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Thank goodness no stall. However, I have gout for the first time. I was put on a 5day pack of steroids and I'm worried about weight gain this coming week. Last week I was 235.5 and today I'm down four pounds to 231.5. Sent from my iPhone using VST

I remember every single insult and person who felt it was their duty to " help " me with my weight problem. What they did not know is what drove me there besides putting food into my mouth. People who think that they can save the world by pointing out others obvious flaws according to them is a real turn off. Now by example a person can make a difference. It is much bigger then you need to have WLS. It is an adjustment that needs to be made from the money making food industry to diet companies to the government that do not promote good eating habits and food choices. It is many who do not have the funds to eat well a lot of folks don't have a clue how to in the first place.... Round and round we go..... Mostly it is a lesson to be learned and it is learned hard. When I think of all those people who looked at me sideways or laughed at me. Stopped their car in front of my house to stare at the fat girl gardening and so on. I wish I had kicked them right where it hurts..Like it hurt me. While they went away feeling like they had accomplished a good deed by making me cry. They were completely wrong. Giving advice freely without being asked is a whole lot of bad to deal with. Now if you are asked...Lay it out for them....Otherwise you don't have a clue what makes that person tick and what stage they are at in life. In fact I would say it would be a lot like how that Katie Hopkins of the UK comes across! This is the hardest addiction to fix. So I personally do not question anyone or judge anyone who struggles with weight as I have been there and done that and will fight the rest of my life this battle of weight gain and loss.......

Thanks Cindy, that may be it. The ones I saw had no face paint or anything, just tails. Years ago there was a strip joint just out of town called Foxtails---and all the strippers wore fox tails----and this was like that---just tails. And on the Walmart site, I have seen them, and I was just feeling old and out of it! Guess I am!!! My friend I have lunch with...it was her son recently hurt in the motorcycle wreck---he is in rehab now, and improving quickly! Anyway he has a DD and my friends husband had always been Papa to all his grandkids---and for some reason they began referring to him as Papa Bear. The son had a good laugh and told them they didn't want to call him that, because he is a big guy (325-350 lbs) and he told them that "bears" are hairy gay men, usually of big stature. They have big Bear gatherings. They have "cubs"---young newbies......all kinds of things! We (she and I) looked it up, and now we just refer to Mike as Papa---skip the bear!!! Who knew? I guess it was the same with my parents having problems associating "gay" with anything except being happy.....times change.....whether I want to or not! Rick just left for work again. I need to go water before it gets hot again. We have broke 100 for several days now. It tried to rain last night---you could smell it, but it was so hot it evaporated before it ever made it to the ground---so it was muggy, which is really unusual for us. Tracy, I had heard it was usually a taper down from meds like that, so it makes sense to me! Terri should be home......hope she is doing well! She is a bandster now! I feel so incredibly lazy! I have begun taking my allergy meds. Uggghhh! Oh yeah----hives. I know lots about hives! I broke out several years ago---make that many years ago. Kept diaries of products used, changed them. Kept diaries of food---changed diet. NOTHING helped! Did massive amounts of blood work---checking for all sorts of connective tissue disorders. still nothing. They were finally diagnosed as idiopathic uticaria. Hives with unknown cause. At the time Zyrtec was RX, not OTC. But it worked. I could take a pill and within an hour the hives would abate. I took it faithfully everynight for months---but it turns me into a zombie! Eventually I got to where I broke them in half---and it still kept the hives at bay. Then I began every other night....and finally every few days...til the hives quit. Stress seemed to be the trigger. My Grandma was dying---and I had teenagers! I ended up with hives again a couple of years ago, and the Dr. put me on steroids! OMG weight gain city! I remembered then, the Zyrtec, so tapered the steroids off, used the Syrtec and it worked. It also works for my itcy eyes---which is why I am taking it now---half a pill at night---but it depresses my system. Not my mood, just my body---I am tired and slow! But I am not sneezing, and digging at my eyes!!! Gonna make myself go water!

