Gaining Weight Back
I am considering gastric by pass surgery and have heard stories about people that have done this and gained all their weight back...I am concerned about this...how often does this occur and why? I have heard people say you can basically eat what you want a while after the surgery...is this true or do you have to be on a 1500 calorie diet the rest of your life to maintain weight loss???
Hi Angie
#1. this is not a diet & I m not on a diet I did a life style change
2. always follow the rules and u won't gain your wieght back. there are people out there who have re-gained their weight and say I don't eat much well tahat is what I said before WLS when I was fat.
3. never test the water to see what u can tolerate. I have NOT tasted sugar in 3 years. I don't want to know if I can tolerate cause if I can't it will make me sick and if it doesnt make me sick I know I will eat it and gain my weight back and I dont want that to happen. I know people that have gained their weight back and they get sick when they eat sugar or to much fat but they still do it any way. you will always have to watch what u eat for the rest of your life. I love how I feel now so it is so worth it
Susan
#1. this is not a diet & I m not on a diet I did a life style change
2. always follow the rules and u won't gain your wieght back. there are people out there who have re-gained their weight and say I don't eat much well tahat is what I said before WLS when I was fat.
3. never test the water to see what u can tolerate. I have NOT tasted sugar in 3 years. I don't want to know if I can tolerate cause if I can't it will make me sick and if it doesnt make me sick I know I will eat it and gain my weight back and I dont want that to happen. I know people that have gained their weight back and they get sick when they eat sugar or to much fat but they still do it any way. you will always have to watch what u eat for the rest of your life. I love how I feel now so it is so worth it
Susan
Do you eat sugar substitutes or is that out of the question as well? When you say follow the rules, what are the basic rules? I guess it has to do with portion sizes? Do you end up eating like a bird for the rest of your life then? I know you can't drink with meals and you can never ever have carbonated drinks again...right? How do you feel, do you have more energy now? Can you exercise, and/or do you exercise? I just worry that after I lose the weight I will be frail and have no strenght and/or endurance...am I crazy to think this? I worry most about absorption issues. I know there is trouble absorbing B vitamins, but I also have hormone issues...I am on Hormone Replacement Therapy and I fear not having these meds absorbed. If they don't get absorbed, I will have all my horrible symptoms back, and I'd rather die than have this occur...What are your thoughts on this issue?
Thanks Jen,
I appreciate your support. Did you have weight loss surgery? I am really having a hard time with this decision and it should be so easy for me. I have 80 lbs to lose and am on at least 20+ pills a day , besides insulin, Byetta, etc...I have sleep apnea...I am just worried about changing the composition of my stomach, as it is not how nature intended it....yet, I am having so much trouble losing weight that I feel it is probably my only choice at this point. I just can't imagine a life without never eating a sweet thing ever again. I am certainly in a quandry. Help!
Angela
My endocrinologist told me after I gave her my WLS sugar guidelines that if the rest of her patients followed those guidelines she'd be out of business. Its very difficult to be diabetic when strictly following WLS guidelines. If you are, it's most likely truly genetic, not environmental, like people are these days due to our bad eating habits in the US.
My guidelines are 2gms of sugar or less. If so, have at it. Natural carbs/sugars (grown that way, like lettuces or asparagus) is secondary. Corn, peas, tomatoes, potatoes, rice (grown but starchy compared to green veggies) are further down the list than other veggies. Lactose (milk sugar) and Fructose (fruit sugar) in moderation and third to Protein. Yogurts and cottage cheese is encouraged for its calcium and protein content. With anything above 2gms, "no sugar or any of its derivatives (dextrose, sucrose)" can be within the first 5 ingredients of the product; if it is, you don't eat it, plain and simple. If it falls #6 or beyond, yes, you can eat it, there's too little of it in the portion you'll eat to do you harm. With WLS, you become an expert label reader. In the beginning I could spend hours doing my grocery shopping because I read everything that went into my cart. (It was also a love affair I think to be with all that food; food porn we call it.) Everything about WLS gets quicker as you gain knowledge and experience.
