Search the Community

Mine went extremely well. I came back to work yesterday. Now if i could just get rid of the excess gas, and the weight gain from the surgery (15 pounds additional LOL) I am down to 4 over.. so hopefully by end of week i will start seeing a loss of some sort. I am able to get all my liquids and proteins in.. thankfully. Tonight i will start extended walking. I have been walking but not as exercise. that starts tonight.

@ChooChi73 wow, tomorrow is your big day!! How do you feel? I am so tired of people telling me that I am not big enough to have WLS! How big do you have to be for people to be happy for you and the fact that you want to take preventative measures that will prevent further weight gain and assist me in finally being successful in getting this weight off? I am 38, 5 '3" and 246 lbs, I wear size 18/20 pants and 2xl tops. I think that is large enough, right? I am on the pre op diet right now and it is driving me crazy, like i am getting headaches from my sugar withdrawals. I am not hungry, but the headache just wont go away. How is everyone else doing? @onmica

So I have a question.. What type of birth control are you ladies on after surgery? Pill, shot, implant etc? I asked my doctor about what would be better and if the pill would be absorbed since I have had gastric bypass . I was just curious as to what methods other people are using and if they had any side effects such as weight gain, headaches, high blood pressure etc? Thanks for the help!

Hello all. My name is Caroline from Memphis. I have three grown children and two of them are considering having babies. I have to get in shape! I've been steadily gaining weight for about 20 years. I'm 5'3", 263 lbs. I start pre-op diet Friday and surgery is scheduled 11/22. I'm so tired of being tired, my knees hurt all the time, acid reflux stinks, COPD and asthma are worse with weight gain, depression is worse, on days off I just want to sleep. Something very strange...since I got my surgery date I've realized how weight gain has affected my life for so many years. It's been very depressing. I want to be able to put socks and shoes on without huffing and puffing. I'm glad to have found this group and the segment for 50 and over. I look forward to starting my journey!

Hey, I am pre-sleeve and an active lurker at times - but I just wanted to chime in... I was in a similar situation and hope that my posting helps. My ex, was my best friend - I met him when I was 15 and just had a baby (yes, I know). Even though he was 16 and not ready to be a father, we had a great friendship and he helped me with my son whenever he could. After 7 years of unsuccessful relationships, depression, and a 80lb weight gain - he asked me to give him a chance. We started dating and I loved it. My son already had a great relationship with him, this guy already knew everything about me and accepted my flaws, and I knew it was going to work out. Well, that was until we had sex- a YEAR later!!! It was awkward and I thought it was because he was like a brother to me for so long. We both figured that it would take time to adjust and dismissed it. Well, it didn't change. We were not sexually compatible at all! I decided to keep on and try cheating. Well, I did, and cried all the way home because he was a great guy and I didn't want to hurt him. I went alone to a sex therapist, asked successful wives for their bedroom secrets, toys, etc... It took me 5 years of efforts, cheating (didnt get caught), and regrets to finally move on. I moved away - from NY to GA and guess what? He followed me! Guess what else? We had awful make-up sex and I ended up pregnant!! Oh and guess what else? I accepted his proposal. Lastly, guess what? Nothing changed. I went through my pregnancy horrible because I was salivating at the site of another man. I left him again after my daughter was born (4 months away from the wedding date) and now we are cordial, but he is still hurting. I am too- because he treated me like a queen and I know it just can't work. I feel like I blew my blessing and that I was selfish. But I know I cannot go back and hurt him again despite the fact that my love life is empty and non-existant. Don't wait until November.. I know that is a lot of money, but stringing someone (especially someone in love) along for 6 months is devastating. Plus they may SNAP! Have you seen that show? ( Snapped?) Sorry for the length!

