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After being overweight my entire life I decided to get the lap band in dec. 2012. I really wanted gastric sleeve surgery at the time, but my insurance didn't cover it and I felt bypass was "too extreme". My band never could get in the "green zone" and because I traveled for work, often times would be in horrible pain because due to cabin pressure the saline in my band would get tighter. I was miserable! After continually vomiting, uncontrollable acid reflux and weight gain I decided to switch surgical programs and seek new advice. My new doctor advised me on having a revision done and now my insurance approves the sleeve surgery. I thought about it a few months as I was hesitant with feeling like such a failure with the band. In fact I was quite open with my first surgery but people would say later "I thought you were supposed to lose lots of weight?". It just added to my feelings of failure and this round I'm being much more protective of who I talk to about it. I've not gotten a lot of support for my choice but hope by joining this group others will be able to understand my journey and share their own. I'm now going through the approval process and hope to get my sleeve at the end of June.

It sounds that, right now, your thinking is as great a problem as the injury, which is bad enough. Listen to your husband; he's smarter than he looks Healing comes first. Then you'll deal with whatever weight gain. You've lost weight before so you know you'll be able to do it again. If knitting is too difficult because it necessarily moves the arm you need to keep still, would crocheting be doable? If you don't know how, you probably know someone who can give you a lesson and company to occupy your mind. Start smoking again? No way. Long ago my late, beloved internist told me that, if losing weight and quitting cigarettes were too difficult to do simultaneously, it was more important to stop smoking first. There are lots of chair exercise videos online and probably available for loan from your public library. If your branch doesn't have any inhouse, they can get them for you on inter-library loan. Search on sparkpeople.com, livestrong.com and simply googling "chair exercise." Search "chair exercise" or "chair exerise dvd [or video] at the library's website. There is a series of videos called Chair Dancing which may be fun. In any case, you'll have more to do and you'll feel as though you're taking better care of yourself. You can modify any of the exercises that jar arm.

Hi All, Well as a very unhappy bander who had a sleeve surgery date (6/20) Passed nutritionist appt.. pysc evailuation, and was waiting to take the sleeve class tomorrow I received frustrating news today. First, I am self pay, I was self pay in 2008 when I had my band put in. Used the same Dr. here in VA who was to do my sleeve. The call I had today was to tell me that Blis, the co. for self pay catastrophic insurance ( part of my surgery fee now may not approve revision to the sleeve because of all the complications that can occur). My stats are below but I have kept off most all of the 85 lbs. (all but 12-15) in the 3 years I have had my band. Despite all the problems this band has given me. So my BMI is lower than someone who will be a new VSG patient. I have no major health issues, no diabeties, no history of clots, no HBP, I really am healthier than when I had the band surgery. The revisions my DR. has done from band to sleeve have all been paid by health insurance. They have not done a self pay revision. His results are good from what I can tell and he is a Blis participating DR. My question is have any of you had this issue? Scrapping up the $ again was no small feat but now to hear they may not approve it means I might have to sign away permission to pay any and all possible complication costs if he will still do the surgery. Or just have my band out and nothing further done, which scares me of further weight gain. Despite my constant gerd, esophageal spasms. and not being able to eat solid foods well, I need this restriction!

I am 47 and weigh 420lbs and 6 ft tall and have to many problems to list. I jump through my last ins. hoop wed the 25th ins. said they will fast track me so I get to skip the 6 month weight loss. I have done enough research to know i want the vsg and the nut was unable to tell me anything I did not know from this site. She told me one thing I had not read and that was not lieing down after you eat for a hour because of presure. I do not own a scale and do not plan on using one to reach a "goal" my goals are to be able to walk and get some exersise and play with my two young daughters as I really can not do much now without large quanities of pain med. I have had 4 back sur. and one knee scoped and this has stopped all activities that i enjoy. I went back to school and received a degree in Civil Engineering in 2009 so the desk job has added to the weight gain. My wife is completely behind this and has provided much support. I live in a small town in SD 3 hours from the nearest town with a support group so I may have to start my own.

I also had a debilitating back pain prior to surgery.. 4 pregnancies, 9 years as a gymnast, 6 years in cheer, massive weight gain after said pregnancies.. Also, my posture is terrible after the weight gain. My back didn't stop hurting when I got my RNY.. And it seems to be consistent with where it was before. If I stand up completely straight, my right side of my abdomen has a searing pain- so it's difficult to make adjustment.. Hope you figure out the problem, & you're able to fix it! Hopefully weight loss and exercise will aid.

