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I had surgery April 2014. At 5'7", my highest weight was 245 and I was 226 on the day I was sleeved. My surgeon's goal weight for me was 160 and today i am around 150-152. I started in a size 20 and I'm now in a size 6/8. My recovery was a breeze! I didn't have one single complication after my surgery. Trapped gas pain? Nope. Acid reflux? 14 months out, never had it or a reason to ever take the prescription medications. Heart burn? Nope. Throwing up? Nope. Dumping? Nope. Aversions to food? Nope. The only "real" issues were things you really can't avoid which are hair thinning between months 3-8 BUT by one year it all grew back in. I also had a hard time with vitamins, but found some awesome melt away kind and the problem was quickly resolved. The first 24 hours in the hospital I was cursing the BP community for not warning me. Coming out of surgery wasn't fun as I was nauseous from the medicine. Once it was out of my system, I was fine. I didn't need much in the hospital except my cell phone, charger, long extension cord, my own pillow and toiletries. The first 3 days at home were the hardest and after that I didn't feel like I had surgery at all. I was back at work by the end of two weeks. I could have gone back earlier (I sit for a living, it's not very active.) and honestly, I found the process harder having so much unstructured time at home and the ability to wander into the kitchen. The supplies you will need post-op are minimal. I went overboard and bought stuff I still have never used 14 months post-op (example: those sugar free torani syrups.) Don't laugh, but one of the most handy things I found to have was Dixie paper cups. They are the perfect size to measure a few ounces of cottage cheese and other food and then you don't have to wash endless dishes! Keep in mind that everyone's process is different. The scary thing for me is I couldn't imagine what it would feel like to have my stomach removed post surgery. You just feel full quicker at first after you eat. Some people get into trouble when they push their new tummies limits. I'm not sure why, but adjusting to a new lifestyle was easy for me. It's not to say it didn't have challenges. I didn't go out much to eat in public at first. Now 14 months out I can eat whatever I want. It's both a blessing and a curse. I was able to reach my goal weight within a year without issue and am now maintaining. For the first time in my life, I'm not really worried about weight gain. I love the fact that I never feel hungry. I love that I feel satisfied after a small amount of food. 14 months out I still have a great amount of restriction. I've never pushed this. I know my tummies capacity and stop eating well before then. It probably helped that I ate a pretty clean diet pre-surgery. I wasn't one to binge on Big Macs and never drank regular soda or any drinks with calories in them. Many of the "rules" this surgery requires I was already doing. Other rules I couldn't do before surgery, but after surgery it's really easy to do. For example, I had difficulty not eating/drinking at the same time before surgery. Now my tummy is so tiny that I can't drink while eating! I do still take tiny sips though! Do I follow the rules 100%? No way! I log everything into my lositapp on my phone and for me, having that accountability has been key. I pretty much eat whatever I want (in smaller quantity) BUT I find myself typically making healthy choices. That doesn't mean I don't enjoy dessert on occasion or other treat that I want. For me that's what makes this a lifestyle change vs. a diet. Good luck!

