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Ditto here. Wish I had done it sooner. I fooled around with a lot of research for a long time. Not a bad thing because I found a wonderful surgeon and staff in the process which for me was essential in my weight loss efforts. I look in the mirror and think about what I looked like and how unhealthy and inactive I had become and it makes me so sad that I let it happen. There are so many emotional issues and physical issues associated with weight gain that shorten our life span. What a gift I found with the band. It is still a lot of hard work and there is a boatload of eating temptation and people trying to sabotage your efforts but it is worth every defiant "No thanks. I don't need that piece of pie today." I am still adjusting to shopping for normal clothes but I am thrilled about it just the same.

i am happy that i found this board and appreciate the kind words and support i have received. i detest the judmental posts. we are all human here, no one is perfect. i am the 2 day cheeseburger poster...NO i did not eat it and was not SERIOUSLY considering it as posted above, but I was frustrated and asking if anyone else had experienced a LARGE surgery weight gain. Instead of reaching for a burger, I turned to this board for support. I dont think sharing our frustrations, temptations and slip ups are grounds for judgement. just my 2 cents worth but im braced to be judged for it.

I have been on Ortho Tri Cyclen for 13 years and do not plan on going off it until I am trying to get pregnant. I think the only way for you to know for sure if your weight gain was related to the pills or the "Freshman 15" is to go back on them and see if your weight loss is slowed. That being said, I think it is important to consider why you were on the pill in the first place. There are lots of birth control options out there, so if you were only taking the pill for pregnancy prevention and are concerned about your weight loss slowing, I would talk with your ob/gyn about other options. If you were put on the pill for other reasons (such as PCOS, ovarian cycts, endometriosis, etc) I would strongly urge you to consider the potential consequences of not going back on the pill and rank those consequences against the potential of slowed weight loss. True, going back on the pill may slow your weight loss, but it will not stop the loss completely. Many women are on the pill and lose weight with LapBand.

I was banded on October 15th and after a couple of fills at the beginning of January I finally started to see regular weight loss. I know I shouldn't have jumped on the scale on monday or morning, or tuesday or today, after starting my period on Sunday, but I did., and I am up 6lbs. I never used to weigh myself on a regular basis since it always remand the same. So, I am not sure what is normal. But 6lbs seems like a lot from my weigh in on Friday morning. Thanks Tania

Took my waterproof dressings off today - 6 days post op. Have 4 puncture points/incisions. 3 are tiny and the longest is 2 inches long. They don't hurt any more unless I stretch or lean on them or carry too much. But it still feels very tight and swollen - and I'm still lethargic as my body heals. Have attached photos for the more curious amongst you. The one at the top (just under bra line) is barely even visible any more, the other 3 have a fair bit of bruising around them.... NO weight gained or lost without band so far.... I returned to work today (but working from home) however will get back into the office tomorrow. I have an office job but I manage over 50 IT staff so its high pressure role and I know the fatigue will be tough this week.

As I am not yet six weeks post op, I am only walking. It has helped with the weight loss because I am burning the little bit of calories that I am consuming. I usually eat one of my meals before doing so, something that is high in protein. I plan on doing HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) when allowed. I personally believe that walking, trying to walk at high pace, is the only exercise that I need to continue to do, however, I am feeling really good and excited about doing more. I have always wanted to be an "athlete." Not sure why I have this need. Prior to my weight gain with my first child, I did a lot of running and even completed a sprint triathlon, so that is my goal again. The big thing, as mentioned above, exercise is important for your health-not just physically, but it is also good for your mental health. Find something that interests you and will keep you motivated. I live in China where walking is done by everyone, it is free and it is helping me reach my goals faster.