First off, Thank you to all the well wishers. I didn't have that hard of a fight. I met 2 out of the three items for their criteria. I'm just glad I have finally been approved. I know my life is going to change for the healthier. As far as the weight gain goes, yes, I do have to gain back what I busted my butt to lose. And to answer the question yes it is for insurance. 43.9 is not the same as 45 as far as BMI is concerned in their book, so I need to maintain 45 or better. I will keep all of you posted, thanks again for the congrats and the well wishes!!! Mike

I had to stop my birth control pills a week before and was able to resume a week after surgery. Several years ago, I was on the depo shot. In addition to the actual cost of the drug, you will also need to make a doctor's appointment every three months to have a nurse give you the shot. They won't let you give it to yourself. When you pick up the prescription from the pharmacy, it will just be a vial, no syringe. It also has a known side effect of large weight gain, so be aware of that as well.

I decided to look into bariatric surgery a couple of years ago. I was always thin, until I hit about 40. Then I started to gain every year. I have Rheumatoid arthritis so my mobility is impacted,had a hysterectomy, arthritis meds can cause weight gain, etc, excuses, blah, blah, blah! But, I just turned 55; I have legal guardianship of my 10 yr old grandson who has some neurological issues. I am the only stability that kid has ever had and I decided that I needed to do something to make sure I was around for him for awhile yet. I also want to be able to do things with him. I didn't want him to someday be embarrassed when some kid asked him who was the fat, old lady. I'm 23 days out. I'm doing well. Surgery weight was 200, and I will go for my 1month post op in a few days. I think I'm gonna be a slow loser seeing as my BMI was a little lower to start with. But, that's okay. Like I said, I'm 55 and the skin doesn't bounce back like it used to. I just want to be able to go for bike rides, go swimming, etc. with my boy BEFORE he gets "too cool".

Recently an acquaintance told me about seeing an obese man on TV who claimed that bariatric surgery hadn’t worked for him. “How can it NOT work?!” Patsy exclaimed. There’s no simple answer to that question. In the past I’ve written about why weight loss surgery fails (read the article here: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/page/index.html/_/support/why-does-weight-loss-surgery-fail-r88). Today I’d like to revisit the topic and focus on how our expectations affect the perception of as well as the ultimate success or failure of WLS. BARIATRIC MYTHOLOGY Some powerful myths influence our beliefs about and expectations of WLS. An especially insidious one that affects both bariatric patients and the general public is that WLS is essentially magic, requiring little or no effort on the patient’s part to achieve the desired weight loss. Hence the infamous and heinous phrase: “Weight loss surgery is taking the easy way out.” This magic myth has a corollary one that purports that the weight lost as a result of bariatric surgery is weight lost forever, again without any effort on the part of the patient. Sorry, but that’s not true either. While the whole point of bariatric surgery is to make weight loss easier, it does not eliminate the need for hard work by the patient. No bariatric surgery can cure obesity, which is a chronic, recurring disease. That doesn’t mean that succeeding with WLS means you’re sentenced to a lifetime of hard labor, dragging heavy chains and digging ditches, but it does mean that in the long term a successful patient is one who takes responsibility for his or her eating behavior, weight management, and general health. Reading the paragraph above may serve to shatter some illusions that you held dear, but when would you rather face the truth: early in your journey, or later? Although I was once a bandster like you, I lost my beloved band and recently converted to vertical sleeve gastrectomy. I have to tell you that despite all my advance research and preparation, the reality of living with a sleeved stomach is giving me a bad case of buyer’s remorse, but there’s no going back now. Seventy-five percent of my stomach is gone forever, but living with what’s left and finding a way to eat and to manage my weight now is an ongoing challenge. And I’ve heard countless stories from all kinds of bariatric patients about the challenges they face after surgery. Anyone who promises you a completely sunny picture of the future is either mistaken or trying to avoid bursting your bubble. BAND MYTHS There are a number of myths related to the adjustable gastric band. One of them is that slower weight loss with the band will prevent sagging or excess skin, and that just ain’t so. A more dangerous myth, peculiar to bandsters, is that fills cause weight loss and unfills cause weight gain. While fluid adjustments are an important part of how the AGB works,the fluid is NOT what causes weight loss. In fact, there is absolutely nothing in any part of the band system (the band, the tubing, and the port) that causes weight loss. The band does not directly affect the way nutrients from food are ingested or metabolized. It releases no weight loss instructions into the patient’s bloodstream, nervous system, or endocrine system. It doesn’t directly affect the patient’s eating behavior or exercise habits. It doesn’t compel the patient to make good food choices, limit portion sizes, eat slowly, or resist the urge to graze or binge because of boredom, stress, cravings, etc. Weight loss results from eating fewer calories than you burn, and the band helps with that by reducing your appetite and causing early and prolonged satiety. Those features are related to the pressure of the band against the stomach and the consumption of solid food whose mechanical digestion triggers the vagus nerves in the upper stomach to send satiety signals to the brain. If the patient ignores those signals, the calories taken in may exceed the calories burned, slowing or preventing weight loss. And since weight is affected by many other factors entirely unrelated to the band (like medications, hormone imbalance, etc. etc.), all we can do is to concentrate on the ones that are within our control and understand that it’s a fallacy to attribute weight loss to the band or to fills. One harmful consequence of the fills=weight loss myth is that the patient seeks more and more fills in the quest for “perfect restriction” (also a myth) or the legendary (but also mythical) “sweet spot.” This patient tends to tolerate side effects and eating problems that can cause serious damage to them and their band because they’re so focused on finding that perfect but elusive fill level and believes (erroneously) that the more fluid in their band, the better. When you suggest to this person that they may actually need less, not more fluid in their band (so that they can eat healthy, solid food instead of not-so-healthy slider foods), they react with panic, so aren’t able to make a good decision and may not even be willing to tell their surgeon about the eating problems they experience. Please don’t read this article thinking that my purpose is to discourage you. I’m the eternal optimist who believes in self-fulfilling prophecies. If you’re determined to lose weight and work hard at it, you can indeed use your band to reach your weight goal. The key phrase in that sentence is “work hard at”. There’s just no getting around that, so if your expectation is that you’ll lose weight effortlessly, you’re probably going to be disappointed in your band, yourself, or both. Your band can assist your weight loss efforts by providing early and prolonged satiety, but it’s not going to make good food choices, control portion sizes, make you exercise, be vigilant with aftercare, win you cash and prizes, or turn you into America’s next top model. On the other hand, believing that you will succeed and working hard to learn and change what you need to in order to lose weight will greatly increase your chances of becoming a bariatric superstar. And when stardom comes from hard work, it is much, much sweeter and longer lasting than stardom that falls at random out of the sky!

