I chose the RNY for two reasons:

1. I felt like simply "eating less" was never a major challenge for me, that for the past 7 - 10 years I had been doing a reasonably good job with portion control, that it was far more about my metabolism shifting ever downward. I was MO (at 205 - 208) and eating far less than I ever had eaten in my life. Not ENOUGH less to lose the weight, but far less than we were taught to think of MO people's diets. I was living with a friend who is six foot tall and exercises only occasionally, and she eats easily over 2000 calories a day - she's rail thin. I know that's just a fluke but even she would comment on how unfair life can be (as she ate her third slice of pan pizza).
2. The RNY generally shows a lower rate of regain. I wanted to go with the science and do what would give me the greatest advantage regain. It also provides a slight advantage in metabolism shift - which may give me a higher calorie level in maintenance. Even when my body adapts to the shorter intestine, there should be some net "gain" (as in lost calories) over the sleeve.

I'm packing up the apt I shared with my thin friend - and I'm just horrified at the food I am pulling out of "her" cupboard space. I generally tried to avert my eyes when digging through my side looking for that elusive can of black beans, but her side was chuck full of partially eaten treats like boxes of rice krispy treats, chocolate and brown sugar pop-tarts, cookies, raman noodles, packages of flavored instant rice, Mac&Cheese... Literally a highly processed carbohydrate junk yard! My side? Cans of beans, lentils, whole wheat pasta, sprouted grain flour, brown rice, sprouted grain oat meal, cans of tuna, salmon, sardines (which I hate but occasionally eat for the nutrients), dehydrated powders to add to recipes like cheddar cheese powder, peanut butter, spinach, milk, whey... The most processed stuff I had was canned soups and sauces like salsa, curry, and spaghetti. I'm no saint of course, but it was still kinda blatant as I cleaned out all the junk, how radically different we ate. Same with the freezer - my side things like chicken thighs, ground venison, ground chicken, whole veggies like spinach and green beans. Her side was processed foods like buffalo chicken balls, taquitos, loaded potato skins, mac&cheese bites, ice cream sandwiches... She loved it when I cooked dinner, which I did a lot, and she loved to eat healthier whole foods, but that wasn't what she would cook for herself, or purchase.

We're both fifty and had recently left decades old marriages, so sharing the cost of an apt was a great help, plus we worked in the same office building so we could save even more by car-pooling! I loved living with her and now that we're both moving on to new cities and new jobs I'm really missing her companionship but there were things like this food stuff that drove home how DIFFERENT our various metabolisms really are. The first time she had her kids over to our apt, I made lasagna - she was confused as to why I was browning ground beef. Turns out "making lasagna" to her meant baking the frozen Stoffer's version (I love that stuff too - not going to lie, but when she asked if I could make lasagna for her kids it didn't occur to me to buy a pre-made frozen one!) I am pretty confident she wasn't vomiting any food as the few times she had a stomach bug she was pretty dramatic and even called her mom to come over because she was throwing up.

Anyway - that's a LONG WAY OF explaining why I chose the RNY, but I'm happy that I did ;)

Good morning Lightweights!

So grateful that I have had this site, and many supportive people to share my journey with.

I sit here this morning pondering my 7 year journey as a post op rny.

The first 3 years were blissful, the honeymoon period is a very appropriate term! lol

Then real life set in! Old habits can come back. Fast forward 4 years, I had gained 32 pounds from my lowest post op weight. Never made it to my goal, but my type 2 diabetes is still in remission and that was my biggest goal.

Went to a friend's wedding in June and saw pictures of myself, and was not happy at all.

So the very next day, I cleaned out the pantry and went to the store to restocked with good proteins and veggies.

Dusted off my fitness pal account and started journaling my food intake. Good days and bad.

Fast forward 91 days, I have managed to lose 18 pounds so far. I know my tool still works. Somehow along the way of my parents both battling health issues, my son becoming a Marine, and menopause, I forgot to eat like a bariatric patient.

I am grateful for my tool. I have learned not to beat myself up (atleast not too much) and to take one meal at a time. If I make a bad decision, I get back on track the next meal. I have been great at losing and gaining, now I need to learn how to maintain.

Hope you all have a great week!

This is really helpful, thanks for sharing! Question - as a lightweight, why did you choose RNY instead of VGS?

The best advice my surgeon gave me was to go ten, twenty or even thirty under the goal that he set for me. That is to allow for the bounceback regain that happens when malabsorption goes away.

I looked too skinny for a while, but was shocked when regain happened during year three. I never looked too skinny after that.

I have found that my lifetime maintenance calories are about 9 to 10 calories a day per pound that I maintain. So at 150 pounds your lifetime might be 1500.