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Hi all! Just joined today. I am just starting the process w Kaiser (south Sacramento) and am hoping to find others that are doing the process (or already have) My referral was put in this week, and I was told it could take a couple of weeks to receive a call from Bariatrics Questions I have : Can I start losing weight NOW while I wait for the call? I’m mentally ready and want to keep my momentum going, but I don’t want to lose , say 10 pounds on my own and show up w a lower BMI and get turned away. Will they use my highest weight (this week the day of my referral was my highest weight EVER). Will any weight loss now be included in my required pre op weight loss ? How long did your Kaiser process take ? Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Hi all, I was denied the first time because I gained a few pounds on the three-month supervised diet. I was/am a lightweight and I didn't want to drop below the 35 BMI. So they had me lose the weight I lost and they reapplied. Now I have been denied again. The language used is "The documentation does not support that you have fully committed to the medically supervised weight loss program that includes dietary and behavioral changes as well as exercise." I don't understand as I completed all that was asked of me in the nutrition sessions. Has this happened to anyone? Were you ever finally approved? My dietician is writing a letter for me explaining that I have been committed and have made the changes. Then they will reapply. I am just a little bummed out by all this. Thanks for any input!

As of today, I am down 120 lbs. from my highest weight. My HW was 374 when I had my first appointment with a new endocrinologist in July 2019. My A1C was creeping up again and I was put on Victoza. I made a conscious effort beginning at that point, to maximize the weight loss side effect of the medication. I lost about 60 lbs. by the end of the year. In January 2020, my insurance began to cover WLS. I had my first appointment that month. The process of classes, doctor visits and supervised weight loss was going to take a minimum of 6 months. The insurance and program mandated everything was done through program providers. There was no option to see my local doctor or dietician. Covid slowed down my progression and I also made the choice not to rush to surgery when it first became available again. By the fall, I was ready to proceed. I managed to not gain a tremendous amount back (about 8-10 lbs.) but wanted to stop the trend. I decided to schedule surgery for right before the holidays so I could minimize the time off from work for recovery. I weighed 325 on the day of surgery on 12/14/20. Today, I am 254. Surgery was relatively easy for me. I had post-op discomfort, but no pain. I was able to tolerate and progress through food stages as expected. I’ve not been hungry or overly full since surgery. I do experience old, bad habits trying to creep in at times. I know that is always going to be the case. Surgery did not eliminate my want for food nor the thought of how nice it would be to eat large quantities again. That will also be an on-going battle. The hardest daily thing for me is not to eat and drink at the same time and then to wait until time has passed before I drink again. Eating slowly and thoroughly chewing has been a challenge (with sometimes painful reminders) but I am gradually getting more mindful. I feel better than I have in years. I don’t remember the last time I weighed 250. I would like to get to 180 but don’t know if that is achievable or realistic to maintain. We’ll see. I’m tall so that weight would put me just slightly over normal weight. I recently had 3 month labs run. Everything was normal and my T2 diabetes is currently in remission. I stopped all diabetes meds the day of surgery. The pressure was lowered on my CPAP but there is still a need for it. I’m not done. Even if I never lost another pound, I’m happy with the changes and the regaining of health. One of my primary motivators was the desire to not lose mobility. I’m fortunate that I’ve never had any issues with mobility but I could see the writing on the wall if I stayed the way I was or continued to gain. I did not want to have to participate in any of the pre-surgery preparation. I just wanted to have surgery and be done. I thought I knew all there was to know. And while I did know a lot going in, I really did learn things and have benefitted from listening and following the plan provided. I did not want to weigh, measure or track my food. But I did (and continue to) and it’s paying off. I’m troubled sometimes by questions that I read on this board and it leads me to wonder about the quality (or lack of) preparation that other programs offer. It makes me grateful that for once, I listened and learned. What I take away from this board is the wisdom and experience of others who are going through the WLS process now and those veterans who share strategies that have helped. I try remember that everyone’s experiences are slightly different but I still look for common themes (same process I use when I read vacation/resort reviews).

