N0VA

There are a lot of myths being perpetuated on this thread. To be fair a lot of them are perpetuated by doctors who find it simpler to give axioms or simplifications rather than explain complexities.

First of all, sliders aren't things that form a slurry and slide through. All food forms a slurry when chewed and combined with juices (stomach acid).

Sliders are foods that don't have much substance to them and thus when chewed sorta dissolve away. Think of which foods you can crush down to nothing WITHOUT eating them. Crackers, chips, toasted bread, crisp Cookies etc.

Some other foods behave like sliders because they don't stay in your stomach--most of those are liquid to begin with like broth.

There are other foods that behave that way on a case by case basis, but a lot of the things listed here--donuts, cupcakes, bread in general, do NOT slide right through. Neither do they swell up in your stomach. The feeling you get that makes it seem like swelling is from the gluten Proteins becoming Gummy. Ball up some white bread outside of your stomach and you will see what I mean.

As for why or whether there is a honeymoon period of a year or a regain starting at 3 years... yes there is some observable data there. But is it because we reach our new set point and losing beyond that is harder or is it a time window... we don't KNOW. The best obesity researchers don't Know.

I'm four years out and maintaining well but I can't pretend to be an expert on anything except MY experience. I lost 136lbs and can easily maintain 115 of that. The last 20lbs are a pain in the butt! But you know what, that's NORMAL. I'm 47 years old. What normal 47 year old woman doesn't struggle with 20 lbs or so. Am I a failure? No. Heck I don't even consider that regain. Do I even care? Most of the time, no! That half a donut or three cups of kettle corn at the Father's Day car show sometimes mean more to me than those 20lbs. Other times I buckle down and drop them. It's all good.

Have I reframed my relationship with food, yeah. Do I still have a cookie in times of anger or stress or frustration, you bet I do, but I know it's an anger cookie. And you know what, my sleeve stops my from that cookie turning into 2 or 3 or a dozen just as much as my mind does.

We are all in this together and until we've walked in each other's shoes all we can speak to is our own experience and there is no universal.

That said, newbies should probably stick to their docs program and not believe they can listen to their bodies instead... listening to our bodies got us all obese. We picked our surgeons for their expertise. Why trust someone to cut you open but then not trust their dietary advice?!?!

WLS can be a tool that can help you lose weight, maintain a healthy weight, and improve your quality of life, but you have to put in the hard work to be successful long-term. While you can (and probably should) work closely with a psychologist and a nutritionist, it ultimately comes down to you doing what you need to do to be successful. And you must make a commitment to this become a lifestyle change. People bat those terms around all of the time, but it is true. The people on here that do not reach their goal or that regain all their weight later never changed their relationship with food, depended on the "honeymoon period" to do what they did do, and more or less were seeking to "eat normally, but just less" (which is a fallacy, in my opinion).
The question you have to ask yourself is this: Am I prepared to change my life to ensure my success? If yes, then WLS is for you; if no, you might lose a little weight, but you'll never get where you want to be.

i'd be interested to know the difference if you find out.
best of luck to you! i'm still very curious about the mini so please keep us updated. and while reflux can be a problem, the rate is low and getting lower, so it is still unlikely that you'll suffer from it. i didn't want to scare you. odds are you will have great success.

when i made the decision to get bariatric surgery, i knew i didn't want the VSG but i was unsure between the RNY or the mini-bypass. after all, the mini-bypass offers as good if not better weight loss results (about 5%) with a shorter operating time.
there are two prominent surgeons who perform this procedure. one is Dr. Rutledge (Arizona i think) and Dr. Hargroder in Missouri. i went thru Hargroder's online seminars and stuff and was sure i was going to make the trip to Joplin, MO to do the surgery.
but i wanted to meet with my local bariatric office (center of excellence) to hear his opinion on bariatric options and most importantly, why they don't offer the mini-bypass. my surgeon is the director of the medical group who has done over 3,000 bariatric surgeries. he said that the mini-bypass was the original bariatric surgery back in the 60's and 70's! however, the RNY was developed from the mini-bypass specifically to avoid the mini's biggest complication - reflux/GERD. it is a not-rare complication from the mini that develops because the anastomosis connects the small intestines (with digestive juices) straight to the bottom of the new stomach pouch. so that's why it's easy for bile and other digestive juices to go the wrong way - up the pouch and into your esophagus. the RNY technique avoids this by creating a "roux limb" so that the pouch is not connected straight to digestive juices.
as soon as he said that, i realized RNY was the better procedure. he said so what if the mini gives you 5% more weight loss on average if you then suffer from major acid reflux? he said if i lose 150lbs, i'll be over the moon happy with no chance of acid reflux, and the last thing that will happen is me wishing i lost 157lbs.
he also said he's had to reverse a good number of mini-bypasses because of the acid reflux problem. he said it can be truly horrific, that one time he did an endoscopy and one patient's esophagus looked like raw hamburger meat.
he said if they ever "solve" that issue, they might look into it again, but the risk/reward just isn't worth it. that's also why it's not an approved surgery by the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.
not to mention that my support team would be half-way across the country in Joplin, MO. i'm so much more comfortable with my team and hospital 30 minutes down the road. that's an important aspect.

The mini is also called an Omega Loop. It's not frequently done in the US. Before making a final decision, if you were to need help after going back home, who would help? What is their expertise? Personally my local surgeons do the RNY and sleeve, so I made my choice between those.

Thanks for your perspective, Berry! I really hadn't thought of it that way. I do live in a very large metropolitan area so there are a few people who do the procedure near me from what I've found. I think it was really smart to make your decision based on that. Another reassuring thing for me is that I don't live very far from Mexico (where I'm getting my surgery done).
Now that you've made me aware of another name for the procedure, I was able to find more useful information and I feel a little more comfortable with the idea.
Its very strange.. I've been looking into WLS for the past 4 years and felt like I knew all of my options.