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leftyjace

leftyjace

Well-Known Member
So… anybody on here had surgery for weight loss before?
How’d it go?
What was good, what was bad?
What would you do differently?
 
leftyjace said:
So… anybody on here had surgery for weight loss before?
How’d it go?
What was good, what was bad?
What would you do differently?
Click to expand...
I worked with a guy who had gastric bypass just a couple years ago. I thought they were mostly doing lap bands these days but he had the bypass surgery. He lost a lot of weight, well over 100 lbs, maybe close to 200. He was older and while he was thinner in general it wasn't like he had a decent figure after. Eating was pretty miserable as the slightest overindulgence or the use of what I would consider a light amount of spices made him very uncomfortable. He was also starting to regain weight despite the surgery and early success.

I can't imagine how upsetting it would be to get the surgery and end up in the same place within 5-6 years, all while not being able to enjoy food very much anymore.

I'm holding out for Ozempic or the like which I hope is just a few years away.
 
My wife had gastric bypass last October. She's lost nearly 100 pounds so far, has about another 30 to get to her ideal weight. We are keeping it real throughout, because even though at the beginning there are direct and highly uncomfortable physical limitations to eating food, just like anything else you body can and will adapt and if you haven't changed your habits regarding food and exercise, you will inevitably gain the weight back. So she (and I as her support) has been following essentially the weight watchers eating method, being cognizant of what and how much we eat. I've lost about 45 pounds just supporting her.

But both of her sisters had weight loss surgery. One has hers reversed. She had lap band which they do not do anymore because it just didn't work. Her other sister had the gastric sleeve and kept her weight off for 5 years or so before beginning to slowly add weight until she is nearly as big as before she started, so she also started with weight watchers.

In the end we are creatures of habit with an insanely high capacity for adaptation, so unless you are FIRMLY and FULLY committed to changing your relationship with food entirely, the odds are stacked against you even with the surgery. Depending on which surgery you get and which study you read, between 50% and 65% of people who get the surgeries gain all their weight back and a certain percentage, something as high as 30%, never lose the full amount to begin with.

I mean you can only eat 3 bites at a time, sure, at least at the beginning, and then you are hungry again 2 hours later, but if all 3 bites each time you eat during the day is nothing but pizza or chocolate cake or McDonald's, or you are drinking a ton of soda or fruit juice or other sugary high calorie liquid, like alcohol even, then you can eat just as many calories as you did before, if not more, just spread out throughout the day instead of all at once. And you can easily gain all the weight back.

Even if you are eating the right things, but too much, then you can stretch your stomach back out again to nearly it's original capacity, then if you haven't built the right habits, you can't easily eat too much and gain all the weight back again.

Believe me, it is no magic bullet. My wife and I discussed this at length before her surgery. My argument was, if you have to change your behavior anyway why not just do that, change your behavior, and not go through the surgery. Of course for her, who had tried that many many times and failed, it was more of a turning point moment than just exercising will power. Something to signify a real and physical change to help kick-start things. So in that regard, I get it. I'm an emotional eater and recently we have gone through some difficult things (lost my job, mom in bad accident, family pet of 14 years died, all within like 3 weeks) and consequently I've eaten badly and put some weight back on. But I'll work to take it off again. But still it helps me understand the desire to have that big change that hopefully keeps you grounded to keep you on track. Hopefully.

And for my wife she had few other options. She has hip dysplasia causing severe pain combined with compressed disks in her lower back, which causes sciatica and other pains, all combined makes exercise very difficult for her, especially carrying the weight. She has lost weight before, 85 pound on weight watchers years ago, but has slowly put it all back on again. So for her it was medically indicated to have the gastric bypass. And I fully support her in it.

But the price of keeping a desirable weight is eternal vigilance, with or without surgery. That's just the fact of what we are as human beings.
 
LogGrad98 said:
My wife had gastric bypass last October. She's lost nearly 100 pounds so far, has about another 30 to get to her ideal weight. We are keeping it real throughout, because even though at the beginning there are direct and highly uncomfortable physical limitations to eating food, just like anything else you body can and will adapt and if you haven't changed your habits regarding food and exercise, you will inevitably gain the weight back. So she (and I as her support) has been following essentially the weight watchers eating method, being cognizant of what and how much we eat. I've lost about 45 pounds just supporting her.

But both of her sisters had weight loss surgery. One has hers reversed. She had lap band which they do not do anymore because it just didn't work. Her other sister had the gastric sleeve and kept her weight off for 5 years or so before beginning to slowly add weight until she is nearly as big as before she started, so she also started with weight watchers.

