# Who has had obesity surgery, and how did it work out **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 22, 2012, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-had-obesity-surgery-and-how-did-it-work-out/619634 "2012-04-22T22:03:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2012, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-had-obesity-surgery-and-how-did-it-work-out/619634/41 "2012-04-28T03:48:02Z")
Well, I have a friend in New York who got that gastric bypass surgery about 4 years ago. He dropped over a hundred pounds in the first year, and has probably lost another 30-40 since and he swears by it…best thing he ever did, according to him. I can tell you he had to have several additional (painful) surgeries because of loose skin, but to him it was all a small price to pay. -XT ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2012, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-had-obesity-surgery-and-how-did-it-work-out/619634/42 "2012-04-28T04:14:29Z")
> [@Maastricht](#): > > I can answer that one. In my other thread, I quote a pubmed study that says that the overall long term success rate of just diet & excercise, _for people already obese_, is 20 %. So your odds are one in five. I guess it depends on the study. [This study](http://chestjournal.chestpubs.org/content/128/2/485.full#xref-ref-4-1) on sleep apnea references a study on weight loss for control of OSA. It found that the success rate after 5 years was 3% while stating that many patients regained the weight they lost and/or went higher than their baseline weight. ---
**Author:** ![lorene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/65b543/32.png) [@lorene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorene)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2012, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-had-obesity-surgery-and-how-did-it-work-out/619634/43 "2012-04-28T18:13:01Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Losing weight on a liquid diet isn’t the problem, the problem is weight maintenance. That is a big appeal of surgery, that a person can lose weight and keep it off for 5+ years. > > Yo-yo dieting also causes health problems, which I want to avoid. It is cool if you managed to keep weight off solely via lifestyle changes, but I don’t know how realistic that is for me or most people. > [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](#): > > This is the important issue though. Obesity surgery will only help you to a point. The smaller stomach pouch will stretch over time and then you will be maintaining solely via lifestyle changes. Carnie Wilson is having (or already had?) her second WLS because she hasn’t gotten the hang of lifestyle changes. There’s no avoiding it. > [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](#): > > Of course the pouches are designed to not stretch to the point of no restriction (did anyone say differently?), but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t possible for the weight to come back. In many, many cases all of the weight. > > It absolutely is possible for WLS patients to regain the weight back even though the tool (whether it is the lap band, the sleeve, the RNY) is still in place and working. I’s listen to **Sleeps** on this one, seeing as she is a nurse who has worked in that specific field. Less of an expert myself, I have several anecdotes, which we all know are just as good as data. 😉 I have 4 friends who have had WLS (1 lap band, 1 RNY and 2 gastric bypasses). \*Every single one of them \*is now at or above the weight they were at prior to the surgery, despite having initial success in losing weight. 3 of the 4 even did some aftercare. 1 of them had to have many subsequent surgeries to repair internal hernias. I spent time with one of these women about a year after her surgery, when her weight was climbing back up. She would walk around for hours, snacking every few minutes on some M&Ms or some other small, calorie-dense treat that she had in her purse. She was barely aware that she was doing it. It is not at all out of the realm of possibility that a person’s addiction to overeating will override the tools provided by surgery. ---
**Author:** ![Woeg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/df705f/32.png) [@Woeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Woeg)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-had-obesity-surgery-and-how-did-it-work-out/619634/44 "2012-04-30T22:05:16Z")
> [@MandaJo](#): > > As a real humble suggestion–have you ever tried a high calorie diet? At that height and weight, and as a man, you’d probably lose weight at 2500 calories a day, and you might lose weight at 3000. Diets are designed for people who want to lose 20 lbs. They assume a really different basal metabolism than that of someone who needs to lose 100 lbs or more. Just carrying that weight around burns a lot of calories. Count calories really carefully and accurately (tons of apps out there for this) but don’t assume that the goal is to go as low as you can: the goal is to eat as much as you can while still losing any weight at all. And remember that you are aiming at an _average_–you can splurge some days and make it up over the next week (or “save up” before hand). > > What I am saying is that you may have plenty of willpower, it’s just that traditional diets for a man of your height and weight are basically like trying to hold your head underwater. The fact that you can’t do it for long doesn’t mean much. I have honestly never heard of a high calorie diet. My doctor (whom I finally got sick of and fired) had no problem insulting me and my weight (he literally said “Look at you, you’re disgusting, how can people stand to be around you, your children must hate you…”) but straight out refused to help find me an appropriate diet. He said there’s billions out there, if I’d get off my fat ass and look, but he wasn’t going to waste his time suggesting something I’d never follow anyway. 