<p>One of my best friends had lap band surgery, and a second more casual friend had surgery, but I don’t know which one.</p>
<p>Both have kept the weight (over 100 pounds each and close to 200 for my best friend) for more than two years. They are both more energetic, more active and much happier. Both told me that one of the best things they have ever done was to join and actively participate in the support groups run by their doctors even though they are both very shy and private people. So if that is something that is available to you, it might be worth trying.</p>
<p>On the downside, both developed very, very serious anemia that must be constantly monitored and treated. Which isn’t the worst thing in the world, but they didn’t expect how big of a deal it would be in their overall lives.</p>
<p>My husband is considering surgery, so I know how difficult a decision it is and I wish you the very best as you make your choice.</p>
<p>Thank you all for sharing your experiences and your kind words of support.</p>
<p>abasket, I’m pretty much an “all of the above” kind of gal. If there is a way to lose weight, I’ve tried it…and failed. Which I think has become part of the issue. I’m so demoralized at this point. Plus, watching my father and his siblings lose and gain the same 50 pounds over and over again through out their lives has colored my view as well.</p>
<p>I’ve got a lot to think about. Thanks for all the help.</p>
<p>I have a friend who is scheduled to have the surgery next month - I’m pretty sure it is the same one you are considering. One of the interesting things she was told during her counseling sessions in preparation for the surgery was that the people who tend to drink their calories (think giant sodas, sweet coffee drinks, etc.) are often the ones who gain back the weight they lose. The other very odd common factor for “failure” is Cheetos! Apparently they are super addictive and squish down to almost nothing in the stomach so people can still eat lots of them after surgery - low bulk, high fat. My friend is one of those people who really does like healthy foods but just eats too much. I am hopeful for her but also very concerned.</p>
<p>OP, thanks for starting this thread and everyone for sharing. Like many others, I have also been over weight for the past 20 or so years (after quitting smoking).</p>
<p>I can’t remember how many times I have lost the weight and then found them plus extra back. For the latest round, I was done almost 60 lbs at one point. Successfully ran a 1/2 marathon in abover average time. But since then, my weight is coming back up.</p>
<p>I don’t have the will power to continue with rigarous physical activities. So I am thinking about some sort of procedures.</p>
<p>There is one type of bariatric surgery that appears to be producing better fat loss results. I think it’s the one where they surgically tie off most of the stomach and bypass the entire stomach and upper intestine, dumping the food directly into the middle of the small intestine. </p>
<p>There is some hypothesis that this one is producing good fat loss results because it makes it nearly impossilble to eat carbohydrates (for digestive reasons). That being the case, I think I would rather skip the major abdominal surgery and just stop eating the carbs.</p>
<p>I think that the bariatric surgery will become very common and more and more the standard treatment of obesity. As soon as insurance/Medicare covers the cost, it will be a revenue stream for the health care industry that no other fat loss treatment has proven to be (no drug treatments of any note) and the standard advice (eat less, exercise more, low fat, yadda yadda) has been a comprehensive and total failure.</p>
<p>My personal opinion is that I would be very very very hesitant about this surgery. There just isn’t enough long term data to see what really happens.</p>
<p>pugmadkate - before you consider surgery - try one more effort at old-fashioned diet and exercise. Like many people - I have been a yo-yo dieter my entire life. I have been concerned about my weight since I was 8 years old! A few months ago - I hit my all-time high weight and was absolutely miserable. My hip hurt, none of my clothes fit and I hated my appearance. Since then - I have lost close to 30 pounds. I feel better - I look better - and for the first time ever - I am doing it in a very sensible, mellow fashion - and I really think this is going to be it and I will keep the weight off. The various surgical options all seem to come with considerable risks and side effects - before you do something that drastic - try a good food/exercise plan first.</p>
<p>I have known 5 people that have had some form of the surgery. 3 were great successes–1 so-so and 1 failure. The failure was due to returning to bad food choice habits (quality and quantity) and returning to smoking. She had some complications. The other 4 have not had complications and say it was the best thing they’ve ever done for themselves. They began and continue an exercise regimen. One did have the skin reduction surgery, which I think is more or less a standard tummy tuck.</p>
<p>I have known two as patients, but don’t know the specific procedures. One came to me for mental health clearance. She has lost at least 100 pounds and kept it off, but has had repeated GI bleeding and needed many transfusions with no end in sight. The other patient has dropped out of treamtment with me, but also had very striking weight loss, but also some very serious complications the last time I saw him. A third person I knew of died. A co worker also had some form of this surgery, and while I did not know her before, she looks great. Those who knew her prior said she was not tremendously overweight before the surgery.</p>
<p>Forgive my ignorance - if I understand correctly, when you have this surgery you will be limited on the types of food you can eat, you will decrease your amount of intake and you will have to start and maintain an exercise routine. That seems to be what I know from the person I know who had surgery and from reading here.</p>
<p>You must do those things to really have success post surgery. Correct?</p>
<p>If so, then why not adopt those habits without surgery??? I know its easy to say that, but my point being, WITH surgery you will still have much work to be done to change your lifestyle. It might take longer, but how much healthier (and without much risk) would doing it more naturally be?</p>
<p>I did think of an acquaintance who had gastric bypass surgery. She lost over 100 lbs., but it seems to me that she has gained it all back. I know that one of her closest family members was very concerned about her drinking at some point afterwards, but I have no idea whether this drinking problem was a change for her or something that had been brewing long before the surgery.</p>
