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February 2012 i had gastric bypass...I lost 95 lb...was very close to my goal wight. I wasn't able to get on track after surgery due to neck pain...and that turned into 2 neck surgery's...the first neck surgery was 4 months after gbp...the second neck surgery a year later...I was on different meds (including morphine) for 1 1/2 years...Then last February 2014 I spent a week in ICU with blood clots in my lungs. Well, it's now 2015. I've been off all pain medication and meds that caused 70lbs of weight gain. I feel I let my family down..but mostly myself. Is it to late?

So I first had a banded gastroplasty in 2001. I had to have a revision into a gastric bypass in 2012 because of scar tissue issues. I had lost 197 pounds between the two surgeries. I’m ashamed to admit that I’ve gained 150 pounds of that back. I’m not supposed to be able to eat sugar or high fatty foods due to dumping, but I can do both with no problems. I’m wondering if anybody else can eat anything they want after bypass? I’m so frustrated it sucks.

I gained 9lbs by one day post op. I know it's all fluid and will come off, but I'm wondering if you all counted your weight loss from the weight pre op or with th weight gain post op. I'm all depressed now thinking that 9 of the 20lbs I expect to los this month are just water weight.

Anyone out there that would like to do the 5Day Pouch Test Diet and get back on the wagon together? My email addy is congarich@gmail.com. Let me know!

I had the surgery only three days ago but I’m very disappointed to see that I have gained weight since. I’m nervous that this will never go away and it will continue. Advice please?

It has been over seven years since my surgery. I have gained a lot of weight back, what have you done to get back on track?

I am between 8-9 months out and a couple months ago, I'd not been as disciplined. I've been stalled or stuck in the same 5lb range for about 2months. For the last month, I've gotten back on track with what I eat and I've been killing it in the gym. Last week, id dropped 4lbs taking me to 222lbs. This week, I've been working just as hard and I've gained over 5lbs. Can someone shed some light. I'm trying really hard not to cry because it makes no sense.

October 6, 2009 165 lbs. Last Wednesday, I had .25 removed from my band. Since then, I have been able to eat more than I ever. Consequently, I have gained over 5 lbs. I am somewhat confused and I don't know what to do. I don't want to be miserable as I was, but I think I need a little more restriction. I am torn. I also realize that I have a sick addiction to overeating.

I worked out on Saturday and Sunday and did pretty well with food, but got a pretty bad sunburn on Sunday. This morning I was up 3.5 pounds! I'm pretty sure it's inflammation from the burn...anyone else experience this?

I cant seem to lose alot of weight. i have notice that i have gained 5 pounds this month and i need help i have only lost 40 pounds in nine months

I am almost 5 weeks post op. I lost A LOT right after surgery. I really didn't eat the first week, and barely the second week. After week three, I am not losing, sometimes gaining. This is freaking me out. I know it can be sodium, the fact that I am soooooo not regular, but, shouldn't I be losing?! I find it impossible to drink protein shake, water, and get all the protein in. All I had was a few ounces of chicken for dinner last night and couldn't drink a drop after. I am definitely dehydrated. I am coming up with ways to force me to drink, like alarms on my phone, but I would need to set an alarm every few minutes! Most days, I get one protein shake in, 20 onces of water, & one actual meal that is small. Ugh.

Going out on a limb here and am scared at the same time. I was diagnosed in '07 as being bipolar, mild,not severe and given a cocktail of meds, along with this disease I suffer from severe insomnia so mostly my symptoms are that along with mild depression. I take Klonopin, Saphris and Zonisamide. All has been going great and no I don't have manic episodes everything was going great up until about a month ago I noticed my moods have changed. As some of you know I live with my mom since my divorce and well I have a tendancy to lash out at her, she knows I don't mean it and she understands completely and I'm even lashing out at my dog. I called my psych the other day and called in Depakote and the pharmacist said, do you know the side effects of this drug of course I said no, she proceeded to tell me that it caused hair loss which after lap band I am experiencing now, severe weight gain and I'm thinking great. Why in the world would my psych of 7 yrs put me on a drug that makes me gain weight? I guess I am jumping out here in hopes that someone with this disease will respond and tell me what they take and if they have any adverse effects from the meds they take. It's obvious I need a mood stabilizer but from all my research they all seem to have side effect of weight gain. I have been on my cocktail of drugs for quite some time and don't know if they have stopped working or what. Someone please have some answers. thanks...Donna

Hello, I am new to this site, but I just finished my 6 month of the weight management required by my insurance. I must admit I have put on weight. I have just this month lost 5 lbs but I put a total of 19 pounds in the 6 months. I go see the surgeon tomorrow and am a little worried that my weight gain may get me denied. Has anyone had this problem?

