gastric bypass

[tracyc]

hi everyone,

i was put on a list for gastric bypass back in january.. in that time i have lost 25#, and new to atkins.. i got a call yesterday that my file is being transfered to another hospital with less of a wait time...I'm just wondering what people's opinions are on getting gastric bypass. Even with gastric bypass a person still needs to eat properly, it is not an excuse to eat whatever you want, or you WILL get fat.. atkins would be beneficial with GBS as well.

any thoughts...experiences...etc.

thanks

[SMKelly]

Hi there.

My closest friend just had gb surgery on 9.8.09. Her goal is to get to 150.

She weighed 226 right before surgery prep and 240 at "scalpel" time because of all the IV meds, etc. they pumped into her.

So at 226 she was right on the borderline of obesity. She's 5'8".

So in the 58 days since the surgery, she is down to 201.

She's so furious because the doctor really promised her she'd be at her goal weight by the end of this year and she foolishly (in her words) believed him.

She's in pain or in fear of being in pain...all the time. If she eats something weird or a tablespoon too much of something, she's got painful cramps and is running to the bathroom. No sweets, ever.

I was going to do it, but thought I'd give this WOE a try. So even though 97 pounds still separate the two of us, I've lost 36 lbs in the 58 days since her surgery.

GB doesn't fix your head. It's merely a physical bandaid to a bigger problem. My buddy is extremely regretful about the whole thing and kicks herself daily. The surgery cost $61,000.

Good luck!

Shelley

[atkinsgal08]

My thought is ... if you're going to change your way of eating, then why not lose the weight with Atkins.

You can then keep the weight off with Atkins, too.

WLS isn't a magic wand ... and why don't you prove to yourself that you can change your eating before your resort to drastic means?

[tracyc]

hi...forgot to mention, i am in canada...GBS is FREE!!!

I know you have to eat right, and weight loss is gradual, but if you do eat properly a person will get there...I'm just really confused right now. i want to cancel the appt because im so pumped about starting atkins, but im scared to cancel it because i've been on the list for almost a year, and what if next june im gaining again. I know, I know...im not supposed to think like that...but, i am.

J- i agree with you, i gave myself the year since i was put on the list, and i'm down 25 # so far... so i am proving it to myself.. on one hand, i dont want to cancel it, but instead ask for a later sugery date...on the other hand..if i dont cancel it it may be a "fall back" in the back of my mind. i am going to honestly give this my best shot.

maybe i'll meet with the nutritionist...and set my next appt for the new year to give myself a fair chance. i have hbp which the surgery is “supposed” to cure. I feel I am proving to myself that I can do it…but 25# in a year isn’t all that much… I guess I will have to wait and see.

[atkinsgal08]

Here's something I got from another forum:

Bypassing Surgery

At 335 pounds, Joel Leggett was convinced that a gastric bypass was his only option. Then a New York Times Magazine article changed his mind, and his life.

I was always on the big side, even during my childhood. When I got my driver's license, it also became a license to eat junk food. Soda had been forbidden in my house growing up, but now I could go out and buy as much as I could stand, which turned out to be an awful lot. Still, I was fairly active, riding my bike and climbing ladders all afternoon while doing sound and lights for my high-school drama club.

My weight even won me parts in plays. I got to play the fat, misunderstood teenager time and again. The typecasting didn't make my body image any better, but I did enjoy the attention.

I maintained my soda habit throughout college, and my weight held steady at about 240. I majored in light and sound design engineering, so I was still spending a lot of time going up and down ladders, and I rode my bike everywhere. My weight didn't impede my social life; in fact, I looked like a football player.

After college I went to work at Microsoft. Fourteen-hour days were the norm, and the company provided refrigerators full of soda, juice and chocolate milk as incentives to work long and hard. For a real pick-me-up, I'd have a Snickers bar with my two liters of Coke. By the time I left Microsoft, I was up to 280 pounds and had begun a painful attempt at low-fat dieting. But the harder I tried the more I failed.

A few months after my 30th birthday, my doctor got on my case: "You're up to 335 pounds. Where are you going to be when you're 40?" He said that my fasting blood sugar was slightly high and he was concerned about diabetes. I told him that I'd been trying to lose weight without success, but all he did was give me a speech about not trying hard enough and needing to eat less and exercise more. I left feeling defeated and helpless.

The pounds had really snuck up on me. One day I was 10, 20, 30 pounds overweight, and the next (it seemed) I'd packed on an extra 100 pounds and could no longer buy regular clothes. I began to consider the unthinkable: surgically altering my intestines so that I'd be unable to take in large amounts of food.

