The Wait! the good, bad and ugly

Hmmm.. well, 7 or 8 years ago I may have agreed with you, but I'm afraid at 9.5 years post-op, I don't. If people think that this is going to be different, or easier, or NOT A DIET for life - well, I'm afraid they're mistaken. Losing the weight with surgery is the easiest part - keeping it off in the long term is where the work is. I always sincerely hope that people do make appropriate changes and learn new behaviours and come to realize that WLS is not "magic" - this truly is a "diet for life", plain and simple.

Hi Karen...I agree with you and I think it may be one of the reasons for my back and forth thinking. During the wait...I have coming to the understanding that this struggle will be life long. I know its not magic. Its' a very serious commitment to change. As a 'food addict' I know that the surgery will only be a physical tool to help me to succeed. I will be needing support and treatment for my attitudes and behaviors for life. I don't see WLS as a total cure for what truly ails me. I guess I should be a little grateful for the wait because it pushed me to start working on the "stuff" that I have been stuffing for years. Trying to learn to live One Day at a Time...thanks

You are so right about seeking support and treatment - that's exactly what we all should do, on some level at least. I really liked your analogy of "stuff that gets stuffed" as it really does affect how we deal with everyday life in general, and more specifically in this case, to our eating behaviours/thoughts. Getting a handle on this is pretty crucial. Things in the first couple of years go along quite swimmingly really - you lose a large amount of weight, regain health and mobility, feel better about yourself in general, etc. It is key, however, to be learning new and improved habits/behaviours/thinking processes that will help us to continue on, even when the excitement of losing all the weight comes to an end. There are a lot of people who unfortunately hit "goal" and think, "So? What now?" That's when all of the behaviours we've been learning and practicing are hopefully ingrained enough to carry on.

Well said, and I agree with you about the necessity to make lifelong changes to make WLS work.  I certainly would not be going down this road if I wasn't planning on making lifelong changes.  The point of my response was that WLS affords certain benefits to 'help' with weightloss, to make it easier to get to long-term goals that diet alone does not.  Many dieters fail before they even get to goal and/or don't get to the maintenance phase or stay there long due to biological processes working against them.  WLS circumvents these processes for the first 12-18 months allowing the patient to set in place the good habits and behaviours they will need down the road before the body's natural processes kick into gear again.  And your right, the people who think that surgery will give them the weight loss they desire with no effort on their part to change their habits, are doomed to fail. And those that don't take the benefit of the reduced calorie intake the pouch affords, and try to cicumvent their pouch, will also fail.  Again, a point of my post - dieters must permanently restrict calorie intake themselves (often with a stretched out stomach - which is like fighting an uphill battle), whereas for WLS patients, the pouch helps this aspect of weight loss maintenance if it's respected and not abused.  The exercise/resting metabolism component though is the same regardless of diet or surgery.  Both patients will have to work much harder than a normal weight person to achieve the same calorie burn.  The point of my post was assure those people sitting on the fence or going back and forth with their decision that WLS is indeed a good decision when you consider the failure rates of diets and why diets fail, against the success rates of WLS and why WLS is advantageous over trying another diet.  But each decision is individual and I thank you for continuously pointing out that this will not be a walk in the part and serious lifestyle changes must occur even with WLS, if one hopes to have long-term success.

It absolutely does make it easier, no question about it and I'm certainly not disputing that. There is no way in hell that I would sit here today in good health and at a completely healthy weight if it had not been for weight loss surgery. My hope is that my friends and neighbours on the Ontario forum get to enjoy the feeling of true success and good health by making lifelong, effective changes that they can maintain. And, if needed, have a place where they can reach out for support, advice, a shoulder, and education.

Edited to add: Easier = actually attainable.

This is a really awesome essay. I need to print it out and hand it to people when they ask me "how I did it". The "why I did it", and how our body works is such a big part of this.

You nailed it! Thanks.

Thank you for your response...I am glad that I am not the only one with the back and forth thinking. Thanks for reminding me of the technical stuff...as to why diets haven't worked and likely won't work now either. This was helpful.

When people ask me, I now have an elevator speech ready...whi*****ludes the phrase, "I now have a governor on my body" like transports have a governor that won't let them go faster than 100 km on a 400 series highway...if I eat too much, or too fast, or the wrong foods, I get sick...could people on just a diet accomplish what we do? Not so fast and so well.

Hang in there.  It's worth the wait :) 

The forum is a great source of information, suggestions and support.  As with anything on the Internet, one can't take everything on here as fact.  It's what worked for them, as an individual, or their point of view, opinion, what their specific bariatric team told them, or what they researched (are they viable sources).  Listen to your Bariatric team, write down all the questions you are having and be sure to ask them - they are the pros after all.  Just my 2 cents worth

I don't know if I can blame it on the Opti (I know I can't, I actually feel great!), but am I understanding the essay and following posts to suggesting dieting isn't a part of a post-op lifestyle?  Call a diet what you want - I prefer to call it a lifestyle change.  Sure, all the past efforts at dieting were a mix of success and failure, but that doesn't mean that post-op means we get a ticket to ride.  As my surgeon at TWH put it - we have 18 months after surgery (the honeymoon phase) where it's the surgery that is causing us to lose the weight.  But don't take that time as an opportunity to do nothing to change.  You have 18 months to build the physical, mental & emotional foundation so that when the honeymoon is over, you're equipped, ready and already putting into practice a new, healthier lifestyle.  If pre-surgery eating included junk, drive-thru, pop, high fat foods - you can't expect to eat that way again post-surgery and stay at goal weight.  Won't happen.  I promise you that.  That's my quarters worth of thoughts ;)

Well said, I agree.