I wasnt fat as a child, a pre-teen, teenager, or in early adulthood. I was fairly slim weighing around 125-130, size 7/9, all through school. In my early 20s I went to 150's. At 26 I met my husband and was at 158. (152 in wedding dress) After 13 years being happily married I now weigh 228. There has never been a week/month/year that stands out for weight gain. It has just gradually crept up. Around 5 lbs a year, nothing drastic. I am definitely a yoyo dieter. I have gained and lost the same 20 lbs. so many times, and then some. I sometimes feel like I have let the weight creep up BECAUSE I am happy. I was all the recognized things in high school,,. class favorite, homecoming queen, straight A, etc..... I dont have an unhappy childhood or an unhappy adulthood. I now have a college ed, good paying job, great marriage, and great home life. I always wonder if I would be as miserable about my weight if I had always had to fight it. I have a great self-esteem, has it helped to get me to this weight? I sometimes wonder who has it worse, those who have always been heavy......or those who become heavy, guess this is an informal poll......lol

Why tempt yourself with chocolate? Wasn't the chocolate in your bedside table part of your downfall? Why not low carb? That's what this new lifeplan is prescribed to be by most doctors. Carbs aren't the devil, but they are certainly a key component in hunger, cravings, weight gain and weight loss. Why not go back to square one and start following your doctor's orders to the T instead of making up your own plan? No judgement, just wondering.

I'm sure you all have heard this question several times. I have researched and talked about it myself. I just want an honest opinion. I originally wanted to get the sleeve, but I did not want to only lose 100lbs. I want to lose more. I'm currently 378, 5'5 and I carry my weight in pretty well places . So my question is..... If I went with the sleeve will I lose weight slower than having gastric bypass? Will the sleeve help me keep my shape? Will the sleeve be better for me because I have NO Health issues besides being overweight? Will I get under 200 lbs with the sleeve? That's based on my current weight. Or have you sleevers been unsatisfied with your results and got a revision? Did you get a revision because of easy weight gain? Not enough weight loss ? I really would like to know. I'm getting closer to surgery and need to get serious here. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

I originally posted this on the message boards and I thought I could reuse for my first blog: Hello everyone, So this is my first post here and here is my story… I am 29 years and I will hit the dreaded 30 next month. Not that I think 30 is old, I just can't believe that I am gonna be thirty and after all these years I have not be able to successfully manage my weight. Right now my scale is tipping at about 250. I haven't always been this fat. I would say that back in my high school days I was a little chubby. The last lowest weight I can last remember was 165 lbs in 2001. So I have gained 85 lbs in 8 years…wow. I have been happily married to my high school sweet heart for 6 years now and he is absolutely wonderful to me. He loves me as I am, no matter what. We have a awesome 18 month old son, who is the center of our universe. I was diagnosed with a under active thyroid (hypothyroid) when I was 16 years old. Both my mother and grandmother were also hypothyroid and overweight as well, so my all of issues are definitely built into my genetic make up. But I will admit that I have contributed to my 85lb weight gain by eating improperly and being lazy. We moved away from our family and friends right after we got married, so I have spent the last six years some what isolated from our loved ones. We happily spend every weekend lazy, in love and alone on our sofa. Fortunately my husband has been blessed with a amazing metabolism, and he is the same 160 lbs that he weighed on the day we got married. Now I will admit that I do have a food problem. But I am not a emotional eater. I actually lose my appetite when I am really upset. I am a 'bored' and 'lonely' eater. I snack when my husband isn't around. And I have no shame when it comes to making poor food choices…buffalo chicken, cheese burger, fries, pizza, chinese food…none of them any good. I have tried to lose weight in the past but always became easily discouraged and distracted when I didn't see any immediate results. I have always simply blamed my failed thyroid for holding me back. Although I know that is not 100% true. My life style certainly contributes. I saw a new endocrinologist a few years back and asked him if he had any insight on how I can approach weight loss while living with hypothyroidism. I mean, obviously he has seen plenty of patients with my condition…he must know someone who has had success. I just wanted him to share their secret with me. Should I give weight watchers another try…should I try jenny craig…should I see a nutritionist…can he give me a magic pill?!?!?! And then he gave me the old diet and exercise talk…as if I was stupid and never heard of it before. Ugh, whatever…thanks for nothing! I then decided to start seeing a new endocrinologist just because his office was closer to work and it was convenient. I asked him if he knew what the secret to weight loss was. Now before I tell you what he told me, I want to paint this visual for you. My endo is a 5 ft tall chinese man. He is straight from china and I really have to focus when he talks so I can understand his words clearly through his accent. He speaks very abrubtly and to the point. So when I told him that I don't believe I eat a lot but I just wanted know what he thinks I need to do, he told me…"it doesn't matter what you eat, just eat half! If the only thing you eat all day is a peanut, then only eat HALF a peanut the next day!" What?!?! As if that was even possible. I felt defeated again. But he actually seemed to take more interest in the health of my thyroid. He gave attention to a 2 cm nodule that my last endo identified and did nothing with. My new endo conducted ultra sounds and a biopsy. The biopsy results revealed that my nodule is non-cancerous but it was also not begin. My nodule cells are just irregular. They could remain irregular for the rest of my life or there is also the potential that they can become cancer at some point. Thyroid cancer is very, very slow growing. Regardless of what they are or would be, the option of having surgery to remove that part of my thyroid was completely in my hands. I could chose to monitor to the grow or I could choose to cut it out. So this is the part of my story that brings me here today...the whole idea of any type of surgery scares me. I don't want to be put to sleep and I know it is vain but don't want the scar on my neck. But I know that I want to live the rest of my life free and clear of the potential of cancer. My thyroid is sick to begin with and hasn't been working probably since I was 16 years old. I already take 224 mcg of synthetic thyroid replacement medication. I came to the conclusion that my thyroid is useless and they may as well remove the whole thing. My total thyroidectomy is scheduled for Feb 3rd. So I have been thinking about my endo's "half a peanut" theory and began to seriously consider lap band surgery. My mom has gastric bypass surgery a few years back and it has given her a new life. She has no regrets other than not doing it sooner. I want to live the next 30 years of my life differently from the way that I currently do. I want to run and play with my son. I want to look good standing next to my hubby. This posting is long enough, I am sure I don't need tell you guys everything that I want because I am sure they are same things that you want from life. So spoke to my husband, my mom and friend and I think I feel good about pursuing this. I am going to attend a Introductory Bariatric Meeting on 2/13. I know that this isn't the going to be the final resolution I was searching for. It is not a magic pill. But I believe that it a tool that will put me in the rigth direction. Thanks for your time!