As you get used to eating this way, 1yr out+, you do division, especially on the yummy stuff. If something has 8gm of sugar for 4 pieces, you can eat 1 piece and be at your 2gm. For example, Asher's SF chocolates, you could have 2 pieces; you can have 14 cheese curls as a snack but as Pam said, what you can do and what you "should" do are 2 different things. Very often we make discoveries that those cheese curls are "comforting" and that "comfortable feeling" is what you're really craving and that's a sign of addiction so you need to re-direct that feeling away from the cheese curls and onto a slice of roast beef and cheese lunchmeat. A whole lot less romantic, trust me. There are ways to "outfox" the fox but if you do, you are only hurting yourself.
Remember, you are also trying to get in at least 64oz. of water in a day (no caffiene the first 6 mos. and no drinking with meals, wait for 30 mins. after the meal - this is waaay harder than you'd think). Drinks includes crystal light, diet snapple, fuze slenderize, decaf products. You'll definately find flavors that satisfy your cravings for sweets and fruits, it's the chewing you will miss. The first couple months you are eating about 400-800 cals a day. At 6 mos. 800-1000 and after a year about 1000-1200; 1500 is you are exercising well and that's about where you land. Some days you'll do 800 and the next 1200 and the next 600. Think more along the lines of a weekly average than worrying about the daily take. Always strive for about 75 grams of protein a day and if you can't get it in with food you'll have to make it up with protein drinks.
Other practical things... Use desert size plates and small size forks; the protein should be half the plate, green non-starchy veggies 1/4 and the other 1/4 carb (which can include fruit). To help you realize portions, look at your palm. When you are 1st out of surgery, the first month you are progressing from liquid to pureed (think babyfood consistency-no lumps) to soft (egg salad-tiny soft lumps) then on to solids (usually 3 bites does it). Chew 30 times before swallowing to take the solid down to pureed level. The opening your food has to pass through is the size of an M&M and you don't want to force it.
In the next two months you will progress from 1 to 2oz. of soft to semi-solid food. 2oz. is about 1/2 the size of the palm of your hand, 1oz is 1/4 of your palm or about the size of a half dollar. Use a food scale and take your regular food now and look at what that equals. You will think we are crazy to eat so little. You will see why we lose weight. HOWEVER, we are full; full like having eaten Thanksgiving dinner, because we have smaller stomachs. After surgery about the size of a kiwi; then it stretches to a good size lemon. So the full feeling is the same you have now but we do it on a whole lot less. And, our vitamins make up the difference nutritionally which is why it is IMPERATIVE that we take them everyday for the rest of our lives. Hormonally, fat cells hold estrogen (and water). You lose the estrogen (through release of the water/inflammation) and often your hormones straighten out (why people are no longer diabetic - why women get pregnant easier - why HBP gets cured - why moods even out). You are in ketosis for about 6 mos. Your hair will thin at 4mos and come back in about the 8th month. Your breath might stink from ketones, use a mint. Bones will rub that never rubbed before; your neck, back, hips, knees will all re-adjust as the fat dissolves and they'll find their new "center" and skin will sag if not kept toned. Your internal organs will rejoice with the extra space in there! Exercise can only help all these processes along. Blood flow is a good thing! You will feel ALIVE!
Go to a post op meeting at Barix; you don't have to be a patient there to do so. You will see some extremely HEALTHY looking folks. No one is turning yellow or looking sickly or weak. In fact, they have so much energy they will make YOU tired. These are people that have lost their aches and pains, regained their physical and mental energies, they are DOING things, they are playing WITH their kids no****ching from the sidelines because their knees click when they rise off the bench. That's not to say that they won't have problems after surgery. Surgery is on the stomach, not the head. If someone didn't like their job beforehand, they won't miraculously love it after. Many have gotten noticed and promoted, sure, but that is more likely because they were doing a fabulous job beforehand but their discriminatory boss didn't think they had the right "look" to portray the company and now they do. That's a whole different issue and you will find that too. Friends that liked you fat, won't like you thin. Husbands that were secure might be insecure now that you are "hot". Sex might be better (or worse). There is SO much to WLS. You really need to get to some meetings and hear the "real" aspects from post-ops; not the commercials on TV.
