Why Getting Sleeved was the Biggest Mistake of My Life

[chunkycharlie 26]

This is where the education and seminars come in, I understood very clearly it is permanent, you MUST build muscle and exercise, hence "protein first" to help maintain muscle mass , and 4-6 Oz is not forever ......eventually you will be able to eat slightly more BUT if 3 years later 4-6 Oz is all you can fit at a time ?? That sounds great! It's kinda the point....smaller portions more often......your surgeon did a great job. And if you gained weight you went back to old habits and your sleeve can't be that small after all.

[p1Sz 52]

I can't access the full article, but the summary seems to state that the proportion of fat-free mass to fat increased for both ops. It increased more for bypass than sleeve. I'd want to read the full article, but keep in mind "proportion" is different from an actual loss or gain. Typically, patients lose both muscle and fat, it's just that they lose way more fat than muscle. Also "fat free mass" is usually defined as everything except fat, so it includes bone as well. (And lot of patients have some bone loss, either due to nutrient deficiencies but also because being at a lower weight reduces force on bones and body stops "beefing up" the bone density to compensate.)

My layman's understanding of the proportion issue is this: for example, if you are a 6 foot tall sedentary man who is at a 40 BMI, you typically have more lbs of muscle than a 6 foot tall sedentary man at a 25 BMI. You have more muscle because you're lugging around a lot more weight 24/7 than the low BMI guy. Your muscles have to work harder, so they get bigger. After operation, as you lose weight, your body doesn't need as much muscle (you're not getting the same 24/7 workout), and you usually lose some muscle unless you start working out and upping Protein. In other words, unless you fight it, your body is heading in the direction of the fat/muscle ratio of the normal BMI guy.

Make sense? I'm not a doc or medical expert. I could be wrong, but this is my understanding from reading various articles.

[CRNA 32]

I can't access the full article, but the summary seems to state that the proportion of fat-free mass to fat increased for both ops. It increased more for bypass than sleeve. I'd want to read the full article, but keep in mind "proportion" is different from an actual loss or gain. Typically, patients lose both muscle and fat, it's just that they lose way more fat than muscle. Also "fat free mass" is usually defined as everything except fat, so it includes bone as well. (And lot of patients have some bone loss, either due to nutrient deficiencies but also because being at a lower weight reduces force on bones and body stops "beefing up" the bone density to compensate.)

My layman's understanding of the proportion issue is this: for example, if you are a 6 foot tall sedentary man who is at a 40 BMI, you typically have more lbs of muscle than a 6 foot tall sedentary man at a 25 BMI. You have more muscle because you're lugging around a lot more weight 24/7 than the low BMI guy. Your muscles have to work harder, so they get bigger. After operation, as you lose weight, your body doesn't need as much muscle (you're not getting the same 24/7 workout), and you usually lose some muscle unless you start working out and upping Protein. In other words, unless you fight it, your body is heading in the direction of the fat/muscle ratio of the normal BMI guy.

Make sense? I'm not a doc or medical expert. I could be wrong, but this is my understanding from reading various articles.

I would agree with that sentiment. Morbid obesity...everyday is leg day.

[slvarltx 332]

What a bummer for me! The 8 inches I have lost off my waist so far were all muscle! I really wanted a temporary fix because I want to be fat as hell again in 2 years. LOL

[AvaFern 3,516]

I don't disagree with everything this person said and I do disagree with the fact that people jumped all over her. I went from going to the initial meeting with my surgeon, 2 days after I thought about getting the surgery, to being in the OR two weeks later, so I disagree that you cannot make an informed decision in that amount of time. I was 29 when I had the surgery, so sort of young compared to this person's standards, and I understood the irreversibility of the surgery. My sleeve hates food...I barf at least 10 times a week. There is nothing wrong with my sleeve that would physiologically be causing its hate for all things that taste good and I know that for the rest of my life pizza, Pasta, bread, cheese, sugar, milk, cream, meat, some vegetables, most fruits and all kinds of yummy things come at the cost of a good barf if I choose to eat them. I won't lie, this sort of really sucks, but would I still get the sleeve? Absolutely. I think people who are considering the surgery need both the bad and the good and this person represents an opinion about why the sleeve may not be for everyone. Simply because we don't agree with her, doesn't mean she doesn't have the right to post a respectful (I saw nothing we should be offended by that was rude or hurtful or that was in poor taste, no bad words, nothing really awful) discussion about her own ideas.

