Okay, HOW can we gain it all back?

[Elizabeth21 176]

Hi All,

Truly curious. There is so little I can ingest compared to pre-op and sweets are semi-nauseating so in addition to volume limitation I just can't seem to tolerate a lot.

Biggest fear for me is that I cannot maintain the majority of my weight loss. I chose the sleeve due to the statistics that seem to indicate most maintain majority of weight loss.

So... now my "demons" are whispering that this won't last. I'm wondering, REALLY, what is the evidence for/against maintenance? It seems like looking at the math, it is hard to imagine I could get back to pre-op weight unless my stomach can somehow regain its former volume and tolerance. Am I kidding myself?

Is there really a "happily ever after?"

[choosehope 233]

So glad you posted this. It's one of the things I'm most curious and concerned about! Following!

[lexiemia 78]

I am having this same fear and wondering if maybe I should have signed up for the bypass. I asked the nurse today what is the longest they have had a patient maintain their weight with the sleeve. She said they have a patient 6 years out that has maintained and she has even had a baby.

[Soapandcandlequeen 124]

I am so glad to see this post too. I have been going back and forth on whether to do sleeve or bypass.

[VSGmary 418]

Having WLS is a tool that you have to work with for the rest of your life, not just for a year or two. Follow your doctor/nutritionists plan, and you should be ok.

[MichiganChic 3,262]

I'm two and a half years post op, lost more than 140 pounds in 14 months, and have kept it off since. I watch what eat every day, all day. I can eat a lot more than I could in the beginning, and more than I wish I could. I don't think I did anything to stretch my sleeve, but I do think it's bigger than lots of people's.

I know that I could easily gain every pound back, and it would not be hard to do. I can eat a lot of calories without realizing it by grazing and making high caloric choices. I could easily drink 3-4 thousand calories a day. It would be easy. When I first had the surgery, I thought I was cured. I was elated at how little I could eat, how little I felt like eating, and at the lack of hunger. Now I know that was temporary. Hunger gradually returned, and so did the desire to eat. It's nothing like pre-op even now, but it's enough that if I don't watch it, I gain. I always say I'm one cookie away from 300 pounds - in other words - I can never let my guard down.

[tomi71 581]

One sure fire way is to stop taking care of yourself. So, eating poorly, not being active, not reducing stress....those things will cause you to regress.

Remember that your sleeve is a tool in the WL toolbox. Improper use of it will result in poor results.

Facing your demons and telling said demons to "eff off" is a great way to reduce the likelihood of becoming unhealthy again.

It's definitely hard but not impossible!

[KristenVSG2014 1,872]

The type of surgery you have does not determine your level of success before or after you reach your goal weight. The level of determination and commitment you show to following your surgeon's instructions is what will make you successful. You can gain the weight back whether you've had sleeve or bypass. You still have to make healthy food choices no matter what surgery you have. The tool you choose simply reduces the amount you can eat in one sitting. If you chose to, you could eat empty carbs every hour and ingest enough calories to gain weight. Not everyone who has bypass has dumping. So don't base your decision solely on that. You need to commit yourself mentally to simply eating what your body needs for fuel.

Have you seen any episodes of "My 600 Pound Life"? There are some great examples of the struggle many go through with realizing (or not) that their surgery is simply a tool - the real work is their decision on what they put in their mouth and whether they decide to become more active. You can watch episodes online, I think.

[VSGAnn2014 12,992]

Until we learn why we have been unable in the past to care for ourselves and maintain our prior weight losses and address constructively the issues involved in that dynamic, we will always be at risk for weight regain.

That's why my primary care physician insisted I seek counseling PRIOR to weight loss surgery to understand and address (as he put it) "... why you are unable to care for yourself ...."

I could certainly see the good sense in his advice. So I've committed to see my psychologist for three years: (1) the year of losing weight, (2) the year of maintaining my weight loss and (3) the year of boring real life.

So far, all I've been able to do is lose all my excess weight. I'll let you know in two years and three months how the rest of it went.

