Bariatric (Gastric Bypass) surgery experiences? (1 Viewer)

[Sam Posten]

Lapband seems like a halfway step to me (no offense to any who have it and consider it a success). Most of the effectiveness of Roux En Y is the bypassing of the intestines which means that your already reduced intake cannot be absorbed as well as it is in there a much shorter period.

I started looking before Lapband became more fashionable, but would not have personally chosen it because it is so readily reversable. I wanted a permanent lifelong reminder of what I have done, and lapband does not provide that.

"98% of this is half mental" --Yogi Berra

Sam

 

[Richard Travale]

Well Posten, you're a month out. How are things progressing?
You're well I hope.

 

[Dave Poehlman]

I worked with a girl who had this done a year ago. She's lost the weight and now looks like a completely different person. It's amazing.

However, she's noticed her taste in foods has changed somewhat. Some foods she used to enjoy now repulse her. And, here's the kicker, she can't drink plain water or the "taste" will make her puke. She has to buy the flavored bottled waters or put a lemon in it.

Have you experienced anything like this, Posten?

 

[RyanAn]

As someone who has struggled with their weight, I can tell you that it is a very hard battle. I have lost more than 100 lbs so far, with 70 to 100 more as my goal. I was at 412 and am a little under 300 now due to exercise and diet. For people who are not able to get the surgery, bare with it. You can do it - stay strong.


Well, I wish you the best of luck posten! Stay with it! I know of someone who had the surgery and have gained all their weight and then some. I really hope it works for you.

Ryan

 

[Sam Posten]

I am doing well, thanks for asking. I can keep down everything I have tried, but I havent cheated once so that only goes for soups, chicken, eggs etc. =)

On the day of my first surgeon visit I weighed 423. He wanted me to be under 400 for the surgery.

On the day of my surgery I weighed 401. We called it close enough. =)

On my 10 day follow up I weighed 385

On my 30 day follow up I weighed 367

That was a week ago. I still havent felt hungry and havent gotten sick more than 3 times or so due to having eaten slightly too much or had liquids too soon. I am very happy with my decision, am seeing changes creep in, and have had excellent support from family and friends. This is a long haul to goal, but I am still very positive and confident.

Ryan, congrats on your weight loss, keep it up! Losing weight was never my problem, it was keeping it off... I wish you the absolute best!

Sam

 

[Gregg Loewen]

go dude!!

 

[Richard Travale]

Nice work Posten. Keep up the excellent work.

Ryan, nice work.

 

[Jeff Peake]

On the day of my surgery I weighed 401. We called it close enough. =)

On my 10 day follow up I weighed 385

On my 30 day follow up I weighed 367

Damn...that is about 1 pound a day. When you wake up in the morning can you feel the difference of having shed 1 pound from the previous morning?

A friend of my wife's had some kind of surgery like this ( i dont know which variety, i met her a year after it was done). She apparently lost a couple hundred pounds. The issue she had was that she lost so much weight, so fast, that she had excess baggy skin and had to get surgery to fix that.


I wish you well.

Jeff

 

[Mike Heenan]

Has there been any studies to see if losing weight is just a mental problem? I mean, for my own experiences, I was just really a lazy fat ass (no I'm not suger coating it with PC words like obese etc), always on the heavy side. At my heaviest, I was probably close to 315 pounds. At work, 4 of us decided to do a contest, $50 each, to see who'd loose the most weight in a month. 1 other guy was probably 30 pounds "overweight" and the othe 2 girls in the contest were healthy weight but could probably loose 10 to 20. So anyways I started finally to work out like a maniac, eat less (but healthy too) and I lost 32 pounds in 28 days, and won the contest. Man, after seeing the results and how my face shrunk, I was set mentally. I continued to work out and eat right etc, and now I'm down to about 210 pounds. I believe if it hadn't been for that contest, I'd never be at the weight I am now, because mentally I wasn't in the losingweight mode, so to say. It's a cliche, but if I could do it, so can you!

