Is there anyone at or below goal having trouble maintaining weight?

I think as former "Fatties" this is the dream most of us dream..

Oh, to have to eat and eat and never gain a pound...

alas, this is but a dream for most, if Not all of us...

Regain almost always happens for a few reasons:

1) Biologically the body adapts.  This is unavoidable.

2) Capacity increases as swelling goes down post-operatively regardless of sleeve or pouch size.  I could eat a LOT of food right now if I wanted to, very easily.  I am 13 months out.  Even dense protein I could probably eat 6 ounces of I was being dumb.  I measure though because I dislike Harvey (my stomach) rebelling.

3) Behavior changes.  We can eat comfortably again.  "Hey, I'm just going to eat a bite of a potato!"  One bite can turn into a landslide if someone had eating issues pre-op.  We return to our old habits very easily.  That's true of anyone to a degree.  New habits need to be monitored for long-term success indefinitely.  

Actually I only had to push myself to eat in the beginning and that was because I knew I needed to eat.  Maintaining is work,  if you don't stay on it and go back to your regularly scheduled program you will gain weight.  I personally don't get the "Hungry" feeling or triggers and I have been known to go almost an entire day like 14 hours or more without anything other than water because I was busy and didn't think to eat. 

I'd like to think we bought the magic bullet,  but we didn't .... we did buy a really great tool to use to help us and if used correctly can do a good job at keeping the extra lbs from getting out of control. 

We all have to continue to watch what we eat get in protein first and foremos****er, our vitamins and round it all out with other healthy options that are on plan.  Get a good walking route or workout plan and you'll have this pretty wrapped up.

My 2 cents for what it's worth. 

Like Grimm & many others have mentioned yes you can easily gain your weight back & it doesn't matter if you have a sleeve or a pouch, both are small & both can increase in capacity as it matures, but its really your food choices that will keep the weight off. I get hunger pangs, but as Rocky mentioned many times in the past, hunger is not an emergency. My hunger pangs always goes up whenever I eat a lot of carbs & always goes down whenever I eat more protein instead.

I never have to push myself to eat & I'm 2 years out. I'm still working on maintenance & keeping within 5 lbs of my lowest weight. It's challenging on keeping it off, never a problem gaining! Gee lucky me. lol

I am maintaining nearly 10lbs under my 'final' goal weight, but I'm still coasting along in my 'honeymoon' period and haven't even been in maintenance for a whole calendar year. I have yet to have 'hunger' return and I've kept a pretty tight leash on my dietary habits so I'm not dealing with a lot of carb-fueled cravings, but I anticipate things becoming more challenging as time goes on. I try not to allow myself to get complacent -- I do experience episodes of head hunger and have to keep my head in the game every day so that I don't revert back to old habits, because even without 'real' hunger it's still totally possible to rack up massive calorie counts while grazing mindlessly. 

You are only really weeks out from your revision, why does it surprise you that you can eat very little?

I doesn't really. I just wish I'd asked for a bigger sleeve and then maybe I could be actually eating real food right now and getting started on my new way of eating, instead of living off of protein drinks and water. 

And, I'm mourning food and the ability to make choices about what I was going to eat. My head is messed up right now. I really think I wasn't ready for this. I thought I was because I had a band, but I wasn't. 

I don't really have a choice but to adapt and change. 

-Anne 

I was a bandster as well, and it was a JOKE compared to the sleeve.  I know what you're thinking.  I thought the same at first.  You will be able to eat more soon, but not like the band.  I wouldn't be worrying till you are actually having a problem.  You've got a ways to go before you have to think about that, so just take it one day at a time... it will get better.

Here's an update now that I'm four months out. Now I get it. I can eat now. Not nearly as much as before, but I can enough to overeat now, especially if I eat more often than I should. 

Now I can see how easy it would be to eat to excess and eat the wrong things and regain. 

Like, when I go out to eat I can eat a little bit - like, an appetizer - and then, if I save most of my dinner and bring it home and then eat more of it in an hour or so... yep. I get it now. 

The great thing about this sleeve, though  - for now - is that it has curbed my appetite so much. The band never did that for me and I never felt full with the band. I feel full with the sleeve and, for, probably the first time in my life, easily leave food on my plate, either because I'm full, or just because I'm finished eating.  Or, I'll pass up food easily because, either I'm not hungry, or, because I just don't want it. 

Seriously, before the sleeve, and even with the band, I wanted food all of the time, everything looked good, if someone offered me food, it didn't matter what it was, I would take it and eat it. I would hang out around the buffet, instead of mingling at a party. Wherever the food was, there I was. Now I can join the party or get immersed in something else and keep my mind off of food. 

So, I'm loving the appetite suppression of the sleeve. The restriction is great, but I feel different about food now - almost "normal". I'm going to enjoy it as long as it lasts! 

I have had a few bouts of this off and on, but it is always related to other medical issues. Some of the cancer treatements, medicinal side effects, etc. made it tough to get food in. That and in conjunction with that small capacity I did have a few stretches there where I had to really work at it. In general though, I have to work at not regaining far more than trying not to lose too much. I have only gone under the minimum set by my docs twice, and it was not too long before I was able to get back up to the minimum. Conversely, I went over goal a couple of times and again had to work to get back in line with my goal.