Why do people consider weight loss surgery cheating?

Its the cowards way out
when we are out here working our *kitten* off cuz we gotta lose weight- the real way

this ^^

No, not this.

How dare ANYONE on this website judge another person based on something that they know nothing about?

Weight loss surgery is a personal choice. Would it be the best option for me? No. I have no odd conditions that mess with hormones. My mother has hypo-thyroidism, making it difficult for her to lose weight, and has considered the surgery. I judged her like hell for it and wish now that I never, ever gave her a second glance about it.

It is a PERSONAL CHOICE. It is not for others to judge you on. You need to do what is right for you. What many, many people don't understand is that you have to be healthy when you've had the surgery. You HAVE to eat right. You HAVE to exercise to see the results.

My coworker just got the surgery done. She walks around the building on her lunch with her protein shake. She works out EVERy SINGLE MORNING before she comes to work - she does Turbo Fire and loves it. She got me into Turbo Jam. She is a fitness enthusiast but could never succeed in losing weight - she ALWAYS had the healthiest lunches in the office, never went into the breakroom for goodies.

Don't judge others. Focus on yourselves and do what's right for you. I give that advice to you, OP, and to the idiots that posted this nonsense above me. Speak not of what you don't know.

Again, I will say that it's the nutritional equivalent of taking prescription drugs for off label weight loss and/or trying a way to lose weight that removes choice from the equation.

If you saw someone who was anorexic or bullemic, you'd say something to them, most people on this site won't tolerate ED talk.. and the original question was WHY some of us bemoan WLS... We are answering.

Removing part of the stomach or installing a lab band to force you to make good choices IS a cheaters way out, unless you have a medical reason for having it done...

Go to a therapist and learn how to control your impulses and regain control over your life. Taking a knife to the fat is NOT a solution.

Educate yourself - it is not a fix for cheating, it is not magic and it certainly doesn't have anything to do with losing control/having no impulse control. It is a tool. WLS doesn't make a person thin/healthy or make a person eat less or make better choices - you still choose what you put in your mouth. It's not easy, either. I would have rather continued my diet & exercise plan and not gone under the knife twice, but I'd probably still be 300+lbs.

You lose weight pre-surgery because you drink 4 shakes/day which isn't exactly conducive or healthy for a permanent diet. It's 2-4 weeks and is designed to shrink your stomach, not provide nutrients to sustain life indefinitely.

So you starve yourself pre-surgery so you can starve after surgery...? How is this at all good for your body to help correct anything? It sounds like you are slowly emaciating yourself. O_O

Yes, it is a drastic cut in calories which is the whole point, especially pre-surgery.

Where did the "starve after surgery" come from? Does it make more sense for someone to be on a clean/healthy/filling 1200 cal/day diet post-surgery and active or to be 200lbs overweight?

You can be on a clean/healthy/filling 1200 cal a day diet and be active without cutting your body open. Save the hospital stay, the anesthesia problem, the recovery from surgery. BOOM! You yourself said you had gained all of your weight back anyway the first go-round. I'm sure you could have lost it without the 2 surgeries. It's just my opinion. It doens't change the fact that you are having success after the 2nd surgery and are continuing a healthy lifestyle.

Ok... so I was overweight since age 4 and was always active and was morbidly obese for 20+ years of my life. I'm SURE you're right that I could have lost weight without surgery. Definitely makes sense!

Ok... so I was overweight since age 4 and was always active and was morbidly obese for 20+ years of my life. I'm SURE you're right that I could have lost weight without surgery. Definitely makes sense!

wow relax. This wasn't your thread to begin with. OP asked people for their opinions. For someone to be getting all bent out of shape over it is silly. :drinker:

Edited to add...please refer to the bolded section of my last reply btw:

You can be on a clean/healthy/filling 1200 cal a day diet and be active without cutting your body open. Save the hospital stay, the anesthesia problem, the recovery from surgery. BOOM! You yourself said you had gained all of your weight back anyway the first go-round. I'm sure you could have lost it without the 2 surgeries. It's just my opinion. It doens't change the fact that you are having success after the 2nd surgery and are continuing a healthy lifestyle.

I acknowledged the fact you were successful and you still get all bent over my reply. This is why people have attitude on these forums...I can see why many people just ignore the mess in here. smh

I worked for a Bariatric Surgeon. There were alot of patients that had the surgery and regained all of it plus back. You have to psychologically change the way you think about food, and having a healthy lifestyle including exercising. If their are health problems which need immediate weigh loss, that is a different story. Otherwise, do it the right way, healthy food choices, exercise, exercise and more exercise.....That is just my opinion....

