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i just got home and stepped on the scale to see a 15 lb weight gain how can this be?

weight gain is normal! it is fluid and swelling. i promise you'll see a loss soon. just keep sipping once that drainage tube comes out, you'll feel much better! take care!

To a certain extent, if you will have loose skin, you will have loose skin. It will firm up some, but if your skin was damaged from your weight gain, it can't heal itself. It can shrink up some, but won't gain elasticity if it was lost. Light weight training can help, I've heard, so can keeping your skin moisturized, to help the collagen and elastin. The places where you have stretch marks- those are marks of the elasticity of your skin being damaged. I know I'll always have loose skin in those areas, unless I have cosmetic surgery. My calves will be fine, but my upper arms, thighs, belly and breasts will be loose and saggy.

1. Pouch - -the upper small part of the stomach created by the lap band. 2. The stoma – the outlet between the pouch and the rest of the stomach. 3. The band physically restricts the amount of food a person can eat at one time. 4. Digestion happens in the pouch, just like it does in the stomach. 5. Solid food should not immediately go through the stoma so the pouch fills up with food. 6. Liquids go through the stoma readily and also help solid food go through the lumen. If you drink before, during or after meals, more of the solid food will go through the stoma into the stomach. 7. Fills (inflating the band) help to keep food in the pouch longer. 8. Fills (inflating) with saline do not make the pouch smaller, only the stoma between the pouch and the stomach becomes smaller. 9. The band can be surgically repositioned to adjust the size of the pouch. 10. Leptin is present in our digestive system to regulate our appetite (and in turn, our weight). Leptin affects the hypothalamus and suppresses appetite. It also helps burn fat that is stored in adipose (fatty) tissue. 11. When the pouch is full of food, just like if the stomach is full, the hormone Leptin is released. This goes to the brain and sates the appetite. 12. If the band is too tight, meals are inadequate and so people eat more often and tend to eat easier to digest food such as carbohydrate. This can result in weight gain. 13. It is very unlikely that you will ever lose all of your excess weight with a lapband.

Hi my name is Donna I am 53 yrs old I will be married for 34 yrs on sept the 8 I have three son's and 4 grandson and another Grandchild do in January. I started gaining my wait after my Mother died at the age 56 so it's been a stead climb of weight gain over the years . But over the last year I started having health issue and a 4yr. old asked me why I was so Fat ( and no it was none of my grandchildren) but anyway I knew it was time to do something I started the process in June so everything moved very quick. Not sure how I feel I know it going to be a big change for me but thank God I have a great family and friends I will keep you posted

Hi !! How are all you members going that have had your banding ?? are you glad you did it ..any down side..?? I am going to a film and talk on the banding tomorrow afternoon (Wednesday) ..I really think its the only way left for me to go ..I have just given up on all other ways to loose weight.. I am a oldie ...62yrs old in February ..I don`t want to be fat on my 63rd Birthday so hopefully will get the surgery asap after seeing the specialists .. What am I in for ..?? My weight gain has continued slowly from about 50years of age (menapause and the empty nest syndrome hitting at the same time)..I was slightyly over weight in my mid to late forties , so I thought but when I look back now , I wish I was back at my then weight... I am about 118.00 Kilos.. so need to loose 40 to 50 kilos ..................I wonder if its too late sometimes ... I am so sad to have let myself come to this and just want to hide away from the world... O.K I hope after tomorrowI have the courage to go ahead with this plan... Excersizing is hard , I have no enegy or motivation ..and worse of all my joints scream with aches and pains just walking which I am trying to do starting 3 times a week ..when the weather is extreamly hot I just can`t do it ..I am too ashamed to get into swimmers to use a pool which I am told would be easier on my knees.... Oh ! well I will see when I get to speak to the specialist see what hope they give me.... I hope you are all doing well and I would love to read about your experiences Good and bad .. Chat later .. Majj

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

I would definitely get a note from your doctor who is treating your lymphedema to send in with your preauthorization that states that the recent weight gain was due to this issue. If they mark the date that you started having issues with it and coincides with the time you started gaining weight it will definitely help.

Impossible to say unless it's been actually presented to the Plan for approval, BUT, weight gain from lymphedema is hardly the same thing as weight gain from overeating. Lymphedema is not a contributor to obesity, though obesity may exacerbate lymphedema. Your NUT is not the expert in insurance approvals, your surgeon's insurance coordinator is. That is the person to speak to with your question. You don't say who your new insurance will be.

