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Kimberly, Congratulations on losing half of your weight---that's fantastic! The thought of never gaining any back is completely foreign to me but exciting. I, too, have a low-functioning thyroid and have taken medication since I was very young. When I am on the proper dosage, I don't notice any problems, but when the dosage becomes too low, the first thing I notice is either weight gain or lack of weight loss when I am trying hard. And unfortunately, when my medicine is increased, the pounds don't just drop off. However, they do eventually come off, which is the most important part. Thank you for sharing your experiences. Good luck with losing the remainder of your excess weight!

LOL I did the Lindora diet. Same as Atkins. I stopped losing and so I upped the calories in my diet and nothing. I have even begun core body training 3 weeks ago, so maybe the weight gain (2lbs) is muscle, but still discouraging. Today is first day of bootcamp. YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY! this should do it.

Thought it might be worth updating my report from more than three months ago. Weight loss numbers are very encouraging. I busted through the 300 lb mark into the "2's" this past weekend and am now down 121 lbs, since I started the journey about a year ago, including pre operation nutrition, pre operation liquid diet and post operation sleeve diet. I was sleeved on Aug 29 at 371 lbs and now at 299, just shy of 5 months later. Call it 20 weeks since the sleeve, with a average weight loss of 3.6 lbs/week since the operation. I am just 59 lbs from my basic goal of 240 lbs and have erased more than 20 years of almost continous weight gain. I can basically eat 4-6 oz of any kind of food I want to eat...have not found any limitations whatsoever. I have a very happy sleeve. I am staying with a regimen of a 300 calorie breakfast including eggs and some sort of meat and or cheese based protein, a protein shake twice a day, sometimes with a little other protein added and a fairly light 300-400 calorie meal in the evening. Probably averaging 1100-1300 calories a day with pretty restricted carbs. Have ramped up the walking a good bit for aerobic exercise. Numerous small victories...some new clothes at MUCH reduced sizes and being able to travel by air without asking for a seatbelt extension among them. All blood work is spot on with only a couple of very tiny deviations. Vitamin absorbtion is going well. BP and blood sugar are doing better than they have in 25 years. Early post surgical fatigue is gone completely.....I now have more energy and feel better than I have had in many, many years. Let me say again that my experience with Dr. Kim and his great staff has been stellar.I know there have been some criticisms about Dr. Kim only seeing a patient once or twice during the process, but in my opinion, it is more important for him to be helping as many folks as possible and getting them started on their path to better health and a much improved life. My experience with his staff has been excellent and due to that, I do not feel slighted at all by any lack of direct doctor attention. I hope everyone out there has as great a result from their sleeve as I have had so far. Good luck to all!

Called my surgery facility, surgery is def. cancelled for Friday, BUT I got a new date. The insurance wants 6 months supervised dieting with NOOO weight gain. I gained back in august, september, and october, but maintained from november through now, so I get to use Novembers documented meetings! Now I have to wait until April, which is fine, And the surgery is May 11th. I was down for a few days but I'm not the kind of person to stay that way, so I called and asked the question, yaaaaaay for being an adult!

So I guess that since I'm now posting in the forums, I should write an introductory thread about myself, right? My surgery is scheduled for March 27th. Deposit paid, everything done. Well, minus the pre-op diet, obviously. It's with Dr. Oritz at OCC in Mexico. About me: just turned 24. Lives in Portland, Oregon but from San Diego. Lover of dogs, science, music, forums, and blogs. Microbiology major at Portland State University. Huge geek/nerd. I have the most amazing support system (boyfriend) ever and my golden retriever (who is going to love the new active me!!) is my pride and joy. I'm 5'8-9ish. My highest weight is 265. Currently, I'm sitting at 225. My weight gain isn't due to BAD food. I rarely eat junk food, I cook constantly, and I LOVE my veggies. I haven't had soda in over 4 years, and I'm not one to have a sweet tooth. I guess that makes me lucky, right? My problem is QUANTITY. I eat huge portions. I eat until I'm so full that I go into food coma and sleep it off. Haha. I have a low-moderate activity level: I take my dog on walks, hike occasionally, and walk my a$$ off running back and forth to classes on campus. Post surgery I am going to become a runner. You'll see! Anyhow. I would absolutely love, love, love to have some fellow bandsters to chat with, as I'm not telling my family or friends, for personal reason. Like so many others, I'm not ashamed; I just don't want all my hard work to be written off because I hit an "easy button." If any of you are close to where I am, or even my hometown, let me know! I'd love to meet up and talk strategy (while making new friends along the way)!

