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Well I picked "healthy substitute" because that is my most frequent choice, but like many other long term sleevers at goal, I use most of the options occasionally: Wait until it passes, even if it’s a few days. I most often choose this option when I'm not at goal. Wait a day, and then give in if the craving is still there. I don't really use this option. Make a healthy substitute. Tips below! Have a bit or two of the real thing. If I can't resist, I use this option when not at goal. Give in. Enjoy your treat. Ah, life at goal! But if I've been craving a lot of crap, I might still choose Make a healthy substitute to head off weight gain. Healthy Substitutes: Sweet: Greek yogurt with a tablespoon of whipped cream cheese, sweetened with splenda, topped with splenda sweetened blueberries and a crushed graham cracker Winter time: Hot Sleepytime tea or Christmas Tea with Splenda Summer time: Lipton Diet Green Tea with Citrus Sweetened Cereal, such as chocolate Krave (measured portion using food scale) Fruit, such as Watermelon in summer, orange slices in winter (measured by container size) Crunchy: Pretzels or cheezit crackers instead of chips or cheetos (measured portion using food scale) Raw veggies with dip made from greek yogurt and ranch dressing mix or greek yogurt and little blue cheese. High Calorie coffee Drinks: Soy Latte with splash of sugar free caramel syrup. In the summer, I blend with ice for a homemade frappo. When ordering at Starbucks, I always get the tall instead of larger size. hot drink I get the soy latte and for frapp, I get the tall carramel frapp light, no whip. Just hungry: Sometimes I'm just hungry between meals. I eat a low calorie Protein, such as: light cheese stick rolled in a slice of low fat lunch meat tuna, blended with greek yogurt and mayonnaise to make a pate texture, then spread on whole wheat toast cut into quarters Deli Sandwich: I use lowfat lunchmeats. Gallo makes a great low fat salami. I like a bland cheese, and surprisingly, Velveta cheese has less calories than most. I make a full sandwich with whole wheat bread, 4 oz. of meat and 2 oz. of cheese, then I cut in half and eat half now and half for a different meal. Right before eating, I add tomatoes and lettuce. Fatty Italian: I love italian grilled veggies. I use a mandolin slicer to shave ribbons of zuchhini, yellow squash, and eggplant. Then I cut yellow and red peppers and toss in some halved cherry tomatoes. I spray all olive oil and roast. Right before it's done, I toss in a few fresh basil leaves. Top with 1/4 oz. shaved Parmesan. If you don't want to oven roast, you can pan roast the veggies too.

Bulimia Nervosa Bulimia nervosa is a serious disorder that involves a recurring pattern of binge eating followed by dangerous compensatory behaviors in an effort to counteract or “undo” the calories consumed during the binge. People with bulimia often feel trapped in this cycle of dysregulated eating, and there is a risk for major medical consequences associated with bulimic behaviors. Research has provided varying results but conservative estimates regarding bulimia indicate that about 1.5% of women and .5% of men will have bulimia at some point in their lifetime. In certain populations, prevalence rates are much higher, such as on college campuses where up to 20% of college-age females endorse symptoms of bulimia. Diagnostic criteria for Bulimia Nervosa (from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition (DSM-V) Recurrent episodes of binge eating Recurrent inappropriate compensatory behaviors (such as self-induced vomiting, misuse of laxatives, fasting, or excessive exercise) in order to prevent weight gain The binge eating and inappropriate compensatory behaviors both occur, on average, at least 1x/week for 3 months. Self-evaluation is unduly influenced by body shape and weight. The disturbance does not occur exclusively during episodes of anorexia nervosa https://www.eatingdisorder.org/eating-disorder-information/bulimia-nervosa/

Hello! Next week Thursday is my final appointment with my surgeon before he submits to my insurance company for approval. The problem is, my insurance specifically says that I cannot have any net weight gain. Well, after COVID and my gym being closed, I am 5 pounds heavier than I was 6 months ago. Does anyone have any tips to drop 5 pounds quickly that I could do in the days leading up to my next appointment? Thanks!

You may gain weight. However, it probably won't be fat that you gain. Rather, you'll likely gain water weight by reintroducing carbs without engaging in moderate intensity exercise on a routine basis. Starchy carbs (e.g. corn, potatoes, rice, breads, yams, etc.) may cause bloating in susceptible people due to several mechanisms. High-carb food causes the body to store three times as much water compared to protein. This increased water storage is in the form of muscle glycogen stores. To summarize, you may see a bump upward on the scale from water weight gain if you resume eating carbs. However, this can be minimized by working out. For instance, I eat as many carbs as I want, but I keep my activity levels high because I dislike restricting macros from my food intake.

