Surgery....anyone?

I would start by taking a good, hard look at the "diet plans" you have tried and determine what led to their ultimate failure. Were they scams that promised too much and delivered too little? Most commercial diet plans are. Have you tried calorie counting over a long period of time? I strongly recommend you peruse this site and read all of the sticky posts to learn about calorie counting/deficit for weight loss. The problem I see with bariatric surgery (unless it's required for an immediate health threat) is that it does not teach you how to control your calorie consumption and eating habits. Yes, you are forced to drastically change your diet after the surgery, but again you are not learning anything. This type of learning takes time, effort, patience, focus, determination. How about giving MFP a try for the next 3-4 months? Input your stats, get a food scale and weigh/measure everything that goes into your mouth, and log faithfully. If you stick with it and take it one day at a time, I'll bet you'll be pleasantly surprised. There are a lot of very helpful and knowledgeable people here, so utilize them. Have patience. This takes a long time, but the long-term success I think will be better than that of the surgery. Best wishes.

I had Bariatric bypass surgery 11 years ago - i tried Every diet known to man (ok, maybe that is a BIT exagerated lol* but close) - nothing WORKED. I finally made the decision after reading on the NIH site that gastric bypass was the only known cure for Type2 diabetes, which i had, and which my older brother had already lost a foot to. I also had Joint issues and couldnt exercise, had numbness in 2 fingers, had become unbelievably depressed, and was completely terrified that diabetes would do to me what it had already done to my brother. Diabetes is a silent killer - you do not feel the effects until the damage is done - and THAT, is frightening. I thought about having this surgery for YEARS, but kept telling myself the next "diet" would work - and that, i could DO THIS with enough will power and discipline. I finally said, enough of this, and began the long battle to get my bypass surgery approved by my medical insurance. Even my GPysician, - who i dearly loved, initially fought me until I sent her the links from NIH and other healthcare sites and she read them. For the next six months she and I worked hard to get approval and jump through all of the hoops required by my health insurance company. The first time, i was denied. BUT i was determined, fought them, got an attorney and threatened to sue them - because the surgery was medically called for in my case. I finally won. I had already done a TON of research and knew a lot about the procedure and had even picked my surgeon. I would recommend ANYONE who has this done to spend A LOT of time learning about it and researching every nuance. This surgery is DANGEROUS - you need to understand that it is not 100% foolproof, and that is why you do not want to entrust yourself to just any hospital that performs this type of surgery. Your life is in the hands of that surgeon. Find out how many of the type of procedure you need - that they have performed. Find out what their mortality rate has been for that surgery - ask them point blank. Get as much information as you possibly can on the Surgeon, on the hospital, etc. I repeat again - IF you don't chose the right surgeon, and don't follow pre-op directions - you have placed yourself in a very dangerous position. I had a cousin who had bariatric surgery - she did NOT research it, and nor did she follow the surgeons orders pre-op. The night before her surgery, she decided to have a meal to end all meals with everything she loved and lots of it. She also just took whatever surgeon she found - even though i had recommended my surgeon who was one of the top 5 leading surgeons of this type in the world at that time. My cousin died the day of her surgery. The was a very small acid leak from her stomach and the acid leaked into her chest cavity - this is probably the biggest danger after this type of surgery. I don't mean to scare you - BUT i DO mean to make a point that this decision to do this is not to be taken lightly.
Having said that - I have not been sorry I had this surgery in any way. Not even for a minute. It dramatically improved my health and my life. The numbness in my hand disappeared, I could walk - and eventually jog - but the VERY BEST of all? My type2 Diabetes totally disappeared. I weighed 262 pounds at 5'3" - and within a year i had dropped to 148 which was actually too small (my doc said take off 15 pds for the excess skin - so that meant at 148, i actually weighed around 130. I was a size 5 petite. I decided i needed to gain a little back - and that was hard to do - believe it or not. I made LOTS of changes that i was finally able to make. I was never a junk food junkie, - so i just continued to eat a healthy diet, carefully making sure i was getting enough protein, etc. I did not return to eating breads and a lot of grains, etc. My life opened up. I began to do the things i'd always wanted to do - i took sailing classes, I took a scuba diving class, I traveled, and so many other things. I became more social and no longer felt awkward and so self concious. I'm NOT saying that losing weight will make your life 100% perfect - it won't. But I am saying you will feel 1000% better, and that's the honest truth.
I went back up to a size 8 - 10 and I felt i looked much healthier, and so did my family and friends. I want you to know that after my surgery, i continued to follow all of my surgeons directions for post op. The biggest things he stressed was to Eat at least 50 gms a day of protein, drink my water - have lab work done regularly and take oral Vitamen B-12. After bariatric surgery, your body will no longer be able to readily absorb some vitamens the way it did before - so stay on top of that. Jump ahead to present -- I have gained about 50 pds back in the last three years - and thats another story. My surgery did not fail me - I just experienced 3 back to back traumas - that I did not handle well, and became extremely depressed for about 3 yrs - i literally did not move, and the weight came back. But i'm fighting back now, and
Presently, I am on the Ketogenic Diet (for about 2.5 wks) and feeling GREAT. I am never hungry, my blood sugars are back down, I have tons of energy and i have lost 11 pounds - This will be my way of life from here on out and i'm super happy. I have not been trying to discourage you - I KNOW first hand how frustrating it is when you eat healthy and try to do everything your doctor tells you, or the weight loss plan directs you to do, and nothing works and you feel ashamed because you are sure that everyone thinks you're slacking, or you're just some kind of lazy slob. At least that's how i felt. I want to leave you with what my Bariatric surgeon told me on my first visit. He said, Listen - there is no need to feel guilty, or ashamed of having surgery. We know from our studies that some people have what i now call, a "primitive" metabolism. Their bodies are much more efficient at survival than others, and what they eat? they store. I feel certain that you know your own body better than everyone and anyone else. If you know that you have tried everything out there and you have done your research, - I say go for it - and don't let anyone else make you feel bad about it. I actually got online today after reading your post and writing mine, and if you, or anyone else is interested in where I had my surgery, and what surgeon I used. Go to: http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/johns_hopkins_bayview/medical_services/specialty_care/bariatrics, OR you can just look up smallscar.com My Drs. nam is: Dr. Michael Schweitzer. Please feel free to friend me - or ask questions- I will be glad to help in any way i can. God Bless you on your marvelous journey, and I hope you will let us know what you decide - we'll be here to support and encourage you in whatever you ultimately decide.
P.S. Sorry for the HUGE wall of Text LOL*