pingu

I am exactly the same as you. I can't tell my family, not my parents or my siblings. Telling one will mean they all know. They will think that it is the wrong decision because it will mean I can't eat a 'normal' meal again or have a 'big blow out' for Christmas or Birthdays etc. It won't matter when I tell them that I can't eat normally. I over eat and it is killing me slowly. The fact is they want me to lose weight as much as I do. They are as worried over my weight as I am. However, they think that I can diet and that is it. It is like they have memory loss and can't remember the times I have lost it and gained it back again with extra! I, like you, want to lose it and lose it forever. Never ever again to be over weight. I have excellent will power for quite a long time - I have dieted and lost lots of weight over months and months and months. However, I am only human and don't have life long will power, I need something to help me keep the weight off. I for one will not tell my family until months after I have it done. By that time I will be a lot lighter - although not at goal

I appologise if I am going on about this. It is just such a massive operation for me - I have never had a general anasthetic in my life. Also a huge amount of money! I am not one for fast food like MacDonalds or Kentucky, I am not even one for chips (US call them fries) or crisps (US call them chips). However, I may as well take shares out in Harebo or other jelly sweeties. I love chocolate too. I mainly eat very frequently and have lots of it. So I would have 4 slices of jam on toast for Breakfast, Harebo sweets for snack (big packet) mid morning, 2 cheese sandwiches for lunch plus a cake, more Harebo sweets, I will have high fat yoghurts for a snack and then have a cottage pie or curry (lots of mash potatoe adn rice) for dinner - plus eating chocolate with my husband whilst we watch TV at night. Acutally I just love love love bread and stodgy English dinners - love chili con carne too. Will the sleeve mean I can't eat the volume and stay fuller for longer. That way I should lose weight.

Yes I agree with the other response. If your skin over-stretches, no amount of cream or exercise will get it to 'snap back'. The exercise will tone the muscles under the skin but not the skin. Cream really doesn't work all that well. However, there is something to the suggestion of waiting 2 years - I would say 18 months, but hay ho. Sometimes the skin does take time to shrink back a bit. However, if you have loads of it hanging down, then it is unlikely to shrink back in 2 years. If you have lots of lose skin, you need to get it cut off or put up with it.

As I am a while away from the operation I have not had the neutricianist speak to me about what I can and can't eat on the diet and the importance of Protein etc. I eat rubbish now, but I eat healty food too. I love both in equal measure. I would be just as happy with a punnet of strawberries or blueberries as with a bag of crisps or chocolate bar. Shame the fruit is far more expensive than the junk food! I guess I am hoping that if I get the urge (mentally) to eat, that I can eat the healthier option first which will hopefully fill me up and then I won't want to eat the junk as I will be full. I have no idea if it works that way or not though.

Hello. I am new to this forum. I am booked to have my Vertical Sleeve in Manchester, England, on 12th August. I am concerned about complications, however, my greatest concern is that I will fail at keeping any weight loss off in the long term (life time). I am 5 foot 9 inches and weigh 21 1/2 stone (about 300 lbs). This is the biggest I have ever been. However, over the past 15 years I have lost 70-85lbs and then regained it all at least 4 times! It takes me 6 months to lose the weight and 4 months to put it all back on. Experience tells me I don't have the ability to lose weight and keep it off. I just don't have the will power. I use food as a comfort for even the minor daily difficulties we all face. I know that I will lose weight after the operation, but don't know if it will keep my weight reasonable for the rest of my life. We are paying for the operation at £10,000 and my husband has begun to ask me if I should actually have the Gastric Bypass operation instead to give my weight loss a long term fighting chance. I am supposed to be 170lbs but I would settle for 200lbs. I'm tall and can carry the weight and know that at that weight I can still do all the things that I would like to do in life. Have any of you considered the ByPass over the Sleeve on the basis of long term success?

Another thing - Pavarotti once lost 6 stone and nobody noticed!

Hello. I am new here and this is my first post. I am booked to have the vertical sleep op on 12th August this year. What I have discovered in UK sizes is that the difference between a UK 10 and UK 12 may only be 1 or 2 inches. However, the difference between a UK 22 and UK 24 is 3 or 4 inches. Therefore, to drop a clothes size in the larger sizes, you have to lose a lot more weight than to drop a clothes size in the smaller sizes. I could never understand how celebs would say, "oh I have put on 5lbs and can't fit into my clothes". If I put on 5lbs there wasn't any difference in my clothes.