My surgeon just talked to me about this. He said it had to do with dehydration, losing a lot of water weight and getting hydrated again. He told me to expect a stall and possible weight gain.

I'm 2yrs into the lap-band and I'm gaining how can I get control of it before it's too late?

My elbows are a darker color, I’ve scrubbed, I’ve used fade lotions, I’ve tried every home remedy. It’s not dry caked on skin it’s just a pigmentation discoloration- to clarify. Did this go away after weight loss? Hoping it does because it only appeared after weight gain [emoji849][emoji849][emoji849]

If you haven't had therapy for the sexual assault issues, give that a go. I benefited enormously from EMDR therapy after a sexual assault; I tell people that the event basically rewired my brain during a moment of extreme trauma and EMDR was required to un-weld all of those connections. PTSD is no joke and it sounds like you've had a fair number of traumas recently. Shame is only going to reinforce all of that, so it's time to bring in the professionals. The weight gain is a symptom of other stuff, so deal with the mental stuff first.

Struggling with a small weight gain of about 3.5kg so started back with the basics today. How about you how are you coping shotochick

Dcprincess...often times I feel undeserving and it seems unreal that I have lost weight. I had an epiphany last week when I realized that "yes, I had lapband surgery but no one put an exercise band in me!" Really, the band has helped get me started but the continual success in exercise and fact that I continue to run in 90+ degree weather here in Texas is MY accomplishment and not because of that band of silicone. I like to mull over that from time to time. BTW I ran in Houston last weekend early in the morning and even at 0700 it was HOT. Way to go with your exercise down there! I had a strange experience several months ago. I was out with some friends in a club and was feeling pretty tipsy (not something I usually do anymore!) Well, I went into the bathroom and when I looked at the mirror I felt real strange. I hardly recognized myself. Surely it was the alcohol speaking but at any rate it was a freaky experience. I wonder if we have all failed to have good body images even before our weight gain years ago and consequently it was what got us to where we are today. I had a very good friend (also a shrink) tell me that I was ignoring my obesity because it protected me from being hurt by others. When I finally came to the conclusion that I could no longer continue to be overweight just the admission that I was truly morbidly obese was an extremely painful experience. I cried for days after I scheduled my surgery. I guess I was fearing losing another (in)effective coping mechanism. Dcprincess, have you ever thought of posting side-by-side pictures of yourself somewhere you can look at them on a regular basis? I just might try that myself....although I find looking at the former pictures very depressing. I just think of the years I put up with lugging all the weight around! Anyone else have any ideas?