Update....had my 5th post op visit this week and couldn't be happier with my weight loss this far. BUT...why is there ALWAYS a but? So for the past 2 weeks I have been having heartburn/reflux. Sometimes with discomfort, sometimes without. Sometimes it's just noise (embarassing noises that permeate from my chest). So of course I had tell my doctor...and of course she immediately went to "you must be to tight" So the battle insued. I knew she was going to want to do an unfill so I came ready. I knew an unfill would mean a set back and maybe even a weight gain, because without the band I have a veracious appetite. So we compromissed and she only took out .15 with the stipulation that we...that I monitor this heartburn/reflux. I must say that even that tiny unfill put me in a full on panic. But I am happy to report that the heartburn/reflux is significantly less AND my portions are still managable. But I get hungrier quicker....We'll see what happens and I'll keep you posted!

Hey everyone, I just wanted to stop and check in and say hello. I havent been doing great lately. I mean after my nephews murder everyhting got put on the back burner, especially working out. I had gone up to about 194 (a 5pound weight gain) in the month following his death and I just wasnt really putting in alot of effort. Thank goodness I am back on track and the scale is headed in a downward spiral again. I'm at 187 as of this morning and I am just so ready to hit the 100lbs lost mark and then get the final 30lbs off. Novemebr is coming up again really soon and I really would like to reach my goal before then. That will be the 2 year mark for us and I am just ready to be done with weight loss and move on to the maintance phase of this whole thing. I hope that everyone is doing well, much love to everyone!

Thing is... we all have food issues or we wouldn't have gotten fat. So while it is true that some target groups will try harder and put forth more effort, I don't think anyone goes into this thinking that they aren't going to put some effort into it. Most people I have seen fail any WLS type goes into this determined to change their eating habits and food choices just to discover that maybe they can't do it afterall. The band or sleeve or any other WLS type doesn't do a thing to fix your head. It seems so easy on some levels, get surgery and darn well just change head stuff. It doesn't work that way. You really don't discover just how many food issues you have until AFTER surgery and then you also discover the severity of these food issues. Before my surgery I kinda didn't believe it was going to work. I knew I was going to try very hard to do it but I really didn't think I could change my food choices and habits. I shocked myself when I did it. Today I prefer healthy foods and getting back to basics. I won't eat a burger from Mickey D's, you couldn't pay me to do it. I never thought I could give up fast food but I did. I'm lucky, a lot of people try their best and have the best of intentions and they discover they just can't do it. So you can't really take just those that are able to change food habits and use that as a target group for average bandsters because they aren't average, they are above average. The average bandster will lose about 55% of their excess weight (considering loss and the well known regain for all procedures) by 5 years time. That includes people like me that really seriously changed diets, added exercise, etc. AND it includes those that just can't hack it. Then there are issues of another nature. One problem with banding is that each time you have a complication the fill is removed and you are put on liquids for a time and then solids but with no fill. Esophageal dilation, pouch dilation, slip, etc., it's an unfill. That puts a dead stop to weight loss and actually turns into weight gain for most. Then the problem is resolved and you are back to getting fills again and finding a sweet spot. This is one reason banded folks have slower weight loss on average. Then you have mechanical failure. Leaks in the tubing, port, or band itself. You lose restriction and quite frankly if we could do this without restriction we wouldn't have had surgery to begin with. Without restriction weight gain happens again until surgical repair. I guess my point is that you can't just take successful bandsters and use that target group as the average WLS person. They aren't average, not in the least. We all make all sorts of plans and promises to ourselves that we will do this or that but the true test is when it's time to do it. Then we discover it wasn't as easy as we thought. My guess is 100%. Nobody is perfect with food issues all the time. Some do a better job than others. LOL! You are in for a big surprise. Banded and sleeved people make cheap dates too. ;o) It's also a matter of less food in your body to slow down absorption of alcohol.

Tammy, your post cracked me up....I ate a footlong like 2 weeks after surgery...and so I so know what you are talking about. WOW...KitKats with icing...that sounds yummy.....ahhhh I mean disgusting...yeah disgusting..lol! No really, you are doing fine...don't worry about the weight gain, those subs have tons of sodium so some of it is water gain. Just relax and let your body do the work...so easy for me to type but Iknow its actually very hard. Good luck Sweetie!

