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I have lost weight, gained it back, lost it again, gained it back etc many times. WHen I was skinny I would find some of the best clothes and I always refused to throw them away. Even when I got to my low weight when I could wear those clothes and they still didn't fit I kept them. Now I am at a lower weight then when the clothes used to fit me and now they are too big. It makes me feel great to look at myself in those clothes and remember all the frustration I used to feel towards them because now I love them so much more because they are now too big. I would keep the those clothes and have them as motivation. Then when you are too small for the clothes you can have a good laugh at all the anger you had towards them

Jennifer, Thanks for the heads up on the weight gaining. I am a scale geek...weigh myself daily. I know it's bad, but I can't help myself. I am getting banded at Highland Park Hospital by Dr. Denham. Where did you get banded?

Weight gain.. My husband gained 4pds I gained 17.. Still don't get it.. We both did it together he ate more than I did.. I can't blame no one but me.I've been going thru stress & have been taking Phentermine for the past 3yrs and once I got off it it all went down from there.

Hello MsPris, thanks for the info on the weight gain. I sure was freakin out about that! Good luck on yours girl!!!

Hi! Hope to be banded soon, but funny you should mention the weight gain. Last evening I attended the required Support Group meeting and one of the surgical nurses, spoke about just that. She said, she'd seen people weigh as much as 20 lbs. more than the day of the surgery. The reason - all the IV fluids they give you. Not to worry she said. Hope that puts your mind at ease. Congrats! Feel Better! ...and good luck!

Oh thank you so much for getting back quick Grace!!!! & what a GREAT experience! I didnt think fill centers used fluoro so wooohooo & double woohoo highland is much closer than salt lake for me! (in fact I work in american fork lol) im much more excited about going now! What did he say about weight gain? I contacted my surgeons office (the nut) & she said its quite normal but obviously its not! I also have a 9.75 band so I hope they are just as good at filling it! (heck now im considering canceling my trip to mexico & just doing the fill here!)

Congrats girl :-) Now you are gonna feel like crap for a few days, but not too long! So just be prepared for that. Dr. Almanza rocks! I had my sleeve with him 03/18/11 and everything has been going good and getting better each day. My story was the same as yours except I couldn't blame my initial weight gain on birth control LOL. I gained a significant amount of weight soon out of high school and once I gained some more with the birth of my first son......it has been a roller coaster ever since. Struggling in the 200's for so long and with my third son who is 3 months old, I got way up into the 300's!!! After that, I'd had enough!! Schedule my surgery when my son was one month old and went when he was two months......I mean I wasn't wasting anymore time or life for that matter. So I know how much of a nightmare it can be. Good luck and keep us posted. :-)

I've been banded for 4 years next month. I have a 10cc band. I lost all my weight in the 1st year and kept it off until recently. I started at 256lbs and made it down to 152 and fit comfortably in a size 6/8 for the past three years at 4.2 cc's. I slowly started having band issues over the past year. Pb's, acid reflux at night, and about a 10 lb weight gain over time. I had my doctor do a slight unfill (.25cc's). This helped my reflux for a short time, but it came back. I tried not eating after 6pm, propping up on pillows to sleep, but no matter how small the meal, my pouch was stretched and it would just sit in there and come back up when I laid down at night. My pouch had stretched over time and I didn't even know it. I didn't stuff food down my throat and sit there in agony until my pouch stretched day after day. It wasn't like that at all! Like other bandsters, sometimes I eat and am comfortable, other times not. My doctor said this is something fairly common when you've been banded for a while and that every now and then I would need a "reset". An unfill for 4-6 weeks, then slowly filling again. I had a complete unfill 2 months ago, then a 2cc fill about 3 weeks ago. I'm going in for another fill next week. In this time I've gained 13lbs. It's been hard for this "foodie" to not have restriction during the holidays. I have the lap band for a very good reason. I'm looking forward to getting back to where I feel restriction again so I can drop this weight I've gained. My doctor recommended doing this once a year to keep things in check. Hopefully this helps your curiosity about pouch stretching.