It's not always stress/emotional eating or addictions that make you obese. People gain weight when they eat more calories than they burn through activity. This imbalance is the greatest contributor to weight gain. Other factors: poor nutrition education/misinformation Your location : Lack of access to healthy food choices Genetics/family history medical conditions medications life style and habits lack of activity/mobility issues Aggressive food marketing and availability of poor quality food. Even if you don't have the food addiction or stress/emotional eating. You still have to make changes to whatever got you to the point of having surgery. https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/adult/causes.html https://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/obesity/conditioninfo/cause

Weight loss surgery? Really? For me? Why? What’ll it cost me? Perhaps a better question is “What’ll it cost you if you don’t?” With today’s uncertain economy and rising healthcare costs, it’s normal to wonder if now is the time to consider the LAP-BAND® AP System. Extra weight on a person often goes hand in hand with extra financial burden. Obesity can have significant medical costs over time. Weight loss surgery can help reduce the cumulative cost of living with obesity: like weight loss programs, prescription medicine and hospital visits. Knowing this, you may want to consider these questions: What are your current out-of-pocket healthcare expenses? Are they due to go up? What are your current prescription and over-the-counter medication costs? Are they due to go up? How many times a year do you see a doctor or specialist? Has that gone up over time? How many days have you missed work over the past few years? Has that gone up? How much have you spent on non-surgical weight loss programs? (WeightWatchers®, Jenny Craig®, etc.) Did that work? How much have your costs for groceries and dining out gone up? How much have you spent on additional clothes due to your weight gain? Acting now by using the LAP-BAND® System to help you significantly reduce your weight — may also reduce your weight-related costs!

His name is Carter Lee and he was 20 1/2 inches long and weighed 8 pounds 9 ounces. When I found out I was pregnant, I was worried that I would have to be unfilled. But I talked to my doctor and she said she'll keep a close eye on him and how well he's growing and as long as he's growing fine, I wouldn't need to be unfilled. Obviously he grew just fine....he weighed almost 9 pounds and I delivered 2 weeks early!!! So thankfully I was able to keep my weight gain to a minimum. I squeezed (and I do mean squeezed) into a size 14 pair of jeans today. That's down from a size 22/24. It is so nice to be losing again. I am trying to stay away from carbs until I get another fill. It seems to be working. Thanks everyone for the congratulations. It's good to be back on this website and to read how everyone is doing.

