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haha, yes! A magic wand is just what I need. I too never listened to the naysayers who warned the honeymoon would end. And to be totally honest, a lot of it is ME. The band is there, it does give restriction but my behaviours have overridden it a lot of the time. Unfilling really derailed me, and although my band has never been the same, neither have I. And I truly believe that the treatment and resulting menopause has played havoc with my metabolism, those sugar cravings came outta nowhere, and were SO strong. I lived on nothing but coffee and biscuits for the last part of 2011, until I went onto HRT and testosterone. That's when I regained all the lost "sick weight". Since then, I have struggled. The trouble is, people think after eight years banded and five years at a BMI below 21 that you're 'cured'. All of my specialists (not my lapband doc) have expressed the belief that I shoudlnt need it anymore. So have my family and friends. What they dont get is that my body has lived on 1500 calories or less a day for the last seven years. I cannot EVER eat what I shoudl be able to eat. With the help of the band, i have starved my body into a depressed metabolic state - that is what we are all doing and why weight loss is rarely permanent without weight loss surgery. It is insane that I can weigh 145lb by eating so little and exercising so much, i should be emaciated and skeletal. I eat way less than everyone I know. Life has to be a diet for EVER more to keep this weight away. I would not hesitate, not even for a second, to have a new band or revise to a different surgery - although my clinic does bands and bands only. That does not mean I could not go somewhere else, it would just cost me a lot as I am entitled to revision surgery with no out of pocket cost where I am. I dont regret the band for a second either. Afterall, hard as the last year or two have been, I'm still only 65kg. I have not regained weight and am close to the bottom of my healthy weight range. It just used to be so easy. But it would be way harder without my (not so well functioning) band. So I guess we struggle on and accept we were put on this earth with bodies that want to be cuddly and it is just our lot to work hard to be the way we want. I dont really know many people that can absolutely eat what they want and not exercise and stay thin into middle and old age. The ones I actually envy are my myriad of friends who are fat and happy, live the way they want, dont beat themselves up over their weight, see it as normal. yes, they are prone to certain health problems, but I have seriously created a mental monster for myself over this. I cant tolerate a 2lb weight gain without feeling disgusting,fat, disappointed in myself. I restrict my eating every single day, i exercise like a fiend, its a pretty hard job. In a lot of ways I wish I just didnt care. But I would even choose to live with heartburn than be fat again. Sad but true.

Glad to hear it was just a question that your husband asked. There are too many stories on this board of people not doing what their Dr advised and then ending up in real trouble. Don't worry about the weight gain after surgery as that is very common due to Water retention. If you follow the plan it will disapear just like the rest of you. Many people don't even begin to lose weight until after their first fill. I managed to stay steady for the first month and got huge congradulations from my Dr. Good luck to you.

"my nutritionist said it is the number 1 reason for re-weight gain after weight-loss surgery." I would love to see some research to back this up.

Wow, in reading the replies there ARE a lot of different times. My Doc / Bariatric Center said it was 15 and 30. They said for gastric bypass it was 30 and 30. I would just go with your doctors recommendation though. I would take it seriously though, because my nutritionist said it is the number 1 reason for re-weight gain after weight-loss surgery. Best of luck!

I want to preface this that I am not an expert, but I also didn't notice how much water/liquids you are currently consuming. I know that if you don't get enough water in, that you will retain it until you have enough. If you are eating the proper calories which it sounds like, you wouldn't be gaining actual weight. Are you working out more? If so, then you might also be gaining muscle. I hope this helps but that is all that I can come up with. If you do continue with this weight gain problem, then checking with you dietician/surgeon may be a good idea as well.

