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No, I was completely off track. I started eating a lot sweets, breads, pastas....hence, the 40pd weight gain. I've been slapped back into reality and I'm ready to get my butt on track. I'm heading home, I will share more when I get home.

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?

I have bipolar and I’m on trazadone, lunesta, trileptal, klonopin and seroquel. Seroquel is known to increase appetite and cause weight gain. No problems here! VSG on 5/10, don 25 lbs

I don't think they've ever distinguished whether the weight gain is from people having an increased appetite or actual changes in your body that prevents you from losing weight anyway. I'm not too worried about it, just curious on other experiences. Seeing that most patients are on anti-depressants isn't too surprising either.

It is so true that falling back into old habits sneaks up on you. Over the past two months I got lazy about recording food and regular exercise. This caused a 3lb gain. My concern was not the weight gain but more of allowing old habits to sneak in. Instead of beating myself up I am acknowledging that this is part of the process and got back on my plan as of Monday. This is a journey not a destination! No one is perfect! I still have achieved amazing results due to hard work!!

Hi everyone! My name is Pamela and I am 27 years old. Oddly enough, I was very thin through most of my teenage years, and very athletic. I played a lot of sports in high school. As I got closer to my senior year, I noticed that I was putting on a little weight. I didn't think much about it at the time. About a year after I graduated, I got married to my high school sweetheart. By that time I had gained over 50 lbs and was at about 200 lbs. I was very concerned about how fast the weight came on. I was also having some female problems too. I went to my doctor and he did several test on me to find out if anything was wrong and the results shocked me! He diagnosed me with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS). I had never heard of this before. He told me it was a hormonal disorder and one of the side effects was weight gain. He also told me that I would probably have trouble getting pregnant. My heart dropped when i heard this. I always thought when i was ready i would just be able to have a baby. It took 6 years before we were able to get pregnant and by the grace of God we now have a beautiful, healthy boy. I've tried every diet there is, I think, and nothing ever worked for me. I was 330lbs at my heaviest. I have been blessed with the opportunity to get the band. I've been banded for about 10 days and i am doing great. I am sooo excited about the journey ahead. I lost 13 lbs on the pre-op diet and have lost 16 lbs since my surgery. I know i rambled but i just wanted to introduce myself and see if anyone else has PCOS that has been banded and can tell me about your experience. Thanks for listening! Pamela Banded 9-20-07 330/299/150 :rose:

Weight gain 1 year after sleeve

Oh that is probably what the weight gain is. I always gain a few lbs during my cycle.. That happened before I had surgery too. You get bloated. Make sure to always weigh yourself as soon as you wake up and after you use the bathroom -- that way you can have a more clear idea of your weight. Everyone's weight fluctuates during the day after eating & drinking -- it can be a 2-3 lbs difference. But if you weigh yourself when you wakeup; therefore - have less food/liquids in your system, then you'll get a more accurate, consistent idea of your weight.

I did the same thing at my work - we did a biggest loser thing from the middle of February to the end of March and I was banded at the beginning of January. The difference is that everyone knew I was banded, and I'm very vocal about issues that come up - no restriction, weight gains, etc. (I now have great restriction, but that's beside the point.) SO, everyone knew I had it and no one questioned my integrity - they knew I was still workin' my butt off and choosing to eat the right foods. The band wasn't "doing it for me," as much as ignorant people would like to think :thumbup:

I haven't had any weight gain at all since the surgery, but this specific issue was not a problem pre-op for me either. I am wondering about this though, I am 5 1/2 months out from surgery and have not had my period in 2 months, the doctor can't really answer why and doesn't seem concerned, I thnk it might be the surgery/body changes combined with stress. Menopause (I am 40) Has anyone else experienced this?

Does it seem difficult to lose weight before during and after your menstual cycle it seems I always put a .5 to 1 pound on prior to my period and it takes so long to get it back off it is so frustrating. The bloat and the retention just frustrated

From what I personally have read, apple cider vinegar does not help with curbing appetite/weight loss. I considered it myself, but have read it does nothing, and it does not exactly taste the best so I would say don't bother. Don't be too hard on yourself! Weight gain, I feel, is inevitable. It is going to happen. Just think - compared to what you have lost, 15 lbs is a quite small number. You have obviously done it before - I know you can do it again. Just don't get discouraged, you are stronger than you are giving yourself credit for.