<p>abaset, I guess that is what I don’t understand. After the surgery you can’t eat the way you did before so why not start eating like you have had the surgery? I know that is easier said than done, but perhaps nutrition counseling and support might help someone who has a food addiction. In our area they require many weight loss surgery candidates to go on a liquid diet for a couple weeks or they require that the surgery patients lose 20-30 pounds before they will perform the surgery and I always wondered if the patients had to lose weight before the surgery to get the surgery why they couldn’t just continue on that particular weight loss regimen, but I guess if you haven’t walked in someone’s shoes…I had not heard about the alcohol issues. And I guess if you are a candidate for surgery, the risks of the surgery are far less than the risks of death from being morbidly obese. Best of everything OP whichever path you choose.</p>
It’s the instant biofeedback loop that’s different. With the surgery one simply can’t physically eat a lot in one sitting (at first anyway but this can change as the body adapts for some procedures). The limitation of food changes from a voluntary limitation to a physical limitation. I’ve read that some obese people actually are missing the ‘feeling full’ function, an actual physical trigger to the brain to stop eating, which can contribute to them overeating and becoming overweight. It must be tough for these people and is one of the reasons people without this physical issue have a hard time understanding why someone else has the eating patterns they do.</p>
<p>
I don’t think it’s a simple answer. There’s a difference between someone who’s overweight who fits the definition of morbidly obese and someone who’s a hundred or several hundred pounds above that point. As the anecdotes on this thread, including mine for some people I know, indicate, the surgery has risks and can have complications and lifelong consequences. This is major surgery to the gastrointestinal system - not cosmetic. </p>
<p>People considering this surgery need to really think this one through, do their research with a discriminating eye, be cognizant of the long term effects, and be cognizant of the fact that the weight returns for a significant number of the people several years down the road since the body isn’t static and adapts and when eating choices don’t change, it has a chance of coming back.</p>
<p>I’d have to be truly desperate before I’d be willing to do a surgery like this because of the radical change it makes to the body function. Before going under the knife I’d make a bigger commitment, bigger than ever before in my life, to following a reasonable diet and exercise plan (nothing radical since they generally don’t work long term).</p>
<p>Part of the surgery I am considering involves removing the portion of the stomach which produces ghrelin, a hormone that stimulates hunger, thus restricting appetite for food.</p>
<p>I am hungry all of the time. I know that sounds odd but it’s true. The only time I’m not hungry is when I’m eating. So the fact that at least one hormone that stimulates hunger will be removed is very appealing to me. </p>
<p>If I could eat as though I’d had the surgery, I would but I simply, well, lack the will power. It sound so easy to do. I don’t know why it’s so hard. It’s embarrassing to have gotten to this point. I just don’t know where to turn anymore. The very worst part is knowing what a bad example I’m setting for my son. That part just kills me. Luckily, he is a fit and healthy young man so far. </p>
<p>The biggest injustice done by the conventional wisdom and health policy advice on obesity is that it’s all a matter of will power, thus hanging the guilt of “moral failing” on those of us lacking in this magical “will power”.</p>
<p>The reality is that very few people can lose weight by will power (i.e. starvation) and keep it off over the long haul. A much better approach would be to consider the hormonal physiological drivers of fat storage and steps that could be taken to change the hormonal drivers to favor fat burning instead of fat storage.</p>
<p>The current “fat loss” dietary recommendations in the US are a complete, unmitigated disaster. It’s really quite breathtaking really… telling obese people to eat more of the most fattening foods.</p>
<p>p3t, I can relate to your friend who says she can’t see the difference in the mirror. I can tell I’ve lost in the clothes I wear, but when it’s me in my undies in front of the mirror, I don’t see a difference. It is hard work to face down the demons that drive the eating and self-image issues, and I expect I will battle it the rest of my life.</p>
<p>I think about food as soon as I wake up in the am and All.Day.Long. Am still trying to find a balance that satisfies me and meets the strict limits for my cardio issues.</p>
<p>pugmadkate, my mom is bedridden due to her weight and its complications. She’s probably 100-150 over my highest weight. I have a younger sister who used to be thin but is now in the morbidly obese category (and has lots of health issues as a result, too). I blamed myself for a lack of willpower for so many years, but there was also a genetic component that I denied until it bit me in the butt. </p>
<p>I found out late in the game that some docs will use Metformin (a Type 2 diabetes drug) to help with weight loss. If you had polycystic ovarian syndrome, going on Metformin is pretty common these days now that the docs figured out the link between PCOS and diabetes and the constant struggle for many PCOS patients to maintain a healthy weight.</p>
<p>There is a wealth of information coming out on the ‘second brain’ the gut biome. There seems to be a very tight link between the intestinal flora and our mental and physical well being. The current data points toward identifiable differences in the gut biome of normal weight and obese individuals. </p>
<p>I have not had to struggle with weight issues but am loving close to individuals who do. It is clear to me it’s not a matter of simple will power…something is different physiologically. It may be worth a ‘google’.</p>
<p>Metformin improves insulin sensitivity and, therefore, probably helps slow the progression of “metabolic syndrome” and all of the components. Backing off on the carbs and exercise (especially high intensity exercise) also increase insulin sensitivity. There are several hormones that play a role in hunger and metabolism and energy storage/burning, but insulin seems to be the granddaddy – or, at the very least, the one that we can exert some control over. Leptin is integral as well, but has proven to be difficult to influence in any practical way. Insulin levels, however, can be decreased or increased just by changing what you eat.</p>
<p>My SIL had it, as well as her parents (the sleeve). It has been FANTASTIC for her and her dad, especially. She looks marvelous, it’s been a little over a year. Her dad looks like a whole different person, it’s been about 2 years for him. Her mom looks great, but the change is not as dramatic, and it’s been about 2 years for her as well.</p>
<p>She seems happier, healthier, and again, she looks great.</p>
<p>If you want longterm change…well, how much money will you have to pay for the surgery? How much does a residential weightloss treatment cost? I am curious?</p>