What does this ahve to do with the surgery? Not much really, but I really think anyone can loose weight if they put their mind to it, the "right" way, and not by surgery. I believe it was probably 90% mental and 10% physical in losing the weight. Besides, I wonder what the success rate of the surgeries are, in that after the people have their stomachs unstapled (do they?), how many stay at their low weight, and how many balloon back up. I know Carnie Wilson gained alot of her weight back but she had a baby I think so some weight could be attributed to that, but I haven't heard anything recently on her.

 

[Sam Posten]

Again, I havent had a problem LOSING weight in the past, thats why I'm not so self congratulatory on the 50+ I have lost so far this time.

I lost over 100 pounds on weight watchers.
I lost over 75 with Atkins.
I lost over 50 in similar weight loss contests to what you describe.

What I never did tho is KEEP the weight off. I always reset to bad habits, no matter how healthily I was eating. Even on weight watchers, which I kept to like a fiend.

What this surgery represents to me is two fold. First, its the end of the line. If I F this up there is nowhere else to go. Second, its a constant reminder to actually behave and let the program work, and work long term. Not to cheat it even a little. It cost too much (in so many realms) that I owe it to myself to make permanent, life changing changes. So far I am keeping to that. I hope I go the distance with it, but my history is shadowing me.

I think that millenia of foraging for scarce foods have ill prepared humanity for our outrageous fortune and the lands of plenty that our most fortunate of countries find ourselves in. We worked hard as civilizations to get here but it is going to take a lot of restraint to limit ourselves to just what we need, rather than what we want. I see this in a lot of things, energy, food, consumerism. Its just that food happens to be the one that can kill us individually and some of us are not dealing with it as well as others. But I firmly believe its going to catch up with a much larger percentage of the population than it has, and in my lifetime we have seen obesity explode from something I alone had to deal with to something MANY of my family and friends have to.

Food for thought.

Sam

 

[ThomasC]

Has there been any studies to see if losing weight is just a mental problem?

I have every reason to believe that it's a mental problem for the vast majority of people who want/need to lose weight. I've been trying and it's not easy at all. Back in high school, my tennis coach said that playing the game is 90% mental and 10% physical, and I believe that applies to losing weight as well.

 

[Colton]

Posten:

My best friend's wife had this done because her weight was causing major problems to her health (she weighed around 300 lbs) and is now 180 lbs. She is very careful about what she eats so she doesn't puke, but she jokes how she's a "cheap date".

Just wanted to ask if you were going to go back for another surgery to remove the excess skin? Apparently, it is required after losing so much weight so fast.

- Colton

 

[Sam Posten]

I'm not a very vain person, but if it is causing skin flareups and is remarkably gross I would do it. I dont rule anything out, but its not on my radar right now. I'm focussing on the actual weight loss and keeping it off.

I have heard a rumor that a local Burn Center will pay to harvest excess skin but I havent heard that for sure. If it is true I would be honored to help them out in that way (Cue music from the opera version of Silence of the Lambs "Are you about a size fourteen").

Sam

 

[Angel Pagan]

posten, wanted to resurrect this thread by asking how have you been doing? I recently (1/11) had this procedure done and decided to look to see if any HTF members has had this done.

 

[Janna S]

I had it four years ago, took off and have kept off a bit over a hundred pounds. I was healthy (but heavy) when I had the surgery - I had not yet developed diabetes or other problems. I found it the ideal combination of physical limitation (reduction in stomach, ability to put food in) and reduction of absorption of foods, and reminder to change my focus on food (change my lifestyle). I have a mild problem with anemia, and I had temporary hair loss, but I live and eat normally now. It was the right thing to do.

By the way, my experience with the surgery was good - I was up and about in just a few days, and able to go back to work in a week, and I didn't even tell anyone at work I'd had the surgery for a month or more, when they finally wanted to know how I was losing weight!

I had two friends who had the same surgery a year before me, both with equal success. For all of us, our weight ceased to be a physical or an emotional issue. And all of us were (are) intelligent, aware, capable, and accomplished people without major neuroses or behavioral problems - active and energetic and healthy - we just couldn't conquer the weight. For each of us the surgery provided the mental and physical transition we needed.