Let's start with some stats about me: Female, age = 27, height = 5'3", was sleeved 3 years ago when I was 24. Highest weight ever = 210 and weighted 198 on surgery day, reached 147 pounds eight months post-surgery and for the past year have been gradually gaining weight, currently at 172.

Now why the title of the post?

I wasn't that heavy to begin with: If you're not that overweight (below 250 pounds or so, for someone with my stats, for example), I highly do not recommend getting sleeved or having any other gastric surgery for that matter. It seriously is not worth it because you can probably lose the weight gradually without the aid of such a drastic permanent surgery and have better results maintaining your success in the long run - I will explain why shortly.

On a side note, please realize that this surgery is permanent. Going in, I was so fixated on losing weight that I didn't have the wisdom or foresight to really understand that fact. After losing weight and even looking like you were never obese, guess what? You will forever eat restricted portions and have acid reflux (which many people develop after surgery and have to be on medication), along with any other side effects/complications the surgery caused.

I was/am young: If you're in your 20s or somewhere below 45, I also do not recommend this surgery since our bodies can lose weight easier when we are at a young age. So please reconsider. And now for the grand finale and the biggest reason that enticed this post, and I'm quoting this article to effectively get the point across:

We all know that there are 3,500 calories in one pound of fat. That means that by reducing your food by 500 calories per day, you should lose one pound of fat per week, right? Wrong! Actually, much of the weight you'll lose will come from muscle tissue, not fat! Why? Because your body tends to use ("excess") muscle tissue for needed energy before it reclaims fat deposits.

For example, starting at 198 pounds post-sleeve, I lost 18 pounds the first month after surgery - Do you think that was all fat? Definitely not!

The answer to long term success is to take your time with fat loss, and either preserve or build muscle tissue by integrating scientific weight training, mild aerobics, dietary manipulation, supplementation and other technologies into your lifestyle.

Here is an example from the article linked above: Let's say a person cuts calories without exercise for 6 weeks - Their starting weight is 200 pounds with 30% body fat. Their lean muscle mass is at 140 pounds and they have 60 pounds of fat. Now after dieting for those 6 weeks by cutting calories and not engaging in exercise/weight training, the person's end weight is 170 pounds, losing 30 pounds; a great accomplishment in 6 weeks, right? No, it's not, because the person is still at 30% body fat - now having 51 pounds of fat (leaving them with 119 pounds of muscle). The general idea here is that if a person cuts 500 calories per day from their diet, but fails to exercise, they may lose 30 pounds in 6 weeks, but their body fat remains at 30%. They lose 21 pounds of muscle and only 9 pounds of fat. That's 70% of the weight coming from your lean muscle mass! They will yo-yo back up to 200 in no time (within 1-2 years according to information compiled during the Congressional investigation into the fat loss industry). However, in doing so, they will be 35% body fat instead of their original 30%. Why? They never regained all of the lean tissue they lost as a result of their crash dieting earlier.

We all know that as we age, we lose muscle mass, and that muscle mass (though it weighs more) looks much better on our body than fat. So 2 people can be the same height and have similar body shapes and weigh the same, but because of their different body compositions, one can look significantly thinner (and ultimately enjoy better health) vs. the other.

I feel so sad realizing how big of a mistake it was to get sleeved - especially 3 years later and when it's way too late. I know exactly how it feels to be desperate, to have tried every diet out there and failed, to be so done with counting calories and not losing enough, then failing to maintain and gaining all of the weight back with interest. But the truth is, I am happy I realize my mistake and I am willing to admit it. In a society that is so poor on nutritional knowledge and a corrupt food industry, it is incredibly difficult to manage our nutrition and fitness alongside our busy schedules. But guess what? There are no shortcuts to being successful in life, and that's what the sleeve harshly taught me. You want to live with only 15-20% of your stomach and eat 4-6 ounces of food at a time? Forever? Sure, that's how I am living currently and will forever unfortunately, but is it truly a permanent solution? You'll never need to diet again? Obviously not, I lost 51 pounds after getting sleeved, then gained 25!

Rules are rules and when you go over your caloric intake, sleeved or not, you will gain weight, especially when you have an extensive past history of yo-yo dieting (most of us gastric patients fall under this category) and you have ruined your body's normal/healthy muscle-to-fat ratio. I've seen some people who are sleeved go from 210 pounds to 120 pounds in 10 months - Is that great? I don't know... Think about it. Their body composition is probably terrible! So many people on here (including myself) say things like, well, at least I look good in clothes… You’re thin on the scale but you will have loose skin and won't look or feel good about yourself. It's like you always put your life on hold because you're obese and now you are doing the same because your body is ugly (I’m talking about myself before anyone else here).

