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I just finish the 6month and I think it's great but long as we are impatient to start are new journey but it helps you get bad habits out your life and get new habits try to think of it as a chance to prepare your self learn how to don't eat w meals and chew chew your food slow I stop smoking it's been 9 months .. I don't dring sodas I started drinking more water and oh I lost alittle wieght during this time 20 pounds I think the supervised diet is better than most cus you have to answer to someone about your weight gain or loss and this person has his future in his hands of telling the insurance company your being compliant I think you'll loss some weight w that being in place but on another I kno some ppl doctors who didn't make them work has hard ..

No weight gain at all. I do agree with the stomach gas. My doctor told me to take Gas X strips and they really helped. Also gas from surgery did go to my shoulders. I was given pain medication for that. Walking also helps. Good luck!

I didn't really have any pain. I only took a pain pill the following morning because I had one heckuva a headache. Everything else was just achy, like a mild stomach ache. Thankfully, I didn't have any weight gain. Maybe you read about that because people were constipated, something happens often when you're banded. Well, often for me anyway. Remember to walk, walk, walk, use the heating pad, have gas ex on hand & sip your drinks. You'be fine!

I was at the doctors today talking about JUST this topic... There are some definite pors and cons to this. Pros: higher chance of fertility at a lower weight healthier pregnancy, lower risk of pre-eclampsia, high blood pressure, gestational diabetes, etc Less chance of depression and weight gain issues/self-esteem etc-it is tough enough being pregnant and carrying extra weight, imagine carrying another 30-50 pounds and how you will feel? You can easily drop 30 pounds to get in a healthier weight range INSTEAD of the sleeve by joining a bootcamp/doing Jillian Michaels and following a strict diet regimen. You will have to follow a strict diet after the sleeve anyway, so it is NOT easier...you could probably do this in about 3-4 months. In reality, you will most likely lose 30-40 pounds in the same 3 months, only your TTC has to be pushed back CONS: You MUST wait 12-18 months as if you are in rapid weight loss phase, you can and will risk your health and the baby's health as you cannot take in enough calories a day and you are burning. Also, there could be issues with leaks, etc. You are at a high risk to gain the weight lost back and it would have been a waste of your time and money You do not know if you can concieve on your own and if you wait another 1-1.5 years to find out, you are then 32,33...you need to try for at least 6 months or a year Ithink (not sure) to go to a specialist, which puts you at 33-34...to have your FIRST baby. Having babies are tough on your body, and weight gain happens! My doctor said that it is riskier to have a baby overweight than to have the sleeve and get pregnant a year later> Of course, I have three little ones already and want to have my fourth...in a year If I were in your shoes, I would probably just do the diet and exercize thing, and try to make that work. Fitness is so important while you are pregnant anyway, so you are giving your body a head start, without the 6-8 week down time you will have if you get sleeved. Then, after the baby making is complete, go get your sleeve if you still need it, or maybe a mommy makeover....they offer those in Mexico for about 7K and will do up to 5 areas of your body....wooot!! Good luck with whatever you decide, it is such a personal decision and I am sending lots of baby dust your way!!!

I did and he simply said to prevent any future weight gain it was simply a pre caution measure,...I was just curious if anyone had anything happen to them like this or would suggest legal

Hello Everyone, I have a confession. I have gained back so much weight. I had successfully gotten down to 157 lbs. I exercised, but, in May 2012, I had what is called an eye stroke. This is an occlusion in the eye that causes vision loss usually in one eye. I was devastated. I was placed in a stroke clinic for treatment. Thankfully, a lot of my vision came back 70-80%. However, I have become terrified of running and most exercise. I did not have all the risk factors that usually cause this issue so, I concluded maybe it was stress. I had a cholesterol level of 188. BP 110/60, A1C. 5.2, glucose..88. So, my numbers were great. As a result I am on medicines. I also could not swallow medicine so had everything taken out. Well, Maybe not the best idea. Along with swallowing meds, I was eating everything else in sight. I had to weigh in at yesterday and it was 204lbs. I can remember saying, before fluids were taken out, restriction. No, fluid is crazy! So, I am back. Need support! Band is still the best!

I am having my Lap Band Surgery tomorrow. I keep reading about all this pain and weight gain from the surgery. Does this happen to everyone?

MDM....don't leave. You are important to your sleeve sisters....and we are all here to support each other. @ green....thank you. @Jenn....since surgery 55lbs and total of 102 from preop program started June 4th. Last week I had a stall and weight gain of 2-3 lbs....I was freaking out....it broke and I tried on pair of "skinny" jeans and they FIT!! This process has been way harder than I expected.....this site and you gals have helped me so much. Still have long way to go......

