Gastric Bypass...

I agree that the surgery is not for everyone. You definitely take a risk. I know people who have had success with it, and some who didn't (one had terrible infections and didn't lose any weight).

I can understand the need for surgery, especially in the super morbidly obese or bed-bound patients. I used to love that show "Big Medicine" on Discovery Health about the weight loss surgeons who were father & son. The before & afters were unreal! Glad they have been able to help so many people regain their mobility.

One thing that confuses me -- I've heard lots of people saying they needed to lose weight and follow a particular diet before the surgery. Some have lost as much as 50 pounds pre-surgery... but the surgery is supposed to be for those who have tried everything and haven't been successful? If one can lose 50 pounds before the surgery, doesn't that kind of prove you CAN do it without surgery? I think that it can be a very useful tool in some situations, but I'd say those situations are few and far between.

Also, not a fan b/c I don't think folks think about how much of a major surgery it is. My cousin died on the operating table when she went in for a gastric bypass. Complications are rare, but they can happen, just like any major surgery.

It is far from the easy way out. It is far from the lazy way out. You will work harder having WLS than without it really. You have to be committed to it, have to attend appointments, meetings. You have to show you really want it by losing X amount of weight before the surgery. My sister is planning to get it and in 1 month alone she had 13 doctor's appointments. You have a sleep study done, nutritionists, pysch evaluation, stress test, blood work. And you do not get sliced open. There are about 5 small incisions, all of them being about 1/2 inch big. I used to be nervous about that aspect because I have been looking into it myself...

And yes I always thought the entire if I could lose 50-100 pounds before the WLS why would I need it...It is to help shrink the liver also because that is in the area the surgery is being done.

And when people who have had WLS become addicted to alcohol or drugs or shopping or gambling it is called addiction transference. Because they can no longer be addicted to food, they find something to fill that void.

There is also a newer WLS called the sleeve. Basically just do all your research. If you have a good doctor and follow his orders exactly there should be no reason it should not work for you. There is a guy who goes to the support meetings in my area...he has lost 186 pounds but he followed the doctor's orders to the T

I have a lapband (rather than a bypass) and do not regret it at all. I am far more active now than I have ever been. I havent yet read all of this thread and I'm not going to because as usual those of us that have weight loss surgery are seen as cheats and lazy and I really cannot be arsed justifying myself to anyone over what I do with my money and my body. What I do know is that I am fitter, healthier and slimmer now for going down the surgery route. And I do not live on just a cupful of baby food. I eat well and properly and have a decent portion size.

ETA - And the best thing to come out of losing weight was regaining my fertility. We have a healthy and beautiful 8 month old baby boy. I had been infertile for 12 years previous.

Had it... went through a traumatic experience one year after and began binge eating and stretched my stomach out. I can tell you that i still have the side effects even though i have a "big" stomach again. I don't absorb nutrients well, became anemic, have "dumping syndrome" sometimes even now.... and a huge scar but then again i had mine in 2000 about 2 months after carnie wilson and i was a case study. You lose the weight quickly and the body cannot catch up. I can tell you first hand that while slow and steady may seem tedious the body will look better and feel better if lost naturally. message me if you have any questions. This is a VERY serious surgery with life changing outcomes that last forever.

This is my worry and why I think it should be a last resort for someone with serious medical issues. bottomline is it isn't any of my business how someone else loses their weight. for me I didn't want to take the risks and wanted to try to do it on my own first and I was able to so it wasn't an issue anymore. I will say that since I did it I always think others can but again, not for me to say.

I opted for Lap-band... I too used to think it was a last resort. Then, I needed a last resort. Sometimes, medical conditions, and just plain size can really hinder you from losing weight on your own. I was always able to lose weight on my own, but it kept coming back... and that is what really hurt my body, the yo-yo of it all.

I have PCOS which makes it very difficult to lose weight and very easy to gain weight. It is all with the hormones in your body... sometimes, it's just not about diet and exercise... sometimes there is alot more to it.

t.

I have very little sympathy....and I'm sure I'll get screamed at...but it's my honest opinion...it's not like you woke up one day and was so obese that you needed to have it.
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No one needs your sympathy.. Support would be nice

Some people have been obese almost there entire life and it is struggle to overcome this.. On the other hand it's not like some people woke one day and decided to be a**holes .. They just are !

Thank you everybody ur opinions have all helped me in one way or another. I could definetly not do it no matter what crossed my mind... Stupid as it sounds i would be more scared of the extra skin then the side effects. Lol.

Excess skin can be an issue weather you have surgery or not. It depend on age, how long you have been obese and how fast you lose the weight. If you have been obese a long time you will have excess skin.

