I have noticed some saying weight loss surgery is a tool.

JG762

Tell that to someone who is 350 pounds or more, that can barely get out of their chair let alone walk 15 minutes and there numbers are all way too high?

Eating right and exercising is a tool... Weight loss surgery is also a tool... WLS isn't going to keep the weight off, it only helps someone get to a point where they can do a better job of managing the weight. They will still have to use the other tools as well if they want to keep it off.

423 pounds here. Can get out of a chair easily enough, but I get winded from even fast walking for a mile. So I guess I count well enough for your example.

To me, WLS is not an option because it doesn't really solve anything. Okay, so my stomach is smaller, great. That doesn't prevent my cravings or psychological issues or bad eating habits. It doesn't help me get to the gym or develop a more active lifestyle in general. I just can't fit as much down my gullet any more.

I personally don't understand the appeal. It's not a magic bullet.

More power to those who choose to get it done, but I won't be. For me, the most effective tool will be the one that will get me long term results: lifestyle change, learning to eat healthily at an appropriate daily caloric level, and finding physical activities I will stick with.

Throwing a rubber band around my stomach isn't a long term fix.

But that's my perspective.

Dude gets it!

EXACTLY! A year and a half ago it HURT me to walk half a mile! Literally in tears, sore the next day! Stairs winded me, I avoided any physical activity wit friends because I COULD NOT keep up.

I would diet for a week or two get bored or emotional and dump the diet. I went to TWO WLS seminars at the hospital and I qualified, all I had to do was lie a little and tell them I "tried every diets" and "diet dont work for me."

Then they told me I had to lose 20 pounds before surgery and while I was doing that I researched and talked to people MORE about the surgery and ya know what? It scarred the ****tles out of me!

So I kept walking, from half a mile to one mile, to two miles. eventually seven miles was easy, to the gym to the treadmill, to the weights, yuoga, now there is NOTHING I cant do and wont try!

So dont think for a second us naysayers are "jealous"

I know 6 people who have had the surgery 5 are now fat again 6-10 years later, the 6th person is starting to put on weight again.... it is not a tool, it is what the medical people deem an easy way out and they sell it to you that way.

Selfish to cut yourself open and risk yourself over something you can do yourself..........

LoL Relax...
I agree with everything you just posted with the exception of the selfish part.
You and I are a lot a like concerning our weight loss, I could have easily cut and pasted your response and said this is me. But I find it odd that so many people who are vehemently against it only have 30-40lbs to lose, not that 40lbs is easy but in comparison to 100+, it's a completely different story.
So un-bunch your panties I wasn't calling you out!
Congratulations on your continued success!

LAT1963

I also think it is selfish.

There was a post yesterday about a mom wanting to wake her son up earlier in the morning so she could get him to daycare earlier so she could work out. A single mother who works out seven days a week. That's a lot of time away from her child. The subject of whether this was selfish or not came up. Someone posted a good quote from some fitness celebrity (I want to say Shaun T but I could be wrong). Anyhow, the gist of it was that working out is pretty much 100% selfish but that there's nothing wrong with that. Is having surgery less selfish than spending hours away from your family to lose a few vanity pounds? Or is this the typical fitness snobbery. I do X workouts so anyone who doesn't lose weight that way is a loser. #skwatz #beastmode

i missed that thread--not to drift this one, but taking care of herself first is necessary to care for her kid. It's like the safety thing in airplanes--if the oxygen masks drop, put yours on first, then your kid's. That way you stay conscious to put your kid's mask on. Even if the kid passes out for a few seconds that's not enough to do any damage. But if the parent passes out, then both the parent and kid are lost. Parents need to stay alive and well themselves or their kids don't have a chance. This isn't selfish, it's just common sense.

ink_b1tch

Ok I gotta put my two cents in here. First of some people are so bad they cannot move, their bodies are crushed down by the weight, they can be sick with heart issues, diabetes, mental issues, and a whole host of other problems. So yes Surgery is a last ditch effort. However, you all think it is easy, it’s not.

1. Easy way out! This is a crock of BS. I will use me as an example. There were many reasons I did my surgery, but the true reason deep down to my core.... My 3 girls needed their mom back. Obesity runs in my family, we are not little people. I had tried them all, but with my life the way it was, and not being able to change it, this had to be done. This was not a snap decision I considered it for 6 years.

