Hello and welcome to our frequently asked questions, I’m Dr. Alvarez with endobariatric.com and on this episode we’ll talk about something you may see a lot online and on several boards that focus on the gastric sleeve or weight loss surgery. I actually received this request from a patient on Youtube who asked if I could do a video on this particular topic and that is, “Weight regain after the gastric sleeve”. Now in this particular case, this patient is 3 years out and has experienced a regain of 15 pounds, but I’ve also had emails from patients who are panicking after a regain of 25 – 30 lbs. You can sure find a lot of these comments popping up in the weight loss surgery community now. Why is this? Because to some extent, it is expected and it’s normally seen after massive weight loss. Let me show you on this graph. You will see a red line-this red line is going to be the patients ultimate result, but if you look at the graph as the blue line starts to come down as the time line progresses and the patient loses weight, there will be a point where a patient crosses the red line which is your final result. Then you hit rock bottom and you may gain a few pounds and have a redistribution of fat tissue. So once you hit rock bottom and you regain these few pounds, this may cause a patient to freak out. That’s when you see patients posting online, sending out emails and looking for help or recommendations. These few pounds are totally normal and expected. You will never stay at your lowest lowest point. This is due to your metabolism and the rate at which you are losing weight. You are enrolled in a “losing pattern” that will make you go past your ultimate result and then have that small weight regain as your body adjusts and has that fat redistribution. Now what can you do to keep that weight regain to the lowest or even lose more weight once you’ve stablelized? In other words how can you move that (show graph again) red line and lower your weight? Well at this point it comes down to two things mainly. 1. Watching what you eat. What I mean by this is, lower your carb intake. If you don’t know what carbs are or what to eat I would suggest you do some online homework on this topic. My suggestion is for you to lower your carb intake to less than 30 gr per day. That will make you leaner and together with the sleeve, it will work wonders. 2. Exercise. Activity level is very important once you’ve lost the vast majority of the excess body weight. From here on out your activity level is a crucial part of how you manage your weight. So remember, keep carbs under 30 gr per day and don’t miss out on your exercise. This will help you keep your weight at the end possible or even lose those last extra 20-30 lbs you want. I hope this makes sense. If you have any questions feel free to contact me via my social media channel or through youtube. Don’t forget to subscribe for more videos. I’m Dr. A