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I am 34 months RNY gastric bypass. I chose this type of surgery because I have severe acid reflux (GERD) prior to surgery and this is the recommended approach for that condition. I was in the weight loss phase for 6 or 7 months and then transitioned into the maintenance phase. What you are requesting, I believe is how to minimize your weight gain prior to surgery. This is somewhat similar to the maintenance approach, perhaps the following article might provide you some clues. http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/Surgery2.pdf

The TMI part of your post made me think about Celiac (gluten intolerance). I was diagnosed 6 yrs. ago, and I NEVER EVER thought I would have it--I am a carb. addict, after all. Maybe the next time you are getting blood work done, you could ask them to check that for you too. It can cause weight gain/retention, for those of us "lucky" enough to have weight issues.

Look up the terms 'cross addiction' or 'addiction transference.' Cross addiction is a very common phenomenon in the bariatric surgery population. Instead of overeating, many weight loss surgery patients simply adopt another addiction (e.g. alcohol abuse, shopping, smoking, gambling, risky sex, video gaming). Essentially, bariatric surgeons operate on our stomachs and not our brains. Therefore, overeaters who abused food still have addicted brains after weight loss surgery. Nothing, other than professional help, will properly address a person's addictive tendencies. Yes, the wine leads to weight gain, especially in the quantities you drink. It is full of empty calories. Combined with the sedentary lifestyle, it's a perfect recipe for weight regain.

Tough Love: Alcohol slows lipid oxidation (the burning of fat) by about 75%. So yes, it's likely the alcohol causing your weight gain. And it's probably contributing to your nutritional deficiencies. You should be eating nutritious food, not alcohol. Particularly if you are deficient. DUI is selfish and dangerous. You are extremely lucky that you...or anyone else.... wasn't injured/killed by your poor choices. 3-4 mixed drinks, or a whole bottle of wine a night....is an addiction. I think you're trading one dangerous addiction (food) for an even more dangerous addiction (alcohol). Try to stop drinking for a month. If you can't? Seek help. I don't mean this to sound overly harsh, it sounds like you've been through a lot. But sometimes being kind means being honest....even if the truth hurts a little. Please take care and let us know how you're doing.

Sherry77 is right! The weight gain is a result of all the IV that you received and the swelling from major surgery. During surgery I was told that my abdomen will be pumped up with air, and the best way to get rid of it is to walk. Simply. You might also notice that the pain travels to your shoulder area. I was told that was normal and to be expected. Again the solution was to walk. The incision site on the left did feel numb to touch at first as well as my navel area. But to be honest I did not worry much about that lol! When drinking, remember not to use a straw and to sip slowly taking small sip Be patient and Hope you feel better...

Hello. My name is Tessa and I am a newbie to BariatricPal. My sleeve was 6/12/15. So I am currently 4 weeks post op. Things were going great until I introduced soft foods this week. I'm up 5 pounds since my weigh in Thursday. I don't understand. I'm eating SMALLER. Why am I gaining? I understand that eating and drinking to together will do that. I wait 20 minutes after drinking and wait 30 after eating to drink again. Could it be the sodium? Not all of my food is low in sodium. I have been so hungry that I haven't cared to check. Could it be sugar? I drink 98% water but will have organic lemonade every once in a while. Please help. I am having major regrets about this surgery. I didn't have it to still gain weight. It is so depressing. Thanks, Tessa

I had revision due to weight gain a few months ago. I went from a sleeve to bypass. It was covered by my insurance but I still had to go through all the normal hoops to get to it. By the way it’s going very well and I’m happy I’ve done it

Hello sleevers! I'm in the same situation with the weight coming off, but I feel different now! I feel hope!! I too see the change in pictures, Thank God I took those before pictures as bad as they were. I was sleeved 8/21, actually I am a revision from band to sleeve and was told to expect slower weight gain, but I refuse to! I am a winner no matter what it looks like! I expect my body to line up, and not to control me. A positive mind set does help!!! Stick with the proteins and move, it has to come off!