Actually the two week pre op diet is to shrink the liver down so they can move around easier for the WLS. Some programs require it others don't.
I must say there is alot of lack of education about WLS.
I worked my *kitten* off too and I had WLS sleeve surgery June 11, 2012! I worked my *kitten* off to loose 47 pounds pre op from Feb to June 2012. I worked my *kitten* off to get team approved by my WLS program so I could get a surgery date. I worked my *kitten* off exercising pre op and now post op! I work my *kitten* off daily at home exercising every day and go to the gym 3-4 times a week for up to 2 hours working my *kitten* off! Yes, I am taking the easy way out aren't I???
I was born fat, I weighed over 11 pounds at birth. I have been fat all my life. I was a member of Weight Watchers before the age of 10. I have been more diets than I can remember. Yes I would loose weight but it would come back on and I would never get to my goal. At age 48 I decided enough was enough and looked into WLS. It was the best decision I have ever made and done for myself. I have had to change my eating habits. No caffine, no carbonation, no drinking or smoking (didn't do those before so not a big deal). I have bad knees due to be fat all my life. Since loosing 140 pounds my knees don't hurt. I can walk over 4.3 MPH on the treadmill with an incline due to loosing this weight. My health is so much better. Yes I did loose 47 pounds pre op from 2/1/12 to 6/11/12 with the help of MFP and yes I did think "well, I am doing so good maybe I don't need the WLS" but I quickly remembered all those other times I lost weight and then would stall out and then start to gain it back. So I did end up having the sleeve WLS. It isn't a magic wand but a tool in my tool box. Just like exercising, logging food and other things. If you have head hunger issues it doesn't cure that and you need to work on that before surgery. Yes, you can gain it back too. You have to log your food daily and exercise and make healthy food choices. Some people do and some don't after WLS or after their goal. It is up to the individual who had the WLS it is their choice if they are going to continue eating bad or good.
It is a personal decision. Do what you want to do. Just make sure you pick a good WLS program that has a team of professionals to help you with psych issues, nutritional edcuation, bariatric phyiscal therapy and other team members. My program had just this and they are very strict who they approve for WLS it can take 6 months to 2 years to get a surgery date with them. You go to different classes on nutrition for pre op and post op. You will have to take special vitamins all your life.
I haven't had any complications and all my lab work has come out great at the different times they have tested.
I have gone from a size 24W pants to size 4 and size 3XL top to size small.
Yes I did take the easy way out didn't I and frankly I could care less what others think. I am the most healthist I have ever been in my life. I am at my personal goal weight of 130 and working on maintaing. I have 24% body fat per the DXA scan I had three weeks ago and now working on lowering body fat with strength training at the gym and home.

You lose weight pre-surgery because you drink 4 shakes/day which isn't exactly conducive or healthy for a permanent diet. It's 2-4 weeks and is designed to shrink your stomach, not provide nutrients to sustain life indefinitely.

So you starve yourself pre-surgery so you can starve after surgery...? How is this at all good for your body to help correct anything? It sounds like you are slowly emaciating yourself. O_O

No matter what the health situation, I personally am 100% against it. I had classmate from high school, who at 28, decided to have the procedure done. She had been thin in high school and had slowly gained weight since. She had only been heavy enough for WLS for a year or so. She died on the operating table at a extremely well-reputed and highly ranked hospital. Other than her weight, she had no medical conditions. NEVER worth losing your life.

Educate yourself - it is not a fix for cheating, it is not magic and it certainly doesn't have anything to do with losing control/having no impulse control. It is a tool. WLS doesn't make a person thin/healthy or make a person eat less or make better choices - you still choose what you put in your mouth. It's not easy, either. I would have rather continued my diet & exercise plan and not gone under the knife twice, but I'd probably still be 300+lbs.

I am educated. The "tool" is that you have modified your body so that you cannot ingest more than a fistful of food at any given time. You haven't learned why you became overweight, why you overate, and why you couldn't lose weight through eating properly and exercising more.

WLS *DOES* in fact MAKE a person thin and it DOES in fact make them eat less, that's the very definition of weight loss surgery. To regain the weight you have to overeat by eating more often... which a lot of them do. I'll agree that it's not easy, but neither is diet or exercise.

I'm going to say something that will make you go BONKERS nuts now...

"Yes, in fact you COULD have lost the weigh by eating right and controlling your diet and lifestyle."

Its the cowards way out
when we are out here working our *kitten* off cuz we gotta lose weight- the real way

Two of my most inspiring MFP friends had weight loss surgery. I did not. They have both lost about the same amount of weight as I have.

The ONLY difference between us is that they had the surgery and I didn't. All three of us log food religiously. All three of us workout all the time. All three of us have made lifelong changes in our approach to food and fitness. All three of us have to approach every challenge with willpower and hard work. All three of us are at risk of regaining weight if we fail to retain our new habits - in fact, studies show that of the three of us, I am the most likely to fail.

We all lost weight "the real way." We all worked our *kitten* off.

You are exactly correct. Surgery is a tool but only a tool. I have known 2 people who had the surgery. I decided that it is not right for me. But believe me... It does not make weight loss "easier"...

because the failure rate is over 50%. 5 years after Weight Loss Surgery, more than 50% have gained a significant portion of the weight back.

WLS forces people to eat less after the procedure, without fixing the underlying cause of the obesity - which could range from having emotional issues or an inability to deal with life stresses, to simply being ignorant of the nutritional and caloric content of a western diet.

