bariatric surgery

Dr. Oz did a show on this. This one girl showed her food for the day and I believe it was a few months after the surgery. She eats 5 tablespoons of yogurt for breakfast, 1/2 cup of broth for lunch, and 5 spoonfulls of chocolate pudding. I am not sure if she drinks protein drinks also...cuz I know some people do. Though..she said she wouldnt trade it in for the world. She loves having done the surgery. They also said that they have started doing the surgery on people who are only 30lbs over weight. I personally, am not even going to consider it. I love food!!!! I love crunching!!! LOL!!!

I've never considerer it for myself despite meeting all the criteria (300+lbs + weight related health complications). For one I didn't feel that the risks were high enough to outweigh the benefits. For another I felt that if I didn't have the time to learn how to eat properly that I would never be able to maintain it on my own.

Primarily though, I was not willing to give up eating with my family and having the opportunity to model healthy eating behaviour to my young girls. The idea of having nothing but a few tablespoons of food at Christmas or Easter is just not appealing to me.

I also figured losing weight that fast was not best for my body, my skin or my psyche but I certainly don't begrudge anyone who decides to go that route. Do what works for you.

I have to say tho, reading this blog http://www.mycrazyweightlossjourney.com/ only reinforced my decision not to have it done.

My aunt had Roux-en-y gastric bypass about 7 years ago. She lost 145 pounds over the course of the first year. The next year she had a circumferetial body lift, breast lift, and brachioplasty. Currently she weighs more that she did before her surgery. She ate small frequent high calorie foods until she slowly, but surely gained. She believes (and others that were in her online support group) that if you do not confront the "demons" that caused you to eat and gain the weight in the first place that you will gain the weight back.
I just personally don't believe its a good idea. There are way too many people who have lost weight with diet and exercise alone!

I've known a few friends who have had the surgery. They lost weight for a short few months but the weight loss stopped. That was principally due to their personal lack of commitment and total compliance to stay with their program over the long term. One lady lost about 124 lbs. but then returned to her old cravings and former eating behavior. She ate herself to DEATH. Ended up on hemo-dialysis due to permanent damage to both kidneys along with multiple other systems failure. Died at age 62. Another friend had the lap band procedure 3 years ago. In that period of time, she's had a net weight loss of only 20 lbs. She's unable to stay with her program on a daily basis over the long term. I recently saw another friend who had that lap band surgery about 5+ years ago. She lost about half of her excess pounds but appears to have stabilized and will likely just maintain her present size.

Do you really want to subject your body to such a high risk surgery. Tami Jones-Shumate was just 15 months away from reaching her 40th birthday when, at 331 lbs., she decided she wasn't going to stay unhealthy any longer. She began with her PORTION CONTROL, daily exercise and daily food diary program. Fifteen months later, she had lost 186 lbs....the hard way. No diet, no pills, no surgery. Just day to day dedicated effort~~~one meal at a time, one day at a time. Today, she maintains a full time job and teaches fitness classes at two gyms in NW Washington State. More than a year after losing that weight, she continues to log every single item that goes in her mouth here on MFP as well as all her exercise activity. You can do it to. We are all here to support and cheer each other on. I will always be here for you. I've been through the same struggles as everyone else over the past 55 years but it's been a yo-yo dieting life for me. I'm a compulsive eater so I now know I must continue logging every single item that goes in my mouth for the rest of my life. I'm 73. Add me to your friends list if you wish.

So I have not read all responses but even after the first few I have to interject.

You will find ne-sayers, you will find peole that knew someone or several someones, you will find a friend of a freind of a friend, blah blah blah.

This is YOUR decision. Absorb as much factual information as you can and make an educated decision. Start with your surgeon. Because he/she will be the MOST important person to you for a few years (yes years, not just until surgery). A good surgeon will have an after-care program to help follow you, insure your success, and help you through the downfalls. Let's face it. We are all human and we all make mistakes. Surgery is not the magic cure-all. Even after surgery there will eventually come a time when it will be up to you to make the right decisions. Your surgeon should be available through all the ups and downs. If he/she does not offer an after-care program then find one that cares about you after the big-payoff.