Hi Guyyysss !!! I've been a lurker on this site for a while now. I decided that I'd post something since the surgery is no longer a pipe dream but a reality. I've been approved!!! Surgery date is February 1!!! My emotions run the gamut right about now lol. But I must admit this ain't my first weight loss surgery rodeo. My mom and I had a bands put in Jan 2009. She shelled out $20,000 just like that. It worked...in the beginning. I went from 208 to 159. Looked pretty friggin hott too. But I was miserable with my band. I was losing weight and following the rules to a T but I knew the band wasn't for me. I NEVER felt any restriction so my weight loss in my opinion was a result of militant calorie restricting and exercise bulimia. Then complications lead to loss of effectiveness which lead to weight gain and ultimately removal. I gained all the weight back and then some. But now I've been approved, via insurance this time! No strict pre-op diet, no red tape, and a BMI that barely met the requirement. I've been thanking my lucky stars every day. Anyway, I just wanted to introduce myself and thank all of you guys for your informative, helpful, and inspiring posts that made and will continue to make me want to take control of my health. I hope the surgery brings me much needed success and I'll def be updating regularly. Thanks for reading )

Thank you all for going above and beyond to get information for me! I spoke with the nurse at my Dr's office and she said it will not cause weight gain. We discovered that the weight gain was propably caused by my recent increase in water intake. I finally drank over 64 ozs! My cells are rehydrating! Thanks again to all who responded! BTW I weighed again this morning and the 3 lbs were gone! WHEW : )

Well, I'll start with my name. It's Craig, I was 29yrs old and 500lbs when I had my Roux en-y. I'm from Dayton OH and there were a lot of things leading up to my surgery. I was born with a hip disease called leg perthissess. My parents & Dr. caught that at around the second grade. That is probably where I had my biggest weight gain. I was pretty much forced to strict bed rest by my Dr. & my parents... So while all my friends were outside playing I was inside watching reruns of Mr. Belvedere & eating comfort food. I was in a exercise restrictive leg brace until the 6th grade. After I finally got my hip back to 100% or as close to that as possible for me. Then life seemed to be getting back on track for me. I started playing hockey competitively and was very good at it but not good enough in Dayton OH, to get paid for it. Had I lived in more of hockey town, who knows. At any rate I started a real job. At 19 years old I started working in a factory, 3rd shift and making decent money. At this time in my life most of my friends were out partying & trying to get laid, maybe working part-time job. I was busy paying on a brand new truck I had bought before I realized that the insurance was gonna cost me as much I was paying on the truck! Working 3rd shift really messed with my eating schedule. I started gaining a big amount of weight. I would eat with my parents through out the day & then eat again. at night with my friends. I worked at the factory for a few years and then began a career as a professional Body Piercer. Now, the factory was hot, and it was physically demanding. Being a Body Piercer was not! My body was still out of wack due to a extreme lack of exercise and sleep depravation. I am a firm believer that you never get to catch up on lost sleep. That being said I also believe that your eating schedule and sleep schedule should kind of be balanced. Mine were no where near balanced. At around the age of 21 I started dating a girl that I got very serious with. I thought I was around 300lbs. Later that year I got sick with phenomena... I eventually had to have lung surgery. I was put in ICU and weighted to find out that I actually was about 380lbs. At this point I started looking into Gastrick Bypass Surgery. I had no health insurance at this time(still don't by the way lol). So I figured I'd just diet. I had a very hard break-up and moved to Columbus for a year. When I moved back to Dayton I had no choice but to live with my parents for while. This is when they really saw how out of control my health had become. I talked with my mom about the procedure and she offered to pay out of pocket for it. I went to Dayton Bariatric and saw Dr. David Bruce who in my opinion saved my life on 1-7-09. On the day of pre-surgery testing I weighed 498lbs I couldn't believe that I weighed that much. The first day I could walk afterwards they weighed me and I had already lost close to 30lbs. From that point I started losing weight rapidly. In 3 years now I have lost a total of 260lbs. It was after my weight loss seemed to be on-track that my "other problems" , started! I began to replace comfort food with other comfort coping tools. I start popping Vicodon like candy. At one point up to 20 a day. Keep in mind up to this point in my life I had never done a drug let alone start to abuse them. I did Vicodone regularity for about 2.5 years. For the last 6 months I have struggled with staying strong to keep away from Vicodone and any other pain meds. It's been hard on me and life partner. I feel like I gave up my food addiction for a pain pill addiction. I know I never did these things before when I was 500lbs. I am trying but everyday is a struggle. I would really appreciate some feedback. I'd love to hear some of your experiences other than my own. I can't be the only 1 out here that this has happened to. Thanks for reading I know I'm long winded sorry again and remember that there is answer you just have to ask the right question. Craigs Story Thank you Katie for your support through all of this I love u and U are my everything!!!

