setoo

/edit misread something
Sorry, but I think it is ridiculous to say that said foods are the cause of weiht gain or even calling them "absolutely not healthy". They are completely fine and healthy foods and have been a staple for hundreds of years, so yeah, I have to disagree.
Which does not mean one should not add veggies or meat to them, that would be even better. But said foods are not inherently bad, even though people love to make some foods the "enemy". Sorry if that comes off as being a bit harsh, but I really think that advice like this is dangerous.


P.S.
I made long post adressing other posts on the site before, just at the end, in case that has gotten under the radar. Thanks everyone for chiming in! It's a great discussion!

@Creekimp13
You make great points and I could not agree more!
I too see the danger in putting post-op folks on these rigidly low calorie and Protein dominant diets, which just don't seem like a good idea to me. Doctors have put obese people on exactly the same diets already(who had no surgery), there is tons of studies on that. While all of these obese people lost weight, they mostly regained it back and it did do no good things for their metabolism. (google for "very low calorie diets" or "vlcd", and you will find a lot of information, for anyone interested).
So why would one think it is a good idea to put people who had a gastric sleeve on that diet? They might do fine for some time, also lose weight at a fast pace. But really looking at it, this can't be healthy no? And I also do not think this is a "healthy, normal" diet, not at all.
Just to emphasize your point!
I also agree that people who lost 100% EWL are the minority. There seems to be no data that shows these people are in any way common or the norm.
@Introversion
Your post regarding people regaining weight after the "hooneymoon phase" because they did not adopt healthy habits does seem quite speculative. The parts with the genetics also. Could you provide some data or information on that? I'm curious!

Regarding the studies, like @Creekimp13 pointed out, they do not cluster everyone together. So yes, most people are actually at those numbers of regain or EWL for example.
@Xerox
I feel like you lean heavily towards people making "bad choices" or not forming "healthy habits" to be main reason for the weight regain. I do not think that's true. While I agree that healthy choices and awareness in general does help, it does not justify the regain in my opinion.
Let's apply your logic to some person that had no WLS surgery at all:
They are starting to eat "healthy" aka protein and veggies (this seems to be definition of healthy around WLS surgergies forums). They lose tons of weight, but say, after a year, they just can't do this anymore. They are not happy with this, their body is also fighting this. So they give up, because they simply do not feel good doing this.
So you could say these people have failed, because they have decided to go back to "bad choices". If that is the case, then everybody who does not maintain a great weight loss via eating a rigid diet (which is 99% of the population) is just making bad choices? That does not sound reasonable to me , at all and I think many of us can agree, by having experienced the said scenario.
@summerset
You speak my mind! Thank you for your wonderful posts on this topic, everything you said resonates with me and I also learned new things.
Like you said, one should strive for the sustainable middle ground. It often seems to me that people get kind of fanatic after these surgeries, because they HAVE to make them work. Meaning they will adhere to rigid restrictive diets and exercise, just to make it work. Guys, did we not go through all of this already via dieting, workouts and suffering because of these? This does not seem to be the way to a content life, nor to a happy and normal relationship with eating and exercise.
Awesome to have your insight on this, after 17 years (damn!), that's a long time and I really appreciate you chiming in on this topic.
______
What I'm proposing:
The gastric sleeve surgery does indeed work for weight loss, but with having the expectation to lose 100% of the excess weight, you will set yourself up for quite some disappointment. It's more realistic to have lost around 50 or 60% of excess weight. Pretty much every study confirms this. In my opinion this is still a wonderful thing.
Why not use this tool that was given to us and work with it, instead of trying to force some result which the body is not agreeing with?
Rather just have the surgery and eat the way your body signals you to. Think twice about labeling food as "bad". Rice is not bad, bread is not bad, potatoes are not bad either. These are staple foods of humanity, with which most people are doing wonderfully on. I would go as far as saying that just eating lean protein and veggies is actually unhealthy. I know, it's healthier than the food that is eaten when one is obese, but why go from one extreme to the other?
I just want to provoke some thought regarding all of this "I have to eat like that and exercise like this, eat that many calories and not more". Why should we do that? Why not actually LISTEN to what our body is telling us, accepting and working with that? Because everything else seems to be unsustainable in the long term.