Ok sleeve veterans once you reach you goal weight how hard is it to maintain and not gain weight back?

Good question! I will be sleeved on the 4th, and wonder about this myself.

I am being sleeved on the 4th also and was wondering the same thing myself!

Pookeyism - 9 more days! YAY!

Only 41/2 months sleeved and its still coming off.

hi all,

what i've heard here on the board is if you do your regular stuff eating properly, all should be well.

I don't think you will "stretch" your sleeve. If you start eating regular and start grazing you probably eventually have problems, Eating continually through the day is not the thing to do.

The sleeve is not this "magic" tool. its just a tool that when you use correctly, it will help your weight. You must respect your sleeve, then it will respect you.

kathy

Well, the 1 year anniversary of my surgery is in 3 weeks. I reached goal at 8 months and have been maintaining since. I have not gained any weight, I kept losing after "goal" but things have steadied a bit over the past month. The research suggests that most WLS patients regain some percentage of their lost weight (usually tracked at 3, 5, or 10 years post-op). However, if you are diligent about undereating your sleeve, eating Protein and green veggies first, exercising, and monitoring your weight by the scale or how your clothes fit, you can be in the minority of those who do not gain. I should note that most research has been done on bypass patients (there is not very much 10 year data on the sleeve, not enough people had it done 10 years ago to make a large enough sample size and sleeves were bigger in those days).

It is up to you whether you succeed no matter what other people do. I do not find it hard to maintain as I tried very hard to change my bad eating and exercise habits over the past year. I like being thin better than cake now!

Sure, you can gain it back. As was stated above, it will depend upon your eating habits. If you do not work to overcome the causes of your weight gain to begin with, then you will gain weight. I have been sitting at the same weight for a few months now and I know it has more to do with my stress related eating habits than anything else. Pull myself out of it, get back to something healthy and exercise more, that's what will get me back on track.

I met a woman a few months ago who told me she had had the bypass surgery 12 years ago. She seemed happy with where she was (good for her!) but my visual assessment of her classified her as obese, if not morbidly obese.

With the sleeve, I doubt we will get back to our morbid obesity stages, but I can see it as being possible. If all you do to get your calories is drink them (mocha's, milkshakes, etc) then no weight loss regimen is going to work for you, whether it's diet or surgery.

It is absolutely possible to gain back weight! I have been through the most emotionally draining year of my life. For about the past five months, as a result, I let myself fall back into a horrible old habit. I comforted myself with my dear old "friend", salty crunchy food. If you eat junk, you will gain weight. I gained back about 15 pounds. I may not be able to eat large amounts of it at one time, but if every few hours I am reaching for it instead of a healthy snack, well, here comes the pounds. I wasn't planning on confessing this to anyone. But, I realize now it is important for everyone to see that the sleeve is a tool. In order for it to work, you have to continue to make wise choices and exercise. Sure, you can have treats and eat normal food, but if you overdo it like I did the past few months, you will suddenly find your clothes getting tighter. That was my wake-up call, I refuse to buy bigger clothes again, I like going down, not up!! So, I am back on track again.

thank you for sharing your story!

It is absolutely possible to gain back weight! I have been through the most emotionally draining year of my life. For about the past five months, as a result, I let myself fall back into a horrible old habit. I comforted myself with my dear old "friend", salty crunchy food. If you eat junk, you will gain weight. I gained back about 15 pounds. I may not be able to eat large amounts of it at one time, but if every few hours I am reaching for it instead of a healthy snack, well, here comes the pounds. I wasn't planning on confessing this to anyone. But, I realize now it is important for everyone to see that the sleeve is a tool. In order for it to work, you have to continue to make wise choices and exercise. Sure, you can have treats and eat normal food, but if you overdo it like I did the past few months, you will suddenly find your clothes getting tighter. That was my wake-up call, I refuse to buy bigger clothes again, I like going down, not up!! So, I am back on track again.

I am 16 months out and reached my goal of 150 May 25, 2011 (9 months post op). My lowest weight has been 144 and I've peaked at 148. When I peaked at 148 I cut out a few treats for 3 days and dropped to 144 yikes. I want to stay 145-148 if at all possible, so far, so good. My last weigh in on Saturday was 145. I do not diet at this point. I do not exercise (Although I need to get my butt moving, for my hearts sake). BUT with this said, I've heard that people can and do gain weight back. Check out the weight gained after sleeve in the front post section.