I am in the pre op process of testing and meeting all of my insurance requirements for sleeve surgery.  I have been lurking on here for a while and have gained great insight to life after sleeve surgery from many of you.  Thank you to all who have traveled this down this path, been successful and have shared your bumps along the road...you are all a huge inspiration! 

With that said, I cant help but wonder (especially after reading alot of long term vet experience) if anyone who is a few years out, lost the weight and maintained it, thinks that they could have done it without the sleeve.  I am reading how good many of you follow your eating plan and are able to maintain your weight loss...i am wondering if looking back, you would have been able to buckle down and lost it regardless?  Perhaps this is just pre surgery jitters...i have been overweight for the past 20 years and have thought long and hard about having this surgery but i am very nervous about the complications I have read about bec. I have 2 small children....any shared insight would be greatly appreciated.

I don't have any doubt at all that I could have lost all of my weight on my own.  You know how I know this?  I did lose weight on my own six times before choosing to be sleeved.  Seriously, I had lost between 60-100 lbs. six times in my life.  I am an absolute expert at losing weight.  Now ask me the really important question, do I think even for one minute that I could have kept my weight off for these 2.5 years without the sleeve? No way.  I am just as sure that I would have put the weight right back on.  The sleeve is not really about losing weight, it is all about maintenance.  It gives you the extra tool to be able to keep the weight off.  It does not do it for you, you have to do the work, but it makes it doable.  It really is just a tool, a very powerful tool, but like any other tool, you have to use it or it just doesn't work.  So yes, I am very diligent about my food and my now my exercise, but this is the first time ever that I can tell you that I am absolutely sure that I will not be obese ever again in my life.  It was worth it, and I would do it again in a heartbeat, and yes, I too have small children who are much happier with an active, full of life mother.

I too have yo-yo'ed for years. I've lost 60lbs, gained 100, lost 80 lbs, etc.  I could do this without surgery but, I HAD high blood pressure, high cholostral, sleep apenia, fibromyalgia, and constant chronic pain.  Before I had this surgery, I spent $100 a month on meds and I was on at least six medications.  I am turning 50 next year.  I have a 21 year old daughter.  I do not want to be 50 and unhealthy, much less fat.  More than that, I don't want my daughter to get married, have kids and not be able to enjoy every minute of every experience.  Then there's my life.  I haven't had great luck dating.  When you yo yo up and down, you're really not confident in dating and it shows.  I could go on and on but the bottom line is, my health and I deserve some normalcy and good health for the rest of my life.  Thats why I did it.  I'm down 45 lbs since May 4 and I have no regrets. I self paid and went to Mexico to Doctor Alvarez.  I don't have one regret doing. Best decision I have ever made. I just wish I had done it sooner.

What Elina said.

I could have lost 50 to 75 pounds... heck, I figure over the past 20 years, I've lost at least 2000 pounds (over and over and over again).

Would I have kept it up? Would have lost a total of 165 pounds.

Nope.

I was nervous too. I had lost 20 pounds in 2 weeks just by doing the shakes and low carb thing. I remember trying to talk myself out of it and then sitting down and having a real honest heart to heart conversation with myself and basically told myself to stop lying to me.

Best thing ever. My life is so completely and utterly different now. Amazing, really.

I agree 100% with Elina. And you may want to take this with a grain of salt since I'm still in the losing mode 2+ years after surgery.

I can lose weight. And I'm a demon for staying on a plan. Hell, I did 18 months of shakes only (not 1 piece of solid food) to lose 150 pounds 1 time. I've had a total of 4 times with weight loss over 100 pounds.  But 2 things---

1.  I always quit short of a normal weight. I was never eating "real" food. I did shakes, pre packaged stuff, points, etc. I consider my current diet (in the generic term) to be normal. High protein, low carb---it's a lifetime commitment and manageable for life. I will NEVER add certain foods back into life. And that's good for me. At goal, I will probably add in about 300 cals of "good" stuff--like a piece of fruit and a little more fat.

2. Like 97% of folks, I always put the weight back on plus much more. That, I feel, is the key to this. I have trained myself...learned allot and will not return to my former habits. I now look at food as fuel. That may be boring to lots of folks but it's what it is. I don't get great pleasure (and I don't want it) from eating. I've been able to come to a place of peace with eating.

I haven't been under 200 pounds in 40 yes 40 years---I have about 5 pounds to go to reach that goal. There's no going back at this point.

No kids for me but we all have folks. friends, jobs dependent on us. No one wants complications. I would check with your surgeon for his/her record. As a pre op, I think the bad always stands out due to normal apprehension and nervousness.

Good luck.

Good luck to you. I am convinced that I have a long hard road ahead of me. (2days out) but I aso know This tool will help me like none of the diet plans did...these vets are so inspiring and informative.  

There must be an echo in here.  Everything people have said about losing the weight and gaining it back is so true.  I had my doubts and concerns, because I , too, questioned rather or not I could lose the weight without WLS...sure and I could regain the weight back...again!  I had to to totally honest with myself, and I didn't want to keep yo-yoing with my weight anymore.  I realized that if I wasn't going to change my lifestyle without the "tool" that the sleeve provided.  The rest of the work was going to fall on my shoulders to do what I needed in order to embrace life, with a healthier lifestyle and a better quality of life.  I was having too many health issues and if I wasn't changing my lifestyle to live, then I was going towards a premature death of my doing.  It was time to stop going down the wrong pathway and chose a better destination...I am choosing LIFE!

Good luck with your decision.  I chose the sleeve to aid me in creating a better lifestyle and a better quality of life.  No regrets, it is one of the best decisions I have ever made.  I only wi**** was done sooner.

Diana aka CajunCuz

 To all the above posters.  Ditto!

Another ditto! 
I could lose, just not maintain over the long term.. I did lose from 308 to 155 years ago (took me almost two years), and maintained w/i 15 or so lbs for a handful of years, but just like most (almost all) others that have lost over 100lbs, I slowly regained over the next decade or so.

I had surgery before I got back to my highest weight for the sole purpose of getting back down into a healthy weight range and with some work, hopefully being able to maintain that healthy weight range for life.. Still trying to figure out where my body wants to be, and where I want to maintain it. But, this feels like it could be a do-able thing now, where before trying to maintain this level of weight loss was a serious battle that would wear me down on a daily basis.

Thank you everyone for your replies...I think I am letting the "what if" fear get in my way right now.  I have been pretty confident with  my decision for the last 2 months but recently started reading the leak posts and keep scaring the crap out of myself.  My 6 year old son was born with a rare birth defect and spent the first 2 months of his life in the hospital...I never left his side.  It was touch and go for a while until he was diagnosed and finally had corrective surgery.  It was long days and nights and I can't imagine having to go through another long hospital stay in the event of a complication from surgery.  In a sense, I feel like i am taking a gamble...on the flip side, I have been overweight for the past 20 years and dont want to spend the next 20 in the same condition and regretting that I let my fear get in my way of a healthy life style change....Thank you for sharing your experiences with me, it certainly helps reading!