Thoughts after finishing my six month supervised nutrition program

[blizair09 3,250]

Hi everyone,

I have been reading posts for a little while now, but this is my first post. I am a 40-year old guy, and I live in New Orleans with my partner of 7.5 years. I have battled my weight for entire life. When I was 21 years old, my parents and I went on Phen-Fen together. That was the first time I lost 100 pounds. I have yo-yo'ed ever since, losing 100 pounds another two times in my life, and 30-50 pounds more times than I can count.

Last year, I had to travel a lot more than I have had to in the past many years for work. (I am a Delta Diamond if that means anything to any travelers out there.) All of that travel meant eating for convenience and drinking more wine than I would if I were at home. I was already heavy before (370 pounds), but by December 2015, I weighed 397 pounds.

My family had been encouraging me to have weight loss surgery for about a year. (My dad had a gastric bypass many years ago; my mom had the sleeve about 3 years ago, and my brother got the lap band about 2 years ago.) After seeing the nearly-400 pounds looking back up at me from the scale, I agreed that it was time to do something about my weight once and for all. And my partner was ready to deal with his weight as well. (He started at 316 pounds, so he wasn't in quite as bad a place as I was then. For the record, he has lost about 70 pounds himself, so I am super proud of him!)

I was finally able to get in to see my PCP in February, and had my first of six consecutive monthly appointments with the surgeon's medical staff that is required by my insurance on March 3. I had two weeks of filming work in California right after (something new for my team and full of stresses), so I didn't begin my weight loss journey until March 21. In the past 5 months, I have lost 83 pounds while going to see the surgeon's staff once per month. This morning I weighed 314 pounds. (In case anyone is interested, I have done low carb/high protein/high healthy fat. I keep carbs below 20 per day -- usually below 12 per day. I have reduced my calories from 2000 to 1800 to 1500 to now 1200 for the past many weeks. I have cut alcohol out completely for now to conserve the calories. I walk 5 days a week, involving inclines and such for a majority of these 45 minute sessions. The surgeon's staff did give me a phentermine prescription, so I have been taking that since early April.)

Now, I'll get to the point of my post if anyone is still reading...

I had my sixth diet visit, and I am waiting on insurance approval now. It's been about a week so far, but they say it can take up to 30 days, so the surgery will likely be sometime in early October. I have been reading everyone's posts about the surgery itself, the pain (or lack of), the changes, etc., etc., etc. Some days, I wonder if I should really go through with it, or just stay the course with what I am doing. But, then reality sets in -- I still need to lose at least 100 more pounds, and really, I'd like to lose more like 125-135 more pounds, so I need to have the surgery. I am worried that since I have lost so much weight on the front end that I will lose weight slower after the surgery and then be disappointed (especially after putting my body through all of that trauma and altering the way I will have to eat and drink for the rest of my life).

Can anyone offer any perspective on this? Specifically, can anyone speak to losing a lot of weight pre-op, and how you transitioned to weight loss after the surgery? The surgeon has already said that I do not have to do a liquid diet before the surgery because of all the weight I have lost. I just have to fast the day before.

Please forgive the length of this post, and I hope to hear from some of you soon.

Edited August 23, 2016 by blizair09

[KristenLe 5,980]

@@blizair09 Congrats on such a successful pre-surgery weight loss! I'm still pre-op but wanted to encourage you to continue pursuing surgery. Only 5% of morbidly obese people who lose weight on their own are able to keep it off! Your body fights to gain it back! You have already shown how successful you can be - you will do amazing after surgery!!! Best of luck with the rest of your journey!

Sent from my KFFOWI using the BariatricPal App

[mtn10ac 2]

I have no answers. I have many of your same questions. I'm looking at a December surgery date.

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[ShelterDog64 2,364]

You'll get some great advice from the veterans here, but I'm going to give my .02 as a newbie (sleeved on 6/21). I'm the queen of losing weight, and I've done WW pretty successfully numerous times, getting close to goal but not quite there. My issue is that I've been completely unable to maintain the losses, and every time I gain back, I gain even more.
Inability to maintain is why I chose this surgery...I felt I needed the restriction of the sleeve to keep me from going back to eating teenage boy-sized portions of food once I lost the weight. I couldn't keep doing the same thing I've done 4 or 5 times in my life...losing the weight, but watching it creep back on and bringing 10 or 20 extra with it.

I applaud your amazing weight loss pre-surgery, you must really have a great deal of willpower, which will serve you well if you do decide to go ahead with WLS. Good luck to you!

[blizair09 3,250]

You'll get some great advice from the veterans here, but I'm going to give my .02 as a newbie (sleeved on 6/21). I'm the queen of losing weight, and I've done WW pretty successfully numerous times, getting close to goal but not quite there. My issue is that I've been completely unable to maintain the losses, and every time I gain back, I gain even more.

Inability to maintain is why I chose this surgery...I felt I needed the restriction of the sleeve to keep me from going back to eating teenage boy-sized portions of food once I lost the weight. I couldn't keep doing the same thing I've done 4 or 5 times in my life...losing the weight, but watching it creep back on and bringing 10 or 20 extra with it.

I applaud your amazing weight loss pre-surgery, you must really have a great deal of willpower, which will serve you well if you do decide to go ahead with WLS. Good luck to you!

This is such good advice; thank you! You and I have a lot in common -- pros at losing weight, and even bigger pros at gaining it back. This is why I need to do the sleeve. Now, I just need to prepare myself to transition from what I have been doing pre-surgery to what I will have to do post-surgery.

Thanks again for your thoughts, and I wish you all the best as you continue your weight loss journey!!