As part of my research on gastric bypass surgery, I wound up in a seminar in a conference room filled with morbidly obese men and women. I was scared, but desperate. The seminar began well, with experts talking about the fantastic results experienced by individuals who'd had the surgery. "But there are also risks," one of the men on the dais explained. "In rare instances, complications from the surgery result in death." As I left the seminar that night, I knew that I couldn't risk my life in that way without trying to change my diet one more time.

Serendipitously I found myself at my parents' house some weeks later flipping through The New York Times Magazine. "What If It's All Been a Big Fat Lie?" read the headline. The article cited multiple studies that showed that low-fat dieting didn't work for many people and that, instead, cutting back on carbohydrates was the best way for many people to lose weight. The article made me angry about the bad advice I'd gotten over and over, but I was able to put my frustration to good use: I changed my life by starting Atkins.

Induction was horrible. Coming off of all that sugar, I crashed hard: sweats, headaches, irritability. But I made a commitment to stick to it for two weeks; at the end of that time, I'd lost 12 pounds, and I was hooked. I remained on Induction for six months because it gave me structure -- if it wasn't on the list, I didn't eat it. After that initial six months, though, I began adding berries and other foods into my diet, and I kept losing weight.

It wasn't only my body that changed in that first six months, it was also my mindset. I'd always thought of diets as something to be endured before returning to "normal" eating. Not anymore. I started cooking, and I got good at it. I started going to a gym and eventually hired a personal trainer to push me even harder.

Inspired by my success, my partner went on Atkins and lost 70 pounds himself (and he's a vegetarian!).

Today I'm at 219 pounds, and I've never felt better. I shaved my beard. I cut my hair. I guess I no longer felt the need to hide behind them. I recently ran into an old friend I hadn't seen in a few years, and he walked right by me without recognition.

It felt really strange, but also incredibly good.

Success Strategies:

1. Pack low-carb food for airplane trips and train rides.

2. Make whole foods the bulk of your diet. When I hit a plateau, I cut back on packaged foods, and that always does the trick.

3. Join a gym, or get a trainer. If you're paying for it, you're more likely to go!

4. Eat absolutely nothing while watching television.

[SMKelly]

I agree with AtkinsGal.

Give Atkins or a less-invasive WOE a try and see how you do.

IMHO, free surgery would make no difference to me if the mind/attitude/emotional issues weren't addressed, and we have all seen from thuosands of posts that many of us are emotionally tied to food. It's not a simple "on/off" switch for most of us.

The choice is yours. If you really want something badly enough, you'll make it happen; but please know that GB surgery or other invasive procedures are merely a panacea and not a complete solution or cure.

Shelley

[Georgiana]

Originally Posted by tracyc

and what if next june im gaining again.

You can gain weight after GBS too.

[tracyc]

im not downplaying the 25#, i think it's absolutely wonderful that i've lost 25#...and i recognize that, and i have a goal for another 20 by the end of the month. it will probably be december before i get in to see the dietician.

[mission to lose]

1- As others said, you don't really learn anything by having the surgery.
2- I have read and heard many people are very uncomfortable, miserable, and emotionally stressed after the surgery.
3- You CAN regain the weight.
4- After surgery, is THAT the time you are going to change how you eat? Change your habits overnight so that you don't regain?
5- I know only 2 people who have had the surgery. They regret it.

Of course it is your decision, but frankly, I have not heard any "good stories" about it, although I am sure there are.

If it were me, and as you say it will be a free surgery, I would not do it. It is not a magic wand that will solve all of your eating issues. Yes, I am overweight, but I have lost 30# so far, and don't feel my weight is at a number that is a life threatening that I would need the surgery to save my life, nor is it at a number that I can not manage to continue what I am doing and lose in a reasonable time frame. With some work and persistence I WILL lose this weight AND make it my life's work to maintain the loss.

Isn't there a emotionally screening that you go through first? Or is that done closer to the surgery? Please do as much first hand research that you can to see if this is really the right way to go.

~Mary

[tracyc]

hi everyone,
there are 3 meetings before the surgery..one with a dietician, one with a social worker and one with the surgeon. Honestly, I'm afraid of the surgery..i think that the fact that there is a possibility of surgery is scaring me so much that it's making me more determined to stick to atkins religiously. thanks for all the help. As i said, i think i am going to go to the first appointment to meet the dietician, that in itself would be helpful to me i think...as far as the surgery, my plan is to stick with atkins, work out every night, and see how this goes for me.