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

surgery is not a tool. You learn nothing and I know several folks that have simply gained the weight back as the skin just stretched right back out. Learn to eat healthy and exercise first.

Perhaps the several folks you know learned nothing, but I for one learned a LOT. I prepared for a long time for my surgery as I saved to pay for it out of pocket. I struggled for 40 years with my weight and learned a great deal about how to manage my weight through diet and exercise but in the end was always plagued by intense hunger and the relentless drive to eat. Now that I have a smaller stomach and my hunger hormone is not in overdrive, the noise in my head insisting that I return for helping after helping is quieted. It's a TOOL Calling it a tool means it's something you actually have to put some effort into in order to USE.. Like a hammer.. A hammer requires your arm to swing it.. It doesn't just pound in the nails on its own now does it?. Some people have the surgery and then don't use their tool and simply start eating food when they're not hungry and yes, they regain much of their weight. Others USE their tool and pay attention to their new more normalized appetites and achieve lasting success.

Sorry, just wanted to add to my post - while the surgery was the best thing for me personally, I do not encourage anyone else to have any surgery - in fact I have discouraged a couple of people from having it, especially one man who was so desperate to have bypass he was actively trying to gain more weight so he would be considered....
All I ask is not to be judged for saving my life with surgery - yes we all have opinions and the freedom to say them ( and I wouldn't have it any other way) I don't see why I and anyone else who has had a procedure should be abused for our choice.
If you have lost weight with exercise and strict dieting - GREAT, I'm really pleased for you and I do mean this as I know how hard it is.... If you've gone through any surgery to lose weight - I hope you recovered well from the procedure and it's working well with your hard work too - it's still really hard work

I had a sleeve gastrectomy on the NHS in the uk 2 years ago. Back then I weighed 325lbs at 5ft 3 and every day was pain. I teach 5 years olds and I couldn't keep up with them physically in any way. The 3 years before that I had at least 3 weeks of work each school year through illness. I was having to lift up my stomach to clean under it...I was 36 years old. I went tIo the gym 3 times a week, I walked everywhere.

I went to my docs and they referred me. I was supervised while my calories were reduced monthly. Weight didn't start coming off till I reached 1200 calories. I know people on here may not believe I am being honest but there is no point in me lieing. At more than 1200 calories (sometimes a lot more!!) I was eating too much for my body. I knew I could not stick to 1200 or less cals for the rest of my life.

I had the surgery and I have lost 154lbs and am now maintaining. I still go to the gym, I wear a fit bit and I have logged on here for 790+ days. I work hard and I intend for this to be my life. It is so much better than it was and I am enjoying it now. I am now a 'normal' person of normal weight. I would still like to lose half a stone but then so would most women I know! It is up to me to do this. I was given this gift and I must not waste it.

Oh and since my op I have had 2 days off work and that is it so medically I am cheaper now!! Oh and I don't drink or smoke and never had so I hopefully will not need medical intervention again for anything I have caused.

You are a great example of someone who uses their "tool" in the right way. I feel like I could have written much of your post. I require far fewer calories than would be expected for someone of my size but an appetite that was exceptionally large. (yes it's medically verified) It's not an excuse, just a fact.. it's my responsibility to find a way to eat the correct amount of calories for my body. Getting the VSG surgery was a great way for me to be able to eat responsibly for my body requirements for the rest of my life. My weight loss is not fast and I still have a ways to go, but I'm in no rush.

I'm doing it the healthy eating way, but I have people in my life who have had weight loss surgery and let me tell you now, it is NOT an easy route to go down. Sure the rapid weight loss makes it look easy, but trust me when I say it is not easy. For a start there's the head hunger, which cannot be satisfied and can be mental torture. When you really want something, you could have it if you really wanted to....weight loss surgery often makes it impossible and thus takes an element of choice away. For so many reasons, I firmly believe it's not an easy route to go down, but actually takes a LOT of courage. It's not a route I wish to go down simply because I think it's more difficult than doing it the natural way...I'm not brave enough to have surgery even though I'm desperate to lose weight.