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 can't help but notice how some posters are being somewhat righteous ... shunning those who are more obese than them. I have incredibly sympathy towards those who happen to be morbidly or super-obese. Due to medications, I have been there when I lost all feelings of satiety, where it didn't matter how much I ate, I never felt full, and it was non-stop, never-ending hunger, and getting food was all I thought about. Thankfully I was able to stop those medications before I gained even more weight, but some people don't have that luxury. Then the weight comes on, and the cycle of depression continues. Isolation from public humiliation causes depression, lack of movement, further contributing to the weight gain. I could go on and on.... Rather than sounding like you look at people with such disgust and disdain, how about being a bit sympathetic and understanding of their plight, rather than thinking to yourself "oh god I never want to get THAT fat", talking about the smell of yeast in fat rolls, them not being able to wipe themselves properly, etc. etc. I would sincerely hope that those, who work as health care professionals, would show some kindness towards that patient. It might be the first show of sympathy and care that that poor person has had in ages. He/she was humiliated enough being there.

My insurance required proof that my BMI was over 40 for 5 consecutive years. A short term weight gain would have done me no good...

Good morning, all! I had my post-op visit yesterday with the nurse, and she said everything looked great (I was banded on 1/10/14). I finally found out where my port was! I am still losing weight, albeit more slowly, and am really trying to watch what I eat, although the nurse said that a weight gain is fine at this point. She said the main idea is to heal. Right now, I've lost a little over 23 lbs. She also moved me off mushy foods and onto soft foods - yay! I'll stay on those until the 31st, and then get to move to regular foods. I've decided to make this my week for really planning my diet in the weeks ahead, so I'm sorting through recipes and making my grocery list. I feel like this is a whole new life for me! My first appointment for a fill is on February 18th - I asked that it be after the weekend of the 14th because I will be out of town at a business retreat, and will be eating out a lot, so I figured that would be easier. Hope everyone here is doing well!

New to the forums, and I have my date for 1/27 in Monterey, CA. I had tried to go through this route previously with Kaiser, but my surgery kept getting 'postponed' due to weight gain (after - surprise - multiple medication changes). Since I have my date booked, I'm starting to mini-stock the pantry and prep for a week or two of pre-surgery liquid diets. Just so I'll be somewhat aware of what I can expect right off the bat.

Great story! I wish you much success. I am working on this too. In states with insurance. I was sleeved 9/2014. My issue is not just weight gain. I have sever GERD. It's just sucks. I am in pain most of the day. However, I believe it will be resolved. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using BariatricPal mobile app

I thought that sounded a little familiar, so I pulled out my paperwork I got from the patient education seminar and saw a slide that read this: We expect weight loss prior to surgery Even a few pounds (5-10) can make a difference - Liver Do not gain weight May cx (cancel) surgery if there is weight gain ... So yeah, I need to be extra mindful about that.

I have UHC Choice Plus. My case manager just got all my stuff sent to UHC yesterday so I am still waiting to hear whether I am approved or not. I have not had a BMI over 40 for five years and I actually just barely made the weight at my last weigh in (UHC required me to do a 6 month Dr. supervised diet) and I also don't have any comorbidities so I am very nervous about what they are going to say. This really doesn't anwer your question, but I guess I'm trying to say I hope they overlook the BMI and just look at the weight gain over the years. Good luck to you!

Puppyphat - that is fantastic. Fit, loves animals and can obviously hold a good conversation - sounds like a winning combination to me! Lissa - Glad your holiday went well - the next six months will fly - you have done so well with your weight loss - Are you energy levels good now? A progress report on me - I stopped eating sweet things for a week and have lost weight - 62.5 kg now but generally I seem to be maintaining. I really want to get rid of this habit of having a cake for a snack as I know as we can eat more this will cause me weight gain and I DON'T want to get on that guilt road again. Can't wait to see my dietician so she can give me a slap on the wrist! Can't wait to get back to work so I have money to finally join the gym or step into life classes - I need to be pushed it comes to exercise as I don't enjoy it!

Thanks Misty - you and everyone else is well on their way too - can't wait until you guys join me on the maintenance bench - it is quite an adjustment after focusing on losing for so long. I still focus on protein but I am not eating enough green veges and tend to gravitate back to carbs. I have not had a weight gain at all from this but I am not sure how that will go long term. I am still eating very regularly and find if I do go without food for too long I can get quite hungry now. This is when I am most likely to morn not being able to eat a lot of food, because of course now, being hungry doesn't mean you can fit anymore in - so you never get that old full feeling just the new full feeling which is more of a physical feeling. Hard to describe but some of you might understand what I mean. Any feeling of missing the old full passes really quickly. I now clearly recognise it as truly emotional hunger because there is a certain amount of comfort attached to it - but like I said, it passes quickly once you have eaten.