I've been through it, I know how you feel. I had to ahve all my Fluid removed for a big surgery to remove my rectum and part of my colon and to form an ileostomy. Part of this was several colonoscopies and bowel preps, a fair bit of fasting pre procedures and a whole lot of fear and stress, then it took about seven days to get back onto solid foods following the surgery, followed by a couple of weeks of very very high stoma output, diarrhoea. As you can guess, i dropped a fair bit of weight during this time, and had also done so during the pre op chemo and radiation so all in all, I finished up at a BMI of 19, from my previously healthy 21 or so. I've been in contact with my lapband clinic regularly. From telling me when they emptied my band that I could begin refilling 3 weeks after surgery (and then unfill again for the second surgery to close the ileostomy some months down the track), my doctor has steadfastly refused to give me ANY fill at all because of my low weight. I get this, I havent truly asked for it, but most people will need fill to maintain their loss and I'm no exception. Anyhow, today I finally got some, six months later. I've worked so so SO hard over the past six months to not gain weight and all I've regained is just enough to bring my BMI up over 20, but with chemo finished, full recovery complete, my appetite is returning to normal and its been getting easier and easier to gain and I've had several weeks of "dieting" after small gains to get them off before they stick around. Today I had to absolutely do my block in the surgery because my doctor didnt want to give me any because she said "you're a healthy weight". Well, duh, it was that same doc who told me to expect a weight gain with the unfill, that virtually nobody could keep the weight off long term without it. I wasnt looking for tight restriction to lose, just enough to maintain my weight. After I kind of yelled a bit and said that I had this damn band and I wanted to use it, she gave me a 1cc fill, with another 1cc sheduled for 3 weeks time. So...... it IS possible to keep the weight off for quite a long period of time. I simply "dieted" the whole time. I finished eating when I knew I should, i stayed away from bad foods, I filled up on fruit and salads, I exercised, and overall tried to eat not much more than I did with restriction. I found I moved from a pattern of little and often eating to 3 square meals, but overall calories remained about the same. You can do it, its simply a matter of how much you want it, harsh as that sounds. But six months was stretching the limit of my abilities, I'm finally starting to crack and am very very glad to have had some fill. Good luck to you!

1. I want my energy back. I am so sick of being exhausted after cleaning ONE room in my house! 2: I want to feel and be healthier, withour the threat of weight related conditions hanging precariously above my head. 3. I want to be able to play with my kids while they are still young enough to WANT to play with mom n dad 4. I want to live and long happy life and see my grandkids and play with them too! 5: I want to be able to get out in the world and do all the things I used to love to do but can't anymore because of weight getting in the way (like hiking!) 6. I want to get rid of my pesky PCOS problem which both contributed to my weight gain and is worsened by it, the worse it gets the more I gain.Its a vicious cycle I want to END! 7. I want to eat to live! 8. I want to be able to look in the mirror and LIKE what I see! 9. I want to go to the store and have more options on clothing, and NOT have to buy things that look like they were made for a 96 year old woman who doesn't like things that don't have a stretchy waist. 10. I want to regain the confidence I had when I was younger and thinner. I started getting self- conscious around the 200 mark.. my personal goal is 180 my docs goal is 150, I am okay with being slightly chubby, as long as I am healthy and happy 11. I want my weight to stop running my life, *I* want to run my life and LIVE it to the fullest 12. This is silly, I know, but I want to be able to sit on hubby's lap and not worry I will break his legs or something. Its so simple and yet so depressing to fear that your weight will hurt your loved ones I could come up with more but you said 12 so I will stop there. Thanks for posting! I have been considering WLS but now that I made a list of all the things that I want that WLS can give me, I am more sure now than ever that I am on the right path. There is just something about saying/writing it all out that really puts it in perspective, you know?

I've seen all the benefits of this lifestyle change just in pre-op so I'm not sad whatsoever nor am I missing the garbage foods like soda (what I was seemingly addicted to). My commitment to having a better life far supersedes the desire at this point to submerge myself back into the habits that result in misery. Part of it is I just had far too much disgust in seeing what this weight gain had done to me (180 pounds in 5 years), a lot of contempt for what I had done to myself when I looked in the mirror, and the desire to life a normal life after being lucky and catching this food-caused liver disease before it was irreversible. Never again.

