Weight Regain After Gastric Bypass Surgery: Valuable Lessons
March 18, 2019I’m sure my story is familiar to many of you. I’ve been overweight/obese for as long as I can remember. It feels as if I’ve been dieting my whole life. So much so, that I consider myself a pro at losing weight.
Losing weight was never the problem, keeping it off was the problem.
I'm a Pro at Losing Weight
Since middle school, I’ve been on and off diets, losing 50+ pounds so many times that I’ve lost count. And, of course, every time I regained the weight, I also regained a few more pounds. There seemed to be no end to the amount of weight I could gain. If I was not actively losing weight, I was actively gaining weight, there was literally no “set point” for me.
It was no surprise that as the years went by, I started having weight-related health issues. By my early 30s, I was on multiple medications for hypertension. By my late 30s, my cholesterol was borderline and on a consistent upward trend with correspondingly high triglycerides.
By my 40s, I weighed close to 350 pounds and my mortality started to become much more of a reality to me. People regularly die in their 40s due to obesity-related complications.
If I didn’t do something to permanently fix my weight issue, I knew that I would die an early death. It was as simple as that.
My Journey
In March of 2015, I had an RNY gastric bypass. The ensuing weight loss phase was fairly straightforward and uneventful. After all, I’m a pro at losing weight, and with this tool, I was far more successful than any previous efforts.
By December of 2015, I had lost more than my initial goal and was down to my final goal weight of 152 pounds. At 5’8", that’s a BMI of 23.1 which is in the normal range.
While I was very comfortable during the weight loss phase, anxiety started to set in as I neared my goal weight. Those old demons of regain from every previous diet were screaming in my head that I would fail. Why would it be different this time? I swore to myself that I would be hyper vigilant, and I would never go back.
Throughout the weight loss phase, I religiously weighed and measured every morsel of food that went in my mouth, and I got on the scale every day in order to hold myself accountable. For the next nine months, I continued these habits and the transition into maintenance went fairly smoothly.
Regain After Gastric Bypass
As I was approaching the 2-year mark from starting this process, I was tired of the constant weighing and measuring and just wanted to “live like a normal person.” At that point, I made a conscious effort to stop; however, I would continue to weigh myself daily for accountability. I continued to stick to my eating plan, and rarely, if ever, cheated. This transition was also relatively smooth, and for the next nine months, I continued to maintain my weight of 152 pounds (plus or minus a few pounds in daily fluctuation of course).
I can’t pinpoint exactly when it happened, but it was around the holidays that I first noticed a couple of pounds appear on the scale that weren’t just a daily fluctuation. While I continued to be diligent about eating healthy foods, I was eating too much of them. There was more food in the house due to the holidays, and while it may have been on-plan food, it also tended to be more calorie dense.
I was starting to do a lot more grazing than I normally do and that old habit of overeating in the evenings started to return.
Pretty soon the scale was registering 155 pounds, then 157 pounds. I easily justified this to myself by saying “wow, I’ve really been eating a lot lately, and have only gained a couple of pounds.” I just figured as soon as I went back to my normal eating patterns after the holidays, those pounds would just melt away. And after all, losing 2-4 pounds is no big deal, right?
I continued to justify my eating habits throughout the holidays. When I cracked 160 pounds, I was really disgusted with myself. I couldn’t believe after being in the 150s for so long how easy it was to sneak back into the 160s. But 160 is still only 8 pounds, right? And a bit of bounce back weight after surgery is normal, right? No big deal.
Pretty soon it was 162, and then 164. I knew I had to do something, but I couldn’t bring myself to change. Every day I woke up telling myself “today’s the day” and some days I would do really well all morning, or even into the evening, but then the wheels would come off the bus. All of the old patterns and justifications had returned.
Shortly after Christmas, I had a hard conversation with myself. I was honest about what I had been doing. And the truth was, 10-12 pounds was not the end of the world, and it wouldn’t take all that long to lose; however, if I didn’t start now, that 10 pounds would become 20, 30, 40+. And that much weight is hard to lose.
Valuable Lessons from Weight Regain After Gastric Bypass Surgery
One of the most important lessons that I’d learned throughout my maintenance phase was that one small slip doesn’t mean the whole day is lost. That’s simply another justification for bad behavior. It’s so easy to say “man, I shouldn’t have eaten that second helping at dinner, I’ve really screwed up. Oh well, I’ll just start again tomorrow” which would then allow me to eat more the remainder of the day. I mean, after all, the day was already shot, right?
With that in mind, I went back to basics. I was already eating on plan, so I didn’t have to make any adjustments there. I also chose not to start weighing and measuring again at this point, but it was comforting to know that my tool was there. If I was unable to lose the weight without it, I know for a fact that weighing, measuring and tracking all my food gives me the mathematical certainty of ensuring weight loss.
I got rid of any calorie dense food in the house – no nuts, no avocados, no hummus, no whole-grain crackers, etc. I went back to eating three meals a day with very limited snacking. If I was truly hungry, I would allow myself one serving of fruit, or some vegetables.
That’s it. It’s really that simple. And if I slipped up, and ate something I shouldn’t have, or ate more fruit for a snack that I was allotted, I just told myself that was a single mistake and that I was getting back on track right then. Not an hour from now, not tomorrow, but right that minute.
And, of course, the weight started to come off. Quite rapidly in fact. Within 3-4 weeks the regain was gone, and I was back to 152 pounds.
While I’m not happy that I regained that weight, I think there were valuable lessons to be learned:
- Regain will always be lurking around the corner
- Your “tool” will always work
- You have the skills and habits to be successful
- One mistake does not lead to regain, it’s a series of mistakes and justifications that do
- It may not be easy, but it truly is that simple.
 | ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jester has been an ObesityHelp member since January 17, 2017. By his early 30s, he was on multiple medications for hypertension and the years following his health got worse. In March of 2015, he had RNY gastric bypass surgery. By December of 2015, he had lost more than his initial goal and was down to his final goal weight of 152 pounds. At 5’8", that’s a BMI of 23.1 which is in the normal range. His WLS journey went on to include some regain. After going back to the basics, he's lost it and feels great! |