Okay, interesting about weight gain. I have just had my sleeve for about 4 weeks. Converted from lapland. I can hardly get anything down, and I get satisfied. Obviously, I better enjoy this "honeymoon" because it appears the ability to eat more and want more creeps back in. Best to all of you for getting back on track. YOU CAN DO IT!

This will be long. It'll be for those who are checking out the thread and those who just want to be reminded. It's a rant about Type II Diabetes from Dr Garth on his FB page some time back. LOL ENJOY READING! So, this is going to be a long rant with lots of scientific references, reader beware. The cliff notes: carbs do not cause Type 2 diabetes, meat does! I will provide references at the end of the post. "But wait a second" you may say. "My sugar goes up when I eat carbs, so carbs must be to blame". You are not alone in this thought. Even the President of The American Society of Bariatric Medicine thinks this way. He believes that if your sugars are low you are cured of diabetes. SO he puts people on low carb diets , and in fact the studies show low carb diets will lowers blood sugar, go figure. But has diabetes been cured? Are they healthier? Low carb studies are very short term and use lab results as their end points, not end organ disease. They don't prove that low carb diets reduce heart disease, they show that it raises HDL and since high HDL is associated with less heart disease they assume that heart disease is lower. Likewise, they assume diabetes is cured when blood sugar is low, but has diabetes been cured? Not at all. As soon as the patient eats a carb the blood sugar will rise. Why? Because they still have insulin resistance. So many people make the mistake of thinking diabetes is a disease of high blood sugar. High blood sugar is just a symptom, the disease is insulin resistance. This is why I see so many failed Atkins and protein fast patients. So what causes insulin resistance. This is the big question. Treating the symptom and not the cause is the typical western medicine paradigm. We need to look beyond. The fact is the biggest consumer of sugar, the organ most affected by insulin, are your muscles. I find it ridiculous that people, like Robert Lustig and Gary Taubes, talk about insulin as some kind of awful hormone. Why would we evolve to have an evil hormone that is in every single person. Insulin is only a problem when the body is resistant to insulin. Insulin serves a vital purpose, which is to get the fuel into the cells, and muscle needs glucose to generate fuel. Our bodies are built to live off sugar. Insulin is supposed to join to an insulin receptor on the surface of the muscle cell which allows the sugar to enter the body and then be utilized to produce energy in the mitochondria. In fact, the healthiest people in the world eat tons of carbs. The Sardinians and the Okinawans eat 80% of their calories from starches and yet their insulin levels are not sky high, and their blood sugars are normal. So what causes the muscle to become insulin resistant. Well this is a little more complex but it appears that it is fat build up in the muscle cell. Excess fat entering the cells interferes with the muscle cells ability to produce insulin receptors. If the muscle cannot make insulin receptors then sugar cannot get into the cell and then the sugar starts to build up in the system. Then the pancreas has to produce even more insulin to try and force sugar into the cells, and now you start getting high insulin levels. Moderate insulin is good but high insulin inhibits an enzyme called hormone sensitive lipase causing even more fat accumulation, and a vicious cycle begins. This then begs the question, "what causes fat to accumulate in the muscle cell"? Well, there are many theories. One is that insulin combined with lipids in the blood stream after eating causes intramyocellular fat. This makes sense. So if you eat steak believe it or not your insulin rises. It is also filled with fat. The insulin will cause fat to be accumulated in the cell. The same thing would happen if you ate a donut or a pizza. These are not carbs. They have carbs but they actually have more fat than carbs. Other theories are that inflammation causes the muscle cell to dysfunction and not oxidate fat, causing fat accumulation. There is definitely evidence that acid accumulation cause insulin resistance likely from muscle cell dysfunction. Type II diabetes has been rising at astounding rates. How does our diet differ? We are eating a very acidic diet with too little of the bicarbonate producing plants as our ancestors did! Meat based diets are very acidic and cause inflammation which results in intramyocellular fat. There are even models that show certain amino acids will cause direct deposit of fat in the muscle cells. There is some fascinating research looking at MRI's of people's muscles which show that athletes are able to mobilize fat easily from their muscle but overweight people cannot. This raises the additional question as to whether exercise has an affect on intramyocellular fat. There is also a good body of studies showing high iron stores can affect insulin resistance. As you may know, meat is high in a particularly toxic form of iron which can further attribute to insulin resistance. Interestingly, carbs are readily burned in our body or stored as glycogen. It is actually very difficult to turn carbs to fat. The only time carbs become fat is when glycogen stores are full and calorie intake has exceeded expenditure. A nutrition professor proved this by eating a high sugar diet but keeping calories less than 1800 calories. Despite eating almost purely sugar, he lost weight and his insulin resistance improved. So if what I tell you is true then it should work in a randomized control trial and in epidemiologic studies of populations of people. In fact, it