Question:
Why surgery at all.....
Ok...Ive been studying the rny lap for weeks now and have started the process..but every so often something on this site makes me stop and think...if I eat only a little, eat all the right things, and exercise...why doesn't it stay off and how does the surgery make sure it stays off..I needs convincing again. My health is excelent as heavy as I am but I realize it has to come off..but all the complications and now I see that someone wants a revision after 4 years...Im confused!!!!! — Debora H. (posted on June 3, 2000)
June 3, 2000
I'm 10 weeks post-op lap RNY and have lost 55 lbs. Although still fairly
new to this process, I have some answers that make sense to me. Anyone who
eats the small amounts (2-4 oz) and the types of foods that I do only 3
times daily will lose weight. The difference is that this surgery will
prohibit me from eating more than I should ever again...something I have
never been able to maintain in the past. I have dieted
"successfully" multiple times with multiple programs and have
gained and lost hundreds of pounds, but have always gained back those
pounds and more because I couldn't stick with the stringent limitations.
Another factor is that mysteriously this surgery seems to change your
tastes for foods (or has for me and many others I have spoken with). I
have experienced the phenomenon of no longer even wanting those things that
I thought I couldn't live without (red meat, fried foods, concentrated
fats, etc...) and truly loving the things that previously didn't appeal to
me at all (fresh vegetables in particular). I have eaten in the most
healthy manner since my surgery than ever before in my life and I can
honestly say that I have not been hungry once during this time. It's too
early for me to even think about the issue of revisions. My goal is to
trust this process and be compliant with the regimen my surgeon has set for
me. This surgery has given me a chance for new life, new health, new
energy and new attitude...and in the past 10 weeks, I have experienced all
of those. This was the best decision I have ever made for me. I wish you
all the best as you decide the best course for you.
— Diana T.
June 3, 2000
Hey Deborah! You are not alone in your way of thinking! I, too
have been thinking those kinds of thoughts. I go back and forth.
I know of people who have had the surgery only to regain all their
weight back again after awhile. That is discouraging to hear. I have
been told that after a while, the stomach is able to hold more than
it did the first 18 months after surgery. I think that this is the time
when we have to use the DISCIPLINE that my surgeon talks about. We also
have
to get in to the habit of exercising regularly. Thes are 2 things that the
morbidly
obese have not done (for long) in the past, if at all. I guess that there
is no
"easy ride" even in gastric bypass surgery. The first 18 months
or so helps us to
get a lot of the weight down to a managable amount. After that, discipline
and exercise
are essential for the rest of our lives. My surgery isn't til July 18th but
from everyone
that I have talked to (successful and not so successful) has told me
basically the same thing.
Tell me LONG TERM POST OP PATIENTS if I am wrong in my way of thinking?!
— kathy S.
June 4, 2000
Well, okay...yes...You should exercise...and manage everything you eat very
carefully. Count calories and measure everything, and use strict
discipline and deny yourself sweets and fats. You will lose, but then
(inevitably) you will slowly gain the weight back again, plus a bit more.
So then you diet again, and you lose again, and you gain again. Then you
do it again...and again, and before you know it, forty years has gone by
and this is what you have done with it. There comes a point when you just
say Enough! Perhaps you aren't there yet. Personally, I don't understand
exactly how it all works either. (The satiety factor baffles me.) But
enough people here have told me that it does work, and that's enough for
me. I have tried everything else, two or three times.
— Anne G.
June 4, 2000
Debora, I'm sure many, many of us have had the same thoughts as you. I,
too, gave conventional diet methods "one last try" before I
actually made the decision to have surgery. I guess I finally decided to
have the surgery because it offered me something that those
"conventional" methods didn't...hope. I have been overweight for
better than 30 years, and like so many other wls patients, I've tried many
methods of weight loss. I even lost substantial amounts only to re-gain
the weight plus some over and over again. I honestly felt that my excess
weight was my punishment for my own lack of self-discipline and that I
truely deserved to be fat (a sentiment that, unfortunately, most of our
society still adheres to). But, in doing some research on the reasons
"why" we can't lose weight or keep it off once we do, I learned
that there are legitimate reasons, physical, real reasons for our continued
obesity. The main reason (in a nutshell) is that our bodies have become
convinced that we are SUPPOSED to weight what we weigh. And once it's
convinced of that, it will do whatever it can to not only prevent weight
loss (slowing our metabolism down to zilch, for example)but also stand at
the ready to re-gain the weight as soon as it sees an opportunity. Kinda
like a sponge at the edge of a sink, ready to "re-absorb" the
first drop of water that splashes anywhere around it. I have started to
think of my wls as way of "fixing" my body so that it will once
again begin to work the way that it is supposed to work. I abused my body
for years with yo-yo dieting. I am partly to blame for my continued
obesity because I taught my body, over and over again) that "this
attempt (to diet) too, shall pass" and eventually, I'll give up and
it'll be able to re-gain the weight that it, ever so reluctantly, was
forced to give up. As a result, my body fought me tooth and nail to hang
on to the excess weight no matter what I did. My surgery simply
"remodeled" my body to respond to my weight loss efforts in the
way it was originally designed to so many years ago. Yes, I do have to
continue to diet...to count my calories...to drink ALL my water...to
exercise...etc. But for the first time in years, I'M LOSING WEIGHT! I'm
learning how to eat and exercise properly without cheating (not only
because I want to, but because I know I'll be punished if I don't...ie -
dumping or slower weight loss). And that weight loss combined with the
knowledge that the surgery will continue to help my body respond favorably
to my own efforts, has given me hope that I CAN become the skinnier,
healtier woman I have never been able to become on my own...that I WILL
become that woman someday. Wls is only a "tool" to assist us in
our efforts to achieve our goals and our dreams. But it's one heck of a
"tool" and one I'm very grateful to have been able to have had
the opportunity to receive. Now it's up to me to use that "tool"
wisely...and I shall. Good luck, Debora, on whatever you decide. The
decision is up to you, but we are all there for you no matter what. cj
— cj T.
June 4, 2000
"Diets" most often fail because they do not incorporate a
mechanism for overcoming human nature. <b>Only an extremely
disciplined person can exercise every day, count every calorie and resist
the powerful attraction of the sights and smells of their favorite foods.
Let's face it; the vast majority of us are just not that
disciplined.</b> I sure wasn't... Even if I did manage to lose
30 to 40 pounds I would gain it right back and then some more on top it
was a vicious cycle...
<p>
The reason gastric bypass surgery is so effective in helping you lose
weight is that your reconfigured digestive system:
Reduces the amount of food you are able eat at any one meal (restriction).
Absorbs less of the food you do eat (malabsorption).
Makes you intolerant to foods you should avoid anyway (i.e. concentrated
sugars and fats).
In other words, the surgery imposes discipline by forcing you to change
your eating habits. Fortunately, the overwhelming majority of those who
had gastric bypass report that learning to eat smaller meals, chew
thoroughly and avoid sweets and fats was not nearly as hard as they had
imagined. After the recovery/adjustment period, you will be able to enjoy a
wide range of foods again. As a bonus side-effects of gastric bypass
surgery, you should no longer feel hungry all the time and will no longer
be bothered by indigestion or "acid reflux." Well at least the
majority aren't bothered by it.. I have never been bothered by it
before or after surgery...I have (as of today) lost 115 pounds...This
is the MOST I have ever lost..and the pounds keep melting off wek by
week.. This tool called RNY for me has saved my life..I have never
been sorry that I had it and I'm dedicated to working with this tool the
rest of my life it gave me what I needed a helping hand. ;-)
— Victoria B.
Click Here to Return