have gained 30lbs in 3 months! help! how do I begin to lose?

Help! I had GB about 10yrs ago, and lost over 115lbs. I started out at 272lbs, and got sown to 116lbs at my lowest, about a yr later, I went up to 126lbs for about 3yrs. THAT was my happiest place to be weight wise, becasue that was about my 'normal' weight for most of my adult life, until my weight gain after my 3rd and 4th child. After I had emergency gallblader removal, I gained about 20lbs in about a month, and stayed there until until around Nov. of 2018. Thats when I began to gain around 10lbs a month! How is that possible?!? My Freaking Drs. can't explain how that is possible! Now, it's April 2019, and I am 176lbs! I need serious help here my GB friends. Where and how do I begin to lose this weight? I have 2 teenage boys and a hubby to feed, so how/and what, do I eat?

P.S. I have fibromyalgia, lower back pain due to a botched back surgery, and chronic pain syndrome, all of which have made it harder for me to find the right excersize program that I can get into and stick to.

Swimming should work for your back and it gives tremendous cardio. Keep in mind that what works for your kids and hubby doesn't work for you and causes you to gain weight. I recommend looking for a pool that can give you some exercise and then go and use it. I see many folks in the pool who don't swim much but who walk and move. I swim a mile every other day and I get bored and sometimes don't want to do it, but I force myself to be diligent. A 50 lb. regain is serious. Go to protein drinks, no carbs to speak of and MOVE, MOVE, MOVE. I have a fitbit now and find that my swimming versus my walking get the same amount of calorie burn so on days I do not swim, I try to walk. You do not need to go down this path. Honor yourself.

iMHO no shakes. I am not saying this to be mean. You are eating too big of portions. Weigh and measure. You can do this.

If your current doctors can't explain what's going on, you need a second opinion, or a third, until you can get some answers.

I am 10 years post RNY. I had a 20 pound gain that I tried, unsuccessfully, to get off for over a year. Last May I decided to join Weigh****chers. I needed a healthy food plan that was bariatric friendly and I needed accountability of stepping on the scales each week and having someone else weigh me. I also wanted the group support.

I've managed to get 17 pounds off. The phone app of WW is so easy to track food and activity. My labs are good. My only exercise is walking and occasionally riding a stationary bike.

This has worked for me. Now that I'm in my WW goal weight I don't pay for meetings but I still go weekly for the accountability. Just my 2 cents of what has worked for me. My bariatric dieticians are pleased with the WW program and said they have many bariatric patients with regain that chose WW to get the weight off.

Best wishes,

Penny

Hot diggity!!! I decided to do weigh****chers too. (I've done WW multiple times and have learned a lot about healthy eating in the process)I thought maybe I was crazy. I really didn't do it for the food plan, my eating was pretty clean and I was only 10 months out so still losing pretty steadily. Hit my goal weigh at the end of November and am also lifetime. I really joined for that face to face support and accountability.

I'm thinking of doing WW as well. I've akways liked their programs and I also feel the accountability would be good for me. I used to be a lifetime member so I've requested that they find my number.

You have been through a lot since your GB and I am sure you realize through the years that it was not a destination but a moving target. It takes a lot to acknowledge the weight issues and now, how to deal with it. Time to get real. Track your food. Everything that passes your lips. Every bite, lick and taste. I found that when I was out of the hospital and seriously ill after peritonitis I gained weight (but how? I wasn't eating...except I was ...grazing. Just that nightime grazing that I justified in my obese mind (despite being underweight - stomach issues) I was not in my home but the home of someone else where there were donuts, sugary candies of all sorts, all sorts of things that set off a spiral of grazing at night that snowballed QUICK. When I removed those temptations the weight just fell off again. Now I was praised for the weight gain but I KNEW what I was doing and I KNEW that it made me feel so ill and gross inside to be in this spiral of foods that were not nourishing me. I KNOW how I am supposed to eat after bypass and my body is not a garbage can. There is such a thing as "skinny fat" and I want to be healthy and fit. I know there are nutrient dense real foods that can help me put healthy weight back on. Foods that will renew and rebuild my body the RIGHT way. I also wear a fitbit 3 although there are other fitness trackers it is a way I find to keep myself honest with myself about my movement trends, heart rate, etc.

