Does it ever not work?

My surgery date is 3/30(!!!) and I am getting nervous. Not about the surgery itself, but rather it working. Has it ever just not worked? I am getting concerned that I will permanently alter my body and not lose anyway. I am not talking about regaining but just never losing any at all.

I know it seems like a weird question but I am terrified of this. I have tried everything to lose weight before this, it never worked then, how do I know this will work?

Yes yes yes!  This surgery has saved my life, and the lives of thousands.  Just keep your focus on your committment to your health, stay off the scale (I know this is hard, but do it), protein first, no white foods, walkwalkwalk, sipsipsip, chewchewchew, and nap as needed.

It won't all fall off at once--but in a year you'll be seeing an entirely different person when you walk past a window or a mirror.

Can the weight come back?  Yes.  If you fail to keep your eye on the prize, it will return.  It's a stealthy process:  you might find yourself testing your boundaries of what you can or cannot eat.  Pretty soon it's sneaking refined carbs back into your diet.  Then all of a sudden you're at a 50# regain and you have to start all over again.

WLS is a tool.  You are the one who makes the tool work.  You are the one who must keep your brain engaged.  Is it easy?  Sometimes.  Can it get difficult?  Yes.  But it's up to you.  It's all up to you how successful you are.

This is not just a diet.  We've all been on ALL the diets and failed.  This is a lifestyle change.  I mean that seriously, but it is the best thing you'll ever do for yourself.

Could not have said it better myself. It's a tool that in the first 7-8 months is fool proof. Past the 1 year mark it is literally just a tool you need to use. You can EASILY eat around your pouch if you don't make the right choices. 

Best advice I can give you is to take that first year to adapt healthy habits which make the maintenance part just maintaining your existing lifestyle. 

This secretly scared me too. As someone who has been obese my whole life, it is difficult to accept that anything will work. But I am happy to say that my weight is lower that it has been in many years already. I am almost back to the weight I was in my late teens, and I'm not even two weeks out from surgery. I spent years desperately trying to get back to this weight. It is still difficult for me to believe that I can ever be a normal weight, but I have confidence that I can get there with the assistance of my new tool. There is a saying around OH that wls doesn't fail people, people fail their surgery.

Thank you for your response Maria! That is I guess how I am feeling. There is such a societal stigma where wls surgery is concerned, that when my doctor suggested it I kind of recoiled. I have tried EVERYTHING. So if this is my chance, I just really want it to work. I KNOW that if I have weightloss I will not regain, I am a great personality type as I am a rule follower so give me rules and I am happy! But I have done everything else my doctor suggested and it didn't work, I am just so scared this wont work either.

I need to challenge something you said. I do it not to be mean but so that you will see the fallacy in it and can, hopefully, avoid problems down the road.

You said "I KNOW that if I have weightloss I will not regain, I am a great personality type as I am a rule follower so give me rules and I am happy! But I have done everything else my doctor suggested and it didn't work..." So are you telling us that you have never lost weight on a diet and then regained it? Not once?!?  What all did your doctor suggest that you followed to the letter and did not cause you to lose any weight?!? Did he suggest eating only while standing on one foot... the Cabbage Soup diet... just praying the weight away?

I'm guessing that at some point someone gave you some type of healthy eating guidelines/rules that you did NOT follow... or, even more likely, that you followed them for a little while but then didn't get the results you wanted in the timeframe that you wanted -- or you got bored/frustrated/unhappy -- and then you QUIT following the "rules". Yes?  

I think you are potentially setting yourself up for a BIG fall if you really think that if you lose the weight with surgery that you won't regain any of it. If you have regained any weight after amy diet in the past, the very same things that caused you to regain then will cause you to regain after surgery.  The surgery absolutely WILL work for the first few months if you even half way follow the rules. It would be physically impossible for it NOT to since you will be able to eat so little. It is not magic, though, and if you don't really learn new ways of eating and approaching food -- not just following some rules for a short term diet -- you WILL find yourself struggling to lose the rest of the weight and/or keep the weight from creeping back up.

I do NOT mean this to discourage you, but I think it is important to understand the way you are currently thinking and be realistic about what you are expecting from the surgery and what you will need to do to change your head in order to be successful long term.  Between the people that I have seen here and the clients I work with IRL, I have seen this mindset play out badly more than just a handful of times.

Lora

Well said Lora! I too had some great results in the beginning (with the lap band) it is very easy to regain the weight. Now I am hoping to get a revision because my Lap Band is slipping and can no longer be filled. But I am smarter now. I now realize how the 1st year is so crucial to be successful at losing the needed weight. After a year if one follows the "RULES" the pouch will not become stretched and new healthier habits will become second nature.  You made some very valid points Lora...the surgery is not a magical weight loss cure but it is an excellent tool for those of us who have realistic expectations.  That being said, educating oneself about the benefits and risks including weight regain secondary to (not following the RULES) is one of the first hurdles to be faced BEFORE the surgery is planned ...of course just my opinion. 

I really appreciated this post, Lora.  Especially your comment in bold.  It was very helpful to me in trying to understand my issues.  Thank you. 

Please take too heart what Lora wrote. 

And look at posts of people *****gained.  Losing with was easy compared to long term maintenance.  

I had that fear as well when I hit my first stall... my surgeon kept saying he wasn't worried, but I was. That being said. I realize I am someone who will always have to be careful to watch what I eat... I am 8 months out and this is my period to learn new habits... This is a tool, not a magic wand.