corinnaq
12 years!
Nov 09, 2018
I could have sworn I wrote something at my 10 year mark but apparently not. But at least here I am now :-)
Since it's been four years since I've written I guess I have a bit to update. As with just about everyone who has gastric bypass I started struggling with regain about three years ago. I was mostly maintaining but VERY slowly creeping up. The only way I was able to maintain at all was to work out like a fiend and basically starve myself. I was constantly hungry and so disappointed with myself that I couldn't seem to control it.
For years I had tried to find information regarding gastric bypass and it's long-term affect on metabolism. I could never find a thing. In fact it's very difficult to find anything about gastric bypass patients past about 3 years post-op. I did a hard core work out/nutrition program as a last ditch effort to try and restart my metabolism. For six weeks I followed a strict macro diet and a heavy workout routine. It was the strongest and fittest I'd ever been but my body weight and even my body fat dropped very little. So off I went searching again for answer...because obviously calories in and calories out was NOT the answer. Trust me I was methodical in tracking that! I would routinely be 500-800 calories in deficit each day and nothing changed...in fact I kept gaining small amounts. I did keto, I did low-calorie, I did low fat, all organic/clean eating the only thing I didn't try was full on vegan. None of it worked. and I'm not talking about I tried it for a week and gave up. I'd go for at least two months hard core, no cheating. So back to that search. I FINALLY found something promising. Seattle Performance Health and Dr Emily Cooper and her book The Metabolic Storm. I read the book, scoured her website and discovered that she firmly believes that most obesity is NOT caused by poor habits (perhaps exacerbated by but not the root cause) but is because our metabolic system has broken in one or more places. It is this incredibly delicate system balanced by numerous hormones created by multiple systems in our bodies. I immediately called to get an appointment. It took almost a year to actually get one because she's so busy and the only one of her kind anywhere in the US.
My first appointment they took a gallon (it felt like) of blood including an insulin/glucose test where the first one is drawn when you're fasting then you eat a balanced meal then they draw again at 30, 60 and 90 minutes. Then she spent well over an hour with me talking about my history, including deep family history and even questions that I thought were odd at the time. Like, how often do you feel hungry? This was a hard question to answer because quite literally for me the answer was, "all the time". And she said, even right after you eat? And she said it in such a way that she expected my answer to be yes, which is was. At that point she wasn't willing to make any guesses so she just said she felt very sure she could help me. I came back two weeks later once the blood test results were back. It was mind boggling. First and foremost the hungry all the time thing...turns out although my stomach wasn't hungry my BRAIN was. So when one eats your glucose level is supposed to spike up which sends a message to your brain that the body is being nurished which then prompts it to send out the signal of satiety and nutrition. Mine was doing the exact opposite. My glucose would take a deep dive which was basically telling my brain that I not only wasn't eating but that I needed to eat immediately, literally while I was putting food in my mouth. Let me tell you, when I found out that's why I was always "hungry" I burst into tears.
There were multiple other areas that my hormone chain wasn't working, many in part because I had been starving myself for years. Any Dr looking simply at my bloodwork would say I was anorexic and I guess I actually kinda was, I just didn't look it because of the way my body stores and uses fat.
So now came a lot of retraining. I had to EAT, eat and eat more. And it needed to be carb heavy. She warned me I would gain weight before I started losing but to be patient. I did gain and it completely freaked me out of course but I trusted her because the first tiny little pill she put me on (called Acarbose) to take just before I ate anything changed everything. I suddenly could go hours without even thinking about food...something that was a complete anomoly for me. Eventually I did start losing weight and although I'm still not down to my lowest weight it's a steadily falling line. But NOW...I get to eat. Whatever I want whenever I want. I still only eat to normal fullness and my stomach is still quite small so I never eat large portions I just eat much more often. I'm not hungry all the time, I don't think about food constantly and I feel better and have more energy than ever. Oh and my female hormones have straightened out as well.
I have no idea if anyone ever reads my blog since I'm on it so irregularly but for those of you who do come across it I have this message. WLS in all it's many forms is NOT the be all end all for most people. Regain is real, just read the forum on OH to see how many people do. It's disheartening but the good news is that it doesn't have to be a foregone failure. I hope more Drs pick up Dr Cooper's research and start treating obesity as systemic not psychologic. If you can convince your Dr to look at her research or have a conversation with her do it. She does still recommend WLS for some of her patients but she also fixes the root cause which means keeping the weight off will be much easier and you'll be more successful.
As always I'm happy to chat with anyone who has questions!
