VSG: regrets anyone?

DanniB423

Hello all. I am coming to a position where I can afford VSG. My doctor is telling me insurance won’t pay because while my BMI definitely qualifies, I don’t have a comorbidity to accompany it (yet). I can pay for it and I have read a lot of good things but I want to hear the bad. If you say you wouldn’t do it again, why? I’ve lost 70lbs and I gained it back. I know it’s a only a tool and not magic. I understand it’s a huge life change and far from “easy.” Thanks in advance!

jdbly3373

I had it done. I lost half my weight on my own and half because of surgery. I'm still about 130 lbs down. Surgery is hard to recover from. I felt nauseous for a while after. It is great while your stomach is small. It would be nice to always have that feeling. A few years out though you really need to learn the things you didn't know and that got you to be overweight in the first place. I still have problems eating too much. I still eat for emotional reasons to feel better. I still tend to eat sweets in excess but I stay away from them now. It seems the only way I can stay somewhat healthy is to get a lot of activity during the day and eat very healthy. I am learning now how to cut back on my eating but it is hard. I like to eat what I want and eat a lot!

PAV8888

The only reason I didn't try surgery... was because I was too chicken.
And I'm glad I was a chicken approximately 7 years and 125lb ago

We often truly believe we have tried everything to lose weight. Diet, exercise, keto, fasting. We lose we regain, right? I definitely sincerely believed that I was not an emotional overeater. (Turns out that when I am frustrated, angry or tired, I overeat and I sure as heck don't reach out for carrot sticks when I do so... is that emotional?). That I didn't eat excessively. (Turns out that I ate at all you can eat restaurants several times a week. Sometimes twice on the same day). That I didn't believe in myths (except that I would add oodles of olive oil to my salad because olive oil is healthy while commercial dressings are not! And let's not tackle the part where I drank full sugar pop from 2L bottles because artificially sweetened pop was unhealthy )

I have an outsider / lay person's perspective to this. NOT SCIENCE BASED because I don't think anyone has done any serious studies along the lines of what I'm thinking. And because most studies are conducted from a pro-intervention perspective given the low overall success rates of non intervention dieting (but are surgical intervention results SUFFICIENTLY better to justify the risks and personal/health costs? are the initial samples that are being considered similar? and the interventions equivalent subject only to the addition/subtraction of the surgery? Not so sure) Still, let's call the following UFO theories!

We lose weight fast or for a long time period or a combination of the two. Our hormones (especially leptin and ghrelin) get out of whack. We are very susceptible to regain at the time period of early maintenance. (I am aware that VSG studies show ghrelin fall with surgery and that this may contribute to early maintenance success)

--non surgery dieter: you're on your own. unprepared for rebound hunger. little or no plan and no access to counselling on how to cope. perhaps little or less clear understanding as to how and why you've succeeded in losing weight so far and how you can adjust to your changing circumstances. No fall back positions or newly cultivated habits to fight against regain and less vigilant while you're floating on the laurels of your success so far.

--surgical dieter: dealing with the complications and discomforts of the surgery. having to deal with the aftermath and medical protocols and follow ups to the surgery. In dealing with all this committed to following protocols or having to work around physical limitations that have been imposed upon you and paying the price of discomfort when you don't.

In both cases time passes and the maintenance of a lower weight (if successful) slowly allows you to find a new balance at that lower weight. hormonal upheaval diminishes and you stabilize at a new level of activity and intake either proceeding to stabilize or (for many people given the easy availability of food) slowly regain but in a potentially more easy to control fashion when mindful.

Which of the two situations has more impediments to regain? The dieter who is floating on cloud 9 because of their earlier success or the person in pain who is working around limitations?

So, ultimately, the surgical dieter has a higher probability of getting through the one or two years that it will take for hormones to stabilize and for a new normal reinforced by habits to develop.

OR, you could try to develop these habits and prepare yourself ahead of time without having to rely on pain and physical limitations.

REMEMBER all the above is JUST A THEORY. NO PROOF. WHATSOEVER.

The following is NOT a theory:

If you (ANY YOU), a currently obese person, start pushing towards eating like your future normal weight self who is equally active (or inactive) as you are currently and pushing towards incrementally changing your movement and activity level (assuming they are not already high) .... you WILL lose energy reserves (fat).

Because by virtue of being larger you currently have higher energy needs than your future normal weight self will. For MOST people doing so will result in the loss of 0.25% to 1% of body weight a week over a period of months depending on your current weight and activity levels. This is usually tolerated pretty well and produces meaningful results especially when starting from morbidly obese levels.

When you get to the four to six month mark you may start having to re-evaluate and see whether you should be varying your intake to slow down or speed up your weight loss and/or to deal with your (presumably increased by then) activity levels.

From what I've heard, most surgical programs require an extreme reduction in calories "intake" diet phase that you have to successfully complete before they will operate on you.

I would take that time period and run with it... only instead of having the surgery after a few months, I would continue to tweak that diet to a more sustainable and more "my normal future self will be able to eat this way" method, by discontinuing the extreme deficits that these diets seem to promote (and which makes them difficult/impossible to sustain) and replacing them with sustainable deficit levels that you can continue with for the duration of a good two or three years you will probably need to spend losing weight and/or tweeking your weight assuming a start from BMI 35+ levels.

Either way, between loss, early maintenance, and maintenance, it will be a good 5+ years that you will be dealing with your weight and health. One path has extra pain... for me that's a bug, not a feature and, as mentioned, I'm a bit of a chicken!