does. Dr. Turner-Mcgrievy and Dr. Barnard have put it to the test. They took diabetics and randomized to either vegan diet or the typical ADA, high protein diet recommended by doctors. Despite eating high carbs and lots of fruit, the vegan group had significantly greater drop in A1C. We can see this in action in many different epidemiological studies too. The EPIC/Panacea study, which is the largest epidemiological study ever done on food and disease, found no correlation between carb consumption and development of diabetes, but meat had strong correlation to diabetes. In fact, fructose consumption was associated with less diabetes. This becomes more understandable when you know that meat causes inflammation, acidosis, stimulates insulin, and has fat. People tend to think Type II diabetes is genetic, but diabetes is affecting all races at this point. In fact, Japanese had low rates of diabetes but if they migrated to Brazil, which is having a crisis of diabetes, they get very high rates of diabetes. In fact, the Brazil government has made recs to decrease meat. The same recs are being given by the Japanese government which has noted an increasing rate of diabetes with the increasing meat consumption. One of the best long term studies is the Adventist Healthy study as they followed a large population for many years. The population was healthier in general due to lack of smoking and drinking and moderate exercise, making them an excellent study given less confounding factors. The vegans had considerably lower diabetes than the meat eaters. Even Harvard's Nurses Health Study, which is the largest and longest epidemiologic study in America, shows a significant relationship between animal protein consumption and Type II DM formation. Let me also add that the randomized control trials and epidemiological studies, unlike the low carb studies, show improvement in end organ function. Less heart disease, less kidney dysfunction, less neuropathy, and longer life. Most of all. Let me tell you that it is absolutely ridiculous to eat less fruit, as the president of the American Society of Bariatric Medicine claimed at our meeting. Studies show that fruit consumption does NOT increase A1C and is actually associated with weight loss and diabetes control. Studies show increasing carbs actually controls diabetes if they are whole grains, fruits and veggies! There are so many studies that prove this point. I have included just a sample below. Gimeno, S. G., et al. (2002). "Prevalence and 7-year incidence of Type II diabetes mellitus in a Japanese-Brazilian population: an alarming public health problem." Diabetologia 45(12): 1635-1638. de Carvalho, A. M., et al. (2013). "Excessive meat consumption in Brazil: diet quality and environmental impacts." Public Health Nutr 16(10): 1893-1899. Morimoto, A. (2010). Trends in the Epidemiology of Patients with Diabetes in Japan. JMAJ. 53: 36-40. Adeva, M. M. and G. Souto (2011). "Diet-induced metabolic acidosis." Clin Nutr 30(4): 416-421. Souto, G., et al. (2011). "Metabolic acidosis-induced insulin resistance and cardiovascular risk." Metab Syndr Relat Disord 9(4): 247-253. Sebastian, A., et al. (2002). "Estimation of the net acid load of the diet of ancestral preagricultural Homo sapiens and their hominid ancestors." Am J Clin Nutr 76(6): 1308-1316. Dawson-Hughes, B., et al. (2008). "Alkaline diets favor lean tissue mass in older adults." Am J Clin Nutr 87(3): 662-665. Jenkins, D. J., et al. (2003). "Type 2 diabetes and the vegetarian diet." Am J Clin Nutr 78(3 Suppl): 610S-616S. Holt, S. H., et al. (1997). "An insulin index of foods: the insulin demand generated by 1000-kJ portions of common foods." Am J Clin Nutr 66(5): 1264-1276. Barnard, N. D., et al. (2009). "A low-fat vegan diet and a conventional diabetes diet in the treatment of type 2 diabetes: a randomized, controlled, 74-wk clinical trial." Am J Clin Nutr 89(5): 1588S-1596S. Barnard, N. D., et al. (2006). "A low-fat vegan diet improves glycemic control and cardiovascular risk factors in a randomized clinical trial in individuals with type 2 diabetes." Diabetes Care 29(8): 1777-1783. Barnard, R. J., et al. (1998). "Diet-induced insulin resistance precedes other aspects of the metabolic syndrome." J Appl Physiol (1985) 84(4): 1311-1315. Stubbs, R. J., et al. (1997). "Carbohydrates and energy balance." Ann N Y Acad Sci 819: 44-69. Bloomer, R. J., et al. (2010). "Effect of a 21 day Daniel Fast on metabolic and cardiovascular disease risk factors in men and women." Lipids Health Dis 9: 94. Snowdon, D. A. and R. L. Phillips (1985). "Does a vegetarian diet reduce the occurrence of diabetes?" Am J Public Health 75(5): 507-512 Tonstad, S., et al. (2009). "Type of vegetarian diet, body weight, and prevalence of type 2 diabetes." Diabetes Care 32(5): 791-796. Fung, T. T., et al. (2004). "Dietary patterns, meat intake, and the risk of type 2 diabetes in women." Arch Intern Med 164(20): 2235-2240. Jornayvaz, F. R., et al. (2010). "A high-fat, ketogenic diet causes hepatic insulin resistance in mice, despite increasing energy expenditure and preventing weight gain." Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 299(5): E808-815. Valachovicová, M., et al. (2006). "No evidence of insulin resistance in normal weight vegetarians. A case control study." Eur J Nutr 45(1): 52-54. Frassetto, L., et al. (2001). "Diet, evolution and aging--the pathophysiologic effects of the post-agricultural inversion of the potassium-to-sodium and base-to-chloride ratios in the human diet." Eur J Nutr 40(5): 200-213. Flanagan, A. M., et al. (2008). "High-fat diets promote insulin resistance through cytokine gene expression in growing female rats." J Nutr Biochem 19(8): 505-513. Cai, H., et al. (2007). "A prospective study of dietary patterns and mortality in Chinese women." Epidemiology 18(3): 393-401. Schulze, M. B., et al. (2003). "Processed meat intake and incidence of Type 2 diabetes in younger and middle-aged women." Diabetologia 46(11): 1465-1473. Song, Y., et al. (2004). "A prospective study of red meat consumption and type 2 diabetes in middle-aged and elderly women: the women's health study." Diabetes Care 27(9): 2108-2115. Vang, A., et al. (2008). "Meats, processed meats, obesity, weight gain and occurrence of diabetes among adults: findings from Adventist Health Studies." Ann Nutr Metab 52(2): 96-104. Pan, A., et al. (2013). "Changes in Red Meat Consumption and Subsequent Risk of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: Three Cohorts of US Men and Women." JAMA Intern Med: 1-8. Ahmadi-Abhari, S., et al. (2014). "Dietary intake of carbohydrates and risk of type 2 diabetes: the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer-Norfolk study." Br J Nutr 111(2): 342-352. Lara-Castro, C. and W. T. Garvey (2008). "Intracellular lipid accumulation in liver and muscle and the insulin resistance syndrome." Endocrinol Metab Clin North Am 37(4): 841-856. Cozma, A. I., et al. (2012). "Effect of fructose on glycemic control in diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis of controlled feeding trials." Diabetes Care 35(7): 1611-1620. Azadbakht, L. and A. Esmaillzadeh (2009). "Soy-protein consumption and kidney-related biomarkers among type 2 diabetics: a crossover, randomized clinical trial." J Ren Nutr 19(6): 479-486. Sørensen, L. B., et al. (2005). "Effect of sucrose on inflammatory markers in overweight humans." Am J Clin Nutr 82(2): 421-427. Montonen, J., et al. (2013). "Consumption of red meat and whole-grain bread in relation to biomarkers of obesity, inflammation, glucose metabolism and oxidative stress." Eur J Nutr 52(1): 337-345. Barbaresko, J., et al. (2013). "Dietary pattern analysis and biomarkers of low-grade inflammation: a systematic literature review." Nutr Rev 71(8): 511-527. Muraki, I., et al. (2013). "Fruit consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes: results from three prospective longitudinal cohort studies." BMJ 347: f5001. Ye, E. Q., et al. (2012). "Greater whole-grain intake is associated with lower risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and weight gain." J Nutr 142(7): 1304-1313. Chiu, T. H., et al. (2014). "Taiwanese Vegetarians and Omnivores: Dietary Composition, Prevalence of Diabetes and IFG." PLoS One 9(2): e88547. Goff, L. M., et al. (2005). "Veganism and its relationship with insulin resistance and intramyocellular lipid." Eur J Clin Nutr 59(2): 291-298. Esposito, K., et al. (2003). "Effect of dietary antioxidants on postprandial endothelial dysfunction induced by a high-fat meal in healthy subjects." Am J Clin Nutr 77(1): 139-143. Jiang, R., et al. (2004). "Body iron stores in relation to risk of type 2 diabetes in apparently healthy women." JAMA 291(6): 711-717. Hua, N. W., et al. (2001). "Low iron status and enhanced insulin sensitivity in lacto-ovo vegetarians." Br J Nutr 86(4): 515-519. Watzl, B. (2008). "Anti-inflammatory effects of plant-based foods and of their constituents." Int J Vitam Nutr Res 78(6): 293-298. Chandalia, M., et al. (2000). "Beneficial effects of high dietary fiber intake in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus." N Engl J Med 342(19): 1392-1398. Pickup, J. C. (2004). "Inflammation and activated innate immunity in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes." Diabetes Care 27(3): 813-823. Deopurkar, R., et al. (2010). "Differential effects of cream, glucose, and orange juice on inflammation, endotoxin, and the expression of Toll-like receptor-4 and suppressor of cytokine signaling-3." Diabetes Care 33(5): 991-997. Ghanim, H., et al. (2009). "Increase in plasma endotoxin concentrations and the expression of Toll-like receptors and suppressor of cytokine signaling-3 in mononuclear cells after a high-fat, high-carbohydrate meal: implications for insulin resistance." Diabetes Care 32(12): 2281-2287. Bao, W., et al. (2012). "Dietary iron intake, body iron stores, and the risk of type 2 diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis." BMC Med 10: 119. Romeu, M., et al. (2013). "Diet, iron biomarkers and oxidative stress in a representative sample of Mediterranean population." Nutr J 12(1): 102. Cooper, A. J., et al. (2012). "A prospective study of the association between quantity and variety of fruit and vegetable intake and incident type 2 diabetes." Diabetes Care 35(6): 1293-1300. Rizzo, N. S., et al. (2011). "Vegetarian dietary patterns are associated with a lower risk of metabolic syndrome: the adventist health study 2." Diabetes Care 34(5): 1225-1227. Consortium, I. (2013). 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I can't wait to buy boots that aren't wide calf!Literally coming from doing JUST THAT! And they are SMOKIN' Hot with 4 inch heels all the way to my knees. Looking at a pair now that come over the knee. Beauties by Ralph Lauren.... Mmmmmmmmm. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App I am seriously jealous, I still have quite chunky legs and am short so still struggle to find boots that fit well and you can wear four inch heels - I think you're my new hero Mind you I'd probably be banned from going into our office as I work with a lot of blokes that are desperately easily distracted and apparently I've stopped being invisible... New hero.... Mmmm. Maybe I WILL dress for Halloween. Put a cape on with the new boots? Lol Seriously- I'm as excited as the next gal here. Years of competition gymnastics, cheerleading and volleyball left me with very muscular thighs. Even before weight gain, I had a hard time with fitted knee high boots. The WLS and years of inactivity were key- I had (finally) lost muscle mass in said calves, and with the weight loss they've gone to a "normal" proportion. Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