Hi guys, So I had my one week post op appt today and my surgeon was concerned due to my elevated heart rate. It was 115 and he stated they don't want it over 100. He also said I was dehydrated due to not getting in the appropriate 64oz.of fluids which I have honestly been trying but failing miserably. If it wasn't for sugar free popsicles I don't know what I would do. So anyway he proceeds to tell me that I need to cut the fat free and sub for regular when it comes to the popsicles and milk and yogurts,etc because my body needs more nourishment. He said he understood I was trying to work my sleeve but that I may be doing too good...just to give my stats Starting weight he recorded-281 lbs.(highest weight was 297) SW-267.2(lost 14 on pre op Atkins diet) Left hospital-270.3(water weight gain of 3lbs.) 12 days post op-251.0 Total weight loss from surgery =19lbs. in 12 days....overall weight loss =30 lbs. I'm very excited with these results however I do not want to be hospitalized for lack of nourishment. Any advice of what you guys were eating on a daily basis at 2 weeks out with be greatly appreciated. I have looked at other posts but would really love a breakdown of a typical menu for those who are two weeks out. I was approved today to go to purees. Thoughts? Thanks!

Your body weight will fluctuate by several pounds on a daily basis. Many things can cause this fluctuation such as water weight gain, the clothes you wear, the time of day. Generally I weigh myself first thing in the morning, butt naked before breakfast. This tends to be my lowest weight. My clothes, coats and shoes can add 5 pounds to my weight. So generally the weight at the doctor's office is higher. The problem may also be due to your scale. After I had surgery, my scale was giving me all types of bad readings. I would step on the scale and weight myself and then repeat a couple seconds later and get a totally different reading, sometime a 5 pound difference. So I replaced my scale with one that was accurate to 0.2 pounds, repeatable readings, and a large visible backlit digital reading. I am half blind and since I weigh myself with my glasses off, it was difficult to step off the scale and bend down and read the results before the scale went off. Some digital scales will give erratic readings when the batteries are low.

Yeah, that seems to be a bit of a controversy at times. I think some people.....ectomorphs.......can and almost have to eat this way (dirty), to put on mass. Maybe that's kind of what he (author) was referring to, but he needs to realize that not all people are ectomorphs, in fact most are not. I knew guys like this in high school.....they lifted a lot, skinny as a rail and until they pretty much ate everything in sight, they couldn't get bigger/stronger. Even when they ate everything and anything, they still had trouble gaining weight because their metabolisms were so revved up and/or they were very active. Those kind of people frustrate me, but it's not their fault I suppose. Anyway, I think people that are like this are typically young (teens to maybe early 20s) and are setting themselves up for weight gain down the road when their metabolism slows and they are used to those bad eating habits.

All the information you need is here on this forum. You may not know many people in real life who have been through this surgery, but everybody here is in some stage of the process of weight loss surgery. If you haven't already, I would strongly recommend that you spend some time looking through the archives of this forum -- it's a gold mine! YouTube is also a great resource -- there are quite a few YouTubers who make videos about their WLS experience. I was pretty well prepared for surgery because I spent months reading this forum and watching YouTube videos about WLS. It seems like the most common questions that come up include: Stalls - Almost everyone has a weight loss stall within the first two months after surgery (commonly called the "three week stall" but it can happen earlier or later). Do not be alarmed. You didn't do anything wrong. The surgery didn't fail. Stick to your plan and you will start losing again. Weight gain from surgery - Many people weigh more when they come home from the hospital after surgery than they did before surgery. That's temporary and it's because they pump you full of IV fluids in the hospital. You're better off not even weighing yourself for the first couple of weeks after surgery because it is honestly meaningless. Fluid & protein goals - It's almost impossible to meet your fluid and protein goals in the first couple of weeks. Most surgeons tell you to get at least 60 ounces of fluids and 60 grams of protein per day. It sounds easy but it's not at the beginning. Do your best and don't worry if you can't quite get there. Dehydration is a serious thing that can land you back in the hospital, so you do need to sip as much as you can, but it's not the end of the world if you can't get 60 ounces. Pro tip: try warm fluids (tea, broth, protein hot cocoa) if cold drinks are difficult. Hair loss - Most people start losing hair around 3 months after surgery (it's a phenomenon called telogen effluvium), and there's not a whole lot you can do to avoid it. Protein and iron deficiencies can contribute to hair loss, and some people say that biotin can help to prevent hair loss, but you will almost certainly have some hair loss no matter what you do. It will grow back. Vitamins - Your surgeon should have given you a list of vitamins that you will need to take. This varies a bit from one surgeon to the next, but most say to take a bariatric multivitamin (or a double dose of a drugstore vitamin), iron (which can be included in the multivitamin), calcium citrate (most drugstore calcium supplements are calcium carbonate, so make sure to check the ingredients and buy calcium citrate), and B-12 (sublingual, injection, or nasal spray). You'll have to take chewable vitamins for at least the first month or two. Vitamins come in different forms (chewable, melt-in-your-mouth, capsules, liquid, patches), so if you have issues with one form, try something else. The BariatricPal store has a great selection of vitamins and they frequently have sales. I purchase most of my vitamins from there (BariatricPal brand). Constipation - Nobody likes to talk about toilet stuff, but constipation is no joke. A lot of surgeons recommend taking Miralax daily (note: Amazon has a generic brand that is much cheaper). Don't wait until you get constipated to take something. Prevention is easier than treatment. Other than that, the one thing you should do today if you haven't already is take your "before" pictures and measurements! Most of us have very few "before" pictures because we didn't like the way we looked before weight loss and avoided being in photos. You will want to have some pictures for comparison when you reach your goal weight. You will want to have your starting measurements so you can see how far you've come. Good luck! Stick around and let us know how it goes!