I currently have a very eroded band (in the middle of my stomach) and am waiting on a surgery date to have it removed. I have had absolutely NO symptoms with the exception of weight gain because I have only moderate restriction provided by the obstruction in my stomach. Lately I've been feeling some twinges and odd little feelings and pains but I'm not sure if they are related to my band or just me being hyper-conscious because I know something isn't right. I have to agree with the others though, it sounds a lot like slippage to me. I would try to get in sooner if you can.

Alot of nutrients are absorbed in the small intestine. The reason for not drinking fluids with the meal is so that the food isn't flushed down to the small intestine where your stomach isn't giving a full signal, therefore, we eat more. That could add to increased weight gain or no weight loss at all.

My offer is sincere. It is open to everyone. Knowing you are doing all you can and it still may not change an outcome is a difficult place to be. Are you local to a support group that meets in person? I am sorry about your therapist. I did not see a therapist until a few years ago. I may be a little different from some in that my weight was also driven my metabolic issues. The same thing that helped me stay large (I had an appetite too!) was a metabolic disorder. My sister had the same thing but instead of a damper on her furnace it burned white-hot to the point of doing damage sometimes. I would be at the gym and taking my martial arts classes and maintaining massive amounts of muscle to just be a size whatever (it varied so much) and my little sister would be on 4800 calories a day to maintain a size 0. It followed on like that till I was about 19, when I had about 6-7 years that I maintained a size 14. I got back up to a 16 when I was about 27, which I would miscarraige that year and then my weight skyrocketed and I began to suffer real health problems for the first time ever - sports injuries aside. By the time I was 30 I was as heavy as I have ever been, and diagnosed with diabetes in 2007. Since I have been on a very slow downward pattern again. I was at 272 when I finally decided one last "go" and shortly thereafter decided I needed to admit I needed help. I was attending therapy at this point but amped it up and changed from a "food" therapist to a therapist that focuses on cognative therapy - helping me think for myself. It has done so much good. There were walls in my journey. I crossed a big personal hurdle when I admitted to myself that no matter how fit I had been when I was younger despite my size, that it had left its mark. The miscairrage and weight gain and diabetes and being so large I could not fit in an airline seat without an extender, that between my Husband and I we couldn't share a hammock with a 550 weight limit - it left issues. Doing what I can to fight the good fight - and again only 2+ weeks post op. I have no guarantee I will succeed, either. Strong energy to all who needs it.

Hello, I started my initial journey in 2010. My mother and I were in a terrible, and my journey came to a screeching halt. (At this point, I am still suffering from the accident.) My injuries required steroid therapy; so, doctor put me on steroids and I gained even more weight. Now, I have to explain that my PCP did not agree with any type of weight loss surgery at first. I had to threaten to find another doctor, if he wouldn't at least research it. He finally agreed and my journey began. My doctor was out of the country when my accident occured. So, when he returned, he could not believe the weight gain or the increase of my blood sugar levels. At this point, he had to put me on medicine for diabetes and made me promise to start the process for my surgery again. The accident made me look at things from a different prospective, and I made the decision to lose the weight on my own. Well, that was a disaster and the weight continued to pile on & my diabetes medicine wasn't working. After a major internal struggle, I decided to have lapband surgery. When I went to meet with my surgeon, he threw a monkey wrench into my plans and suggested the sleeve. I struggled with the sleeve because there isn't any long term data to support this type of weight loss surgery. So, I decided to start watching YouTube videos and join blogs to learn more informtion. When attend my third nutrition class in February, I can now tell them that I will be having the Gastric Sleeve surgery...

