How does surgery make the current weight come off?

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To lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you take in. With the surgery, you are only taking in 300 cals starting out and by the time you are healed it would be approx 900 call daily. As long as you are staying active it will help.

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And hopefully after surgery you start eating healthier.

You can only eat a little bit and you have to make it count, it is the gas you are putting in your car, you don't want to put "junk" gas

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Hw 260

Sw 255

Cw 202

Sleeved August 17, 2016

Maybe I am viewing it wrong, but surgery doesn't really make the weight come off. As @@KittyV mentions, you need to take in less calories than you need to burn. Doing that under normal circumstances makes us snarly, hungry, and generally unpleasant.

Surgery removes the volume of our stomach, plus a big part of it (in some circumstances) which produces the hunger hormone ghrelin. That gives us a chance to eat lots less while still retaining our humanity. It does do some other things to our metabolism, but most of our weight loss is through changing habits and a proper attitude. That is, if you want it to be permanent.

Also, with sleeve or bypass, the portion of the stomach that produces the hunger hormone ghrelin is removed. So the majority of people don't have to worry about feeling hungry all the time with their limited intake of food. (Of course, head hunger that happens after surgery is a different beast altogether).

@@j2m1h, to say that surgery takes weight off is a terrible misconception that, alas, some people nurture because they believe in the Easter bunny, fairies and other forms of magic. (Notice I omit Santa Claus because we're still too close to his day in the sun.) Surgery doesn't lose weight; people do. Those who have surgery do the same things after that they did before: Eat differently and, one hopes, exercise. Surgery is an aid to losing weight. The reality is that it is possible to regain at any time, hence, proof that there's no magic. Maintaining weight loss is a lifetime endeavor. With mindfulness and continuing good habits, it's done.

The hormone ghrelin is mentioned above. It not only regulates hunger but they believe it also relates to your metabolism. So essentially you get a bit of a metabolic reset with surgery (if you have the bypass or sleeve). We need to eat healthy to keep it. Otherwise we damage it like we did the old one....

before surgery I could not control my appetite, eating. I could eat enough for 3 people.

Now, after lap band surgery, I am unable to eat like that anymore. I eat like a bird.

I was fat because I ate too much. Now I am thin because I eat normally the way other thin/fit people eat.

Example...on a Friday night I could eat an entire large pizza with toppings by myself...then come back for dessert or something more to eat an hour or two later.

Now, I have a hard time getting through one slice...unable to overeat as before, and with that no fear of regaining any weight.

BTW, I stopped eating pizza because since I eat so little, I did not see the nutritional value in it and would rather eat something good since I'm eating so little now.

Add to all that plenty of exercise, etc, and I am a new person!!!!

Almost all the points mentioned above are temporary effects. Your stomach size is permanently reduced, but it is very, very easy to "eat around the sleeve" by consuming high fat/carb foods, drinking while eating, eating "slider" foods (foods that liquefy like most breads, chips, ice cream, etc... and are easy to overeat since they take up no real volume in the stomach and slide through quickly, so you never feel full).

My doctor emphasized that anyone will lose weight for the first year or so after surgery, even eating total crap and going through the drive through every night. But those people will slowly stall out, and then start gaining within a year or so and likely blame their sleeve for failing when it's really their own fault. The sleeve just levels the playing field for those of us that needed the help to do the hard work of relearning how to eat and get active. It won't carry you if you continue to make poor decisions after the honeymoon period is over.

While the feelings of hunger can disappear for some time, they do come back. It is hoped that if/when that happens, you know how to differentiate between head hunger and actual hunger, and you've learned how to eat healthy, whole foods by that point.

The reason that VGS works is that you get about 1 year (can be up to 18 months) called the "honeymoon" sometimes, where you have both the restriction of the smaller stomach AND a lessening of the ravenous hunger that sometimes happens when a person tends towards binge eating. The quick dropping of a large amount of weight is so encouraging, most folks get really excited and that makes them work harder to preserve their success.

Since you have to let your stomach heal in the first few months, you're on a reduced diet plan of high Protein, low carb foods, and as you add back in real food, you're encouraged to make better choices overall since you have so little room, and to choose healthy/whole foods instead of packaged crap and fast food garbage.

It takes some time to throw out bad habits and relearn good ones, but the truly successful ones do this. Working with a counselor if you had issues with food (binge eating/overeating/food disorders in general) and working with a nutritionist to learn exactly what foods you should be eating, tracking every bite of food/drink and learning how to read nutrition labels and what daily macros you actually need, and using the new reduced stomach size to make sure you're learning proper portion sizes... along with increasing exercise/activity... that's how you achieve long term success.

Skip any of those steps, and you're likely going to fail. But if you figure this stuff out during the "honeymoon" period, then in addition to losing a large amount of weight, you'll have the blueprints to KEEP the weight off for the rest of your life.

Edited January 4, 20179 yr by FrankiesGirl

I view my lap band as a little cop in my tummy. She stops me when I eat too fast, forces me to slow down, and firmly tells me "That's enough" when I'm full. If I don't listen to her, there are unpleasant consequences.

Whereas before, I was a fast eater and it takes a good 20 minutes for the brain to register satiety. So I would eat a lot, very fast, and overfill my stomach. I've always been fine with eating the "right" foods - my problem was volume. The band prevents ~90% of my overeating. The other 10% consists of pure sweets and high-calorie liquids which I find easy enough to avoid so it's been working well for me.