Hey y'all: Well, I got on the scale this morning and was exactly the same as before my conference. I'm telling you, it's kind of great and kind of weird all at the same time, because while at this conference I just ate and drank whatever sounded good at the time--I'm talking about drinking at least 2 glasses of wine a night, a Starbucks full-fat, full-sugar mocha a day (which really didn't sit very well, I have to be honest and say--kind of quease-inducing), meals that had multiple courses (although I tried and mostly succeeded at keeping things very veggie-centric), and--brace yourselves--dessert. Yes. I ate a few bites of tiramisu at dinner Saturday night, and it was ah-may-zing. I was really kind of scared to get on my scale this morning and frankly shocked to see no weight gain at all--no loss, but no gain, either. I feel like I've dodged a few bullets, although I was mentally prepared to see a higher number. The whole process of this conference has really been eye-opening for me in lots of ways. First, I realize now that I really can relax about eating--my sleeve definitely does its job and restricts the amount of food I can tolerate. It also restricts the types of food I am able to comfortably eat--I "can" physically eat lots of different sorts of food that I couldn't tolerate at all when first sleeved, but I don't feel comfortable when I eat certain things--most of them happen to be not such healthy choices--so I'm not nearly as interested in eating them any more. Vegetables, however, are completely sleeve-friendly, plus I love them, plus I like how I feel physically when I eat them. Sweet Starbucks coffee--not so much; I drank it because it was available and my usual wasn't available, but I will not be making that a regular thing, as it didn't make me feel good enough to overcome the queasiness from the sugar (and I absolutely will not drink artificial sweeteners--just a personal aversion to that). I was able to find appetizer-sized meals that worked in every restaurant we visited. I ate in public with friends almost every meal. Not one person ever commented about how little I ate except my mentor; we went to lunch, and my waiter was quite concerned that I didn't like my grilled asparagus vinaigrette because I couldn't finish the appetizer-sized portion. My mentor, who had seen me eat several meals by that time of the conference, told the waiter, "She doesn't eat much--that's why she looks so great!" I just grinned and told the waiter it was delicious but I was full. All's well that ends well. I walked past people that I've known for twenty years and had them not recognize me until I spoke to them. Had a lot of double-takes. Had one guy come over to my table, sit down, and start talking with my mentor--I have worked closely with this person in the past at a conference--when my mentor turned to me with a comment and used my name, this guy's jaw dropped open and he spent about ten straight minutes apologizing for not recognizing me. I got used to saying, "Yeah, it's pretty different for me, too!" I was startled to have men break into a trot from behind me in order to get to a door first to open it. My carry-on luggage was stowed for me and retrieved by various guys on the plane--and believe you me, I'm 6'2" and perfectly capable of lifting my little carry-on bag into and out of the overhead bin. LOL I was flirted with by several strangers, waiters, old friends, and colleagues at the conference--not in an ugly way, mind you, just friendly flirting. My husband said, "You have lost your invisibility. What an ironic thing that you got smaller and are no longer invisible." He is 100% right! No more invisibility. And I realized that where I used to get really uncomfortable with men noticing me, I'm able to deal with the flirting in a friendly way (most of the time, just a big smile) and just take it for what it is, which for me is as a non-pressure compliment. So, all in all, a very enjoyable conference, both for the content of the conference itself and also for the nice responses to the "new" me. I had a lot of questions about "how I did it," and I responded quite honestly that "I had surgery, and it took!"

I gained 8 lbs. in two weeks and it was my last appointment yesterday. I have Anthem Blue Cross of CA so I hope they don't deny me because of that. I was also on steroids for 5 days for walking pneumonia. My NUT was not happy about the weight gain.

2/29/16 222 On new meds, I believe causing weight gain! Grrrrr!! Good luck everyone!!

I am considering the following items: Monthly or quarterly meetings. A fun or educational activity at each meeting. Examples include preparing a weight loss surgery-friendly meal, filling out a customized meal plan, or going for a group-wide nature walk. Presentations by surgeons, nutritionists, other professionals or bariatric product companies at local meetings. Annual national meeting of BariatricPal Local Chapters in a location such as Los Angeles, New York, or Huston. Option to go on an annual cruise What Do You Think about BariatricPal Local Chapters? What I would like to ask you for is what you think about the above suggestions. Also, what are your answers to the following questions?All of the above sound great! Would we be allowed to bring +1 to the cruise? Such as spouse or what if someone has children but no babysitter? Would you be interested in attending regular local chapter meetings in person? Would you be interested in being a leader (or co-leader)? Yes!! Absolutely. Would you like BariatricPal to provide agendas for meetings?This would be ideal and very helpful. What additional support could BariatricPal provide to encourage your participation and/or leadership?BariatricPal is super helpful already. Maybe a yearly conference with all of the local chapter leaders, maybe in person or on GoToMeeting would be good to share ideas/stories/etc. Also, some help with venues would be good. Should there be limits on the minimum and maximum numbers of members that each Local Chapter can have?Yes, I think this should really be a stipulation. The maximum should be around 30. Any more than that and it seems like not everybody gets noticed nor the one on one that someone should get in a live support group setting. What other ideas do you have?Setting up different meetings tailored to individual needs such as pre-op, post-op, over 1 year post-op, longer and perhaps by surgery type though I would not be opposed to running any of the above. Also perhaps special sessions for people who are struggling and need help with getting back on track, weight gain, transfer addictions or other.

First off, this is for bariatrics. If you're only 115 lbs and have never been higher than 175, why are you even on here? Secondly, everyone has different issues which caused their weight gain. Google it. Everyone here is already at their breaking point with their weight, to the point that they're considering extreme measures. They don't need you belittling them for being overweight and throwing your weights in their face. Go away. K, bye. [emoji1308]

Had the same issue. Got it unfilled a little but now struggling with the weight gain.

