Anyone ever thought:"I can do this on my own, I don't need the sugery"

[SarahSleeve 170]

Oh yeah, absolutely. Then I was put on hypertension meds, which are totally screwing with my body, and started having trouble keeping up with my kids. I have lost and gained the same 40-50lbs over the past 15 years. I was 225 at my wedding 15 years ago. I went back up over the course of the next six years, hitting my high of 300 lbs at the end of my first pregnancy back on '05. Lost back down to about 225 a couple years after my second child. Since then, I've spent 8 years yo-yoing between 245 and 270. Back and forth repeatedly. I have clothes ranging from XL - 3XL and size 14 - 22 in my closet. And they keep getting pulled out and then stored again. Over and over.

I have come to terms with it. I can't do it alone. I can lose the weight, but it always comes back. I've been fat since I was 6. I'm 36 now. If I can fix this now and live the rest of my years in a healthier body, I owe it to myself and my family.

Edited April 10, 2016 by SarahSleeve

[sgc 538]

I thought I could do it and did do it. I lost 100 pounds and was close to a normal weight and in very good health. The problem is I then gained 200 pounds. I've now lost 50 and am continuing to lose without surgery but I don't want to fall into the same trap. It took about 18 months to lose that 100 pounds and years to gain it back plus 100. All told I'm probably going to be set back about 10 years. I know I can lose the weight but I believe the surgery will help me maintain that weight loss.

[Alex Brecher 10,486]

Good question! Yes, I have the knowledge that I don’t NEED the band, at least in theory. I’m the one deciding what to put in my mouth. I even have spent much of the past several years with my band completely unfilled.

But I knew surgery was right for me because I had always struggled and was sick of it. I was pretty young when I got surgery, and I didn’t want to spend my adult struggling with my weight just like I had spent my younger years doing so. It turned out to be one of the best decisions I ever made.

[adrinanna 46]

I had done really well on the pre-op diet.. i had lost 25 pounds in the first 10 weeks so I was starting to think I could do it on my own. The last 2 weeks ....I have lost nothing. I was reminded as to why I need weight loss surgery. I am not sure what I have done wrong in the past two weeks as to why I am not losing but I am starting to lose heart and want to give up trying. Lucky for me my three month trial is over on Tuesday so I just need to make sure I don't gain wait between Tuesday and surgery day. If I was closer to the 40 BMI then to 50 I might would consider to keep trying but I have so far to go and getting close to that menopause age which makes women gain weight. I need to action now.

[RickM 1,747]

The way I approached this conundrum was to sustainably make the lifestyle changes that I could. We all know generally what we should be doing - cut out the junk, more fruits and veg, whole grains instead of processed/refined grains, limit overall calories and increase activity levels. Rather than following the latest fad or book diet, I worked toward these ideals to the extent that my tastes and lifestyle permitted.

Recognizing that the long term success rate for diet/exercise on the seriously obese is about 5%, I decided that rather than following some “diet” that may well get me to a normal-ish weight followed by regaining that lost weight, the best approach was to adopt the lifestyle changes that I could do permanently and see how far that got me – if I could be in that 5% group, that would be great, but I wanted what loss I could achieve to be a permanent loss.

I started this almost 13 years ago when my wife and I first got serious about WLS, as part of the insurance mandated 6 month diet/exercise roadblock to approval. I lost about 50 of the 150 lb that I needed to lose in around six months, but that was about as far as I could go with this approach, I kept tweaking and making incremental improvements in my diet, but the main effect was improved nutrition rather than additional sustained weight loss

I had lost enough that I felt that the DS (our procedure of choice at the time, as the sleeve was not ordinarily done at the time) was overkill for my needs then, and the bypass was too expensive in side effects and limitations for the performance offered. So I let things ride to see how well I could maintain what I had lost. After 5-6 years of weight stability, the sleeve was being approved by our insurance. As I wasn’t going to lose more sustainably on my own, I proceeded with it; had I regained what I had lost (or more) as often happens, I would have gone with the DS as it offers better regain resistance than the other mainstream procedures.

One doesn’t have to wait 5-6 years like I did, but you can learn a lot about yourself by playing with some lifestyle changes before committing to WLS. BTW, I’ve been maintaining my sleeve loss for the past five years, and my wife has been maintaining well with her DS after 11 years - different needs addressed by different solutions.

[BelgianGuy 350]

I am only 23, but ever since I was 17, I have struggled with obesity. Before I was rather thin and healthy, but due to some anti-depression meds, I started eating a lot and also drinking a lot. I used to navigate between 125kilograms and 95 kilograms, and sometimes I would gain 10kilos in only a month when I could not bare not eating or drinking.

It was starting to screw with my personality and I was becoming more and more depressed, even nihilistic at times . Some sort of downroad spiral.

