Search the Community

I have been without a thyroid due to cancer for years- Although many medications have a potential side effect of weight gain it is not 100% guaranteed. The benefits sometimes outweigh the risks of NOT taking anything. What works for some may not work for all- If it will make you feel better physically go for it- you have the tool to work with the weight loss (your sleeve) and you ve already proven to be successful with that- Now get the rest of you healthier and who knows maybe when every bodily system is in sync more weight will come off...

I had my final class today and my pre-op testing. i just have an echo to get done tomorrow (born w/heart valve issue & they want me to be cleared for surgery) and then the covid on sun then my surgery next wed. i've gained some weight since covid (stress/hopelessness/depression) and my doc said no more weight gain from here until my surgery next wednesday or she'll cancel it. i get it, but i plan to start my liquid diet earlier (just bought a bunch of protein drinks/crystal light/jello from walmart to pick up tomorrow) and plan to walk 2x a day w/my dog if i can. a mile each time, more if i can swing it in w/my work schedule and appointments. It's gettin' real real ya'll.. i cant' have anyone w/me because of covid (not in the hospital to stay overnight or to visit..) but its ok bc ive been doing this journey by myself (not married/living alone) so it's only appropriate that i do this final step alone.

Oddly I gained three pounds in the third week post-op. A week later it disappeared. I would not attribute this gain to hormonal changes as I am post menopausal. I have several autoimmune diseases and I am inclined to believe that this sudden weight gain is related to inflammation.

Hi Everyone :-) Today is my 4 year anniversary. I was the one that originally asked the question about weight gain after surgery. Well I'm here to tell you that you can definitely GAIN WEIGHT BACK and not just a few pounds. Although I'm very content and blessed to be wearing a size 8 today I was actually wearing some size 4's years ago. And was a perfect size 6 for over 3 years. My goal weight was to reach 150 lbs. (a normal BMI weight for me). I got as low as 144 lbs. Today 4 years out I weigh 165 lbs. I have reached as high as 170 lbs. during my period. The sleeve is a PHENOMENAL tool and 4 years out I STILL have amazing restriction. The weight gain is from not eating properly, PERIOD. For the MOST part I'm still making pretty good choices, but obviously there are choices that haven't been all that great to gain all this weight back. I know age has something to do with it as well. I am 46 going on 47 and lots of changes going on lol. BUT NO EXCUSES for sure. Again I'm content and watching my weight pretty closely now to make sure I don't gain any more weight and would love to be back to 150-155 lbs. I know it's possible for sure. I'm so thankful for my sleevie.

Remember too, my weight gain was due solely from my Plastic Surgeries. I've actually LOST weight since then. I was just "keeping it real" is all. ;o) Really I've only gained at most 4 Lbs due to TOM. Never more than that and it always drops right back off with a few friends.

Thanks for posting, Anything you can say about your weight gain would be very helpful to us all...and we will be there for you and your continuing journey too!

Sleeved on Valentines Day. Came home from hospital on day 4. Stepped on scale to monitor progress...I was up 14 pounds after being down by 27 on day of surgery! What the heck...? Today I was down 5 of the 14. I had IV's while in the hospital and could understand a little water weight gain, but 14 pounds? Anyone have a similar experience or any answers?

To add on to this, as a collective nation, we have been "Low Fat-ed" death. Over two decades of people pushing low fat diets. Low fat foods which were stuffed with sugar and carbs to compensate for the loss of flavor. I also do not bother counting fat content at all. I eat a high Protein diet, and try to keep the carbs down. Fat falls somewhere in the middle and you'll find will moderate itself if you are keeping high protein/low carb. I'm not saying it's cool to eat a bucket of lard, but the way our brains have been conditioned to see fat in foods as bad is mind boggling to me. Fat in food does not equate to weight gain.

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

I'm so happy to see that 1-5 lbs. (so far) is what seems to be weight gained for a sleeve patient. I am 14 months out and I'm still in that category as well. After Thanksgiving I lost any weight ever gained and actually dropped an additional .4 and dropped to 144.3, so far, so good...yayyyy! Thank you sleevie!