Hello everyone I am new here and just wanted to say hi , introduced myself and tell you my story. My name is Tom ,I am 40 years old and I am from Toronto,Canada. Yes, I almost use to weight 1,000 lbs. I actually was 910 lbs at my highest just about a year ago. On December 10, 2015 I checked in to a hospital weighing 910 lbs and I am currently still here at the hospital continuing to receive the treatment and help I need one year later. My 1 year anniversary stay at the hospital was just 11 days ago and on December 10, 2016 I weighed 475 lbs . So I lost a total of 435 lbs + in one year. Now , I also had another problem. I had developed a big nasty a localized lymphedema (big tumor)in my groin area that grew to be about 180-200 lbs it self estimated. This lymphedema caused me my original reason i went to the hospital because it pretty much ancored me down to the point I wasn't able to walk ,get around anywhere but a few feet from my bed to the couch.Also with moving and trying to walk around stuff came great pain since the Lymphedema tumor had developed lots of ulcers and open wounds that were very bad and nasty. I no longer could take the pain and suffering and reached for the desperate help I needed but was terrified to ask for. So in the hospital I was put on a strict diet of 1500 calories to start for the first month or so and then eventually decreased to 1200 calories a day food intake. Also along with the help of my physiotherapist, doing any bed excercise we could in the beginning because at 910 lbs that's all that I could do. I lost 400 lbs by diet and exercise by September 28, 2016...Which is when I had my Gastric bypass surgery. So in 9 months basically I lost those 400 lbs and had my surgery. When I first came in here to the hospital I wasn't even thinking about getting a gastric bypass surgery or any kind of diet surgery etc. I came here in hopes of having something done and even removal of that lymphedema tumor that was paining me and ancoring me down. So it was all about losing weight and seeing what will happen. @910 lbs noone in their right mind would do any kind of surgery on a person unless it was life and death. So they had no plans to have anything with removal of this lymphedema growth till I lost enough weight and be safe. As I started to lose weight the talks and suggestions of having a Gastric bypass surgery came up by doctors. They thought it would help me lose weight faster now so we can deal with the Lymphedema growth surgery with lower and safer weight levels. Also they said it would help me in future to lose more excess weight and keep it off or maintain my weight at least for life if i used this tool correctly (Gastric bypass surgery). So in due time my doctor said that I've lost enough weight and approved me for Gastric Bypass surgery and with a weight of 510 lbs I had my surgery September 28, 2016. Now, with all this weight loss my lymphedema growth has also shrunk from its giant enormous size down to about 1/4 of what it use to be but it is still there and weighs bout 50 lbs still. Me and my doctor here at the hospital are expecting a special surgeon to come see me today(December 21,2016) actually about the removal surgery of this lymphedema hrowth. So hopefully he will have good news for me. Because that lymphedema tumor is still a big anchor for me and really in the way and holding me back from doing a lot of things including not being able to walk and move around in certain ways because it gets in the way. Now the hospital I'm in has a special bariatric program and there was a reason why I actually ended up picking this hospital to come to. I knew someone who's dad is a surgeon here and he directed me to have EMS and Fire to bring me here from home. Also, since I'm in Canada all hospital stay to date including my Gastric Bypass survey was covered under OHIP as we call it here. That good old free Canadian healthcare that every Canadian gets at work for me luckily. I have been truly lucky and blessed with everything from being able to get the help I needed and all the amazing people involved including all nurses and doctors and other hospital admins who have done everything they could to keep me here and help me achieve my goals to get better and walk out of this hospital on my own 2 legs. Since the surgery on September 28th I have lost 40 lbs till now December, 21 2016. Now this is due to a problem I have developed with my platelets in my blood. My immune system became overactive and started killing my platelets in my blood thinking the platelets wee some foreign objects like viruses and infections so it destroy them . Platelets in blood help to thicken or congeil the blood incase you cut yourself you wont bleed away and can't stop the blood . Or if your platelet count is very low and say you fall, hit your head you could get internal bleeding etc. So the avg persons platelet levels should be between 150 to 400 ish. That's what's considered normal apperantly. Well I had mine go down as low as 2 . Very dangerous. So they got me on some steroids to calm my immune system and it seems to be doing ok at around the country of 135. So they aren't comcerned with me about that now. Anyway, these steroids cause weight gain due to Water retention etc etc. So losing weight has been harder after surgery and it was after surgery we discovered these platelet problems. But not related to Gastric Bypass surgery. Instead of me typing everything out and explaining so much that I have to explain and tell, I have created a YouTube channel so I could tell my story and progress through my channel. I will link everything below. Now, best thing would be is to watch my very first vlog here https://youtu.be/n3CLU2ghoiM My 2nd Vlog here to catch up on my story https://youtu.be/Y3MXkp-nQJ8 Or you can go to my channel and watch everything I ever uploaded here. https://m.youtube.com/user/Boosted00 But the 1st two Vlogs are my intro explanation videos to my weight loss journey and my 910 lbs life.... I'd appreciate if you all check out my YouTube channel Subscribe to me , comment like and share . Would be a great help. I will end it here for now, in the first vlog video I have pictures of when I use to look like ,I have a picture of the size of the Lymphedema groin tumor and things in the beginning of that first YouTube video along with the beginning stages of my story. I will be adding new content couple times a week and also continue explaining my story in a new video which will be Vlog#3 and 4 etc etc. Besides that I will be adding small side videos ,some funny some serious that I have filmed in the past 5 or so months. If you have any question feel free to ask away or just comment and I be happy to reply or just read comments. Old pictures pictures I posted down below in another reply because I was having trouble attaching them here in this first post of mine , I apologise for separating them. I also will add a couple current pictures down below as well. My direct link to my YouTube channel https://m.youtube.com/user/Boosted00 My first YouTube intro vlog about my journey Add me on Instagram to follow me there too. Instagram tommy910_ Email 910lbs@gmail.com Please help me help others get motivated thru my story! Plz SUB like and share , LOVE YOU GUYS ! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Basic repeat and quicker rundown of my story here Basic story then my YouTube links down below.. I was almost 1,000 lbs....and I kept fighting and never giving up. I want to share my near 1000 lb life story and journey of how I kept on fighting and not giving up,EVER ! You must do the same and stay strong ,things will get better .KEEP ON SWIMMING #keeponswimming I would appreciate if you Subscribed to me to help me raise awareness and help motivate others with my on going success story of my weight loss journey. Thank you all. Here is my almost 1000 lb life weigh loss journey ! On December 10, 2015 i checked in to a hospital with a weight of 910 lbs. On my 1st anniversary in there on December 10, 2016 I was down to 475 lbs and counting.... Please check out my YouTube channel and subscribe to follow along. My direct link to my YouTube channel https://m.youtube.com/user/Boosted00 My first YouTube intro vlog about my journey Sent from my Pixel XL using the BariatricPal App [/url]