So that's why I chose this surgery, it's radical, it puts you clear limits and rules, and unless you are crazy and/or are unable to feel pain, it's impossible to eat as much as you used to, and it completely changes the way you think about food, etc.

I know it's not a "miraculous" surgery, and that I can screw it all if I am stupid enough to do so, but it's only thing I have found that has stopped my obsession about food and alcohol. Whenever I see how much I eat now, I just feel plain disgusted by my old habits, and I sure never want to be like that again.

[Killian 265]

@BelgianGuy very well said.

Edited April 11, 2016 by Killian

[kyle.odom 57]

In the city that I live, there are 3 surgeons that perform the Sleeve, Band, and the new "Balloon" surgeries. Just after I was approved by my insurance for the sleeve, it became real. There was a week or two that I decided against the surgery because I was going to do it all on my own. Then I had an appointment with my PCP, just a check up. I was talking to here about my 'cold feet' and asked her what her opinion was with the surgery and what she thought about. She told me that she was not going to tell me to have the surgery or not to, but that I had been approved by my insurance and I, at least, needed to keep the remaining insurance requirements, just in case. She then told me that one of the surgeons wives had had the sleeve surgery in the past year and that she absolutely loved it. That was my determining factor. I felt like if a surgeon that performs the surgery daily has enough confidence in it for his wife to have it done, its safe enough for me.

And my surgery is this Thursday, lol. No cold feet now!

[kimba21502 25]

I'm at the second highest weight 322 and I'm 46 years old

I have hypertension, type 2 diabetic, hypothyroidism, joint pain, back, hip, ankles. I can not do this myself and I don't want to be dead or riding around in a hover round. I have thought about surgery for a couple years but I have never taken the first steps. I have now and I am ready for this life changing surgery.

Sent from my iPad using the BariatricPal App

Edited April 11, 2016 by kimba21502

[shrinkingkimber 200]

I've been saying that for the last 10 years. My time is now.

Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

[Rainy Days 73]

I thought that the first 200 times I tried to lose weight and keep it off. Now, I don't have faith in myself to keep it off without a surgical intervention.

But the thought that motivates me to do this now is thinking about getting more unhealthy than I already am. I have high blood pressure, sleep apnea, and get tested for diabetes every 3 months because I'm real close to having it. How much more am I willing to take? If I don't have surgery now will I become someone that CAN'T have surgery later because I'm too unhealthy from heart disease or whatever? I don't want to chance it. And I don't want to wait any longer to finally have the life I really want.

[Samara1974 116]

I am only two months post-op but I definitely had this feeling when I lost 24lbs during the pre-op diet. What made me go through it is the many times I lost 20-30lbs and then put it right back on when I quit the diet. My surgery was the way to stop the yo-yo diet cycle, I am now down 56lbs, have a lot more energy and feel great. Not one regret for me.

[liposuction68 178]

IF YOU GOT TO THIS POINT FACE IT YOU CANT DO IT BY YOURSELF PERIOD ...

[M!@ 320]

Before you got your WLSn Did you ever think: "I can do this on my own, I don't need the sugery". If so, what made you realize that WLS was right for you?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using the BariatricPal App

Absolutely...every single time I dieted and attempted to lose the weight, I was telling myself I can do this. And every single time I believed it.

I realized WLS was right for me, about the 20th time the pounds just came back, and brought with it a few of his friends which put me at my highest weight ever which was more than when I was pregnant. Enough was enough...and I had to accept I needed help.

[JupiterinVirgo 846]

I told myself that I could do it on my own my whole life. And I did do it, several times. And yet, right before I decided to have the surgery I was at my highest weight ever. I'm only in my late 30s, and I was exhausted, had trouble moving around, was experiencing chronic pain in my joints and body, and could barely find clothes that fit. I remembered over the years the older women that I met, who are even bigger than I was then, how they couldn't sit in regular chairs, how they walked with canes, how some of their medical problems became physically visible. How lonely they had been. And I knew that I could easily become a woman like that. I knew that I wanted more life then I was capable of getting. I knew that even if I lost the weight yet again, I would be likely to gain it back without this tool And honestly, by the last time, I really didn't believe I could do it on my own anymore.

Even though I personally consider having the surgery a sacrifice, I have not regretted it. I am five months out and I'm down like 90 pounds from my highest weight. Even though I still have a long way to go, my body feels so much smaller, I no longer suffer with chronic pain, and it is much easier to perform the tasks of daily living.

This surgery has enabled me to change my life. I always wanted to travel, but my weight made it prohibitive. Starting this summer I am about to go on tour for my new book and I get to travel around the United States and Mexico for the next year or two years even. I would have never even consider this before.

I feel very excited about my new life, and I know that I will continue to lose weight, and this time I expected to be permanent just like my sleeve is.