I just thought that I would check in, and say HELLO!!! I went to my surgeon. I was starving, weight gain, and I could eat anything. "not a good sign" So he flipped out and said untill you get your ass together, i'm not gonna see you. I told him he emptied my band. "he forgot to wright it in his notes" No!! can't be! your full. So get it together. he left. So I to left p****d off, and called a FILL CENTER U.S.A. they put in almost 2cc's and I was bone dry. So now, i'm back to loseing weight. Waite till I go back to see this Dr.. I am really gonna raise the roof. He is gonna find out he is not GOD!!! I tried to tell him to stick a needle in it to check, but he wouldn't listen. O Well!!! Anyway now it's back to loseing weight. Thats cool. How is every one???

Ok! LOL. I'm trying really hard to get it. TY for your comments, they are all really helping me reframe my stinkin thinkin brain and SOOOO sorry to take over this thread. I am gonna go work on it and quit posting so much here. Swearsies!!! And I can't take much credit. It all goes to the PS on the foobs. He did a great job on my 3 reconstructions from BC. Double mast, they stay that size regardless of weight gain or loss. But they do look pretty bodacious in a smaller body than they did at 287lbs. That's for sure! (maybe one of the only perks of it. LOL!! hahahaha)

I don't drink carbonated drinks at all. Nor do I drink beverages that contain artificial sweeteners as they lead to weight gain (based on results from many scientific studies) and the chemicals have no nutritional value.

Ladies, For those of you who are really and truly "stuck" at a weight, and feel like you're already doing everything you can, I wonder if you've considered body fat testing? I think body compositions can very so much, and it may be that you're where you should be regardless of what the scale says. Those "extra" pounds may be muscle, or extra skin. I recently discovered there's a mobile service in my area that does submersion body fat testing, and the pricing's pretty good. I'm pretty tempted to give it a try at some point, just to satisfy my own curiosity about how I'm doing. I totally understand having a goal, and not wanting to give up on that goal, and my blessings and support go out to everyone that's working so hard to get to where they want to be, but I know for myself that I have a bad habit of getting more and more disciplined to reach a particular goal, and not being able to maintain that discipline long term. The last time I lost a lot of weight I started training for a 10.5 mile event (walk/jog for me, mostly walk). In order to build up the endurance for mileage I was doing 2+ hour workouts regularly. It simply wasn't something I could imagine keeping up indefinitely, though, and once the event was over the weight started to creep back on, sending me spinning into a downward spiral of weight gain >> depression >> more weight gain. I'm not saying this is an issue for anyone else, but I'm working hard to make sure that whatever I'm doing now is something I can honestly and truly contemplate doing for the forseeable future, because otherwise the weight it helps me lose isn't going to stay off. (And, as time goes on and my metabolism changes, I may have to get even more disciplined just to maintain!) I'd definitely still like to lose a few pounds, and I suspect they'd come off more quickly if I tightened things up a bit, but I remind myself that I've made HUGE progress, I look great, I should be really proud of what I HAVE achieved, and the most important thing is to continue to work on good, healthy habits I can stick with. If I take off a few more pounds in the process, that's just "icing on the cake" (if you'll forgive the expression!)