Lee, Good for you for doing all you can to get healthier and doing what's best for you! I know it has to be hard to not have a lot of support from your family, hopefully they will come around! I posted my jealousy situation on another thread a few weeks ago, but I'll repost it here on yours, here's my deal: I am currently having a situation with a lifelong friend who has always and forever been the "thin" one and now our roles are almost reversed (I am by no means "thin" yet but. . . .) she has been gaining steadily over the last several years and now we are within 10 pounds of each other. Her weight continues to go up and thankfully, mine is still going down. She is having a very hard time with this as she is supposed to be the the "thin" one, not me -- I'm supposed to stay fat, forever. It has, as you can imagine, really put a strain on our friendship. She claims to diet and exercise constantly but when we are together and there is food involved, she makes all of the wrong choices for "dieting" or eating healthy and tries to get me to do the same. She gets very aggravated when I tell her I can't eat the cheesesteaks, thick-crust pizzas, mega fries and strombolis anymore. I've tried to explain to her that it will get stuck and cause me tremendous pain, not to mention all the other fun stuff we go through when something clashes with our band! I'm not sure how this is going to work out, but right now, it doesn't look too good. I'm really hoping she can come to terms with her weight gain and not be so negative towards me for doing something that is improving my health. It has to be hard for her, having such a role reversal, and I know all too well how being overweight and unhappy feels.......I've had years and years of practice. I've offered to exercise with her, share recipes, whatever, but she's not interested. The thing that really got to her was when her 7-year-old said "mommy, Stacy is skinnier than you now, you're getting really fat!" I know that really hurt her feelings, too. I feel really bad for her because I know her struggle, but she doesn't want to work at losing weight together. I don't know, I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens. I posted this about a month ago and sadly, nothing has changed. I've lost a few more pounds and she has gained more and become more bitter. I'm almost afraid to bring up anything about weight loss or healthy eating because she bites my head off. We don't talk nearly as much as we used to and she gets really ticked off if our friends comment on my weight loss. We have definitely drifted further apart; it seems the more weight I lose the madder she gets. :faint:

I'm just going to do two more months so that it shows 0 weight gain the entire 6 months. I don't want them to have any reason to deny me again. At this point I've been jumping through hoops for 7-8 months there is no way I'm stopping now. Over 2000$ in and down 22 lbs as of this morning. Not happening. I'm determined to get this approval!!!!

