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

smantha32 · August 2014

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.

There are many people who have weighed more than that and lost the weight without surgery. Yeah it's harder, but it can be done.

MonsonD60 · August 2014

I have had the surgery and believe me it’s not the magic pill ,you still fight with food choices everyday ,that why I am on MFP. My highest loss was 115 lbs, which was too low for me. I still have 75lbs off and would love to be down 20 lbs and fight with the same demons as those who have not had the surgery. I had very little compilations and had it done 12 years ago and am very glad I did. It gave me back the feeling of control and self-confidence that I had lost. But it is still a tool that so many fail to use correctly

TyphonRex · August 2014

I guess I don't understand that logic. I find MFP and exercise programs to be tools. I find surgery as a last ditch effort for someone who cannot get their mind and body in sync. I have nothing against it if its your choice, but for all the people that have busted their butts doing it the healthy lifestyle way I consider surgery an easy out. You thoughts?

Judge much?

Why don't we focus on our own lives and let people who's challenges we don't even understand make their own choices.

The weight loss surgery my friend had in no way affects my personal body composition or strength. It doesn't make what I did any more or less virtuous. It does, however, give me a running partner.

As a matter of fact, she's on here using MFP to track her calories. She does ALL the stuff I do, in addition to the surgery. So, tell me again how it was an easy way out?

I think people like to throw around "it's an easy way out," and that's not the case at all. It's a major friggin' surgery. That's never easy.

I think the better way to look at them is tragically unnecessary. They ultimately don't solve anything.

Just like this poster shares about her friend, you still have to put in the hard work day by day.

I can't help shake the feeling that a lot of people go into for these procedures thinking it will be some kind of magic bullet or miraculous head start on their weight loss journey.... and it isn't. And now you're stuck with a medical bill, surgery recovery, and a reduced stomach size.... and you still have to do everything else the rest of us have to do.

jigsawxyouth · August 2014

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.

probably the only logical thing you said

MissMissle · August 2014

Just saying, if I could afford anything and everything, I would 100% have some master surgeon suck the fat out of my hips and arms and shove it into my boobs.

Furthermore, when the hell is the "car port plug in" liposuction machine going to be invented? Because I would totally use that, too.

So to sum it up.... if some rich, lazy person can afford to cut his / her stomach off 8 times, yeah, I think it's the easy way out, although Im not sure what they are getting "out" of because most likely, it will continue to come back.

Electing to have gastric, or LBS, I imagine is a major, scary, painful surgery with a long heal time and miles of more pain ahead. I imagine it's less scary then the current state the elctor is in - which must be a pretty scary state - so elect to pay a huge sum of money to get cut open, possibly die, and maybe not even have it work... so I wouldn't say these people are taking the easy way out at all.

Guess it's situational, IMO.

k8blujay2 · August 2014

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.

LAT1963 · August 2014

Weight loss surgery is not a tool. It is a tactic of last resort.

If you read US medical guidelines for weight loss surgery (which usually comes under the categories either of plastic surgery or abdominal surgery), they *all* require the patient be not only obese, but have at least 2 life-threatening or severely limiting "co-morbidities" as a result of their weight. Meaning you can't just be fat, but must also have difficult-to-control diabetes, orthopedic problems resulting from your weight, astronomical cholesterol levels...things of that nature.

Boutique liposuction places of questionable medical ethics exist, but if you're talking gastric bands or stapling, your weight really has to be a pervasive threat to your function in life (or survival) before an ethical doctor will consider it. Medical licensing boards frown upon docs who take it more casually--if those docs get reported to the board.

Nobody should "look down" upon someone who has had gastric surgery for weight loss. You don't have the right to know all the issues the person was facing at the time, but for them to qualify for surgery they had to have health problems that were compelling to the medical establishment. "Too lazy to diet" is not a compelling medical reason and a person trying to get surgery with only that excuse would not be allowed to have the procedure (but would probably get a psych consult with expertise in eating disorders).

I have met many people for whom gastric surgery saved their lives, though they may later develop other annoying but less dangerous medical issues.