Good advice, but the idea of spreading meals out is kind of outdated. It's based on studies done with athletes and bodybuilders (which most of us are not). Having 5 or six meals a day causes you're body to increase and maintain high levels of insulin throughout the day. This is a recipe for insulin resistance, which leads to more weight gain. The current science seems to support the opposite, which intermittent fasting. Most people seem to do very well going with a 16:8 fast, with a 16 hour fast a week (no calorie consumption at all after 8pm and then next meal/calorie would be lunch at 1pm). This can be done three times a week, with the other days have three meals a day spaced at least 5 hours apart. Most people tolerate it really well and even if the calorie consumption is the same, weight loss numbers increase because of the increase in insulin sensitivity.

I would guess that labs might look ok for now since it could take several months to years to show a deficit. That said I would talk to your MD and see if maybe you should take one every other day and retest in another 6 months. That way you are still taking them but will see more of a long term effect. I myself take them daily. It's the one thing I'm strict about but if I continue to have high Vit B I will look into another brand that has less. I am always forgetting to take my calcium but I get around 5 servings of dairy a day so I am not too concerned but I know I should make it a habit. I freaked out about still losing too quickly at the 8 month mark at 130 lbs and kept losing despite increasing calories. it eventually plateaued and now I am steady at 126 but with a 40% carb, 30% each protein and fat diet of 1700 calories. I had plastics a few months ago and after the swelling went down I dropped to 123. Which is still a healthy BMI however I am muscular and still have loose skin elsewhere so I look better heavier with a more curves and less sag. I do not plan on further plastics and feel I would look better around 130. It is such a mental game because when the scale hits 128 or 129 I feel panicky that it's going to be 150 a week later or that when I hit the natural regain at the 2-3 year mark that it will suddenly go up to the 150 or 160s. However I was also worried when I saw 123 and increased nuts and carbs to get calories in. I guess it's just the feeling that we need to have control over our weight. I can eat anything now which is good but also a little scary. If it is high sugar I don't feel good, not ill but feel crappy. It's enough that I purposely limit high sugar foods. I think I do see a slight weight gain if I have a few days where I hit over 1800 calories and do less activity so it seems that my metabolism makes sense. Do you find that to be true or you can't gain no matter the calories you take in? How are your arm incisions? I am 3 months post and they are starting to fade but still very pink/red in comparison to my skin. I don't feel comfortable in short sleeves yet. I have a few places on the incisions with skin folded on itself that i hope will smooth out or will need to be touched up. I also still have loose skin right at the pit if I hold my arm half way up to horizontal. It goes away as I lift my arm up higher so I don't know if it can be fixed since the skin has to stretch to allow me to lift my arm all the way up.

I have a friend who had a band (like me) and it failed (like mine). So she transitioned to a sleeve (like me) and she lost a lot of weight, but then she got pregnant, ate whatever she wanted, gained more weight than she lost on the sleeve and then gained back the weight she lost on the band. She transitioned to a DS about a month before my sleeve surgery. For months, she pressured me to get the DS. Because she is long distance, I couldn't see what she was eating, so I had no way of knowing if this was a true failure of her surgeries. So because 8 years with a failed band made me paranoid that I was the failure, not the band really took a toll, I just started thinking the sleeve would fail, and that I really needed a DS (even though my BMI was 36.1). When I brought it up to my NP at a pre-op visit, she demanded to see the texts from my friend. With her experience, she was able to tell right away what was going on. "This is behavioral. Your friend has a lot of excuses, I can't believe her surgeon is doing a third surgery. Look at all of the excuses she has for her weight gain! I've known you for almost 10 years, and you don't do this. You are honest about your failings." My NP was right, my friend had excuse after excuse. When I feel tempted to eat a cookie, or ice cream, I pull out my phone and read her texts. I do eat junk food sometimes (I had half an Oreo last night), but the threat of a DS is enough to keep me from doing something stupid over and over and over until it becomes a pattern.