In order to gain 1 pound you have to consume 3500 extra calories, so to have a "true" weight gain of 5 pounds you would have had to consume an extra 17, 500 calories above your suggested daily intake in the last week. Since that really isn't feasible don't stress out. Your body is going through a lot. It isn't unusual for the scale to fluctuate when you start back to normal foods, your body is trying to figure our what is going on. Just continue to follow the rules and don't have a glass anywhere near you at mealtime. This has been an easy one for me but we all struggle with different things (mine is getting enough water). The scale will move in the right direction, just give your body some time to work through all this. In the meantime eat healthy foods and reasonable amounts (whatever your doctor suggested). I experienced the same thing prior to my first fill. For me, I had to stay away from the scale and weigh only once a week. We have so much fluctuation day to day that the ups and downs drove me crazy and caused too much doubt in myself and what I had gone through - so do what is best for you about the scale. HTH!

I hope you are seeing a therapist....therapy can really help the root of depression and CBT cognitive behavioral therapy van work even better then meds or with meds have the best efficacy. My hope is that you won't have to stay on abilify or maybe try another one that doesn't cause weight gain because sometimes they don't cause that side effect. I was on abilify before and have been to many dark places you mentioned. I was misdiagnosed with depression for many years but recently found out I have bipolar l. Anyways, exercise helps the mood as well as weight loss so I encourage that but therapy number one and don't give up. Keep a weekly gratitude journal... sounds cheesy I know bit it helps to keep you appreciating life and open to positive possibility

Thanks for all the input. I agree about cookies not needing to be in the house. It was probably the first time in several months that they were here. It was just a "red light" for me and I wanted to know how other parents handle their children. Even things like just getting another serving of food at dinner or eating again a couple of hours after dinner is an issue for my daughter. Take my son out of the picture. What does everyone think about training kids to eat responsibly and healthy? I know that being a role model is important. I'm really trying to be that for her. We keep healthy foods in the house, but too many calories from healthy food can cause weight gain, too. I just don't know how far to push it without causing lifelong emotional problems. Many of us here probably know what it's like to be a heavy child. It's not fun and we all want to spare our kids that. Do I constantly tell her no, even if it's healthy food? Do I set up very specific eating times? I'm just so torn about this issue. Angie

Every good story starts like this "Well, you see, what had happened was... If only weight loss and gain,and loss and gain, and ..well you get it, was such an easy story to tell! So for me what happened was life. You see, I'm a southern girl. To say that food is a big part of my life is an understatement. I consider myself an eastern North Carolina BBQ expert! I have driven across the state of North Carolina charting my course around the best BBQ restaurants in the state more than once! My mother could out-cook Paula Deen any day (now that's the truth!) My grandmothers probably created every recipe in the Southern Living cookbook collection! Genetically, I am pre-programed to cook (and eat) all that is delicious!!! When we have a pot luck at work everyone wants to know what I made- It's guaranteed to be good. Did I mention I make custom cakes "on the side"? People love my cooking! It's been a blessing and a curse all my life. I wasn't overweight in high school,but the potential was there! Like most women my weight gain began after having kids. I gained 75 pounds with baby #1, lost most of it fairly easily (I was only 20). Baby #2, I was more careful with that pregnancy, I exercised regularly and only gained 18 lbs! Lost my best friend to breast cancer a year later and ate my weight in "friendship bread" (a delicious cake for those who aren't familiar with friendship bread, make sure you NEVER eat it!!) over the next few months - From September to January I had gained 60 pounds!!! I woke up one morning (literally) and looked at myself in the mirror and didn't know it was me. I was actually startled when I saw myself that day. I decided I had to do something, so I just started walking. Everyday I walked at least a mile or two, slowly I began to jog and then run. I lost 65 pounds over the next year. I ate nothing white- no sugar, no white flour, white pasta, white rice, white bread. If it was white or prepackaged I didn't touch it. I lived like this for about 4 years. If I would slip off my program, I would quickly catch myself and get back on track. I exercised daily , sometimes twice a day. No cake at birthday parties, no splurging during the holiday's, I stayed on a tight leash. At my smallest I was still overweight by 15-20 pounds. I was happy enough with my fitness level, my size and weight but I had to follow my program to a "T". If I slipped I could gain 5 pounds overnight. I got pregnant with baby #3 at 29 years old. I gained too much weight (60 lbs), and it was so much harder to lose than it was when I had my first two babies. I had so much pain in my feet I could hardly walk some days. Found out I had plantar fasciitis in both feet- OUCH! I needed to exercise, but my feet hurt so bad I couldn't, so I didn't. I slowly began slipping back into bad eating habits. For me sugar is the devil, so are carbs- love that white stuff!! Once I start I can't quit, it's like crack! lol!! I didn't want to go back "there" again so I once again tried to get back on track.I took almost a year. I went back to my program, started exercising again. I was feeling great again. I went through a few changes in my career over the next few years, finally going to work for the government in 2008. I was excited about the new job, but had no idea how much different sitting a desk would be. I had never worked a desk job before. Over the last three years my weight has steadily increased. I have gained over 50 lbs. in the last 3 years. I was already overweight when I started there, I've tried to control it but it has gotten so far out of control it's not even funny. In the last three years I have: begun taking two blood pressure pills daily, sleeping pills for my insomnia, prilosec for my reflux, naproxen for my other aches and pains and I can't tie my shoes with out cutting of my oxygen supply! I have to stop in between flights of stairs, I am chapped and chaffed in places I shouldn't be, even my rolls now have rolls. I've taken diet pills, every fad diet there is, spent hundreds (maybe thousands) on pills, supplements, exercise equipment and DVD workouts. Well, I just can't do it anymore. I can't wake up at 4 am, dirve the van for the van pool, work all day for some arrogant SOB, make dinner for my family when I get home at 5pm. Clean up ,check homework, take care of a house and give my husband and my kids the attention they deserve. Food has become my comfort,even though it is the cause of my misery. I'm sick of having no energy, no drive and no interest. I am tired of being tired and I want to be myself again. I have set a terrible example for my sons and I've finally decided that enough is enough! So.....on July 29th (just 12 days from today!) I am having VSG! I know it will be hard , but it will be worth it to have my life back. Some people won't understand, some will think I took the easy way out, some may even be jealous. i just don't have time to care about what anyone may think about my decision. Either they will support me or they wont. Please, wish me luck as I do the rest of you. I need all the support I can get, especially at those family gatherings with my own "Paula" and her fabulous meals! I think her feelings are gonna' be hurt when I can't eat her cookin' any more! She'll just have to get over it now won't she?

