<p>I know two people that died shortly after the surgery. One was 7-8 years ago, so was probably another procedure, but one was 2 years ago. That surgery was done at Walter Reed.</p>
<p>If you are hungry all the time, I would get a complete work up.
Not being able to intrepret body cues, sounds like a psychological problem, and you may be helped with antidepressants to manage stress & compulsive behavior.
I’d also consult with a nutritionist if you haven’t already done so.</p>
<p>Less drastic fix than removing parts of your organs.
;)</p>
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<p>It can also be purely physiological. </p>
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<p>There is a video called Fathead, which among other things, does a great job explaining and visually illustrating how overconsumption of refined and simple carbs leads to insulin resistance and constant hunger. You can watch it on Hulu. It’s also entertaining as it was produced by a pretty funny guy.</p>
<p>*It can also be purely physiological. *</p>
<p>Which is why I recommended a complete work up as well as a nutritionist.</p>
<p>I had a period of time when I " felt hungry" all the time. It was also a very low place in my life & marriage. I was trying to finish school so I could get a good job, but my H was very threatened ( even though he thought he was supportive)
He acted jealous and started a fight whenever it was time for class, so I cut off my hair & gained weight. ( it didnt really help, cause he was still jealous plus then I didnt like the way I looked or felt)
I needed constant spikes in blood sugar to have any energy at all.
I ate cause I was bored, cause I was sad, cause I was lonely or because I was anxious.
Eating calmed me, it was a ritual.
Anti depressants in my case helped me deal with lack of energy, and aerobic & strenght building exercise helped me build stamina & reduce my appetite.
( I haven’t needed anti depressants for years)
I lost 70 lbs just by increasing exercise and eating better quality food but I want to stress I didn’t diet & I never count calories. :p( also drinking more water- improves digestion)</p>
<p>Perhaps you’ve already done these things, IDK- but its worth trying everything before body modification surgery, I think.
[Precision</a> Nutrition » All About Appetite Regulation, Part 2](<a href=“http://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/all-about-appetite-2]Precision”>http://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/all-about-appetite-2)</p>
<p>SIL has the major gastric bypass surgery–she almost died. She had to go back into the hospital and have the whole thing reversed. I don’t want to go into details, but after the surgery–anything that went down, came back up almost like bile. Absolutely horrendous!</p>
<p>pugmadkate, you’re going to have to go through psychological evaluation phase before the procedure. A psychologist has to sign off on the procedure before you will be allowed to have it.</p>
<p>In my experience, unless one is psychologically committed to changing one’s lifestyle and eating habits, the weight will come back.</p>
<p>Try seriously committing to changing your life for one full year. Keep a food log which includes your feelings before and after eating. Go to counseling every week. Only bring into the house food that fits into your diet. Do not eat out. Totally eliminate soda and sweet drinks-----only drink water, unsweetened tea, eat fruit. Buy smaller plates for your home and serve meals on them. We eat with our eyes before we eat with our mouths. I’m sure you know all of this, but it’s a matter of sticking to a plan almost to an OCD level.</p>
<p>First, get a complete physical.
Speak with your doctor about a plan for weight loss.
Go to a nutritionist who will help you set up a menu.
Attend weekly mental health counseling.
See your doctor once a month while sticking to your one year plan. The weigh ins and blood pressure checks will be a sign of progress and help to motivate.
Weigh yourself every day.
Exercise.</p>
<p>Remember that it will take time to see and feel results. It took years to put the weight on. It’s going to take years to take the weight off. There is no easy way to do it.</p>
<p>Try being totally disciplined to a one year change of life and see how that goes before trying surgery.</p>
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<p>At first however- when I increased weight training and interval aerobic exercise, I did see changes right away, not so much with weight * loss* but my clothes fit much better.
But it does get discouraging when it slows down or plateaus. Remember that its a lifestyle change- weight loss is only one benefit.
I was already eating a good diet, so I had to ramp it up more- heavier weights & a little longer with my aerobic intervals. I had music to motivate me, but I also found I was getting competitive with the other people at the club. :o</p>
<p>Come over to the exercise & nutrition thread- interesteddad & MOWC may have a routine that I am not even going to attempt ;, but there are also folks like me who are starting out after TKR at only being able to walk a few blocks at a time. With crutches.</p>
<p>Dont give up trying to get healthier, its worth it!