I had my lap band in 2003, I started at 215 & within the first year I lost 157lbs, & reached my goal weight, I had great success. At the end of my 9th year, i was vomiting quite often, couldn't get much food down, I had an esophagram & my lap band had slipped, so I had emergency surgery with my original surgeon & unfortunatly the damage was realy bad & it had to come out. So now I'm on month 3 without it & up 15 pounds. I have been eating healthy & exercising. I am very frustrated & so afraid of gaining any more weight back. Any diets known for those who had to have thier band removed????!!!! HELP

I had my rny in 2011 and went from all time high of 412 lbs to 245. I had kept it off until last year, when I started to put it back on. I have gained back about 35lbs. I am having trouble getting back on track and getting my weight off. I gave a few other medical conditions that could be playing a part but honestly, it is mostly me. Can anyone offer some advice to help me get back on track and get some weight off

After trying many antidepressants for medication-resistant depression, I've been taking Wellbutrin 200 mg. and Prozac 20 mg. It seems to be pretty much working. My weight is stable, (no gain) but no loss either. I believe that is because I'm in need of a fill, but really haven't been eating that much. The last med. I took was Paxil, which was disasterous weight-wise. I know some people have switched to Cymbalta from Wellbutrin because of weight gain. If weight gain was the only reason you switched, do you find that the relief from depression is comparable? If you are comfortable doing so, please share your experience with antidepressants and weight gain/loss. Thank you.

Hi all, I’m new here and only 1 day post op. I was excited to get home and step on the scale but I’m up 7 pounds! I also have my menses. Anyone else experience this?

I was just approved to have my lapband removed on 10/30/13, but I am freaking out a bit. I have had an unfilled band for 3 years now and weigh about 10 lbs less than I did when I got banded. My weight keeps rising, and would be higher, but I work out religiously. My BMI is about 35. I am terrified of gaining weight after the band is removed. My surgeon has a policy of waiting 3 months before scheduling a sleeve, so that's three months of potentional gain. Also, I don't yet have approval for the sleeve, so working hard to lose weight during the 3 month period will make approval even more unlikely, especially if my BMI drops a little bit. I know myself and while it would be wonderful to get my BMI down after removal, it wouldn't last and I would be exactly where I started before I got banded. I am 53 years old and losing weight gets harder and harder each year. I guess my question is, do people who have gone thru the removal gained much between surgeries? Was the lapband removal surgury difficult to recover from? Days? Weeks? Terrified of going backwards. Thanks.