Hey Lissa, as far as last year it was. I'm so glad I stopped taking it when I did. I heard of weight gain but didn't think it was going to be so much...

Hi can someone help? I am hungry nearly all the time. My stomach feels empty or uncomfortable in the middle above my belly button and between my ribs. It usually goes away temporarily when I eat then starts up again with half hour or more. I take 2 Prevacids a day. One in the morning with Water and one before dinner with water. This was the way I felt before surgery, all through my life-always hungry, always in the mood to eat. My doctor even did my hyatal hernia so that this would be lessened. Drinking liquids does not fill me up or take the discomfort away. I also typically wait an hour after eating to drink. It is getting harder each day to keep below 1200 calories, sometimes I am getting up over 1600 which could mean weight gain. I feel like I am starving all the time. Today I had 2 sausages, 1 egg and a tiny amount of hash browns for Breakfast and made it 2 hours before hunger again. A few days ago there was a post about another acid product to try that I have never heard of. I've spent hours looking for it on this site and cannot find it. Was it something with an "oid" or "Magnesium"? It sounded like a supplement or mineral. I have an appointment with my gastro doctor but would like to try the other product too. Tums only provide a few minutes of relief. I tried 40 mg of Protein like beef. Yesterday I tried a big bowl of salad with a little low fat cheese. Another time, bread, another time, fruit. The best results seem to be protein and carbs like low fat pizza.. That seems to hold me the longest. It is getting harder and harder to have self control and keep my calories low when I feel like I am starving all the time! Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you for this explanation! I was getting concerned too. I only found out about this group last night. I am having gastric sleeve surgery tomorrow morning. Today is my one and only liquid diet day. But reading other people I was getting so worried. I am at a lower BMI, but qualified for the surgery because of a list of co-morbidities. My weight gain is hormonal. Gained more than 100 lbs after having a hysterectomy 7 years ago. I went from thin, healthy and energetic to overweight and tired with diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, high cholesterol and sleep apnea. (It’s been a rocky 7 years.) I am 5’11” and am currently 258 lbs. Highest weight was 283. My goal weight is to at least get below 200. That is about when all the health issues started. Would be wonderful to get back to 150-160 lbs, but given my hormonal issues, that is probably a stretch.

I think loosening it for an overseas trip, where care may not be available is a valid option, but not one you should be doing thinking that you can eat heaps on the trip and really enjoy yourself - that is the kind of dysfunctional thinking that made us fat in the first place. You can actually indulge in unusual or out of the ordinary foods on holidays without loosening your band, and you can enjoy it thoroughly. I think yo'[d find most doctors are willing to unfill for travel becuase it ensures band safety. To think you can unfill for one special occasion, that's not a very healthy way of thinking of life with the band. You need to be committed to a lifestyle change and that means your life no longer revolves around food - the whole point of a holiday or a wedding is not how much you can eat. And with a properly adjusted band, you can eat sensibly and enjoy special meals anyway- if you cant, you're too tight. When you get to goal, you can unfill. I never did, I stayed the same weight for years with the same fill, but recently, I had to be completely unfilled for cancer treatment. Amazingly it has not caused weight gain, over time on maintenance, you do learn to eat your caloric needs one way or another - and in hindsight, I was doing a fair bit of eating around my band - sweet treats, alcohol, Snacks, they made up the gap between the caloric values of the size meals I was able to eat and what my body needed, and they were the "extras' that I wasnt eating during the losing phase. When I was unfilled, i got straight onto tracking calories and have moved onto a three meals but bigger meals and healthier foods (all the fruit, vegies and salad I couldnt eat in real quantity while restricted) and I've actually lost about 20lb more (that I really didnt need to lose). I'm finding my balance over time, but am amazed that I need well over 2000 calories a day to maintain my 135lb - so my metabolism, given all the running and circuit training I do, is definitely not shot, its actually very healthy. But I exercised vigorously all the way through my loss and never dipped below 1500 calories, I think very low calorie diets are going to set you up for having quite a deal of trouble in the longer term maintaining your weight loss. Like the poster above me, I monitor my weight, and adjust if it goes up a little - had a big weekend away with a once in a lifetime gourmet dinner with wines matched to each course for our 20th anniversary. Ate breakfast, lunch and dinner in restaurants and cafes - yeah, got home with 3 extra pounds. So its back to 1400 calroies a day and right back on the exercise regime for the next week or so to shift it. If you remain aware, know what you're eating and are sensible, it is indeed possible to live unfilld once you've lost.