I did lose some pre-op (28 lbs-around there). I ran into complications in the hospital with the surgery and actually gained 13 lbs right off the bat. My stomach was amazingly purple and black and very, very swollen. I looked larger then the first day of program. After about 3 weeks or so, that weight gain of the loss pre-op came off in about a week. Then I started losing so fast those first 2 months. Two months ago, I started a job at a factory working ft with heavy lifting and running (my dept is on a line in receiving heavy boxes of merchandise). I stopped losing for about 2 weeks at that time and then it just came off unbelievably fast. I do have to see my Dr as it is much faster then I think is normal and my skin is becoming very loose. It truthfully seems like every two or three weeks I am still going down a size. Besides weight loss, most important, my measurements are really a loss of about an inch a week. Right now, I have a problem with trying to eat because of my new job and the jobs of everyone in the house. I work overnight then am on schedule for picking the kids up from their jobs, etc. so I don't really feel much like eating. I do try to get in at least 600 calories and pretty much just drink my protein powder mix with water while I'm working all night. My boss is extremely kind for giving me consideration with the surgery. Thank you for the congratulations. Losing 53 lbs before the surgery is absolutely amazing and a lot of work on your part.

I had a hard time getting down all the recommended fluids and Protein for the first week. The PA for my surgeon said it was ok and that I should just take small sips and drink as much as I could handle. I had little appetite the first week but gradually increased my Liquid Protein. I had some dizziness and added something with a few carbs, like light apple juice. They pumped you with gas and IV fluids for the procedure so don;t worry about the weight gain. Hang in there, it'll get better in a few days.

anyone having problems with weight gain years after gastric bypass surgery? I need support! help please, we can do this together and lose that weight gain! Thanks in advance, Sharowna

I just had my revision from band to sleeve in July due to band slippage and weight gain over the past few years. I was in the same boat where I assumed that my insurance wouldn't cover it to the point that I initially was going to join the non-surgical weight loss program as I didn't think I could have another bariatric surgery. The PA I met with assured me that was not the case and that revision surgery is common and approval for them is not that hard to get. The fact that your lapband is in complete failure due to the damage sustained to the port means it should be easy for your doctor to provide all of the documentation needed to your insurance provider that the revision is medically necessary. Most bariatric surgeons are going to know how to "dance" with the insurance companies in order to get the needed result for their patients.

I had a sleeve 7 years ago and lost 85 pounds over 6 months. I had no loose skin whatsoever, but I have regained the weight and I'm due to have a revision to a Mini Gastric Bypass in a few weeks. I'm curious to know if you are more likely to have loose skin after a revision for weight gain? I am also now 7 years older 🙂

I am five months post-op and have chronic sinusitis. I asked my surgeon if I could take Flonase (an inhaled corticosteroid) and he said I could. I was very concerned about potential weight gain but he simply told me to take the Flonase. Has anyone else post-surgery used inhaled or topical corticosteroids? If so, did you have any weight gain or other side effects?