So I'm in the Options program with Kaiser and I'm just over a month into the six months of classes that they require of you in San Diego. I thought that by the time I was starting the class that I would be super focused on weight loss and going strong towards the 10% weight loss that Kaiser requires before having surgery. I even bought a fitbit to track my calories, but I returned it because I was doing better tracking everything through the site I was using in the first place. I know that I still have tons of time to lose that, but I don't know why the classes are so discouraging. I thought I would be getting good info on how to prep for surgery and what to expect after (I'm sure they will get to some of that at some point) but over a month in and I don't feel like I'm getting anything from the classes, so I'm just not amped about weight loss. Some of the people are in fact driving me nuts!! How can you say that you have tried EVERYTHING to lose weight but you don't realize that you can't eat grits with butter and bacon every morning and still lose weight?!?! Really!! So I'm letting it effect me in a negative way. I've definitely got that "I need to eat this while i still can" mentality and I've actually gained weight. I guess Im kinda just venting and looking for advice. I know what I need to do, It just seems that I can't get it started and the weight gain I've had in the past weeks is making me feel worse. Thanks for any thoughts!!

Sometimes the stress can add to your weight gain. I was told I had to give up my lemonade and almost fell out of my chair. I haven't switched to the crystal light yet (it's been six months). Maybe you can try limiting to 1-2 a day for a while and slowly wean off of them? Believe me I know it's hard giving up some of the things you have become comfortable with (for years). Don't get discouraged, it will happen. Now when I look in the mirror I tell myself "I'm done looking like this". I made Cookies for us yesterday and I threw them away. YES, threw them away. I have NEVER done that. Mentally I am just DONE with being big. I was nowhere near this state month’s back. I was not motivated and I was discouraged. Just take it day by day and try to find something new that helps curb your hunger. Good luck to you!

Hello. I'm new here. I'm going from band to bypass. Band removal is scheduled for April 25th. I have to wait 3 months and then revision to gastric bypass. I'm looking forward to this. The band has slipped and GERD is really bad now. My highest weight was 340. My lowest weight was 280 before additional diabetes medications caused some weight gain. I've been lurking on the forums for awhile and just wanted to say Hi.

Actually the trauma from childhood was something different, my parents were killed several years ago while I was an adult..but that's beside the point..but just wanted to clear that up. Shirley, you made alot of sense and you're probably right. I just didn't feel like I should lie, it's not in my character. I did want to make sure I was making the right choices and answering all questions as honest as possible. I was under the impression they would help me through everything and that any tests wouldn't rule out surgery but help them to help me???? The psych knew most of my weight gain was because I quit smoking 8 years ago (35 pound gain) then I developed a rare autoimmune disease and was on steroid treatment for a long time and gained 70 more. So why he felt my past trajedies were related, I'm not sure. I do want to have the right mind set, therefore the therapy. I just still have issues with the fact that I haven't met my surgeon who should have already followed up with me about the procedure I had that will determine if I even get to have lapband or not and they won't return my calls. I think that's unprofessional and makes me wonder what my follow up care would be like.

Hello I am five days out from gastric by pass surgery and went in at 249 and after surgery I was up to 267. I am now back down to 259. It takes me four hours to get down a protein shake at a time and I sip juice other wise. Anyone know if this is just fluid weight from the surgery and if so how long before I am at least where I started. Signed, Frustrated

I was banded Mar 11, I take several meds for bipolar disorder. So far everything has worked for me. I've lose 15lbs. Which is great because I attribute a lot of my weight gain to the meds. Don't be afraid, stay on top of what your body is telling you..Good luck..

I echo all the above posters' comments. Remember: our goal is to keep our bands for life, which means respecting them. I suspect much of the failure rates for lapbands are due to keeping them too tight. But I understand your fear. I'm now up 2 pounds from the day I had my partial unfill; that's one pound a week. I'm hoping this is just the normal thing happening when you drop a lot of weight under abnormal circumstances (you know, like when you have the stomach flu and are thrilled to see you lost 5 pounds...5 pounds which comes back on once you return to your normally-scheduled program). I know that I lost around 5 pounds in the two week period my stoma had closed up, so I guess this weight gain is just the rebound of that. I know I'm sticking to my usual diet, although with larger portions because I'm hungry all the time. I'm still not touching any of the stuff I stopped eating the day I got banded: bread, Pasta, white carbs in general. My goal is to maintain my loss until I get my band filled back to my optimal level. I'm freaked out by this gain, but watching things closely because I sense this will even itself out and I'll maintain the weight I was at before this little complication set in. But I wouldn't be honest if I didn't say I really really miss having my band at the proper fill level. I am very depressed being back in the dieter's mentality of always thinking about food.