Wow, I don't think I've ever cried in my cheerios over my pitiful life. In fact most people who know me see me as a 'can-do' kind of girl. I had WLS and in exactly 4 days I celebrate my 2 year anniversary of that life changing surgery. I took a medical loan out to pay for it myself after a whole lot of research and weighing options. I've been struggling with my weight since basically the year my menses started. My heaviest weight was 251. Perhaps that seems too low for some of you? I really think unless you've got all the facts on any individual such a broad spectrum pronouncement of negativity against people who turn to WLS is ignorant and condescending. Both my parents died in their early 50's from arterial blockages. That was a very brutal year. I already had high blood pressure and sleep apnea to name a few obesity related issues, along with a family predisposition to heart disease when I began researching WLS. I knew if I didn't do something to finally get it dealt with I could be leaving my wonderful husband to raise our teen daughters alone. So how long/how many more tries and fails should I have worked at it the old fashioned way before my choice would find less condemnation in your mind? The surgery gives you a 6 to 8 month window as a sort of head start to lose a chunk of the weight and motivate you to keep up with the newly prescribed healthier lifestyle to see you to goal. Yes you can gain it back although with a smaller stomache the gain is much slower and for me came on slow enough that I was able to catch it and get back on track. I slid back into comfortable habits and regained 19 pounds ower a year before I gave myself a good shake and got back to basics and re-committed to exercise. I've lost all I gained plus a bit more....and still going. Sometimes we stumble, right? Have you never backslid or stumbled in your journey for weight loss? I've stayed in touch with many people who had surgery at the same time and almost all have kept it off, but not without effort and determination just like anyone else who only lost weight the old fashioned way. I joined this site and forum to have kinship and support with others struggling with the same issues I do. I've only been back here 2 days and thought I'd hit the forum to get to know my fellow MFP's. I was very offended by this threads posed question. First, because the question at the very start seemed to segregate the WLS members for ridicule from the main body of members. Second, I can't help but wonder what this has to do with your own weight loss? Did I cheat you somehow by choosing to help myself by any means I felt necessary and took full responsibility for? Third, to say that tax payers fund this unnecessary surgery (by the way, there are many kinds of WLS each with its own risks and benefits) is a funny statement, even though I could sense in your words it was heart felt. Look up how much annually tax payers must fund for medical expenses needed to treat obesity related health issues. How much of our populace is significantly overweight? Obesity is pandemic and you are here openly mocking complaining about the mere handful in the grand scheme of things that you feel didn't do it fairly? You sound like a reformed smoker standing on your soap box condemning the very group you were a part of not so long ago. That old adage, "If you can't say something nice...." You get my point.

Sometimes there is a 5 yr old child that horrible dark things happened to. Things she told no one about, not even her wonderful caring family. In her stress and anxiety she found food made her feel better. Her body hid the weight quite well and no one noticed until one day they did. Then every meal she was under scrutiny and restricted. She began to eat and hoard food in secrecy. And then one day a relative who meant well said " The boys won't like you if you are fat" ....well that was just fine with her. She grew up never knowing what it felt like to run without her joints aching. Never having a choice of attractive clothing. Never feeling comfortable in her own skin, always overheated and sweating. People would say you will feel so much better when you lose the wt. Just stop eating when you are full but, what does that mean to a person who has never known normal. She would exercise and starve herself down 40 lbs every other year enduring the crippling hunger but of course that wasn't maintainable and she hadn't cured the root of the problem. Then she started cooking all her own food but still her portions were out of control. And every year added 5 more lbs. Then 2 yrs ago she met a very kind priest who was a former physician and he helped her work on the "why" of her food addiction. She quit medicating with food and began to slowly lose wt. Unfortunately she had run out of time and her health began to rapidly decline. She realized that she could die leaving a husband and young child. She started the 6 months of therapy and supervised wt loss to get approval for bariatric surgery.
It is a wonderful feeling to be normal weight for height. To be able to tie your shoes without your vision going spotty. To rush up 3 flights of stairs and not have a wheezing attack. To run and run and run and nothing hurts. To have a brain that is filled with other thoughts instead of unrelenting food obsession. At 45 it is a very new world for me. I world I can only live in if I constantly watch my intake, exercise regularly and abstain from medicating with food. This tool helped someone who had no memory of normal find it again.

Honestly, brought tears to my eyes. Good for you you have overcome so much.

I second that.

Thank you so much for sharing that.:flowerforyou:

So easy for people to blithely say I could do xyz, anyone who cant is just lazy - if only it were that simple.
Truth is we just dont know what shoes other people have had to walk in..

Sorry for your plight.

But you over grown emotions wont change my opinion. You had six months to prep before surgery even though you were desperately ill?

Six months is adequate enough time to lose a considerable chunk of weight and get weight related issues to a manageable level.

Sorry, there is no beautiful story that could get me to change my views on WLS.

Also the dude that made a big speech up above, wow dude, I am so touched I may change my whole view on a deadly unnessacary over used surgery simply because of the power of your words... let me reflect a minute....

.... oh wait.... sorry..... I wont

Because 6 months is all any heroin addict or alcoholic needs to get their health related issues in order. All addiction is the same root cause. Medicating pain to stay functional. Abusing food was enough to keep me functional, I didn't have to resort to drugs or alcohol. Those silly smack heads and alkies, all they really needed was 6 months to learn how to portion control

Preach it, sister! Then again, to the one you responded to, that's another one that I refer to as the "willfully ignorant". It pains me greatly to see someone in this day and age who absolutely refuses to educate themselves on issues, jobs, health/surgery, and many other things. It's one thing to *not* know and want to be educated, hell, I learn something new every day, and often find myself corrected, but it's a damn sad day when we've got the ignorant out preaching loudly, and the intelligent unsure of themselves.

