Post Op 10 Years - Weight Started Coming on After I had my Baby Any one else have this...

Hello!  I had a RNY about 10 years ago.  Everything went great, I lost the weight it was wonderful.  About four years out I had a baby and the weight has slowly crept back on.  I am tracking all of my food intake and and eat less than 1,800 a day.  I am now obese again and am at a loss.  My doc is no longer in practice and I am not sure where to start so I am back looking for help.  This site was a great help when I had my surgery.  I have low iron due to  mild anemia.  I take vit and b-12.  I don't want to be overweight and I don't know what to do or where to start.  Has anyone else had this problem?  Did you have a revision or a different weight loss surgery?  I drink unjury.  I love that stuff.  I do have to get iron infusions to keep my iron up.  I am looking for anyone that has gone through something similar.  I know it will be my decision.  I am looking for information.  The surgery went so well and the weight loss went on target.  I might be fooling my self but I wonder if having the baby whom I love more than life caused something to happen.  I am glad I had the baby and would not change that.  I just want to be thin again.  I felt better. 

Maybe I am fooling myself blaming it all on the baby.  I am not sure, so I thought I would look for other people.  I know the surgery worked the first time.  I don't think that I over eat.  Of course I can eat more now then when I first had the surgery but I am very careful.  I still do not and can not eat greasy food or to much of anything.  I can eat about three or four small bites of steak.  Anything more and I feel sick.  My friends all comment that I don't eat much.  My father in law keeps asking me how a person that never eats is so healthy looking.  I know he means FAT.  The only BAD thing I do that is drink a coke.  I am working on giving it up 100%.  My BMI is 44 and I am 51 with a 6 year old child.  Any thoughts?  There has to be others out there that lost weight, got married and had a baby!   I want to hear from you! 

Thank you!

I doubt that *just* having a baby made you regain - lots of women have post RNY babies and some gain and some don't.   Regain is about lifestyle so it could be a number of things:

Are you always making good choices regarding your food - log everything that passes your lips into MyFitnessPal.com and see if you are getting sufficient protein for the calories you are ingesting.   Have you let processed carbs back into your diet?  I'm surprised that someone who is 10 years out is still needing to drink their protein?

You are a year older than me and so at this time of life we get a much slower metabolism + menopause or perimenopause.   How much exercise are you doing?   If you are gaining you are clearly ingesting more than you are expending.

How many of those cokes are you drinking per day?  If it's not diet coke, that's a lot of empty calories ...

Do you drink with meals or within 30 minutes after?   This is one of the most common things among regainers ... 

This is a great place for support and advice if you are looking to get rid of the regain.

What Kim said....she is 8 years out, and knows of what she speaks!

I'm only 3.5 years out, but I'll tell you this:  maintenance is the hardest part of this journey.  At this point in your life, your body is working like a "normal" person's as far as calories go.  You need to be honest about what you are consuming vs what you are burning.

I'm also with Kim about the protein shakes....unless you are really using them for meal replacement, you are sucking down a lot of calories in those things.  Track your food, and burn some calories with daily exercise.

Come here often-we are here for you, but Kim and I only give some tough love and we will hold you accountable!  Hugs.

I know I'm a newbie, but it might be the pop.  My surgeon drilled the fact that any carbonation will stretch our pouch & cause weight gain.  I know a ton of people who had RNY the ones that have gained weight are the ones that drink carbonated beverages.  Hope this can help.

Carbonation will NOT stretch your pouch (it is a tube with holes at each end) but consuming full sugar soda may well cause weight gain as it is calorie rich and nutritionally empty!  

Drinking while eating or within 30-60 minutes afterward seems to be (anecdotally) one of the biggest reasons for regain.

Could you be starting menopause? I'm only asking because my mom, who was always thin, started gaining weight easily. It's also when she started having diabetic episodes, which eventually led to her diagnosis. 

I know drinking Coke definitely doesn't help, and it's a hard habit to break. However, maybe taking a look at your actual intake and exercise may be an eye-opener for you. 

I regained 100 lbs after my first WLS and I know a lot of that was because I was drinking Dr. Pepper by the gallon.  Then I thought that may not be that good for me so I switched to orange juice.  Pure sugar.  Of course I was eating terribly, too.  Mainly refined carbs, bread and sugar, my weakness.  I know exactly what caused my weight gain.

