Is WLS The Easy Way Out???

Is WLS the easy way out?
I ask the question for several reasons.
First this was asked a week or so ago on another forum and really stimulated great conversation.
Second it gives others interested in WLS a larger picture in order to understand what they might be signing up for.
Third I feel that topics like this helps keep the board alive, I encourage all of you not only to respond to this post, but also post other thought provoking issues.
C'ya Bob

So having had the WLS back on the 18Aug, I feel i can certainly talk to this subject.

-Anyone can follow the weight loss ive experienced by simply following the diet. Now, try to feed someone who hasnt had WLS a 3oz portion of food and expect them to be content, probably not gonna happen. Same portion to someone who has had WLS, they're fine. From that aspect, is it easier on the WLS person? Absolutely.

Now, lets flip the coin.. if the non WLS candidate decides to have a nice slice of chocolate cake, will they likely be sick? Probably not.. give the WLS person the same slice, there's consequences beyond "healthy eating".. dumping usually ensues along with a few days feeling of "what was I thinking?" From an enforcement standpoint, who has it rougher? Non WLS candidates can stray, WLS folks can't. I'd say the WLS have it rougher there.

Speaking strictly from a "freedom of lifestyle" point of view, WLS folks definately have it rougher.. The rewards definately come easier as long as you stick to the plan that surgery allows, but most of the battle, wheather a WLS post op or someone simply dieting, is psychological (you vs. food), not how many sit-ups you can do.

Hummmmm.....  If I were an alcoholic and could have a surgery to  give me a tool to cut my drinking by 90-70%, I would want  to have it --most people would think me a FOOL not to have it!  So, I think the question is not whether or not WLS is an easy out (obviously it's not), but whether or not we are foolish not to have it.

I can tell you that I've never thought it was easy.  I haven't had the surgery yet, but I'm looking foward to the "full" feeling so I can use it to HELP me lose weight.

As a tool -- not the answer.

i get this from big friends who think its the easy way out. i've struggled with this a lot pre-op. i had the surgery aug 18th and i'm still having trouble with throwing up, stomach muscle pains, nausea, extreme gas, etc. why on earth would someone think this is the easy way out. i mean we mutilated the insides of our bodies just to get some sort of control back.
however, pre-op i had to do the 2 shakes a day and meal for dinner and that was pure torture. i tried my best but my addiction to food was so overwhelming. i just could not eat healthy pre-op. now, the surgery has made it to where my tastes have changed. i eat yogurt, cottage cheese, soup and refried beans and i'm satisfied. that is easy to eat this stuff. so call it the easy way if you will. that part is easier. a HECK of a lot easier.
one thing i'm happy about is i dont have dumping syndrome because i have my pyloric valve so i can eat a ppiece of pie but like i said earlier, with this surgery my tastes have changed. i wasnt expecting that.
so is this the easy way out? i dont know. i'm only 5 1/2 weeks out and still have problems. but i do tell you. if i could have lost weight without surgery, i would have. but thats the thing with me. i couldn't lose the weight. i tried but i was not disciplined enough. eventuallly your body gets to a point where it starts breaking down and the simplest things are so hard you have to do what's right for you. surgery was right for me. if ppl call it the easy way out, then so be it.

You know, I don't think WLS is the easy way out, but I do think people (non-wls) look at successful people like yourself and think it is. 

The first question out of any one I talk to is, "Have you had any complications?"  I can't speak for others, but no I have not.  The general public seem to look on the negative aspects of WLS and judge from there.  Then they look at people who have had an easy and dramatic weight loss as it being easy.

Someone told me this wasn't a race, but a marathon.  I suspect if you ask anyone who has ran a marathon, "Was it easy?"  The answer would probably be no, but doable.

It's to early to be thinking like this.  Hope I made sense!

