Does WLS ruin your metabolism?

I've been told all my life that if I don't eat enough I'll ruin my metabolism. Maybe that's why I'm fat. I've lost and gained all my life. When I lose it's usually on a very low calorie diet for a few months. Then like a switch is pulled that makes - I really mean "makes" - me eat more, and then the weight all comes back plus some.

So does that happen with WLS too? I've seen where people say that after a few years you can eat way more than you can at first. So when that happens will your body revolt and make you eat more then and you gain all the weight back becauase your metabolism is so used to you eating only 500 calories?

Can people after WLS eat normally ever again or are you cursed to stay under a certain amount of calories for the rest of your life because you've ruined your metabolism? If true that's fine, I just want to know what I'm getting into before I leap. I think maybe it would be worth it just to have a few years at a normal weight. I've never had that. But if it's the same hard work to keep off the weight after WLS as it is before, then maybe I'm better off just doing the diet again. What can you folks tell me?

 experiences vary - I feel like my metabolism still "works" (and I realize that is a very unscientific way to look at it) but in my 20s I read a lot of Geneen Roth and I gave up "dieting". I kept gaining weight but slowly and I didn't "yo-yo" my way up to MO.

I suspect a lot of people will tell you to get a DS and give yourself the best chance of normal forever. listen to them!

whatever you get you will have to - at least mostly - give up eating a lot of refined carbs. not all, a "lot". and that word is deliberately vague.

good luck and I LOVE it that you are new but have a cool avie, a screen name I can remember, and write posts that are thoughtful and easy to read. and you like fun, I like that too.  

This is just my personal opinion but as a 51 yr old woman who is eating around 1700 calories per day to maintain and is not exercising currently due to surgical limitations I think that many folks can and do ruin their metabolism by eating too little after WLS.

while i was in the throes of losing and exercising I ate about the same way.  my body kept losing.

now I maintain between 135 and 140  mostly in the 137-138 range.... without trying but making sure that I EAT plenty.

I focus on protein first (100g per day minimum is what I shoot for)
and then fruits and veggies
and I do eat simple carbs... I admit it.  call me a heretic if you will...


I think that folks that eat 800-1000 calories per day are training their bodies to live on that.... so that later on when they need to drop down their calories and lose some of the regain it will be way too hard.

I try to eat as much as I can calorie wise (early out when I had limited amounts I added good fats like avocado and nuts and nut butters.. and I currently use full fat hard cheese and other dairy except for low fat milk and cottage cheese which I prefer to full fat)

I weigh daily but I do not obsess about it... IF my weight is down I up the calories even more with treats... if the weight is up I just eat my regular day's allotment...

Yeah, what you said Nessa..

I am eating very differently since WLS, and that is a very good thing. I eat healthy and appropriately, in addition to running my 5 miles a day.

So far, I'm finding it pretty effortless- it has become just what I do. I am 60 now, I so appreciate my new lease on life, and I intend to do anything I can to support my living healthy a long time.

With regard to my metabolism, I think my years of overeating did more to wreck it than anything else, that plus my age.

So I don't eat much now, but I'm not feeling deprived, either. My staying healthy is much more important to me now than the amount I eat.

I think most of us probably have a pretty crap metabolism by the time we have WLS - especially if we are of a "certain age" ...

My theory (because I don't think I'm an expert, and can only speak for myself) is that at 49 and 7 years post WLS, my metabolism is definitely slower than someone who has never had weight problems, but maybe better than someone who has been heavy all their lives.   I wasn't anything more than overweight until my "surprise" pregnancy at 40 and I had this surgery before my 42nd birthday - 11 months after delivery.

I also believe that my lifestyle choices make a difference - I eat all my protein, and I exercise daily - and I think this keeps my metabolism revv'd up as much as it can be.  I do watch my carbs (complex wherever possible) and I NEVER eat low fat anything!   I can maintain on about 1800-2000 calories a day - reducing to1500 if I need to lose a pound or two (but I am 6ft tall and so don't weigh 100lbs!!!!).  

My personal experience was for the first few years losing weight was fairly effortless.  If I gained a little bit, damage control was simple.  Back to basics for a day or two and the weight would melt right back off.

It takes more focus and effort to lose than it used to when I was a new post op, but the tool still works.  I'm also older now and post menopausal.  I'm sure that has had an impact on my metabolism too.

I went into this understanding that I would have to permanently alter my diet.  I don't have a problem with dieting as long as it WORKS.  The best thing about the RNY for me is I'm not physically hungry like I was pre op, so I don't feel like I'm suffering when I eat less.

Over the past year or so I have been less careful (complacent) with my eating, so some weight crept back on.  Sixteen pounds.  I've been working on getting it back off and it's a much slower process than it was before.  As of this morning, I have nine pounds left to reach goal again.  I'm eating 1400-1500 calories a day.

The truth is that no one really knows the answer. We can only speculate, because at this time metabolism and the way the body regulates engergy (whether it burns energy or stores it) is still very mysterious and not well understood by medical science. There are too many living examples (and scientific studies) of how the old "calories in, calories out" model just isn't accurate. There's skinny people who pack their faces full of crap and they don't gain a pound. There's overweight people who eat 1200 calories a day and exercise several times a week but still can't loose weight. You have anorexics who eat a couple pretzels a day for months on end who should be clinically dead for eating so little if you do the math on how much a body needs to live, but somehow they are alive.

I hope that in my lifetime these mysteries are hammered out, and that medical research investigates all the causes of obesity in order to understand it, rather than point the blame at lifestyle choices as a cop-out.

 I believe that every time you diet and starve your body, your body gets better at holding on to weight with less calorie intake.  Whether it is Weigh****chers, weight loss surgery or any other way of taking in less calories, your metabolism will adjust and hold on to weight.  All diets get boring and at least 99% of dieters go back to eating for fullness and pleasure.

After weight loss surgery it is still necessary to control weight with diet and exercise.

I'm glad to see people maintaining on 1700+ a day. That seems pretty normal to me. I have read where people say they gain weight if they eat over 1200 a day though. I wonder if they are counting their calories right or if they have a metabolic thing going on for real. I think Busybee is probably right. They really don't know. We can only know what works for us. And we are all different. But it's good that everyone doesn't have to stay on a starvation diet forever!