Hey All, Mrs. Husker, you are one of my many mentors here. We all know we have our ups and downs and at times don't want to post. But then we get the courage and come and post. My reason this time was when I last posted I was losing and excerising and taking fitness classes and yoga. Since that time I had gain back 10lbs, taking fewer classes and less yoga. We at times find a reason to blame our weight gain on something. Mines is my frig needed repair and I was relying on my freezer to temp as the frig. Being it could only hold buy so much, I found myself eating take out often. Lending to my weight gain. I can't fit any of my new clothes and can't seem to find anything I like this summer. So, I decided to come back and just post my results thus far. And it's not good. So, I going to take a stand and get back on track. 1st I need to get to back to going to the gym in the mornings. To work on time to get to leave early to get to my exercise/yoga classes on time. And once I get into that habit, I'm back on track. But, we all know starting it is the hard part. So, thanks for being here and encouraging each other. Atleast this is the one place where we know, there are others that can relate to our problems. Love to you All. Thanks for being here and coming back...

Main Entry: en·abler Pronunciation: \i-ˈnā-blər, -bəl-ər\ Function: noun Date: 1615: one that enables another to achieve an end ; especially : one who enables another to persist in self-destructive behavior (as substance abuse) by providing excuses or by making it possible to avoid the consequences of such behavior food ADDICTION Food addiction manifests itself in the uncontrollable craving for excess food that follows the ingestion of refined carbohydrates, primarily sugar and flour substances that are quickly metabolized and turned into sugar in the bloodstream. Due to those uncontrollable cravings, a food addict's quality of life deteriorates when he or she eats sugar, flour or wheat. It can deteriorate physically, emotionally, socially and/or spiritually. If any of the following symptoms are familiar to you, you may be a food addict: Physical Symptoms of Food Addiction • Do you think you cannot control your intake of food, especially junk food or high sugar foods? • Have you tried different diets or weight loss programs, but none has worked permanently? • Have you found yourself vomiting, using laxatives, diuretics, or exercising a lot to avoid a weight gain after you have eaten a lot? Many food addicts are obese and have tried numerous methods for weight control (diets, drugs, surgery, etc.) yet nothing has created a permanent solution. Other food addicts have never been obese. Their physical weight has been controlled by extreme measures such as excessive exercise, purging through vomiting or laxatives (bulimia), or the severe and unhealthy limiting of food substances(anorexia). No matter which version of food addiction fits you, all of these symptoms become more severe with time and eventually lead to physical problems that can create an early and sometimes painful death. Emotional Symptoms of Food Addiction • Do you find yourself feeling depressed, hopeless, sad or ashamed about your eating or your weight? • Do you find yourself eating when you are upset or reward yourself with food when you do something good? • Have you ever noticed after eating sugar, flour, or wheat that you become more irritable? Food addicts notice that their emotions become more severe, intense, or unreasonable when eating the addictive substances. For many food addicts, emotional life may deteriorate into despair, depression, or thoughts of suicide. Social Symptoms of Food Addiction • Do you eat in private so no one will see you? • Do you avoid social interactions because you feel you do not look good enough or do not have the proper fitting clothes to wear? • Do you steal other people’s food? • Are you more interested in what food is served at social gatherings than looking forward to the warmth of being with the people attending? A food addict’s social life is affected by intense obsessive thinking about food. Making eye contact with people and taking an interest in developing friendships or intimate relationships become secondary to locating and eating addictive foods. Food addicts often hide or steal foods and eat in secret.