I think we all have different reasons for being here. Some people have eating issues. Some people, no matter what they do they gain weight or can't get it off. Some people have medical conditions that cause them to gain weight, or they are on certain meds that caused them to gain weight and they can't get it off. I think that it is important to not assume that everyone has eating issues. It is important to not assume everyone has a medical condition. For people who have eating issues, I have a friend going through this, the battle with food is constant and it's hard. It isn't anything that is easy and a surgery like this isn't going to solve the problem alone. Therapy and other follow up care is usually needed. My poor girlfriend who is struggling with eating issues is working hard to correct her relationship with food and decided that she is going to get surgery to help with the weight loss now. Her relationship is starting to turn around thanks to therapy and so she is planning on the surgery. I constantly offer her support and sometimes she lets me know what her food plans are for the day. For me, one of my guiltiest things is eating out. I put on most of my weight when I was in my 20's. I had money to burn and instead of cooking I ate out a lot. I had a gym membership when I had a good job and I lost a great deal of weight that I put on. I got pregnant with my son and things went down hill. The company I worked for closed, money became tight, I was a single mother so we were living off of Hot Dogs, Macaroni and cheese, corn and green beans. I had to make do with what I had. I began to put on a pound a week. My 130 frame ballooned with in a year. While I was working I started falling asleep at the wheel driving. Finally found out my thyroid was a mess, and that I needed meds. I took meds for a six months when an Endocronologist said, "stop the meds, you are soo young and it isn't that bad." Hoshimotos took over my body for the next 7 years, putting on weight, more and more, no matter how I ate I gained. I became pregnant with my daughter and was rushed over to a new Endo and they were concerned. The put me on meds right away for the babies health. I started to regulate again and lost 15lbs during pregnancy. I gave birth to my daughter and became depressed. I probably ate some things I shouldn't have. I put back on the 15lbs and decided enough is enough. I went back to the gym and altered my diet again, to meat and veggies. I had a personal trainer and I kept a strict food diary. I counted calories, fat, carbs and sugars. I worked hard at the gym 5 days a week and on saturday and Sunday would walk. I went back to the gym and was measured after a week I gained half a pound and my trainer assured me that I am probably just gaining muscle faster than loosing fat. I worked my muscles and cardio for 5 weeks. I went from 220 to 230. In my frustration I decided it didn't matter anymore and for six months fetl sorry for myself. I ate brownies and cookies and only put on 4lbs. I went to my OBGYN sobbing, sobbing my eyes out and said, "I just can't live like this anymore, what are my options." He was very sympathetic and he believed me, seeing other women fight with weight loss. "Once you put it on you can't get it off and sometimes it isn't even anything specific you do to put it on. You don't have to do one thing wrong to create this weight issue, you could do everything right." He suggested the band and I followed up with my primary, who also suggested the band. So here I am, finally loosing weight and feeling great. I have no desire to eat brownies anymore. My biggest love is chocolate and I only give myself two days that I can treat myself, sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. I haven't had a fill up to this point so the hunger was making me crazy. We have chips, chocolate, cookies, etc in the house. The kids get cookies every couple of days as a snack so I thought, "what if I allow myself that same kind of limit." My kids are tall and thin, my son is ten and weighs 91 lbs and is all muscle, my daughter, tall, thin muscular girl. They are beautiful and people never think they are my kids. People assume if you are fat it is what you eat, that kills me. If it was just our dining habits I would have round kids too. My husband is heavy and admits his problem is with food. He loves food, loves the taste of food, I on the other hand could careless about food. I eat because I have to. I watch his family fill there plates to the brim, two or three times. It is crazy and it makes me sick to think about eating that much food. Anyway, that is all. I guess I am just tired of the assumptions of how people gain their weight. I am so tired of people judging us based on our weight. "Oh that person is over weight so they must be binging, or that person is over weight so they must be trying to heal themselves with food, that person is over weight so they must eat out all the time." It is funny, if you go out to eat when you are overweight people assume you must do this a lot. One of the things I do when I go out to eat is get a take out container right away and cut out just a small portion of the meal to eat. I have done this forever, a lady looked at me weird when I said, "it helps to reduce the calories I take in, out of site out of mind." Then she looked at me like I must eat it all on the way home or something. I then cut that 2/3s of the meal in half again and eat that at home as seperate meals, or my hubby eats it. I am not fat because I don't know how to eat or how to count calories. I don't use dressings, I have always used low fat mayo and less then the "amount" of the serving listed on the label. I could not do anything more than I had already done to loose this weight. I thought, fought and cried myself to sleep because I did not want to die in a few years because I am fat. I wanted to be able to chase my kids around on the beach or play in the yard. I did not want surgery, I wanted surgery even less than I wanted to be fat. I was sure I should be able to do this on my own and when I couldn't I was crushed. Before my thyroid and PCOS was really bad, Weight watchers worked. Now it didn't, before the gym and diet worked, now it didn't. Now it was time to find a solution that did and this is working. I just wish the world would stop judging, even those who suffer from obesity. We need to not only stop judging others and their journey, but we need to stop being so harsh on ourselves. So what if we only loose half a pound one week, it means we get back on track the next week, don't let guilt take you over. We all have off days, off weeks, but it doesn't mean we can't bring ourselves back around. I have studied addiction, I study psychology, I understand the process when the mind becomes our worst enemy, be it chemical or circumstantial. We must remember to love ourselves in order to heal our souls and forgive ourselves. Even if medical conditions got us here, at some point we gave up on ourselves and just started living life and not worrying about it. Like the problem would resolve itself. I am glad I waited this long, as I wasn't obese enough for surgery until about four years ago and then I ended up pregnant and back on hypothyroid meds. I thought that, coupled with excercise I would start loosing. When I didn't, this time, I didnt hit ground zero depression, I went to my doctors and asked what there was to help me. I am being proactive, and to me that is the best gift I can give myself and my family. My son said to me the other day, "Mom, pretty soon I will be able to wrap my arms tight around you, you are loosing weight and looking great." I looked at him and smiled he then said, "and even better you are feeling better, you are doing more and you smile a lot more. I am so happy you are my Mom." He is ten and he is one of the blessings I am fighting this fight for. My two and a half year old needs a Mommy for the next 16 years and I want to do my best to be here.

feel frustrated and worried at the same time.. Just hit the one year mark with my sleeve. I'm 6'1 male and I was 179 lbs but for the past 10-14 days days I have gained 6 pounds but nothing has changed from my routine. I do my intake of Protein (70-90g), Water (64-80oz), exercise (2 hour walk) but it seems strange to me and odd that i have gained weight when nothing has changed. i don't want to start worrying about something being wrong with my sleeve but any feedback from all of you out there is much appreciated. I know that it is normal to fluctuate with +/- pounds but for almost two weeks now i just been gaining weight and it does not show sign of coming down.

