Hello! I just joined and am so happy to find this group! I've been a yo-yo dieter all my life and, at the tender age of 52, had almost resigned myself to the unhealthy up-and-down cycle. My tipping point was reading the new Canadian Adult Obesity Clinical Practice Guidelines that came out in Sept 2020. There it was, in official black and white: Obesity is a disease, NOT a choice/lack of willpower/laziness. It was an eye-opening moment for me, and the more I read, the more empowered I felt. I've since joined several WL organizations and forums, and the shared support has been both heartbreaking and invigorating. I've found my people!!

I'm interested to know what made you decide on WLS? What was your tipping point?

I'm tall, like you. For me, it was that each year (or so) I would gain 20 pounds, and I would say/think, "Well if I could just lose 20 pounds, I would be back where I was last year, and that wasn't so bad." Then I realized that if I said/thought that next year, I would be over 300 pounds. Real eye opener...so I decided to do it, even though it was not covered by my insurance. Best decision of my life!

Congratulations! I'm so looking forward to surgery! Can I ask you how your eating patterns have changed? I still want to enjoy eating out and don't know how that looks with a 1 oz stomach...

Hello! I just joined and am so happy to find this group! I've been a yo-yo dieter all my life and, at the tender age of 52, had almost resigned myself to the unhealthy up-and-down cycle. My tipping point was reading the new Canadian Adult Obesity Clinical Practice Guidelines that came out in Sept 2020. There it was, in official black and white: Obesity is a disease, NOT a choice/lack of willpower/laziness. It was an eye-opening moment for me, and the more I read, the more empowered I felt. I've since joined several WL organizations and forums, and the shared support has been both heartbreaking and invigorating. I've found my people!!
I'm interested to know what made you decide on WLS? What was your tipping point?

My breaking point was just a few weeks before my 46th birthday this year, I had emergency gallbladder removal surgery & 2 weeks later I found out from my surgeon that I have an overly fatty liver & am in the 50% obese category.
I got a start on my 3 month process that my INS requires & have my sleep study & One more dietitian appointment before scheduling surgery. I'm nervous & excited.

Hello and welcome!!!!!!!

Have been actively trying to lose weight for the last decade with the help of my primary doc and endocrinoligist (who my primary doc sent me to after he and I tried just about everything for me to lose weight and nothing was working). Anyway, my endocrinolgist finally figured out I had Insulin Resistance (put me on metformin for that) plus PCOS and of the two make it extremely hard to lose. You constantly, actively always need to be trying to lose otherwise it seems you just steadily gain.

Over the years both docs had me log food, log the gym attendance, try medication, various diets, etc. Nothing worked. I think the most I ever lost was 30-40 lbs and that was on Keto but then I slacked and eventually and fell back into bad habits and like a year later, gained almost all of it back again. The 40lb loss wasn't enough anyway, as I'm over 300lbs and have been for over a decade.

I also have high BP, crap cholesterol, and was teetering on the border of becoming a type 2 diabetic. Sadly, during the pre testing phase for weight loss surgery we found that I am now indeed type 2. Something I wanted to avoid and was hoping to not get before surgery.

So here we are, surgery is 2 days away and I'm hoping like hell it helps me lower my BP and ditch the type 2 and improve my cholesterol.

Thank you! I've heard such good things about the reduction in comorbidities after WLS. Wishing you the very best for your upcoming surgery and recovery - good luck!

13 minutes ago, 3tallwomen said:

Congratulations! I'm so looking forward to surgery! Can I ask you how your eating patterns have changed? I still want to enjoy eating out and don't know how that looks with a 1 oz stomach...

My post surgery may be different from yours since I had the sleeve...but there's an excellent thread called Food Before and After Photos...which has been VERY active, over 6,400 posts. I would start at the beginning (you can just skim it) to see their progress and how they started out. It gave me a LOT of great ideas on what I can eat, also what to eat if I'm flying or in an airport or on vacation or out to dinner...lol!

As an example, I'm 10 months out, and this weekend I went to Happy Hour and had two limoncello martinis, a half dozen oysters and two lamb shops...all for about $24. It was the perfect amount of food...and very high in protein. I like to go out to eat too, and I'm in hospitality, so there are many work related "dining out" opportunities. I stick to one to two drinks (I know alcohol is forbidden, but I went rogue on that at about 4 months out!) and high protein. If I go to sushi, I get a sashimi appetizer...at my favorite restaurant, it's probably 3-4 ozs (9 pieces of three different fish) and it's perfect (although I have been known to sneak a piece of my son's eel roll. too!) Mexican, I get shrimp fajitas, no rice and have been know to bring my own low carb tortillas! I haven't really done Italian...but if I did, it would be shrimp scampi or chicken or veal picatta...no pasta!

I always study the menu before I go anywhere (the same recommendation every diet I have ever been on has made) and choose what I will be eating before I go. This helps me to not make bad choices, most of the time. I just decided that I was going to LIVE with my tiny belly...and living to me includes dining out!

My tipping point was being lisinopril for hypertension. I’m an RN, so we’ll know the health consequences of hypertension. This was my wake up call. Within three months of my WLS my blood pressure was back to normal and I was off meds. I also was able to stop using my cpap as I no longer have sleep apnea. Besides all the vanity reasons, my improved health has been an amazing benefit of having WLS.