Scott 

 No it is certainly not the easy way out. I have gone thru too much pre op and post op to know personally that its not for me. Am I grateful for the surgery? YES hands down. Would I do it again? YES, even with the complications that I have had, in a heartbeat.

gidget

Good topic, Bob.  Like you said in my earlier post, let's post the good, the bad and the ugly.  Tha good is the weight loss and with it the improved health and increased energy and decreased prescription meds. The bad is that it is NOT easy.  Counting carbs, counting liquids, counting protein, travel can be a nightmare if you don't prepare (which I am sure you have gotten to be a pro at). And, there can be long recoveries, and complications even though those are getting fewer and fewer.  Also bad, the over $500 a month note I call my "belly" note that I pay to finish paying for this surgery for 3 more years!. The ugly, people who immediately say "I wish I could afford to take the easy way out", or "Have you started drinking, I hear a lot of you people start drinking", or tell you about so and so's mother who died from the surgery.  Funny how we never hear success stories from our non WLS friends. And finally and ugliest to me right now (I know I am getting vain) all the awful hanging skin that we now have to find a way to get the money to have removed because most of our insurance companies refuse to help us. Is this the easy way-absolutely not!  I paid $30,000 for this surgery, no insurance coverage for me.  Was it worth it--YES, is it easy-NO.
Marilyn

It all depends on which angle you look at it.  Longterm, no its not the easy way.  Short term, yes it is.  And by that I mean, its the easiest way to drop 100 lbs at the drop of a hat...  faster than Weigh****chers, faster than Atkins, faster than any weight loss program that you will find.  You can even "cheat" in those first 6 months and lose weight simply because of restriction alone.  So in the point of view that its the easiest way to drop that much weight that fast, yes. 

 But then comes the complicated part.  KEEPING IT OFF.  THAT is the hard part.  Many of you have not yet made it to maintenance, but it is where the rubber meets the road.  It's where, if you don't have those good new lifestyle habits in place, you will find yourself struggling and in trouble.  That is one major reason many of us "food nazi's" drill it strongly in those first few weeks:  FOLLOW THE RULES NOW, AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.  If you do, then you will have that little voice in the back of your head chiding and prompting you LATER on the journey when you need it the most.  Later, you will think, "I have the weight off...  I can 'treat' myself."  Until before long, you could treat yourself with things you can technically have once you hit goal weight, but doing it every day instead of once a week.  

 Another angle that can be seen is the sickness and complications that come.  If a person is simply asking if its easy to lose weight, yes, but if they want to know about physical problems involved, NO its not.  Is throwing up every time you eat a wonderful thing?  No.  Some of us have dealt with strictures where nuthin' is going down that thin opening...  so out the mouth it goes... then there's the horrible feeling if you eat just one tiny bite too much. The pain in your chest seems that an elephant is sitting there... 

Some who eat too much sugar have dumping. 

Some who eat fried food/greasy food will have reactive hypoglycemia.

Some who have too many carbs will also have reactive hypoglycemia, problems that some of us further out are experiencing....  just to eat oatmeal, we notice that those carbs jab us....  

Easy way to lose weight? Yes.

Easy way to live? No.

Easy way to maintain weight loss after goal? No. 

Easy way out? Oh but I lost 10lbs the hard way! You know my Aunt Judy had that lost a bunch and gained it all back and then some! Oh I would never, you know its not Gods way! OK you've lost enough, you look down right sickly!

Just a few things we all have heard. Easy well if you want to dissect anything you can always find the easy parts. Tiger Wood makes golf look easy but each day he's in the gym weight training, hitting hundreds of balls, being pulled this way and that. But you know he's got it easy! Compared to a ditch digger sure. 

 WLS has given each one of us the ability to get a new lease on life we know the challenges, the financial hardships, the scrutiny that is placed on us. We know that there will be those that are just waiting for us to screw up.

But easy NO! If it was so easy then why would we go through years of obesity, bad health, diet after diet?? Why not just start with the easy way? Why when people make that comment don't they take the easy way? If its so easy! I mean come on if you had to dig a six foot deep ditch for a mile would you use a shovel or take the easy way out and use a backhoe.

Each one of us know how difficult this can be so I need not explain it to you, but anyone investigating should understand that this is a tool only a tool. You need to go into this with real expectations. WLS won't fix depression, get you married, make you financially independent. But it will give you every opportunity to live a longer healthier more productive life and yes LOOK DAM GOOD IN A PAIR OF JEANS! C'ya Bob