I had a gastric sleeve and I've gained 14lbs

[HowAmIhereAgain]

I'm just so embarrassed.

Almost 2 years ago I had a gastric sleeve at 17 stone.

I got to 10stone 10 just before Christmas 2022. To be fair I'd hovered around 11stone4 for a long time and covid and illnesses got me to 10stone10.

But I felt great.

After I recovered from covid my eating habits just went haywire. I'm eating shit constantly. I can't eat much but I'm just eating small amounts all through the day. Im not even hungry. It's just bad habits.

My scales broke just as I hit 10stone 10.

I got new ones today, 11stone 10.

I checked on my sisters ones because I was shocked. It's true.

I've put a stone on.

I'm so embarrassed. I cannot be one of those people who go to all this trouble then regain.

I'm just so sad and disappointed with myself.

I've always known I've had disordered eating but I just feel like I need to face it now.

I had it done privately so no psychological help at all.

How do I stop this emotional eating?

I'm say here now, sad and want to go get some chocolate!

Sorry to sound ignorant but I thought the whole point of a gastric sleeve was so that you can't put weight on??

Get the psychological help. The gastric sleeve won't stop a lifetime of bad habits if you don't find the source of the bad habits and cut them off there.

Sounds like you know what you’re doing wrong. Just go back to basics. Healthy food, drink plenty and lots of protein. Don’t weigh yourself but just concentrate on being active and eating right.

gastric sleeves hinder calorie intake but most people with GS / bariatric surgery don't end up anywhere close to OP's size, they stay fairly large, actually, just not as large as they were.

I think you've made a good start, OP. Have you tried Overeaters Anon ?

You can’t eat huge amounts but if you eat the wrong food you can gain. Most people who have the sleeve don’t need many calories to gain weight, that’s why we end up so big.

No you can most definitely regain eating calorie laden food and not exercising.

I have a very small portion ability but I'm just eating very little very often. Just because I'm sad and bored and craving food as comfort. I've always done it. I just used to do it on a bigger scale.

It sounds like you need something to occupy your day and distract you from constantly wanting to eat if it's down to boredom and unhappiness. Are you not working? You might find that really helps. I think psychological help might benefit you too if you can afford it.

No, that’s the myth that’s come from USA etc where people have to pay privately at all times, and so it’s a money maker to sell the idea that’s it’s a fail safe permanent solution. It isn’t

look on line at any study. One I just found says 50% regain weight between 8-18% of weight before surgery. Within 5 years. That study didnt follow up for beyond 5+ years. But I think it’s clear that weight gain does continue form other studies I’ve seen

whilst some people find ways to “cheat “ ( they’re still eating way less than normal dietary recommendations), there’s a lot of evidence there’s the metabolic resetting going on that is common in any extreme calorie controlled dieting. As the body “starves”, hormones controlling hunger change levels(lectin etc) , as does metabolic efficiency. Again plenty of articles out there now, especially really interesting research on how the “energy in= energy out” is just not actually what is happening. New scientist released an article just this week based on new findings, that’s been popping up on my twitter, about energy consumed by active lifestyles and inactive

https://www.apa.org/science/about/psa/2018/05/calorie-deprivation

you have to set this in context with diets causing body to think it’s “starving” even for a small drop in intake below the recommended daily calorific intake - bear in mind the vast majority of the calories we need are used to heat our blood only - warm blooded mammals need huge calories to do that like a boiler.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24132130-400-why-doing-more-exercise-wont-help-you-burn-more-calories/

No I'm not able to work due to other issues. Though its way worse at night, I genuinely feel hungry in the evenings.

Have you thought of doing Saxenda?

I tried saxenda before the sleeve. I had a reaction to it

This is the thing. I genuinely thought after the sleeve I would be done with weigh gain and diets. An dimnjusy so fed up that I'm here again thinking baiut what I need to do to lose this weight.

I stupidly thought I'd just stay 10.10 easily.

I totally empathise with you. It's really horrible to see the numbers going up when you've got a history of disordered eating and gains. But you've done really bloody well so lose so much, you're still 6st down from your starting weight!