Cathy, Im going to have to look it up... I don't eat meat, but for beans and such Im sure it would work a treat! I do use my crock pot for lots of things.... and have a rice steamer as well that is awesome (I also make irish oats and other grains in it...) Here is a link any of you doing 5:2 might want to read..... about weight gain at 2 years..... sound like us! https://forum.fastday.com/benefits-side-effects-f28/does-prolonged-fasting-change-us-in-ways-that-lead-to-regain-t13735.html

I was 200 lbs and growing when I arranged for the surgery. I made an appointment with the clinic that did my operation, asked them if I was a suitable candidate, and when they said yes I wrote a cheque. Then I decided I better learn more about the band so I joined this site and I read the information materials which they sent home with me. I kinda jumped into the band back to front but that was because I had become so fed up with this post-menopausal weight gain loop that I was on I was ready to do anything to stop it. Sometimes I used to wake up at 3 in the morning, grab my gut, and think to myself that if there was such a thing as an emergency liposuction clinic I would call a cab and go there immediately!

The report below came from John Hopkins health Alerts. Thought you all would be interested in it A revealing study published in the International Journal of Obesity (online edition, June 27, 2006) highlighted 10 reasons why Americans are fat. The study explained that too much food and a lack of exercise are not the only factors contributing to obesity. They identified 10 other possibilities: Weight gain factor 1. Less sleep. We’ve gone from an average of nine to seven hours of sleep a night; sleep deprivation is linked to a more robust appetite. Weight gain factor 2. Pesticides and other chemicals in foods. These substances can change hormonal activity, which can boost body fat Weight gain factor 3. Air conditioning and heating. We don’t sweat and shiver as much as our ancestors, so we don’t burn as many calories. Weight gain factor 4. Fewer smokers Nicotine is an appetite suppressant. Weight gain factor 5. Greater use of medications, such as antidepressants and diabetes drugs, which have weight gain as a potential side effect. Weight gain factor 6. Population changes. There are now more older people as well as more Hispanics in the United States, and these groups have higher rates of obesity.[/font] Weight gain factor 7. Older birth mothers, whose children are more prone to excess weight gain than the offspring of younger mothers. Weight gain factor 8. Genetics. Obese moms may pass the trait onto their children in utero. Weight gain factor 9. Higher body weight = greater fertility. Heavy people produce more offspring than thinner people. Weight gain factor 10. Assortative mating. Heavy people tend to mate with each other and produce heavy children. <!-- google_ad_section_end --><!-- / message --><!-- sig -->

Thanks for your understanding reply, Monk--I wasn't sure how I would be perceived on this thread. I admire you greatly, by the way. 2-3 times a week???? That would have been manageable. We are talking 2-3 times a day when we were first married. I always felt like a failure for not having the desire as often as he did. Last summer I did a survey for the US Dept and Health and Human Services that asked a lot of questions about intimacy and sexual matters and for the first time in my adult life, I felt NORMAL. I would say that the average times most of the people I interviewed (who were in a sexual relationship) was 1-2 times a week. I could live with that I think. As far as the boys--yes, the statistic does seem high but it only applies to boys who FINISH the program and the program takes 2-3 years. Of course, it is much lower for boys who aren't in the program or who leave or are forced out before they complete. it's a court-mandated program--these are multiple offense offenders. As you alluded to, the recidivism for adult offenders is just the opposite--over 98%. Sad. I've often wondered if a big part of my weight gain was "protection" or maybe a hope for decreased attractiveness in some sick way to solve my problem of guilt over sexual intimacy. I don't know. I was hit upon so often as a young married and I never trusted myself to be able to resist every time. Although I always resisted, there was something in me that wondered if I would slip up and ruin my marriage and family, given the "right" (or should I say "wrong") circumstances. I like hugs--most of my kids are very huggy and touchy, though not all. I'm comfortable hugging "my boys" (the offenders)--of course, only side hugs allowed, no frontal hugs. Like you, I know that some of these boys have never had appropriate touching in their lives. Breaks my heart. They have a long way to go but we have seen some great successes and know they can make it if they are willing to do the immense amount of work that changing thoughts and behavior takes. Hmmm, changing thoughts and behaviors--that sounds vaguely familiar.

