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I knew when I realized that my weight was standing in the way of me doing things I wanted to do in a meaningful way. Also...I checked my insurance and found they had started covering bariatric surgery.

I have my surgery booked in 4 weeks time - it still feels too far away to be real in all honesty. My head was all over the place - am I making the right decision, am taking the easier way out ( I know it’s not!), am I being selfish spending such a large amount of money on myself ect ect. We had a family gathering last weekend, one of the first ones since Covid and lots of photos were taken. I saw said photos today. I burst into tears. I know and photo gate only reinforced that WLS is the right decision for me. I’ve been a yo yo dieter for as long as I can remember, I’ve been every size you can think of - but always always end up fatter than I started. Self esteem is non existent. I need to stop letting my weight control me and the quality of my life and decisions. Bring on 4th Sept. When did you know, WLS was the right course of action for you?

I know someone from another bariatric group who takes RA drugs and has lost a lot of weight. She has been put on steroids now and has stalled, but not everyone with RA has to go on steroids too. There are lots of monoclonal antibody drugs. Are you not taking one of those? Are you seeing a rheumatologist? Or was this your PCP?

Oh, how insensitive is your doctor. After weight loss surgery, you are unable to take nsaids. (Sleevers are eventually able to take the odd nsaid but not regularly.) But there are alternative pain relief & RA management drugs for rheumatoid arthritis than nsaids such as steroids and dmards (like methotrexate which 2 friends take). Chat with your surgeon as to whether you’re able to take these drugs as it will depend upon where in your body they are absorbed. Hopefully you may be able to take one of those. Plus as you lose weight some of the pressure will be taken off your joints which should offer some reduction in pain too.

Yes, you’re likely experiencing your first stall. Yes, you will have more. Perfectly normal. Just your body taking a break to get used to the changes. You can easily weigh a couple of pounds more at the end of the day after eating & drinking versus first thing in the morning after not consuming anything over night. It takes time for all you’ve consumed to pass through your body. Weigh at the same or similar time wearing the same or no clothing to get the most accurate reading. I’m an after breakfast, after I’ve been to the bathroom & in my underwear weigher. Find the frequency of weighing yourself that works for you - though just not multiple times a day. I weighed every day while losing but now weigh about 5 times a week. That’s because I need to know I’m keeping to my plan & maintaining. In the past I wouldn’t weigh myself if I was suspicious I’d put on weight - if I couldn’t see that the scale had gone up I could convince myself I hadn’t put on weight even if my clothes were tight. I’m also more conscious of my own body’s fluctuations now too so I allow for slight daily & weekly variations (up to about 2lbs).

As the other posters said plus are you constipated? That adds weight too (& it will become quite a regular occurrence). Good luck & congrats on your surgery.

Don't weigh yourself multiple times a day. Everyone gains weight during the day. Weigh once a week at the most.

Great post @MandoGetsSleeved. I’m sure many of us go through the same thing or similar. It’s the old habit thing. In the past, we ‘d lose weight, feel good about ourselves & then let it all sludge away & go back to what we used to eat. So we do it again this time. It’s wonderful that you realised what you were doing & committed to going back to the new better habits you were learning. It is a constant battle though. Congrats on your weight loss so far. You’ll at your goal in no time.

My gallbladder was remove when they did my bypass I’m crying because I don’t see weight loss looool 😂😂😂😂😤😤😤

When I first met up with a doctor for revision, I told him I couldn't sleep at night because food or acid would rush back up, and if I didn't take my PPI (which I've been on for quite a few years), my esophagus burned, and I didn't want to up my PPI and be on it for my entire life. He then said that I needed a revision to bypass to help with Gerd, and maybe it'll help me lose a little bit more weight.

Relax…everything you are experiencing is completely normal. your weight will fluctuate throughout the day, depending on fluid intake, exercise, food intake, etc. pain in the shoulders is pretty common shortly after wls due to the gasses pumped in. Three weeks post-op seems a little late, so pay attention to when it is happening. Shoulder pain was one of the first and most persistent signs when my gallbladder went kaput.

Hi I’m 3 weeks post op, do you gain weight by drinking our eating in the day? The weight of the night is not the same as the morning‼️ Ben in the same weight 3 days I’m scared I don’t loose weight 😭😩 pain on left shoulder and ribs it that’s normal?

You gain water weight from the IV fluids they give you in the hospital. It takes several days to lose that water weight (my surgeon said avoid the scale for the first 7-10 days, so that's what I'd suggest). Try not to stress yourself out, the few extra pounds after surgery is 100% normal!

So I’m not there yet but today is my 5 month surgiversary!! Starting weight 273, surgery weight 260, today 192. My goal weight is 165 so more to go. I may revise my goal when I get there but I’ve never been that weight as an adult so not sure what I’ll look like when I get there lol. So happy I made the leap and thank you all for the support, tips and sharing. I don’t have a picture just before surgery as I hated photos of myself but here is one that a friend took when I wasn’t aware, at my biggest. The second one was taken yesterday.

Also, for the surgery, you likely were pumped full of fluids so that you were less likely to get dehydrated. I “gained” 6+ pounds due to the IV when I had my surgery. Give yourself some time.

You’re only a few days post op! Give it time. Follow the intake and dietary guidelines your program gave you. The weight will come off if you do. You’re body is still likely in the process of dropping all the extra fluids they gave you during surgery.

i had surgery on july 27, now aug 1 i was 352 , now 356, i do 80 oz of water, and about 90 protein im lost

This is me. I just spent the last 3 weeks eating whatever because I had started a new job. I have had deviations from my diet before but 3 weeks was the longest. I weighed myself today and didnt gained thank God, but still I wasted those 3 weeks. I am a slow loser too, but there are many things I dont do. Like I calorie count but I eat anything, I dont bother with macros or look into how much water I drink. I dont exercise and I dont take my supplements (eek!) Like , I keep thinking I wanna reach my goal sooner but I get lazy because of the effort involved.