I am 8 years out from my gastric sleeve. I have gained 35 pounds. I need to get this off! My lowest weight after surgery was 155. Now I’m 190. It’s gotta go. I am retired now so I’m not as active as when I was working. I have back issues and can’t do a lot of exercising. I have been going to line dancing 1 day a week and I can tolerate that pretty well. Give me some tips how to jump start my weight loss again!

I heard that diet soda can also cause weight gain, but I didn't know why, Thank you for the information now I will have no problem letting diet soda go for good!

Thank you for this OP! I used to play competitive sport and stopping that but continuing to eat as I had before definitely contributed to my weight gain, as did so many lifestyle changes. So glad to hear your story and I only hope I can get there some day too. 💪

Maya, That was one rule my doctor and NUT were fanatic about - no drinking for at least 30 mins before a meal and 30 mins after a meal. They noted that avoiding this rule could lead to weight gain. You may want to check with your doctor. Good luck to you! Kelly

Frustrated by a weight loss plateau? You need a combination of patience and a plan to push through it. It happens to everyone sooner or later. Your bandwagon stalls. You’ve been going great guns, fired up with enthusiasm, working that tool, doing all the right things, and losing weight. Then one day the weight loss stops. One day, two days, twenty days go by…you’re still stuck, and you’re wondering what happened. And because you’ve spent so many years failing at dieting, and being told that obesity is always the fault of the patient, you start to wonder what you are doing wrong. You even think, “Is my band broken?” Chances are, you’re not doing anything wrong, and neither is your band. What’s happening is that your body is adjusting itself to the many changes that have happened during your weight loss. The human body doesn’t know what you’re going to do next, be it climb a mountain or relax on the couch, so it has to continually adjust and readjust your metabolism to make the best use of the calories you take in. It looks at the history of what you’ve been eating and how much you’ve been burning off through physical activity and comes up with a forecast of what you’ll need to stay alive for the next week or so. THIS MONTH’S WEIGHT LOSS FORECAST IS… At work I’ve had to prepare sales forecasts for various jobs through the years. How many widgets will we sell in the month of April? How many defective widgets will be returned by unhappy customers who want a refund? Will all this income and outgo generate enough cash (in our case, energy) to cover the payroll and the equipment maintenance and the CEO’s country club membership? I once had a boss who joked that we might as well toss a deck of cards down a flight of stairs to come up with a prediction of which new product (represented, say, by the joker card) was going to be the best-seller. That suggestion didn’t go over big with the finance guys. Like us, they were trying to follow the rules, keep everything identified, counted and categorized. And like the bean-counters, we count our calories, carbs, fats, proteins, liquids, solids, income, outgo, with faith that this accounting system will help us win the weight game. Meanwhile, our bodies have a different agenda: survival. When we decrease our food intake and increase our physical activity, the body watches to see what will happen next. As our purposeful “starvation” continues, the body struggles to accommodate the changes we’re making. It makes some withdrawals of funds from our fat cells and fiddles with our metabolism to prevent an energy (calorie) shortage. Gradually it becomes acclimated to the new routine so that it’s making the best possible use of the few calories we’re consuming. It’s keeping us alive, but it’s also putting the brakes on weight loss. Eventually we find ourselves stalled on what seems like an endless weight loss plateau. And unless we change our routine and keep our bodies working hard to burn up the excess fat, we’re going to grow to hate the scenery on that plateau. AND ON THE FLIP SIDE I’ve suffered through countless weight loss plateaus but by varying my exercise, my total caloric intake, my liquid intake, my sleep, and so on, did manage to finally arrive at my goal weight. For the past few years, I’ve felt mighty smug that I finally got promoted to the Senior VP of Weight Management here at Chez Jean. Maintaining my goal weight +/- 5 pounds seemed effortless. But it didn’t last. Turns out it was time for me to learn another lesson about my body’s fuel economy. When I had all the fill removed from my band to deal with some bad reflux, my eating didn’t go berserk. I didn’t pig out at Burger King, didn’t drown my sorrows in a nightly gallon of ice cream. I was definitely eating more because I was so much hungrier than before – perhaps 500 extra calories a day, which would amount to a weight gain of one pound a week. Imagine my dismay when I gained seven pounds in 2 weeks – the equivalent of an extra 1750 calories a day! There was a time when I could have overeaten that much without any effort at all, but as a WLS post-op, I’d have to work hard at eating that much extra food. I was flabbergasted. And frightened. Obesity was a mountain on my horizon again – far in the distance across my weight maintenance plateau - when I thought I’d left it far behind. So at the end of a visit with my gastro-enterologist during that scary time, I asked him if my sudden and substantial weight gain was the equivalent of my body shouting, “Yahoo! We’re not starving anymore! Let’s get ready for the next starvation period by hanging on to every single calorie she takes in! Let’s store those calories in those fat cells that have been hanging around here with nothing to do! C’mon, troops, get to work!” I’m pretty sure that’s not the way Dr. Nuako would have explained it, but he smiled, nodded, and said, “Oh, yes.” I felt like I was facing the flip side of a weight loss plateau: I might be in a weight gain plateau. All I could do is keep on keeping on with exercise and healthy eating, enjoying some of the foods, like raw fruits and veggies, that had been harder for me to eat with a well-adjusted band. PUZZLING OUT THE WEIGHT LOSS PLATEAU So the good news was that my wonky metabolism following that complete unfill wasn’t my fault, but the bad news was that my metabolism wasn’t in a cooperative mood. I was going to have to start playing much closer attention to the details of weight loss and maintenance again. What a pain! But hey! I’d already had a lot of practice at that. I had the tools – a little rusty maybe, but still in usable condition. I ended up regaining 30 pounds between that unfill and my revision to VSG, but I have a suspicion that without those weight tools, it could have been 60 pounds. And that’s one of the reasons that even today, bandless for 14 months now, I don’t regret my band surgery. The band helped me lose 90 pounds and learn a host of useful (if uncomfortable) things about myself, my behavior, my body, my lifestyle. What about you? How can you get your weight loss going again and avoid regain? So many factors can affect your weight that sorting out the reason(s) for your weight loss plateau can make you dizzy even if you’re not a natural blonde like me. To help you assess what’s going on and what might need to be changed, I created a Weight Loss Plateau Checklist. To access the checklist in Google Docs, click here: https://docs.google....emtSYjJLRnVGTFE The checklist includes a long list of questions about you and your behavior, with answers and suggestions for each question. I can’t claim that it will give you the key to escaping that plateau, but it should give you some food for thought and perhaps some ideas to try. Use that to come up with a plan to deal with the plateau, and work that plan for at least a month to give your body a chance to get with the new program.