So sorry for your loss, @Qamilian. 😞

Glad it is working for you. My surgeon told me it had failed in a very high % of patients. All have not had revision or removed. For me I am just glad to be rid of the dadgum thing. Congrats on your success and continued weight loss.

I'm also a long hauler, LOL! Banded around 10 or 12 years ago. The weight loss was about what the doctor predicted... I do manage to go up and down 20 pounds when I fail to keep a food chart... but the band makes it easier to get back on track. I think it is very important to pick the best doctor possible, and to do the follow up visits! My doctor insists on 6 month to yearly visits to ensure that any problems are quickly resolved before they turn the band into a horror show. So far no problems. But if the band ever needs to be removed, I will be happy with what it accomplished for the time I had it. It allowed me to enjoy life, do cruises and travel and enjoy life.

I had my band placed around ten years ago. It has worked perfectly. Absolutely no issues, and the weight loss has been satisfactory. Only around 8% of gastric bands have been removed. Surgical procedures have improved. I am happy with my decision.

I have struggled with weight my entire adult life. I’ve yo yo dieted...lost and gained over 100 pounds 3 times. Just before turning 50 I decided to give it another go in trying to lose the weight once and for all the traditional way with a naturopath and a personal trainer. But if that didn’t work I made a promise to myself that, I would go for the gastric bypass. It took about 2 years but I was successful with the weight loss, and once again lost 100 lbs. Unfortunately a few years later, slowly but surely the weight came back. A number of reasons precipitated that including the fact I wax dealing with a lot of stress and depression associated with getting a breast lumpectomy because of a suspicious biopsy. It was not cancer, but because of it I’m considered high risk. By then I also experienced a lot pain due to osteoarthritis of my knees. So much so that I now require a knee replacement. Unfortunately my weight would make, not only the surgery, but the recovery difficult and complicated. Not only that, I have high BP. At 54 with retirement fast approaching i felt I was running out of time before other health problems came so I decided to keep my promise of going for the surgery to give myself a chance to have a long active, healthy and adventurous retirement. Had my surgery March 29th and not looking back! I should have done it sooner but so grateful now!

I lost all of mine. When I told my surgeon I wanted to get down to a healthy BMI, he gave me the stats on average loss and how many people lose all their extra weight. And then he added, "But those are averages, some people lose more and some less. There's nothing stopping you from being one of those who loses a lot more than average." And that's how it worked out. So, you can be realistic and optimistic at the same time! Make the most of the surgery and see where you come out. Peterson says my ideal weight is 115, but I'm comfortable and happy at 121. I have occasionally dropped down to 119 and I didn't like how I looked at all.

Interesting! Per a Peterson Method calculator, my ideal weight is 145. For the OP, my stats are 5’8” with starting weight of 264 (before starting pre-op diet, AND my highest weight), so pretty close to your stats. I did have bypass rather than sleeve due to pre-existing GERD. Based on the Peterson Method ideal weight, I have lost 104% of my excess body weight at my current weight of 140. I am a bit over nine months post-op. My weight is not entirely stable yet, so I expect some possible additional loss followed by a bounce back of 10-20 pounds, which I understand is common.

It’s like the week 3 stall. For some it’s week 2 & others it ‘s week 6. It’s an individual experience but the hair loss is something almost all of us go through. It’s still a shock when it happens though. Yes, it is the shock of the surgery & the restricted diet. It accelerates your natural hair loss cycle. You can’t stop it because the hair would have fallen out anyway just over a longer time frame. Biotin & other supplements won’t stop what is just a sped up natural process. Plus the hair on your head is already dead. The supplements may only help the quality of your new growth. It will stop. In fact you already have new growth but it ‘s coming in at it’s usual rate - the part of the cycle hasn’t changed. How much you lose is very individual as is how long the hair loss will persist. I lost a lot but thankfully I had a lot of hair to begin. The loss persisted for about three months. At 23 months my hair is as thick as it was before. I did cut my long hair to just above my shoulders so the new growth wouldn’t have to grow as much to catch up to the rest of my hair. I went through a similar experience about 12yrs ago during a very stressful period at work & in my personal life. My body reacted to the stress by more rapidly shedding my hair. I didn’t lose quite as much that time but it did last about 3 months then too. My hair grew back as well.

