I’m scheduled for a gastric sleeve in a few weeks because I’ve been heavy all my life and can’t lose weight any other way. I found some of my old doctors notes last night and noticed that I started the year 2016 at 190lbs and ended at 250lbs... that was also the year I was in an abusive relationship. The only weight I’ve gained since then is 20lbs of “and then some” weight from failed diets. I had never noticed before that most of my weight gain occurred during that period of my life. During that year I knew I was gaining a little weight but didn’t think it was that much and never thought I used food to cope or anything but I obviously did. I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing. On one hand it may be easier for me to keep the weight off as long as I don’t fall into any more toxic relationships. On the other hand the fact that I didn’t notice that those were related before now may be problematic when other stressful things happen in my life. Anyone else have a similar situation where your weight gain happened in a short period of time because of a stressful life circumstance? Did surgery help you if so?

One thing that will help is that most doctors recommend that you track what you eat. Assuming you weigh yourself regularly, you'll be able to spot weight gain early and then you can look back at what you were eating to determine why. Emotional eating can still happen post-surgery, but part of the work we have to do as WLS patients is finding different ways to cope rather than food.

Like I said, I don’t think I cope using food on a regular basis. I’ve tracked food for years now and there aren’t any patterns that suggest emotional eating outside of that one period of heavy trauma. I guess that’s why it never occurred to me that the trauma caused my weight gain because I haven’t been an emotional eater before or since. Maybe it happened because my other methods of coping were cut during the abuse (he wouldn’t let me see friends and I was too depressed to do my usual hobbies)? Idk. But thanks for the advice, that is a good way to ensure that I don’t fall into that again post-surgery without realizing it if something else happens. I’ve been trying to find a therapist to talk about these things with but they’re so expensive!

Check with the therapist they usually offer self pay on a sliding scale according to your income.
And Telehealth (virtual) meetings might be less expensive.

On 03/09/2021 at 16:21, oneblessedchild1978 said:

Check with the therapist they usually offer self pay on a sliding scale according to your income.

And Telehealth (virtual) meetings might be less expensive.

None of the therapists in my area operate on a sliding scale, I’ve asked. I’ve done the virtual meetings before but never found them to be particularly helpful. But thanks! I’ll keep looking.