In the end we are creatures of habit with an insanely high capacity for adaptation, so unless you are FIRMLY and FULLY committed to changing your relationship with food entirely, the odds are stacked against you even with the surgery. Depending on which surgery you get and which study you read, between 50% and 65% of people who get the surgeries gain all their weight back and a certain percentage, something as high as 30%, never lose the full amount to begin with.

I mean you can only eat 3 bites at a time, sure, at least at the beginning, and then you are hungry again 2 hours later, but if all 3 bites each time you eat during the day is nothing but pizza or chocolate cake or McDonald's, or you are drinking a ton of soda or fruit juice or other sugary high calorie liquid, like alcohol even, then you can eat just as many calories as you did before, if not more, just spread out throughout the day instead of all at once. And you can easily gain all the weight back.

Even if you are eating the right things, but too much, then you can stretch your stomach back out again to nearly it's original capacity, then if you haven't built the right habits, you can't easily eat too much and gain all the weight back again.

Believe me, it is no magic bullet. My wife and I discussed this at length before her surgery. My argument was, if you have to change your behavior anyway why not just do that, change your behavior, and not go through the surgery. Of course for her, who had tried that many many times and failed, it was more of a turning point moment than just exercising will power. Something to signify a real and physical change to help kick-start things. So in that regard, I get it. I'm an emotional eater and recently we have gone through some difficult things (lost my job, mom in bad accident, family pet of 14 years died, all within like 3 weeks) and consequently I've eaten badly and put some weight back on. But I'll work to take it off again. But still it helps me understand the desire to have that big change that hopefully keeps you grounded to keep you on track. Hopefully.

And for my wife she had few other options. She has hip dysplasia causing severe pain combined with compressed disks in her lower back, which causes sciatica and other pains, all combined makes exercise very difficult for her, especially carrying the weight. She has lost weight before, 85 pound on weight watchers years ago, but has slowly put it all back on again. So for her it was medically indicated to have the gastric bypass. And I fully support her in it.

But the price of keeping a desirable weight is eternal vigilance, with or without surgery. That's just the fact of what we are as human beings.
Click to expand...
I told my wife that the surgery is to change my life so that I can change my lifestyle. I have already started eating low-carb and portion control. My wife and I have already started walking every morning. We now have a membership to a gym with a pool but haven't started that until after surgery (Her work is paying for it).
 
Chargers Jazz Angels said:
I told my wife that the surgery is to change my life so that I can change my lifestyle. I have already started eating low-carb and portion control. My wife and I have already started walking every morning. We now have a membership to a gym with a pool but haven't started that until after surgery (Her work is paying for it).
Click to expand...
It's good you're doing the pre-work. My wife just 20 pounds pre-op. So close to 80 post-op. But we also did the work to be ready for it, like we gave or threw away all the food we had that didn't fit our new diet. Get it out of the house. We exercise more, trying to walk every day. But when the ups and downs hit it gets hard to stick to it. Up until a couple of weeks ago my wife had a bad eating experience maybe 5 or 6 times a week. The last few weeks it's been 2 or 3 times a day some days. This is the first real Test of how we are eating and it's been tough. But you have to just put those moments behind you and move forward. Today is a new day. Just do better on the next meal. Gotta change your thinking and the way you view food in general but when the going gets tough, it gets harder to stick to the plan. It's about adapting and going back to plan as soon as you can, and as often as you have to. It's not easy but it can be done. Good luck! I hope the sleeve works for you. My wife did decided to go the full bypass because there is a healthy percentage of people who get the sleeve who go back later to get the full bypass and she just wanted to go all in. I hope it works for you.
 
LogGrad98 said:
It's good you're doing the pre-work. My wife just 20 pounds pre-op. So close to 80 post-op. But we also did the work to be ready for it, like we gave or threw away all the food we had that didn't fit our new diet. Get it out of the house. We exercise more, trying to walk every day. But when the ups and downs hit it gets hard to stick to it. Up until a couple of weeks ago my wife had a bad eating experience maybe 5 or 6 times a week. The last few weeks it's been 2 or 3 times a day some days. This is the first real Test of how we are eating and it's been tough. But you have to just put those moments behind you and move forward. Today is a new day. Just do better on the next meal. Gotta change your thinking and the way you view food in general but when the going gets tough, it gets harder to stick to the plan. It's about adapting and going back to plan as soon as you can, and as often as you have to. It's not easy but it can be done. Good luck! I hope the sleeve works for you. My wife did decided to go the full bypass because there is a healthy percentage of people who get the sleeve who go back later to get the full bypass and she just wanted to go all in. I hope it works for you.
Click to expand...
I am not able to get the bypass because of my weight. So it is the sleeve and maybe the bypass in the future if needed.
 