I just joined. Im 3years in and Ive gained 50lbs back. I know my eating habits are crap how can I get this off

In April/2008, I had surgery for the lapband. I had nothing but pain and trouble with the location of the port. My doctor, at that time, and his staff refused to listen to me. They kept telling me that the pain would subside and the band and port would settle into my body and be fine. The pain was so intense that I was on an rx for pain. In August/2008, I ended up having a second surgery to correct the position of the port because it had flipped. After that surgery, I continued to have pain, at the port site and where the band was placed. My dr, again, denied that anything was wrong and just gave me pain meds. I went to another doctor, for a second opinion. His diagnosis, the port had flipped again and the band was possibly positioned incorrectly or something totally unrelated was going on. So from August/2008 until the end of April/2009, I ended up seeing not only seeing my original surgeon, the 2nd opinion doctor and yet a 3rd bariatric doctor. I ended up going to the emergency room several times. Then was hospitalized for almost a week to be monitored and tested , having 2 cat scans, an MRI, endoscopy,heart cath, barium series, ultrasound and of course labs. Nothing was found to be wrong except the port had flipped. So the 3rd surgeon was the one that made a decision to do an exploratory surgery to correct the port and see if anything else was going on. The surgery went well and I was without some of the pain but on a scale from 1-10 my pain level was always at least a 4 or 5. The port was very difficult to locate, possibly flipped again. Also, the weight loss was slow. Finally, in January/2010, I asked my doctor( the 3rd one) to remove the lapband and port. That surgery was February/2010. The port had definitely flipped again, plus the lapband had eroded into my stomach. No wonder I had pain. My doctor suggested having surgery for the sleeve. I was torn between the bypass and the sleeve. I ended up having the sleeve in April/2010. I have had weight loss and weight gains. My starting weight in April/2008 was 268. My lowest weight was 215. Then because of all the problems with food,pain, etc my weight flexuated between 215 and 240. My last visit with my dr was, Nov/2010. She explained the opening of my sleeve is larger than most because of the erosion caused by the band, so therefore more food can get into my stomach. I always have had hunger since the sleeve, too. On top of everything else, my dr left the practice, that I am in. I am currently waiting for my insurance company to approve a visit to the other, doctor in the practice. I feel like such a failure. I do want to lose weight. My goal weight is 125, my height is 5'4". My current weight is 238. I have 113 unwanted pounds. I have been so down and depressed about my journey. I DON'T WANT TO GIVE UP but I am not sure what is next.

I have one on my lower back right above my rear. It is fared really well with my weight loss so far. But when I got it, I was careful to have it positioned in a place that wouldnt change too drastically with weight gain or loss.

I think it's more likely that individual results depend on a whole shopping list of variables. For example, I think it's easier for men to lose weight, lose it more quickly, and see changes in weight more quickly in response to diet, than it is for women. I know you are also doing weight training - you're very likely reducing fat stores but increasing muscle volume. And of course muscle weighs more than fat. Now compare that to my situation. My activity level is fairly constant. No weight training. Average calorie intake closely monitored. Average calorie expenditure comparatively constant. I'm two plus decades older than you are. And I'm a guy. So the number of variables likely to affect my weight, up or down, are considerably fewer than they are for you. I know you are actually below your original goal weight and trying to lose a little more. That would point to the strong possibility that you're running up against your set-point. As recently as 2009-2010, set-points were considered by many to be theoretical. That has changed in the last few years with more and more research yielding strong evidence that set-points are very real. The human body is (unfortunately) much more receptive to weight gain than it is to weight loss. When we had to hunt and gather to survive, obesity was not an issue. Starvation was. So our bodies evolved defenses to protect against starvation. Your body will literally fight to maintain the set-point that it's at. Set-point ranges are usually about 10% of your total body weight. So if you weigh 150 lbs, each set-point range is about 15 lbs. If you're at the top of your current range, losing a few lbs is relatively easy. On the other hand, if you're at or near the bottom of your current range, your body will defend the set-point by reducing your metabolism, slowing your heart rate, etc. Making it considerably more difficult to lose even modest amounts of weight. Sorry, probably a lot more information than you wanted. To answer your question directly, I think the more experience you have logging, the better you become at interpreting the information in your log and identifying how changes in carbs/fat/protein/exercise/water will translate into weight changes. I always enjoy reading your posts and exchanging ideas with you music! Have a great day!!

