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Honest opinions on weight loss surgery
Replies
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I waffle back and forth on this one. I am someone that was told to "just get the surgery because you'll never be successful at weight loss on your own". Seven years later, I've maintained a 170 pound loss.
It's anecdotal at best, but the people in my life that have had surgery either 1). have had serious complications or 2). don't maintain the weight loss long term.
I think the requirements need to be stricter, the waiting period longer, and be sure doctors give 100% accurate information of everything that can happen. Nothing good can really come out of cutting out a portion of your stomach and should only be used as a last-ditch effort after everything has been exhausted.10 -
Someone commented “it’s a very personal thing” — Not when the rest of us have to pay for it with our medical premiums.
I know many people who had it and regained all the weight. Waste of money and it didn’t help the person who went through it.
By this logic, deciding whether or not to have a child isn't a personal thing. If my health insurance premiums are helping cover weight loss surgery for a few people, they're used to a much greater extent to pay for the costs associated with prenatal and pediatric care.13 -
The surgeries are a terrible idea.10
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Hi , i was looking for some honest opinions on weight loss surgeries such as gastric bypass and sleeves etc. While it's great people are bettering their health do you feel the person who makes hard lifestyle changes and loses the weight on their own works harder ? Is it wrong to feel that way? . I guess to me when you decide to change your lifestyle and really grind for what you want health wise it seems slot harder vs losing weight with surgical help, maybe I'm wrong but I'd like some opinions, like I said it's still grwat when anyone betters their lifestyle
Eh, I don't know. I don't think they are taking the easy way out. All that they go through - pain from surgery, throwing up, leaky butt, etc. They lose the weight fast, so we think it's easy. I think they are FORCED to lose the weight fast, but I wouldn't say that's the easy way.
I'd rather go to the gym everyday and eat well than have to deal with that.
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Thing is, the ones I have seen have lost weight and still share tasty food posts on Facebook. Meanwhile over here, I am trying to make a lettuce leaf look appetising. Unfortunately every now and again I need to eat to train (middle distance triathlon). So not an option I guess.2
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If you don't like lettuce, why eat it?7
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Gotta lose weight and still eat.4
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MissJessAU77 wrote: »Gotta lose weight and still eat.
So eat something you like that fits your calories.
Best lesson I've learned here is I can lose weight without resorting to "rabbit food".10 -
It isn't for me, why risk unnecessary surgery.
Whichever way you choose, I don't feel that any way of losing weight is easy. However you choose to lose weight, you still have to consume less calories than you burn.
Becoming a healthier weight is a huge step in the right direction to becoming healthier.
However you can accomplish that, go for it. No judgement from me.
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On top of what I posted earlier, people really do not understand the dangers of anesthesia. There can definitely be complications, and those individuals that are severely overweight are more prone to experiencing complications. These could result in death! These are unnecessary risks to take for people wanting the lazy way out. Do your research! Become disciplined and you can accomplish anything.9
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I wouldn't call WLS lazy by any stretch. Drastic perhaps. But following this? https://www.bariatric-surgery-source.com/preparing-for-weight-loss-surgery.html#months
Looks anything but lazy.6 -
MissJessAU77 wrote: »Gotta lose weight and still eat.
Well, true, but that doesn't answer the question.3 -
MissJessAU77 wrote: »Thing is, the ones I have seen have lost weight and still share tasty food posts on Facebook. Meanwhile over here, I am trying to make a lettuce leaf look appetising. Unfortunately every now and again I need to eat to train (middle distance triathlon). So not an option I guess.
Usually you're not eligible for the surgery unless you're BMI 35 or above with significant co-morbidities (such as high blood pressure or diabetes) so it seems unlikely that a healthy triathlete would be eligible.
But there are about ten million appetizing ways to eat lettuce, and no reason at all to eat it if none of those work for you. Eat a variety of healthy foods within your calorie allowance and enjoy.4 -
Ive seen ppl who did weight loss surgery and had problems absorbing vitamins and minerals. This in turn cause their skin to look malnourished and unhealthy, not to mention saggy skin.2
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Hi , i was looking for some honest opinions on weight loss surgeries such as gastric bypass and sleeves etc. While it's great people are bettering their health do you feel the person who makes hard lifestyle changes and loses the weight on their own works harder ? Is it wrong to feel that way? . I guess to me when you decide to change your lifestyle and really grind for what you want health wise it seems slot harder vs losing weight with surgical help, maybe I'm wrong but I'd like some opinions, like I said it's still grwat when anyone betters their lifestyle
I knew people who had the surgery but still managed to gain back most of their weight lost. If you don't learn how to modify your bad eating habits, nothing will be a permanent solution.
