Can I do this without Surgery?

mandapandalambda

Hi Everyone,

I'm sure a lot of people here can relate to this but here's my story.

I lost 85 pounds when I was in my early 20s and through the course of my mid-late 20s I put it all back on. Now since hitting 30 I've plateaued at 290 - higher than I've ever been - and I cant seem to make my weight budge.

I'll do super great for a week and then one meal will just derail all of my work. It's been like this since my mother passed away suddenly in October 2019.

I finally got up the courage to make an appointment with a bariatric surgeon to discuss VSG.

I went and got the info and now I just feel awful.

I understand that the statistics are not on my side. That less than 1% of people with my BMI ever get to a normal, healthy weight and sustain it. But is surgery really my only option?

I'm not sure if it's just because I didn't feel comfortable with the team or if I am just feeling sorry for myself but is it REALLY the better way to get surgery? Should I just assume that because I've always failed I wont be able to do this on my own and just get over this fear of surgery?

Is it really possible to get there without it?

Thanks for listening and any advice you might have!
-Amanda

Beverly2Hansen

Surgery is not your only option. Just because 1 diet doesn't work doesn't mean they don't work. I've tried regular deficit, keto, dairy and gluten free and low carb diets. I was only able to steadily lose weight on a gluten and dairy free food plan. I spent 90days fully committed to each eating plan before finding one that worked. I also had other issues with MFP. I had to stop eating my exercise calories because it was over estimating them massively. I additionally had to find exercises I can do like walking and swimming. There were times when I got over confident with exercise and burnt out really quickly. Surgery is 1 answer to the problem but has negative effects among positive ones. As far as you being 290 plateauing is still better than your weight climbing. Most real plateaus break in 14days. As you lose weight you'll need to recalculate your calories and exercise goals about every 10lbs to keep seeing the same results. Good luck.

draekin13

From the experience my family members have told me with surgery is they typically require you to follow a pretty specific diet even before the surgery and want you to lose a certain amount of weight to prove you can maintain a healthy lifestyle so it has a better chance of working. I feel surgery is a tool but it is only a piece of the puzzle. If you eat because you always feel hungry then it has a better chance of working but if your underlying issues with food are emotion driven it may not be as successful as you would hope.

lmf1012

For what it's worth, here's my two cents on the subject. With or without the surgery, you need to make positive changes to your lifestyle. Surgery does not remove that requirement. So, if you have to do the work anyway, why get the surgery too? I would guess most people get it to either get a quick loss that provides some motivation to stick with it or to help them with appetite and/or feeling full. You would need to decide if that "benefit" is worth the risk and recovery of surgery.

With that said, the overwhelming majority of us on here have tried and failed many times in the process of trying to lose weight. That in no way means you cannot be successful! We all have meals or days where we go off the rails but that is when it is most critical to KEEP going. This is a lifelong way of eating and being active, one day or meal is but a blip.

TwistedSassette

There are no guarantees either way. WLS surgery is a long, difficult process that requires you to make some massive lifestyle changes in a very short period of time, and if you don't maintain strict control then you can have some very serious health consequences (e.g. hair falling out from lack of protein, fainting spells from low blood sugar, lethargy from lack of iron etc.) and you can also end up back where you were if you don't keep on top of the lifestyle changes. Losing weight the 'traditional' way is also a long, difficult process that requires you to make some massive lifestyle changes, and still requires you to maintain control.
My question to you would be: if you were to proceed with WLS, how will you handle the lifestyle changes required? Can you apply that same rationale to a traditional weight loss method?

Thinking back to when you've attempted to lose weight in recent years, how have you approached it? My biggest piece of advice is to start from scratch - forget what worked in your early 20s as your body is likely quite different now. Start just tracking your calories each day, don't attempt to change anything, just assess where you are, see what time of day you eat the most calories, what your problem foods are etc. Then you can start to think about what SMALL changes you can start to make (e.g. that large frappe you get a few times a week is more calorie-dense than you thought, so you decide to have this treat just on Fridays). You need to think of this process as changes that you can make, and keep, for life. I cannot fathom a life where I never eat another slice of pizza, so that's not a restriction that I put on myself. I just don't eat it often, and I eat less of it when I do splurge. The small changes you make, all add up and it takes the pressure off that "all or nothing" approach that so many of us have tried in the past. Where you do have an off day, you put it behind you and move on, knowing that you can learn from that experience.

Set yourself a lower weight loss target (i.e. don't go too aggressive, as that's just setting yourself up for failure - the majority of people cannot sustain a diet of 1,200 calories a day so make sure your goal is something you can actually see yourself achieving consistently.

And finally, remember that weight loss is not linear. You won't eat exactly the same calories every day, and you won't burn exactly the same calories every day. There are multitudes of factors that affect water retention, including hormones, so take heart in the fact that the little victories and small changes you make are moving you toward better health, even if the scale takes a while to catch up! There are loads of great challenges and support groups here in the forums, perhaps you can join some of those to help you along.