I found this article on another WLS site. It's old but makes sense: By: Cynthia Buffington, Ph.D Did you drink carbonated soft drinks prior to your Bariatric surgery? Do you still consume carbonated soft drinks? Were you advised by your surgeon or his/her nutritional staff NOT to drink carbonated drinks after surgery? Do you understand why drinking carbonated beverages, even if sugar-free, could jeopardize your weight loss success and, perhaps even your health? A carbonated beverage is an effervescent drink that releases carbon dioxide under conditions of normal atmospheric pressure. Carbonated drinks include most soft drinks, champagne, beer, and seltzer water. If you consume a soft drink or other carbonated beverage while eating, the carbonation forces food through he stomach pouch, reducing the time food remains in the pouch. The less time food remains in your stomach pouch, the less satiety (feelings of fullness) you experience, enabling you to eat more with increased risk for weight gain. The gas released from a carbonated beverage mat "stretch" your stomach pouch. Food forced through the pouch by the carbonation could also significantly enlarge the size of your stoma (the opening between the stomach pouch and intestines of patients who have had a gastric bypass or biliopancreatic diversion). An enlarged pouch or stoma would allow you to eat larger amounts of food at any one setting. In this way, consuming carbonated beverages, even if the drinks are diet or calorie free, may cause weight gain or interfere with maximal weight loss success. Soft drinks may also cause weight gain by reducing the absorption of dietary calcium. Dietary calcium helps to stimulate fat breakdown and reduce its uptake into adipose tissue. Epidemiological and clinical studies have found a close association between obesity and low dietary calcium intake. Recent studies have found that maintaining sufficient amounts of dietary calcium helps to induce weight loss or prevent weight gain following diet. The high caffeine in carbonated sodas is one way that drinking carbonated soft drinks may reduce the absorption of calcium into the body. Studies have found that caffeine increases urinary calcium content, meaning that high caffeine may interfere with the uptake of dietary calcium into the body. Keep in mind that one 12 oz. can of Mountain Dew has 50 mg of caffeine, and Pepsi and Coke (diet or those with sugar) contain 37 mg of caffeine each. Colas, such as Pepsi and Coke (diet or with sugar), may also cause calcium deficiencies from the high amounts of phosphoric acid that they contain. Phosphate binds to calcium and the bound calcium cannot be absorbed into the body. Both animal and human studies have found that phosphoric acid is associated with altered calcium homeostasis and low calcium. Drinking carbonated beverages may also reduce dietary calcium because these beverages replace milk and other nutrient-containing drinks or foods in the diet. Several studies report inverse (negative) relationships between carbonated beverage usage and the amount of milk (particularly children) consume. Carbonated beverages, then, may reduce dietary calcium because of their high caffeine or phosphoric acid content or because drinking such beverages tends to reduce the consumption of calcium-containing foods and beverages. Such deficiencies in dietary calcium intake may be even more pronounced in Bariatric surgical patients. Calcium deficiencies with Bariatric surgery have been reported following gastric restrictive and/or malabsorptive procedures. The reduced amounts of calcium with bariatric surgery may occur as a result of low nutrient intake, low levels of vitamin D, or, for patients who have had gastric bypass pr the biliopancreatic diversion (with or without the duodenal switch), from bypass of the portion of the gut where active absorption of calcium normally occurs. Drinking carbonated beverages may further increase the risk for dietary calcium deficiencies and, in this way, hinder maximal weight loss success. For all the reasons described above, including calcium deficits, reduced satiety, enlargement of pouch or stoma, drinking carbonated beverages, even those that are sugar-free, could lead to weight gain. Carbonated beverages that contain sugar, however, pose a substantially greater threat to the Bariatric patient in terms of weight loss and weight loss maintenance with surgery. Sugar-containing soft drinks have a relatively high glycemic index, meaning that blood sugar levels readily increase with their consumption. The rapid rise in blood sugar, in turn, increases the production of the hormone, insulin. , that acts to drive sugar into tissues where it is metabolized or processed for storage. High insulin levels, however, also contribute to fat accumulation, driving fat into the fat storage depots and inhibiting the breakdown of fat. Soft drinks with sugar are also high in calories. An average 12 oz. soft drink contains 10 teaspoons of refined sugar (40g). The typical 12-oz. can of soda contains 150 calories (Coke = 140 calories; Pepsi = 150; Dr. Pepper = 160; orange soda = 180; 7-up = 140; etc.). Soft drinks are the fifth largest source of calories for adults, accounting for 5.6% of all calories that Americans consume. Among adolescents, soft drinks provide 8%- to 9% of calories. An extra 150 calories per day from a soft drink over the course of a year, is equivalent to nearly 16 pounds and that weight gain multiplied by a few years could equate to “morbid obesity”. In addition to the adverse effects that carbonated drinks have on weight loss or weight loss maintenance, carbonated beverages may also have adverse effects on health. Soda beverages and other carbonated drinks are acidic with a pH of 3.0 or less. Drinking these acidic beverages on an empty stomach in the absence of food, as Bariatric patients are required to do, can upset the fragile acid-alkaline balance of the gastric pouch and intestines and increase the risk for ulcers or even the risk for gastrointestinal adenomas (cancer). Soft drink usage has also been found to be associated with various other health problems. These include an increased risk for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, kidney stones, bone fractures and reduced bone density, allergies, cancer, acid-peptic disease, dental carries, gingivitis, and more. Soft drinks may, in addition, increase the risk for oxidative stress. This condition is believed to contribute significantly to aging and to diseases associated with aging and obesity, i.e. diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease, liver disease, reduced immune function, hypertension, and more. From the above discussion, do you now have a little better understanding of why your Bariatric surgeon or Bariatric nutritionist advised you NOT to consume carbonated sodas after surgery? Your Bariatric surgeon and his/her staff want to see you achieve the best results possible from your surgery – both in terms of weight loss and health status – and so do YOU. Consider the consequences of drinking such beverages now that you understand more clearly why such drinks are “Bariatric taboo”.