One fill is usually not enough for most people. There is a lot of info on the forum about how fills work, it might help to read a lot of them to understand the process. Until and unless you have good restriction it will be possible for you to eat more than you should and during that time old fashioned willpower and dieting is needed to avoid weight gain. Counting calories, tracking protein intake and reducing carbs is the key. Exercise and water will boost the above effort.

Sarah I continue to check back on this thread because as a newly sleeved person I just can't grasp I risked my life and this could all fail. Please you have already shared so much and for that I thank you but could you please give an example of what you where eatting to cause regain. I really hoped the sleeve would prevent over eatting to some extend so total weight gain would be impossible? Give me an example of a bad day of eatting . Did you feel stuff and ignore that?

Good morning all! Correction!! My surgery date is in fact 9/15/10 and not 9/14/10. Whoops! What a booboo, but hey at least I didn’t not (grammatically incorrect I know) find out and it was the day *before* I thought. Ha-ha now that would have been a big deal. Besides I'm sure the surgeon’s office would have been sending me reminders and it would have clicked eventually. So, all is good on that front! I will need to arrive in San Diego a day early. The reason is I will be riding into Mexicali and shortly after; I will undergo all the wonderful pre-operative testing that is imperative to be performed before undergoing such an invasive procedure. I’m getting ready though! More ready than I have ever been with any previous surgery. I’m also so glad I have the funds to be able to make my own decision this time, and not rely on insurance to make it for me. I need to create myself a to-do list since I will be traveling a distance to get there. I won’t fly in either since I’m scared to fly. I’m not that far anyway. San Diego is only a 7 hour drive from me. I will undergo any extra stress to do what I must. To be perfectly honest, I never thought I’d be so excited to have my band removed. I sincerely have zero faith in it anymore. At some point you become so detached with something that had so much promise. When you get like that, it’s time to move on. I had a choice though, keep the band and risk more complications, weight gains and misery – or work to have it removed, revise to something else and get your life back. I choose the latter. I am a fighter and until my last breath I will always forage on to become the best person I can be. All that starts in the head and it will manifest itself onto my body, my personality and everything in between. If that means cutting my losses and admitting a failure (not in a bad way) and making that into a success then I have done what I needed to do. I would encourage anyone to do this for themselves. The band did get me semi-results before it started going bonkers on me. It was very short lived. Only up to 4 months in, and I had gone from 283 on the day of surgery down to 227. The difference I felt in those 56 Lbs was incredible. I felt so freed of the bonds of that extra weight. I was wearing clothing sizes I hadn’t in more than a decade. I was so energetic and life was just bliss. I want that for myself again, more than anything. I was a much better person, easier to get along with and my outlook was super positive. Well when one goes in the wrong direction, and especially with WLS surgery this can be quite amplified, it can really put a strain on your inner self. Sure the bones can feel it physically, but the heart and mind I think go more into self-destruct than anything else. It spirals and spirals until you wake up one day and realize you have lost total control of that steering wheel. What do I do then? Accept the path I’m going down into certain crash? Or, rather do I grab back onto that wheel and veer it back onto the road. It will be a bit jittery getting back on that road, but at least I did something about it. I do not accept a negative fate. I have way too much to live for, to fight for… So with that, you all know a little where I’ve been and surely now know where I’m headed. Blessings for the day!

I’ve been able to tolerate pretty much everything at 4 month post op. I eat fruit and vegetables including lettuce frequently, I have spicy food, coffee, etc. I’ve not tried soda, I’ve never liked it and sweet beverages are not only gross but the quickest way to bypass your restriction and start gaining. My doctor said to avoid bread and rice so I’ve not bothered with it. Tbh I don’t have room in a meal for it anyway- if I have a curry I can just eat some vegetables and protein and then have enough left over for a few more meals, forget wasting space on rice! I think a lot of the problem is that there is so much you can have but probably shouldn’t from a weight gain perspective. I’m not drinking while I’m losing but when I get to maintenance I’m looking forward to having a half glass of dry white wine every few weeks, like I used to. Candy is such a huge problem for me I don’t know that I will ever effectively find a way to work it into my diet again. Based on how I react to other stuff I bet I physically could eat it, but it would completely undermine what I’m trying to do here. Some things may be better left in the past.

