Weight Regain Worries

I am not sure if I am making the right decision about my WLS.  I have about 70-80 lbs to lose so I barely make the requirements for WLS.  I have high blood pressure and reflux so doctors will allow the surgery.

My concern is that the VSG isn't permament enough for me.  I am not sure if I have the will power to make it work long term.  I really don't feel like I need the RNY or DS, but maybe I should do it because of my lack of will power.

Do any of you have issue with regaining your weight?  Can you "shrink" your stomach back if you restretch it?  Help me calm my nerves!!! :)

Girlie, your lack of "willpower" if its with starchy carbs - then Roux-en-Y or DS really is not going to be any different.  For those of us who are sensitive to carbs, no surgery has been invented that will change that. 

No, you cannot reshrink your stomach.  It is the size it is when it matures.  Some folks can just have a little bit of whatever and maintain, but for a lot of us - the size of our britches is directly correlated with the quality/quantity of foods we put in our mouths, and how much we move our body. 

For me, I never had willpower that lasted any time.  I had to relearn how to deal with food and my emotions like an adult and not an impulsive child, and learn and CONSISTENTLY implement strategy to deal with foods that I might like to keep in my life, but have no place in my home, because then they end up getting stored in my body.

If you go and find the "Help I have gained X pounds" posts and look at the avatar and the "latest posts" go back and see how those folks got to the point of regain and never losing.  If those are all words you could have written you have a couple of choices - know yourself and set yourself up for success using strategy (and there are plenty of us here that are so glad to share!), or maybe go and check out the Roux-en-Y or DS boards and see what they have to share with you.

Personally? If I was going to have a malabsorptive surgery, I would definitely go with the DS, since the malabsorption for calories AND nutrients is life long, but dig around and find the complications of all of the surgeries, because you deserve to know the whole full dark and dirty truth of all the surgeries before you pick your poison, so to speak.

With vsgers, it seems that its the return to old poor nutritional habits and eating for much more than just nutrition that gets folks in trouble.

Good luck with your deciding!

And also to add this - this board has a LOT of brand new sleeves and they are still in the "whoot is not this great!  My old bad habits have been CURED, its a MUR A KUL, HALLELUYER" and not saying that the sleeve does not rock, because it does, but 3 months out, 6 months out, 1 year, 5 years, 7 years?  All of those stages look very different in how much folks can eat and stressors and return to poor habits, so, just know that.  While some folks can maintain eazy peazy, some folks never got to where they wanted to be, and some folks bounced way back up.

But this, honestly, is true for ALL surgeries, even the DS when folks go insane crazy with simple carbs. 

What Brandilynn said!        She is THE best when it comes to figuring it out and telling it like it is.

I am a food addict, sugar addict, compulsive overeater, whatever you want to call it.  I never had any "willpower" either.  However, the forced clean-out of my system from the week of pre-op diet and the weeks immediately post-op made me realize something:  If I keep junk carbs and most sugar out of my body, the cravings are GONE!  I had a year and a half of total and complete peace following my vsg.  It was a flat-out miracle.  Then I got sick (not vsg-related) and started eating junk carbs and sugar again.  20 pounds.  BAM.  Right back on.  Now, because I can't / won't stop the junk, I'm back to the cravings, and those 20 pounds sit, literally, on my hips and sorry backside.  But I know without the slightest doubt that all I have to do to shift them is to stop the junk.  The sleeve is a wonderful tool, and it is there for me whenever I choose to use it!!

Best wishes on your journey :-)
--Dorothy 

She's a pro, listen to her advice. I'm still in the "whoot my sleeve rocks" stage...i'm almost 1 year post-op. I listen to each and everything Brandylynn, Elina, USAF Wife, Frisco, MsShell and JimboVSG have to say. (im sure there is more..these came to mind right away)  I totally understand how someone could gain their weight back. You have to want it and you HAVE to make those changes permanent(sp?) from the beginning and follow them EVERY day. I'm not saying I stick to only protein with a little veggies, in fact I had birthday cake AND ice cream cake yesterday.  But its right back on the wagon until I go to the next "special occasion", my birthday, july 29th. After that, I am "good" till the holidays. Nobody, not even naturally skinny people, eat healthy at every meal, every day of their life. I have made changes from my bad habits to POSITIVE habits. You CAN make it happen. and no...once your sleeve is streched, its streched. Same with the DS sleeve and the RNY pouch. For me, this is my last (and really, ONLY ) chance at a normal, healthy life. I'm NOT going to struggle with weight the rest of my life...I just got started livin'! I got to my goal and I'm going like hell to stay there. You can do the same thing...dig deep down inside and decide if you really are capable of making these lifestyle changes..it's SO worth it; We all promise!  A therapist is a really great person to help you sort out these feelings...I really enjoyed the one I saw for a while; but I can't afford her anymore.