You're in your 20s but people who are 40 look way better than you! Why? Because it's not about LOSING, it's about GAINING muscle mass. It's what will help you burn more calories, even in your sleep. Lose weight by controlling your calories (increasing your Protein intake, adding complex carbs, and limiting fat) - and maintain your success in the long run. Muscle looks better and will carry you through old age - You don't want to look frail with loose skin when you're only 30 or so. It may be the difficult way and it may be hard to accept because you're frustrated and desperate - I WAS THERE! And sadly, I am still there now. But maybe the natural way is the best in the long run. I know how it feels to be desperate and just wanting to live a normal life - I decided to have the surgery and 2 weeks later, I was in Mexico and sleeved - Stupidest and most stubborn decision I ever made.

What I am pleading here as advice to you is to think twice about what's right for you and your body - the only place you will ever have to live and the greatest instrument you will ever possess... Develop the right habits and gain muscle because if you don't and you get sleeved, you will eventually gain all of the weight back. 2/3 of your arms for example are your triceps - so many sleeved women complain about this area - well guess what? Getting sleeved didn't help - probably lost 70% muscle of whatever total weight you lost in your arm, resulting in loose skin and a terribly fat-looking arm. Weight training and developing good nutritional habits truly is the answer. Don't eat out or have any junk. Start with tips and tricks from websites like eatthis.com - and cook simple meals and eat freely without pain or embarrassment (I can't even burp, I do this weird whooshing sound - awkward) and trust me, you will be successful and you will look better than anyone who got sleeved and did just that. I understand some people on here did this whole sleeve thing the right way and worked out as early as they were able to - I am not attacking you - Good for you! This is just my humble opinion and advice for those considering and thinking like me, that this is an easy way out or they won't ever need to diet again, or they don't need to workout, etc. If I can help one person visiting this forum realize what’s in this post before getting sleeved, then that would bring me so much happiness. I wish I would have run into a similar post, truly thought about it and gave the dream of a healthy life one last sober try remembering the sad story of that person – but I will redeem myself – for once and for all.

Edited July 30, 201511 yr by LG2.0

Everyone Else:

You weren't ready for the surgery.

You didn't do what you should have post surgery.

You would have if you followed directions.

Most of us don't agree with you

Yeah, no. If that's what you got out of some of the responses, then you really didn't read them.

Yeah, I read some. And that is what I got out of them. You've already called me an a*****e in one of my threads, so I am just going to chalk your reply up to another insult.

Do this for me, on the upper right side of your screen click on your user name Then click on Manage Ignore Prefs. Then type in BigViffer and click save.

Edited July 31, 201511 yr by BigViffer

I believe I understand your intention with this remark, but I can't help but mention that those in the first 2 years post op have very little understanding of the experience at the longer term mark. I will be 4 years post op in December and this year has been much tougher maintaining then the first 2-3 years were. I keep asking myself, have I slipped back to old bad habits? Maybe a little, but i think it is more that I am living like a "normal" middle aged American woman and look around, alot of them could stand to lose 20 or 50.

I am bouncing around 5-10 over goal and not happy about it, but my efforts to knock them back off haven't been very successful...

I am very very happy that I still wear single digit clothing and look like a normal, not obese person though... and I am continuing to work it - with the first goal being to NOT regain any more...

I am sorry, but there is one more thing I need to add: if you are so sure about the right way to lose weight, why aren't you losing weight? You are three years out, if you followed those simple rules you laid out, why have you gained 25 lbs?

Hey cowgirljane, my comment wasn't meant for al people who are not at goal. Floating 5-10 lbs over goal is something to be proud of!!! The only reason I asked the question about why that women wasn't losing weight is because she spoke as if she knew some secret truth. I think her post was inaccurate at best and detrimental to others at worst. I understand that after the first year to 18 months it will be MUCH harder for me to lose weight, I understand this because I did a years worth of research. I would never put anyone down who is trying to lose weight and working their program, but that women surely was not.

First, I have not read all the replies to this story, but having read this story. If the statistics on the left were true. That you are 5'3" and your starting weight at the beginning of your journey was 210, that would leave you with a BMI of 37.2, which in fact does NOT make you an ideal candidate for the sleeve surgery unless you have significant co-morbidities. The recommendations are for those with a BMI or 40 and up or those with a BMI of 35 and up with co-morbidities like diabetes. And yes you probably could have lost 51 lbs through diet and exercise.

