Hey there Kathy,

I am a 53 yo professional who is having a revision to my RNY. I am not going to a DS. I am having a Distalization done. Results from that type of revision will yield much different results.

I am happy to share what I know with you.

What type of revision are you seeking?

Your old stomach before surgery held about 32 to 48 ounces. Think of a 2-liter soda bottle. You could hold one or two of those full of food.

After surgery you get a pouch that is about two ounces. Maybe the size of a walnut. You eat a tiny amount of food and you are stuffed. The pouch grows to about the size of a large egg. As it grows we learn how to eat more.

We get good at eating many times during the day and gaining weight even with a tiny stomach.

A revision might cut the pouch down from eight to four ounces, but that is not a big shock because it is almost the same as before. And we know how to put enough food into our pouch to maintain and gain weight.

Almost everyone goes back to drinking with their meals instead of waiting 30 minutes. Drinking with meals really helps to eat a lot more.

Most revision patients lose 20 pounds because they are on a restrictive diet preparing for and after surgery. But once they are able to eat normally again, they go back to the same amount of food as before the surgery.

The only way to lose weight is by eating less calories and burning more calories. Just waiting for the magic that happened after the first weight loss surgery does not work.

I primary Dr suggested to me that a revision would be beneficial to me. I reached out to the Bariatric Surgery Team and spoke to a surgeon. My original surgeon has retired but amazingly the surgeon that I was assigned actually worked with my original surgeon. He is familiar with how my surgery was performed and has recommended a Distalization to be done. I am just learning about this process as I type this but my estimated surgery will be in November 2021. The tests they are running are a ton of blood work looking at levels of "everything" seriously. I had to have an EGD to check the "plumbing" and just working on getting my vitamin D, Iron, Zinc etc levels up.

I know that gastric bypass surgery is just a tool and I have a lot of hard work ahead of me. I'm here to share and look for support. Lot's of life changes have happened in the past 6 years and I am looking forward to this door opening up for me in the near future.

Revisions are basically across the board failures. I have been following this board since 2003. I have seen no revisions where people lost more than 20 pounds and kept it off after one year.

Regain has happened to me several times. It is always because I am taking in more calories than I am burning. My metabolism is slower every year and that means I get to eat less every year.

For me to lose one pound, I have to cut 500 calories a day for one week. My normal consumption is about 1400 calories, and I have to go down to 800 or 900 to see a one pound loss.

For a normal person, a male needs twelve calories a day to maintain one pound. A female can only eat ten calories a day to maintain one pound. A 200 pound male can maintain at 2400 calories a day. A 200 pound female maintains on 2000 calories a day. Exercise helps, but much less than you would think.

My goal weight is 136, but I am fine at 140, a bit unhappy at 150, and miserable at 165. But it is easy to take in 1650 calories and feel like I am not eating that much.

To lose the weight and keep it all for life, you much learn to honestly and accurately track what you are putting into your body. My Fitness Pal is excellent and free. Weigh****chers is excellent and expensive. You need a digital food scale to track everything accurately.

A Weigh****cher point is roughly 50 calories. They do a l0t of other calculations, but the end result is the same. I maintain 140 at 28 Weigh****cher points. I lose at 16 Weigh****cher points. I lose at 800 calories on My Fitness Pal.

I first joined Weigh****chers in 1973. I had RNY in 2007. My highest regain was 165 pounds a few years ago. It took months of 16 point days at Weigh****chers to get back to 136.

RNY was a quick and easy weight loss but I still stayed at approximately 800 calories per day. By 18 months out, I could eat close to 2000 calories a day and still was 125 pounds. But the malabsorption went away and I realized that the only way to not gain weight was to be on a diet for life.

People always remark that I don't eat much food. And it is not a lot for them, but for me it is very easy to not eat that much but still gain weight from too many calories.

Hi! Wondering how you're doing now? I would love to hear an update! I'm having my revision on Tuesday.
Hope you were able to get the vomiting under control and that you're doing well!
Melanie