Stephanie, That is exactly what I needed to know thansks for sharing your experience with me. Sorry to hear about your weight gain BUT at least you still have your band. That is what I fear most having an ulcer which will lead to an erosion. I just got my band and I want to keep it. Was your ulcer located on your stoma or somewhere else in your stomach? And how long were you on the ulcer meds?

Dehydration was a major side effect of my surgery. I wouldn't worry too much about a 2 1/2 pound gain one week post-op. Very good chance it is just Water weight after being dehydrated. I don't think it's that uncommon - they told me that there is always the possibility of a slight weight gain post-op.

What type of birth control are you on???? Need info. Feed back !!!! I'm 5 months out of sleeved!!! I'm still trying to figure out what birth control I should take#!! My doc said to get on Depo shot but I'm scared of weight gain!!! Ladies please leave your feed back!!!! I would really appreciate it!! Thanks Sent from my SM-N915T using BariatricPal mobile app

I am almost 5 years out from surgery. I lost around 155 pounds and kept it off for about 3.5 years. But in the past 1.5 years, I have suffered from depression and started drinking alcohol excessively ( I typically would have ate food excessively in the past). In the past I could have several drinks and be fine; however post surgery the side effects were much more severe (depression, a feeling of real dependency, blacking out suddenly with no recollection of where the cutoff point would be i.e. 2 drinks now was just as strong as drinking 5) The alcohol goes so quickly into your system that it is a real danger if not properly monitored. Although my eating habits didn't change, without daily exercise and with the added calories of excessive alcohol consumption, I regained around 60 pounds. In addition to the weight gain I have struggled with the affects of alcohol dependency, which I never had experienced before. As VSG patients we were all cautioned on drinking and how it affects us differently after surgery. I didn't really take heed to those warnings until it had become a problem for me. I am working on it daily now and also am struggling to lose the weight all over again, which feels pretty much like as difficult as it had been prior to surgery. I think this is not talked about enough and I'm sure I am not the only VSG patient who has experienced this. As a community being open with one another, and as individual seeking out help earlier, I probably wouldn't be struggling with these 60 pounds now. Anyone who's been through it should reach out sooner than later. Not only have I suffered from this issue, I have had to deal with the fact that I messed up my own progress and success and now have to deal with the ramifications of starting all over again so to speak. This I can say for certain, staying in a support group and dealing with your issues is imperative to continued success in this journey. I'm not sure if I'll loose all of the 60 I've regained again, but I am willing to fight the battle to do this all over again and to warn others of how dangerous alcohol consumption is for us post surgery!

I have read many posts in the past about the same situation as u. Your body is adjusting.. Once it stabilizes.you will see a continuous drop..watch your salt intake. This can cause water weight gain. U may not want to weigh as much. I did have a little stall for several days ..so I just stopped weighing for several days. Then my weight loss was inching down again.

I had the same exact fear. I knew I was depressed because of the weight gain, and I was afraid this would hinder the clearance. took a 600 question true false test. The psychologist basically said " I know it will come back as your depressed". They really just want to make sure that you don't have any eating disorders or any other self sabatoging behavior that will put you at risk after surgery. Don't worry it will be fine.

I have regained two pounds in the past week. I sure hope its just Water weight gain. I went out of town for the holiday. I returned on the 26th and weighed in for the first time in a week and was so happy with my weight loss. Well yesterday I weighed 2 lbs more than I did a week ago. Not good and I want to eat all the time.

I am sorry things did not work out for you. I agree with the previous poster. I hated that "full" feeling, i like the satisfied feeling much better. Nothing fun about feeling like a stuffed turkey. I agree about the sleeve. I have 2 friends who had the bypass done and lost a lot of weight, gained it all back, plus some in 2 years. One of them had it redone, and is losing again, but has all this saggy skin. They lose way fast and the body has not time to catch up with with the skin elasticity. I have one friend who had the sleeve done, and she has done great with it. My surgeon will not do the bypass because he feels it is a worthless procedure. good luck with your decision.

So just as an update, I did see my team today. They were concerned by the weight gain (even though I've been losing since Metformin), so they put me on a new medication saying they wanted me under my starting weight. Here's hoping that it works!