I thought this ASMBS (American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery) info was interesting--- it adds information about how prevalent obesity is becoming and the progressiveness of the disease. http://asmbs.org/obesity-and-surgery-learning-center/obesity-the-disease/ Obesity Prevalence and Rate of Occurrence According to the W.H.O., 65 percent of the world’s population lives in countries where overweight and obesity kills more people than underweight. Approximately 500 million adults in the world are affected by obesity and one billion are affected by overweight, along with 48 million children. In the United States, epidemiological data from an ongoing study that measures the actual body size of thousands of Americans, show that 34 percent of adults more than 20 years old are affected by obesity and 68 percent are overweight (2007-2008 data). Obesity affects 10 percent of children between two and five years of age, 2 percent of those between 6 to 11 years old, and 18 percent of adolescents. Throughout the last 20 to 25 years, the prevalence of obesity has been increasing at an alarming rate. Since 1985, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) has supported an ongoing study, conducted on a yearly basis by state health departments, to examine changes in obesity prevalence state-to-state, and has found the following: In 1990, the obesity prevalence for most of the states was 10 percent or less. By 1995, more than half the states had a prevalence of 15 percent. By 2000, nearly half the states had a prevalence of 20 percent or higher. Five years later (2005), all but three states had a prevalence greater than 20 percent and nearly a third had a prevalence of 25 percent or more. By 2010, the data show that most of U.S. states had a prevalence of 25 percent and many had a prevalence of 30 percent or higher. For view of yearly changes in prevalence, view the CDC’s online data. Not only has the obesity epidemic increased in number throughout the past two decades, but also in severity. Data obtained from the yearly ongoing CDC-supported U.S. study found that between the years 1987 to 2005 the prevalence of severe obesity increased by 500 percent and super severe obesity (BMI greater than 50) increased by nearly 1,000 percent. According to the 2007-2008 NHANES findings, 5.7 percent of American adults, or nearly 14 million people, are affected by severe obesity. Progressive Nature of the Disease of Obesity Obesity is considered a multifactorial disease with a strong genetic component. Acting upon a genetic background are a number of hormonal, metabolic, psychological, cultural and behavioral factors that promote fat accumulation and weight gain. Positive Energy Balance A positive energy balance causes weight gain and occurs when the amount of calories consumed (energy intake) exceeds the amount of calories the body uses (energy expenditure) in the performance of basic biological functions, daily activities, and exercise. A positive energy balance may be caused by overeating or by not getting enough physical activity. However, there are other conditions that affect energy balance and fat accumulation that do not involve excessive eating or sedentary behavior. These include: Chronic sleep loss Consumption of foods that, independent of caloric content, cause metabolic/hormonal changes that may increase body fat. These include foods high in sugar or high fructose corn syrup, processed grains, fat, and processed meats Low intake of fat-fighting foods such as fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds, quality Protein Stress and psychological distress) Many types of medications Various pollutants Weight Gain Weight gain is yet another contributor to weight gain or, in other words, obesity ‘begets’ obesity, which is one of the reasons the disease is considered ‘progressive’. Weight gain causes a number of hormonal, metabolic and molecular changes in the body that increase the risk for even greater fat accumulation. Such obesity-associated biological changes reduce the body’s ability to oxidize (burn) fat for energy, increase the conversion of glucose (carbohydrate) to fat, and increase the body’s capacity to store fat in fat storage depots (adipose tissue). This means that more of the calories consumed will be stored as fat. To make matters worse, obesity affects certain regulators of appetite and hunger in a manner that can lead to an increase in meal size and the frequency of eating. Weight gain, therefore, changes the biology of the body in a manner that favors further weight gain and obesity. Obesity-related Conditions A number of other conditions associated with obesity contribute to the progression of the disease. Obesity reduces mobility and the number of calories that would be burned in the performance of activity. Weight gain may also cause psychological or emotional distress which, in turn, produces hormonal changes that may cause further weight gain by stimulating appetite and by increasing fat uptake into fat storage depots. Sleep duration is reduced by weight gain due to a number of conditions that impair sleep quality such as pain, sleep apnea and other breathing problems, a need to urinate more frequently, use of certain medications, and altered regulation of body temperature. Shortened sleep duration, in turn, produces certain hormones that both stimulate appetite and increase the uptake of fat into fat storage depots. Weight gain also contributes to the development of other diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, osteoarthritis and depression, and these conditions are often treated with medications that contribute to even further weight gain. In all of these ways and more, obesity ’begets’ obesity, trapping the individual in a vicious weight gain cycle. Diets A low calorie diet is the primary treatment for overweight and obesity, but, dieting is also a contributor to obesity progression. Dietary weight-loss causes biological responses that persist long-term and contribute to weight regain. One of these responses affects energy balance. When a person loses weight, the body ‘thinks’ it is starving and energy expenditure is reduced in order to conserve calories. The reduction in energy expenditure with dietary weight-loss requires that, in order to maintain weight-loss, the dieter eat even fewer calories than someone of equal body size who has never been on a diet. However, eating less is difficult following a diet because there are long-term changes in regulators of appetite that increase the desire to eat and the amount of food that can be consumed. Such diet-induced changes favor a positive energy balance and weight regain and, because the conditions responsible for the reduction in energy expenditure and increased drive to eat persist long-term, an individual will often not only regain all of their lost weight, but even more. Another biological response that occurs with dieting involves changes in fat metabolism that reduce the body’s ability to burn fat and increase the capacity for fat to be stored in adipose depots (fat storage depots). With dietary weight-loss, the amount of dietary fat the body burns is reduced by approximately 50 percent. In addition, dieting reduces the amount of fat the body burns for fuel during low-grade activity such as walking, cleaning the house, fixing dinner, or working on a computer. The reduction in the amount of fat that is burned for fuel following a dietary weight-loss makes more fat available to be taken up by fat storage depots, and dieting increases the capacity for fat depots to store even more fat than before a diet. Altogether dietary weight-loss reduces the use of fat for fuel and increases the capacity for the fat that is not utilized to be stored. These changes lead to a progressive increase in fat accumulation even if the individual is not overeating. Summary Multiple factors acting upon a genetic background cause weight gain and obesity. Conditions associated with weight gain and biological changes in the body that occur as a result of weight gain contribute to progression of the disease, often trapping the individual in a vicious weight gain cycle. If you are concerned with your weight, please speak to your primary care physician to learn more about how to improve your weight and health.

