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My wife was originally planning on having WLS (specifically VSG) after watching my successful recovery with relatively minor complications and successful weight loss. She was going to wait 6 months after my post op to see how things are progressing for me before making a decision to attend a WLS consulatation. Regardless, her latest decision is to not have WLS for a couple reasons. 1. Slimes and throwing up: She didn't like all the slimes and throwing up I went through when adjusting to the solids phase. It was mainly my fault because I am a fast eater and it took me a while to learn to "hear" the full signals. I had to learn how much to eat, how fast to eat and what types of food my sleeve an tolerate over time. Regardless, she didn't like seeing me in the bathroom so much after eating. I am better now, but still have issues with eating stringy things like roast bean or string green Beans in addition to fatty meats. Truely, it feels like dumping syndrome. I do try to explain to her that not everyone slimes and throws up and most of the time, it was my fault. 2. Auto-immune disease: She has at least 1 auto-immune disease. The one that she has requires an infusion of remicade every 6 weeks. This is one expensive infusion. It is called Ankylosing Spondylitis. You can follow the link for more details. It is basically an auto-immune disesase that attacks all the joints and there is no cure. When we talked to the surgeon during one of my pre-op visits, he said that people with auto-immune diseases might have more complications, but did not go into the details. She might also have PCOS. We do not know yet and will find out soon. This is where I could really use some advise from others. She has about 150 lb to lose as we both ended up in the same weight range at our heaviest earlier this year. Maybe it is because of life stresses? Who knows. The fact is that her extra weight may be contributing to other complications like high blood pressure, pregnancy issues, lack of desire to be outdoors like walking and hiking and on and on. There are plenty of reasons here alone that would make sense for her to consider it. She has tried manu diets (as I have), but has never lost more than 10-20 lbs on them. Atkins, weight watchers, etc. I've had fairly good results from the diets because I am very focused when something needs to be done, but then I lose my focus and the weight comes back. Hence, WLS was the only tool left for me in order to stop the up and down of weight gain and weight loss. She used to be "thin" (size 12) in high school, so I am pretty sure she remembers what that is like. She was a pretty hot girl in her younger days. In college she was slightly overweight, but still very hot and sexy (we got married then). We both put on a lot of weight in the last 12 years of our marriage. I don't hold the weight against her (never have), but I would like her to be healthy to avoid future weight-related complications. The weight does not cause her to be unhappy about her life (mainly family is what makes her happy). She is usually in a positive mood and certainly brings happiness and well-being to my life. I would like her to consider WLS because it is life-changing and truely opens up a lot of opportunities that did not exist before. However, I don't want to push her into something she is against. Any thoughts?

I love my mirena... I am still pre-op but haven't had any weight gain since I got it...

My doctor told me I have to get an IUD. Weight gain worries me but my biggest concern is having it put in. I'm very big and had a c-section, I read it is harder to insert if a woman hasn't had a vaginal delivery. Anyone have difficulties? Sent from my iPhone using VST

Anybody having issues with weight gain that has the Implanon?

Hi Everyone: I hope this message will not encourgage anyone on how i feel. Just needed some support. Been banded since 12/16/11, almost a year has gone by. My weight lost was from 240 to 163. Now since them i have been depressed on what to eat. Its really hard for me to see someone eating a hamburger with a bun! Potatoes, squash, rich, eggs, green beans, broccoli and yorgurt are so hard for me to eat. It doesn't matter how i eat them or cut them, they just don't feel good. I had to change doctor due to moving from another state. I now weight 180 and i don't understand how i gained weight. It don't seem like i eat anything. I have been having a couple glasses of Bailey's Irish Cream! Can you believe i can drink this! There are a lost of days i ask myself why did i do this! Please give me some suggestions. Thanks, Kelly

So here I am speaking from the horses mouth..................I had my revision with Dr Garcia September 10th. He only charged me $500.00 to take out the band. IMO it would be the best decision to do it in one surgery. I had a small stomach hernia and he fixed it also for free. I had no complications and had the band for 5 years. There is nothing to "heal" if you have no issues with your band, don't risk the weight gain by doing two surgeries. You could probably have your surgery this year and be well on your way by cruise time.