You make adjustments with your calorie intake and exercise when you reach your goal. It becomes math in the maintainence phase. You do increase your calories but not with junk food, you still eat nutritional fuel. I have talked in depth with my NUT about this and my question was since my restriction is still about 4 oz of food, how do I get more calories. It is very easy to increase calories, too easy sometimes that is why you need to have a food journal such as myfitnesspal.com . I have noticed that if you add a Protein shake, a piece of fruit and some beef jerkey, that can easily add a few hundred calories. Even though they are healthy calories, they are calories. Adding those extra items daily might help you maintain your weight, gain weight or lose weight. If you keep losing and you want to stop, add more healthy calories. It is constant adjustments you will be making once you reach goal. I am about 10 lbs from goal right now, I probably could have reached my goal last month but I need the added calories and carbs for exercise so I could have the energy for my workouts. It had slowed my weight loss some but in exchange, it gave me the added energy to build muscle and tone up. Once I reach goal, I will always continue to exercise so I will have to find that magic number of calories where I do not gain or lose weight.

Well, If you have ever Dieted, lost weight, then gained it back over and over. "I see you have" This band can help prevent this. You might fall of the wagon, say,,, if you were to have a unfill for a reason. As soon as you see the scale going up ! You can stop, and get yourself back to the basics without any trouble. "I'll bet you can't do that now, or keep it going in your future..." Then, once filled again, you stay back on track. It really is a great tool. Also, I am addicted to food. certain foods "TRIGGER FOODS" could set me off ! Now ! I don't miss them, and I don't eat them. If I have a chip or two, I can deal with it because of the resistance from the band. The resistance takes away that drive to just sit back and eat, or go out to a Restaurant, and go in to the kitchen, and start cooking. My food bill has dropped allot ! So yep I know what your talking about, and I have lost weight, and it's still coming of. Also remember that yo yo dieting is very dangerous, and will really mess up your Matabilissim. That means more weight gain.....

Hey everyone, was looking for a lap-band buddy. I was banded January 2007, lost weight, gained, and now I'm back on the "bandwagon", just looking for someone for support and accountability especially with excercise (I'm usually motivated, but I fell this week in the snow and in a lot of pain, I'm afraid that I'll lose my motivation) Thanks for reading!

Have you seen a gynecoligist or other medical professional that would have taken weight down? I know I have five years of weight history from just my gynecologist, but was able to also get my pediatric growth chart showing when I went off the chart in terms of weight gain in relation to height...

