Anyone?

gonoles9987

Is there anyone who's considering having Gastric Bypass Surgery or The Sleeve? Or anyone that has had Gastric Bypass Surgery or The Sleeve. If you've had it please tell me what your experience with it is like. I'm going to go to a Weight Loss Seminar on August 15th. I have so much to lose that I am planning to have bariatric surgery. I can't have my knee replacement surgery until I lose a lot of weight because of the risk of infection.

PeachHibiscus

My husband had the sleeve five years ago and I have several friends who have had a sleeve or bypass.

The sleeve was successful for my husband. As part of the bariatric program, he had to start exercising and change his eating habits prior to the surgery. Part of this was to lose weight and shrink the liver to reduce the risk of complications during surgery and part was to get used to your lifestyle after surgery. For the most part, he's kept up this lifestyle. He's not perfect with his eating but it's night and day to what it was. He exercises every day and takes the vitamins recommended for the sleeve. The vitamins are even more essential for gastric bypass.

With my friends - The ones who stuck with some or all of the lifestyle changes from their bariatric programs have had success. The ones who went back to their old eating habits and started "cheating" the surgery initially lost weight but eventually gained it all back. It was explained during my husband's program that the surgery is like a tool. It will provide help but you still have to put in the work. And if there are outstanding issues for which food was used for comfort, it's not going to automatically solve those.

gonoles9987

PeachHibiscus wrote: »

My husband had the sleeve five years ago and I have several friends who have had a sleeve or bypass.

The sleeve was successful for my husband. As part of the bariatric program, he had to start exercising and change his eating habits prior to the surgery. Part of this was to lose weight and shrink the liver to reduce the risk of complications during surgery and part was to get used to your lifestyle after surgery. For the most part, he's kept up this lifestyle. He's not perfect with his eating but it's night and day to what it was. He exercises every day and takes the vitamins recommended for the sleeve. The vitamins are even more essential for gastric bypass.

With my friends - The ones who stuck with some or all of the lifestyle changes from their bariatric programs have had success. The ones who went back to their old eating habits and started "cheating" the surgery initially lost weight but eventually gained it all back. It was explained during my husband's program that the surgery is like a tool. It will provide help but you still have to put in the work. And if there are outstanding issues for which food was used for comfort, it's not going to automatically solve those.

Thank you. I've already begun my weight loss journey. I've lost 28 pounds since May 12th. I'm not a comfort eater so I believe I'll do just fine with it.

PeachHibiscus

I wish you the best! I think the surgery really was life-changing for him, due to the amount of weight he had to lose. At the time I was terrified of complications but I think if he hadn't had it done, it would have only been a matter of time until his health really went downhill.

gonoles9987

PeachHibiscus wrote: »

I wish you the best! I think the surgery really was life-changing for him, due to the amount of weight he had to lose. At the time I was terrified of complications but I think if he hadn't had it done, it would have only been a matter of time until his health really went downhill.

Thanks. I have over 200 pounds to lose. So that is why I'm choosing to have bariatric surgery.

csplatt

I have never been in a place to need to make that call. The people I have known who got a sleeve lost weight rapidly then put it all back on because they never learned to track their eating and have daily discipline / habits. It sounds like you are already working on that part though.

gonoles9987

csplatt wrote: »

I have never been in a place to need to make that call. The people I have known who got a sleeve lost weight rapidly then put it all back on because they never learned to track their eating and have daily discipline / habits. It sounds like you are already working on that part though.

Yes I'm already working on it. I'm not an emotional eater, never have been. My problem was I ate all the wrong things. Fast food every time I turned around. I don't do that anymore and prefer to eat at home, my own food so i can control my portions. I love fruits and veggies and I'd rather eat them.

brucestjohn

It's not one of the options that you've asked about but I had a lap band installed back in 2016. It works really well and definitely helped. I lost 70 pounds over the course of 6-8 months.

Now, regardless of the option you choose, you need to remember that none of the surgeries are end-all, cure-all options. You will always need to control your diet/eating, if not, the weight comes right back. Don't count on one of the surgeries to cure your weight issues for you, they are simply tools to help.

Over the last year and a half, I gained back about 40 pounds from not watching my diet, now I'm really struggling to get it back off.