THANKS! Carbs are my ultimate sin! I always tell people if I had the choice of a big fat juicy piece of chocolate cake or hot fresh french bread out of the oven, I'll take the french bread any day! I LOVE BREAD!  I have a friend who has the DS and is doing amazingly with weight loss and she tells me she can eat whatever she wants for the rest of her life BUT she lost hair, has loose stool and horrible gas, not to mention the vitamin deficiency. She lost 146#s in 10 months and looks amazing!  UGH I am so stressed over this decision. 

I am self pay and the VSG is much more palatable for my husband.  The DS will cost approx $25K vs the $10-12K for the VSG.

I would much rather have savory carbs than sweets any day, screw chocolate cake.  BREAD GET IN MAH BELLAH!!

And looka here about hair and gas, we lose hair too, its one of those things that is just going to happen if it is, no amount of protein is going to keep it from happening if its in the cards for you, but it comes back!

And gas?  Whoo!  I can peel some paint off walls myself if I overboard on simple carbs - and its probably because I do not consume them like I used to, or maybe I just used to be that gassy all the time?  :} 

A really smart DSer said once "the DS is the best surgery for someone who needed a brain surgeon and could only afford a bariatric surgeon." 

Know that those prices are just up front prices too - many of us end up paying as much or more for foods N vitamins and supplements n setch.  I go through 10 pounds of protein powder a month because for whatever reason, my body does not hold onto the dense proteins that I eat, so I have to have it in shake form, because its the only way it stays in my system, it seems, and DSers have to take more vitamins than we (typically) do because they malabsorb. 

For me?  I was at the end of me.  Comorbidities were coming.. it was a promise.  Some folks, they want the hardest part of this to be healing from the surgery and for some folks it is..but for some of us, our portions were only *part* of our problem.

For me?  All the work I have done to get to the vsg, and to deal with me and mine to maintain after I got to goal, even the needing to still drink shakes at 2 years out?  Worth it, every single bit, for me.

I know there's no such thing as a dumb question....but I'm going to ask one.

Okay, for Dorothy who gained 20 lbs, is it going to be a struggle to lose weight like it was before WLS?  Will Yo-Yo dieting start up again? I am just terrified of the old cycle coming back again.

I am usually one who can change old habits IF I see results quickly.  That's why diets have never worked for me.  I never want to feel this way again so maybe that will be my driving force to stay healthy.  I don't want a "get out of jail free" card and expect to eat what I want, I DO want to be healthy for my family's sake.

I am not the lovely Dorothy but I am going to tell you this.


YOYO DIETING COMES BACK IF YOU CHOOSE.  You. Get. To. Choose.

For me?  Its easier to stay the course 90% of the time and have planned "outings" with anything goes MEALS.  Rarely is it a day of crap, and rarely do I eat junk in my HOME.  I have it OUT (part of my million word essay on strategies :} ).

Some folks get back into foods that they are attracted to/triggered by/addicted to - and that feeling is the same (whatever it is, food, booze, cigarettes, sex, cleaning CLEANING!? :} ).

Ms D can tell you more, but I just wanted to say that about that before I go zumba my bootay!  :}

I do have to tell you this - the vsg got rid of my raging panicked hunger.  I do still get hungry (some folks do not) but its a reasonable hunger and part of my deal with me about risking my life for an elective surgery was so that SOME could be enough.

Before there was never enough.  I stopped eating because it was polite to do so or it was gone. 

Now, as long as I do not let me get wrapped up in the tentacles of some food and end up being its ***** my chances of not flipping out and turning into a pie-hole stuffing zombie are low. 

Zumba!  Be sweet!  Good on you for asking hard questions!

Before there was never enough.  I stopped eating because it was polite to do so or it was gone.

Brandilynn, This was me, too. I was just telling a friend this very thing. There was no such thing as enough. I never felt full. I liked feeling stuffed but that didn't mean I felt satiated.

I'm one who never feels hungry any more. I love it. I feel like the monkey is off my back. I've never experienced the peace I do now. I'm at peace because I'm no longer obsessing about the next thing I can put in my mouth. Between the absence of ghrelin and leptin finally getting thru to my brain telling me my teeny tiny tummy has had enough, I'm a different person. I feel sorry for the person I used to be. I really do. She was a crazed human being in search of something she couldn't find. 

I found what I was looking for. It's called VSG. 

I feel for the me I used to be too, and I think knowing and remembering how desperate I felt helps keep me grounded. 

I do not care to return to the habit of searching for the ever elusive full - and I have a healthy dose of respect for staying on *this* side of the search. 

High five to have gotten a glimpse of life without that desperation, huh?

*ttssshh*