I do not want to offend anyone by this post. I just want some information. I have heard that some people cannot lose weight on any diet/program and that is why they choose gastric bypass. I have also heard that some people have such an eaing problem that this is the only way they can lose weight because the surgery forces them to eat differently otherwise they get real sick or experience a lot of pain. Is there really a group of people out there that really cannot lose weight even if they were to follow a LC diet? Just want to fill my head with some knowledge today. So all of you can set me straight now.

Cinammo,

I think that many of us posting in the Triple Digits Forum have seriously considered gastric bypass surgery. If low carbing had not worked for me, it was the only option I had left and I had done serious research into it. I am very grateful that low carbing has worked for me, but I am well aware of the fact that it does not seem to work for everyone. (Just as lowfat dieting works well for some people, but was a spectacular failure for me -- I just gained more weight.) Low carbing does require patience. I think that people need to give it a good three or four months (while faithfully following their chosen plan) before deciding that it does not work. Many people seem to stall out for a while, but then their weight loss resumes again.

As you are probably aware, there are often major complications with gastric bypass surgery, although it is a life-saver for some people. Click here for the best website I have found discussing the surgery. If you scroll down the website, there are lots of links to people's write-ups of their personal experience with the surgery (similar to the journals we keep on this site that document our experience with low carbing). Not everyone has serious complications, but I don't know of any way to predict in advance who will have those complications.

It looks like you just started low carbing. Why don't you give it a serious try for a few months and then evaluate at that time how you are feeling and if you think gastric bypass surgery would be a better option for you? I also recommend combining exercise with lowcarb eating, if you are not doing so already.

I work with a woman who had gastric bypass surgery about a year ago. She has done well in her weight loss (losing over 100 pounds in a year). However, her stamina is nowhere near where it was before the surgery. She used to travel extensively and has had to stop traveling. She is having work-related problems because she really has difficulty putting in an eight-hour day. She has also developed serious reactions to certain foods, so her diet is very limited and she is reliant upon supplements for basic nutrition. Frankly, although I have lost less weight than she has in the past year (and I am currently probably about 50 pounds heavier than she is), I am much healthier and in much better shape than she is. I am very worried about her right now. She lifted something heavy a few days ago and developed tremendous pain in her abdomen. She felt as though she had injured something related to the surgery and went home. I have not seen her since then. FYI, she says that despite all the complications, she would not hesitate to have the surgery again. She was having a lot of health complications and she feels as though the surgery saved her life. She did not try low carbing before the surgery, but she did try various lowfat diets without success.

I'm not considering gastric bypass. Thanks for referring me to the website. Maybe I'll find out more info there. I was just asking those on this board because I'm sure many have considered it and maybe some have even had the surgery.

Nope, I haven't considered bypass surgery, nor would I ever consider it.

Why not?

Because it wouldn't solve my weight problem because I don't overeat. I never have been an overeater, so I know that having a smaller stomach wouldn't make any difference in my weight.

For instance, I just now ate 1 cup of lettuce with 2 oz of ground beet on it - no dressing. I am totally full and won't eat again for 3-4 hours.

A typical "meal" for me is 3oz of tuna salad.

So, I can't imagine that bypass surgery would "make" me eat any less.

That's also the reason why I wouldn't consider diet pills-- overeating isn't the problem.

I strongly believe it's WHAT I WAS eating-- namely carbs.

Yes, I do believe there are people who can not lose weight, but I think it is a very rare condition.

I think for most of us here in this particular group, weight loss is very DIFFICULT and requires a HERCULEAN effort and lot of patience and persistence even in the face of slow results.

I'm rather new to this group, but that's what I find so remarkable and inspiring--- that despite it all, these people ARE losing weight.

I have found my HEROs right here.

Anytime I feel like I can't do it, I just look at the member profiles on the left hand side of the posting and SEE the weight loss-- then I KNOW it CAN happen for me too.

I have a friend who had it done last summer and yes she has dropped a ton of weight. . .but it seems to me what people who have the surgery have to eat after the surgery is the same thing we all are doing already. Every calorie must count. . .no junk. . .veggies and protiens. . .can't fill up on empty calories. So basically she is low carbing. ..no pasta, bread, sugar . . .she could have had that without the surgery. redawn

I know two people at work who has done this, and they both lost and incredable amount of weight, at a horrible cost. That are complete mess, both of them are sick to there stomach's most of the time, have a hard time eating the smallest of proteins, and are in discomfort and probably will be for quite some time. Its been over a year for one, and it still looks like he is struggling.

This is such a drastic measure, its like cutting off your arm to fix a broken finger. I understand weight can kill, and if I was virtually on my death bed, I would still go some other way, after seeing how horrible the results can be. I mean no offense to anyone who has had this done, but the cost seems so great to me, and makes me so sad.

I find it odd that in a world where bulimia and anorexia are considered serious terrible mental illnesses, yet this is considered okay. If you ask me, bulimia and anorexia are a pale comparison to the horrors and wrongness of this surgury.

This is such a touchy subject, and my heart weeps for those who feel they have to pay such a terrible price to achieve acceptance and health. 1 in every 200 people die from complications from the surgury (News paper article I just read about it) and over half have major complications that effect the rest of there lives... yikes.

That is only my opinion, and i am not opinionated about many things, but this is one of them.

I was serioulsy considering bypass surgery. Went to my consultation, got my insurance approval, yet something didn't feel quite right. I spent months on the internet researching this particular surgery and what I found was alarming. There is absolutely NO long term data on the effects of this surgery. None at all. The longest term data I could find was 13 years, and by the end of that 13 years 20% of the people who had undergone this surgery had died. Of the remaining 80% some were suffering from severe malnutrition, depression, bone loss and many other illments. The suicide rate is also extremely high for post-ops.