Also I would never do the surgery. My sister did it and later she got cancer. They couldn't give her certain chemo drugs because of the gastric surgery and she had a very hard time during chemo maintaining proper levels of vitamin in her blood. Vitamin pills would just pass through her body too quickly to be absorbed.8 -
I know exactly two people who had WLS (both had a different kind), a mother-daughter duo. Mom was 47 when she had the surgery, the daughter was 21. I admit that I kind of "look down" on them, especially the daughter, for chosing the surgery over doing it on their own. They had no medical reason for being morbidly obese, they just liked to stuff themselves with junk food.
Mom's surgery has been 3.5 years ago, and she lost a lot of weight, but never quite got in the normal weight range. Last year she had surgery to remove excess skin. For her, the whole procedure was HARD. She had tons of complications with all of her surgeries, she still has lots of problems with eating ... and yet, she has managed to gain quite a few of the lost kilos back. For the daughter, she's lost about 70 pounds in a year and is still overweight. Her weight loss has now stalled and the weight is creeping back up. For her, at least, I foresee a complete regain of all the weight. Her surgery and recovery was much easier.
I really don't see them succeeding long term. Why? Because they thought the surgery would be an easy way out (they declared that themselves, that's not me speculating), and they haven't learned a thing. They had some coaching, but apparently none of that stuck. I met them while grocery shopping two weeks ago, and their cart was full of sweet juices, chips, chocolate, cream and other junk. They don't seem to drink much soda anymore (so that's a plus, I guess), but that's about the only positive thing they've done.
Now, if you go the "traditional" way and lose weight on your own, you're FORCED to change your habits, learn about nutrition etc., otherwise it won't work (well, theoretically, it still could - I guess you could lose weight just eating twinkies if you burned more calories than you consumed).5 -
5 months ago I had reached my highest weight - 170 kg, 375 pounds. "Professional" opinion pointed to surgery but at no stage was I told that at the same time I would have to change to a healthier lifestyle, better eating habits. Not that I didn't know - after all, where did all that fat come from? So I had some blood tests done and told my (new) GP that I would see him again in a year's time. For me it feels like a challenge. a way of learning new things, experiencing life I thought half forgotten. My crutch and support is MFP from day one and all the members I can learn so much from. THANK YOU! There might be a long weight loss journey in front of me but I only concentrate on today, with a couple of thoughts for tomorrow's meal plan. I still worry about 85.000 times a week if it is possible to lose weight and get healthier again. Our home scale still dies when I step onto it but my old clothing is feeling loose or is falling off my waist and my daily recorded food intake on MFP tells me that I am on the right track. Healing after an operation would have taken time, my body would have gone through a stressful time, I would have to be on some sort of medication / vitamin tablets - so far I have avoided all that. I am starting to see food in a different way, I now understand trigger food and food allergies which I need to be careful with. I have not considered the costs involved of an operation but I am pretty sure that my new, healthier meal plan is somewhat cheaper compared to my old way of eating. Either way I will live with my decision for the rest of my life and I prefer to be in charge of my own body. Once you remove bits and pieces surgically, it's difficult - even impossible - to reverse such a decision.15
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neugebauer52 wrote: »5 months ago I had reached my highest weight - 170 kg, 375 pounds. "Professional" opinion pointed to surgery but at no stage was I told that at the same time I would have to change to a healthier lifestyle, better eating habits. Not that I didn't know - after all, where did all that fat come from? So I had some blood tests done and told my (new) GP that I would see him again in a year's time. For me it feels like a challenge. a way of learning new things, experiencing life I thought half forgotten. My crutch and support is MFP from day one and all the members I can learn so much from. THANK YOU! There might be a long weight loss journey in front of me but I only concentrate on today, with a couple of thoughts for tomorrow's meal plan. I still worry about 85.000 times a week if it is possible to lose weight and get healthier again. Our home scale still dies when I step onto it but my old clothing is feeling loose or is falling off my waist and my daily recorded food intake on MFP tells me that I am on the right track. Healing after an operation would have taken time, my body would have gone through a stressful time, I would have to be on some sort of medication / vitamin tablets - so far I have avoided all that. I am starting to see food in a different way, I now understand trigger food and food allergies which I need to be careful with. I have not considered the costs involved of an operation but I am pretty sure that my new, healthier meal plan is somewhat cheaper compared to my old way of eating. Either way I will live with my decision for the rest of my life and I prefer to be in charge of my own body. Once you remove bits and pieces surgically, it's difficult - even impossible - to reverse such a decision.