When someone loses weight,gets a better education,has more money,moves to a better area,drives a flasher car...It's called Status and suddenly you are perceived as being more Successful ! There are plenty of people who don't want u to do better or to improve your self. When someone is moving up in there life, your Status ranking has changed. This can challenge so called family and friends because it means they will have to make more effort either with there weight or there behaviour toward 's you. As you will be perceived as having more options. Beautiful slim people are perceived as having preferential treatment. So many people think WLS is a magic and easy way to weight loss. It isn't U still have to work at it !!! The only way u can gain weight after WLS is by not sticking to the rules I am 5years out i have gained 14kg in less than a year my personal life has been a mess so i am sorting that out plus working on getting rid of the weight gain

Hi Lauri I feel your pain, it wasnt too long ago that I had my share of family tragedies in a BIG way and in a very short period of time...many of the people here on the boards know of my story. .. I just want to say, Im still here surviving and the band is the best thing to happen to me. I battled weight porblems most of my life too like many of us here but my family tragedies just sped up the weight gain..Its not for us to ask why things happens to us , it is for us to just deal with & accept( that is hard sometimes I know) But .. We will never know why things happen to us like they do .. as my mother always told me " Everything in life happens for a reason" I know it is rough .. but they say what doesnt kill us only makes us stronger. I'm a firm believer in that. You will survive all of this ...and be a better person because of it. What Kathy said in her post is so true..follow those words...Hang in there~

I am exactly 6 months out and I have lost 34 pounds (48% of my goal) so I feel pretty good about it. Now starting to exercise more. I lost a pound a week, no exercise, no weight gains, just slow and steady. I started with a BMI of 38 so my dr warned me that the weightloss would be slower. Word to the wise - dont compare to others, you will be miserable, I was and I have finally started to be happy for others and be grateful for my losses.