some people claim biotin helps, many say it did nothing for them. If it does help, it's usually with regrowth rather than preventing the hair from falling out, because those follicles are already dormant. I think I've read that iron deficiency can cause hair loss - so that might be what's going on. Normally hair loss after surgery doesn't start that early. The OP is right - it's usually around three months out (sometimes longer - mine started at five months out) OP - did they do some baseline bloodwork on you before surgery? If so, they should have picked up on iron and ferritin deficiencies. Those levels don't deplete quite that quickly, so if you have a deficiency, I would think it would have shown up on pre-op blood tests. I guess it COULD be due to the normal factors (stress of surgery, very low calorie intake), but that's really early.

Thank you, that's good to know. I've started taking biotin along with the iron so hopefully that helps negate the loss a little.

I’ve read that just the stress of the preop diet, they surgery stress itself on the body, and the recovery period immediately following surgery can actually trigger hair loss early on. I’ve been reading that Biotin and Iron are really critical to help with it.

Fortunately my period stayed the same. But I can see why it would want to get all messed up. ESP w the rapid weight loss.

Hi everyone, this is my first post! So I had my gastric sleeve on March 19th, and starting earlier this week my hair has been coming out in clumps! Everything I've read says the hair shedding happens usually after 3 months? Any ideas why mine has started so soon? I try to get at least 40-60 grams of protein a day and am taking vitamins. Not looking forward to being bald, by the end of 6 months!

This has nothing to do with weight loss, I'm one week out tomorrow babysitting my two-year-old granddaughter because her mother is having complications with a pregnancy, I cannot tell you how hard it is to tell a two year old that she cannot put her mr. Potato Head pieces in my incisions, I love my life and everybody in it. Sent from my SM-G930VL using BariatricPal mobile app

I'm only 6 months post revision, so I'm not really sure if there is a honeymoon period like I heard about with the sleeve. I too have gotten below my goal and significantly lower than I ever got after VSG surgery. But I was overweight, not obese, at the time of my revision since the surgery was done for medical reasons, not for weight loss. I really don't know why I've lost so much weight, since I feel like my insides have been healed for months. I try very hard to eat healthy and I walk 5-6 miles a day. But I would be less than honest if I said I never ate sweets, snack foods etc. I haven't been actively losing weight for the past month (only lost 1.2 lbs. in the last 30 days). I think I'm actually in maintenance, which would be great if I can just keep doing what I'm doing and maintain! If it's a honeymoon, I hope it keeps going.

I had bypass surgery October 2020, almost 6 years after I had the sleeve surgery. My revision was to resolve severe GERD, Esophagitis and Gastritis. I was overweight, but not in the obese range at the time of my bypass surgery. The recuperation for a revision appears to be very different from a "virgin" bypass and my original VSG. The biggest differences that I noted: 1.) no sense of restriction like I felt with the VSG 2.) I was hungry, unlike my total lack of hunger following VSG and 3.) I had very little pain after the revision compared to the pain I experienced after VSG. But everyone has different experiences and pain thresholds, so I can only speak for my post op experience. On a positive note, I've lost 47 lbs. since October and I feel great. But I could very, very easily "eat around" the bypass if I didn't make a conscience decision to eat healthy and exercise. Since weight loss is considered a ""complication" of my surgery, I am beyond thankful that I've been given this "do over".

Sounds very similar to me. I started at 233 now at 189. I stall for weeks and wooosh, 5 lbs comes off. I have gotten a little too lazy with tracking my calories and water intake. Working on getting back on track. I have been getting a little more active but its time to start kicking it up a notch. My hair loss seems to have stopped. Going to keep the short hair cut even if the thickness comes back. I have my checkup with the surgeon tomorrow. Glad to hear you are doing well.