It's great to hear your doing good! From what I heard the weight gain after surgery is usually due to all the fluids they give you. Please Continue to keep us posted...you are the losers bench now:-)

I'm doing Mondays and Thursdays too. I am a little worried because of my back fusion. I'm not supposed to diet. I have to though. I put on a favorite sweatshirt and it looked horrible. I looked pregnant. I'm going to try to eat a lot of vegetables. My diet is totally lacking vegetables most of the time. Hope you're feeling better Sheryl. I wish I could take Welbutrin. I'm sure I would feel better if I could. I'm sure you're right about the late eating. I just saw something on tv about that being the cause of weight gain in America. I just need to eat my 3 small meals and not snack. Coops you need to find another doctor. I'm still on HRT and my doctor really feels like I need to stay on it since my bone scan shows the beginning of osteoporosis. There are bioidentical hormones that are not as risky as the Premerin of the past which was made from horse urine. disgusting. Mine are made at a compounding pharmacy just for me. I'd find a different doctor for sure. I'm sure you'll have a great time at Disney. It's the happiest place on earth, after all. (their advertisements) I wish I could come to florida and meet you!

OMG!! You look great. What do you weigh now ? Well done you look amazing. Thank you! I got down to 158 before I started lifting weights. Now i am around 168, but most of the weight gain has been muscle. I feel a million times better.

Ditto that! I'll just say that it's great that you don't have any co-morbidities--yet. You're very young though, and look....95-98% of all people who lose excess weight gain it back PLUS some. SO many of us here played the yo-yo game and dieted ourselves fatter and fatter over the years. I know we'd all have LOVED to have had this option when we were your age. As far as the cost goes--I've said this before, but I figured it's half the cost of a new car. So maybe we buy a used care the next time or two...so? And the Biggest Loser contestants? He couldn't say who specifically, but my surgeon has done the VSG on a former contestant. You negative relatives aren't being rational about this, and maybe there's a reason (fear, jealousy, whatever).... but it's YOUR health, YOUR future, and YOUR money. Know what I'd do? I'd go ahead and do it, but don't even tell them until you're well on your way to goal. It'll be hard to argue with your success at that point. :lol0:

Hi Ashleysara - nice to meet you! Funny thing on the bagel - i NEVER eat them they really set me off on to too much eating. Far as the weight gain - i can gain it in two months and take a whole year to lose it... but i just gained weight into new territory and its like it changed my metabolism. My surgeons office was doing a study on this omentectomy helping diabetics lose weight faster but they froze the study. I am half thinking of calling them back to find out if they can do it anyway. It something about removing the free fat attached to organs.

@melissac79: You said it melissac79. What's interesting about my change is not about having to buy clothes that fit, but fitting into the clothes that I have. My weight gain was due to my inability to condition myself thoroughly after having my spine "rebuilt" because of severe scoliosis surgery. I had only gained weight post-op in my stomach area because of exercise limitations. What's really wild is before getting sleeved, I was a 46" waist. I am now down to wearing clothes at a 40" waist. I have separated my clothes for someone with a 40" waist and a 38" waist and a 36" waist and my goal is to get myself to a 36" or 37" inch waist. I don't want to look at the scale because no news is good news. I will check my weight when I have follow-up appointments. I'm sure that this a realistic goal for me because everything in my closet that I have prior to my back surgery fit fine. My weight gain started when I was 50 years old. Now, at 57, little by little certain items are starting to fit and every time something fits, it's just a signal for me to keep going with my Physical Therapy harder each day. I keep telling myself "Enjoy this for this the good part". "No, try not! Do or do not! There is no try" -Yoda

glad you got things sorted out sher your back on track now,as for the weight gain i must think i will never eat food again and im eating all my favourite stuff,i think ive gone up another 21 pound lol.As for the vivid dreams,i have panick attacks if i worry too much before i sleep,as i normally think about getting banded in the evening,so i listen to paul mckenna I CAN MAKE YOU THIN lol the weight is still comming on but his voice is soo relaxing it helps me fall asleep,good luck hun im just getting my bag ready,and the stuff i will need,i like to pack early chat soon:thumbup:

I'm totally there with you, I'm 7 weeks post op (a June sleever) and the 3 week plateau did come with a pound or two weight gain and nooooo weight loss for a week. Here is week 7 and I've gained 2 pounds! Here we go again. Booooo! I'm right with you in calories too, I hear about ppl who can BARELY stomach 600 calories, I'm between 800 - 1100. I'm 5'8". While your caloric intake is higher than others at your stage, you aren't eating enough to GAIN weight. Your Protein looks good, Water is good (I'm not doing well in the water intake department), exercise looks good. Remember, you will hear this throughout this site and the SAME thing happened to me with my first stall, getting into 'onederland' sometimes takes a while. My first stall at 3 weeks I was at 201 and stuck like Chuck. One week later I lost 4 pounds! We have different set points, maybe this is yours. I am now stuck again at 7 weeks, same issues as first stall and even though I know it will pass I am discouraged. But stalls come and go from what I hear, so we better get used to it. Just keep truckin' along and stay positive.

This is worth posting here... Here are some snippets from recent posts on the Too Much On Her Plate blog. Click the links to read more! There will be a place to share your comments, thoughts and ideas at the end of each post. 1. Podcast: Why Smart Women Struggle with Weight Loss Last week, my friend Scott Tousignant invited me to record a podcast for his blog. The topic was Why Smart Women Struggle with Weight Loss. We covered a lot of important material, including emotional eating, tips for helping busy women trying to manage their weight while juggling everyone else’s needs, and the mindsets that can sabotage weight loss attempts. If you have 20 minutes, I strongly recommend you take a listen. 2. What Could You Do in 100 Days? I received an email this morning alerting me to the fact that there are exactly 100 days left until the end of the year. What a great time to assess where we are with our health, our personal and professional goals, and to ask how we want to spend the final 100 days of 2009. Are there changes you would like to see with your eating, your weight, or your fitness? Would you like to readjust your life balance? How would you like to spend the next 100 days of your life? For many, the holidays—and all that comes with them—will be here before we know it. (Stay tuned, you’ll be hearing more from me about this.) What would you like to do differently this holiday season? 3. The Great Plate Experiment: Week 1 Week one of the plate downsizing experiment is officially over. We’ve moved the old tired chipped dishes out of our kitchen and are now eating off pristine, white 10-inch plates (9.75-inches actually), just like Brian Wansink recommends. As you may recall, the author of Mindless Eating and his team have done research on plate size and food intake and found that simply reducing your plate size from 12-inches to 10-inches could result in an 18 pound weight loss for the average American. I promised I’d report back in and I’m here to tell you that the results so far are promising. 4. Do You Have Time to Stop Overeating? Do you have the time to stop overeating? To take control of emotional eating? To get on track with your healthy lifestyle goals? Lately I’ve been encountering many women who tell me they don’t. I’ve been hearing from women who are incredibly frustrated with their eating habits, their weight gain, their lack of progress on important health goals. I’ve talked to women who fear their family history of diabetes or heart disease. I’ve talked to women who’ve even had weight loss surgery and are terrified because they are seeing the weight they’ve lost start to creep back. I’ve also talked with too many women who have put some aspect of their life “on hold” until they can start losing weight. Their struggles with food and emotional eating or overeating are something they think about every day. 5. Free Teleseminar: One Minute Plan for Dealing With Challenges How many times have you set a goal or started down a path towards change only to fall off track because life got too hectic, you got busy, and your plan fell off the radar?How often do you feel so busy that you aren’t even sure HOW to slow down? Do you sometimes feel you don’t even have time to think let alone create a plan for success? Slowing down is hard. Stopping and listening to yourself is hard. Being mindful of where you want to go is hard. What if I told you that there is a one minute plan that could start to make these things easier? I’m thrilled to be interviewing Stacey Mayo, The Dream Queen, and the creator of The One Minute Meditation™. on Thursday, September 17 (that's tomorrow!) Our Topic: The One Minute Plan for Dealing with Overwhelm, Stress and other Life and Business Challenges 6. Business Travel and Healthy Eating October will be a travel-rich month for me and I’ve been busy this morning firming up some travel plans. Booking an airline ticket is high on my list of “not fun” activities, as is the actual airline travel. Travel days seem to get longer and longer–and then there’s the food. Maybe it’s boredom, the stress of flying, or just being out of my routine, but I get hungry the minute I get on a plane. Without pre-planning, I’m likely to be stuck with unsatisfying junk food (or nothing at all). Does traveling tend to knock your healthy eating plans for a loop? 7. How to Make Time for Fitness “How do I create a fitness program that will last—when I’m time crunched, stressed, and overwhelmed?” This is a question I’m asked all the time: “How can I fit it all in? I know I should exercise regularly but I just don’t have the time/motivation/resources/energy to do it.” Consistent exercise is a big challenge for many women. Whether you are a busy professional, a solopreneur working from home, or you are home juggling the needs of small children, consistent exercise can be a difficult habit to start AND a challenge to maintain. 8. Is Night Eating Sabotaging Your Weight Loss? The after-dinner hours are a prime time for overeating, emotional eating, boredom eating, and eating out of tiredness. Not only do the calories add up, preliminary research may support the theory that our bodies actually put on more weight from calories eaten at night. 9. Personal Health Care Reform It’s mid- September. If you’ve been telling yourself all summer that you’re “waiting ‘til September” to take better care of yourself . . . you’ve just run out of excuses. 10. Tooting Our Own Horns I see it over and over again, and okay–I live it too. We may be smart, we may be strong, we may be very good (or think we are) at doing a million things at once, but most of us aren’t very good at giving ourselves credit (dare I say, indulging ourselves in our just desserts?).