I have had fibromyalgia for many years. I have adults, teens, and younger children. I recognize your challenges. What works for me when cooking meals is always having things that I can eat on hand. I control my environment to a large extent aside from the junk food my teens buy with their money and bring in to the home. I am responsible for what I put in my mouth even when it is very hard to resist and believe me, I can come up with excuses or reasons. Planning ahead works for me. Movement is important for fitness but I don't think you can out exercise a bad diet. Period. I use my Instant Pot to make medium boiled eggs with shells that just slide right off. All of my kids love them that way and they can be a healthy snack or meal that is just right for me. I am trying to focus on modeling good behavior rather than shaming any of my kids for their food choices because we live in such an obesogenic/instant gratification society and hey, that stuff tastes good. I ate my way to morbid obesity for many years so I get it. What bothers me more is realizing that I have to really get my head straight because little eyes are watching. I see some unhealthy food relationships with food and that concerns me much more than the choices per se even though it is all tied together. Another poster mentioned Weigh****chers. It is a solid program. I lost on it every time but I never maintained due to my own choices. I think combined with your surgery you would get results and it is worth a shot as your Drs haven't been any help to you. I believe you need to separate your weight issues from your fitness issues. They are related but distinctly different. Focus on getting your mind healthier and self help too because life happens and that unhealthy regain comes on super quick without us realizing it until we are in a bit of a pickle. Don't even begin to think you can't do this because YOU CAN. I know life with chronic health issues is hard when you are stretched thin but it is possible. Claim that for yourself.

You have made an important step forward by getting real and admitting where you are now. If you only take small changes it is still better than choosing to do nothing, (and yes, doing nothing is a choice but that is not working out for you and for many of us. We get it. Many of us have been there.)

As far as movement, I walk indoors right now because I am too ill to make it to the Y where I have a family membership; however, I am making summer plans that include the children and will return at least one day a week at the Y. The pool is much too cold for me but my community does have heated pools and I am working out a plan to align my schedule with their availability and the schedule/the kid's schedules. If I need to rework the plan it is ok. I try to do that either when I see something is obviously not working or every few months. It is an important part of your self care. I think that finding a solid support group may help you find the answers you are seeking. I watch video blogs surrounding the issues you describe and have found a lot of self help there (for my mind that leads to body changes). This is just what is helping me not feel hopeless in my pursuit of health right now. We may be facing different challenges as far as weight is concerned but aren't they just different wings of the same bird?

What a thoughtful, insightful response!!!!!

There is a newer youtuber who does keto because of her fibromyalgia. I'm not sure what the mechanism is behind it and I wouldn't normally say keto but for her, it has been very beneficial. She doesn't do a real high fat like some do but to some extent she does. Here is one she did for beginner's and might be very helpful. As WLS patients, we do pretty low carb so this might just be a simple step for you. Here's the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32ELeeXf0hk

Call your surgeon or PCP and have them check your vitamin levels, thyroid levels, cholesterol and all the things. Gaining the way you are is unusual so unless you are eating a ton of crap, gaining 10 lbs a months is unusual and bears possible medical intervention. You may be retaining water due to heart related issues. So first thing to do is call the doc.

2nd thing: Are you tracking? If you are, that would help a nutritionist know your patterns of eating. Even if you are eating tons of crap food, it would be hard for someone with a bypass to gain 10 lbs a month or at least, I would think so. There may be others on the forum with more expertise but my sense of logic says there's more than food issues going on here. If you are eating poorly, having to log the poor food choices will help you make some better choices hopefully. In the same category, food prep and planning is very beneficial.

Third thing: get out whatever manual they gave you when you first had surgery. I called mine the "Food Bible". You may want to go all the way back to the full liquid stage. However, don't do a pouch reset. Pouch resets are more myth than anything else. I, myself, would probably begin with the soft food stage and eat the foods suggested there. You may need to relearn what healthy eating is.

Shop the outside of the store and buy "real" food and avoid processed food like the plague. If your diet is very carby, try cutting them. Eat only complex carbs like veggies, brown rice, quinoa. Avoid bread and pasta, most bread and pasta are high in calories, expands in your stomach so then you think you are full and you don't eat the healthy foods, spikes your insulin which causes fat retention. Bread & pasta should be very limited in your diet.

This was pretty long winded and there are many on this forum that will tell you I'm very wordy. Sorry, that's just me. Hopefully, something will be helpful. Do watch the video. I think it would be helpful with the fibromyalgia.