That being said. I had surgery Dec. of 2006 and lost 200+ pounds over 2 years. Reached a stable weight of about 175 <<<<< that's me then in my profile pic. At the age of 39 had my first baby (my first child is adopted becasue I never thought this was going to be possible. Go figure...lose 200+ pounds, become fertile mertile LOL). I now want to lose the last 20 of the 30 I put on while pregnant plus a few extra. If I get back to 175 woo hoo but would love to actually see 150 one day. But, with the amount of extra skin I have, that may not be possible without plastics and with 2 kids now...plastics is not going to happen unless someone dies and leaves me a tone of money or I win the lottery!

You will have to take vitamins for life. LIFE. Not just until you lose weight, feel great, look good, etc. Your body will forever be re-route and not be able to absorb certain nutrients. Yes, I still take a protein supplement too. You do not want to lose a ton of muscle mass. And, finally....you will NOT eat like a bird the rest of your life. Your body will re-acclemate and you will eat like NORMAL person once again. Granted, there are some foods I just can't tolerate like tough meats or pasta and rice. These things will not pass through my stoma and get "stuck" then make me feel ill for hours. In the end though, these are things I should not be eating anyway because of the high calorie/starchy quality of these kinds of foods.

Friend me if you like I am a plethera of info LOL

I had RNY 8/24/10, so I'm just over 8 months out. I started at 266 at the beginning of my journey. I lost 30 pounds via diet and exercise over the course of the 8 months prior to my surgery. The day of surgery I weighed 235. I now weigh 161. I WOULD DO IT AGAIN IN A HEARTBEAT! That being said, please understand that surgery is only one piece of the entire puzzle. After my initial consult with the surgeon, I spent the next 8 months doing the following: I had to consult with a psychologist to discuss why I was using food as a therapy (and take a test!) - he then approved me for surgery, but suggested ongoing therapy; visit a nutritionist every month for 6 months; commit to an exercise plan and diet; get a letter of support from my primary care physician; join a support group (and attend regularly); get my thyroid medication regulated; have an endoscopy and colonoscopy.... I think that's about it, but I might be forgetting a thing or two.

I must take dietary supplements for the rest of my life due to malabsorption of nutrients (one of the biggest issues with RNY). (Calcium - 4x/day, Vitamin D - 1x/day, B12 1x/day, multi vitamin - 2x/day, and stool softener - 1-2x/day). My "normal" daily diet looks a bit like:
Breakfast - scrambled egg w/cottage cheese; 1 oz of sharp cheese
morning snack - 1/4 cup cashews or fruit w/yogurt
Lunch - 1/4 cup tuna fish (w/ lite mayo), few wheat thins, small cup of sugar-free applesauce
afternoon snack - 1/4 cup cashews or fruit w/ yogurt (which ever I didn't have earlier)
Dinner - (still difficult for me at this time; I usually don't eat what my family eats) - 1/4 cup baked beans or small salad, small serving of grilled chicken
evening snack - microwave popcorn (surprises me that I can tolerate it, but I can!)
Throughout the day I must drink a minimum of 8 cups of water, but not within 30 minutes of a meal. This is often tricky due to the fact that I feel like I'm always having just eaten or will eat shortly. Believe me, though - constiptation is much less the more water I drink.

I also work out 4-5 times a week - usually doing 3 miles on the treamill and 45 minutes of water aerobics. I'm so much more energetic now than ever! I've signed up to coach my daughter's softball team as well as play on a softball team of my own. I'm also signed up to run five 5K's this year - the first will be on mother's day. I've asked for a new bike for Mother's Day so I can bike around with my daughters. I walk with co-workers every day at lunch (weather permitting), and I still feel like I could move more if I had more time.

One last comment..... My older sister had the same surgery about 10 years ago with a different surgeon. He did not put all the precautions in place (psychologist/support group/commit to exercise, etc.). Once she had the surgery she was on her own. She initially lost somewhere around 200 pounds, but when she died last summer she weighed somewhere around 400 pounds. I wish I knew back then what I know now about weight loss surgery. I could have been more supportive and would have recognized the warning signs when she began slipping back into her old habits.

Best of luck to you as you decide whether or not to have the surgery. Check with a local surgeon to see if they have a support group and start attending just to ask questions/hear their experiences. That in itself really helped me.

My aunt died from complications from bariatric surgery so I sure as hell will stand up against it..

I am sorry about your aunt but everyBODY's different and there are way more success stories that tragedies although that doesnt make it any less sad when it happens. You always here about the failures but there are people Ive known for a few yrs that are "normal size" and I never realized til they came forth they had WLS. And one of them was 7+ yrs out and maintaining and healthy.