Not being able to buckle my seatbelt in the backseat of most cars.

2 hours ago, SummerTimeGirl said:

I also have high BP, crap cholesterol, and was teetering on the border of becoming a type 2 diabetic. Sadly, during the pre testing phase for weight loss surgery we found that I am now indeed type 2. Something I wanted to avoid and was hoping to not get before surgery.

So here we are, surgery is 2 days away and I'm hoping like hell it helps me lower my BP and ditch the type 2 and improve my cholesterol.

This was my tipping point. About a week after my 47th birthday, I skipped the pre-diabetic stage and went straight to a diabetic. Had my bypass on 3/3 and follow-up today with my endocrinologist. My A1C went from 6.8 to 4.6. I am now officially cured of diabetes. My cholesterol went from 218 to 104. I've lost 83lbs since my diagnosis in October. I've never really had high blood pressure, but this morning it was 105/65 which is lower than my normal. I feel the best I have felt in a few decades.

Edited May 17, 20215 yr by njlimmer

4 minutes ago, njlimmer said:

This was my tipping point. About a week after my 47th birthday, I skipped the pre-diabetic stage and went straight to a diabetic. Had my bypass on 3/3 and follow-up today with my endocrinologist. My A1C went from 6.8 to 4.6. I am now officially cured of diabetes. My cholesterol went from 218 to 104. I've lost 83lbs since my diagnosis in October. I've never really had high blood pressure, but this morning it was 105/65 which is lower than my normal. I feel the best I have felt in a few decades.

Love it and hope I'm as lucky one day. Congrats!!!!!

I had been considering surgery for years.. At 5'3" and 393 pounds I was super morbidly obese and knew it. Overall, I was still pretty healthy though, and our insurance doesn't cover wls, so I didn't seriously consider it. Then, my liver enzymes started to elevate, and got higher each year I had them done. So I was scheduled to see a liver specialist in February 2020. In January 2020 I had my gallbladder removed and mentioned that I'd be seeing a liver specialist to the surgeon. He said while he was in there he'd biopsy my liver. When I went for follow up he said my liver looked really bad and he didn't see me living past 60 if I didn't lose weight. I'm 49 and was 48 then. He recommended surgery. He was very concerned and compassionate and just the way he said it really impacted me. So I made an appointment to see a bariatric surgeon that day. I had to pay out of pocket for the surgery, but it was worth every penny. My liver enzymes were close to normal last time I had them done.

My tipping point was being lisinopril for hypertension. I’m an RN, so we’ll know the health consequences of hypertension. This was my wake up call. Within three months of my WLS my blood pressure was back to normal and I was off meds. I also was able to stop using my cpap as I no longer have sleep apnea. Besides all the vanity reasons, my improved health has been an amazing benefit of having WLS.

I had just been out on Lisinopril a couple months before my surgery. I'm an RN also, so that really scared me. My BP was normal again a couple months after surgery.

3 hours ago, 3tallwomen said:

Hello! I just joined and am so happy to find this group! I've been a yo-yo dieter all my life and, at the tender age of 52, had almost resigned myself to the unhealthy up-and-down cycle. My tipping point was reading the new Canadian Adult Obesity Clinical Practice Guidelines that came out in Sept 2020. There it was, in official black and white: Obesity is a disease, NOT a choice/lack of willpower/laziness. It was an eye-opening moment for me, and the more I read, the more empowered I felt. I've since joined several WL organizations and forums, and the shared support has been both heartbreaking and invigorating. I've found my people!!

I'm interested to know what made you decide on WLS? What was your tipping point?

Started considering when my blood sugar meter read over 500( I was always diet controlled before that) got my sugar under control. One morning stepped on the scale 268! Then I could only wear tights everywhere. Yup that was it.

Also, the liver biopsy showed I had NASH and hepatic fibrosis. This scared me to death.
The number one cause of a cirrhosis now is fatty liver/obesity, not alcoholism.

I've been obese for most of my adult life and morbidly/super morbidly obese after age 35 or so. I'd tried a million diets. On my more successful attempts, I'd lose 50 or 60 lbs, hit a brick wall, and then gradually put it all back on. Most of my attempts wouldn't even get me that far - maybe 10 or 20 lbs tops. I had over 200 lbs to lose, so I knew I was never going to get there if I couldn't even keep 50 lbs off.

I'd considered WLS for at least 10 years before I actually had it, but I was afraid of it and also, I'd have to change to a much more expensive insurance policy to get it covered. I thought I'd just wait until I turned 65 since Medicare covers it. But then I'd lie awake at night worried that I was going to have a heart attack, and I'd be in the ER and they wouldn't be able to do anything for me because of my weight. And at one point it occurred to me that waiting for Medicare to cover it was a bad idea, because at the rate I was going, I might not have even lived to see 60, let alone 65. How many super morbidly obese seniors do you see running around? Very few.

I can't remember what the last straw was (I had the surgery six years ago and started the process seven years ago), but it was probably the thought that I wouldn't live to see my 60th birthday if I didn't do something about my weight. And since I was 55 at the time, that day was coming up fast...

so- I did it. I have never been so grateful for a decision in my life. I should have done this YEARS ago. My life is a million times better now - and of course, my 60th birthday came and went without incident. Now I think I may be able to make it to 80+ !