Only in America are the Obese starving...

ETA: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18392907

First off look into the science of WLS it restricts ghrelin, the hormone that produces hunger. Those who have WLS produce less of it. its have been PROVEN that larger stomachs produce MORE ghrelin and therefore it takes MORE food to fill a larger stomach, making "putting the fork down and walking away" harder for the obese.

Second a 50% long-term success rate is still better the LESS THAN 20% chance for maintenance otherwise that the obese.
have --> http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/82/1/222S.full.

Third, all WLS help in rather then having to on your own cut you caloric intake, as you do with traditional weight loss (something that is very hard especially when your obese and eat about 3,000 calories a day) its done for you - abet forced. After the first few months/ year when the stomach/ body has adjusted to the "new" method WLS patients can eat like anyone else and if they dont watch their calorie intake and exercise they will for sure regain.

Fourth, it is a TOOL and nothing more. Many doctors willingly perform the surgery for people without first requiring them to even try to lose weight on their own, they just put them on liquid diets for two weeks PRIOR to their surgery - yah I would also lose 10 pounds if I just drank protein drinks for two weeks and ate nothing. Then the patient is on liquids for another two weeks AFTER surgery. So these patients dont learn the proper ways to eat or exercise. The doctors only give them a booklet with "proper nutrition and exercise tips" and send them home thats bull. Those people are the ones that either rarely lose or if they do they regain and the problem is, is that there are MANY of them.

In the end its a personal choice. Like any elective surgery. You should do it for yourself and for the right reasons.

I have known people who have had WLS some were where successful and some were not. I have also known many who have not had WLS and lost weight and some have regained and some have not.

In the end its all about the long-term choices you make and forcing yourself to be accountable to yourself.

As someone who suffers from PCOS . . . . your PCOS is not making it "IMPOSSIBLE" for you to lose weight- it is making it harder and a longer process, but not impossible

For the sake of the conversation I am curious how you manage your PCOS and weight loss. My initial thought is through hormone therapy. Is that correct?

Actually no. The best way to manage PCOS is to lose weight and manage the blood sugar naturally. But most doctors, including endocrinologists who are supposed to know this stuff don't always tell you that. For me, they put me on birth control and metformin to help. But all the BC did was make me have periods without actually ovulating (so not a legitimate period) and throw my hormones more out of wack. I am currently (through my own research) trying to get off of BC and managing my PCOS naturally using diet and exercise.

I also wanted to point out that every woman with PCOS is completely different. While some symptoms are pretty much universal, each woman's body chemistry and diet requirements are different. Just because one woman lost 100 lbs by restricting carbs and exercising 7 days a week doesn't mean that another woman will. PCOS is the perfect example of how every person in the world is different. The OP seems to have done everything the doctors recommended for her for a year with no progress. If this is the option they are now suggesting then this is the one she should do if she wants. Every person's path is different. Judging another person for a choice is not going to help you or them. So just offer advice without malice. When you have walked perfectly in her shoes and lived her life from beginning to end then you have the right to judge. Until then, opinions only.

You asked a loaded question, and some of the 'holier than thou' crowd decreed from their high throne the fallacy of your choices.

1: Do not worry about the opinions and judgements of others. They damn sure dont care about yours. There is only one real opinion that matters and thats the bella in the mirror. You do whats right for you.

2: Its better to have WLS surgery and gain your health back than to continue to remain unhealthy with a foot in the grave. Its not about which tool you use to get healthy, its about getting healthy. If you need to use this tool, then by god use it.

To the anoited posters out there, go have a smoothie and shut the *&^% up.

Ciao, Madcow

Love this guy!

Personally, I sometimes see that those who get it dont see that the hard work is still going to be involved as it's not a band-aid and cant fix a poor relationship with food or your body. If one not has worked on his/her food addiction and demons then weight gain can happen. The usual prescription after WLS is caloric reduction with exercise. Why not just do that without altering your whole GI tract and possibly suffering from a number of risks from the surgery both short and long term. You can't fix obesity without diet and exercise.

For me, WLS is not an option because it doesn't fix the root cause of my obesity. It's a tool that is to radical for me.

first off, I have not read any of the previous comments, so sorry if im repeating what was already said. If thats you in the profile pic, it doesnt look like you are big enough for your weight to be a life or death situation. I have read that there is a 1 in 250 chance of dying from complications of this surgery. The only way I would ever have this surgery is if I was 100 % going to die with out it. Your weight loss can be acheived with out it, it will be a slower but in MY opinion more healthy way to go. In the end it is your body and your decision, I just hope you have considered all the risks involved in this surgery. best of luck :flowerforyou:

I have also had weight loss surgery. It is definitely NOT cheating or taking the easy way out. It is a difficult process, before and after. if you have tried everything else and it didn't work, then do what it takes to make you healthy. Like you said, it is a tool to help out. After 2 yrs, I make sure to eat right to not gain it back.