What percent of people gain after surgery?

I have been on here for months and am scheduled for surgery July 16th.  I read a lot about weight gain and some people have put 75 pounds back on after surgery.  I wonder why have surgery when you can gain weight back the same as if you just diet and exercise.  What percent of people end up gaining a lot of weight after surgery?

VSG is a tool. You can choose to use it or not. I think the majority of people that end up gaining back the weight choose to stop using their tool. I know that I have a problem with food. I have an addiction. So I am going to have the surgery to help with my addiction and I also go to support groups for over eating and I see a counselor 2x/month to address my issues. I am not looking at VSG as a diet, but as a lifestyle change.

I dont have any statistics on that but....it is far less than people who diet and exercise alone. With the sleeve, you will always have that tool to help if you choose to use it. It is definitely harder to go on a late night pizza binge as compared to non-WLS people...there's is some safety net built in, but nothing stops us from sucking down sliders/liquid calories, etc so it's all about the choices we make. 

People gain weight because they stop following the rules, they start making excuses, and they go back to using food for other purposes other than fuel for the body. There are as many reasons why people gain weight as their are individuals....it's different for each person. 

This is not easy. It requires a LIFETIME of commitment, focus, and hard work. Not everyone has the strength to do this for life. 

I do not remember the exact numbers quoted by my surgeon anymore, but it was common for folks to regain 5 pounds or so.  The great news though is that even several years out that is where they still were or lighter.  Of course, there are always exceptions.  18 months out though regain has not been an issue at all for me, and in fact dropped another 10 pounds after making goal.  Maintaining has required being mindful, but overall very easy.  

For People that are 100+ pounds overweight, less than 3 % can ever lose and maintain loss with diet and exercise alone.  I know that stats for vsg are better, but it is clouded by what is considered gain.  Many programs count losing and/or maintains a 50% EWL as success.....which, in the Ariana of better health it is.

 

anne

According to my husband, 30% of WLS regain their weight... that is what he got out of our meeting with the nurse coordinator.  She said most of those that do regain their weight don't exercise.

Ohhh... I do remember that being thrown around at our meetings too.  Exercise was shown to not necessarily help with the weight loss (statistically speaking), but had a lot to do with successful maintenance.  

What I know is this- 3 times in my life I have lost 90 pounds, and then there were 4 times when I lost 50 pounds. ( years from ages 17 to 57) each time with the exception of the last, I regained the weight with more added onto it. Rarely ever did I even make it to goal- I just would get to a point, call it done, and go back to old habits. This last time, after regaining 50 of the 90 lost and "touching" 300 again, I knew if I didn't DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT and gained back to 345 and then more, that would be the end of me. WLS was my way of calling shenanigans on myself- it has given me the hope that I can do it differently this time, It slows me down. It gives me time and structure with food. It has restored some sanity for me in this area of my life. Could I gain the weight back with the surgery? Sure, if I went back to making the same lousy choices I used to. I'm practicing not doing that. WLS has given me the time and ability to practice.

I don't think accurate stats are kept. However, they do keep track of average excess weight loss at various times out from surgery - 2 years, 4 years, 10 years, etc.

With diet & exercise and no surgery, the number of people who keep off at least 50% of excess weight at 2 years out in most studies is between less than 1% and 10%. At 5 years it is 2% or less in most studies.

For WLS, typical average excess weight loss at 10 years out for most surgery types is around 40-60%.

So I think that answers your question as to why people have surgery when you can still gain some weight back. The odds are wildly in your favor with surgery. Are they 100%? No. Nothing in life is guaranteed. But they are essentially 0% with diet & exercise.

I would say, based on the studies, crossed with what I've seen, that 70% of WLS patients keep off significant weight. Even the guys who gain 75 pounds back often keep off a 100 pounds loss. In general, the smaller you are at time of surgery and the shorter the time you've been obese, the better your odds are and some surgeries have better odds than others. DS has the best odds while lapbadn has the worse. RnY and VSG are in between.

Btw, the reason that surgery is way more successful is that surgery gives us hunger control. When you diet, your body tries to get you to regain the weight so it increases ghrelin which makes you hungrier. This makes it hard to make good choices. You can fight it for a while but eventually most people give in.

But with VSG, your ghrelin levels go way down so you can eat the amount of calories that are necessary to maintain your weight without having to fight mind-numbing hunger all the time. That levels the playing field.