2. Before I did the surgery I had appointments with doctors, nutrition, psychologist, and personal trainer. All before I could approval, I had to be a good candidate they would do what had to be done.
3. I was opened from breast bone to belly button, FULL OPEN. When I came out of surgery I was so miserable for at least 6 weeks.
4. Jell-O, soup, Jell-O, soup, Jell-O, pudding. Yogurt this is what I ate for 4 weeks. I could not go to the bathroom by myself, sit up, stand up, shower, or scratch my rear without help.
5. Week four infection sets in, so doctor opens my incision and says it has to heal from the inside out. This is the most disgusting thing I had ever seen, felt, smelled, and touched. A nurse had to come to my home every other day till this Accountant learned how to pack a wound.
6 Now that I am slowly moving. The walking begins. Your weak from lack of nutrients cuz you can’t get enough down, and you stomach is still so tender on the inside pain meds are liquid.
7. As I am healing, I am applying everything I was taught about HOW to eat, what to eat, and to recognize and analysis of food groups, sizes, portions, weight etc.
8. After the first 50 lbs. came off; I was up and moving the best I could. I exercised every day; I ate and still eat as instructed. If I do not follow…my body will tell me STOP. Or be sick
9. No buffets, no Xmas dinner, and no thanksgiving dinner. I cannot even put down something the size of happy meal.
10. Cut out restaurant food. First it’s expensive, second they usually have a crappy kids menu and to order anything else is a waste of money.
11. Socially I am impacted; everyone wanted to be friends with the skinny girl but not the fat girl. Also when you eat meals with friends and family, you are done way before them feeling awkward cuz you are full and you plate is still 2/3 full.
These are some of the major things.
I am a text book case of the way surgery should go. I had all my weight off within first 6 months. I move every day, I take the stairs, I park far away.…I eat the way they taught me; if I don’t the weight starts going up
I had to do a complete lifestyle change for the entire family; they eat what I eat….bonus my oldest daughter has dropped 48 lbs. and my middle daughter is down 20lbs.
Surgery was not easy; it was very painful, it was a long recovery, major lifestyle changes, physiological changes and impacts both positive and negative. It is not the easy way out, because if I eat all junk food, and don’t watch my diet or exercise the weight goes back on. This pas winter I put on 22 lbs that I should not of. As soon as the weather broke I got to moving. I will never wear a bikini, I will never eat a xmas dinner or thanksgiving dinner as a person should.
In the end, surgery is not easy choice, you can die on the table. It is a restraint that is imposed on how much you can eat, not nesassarly what you eat. Its not a tool either, you can not change this tool out for something else. So let us just say what it really is. It is a self inflicted wound to the body that changes both the physical make up and the mental make up of the recipient. Take it for what is worth, but as a person who struggle with weight 15 years and was not winning the battle, and was losing my kids, this is what I had to do to get my life back, 143lb gone!

kgeyser

Why do you care? Not even trying to be rude, legitimately curious.

I don't know about the OP, but for me, I care because there are a few people in my family who decide to mooch off the government, sit on their butts and don't work, and eat all day. Maybe I sound bitter, but one of my family members who is really overweight decided to have weight loss surgery. Her doctor wrote it off as a medical need, so her medical card is paying for it. Which means all of us working folks get to pay for her "easy way out" of losing weight.

If you pay for it yourself, it's really none of my business what you do. But when society is paying for an unnecessary procedure, it angers me. It just angers me that instead of eating at a deficit and working out, people choose to just have surgery. I understand horribly obese people need surgery before they can diet and exercise for medical safety purposes, but for someone who is just overweight, I find it an excessive move.

Didn't you just post about wanting to take diet pills so you could lose a few pounds of vanity weight more quickly?

lloydrt

1 in 200 surgeries result in DEATH..........do you really think they are taking the easy way out

I lost it, I WAS TO DAM SCARED to go under the Knife, and Im terrified of hospitals

Ive got about 30 more to go, but again, you do what you have to do to save your life

I dont think people who are having the surgery are taking the EASY way out.....

michikade

First off, let me start by saying it is none of my business whether someone has the lap band, sleeve or bypass. It's also none of my business if someone wants to get lipo. That's their choice.

However, there are two different sets of people many people are arguing about here. There is a big difference between those people who qualify by fibbing a little bit about whether diets worked for them, and the other subset of people who literally will die before they are able to naturally lose the weight. Just saying.

snowflake930

1 in 200 surgeries result in DEATH..........do you really think they are taking the easy way out

I lost it, I WAS TO DAM SCARED to go under the Knife, and Im terrified of hospitals

Ive got about 30 more to go, but again, you do what you have to do to save your life

I dont think people who are having the surgery are taking the EASY way out.....

