Feelings of being a cop out? Sorry don't know how to search

I can't figure out in less than five minutes how to search this forum(thats all my ADD mind will allow) so I have to ask something that may have been covered before. Heck, I may have already asked it because I have had these feelings before.

Have you dealt with "cop out" feelings before?
I just can't get past the feeling that I am not doing all that I can to get this weight off on my own. I know it can be done, there is a story on Youtube about a guy that was over 600 pounds and lost it. I know the likelyhood of me getting this off on my own gets less and less each year, and time marches on, I don't want to wait until I fall and break something, end up in a wheel chair and ballon up to 500 before I finally relent. I know all the reasons but I just can't swat this gnat in front of my nose.
Have any of you guys felt this before? What did you do to get through it?

Search function here on OH is pretty lame imo but occasionally have success by typing in a key word in the search box above and get some good hits. Need to be pretty specific with your query such as "B12 vitamins" and you get some good results. That being said, ask away your questions since it's probably on someone else's mind as well.

Regarding your specific question of copping out.....hell yes, these feelings are normal or why would I have waited frickin' 15 years or so having WLS. Bottom line is your obesity is only going to get worse so what's it going to take to get you to make a decision? Maybe it's going to take breaking a leg or something.

For me, it took a doctor telling me I had max 2-3 years to live at my current rate and, oh, by the way, your diabetes is eating you up from the inside out and you're probably going to be losing your left leg in a year or so. Message heard so WLS here I come. 

Best of luck in your personal decision.

Boner 

You know - when people say "the easy way" it just burns me up...

Do these same people wash clothes by hand instead of taking the easy way with a washer and drier? 
Do they take the easy way by driving to work instead of walking?
Do they take the easy way of buying food at the grocery store instead of hunting and gathering their own?
Do they take the easy way by running their central heat and air instead of dealing with the climate?

Those who have gone before will tell you - this is a way out of obesity, but it is NOT easy.  The surgical alterations are merely another tool to help you achieve your goal, just like a washer/dryer or SUV, but as with all tools, you have to USE it correctly. 

Look down the road into the future and see if you can picture yourself actually getting the weight off without a new tool... If you can, go for it with all you've got, but if you still need a new tool to help you get where you need to be - call up the doc and schedule that appointment.

Best of luck with your decision!
John

Tough one to say.  Only you and your doctor (hopefully you have a good relationship with your PCP) can know the answer.  From your picture you look borderline on needing WLS.  Yet with all the health factors that come into play by being obese, WLS could only help.  Most guys say..."why didn't I do this 10 years ago!!"  Yes, there could be complications.  You need to know all the risks.   The cool thing is your looking at all angles.  Those are the ones who usually do well with their WLS.  By the way did you know men lose the weight much faster than women?  We have a larger muscle mass (we can move more) so it comes off faster.  Brian  PS If your like most people the diet was sucessful...for awhile...then comes the weight gain, but only higher. 

Yeah, I'm with Bvr up there..anyone that comes into this option thinking it's the EASY option and guarantees a permanent weight loss with no responsibility on the owners' part...HA!  You will fail! 

This is not a cop OUT as much as a cop IN  imho.  I'm a preacher, so I preach...this is a TOOL, it don't matter if you are a Banded Brother such as I, or have decided the bypass of one flavor or another...yes, in the early stages it's fool proof, you will lose weight.  But then, especially if you're a "smart guy" like me...you'll figure out all the ways to "cheat" the surgery, only later coming to the realization you've only cheated yourself.

If you are not one that will embrace ALL the lifestyle changes that will be required...then, maybe it's not your option.  Realize though, on the very plus side, the "honeymoon" you'll get with either surgery style give us a great, perhaps the ONLY fighting chance we've ever had to have the proper time to make those life-adjustments needed.

And yeah...don't worry about it.  Wondering if you're copping out, that's a normal expression of a guy's mentality.  We're supposed to be able to conquer all!  Well...sometimes you just have to bring the gun to the gunfight!

hey guy...

here is wha I think...you have to get to the other side of the mountain...some people are able to climb over the mountain..others with the right tool, and dig a hole straight through...

they are both work...

if you feel like this is a cop out because it will be easy....you are wrong..this is the hardest thing I have ever done...but it was worth every bit of the energy...

I don;t htink it's a cop out...you are just choosing to attack the peoblem in a different way,

ok that is me

Russ

Those feelings are normal....my advice is realize that obesity is a disease, not a lack of will power. As a disease, the AMA says there is only one treatment for it, that is baraitric surgery.

If you want to wait till your 500 lbs and in a wheel chair and have a much more risky surgery, go for it. I waited, I was 500 lbs and very close to a wheel chair, and at 33 would have need to go into a convolescence home if I got any fatter. I had surgery lost all of my excess weight, and am still dealing with the damage that years of obesity did to my back.

SO do what you want, but I say, get over it, and have surgery. There is no time like the present.


BTW i've lost weight before on my own (from 320 to 220) and this time I lost weight with the DS from 492 to 185, and let me tell you that it feels exactly the same. You get the same sense of satisfaction, because WLS isn't necessarily easy....The DS did most of the work, but it still wasn't a free ride.

Scott

Ditto what the other guys have said. There ain't no "easy" way out of obesity.  Losing through dieting and exercise is hard work.  But it takes the same hard work to be successful with WLS. You still have to eat correctly and exercise. The difference is that with the surgery you have the ability to lose the weight and maintain the loss, provided you do what you are supposed to do.  I, like so many others, have lost weight and re-gained many times in my life.  With the surgery, I now have the
necessary means to be successful at getting leaner, healthier and happier. 

All great replies. I did not say, nor do I think it is easy. By cop out I guess I mean giving up. I should look at is as a change in tactics.
I did make the decision today to go through with the surgery and have decided to go with the band. Two more tests, which are scheduled for the 27th and 28th of this month, then  final approval and it will be scheduled the last week in November.
God help me.