I have a question about this: is this a 1 pound weight gain over-all; or any 1# weight gain at any time during the trial? In other words, say I started at 100# and ended up at 99#, but during 1 month I went up to 101# - would this be a disqualifier? Or is the net loss at 99# the magic number? Hope I have made myself clear.... I finished the three month supervised diet, unfortunately I gained one pound. Would this little gain get me denied ?

@@Doggirl79 I was actually denied because of weight gain also. I was also told if I lost the weight they would approve me but i still got denied again. Hopefully this doesn't happen to you and you get a quick approval. In the end I did get approved but had to go through an external review. Keep us updated. Good Luck!!

This topic is still on my mind. FB has reminded me of where I was a year ago and I am able to look at myself and see that yes I was morbidly obese. When I compare a picture from yesterday's 15 mile training walk to a year ago when I was still recuperating from a total hip replacement, I can see what was obvious to everyone but me. I never talked about my weight since it was such a source of embarrassment and pain. Thankfully my husband sensed this and knew to never bring it up. When I did he was always supportive and even joined me in eating healthy. He has really helped me when it comes to the mental aspect of losing weight. For example, a few years ago we went to an amusement park with our middle child and friends to celebrate their high school graduation. They took off and my husband and I made our way to a roller coaster. When we sat down and I couldn't get the bar to lock, I was shocked. I was mortified when I realized that I had to get up in front of all those people waiting in line. I could feel the judgey comments and disparaging remarks being muttered under their breath. My husband just got up and said this ride hurts my back - let's get out of here and go to the casino. Yesterday, he asked if I wanted to go back to the amusement park with the kids. While I told him yes, I also explained to him that our daughter wouldn't be able to fit any more because of her weight gain, even though she has a different body shape ( I am an apple and she gained hers in her bottom half and our daughter needed a seat belt extender on the last air flight). I explained that I don't want her to have to go through the same experience and how much I loved him for the way he reacted. I have vowed to keep taking pictures of myself and looking at myself in the mirror when I step out of the shower. I can see the flaws but then I remind myself that this body has been through some trials and allows me to do some amazing things that I couldn't have done a year ago. When the BMI chart had my doctor telling me I need to lose another 71 lbs, I laughed. Here is why: my job requires me to lift 50-100 lbs. I have been doing this for over 23 years. I have some muscle on me under all the fat. I showed him a picture of my coworker who is 5' 8" and weighs 180 lbs. She doesn't have an ounce of fat on her but is considered overweight, borderline obese. My surgeon understood that I will not be going by his chart. I will continue to follow my program and do the activities I love but I will not stress about getting down to a number on a scale. I want to be healthy and active, not sickly and weak just to say I can fit in a size 2 jeans. With my personality and competitiveness, I could easily fixate on that but it wouldn't be healthy for me. I don't have to have an "all or nothing" mentality. It can be one day at a time, making a healthy choice for that day. Because soon all those tiny individual choices add up to positive changes.

Hi Amber, Yes, this is common experience for many of us. I knew I was overweight. The term morbidly obese was hard to hear. Honestly, I hid from cameras and didn’t spend much time looking in a full body mirror. I was not seeing my self correctly pre surgery. It took time for my mind to catch up with the rapid weight loss. I finally saw myself correctly after goal and my weight settled. A vet gave me a good suggestion. Place a photo of yourself at your goal/low weight on your bathroom mirror. Look at it as you get ready in the morning. I used a counselor to get past this issue. She said some people eventually see themselves correctly, some may take years and some never do. I see myself as smaller. I have confidence and feel comfortable in my own skin. (I should say loose skin) I’m maintaining five years out. It’s ridiculous that a five-pound weight gain can make me feel like I am at my high weight all over again. The fear of weight gain is still something I’m working on. I am better with this as time progresses. I’ve had to learn to trust myself more.

I had the sleeve in December of 2012 and lost over 100 pounds! Well over my goal weight. And that was before they revised me to the bypass for GERD reasons. I am still losing and have been put on TPN for weight gain, malabsorption, and malnutrition.

Speaking of "friends," I have one that KEEPS referring to me as someone with an eating/obesity problem. She knows nothing of the surgery, so it is as if she hasn't noticed that I have lost 50 pounds and am terribly fit. It seems I have moved on and she has not. She may prefer the fatter, more vulnerable and needy me. She was my friend through the hard times, so I need to find a way to understand, but not allow her to drag me down. I may be the opposite of what I am reading. My entire life I have been very social, until a rapid weight gain took me prisoner. It seemed an alien had taken over my body. To deal with the discomfort and shame, I avoided friends and poured myself into a new line of work, charity, and advanced education (to find self-worth that was not predicated upon my appearance or socially-acceptable weight.) Now that my weight/appearance/health are returning to "normal," I have begun to reahc out to the old friends. As was mentioned, the confidence to just be with anyone and focus on conversation is great. NEW TICKER MOVEMENT!!!