I used to be totally against it and thought that only people who wanted the easy way out had surgery. Until my sister had it done.

Wow...what she went through. She was on high blood pressure meds, diabetic, had knee and ankle surgery and she was only 43. I think she totally screwed up her metabolism from doing Atkins for so many years.

In the prep stages of the surgery, she had many months of pre-op appts and counseling. Learning to eat right basically. She had the surgery in Sept, and she is now down 80 lbs and 10 lbs from her goal weight. Once she was cleared for exercise, she worked her butt off, she works out 5-6 days a week and now has started running. Something she could never do. She also eats very well. Her skin actually toned up nicely due to the amount of exercise she is doing. She sill has to see the Doc every few months and for a few years too. But since the surgery and weightloss, she is no longer on blood pressure meds and she reversed the diabetes from changing her eating habits too and for that I'm grateful.

Now I have seen it where they have the surgery and don't change anything and end up gaining it back. I think the most important thing is that it is not a solution. It's a tool...just a more drastic tool. It still comes down to diet and exercise.

HeatherBELLE is there a like button! I need one for your post! I so agree with your suggestions. I feel that surgery is for people who are severely obese and fortunately that doesnt fit her!

Thank you, that was so helpful. I keep looking for people to talk about it with because I am planning on having it done. I just started this whole journey for lack of a less used word, and the doctor said it was wise to speak with others who have had the surgery.

You DO want a surgeon who will make you go thru all the pre surgery requirements. If they don't....find someone else because it really is an important step in the process. I definitely *****ed about them at the time. The constant meetings with the nutritionist and pyschologist, support groups and behavioral eating classes. I had thought about the surgery for 4 years and now that I was finally ready I was just so anxious to get it done. But now I realize how important that stuff was. Recognizing head hunger vs. physical hunger, recognizing what my soft full signals are, understanding the consequences of not listening to your body...it's all part of the journey and part of HOW to best use the band.

A friend of mine had it, and is doing phenomenal! She wasn't very large (she's only about 5' tall, though), but her excess weight was affecting her health. Her blood glucose was out of control before, and she needed a c-pap machine at night. No matter what she ate or how much she exercised, it made no difference. Now, she's the picture of health. I'm so proud of her and happy for her!

On the other hand, I had a friend who died from complications from her procedure. That was devastating.

Good morning!

I personally have never had weight loss surgery, but my dad and my brother both had gastric bypass surgery several years ago (I think my brother was in 2002 and my dad in 2003). They have had mixed results.

I know this post is a lot of personal stuff about my family, but I feel that it's important to be shared so that you can see both sides of the coin.

Perhaps due to my brother's young age when he had gastric bypass (he was 32), he has done pretty well overall. He was pretty big, I think over 400 pounds, and at his smallest he was around 190. He's about 6'1" or 6'2", so for him that was pretty skinny. He only got down to that weight by doing no/low-carb dieting. Obviously he lost a lot of weight right off the bat due to calorie restriction, but his weight fluctuates a LOT. His weight goes up to around 250 if he stops watching what he eats (which isn't huge for him but still a little heavy), and then he goes gangbusters on no/low-carb and gets back to where he should be. In the past couple of years he's tried to do more of a South Beach Diet version of low-carb rather than, say, Atkins, which I think is a little healthier because it focuses on healthy fats and fiber rather than just eating as much fat as you want and keeping out all carbs (though I know Atkins has sort of revamped itself in recent years to be healthier, too). The downside for him is that he's had a lot of stomach issues, such as ulcers, and is now on daily prescription medications for that. He also had gallstones a couple of years ago and had his gall bladder removed, though I'm not sure if that would have happened if he hadn't had the surgery and/or changed his diet. He also has a lot of excess skin that he would have removed if he could afford to do it. I've seen him in shorts but have not seen him shirtless in 9 years. (Not that I go around looking for my shirtless brother, but you know what I mean - he never takes his shirt off at the beach or the pool or anything.)

My dad's gastric bypass road has been a little rockier. My dad isn't as tall as my brother (maybe 5'10" or 5'11"), and obviously was much older when he had it done (in his mid-50s). He was also quite heavy, I think in the high 300s, and did well initially with the weight loss. However, my dad was the type of guy who would have been content to eat himself to death and had no interest in getting the surgery until he was encouraged by people outside of our family (his partners with whom he's worked for over 30 years). He would not eat all day long, then we'd go out to dinner, and he would literally order two meals and eat both, along with appetizers, plus he would drink several pilsners of beer. After the surgery, I think he got depressed over his inability to eat and drink like he used to, plus he had the same stomach issues as my brother (ulcers and such), so he started drinking white wine. A lot. He could not drink beer or red wine anymore, and hard liquor is too hard on his stomach. So basically he's become a somewhat depressed functional alcoholic - what I mean by this is that he's not the kind of alcoholic who can't get out of bed without a drink but who gets through most of the day without drinking, then goes crazy with the wine. He definitely drank a little too much prior to the surgery, but I think removing one of his favorite pleasures made him turn to the alcohol even more than before. Anyway, he still doesn't eat much overall, but wine is fairly calorie dense, so he's still not a little guy, though definitely not as big as before.