It's true that any weight loss surgery has the potential to work, but that doesn't mean that they are all equally good options. There's a reason most bariatric surgeons no longer offer the Lap Band. Although gastric banding was a promising treatment for obesity, its high long-term complications and significant failure rate have caused a significant decrease in LAGB insertions.7 This trend is also seen at our institution, where LAGB has been essentially abandoned. With this decline in band insertion comes a steep increase in LAGB removals. At our institution, the rate of band removals increased from 1 per year to more than 50 per year within a 7-year period (Fig. 1). The literature supports this trend.1 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7006354/

I had to stop by BC pill a month before surgery per my surgeon. The pill is not as effective post surgery due to hormone fluctuation, and rapid weight loss. So your cycle will be irregular.

This topic is actually very relevant to me. I was just about your statistics when I was at peak weight. When I was on preop I was only 260 but that is what I consider my starting weight. I now weigh 165. Now that I am at a point below my goal weight, I am adding in more calories a day. I recently 1 additional snack a day and if my weight loss continues, then I will add in another. I will continue to add calories until my weight stabilizes and will work on keeping that amount of calories daily when that happens.

From what I have read in the couple years I've been a member of this forum, for a majority of people (mostly women) no, 1000 cals a day is not usually a maintenance calorie level. However, as indicated by @Jaelzion and @Arabesque above, they do exist...but they are already at a low-ish BMI (and on the short side - sorry ladies) so they wouldn't need alot of calories to exist anyway. As a 5'9" male, 1000 cals a day with moderate exercise for an extended period of time will likely put you in the "underweight" category eventually if you were to continue (barring any medical issues). I've read of many people (myself included) who had a meh attitude about food for months (But there are also others who did not). As people near goal, there are alot who worry about losing too much weight. But I have yet to read of anyone who have been in maintenance beyond a year who continued to lose weight to below a "normal" BMI range, AND struggling to put it back on. Of course they may be some out there who just aren't posting. Though I'm going to assume its on the rare-ish side. It is a bit of trial and error to figure out your sweet spot AFTER weight loss. I've read alot of folks post about their struggles/efforts to figure it out. It took me 3-4 months and losing a further 10+ lbs to figure it out. Even now, 2.5+ years post-op, I still go through periods of needing to re-figure stuff out, as changes in my activity level has an effect on my established sweet spot. But at three months out, with another 90lbs to lose, you still have a few months to find out how you will fare, and by then, the extreme restriction and aversion to food will likely wane. P.S. I went from eating 300-400 cals in the first 3 months to 700-800 cals by month 7 to 2000+ cals 6-9 months into maintenance. I was at 1200-1500 earlier this year (due to injury), but now that I am recently back to be able to exercise again, I am around 1800 a day. I've been within the normal BMI range the whole time. I'm female, 5'2", 110lbs. P.P.S. I realize BMI is not always the best indicator of health, but its the best we can refer to in an anonymous internet forum. P.P.P.S Good Luck! ❤️, and congrats on your weight loss so far!

Checking in to see how everyone else is doing....as for me...day of surgery I was at 222 and current weight 169. I feel great I’ve come such a long way. Now is when I’m excited! My weight continues to come Off kind of funky like it will stall for 2-3 wks even gain and then bang I loose somewhere around 4lbs I’m Ok with that. I’ve been getting nauseous in the morning so I’ve had to change up my routine a little trying to help that situation out. I continue to exercise Monday-Friday and stay active like riding bikes and walking on the weekend. My exercise is still very light as I’m still not eating consistently above 700 calories. I’ve had to incorporate a little more simple carbs into my diet seems I was just not getting enough and blood sugar dropped a couple of times in the past month. My hair lost seems to be on and off. My goal weight is 145lbs I’m so excited that it’s near! I’m struggling with water intake I can get a good 20oz in me but after mid day I seem to forget to drink! So what’s going on with everyone else?????? Eager to hear how your all doing :)