It’s my 5 month surgiversary today!! Best decision I have ever made! I have lost 81 pounds in total, 68 post surgery. Not only do I feel so much healthier but there are so many non scale victories too. Only real downside has been losing so much hair but I would still have gone ahead with the surgery. I set my goal weight to 165 pounds because I actually don’t know how I would look at that weight as an adult. I may revise it when I get there, but it feels pretty good to be so much closer to that goal. I really hope you’re all doing well and are happy to have had the surgery. I’d love to hear about your journeys to date, the good and even the not so good 😊. Below is a before picture and one taken yesterday. I hated being in photos so I didn’t take one just before surgery but I now wish I had.

First I want to say thank you to so many of the veteran posters on here. I hope you gals and guys know how much your experiences and feedback have helped me and I suspect many others. There's just such a fantastic mix of people and experiences - It's great knowing you aren't alone in this journey. The first few months after surgery were easy. The weight was simply falling off, there wasn't anything I couldn't eat or drink - And better yet, I couldn't overeat because of the restriction. I felt fantastic most of the time, had all sorts of NSV's and loved my new life. From August until January I lost almost 50lbs - I was so close to Wonderland I could taste it. THEN reality struck - Suddenly I was one of those "slow losers" - It took almost 2 months to lose 13lbs. UGH, I WAS going to be one of those slow losers. OK, fine, I'm 52 and it is what it is, right? From January until May, I "only" lost 33lbs. Again, every week/month I told myself that I would lose the weight, I was just in some sort of a stall and things would magically pick up. Well, they didn't, I would lose 2-3 lbs and then I would gain 2-3 lbs. Again, "it's normal" I told myself. Fast forward to a week ago - I jumped on here for some motivation (reading stories, etc.) and I took a hard look at what I was doing. Basically, I was being lazy - I was eating whatever I wanted and justifying it by saying "I only eat small portions" - Well, yeah, that was true...BUT I was grazing, I was drinking too much alcohol, and I wasn't tracking. I honetly have no idea how many calories I was consuming (especially on weekends with family and friends). I played mind games with myself and said "As long as I'm not gaining, I'm doing things right." - Well, that was a giant load of (@*$. This past Tuesday (after a weekend of Mimosa's, Crown Royal, and some really great BBQ), I woke up to a 5lb gain (BTW, yes I realize some of that was water retention). WAKE UP CALL. 5lbs? Seriously - Time to go back to basics before that's a 10lb gain. For the first time in MONTHS, I tracked every thing I tracked everything that went into my mouth (water, food, etc) - I did 3 days of liquid - In two days, those 5lbs were off. Rather than what I've done in the past, I didn't stop there - I continued tracking, I continued being cognizant of what and when I was eating. I said "no" to many things that I thought I wanted. I lost 6.8lbs from Tuesday to Sunday. What? I'm NOT a slow loser - I'm a LAZY loser. Folks, for many of us, it's EASY in the first few months, it's EASY to convince ourselves that we're doing OK, it's EASY to compare ourselves to others, it's EASY to ignore signs that you're falling into bad habits, and it's EASY to get lazy. In reality, it's HARD to stick to your plan when you're feeling fantastic and patting yourself on the back for losing so much weight. I'm choosing to be thankful that this happened now rather than 2-3 years into it. I'm glad that reality smacked me in the face and forced me to face the fact that i wasn't doing what I needed to do. Right now it was EASY to get back on track before I let it get out of control. For those of you experiencing the same - Buckle up buttercup, start tracking, weigh yourself often if you need to, and take a good look and when and why you're losing weight and when and why you aren't. Again, a very special thank you to you old timers for always keeping things real and giving out such fantastic advice.

I had revision from VSG to Bypass October 2020 due to severe gastritis, esophagitis and Reflux. I'd been on PPI medication for GERD since well before my sleeve surgery, but it only got worse after. Drugs no longer had any impact and I couldn't sleep unless I was in a recliner. I saw my surgeon in August of 2020, had all the testing done to verify the diagnosis and my insurance approved within a month. I have Aetna insurance, but when the surgery is "medically necessary", it moves pretty quick. I was "overweight", but not obese at the time of the bypass, so weight gain was not a factor in the insurance approval. But I don't think it would have changed the medical necessity of the surgery. Good news - the surgery was a success, acid reflux is gone, I now sleep in a bed and I've lost almost 60 pounds since surgery. Recovery was rough - I'm a "dumper", so I still have to be careful what I eat, but I am so very happy that I made the decision to have the revision. Good luck with your surgery!

I haven't had weight loss surgery yet, but one of the requirements before surgery was to have an upper endoscopy. I had that last week and during it they found a hiatal hernia.

I was having a great deal of trouble losing weight from my arms and saddlebags. I started researching things and everything clicked. There are many videos on YouTube about it and I started reading about the different texture that skin has when there is lipedema under the surface. Im in the process of trying to obtain a pump to help rid my body of excess fluid and break down scar tissue in my legs.

They happen. Just stick to your plan & they will break. Your body is taking a break to catch up with all the changes - diet, weight loss, surgery, etc. It’s been through a lot. I never changed a thing I was doing (why stress my body more) & I always started to lose again. You will too. Good luck.

I'm so excited and just have to share the news that insurance has approved surgery! I have been going through all of the motions since January and am so excited! A little about me: I'm 46, mother of two kids (10 & 7), and I teach 6th grade. I had medullary thryoid cancer and my thyroid was removed in 2008. Even though my thyroid hormone levels are within range, weight has been a problem ever since the removal of my thyroid. Have I mentioned that I am SO EXCITED?!?