Weight Gained Since Having Gastric Sleeve Surgery

[LovingMurfreesboro37129 0]

Me too. 12/5. 60grms Protein daily work out 5 to 6 times a week. 53# loss and stuck since 2/18. Heeeeeeelp

Do not give up. I was sleeved on 9-6-11, I started at 356lbs I am now 253lbs. 103lbs off and 73lbs to go. I stayed at 260lbs for 2 1/2 months Dec., Jan. & half of Feb., but I've lost an additional 7lbs in the last two weeks. Just stay away from the soda, candy, bread and rice. My problem is M&M's with Almonds.

Good Luck!

[reallyrosy 161]

Do not give up. I was sleeved on 9-6-11, I started at 356lbs I am now 253lbs. 103lbs off and 73lbs to go. I stayed at 260lbs for 2 1/2 months Dec., Jan. & half of Feb., but I've lost an additional 7lbs in the last two weeks. Just stay away from the soda, candy, bread and rice. My problem is M&M's with Almonds.

Good Luck!

Soda candy bread and rice???? I'm a mouse: I eat cheese. I eat meat. I eat fish and I eat vegetables. I eat nuts. I eat Protein. _÷x_^%*(&%$ Protein. I work out 6 days aweek and now with the freaking physical therapy sometimes 2x a day. I lost x\ one lb this a.m. but I don't believe its gone til I weigh myself next week and its still gone. I hate this diet. I hate the doctor. I hate the program. I hate the inflexability. I hate the whole deal.

Stupid dumb surgery. Stupid diet that can't be kept to for the rest of my life.

Sigh...thanks for listening. Hold the sympathy.

[ouroborous 519]

Soda candy bread and rice???? I'm a mouse: I eat cheese. I eat meat. I eat fish and I eat vegetables. I eat nuts. I eat Protein. _÷x_^%*(&%$ Protein. I work out 6 days aweek and now with the freaking physical therapy sometimes 2x a day. I lost x\ one lb this a.m. but I don't believe its gone til I weigh myself next week and its still gone. I hate this diet. I hate the doctor. I hate the program. I hate the inflexability. I hate the whole deal.

Stupid dumb surgery. Stupid diet that can't be kept to for the rest of my life.

Sigh...thanks for listening. Hold the sympathy.

Say it with me now, folks: plateaus are a normal part of the process. Getting stuck is a normal part of the process.

I know... we don't want to hear that. I didn't want to hear that. I still hover anxiously near the scale sometimes, worried about every bleep and bloop on the number.

But the fact is that the typical weight loss of a sleever goes something like this:

A HUGE, exhilarating loss at first... it's almost effortless. You fart and the pounds come off. You eat good and the pounds come off. You eat BAD (which, you know, for a sleever in the early days means something like "well, last month I ate a cookie...") and the pounds come off.

The problem with this early phase is that it completely destroys our sense of what a "normal" weight loss and maintenance profile feels like. This early phase where the weight just drops off is not normal. It's great, but it's not normal.

Once you start getting down to what your body thinks its weight "should be" (it's actually a great deal more complicated than this; your body doesn't really have any idea what you "should" weigh, it's just that feedback mechanisms start to come into play and exert more force than the downward push from the sleeve) the loss will become slower and slower. And it isn't just a "steady" slowness; it's not like your body will go from 5 pounds a week to 3 pounds a week to a pound a week in a smooth progression. In fact, at times you'll plateau for days or weeks or even months (near the bottom end of the curve) at a time. At times your weight will even go up slightly (slightly: a prolonged and significant gain is usually a sign that something is wrong, whereas a 5-10 pound gain is typically a Water weight gain or a normal plateau fluctuation).

You can break through the plateau -- assuming that you're not already at the low end of body fat -- but it doesn't always happen when you expect it to happen -- sometimes you get stuck and then you cut your calories and up your exercise and nothing changes (or you even gain a little) for days at a time, and then when you give up, suddenly your body starts shedding weight again.

And finally when you start getting down near or below the low end of normal body fat (for most of us, it seems like this is around 20% body fat; fat location along with factors such as age and genetics seems to determine your "realistic minimum body fat"), shedding every ounce is a lot of frigging hard work, every day, forever. Most of us have a hard time keeping up that level of dedication (else we wouldn't have been obese to begin with), so most people seem to stick around 25%-ish bodyfat, which is still technically overweight (and of course, those of us who are very self-critical will harass ourselves mercilessly over that fact) but is, in fact, much healthier than the 40%, 50%, or even 60% body fat that some of us started with. Indeed, it's healthier, on average, than most modern Americans!

The real problem is that early phase, where weight loss was effortless and we could do no wrong. It's sad to say, but important to remember, that that is not the norm. The sleeve continues to be a tool, and as long as you don't abuse it too bad, you can be pretty confident that you won't spiral back into that morbidly obese category. But it's not zero work, it's not effortless. You have to start really working it after a point, and the lower your body fat gets (remember: measure body fat, NOT weight -- weight can fluctuate by as much as 4 or 5 pounds *in a single day* due to Water weight changes) the more you're going to hit plateaus, of longer and longer duration, and maybe even see some backtracking. The great thing about the sleeve is that even if you gain a few pounds, unlike before you can be pretty confident that you can get rid of them pretty quickly with a little self-discipline.