Hello everyone.. I’m new to this group... I had a upper GI the end of April and my EGD this past Thursday.. I’m going back to the doctor on 5/22/19to discuss my next options. I had a sleeve done 8/2013 and of course like I have read there has been weight gain and reflux and sleep apnea. I am still on blood pressure meds and my CW is 227... wondering if this process will be the same as before? Is it a harder recovery? Will I loose a significant amount of weight? I do have BCBS insurance..Just wondering what to expect...Any feed back is welcomed.

Hello all, I had the lap band done in august 2009. I was given 8 hours to recover and discharged..this from a "center of excellence"...well i was given liquis roxicet...and no other instuctions as to my other meds i should take. I went through withdrawl from my pain meds since i have polymyositis...i couldnt beleive it! Less than 2 weeks later i was at a camping site having my family wait on me hand and foot...just enjoying it...then outta no where...POP...N PAIN LIKE U WOULDNT BELEIVE!!! my beely looked like i was carrying sextuplets...it was shiney and purple from the distention...911 was called...2 ambulance rides..and enough pain meds to bring down a horse (as the paramedic said) i was still in so much pain i went into shock! I should have known that this journey would be hell for me. I was told by my dr that he found nothing unusual....SERIOUSLY!!! whey DID I WAKE UP IN ICU 2 DAYS LATER, WITH A NASO GASTRIC TUBE AND ALL TYPES OF DRAINAGE TUBES..PIC LINE 2 IV'S???? After that my hell began...first cpl of months where ok besides the sliming and vomiting... i lost 123 lbs in total...but i paid the price...i laid on the couch to weak and in too much pain tp do anything but vomit up even Water..my hair was falling out in clumps...i had rashes all over my body..dark bags under my eyes..then it got scary...i started to pass out and have seizures. my dr told me all my blood work was fine and i needed to eat more SO I COULD ABSORB THE NUTRIENTS!well if my labs where fine then why would i need to eat ( and vomit) more for the nutrients?! finally my husband had it...took me to mass general...was told it was not "in my head" and yes i was hyper sensitive since i was having a severe allergic reaction to the band...and it should have never been put in since i have an auto immune disease!! Mass general contacted my doc and i was in later that week to haver it out...so needless to say 6 abdominal surgeries later and countless tests in a lil wary. since my band was removed i have gained 90 lbs back in the first 6 months.. diabetes and high blood pressure is back...and not to mention the pain i suffer from all this weight gain, i have wanted to get the vertical sleeve now since the removal..(and i wasnt about to let that dr do the revision after the removal). Thank you for the website and stories...this makes me more at ease with my decision to move foward..did anyone else have a horrific outcome like this? i mean i researched the center and the doc..i am in health care so i knew his reputation in the community...i guess i got him on his bad days...sigh..again ty for the time and place to vent!...GOD BLESS...AND GOOD LUCK ON YOUR JOURNIES!