I think you are better off losing weight the "old-fashioned way," since it doesn't cost thousands of dollars and involve surgery, nevermind removes (or reduces) the risk of the future physical and psychological side effects. Losing weight this way does not mean you will never be able to eat a steak again if you want to - gastric bypass does. You just need to realize that having that steak you really want, for example, cannot be a regular thing.

And if you do decide to go for the surgery, make sure you understand 100% what is really involved pre- and post-surgery so that your head is in the right place. Go to support groups and talk to people who've had it done, and not just recently. Personally I have never been so heavy that surgery like that would even be an option, but even with the "lesser" surgeries, such as lap-band, I'd rather have mental *and* physical control over my eating so that if I want a bit of chocolate cake I can have a bit of chocolate cake once in a while to keep me mentally happy. Does that make sense?

Well, best wishes to you, whatever route you take!

This is an option I have been considering lately.

I've always been a little bit plump (between 125-150 most of my adult life). At about 28 I slowly started gaining more despite no real change in diet or activity level and gained up to 180-190. By age 30 I was around 200. Each year since then I've gradually gained about 10 pounds or so. I can amp up my activity level so I'm burning 1500 calories a day and taking in less than 2000 and I will manage to lose about 2-5 pounds a month, but that wears me out after a few months. I just can't keep up with such a demanding way of losing such a small amount. But any routine less demanding yields me weight GAIN instead.
I've tried all of the diets. I've gone to all the clubs. I took the weight loss pills and permanently damaged my heart valves. I've done WW, JC, SBD, NS. I've put out probably 5-10thousand dollars over the past decade on weight loss scams, gym memberships, equipment, and services.

I'm 37 now and around 235-240. I have a personal trainer, a nutritionist, and I go to the gym or jogging every day. I have high blood pressure, PCOS, emphysema, and I'm pre-diabetic. I'm on 9 pills a day just to stabilize my health conditions. I work 2 professional jobs, attend school, and do volunteer work several times a week. It's not like I'm just sitting at home snarfing cupcakes all day or living a gamer lifestyle. I very rarely have time to even watch a movie.

This month alone I've worked with a personal trainer 8 times, been to the gym 6 days a week for a minimum of an hour, did both strength and cardio and did pretty good keeping my calories below my target each day here on MFP. I'm a vegetarian. I don't eat out very often. I NEVER eat deep fried fast food. I don't drink soda pop at all. I barely drink any alcohol. I do meditative yoga before bed.

Total weight loss this month as of yesterday was 1 pound.

1 pound loss in a month.
This is very typical for me.
At that rate, it would take me almost 10 YEARS to get down to the weight my doctor recommends.
I can very well see how weight loss surgery might end up an option I choose.

Weight-loss is NOT the cal-in/cal-out numbers game that some would like to simplify it.

There is a stigma in my small town associated with weight loss surgery. It is referred to as the "cheat surgery" and those who decide to get it are deemed slackers. And although it isn't really vocalized, it is highly insinuated that those who get the surgery are not only lazy but also ignorant. *They must not understand how detrimental it is to their body for surely if they understood, they wouldn't do it.* They are also considered users because a good portion of them use government funding of various sorts to pay for the surgery.
Most of those in this area who have had WLS don't come to my gym. When they do, I can hear other people banter behind their backs. They make fun of them and criticize them. Along with losing weight, they also lose a little bit of reputation.

But you know what, if they had remained obese, they probably would have been made fun of and criticized for being fat.

The after effects are kind of weird too. My sister and 4 of my good friends have had WLS. Out of the 5, 4 of them became really mean and conceited people afterward. I still remain friends with 1. The others became snobby, self-centered, and just as judgmental as the people who had insulted them. I was sad that I lost them as friends, but they didn't become "better" than me just because they lost the weight.

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This whole thing is a complicated topic because it is intertwined with issues of the media portrayal of beauty, economics, politics, reputation, self-image, healthcare, tolerance & acceptance, self-determinism, body integrity rights, social interaction, etc. etc. etc.

That's a lot of complex concepts to sort through.

I'm surprised anyone thinks they have it so figured out that they can offer one-liner opinions on the topic.