Sorry for the long post, but it seems like a lot of people have sort of unrealistic expectations about life with the sleeve, and then whenever they see a blip on the scale they freak out and assume all is lost. It's not lost when you plateau or rebound a few pounds. It's completely normal.

[ouroborous 519]

Oh, one last thing: it's very, very normal to plateau, and it's very, very normal to regain 5 or even 10 pounds (depends upon your frame; us bigger guys can gain 10 pounds as easily as you smaller gals can gain 5). When the weight gain starts getting into the 15 or 20 plus pound range, that's when something is going wrong in your weight loss, and I'd talk to your dietitian/nutritionist/doctor/personal trainer about it.

[reallyrosy 161]

Say it with me now, folks: plateaus are a normal part of the process. Getting stuck is a normal part of the process.

And finally when you start getting down near or below the low end of normal body fat (for most of us, it seems like this is around 20% body fat; fat location along with factors such as age and genetics seems to determine your "realistic minimum body fat"), shedding every ounce is a lot of frigging hard work, every day, forever. Most of us have a hard time keeping up that level of dedication (else we wouldn't have been obese to begin with), so most people seem to stick around 25%-ish bodyfat, which is still technically overweight (and of course, those of us who are very self-critical will harass ourselves mercilessly over that fact) but is, in fact, much healthier than the 40%, 50%, or even 60% body fat that some of us started with. Indeed, it's healthier, on average, than most modern Americans!

The real problem is that early phase, where weight loss was effortless and we could do no wrong. It's sad to say, but important to remember, that that is not the norm. The sleeve continues to be a tool, and as long as you don't abuse it too bad, you can be pretty confident that you won't spiral back into that morbidly obese category. But it's not zero work, it's not effortless. You have to start really working it after a point, and the lower your body fat gets (remember: measure body fat, NOT weight -- weight can fluctuate by as much as 4 or 5 pounds *in a single day* due to Water weight changes) the more you're going to hit plateaus, of longer and longer duration, and maybe even see some backtracking. The great thing about the sleeve is that even if you gain a few pounds, unlike before you can be pretty confident that you can get rid of them pretty quickly with a little self-discipline.

Sorry for the long post, but it seems like a lot of people have sort of unrealistic expectations about life with the sleeve, and then whenever they see a blip on the scale they freak out and assume all is lost. It's not lost when you plateau or rebound a few pounds. It's completely normal.

What?! Me normal? Nah. Maybe....I'm frustrated. My cousin says you went thru all that to lose wt and after 50# u stop???? Sigh. I told her, good, but until I hear it from someone else, I don't buy it. My body darn well know its no where near goal. I've got at minimum another 100 to go. I weighed myself again today (idiot me) and it was up .6 # so I silently mocked myself "told ya so. I knew it" but at least it was 255 to 256 and not 256 to 258 where its been tenaciously holding for the past 3 weeks.

Thanks for the long post. I needed to hear it.

[Forensikchic 528]

Great post Ouroborous! I agree 100%. My surgeon explained it a similar way. He said if you graph your weight loss, you will see that the first leg of the journey is usually a slant and then about 3 or 4 months into it you see stair steps. You will be in the stair step stage for the duration with the plateaus representing the steps. The steps will get bigger and the drops shorter as you go through the process until you reach goal or for about 2 years. I expect now that I am about 7 months out that my little plateaus will get closer together and be longer each time, etc. Thats okay because I am still losing overall and the fat is moving out! We all want immediate gratification and thats just not reality long term. We have to be patient and do the work. I am changing slowly but surely and I am grateful for my sleeve.

[ouroborous 519]

What?! Me normal? Nah. Maybe....I'm frustrated. My cousin says you went thru all that to lose wt and after 50# u stop???? Sigh. I told her, good, but until I hear it from someone else, I don't buy it. My body darn well know its no where near goal. I've got at minimum another 100 to go. I weighed myself again today (idiot me) and it was up .6 # so I silently mocked myself "told ya so. I knew it" but at least it was 255 to 256 and not 256 to 258 where its been tenaciously holding for the past 3 weeks.

Thanks for the long post. I needed to hear it.

I hear you and I definitely share your frustration. Now that I'm much closer to the end of my weight loss journey than the beginning of it, I'm pretty much ALL plateaus. Technically I still have about 19 pounds to lose to be at a "normal" bodyweight, and my current goal is about 14 more pounds (I weighed in at just over 216 today, and I'd like to get to around 200-205, which would make me still overweight, but only just barely, according to the BMI charts). That being said, my body fat % is at about 20% and dropping, which is, frankly, pretty damn good for an American guy in his (early) 40's who works at a desk job, especially when you consider that my BMI was nearly 45 before I started (I have no idea what my body fat percentage was, but I'm sure it was just a horror show).

I know that these last 15 pounds are going to be harder to lose than the first 120+ pounds were put together because my body is now in a constant fight with me over every single calorie, and the level of dedication required to "get there" is such that I am almost having to completely reinvent who I am as a person in order to even try to hit my goal. But the nice thing is that with the sleeve, I know I at least have a shot at it. Before the sleeve, no way Jose.