To return to the OP, since I went into a tangent enjoying the air-conditioned office... I don't regret NOT doing the surgery when I had the option to do so for free seven years ago!

(the comment by @jdbly3373 below also, in my opinion, supports what I'm saying--that surgery may or may not always actually be the last resort people often perceive/believe it to be: root cause analysis would suggest that counselling re: issues that may have led to weight gain and which may encourage its continuation could be of greater/equal benefit to surgery. I am personally convinced that this is true in many cases of obesity)

jdbly3373

I wanted to add. I don't think I could have lost much of any weight on my own. I still need to change my lifestyle not in food and exercise but taking care of my other needs ( like relational and purpose-based) it seems to improve. I have basically no friends and a non-existent career. I never learned to give myself away to other people ( such a volunteering). I haven't really had extremely happy times in a very long time. My weight seems to be tied to those things it seems. I eat to fill the void and just boredom. If things are bad in your life and you're unhappy, its very difficult to maintain your weight or lose weight.

Fflpnari

I regret it, I think it was a waste of 30k. I don't have any restriction on the amount I can eat. I get hypoglycemic on a regular basis. Im not diabetic, Its from the surgery.
I've lost 105 pounds, tracking macros and learning how to eat.

Feel free to message me and Im happy to chat more about what I went through.

Sixteen_Tons

Fflpnari wrote: »

I regret it, I think it was a waste of 30k. I don't have any restriction on the amount I can eat. I get hypoglycemic on a regular basis. Im not diabetic, Its from the surgery.
I've lost 105 pounds, tracking macros and learning how to eat.

Feel free to message me and Im happy to chat more about what I went through.

I didn't have the surgery, because I watched my parent's take the 'Short Cut' eventually regaining the weight while still having to deal with the symptoms above. There is no substitute for focus, and long term commitment. Don't relinquish control of your body for the sake of someone else's idea of what you should be. Get to know yourself, your likes & dislikes, any mental baggage that may be sabotaging you. Use MFP as your guide, there's lots of support, and experience in this community. There is no one size fits all solution, work on a routine that fits your temperament and lifestyle.

Bella_Figura

In 2012 my sister had a VSG - at the time her BMI was 44, mine was 41. Her surgery led me to re-evaluate my own health, and I started to eat more healthily and exercise more. My sister had access to her full bariatric team, which included her surgeon, a psychiatrist, a psychologist, a CBT therapist, a dietician, and a physical therapist. She was given (and still has) free gym membership. I was on my own. Within 18 months we had each reached a BMI of 25.

Floating on the laurels of my success as described above by @PAV8888 I failed to plan for how I would maintain my lower weight. I assumed the 18 months of successful weight loss had prepared me mentally, emotionally and physically for continued success as a maintainer. I was wrong. The weight crept back on, until I found myself in March 2021 back almost to my starting point (BMI 39.8).

My sister continued to have access to her full healthcare team once she reached maintenance. She was provided with amazing support. Despite this, she's had 9 years of health issues, mainly due to her inability to control her emotional eating. Her stomach is smaller than before her surgery, but she eats through her physical pain. She will be in agony, but still compelled to eat. She can (and does) still eat hundreds of excess calories from low-volume-calorie-dense foods such as gelato, chocolate, sweets and fried foods. In the meantime, the side-effects of her surgery (gallstones, acid reflux, nausea, poor nutrient absorption) make her feel drained and unable to exercise. Her BMI is now 47 (3 points higher than when she had the surgery).

The surgery wasn't a magic bullet. None of the issues that caused her emotional eating were resolved despite hours of counselling. She's obese, despite having to take dietary supplements because she's not getting enough nutrition. She is utterly miserable, feels hopeless about her prospects of losing weight, and is now almost housebound due to her poor health.

I accept that bariatric surgery is a life-saver for some super-morbidly obese people, but IMHO it should be an absolute last resort, once all other non-surgical avenues have been exhausted.

Since March, we've been supporting each other to live healthier lifestyles. My sister is trying her best but she's profoundly burdened by pain, emotional baggage and poor health. Her route to success is beset with obstacles. The challenges I face feel insignificant in comparison.

rheddmobile

I know several people who had it. Two of them had severe complications for almost a year and one nearly died. Severe complications are still common, look up the rates for your particular surgery. I would say about half of the people I know who had it gained the weight back in time through stretching their stomach. In addition, it creates a permanent need for supplements and a permanent inability to eat even small amounts of certain foods as a treat.

You are going to have to stop eating too much to lose weight permanently. This surgery is just a tool to force you to stop eating too much, and even that won’t work if you are determined. Personally I would go through a lot to avoid being cut open and then having a lifetime risk of projectile vomiting if I overeat at a holiday.

ExpressoLove11

I only know two people who have had it done. Because they didn't resolve their emotional issues they put everything straight back on and more. Now they are even more down on themselves than they were prior to surgery. My personal opinion is that it is an awful lot of trauma to go through and I would rather just use MFP and be patient.

Bella_Figura

ExpressoLove11 wrote: »

My personal opinion is that it is an awful lot of trauma to go through and I would rather just use MFP and be patient.

My sentiments exactly!

rhonda1960

I had GS 4 years ago and now back here logging food. The surgery worked as a tool for fast weight loss. I do have to admit that in years before surgery I had lost tge same amount with diet and exercise. It takes dedication and determination no matter which choice one makes.
However I didn't have any other side effects that I am aware of other than money spent.