Yeah I would say that this is just water weight gain / not "fat" gain. no worries. I give you props for sticking to the liquid diet to a T! I wasn't able to !

Hi all, I am 5 days into my 8 day diet and I lost 17 lbs so far but this morning I gained one pound. I have remained faithful to a tee on the diet. Is this happening elsewhere?? Forgive my vulgarity but I haven't been using the restroom, perhaps in need of a laxative?

I was a revision from the band. I was always hungry prebad. I was banded in 2001 and there wasn't alot of understanding about metabolic disorders then, which I clearly had. So, I failed miserably with the band but didn't realize until it was removed that even though it had been empty/no Fluid since 2004 it was still "checking" my appetite. My band was removed Sept 2011 and the 2.5 months from that to the sleeve i was insatiable. It was AWFUL. I am not a binger in the sense of emotional eating, but I could eat dinner and be ready for another dinner an hour or two later. I did a high protein/low carb - all you can eat kind of diet which stopped the weight gain and even lost a few pounds (this was before my preop diet). Okay, so post sleeve - there was a period of adjustment... early weeks your hunger sensor is wacky.... well, at least mine was. By 6-8 weeks, back on normal food, my appetite was gone. I still had some head hunger, made a few mistakes but all in all, I was no longer "driven" to eat all the time. My appetite started returning by about 7 months out, but I have learned to manage that very effectively by what I eat. I have to avoid simple carbs or else I get hungry. Anyway, that is just one story, but I was a hungry 24/7 kind of person and I just don't live with that demon anymore. I do continue to eat small portions frequently - basically I have 4-6 "mini meals" everyday. I have lost over 130#in a year and am still losing... have another 20 or so to go.

Very interesting research study released that I thought I'd share. (CBS) Is loading up on lots of Protein the best way to lose weight? Some dieters think increasing or cutting back on protein will trick the body's metabolism into causing weight loss. But a new study suggests if you're going to eat a lot, changing the amount of protein in your diet probably won't help you lose weight. In fact, too little protein might make you fatter. "You don't fool nature by adding more or less protein," study author Dr. George Bray, an obesity researcher Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, told Health.com. "You may fool the scale, but you don't fool the metabolic processes which store excess calories as fat." For the study, published in the Jan. 4 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers took 25 healthy, normal-weight men and women between the ages of 18 and 35, and put them on either a low protein diet where 5 percent of their caloric intake came from Proteins, a normal protein diet (15 percent from proteins), or a high protein diet (25 percent from proteins) for about 12 weeks. The researchers overfed the study participants by nearly an extra 1,000 calories for the last eight weeks of the study to see whether the amount of protein had an effect on excess calories when it came to weight gain. By study's end, all participants gained weight, regardless of diet. Those who ate a low protein diet gained about half as much weight as those eating the normal protein and high protein diets. But the researchers found those eating less protein saw reductions in their lean body mass, and stored a higher percentage of calories as fat. Those overeating a high protein diet gained more lean body mass and stored fewer calories as fat. "You may gain less weight by overeating on a low-protein diet, but it's because you lose lean body mass, not because you store less fat," study author Dr. George Bray, an obesity researcher Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, told USA Today. The bottom line? Overeating - regardless of the amount of protein in your diet - will cause you to gain weight. "Most people are overeating and for those people who are, they need to pay attention to what they are putting into their mouths," study co-author Dr. Leanne Redman, an assistant professor of endocrinology at Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La., told HealthDay. "If you overeat a high-fat, low-protein diet, you may gain weight at a lower rate, but you are gaining more fat and losing more muscle." http://www.cbsnews.c...or-weight-loss/

Here is a thread I copied from this forum regarding weight gain/fluctuations. I'm 2 months post op and my weight goes down then up a lb or two, then drops 2 or 3, but the overall trend is down. I'm not sure how to post a "link" from another thread, so I just copied it here. Hope this helps! (the highlighted yellow words are from my search in this forum...sorry about that). Here's the explanation for the dreaded stall (you can read the full details here, including what to do about it): The Inevitable Stall By Diana C. A "stall" a few weeks out is inevitable, and here's why. 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 you are not getting in enough food, your body turns first to stored glycogen, which is easy to break down for energy. And when you use up 2 lbs of glycogen, you 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. As you stay in caloric deficit, however, your body starts to realize that this is not a short term problem. You start mobilizing fat from your adipose tissue and burning fat for energy. But your body also realizes that fat can't be used for short bursts of energy -- like, to outrun a saber tooth tiger. So, it starts converting some of the fat into glycogen, and rebuilding the glycogen stores. And 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 you might still be LOSING energy content to your body, yourweight will not go down or you might even GAIN for a while as you retain water to dissolve the glycogen that is being reformed and stored.

i had lap band six yrs ago and i am actually still loosing off and on ! I hqd actually lost more past my goal and people said i was looking to drawn and face sinking in !, LOL ! Anyway i had foot surgery 7 weeks ago and OMG i feel like such a blob and so worried aout weight gain ! Still on crutches just started to be able to put weight on it and tryimg to get off of the crutches . It has been hard to keep up with drinking my water as i cant keep running to the bathroom i cant wait to even use my eliptical i have gained a few but not as bad as i thought ! Cant wait to be be back to normal ! Any suggestions from anyone would be great !