A lifestyle change is something you can't NOT do, like taking a bath, brushing your teeth or wearing your glasses. A diet is temporary and gets postponed if something better comes along.
My guidelines are 2gms of sugar or less. If so, have at it. Natural carbs/sugars (grown that way, like lettuces or asparagus) is secondary. Corn, peas, tomatoes, potatoes, rice (grown but starchy compared to green veggies) are further down the list than other veggies. Lactose (milk sugar) and Fructose (fruit sugar) in moderation and third to Protein. Yogurts and cottage cheese is encouraged for its calcium and protein content. With anything above 2gms, "no sugar or any of its derivatives (dextrose, sucrose)" can be within the first 5 ingredients of the product; if it is, you don't eat it, plain and simple. If it falls #6 or beyond, yes, you can eat it, there's too little of it in the portion you'll eat to do you harm. With WLS, you become an expert label reader. In the beginning I could spend hours doing my grocery shopping because I read everything that went into my cart. (It was also a love affair I think to be with all that food; food porn we call it.) Everything about WLS gets quicker as you gain knowledge and experience.
As you get used to eating this way, 1yr out+, you do division, especially on the yummy stuff. If something has 8gm of sugar for 4 pieces, you can eat 1 piece and be at your 2gm. For example, Asher's SF chocolates, you could have 2 pieces; you can have 14 cheese curls as a snack but as Pam said, what you can do and what you "should" do are 2 different things. Very often we make discoveries that those cheese curls are "comforting" and that "comfortable feeling" is what you're really craving and that's a sign of addiction so you need to re-direct that feeling away from the cheese curls and onto a slice of roast beef and cheese lunchmeat. A whole lot less romantic, trust me. There are ways to "outfox" the fox but if you do, you are only hurting yourself.
Remember, you are also trying to get in at least 64oz. of water in a day (no caffiene the first 6 mos. and no drinking with meals, wait for 30 mins. after the meal - this is waaay harder than you'd think). Drinks includes crystal light, diet snapple, fuze slenderize, decaf products. You'll definately find flavors that satisfy your cravings for sweets and fruits, it's the chewing you will miss. The first couple months you are eating about 400-800 cals a day. At 6 mos. 800-1000 and after a year about 1000-1200; 1500 is you are exercising well and that's about where you land. Some days you'll do 800 and the next 1200 and the next 600. Think more along the lines of a weekly average than worrying about the daily take. Always strive for about 75 grams of protein a day and if you can't get it in with food you'll have to make it up with protein drinks.
Other practical things... Use desert size plates and small size forks; the protein should be half the plate, green non-starchy veggies 1/4 and the other 1/4 carb (which can include fruit). To help you realize portions, look at your palm. When you are 1st out of surgery, the first month you are progressing from liquid to pureed (think babyfood consistency-no lumps) to soft (egg salad-tiny soft lumps) then on to solids (usually 3 bites does it). Chew 30 times before swallowing to take the solid down to pureed level. The opening your food has to pass through is the size of an M&M and you don't want to force it.
In the next two months you will progress from 1 to 2oz. of soft to semi-solid food. 2oz. is about 1/2 the size of the palm of your hand, 1oz is 1/4 of your palm or about the size of a half dollar. Use a food scale and take your regular food now and look at what that equals. You will think we are crazy to eat so little. You will see why we lose weight. HOWEVER, we are full; full like having eaten Thanksgiving dinner, because we have smaller stomachs. After surgery about the size of a kiwi; then it stretches to a good size lemon. So the full feeling is the same you have now but we do it on a whole lot less. And, our vitamins make up the difference nutritionally which is why it is IMPERATIVE that we take them everyday for the rest of our lives. Hormonally, fat cells hold estrogen (and water). You lose the estrogen (through release of the water/inflammation) and often your hormones straighten out (why people are no longer diabetic - why women get pregnant easier - why HBP gets cured - why moods even out). You are in ketosis for about 6 mos. Your hair will thin at 4mos and come back in about the 8th month. Your breath might stink from ketones, use a mint. Bones will rub that never rubbed before; your neck, back, hips, knees will all re-adjust as the fat dissolves and they'll find their new "center" and skin will sag if not kept toned. Your internal organs will rejoice with the extra space in there! Exercise can only help all these processes along. Blood flow is a good thing! You will feel ALIVE!
