1 year 8 months out ?

So my surgeon up and quit so I have not been back to a Barriatric Doctor in a year. Finally found a practice in my network that came highly recommended and made the appointment. So as a new patient And already rearranged I saw one of the surgeons assistants. Not sure of the tittle of this person but they said I did a great job and achieve more than the expected results. I then asked how much more can I loose. The answer I got shocked me unless I miss interpreted it. I was told oh your probably done loosing now and most people at this stage start gaining. I felt like I got my bubble busted because i'd Like to loose 15 more pounds. She said I can expect to gain 15 lbs to 20 in the next 6 months to a year. Just wanted to know is this normal and is this really what I should be expecting? Any feedback would be great.

that 15-20 lb rebound after hitting your lowest weight is pretty common (not inevitable, but very common), but as far as being "done" with weight loss, you may be able to go lower. My dietitian never thought I could hit 150 lbs, but I got down to 138 at one point - about 30 lbs lower than she said I would.

I never lost after 18 months, but I did not start to regain until 30 months out. It is called the bounce back regain period.

The theory is that the intestines are lined with hair like appendages called cilia. The cilia grab the food that comes through and hold it against the wall of the intestine so that the calories can be taken out of the food and put to work in the body.

After weight loss surgery, a lot of the cilia are gone, so a lot of food passes right through the intestines without calories being absorbed. This is called malabsorption.

By eighteen months after surgery, the body starts to regrow those cilia and they start to absorb calories again. Your body feels that it has been starved and is anxious to get back the calories that it was not able to absorb.

Hopefully you have learned good eating habits during this eighteen months and might be able to eat few enough calories to avoid any regain or even to lose more. Malabsorption is the thing that makes RNY work faster than the sleeve and malabsorption is something I really missed after it ended.

With the sleeve, calories count from day one. With RNY, calories start counting around eighteen months after surgery. It is a honeymoon that ends.

Thank you White Dove for this post, its amazing and I hope everyone reads it and heeds your advice!

White Dove has given you phenomenal advice. Its spot on and true. I hope that everyone reads that and copies and posts it somewhere so they can refer back.

Both Catwoman & White Dove said it right that regain or bounce back does happen to a lot of people but its not a for sure. I got to my goal weight by 8 months post op. I am just shy of 6 years post op and have not had any regain so that "bounce back/regain" is not inevitable.

So I personally do agree with the Surgeon Assistant you saw, by 18 mos post op a lot of people have got to goal or close to goal and this is when the real hard work begins as White Dove said you start to absorb all the calories you are eating now. This is one of the reasons I never started eating above a 1000 calories a day because I didn't want to go to say 1200 or 1400 calories a day, start gaining weight because my malabsorption was gone and they try and go down to 900 calories a day.

You absolutely can get another 15 lbs off. Just continue to do what you are doing. My suggestion would be to not increase your calories until you get those 15 lbs off. Keep logging, weighing, measuring and avoid your trigger foods. Establish your good habits now so that in years from now you can be assured you have the "tools" to keep the regain at bay.

I just wanted to say that although I have not had regain its a daily effing struggle to stick to protein forward, low carb (I eat low carb because I am very carb sensitive), low calories (I eat low calories because I have a very slow/poor metabolism) and every meal I have to make a choice of eat WLS friendly foods and maintain my weight or eat a treat and run the risk of regaining and undoing all my hard work.

Sorry that this was not what you wanted to hear at the appt today but I think its solid advise and its great they are not candy coating (no pun intended) for you and telling you like it is.

You got this!

I had a strict surgeon who preached from day one that we needed to use the honeymoon period to get to twenty or even thirty pounds under his goal for us. That was to allow for the regain.

I was expecting it at 18 months. At my 2 year check-up I had not gained an ounce in close to a year. I thought I was home free. But I was eating more than I needed and at month 30, I regained a pound. I gained a pound a week for a month and just laughed it off. I was still under goal.

The next month I continued to gain a pound a week and one day I was six pounds over goal. I had not changed anything with food or exercise, but malabsorption had ended.

That was when I walked back into Weigh****chers. I tried that a while and it was not helping much. Then I went back to my surgeon and was told to stop the protein shakes. That did the trick and I stayed the same for the next seven years.

I has some medical issues that meant I had to change my diet and gained again. In three years, I gained 20 pounds. I went back on Weigh****chers in January this year and lost 15 of it. I am working on getting rid of the rest in the next month or so.

For me, this has been a matter of following a diet. The only difference before and after surgery, is that this time the diet works.

Thank you for telling your story and showing all of us that although regain might happen it is possible to work hard and get it back off. I really appreciate your sound advice!

My surgeon never gave me a goal weight. I just been going by BMI. I'm having a DEXA scan this month hoping it will tell me what weight is best for me.

My surgeon sets our goal weight at 24 BMI.

Are you still losing or are you maintaining? If you have been maintaining, you will need to cut back calories/carbs to lose more. It is possible for you to lose more, but it will take a lot of hard work. If you are willing to do the work, you can lose more weight.