The side effect of my medication is weight gain; for example my younger brother at one time took this same medication and gained over 60 pounds in 3 years (prior to that he was always skinny). I have def noticed an increased appetite with it. I have never eaten to feel "full" or uncomfortable since surgery, I have always been good about stopping and eating small portions at a time (half plate of food). However, I think my main issue is feeling hungry again soon after eating and then snacking. The only thing I can think to do is to measure every single thing I eat for a period of time and see if that helps, and to cut out snacking completely. My diet is average at best. I still make sure to get 60-80 grams of protein a day, and enjoy lots of veg and some fruits, however I do not stick to low carb or low fat options all the time--this may be another issue.

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.

My new life date. I have leads had a problem with weight. I was still very active, until 1993. I was in a plane crash and really messed up my foot. I know some are wondering how can a messed up foot case weight gain. It's simple you get to the point where you don't eat because it hurts to stand up and cook. So basically my body went into starvation mode and it holds on to everything I eat. In 2004 I had the lab band surgery and where a lot of people were saying their band didn't work mine did great. I lost 170lbs was healthy and again very active. In 2008 my world turned upside down when I went in to have my band fix do to a slippage. The bad had to be removed due to it being slipped to long and of course the weight came back on with a vengeance. Here I am the day before my sleeve surgery and excited as well as nervous that the same thing will happen again. I'm glad I found this app and I hope to receive a lot of support as well as being a great supporter for others. Thanks for reading my journey.

Thanks everyone for all of your responses I no longer have a dietician I have moved away since I had my surgey. That is why I have been looking for some hel[p with answers. I do think I need to excercise more but I dont have energy because I'm severly anemic. And on top of that I am always hungry. I take the 20lb weight gain serious I have a long life ahead of me and I need to be healty for my family

Hi! I'm in the process of deciding about surgery and just trying to collect as much information as I can. This forum is an amazing resource. :-) I realize VSG is a tool and that regain is possible if you aren't careful. On other WLS forums (RNY, Gastric bypass, band...) I hear some people talk about regaining a significant portion of their lost weight, even all of it. But I have yet to read about a "sleever" regaining more than 20-25 pounds. So my question is ... are there any sleevers out there who have experienced this higher level of regain that other WLS patients have? No judging - I know life gets in the way of the best intentions! I just wondered if I haven't read enough or if the VSG truly has lower regain stats. (And in case it comes up, I've already decided that it's the VSG or nothing for me! Love everything about the principles of it, and wouldn't risk anything else available out there right now.) Thanks! Heather