My brother had bypass surgery in November. He has lost 140 pounds. Would like to lose another 25 or so. He looks great, but of course he has loose abdominal skin, so no tight shirts.

He decided on the surgery to ensure he sees his kids grow up. He has a liver disease that has greatly improved due to the weight loss.

He has days he regrets it because things make him sick, and he's still figuring that all out. But most of the time he is glad he did it, and doesn't seem to get sick as much as LogGrad's wife.

However, he can't give up Pepsi, even at his doctor's insistence. And he still will do dumb things like order a Big Mac (and throw most of it away) instead of ordering a small hamburger. He misses bad food too much. So I don't know what his long term outcome will be.
 
leftyjace said:
Thank you all very much for your insights and relating your stories.
Click to expand...
I really enjoyed reading about all this stuff. Was reading it to my wife on the way to fattening ourselves up at Red Robin last night lol.
 
I know this is kind of opposite of the meaning of this thread but lets say in an amazing hypothetical that all the food that is bad for us becomes good for us. Like eating a cookie is similar to eating a banana. Eating a burger is like eating broccoli.
What is the food that you dont eat much of currently because its so unhealthy but you love it that you would now eat a ton of under this new hypothetical?

For it would be donuts and caramelo candy bars. I love donuts but probably only eat like 1 every 3 months or something. Same with caramelos. If all unhealthy food suddenly became healthy then i would eat a **** ton of those two things.
 
fishonjazz said:
I know this is kind of opposite of the meaning of this thread but lets say in an amazing hypothetical that all the food that is bad for us becomes good for us. Like eating a cookie is similar to eating a banana. Eating a burger is like eating broccoli.
What is the food that you dont eat much of currently because its so unhealthy but you love it that you would now eat a ton of under this new hypothetical?

For it would be donuts and caramelo candy bars. I love donuts but probably only eat like 1 every 3 months or something. Same with caramelos. If all unhealthy food suddenly became healthy then i would eat a **** ton of those two things.
Click to expand...
Donuts for sure. I can kill a dozen of them in a go if not held back by the knowledge that they are just straight sugar, fat and carbs. After that chocolate, especially chocolate with caramel or peanut butter cups.
 
Gameface said:
Donuts for sure. I can kill a dozen of them in a go if not held back by the knowledge that they are just straight sugar, fat and carbs. After that chocolate, especially chocolate with caramel or peanut butter cups.
Click to expand...
Sounds like we are the same lol. Man, what a wonderful world it would be.

I think its total BS that bananas, apples, broccoli, kale, brussell sprouts, peaches, etc etc etc taste the way they do but are healthy and burgers, pizza, cake, candy, donuts, cookies etc etc taste the way they do and are so unhealthy. Its all backwards. I would eat that healthy food all day every day if it tasted like that unhealthy food does. It really isn't fair at all.
 
JazzGal said:
My brother had bypass surgery in November. He has lost 140 pounds. Would like to lose another 25 or so. He looks great, but of course he has loose abdominal skin, so no tight shirts.

He decided on the surgery to ensure he sees his kids grow up. He has a liver disease that has greatly improved due to the weight loss.

He has days he regrets it because things make him sick, and he's still figuring that all out. But most of the time he is glad he did it, and doesn't seem to get sick as much as LogGrad's wife.

However, he can't give up Pepsi, even at his doctor's insistence. And he still will do dumb things like order a Big Mac (and throw most of it away) instead of ordering a small hamburger. He misses bad food too much. So I don't know what his long term outcome will be.
Click to expand...
Yeah changing those habits are critical and the most difficult part. My wife works at an elementary school and there is a teacher the who had the same surgery my wife did. They talked a lot before my wife's surgery. The teacher lost close to 200 pounds after surgery but has gained nearly 100 of it back just 3 years in. And she kind of has the attitude that the surgery just doesn't work. But my wife observed that the teacher drinks several cans of regular coke every day, and if something like brings donuts in, she takes 3 or 4. And she eats McDonald's and other fast food several times per week. But she thinks the surgery didn't work. Isn't it @infection that has the sig that says "if you put your mind to it, you can believe anything"? lol

You definitely have to be in this for the long haul if you want the results to happen and to last, no doubt. My sister-in-law, besides getting the wrong surgery (lapband), also couldn't, or wouldn't, give up things like beer, pizza, ice cream, cake, fast food, etc. Consequently she lost a total of like 50 pounds then rapidly put it all back on again plus another like 30 or something then just had it reversed. She fought it for something like 3 years and finally just reversed it. But one thing that she considered a win for her is that it helped her understand her relationship with food better, and helped her see that she is happier fatter than she thought she could be before.