Ok so I started the 5 day pouch test yesterday. Surprisingly it wasn't that hard in terms of hunger but have had a headache this morning which I think is a withdrawal symptom from all of the sugar. That's ok with me. I ate or more accurately drank 4 cups of Soup yesterday which added up to a lot of carbs for the day (I had tomato soup and split pea). Ironically I got a letter in the mail from my bariatric surgeon that its time to schedule an appointment. This I took as a sign that its time to conquer this weight gain. I would dread to go back a failure. Going for a nice long walk now. Will check back again soon.

P.S. tomorrow will be one week without Pop. It hasn't been a problem. It is all the food and the continuous weight gain (ooops). My brain thinks that because I'm having surgery- I can eat what I want. Totally backwards I know- but it does. So this 6 month for insurance has really done nothing positive for me. Oh well

I'm a sleeve to bypass revision and I've lost 40 pounds since my bypass surgery on 10/29/20 (17 weeks post-op). Since my surgery was for GERD and not officially bariatric, I didn't have as much to lose to get to my goal weight. But I want to lose a few pounds more just to give myself some "wiggle" room once I'm past the honeymoon period. I know that weight gain is possible, and very likely probable, after the 1st year. I wasn't really prepared for maintenance after my sleeve surgery in 2014 and gained almost 50 lbs. in the 6 years following surgery. I want to be better prepared to maintain a normal weight since I've been given a second chance to truly change my relationship with food!

@@lisacaron research shows that many processed foods are engineered to make us crave more. that food scientists actually sat in a lab to figure out the precise levels of salt and fats and sugars to make our bodies addicted to processed foods and eat more. Processed Foods and Obesity - My Bariatric Life In fact, here is a 10-part series on weight gain and food addiction The Great Weight Gain Addiction Game, Part 1 then of course there are fast foods! Fast Food and Obesity: The Super-Sizing of America research also shows that aspartame and other chemical low calorie sweeteners cause our bodies to eat more (and thus gain weight, the exact opposite of what we believe "sugar free" means). Aspartame: Sweet or Misery add to that our extremely sedentary and stressful lifestyles. most people sit behind a computer screen at a desk for their jobs. then they come home and play on their computers, or gaming consoles, or watch TV. Internet Use, Obesity, and Poor Health - America's New "Sitting Disease" - My Bariatric Life Stress Linked to Obesity You mention the gut. There is some evidence that gut bacteria is linked to weight gain. The Influence of Gut Bacteria on Weight Gain and Obesity Intestinal Bacteria May be Causing Your Weight Gain There is a diet called the GAPS diet which is said to heal the gut. Perhaps you would benefit to check it out. What is the GAPS Diet – Gut and Psychology Syndrome? OMG, I can go on and on... I hope that I did not overload you! AND I hope this information is helpful!

I was always "chubby" and overweight enough to be teased. I remember my first diet. I was about age 12 and I decided to lose some weight. I did manage to lose 20 pounds. But it came right back on. I think I was 120 pounds when I started and 100 when I finished. But like I said, it came right back on. I started high school at 150 pounds. That was heavier than my friends, and I was embarrassed. I joined Weight Watchers during high school, and lost, again, the same 30 pounds over and over again. I started college at approximately 200 pounds and gained about 15 or 20 my first semester. I went on a high Protein no carb diet, and by my sophomore year had managed to get down to about 160 pounds. During my early 20s, I went up to about 220. Then I became a caretaker for my grandmother. After she died, I began eating uncontrollably. I ended up at around 305. Through OA, I got my weight down to 156 pounds. I met my husband, and got married. I gained 11 pounds on my honeymoon. Over the next several years I had two children and two more pregnancies that ended in miscarriage. My weight went up with each child and pregnancy. My weight was around 220-250 pounds for most of this time. I tried Weight Watchers again, and again, the same 30 pounds were lost and regained. A couple of years ago, my marriage started to go downhill very quickly. My eating was my comfort and my weight climbed. I topped out at 302. I made the decision to have WLS in September 2013. I was banded in March 2014. Life is getting better now, and I hope to achieve my goal weight by next summer. I am in the early stages of divorce after moving out of my home this summer. Reading this to myself, I can see that grief and stress were definite triggers for me during my highest weight gains. When I look back at pictures of me as a child, I was chubby, but certainly not obese. It is so sad how we see ourselves. And the judgments that we place on ourselves. I remember reading in Reader's Digest magazine, when I was 8 years old, an article about weight. It said that statistically, if a child is overweight at age 10, she will be overweight her entire life. That scared me. I was already 8. Sure enough, at age 10, I was still overweight. It almost seemed like my destiny. I feel sad for that child now. I lived in anxiety about my weight my whole life.