My mom died from complications after bariatric surgery too.

I still made the decision to do it for myself several years later.

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I hope that you received support from the rest of your family. Unfortunately for me, I did not. My siblings blamed my sister's death on complications due to her surgery and nothing could have been further from the truth.

Good for you for standing up for yourself and taking your health in your own hands!

Weight loss surgery is a personal decision and one I think should only be considered if you have tried multiple other weight loss methods and were unsuccessful. That being said, if you are super obese and have co-morbidities (other health problems related to obesity), weight loss surgery is a good tool to help lose weight and improve those co-morbidities.

I had a vertical sleeve gastrectomy 7 months ago. I don't believe the surgery itself was the solution to my problem, but it was the catalyst to my making long-lasting healthy changes that has enabled me to lose almost 60 pounds to date. One thing that I learned in this process is that my relationship with food is the problem -- and that is a problem that surgery won't fix. Having said that, by doing what is required before and after the surgery, I have been able to lose weight, begin an active lifestyle and change some of my unhealthy eating habits (most of the time) including: giving up carbonated beverages, not skipping or overeating at meals, and not choosing unhealthy foods regularly. My sleeve as it turns out is much larger than most and therefore I have been able to eat normal adult portions nearly from the beginning. Therefore, my tool isn't working like it is supposed to. I could have a revision surgery and have the sleeve redone to be smaller, have a RNY gastric bypass, or duodenal switch at this point. However, I have chosen not to because (1) all my co-morbidities are gone now (YAY!!! :bigsmile: ), (2) I recognize that no matter what, the real work of losing weight is done by my choices, not by my tool, and (3) I believe that I can and will get the rest of the weight off on my own, although slowly it seems, by continuing to make the healthy choices. Would I do the surgery over again knowing what I know now? Absolutely!!! It has changed my life for the better in so many ways!!

I hope that information helps and if you'd like to get some more information and check out a WLS-friendly forum, there are many of us who regularly post here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/180611-wls-support-and-inspirational-information?page=13#posts-2995111

Best wishes and I hope that no matter what you decide that you are able to make your health a priority! :flowerforyou:

*psst*

It works. :-D

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Has anyone out there had bariatric surgery?? Whqat are your thoughts, experiences, issues, adivce?

Please don't respond if you have never had baratric surgery... I am not looking for people to tell me why they are against it. I have medical complications that are pushing forward to having surgery. So with that said, I am not looking for the quick fix to loose weight, I am medically in need.

I had it in April of 1995. Things have changed since then (for one, now it's done mostly via laparoscopy whereas with me they cut me from sternum to belly button). I went from 213 to 135 and maintained that weight until I moved to Nashville in 2001. During that time, I fluctuated a bit, but I was struggling with 15 lbs, not 115. I was mostly able to maintain it because I was doing hard core aerobics 3x per week (which is A LOT easier at 135 than it is at 200). When I moved to Nashville, I ended up in a job where alcohol and late hours were common (gained 10 lbs), met my husband (gained another 10), got married then pregnant (ending up at 195 where I've continued to yo-yo).

Because I had my surgery so long ago, things that were instrumental before no longer work for me (for example, many who have bariatric surgery have "dumping issues" with sugar, fried foods, etc.). I RARELY dump anymore (unless I've absolutely gorged myself - which is hard to do). Also, I got into bad habits - like not eating 3 meals (nibbling instead), drinking with my meals, eating slider foods, etc.

Unfortunately, with as much as we go through to have the surgery we're often left on our own (no "real" rules to follow) afterward.

If you're looking for info on bariatric surgery (with supportive, instead of judgmental answers) go to www.livingafterwls.com. Everyone there has either had it or is looking to have it. You'll hear the good, the bad and the ugly.

For those who have already had the surgery, that same site can help you get on track through something called the 5 day pouch test. That site has been a godsend for me. (but so has this one in a completely different way).

Lap band surgery is not associated with malabsorption. The food travels through your entire digestive system. I do want to say that those with lap band (such as myself) do not have the super quick weight loss that those with bypass have.

This is the best answer I've read. Thank you for being so honest about gastric bypass. I had the RNY on the 12th of May, and have done everything I'm supposed to do. So far, 12 lbs down. And I feel good. My sister is 3 years out. We have both made a commitment to this new life style, and are there to back each other up.