It's interesting to think about the whole mixed race thing, because both my parents and the majority of their families are obese/SMO. But the African-American side of the family is definitely the ones suffering from all the obesity-related dieseases -- diabetes/hypertension/high cholesterol and worse. The Jewish side of the family is mostly fine. But my genetic destiny was definitely with the AfAm side of the family as far as my health went.

But hey, as far as I am concerned, the scale is going down, and that's all that matters!

ROLFMAO @ Sicilian guts!! Oh that's hilarious. Mr. EN and I had an Italian housemate for a number of years--father "came off the boat" (plane actually) as a postwar half orphan, mother was first generation American, so they were surrounded with non- or minimally-Americanized family. So I can just hear your mother saying that and MEANING it more than joking about it.

I think  Diana Cox is the first person who shared a link with me about it. My doctor also gave me a print out of it. I don't want to get even more discouraged than I already am so I must admit that I didn't read the one my surgeon's office gave me.

Look at you go, kiddo! Only 18 lbs left and you're at GOAL! I am SO proud of you, Monique! Jeff and I were just thinking about you tonight, too. :-)

Hi Dori! I think about you and Jeff all the time. I hope all is well with both of you and that you are having much success. I actually changed my goal weight to 165 from 145. I do think I'll be changing it back and using 165 as my first goal.  Make sure you tell Jeff I said hello. 

My surgery sister is African American and she lost more than me til about 10 months then I surpassed her by 15 lbs. ?? She is like 5 inches shorter than me, so I got to normal BMI so she is a little shy bmi wise. Not sure if that helps?? ? I think we ate similarly but I did exercise more.

Here is a link to the articles on dsfacts.com that discuss ethnicity and WLS.

http://www.dsfacts.com/Ethnic-differences-in-obesity-and-sur gical-weight-loss-studies.html

This is the first time I've even heard this "statistic" and my DS surgeon is African American!  I have no clue if I lost any slower than anyone else.  It all seemed to happen pretty fast to me.  I lost all my weight to my surgeon's goal in under 11 months and a total of 105lbs in 12 mths.

Everyone is not starting at the same starting line no matter what their race is so everyone's results and rate of loss is going to be different.  It's a pretty lame statistic if you ask me.

Regardless, I say just ignore it and act like you never heard it.  Work your DS, follow the rules and you will lose.

I recently heard of this myself. Discussing my weightloss after 2 surgeries and why I never made goal. The lowest I got was 183. Right now, my body seems to be happy in the low 200's. I haven't been able to get back into the 100's in a year.

But, I've got other factors involved. Medication and not being able to exercise presently. Which will change in time.

There was the initial whoosh of weightloss, then it slowed down and just stopped. No matter what I did, and I mean extreme low-carbing. Nothing. I figured, this was my sweet spot. But then the rebound weight came in and I'm still working on getting rid of that.

Gaining and losing the same weight over and over. Frustrating. But, I've learned to accept my size 18 body and just be happy I'm healthier and no longer 412+ pounds.

Sure I'd like to see onederland again. But, who knows I just may.

From my personal experience, I'd have to say 'yes'. AA women are slower losers when it comes to WLS.

As far as I'm concerned; at least you're losing baby!

There are a few additional studies to the ones on DSFacts.com.  (I'm on vacation and my internet connection is really slow, so I'm not going to try to post them - you can look on PubMed)  Overall, African-American and Hispanic MOs lose less (I don't know about more slowly) than Caucasians.  Yet another reason they should look even more closely at the DS.

I am particularly interested in this topic because my father's side of our family looks very mulatto, being of Sephardic (North African) Jewish origin.  I have the body type often associated with black woman - big thighs and booty (which is a mixed blessing - more feminine, IMHO, but hard to find pants that fit!), and I never got skinny (although not low carbing is probably a good piece of that problem!).

OK, I searched a little - here is a link to a full paper you can read:
http://www.nature.com/oby/journal/v15/n6/full/oby2007174a.ht ml
"There were differences in weight loss between races, with African Americans losing 12% less weight compared with whites at 1 year after GBP; African Americans and whites lost a mean total of 44 and 61 kg at 1 year after surgery, respectively. These results are similar to those found by Sugerman (18) and Latner et al. (19). One potential confounding factor in our study is the differential gender distribution between the two racial groups. However, we examined the data separately for female patients. In this subgroup analysis, African-American women lost significantly less weight than white women after 3 months (6.6% vs. 15.4% ; p < 0.001) and 1 year (26.5% vs. 38.5% ; p < 0.001) after GBP."

"Latner et al. found that African Americans and whites lost 62% and 80% of excess BMI, respectively, after GBP but African Americans consumed, overall, fewer kilocalories than whites, with no differences found in exercise frequency (19)."

"In summary, our data suggest that severely obese African Americans tend to lose less weight after GBP in comparison to whites. These differences in weight loss seem to be related to lower energy expenditure and not to dietary intake. However, despite smaller weight losses among African Americans, improvements in cardiovascular risk factors were similar between the two races."

Here's another one:

Surg Obes Relat Dis. 2006 Nov-Dec;2(6):607-10; discussion 610-2. Epub 2006 Oct 3.

Comparison of outcomes after laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding in African-Americans and whites.

Parikh M, Lo H, Chang C, Collings D, Fielding G, Ren C.

Source

Program for Surgical Weight Loss, Department of Surgery, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York 10016, USA. [email protected]

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Race may affect outcomes after bariatric surgery. This study compares outcomes in terms of weight loss and comorbidity resolution between African-Americans and whites after laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB).

METHODS:

Data from 959 patients undergoing LAGB between July 2001 and July 2004 were prospectively collected and entered into an electronic registry. Propensity score matching analysis was used to match whites to African-Americans on the basis of age, gender, and preoperative body mass index (BMI). Preoperative comorbidities (diabetes, hypertension, obstructive sleep apnea, hypercholesterolemia, and hypertriglyceridemia) were also compared. Operative time (OR), length of stay (LOS), comorbidity resolution, and percent excess weight loss (%EWL) at 1, 2, and 3 years were analyzed. All data were updated through May 2006.

RESULTS:

A total of 65 white LAGB patients were matched to 58 African-American LAGB patients on the basis of age, gender, and preoperative BMI. The preoperative mean age and BMI were 37 +/- 19 years and 47 +/- 7 kg/m2, respectively. A total of 55% of the white group and 64% of the African-American group had one or more comorbidities (P = NS). Median OR time and LOS were similar in both groups: 50 minutes and 23 hours, respectively. The majority of patients in both groups had major improvement or resolution of one or more comorbidities (61% whites vs 77% African-Americans, P = NS). There was, however, a significant difference in %EWL between whites and African-Americans at each time interval (49% vs 39% at 1 year; 55% vs 44% at 2 years; 52% vs 41% at 3 years; P < .05 for all values.).

CONCLUSION:

Despite the disparity in weight loss with the LAGB in African-Americans and whites, both patient populations experienced a similar improvement/resolution of obesity-related comorbidities.