Go to a post op meeting at Barix; you don't have to be a patient there to do so. You will see some extremely HEALTHY looking folks. No one is turning yellow or looking sickly or weak. In fact, they have so much energy they will make YOU tired. These are people that have lost their aches and pains, regained their physical and mental energies, they are DOING things, they are playing WITH their kids no****ching from the sidelines because their knees click when they rise off the bench. That's not to say that they won't have problems after surgery. Surgery is on the stomach, not the head. If someone didn't like their job beforehand, they won't miraculously love it after. Many have gotten noticed and promoted, sure, but that is more likely because they were doing a fabulous job beforehand but their discriminatory boss didn't think they had the right "look" to portray the company and now they do. That's a whole different issue and you will find that too. Friends that liked you fat, won't like you thin. Husbands that were secure might be insecure now that you are "hot". Sex might be better (or worse). There is SO much to WLS. You really need to get to some meetings and hear the "real" aspects from post-ops; not the commercials on TV.
A lifestyle change is something you can't NOT do, like taking a bath, brushing your teeth or wearing your glasses. A diet is temporary and gets postponed if something better comes along.
Jackie J. 
1 choice @ a time > 1 day @ a time. Slow to Succeed is still Success ;-)
You will always have to follow a life modification model like Susan said.
Shortly after surgery you will not be able to eat much, will have to eat "by the clock" and by measurements only. Counting calories is not as emphasized.
As time goes by - yes - the REAL work is up to you. YOU must be accountable for what you put in your mouth. Just because you "can" doesn't mean you "should" And exercise is key.
I'm 2 1/2 years out. I hit "goal" shortly before one year. I had maintained that weight up until about 6 mos ago when I started A) not exercising and B) not paying attention to what I was eating as much. I had increased my carbs etc. Have I tried sugar? Yes. Can I tolerate some? Yes. Do I get sick on it sometimes? Absolutely. Should I have tried it? Probably not. But then again, I have tried to stick with a "moderation" rule and nothing about complete deprivation.
I caught my "gain" early and gained a total of about 7 pounds - 3 of which are already off after recommitting for the past few weeks.
Do people regain all their weight back? Yep.
And also keep in mind....there is more of a MENTAL journey then anything on this ride. You realize how you may have "hidden" yourself in your body, how others may have not "noticed you" because you were bigger (and/or ignored you because you were bigger), you may realize a relationship with food that you did not want to notice. If you are one to hide your feelings by eating (which you may not realize you are doing) that is no longer the case....it's harder especially early out to eat out of anger, frustration, saddness, happiness, and it can cause some very intense emotions.
Continue researching. Find as many books on the subject. I personally like "The Real Skinny on Weight Loss Surgery" and "The Idiots guide to Weight Loss Surgery" Others have read (I have not) "Anatomy of a food addict" and found it very insightful.
Go to meetings....support groups....etc.
Learn before you take the step.
Shortly after surgery you will not be able to eat much, will have to eat "by the clock" and by measurements only. Counting calories is not as emphasized.
As time goes by - yes - the REAL work is up to you. YOU must be accountable for what you put in your mouth. Just because you "can" doesn't mean you "should" And exercise is key.
I'm 2 1/2 years out. I hit "goal" shortly before one year. I had maintained that weight up until about 6 mos ago when I started A) not exercising and B) not paying attention to what I was eating as much. I had increased my carbs etc. Have I tried sugar? Yes. Can I tolerate some? Yes. Do I get sick on it sometimes? Absolutely. Should I have tried it? Probably not. But then again, I have tried to stick with a "moderation" rule and nothing about complete deprivation.