I have the para guard, no hormones or added weight gain. I love it. I was on the depo before, I will never make that mistake again!

So many complications due to my Mirena. Weight gain is one. Hopefully it will be out come this Thursday and then onto a tubal. Amanda Rae

I just recently had mine replaced and I had to wait a week prior to gettin the new one and I noticed during that week I lost the most weight in one week ever. Now that I have gotten it replaced I noticed that my weightloss has slowed Down. I kno the alternative is pregnancy and that wud cause way more weight gain but I have to say that this is so annoying

It'll be 6 weeks tomorrow & I haven't lost any in 2 weeks, GRRR !! I know we all go through it, but it's so frustrating . Going to start the gym tomorrow , hopefully that will help, at least there's no weight gain. Just had to vent .Any tips would help , thanks

Donna, I know you don't know me but I just want to tell you how proud I am of you! Your honesty is inspirational. My weight gain in the past was ALWAYS tied to emotional pain, family problems, and a lack of self esteem. I am slowly beginning to heal, and I know that you will too.

So I am 12 days post op and have done okay with the weight loss. But today when I weighed myself I gained 1.5 lbs from yesterday. I've been trying not to weigh myself daily but over the past few days I have not moved the scale so I was curious and saw the gain. I'm doing everything they tell me to do. I want to cry!

there are virtually no dumping with the sleeve and its extremly rare, no malabsorb with the sleeve, no puking, no limit of size food to a point that one eats, or great restriction. Yer band is in there just as long as somone who started at 400 pounds. If you had to have it remove, and didnt want weight gain again you would still have to do a revision surgery. You still have the same odds of typical LB problems popping up as any of the others with more weight to lose. JMO, but I think you have subjected yourself to the same issues you didnt want t have, down the road. JMO, no offense intended. Sandy

Brave girl to post in honesty. Yes! My caloric intake is below yours on most days because we all are different, higher calories for me would mean weight gain. As you said, we all need to find where we are comfortable Congrats, you look amazing!

I wish you all the best..... continue your research. Look into the sleeve too. I love my band, i just didn't love having to go to the dr. and get fills. and i don't like the idea about erosion and slips... etc. That scares me. My current insurance does not cover WLS, so if anything goes wrong... i'm on my own. I personally would not do the Gastric Bypass.... too scary for me. And it has a higher re weight gain than any of the surgeries.... Look into them all and talk to your doctor and really think about the changes you will have to make for a life time. It's not like weight watchers were you can just stop counting point and not weight in.... or Jenny and stop buying her food.... This is forever.... I haven't had a hamburger on bun in three years.... or a deep dish slice of pizza.. But it's all worth it. Saturday will be my three year anniversary... and i LOVE the new me. Get healthy for you and your future family..... All the rest is just "icing on the cake" so to speak.... One more thing.... you also have to take into consideration how this will not only effect you, but your entire family..... My husband didn't want me to get the band at all and still make remarks about it. He was very secure with me at 223#. He knew that at that weight i had no self confidence and most men would not take a second look at me... Now he has a hard time with the size 6 Christina and has even said that losing weight was the worse thing that happened to us... He hates when other men look at me and feels like one day i will get a better "offer" and leave him.... On the other hand.. he loves the new me in Private... loves the more energy me, the more sexual me, the more confident me...but only in private. My daughter in law (whom i love very much) had a hard time with my weight loss. She was jealous of it, and still is... but it's getting better. My Sister in law, that had the band done in Mexico two years before me, gained weight with the band... (three weeks ago had GB) will not come around me if my brother was with her. He would com pair she and i and say..... why can't you lose weight... my sister did. Which was wrong on his part, but it's what happened. Be prepared to lose friends.... your fat friends won't want to be around you because you will be thinner and will be jealous of you and your thinner friends will start sabotaging you, because they will fear you... no longer will you be "the fat friend".... They will say things like... how much weight are you planning on losing... your getting too thin. Your face is sunk in... You want to come eat ice-cream... a little bit won't hurt..... So you will start getting the attention of being the thin girl in the fat group and the pretty thin girl in the thin group....