Three kids, a complete hysterectomy at 32, and husband's infidelity (we worked through it) - all of these have wreaked havoc on my mind and body. I went from a healthy 110 to 240. Some of that weight gain was gradual, and not all my baby weight came off after each child. Most of my issues came after the hysterectomy, but I was covered with endometriosis so being in pain or gaining weight...not a hard choice. But, with the weight gain came other complications: high BP, swollen calves/ankles, more frequent migraines. Job stress should be included in this mix as well as it did not help. I was a branch manager for a staffing agency during this time too. I lost weight on a doctor-monitored program (that included pills). Once the pills stopped working, the weight stopped coming off. I packed on the last 50 pounds in 6 months. Everything hurt. This surgery has been a gift from God. I'm only 54 pounds down so far, but just getting back under 200 has done wonders for my health (and state of mind). I know I won't be back to my little 110 lb self, but I also don't EVER want to get up over 200 again. My little bones have hated me for the past few years - they need relief!

Hi all! I'm on a week of the strict clear liquid diet. I"m only drinking shakes and Water and some crystal lite. Jello now tastes like metal to me, it's really gross. So, that's all I"m having. I have only lost a pound. I'm freaking out because the Dr. told me if I don't lose a lot more weight he won't do the surgery. Ugh. HiMow, you and I both have Dr. Oh. I was looking at his profile here and you were on there. He's one tough guy don't you think? My Dr. makes me nervous that he won't do the surgery. I haven't cheated AT ALL but because I only lost 5 lbs since the liquid diet he is threatening to call off the surgery and that was Friday and I've only lost like 3 pounds since then. Me = freaking out. LOL I keep weighing myself, I keep worrying if maybe 3 shakes is too many. What about water weight. I'm also seriously bloated because unlike the guys, we have that lovely weight gain before a menstral cycle. I"m a mess people! And I'm so so very hungry. LOL I only have 8 more days of eatting shakes and well...that's it. (I swear I"m so losing it.)

@@Keeper I remember the pamphlet from Lean Line when I was in the 7th grade. It read that first place a diet starts is in your head. For me, overcoming the bulimia was really very difficult. What truly helped my BED was the generic version of wellbutrin. i did some research on it and asked my doctor to prescribe that for me rather than the Prozac that I was on, which caused weight gain and did not reduce BED or bulimia. I do recall having the urge to eat and vomit after my gastric bypass, and contacting my bariatric surgeon and getting a reply back from his office, "I eat 6 grapes at night." My reaction was WTF!!!! I am talking about eating pizza and making myself vomit and you think the solution is simply to eat 6 grapes?!?!?! This is why we have to be our own best advocates when it comes to our health.

