Hello all. New to this forum and am a bit overwhelmed by all of the topics and threads so hopefully I'm doing this correctly.

My name is Rachel and my surgery date is scheduled for December 1st in central Jersey. I'm using Dr. Abkin. I've been going through all of the pre op prerequisites and it's all just a lot to wrap my head around. I've struggled with my weight my entire life, and at 31 I feel slightly defeated that this is what I've had to turn to. Besides being morbidly obese (I'm 251 with a bmi of 41), I have no health issues. I've lost weight before, but I can't keep it off. What is it about this surgery that's going to make it different, ya know?

Anyway, I'm maybe looking for some buddies that are sympathetic to my journey. I haven't garnered much support from family or friends. Everyone is confused about my decision. But everyone isn't me and hasn't lived my life.

I hope that this post finds everyone well.

Welcome and best of luck with your surgery. December will be here before you know it.

Just keep reading and asking questions. There is so much to learn. If you don't already have a notebook or binder, you might want to get one.

Some things I did pre-op to help prepare me for surgery that seemed to help:

Weaned myself off of caffeine and carbonation.

Increased my Water intake to at least 64 oz a day.

Exercised 60 minutes a day.

Focused on eating more Protein.

Started sampling different Protein shakes and supplements.

Took the Vitamins recommended by my surgeon. They had me taking extra D3, a Multivitamin, and extra Iron (because I was anemic).

I also went on a bit of a shopping spree buying cute small dishes, appetizer spoons, etc.

If you don't have them already, make sure you have a good food scale and measuring cups and spoons.

Best of luck and keep us posted on how you are doing.

Welcome and congrats on your upcoming surgery. Your back history is a familiar refrain around here. And I can tell you that this will definitely be different than other past weight loss attempts. For one, your body finally begins to work with you rather than against you. Allowing you to lose the weight, and most importantly, keep it off long term.

This is the first time in my life that my weight isn't controlling me. I have no regrets and I don't think you will either. Best of luck!

Thank you for the tips and feedback.

@@rachelr28, welcome and congrats on your decision. Fellow Garden Stater here. This will be a very different experience in countless ways. Without getting too technical, basically, the idea is that in the past, we have attempted to lose weight by reducing caloric intake which results in two physiological effects: 1) reduction in metabolism by the body in an attempt to prevent weight loss and 2) dramatic increase in hunger caused by the stomach sending a hunger hormone to the brain to demand compensatory eating until the body is back to the weight it was before you started the diet.

The sleeve prevents the latter from happening. You will have a stomach that is about 15% of the volume of your current stomach, meaning you will become full much faster, and on far less food. However, your body would need the volume of food you consumed before to maintain weight with all your activities and energy output, so the result will be dramatic weight loss. Your metabolism will slow, but it can't slow enough to keep up with the huge disparity between the calories you need and the calories you can intake. The surgery's most important effect is that the hunger hormone is produced in the part of your stomach that is removed irreversibly during surgery. So you wind up with a double protection against weight gain...you just can't fit very much in, nor do you want to because there's much less signaling going up to you brain telling you that you are hungry (but there's just enough from other places to get you to eat to keep you healthy).

There is even some evidence that the sleeve changes the bacteria in your stomach that results by some unknown mechanism to automatically reset your "set point" down to a healthy weight, whereas right now, it is fixed at a high weight, and your body is programmed to defend obesity in any way it can. So the way the previous poster described it, with you instead of against you, is exactly right. Best of luck!