Wellbutrin is like lexapro but different from effexor. Seriously, it depends on how you feel. I was given lexapro, I didn't gain and I didn't lose and I didn't feel better same with paxil. I took effexor, which is a tough drug to get used to and a tough drug to get off of! I experienced insane side effects, including major weight gain. The drug made me feel good and made me forget to watch what I eat(seriously). I switched to wellbutrin after a near 40lb weight gain, which was supposed to help me lose, while feeling better, it didn't. But, I didn't gain either. You're not going to know until you take them how it will effect you. It's different with everyone. It's good that you have the sleeve to help in that respect, right?

awe, don't get discouraged.... i went through the same thing & ended up gaining 11 lbs more because i got so discouraged, then i felt worse when i got approval cuz of the weight gain. then everything went so quickly i couldn't even wrap my mind around the whole thing! lol, I'm 10 days post-op & feeling pretty good now.... good luck to you & keep your head up....

Wls has opened up so many opportunities for me. I have rhuematoid arthritis and losing the weight has allowed me to decrease the medication that was causing my weight gain. I have been on steroids for about 6 years and hopefully next year I can come off of them completely. My answer to why be this drastic an have the surgery is simple. With the surgery you still have the cravings you did before, but instead of having to rely on your will power your stomach not only says no - but screams HELL NO! I started where you are 256 at 5'3 and I am down about 85 after 6 months. I feel sexy and confident, and more like a woman ( if that makes any sense).

Lovetennis - thanks for contributing... my story is a lot like yours, and just to touch on the killing myself slowly with all the little things... I meant diet pills, supplements, shots, etc, etc... etc... NOT twinkies. I respect everyones opinions and as much as we share here - I think only "we" truly know all the rigor we have put ourselves through only to have another failed attempt and a larger weight gain. Many prayers for all on this site - I respect each and every one of you.

you have been and still are one of my inspirations .. I have followed your story from the beginning and could not imagine going thru everything you have. You are one VERY STRONG WOMAN.....You can do it again and will do it again... you just haven't reached that place again yet..... Other than the weight gain... are you happy in life with your new baby and new husband? since my TT i can't seem to get motivated to get back to the gym....

When is the last time you had it checked? I worry you are showing signs of a slip, which would explain the night reflux as well as the weight gain. I'd get into your surgeon ASAP. Best wishes to you.

I don't know which ones cause weight gain, but I'm on Lexapro and haven't gained any weight. In fact, I'm losing pretty fast.

Weight gain after years on the Band?? Anyone??

The first thing I would do is try smaller bites. Really small, like the size of your fingernail. Also, chew it until mush and pause between bites. If you do this and still can't eat solids, it's entirely possible you're too tight and need a slight unfill. If that's the case, don't wait, call your doctor. Being too tight can not only prevent you from getting enough nutrients and cause weight gain, but it can actually lead to slips if left that way. It's always better to be safe than sorry. Best wishes.