I think the 10 pgs. is way too much information. Stick to the facts, list diets you have been on steady weight gain, list all the medical conditions you have from the excess weight. The only letter I had to provide was one that my suregon suggested my primary doctor write. The letter was a draft of what my primary should say. The draft letter was what the insurance companies want to hear and is what I listed above. Insurance companies only want what effects you medicaly.

11 years post op. I have gained back half of what I lost. Is there hope to stop the weight gain?

Hi all! Yes, the band had originally proved very effective for me - the first time around. I'd say it was about 2 years after initial placement that I was diagnosed with the first slip, the band had moved down my stomach and the only thing I was able to keep down was milk. I had the bad repositioned and since then I have has minimal success and maximum trouble! Every fill was either to tight or no restriction. I began having to have refills quite regularly as the band started leaking and loosing effectiveness. Originally my surgeon thought it was 'in my head' and there was nothing wrong with it, I was just bring paranoid after what had happened with the original lap band. Eventually I convinced him to send me for a swallow which showed a pouch dilation above the band. Dr.D removed all liquid and told me to come back in 2 months after the pouch had time to rest and hopefully slip back through the band. This seemed to work for a while but all it did was resolve the heart burn I was having - there was no weight gain. In recent months I've been unable to eat solid foods. meat is absolutely off the menus! And I have been unable to eat more than 3 hours prior to bed - any later than that and I wake up chocking on reflux and have to make myself sick to remove any reflux from my chest. I'm piping antacids like candy! Fast forward to today and the most recent swallow shows pouch dilation above the band and again, a slippage down the stomach. Apparently it happens to some people and you stomach begins to accommodate the band. My surgeon says that the band was not really meant for long term usage and most have about a 10 year lifespan on them.

The hardest part about chronic "dieting" is fighting cravings that pop up when I'm in social situations. For example, yesterday, I wanted to pack up my baby and visit my mother's house so she could spend time with her grandson. But I didn't go. I didn't go because I was afraid I would end up falling off my low carb plan. For one, I could have been "ambushed" with a pizza or dessert that they had. Or, oftentimes my parents stress me out with their comments, etc., so that could have led me to emotional eating. Third, just being around them makes me want to eat. I associate their house with eating. Unfortunately, my parents frequently indulge in cakes and high calorie foods. Now take today. Suddenly my SO decides that he wants us to visit a church that is an hour away. Of course, I'm panicking. I went ahead and cooked my food for today, but I'm worried that the road trip will make me fall off plan. I associate long car rides with being able to stop for food. I know that this is not the way to live--either overeating with no restrictions, or eating right, but avoiding everyone and staying at home. My hope is that by the time I'm 6 months post op, I will be at my goal weight and I will never have to dodge a social situation again due to fear of breaking a diet and/or weight gain. My hope is that the sleeve will allow me to eat just a little of whatever is available or whatever I choose, and then I get full and that's it. Or, if that's not possible, just make it so that I'm so afraid to eat certain foods that I bring my own foods with me.

I normally just read the comments, but this time time I feel this one. I in sync with you. I went on a 3 week vacation right after I had my fluid decreased. Now I can't seem to get back on track. My weight gain has taken my energy. How can I get started again. I did get a refill and throw up whenever I eat something negative. Am I the only one who has experienced this? If not, what did you do to get your rhythm back?

Yes, there is approval to go through. Your first stop is to a wl surgeon and tell them if U have any acid reflex, weight gain, throwing up, etc. it was nice at my surgeons office they have the machine that you can watch swallow test. I went back cause I started gaining weight and discovered my esophagus was dilated and would require the band be removed. The scope was next to see what the band and everything looks like. After that it was submitted to insurance. I hope this helps.