To answer some of your questions. The weight gain (blah)...yes, it happens. I gained the 40 lbs between 2003 and 2006 and, after a significant breakup, I just needed something else to focus on. I started simple with walking and eating only vegetarian. I didn't join the gym until about 3 years ago but, since then, I am a regular and do not go less than 5 days a week/often 7. I held on to two pair of my favorite post op/weight loss pants and was determined to get back into them...they fit big now. I think the way you can get motivated is to put it into your schedule. It should be as regular as making dinner, going to work, taking a shower..the gym/working out needs to be added to your day schedule. Even if it's just 20 mins walking around your neighborhood! I have managed to avoid a bunch of loose skin and I contribute that to being active and drinking TONS of Water. I don't drink soda anymore and my "soft drink" will either be Crystal Light or iced tea/with Splenda. Also, when I got back to work after two weeks of recovery, I started walking around my office during my 15 minute breaks. Now I'm that crazy workout lady who walks during her lunch too :-) Oh and as far as hydration goes, try coconut water...if you can find it in your area. It's SO good and refreshing, with different flavors like mango and pineapple. I feel extra hydrated when I have coconut water. PS...my dear friend had GB a year after I did. At first she refused to get it done because she was going to do the "cabbage Soup diet"...well, that didn't work...obviously. She is one of the people who wasn't dedicated and has gained a lot of her weight back She had a lot of loose skin, went to Mexico to get it removed and I really think they just took her money and didn't do anything but cut her open and sew her up (swear). Now she's on the "pouch shrinking" diet. What? Yes, that's a real diet and I just let her vent and tell me she doesn't eat that much, etc. But I've seen her snack on sugary things a lot. Hope this helped! Betsie

And the newbies in this site...there are no set standards for the surgery. My nutritionist was telling me to eat 1200 calories two weeks after I had surgery and telling me to drink 64 ounces...so what do most people in this board do...panic... They panic because they can't get their protien in, they panic because they can't drink all the water thief dumb ass nutritionist is telling who 99% of the time has no clue what they are talking about because they have never had this surgery. They don't talk about ketosis...I am on here telling people that you will be able to eat again. A lot more. And weight gain is possible. Lose as much as you can in the beginning. That is all I saying. You can do what you want and I expect everyone to do their research, but I hate hate hate seeing people who can't get those last pounds off and who are losing slow. We all go through this major surgery expecting to get thin and healthy. I just want everyone to reach their goal.

So I see my PCP in the morning for my last appt of my 3 month supervised diet. I have done horrible and haven't lost any weight, i have gained! If I could lose weight in the first place, I wouldn't be where I am now, right? My surgeon requires the 2 months of not smoking so I quit. Hardest thing I've ever done but how was I supposed to lose weight and quit smoking at the same time? Now I'm worried I'll be denied because of the weight gain. Anyone know how this will affect my chances? I hate to have come this far in the process and not get approved!! Does anyone know if I need to send my food journal in to the insurance company or if my doctor's progress notes are all that is require?. Ugh, I am so frustrated and nervous about this whole thing. Any advice will help!!

4 yrs ago had a Mirena placed. My body rejected it a couple months later. Exact same thing, bleeding like a miscarriage (3 months). August 2012 after over an hour appt with my GYN decided it was the best option to try again. Although my chances of a 2nd rejection are at 30%... So far so good. Still dealing with random spotting. Haven't had a heavy period yet (before 10+ days of Heavy flow). You guys have made me question the weight gain aspect though. Surgery date 5/16/12, I've lost 110 lbs but I've bounced up and down 2 lbs since it was placed. I really never put 2&2 together. Thank you I'll have to bring this up with my Dr.