Wow - I've been reading a lot of these stories and some reasons are familiar, but even the ones that aren't really resonate with me. For most of life - from my teens to my early 30s, my weight went back and forth over the years and I usually ranged from a size 10 to 14/16. Not obese, but always overweight. But I was an active overweight person, and I felt much healthier than many of my skinny friends who did not exercise and ate junk all the time. I did hit a healthy BMI when I was 24 from all the dancing I was doing, but knee problems forced me to quit and the weight slowly crept up. I did manage to stay under 200 pounds until about 8 years ago the weight started to pile on and nothing I did would last long. WW, Southbeach diet, etc worked for a while, then I would stall and the weight would come back + more. I was depressed and the weight gain just made the depression worse. I remember my personal trainer talking to me about what I needed to do if I was serious about losing weight and I walked out on her - I was angry that she thought I wasn't doing my best, but at the same time I didn't want her to see me break down in tears. I never went back. Like many people here, I had a lot of "well, I'll never let myself get to _____ weight," but it has happened time and again. The first WGD (weight gain defeat) was hitting 200 lbs. Around the same time, realising that I had stop fighting myself in the regular stores - the size 18s were barely fitting, and department stores like Sears had nothing I wanted to wear - and walking into a dedicated plus-size store for the first time. Walking from the parking lot into the store was really embarrassing, but once I was inside I was surrounded by clothes that fit and very positive people around me. Then I hit 220. Then 250. Now I'm fluctuating but hitting a high of 275. Over the past 10 years I have gained, with consistency, 10-15 pounds a year and nothing I do seems to stop it. My overall activity and eating patterns haven't changed (except when I try a new diet or exercise). I don't drink alcohol or any carbonated beverages anymore, no junk food other than chocolate (!), and I still get over 10,000 steps a day. I had a couple of minor health problems last year that really reduced my ability to move and exercise, which is why I've gained so much in the last year (at least 20lbs). At the time I realised that I have no one to help me. I'm single and live alone. Most of my family and close friends are 1000's of miles away. I thought about "what if I die here" (in case of a worse case scenario - some recent events that happened to other people made me more aware) - because being an expat means you can't rely on what you know from home - and realised that it would be much cheaper for my family to cremate me, rather than to have my body flown home (airlines charge by the kilo). But even then, there was no "straw" that broke the camel's back. I woke up one morning, decided to (randomly) research weight loss surgery in Japan, came across a post from this site, and I haven't looked back since. Maybe my brain, my subconscious, whatever, was quietly making a list of problems that I just couldn't ignore, so that when I woke up that morning about 6 weeks ago, it knew that I needed to start making some real changes in my life and that this would be the best way to do it. Now that I've decided to do it, this surgery, this new life plan, has become my new obsession. It's the most positive thing that has happened to me in a while, and I really hope it works out! None of these is the straw, but they've all contributed: Living in a country where absolutely no clothes fit me (I don't even know where obese Japanese women get their clothes - I have a feeling quite a few make them) As a result of the above, spending a ton of money on online shopping and shipping, knowing that it's not worth returning if it doesn't fit, and having to make do with what comes Also because of the above, spending a lot of time looking for stores with plus-size sections when I do travel abroad because I need clothes - bottoms fall apart in the heat and humidity here, and tops seem to shrink with time Worrying about fitting into plane and train seats when I travel Having to bring extra clothes when I travel in case things (especially pants) get ruined by the dreaded chub rub Having to deal with extra heavy or larger suitcases because of my bigger clothes Having 90% of my shoes not fit anymore because of the weight gain and edema (especially in the summer) The looks I get from people all the time. It's not disgust, more like amazement - how can somebody be that big? She must eat 24/7! The fact that people feel they can comment on my weight at any time - from my little nephew asking me why I was so fat, to a Buddhist monk in Burma commenting on my need to exercise more and eat less (!). I'll never see the monk again but I hope the next time I see my nephew he won't even remember asking me that question. My brother laughing at me when we Skyped over Christmas. He hadn't seen me for a few years and he had no problems making me feel humiliated when I was already so depressed. His "just eat one meal a day like I do" didn't help either Friends "forgetting" about me - I get a lot of excuses when I ask people to do things, but they never get back to me about getting together when a time is convenient for them Still single. I've accepted that part of my life but I also want a chance of happiness with someone. That will never happen while I'm in the obese part of the BMI. The only time men seem interested me is when I weigh less than 150 pounds, and it's been a long a time since I was that low. Realising that, over the past 6 years, I have missed 2 family reunions and have avoided visiting friends from a thinner time in my life because I don't want to see the look of shock on their faces when they see the current me. Every time I see that look (like "what the he!! happened!") it's just so depressing Also realising that I keep postponing trips and activities I want to do because I know my weight will either prevent me from doing all that I want, or will really get in the way Looking at photos of myself with my students or other people and realising I am more than double their width Hitting 275. That's a big blow and I definitely do not, cannot, will not hit 300.