Also, I don't entirely agree with the whole muscle/ fat thing, however I can say that at 126 pounds I have very little muscle left and if you look at me from the right angle you can tell that I am what people call skinny-fat. I look great in clothes, I look semi-decent naked thanks to plastic surgery, and I can run a wicked few miles...ask me to lift something though or do a workout that takes a lot of prolonged muscular strength and I am out of luck. Prior to surgery I was a beast...in more ways than one, but in this instance, I was strong. I sacrificed being small for being strong, I know that, and frankly I don't care a whole lot. Prior to surgery even when I was thin, I was always muscular, and part of this may be because a lot of dense Proteins make me barf now whereas in the past I never had an issue eating them. Is this a side effect of the surgery? Sure, I suppose so because my sleeve hates food that once upon a time my stomach loved eating and which contributed to me being strong.

Therefore, I am fine with this original post. I don't feel I need to agree with something for a person to have the right to say it and I can understand, from my own experience, where some of the sentiments that the poster made are coming from. For anyone who may be considering the sleeve, you need to read both the good and the bad to make an informed decision, so chalk this up to one tally mark on the bad side, and keep doing research. The sleeve is not all sunshine and daisies and while most of us love it, it comes at a cost....understanding that is just as important as recognizing the benefits.

[laguerr13 993]

Once again -2 more points on our entire IQ as a whole, if you go back and Re-read the post and take down notes. Then you could Google some of the "Facts" she threw out there and realize why some of us had a right to be angry at her!!!!!

At 51 years old I had to do my research and decided only after 2 years to have my sleeve done, I have not been entirely successful because of my sleeve and diet, I have been successful because of what I LEARNED through research and listening to others who were successful, and even those who were not, and the commonality of those who were not was that they never followed through with the post surgery guidelines, if I believed at any point I wouldn't be able to handle the life change it required I would have backed out and waited to die at an early age.......... Which is another statistic that should be looked up...... Sheesh

Edited August 1, 2015 by laguerr13

[wannaBthinsoon 1,634]

There wasn't anything good on TV tonight. This entertained me for a while though. I just can't imagine jumping into surgery 2 weeks after you hear about it. That, in my opinion, is irresponsible. Wishing everyone the best.

[AvaFern 3,516]

@@laguerr13

I certainly hope you weren't referring to my post as being -2 points off of everyone's IQ....

[laguerr13 993]

I was referring to some of the posts

Edited August 2, 2015 by laguerr13

[laguerr13 993]

And I stand firmly by everything I said!!!!!!! I don't in any way hate or despise you, but it disappoints me that a lot of what you had to say was way off, I don't know what sources you got your stats from but the one about muscle and fat were very misleading, I don't want to toss stats back and forth all day, because every article can be on either side of the spectrum, but you never mentioned or touched on what YOU did to not succeed, and for someone even thinking of getting the surgery it was like putting a loaded gun in front of an infant and leaving the room.........

You may have cost someone who is not yet self informed the chance at a long and healthy better life and that was in no way fair to them, our responsibility as adults is to be knowledgeable about things we want, before we do them, part of that is... No a MAJOR part of that is making sure we are mentally and physically capable of it, it's easy when you have to tell your psych doctor to sign off to have the ability to tell them what they wanna hear, but in the end we are not hurting them, we are hurting ourselves, I advocate for others wanting or even thinking of having surgery, it's my way of giving back and staying humble, if I am going to post something negative about my situation I will be careful how I word it and even before I do that I will research the subject before I speak, I have lost over 80lbs since January, and since being sleeved on June 10th about 57lbs, my BMI was at 59 and now stands at 47.8, I am ahead of schedule, and will be at 299lbs by August 20 or so, and will hit my goal weight sometime in February 2016, I'm 51years of age and have increased my muscle mass by 4lbs in less than 2 months, so either you gave inaccurate numbers of I guess I'm an anomaly? I'm already thinking and planning what I wanna do to maintain my goal weight for the next 10 years, or maybe I just had enough of being fat and got myself together well enough to decide that I was ready to change my life, not just lose weight but CHANGE THE REST OF MY LIFE!!!!!!

