Regain????? With a DS?????

On several other posts, I've read mention of regain, and I'm puzzled.

During my pre-op classes, I learned that DSer's never really have a true weight loss "window", and that it's possible for us to use our surgeries to our advantage, and theoretically, they work forever.

I haven't personally experienced regain.  In fact, it's been a struggle for me to *stop* losing and keep my weight stable.

I may have asked this before, but I really can't wrap my head around regain with a DS.

Please...someone enlighten me!

 

Bounce back is pretty common once people reach goal. Being able to eat more and relaxing on the amount of carbs are the main culprits IMO.

Huneypie-

I've been eating carbs in my nutrition plan for over 4 years now, and I *still* lose!  Sometimes, it seems as though carbs speed things up! 

Everyone's DS is not created equal.  If you eat crap or had no metabolism to begin with, even the DS can't fix it completely.  Also your body tries it's best to get back to it's happy place...fat.  My CC is supposedly 75 and I never reached a normal BMI.  My issues are metabolic.  Pre DS, I could gain weight on a 1000 cal diet.  I do eat more now than I did preop.

My loss in the first year was about 53lbs.  Dismal.  After that. I went to extremely low carb, under 10 per day and started running.  That helped me lose about 40 more.  And I go up and down in that 40lb range all the time.  I have to really diet almost all the time.  And I'm never deficient in anything.  I absorb just fine.

If I was rich, I'd have the surgery done over again but that and the plastics I need just aren't in the cards for me.  I look average for a woman my age.  And I didn't have the DS to still be fat.  If I wanted that I would have gotten the lap band...  You'll never know how much I wanted to be really thin.  That won't ever happen.  But I'm in good shape and healthy so I can't complain too much.

That's why I'm the one who always tells people to lose as much as possible as fast as possible.  Because you never really KNOW when the honeymoon will end.

PattyL do you know what length your cc is?

75cm.

Just thinking about some of the things I have read....

Over the very long term some people see an increase in their absorption rate. As far as I can tell you never lose the advantages of your DS but for some people the mal absorption lessens as time goes on. I think it has something to do with more and longer cilia growing back in your intestines but you will always have a smaller length of intestine than you started with.

Also, if your stomach allows you to graze on carbs all day some people can "defeat?", "bypass?" the way your DS was intended to operate. 

There seem to be a lot of people that go on and off a high protein / low carb lifestyle as they fluctuate around their goal weight since that seems to be the best choice for the losing phase.

I read that food travels by the section where absorption takes place at a slower pace allowing for more food to be absorbed as a way to get more nutrition. That makes sense that the body will adapt somewhat. Or try. 

well whoever told you that there is no weight loss window really has no clue about WLS...

first all sleeves dilate and double in capacity, people gain because they are eating more (but usually carbs)

second by about 18-24 months, intestinal adaptation sets in and should be stable,,, meaning the body has no adapted to the trauma we caused it with the DS, and it increases absorption, but since we bypass so much it will never never be able to absorb as before the bypass, but the human body is amazing and yes it does adapt.  so about 2-3 years out people will stop losing or have a about 10 lbs weight gain, which sometimes is a good thing...

and then we always want more, especially women...it is not good enough to be normal bmi we want to be on the low end of normal bmi, so when we gain weight from a bmi of 19 to 21....oh no (yep that is me, and if your signature is correct then you could be 6'6" and still have a normal bmi at 160 lbs) so that plays a lot in it....

there are no absolutes in medicine.  Surgery doesn't make it easier, it just hopefully makes it a little fairer and allows you to start at a more reasonable level.

 

The surgeon who did my DS - said in her seminar that DSer's don't really have a true weight loss window as do RNY's, in that we can wake the "sleeping giant" pretty much at will.  Our "window" is the initial weight loss, when the majority of our excess weight is lost.   My PCP just asked me to increase my caloric intake from 3000 to 5000 kcals daily.

My sleeve started out at 2.8 ounces, and can now hold 8-10 oz. of food at a sitting, depending on density and whether the food is highly absorptive. For example, I seem to have problems with take-out fried chicken breast, but not when I fix it myself. 8-10  oz,is a *whole* lot less than I used to eat.

If I eat too many simple carbs or sugars ( usually hidden in  foods, i.e. breaded shrimp) I could clear a large building in minutes!