I'm so angry with myself. I had my surgery June 14th and the last few weeks I've been doing really bad. I work out and I eat well all day, but at night I lose all control and I stuff my face. I was on medication for binge eating disorder and they took me off of it along with all my antidepressants. I ended up in the hospital a few weeks ago with pneumonia and they didn't like the fact I'm tachycardic so they took me off everything. I feel the depression sinking in and losing my motivation and willpower. I feel trapped. I can't even get in to see my psychiatrist for another few weeks. Has anyone lost their motivation this early, but found it again? Also my psychiatrist knows very little about meds after surgery is anyone here on meds post surgery that doesn't have weight gain as a side effect? Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

I have the copper to prevent weight gain and it was very painful - but ive never had children

I agree on pants first. I was a 44" waist and didn't buy new pants until I was down 50 lbs. I bought 40's, 38's, and now 36's. I was a discount store shopper and never spent more than $25 on pants. I did TOTAL PURGES at goal. Gave away eight 55 gallon trash bags full of clothes. Looking back at my pre-wls weight gains, I never averaged more than 2-3 lbs a year, so I figure I'm 5+ years away from 38's worst case!

I’ll be 2 years out post VSG in January… lowest weight was 122 back in February… now I am 135 and I have an 18 month/2 year check up tomorrow!!! I am freaking out! I’ve been working out and trying to gain muscle but this weight gain has me stressed, overwhelmed, depressed, you name it uhhhh. Anyone else in the same situation want to talk and help each other out?

Wow 20 years ago you had bypass? That is amazing. I saw someone else on here mention alcohol is causing weight gain for them. Maybe you can switch to a very low carb, calorie beer?

