Only 5% of people losing 100+lbs keep the weight off. Having surgery increases the odds to 65%. I don't want to be part of the 35% that gains it back.

Don't feel like a loser. You just need diferent tools. Someone recommened the book, "50 Ways to Soothe Yourself Without Food." I'm going to buy it and hope I find a substitute for how sugar makes me feel.

I had my surgery July 2011. I lost nothing Nov-Jan. I can gain and lose the same 5 lbs for a month. I keep trying to add sugary things I love to my diet, but it doesn't work out. My craving just snowballs. This site is helping.

Ms Patrice you are such an inspiration glad I have you on my friends list!

Awww thanks Allen. That's sweet of you. I didn't think it was possible to be an inspiration to anyone. I feel like a big FAT failure sometimes lol jk . . . well sort of. I have to NOT compare myself and give myself credit for getting back on track despite life happening. It has not been easy. But my daughter unfortunately lost her father and I want to make sure I am around for as long as I can be and get healthy as can be.

Cbferriss . . . it sucks right! lol . . . weekends are hard for me too. But I allow myself to eat some things that I've been craving which usually prevents binging from denying myself those oh so pleasurable treats! lol . . . as long as we workout we should be fine.

Hello! I am 2 years post op. At the beginning of this year I found I had gained 18 lbs from my lowest weight. I have gotten off 9 of them. Basically old habits creep back in and I can eat ENOUGH (even though I am limited to about 1 cup) that making the wrong choices leads to gaining. I don't need to be perfect but I need to eat the right stuff most of the time, exercise regularly, etc. I basically got lazy and got tired of being stuck around the same weight for a year, so I kind of gave up. Now I realize that even if I am 200 lbs forever, that's better than 216, or MORE from getting lazy or giving up. So I just have to live right and see where it gets me
I'm at 207 now and my lowest was 198 so I am working back toward that. From there, who knows if I can lose more but I've learned to keep trying and keep up the lifestyle.
I have a blog, it's not all about weight loss and surgery, but I do blog about that a lot and I have written a lot about these struggles over the last year. If you want to check it out it is at christies-blog dot com

I'm nearly 23 months post op. I'm only 11lbs away from my lowest and I did lose like 33% of my excess weight, which was right in line with my surgical teams expectations. I was going to have the duodenal switch in two phases as starting out at 640lbs there was not a single person on the planet who expected me to lose more (well except ME, lol). So here I sit at 486 and working my *kitten* off counting calories and exercising. I have decided not to have the DS, at least not yet.

The thing that concerns me is I have ALWAYS been fat. I did not GET fat, I have always been. My BMI right now is the same as when I was 3 years old. I have yet to meet someone who was always superfat and got within a normal BMI and stayed there. Owell. Life is good and at least I am not 640lbs anymore. In fact, at least I am not over 500lbs anymore.

My sleeve got me to a place that I can take control.

If I could do it again, I dont think there is anything I could do differently. I woke up in recovery after surgery starving. Seriously. I never lost hunger.

I got within 18 lbs of goal at about a year out. I found myself making pretty bad choices last fall and through the holidays, and had been maintaining at the same weight, but I then started making even worse choices and put on a few lbs. Really only bounced up about 3-4 lbs, but still a total wake-up call! Now, at nearly 18 months (and facing my 18-month surgeon appt Monday!) I've gotten back to tracking this week and I can really tell a difference. Focusing on better eating, getting back into a fitness program - I've decided that I WILL get to goal!!!

I got below my surgeon's goal (154), but wanted to get below 140 as my personal goal. I got within a couple of pounds of that, but I've basically been off track for close to a year. I look back at my MFP entries from a year ago, and I see cookies, and brownies and such, and that was on the days when I was at least entering my food - really bad days I didn't track. I've known since before surgery I was an emotional eater and borderline binge eater, but the first 9 months went really well. Then I got sloppy, bounced around within an 8 - 10 pound range for about 6 months, and then started to gain - by which I mean I was up and down, but the lowest weights were climbing.
After the holidays, I finally got my head back in the right place, banished the crap from my diet, and got back on track. I lost 12 pounds in the first couple of weeks, since then it's been more like 1 or 2, but at least things are heading in the right direction. I've been eating right,exercising, and tracking for 5 solid weeks, and this morning I was back to a weight I haven't seen since October (or September?)