A stone, while it sounds like loads, can be shed fairly easily if you're in the right frame of mind. And if you're weighing yourself then you may well be in right frame of mind (I only weighed myself when I was wanting to make some changes).

I think we all want to believe there's a magic cure. I certainly do 🫣

Are you able to walk/exercise OP?

Carbs and sugar for me are an addiction and I am an emotional eater. Sad? Eat cake/cookies/fries. Stressed? Eat carbs. Happy? Eat carbs. Gastric sleeve does not cure the addiction. I went on carnivore for food allergies and the difference in how I feel about food has been life changing.

I think you probably could do with getting the psychological support you should have had before.

It’s really hard op. Don’t beat yourself up. You can lose the stone again. It’s not like you have put all the weight back on.

I know a few people who have struggled with this too your not alone.

Eating and food is such a complicated thing. I have an eating disorder myself but the opposite way. People comment on how lucky I am but little do they know food and eating take up a considerable amount of my mental energy. Having this issue either way is hell on earth as we need food to survive.

As an aside why don’t they prescribe meds that suppress your appetite on the Nhs? It’s probably not ideal but in extreme cases surely it makes sense for a short term fix that can then help get people in the right track.

I'm very much the same but I'm not a huge fan of meat, I tried keto a few times but I just couldn't eat meat and eggs all the time. I was veggie for years.

Oh OP don't let this slight regain send you into panic mode/giving up mode. That won't help you. You haven't regained all of the weight that you lost, in fact you've regained a small proportion if it. You can do this, start again with some healthier eating and you can lose what you've regained.

You'll have to accept that you need to be careful with what you eat and monitor yourself for life. But you can do it.

Look you're down from 17 stone, you've done amazingly well. We all have slip ups, what's important is to nip it in the bud now before you gain lots. A stone can go easily with steady weight loss. Have a 3 month aim. Nicer weather is coming, it will be easier to eat salads and fruit. Set goals and daily food plans and decide to follow. You've done it before, you know what to do.

Could you try going for a walk in the evening? It would give you an emotional boost and stop you being able to get bored and start snacking.

You've still lost loads of weight.

You just need a few tweaks to maintain.

Focus on making your food great- small portions of really good stuff, rather than quick and easy stuff.
Things like (for me) smoked salmon, pea shoots and rye bread.
A brilliant posh fruit salad with a blob of clotted cream.

Focus on what you are going to eat, not what you are avoiding.

And do some work on managing emotions. I do Tai Chi as my exercise, as it calms the mind as well as building strength. I'm inclined to binge- am currently trying to get back to target after having drifted over Christmas.

OP Im not an expert as I only had this op 6 weeks ago, but in my prep I was reading a book by Denise Radcliffe which sets out some of the emotional considerations we need to make

Also have you tried doing a re set, follow the liquid, puree,, soft phases again, over a period of two weeks, or even do the LRD again to try to reset your brain into prepping for the journey to continue.

When you say you have no psychological support because you did it privately, is this abroad. I thought in UK that you would still get nurse and surgeon support, my provider has a package which I signed up to for a couple of years but I know even after that point Im able to get support from them.

I thought generally there is a bit of an expectation that people may put 10-20% of their weight loss back on but this shouldnt really be through non nutrient dense foods, particularly with the need to ensure you get the right supplements in.

How is your hydration and protein intake, do you meet your targets?

Yes abroad. I never did the LRD, it's not required where I went.

No I don't meet my targets, like I said, I just eat like before but smaller portions but obviously enough to still gain

I think a reset is a good idea. I keep planning it but just not starting.

Do you track calories and liquids?

I think the advice is that calories dont need tracking but I do. At my stage I think there is a general ball park figure of 600-800 cals a day so I track them and protein and hydration, I log everything

I think further on, dependent on activity it changes up to around 1200 a day but theres normally advice about how much you should be having which is difficult if you dont have follow up.

I would try to prepare to start a re set, set yourself a date, prep your foods and start again, see it as refreshing and reframing the progress you've already made, building on that rather than feeling that its gone wrong.

I wonder if there are packages you can buy in the UK where you can sign up to support even if you didnt have the op through them?