:)</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>
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<p>God bless you for saying that. It’s so hard to find folks who are sympathetic to our struggles.</p>
<p>Lots of new info out about how your gut’s bacteria affects mood, thought, hunger etc… I believe you can change your gut bacteria for the better by taking priobiotics, cutting out sugar, lower carbs, lots of veggies. It’s something I should do!!!</p>
<p>Probiotics can change even your mood!
[Gut</a> microbiome, obesity, and metabolic dysfunction](<a href=“http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3104783/]Gut”>Gut microbiome, obesity, and metabolic dysfunction - PMC)</p>
<p>I also want to suggest reading up on “mindful eating”. This concept has helped me tremendously. Basic tenets are to eat slowly - savor and enjoy your food - and eating slowly helps your body register that you are full. Eat sitting down, from a plate and without tv or other distractions. If you are someone who overeats - eats mindlessly/compulsively - this topic will help.</p>
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<p>There is no way I could have lost weight if it had been up to willpower, because I don’t have any. We are driven by physiology and even the behavioral/psychological aspects are often just learned responses to the underlying physiology.</p>
<p>It’s easy for a non-smoker to say that a smoker should just use “willpower” to quit, but the non-smoker has no clue how strong the physiological drive of nicotine drug addiction is. Actually, smokers don’t either. They think they “enjoy” smoking when what they really enjoy is the relief that comes when the puff of nicotine hits their brain and stops the developing drug withdrawal symptoms after an hour with a dose. So the only “easy” way to quit smoking is to get the nicotine out of the system, endure the withdrawal, so you have a prayer of quitting without the drug addiction constantly undermining the effort.</p>
<p>Likewise with obesity. There are physiological/hormonal drivers. Trying to “starve” yourself with willpower is nearly impossible when the body is being driven to store fat. On the other hand, if you can make changes that make the body less likely to store fat and more likely to release stored fat and burn it, then all the sudden you can eat less and not be hungry.</p>
<p>Robert Lustig explains a key mechanism in a couple minutes of this video series on obesity from the University of California San Francisco medical school:</p>
<p>[The</a> Skinny on Obesity (Ep. 3): Hunger and Hormones- A Vicious Cycle - YouTube](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Yo3TRbkIrow#t=146s]The”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Yo3TRbkIrow#t=146s)</p>
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<p>OMG, my husband did the exact same thing! He would especially start a fight right as I was leaving to go take an exam. I didn’t gain weight, but I was determined to “show him” I could not only do it, I could do it spectacularly by graduating with a 4.0. I did it, but my hair was falling out in handfuls (had a toddler and a baby at home, too), I got scary skinny, I was on the verge of a breakdown, and resented him with every cell in my body. He also was delusional enough to think he was supportive until I told him I was graduating IN SPITE of him instead of because of him and asked my grandmother (also a nurse) to pin me at my ceremony instead of my H. </p>
<p>He had to do a lot of soul searching to realize what he’d put me through and has been great ever since. </p>
<p>You’re right, stress and anguish can certainly have its physical effects. I got just a little ticked off just then even thinking back to that.</p>
<p>Ok, deep cleansing breath…:o</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>You’ve described the manmade phenomenom that we have done to ourselves. Processed foods, lots of “bad” carbs…the weight gain epidemic and the diabetes type II diabetes of America parallels the availability of these addictive foods. They are addictive because they are full of salt and/or sugar and refined wheat,not to mention corn syrup. So, what you say is correct. Stop eating junk food that has no nutritional value. Indeed, as the body develops insulin resistance as the body tries desperately to process all the glucose, then one is in real trouble on a short path to diabetes. It’s extremely unfortunate that it has come to having to rearrange a person’s G.I. tract in order to get them to stop eating crap food.<br>
I’m like you. I’d rather give up the horrid food. My favorite food on earth is a good bread. Alas, I only eat the highest fiber, healthiest bread I can find now and then only once or twice a week.
I work out three times a week, cardio plus weights. This is a creation of the exercise I need that my forefathers got by toiling the fields, or swinging an anvil or working on a factory line, and walking nearly everywhere they went, etc. etc. Cleaning house, hand scrubbing and hanging out clothes, beating rugs, scrubbing floors.