Interesting Article from the NYT: Why You Can't Lose Weight On A Diet By Sandra Ammodt SIX years after dropping an average of 129 pounds on the TV program “The Biggest Loser,” a new study reports, the participants were burning about 500 fewer calories a day than other people their age and size. This helps explain why they had regained 70 percent of their lost weight since the show’s finale. The diet industry reacted defensively, arguing that the participants had lost weight too fast or ate the wrong kinds of food — that diets do work, if you pick the right one. But this study is just the latest example of research showing that in the long run dieting is rarely effective, doesn’t reliably improve health and does more harm than good. There is a better way to eat. The root of the problem is not willpower but neuroscience. Metabolic suppression is one of several powerful tools that the brain uses to keep the body within a certain weight range, called the set point. The range, which varies from person to person, is determined by genes and life experience. When dieters’ weight drops below it, they not only burn fewer calories but also produce more hunger-inducing hormones and find eating more rewarding. The brain’s weight-regulation system considers your set point to be the correct weight for you, whether or not your doctor agrees. If someone starts at 120 pounds and drops to 80, her brain rightfully declares a starvation state of emergency, using every method available to get that weight back up to normal. The same thing happens to someone who starts at 300 pounds and diets down to 200, as the “Biggest Loser” participants discovered. This coordinated brain response is a major reason that dieters find weight loss so hard to achieve and maintain. For example, men with severe obesity have only one chance in 1,290 of reaching the normal weight range within a year; severely obese women have one chance in 677. A vast majority of those who beat the odds are likely to end up gaining the weight back over the next five years. In private, even the diet industry agrees that weight loss is rarely sustained. A report for members of the industry stated: “In 2002, 231 million Europeans attempted some form of diet. Of these only 1 percent will achieve permanent weight loss.” The specific “Biggest Loser” diet plan is probably not to blame. A previous study found similar metabolic suppression in people who had lost weight and kept it off for up to six years. Whether weight is lost slowly or quickly has no effect on later regain. Likewise — despite endless debate about the relative value of different approaches — in head-to-head comparisons, diet plans that provide the same calories through different types of food lead to similar weight loss and regain. As a neuroscientist, I’ve read hundreds of studies on the brain’s ability to fight weight loss. I also know about it from experience. For three decades, starting at age 13, I lost and regained the same 10 or 15 pounds almost every year. On my most serious diet, in my late 20s, I got down to 125 pounds, 30 pounds below my normal weight. I wanted (unwisely) to lose more, but I got stuck. After several months of eating fewer than 800 calories a day and spending an hour at the gym every morning, I hadn’t lost another ounce. When I gave up on losing and switched my goal to maintaining that weight, I started gaining instead. I was lucky to end up back at my starting weight instead of above it. After about five years, 41 percent of dieters gain back more weight than they lost. Long-term studies show dieters are more likely than non-dieters to become obese over the next one to 15 years. That’s true in men and women, across ethnic groups, from childhood through middle age. The effect is strongest in those who started in the normal weight range, a group that includes almost half of the female dieters in the United States. Some experts argue that instead of dieting leading to long-term weight gain, the relationship goes in the other direction: People who are genetically prone to gain weight are more likely to diet. To test this idea, in a 2012 study, researchers followed over 4,000 twins aged 16 to 25. Dieters were more likely to gain weight than their non-dieting identical twins, suggesting that dieting does indeed increase weight gain even after accounting for genetic background. The difference in weight gain was even larger between fraternal twins, so dieters may also have a higher genetic tendency to gain. The study found that a single diet increased the odds of becoming overweight by a factor of two in men and three in women. Women who had gone on two or more diets during the study were five times as likely to become overweight. The causal relationship between diets and weight gain can also be tested by studying people with an external motivation to lose weight. Boxers and wrestlers who diet to qualify for their weight classes presumably have no particular genetic predisposition toward obesity. Yet a 2006 study found that elite athletes who competed for Finland in such weight-conscious sports were three times more likely to be obese by age 60 than their peers who competed in other sports. To test this idea rigorously, researchers could randomly assign people to worry about their weight, but that is hard to do. One program took the opposite approach, though, helping teenage girls who were unhappy with their bodies to become less concerned about their weight. In a randomized trial, the eBody Project, an online program to fight eating disorders by reducing girls’ desire to be thin, led to less dieting and also prevented future weight gain. Girls who participated in the program saw their weight remain stable over the next two years, while their peers without the intervention gained a few pounds. WHY would dieting lead to weight gain? First, dieting is stressful. Calorie restriction produces stress hormones, which act on fat cells to increase the amount of abdominal fat. Such fat is associated with medical problems like diabetes and heart disease, regardless of overall weight. Second, weight anxiety and dieting predict later binge eating, as well as weight gain. Girls who labeled themselves as dieters in early adolescence were three times more likely to become overweight over the next four years. Another study found that adolescent girls who dieted frequently were 12 times more likely than non-dieters to binge two years later. My repeated dieting eventually caught up with me, as this research would predict. When I was in graduate school and under a lot of stress, I started binge eating. I would finish a carton of ice cream or a box of saltines with butter, usually at 3 a.m. The urge to keep eating was intense, even after I had made myself sick. Fortunately, when the stress eased, I was able to stop. At the time, I felt terrible about being out of control, but now I know that binge eating is a common mammalian response to starvation. Much of what we understand about weight regulation comes from studies of rodents, whose eating habits resemble ours. Mice and rats enjoy the same wide range of foods that we do. When tasty food is plentiful, individual rodents gain different amounts of weight, and the genes that influence weight in people have similar effects in mice. Under stress, rodents eat more sweet and fatty foods. Like us, both laboratory and wild rodents have become fatter over the past few decades. In the laboratory, rodents learn to binge when deprivation alternates with tasty food — a situation familiar to many dieters. Rats develop binge eating after several weeks consisting of five days of food restriction followed by two days of free access to Oreos. Four days later, a brief stressor leads them to eat almost twice as many Oreos as animals that received the stressor but did not have their diets restricted. A small taste of Oreos can induce deprived animals to binge on regular chow, if nothing else is available. Repeated food deprivation changes dopamine and other neurotransmitters in the brain that govern how animals respond to rewards, which increases their motivation to seek out and eat food. This may explain why the animals binge, especially as these brain changes can last long after the diet is over. In people, dieting also reduces the influence of the brain’s weight-regulation system by teaching us to rely on rules rather than hunger to control eating. People who eat this way become more vulnerable to external cues telling them what to eat. In the modern environment, many of those cues were invented by marketers to make us eat more, like advertising, supersizing and the all-you-can-eat buffet. Studies show that long-term dieters are more likely to eat for emotional reasons or simply because food is available. When dieters who have long ignored their hunger finally exhaust their willpower, they tend to overeat for all these reasons, leading to weight gain. Even people who understand the difficulty of long-term weight loss often turn to dieting because they are worried about health problems associated with obesity like heart disease and diabetes. But our culture’s view of obesity as uniquely deadly is mistaken. Low fitness, smoking, high blood pressure, low income and loneliness are all better predictors of early death than obesity. Exercise is especially important: Data from a 2009 study showed that low fitness is responsible for 16 percent to 17 percent of deaths in the United States, while obesity accounts for only 2 percent to 3 percent, once fitness is factored out. Exercise reduces abdominal fat and improves health, even without weight loss. This suggests that overweight people should focus more on exercising than on calorie restriction. In addition, the evidence that dieting improves people’s health is surprisingly poor. Part of the problem is that no one knows how to get more than a small fraction of people to sustain weight loss for years. The few studies that overcame that hurdle are not encouraging. In a 2013 study of obese and overweight people with diabetes, on average the dieters maintained a 6 percent weight loss for over nine years, but the dieters had a similar number of heart attacks, strokes and deaths from heart disease during that time as the control group. Earlier this year, researchers found that intentional weight loss had no effect on mortality in overweight diabetics followed for 19 years. Diets often do improve cholesterol, blood sugar and other health markers in the short term, but these gains may result from changes in behavior like exercising and eating more vegetables. Obese people who exercise, eat enough vegetables and don’t smoke are no more likely to die young than normal-weight people with the same habits. A 2013 meta-analysis (which combines the results of multiple studies) found that health improvements in dieters have no relationship to the amount of weight they lose. If dieting doesn’t work, what should we do instead? I recommend mindful eating — paying attention to signals of hunger and fullness, without judgment, to relearn how to eat only as much as the brain’s weight-regulation system commands. Relative to chronic dieters, people who eat when they’re hungry and stop when they’re full are less likely to become overweight, maintain more stable weights over time and spend less time thinking about food. Mindful eating also helps people with eating disorders like binge eating learn to eat normally. Depending on the individual’s set point, mindful eating may reduce weight or it may not. Either way, it’s a powerful tool to maintain weight stability, without deprivation. I finally gave up dieting six years ago, and I’m much happier. I redirected the energy I used to spend on dieting to establishing daily habits of exercise and meditation. I also enjoy food more while worrying about it less, now that it no longer comes with a side order of shame. Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter, and sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter. Sandra Aamodt, a neuroscientist, is the author of the forthcoming “Why Diets Make Us Fat: The Unintended Consequences of Our Obsession With Weight Loss.”

