How helpful is surgery

I have been reading for over a year on this site. I read the same stuff day after day from people having emotional issues involving food, being very hungry, gaining weight over time, and a host of other issue I face daily (I have not had surgery yet). So I guess the question is why have surgery if I will face the same issues after surgery and have to make a lifestyle change to lose weight which is what you have to do to lose weight without surgery? From reading it sounds like it is easier to lose weight the first few months after surgery vs not having surgery then all hell breaks loose and the struggles begin. 

Surgery is a tool, not a solution. We've used food to deal with emotions and the emotional problems after surgery come from not being able to use food to deal with them.  

Over the past couple of years I've been learning more skills/tools to deal with my mental illness and I know I will have to use them and develop more. My surgeon's pre and post op program is quite extensive to help address the emotional issues and I have a great therapist as well.

Justme7,

For me it has been totally worth it. It is true that the rapid weight loss stage does not continue long term, but it allowed me to lose more weight than I ever have before in my adult life. Continuing to lose weight may be a struggle but certainly not as much as it would have been with my old super-sized stomach. I do not think that "all hell breaks loose" is an accurate description of everyone's experience.

Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater, as the expression goes. Yes, I do think a lot about my food choices now, and seem much more aware of my tendencies to turn to food for social or emotional needs rather than physical; no, I am not at goal. I am still overweight and will try hard to lose 20-30 more pounds even if it takes months or years. However the benefits of no longer being morbidly obese are immense. I am much healthier and can move more easily. Without the re-set that the VSG has provided I do not think I would be able to continue working and living independently.

All the best, Katy 

Get a 2 liter soda bottle and fill it up with water.  Then take the cap from the soda bottle and fill that up with water.   The bottle represents your current stomach.  It takes a lot to fill it up.  When you have a tiny little stomach, even if you are hungry, you can fill it up with a very small amount of food.

My old stomach would have comfortably held a twelve ounce steak, salad, baked potato, several slice of bread or rolls, two vegetable sides and had plenty of room left over for cake or pie ala mode.  I would have been ready for pizza with beer and chips an hour later.

Now I can order four ounces of steak, a small serving of salad, and a small serving of vegetables and not be able to finish the meal.  I stay full for hours. Since surgery, I have never again experienced hunger.

I could not make the lifestyle changes stick when I was hungry and had to deal with filling up a big stomach.

I still had to make that lifestyle change, but it was so much easier to make that change when I am never hungry and when I can feel so full on so little food.

I think you viewpoint might be a bit jaded.  I see lots of success with only a sprinkle of issues.

Sure there are still issues to deal with. But I'd rather be dealing with them at 127 lbs as opposed to 222. Surgery has allowed me to reset, get back to my pre morbidly obese normal weight and has put me on a level playing field with the rest of the people dealing with weight management issues because don't fool yourself into thinking that only the fatties have food issues. Naturally skinny people have to work just as hard to maintain. And stress eating, emotional eating and all the head stuff, they also deal with. The difference I guess is that they deal with it effectively and prevent weight gain.

So yes, surgery has been very helpful to me to have a second chance at a healthy life. 

I also can't say that I have felt any hunger to speak of since surgery and this of course is a gift in terms of resisting the temptation of certain foods or volume eating in general. And while your initial restriction relaxes over time you still cannot, without physical discomfort, eat what you could prior to surgery.

Lastly, yes you can consciously eat around any WLS. You can gain even more weight if you put your mind to it. It does boil down to a choice that you have to make as to how you want to live and the quality of that life. The choice is always ours to make. Best of luck!!

I have not been my current weight in over 30 years.  Obviously all of my attempts to reach a healthy weight were not successful.  I am hopeful that I will remain healthy and keep the weight off.  The fact is you absolutely cannot eat the quantity of food you could before.  It is also a fact that old habits still lurk and can come back into your life.  Each day eating properly reinforces the good. I know how much better I feel.  

I cannot guarantee you lifelong success.  Only you can do that for yourself.  This is not the easy way out- for me it was the only way. On this site you see the struggles but you also see much success. Like any addiction, food is a daily choice- one meal at a time.  Research this for yourself and make an informed decision for your own health.

Nancy

Why do alcoholics and drug addicts go to rehab and/or AA/NA when the path to recovery is still extremely difficult???

If you had a terminal illness, would you accept treatment that might put you into temporary remission, knowing that there is no cure but that if you take care of yourself you could live a very long time in remission?  

You're right - if you don't face and address the very issues that made you fat you'll never be healthy (or happy, for that matter).  VSG is the corner piece to a puzzle that if put together, is quite beautiful.  Putting it together can be hard, frustrating, and seemingly impossible at times.  Which is why you get help with the parts you can't figure out on your own.  

And, as Julia said, the battle is so much easier at 127 pounds!

Surgery has been incredibly helpful.  I have not had any emotional issues with food.  My hunger is very minimal and my restriction is still great.  I am two years out as of yesterday and my doctor has told me that my restriction will likely remain the same going forward.  This surgery has been a life changer.  Never before have I been able to lose close to 80 pounds and keep it off.  I weight today what I weighed a year ago.  Never before have I remained the same weight one year to the next.  It does take some work and I have to watch what I eat but it is a cake walk for me compared to before.  I still have about 15 pounds to go but if I never get there I am ok with that.  I believe that this is one of the best things that I have ever done for myself!