Thin peiple were not there

I had attended my support group for lap banders and a group of about 35 and i was looking around the room and most were a year plus out if not more and i was shocked because all i could see was a room of over weight people.. i had the simular situation happen at the RNY support group there. seems alot did lose alot of weight but they did not look thin. most looked heavy and only people i saw in that room that looked good was the men figures LOL i do not get it .. I mean when I told the room I was wearing a size 16 alot of old timers were saying I wish i could .. most were stuck at 200 lbs mark seems they got to goal but had a hard time keeping it off as they yet had really come to terms why they got there.. I am very tight and most people eat 1200 to 1500 calories , I am at most 600 calories and depsite exercise and reduction calories losing weight for me is not very easy. I have a metabolism of a slug and I was talking to my mom no matter how hard I try to eat so little the weight never comes off unless i eat less than 600 calories and my mom shared with me the same story and she told me a story about me and how I would eat so little yet gain the weight very easy compared to the rest of my sisters.. they r the type that eats eats and eats and loses weight they get that from my dad I suppose. My mom really validated that perhaps being so fat was not all of my fault .. i have known if i almost starve my self i will lose weight but it was the hunger that over came me.. so glad i have the lap band to help me not feel hunger anymore.. I have no problem serving up 2 oz of meat and 1 oz of veggies .. on a sauser plate/ Ok my point is is anyone with me despite earlier attemps like weigh****chers etc the diets did not work for me and over weight despite dieting correctly.. I sometimes feel alone in fact the amount the food I eat is very very small .. I could never lose weight on 1200 calories a day .. u think giving up soda I use to drink two 48 oz of regular root beer a day would make me drop alot of weight . nope.. had no effect.. seems once i settle on weight in my older years i do not budge ,, tell now.. I realize my future will be 4 oz of food for a meal .. and eating 600 calories I can never see my self ever to eat 1200 calories and keep my weight off .. does this make sense to anyone? I think morbid obesity is not always are fault .. i think i just realized it now My thin years in high school was because I was on competive swim team and my diet was eating jello and starving my self .. and once I stopped swimming and srated to eat I became very fat. even with the exercise It seems I fight getting weight off.. am i alone ? The 23 lbs from surgery i have taken off since my surgery is so very slow and they all came off by eating so little and exercising my heart out.. Lisa

Hi Lisa, I had the same experience at my hospital's WLS support group. Most were RNYers, and out of about 15-20 people who usually came, nearly all were overweight or obese. I think it's because some are pre-op, some are just a short time out from surgery, and the "successful" long-term patients don't necessarily come back for support. The ones struggling with regain or not making it to goal are the ones who need more support and come back. I figure the patients who come to the support group are a small percentage of the total patients. I actually had to stop going to that group, at least for now, because it was very discouraging for a newbie to hear the people who were a few years out telling us how hard it was and how we can't necessarily expect success. I need to surround myself with positivity right now! I can't bear to think that I could fail at this!

My support group is a nice mix of pre-op's. those who had surgery in the past year, and some that were 2,3 yrs out. Those further down the road looked great! There were a couple that admittedly did not follow instructions and were going to have revisions. But that was the exception, not the rule. There aren't alot of ones that are a few yrs out. People move on and get one with their lives. Some get pulled back in due to family members starting the WLS journey. Lots of reasons. I think it all depends on the quality of the program offered by your surgeon. Lots of classes and education as well as lots of contact keep you accountable and the weight stays off. Many of the weight boomerangers were done in an older program by another surgeon when the follow up and eduction was not as thorough. This process is evolving all the time and I think we were lucky tohave ours done now when even more is known about the surgeries and consequences.