Well you know they say what opinions are like... a$$holes... We all have them and most stink... But WTH, I'll opine anyway... There are some things you may wish to consider before running out and stocking up on a supply of chocolate milk... Before jumping on the bandwagon of the study, we should know more about the study... Who financially sponsored it and why? What about the participants? Were they obese people trying to lose weight - or competitive athletes? Was the nutritional content of the chocolate milk consistant across the study group (and what was the nutritional content anyway). You can go to the grocery store and find all sorts of different brands of chocolate milk - with nutritional content all across the spectrum. The people in the study may be very different from us - with very different goals than us. It appears they were simply looking at this from the perspective of endurance and muscle recovery. Very few of us are competitive athletes burning 4000+ calories a day In fact, most of us are trying to LOSE fat, are people prone to weight gain, and likely a bit more sensitive to carbohydrates than most - especially simple carbs. The chocolate milk controversy isn't new - it's been around awhile. I tried it as a post workout drink for awhile back in Nov. and it adversely effected my weight loss. I attributed that likely to the high sugar content. So I began mixing a commercial Protein mix with skim milk - and that did the trick. Tasted just like chocolate milk - and still had the milk - but not the simple carbs. Protein intake is a whole other debate. Personally, I'm of the opinion that people who exercise significantly can benefit from a higher protein intake. It just depends on how you want to achieve that intake. I think whole foods is best, but I supplement with commercial products as well. Even though it is a buyer-beware market. The fitness supplement industry is one of the most deceptive and cut-throat markets there is! Thats my two cents and a whole lot more.... Brad