Hi All, Hope you're doing well, if not fine. Right now I'm having a great time with my daughter, so my emotions are high and not stressed out by her. My eating has not been much under control so I can't blame that on her. We've been sightseeing in the city so I'm eating out alot. And of course not controlling my portion size. I am keeping up with my exercises in the mornings, so I may balance out with the weight gain. Jeni, hope by now you're feeling better. We all know, it's no fun being sick while on vacation. Hope to hear great success or any ups and downs from everyone. Thanks for being here.

Hi all. Please tell me that it is normal to experience post-op weight gain! After being pumped full of liquids before I was sent home plus swelling in the abdomen I am 10 lbs up. I am getting in my required liquids daily and also am walking, usually each time I take a dose of my medicine. Thanks for any tips/thoughts, etc!

Hi all, I had my surgery on May 12th. On the surgery date, I was 208lb. It has been 1 full week and I'm now at 211lbs. Everyone tells me not to sweat it... but is this normal? I've been walking about 2 hours a day so I want to say that it's muscle gain. I'm still on protein shake diet, with about 1 cup of clear broth a day. I just need someone to tell me that it's okay and yes i will lose the weight... ( A smack on the head might be good also!!) thanks!

During my pregnancy I didn't gain any weight until I was 38 weeks pregnant. Then I gain three. Then I gained 2 pounds making my pregnany weight gain of 5 pounds. If you are overweight from the beginning they don't stress out if you lose weight. My doctor didn't.

The beauty of the band is, you can always start over. Weight gain after quitting smoking is VERY normal. I quit 18 months ago and gained about 40. But think of it like this- you're a non smoker! That is AMAZING and something to be proud of!! Plus, you can lose the weight again and when it's gone, you'll still be healthier because you quit smoking! Have you tried the 5 day pouch test? Not to shrink your pouch, but to "start over" mentally as well as physically. It takes you through the post op phases over 5 days and many find it's a great way to reset their minds and get back into the bandster mindset. http://5daypouchtest.com/plan/theplan.html I would also recommend seeing a Nutritionist to help get you back on track, too. Your surgeon as well. It's only 30 pounds, you can totally lose it again! Best wishes

My first fill was 10ccs in an 11cc band. I felt NOTHING. It was tight for a couple of hours after the fill, but once that feeling went away, I felt the same as I did before the fill. I was also able to eat anything I wanted- Pasta, bread, rice, steak- all with no hint of sticking. I was freaked out because I was thinking- 'he can only get one more cc in this thing- what if I'm one of those people that the band just doesn't work for?'. Well, yesterday I went for fill #2. He put in 0.5ccs. I had to wait for 10 minutes in the office to make sure I wasn't uncomfortable. I felt a little like I had heartburn and felt burpy- there was a definite difference with that tiny amount. But I didn't really feel totally uncomfortable, so, I left and hoped on the subway. I got about 3 stops away and decided something was wrong. I had a sharp pain in the middle of my back and in my chest. I called the office and they said it was the sign of too much fill. They gave me the option of coming back and getting a little out or letting it settle for a couple of days. I decided to get some out, so I headed back and as soon as they took a little out, the pain went away. The moral of the story is don't give up! It just may take your band being almost full to get you the restriction you want. My doctor is pretty agreesive with the first fill and has me coming in every 2 weeks to check my progress. You're gonna get there, it just takes a little patience and a little more saline! (oh! the weight gain might just be muscle building from the exercise- use body measurements and how your clothes fit to help gauge your progress when the scale discourages you!)

I was sleeved on Oct 3 - down 36 pounds thus far and feeling great about it! My husband got sleeved on 12/19/12. He is doing great, healing nicely and we are on this journey together. Now, here is where the problem lies... Growing up with two brothers I have always been so competitiive. food was always a competition for me. If my brother had 2 hamburgers, I had to eat another hamburger (not b/c I wanted it but I always felt like I couldn't be outdone!) Hence my weight gain in adult life. Part of my success in losing weight thus far with the sleeve was that I was limited in what I could eat (liquids, purees, mushies, etc.) to prevent medical issues. Now that I am able to eat anything I am concerned that I will sabotage my own efforts b/c hubby is losing weight more quickly than I. I don't want to feel like a failure, but let's be quite frank...men can lose weight without even trying...us ladies have a hell of a time getting 1 pound off. Any suggestions on how I can stay motivated and losing when hubby is lapping me with his weight loss? I am happy for he and I to be on this journey together and he is VERY supportive of all my efforts and success thus far. I am more concerned about myself (my own worst enemy...) Any thoughts....