I, too, have breast cancer. I was diagnosed with stage 1 (9mm tumor) N0, M0, T1 in 2002. I had a lumpectomy and a sentinel node biopsy. The nodes were clear. I had radiation (no chemo) and started on tamoxifen until my hysterectomy in 2003 when I was switched to femara. I have been on it since and my yearly mammograms have been fine so far. But being a glass half empty kind of person, I am always waiting for the other shoe to drop. I am so sorry that you have to go through with this all over again. Although we don't wish this on anyone, don't you feel like saying. Not me again - isn't it someone else's turn? What was the stage of your original breast cancer? Was it ER+/PR+? Were you on tamoxifen, arimidex or femara? Do you have a family history of breast cancer? I was not tested for BRC1 or BRC2. I do not have a family history of it. I was treated at a leading women's hospital and state of the art cancer treatment center. They weren't doing genetic testing on a routine basis then. I believe my 100+ lb. weight gain in adulthood contributed to my breast cancer. No one who hasn't gone through this process can know how enormously stressful it all is - starting with the yearly mammograms and waiting for all the subsequent test results - not to mention all the pain of surgery and the side effects of radiation and chemo. Just know that there are others out here who have been through it and I wish you the best in terms of diagnosis, surgery, recovery and the rest of your life. Good luck to you.

I'm so sorry you're having to face this for a second time. Its such a huge emotional hurdle to get over the first time, and my fear was always living with the shadow of cancer for the rest of my life. I havent had breast cancer but last August was diagnosed with rectal cancer. It seems nuts, but my hugest fears were to do with losing control of my healthy lifestyle - my eating and my running and exercise. I thought I was going to lose all I had worked so hard for. As it turned out, my excellent fitness has made a surgery possible that the next person would not be able to have. I was able to have my entire rectum and about 1/3 of my colon removed - laparascopically if you can believe it!! - with a few teeny scars, my caesar scar was the main access and I already had that. I've got a stoma for now so there'll be a scar there when that's reversed. The surgery was easy, thorough and with good margins because I have not got a pelvis full of fat. There was absolutely NO live cells left at surgery after the chemo and radiation I had and the radiation oncologist told me again, its a much easier job to target the tumour exactly in a thin person. Because of that, I didnt have the side effects normally seen with pelvic radiation - diarrhoea and skin issues - but it did put an end to my childbearing days. As it turned out, I first went for a run a mere 10 days after a super low anterior resection, so I have pretty much maintained my fitness regime seamlessly. I've butted heads with the stoma nurse and nutrionist regarding the appropriate diet for an ostomate, I refuse point blank to eat a stodgy white carb diet liek they want me to so I pretty much live with constant diarrhoea and this may have to changhe if I want any success with the rve4rsal, something that is making me extremely anxious. I was devastated at 6the thought of wearing a bag, but you know, if this was for life, it wouldnt phase me now, I dont even think about it, until I fart loudly in public - something I cant control because it now comes out of an opening with no muscles! Chemo for me has been 5FU which does not cause weight gain, so I've got the problem of having lost a lot of weight i never needed to lose. That avatar pic of me up there, that's now a "fat" picture. I'm extremely glad I've got a band that could be unfilled, so I can eventually gain some back and truth be told, I'm having so little trouble sticking to a healthy lifestyle that I dont know that I wever WILL fill it again. Why live that resdtricted lifestyle if you dont need to? My nutrition is way better and I need that for now. I've just started chemo again, 20 weeks of it as a mop up, ust in case and this time I feel like crap. But I am still running! I knw how you feel about going back to square one, but although its taken courage an determination, and not a little willpower on my worst days, I have maintained what I worked so hard for - my healthy lifestyle. Everyone, surgeon, oncolo9gist, friends, family, tell me to take it easy but keeping up with my routines makes me feel normal andl ike this horrible disease will not get one second more of my life that it has had. I believe that whilst we cannot control cancer, we do have some say in what it does to our lives. I wish you the very best.

I do not drink thru a straw, I take my prilosec without fail and I was doing so so so good up until now! I hope this is just really bad gas? I hope someone else has had something similar and I'm just worrying for no reason. I am using the restroom fine, drinking fine, not dealing with hunger issues, have even felt more energy. I just don't understand what this is and how I can fix it. Maybe I just needed to vent, maybe I'm pmsing really bad as I'm due to start this week and this is my first period since surgery? I'm on the pill, and I'm very regulated. I'm just really uncomfortable and trying not to work myself up. I had the lapband since 2007 until my revision and this past year was horrible for me with weight gain and vomiting and even constant nausea the three months prior to my revision. I have been so happy to be rid of the nausea, now this. What can I do to try to alleviate gas, so I can see if that's what this is? It just doesn't feel like gas would, at least before. I am just so dang bloated up.

