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Sleeve to bypass- weight gain!

T

Tabsmith

Member
I was sleeved on 11/17/2017, had revision to bypass 10/28/2018. I had went from 264 to 180. I had the revision to bypass due to having awful heartburn.
3 weeks after the revision I had lost down to 164, but I had a stricture and my dr had to go back in and open the stricture.

since then I have had weight gain. I have ZERO restriction. I still only take 8 bites, 4x a day. Get my protein, drink water, and I am up to 204.
My dr says it’s just what I put in my mouth but there is no way that is what it is. I feel like something is wrong inside due to no restriction. I need help
 
Welcome to the group! Do you have a good communication system with your doctors? It sounds like maybe you don't. It almost sounds like you need a second opinion. But it really does not make sense, stricture or no, that you can eat so little food and gain weight. So there's only really two possibilities.

First is you're not really keeping track of what you are eating and you are loading up on calories even though you're eating small quantities, or you're eating large quantities and you don't know what a small quantity is.

The other option is that there is something wrong physically and you need to have that explored. I hope you can find the answers soon. It's important not to let this thing get ahead of you. And honestly, unless there's something wrong with the installation, you shouldn't be having any symptoms like these.
  • Call your doctor.
  • Weigh and measure everything you eat
  • Put it in writing
  • Count every crumb
  • Know the caloric and nutritional value of every single food you eat.
  • Dont medically diagnose yourself.
  • When asked questions, tell all, not just the stuff that supports your theory
  • Go back to the original staged diet and do a pouch reset (scroll to bottom for instructions).
  • We are standing beside you, supporting you
A doctor is more likely to help you if she can see evidence, and taking accurate minutes of your life without emotion will lead to a more helpful treatment
 
dianeseattle said:
Welcome to the group! Do you have a good communication system with your doctors? It sounds like maybe you don't. It almost sounds like you need a second opinion. But it really does not make sense, stricture or no, that you can eat so little food and gain weight. So there's only really two possibilities.

First is you're not really keeping track of what you are eating and you are loading up on calories even though you're eating small quantities, or you're eating large quantities and you don't know what a small quantity is.

The other option is that there is something wrong physically and you need to have that explored. I hope you can find the answers soon. It's important not to let this thing get ahead of you. And honestly, unless there's something wrong with the installation, you shouldn't be having any symptoms like these.
  • Call your doctor.
  • Weigh and measure everything you eat
  • Put it in writing
  • Count every crumb
  • Know the caloric and nutritional value of every single food you eat.
  • Dont medically diagnose yourself.
  • When asked questions, tell all, not just the stuff that supports your theory
  • Go back to the original staged diet and do a pouch reset (scroll to bottom for instructions).
  • We are standing beside you, supporting you
A doctor is more likely to help you if she can see evidence, and taking accurate minutes of your life without emotion will lead to a more helpful treatment
Click to expand...

I will absolutely start doing that. I am living this life with my husband who had the sleeve and two best friends who also had it. We do all food and exercises together. They are all losing and maintaining. So I feel like I’m just lost.
 
Definitely chat with a bariatric dietician of you can. Also, you may want to consider changing the types of food you are eating. Weight loss and maintenance isn't just about calories in and calories out. Each individual metabolises different foods at different levels of efficiency depending on the makeup of their microbiome (aka gut bugs). It can take some experimentation to find the right combination of foods. You may be eating foods that trigger a glucose and insulin spikes which can trigger fat storage. Even if you aren't eating things that you would think would trigger such a reaction, it could be part of the problem. If you are doing low carb, that might not be for you. If you are doing some other sort of diet, again, it might not be best for your body.

Some recent major studies have indicated there are really only two, what I would call, "universal" suggestions that seems to be good for everyone: 1. eat a diverse selection of plants. That doesn't mean being a vegetarian, but it means eating several different varieties in a week to feed your gut bugs to create a healthy microbiome. Our gut needs a variety of fiber to feed the beneficial microbiota in our gut, if it doesn't get that, those beneficial bugs can die off and take years to replace. The recommendation is 20-30 different plants per week. That sounds like a lot, but if you are adding herbs, spices, nuts, seeds, and other vegetables to meals, it adds up very quickly. Number 2: stay away from ultra processed foods, especially things with more than 10 ingredients. These foods have no nutritional or beneficial value and are actually harmful to our microbiome.