[RJ'S/beginning 5,357]

I believe since this is a forum where name calling and fowl language is against the rules but expressing your feeling, thoughts and ideas are aloud. I feel that the OP has every right to list the reasons she feels that it was a mistake for her.

It is up to us to learn what we can from her thinking process and see that we have the right education and fortitude to travel the WLS road if it is our desire.

I can think of many times when I laid in the hospital for 5.5 months that I regretted my choice. Not to mention the year and a half it took to feel somewhat normal because of the complications. But I looked at it as a choice I made to better my health and well being and glad even after everything that happened that I made that choice.

Would I have done it in my 20's or 30's. Looking back, oh yes! Would have saved me a lot of grief, health issues, expensive failed diets, verbal and emotional abuse from friends, family and strangers.

As I come up on my third year being healthier. I owe it all to this marvelous surgery that truly gives us who are lost as to what to do or at the end of our ropes, feel we will never be able to feel better again, live a full life and feel good about ourselves.

This surgery is not for everyone. People are allowed to have buyers remorse the rest of their lives if they want to.

This site is for education purposes. I feel sad that the OP feels disheartened at her choice. I appreciate her views and have read them and understand where she is speaking from.

It does not change my position on it. I am not going to try to convince her not to feel how she feels. It is what it is! So for the rest of us!

Forward we go! Just keep swimming eh! And hope that as time goes on she will be in a better place with her choice of WLS.

[Babbs 14,680]

With all due respect to those of you (some veterans) saying she's allowed to have her opinion about how she feels about WLS....

Of COURSE she is!

The objection that I and several others have expressed is her using deluded facts and falsehoods in her post for her objections to WLS. Like I said, if she would have just posted how she felt unprepared for the surgery and now she feels she made a mistake, this would have been a whole other thread.

And no, berating and name calling should not be tolerated no matter what the subject. I apologize to the OP for my first post.

[OKCPirate 5,323]

@@laguerr13 - "LEARNED through research and listening to others who were successful"

Very important point. I don't take council from whiners and complainers. But I did pay attention to potential downsides of the surgery and what I could do to mitigate the risks. And to some degree I was humbled into remembering that WLS is a tool, not a magic wand which would take away my responsibilities by listening to the laments of those who were not success, but when I listened carefully, most of them gave clues why it wasn't working - and usually it was because they were in front of the TV eating junk. But for the most part I concentrated my time listening to those who were doing great and copied them. And I keep learning many things on this site. I also enjoy the daily motivation of others who are on the same journey.

[laguerr13 993]

@ RJ'S : I think some of us understood the underlying issue but for those who did not I give up, everyone has the equal right to express unhappiness, disappointment, and even grief after receiving any weight loss surgery, what no one has the right to do anywhere anytime is use fabricated numbers and statistics to persuade other people's ideas, opinions, or to create more confusion in them by doing so, it's bad enough that mainstream media does it everyday with things like " the number one killer in America is Cigarette smoking, no cancer, no drunk driving, no......" Get the idea??????

[RJ'S/beginning 5,357]

@ RJ'S : I think some of us understood the underlying issue but for those who did not I give up, everyone has the equal right to express unhappiness, disappointment, and even grief after receiving any weight loss surgery, what no one has the right to do anywhere anytime is use fabricated numbers and statistics to persuade other people's ideas, opinions, or to create more confusion in them by doing so, it's bad enough that mainstream media does it everyday with things like " the number one killer in America is Cigarette smoking, no cancer, no drunk driving, no......" Get the idea??????

Absolutely! Got it!!!!!