Maybe because the satisfied ones don't admit to having "had work done", or maybe because the personality attracted to liposuction is really nit-picky, but I've never met a person who had liposuction who was entirely happy with the result.

willrun4bagels · August 2014

My mom had WLS. Lost a lot of weight, had to have emergency surgery to have the procedure corrected after something slipped and she could have died, and now she's gained most/all of that weight back after stress and medication from having surgery for cancer, radiation and chemo afterwards, and all of the related drugs that go with that (the cancer had nothing to do with WLS surgery, to preface).

Based on her experiences/pain/struggle/hospital visits from it, I'd say the risk is not worth it. Though she does not regret having it done.

LiftAllThePizzas · August 2014

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

The same question applies to you.

Anyone I've ever known or seen have this type of surgery has been severely overweight to the point of it basically being a medical emergency

If it's such a hurry then why not liposuction?

TyphonRex · August 2014

...Its like a restart, a chance to start over...

No. No it's not.

And if you go into WLS with that mindset, you're already effed.

kagenoyuushi · August 2014

For someone who works out six days a week (HARD-- I do Turbo Fire), watches calories carefully, and STILL has not seen results, surgery may end up being the only way out for me.

TyphonRex · August 2014

For someone who works out six days a week (HARD-- I do Turbo Fire), watches calories carefully, and STILL has not seen results, surgery may end up being the only way out for me.

How so? How will WLS fix things?

yellowlemoned · August 2014

I use to consider it an easy out, until I met someone who had it done.

A big misconception is that anyone who wants the surgery can just go have it done. Almost always, the doctor will require you to lose "good faith" weight before they will do the surgery. For some people who are extremely morbidly obese they have to lose a certain about of weight before they are physically capable of having the surgery done. It's not like getting a nose job, you still have to put a lot of effort into losing weight before a doctor will give you weight loss surgery. Also, depending on the type of surgery, it can be very painful for a while.

Honestly, the only advantage to weight loss surgery is that it will not allow you to eat more than a certain amount of food without getting sick, and the maintenance afterwards is much more difficult than it is with diet and exercise alone. Also, because the weight loss typically happens much faster than it does with diet and exercise it is almost guaranteed that you will need surgery to remove excess skin, which poses hygienic health issues if not removed.

I have nothing against weight loss surgery. I think for some people it truly is a matter of life and death, and if they aren't able to lose the weight on their own, there is no shame in getting help from surgery.

365andstillalive · August 2014

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..........

Okay, you lied to qualify for the surgery... Do you not see a problem with that to begin with? And let me tell you, unless your profile weight is wrong, you barely qualified.
You clearly aren't an example of someone who needed that surgery, you're life wasn't at risk, you were just sick of dieting and not wanting to go through that surgery gave you the motivation.

You know 6 people who have had it and put the weight back on? Great. I'm sure just about everyone in this thread who hasn't had surgery has lost weight, put weight back on, lost weight, put weight back on... That's not something that's only indicative of WLS, it's indicative of all weight loss tools, including just eating healthy and exercising.

I think it's great you didn't have the surgery, you clearly didn't need it. But shaming the people who do is just cruel. You really can stop at the sentence "You know, it just wasn't for me." and get your opinion across.

loral15 · August 2014

I don't think there's anything easy about the surgery, the recovery, or the post-surgical lifestyle.

QFT

LAT1963 · August 2014

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..........

This is a situation in which understanding target heart rate could really have helped you progress with less pain. People at very high weights can get into their 'fat burning zone' just walking across a room, where someone in marathon condition might have to run a mile to get to the same heart rate.

If you are walking around carrying 300 extra pounds, that's like a thinner person carrying that weight on a barbell walking around. I suspect one reason exercise is so daunting to the super-obese is that they are exercising too hard for their body's situation. Dialing back the exercise to a sustainable level is probably more useful than pushing too hard--it's more important to establish a consistent habit of exercise than to excel on some particular day.

Wahoo makes heart rate monitors and so their website material is skewed toward selling you one. However if you can mentally de-spin the sales pitch, I recommend reading their explanation about target heart rate and how to use it. Then go on to read other sources on the topic around the web. (I learned of it decades ago reading The Runner's Bible, I think...)

Most of the people reading this deep into the thread are probably already using target heart rates anyway, but I hope you agree its important that we teach newbies about it right away so that they don't over-exert, conclude they hate exercise, and quit.

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

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