It seems as though there are so many different protocols for pre and post diets with the lap band...would everyone like to type out your pre and post dietary requirements? ME: no weight gain from initial consult until surgery allowed...may cancel surgery if you gain weight. Clear liquid diet for the day before your surgery. Then 48 hours of clear liquids followed by 2 weeks of full liquids (yogurt, cottage cheese, cream soups made with skim plus, pudding). After the two weeks you get on to the mushie stage, but my dr. told my husband to just skip the mushie stage and move onto regular food. I don't know if he does that with all of his patients. Anyone else want to share? Rain

Mount Monadnock in Jaffrey, NH. Had hoped for an even nicer view, but weather conspired to keep it very cloudy in the morning and the summit was smack dab in the middle of the low-lying clouds. Last time I'd been up there was 26 years ago. I did not remember it being quite that much of a trek back then. My legs are still sore as heck. Up and down was a total of 2200 calories burned. And yet, I managed to gain 2.8lbs on this morning's weekly weigh in. Color me less than happy about that. First weight gain since February. Here's hoping things start moving in the right direction for next week!

Hi! 😀 Long time no see everyone! I don't post much, but I had to chime in and agree with this. I'm up 20 lbs from my lowest weight. At first I was scared. I mean, we've all lost weight, just to gain it all back again, right? But then, as @ms.sss said, I realized that I'm in control of this. I could IF, count my calories, and drop weight, it was totally within my power. Then I had a second realization. Not all weight gain is bad! I objectively look better at the top of a healthy BMI, at the bottom of an overweight BMI. My face looks my youthful. My arms and inner thighs lost most of their crepey-ness. My breast are bigger. I have thicker thighs and hips, and a juicier butt. Long story short, I'm glad I didn't panic at my weight gain. I loved seeing that low 120's number on the scale. But I'm glad I got over that, because it's more important what I see in the mirror.