Keep up the great work: you can do it! How do I know? Because you ARE doing it! Your pants are getting looser, so just keep doing the same thing and you will get there.4 -
You know, there are all these silly people who go out and do sports and exercise all over the place, and some of them always get injured, and then my health insurance premiums have to cover them. What a rip-off.janejellyroll wrote: »Someone commented “it’s a very personal thing” — Not when the rest of us have to pay for it with our medical premiums.
I know many people who had it and regained all the weight. Waste of money and it didn’t help the person who went through it.
By this logic, deciding whether or not to have a child isn't a personal thing. If my health insurance premiums are helping cover weight loss surgery for a few people, they're used to a much greater extent to pay for the costs associated with prenatal and pediatric care.
(yes, that was a joke. please hold your rants until I actually earn them.)
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This comparison makes me very glad that it is considered safe to push a baby through the birth canal at a rate faster than 2 lbs/week.This discussion somewhat reminds me of people thinking moms who have c sections are taking the easy way out. To me that is hilarious. I don’t know that I would ever consider surgery to be an easy way out
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I am superobese (BMI = 46); and, at a routine check-up a few years ago, my GP very tactfully addressed my weight, its current impacts on my health, and my risk of future weight-related complications, just as he usually did.runnermom419 wrote: »Nothing good can really come out of cutting out a portion of your stomach and should only be used as a last-ditch effort after everything has been exhausted.
Then, just as I was about to walk out the door, apropos of absolutely nothing, he asked if I had ever considered weight loss surgery.
I was shocked at his abruptness, and at the implication that I was really that superobese, but I just said that I hadn't. He said that I would probably be eligible and gave me a brochure.
So I looked into it. I was really surprised to learn that WLS only works for weight loss when combined with medically supervised diet, exercise, and counseling. I also read up on the surgery itself, its long term success rates, and the potential complications. My intellectual self decided that it seemed like a bad bet.
What I'll call my visceral self reacted more strongly. I've been overweight since the second grade, and took lots of grief over it from just about everyone in my life. This included my parents, my doctors - this was back in the day when you couldn't get treated for a hangnail with a lecture on your weight - and, worst of all, my schoolmates - this was back in the day when bullying was treated more like a rite of passage than an unacceptable form of behavior. All of this is what lay behind my gut reaction that my doctor wanted to mutilate my innards as a punishment for me being fat.
I know full well that that is not what he said, and not what he wanted, and not why he wanted it. But I have never been back to that doctor since.
I have thought about pretending that I want the surgery, though, so I can get approved for the period of medically supervised diet, exercise, and counseling leading up to it. I'd do the stuff, learn and lose as much as I could, and then opt out at the last minute. AFAIK, that's the only way I'll ever get Medicare to help me lose weight.18 -
I think that weight loss surgery is an effective tool for people who are significantly overweight and have other complicating factors. I don't think it's a magic bullet or an easy way out.
My husband was put on weight loss medication when he had sleep apnea because it was more important that he lose weight fast than smart because he needed to for other reasons. I see weight loss surgery as the same thing. It isn't the best, it isn't the smartest. But if your obesity is causing dangerous diabetes and HBP and you can't exercise much due to injury, waiting for diet alone to lower super obese level body fat puts you at too much risk from the other diseases. If that makes sense.
But I think far too many people see it as the easy way out, that they can just stitch up their stomach and magically the fat will just fall off.4 -
Going through the program and post recovery was certainly not easy. The significant weight loss gave me a new lease on life and I got my mobility back.12
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My best friend had gastric sleeve about the same time I started my lifestyle change. She has lost 28 pounds as of last week, and I have lost 23 as of today. (I actually changed my eating habits before I joined MFP) I asked her the other day if she still though the surgery was worth it. She said she thought it was, because she can no longer eat as much food as she used to be able to eat. She's not really dieting, i.e., watching what food she eats, but is forced to eat a smaller amount. I guess what I'm trying to say is that it doesn't necessarily make weight loss easier, but it is whatever works best for you. I was actually considering it, when my husband was diagnosed with Type 2 and we needed to make a significant lifestyle change. I'm fine with doing it my way, just as she is fine doing it her way.