Up till 1 week ago i was steadily losing every day. At 4 weeks i was cleared for solids and has seen my weight go up! In 1 week i have put on almost 2lbs could this be because i am eating solids? I can 2 bites of chicken breast, cheese and yoghurt. I am getting in 1 litre of water. Think i will go back to protein shakes and water reluctantly to see if this pushes the scales back down. Did anybody else experience weight gain after solids?

I'm with you ladies!!! I was operated on November 12, my surgery weight was 230... when I was released from the hospital 2 days later I weighted myself and I was at 240 A weight gain of 10 pounds, but I figured it had to be all the IV that was given to me, also the swelling and keep in mind that a lot of us don't have bowel movements right away (TMI): In fact I was constipated probably 5 days before my surgery... but today is day 9... I checked my weight and I'm at 227 - sounds awesome but have you have remember I gained 10 pounds...so in really I'm down 3 pounds... but it's okay it will start to come off!!!!

I am 6 days out from surgery, and have been loosing about a pound a day. Until this morning, I weighed myself this morning and was +1.3 pounds. Is this normal? I know your body can fluctuate weight daily, but still a pound and a half gained??

I had a stall from hell that just stopped (2 months). It started about 3 months out from surgery. I take a bunch of meds very similar to yours. But they don't help in the weight loss. Some cause weight gain, wanting to eat more, etc.. blah, blah, blah, you know all of this. Its a further challenge for us then what others may have in the weight loss process. It seems harder with mental illness as the stress of "WTF did I do to cause this" start to jack hammer my brain, but it was just a stall and nothing I could do about it. I did a lot of food adjustments such as decrease calories, increased calories, I increased my exercise, riding my bike twice a day. The exercise didn't help with weight loss during the stall but I felt better as it helped with some of the stress. I would just suggest to focused on other things. The weight will start to drop off. Only thing I can say is what others told me. Hang in there, its just a stall and it will pass. Your body is losing weight and sometimes has to stop to readjust. Your not alone in this. Many of us have been there before and you should start to lose again when your body is ready. Feel free to reach out if you ever want to chat.

HA!!!! Not to mention the fat redistribution, severe mood swings, hair loss (well, it moves to other areas), and then the joys of coming down off steriods. That is the point the weight gain restarts. Of course, it all depends on which illegal drug he refers to. Bad stuff.

Just curious -- I gained almost 20 lbs from surgery. It sucks. When do you finally lose the Water weight from all the IV fluids? I guess that's what this weight is. Tomorrow is day 5. I can now relate to people who are scared this won't work for them. i am seeing AGAIN the same pre-op weight I've looked at for 8 months. Sigh. It's haunting me.

Same here! I've been pushing myself at the gym a little harder as of late. I was surprised to see the scale move up a few pounds. I tested my body fat and measured my waist size and they both dropped very nicely. You can increase your muscle, which will increase your weight slightly. This type of weight gain is healthy and awesome

Gosh, some people love to judge, offer unwanted advice, trombone their own opinions ..... To hell with them. Opinions are Not facts, and I usually stay clear from super judgemental people as they really annoy me. "Thank you", "Thanks for sharing", "I do not wish to discuss it", even "so you think you are God?" are some of my answers. I mainly copped few judgements (not from friends or family) when I had a rapid weight gain due to my thyroid disease. Such as " OMG, you need to get back to your size, need to go to Gym, need to diet" etc .... Consequently, I do not see these people anymore. Now, I look forward to get back to health and slimmer me. Frankly, this is my business, and if anyone would keep on annoying me, I'd quickly nip it in the bud. "What you think of me is None of My business", is a title of a book. I've even said it to some people, and watched their brains doing cartwheels, trying to process it .....