But it wasn't all wine and roses on the way down, either. I hit a mini-plateau at around 250 where I thought "well, that's it, I'm done. I'm still obese, and I can't lose any more weight." This stall lasted several weeks, if I recall. I tried everything I could think of -- more Water, less Water, more Protein, less carbs, the "pouch reset," more exercise... everything. Nothing made a difference. And then, right on the tail end of a vacation (where I wasn't eating great -- I was on vacation! -- and I even had some beer), I get home and BAM... 10 pounds gone. And then it just started melting away again, without me seeming to change much of anything. What changed? Who knows... some complicated internal body chemistry thing; I wasn't anywhere NEAR "goal," but for some reason, right around 250 lbs, my body suddenly freaked out and said "MUST... STOP... LOSING... WEIGHT!"

Bottom line is that you have to have a little faith. The faith is, for me, in science and statistics: if you do the right things (be mindful of your eating, try to drink enough water, try to move as much as you can, get good sleep, etc.) and have patience, you WILL get down to at or near a "normal" BMI... eventually. It may not happen today, and it almost certainly won't happen as fast as you want. But it WILL happen, so you might as well not freak yourself out over it in the meantime. If you're still not there and you hit a plateau or gain a couple back, do a quick reality check -- am I doing the right things? Am I eating right? Am I moving (exercising) enough? Is my diet more slanted towards Protein and complex carbs than simple carbs? If that's all in order, then it's just "one of those things," and it's better to just let it go and (try to) focus on all the good things your weight loss has already given you.

[feedyoureye 3,087]

Right on Brother!

[reallyrosy 161]

Ouroborous,

I needed that. Thanks.

Couple comments/questions: how does one measure body fat? Do you think you'll ever be able to eat a slice of bread again? How do people here get to eat rice, bread, candy, popcorn? ??? HOW? And live to tell us about it? I can't even chew gum without feeling I've sabotaged my diet?

Why do you think a surgeon wouldn't give fat/protein/carb proportions and limits for a single day?

What kind of warped person (me) follows these directives?

But I do feel a bunch better for reading your messages and thanks!

[LilMissDiva Irene 3,282]

Ouroborous, you should create a new thread with all that info. It's so right on!

Folks just need to keep it moving and doing the right things. The weight will come off, in time.

[Supersweetums 1,164]

Ouroborous, I love that! I agree, so many people have an unreal expectation of what it is going to be like. Yes, some people drop the weight like no body's business, but I don't think a lot of those people never learn to eat properly and have an increase risk of weight gain later on.

And ReallyRosy, it sounds like you are doing everything right! Just keep your head up and try to relax. It will come off! I have a friend that at 6 months out she had a 2 month stall. Partly because of poor eating, but partly because of her body resisting the loss. But it did come off! And you will be able to eat again, but just realize a lot of those foods still need to be eating consciously. I do eat rice, but I will only have a couple of tablespoons because I will eat my Protein and veggies first. I have other treats too, like ice cream and popcorn, just not all the time. Some people eat a lot of carb rich foods, I try to avoid those. Things like chips are my weakness, so I never keep them in my house.

Keep strong and you will do great!!

[Oregondaisy 2,021]

If you're sick of dieting, then don't diet! Eat what you want. No kidding. When I went on stalls, I got so fed up, I stopped counting everything for a week and ate whatever I wanted. I didn't gain anything and the next week, I lost 5 lbs.

The whole thing makes no sense, just like Ouroborous and vacation and beer.

Try not to stress so much. You're going to lose weight, in your body's time, at it's rate. All you can do is try your best and stop beating yourself up. What is the saying?

Believe in the sleeve!

[aoa 4]

I had my surgery in feb 2008. Last year I was at normal weight and everything was perfect. I had 55 kg and I was happy until I decided is time to quit smoking. Since then I gain 10 kgs... so I see I am the only one who voted for 15-20 lbs.

Does anybody knows how in the world should I lose at least 2-3 kgs? (I have 2 kgs over "normal limit"

I have now around 63-67 kgs depending on the position of the scale and its mood (my normal limit is at 62).

I havent see nowhere how to lose weight after you gain it? I haven`t found anywhere if there is any vegetarian who did this surgery? Or, raw vegan? (I know I am asking too much) ...

thanks,

aoa

[feedyoureye 3,087]

Did your doctor give you an eating plan to follow early on? You could go back on that until you lose a few Kgs?

There are several vegetarians here, including me. Totally raw vegan would be much harder to get in your Proteins. Eat lots of raw if it agrees with your tummy, and add in cooked proteins to supplement. Log your calories and get in some exercise. Its a diet again, but to get back to your goal thats ok right?

...and congratulations on quitting smoking! That will help your health so much in the long run!

[aoa 4]

thanks for reply

did you had any health problem being vegetarian? How is your energy? Mine is so low

my doctor didnt gave me any diet to keep. His only strong advice was to eat only 3 meals per day...

and yes I need to find my motivation to lose weight again! I hate extra kgs!