This is a great idea! i'm a newbie soon-to-be-sleever and am loving all the information and support on VST! I am a 33 yr. old Kansas girl transplanted 9 years ago to Florida. I've been married for 9 1/2 years to my wonderful husband, together for almost 16 years. We have 3 great kiddos - ages 7, 5 and 2 - 2 boys and a sweet and sassy princess :biggrin5: I graduated from the University of Kansas in 2000 and am a forever Jayhawk, hence my screen name. I have a degree in psychology and went to nursing school post-graduation and became an LPN. I worked as a nurse until my second son was born and have stayed home full time since. I have a small online business where I make and embroider children's clothing and other gift items. We have one silky terrier who is rarely away from my side and two cats who believe they rule the house. I was active in sports throughout high school (softball, track, cheerleading, swimming) and started putting on weight my first year in college. I never lost more than about 20 lbs. when I would try and diet and even if I lost that, it went right back on, plus a few more. When I got married in 2002, I was 225 lbs and although I wished I was smaller, I was still comfortable in my own skin. Then we moved to Florida, away from all my family, and I gained about 15 lbs over the next year and a half and then got pregnant with my first son. I kept my weight gain reasonable during my pregnancy and lost all my baby weight within just a few weeks of having him, plus another 5 lbs. but by the time I got pregnant with my second child I was up about 10 lbs. Again, I kept my weigh gain reasonable during pregnancy and lost almost all of my baby weight soon after he was born, only to gain back about 15 lbs of it. By this time I was around 260 and stayed around that weight until we got a big surprise and found out we had another baby on the way. Same story - reasonable weight gain with pregnancy but after the third baby, I had more trouble taking off the baby weight and have bounced around between 260-287 for the last 2 1/2 years. I have lost about 20-30 lbs a couple of times but can't seem to keep it together to lose more than that or keep it off either. I have researched WLS for a long time but really just got serious about it as an option for me in the last few months. My mom was obese for years and had gastric bypass about 10 years. She has done great and knows that it saved her life. In being connected to her process over the years after her surgery, I have seen how true it is that WLS is just a TOOL, not a magic fix. It is in no way "the easy way out" as many people view WLS. My mom lives with us now and is a big part of my support system and a great source of advice since she has been through so much of it. I attended a few seminars and chose my doctor a few weeks ago - I will be having my surgery with Dr. Domkowski in Sebastian, FL. My insurance won't cover any weight loss surgery so I am self pay and my doctor's office is kind enough to schedule several of my appointments in one day since I am a bit of a distance away. I am scheduled for my surgical consult, psych eval and nut appointment on Feb 8. I'm hoping I will have a surgery date soon after that as I am anxious to be a sleever!! I have started my own pre-op diet - nothing too crazy, but lower carb, higher Protein, smaller portions, etc... and have lost 10 lbs so far :biggrin5: I look forward to getting to know you all and finding some buddies being sleeved around the same time as me for support!

I saw my sugeon yesterday about this darn band that has never been the same since I unfilled it. He gave me a monster fill and I'm going for a barium swallow. we think there's several possibilities - it might be leaking for starters. Although all through the refill process as I've complained of not having the restriction I think I should have (although I have had restriction, just not what I previously would have had a certain fill levels) when the docs have checked the Fluid, its been there. But this time, I only had 3cc, when we thought I should have 3.4cc. Well, the records say that, verbally the doctor I'd seen said I had 3.8cc! When it was unfilled, there wasnt the fluid in there we thought there should be. So the other possibility is that the records have been stuffed up along the way, we've gotten confused and I've never had in there what I thought I had. Other than that, of course, there's the possibility of a slip, I'd be surprised as I've had 3 CT scans and about 4 abdo xrays in the last year for cancer related reasons and my band has never looked obviously out of place. A very remote possibility is erosion - I'm horribly Iron depleted to the point that suggests a GI bleed somewhere and I know its not from my colon as that has all been checked out only in November. But my surgeon didnt think that at all likely, he said I'd have lost restriction entirely. After my monster fill, this morning, I can feel it, its at least held overnight. Its pretty good restriction but again, I've never had this much fill in before and would expect to be actually too tight. But lets just see how it goes. I've held off any weight gain the whole 9 months I was unfilled, and managed to get through seven months of this fill process with inadequate restriction but its darn hard work and I'm ever so slowly losing the battle now, a half kilo here and there that sticks around. Hopefully at least this fill will stick long enough just to lose 4 or 5 lb again! Not terribly worried, if the band needs to be replaced, the way it works here with my clinic, I paid $4000 up front and the rest was covered by Medicare and Private Health Insurance. All my aftercare, including any revision surgery will be free to me, the cost is billed directly to Medicare and I never have to put my hand in my pocket again. It will just be incovenient but oh well!

When I was first banded, the rule was Women 50-60G. Men 70-80G. of Protein a day. He also told me not to drink to much protein, because it can cause weight gain. Now the numbers have changed..... I still try to stay around what he suggested though, cause he could be right.

It isn't kg. I thought about that too, but that would have been a big weight gain. I haven't gained, lol.