I have been seeing a dietician for a year and a half and through all this she has seen all the struggles I have had and I finally discussed weight loss surgery with her. I had decided years ago off and on to get it, but always thought I could lose it myself. Of course I did but you know how that rolls. Anyhow she was very skeptical at first but she decided to do some studies on it and to my surprise she decided to support me on my decision. This dietician works for the VA whom I am going thru for all this so we decided to get the ball rolling. She clearly has 1 1/2 yrs of records for my weight loss and weight gains. I wanted to learn how to eat healthy and not go on the all or nothing plan. I lost 32lbs which clearly wasn't fast enough for me but then again I was not dieting like I was use to doing and I really learned to live on a healthy plan. I went thru all the rig a moral with the drs, psy, therapists everything I had to do to clear me for surgery. My dietician told me she talked to the bariatric coordinator and she was going to call me. Well she did and everything sounded real good and all I had to do was wait for the hospital surgeons nurse to call and set everything up. Supposedly when it got as far as the hospital it was stopped, and I was told that they wanted 3 more months of record keeping and counselling before she would approve it. When I heard this I was livid, here I was waiting on my surgery date and then I was told a year and a half was not enough. I felt so much anger that I started eating like a crazy woman and gained all the weight back. I am trying so hard to get my head back in the game but I just don't know how and now my dietician and I are really struggling. I told her I cannot trust that if we do this another 3 mos that it will be enough for them. And can't they see how hard I worked to lose 32lbs in a year and a half? If I could have kept it off I would have? Now here I sit with a nontrusting bad attitude and can't wrap my head around the fact that I have to do this again. To me it is very much like losing it and gaining it back yo yo syndrome that I have been through all of my life. I know that I can't let this beat me because I want to get this done, but yet I can't get my frame of mind to do this again. I have waited all my 57yrs to be skinny and it just doesn't seem like it will ever happen. It pretty much destroyed my will to keep trying! So, I need help to get my head back in the game and get back on my eating plan. I know I am mad and distrusting of the VA but I am not doing this for them, I am doing this for me. How do I get myself to do this? any ideas? I just needed to get this out and I couldn't think of a better place than here! So thank you!

In the last 10 months I went from a size 6 to a size 17. I went from my goal weight of 135 up to 180. I redid the protein shakes like you do before the surgery and the 1st time I lost nothing, 2nd time I gained 4pounds. I am unable to vomit since my surgery in June 2012. I have a constant pain right below my sternum area. My diet did not change when I started gaining weight but I made it more strict. I get nauseated a lot but of course can't vomit and that pain increases terribly for up to 5 hours the longest. I moved to a different state about 8 months ago and I am still waiting for my records to get here so I can be seen. I have sent for them 4 times and my PCP lost them every time but this last time I asked them to be sent to the gastric office. Has anybody ever went from sleeve to bypass? Or has anyone had my issues? I am so frustrated and sad that this is happening to me. Any suggestions? Thanks Kari

And watch your sodium intake, more sodium leads to water retention which leads to weight gain .

Has anyone been denied insurance benefits due to weight gain during their 6 month phase?

Hi All, I am 4 1/2 weeks, almost 5 weeks out from the sleeve and I'm looking for opinions. I have an appt with my Doctor on wed, and will also ask her then. For the last two weeks or so, I am been having terrible constipation. And when I do go, it's extremely painful. I take 2 Colace every morning and it doesn't seem to be helping. I also think the lack of Bowel movement is showing up on the scale as a weight gain or staying the same. For the last two days, I added a bit more fat in my diet and that seemed to help. I've been eating for the last week pretty much the exact same diet.... shake for Breakfast Shake for lunch 1/4 pound of extra lean turkey breast with balsamic vinegar and liquid aminos and about a 1/4 cup of 1% cottage cheese. Boring I know, but I'm hardly ever hungry and this gets me to about 700 calories. Had anyone else struggled this badly with BM? I've never had problems in this area in my life having always had a pretty high fat diet. Thanks!

There is no universal answer to this question. It varies considerably. Your own surgeon's requirements and your own insurance company's requirements re weight gain pre-op are what will govern the decision re surgery. Other patients' surgeons' and insurance companies' policies don't matter. Find out what your surgeon / insurance company require.

No advice, but good luck to you. The mental aspect of this journey can be difficult and I hope that part of your preparation for surgery has addressed this. I think your doctor is right. At your age, even with stretched skin from weight gain, all of your collagen is still intact. That gives you a snap back feature that older people lack. Working out consistently will ensure your success with skin rebound.