1. If you think it is a magic bullet.

Bariatric surgery is not a magic bullet. It will help you lose weight but the responsibility is on you to keep going and maintain that loss. Regaining all of the lost weight is very possible and not even that uncommon.

People who do not commit to a healthy lifestyle after the surgery are highly vulnerable to regain. Unlike diets, regain with surgery is delayed. On a diet people usually gain weight back within a few weeks or months. With surgery, people won’t begin to regain the weight until 18 months to 2 years. People who feel like surgery is a magic bullet will not be prepared for the commitment and will end up on the road to failure.

2. If you think it will be easy.

Bariatric surgery involves an extensive process of nutrition counseling, temporary liquid diets, and pre- and post-surgery meetings and preparations. Most clinics will ask that you lose some weight before the surgery, start on a special diet, and exercise. If you find a clinic that does not ask you to go through multiple steps like this you should find a new clinic. A good clinic will prepare you for success by giving you the right nutrition, behavioral, and exercise support before and after surgery. If you view these steps as a hassle, then you are not in the right mindset for surgery and will be at high risk of weight regain in the long run.

3. If it is in the back of your mind that if it doesn’t work you will just try it again.

Even though people like Carnie Wilson had a second surgery, keep in mind that most people do not. Some surgeons will not want to do a second surgery for you. In fact, they may lose hope in you. Surgeons want to set you up for success. They might not want to take the risk of an additional surgery unless they are very sure you did not squander the results of the first surgery with a blatantly unhealthy lifestyle. Surgery is an intensive and invasive process, only plan to do it once.

4. You Haven’t Truly Made Committed Attempts to Lose Weight.

One of the criteria to be eligible for surgery is that you have had numerous failed weight loss attempts. Nearly everyone on the planet meets this criterion, right?! Well, no. If you can’t honestly say that you put your heart and soul into previous weight loss attempts, then you aren’t really meeting this criterion. If your reason for not losing weight in previous attempts was because you were too busy or stressed out to make lifestyle changes, these problems will not go away with surgery. You will need to make the very same lifestyle changes. The difference will be that regaining the weight you lost from surgery will be 10 times more demoralizing than it is from a usual diet attempt. Once again, if you aren’t committed to making lifestyle changes, surgery will not make a long lasting difference.

Laura, Butter, Rj and Riberty I took all your words of wisdom and copied them down for my kick in the butt printout of "Truth"

Which I have on my miror now. As a professional dieter I too have done every diet and even have been the poster child for the successful one of said diet with a docotr an dwith out. After the lapband failure and weight gain it took a while to get the courage to fight again for Me to look at another surgery tool. I am so glad I did and have also found this site to keep it real. Thanks for the words of wisdom. My revision surgery is in a few weeks and I hope to be Walking and living WL success story too.

Edited December 29, 201312 yr by BellaHugz

.... I know some here think that certain people here are meanies (like me sometimes) when they rain on their food parades..

As a fellow meanie, I want to add that it's not about dashing peoples hopes or raining on their parades....it's about reality. The reality is 90% of the folks on this forum are either pre-op or still in the honeymoon stage. It's startling how things change once that honeymoon phase is over. No words can prepare you. One day it's so easy and the next day it's like you were never sleeved almost. And at that point it all falls on you. And you realize that the real tool is not the sleeve, it's the new behaviors you learned during the early months. The new lifestyle. The new healthy approach to life. If you don't embrace those things, it's gonna get tough down the line for you.

I am worried about regaining after my honeymoon period. This is due to my track record of losing weight and regaining afterward.

I am worried about regaining after my honeymoon period. This is due to my track record of losing weight and regaining afterward.

Well, personally, I think that fear can be healthy. I have it too, at 2.5 years out. I use it to keep my eating in check. I'm not obsessive, but I do weigh every day and cut back if I am not in my two pound bounce window. So far, it's working for me. I am worried about year three, which for me begins next May. I'm hoping that by staying vigilant, I can avoid the third year regain.

Lynda

I am worried about regaining after my honeymoon period. This is due to my track record of losing weight and regaining afterward.

Well, personally, I think that fear can be healthy. I have it too, at 2.5 years out. I use it to keep my eating in check. I'm not obsessive, but I do weigh every day and cut back if I am not in my two pound bounce window. So far, it's working for me. I am worried about year three, which for me begins next May. I'm hoping that by staying vigilant, I can avoid the third year regain. Lynda

Perfect Lynda,

Fear or as I put it, eyes wide open...

I have spent my time here looking ahead.

I did not enter this (my post surgery life) thinking my sleeve would take care of everything.

I now realize I am (and was) the biggest part of the equation.

I was the part, in the past that didn't get on board with TRUE CHANGE FOR LIFE.

The way we ate and what we chose to eat does not work. We must change our eating habits for good. Not just a temporary fix to get where we wanted (weight lost) just to go back to "normal" life once those results were realized.

Edited December 29, 201312 yr by laura-ven