One of the best studies that clearly illustrated that no one diet is good for everyone was the DIETFITS study out of Stanford. It was a randomized trial that had half the group eating low carb and the other half low fat. Both groups ate the same amount of calories per day and both groups were monitored for adherence to the study. The weight loss in both groups was practically identical, and in both groups some people lost no weight, and some people gained weight even though they were eating exactly the food and calories as the other people in the study. This has been backed up by other recent studies showing that weight loss and maintenance is much less about calories than it is about eating the right foods for your individual body.

I would recommend talking with a dietician and then consider making changes to what you are eating, even if what you are eating is generally considered "healthy." It just might not be the right food for you and your body.
 
It's absolutely essential to rule out the organic cause, as El memtioned. Hardly anyone here has a medical background and those who do would CAUTION you against self-treatment.

But it's also important not to measure your progress against others'.

And it's essential to keep anxiety in check.

People who have been chronically obese for years have sent confusing messages to their organs. It might take a while for dawn to arrive.

I lost an enormous amount of weight immediately. Then I hit an agonizing plateau I thought would never end. I can detail all the reasons my body did this or that, but it won't help you.

Rule out medical problems with a full metabolic panel. Then do what is best practice, including activity as tolerable and exercise, which absolutely contributed to my weight loss. And relax.

It will happen for you.

I'm attaching my post-plateau photo. This was about 8 or 9 months after surgery, after almost daily trips to the YMCA, logging 7 miles on the treadmill and swimming 10 laps. By this time I was almost ready to hike 16 miles on the East Bank Trail of Ross Lake, to hike 6,600 foot Desolation Peak.

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You look fantastic Diane! You put a lot of hard work into your journey. So did you ever do that hike? When I was still working our mail carrier at the office had retired and first thing she did was hike the Appalachian Trail in it's entirety from Georgia to Maine! The trail was not far my where I grew up,... I was never that ambitious!
 
Yes I did! And I stayed out in the wilderness for 8 days, starting at the trailhead at Highway 20, hiking up to the top of Desolation Peak and camping overnight there, then hiking back down, where my knee gave out. I had to flag down a ranger who sent the water taxi from the Ross Lake Resort to get me. Then there were three more days of camping around the area of the resort and canoeing and great fun. I had to get back to Seattle quickly because my little brother had had a stroke and had been airlifted from his small town in central Washington to Harborview Medical Center. After that there was one vigil after another (81 days in the hospital, surgeries, comas, never knowing if he'd survive) but in between the vigils, I went back up the mountain again and back down twice, and continued hiking on the other side of Highway 20 until Halloween. It was during the last hike and long camp out that I dropped my final 15 lb and that was actually way too much weight for me to lose. Ironically I had to gained it back, which took months.

My brother made it back, but was damaged and disabled. His devoted wife kept him alive for 8 more years, god bless her. Then mom, Tim and my morbidly obese sister Kathy all died within two years of each other.

I never hike without thinking of them. Dad's death in 1996 was the catalyst that led to my WLS in 1997.

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Thanks, Judy, and I have to correct my dates. Dad died in November 2006 of CHF and diabetes. I had surgery in August 2007. Went hiking in 2008, when my brother had the brain bleed and stroked out. He, Mom and Kathy died in 2016, 2017 and 2018. Kathy had CHF and diabetes and a series of amputations that ultimately went as high as her knees. Mom did best of everyone, suffering moderate dementia and major plumbing to fix the damage from 9 pregnancies. She ended up with some kind of implanted sensor she used after she lost the ability to notice her toileting urges. Lotta messes and denials when she didn't make it in time. Had to re-tile the bathroom floor and replace the toilet and plumbing under the floor. But she was ambulatory and youthful until she died at 93. She looked and sounded like she was in maybe her early 70s.

She was a complicated person and let me know she never liked me. She'd talk to me about planned family events as if I were a stranger. Loved me, didn't like me. So it goes.

Mom at 56, welcoming me home from a long adventure:

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Mom at 90, among her birthday flowers. She was born on 2/22/22, so I guess I was 61 here:

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Tabsmith said:
I will absolutely start doing that. I am living this life with my husband who had the sleeve and two best friends who also had it. We do all food and exercises together. They are all losing and maintaining. So I feel like I’m just lost.
Click to expand...
I am so sorry to hear this. Something is definitely not right. Get a second opinion. There are different methods, ideas and help out there. There could be something knew that doctor A doesnt know but doctor B does. Good luck! Let us know how youre doing.
 
Can I ask has anyone suggested to you to take a probiotic to help with the acid reflux and it will help with weight loss as well. It helps to build the good bacteria in your gut.
 
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