Many of us are older and/or quite a bit heavier (my BMI is 42). My blood pressure, blood sugar etc are perfection (this is nothing short of a miracle and quite a bit of good luck and yes I know it is only a matter of time until these both started inching upward). In my case, my primary co-morbidity is very painful osteoarthritis of the knees, which, of course, is exacerbated and was probably caused by....you guessed it.... my weight. The more my knees hurt the less I exercise, the less I exercise the more weight I gain; the more weight I gain the more my knees hurt, etc etc. My knees hurt so bad that I was going to move out of the house that I love and into a ground floor condo because I simply cannot stand the stairs in my townhouse anymore, and my knees now making a crunching noise with each step...ouch.

Then I decided that instead of using that money I was going to put down on a ground floor condo so that I could become even more immobile, I would put towards vertical sleeve gastrectomy instead. I can still move to that ground floor condo later if I still need to but I just had to give it one last try before possibly becoming more immobile and putting on even more weight, also knowing that I would probably need to lose a significant amount of weight before I would ever be a good candidate for knee replacement surgery. But again, that would only be a band-aid and not addressing the root cause of the issue. My weight.

I have also educated myself through these forums and listened to the other posters and those who have successfully kept the weight off and what is the least common denominator: exercise. @ I'm not sure who told you that you didn't need to exercise or didn't need to do strength training to build muscle mass but a quick search of gastric sleeve on you tube plus a cursory review of these Bariatric pal forums will give you a quick education there. I think that for most of the rest of us going in we knew that sleeve surgery was a "tool" just like diet and exercise to be used in combination with diet and exercise rather than a substitute for either. You will see folks who just let the weight come off the first six months to a year and do not exercise and they are at higher risk for weight regain precisely for some of the reasons that you stated. As far as I am concerned I have a six month honeymoon period during which I can build much better habits to last a lifetime and be successful or not. Now is the time to step up your game and incorporate strength training and perhaps some cardio and try to get back into good habits. As you stated you are young and you can still rapidly build muscle mass compared to many others who have significant co-morbidities on this forum.

As we frequently say on these forums they operate on your stomach not your brain, which is what really needs to be re-trained in good habits. So set your mind to make the most of your sleeve, play the hand you've been dealt, and live a happy and healthy life:-)

Good luck!

I want to start by saying that the personal insults really are unnecessary. The young lady seems to have enough issues without everyone here beating her into the ground.

When I was in Mexico getting surgery there was a 16 year old there with her mom who probably only has 30 BMI and that young girl was getting surgery. I thought what a shame to be having such a life altering surgery at her age. She wanted the surgery but you could tell it was mostly at her mothers insistence. Her mother had never been overweight, her two sisters already had the procedure and the mom was saying "just think how beautiful you will look in your prom dress now." I wanted to tell the mom "your daughter is gorgeous, she would look good in a prom dress is she weighed 300 pounds!" But I didn't.

My point here is that some people are just too young for such a huge decision.

As for the original poster... Follow your own advise. Having the small stomach doesn't stop you from implementing a strong exercise routine, lifting weights, and eating healthy. Start those things now. Get back on track. Be healthy for you.

Mostly be happy NO MATTER WHAT! Don't let your ego control your thinking. I have faith that you can overcome what demons battle with you daily. Good luck!! And God Bless!!

Although I never insulted anyone on my post directly, I can understand the frustration and passion behind it, in the original post there were way too many inconsistencies and holes in the story, and if some poor misguided 17-25 something read it and decided to take it to heart there could have been a tragedy, I have worked 17 years in psych in very acute units, and you quickly learn how powerful words can be and how easily you can persuade people in a time of weakness that what you say is the truth, my benefit is that I can easily spot "BS" and this story was just that, something just felt very wrong about the post especially after reading the parts concerning muscle loss, I didn't go into this thinking life and health would take care of itself if I had this done, I went in with knowledge, information, and a strong desire to prolong my life through better choices, exercise, and to keep learning as much as I can after the surgery, I used to teach an evening class to my patients called "the 50/50 group" and what it means is that we take for granted that much of how we live and function is 50/50, the first 50% is easy "gastric surgery"our 50% is hard, diet changes, exercise, following the program........ See where I'm getting at? Read carefully through the original post again remembering this and yeah it's gonna smell alot more like cow patties!!!!!!!