Honestly, shy may be in a fair amount of denial. I denied my weight gain for a LONG time. Sure, I was overweight and could stand to lose a few pounds... HOLY CRAP I NEED TO LOSE ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY POUNDS!!!! It was a bit of a shock when I MADE myself see what I looked like, how much I weighed and what was "normal". This may be a part of it. She is definitely in denial about her size and I don't think she is being honest about her weight or diet either. She is a twin and her sister is at least 30 pounds smaller than her and wears a smaller size; they are constantly in competition and she seems to feel that if she can get in a smaller size (whether it zips or not) it fits. Unfortunately, it looks like she is about to burst out of her clothes because she refuses to get a bigger size. I had a friend in high school who was bigger than me, so I figured I was 'okay' if I stayed smaller than her... her and I both gained weight proportionately over the years, I was still smaller than her tho, maybe your friend feels something like this? I'm sure this is part of it too. I was ALWAYS the "fat" one in the group, weighing at least 50 pounds or more than everyone else. The rest of our friends don't have a problem with my weight loss or the surgery, and are very supportive and complimentary. But, I'm not the fattest anymore. Our friends say that if we stand together, she is much bigger than I am. Of course, my mental image hasn't changed yet so I still see myself 50 pounds heavier and think the rest of my friends are nuts, lol! I hope it can get worked out, I've lost alot of friendships for various reasons, mostly that most of the friends I've had are still living the same lives they lived in high school (10 years later), and it drives me nuts! but all of the friendships lost for whatever reason hurt. Thank you! I hope we can work it out too - it's a lifelong friendship I would hate to have end over jealousy. Our kids are friends, and it's a shame she is so bitter right now. It's to the point none of the rest of our friends even invite her to parties or outings because she is so negative and unhappy even around her kids and they don't want her around THEIR kids! It does hurt too, she was really excited before I had the surgery. . . . .until you could "see" I lost weight. Maybe it has to do with me getting more attention now. Maybe she is jealous because I fade into the woodwork less now? I don't know. Right now I'm just giving her time and space as she needs it. There's not much else I can do. Thanks again for the support and kind words. I hope everything is okay too with you and your mom! Take care!