With that said, you are EXACTLY right. You hit the nail on the head. If ANY addict got their **** together in only six months, and kept it together for the rest of their lives in THAT short of time without having to use ANY coping skills, other form of treatment, support group, or otherwise, I wanna shake their hand, because as a recovering addict-- three years AFTER seeking treatment, there isn't a DAY that goes by that I don't think about shopping. Not. One. Single. Day. I have the good sense to know I can't ever be given a credit card again, just like an alcoholic can't have "just one drink". I don't go shopping for fun. I go only for what I need. But you know, there are the willfully ignorant who know just because you go to treatment for 30, 60, 90 days, or you're in there for 3, 6 9, or 12 months, when you come out, you're healed! You're not an addict anymore! Woo-hoo! All of your habits are magically changed! If ONLY it worked that way, what a wonderful world it would be. There's a reason we're called recovering addicts.

Keep up the good work, and don't ever let anyone dull your sparkle! You've come a long way!

The difference between anti WLS people and pro WLS people.... anit WLS dont care if you support it/had it. We arent going to do it and we arent going to give u flowers and tell you to do it.

Pro WLS surgery people cry in their cheerios over the pity of their lives, anti WLS people know their lives have been pitiful at times and move on with it.

Bottom line, you like it then do it. Good for you but dont expect the world to agree. Dont advertise you had it and you wont have to hear opposing views on it that may get you butt hurt.

I dont advertise I didnt have it......

For instance my sister had it done and she has NO IDEA how much I hate it, becasue she never asked me how I felt about it. Point is, when asked for opinions in the internet dont be surprised if you get some you may not like.


Go ahead and call me mean and whatever. I am the best friend you could ever have. Ask me if you look fat in those jeans and you do, geuss what my answer is YES. Will u LIKE it? NO. Will you walk around looking like an over stuffed sausage? NO

Appreciate the differences in people. Some will agree and some wont. Bash all u want I am old and u will not sway me on my opinion of this, then again I would consider why my opinion matters to you and bothers you so much? Perhaps the problem is you not me?

Why are the support or had surgery people so angry? Maybe some anger classes will help after surgery?

You were saying?

They are angry because they cant change minds, tolerate opposing opinions, or have their emotions appealed to a certain set of people.

For some reason they expect to be supported and understood by EVERYONE but cant except that the reality is some people just dont and wont support/endorse it.

Tolerating opposing opinions doesn't seem your strong point either and oddly enough you seem the angriest poster here :indifferent:

It's perhaps a little late in the game for this, but...

I personally would never get weight loss surgery, but my mother had gastric bypass 9 years ago and I can tell you that it is definitely not the easy way out. Prior to the surgery she had to lose some weight on her own, attend weekly meetings, and visit various doctors regularly--some of which were hours away. She visited people who had the surgery, people with good experiences and bad. The fact that she lost 10 or 20% of her body weight prior to surgery, I often found myself at 16 looking at her and going, "why not just lose all the weight this way? and "if you're spending 20 hours a week doing all this homework, when not spend five hours a week exercising or researching nutrition?" But dealing with my own issues now, and getting to a weight that I think matches her highest weight, I kind of understand now. How strong I feel about how MFP working for me is how strong my mother felt weight loss surgery would work for her.

After the surgery, she was laid up for weeks, unable to move. The tremendous pain brought back memories of previous trauma and physical abuse. Then, she spent the next several months always weak, dizzy, and throwing up. She dealt with a lot of judgment from people. She was constantly having to defend a personal choice she made that was years in the making and was made with the help of one of the top surgeons in the country--some of the people that questioned her motives were total strangers and others were friends. She was also one of the few people back then that got everything covered by insurance.

It's also not the easy way out because there's still portion control and the matter of discipline. Everyone's body reacts differently to the surgery, some can eventually go back to eating some fried foods and sugar. My mother cannot, which is actually what she was hoping to gain from the surgery. She still has to exercise and losing so much weight so fast totally messed with her head. And in moments, I still find myself thinking, "if you're still having to exericise and watch what you eat, what was the point of the surgery?" But it's not my place to judge her decisions. I can't know everything she's gone through or everything she's thinking. All i can see is the result. And often I think these moments of harsh judgment are more about me than her. Maybe I'm jealous that she's thin now and I'm not, but that's on me. After all of this, it was still worth it to her and she doesn't regret it one bit.

Unlike some of the people on here, I don't consider my mom to be lazy. I think she's kind of brave. I would not have dealt well with all that she did.

Could my mom have lost the weight without the surgery? I don't know. Maybe. Or maybe she would've just gotten fatter. All i know is that she had tried everything, nothing worked, and with the surgery she lost it and i'm glad because i get to have my mother around for much longer. if she didn't get the surgery she'd most likely be dealing with a whole list of health problems. i look at the weight loss surgery in the same way i look at paleo, atkins, south beach, nutrisystem, weight watchers, OA, heavy lifting vs light weights, lots of cardio vs less, etc. Some plans work for people and some of them don't.

You can say it's a matter of discipline or she should've tried harder the natural way, but at the end of the day who cares how she lost the weight? She lost the weight and she eats healhier and has the energy and confidence to exercise more. Isn't that everyone's goal on here?