@@mmy, When I first enquired about WLS last year, May 2015, I was at 32 BMI. I was already freaking out re my rapid weight gain, of 28 kg ..... I never had this problem before until 2014 Routine tests showed thyroid disease, so I had to put off my WLS for about 9 months, till my thyroid stabilised ..... By late February 2016, I managed to pile on another 12-13 kg, and my weight ballooned to 101 kg , BMI 37.1 My surgeon would have operated on me at 32 BMI, to prevent future health risks and to help my deteriorating emotional state. Unfortunately, with my Hyperthyroid (Graves Disease), it was too risky to be operated on. All up, I put on 41 kg (90 Ibs) in a 2 year period (was always slim before). If I did not have this surgery, I probably would be Double my normal weight now ..... I felt I was the only person on the planet that was obese with Hyperthyroid .... even though I now know that I had this disease most of my life, and it kept me slim until 2014. I have no regrets, I lost good amount of weight 7 weeks post op, for my height. I still have a long way to go, but each day is bit better .... My NUT revised my goal weight to 68-70 kg, and I was Not happy with that. I downgraded my goal weight to 65 kg (from 60 kg) I am starting to look better, my face is changing, my aches and pains and other health issues with my rapid weight gain are improving, I am happier, and life is getting better. Good Luck and Best Wishes

In my five years since vsg...I lost both my parents to heart disease and cancer. I am so so sorry for your loss. Stress = Weight Gain or Weight Stall for most of us. Yoga, therapy, friends, church, love. ..knowing your mother wanted you to be taken care of and happy. You need to continue where she left off. Love yourself like she loved and lived for you. You need to find it in you. I lost my way and am just now trying to find my own way back. I know it's possible.

I think this article both makes and misses a couple of great points. What it gets right: 1. Muscle mass does not increase RMR as much as people believe it does. 2. It is not easy to add significant amounts of lean mass - especially in a calorie deficit - especially with age - especially with other comorbidities. What it get's wrong: 1. The goal for us post-op should be to reduce muscle loss as much as possible. It is far easier to keep what was already there supporting our greater pre-op weight than it is to lose the lean mass and then try and get it back. 2. The contribution of muscle mass to RMR does not have to be that large to be beneficial. Rough numbers of course but assuming 3500 calories in 1lb of adipose tissue and a 50lb weight gain over 5 years is a 175,000 calorie excess over 1825 days or an average daily excess of just 100 calories. Could preserving 20lbs muscle during during a 100lbs weight loss be beneficial? Using the article's 6 calories per pound of muscle per day that equals an additional 120 calories per day. 3. The best way to maintain muscle mass is lifting weights. The benefit is not only during the actual exercise but also in the post-exercise period where metabolic rate and protein synthesis remain elevated. This along with HIIT gives you 'twofer" as far as calories burned and also maintains muscles mass. I know people's abilities here vary greatly but resistance training has been shown be beneficial across the board for those who can tolerate it. The fact is many of us gained weight over a sufficiently long period of time that while in a calories excess (and yes I know there are compensatory changes to metabolism both in a calorie excess and deficit but let's keep it simple) that actual excess was not huge. Just 100 calories per day over 10 years will give a 100lbs gain. So my point...I think maintaining muscle mass during weight loss is absolutely important to longterm weight loss and maintenance...evenif the contribution to RMR is not as high as what that charlatan Dr. Oz claims.

At 258, I was wearing 24/26 and 3x tops. At 145, I am wearing size 8 pants - Kim Rogers from JC Penny's. Large tops/some medium I am very pleased to have lost this much weight and kept my weight gain with my unfil to about 12 pounds. I had gotten to 133 in December but was throwing up daily and decided to do an unfil. I put on 10+ pounds in the 1st 2 weeks but after experiencing anemia from nose bleeds last week, and being hospitalized for 3 days with blood transfusions, I have lost excess Fluid and staying around 145. I am grateful!! I think I will keep the band unfilled for a while longer as stress affects my band and I don't wanna go there right now. Good luck to all!