[CowgirlJane 14,259]

When you are recent post op you can't imagine being able to eat much....but things change. You'd be amazed at how easy it is to regain. I am 3.5 years post op and maintaining but it's work.

Bypass patients can regain too.

[Soapandcandlequeen 124]

Great comments. I think the advice to seek couceling is a great idea. I know for me my biggest worry is gaining weight back. I think that is normal considering I have done so many diets and not been successful keeping weight off. I also know this process to get surgery is a lot to go through. Especially the expense. I would never want to go back or regress.

[Tauruslady5 154]

Morning.

Yes, you can gain it back and plus more.

Reasoning: You were given a second chance. This means that you now have a "Baby's" tummy.

Think of this, when your new baby starts life, you feed it every two hours of liquids to fill their "tiny" tummies. Well, this is you. As your child gets more months older, you start feeding it more softer type foods, but still every two hours. Again, this is you. Now your child is 6 months old and you start feeding him/her the stage 2 foods, which have some texture into it. This is when your child starts to really grow, their stomach stretch so that you do not have to feed them every 2 hours, maybe every 4. This is you.

Right now I still after 6 months, eat every two hours so my stomach does not stretch. I still eat healthy, every now and then, yes I will have an ice-cream or something sweet. But not as much as I did. Reason why, I do not want to be 310 pounds every again. Right now I am 222 and enjoying the weight loss and more energy I have.

I always say: My surgeon performed surgery on my stomach, not my brain. My brain is mine to teach to eat right.

If those demons are in your brain telling you to eat the way you did, then it is YOUR job to get rid of them. Drink more Water, eat a small snack. It is just your body telling you that something is needed. Don't give into that feeling, channel it to something better. Go for a walk, this helps me a lot.

Hope this helps. This is a tool, it is your responsibility to keep yourself healthy and work towards your goals.

HAVE A SPARKLING DAY

Annamarie.........

[Elizabeth21 176]

Thanks all for your input.

The demons are not telling to me to eat like before. The demons are telling me that I will not physically be able to maintain this plan because even if I eat less, I will gain, or, I will become starving again and not be able to continue eating less.

I'm not sure I can agree with the baby tummy analogy because our stomachs grew with the rest of our body. We did not stretch them out. What did get stretched out was my metabolism and hunger signals. The reason I chose the sleeve was that I was told the part of the stomach that got removed affected the hormones that produce hunger signals and that affect the metabolism. As a result my hunger would lessen and my metabolism would be able to reset so that I would not have to fight both of these things to lose weight and maintain the loss.

So, I guess my question is: Does the hunger come back in full and the metabolism reduce again so that even if I'm eating less than 1,000 calories a day I will remain overweight?

[bikrchk 1,313]

I had the same thoughts a year and a half ago. Lost 90ish pounds to my goal range eating what I wanted in small portions, meeting my Protein goals and exercising 5 days per week. At about 4 months shy of my 2 year surgiversary, I can tell you I still eat very little in a sitting. Restriction is still there :-) However, I'm working harder to maintain my weight loss these days. I had to learn to snack to meet my nutritional goals early on. My doc said to eat 1000-1200 calories to lose and it worked like a charm! Added a few more to enter maintenance when the time came to stop losing and it was all fine. Then snack sizes and portion sizes creep up over time. I got fit and reclaimed my social life which includes having a drink with the boyfriend\friends more often, (never more than a couple as I can't hold my booze like I used to), but that stuff has calories! If I don't watch what I'm doing I can put on 5+ pounds in a snap and taking it off is more of a struggle now. Pay attention, don't skip my workouts and lay off the empty calories and I maintain just fine, but it's WORK now, where it wasn't so much before. Know that your honeymoon WILL end at some point but that doesn't mean you won't be successful! You just have to keep working your tool.

[Elizabeth21 176]

Yeah, that drinking thing is going to be my challenge too. Trying hard to gain more peace in my life so I need less "relief" drinking and other ways to socialize without having to eat/drink.

Too bad honeymoons don't last!