And yet, I’m still fat. LOL. But at least I’m trying.</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>Same here. I am at an age where it’s about health and a fabulous rest of my life than it is about looks and/or clothes. Admittedly, those are wonderful side effects. But I want to be strong and healthy. Everyday I see people in their 40’s and 50’s in terrible health and a lot of it is due to lifestyle. Many people have chronic illnesses due to no fault of their own, just the luck of the gene pool. I am blessed with abundent basic good health and I realize I have to stop abusing it by overeating and overdrinking the wrong foods.</p>
<p>Tangent to the discussion here but it is still about surgery and weight loss.</p>
<p>This spring, I had a surgery to remove my gallbladder. In the following weeks, my abdomen was full of liquid (mostly water?) and was like a balloon filled with water. I gained 30 pounds because of this liquid in my abdomen. The operation apparently did not go well. After several weeks of disgnostics, the surgeon had another surgery on me. The 30 pounds of liquid were eliminated. But there were still infections which were the complication from the first surgery. However, after the second operation, my weight kept dropping because all the antibiotics killed my appetite.</p>
<p>Right now, my weight is about 20 pounds less my normal weight. I have a hard time in getting back to my normal weight. (I am not overweight before the surgery.)</p>
<p>My point is that when a surgeon opens up your body to fix whatever problems you had or newly introduced multiple times, he tends to make you lose weight by accident (if you survive all these operations.)</p>
<p>I won’t comment on whether you should have the surgery or not, it’s a deeply personal decision and having struggled with a eating disorder nearly all my life (from too thin to overweight back and forth over and over again), I know what it’s like to not be able to ‘control’ one’s thoughts and eating patterns just from sheer willpower. And, yep, it runs rampant in my immediate family…every single one of us. One sibling has gone from being overweight all her life into a full fledged anorexic stage at age 50. It’s so very complicated.</p>
<p>I’ve know several people (including a brother) who have either had the lap band or the bypass surgery. The best piece of advice I can give you is look for a Bariatric Center of Excellence (particularly a certified physician). There are very stringent requirements in order to be certified. </p>
<p>In addition, the people with the most success undergo mandatory counseling * for months * before the surgery (including group therapy and nutritional training) and months after the surgery. The one’s I’ve known who have done well have lost the weight slowly. Unfortunately,you can learn to work your new stomach in order to overeat, so it’s important to change your eating habits at the same time.</p>
<p>Interesting about the alcohol issue. My brother has gained back a large part of his weight and it seems to be due to drinking a lot. He also seems to be using way too many painkillers (that he’s gotten from a doctor). I need to look into that. I didn’t realize there was a connection.</p>
<p>EK4: I am hungry all the time. A complete physiologic workup has revealed no issues at all. </p>
<p>However, a nutritionist pointed out to me that, evolutionarily speaking, we evolved to be hungry all the time. Of course we are always ready to eat; food is not (normally) always available. It’s only in the last fifty years or so that humans could routinely find enough food easily, and only in some places.</p>
<p>Once I thought of it that way, I stopped thinking of being hungry as a bad thing. It’s a GOOD thing. It means I’m a healthy normal human being. And I can wait to eat. And when I eat I can choose to eat good food.</p>
<p>Commercial food (which I define for myself as any food with an ingredient list that has more than one ingredient) is designed to be addictive. Fats, sugars, and salt are all calibrated to maximize the number of people who are addictive at minimum cost. If you stop eating commercial food AT ALL and start cooking for yourself from real foods, it becomes much easier to eat well.</p>
<p>* Commercial food (which I define for myself as any food with an ingredient list that has more than one ingredient) is designed to be addictive. Fats, sugars, and salt are all calibrated to maximize the number of people who are addictive at minimum cost. *</p>
<p>Bingo! Contrary to popular belief, it’s not that we’ve suddenly developed into a nation of gluttonous sloths. People didn’t need to go to gyms and run everyday to stay thin when I was a child. In fact, when you saw someone running down the street, you thought they were weird. There are definitely more incentives to be less active these days (video games, TV, etc) but there’s always been people who were less active and yet still thin. </p>
<p>It’s the food supply, IMHO and some people are simply more prone to become addicted to it, just like some people are more prone to become more addicted to alcohol and drugs. The biggest difference is the food industry has invested billions into figuring out how to keep people eating more than they need. And they’ve done a darn good job of it.</p>
<p>One of the best pieces of advice I have heard is * if it has a label or more than one ingredient, you shouldn’t eat it’. *</p>
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<p>I’ve also heard “If your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize it as food, don’t eat it.” You mean there is no such thing as a Cheeto tree? :eek"</p>
<p>I believe that is one of Michael Pollan’s “Food Rules.”</p>
<p>More succinctly-- Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
(from “In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto”)</p>