Just wondering if those of us who are already in menopause are sensing that losing weight even with VSG is more of a struggle than if we had done it at a younger age? It is so delightful to me to be past that time in my life and when I read of those who are struggling with that "TOM" and the associated Water retention/weight gain, I am grateful to not have to deal with that on top of the challenges of our new way of living. I do feel that my metabolism is slower that it used to be and I am a slow loser, but slow and steady and I feel better than I did in my 30's as I am much lighter on my feet and I feel more like my younger self. Interested to know what your take might be on this....

Sunta Water weight gain can fluctuate as much as five pounds. If you don't want a fill than you should get one. Follow your heart and stay on it the way you feel is working best for you. I know sometimes one gets the feeling that at some point a balance is met and you can do this.

I had my RNY at 47, and have lost 100 lbs, would like to lose another 8 lbs, surgery was 20 mos ago. Except for my stomach, I have virtually no loose skin. That said, I have a fair complexion, have never tanned, didn't get many stretch marks during my one pregnancy or all my weight gain. I have also never smoked as much as on cigarette. All this worked in my favor for not having a lot of lose skin. All the things I mentioned are causes or signs or less elasticity. I do a fair amount of weight training so the muscle tone will help loose skin appear firmer, I think but won't "cure " lose skin. Now I'm not saying I will ever wear a bikini but I feel.100 percent comfortable in sleeveless shirts.

I wanted to throw in an update because just... WOW!!! For MONTHS I've been stressing due to all the swellings, weight gains and whatever else comes with plastic surgery... however - as always with time comes healing and RESULTS!!! Every single day now I'm seeing humungous differences!! I'm over the moon right now, and THANKING EVERYTHING GOOD that I chose the right surgeons. They performed literally miracles for me. I. AM. HAPPY. In the last 4 weeks alone I've dropped NEARLY 15 INCHES off my whole body!!!! YAYAYEEESSSSS!!!!! Picture Updates:

I think it's more like diet is 98% and exercise is 2%. Also, there is good evidence that exercise increases the appetite, not suppresses it. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-jonny-bowden/exercise-benefits_b_1777630.html http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/04/phys-ed-why-doesnt-exercise-lead-to-weight-loss/?_r=0 http://www.abc.net.au/health/features/stories/2015/01/15/4162890.htm "A provocative new study shows that a substantial number of people who take up an exercise regimen wind up heavier afterward than they were at the start, with the weight gain due mostly to extra fat, not muscle." http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/11/12/exercising-but-gaining-weight/

I was sleeved on September 10 pre op I was 293 and post op I was 273. Last week I I was 264 and my current weight is 270. Is it normal to gain weight back even when sticking to the diet? I'm feeling really discourage right now and I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong.