I didn't have a revision due to the weight gain but it did help that.  I was having other issues that the revision has resolved.  I was able to get restriction which I never felt before.  It does sound like you still have restriction if you get full after a few bites of steak.  That is good but basically it means that you aren't using your tool to it's full potential.  I thought my first WLS had failed until I realized that when I was eating the way I should I lost weight and kept it off.  It worked perfectly as long as I used it as intended, a tool to keep me on track.  The surgery itself doesn't do anything to make you lose weight, especially after the malabsorption is gone.  It just gives you the ability to eat less and experience satiety from small amounts of food.  I still have to choose the kinds and amounts of food to put in my mouth.  Even though I can't eat a lot at one time I can eat higher calorie foods and I can eat more often and I would regain my weight.

It wouldn't hurt to have a consult with a surgeon and maybe be evaluated to make sure your surgery is still mechanically working but beyond that it may help to consult with a NUT and find a good program of eating to follow to make the most of what you have.

Hello,  Thank you for your reply.  I seem to still have a malabsorption issue.  I have a very hard time keeping my numbers up

and have to have iron infusions and take a ton of vitamins to be OK.  Now that I have put the weight on I  am desperate to get it off.  I am having a lot of health issues now.  Can you tell me more about your revision.  I am terrified to say the least to have to do that surgery again.  Not because of food.  To be honest if I could take a pill I would never eat again.  Food is not my friend and it makes me feel bad most of the time.  I still can not over eat because if I do I feel sick.  My pouch has stretched.  I know this because if I want to, I can eat a whole taco.  Nothing else with it but I can eat one.   I am going to think about all of my comments and make sure that I am not fooling my self.  That is part of why I came on here.  Thanks for your support.

Everyone!  Thanks for your replies.  I have been feeling under the weather so just now got back online.  I am keeping track of everything that I eat.  I am using my fitness pal on my i phone.  I drink about one coke a day.  Sometimes not the whole coke.  I am very tired all the time and want to sleep all the time.  I take Nascobal once a week for B-12.  It is a spray that my doctor recommended.  A typical days meal for me is 1. Breakfast - 2 hard boiled eggs.  1 glass of tea.   2. Snack - fresh fruit 3.  lunch- I was skipping it but my doctor told me I had to eat 1,800 a day so I have some soup.  4.  snack  - coke  5 - dinner - it varies but the portions are controlled and I eat protein first, veggies second.  Because I still do not eat a lot at any one time.  I generally have a glass of milk with dinner.  I drink a lot of water  The protein drink is a fill in to reach the 1,800 calories.  I buy Unjury and like it a lot but can give it up.  It taste like yummy desert to me.  I drink the vanilla one.  For the most part I don't eat sweets.  I will go to the weight loss clinic like my doctor wants.  If you are all in agreement that it is the calories.  I am terrified to re-do the surgery. 

But, I don't feel well and I can't seem to get any weight off.  I am sure that I am going through the change.  I asked my doc and he said it was starting.   I have developed some health issues.   I have neuropathy in my feet and small nerve damage in my arms, hands, and legs and feet.  I see a specialist for that.  I see a  specialists  to keep my iron levels up.  I almost died 2 years ago from critical anemia.   I am a big girl and it does not hurt me to hear the truth.  I want to get this under control.  Thanks everyone for your comments.  The doctors that I have are great.  They just are not WLS docs.  I had tried to find a WLS doc to help me when I first started having issues.  I had little to no luck in that field. 

What are your lab results?  With the neuropathy I'd be interested in knowing what your B-1, B-6, B-12 and other B numbers are if they were drawn (the 3 listed being the main ones).  How long have you experienced it and what is your specialist saying does he think it is due to vitamin deficiencies? 

I'll also mention from one of your replies you stated you can eat one taco, that isn't one of our (and yes I've eaten it too) choices but one taco doesn't mean your pouch is stretched out.....it's matured after years of surgery and you should be able to eat one taco for a meal.  I just wanted to you to this is not uncommon how far out you are at...it actually sounds like you have fairly good restriction!