Interestingly since then she has lost about 50 pounds. Still she's a solid 150 above where she would want to be, but she's learned that she can live with that, and now tries to manage the health issues, not the weight, which has helped her actually lose weight.
 
fishonjazz said:
I know this is kind of opposite of the meaning of this thread but lets say in an amazing hypothetical that all the food that is bad for us becomes good for us. Like eating a cookie is similar to eating a banana. Eating a burger is like eating broccoli.
What is the food that you dont eat much of currently because its so unhealthy but you love it that you would now eat a ton of under this new hypothetical?

For it would be donuts and caramelo candy bars. I love donuts but probably only eat like 1 every 3 months or something. Same with caramelos. If all unhealthy food suddenly became healthy then i would eat a **** ton of those two things.
Click to expand...
I am a caramelo junky. Could just mainline those things. And the funny thing is I'm not a big fan of plain milk chocolate nor caramel in general, but caramelo is some crack-**** right there. Cannot leave them alone, so I just never buy them.

But for me it would be no-bake cheesecake. Graham cracker crust. Cherry topping. Would eat that probably daily, or just constantly at every meal
 
LogGrad98 said:
I am a caramelo junky. Could just mainline those things. And the funny thing is I'm not a big fan of plain milk chocolate nor caramel in general, but caramelo is some crack-**** right there. Cannot leave them alone, so I just never buy them.

But for me it would be no-bake cheesecake. Graham cracker crust. Cherry topping. Would eat that probably daily, or just constantly at every meal
Click to expand...
That second one sounds interesting. Never had it. caramelo is probably my number 1 tasting food in the world.
 
One Brow said:
A long time ago, calories were hard to come by, and low-calorie plants were plentiful, so we developed a taste for calories. It's not backwards, just a relic.
Click to expand...
This is also why in the Renaissance all the erotic paintings were of chubby girls. Because back then getting to eat the fattening foods and not work so much you just burned all your calories anyway was a sign of affluence. Just like today the good for you stuff is expensive and McDonald's and such are cheap as hell. So now rich people can afford the healthy food and the personal trainers and poor people can't, so the societal standard of beauty is reversed. It always follows the money.
 
fishonjazz said:
That second one sounds interesting. Never had it. caramelo is probably my number 1 tasting food in the world.
Click to expand...
Easy peasy.

1 standard block of Philadelphia cream cheese
1 standard can of sweetened condensed milk
2-3 tablespoons of lemon juice, I like more so it's a bit more lemony
1 tablespoon corn starch
1 performed Graham cracker crust in a pie tin, like from Walmart. 9" I believe
1 large can of extra cherries cherry pie filling/topping. I use the extra large can because I have an unhealthy relationship with this thing.

Let the cream cheese come to room temp and beat it in a bowl with a hand mixer, or in a stand mixer, or whatever you have, until the cream cheese lightens up a little and gets a little loose.

Add all other ingredients except the cherries, they go on top at the end. Beat until very smooth.

Pour the mixture into the pie crust until just under the lip of the crust. You might have extra depending on how much you beat it, hence adding extra air and volume. Doesn't matter. Put the remainder on pancakes or dip apple slices in it.

Put the little plastic lid back on the pie crust with the cream cheese mixture in it. Refrigerator for at least 2 hours. If you go less it will be too loose to slice, longer and it gets firmer. My wife usually tries to hide it from me overnight. Yeah, good luck with that!

I eat a quarter of a pie at a time with a huge glob of cherries on top. My wife likes to put the cherries on the entire whole pie then cut it but I think different people like a lot of cherries, like me, and other people are wrong. So they can have less if they choose to be inferior.

Enjoy! And don't blame me.


Edit: my wife reminded me that we will take out a few tablespoons of the condensed milk and add in up to 1/4 cup sour cream and a couple tablespoons of confectioner's sugar, also this replaces the corn starch because confectioner's sugar helps to thicken and set it up. But you can do all kinds of things with the basic recipe. Add lime instead of lemon juice. My favorite is with fresh myer lemons if you can find them (we have a tree in our yard). You can experiment with different crusts and such as well. My wife like biscoff biscuits (I think that's the right spelling). She likes to add chopped pecans to the crust. I just like the graham cracker crust. Seriously you can do so much with it. Different toppings, like raspberry. Even swirling some of the topping into the cheesecake itself. Try the basic recipe first then **** around with it. It's still great just as-is.
 
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