I caught my "gain" early and gained a total of about 7 pounds - 3 of which are already off after recommitting for the past few weeks.
Do people regain all their weight back? Yep.
And also keep in mind....there is more of a MENTAL journey then anything on this ride. You realize how you may have "hidden" yourself in your body, how others may have not "noticed you" because you were bigger (and/or ignored you because you were bigger), you may realize a relationship with food that you did not want to notice. If you are one to hide your feelings by eating (which you may not realize you are doing) that is no longer the case....it's harder especially early out to eat out of anger, frustration, saddness, happiness, and it can cause some very intense emotions.
Continue researching. Find as many books on the subject. I personally like "The Real Skinny on Weight Loss Surgery" and "The Idiots guide to Weight Loss Surgery" Others have read (I have not) "Anatomy of a food addict" and found it very insightful.
Go to meetings....support groups....etc.
Learn before you take the step.
Instead of complaining that the rosebush has thorns, be happy that the thorn bush has roses. 
Thank for all your helpful information Pam. I really appreciate the response. I see that it is a life modification, so then why even get the surgery if it is a life modification anyway? Maybe this is the wrong attitude...but I guess then the surgery just gives you that big jump start to get the bulk of the weight off and then you need to maintain it like any other diet plan per say?
Glad you explained that it isn't like counting calories, but like measuring portion sizes. I know in the beginning after surgery you can't eat much...I am worried about being sick those days and also concern myself with never being able to eat sugar ever again....I see what you are saying about what you yourself do...in moderation...but I know you have to follow those specific rules...I don't know if I eat emotionally...I probably do and just don't know it...I have about 80 lbs. to lose...and I have several medical issues, besides diabetes. One issue is I have what is known as POF or Premature Ovarian Failure...different from Menopause because of the age in which it occured...I was 33 about. I lost the functioning of my ovaries and had the most horrible symptoms ever. I am on Hormone Replacement Therapy now and worry how surgery might affect the absorption of these meds. I know there are absorption issues with surgery of some B Vitamins...etc. I also hear a lot about constipation issues. I already have constipation issues now and to have even more is really quite scary...what can you tell me about this topic?
I know you still have to exercise...so why is losing weight and exercising so hard without the surgery? I am really confused. Is it easier to exercise of course after having lost the weight? Do you still have the power and strength to make it happen normally? I just worried that I would be too weak after surgery to exercise....but I guess eventually you can exercise then? I guess they want you to, right?
Sorry I am babbling on like this, I guess I do have to do some more research...I thank you for your book recommendations...I will certainly look into them.
Thanks Again,
Angela
Glad you explained that it isn't like counting calories, but like measuring portion sizes. I know in the beginning after surgery you can't eat much...I am worried about being sick those days and also concern myself with never being able to eat sugar ever again....I see what you are saying about what you yourself do...in moderation...but I know you have to follow those specific rules...I don't know if I eat emotionally...I probably do and just don't know it...I have about 80 lbs. to lose...and I have several medical issues, besides diabetes. One issue is I have what is known as POF or Premature Ovarian Failure...different from Menopause because of the age in which it occured...I was 33 about. I lost the functioning of my ovaries and had the most horrible symptoms ever. I am on Hormone Replacement Therapy now and worry how surgery might affect the absorption of these meds. I know there are absorption issues with surgery of some B Vitamins...etc. I also hear a lot about constipation issues. I already have constipation issues now and to have even more is really quite scary...what can you tell me about this topic?
I know you still have to exercise...so why is losing weight and exercising so hard without the surgery? I am really confused. Is it easier to exercise of course after having lost the weight? Do you still have the power and strength to make it happen normally? I just worried that I would be too weak after surgery to exercise....but I guess eventually you can exercise then? I guess they want you to, right?
Sorry I am babbling on like this, I guess I do have to do some more research...I thank you for your book recommendations...I will certainly look into them.
Thanks Again,
Angela
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