^^exactly so! Very well put!

readysetgo69

kmbrooks15

WLS is a tool, but it's not an easy one. Post-surgery, patients must still maintain a very careful diet and exercise program. Depending on the type of surgery, eating too much can be very dangerous for them. It's also a very invasive and risky surgery. It can have health consequences down the line. Reputable doctors who do the surgery require extensive counseling and consults with dietitians before they will do the surgery (there are some who just do it without fully vetting the patient first to make sure they'll follow the proper protocol--not good). I think WLS should only be used as a last resort for someone who has tried the old-fashioned way with no success (and I mean, REALLY tried, not just half an effort). To each his own, I guess, but I'm not willing to put my health at risk like that.

readysetgo69

Easy enough I care because I know state insurances that are funded by tax payers that pay for theses surgeries. I have seen 3 people in my area have them and fail at keeping the weight off. How much did that cost us?

food stamps, welfare, WIC, medicare, medicaid, all state funded, where do you stop?

k8blujay2

I started at about 500 pounds, and am still going. I didn't exercise at all until I'd dropped about 75 pounds. I just stopped putting so much food in my piehole.

Good for you and good for everyone else that can... I'm not saying it isn't possible... but sometimes the weight causes a mental block for some (not all. not most. just some) people to get into the mindset to do what they need to do to be healthier. It certianly is not an easy way out though. No matter how much people want to judge it as such.

If its a mindblock fix your mind not staple your stomach

Yeah, because it's all that easy... and you got your Psychology degree from where?

Derpes

I also consider it the easy way out. The lazy way to lose weight.

I would not want surgery. There is nothing easy or simple about that process, and if someone is at that point, they obviously have a reason for it.

csuhar

I think it is *a* tool that has its time and place. Some people may derive a genuine benefit from surgery, but that's for a doctor and patient to decide.

Still, it's not a tool everyone needs to use. Many people will be able to accomplish their objectives without such a dramatic measure.

I mean,,, you *can* hang a picture using a sledgehammer, but that's not the recommended tool for the job.

STLBADGIRL

I get what you are saying. I sometimes think it is the easy way out also. Yes, they have to be brave in a different type of way - getting cut, and the recovery of it all...but I sometimes think people think it will get them immediate results. I've thought about surgery, a few times actually, and "my" reason alone was two things...In my head, it is going to take a lonnnnnnnng time and a lot of work to get the body that I want, and sometimes I doubt that I can get the body that I want on my own power. Sometimes I don't trust myself to follow through with it and losing weight. But that is the part of me that is scared. When I control what I eat, work out, and make healthy decisions about my lifestyle. I am in control and taking stock of my life! I think people need to know that there is hope at the end of the tunnel and that there is help out there...and that they can get themselves educated, and train their mind and body to work in sync and get themselves out of this situation and live better, longer, healthier lives without surgery...

mamaoftwins9197

Easy enough I care because I know state insurances that are funded by tax payers that pay for theses surgeries. I have seen 3 people in my area have them and fail at keeping the weight off. How much did that cost us?

food stamps, welfare, WIC, medicare, medicaid, all state funded, where do you stop?

I think people that make these judgments have no idea how the "welfare" system works. 99% of people that receive any kind of aid HAVE TO WORK. Everything must be reported to social services...pay stubs, bank statements, proof child support received, proof of money paid for daycare, etc. Their tax dollars, which are already deemed low enough to be able to receive aid also go back into these programs. There are people that abuse the system, but the number is so low and there's not a whole lot, outside of what is already being done, to change that.

csuhar

1 in 200 surgeries result in DEATH..........do you really think they are taking the easy way out

I lost it, I WAS TO DAM SCARED to go under the Knife, and Im terrified of hospitals

Ive got about 30 more to go, but again, you do what you have to do to save your life

I dont think people who are having the surgery are taking the EASY way out.....

^^exactly so! Very well put!

I can appreciate the sentiment. Having gone under the knife, myself, I'm still leery of it.

But bear this in mind: most surgeries occur because there is something seriously wrong with the patient's health, to begin with. It can be hard to separate where the surgery, itself, is what did someone in, versus where it may have not helped the original problem or where it may have exacerbated one.