In my opinion many people who undergo this surgery are literally willing to die to be skinny. Fine.....I am not. And like a previous poster said, when I read what a typical recommended post-op menu looked like, I was surprised to see it looked very much like a low carb diet. Why not just do that and skip the surgery? Also, weight gain is also fairly common after this weight loss surgery. The surgery is considered a success if a person loses 50% of his/her excess weight. Considering the fact that most people then gain about 20% back, it seems like a small weight loss with extremely high associated risks (including the loss of the spleen etc).

Here are some other risks associtaed with this surgery (and these risks are published by a surgeon FOR this surgery.....there is a lot of research out that in my opinion tells a more scary story but that is hushed by gastric bypass surgeons):
risks of gastric bypass

My husband and I tried to get approvals for the lap band-- it has a much lower complication rate. Our BCBS would only cover RNY-- we tried an appeal for the band also. My husband weighed about 450 and had alot of co-morbidities. He had a lap RNY on Feb. 24th. He's doing very well, off diabetes medicine and decreased in other meds and SOOO much more active. He's getting his life back. The RNY didn't feel right for me. I thought I'd try to change my eating habits ONE more time. I thought about what made me fail hundreds of other attempts and have worked into my own plan. So far so good-- I think of finally hit on a plan that works for me --1700 cals, 60% fat, 15% carb, 25% protein using fitday.com. Meanwhile I no longer quallify for bariatric surgery-- but I still might go to Mexico for a lap band if I can't lose it this time.

My father regularly drops articles about this kind of surgery on me. I tell him, "I read about this a lot. We both know people who've had this done. They basically have to eat low carb, and take supplements, the rest of their lives, PLUS have almost endless terrible complications. So wouldn't it be better to eat low carb and take supplements and skip the surgery?"

I mean if you still basically have to obsess about your eating plan, and obsessing about your eating plan would get the weight off eventually without the surgery, then what is the point?

Then we talk about food. I say, "Do you notice me eating 10x what I'm supposed to? Do you think that I am 300lbs overweight--and that my entire maternal family, with rare exceptions, are all about 100++lbs overweight--because we eat 8 plates of bonbons per meal?" No, he doesn't. "Then why would stapling my stomach so that I can't eat very much solve this problem?!"

To him, I am fat, and this is a "solve it with a knife" solution, which we've all been bred since birth to think is the appropriate approach to any medical problem.

For some people this may be wonderful. I've known two people who have had it done. They were happier, briefly. Now they are miserable, with so many health problems it is not even funny. No thanks.

PJ

I am 140 lbs overweight. My doctor put me on Phentermine and had me keep a food journal for a month. At the end of the month I had lost .3 lbs and that was on 600-800 calories a day. She said that confirmed her suspicions, that PCOS and Syndrome X had my metabolism at a dead stop. She told me that the surgery most likely would not work because overeating wasn't my problem-she also said if it did work it would be because of the post-op low carb diet, so I would be better off to skip the surgery and be able to have the WHOLE Filet mignon.

I can't imagine living with my internal organs all re-arranged. I'd love to meet the 90 year old person who's had it done.

I know of people who have died, who have gotten sick, and I also know a few who have lost tons of weight and look great-I also know one who ate too much and her stomach just stretched out again.


Gastric surgery? No thanks.

I felt really hopeless and lets face it at our weight, we have only a 5% chance of success with low fat diets...I considered having the surgery. However, it just did not feel right. I wanted to try something one more time and I found this wol. I am thrilled. I feel as if I can live on this woe forever!

When people ask how I have lost the weight, they say they can give up their bread or sweets or other high carb foods. I just look at them and think, it is a small matter in exchange for how good I feel and how free from the cravings I feel.

I believe in my heart that this time, I will succeed.


Thanks for asking
Gwen

I made a mistake...people say they can not give up bread or sweets. I hope that makes more sense now.

Gwen

always hated that saying "Nothing tastes as good as thin feels" Always said by a Barbie whose biggest weight issue was "do these size 5 pants make me look fat?". . .the magic potion was missing. .. the key. . .just saying that did nothing for me. . .but learning and then experiencing. . .this has taught me a WHOLE LOT! On my fav site (on polymer clay. . .I am a professional polymer clay artist) we now have a thread "Anyone on the Atkins Diet?" AND I did not start the thread. But i have posted a lot in it. redawn

I met a woman who'd had it done and dropped a ton of weight, that was back in February 1994 when I met her. I just saw her again this past week, 9 years later, and she's HUGE! I mean, 3x as big as she was when I first met her. It is my humble opinion that people need to change their eating habits, what's going on in their heads and hearts before going the surgical route, as any surgery is HIGHLY dangerous, even for slim people. My 2 cents......

Nicole

Hi Gwen,

Yeah people have told me how they were sure they couldn't give up bread (donuts, bagels, tortillas, garlic bread, etc. etc. -- and I agree, they are all ADDICTIVELY wonderful) for anything.

Ironically though, if they push high-carb eating until until resistance becomes something even worse, their eating is going to be a lot more restricted than an LC plan! (Which at maintenance level would allow an 'occasional anything' if it were in a tiny portion. And even on induction there are some seriously yummy foods most low-fat dieters would faint with joy over!)

Ironically, the same people who tell me they could not possibly do without megacarb food, happily hold 'opinions' and sometimes attitudes about MY and others' weight (which by their own rules would be inevitable, and if they had MY insulin resistance would be fast coming to them too!).

Food is a drug. More and more every day I am coming to realize just how true that is and how hopelessly addicted--and either oblivious to that or indifferent to it--most of our entire society is.

PJ