I've just had major abdominal surgery for rectal cancer with my lapband in place, that involved removal of a good deal of bowel and rectum and creation of an ileostomy. I've had a bowel obstruction since, and still my lapband is just fine. If its in there and well healed (as it would be after a year and a half) then a competent surgeon can work around it. I was extremely lucky that my colorectal surgeon had started his career with lapbands and by pure chance, workign with my lapband surgeon, but its not an insurmountable problem. I now have to eat a diet that's quite high in white bread, rice and Pasta and as such I am unfilled, there was no need to remove the band at all. Its there in the future when my stoma is reversed if I need to refill it, I will, but so far have had no weight gain. I've had chemo and radiation prior to surgery and am now having chemo again. of course it makes me sick, and of course sometimes I do get so nauseous that I vomit, I've got chronic diarrhoea and due to having my intestines exit before my colon, I am probably not absorbing the nutrients from a lot of what I eat. Both my surgeon and oncologist are on my back about my weight, but even through all this, I am eating well with an unfilled band and have enough energy to run and go to the gym. However, my band wasnt unfilled until right before my surgery, I got through a round of chemo and radiation with the fill in place. It can be done in seconds, at any time, so dont necessarily rush off and unfill if that's not what he wants to do. I feel for your husband, it really is the cruelest blow to reclaim your life and your health, to achieve a lifelong goal of weightloss only to have something like this happen, to make you think you might lose it all. But it really does not have to be that way.

I have always been a little confused by the information regarding coffee from a few posters here, the information in the uk from my surgeon is that coffee is fine. It certainly is regarded as more of a small help to weight loss than a hinderance in the UK. I found a good article including info from the Mayo clinic which i hope will help some of you ............ The idea that drinking coffee can keep you from getting hungry and aid in losing weight is a common one, and it may be true to an extent. As you might expect, there is more to it than that. While there is some evidence to suggest that drinking coffee will ward off hunger, there is also evidence that a weight-loss plan based around excessive coffee drinking could be misguided.Related Searches: Side Effects of Coffee Coffee and Tea Appetite Suppressant Yes, coffee is a natural appetite suppressant to a certain extent, because of its caffeine content. According to the Mayo Clinic, caffeine may reduce your desire to eat for a brief time, but there is not enough evidence to state that long-term consumption will help with weight loss. When hunger strikes, coffee can come to rescue for the moment. Naturalstrongappetitesuppressants.com says that one way to stop hunger, and keep it at bay for three hours, is to eat a handful (no more than 10) of peanuts and chase them with a few sips of coffee. This combination is said to nullify hunger within minutes. However, eating a comparable 30-calorie snack of any kind may stop hunger just as well if you give it a few minutes for the signal to be relayed to your brain. How much longer the caffeine in coffee will stop hunger is the key question, and the results may vary for different people. Coffee and Weight Loss In addition to the beverage's potential ability to control hunger, there are a couple of reasons why coffee may be effective in jumpstarting a weight-loss plan. Caffeine night stimulate thermogenesis, according the Mayo Clinic. Thermogenesis is a way the body produces heat and energy by digesting food and "burning" calories. Coffee also acts as a diuretic, which may cause some people to urinate more frequently and at higher volumes. This process will eliminate Water weight from the body, and could seem to indicate quick weight loss. However, the loss does not indicate a reduction in fat deposits, and metabolic processes can be stressed by functional dehydration. Side Effects Too much coffee or other heavily caffeinated beverages can lead to nervousness, restlessness and insomnia, and while black coffee may be effective for short-term appetite control, specialty coffees with high fat and sugar content are likely cause weight gain. Read more: Does Coffee Suppress Your Appetite? | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/way_5404063_coffee-suppress-appetite.html#ixzz1eyqqgonh