I have a few questions that I am hoping to get some help with. Thank you in advance for any help 1) Do insurance companies that require you have no weight gain during your 6 months mean from month to month or from your first appointment to your last? I have Amerihealth Northeast Caritas. 2) Is my approval request sent to my insurance after my last weight in appointment or do they wait until all of the pre op testing is complete? 3)Has anyone here used Amerihealth for your surgery? Please share you experiences with me. 4)Can a PCP refuse to do a pre op clearance on you just because they don't want you to do weight loss surgery?

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.

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!

DUDE!! i don't know if anyone will care about what i have to say but i'm so excited i have to say something about it. Since my last couple posts on this thread, I have been blessed with some kinda of fire that lit under my ass. I was so nervous that i would never be able to get into the work out spirit and stick to it, and then my weightloss will slow down and possibly stop;or even worse- WEIGHT GAIN!!! and then something hit me... I don't have a decent pair of sneaks to workout in! last time when i posted about doing my workout dvd i actually used to do it in my furry pink house slippers,lol. My theory was, 'why wear sneakers if you're in your own house.' but now i know why. SNEAKERS!!!When i got some basic women's reebok sneakers, i felt like popeye with his spinish. i felt ready to run a marathon. the dvd had 1- 2 -3 mile video levels when i tried it earlier i would do the 1 mile and i never would finish it. SOCIAL WORKOUTS!Another thing i started to do was i got a partner to do the dvd with me. And i would have been totally mortified if i stopped in the 1st 5-10mins the way i used to. my friend would come mon- friday afternoons and we would do the dvds together. How my workout habit have changed: NOW The days when my friend can't come over i do the dvd by myself! i do th 2 mile level ( but i usually end up stopping alittle past 1 1/2 miles but i get closer and closer to finishing the whole2 miles) with almost no stopping. Omg a good cardio workout before just used to get me frustrated and tired now it pumps me up when i start to feel a burn i catch myself yelling and grunting with adrenalin. it's so fun! and when my face is covered in sweat i swear i feel so accomplished. WEIGHT TRAINING now i catch myself challenging myself even more than the dvd does. i add in moves to increase the intensity of my work out. And then i just decided to add weights i work my arms with 5lb weights 30 reps of biceps triceps and armpit muscles ( cant remember scientific name) before and after my cardio and it feels so good when everything is done. I have definately gotten past the need to use my embarrassement of others watching me to work out. Now i have and i can workout with or without people being around. and sometime i feel the urge just to start working out out of nowhere i swear i think i'm starting to love working out. i read my last couple post about working out before and it's almost like a whole other person i swear EVERYDAY i just can't wait until i find some time to work out, and now when i do it i kill it. and it all started with a pair of sneakers, i love it... i think when i master the art of the walk away the lbs dvd i'm definately gonna try the p90x and see how that goes. i can't believe my lazy ass is actually turning into that "workout girl" i can't believe that's who i'm becoming and i'm stoked.

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.