I can't believe it has been 7 whole months since I was sleeved! It has gone so fast! And yet it seems that right now time is moving SO slowly! I know that you loose most of the weight in the first year, and I am SO anxious to loose the last few pounds I have to go. And I am getting nervous, knowing that I am over half way to the one year mark, when I will stop loosing. I want to get those last few pounds off while I still have time. This past summer (when I was living/working in California) I swam for an hour every morning. Since moving back to (cold and frozen) Iowa, I can't swim on a daily basis. I joined a work out center last week, but am having trouble getting there on a regular basis. I work 7:00 PM to 7:00 AM, so evenings are out, and I sleep during the day. So have had to confine my work out times to my days off. I NEED to get off my rear end and get to the work out center on a more regular basis! The sad fact is that joining and paying your money does NOT do anything for weight loss or toning, IF YOU DON'T GO AND WORK OUT!!! I also am trying to come to terms with what I am eating. To often I figure "will I can only eat a couple of bites of it, so I can't do THAT much harm, so might as well eat it.", instead of trying to eat healthy. I don't want to be one of those individuals who loose dramatically and then gain most (or all) of it back! I have a very good life long friend who had a Roux N Y done 7-8 years ago, and now has gained back almost all of her weight. I don't think she changed her eating habits a lot, and now she is stuck with a weight gain back to her (almost) original size. She is such a good friend, I feel so for her. After all she went through to have the surgery and then to gain most of the weight back! I LOVE to bake and cook, so it is a daily struggle not to eat what I am baking/cooking. I am trying to follow the rule "always get my protein first". But some days the pastry, or cookies, or cake, etc seem to be shouting my name as loudly as they can! I know I have to STOP, but some life long habits are SO hard to change! The good news is that I SO love being a Size 8, and I don't want to endanger it with weight gain! I also love all the compliments I have received on my weight loss since the surgery. I don't ever want to weight 258 pounds again! I am beginning to think that maintenance is harder than weight loss! The loosing period has been a relative breeze, it is the whole maintaining thing that is going to drive me crazy (and believe me, crazy is not a far trip for me!). Anybody have any good tips for maintenance?

Hello, just wanted to share my recent success. Yesterday was my 3 month anniversary and total weight loss is 57.4 lbs!!! YAY!!! I am so excited. I don't know about the rest of you but I am counting my weight loss from what I weighed before the pre-op diet. If I count from date of surgery (10/17/11) I am down 48.4 lbs. Last week I experience my first weight gain of 1.3 lbs and I was a little upset....but between last week and this week/yesterday, I was down 4.9 lbs. Someone told me it is just my body adjusting itself, which does make sense. I am doing fantastic, tons of energy and working out. Is there anyone else 3 months out? How are you doing? Any Chicago sleevers?

In July 2010 I had three weeks were I was not able to eat nor drink. When I would try it would come back up. One night I started vomiting and could not stop the pain was so bad. I was rushed to the emergency room. They gave me pain meds and did X-rays they said everything looked good with the band. They contact the doctors office were I would get my fills informed that they needed me to come in. I went the next morning they also looked said nothing looked wrong with the band. Suggested that I remove the fluids. The fluids have been removed for six months now and I am able to eat yes I have gained back my weight not all. I am so hurt. My dilemma is I am having so much pain in my area were the band was place at the top of my stomach. When I eat it hurts still. Can anyone help with what is going on. I want to get my fills but I am afraid to do so with this issue still in play. Someone please help. I want this weight back off.

I agree with clk, I even have had a hysterectomy and every month I gain and lose with in that one week. I am a slow loser as well. I lose about 1 lb. a week, so I know how bad that weight gain looks. I try to stay away from the salty meats around that time of the month, because I also swell ( I can tell with my ring ). As for the constipation, it's common because you're not putting as much food in as before. (tmi) I go about once a week now. If it goes longer than that I have a prune.

I think surgeons might not be too surprised at the weight gain over the holidays. Have you called them to ask about it? You might call and express your concern about the weight gain and ask if that's going to slow you down to surgery. Why worry about something you don't even know is an issue? Let me tell you something crazy. I went in for my pre-op appointment on Thursday and my weight was up a pound and a few ounces from my first appt in September (it was 267.4). I had to do liquids only on Sunday and when I arrive to weigh in at the hospital I weighed 254.6. WTH in four days? The only thing I can think is the liquids helped all the solids pass through my system and then the fasting the night before had me a little low on fluids. When I got home from the hospital I was 268 on my scale which is always a bit lighter than the Dr it seems. This morning I was 250 on my scale... =)