Here are my strategies:
(1) Focus on the goal. For the first few weeks I journaled, every day if I could find the time. I needed to get my goals back front and center of my mind. That was crucial for me for motivation, and made me really stop and think about my choices.
(2) Get the crap carbs out of my diet. I'm a carb and sugar addict. I can't stop at a little. I have a lot of trigger foods that are best avoided entirely. Some things I simply eliminate and don't really honestly miss. Other things I find substitutes for. I also added L-Glutamine to my diet which got me past the worst of the carb cravings in the first weeks. Now I often forget to take it, but I'm not sure I would have made it through the first week without it.
(3) Logging my food, even the bad choices. Interestingly I found that logging a bad choice helped me see that it wasn't as bad as I thought, that my day had not suddenly become unredeemable. That short-circuited my temptation to use one bad choice as an excuse to eat all the "bad" foods I've been avoiding, acting like a food maniac for the rest of my day.
(4) Setting short, achievable goals. I can't control what the scale does (dammit!), but I can control me. I started out just aiming to stay on track for an entire week - I'd gotten so far off track that that alone was a huge achievement. Once I'd gotten to a week, then I aimed for two, then for a month. The scale hasn't always cooperated, but I know I'm doing what I need to, and that's all I can control.
So, I'm down 15 pounds of my regain (I'd say 10 of those were carb / water bloat), and I have about 9.5 to goal. I hope I'm past the worst part, which was detoxing from all the crap I'd let creep back into my diet. At least for the moment, I don't crave it, and I'm pretty happy with what I do eat. I'll be two years post-op the end of June, and I so want to crush my goal by then!

I am almost three months out of surgery...thank you all for your stories... the last week I have been testing limits and struggling. I just want to eat! So I am glad I am not alone.

I am almost three months out of surgery...thank you all for your stories... the last week I have been testing limits and struggling. I just want to eat! So I am glad I am not alone.

I am in the same boat. I am 7 months out and was doing so well. However, for the past several weeks my have been at the same weight and began snacking constantly. I feel like i am truely hungry all the time.
I am feeling very disappointed in myself and afraid that I will gain.

Thanks for your stories. being a slow loser I have to work for each pound. I am 42 lbs down in five months. I find on some of the boards people put slow losers and people that have not reached goal down. My surgeon told me yesterday it can take up to 2 years to reach goal and 70% of excess weight loss is success. This surgery is a tool not a solution.

Going to support groups really helps me, but my pet peeve is when people are pre-op and telling me how they have researched the surgeries and only found wonderful things. Having the difficulties we all are facing of gaining, old habits coming back, etc. I just can't stand the fantasy these people are being fed.

I finally found a really good support group. It's eating well after bariatric surgery. One of the things the nut. said she finds over and over from people coming back after gaining is grazing and liquid calories. She said if you were a grazer before, you usually have a problem after with the same thing, but sometimes worse. She talked about planned snacks as appose to grazing.

It's hard, but I think back to what I use to eat, and I'm amazed. Had I kept on going at that rate of calorie intake, I was killing myself. I really enjoy the gym and exercise now (thanks to my wonderful hubby), and I will be journalizing for the rest of my life, but that's ok. I originally lost 86% of my excess weight and then gained 18% of that weight back. I'm glad I did the VSG because now that I have lost alot of my weight I can feel every pound up or down and it motivates me to do better.

I am 5 months post-op and am finding I am grazing a lot and eating when I am not hungry. I am afraid I am going to stretch my sleeve out. Starting this morning, I am going back closer to basics. No snacking! When I want to snack, I will go walk the stairs in my office. I also need to start taking my vitamins again...

Thanks everyone for sharing...it's nice to know I'm not alone with this struggle...