So, to try and answer the questions, 6 months pretyy much only ground beef for meat, chickens , steak , pork would not go down and would cause me problems. 1 year out pretty much could have anything if I had sosda with it. What I believe is one of my greatest downfalls was stopping the exercise and drinking soda. I believe they started my down hill sprial. As far as head hunger not sure on that although I have been in emergency services for 25 years and have seen some pretty awful things so I am not sure if it is related to emotional issues. I am a very busy and usually a very happy person so I don't really want to hang it on that as well. Really I think it comes down to comminment and exercise as all weight loss does. It was a great tool to get my weight down to where I felt comfortable emotionally and physically to exercise and be active. When that changed and I relied on the vsg is when I started to fail though weight gain was slow at first so I just kind of lived with it.

wow amazing that there isn't much weight gain

Say it with me now, folks: plateaus are a normal part of the process. Getting stuck is a normal part of the process. I know... we don't want to hear that. I didn't want to hear that. I still hover anxiously near the scale sometimes, worried about every bleep and bloop on the number. But the fact is that the typical weight loss of a sleever goes something like this: A HUGE, exhilarating loss at first... it's almost effortless. You fart and the pounds come off. You eat good and the pounds come off. You eat BAD (which, you know, for a sleever in the early days means something like "well, last month I ate a cookie...") and the pounds come off. The problem with this early phase is that it completely destroys our sense of what a "normal" weight loss and maintenance profile feels like. This early phase where the weight just drops off is not normal. It's great, but it's not normal. Once you start getting down to what your body thinks its weight "should be" (it's actually a great deal more complicated than this; your body doesn't really have any idea what you "should" weigh, it's just that feedback mechanisms start to come into play and exert more force than the downward push from the sleeve) the loss will become slower and slower. And it isn't just a "steady" slowness; it's not like your body will go from 5 pounds a week to 3 pounds a week to a pound a week in a smooth progression. In fact, at times you'll plateau for days or weeks or even months (near the bottom end of the curve) at a time. At times your weight will even go up slightly (slightly: a prolonged and significant gain is usually a sign that something is wrong, whereas a 5-10 pound gain is typically a Water weight gain or a normal plateau fluctuation). You can break through the plateau -- assuming that you're not already at the low end of body fat -- but it doesn't always happen when you expect it to happen -- sometimes you get stuck and then you cut your calories and up your exercise and nothing changes (or you even gain a little) for days at a time, and then when you give up, suddenly your body starts shedding weight again. And finally when you start getting down near or below the low end of normal body fat (for most of us, it seems like this is around 20% body fat; fat location along with factors such as age and genetics seems to determine your "realistic minimum body fat"), shedding every ounce is a lot of frigging hard work, every day, forever. Most of us have a hard time keeping up that level of dedication (else we wouldn't have been obese to begin with), so most people seem to stick around 25%-ish bodyfat, which is still technically overweight (and of course, those of us who are very self-critical will harass ourselves mercilessly over that fact) but is, in fact, much healthier than the 40%, 50%, or even 60% body fat that some of us started with. Indeed, it's healthier, on average, than most modern Americans! The real problem is that early phase, where weight loss was effortless and we could do no wrong. It's sad to say, but important to remember, that that is not the norm. The sleeve continues to be a tool, and as long as you don't abuse it too bad, you can be pretty confident that you won't spiral back into that morbidly obese category. But it's not zero work, it's not effortless. You have to start really working it after a point, and the lower your body fat gets (remember: measure body fat, NOT weight -- weight can fluctuate by as much as 4 or 5 pounds *in a single day* due to water weight changes) the more you're going to hit plateaus, of longer and longer duration, and maybe even see some backtracking. The great thing about the sleeve is that even if you gain a few pounds, unlike before you can be pretty confident that you can get rid of them pretty quickly with a little self-discipline. Sorry for the long post, but it seems like a lot of people have sort of unrealistic expectations about life with the sleeve, and then whenever they see a blip on the scale they freak out and assume all is lost. It's not lost when you plateau or rebound a few pounds. It's completely normal.