Alright ladies I need your help! Guys feel free to chime in too if you like! But seriously I have been consuming around 500-800 calories a day! I gained 4 lbs in a week! How? Do u gain weight before your menstrual cycle? I have done great I'm 7 weeks out! But wth? I am needing some advice & support! I work out 3 times a week! Ughh

So, TMI question, but is it your time of the month? That can often lead to not only additional Fluid, but also fluid retention. Also I find that if I eat Soup, popcorn, or something extra salty, it has a lot of sodium which inevitably causes me to gain at least a pound or two the day after. Also, if I do a heavy lifting session, my muscles are swollen and I gain weight the next day purely from Water, as opposed to having actually gained any muscle weight. This is why I weigh myself every single day because I know exactly where my weight should be and if for some reason I gain, I can immediately start on the path to fixing it. I also can look back (I have written my weight down everyday) and I can see that, ok I gained 3 pounds one day, but it was gone a few days later, or ooh that was a long stall but not nearly as long as I thought. Don't freak out over a weight gain if it only lasts a day or two- sometimes our bodies inexplicably retain water and naturally process it out.

And by terrified I mean a constant, all consuming anxiety coupled with assumptions of weight gain and failure.

You must stay strictly on your liquid diet so you shrink your liver. My dr had an allowance of 5lbs weight gain during the 6 months pre-op phase but again every dr is different. If you are disciplined on the liquid diet and only have what is allowed you should be fine. I dropped weight quickly on it.

I wish I knew . . . . . . some Protein shakes can taste horrible. I should have gotten a sample before I bought a very expensive barrel sized canister of Protein shake that has been gathering dust in my kitchen closet for six months now. . . . ready to drink Isopure clear shakes were tolerable to drink and helpful for protein intake directly after surgery since they fit in as a clear protein. . . . I did not realize logging all calories and protein on fitday.com would be so helpful during the early days. . . . I thought the journey really started when I was banded, but the help did not really come until after my second fill. I did not have realistic expectations of the unfilled portion in the early days where you are soooo hungry but can not eat anything much. I also did not realize that so many people had weightloss stalls (or some even gain)at this point. . . . I did not realize that weight loss comes in fits and starts. It was only easy and steady directly after surgery during the liquid phases. In general for me it looked more like this 202, 202, 201, 198, 202, 199, 202, 200, 199, 199, 198, 200, 198. I now have a rule that I don't change a ticker value unless I maintain a maximum weight for at least three days. . . . I didn't realize that plateaus can be easily broken if you know what to do, so I suffered a little more in the beginning than necessary. . . . I didn't realize that my TOM means an automatic weight gain(3-5 pounds in the beginning and 1-3 pounds now) that comes and goes in about a week. . . . I did not know that losing weight rapidly floods your body with hormones so that your TOM can be drastically worse than normal (not to mention that you can be verrrryyyy moody as well). However, six months out and I think I have stabilized somewhat. Perhaps the general tone sounds like complaints, but it is not. All of the good far, far, far outweighs the bad. If I listed all the good, I could go on for pages and pages. I love my band and I can not tell you how much better I look and feel at this stage of the game. Congratulations on selecting a most interesting journey and change in lifestyle.