I didn't eat huge quantities but ate very rich meals and liquid supplements(eg- copious amounts of wines and the occasional cocktails) while in business meetings and while traveling or dining out with my wife, family and or friends. My long hours and not sticking to workouts aided in my weight gain. I did the 5:30am workout for awhile and lost 60lbs. When I stopped hitting the gym, I regained 70lbs.

Have you had any weight gain after 2.5 years?

hi all. proudgrammy, thats 20 lbs post-op. Maybe I am being too hard on myself. I think, staying off the scales is a good idea. My mom, who is a great inspiration to me agrees. I probably am not getting enough Protein or fluids because I can't keep from being nauseous. It feels like it is "right there" and it wont go anywhere, up or down. So I end up throwing up a lot of spit. I was 239 when I started and would LOVE to get down to 130. That would exceed my expectations. I feel like I wish I could have had the bypass but there are some medications that I will never get off of, like my psych meds. And, I know one of them does cause weight gain so I know I am fighting upstream with that one. But with all this being said, I do feel better already. There are some things that most people take for granted that I couldn't do 3 weeks ago that I can do now. I have severe RA but am determined to walk as much as I can. I am embracing my treadmill because I know if I just cant go any further, I can just step off of it and I am home near a seat. I have had a total left knee and my right one needs to be replaced. I really felt it yesterday when I was on the treadmill, but am determined not to have it replaced until one year post-op. I am so glad I found this site. I live out in the middle of nowhere where the nearest support group is 60 miles away. Even then, I plan on attending as many as I can. Thanks all for your wise thoughts.