BTW, I had talked to my cardiologist and my GP about weight loss surgery and they were very supportive and thought it a good idea.9 -
Evelyn_Gorfram wrote: »
I have thought about pretending that I want the surgery, though, so I can get approved for the period of medically supervised diet, exercise, and counseling leading up to it. I'd do the stuff, learn and lose as much as I could, and then opt out at the last minute. AFAIK, that's the only way I'll ever get Medicare to help me lose weight.
This is really an unfortunate indictment of our medical system's attitude towards weight loss, that you would have to pretend to need surgery to get help.
The good news is you can learn and exercise without spending a penny. If you ever want help, please ask. Best of luck to you.7 -
I have a friend who had WLS, gastric bypass, several years ago. They lost a lot of weight, and gained some of it back, enough to be in the obese category. In addition to still needing to eat carefully, they now have to keep an eye on their health in new ways because of an ongoing set of nutritional deficiencies caused by the gastric bypass surgery. A major symptom of those deficiencies is overwhelming fatigue.
I'd also check on the mortality rate for a given surgery I was considering.
Anyway, it looks like a mixed bag to me. That said, if nothing else works, if you have other challenges that are making it an emergency situation, it may be the thing to do.
I am doing the long, slow diet and exercise method, and am getting there. I was morbidly obese, yes, but it was not an emergency for me (yet). I am happy doing the work this way. Part of how I see it is that I am building new habits that will serve me once I hit that happy number on the scale. It's not like I'll get to go back to how I ate the last several years, once I get there. How I ate the last several years is the actual problem, so there's no going back to that as a norm.5 -
bennettinfinity wrote: »I'm not opposed to the concept, and I know surgery candidates often have to demonstrate some level of non-surgical weight loss as part of the program.
That said, I only know two people that have had WLS and both of them re-gained the weight - so, it's not a miracle cure and there still needs to be the same level of discipline to maintain results as those that lose weight without surgery.
I thought I read that less than 5% keep the weight off...seems like a failing procedure to me.
No. Only 5% of people who lose by methods other than surgery keep it off. Over 60% of people who have had either gastric bypass or sleeve keep the majority of their weight loss off. These are recent numbers, and easy to find.
Over the past decade those 2 surgeries have gotten far safer. Many of the early high failure rates were from banding, which is rarely performed anymore.
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I've thought about it (and how much it *KITTEN*S ME OFF!), but I'm not doing to actually do it. My parents were into this whole big thing with religion & morality & stuff, and I was raised with a wildly unfortunate sense of honesty that I still can't seem to get over.rheddmobile wrote: »Evelyn_Gorfram wrote: »
I have thought about pretending that I want the surgery, though, so I can get approved for the period of medically supervised diet, exercise, and counseling leading up to it. I'd do the stuff, learn and lose as much as I could, and then opt out at the last minute. AFAIK, that's the only way I'll ever get Medicare to help me lose weight.
This is really an unfortunate indictment of our medical system's attitude towards weight loss, that you would have to pretend to need surgery to get help.
Thanks so much.rheddmobile wrote: »The good news is you can learn and exercise without spending a penny. If you ever want help, please ask. Best of luck to you.
I could certainly use the help of specialized medical professionals, but I might value yours even more.
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I'm an Executive Recruiter and one search I picked up this year was because (unfortunately) the person that had the job had died from complications of WLS. Years ago, one of the parents on my kids soccer team nearly died as well from WLS. No surgery is easy. When you're morbidly obese, even more risk. I would guess that many don't know the full risk or simply ignore it.
The thing that gets me is that you usually have to lose weight to qualify. Many times, this is the first time that those considering the surgery have really tried to lose weight using CICO. Once they prove to themselves it can be done that way, why go through with the surgery?
I lost over 70 lbs and have kept it off without surgery for over 5 years. So it's not like I haven't been obese before myself.7 -
My best friend had gastric sleeve surgery the same week I started my MFP diet. She has lost 28 lbs and I have lost 22 pounds to date. I am consistently losing 2 lbs a week. Her doctors have no follow on program to teach better eating habits. I think that could lead to regaining the weight.3
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