I am heavily considering a gastric sleeve, BUT I'm upset with myself for not being able to "watch" what I eat or go on a protein shake diet for months to lose the weight. Does anyone else struggle with the permanent changes to your innerds?

You should be scared, it means you are taking this seriously. If you think you can do it by a liquid diet and then transition into healthy eating you should give that a good shot.

I'm 54, I have been fat my whole life and never lost more than 70 lbs and never kept it off. For the last 4 years it has been almost impossible for me to lose and I was gaining at times when I was not overeating.

I AM ashamed at myself that it had to come to this but I figured I have been dieting for 43 years and I would have done it by now if I could have.

If you arent sure you have given it your all then give it one more BIG SERIOUS try. This is hard, the last month for me has been miserable but now I am hoping things will get better.

I think most of us feel guilt and shame, but fact of the matter is that 95% of people who lose, gain it back...plus some. I finally realized I was not in that 5% so it was either make peace with my size or surgery, (which is the one thing shown to make inroads into battling obesity). Also, it's not like you get surgery and get to do whatever you want. Trust us there is still lots of work to do, but the sleeve is a tool making the motivation and work so much easier (I'm hoping, only one week out). You can still take pride afterwards in watching what you are eating.

and it's 80% to 85% of your stomach.

I'm sorry to say, but you're wrong Arts, my surgeon did remove 60% of my stomach