Tell me the one thing that made the sleeve work for you that dieting never could. Was it the structure, the physical inability to overeat, the decrease in hunger from hormone changes or something else?

This is just a positive inspirational post to spark conversation. I would love to hear your sleeve success story and how it changed your life style.

The structure and inability to over eat plus a health scare! I don’t regret it at all!! I’ve learned a lot about my eating issues, why I eat and what my food triggers are. I think that’s one of the important things is taking a look at your bad habits and making new healthy ones!!! In my humble opinion!!

Decrease in hunger hormone, restriction of volume of food I can drink, and the “reset” after surgery to give me a head start on weight loss.

Certainly the physical limitations do help. But the real benefit was giving me the time to reassess what I ate, how I ate & why I ate. To make new eating habits. My appetite really didn’t start to come back until well into my second year & my restriction still works at three years out. The boost to my extremely slack metabolism also helped & while it’s not as fast now as it was during that first year, the reset certainly helps me to maintain.

One of the biggest changes was when I finished a diet in the past I went back to eating the same way I always had so the weight would come right back. This time I didn’t go back to my old habits. I eat very differently now. I worked out a way to eat that is right for me & is enjoyable, nutritious & sustainable (the longevity of being able to stick to it). I could be very restrictive about what & when I ate in the past & spent a lot of time thinking about eating or not eating. The restrictive aspects of those old diets weren’t sustainable & felt like I was punishing myself. A lot of my relationship with food has changed. I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything. I still enjoy food - flavour, texture, etc. but that adage of eating to live not living to eat is very real for me.

I never had a problem losing weight - I lost, 50, 80, 100 lbs before, but I always gained it back. I've lost 115 lbs so far (50 before surgery, 65 since) and I can't say for sure that I will be able to keep it off, but the odds are definitely better because surgery is supposed to lower you metabolic set point, i.e., the weight your body is comfortable at.

I know that I CAN'T eat a lot right now, as long as I'm eating the RIGHT foods. It hurts to eat too much, so it's a big disincentive to overeat. Of course, it's up to me to choose healthy foods, and right now, I'm doing that most of the time (the goal isn't to be perfect!).

My pouch somehow was bigger so I have not felt “full” yet. At each stage I could physically eat more than expected for that stage so I have had to measure my food and learn to stop eating when I finish my portion and hopefully feel satisfied rather than full. The decreased hunger helps with that tremendously i’m sure. I couldn’t imagine that I could have measured out a portion and just stopped pre op.

Such a good question for a post. I have dieted many times, lost and regained. I think for me it is the psychological aspect of committing to do a major surgery to my body to lose the weight. I think it would be insanely stupid for me to put myself through the trauma of surgery and then piss away all the benefits by not committing to weight loss and changing my life style permanently. I am 8 months into this process and the momentum for me builds as I reach new milestones in my weight loss. I am committed to this as I have ever been to anything in my life. I have lost 105 pounds and I continue to lose although much more slowly now than in the beginning...but still losing. My goal is to get down to "normal" BMI....I am getting close to that goal now.

Along the way, with the exercise I am doing, I am also as healthy as I have been in 20 plus years. My resting heart rate is down in the mid to high 40 range, my cholesterol is very, very good, my BP is fantastic and my glucose and A1C are perfect. I can run with my grand daughter better than most young people can and I look better than I did 25 years ago when I was in my late 30s.

The more benefits I see the more motivated I am to continue this life style change and keep up doing what I am doing.

I had a really bad case of cellulitis that put me in the hospital for 5 days in OCtober of 2021. My weight was at my highest, my blood sugar and A1C were ridiculously high and I was tired and unhappy all the time. My life had become very sedentary and it was depressing to know that I could and would lose weight but I'd eventually gain it back. I wanted the sleeve for that restriction and for the removal of the hunger hormone. I see it as a tool to help me gain my life back and to motivate me to get and stay active.

Good topic.

For me it's a combination of the restriction and the decreased hunger. I am still in the honeymoon period, just about 6 months after my sleeve. I have no idea how things will go for me long term but at the minute I am absolutely determined to use the tool I went to such lengths to get, and I am getting constant payback because I am losing weight. It's the speed of the loss too - I'm still consistently losing 2+ pounds a week so that's huge motivation to keep doing what I am doing. I do worry a lot about maintaining weight loss because I have never done that before. I think my chances are better this time though.

For me, it was a last resort. I had a come-to-Jesus moment when I realized all else had failed as nothing ever stuck. I was lucky enough to have had a therapist who'd specialized in eating disorders and she was my biggest cheerleader. The absolute necessity of eating nutritious food, and just enough to meet daily goals, forced a reset in my relationship with food. I feel so much better physically and (with very close monitoring by my psychiatrist) am taking one med as opposed to two. Mood swings caused by my sugar addiction have been been eliminated and now I'm able to work on the inherent stuff. It was and continues to be a total gamechanger.