😛 Needless to say, I’ve been floundering. I tried the MyFitnessPal app for the iPhone, and was aiming at 1700 calories a day, but I was constantly thinking of food. Despite that I was losing weight, 25 lbs total, but my doc (pre-firing) scoffed and said I’d never keep it off. And then my little boy was diagnosed with cancer…and I’m a stress eater. I haven’t been able Togo back to it because I’ve felt so discouraged. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-had-obesity-surgery-and-how-did-it-work-out/619634/45 "2012-04-30T22:18:52Z")
> [@Woeg](#): > > Needless to say, I’ve been floundering. I tried the MyFitnessPal app for the iPhone, and was aiming at 1700 calories a day, but I was constantly thinking of food. Despite that I was losing weight, 25 lbs total, but my doc (pre-firing) scoffed and said I’d never keep it off. And then my little boy was diagnosed with cancer…and I’m a stress eater. I haven’t been able Togo back to it because I’ve felt so discouraged. I am really sorry to hear about your little boy, and I can certainly understand making that your main priority. If and when you want to give it a shot, I’d really recommend a higher calorie limit–like 2500. For me, that made all the difference. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-had-obesity-surgery-and-how-did-it-work-out/619634/46 "2012-04-30T23:50:02Z")
> [@Woeg](#): > > I have honestly never heard of a high calorie diet. My doctor (whom I finally got sick of and fired) had no problem insulting me and my weight (he literally said “Look at you, you’re disgusting, how can people stand to be around you, your children must hate you…”) but straight out refused to help find me an appropriate diet. He said there’s billions out there, if I’d get off my fat ass and look, but he wasn’t going to waste his time suggesting something I’d never follow anyway.. Things like this make me question the health/obesity connection. How much of the health effects of obesity are due to things like medical prejudice (among other things) as opposed to the obesity itself? Although some illnesses like osteoarthritis, sleep apnea and type II diabetes are strongly connected to obesity. I am looking into these things for health reasons, mostly cardiovascular. However I don’t know if the evidence is really there that this surgery will help me in that area. It seems (according to the study I posted earlier) that it mostly works if you already have diabetes. Which right now I do not. Anyway, sorry about your doctor. If you try to lose weight it should come from a place of self acceptance and trying to help yourself achieve your goals (whatever your goals are), not based on ridicule and disgust. You shouldn’t be trying to lose weight because you are being told that is the only way you will be acceptable or likable. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-had-obesity-surgery-and-how-did-it-work-out/619634/47 "2012-05-01T19:09:24Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > … > Anyway, sorry about your doctor. If you try to lose weight it should come from a place of self acceptance and trying to help yourself achieve your goals (whatever your goals are), not based on ridicule and disgust. You shouldn’t be trying to lose weight because you are being told that is the only way you will be acceptable or likable. Egad, Woeg - glad you fired that doctor!!! The year **Dweezil** was diagnosed with autism (and we were dealing with a fussy newborn after a rough pregnancy), we got into pretty major ice-cream addiction. As we looked at it: no matter how shitty the day was, at the end there was always ice cream. In other words, every day had one little thing to look forward to. Along the “high calorie” path that Manda Jo mentions: I assume this doesn’t mean “eat a lot of high calorie foods”, but more along the lines of “reduce your eating just a tiny bit, 50-100 calories a day maybe”. SparkPeople is a free site that has a lot of nutritional info and a food tracker, and I’ve found it useful when I have the discipline. You can input your current weight, your target weight, a date by which you’d like to hit that date, and select an activity level, and it’ll calculate a calorie target for you. Say you’re at a weight / activity level that would maintain weight at 3000 calories a day, and you want to lose 10 pounds in the next 6 months, it might give you a target of 2950 calories a day. If you want to lose 10 pounds in the next 3 months, your target might be 2900 a day (obviously I’m making those numbers up). ---