PAV8888

Lots of procedures and drugs have side effects and so does doing nothing. Surgeons I knew initially seemed to have trouble believing that I had not had surgery when they saw me a year into weight loss. And that I had not regained subsequently.

In the end some change to your relationship between total calories in and out, including good days, bad days and off days, some change will have to be made to move from a maintenance of currently probably in the 3,000s to where you'll be regularly consuming in the 2000s or whatever the corresponding numbers are for you between where you are today and where you would be when in the normal weight range.

My own take is that I discovered a lot of things and became better at managing (truth be told not overcoming but better at managing) many things in my life and this is what has allowed me some fairly good degree of success these past nine years.

Most bariatric programs require you to lose some weight before you can have surgery. Once you're in the groove is there any reason why you can't tweak that process into something that you can continue to do sustainably without the surgery, or other drugs (aka ongoing lifestyle modification)? Is bariatric surgery the only option you currently have available if the answer is no? Have you fully evaluated what is known today (and potentially unknown) about side effects and dangers having to do with the surgery you're contemplating vs the current crop of semi-glutite drugs?

The one common thing I've seen in these forums is that there is no long-term solution that does not involve some amount of continuing involvement / effort on our part. And some amount of change in our life.

We can either embrace this, or fight it, or ignore it. And we can also choose whether we will temper it and manage it because in the end long-term commitments seldom can be 100% all out gung ho all the time. Flexibility and change have to be ongoing.

ninerbuff

Also just realize that this is a permanent surgery to your stomach. Many can't eat certain foods anymore due to how sick they will feel. And it's NOT a guarantee that you'll keep if off if you don't control how much you eat.
I try to dissuade people from doing unless as a very last resort. But by last resort, I mean that they actually put in 100% of effort to attempt to do it by calorie deficit and exercise they could handle and not get results.


A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

AnnPT77

gonoles9987 wrote: »

csplatt wrote: »

I have never been in a place to need to make that call. The people I have known who got a sleeve lost weight rapidly then put it all back on because they never learned to track their eating and have daily discipline / habits. It sounds like you are already working on that part though.

Yes I'm already working on it. I'm not an emotional eater, never have been. My problem was I ate all the wrong things. Fast food every time I turned around. I don't do that anymore and prefer to eat at home, my own food so i can control my portions. I love fruits and veggies and I'd rather eat them.

I'd suggest that you ask about and consider the food volume reductions that may be necessary post-surgery. I love fruits and veggies, too, but they're high volume. Will you be able to rely on them post-surgery, or will that be more volume than your reduced-sized digestive area can handle?

I'm not saying don't do it. I'm just tossing this out as a consideration.

I get that 200 pounds is a lot to lose without the surgery, but it's a lot to lose regardless. We have had folks here who lost that much weight with lifestyle changes but no surgery. It takes longer without surgery, and may be subjectively more difficult in some ways, but there are tradeoffs.

PAV8888

When considering whether to post, I found the following of interest:

gonoles9987 wrote: »

I'm not an emotional eater, never have been. My problem was I ate all the wrong things. Fast food every time I turned around. I don't do that anymore and prefer to eat at home, my own food so i can control my portions. I love fruits and veggies and I'd rather eat them.

Where in the above statement is there evidence that surgery is the best and almost only way that they op will be able to control their weight? Where is the obvious benefit that will flow from the surgery that will restrict their fruit and veg consumption?

Btw, when I was first starting out I was honestly convinced that there was zero emotional component to my eating.

Long term logging, generally getting to the point of eating more normal portions and being more conscious of what I was eating led to the (in retrospect unsurprising) discovery that when annoyed, pissed off, or generally perturbed I tend to mechanically overeat unless I go into a considerable amount of effort to avoid doing so. I also do the same when tired, cold, or disappointed.🤷‍♂️

I absolutely benefited by embracing the process as a science fair type experiment and spending some quality time observing my tendencies and actions.

PeachHibiscus

Unfortunately no one who has actually had the sleeve or bypass has responded so you could hear first-hand experience. Maybe someone still will. A former patient may speak during your seminar but it's likely it's going to skew heavily on the positives. They should still talk about complications and other considerations at the seminar, though.

I know the two big hospitals in my area both have support groups for those interested in or who are in various stages of their bariatric programs. If your hospital has that, it might be a good source of information as you can hear the experiences from people who are at all stages pre- and post- surgery. In our area, these are online and you don't have to have had surgery, or be in the program, at either of those hospitals to attend so it's possible your hospital also has this same option.