I'm about 3 weeks post op and I've lost close to 50 pounds but I have noticed the past several days I've gone up several pounds. I was 405 at my highest pre-op and I did hit 358 I weighed my self this morning and I'm at 364. Is that cause of the change from liquids to solid foods? I have great tolerance for all foods. i'm still eating soft foods like oatmeal and eggs but for dinner I have eaten grilled chicken and some seafoods like salmon and crab meat. I still have my protein drink 2-3 times a day. The worst thing I think I have eaten wa 2 slices of whole grain toast with PB and J. I'd also like to noted today was my first day back at the gym . In any case just curious if that is norman.

Hi all, I'm a newbie to this site, looking for some help and advice and hopefully some answers. I had a lap band put in 7 years ago, I then had several complications and three revision surgeries and multiple infections. I recovered from all my infections and surgeries, started eating better and exercising. The weight was coming over but very slowly, I managed to lose 45 kilos and was feeling better, but disappointed with the slow weight loss (45 kilos over 3 years is not what I was expecting) (I have a lot of weight to lose - more than 100kgs) So after my annual consultation with my surgeon, he suggested a gastric sleeve. I was so excited, a good friend of mine had recently been sleeved and her results were phenomenal! Bring it on!! Band was removed after 4 years. 2 months of very careful eating and I was sleeved. I did everything right. Fluids for 2 weeks, mushies for 2 weeks, then small meals, gradually building up to solids. Here is where my problems begin. After I started eating, I never felt the restriction I did when I had the band. Over time my portions increased, I have never felt any type of restriction, at my 3 month post op review a temporary surgeon. (My surgeon after performing 6 surgeries on my poor tummy is no longer practicing) I was told the sleeve had failed and I wasn't losing the weight they expected me too. Instant Soul crush! I soldiered on and saw dieticians and doctors and no one to this day can explain what has happened. Fast forward to now,7 years after my band and small loss and 2.5 years after my sleeve and I'm back to my pre. Band weight. I have absolutely nil restriction. I can eat a full size meal and have gained back every thing I ever lost. I have been back to see 2 separate surgeons who have both said the sleeve looks to be fine, and have no answers as to why I'm gaining weight. (Have done 2 barium swallows) Both of them have recommended a gastric bypass as the only way I will lose weight. My head is really messed up. I don't know what to do, over the past 7 years I have had 7 operations 5 of them weight loss related (band in, port removed, port replaced band out and sleeved) Ive spent well over $30k on surgeries, Appointments hospital visits etc. and I'm really not wanting more surgery (I was told due to the difficulty with scar tissue, infections etc I will need two bariatric surgeons to operate on me doubling the cost of further surgery) Herein lies my issue. Do I risk it all, spend a small fortune (that I don't really wish to spend) in the hope that this may be the surgery to help me lose weight. Do I dare to pretend I can lose weight on my own (I'm 42 and the past 42 years have proven I can't) Do I try to be happy and live my life as a super morbid obese adult? I'll admit I'm scared, scared ill do it and fail, scared I won't do it and will be unhappy for the rest of my life, scared if I don't do it, my co morbidites will finally get the better of me I wa so sure the band was the way to go. It took me a very long time to come to the realisation I needed surgery to help me lose weight. It worked but I never had the success others did. Then , I was convinced the sleeve would help, and now I'm back to where I began all those years ago. My head is a mess, my body is a mess and I don't know which way to go...... Sorry for the mega long post, wanted to get it all out in the hope someone has had similar experiences and come through the other side ???? Ps. If anyone is reading this that is considering surgery, please don't let my post put you off. I'm a one in a million type person and no one else I know has issues like this. Ive made several great friends who have had differing weightless surgeries and they have all had great sucess. You will never look back ????

I had surgery in 8/09, lost 50#, had my port flip and have gained back 45#. I didn't like how I got stuck on healthy foods. I got in the habit of adding sauces, gravy, etc.. to be able to eat healthy food. Then I started eating more junk food like ice cream, yogurt, cookies, even an donuts sometimes. Junk food doesn't get stuck. I have been debating for over a year whether to have my port reattached or just have the lapband removed. Also if I did have it fixed, where to have it fixed. I had my surgery in Mexico, my fill doctor is 100 miles away. I am thinking that I want to get it fixed here in my hometown by a doctor that will do my fills and also have a regular councilor/ psychologist on staff that could help me work thru my issues. Do any of your doctors have a councilor on staff for regular sessions to help work thru issues? Thank you for any advice MaggieGT

I was banded on 6/11/12, I immediately started seeing results and lost 13 in the first 3 weeks, but over the course of the last week I have very slowly started to gain some lbs back, its only 3 or 4, but I am now paranoid that I am doing something wrong. Is it normal to go up and down like this?