That sounds so amazing!! That is how I want to feel!! I'm scheduled for surgery Oct 7 and I feel your joy in your words. I would like to know is it easy to gain weight back? If you can gain does that mean you need a fill? I read a lot about weight gain and I'm just trying to still to figure it all out. Thanks so much!! Keep up that great work you inspire me!

Hello Everyone : ( I am so sorry, I know what it’s like, not only to hear the words you have a leak but everything that leads up to it, the weight gain feeling like a failure the disappointments with each fill thinking this might be the one to restrict me, getting the lectures on what to eat and how to eat each time I went in, I was going in every 3 weeks for 5 months before they told me they thought I had a leak and it was confirmed on a port a gram, had to have a second surgery the do a port replacement. I finally reached my "Green Zone" 1 year and 4 months after my 1st surgery Its been a struggle but I have not given up yet, but I do feel you pain

I am 2 years post-op from RNY surgery. My weight is fairly stable. On a recent visit to my nutritionist, I asked her "Why do some people lose significant weight after WLS only to gain it back years later?" Her response was because of grazing. I agree with you that gaining 10 pounds over the last two months sounds like it is on the high side and is of concern. Make sure you are meeting your daily Protein, Fluid and Vitamin requirements. Are you taking any medications that have an adverse side effect of weight gain? What works for me is when I graze (snack); I graze on protein and fats. Fats have the power to take away hunger. Without hunger it is not difficult to maintain my weight. Since I am 2 years post-op, I have begun to introduce fats back in my diet. I drink whole milk and use real butter. I begin each day with a cup of coffee. I top it with heaping spoon of real whip cream. This is whip cream that I make. It has no processed sugar. I use Splenda instead. I also consume Adkin's treats, because it contains fats but not processed sugars. It works for me. But I also steer clear of any processed sugars in my food - period. I will use artificial sweeteners (such as Spenda and sugar alcohols), low calorie natural sweeteners (such as Stevia) and natural sugars found in fruits and milk. Last week I hit my lowest weight thus far - 149.0.

I am two years post op and I feel a lot of shame when it comes to my weight gain since surgery. I feel like I have failed and that once again food is winning and my waist line is losing. After weight loss surgery gaining weight is quite terrifying. I feel like I am slipping down a rabbit whole and the other side is all too familiar. There isn’t a single person that has weight loss surgery that doesn’t promise themselves that this will NEVER happen again, and for some of us it does happen. I suppose for me the first thing I need to do is stop punishing myself because that has never helped me gain control of my eating, the second thing is to take stock of why it has happened. For me that is very simple, I didn’t work on my head, I only worked on my body, I didn’t unfriend my toxic friend food! We are still in a dysfunctional relationship. The surgery limited my food intake, but it didn’t equip me with new coping mechanisms and unfortunately food still plays an important role in helping me relax, sooths me when I’m down, occupies me when I’m bored and helps me hide from the world when I don’t want to be seen. I have gained 15lbs since my surgery 2 years ago and some may even say that’s normal, but I know my eating is out of control. I have gained 10 lbs. in the last two months. For those of you that have been post –surgery for a long time, and have successfully maintained, how did you fix your head and your relationship with food?

Actually, my personal reason for gaining weight is that I am a 9/11 First Responder who is on massive amounts of medications and recently had an increase in steroids which increased my weight which was verified with my Pulmonary Doctor. That being said, Addicts are prone to relapses. Because somebody has a relapse does not mean they don't want to stay clean. The worse thing one can do, is insult and addict. If a person who falls off the wagon and somebody degrades them, chances are they won't try again. Statistics prove that 60 percent of people relapse. It has nothing to do with them not to want to stay away from their chosen addiction. I am a food addict. However, an increase of medication caused me to hold water weight which no amount of dieting would get off. I have two issues. Gaining 4 lbs when in the past 6 months I have been losing does not (in my case) mean I am not serious. One has to look at the reason for the weight gain. And yes. If a person over ate doesn't mean they aren't ready for the surgery. Addicts relape. A good doctor would find out why.

I am one of these folks who doesn't run to the Dr with every hang nail. My questions are can you eat food with no problem, could be you swelled after the fill , could be warm weather and that caused the reflux. I would give it a couple of days and see if it comes back. At your weight do you really need that much restriction to maintain your weight loss I can tell you acid reflux over time cause serious damage so if you are refluxing every night STOP. And all those meds are nasty and should not be nesesasary. After losing over 100 lbs you have learned how to eat 3lb weight gain could be water and compared to sleeping upright it sounds like a better trade off.