**Author:** ![terristephens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@terristephens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terristephens)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-had-obesity-surgery-and-how-did-it-work-out/619634/48 "2012-06-01T06:13:20Z")
Yeah, I’d say go with the lap band surgery due to the fewer risks involved. [This article](http://www.losingweight.com/question/what-is-the-difference-between-gastric-bypass-and-lap-band) says that the recovery time for lap band surgery is just 3-4 weeks rather than the 6 weeks it would take with gastric bypass surgery. I know one friend in particular who had the gastric bypass surgery, and yes, he did lose over 85 pounds in six months, but there were those times when he’d go out to a buffet and lose control. I can tell that he has put on some weight, but if he keeps it up, it’ll only be a matter of months before he returns to his old self. The key here is implementing good healthy habits throughout your life - even after the surgery. You can be full, but cravings will induce people (like my friend) to eat eat EAT despite what his stomach is telling his brain. ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-had-obesity-surgery-and-how-did-it-work-out/619634/49 "2012-06-01T10:18:54Z")
**terristephens** , the comparison between lapband and gastric bypass isn’t quite fair in that article. Yes, the traditional gastric bypass (the RouxenY) is major abdominal surgery and has a recovery period of indeed several weeks. A lapband is indeed slighly less major. However, that is like saying that going to Newark in the post coach is better then going there on horseback. Unless your doctor can’t do laparoscopic surgery ot there are other reasons why it isn’t possible, you’d be stupid to choose traditional surgery over laparoscopic. It is the difference bewtween a recovery period of days/few weeks versus weeks/months. Laparoscopic gives you five little scars that look like mosquito bites; traditional surgery requires you to be zippted open wide. Why would anyone choose that voluntarily? Also, the lapband has a complication rate of alsmost 50 percent, compared to less then 10 % with gastric bypass. So the odds are 50 percent or more that you will have enough trouble with the lap band to need another surgery to fix it or get it out. That should count more then the initial recovery time, I think. And gastric bypass surgery still gets perfected, with better and better results. And there are different kinds, each with their own indications: the RouxenY, the sleeve, the Mini, etc. So, I say again, don’t go the lap band route. Your other point is spot on. No-one should have bariatric surgery if they have real trouble with binging. If they can’t stop yourself from eating _even when it hurts_, they will damage themselves after surgery. That’s were self knowledge and therapy can help in the pre-surgery period. ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-had-obesity-surgery-and-how-did-it-work-out/619634/50 "2012-06-01T11:56:56Z")
> [@Woeg](#): > > I have honestly never heard of a high calorie diet. My doctor (whom I finally got sick of and fired) had no problem insulting me and my weight (he literally said “Look at you, you’re disgusting, how can people stand to be around you, your children must hate you…”) but straight out refused to help find me an appropriate diet. He said there’s billions out there, if I’d get off my fat ass and look, but he wasn’t going to waste his time suggesting something I’d never follow anyway. That does suck. I can’t imagine being on the receiving end of that from someone who is supposed to be a professional. I’m glad you fired him. I’m hoping you found someone who is more compassionate. > [@](#): > > Needless to say, I’ve been floundering. I tried the MyFitnessPal app for the iPhone, and was aiming at 1700 calories a day, but I was constantly thinking of food. Despite that I was losing weight, 25 lbs total, but my doc (pre-firing) scoffed and said I’d never keep it off. And then my little boy was diagnosed with cancer…and I’m a stress eater. I haven’t been able Togo back to it because I’ve felt so discouraged. For what it’s worth, I’m a stress eater, too. But, paradoxically, I can manage the stress if I watch what I eat and follow a structured plan. Knowing what I’m going to eat helps remove that source of stress and breaks the vicious cycle of overeating, guilt, overeating. So forget what the asshole doctor told you. Just get back to MyFitnessPal and get religious about it. I promise it’ll help. ---
**Author:** ![sandra\_nz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@sandra\_nz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sandra_nz)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-had-obesity-surgery-and-how-did-it-work-out/619634/51 "2012-06-01T12:18:06Z")
I’m a constant food thinker too. I’ve managed to lose around 17kg (37 pounds) since September of last year by making diet changes and using the points system with Weight Watchers. I think the biggest factor in my success so far has been the changes (not reductions) I’ve made to my diet. I now avoid bread, cereals, potatoes, pasta and rice (although I will eat pasta and rice occassionally, just in greatly reduced quantities). So now for breakfast I have a breakfast sausage, egg and two rashers of bacon. At lunch, I have a chicken salad and fruit, and for dinner I’ll have meat and vegetables, followed by a light dessert yoghurt. It’s almost the ‘breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, dine like a pauper’ approach. I still have treats, like my beloved Cadbury brunch bars, so long as my points allows. The difference this has made to my brain has been amazing. That big breakfast sets me up for the entire morning, I don’t get brain or stomach hungry (and if you are a food thinker, I’m sure you’ll understand the difference) until lunch time or even later - just yesterday I had a really busy day at work and it was only at 3pm that I worked out my stomach was sore because I hadn’t eaten lunch. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-had-obesity-surgery-and-how-did-it-work-out/619634.md?page=2)