mexico Bariatric Center and the Obesity Control Center? If you had to choose, or do your surgery over again, which would you pick? Thanks!

as long as you stick to your program, yes, you will lose weight. As I mentioned above, I lost 16 lbs the first month, around 12 lbs the second month, and gradually less and less as time went on. But I remained very committed to my program and eventually lost all 235 lbs of my excess weight (so, in other words, lost 100% of my excess weight) (have since had a regain of about 20 lbs, which unfortunately happens to most of us after hitting our lowest weight. But that's fine - I'm happy where I am)

nope - "normal" WLS patients do not lose that much that quickly. Maybe if they started off at 600 lbs, but otherwise, no. You might find some "normal" WLS patients ("normal" as in starting off in the 200s or 300s - and maybe low 400s) who lose 30+ lbs the first month, but even that's not common - and they certainly wouldn't keep up that pace after the first month. I've been hanging out on bariatric forums for the eight or so years, and just based on posts I've read (which have been thousands), I'd say most of us lose around 15-25 lbs the first month, then about 10 lbs (give or take) a month for a few months - then it drops to around 5 lbs - then 2 lbs......then eventually stops. as far as not losing any weight the last 1.5 weeks, you're in the infamous three-week stall that most of us experience. I just did a search on it here on bariatricpal for you just a second ago. Here are the 17,501 (and no, I am NOT kidding) posts on the three week stall for your reading pleasure: https://www.bariatricpal.com/search/?q=three week stall

20 yrs post op...went for a scope yesterday with new Bariatric Dr...have gained back 70lbs in last 4yrs... 55yrs old...he told me I had ulcer...he could burn off part off my stomach so I could lose weight???... only if I quit smoking... Don't even remember talking to him with anaesthesia...this is hubby and nurse telling me...anyone heard of this???

Well I had rny surgery and I read that it is norm to loose 5 to 15 lbs per week the first few months following surgery , so that is where my expectations came from . I am glad about losing 20 lbs but in the big scale of things was feeling discouraged since the 20 lbs was really only lost the first 2 and a half weeks then I have been stalled since not loosing anything in the last week and a half , basically since I started eating instead of drinking liquid only. Pre op diet start was 9/1 weight was 305 surgery date was 9/15 weight 294 and today 275. But again the 275 has been the same for 2 weeks now. I'm getting less then 1000 calories a day and walking a bit but not much as I have plantar fasciitis and am in pain . I fear that I won't loose the weight unless I go back to starving myself like I did the first 2 weeks after surgery. Sent from my SM-G991B using BariatricPal mobile app

It would be useful if you filled in your profile (height and surgery date weight is a good start) for context, regardless, 20lb is great and there is nothing 'only' about 20lb. What did you expect to lose in a month and where did this expection come from?

20lb in 1 month is amazing... Just keep at it. you will slow down in weight loss as you progress out. I am at 6 months and the previous month i only lost like 7lb and so far in two weeks i have lost 2lb... just keep working on it!

YEP 100%. The first time I ever paid attention to my weight was in middle school & I weighed 160. In High School I weighed 180. I'm only 5'2 too. I'm 30 now & I'm 10lbs away from weighing less than I did in high school. I had undiagnosed PCOS & I was active too. I wish a doctor bothered to wonder why I had so many PCOS symptoms as a teen.

My doctor recommended it! I have a couple of chronic illnesses & I've been on doctor monitored diets two times. My doctor noticed I dealt with a lot of stalls & my PCOS was not letting me workout & lose weight like normal. I managed to lose 40lbs during that time but with all of that effort I should have lost double. My doctor referred me to the Bariatric program, did a 10 week class & decided it was for me! I'm 2 weeks post-op, I'm hoping its the solution to my PCOS & that I finally get to slim down like I want to

I am new here, too. I love this thread -- for motivation, it is even better than the success stories thread. So inspirational! For me, it was reaching age 50 and realizing that I spent more than half of my life trying to lose weight. Despite this, I have hypertension, pre-diabetes, high cholesterol, and my joints are starting to hurt (like an old person! lol). I want to live long enough, and healthy enough, to play with my grandchildren. Another thing is during the pandemic, I lost a few people in my life and every single one of them was obese. That was a wake-up call. I learned from home DIY projects with my husband that you need "the right tool" to get the job done correctly. So I resolved to get myself the right tool for this job. Fingers crossed!