It was definitely that hard for me. I'm not only battling obesity, but I also have Multiple Sclerosis. When I got my Lap Band surgery in January, I needed a handicapped parking sticker just to make it to the front of the grocery store and then a motorized cart to do my shopping. When I did walk, I used a cane. In fact when I first started going to the end of the street and back I had to use a cane to do it. So yes, it was probably even harder than I'm adequately describing here. As for my weight loss, yes I did lose a lot fast, but I'm human. Heck, I've been pretty much stuck for a month now and I'm currently experimenting with carb cycling in hopes of kicking my metabolism into working again. It's incredibly frustrating to be at a plateau like this but I know two things- 1. No weight loss is better than a weight gain and 2. It's normal and it'll pass eventually. Hang in there and don't give up, you can totally do this!

Let me first tell you a little about myself. I grew up as a very athletic and yes a very skinny kid without a care in the world. Then the teenage years hit and I started battling depression. As a result I was put on drug after drug, many of which cause weight gain or atleast an inevitable carb obsession which leads to obeseity. I essentially became my feelings: slow, sluggish. I used food to try to fix my problems. But it didn't work, so I ate more and more.Don't get me wrong even in my teens and twenties there were times when I was healthy and thin, but then I would yo-yo back everytime my medications would have to be changed or tweaked to treat my depression and anxiety. From the time I graduated college 2008 to 2011, I yo-yoed up 100 lbs from 155 lbs weight to almost 257 lbs at 5'4''. This was the position I found myself at when I started my process of approval for lapband surgery in July of 2011. I was over 250 lbs. A size 22 pants and xxl in tops. It was the seemingly little things that made life so miserable as an overweight person. Some of these little things included walking from my car into the schools for work. I got mad at myself everytime I forgot something upstairs because the walk up the steps took my breath away. I would get blinding back pain. And then there were the times when people asked me "when is the baby due?" that really ruined my self esteem. I guess it wasn't there fault. I did look like an egg on stilts with my apple shape and protruding tummy. I knew right away that a typical diet wouldn't work for me. As long as I was able to each such large amounts of food it wouldn't matter what food I was eating (even healthy food is not longer healthy if the quantity is too large). I needed something to help my control the bottomless pit that was my stomach. Something that would stop my stomach from being treated like the trash compactor that it had become. Most importantly I needed a solution that would allow me to still absorb the medications I needed to maintain my mood. The lapband was the tool I chose to help myself lose weight. Yes, it is a tool not a fix all or miracle cure. So far I have used my tool along with diet and exercise to lose about 60 lbs. I am now in what some people call "onderland" where that first number on the scale is a 1 instead of a 2,3,4 etc. It has to be one of the best feelings in the world. I now wear a size 14 pants and a large top. Even though I'm not what many people call skinny or what I even consider skinny, I know that the decision I made and the sucess I have earned and deserve is signifigant to my health and wellbeing. I now don't have to struggle so much with the physical and emotional weight that was taking over my life. I can walk, I can even run (a little) and I love cycling. It hasn't been easy. In fact, it has been really hard to give up the food that I was using to comfort myself; in fact I still battle emotions that cause me to overeat, but now I feel like it's a battle I can win.

I'm guessing it wasn't the food consistency or texture but rather the sugar and fat. Your body gets used to being fed healthy food. When we suddenly throw junk at it again, it goes "Oh hell no, what the heck is this?" and promptly rejects it. Hence the sick feeling. I wouldn't advise making yourself throw up, btw. It's very bad for the band. I look at moments like that as a reminder of why I need to continue to make good decisions. I totally over-indulged over Halloween and boy did I pay the price. Not in weight gain but I just felt horrible for a day after. Best wishes.

What symtems are you guys suffering from besides the weight gain. Mine are lots of hair loss, acne, facial hair

Great post. My profile picture is me...I was banded in 2007...lost 130 pounds, had a lower body lift and breast lift with augmentation in 2009 and this pic was from vacation in 2010...first time wearing a bikini. Now...in December 2010 I was diagnosed with breast cancer...kicked it's ass and then got pregnant in September 2011...delivered my third son on May 15, 2012 and now I'm fighting the pregnancy weight gain. I have 60 pounds to lose but I keep my profile pic the same to remind me that I did it once so I can do it again all of you are beautiful...never be embarrassed of your pictures!

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