Opalescent_Topaz

My uncle had a lap band. I know that's different, but it broke and he gained the weight back very quickly. He died of heart failure soon after.

My cousin got gastric bypass. She lost a lot of hair at first and weight. She had a lot of issues with vomiting at first, but that's leveled out. She's gained some weight back, but not all.

A good friend of mine got gastric bypass as well and is now larger than when he started.

I don't know of any cases in my personal life where it worked out well, but that doesn't mean it won't for you.

StevefromMichigan

My mother had the surgery and initially lost weight but she didn't eat healthy or exercise and she gained it all back.

MovinNow

My niece had the gastric sleeve, lost 90 lbs and gained most of it back in 3 years

Seffell

If you love fruit and veg and you're not an emotional eater you will lose it anyway now that you know how (you've made quite the progress since May!).

The surgery is for life. And you might not be able to eat the stiff you like after that.
I have no experience nor knowledge. Just your comments made me think you can do it without it.

It's a tough decision. Take your time with it and try to avoid confirmation bias.

kshama2001

gonoles9987 wrote: »

PeachHibiscus wrote: »

My husband had the sleeve five years ago and I have several friends who have had a sleeve or bypass.

The sleeve was successful for my husband. As part of the bariatric program, he had to start exercising and change his eating habits prior to the surgery. Part of this was to lose weight and shrink the liver to reduce the risk of complications during surgery and part was to get used to your lifestyle after surgery. For the most part, he's kept up this lifestyle. He's not perfect with his eating but it's night and day to what it was. He exercises every day and takes the vitamins recommended for the sleeve. The vitamins are even more essential for gastric bypass.

With my friends - The ones who stuck with some or all of the lifestyle changes from their bariatric programs have had success. The ones who went back to their old eating habits and started "cheating" the surgery initially lost weight but eventually gained it all back. It was explained during my husband's program that the surgery is like a tool. It will provide help but you still have to put in the work. And if there are outstanding issues for which food was used for comfort, it's not going to automatically solve those.

Thank you. I've already begun my weight loss journey. I've lost 28 pounds since May 12th. I'm not a comfort eater so I believe I'll do just fine with it.

gonoles9987 wrote: »

csplatt wrote: »

I have never been in a place to need to make that call. The people I have known who got a sleeve lost weight rapidly then put it all back on because they never learned to track their eating and have daily discipline / habits. It sounds like you are already working on that part though.

Yes I'm already working on it. I'm not an emotional eater, never have been. My problem was I ate all the wrong things. Fast food every time I turned around. I don't do that anymore and prefer to eat at home, my own food so i can control my portions. I love fruits and veggies and I'd rather eat them.

Why not continue what you are doing and reevaluate this time next year? If you can lose the weight without the surgery, that is the safest option.

hutchika63

I had gastric bypass in 2020. Im 3 years out and below the goal weight set by my surgeon. Its certainly not easy but I have lost 60 pounds three different times and could not keep the weight off. I had surgery at age 56 after a lifetime of being overweight. While this is not for everyone it was a life saver for me. Best of luck to you in whatever you decide to do. I wish I did it much sooner.

rileysmommy83

I had a bypass 11 years ago, it was genuinely the best thing I ever did. You have to change your whole mindset with food and remember that it's only a tool, essentially you still have to put effort in. I still can not eat a full plate of food but you'll learn what your body will and will not accept and it is painful when your body rejects it. There is no "just one more bite" when your stomach is done, its done.
Also, I'd advise anyone that has the surgery to address the mental health that comes with it. It takes so long for your brain to accept that you're not the same "larger person" that you once were. You gain so much in confidence but then you get a new set of insecurities. It's not just about the weight loss, you have to address your whole life and mindset and if you're not prepared for that, it's a bigger shock to the system. I know this seems like a bit of a negative post but it absolutely changed my life and I'm still (years later) learning to embrace the "new me" but I would genuinely do it over again.
Good luck in whatever you decide to do.

elisa123gal

I read a post on here yesterday of this woman who got one .. gained all her weight back.and is now unhappy about how she has to eat now.. all protien and no carbs..

I found it mystifying how someone could be given such a surgery and regain all the weight and behave as if they didn't realize the permanence of their decision.