RNYTalk Newsletter By Hey, RNYTalk members!Thanksgiving is behind us and the holiday season is officially underway! Filled with holiday shopping, festivities at work and spending time with friends and family, this time of year is can be the most rewarding. It can be hectic, too, so paying extra attention to your diet and health is even more important than usual. Use this newsletter as a reminder and some motivation to be extra cautious with your choices so that you can keep seeing the results you want from your weight loss journey. Here’s what’s coming up in this newsletter. Member Spotlight: Meet kristy3k! Tips for the Season: Thriving at Holiday Parties! Member Challenge: Activate Your Party Action Plan! A Big Thank-You to Our Members as 2012 Ends We know the hustle and bustle of this season make your life busy, but we hope you spend part of your holiday season with us at Alex Brecher Founder RNYTalk.com Member Spotlight: Meet kristy3k! Our Member Spotlight this month is on kristy3k from Oklahoma. Kristy3k has a family that many people only dream of: she has been married for 21 years and she has a 19-year-old daughter, a 15-year-old son and a 12-year-old son. She works as a USPS worker. As she says, she played the “constant blame game” for years as she blamed her weight gain first on her pregnancies and then on her night-shift job. Her wake-up call came when her father passed away last July. Finally, kristy3k realized that she needed to take control of what she could – her weight. Her high weight was 340 pounds. After a lot of research – including many hours lurking on RNYTalk.com! - kristy3k got the gastric bypass done in February of this year. Since then, she’s lost 149 pounds and is well on her way to her goal weight of 165 pounds. She tells us that she’s had so many highlights in her life since the surgery! Just a few include not having to use the handicapped stall in public restrooms because she couldn’t fit in regular stalls; not being out of breath all the time; and not being the “fat mom.” She gets a kick out of her kids telling her she’s skinny, and one of her greatest moments was when her husband was able to wrap his arms around her again. Throughout the process, kristy3k has gained a lot of self-esteem and general happiness. She still wonders how she let herself get so big in the first place, but she’s determined to continue her weight loss journey. She loves RNYTalk.com because she can get information and inspiration from it anytime. Everyone on the boards is “so upbeat.” Kristy3k is modest enough to say that she is hesitant to offer weight loss tips, but she suggests eating your Protein, drinking your Water, exercising and above all, being patient! We know you’re doing all of those things, kristy3k, and thanks for sharing them and your story with us! Please post in the food choices. Holiday parties can interfere with your best intentions to stay on track. From Thanksgiving to New Year’s, parties can be regular events at work and the homes of family and friends. Frequently overeating can not only derail your weight loss, but also lead to bypass-related complications, such as dumping syndrome. Whether you’re a weight loss surgery veteran or this is your first holiday after getting the surgery, these tips can help you enjoy the holiday parties without doing damage to your diet. Eat before you go. You don’t want to go into the party on an empty stomach. If you’re starving when you get to the party, you might be tempted to grab whatever’s available – which probably won’t be that healthy. Enjoy the party. The holidays should be about appreciating people. Use parties as opportunities to spend time with coworkers and other people who mean a lot to you. Focus on enjoying the party, not on hiding yourself in the food. Take care of yourself. Make sure there’s something at the party that you can eat. One option is to pack a high-protein snack or two for yourself and eat it when it’s time for your regular meal or snack. You can also take a healthy dish for the host to serve at the party. Sip water. Carrying a glass of water around gives you something to do without adding any calories to your day. Another benefit of drinking water is that you know you shouldn’t eat solid foods when you’re drinking fluids. Avoid alcohol. Alcohol is a source of calories that you just don’t need. Worse yet is that it lowers your inhibition. That means that you’re less likely to resist unhealthy holiday foods. Member Challenge: Activate Your Holiday Action Plan! This newsletter’s challenge is related to our advice on holiday parties. The challenge is to choose a specific strategy designed to get you through the holidays without interfering with your weight loss goals. You can take one of the suggestions listed above, or choose your own. Some other ideas are to keep healthy Snacks at work so you’re not tempted by unhealthy snacks and to record each treat that you eat in your food record instead of pretending that it doesn’t count. Tell us in the Member Challenge Forum how you complete the challenge! Was it easy or difficult? What tips do you have for other RNYTalk.com members? We also want to know anytime you go back and complete an old Newsletter Challenge, which you can find in the archived Newsletter Forum. It’s never too late to try a Newsletter Challenge! A Big Thank-You to Our Members as 2012 Ends As we close out 2012, we wanted to take this opportunity to thank each member. We truly appreciate your support. We value each member, whether you post many times a day and use all of RNYTalk.com’s many features, or whether you log in infrequently to read just a few posts. You, the members, are essential to RNYTalk.com’s success, so a heartfelt thank-you to each of you! 2012 has seen rapid increases in the number of members, the beginning of regular newsletters and the launch of mobile apps to access all of the forum’s features. Big plans are in the works for the coming year, and it promises to be an exciting ride. We’re glad to have you on board! Of course, we’re always open to member suggestions, so please feel free to contact any board administrator. That’s it for this month’s newsletter. We hope it was inspirational and helpful. Have a safe and peaceful holiday season, and take care of yourself and each other, Alex ==============================================================If you no longer wish to receive this newsletter, you may unsubscribe by going to your Control Panel and clicking on the Newsletters tab, or clicking on the following link: {unsubscribe}

For the past few weeks I had been substituting meals with protein shakes. I thought this was something that needed to be implemented before surgery so that it would make it easier getting in enough protein after surgery. However, my surgeon told me that protein shakes should only be used after surgery because adding protein pre-op could cause weight gain. However, I have lost 16 lbs while supplementing protein. Did anyone drink protein shakes to help with their pre-op weight loss, or should I avoid these for now?