In the battle to lose weight, stop overeating, or break free from emotional eating, it’s important to pay attention to the things that trigger your eating to go awry. Learn about the 5 most common triggers now! In the battle to lose weight, stop overeating, or break free from emotional eating, it’s important to pay attention to the things that trigger your eating to go awry. Simply focusing on what to eat misses an essential point–Your eating choices may be strongly affected by your emotions and your environment. And your food plan is useless if something is preventing you from following it. Here are five common overeating triggers that you can take control of by taking some smart, proactive action before they sabotage your weight loss efforts. 1. Getting too hungry Do you stick to your plan through breakfast and lunch only to find yourself irritable, craving carbs, and ready to eat everything in sight by the time late afternoon or evening rolls around? The end of the day tends to be stressful for many. The transition between work and home, mealtime decisions, and other peoples’ hunger or tiredness can push a busy woman over the edge. When I start coaching a new private client, it’s not unusual to hear that this is THE most difficult time of day. The key here: take control of what you can. This means doing what you can so that you don’t arrive at the end of the day feeling exhausted and starved. Too many women who are trying to lose weight, eat too little in the middle of the day and, as a result, lose control and overeat before, during, or after dinner (or all three). Make sure you are eating a balanced lunch (with protein) and then calculate the hours you are expecting yourself to last before eating again. Most women do well with a small snack midafternoon. Again, adding in protein can make all the difference. 2. Evening eating Evening (and late night) is a strong overeating trigger time for many busy women. If you are working hard all day long, it’s easy to come to see the quiet of evening as your reward. And if you are too tired and depleted to really enjoy it, food and emotional eating can become a big part of the evening ritual. “I eat in the evening because I want to treat myself.” “It’s my me-time.” “It’s the only time of the day where no one expects anything of me.” Women also overeat in the evening because they are tired (but don’t want to go to bed because this is the only alone time they have). Breaking free of the evening overeating triggers can be challenging, but it’s essential. Start by creating a policy for yourself about eating after dinner. Be realistic but be firm. Now, identify the bedtime you need to honor so that you are getting a minimum of 7.5 hours of sleep a night. This alone can make a huge difference in your overeating. Trust me. Create a new wind-down ritual that includes some nice things for you but that doesn’t include food. Finally, start carving out some me-time (even ten minutes) on the front-end of your day. You might need to get up earlier, but you’ll be focusing on you when you have the energy to do it. 3. Snacking on treats at work Are you overeating or grazing at work on the sugary treats that your coworkers leave all over the office or the break room? Make it easy on yourself by making one decision instead of hundreds. Set a policy with yourself about your eating at work. Make sure it’s a policy you can stick with. Sometimes something as simple as “I’ll only eat homemade food that is truly a treat that I can’t easily have any time” will do the trick. Spend a bit of time strategizing how you will avoid temptation and how you will reward yourself for doing so. And don’t forget to enlist support. If you are putting on pounds at the office, I guarantee that you aren’t the only one being haunted by the food. 4. Stress eating and overeating Emotional eating—using food to cope with feelings—is one of the biggest causes of overeating and weight gain. Smart women take this one seriously! Take the time to check in with yourself before you eat. Try to identify how you are feeling. Become aware of patterns. Are you a stress eater? Comfort eater? Boredom eater? The key to taking control of emotional eating is to create better strategies—ones that really address the emotions you are having. Start creating ways of addressing your feelings that you can use INSTEAD of turning to food. 5. Too much on your plate When you are too busy, stressed, and overloaded, overeating can seem like an easy way to sneak in a reward, some comfort, or a much-needed energy boost. The problem is that any benefits tend to be short-lived and the costs and negative consequences aren’t. If you want to take control of your weight, your eating, and your relationship with food, you MUST take control of your life. Learn to say no, cut back your schedule, carve out time that’s just for you and start practicing the art of asking for help. The best part of addressing overeating triggers is that when you take charge of what drives your overeating and emotional eating, you are almost always fixing a problem that’s bigger than food. When you get to the root cause of your overeating and address it head on, the triggers often lose their power. When you find strategies for dealing with stress, overeating, and overload, you are also creating strategies for living a better life.

Weight gain is normal from all the IV fluids. Drink as much water/liquids (as your program advises) and walk walk walk. This will help with any pain and get your body back in whack.

Sigh, just to complicate things further, when you exercise might make a difference, especially in maintenance. http://www.mapmyfitness.com/blog/the-best-time-of-day-to-exercise-to-lose-weight-3769/?spMailingID=48935461&spUserID=MTIzODY4ODIwMjAzS0&spJobID=702946317&spReportId=NzAyOTQ2MzE3S0 There is some evidence that exercising first thing on an empty stomach may prevent weight gain.

@@SWEETTEA No, don't worry about it. I struggle with depression, and my mom was bi-polar, so I can recognize it pretty easily. I'm glad you're in therapy, as it sounds like you have a lot you have to cope with right now. Just be aware that you're walking a fine line with the fear of weight gain. Make sure your therapist knows about your fear and treats you accordingly.

I am thinking a thigh lift is the only way to tighten my inner thighs also : ( I really do not want to have another surgery !! I had a tummy tuck years ago so luckly that was not ruined by my massive weight gain . Good luck ob your TummyTuck and let me know if you have a thigh lift : )