I actually don't think the original post is detrimental to information seekers. The point of the forum is to hear multiple viewpoints. If reading this one post makes someone decide against surgery, they're probably not ready, otherwise they'd continue seeking.

I also think it is just these kinds of posts that can stir the most interesting conversations. For me, it's made me think about:

1) What this process is like for a teenager or young adult. I've always thought "I wish I'd had this when I was 18." Now, I'm not so sure. As others have said, I'm not sure I would have been equipped then to be successful.

2) The downside of having surgery done far away from your home. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad the Mexico option is out there. But I now think the ideal is insurance covers everyone, so you don't have to go out of country. I gotta think having your care team and support group nearby is a good thing.

3) I don't think even the best US providers are doing as good a job on follow-up psych care as they should.

4) Even though WLS has been around a while, patients and doctors are still "figuring things out." For example, there are new studies that suggest combining WLS with obesity drugs to improve results. Or a study suggesting treatment with growth hormone for six months post-op to prevent muscle loss. Or studies that indicate WLS does not impact depression. Conflicting studies about whether surgery leads to longer life for severely obese and/or those over 65. Or medical opinions that the BMI cutoff should be lowered to 30. There's just a lot we don't know about why this does and doesn't work.

My point is, these bigger issue questions are interesting (to me) and are usually only stirred up by raw posts. I'm glad we can also get advice from each other on cheapest Vitamins and share NSVs. But I'm also glad people feel free to share real fear and pain and anger. And I hope that doesn't change.

@@p1Sz - I agree that people are complicated and weight loss is a difficult subject with new discoveries being made all the time. Those are facts.

All said and done, WLS was an absolute game changer for me for the good. And that my friends is a personal opinion based on personal experience.

Not confusing facts with opinion and experience is an important skill, however I did the math and figured out half the population is below average, so I have learned you do need discernment to figure out where the lines blur.

Everyone Else:

You weren't ready for the surgery.

You didn't do what you should have post surgery.

You would have if you followed directions.

Most of us don't agree with you

Yeah, no. If that's what you got out of some of the responses, then you really didn't read them.

Yeah, I read some. And that is what I got out of them. You've already called me an a*****e in one of my threads, so I am just going to chalk your reply up to another insult.

Do this for me, on the upper right side of your screen click on your user name Then click on Manage Ignore Prefs. Then type in BigViffer and click save.

I don't put anybody on ignore. No need. I don't let people get under my skin like some people do. Life is too short.

If you guys are interested in reading some actual scientific, evidence-based information regarding Weight loss surgery and fat-free mass loss, read this article.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/26215245/?i=1&from=vertical%20sleeve%20gastrectomy

You an impulsive decision, which now you regret. I don't think you can apply your logic and reasoning to everyone else on this website.

@

What I do have an issue with is you coming onto a site that offers support to so many who are reaching out and spewing falsehoods and flat out lies about WLS and claiming it to be gospel. If you would have just said "Look guys, I screwed up. I didn't know what I was getting into and now I'm over my head and think I've made a huge mistake", you would have gotten a completely different response.

But you coming on here and basically telling people who have had or are going to have WLS that they too have made or are going to make a mistake is where I draw the line.

Good luck to you.

This. Totally.

Sorry bout YOU! Having surgery doesn't stop hand to mouth action, you still have to handle that s**t

I guess this like a few other posts will possibly go on for weeks, the reasons I got angry at the person who posted was mainly because there was definitely a lot of misinformation posted, a lot of misleading numbers were thrown, but mainly because I chose to advocate for others wanting it, I don't know if I posted here or to my friends on FB but last week I asked by my surgeon if I would be willing to do a testimonial and maybe speak to some people about my experience, I am considering it with modesty and seriousness because words carry more power than people think, and because of that dumb post someone reading too much into it and taking it as gospel could be swayed not to have the surgery, causing many more years of problems or even death.......... I think as this is my final post on this thread I chose as my last words to that person or anyone else that may in the future Rey to post similar misleading statements

" You can only play the victim so long......"

@@CRNA - Can you translate this? http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/26215245/?i=1&from=vertical%20sleeve%20gastrectomy

I think it says: People who had the surgery had an increase in non-fatty tissue, so in short, there was not a loss of muscle. Am I close?

Edited August 1, 201511 yr by OKCPirate

Exactly, at least to an extent significant less than those who get traditional roux-en-y gastric bypass surgery. Scientifically speaking, she's full of shit. Bye Felicia!

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.