Weigh****ches, Nutrisystems.. DIETS POST.. OMG

I was in the chat room last night .. well until about 2am this morning talking to post op patients. One was at 8 months, 20 lbs from goal, and on weigh****chers. Another guy was at 4 years and 30lbs just snuck up on him when he started eating larger portions again/never dumped. He sounded ify if he was going to get back on track. Another woman mentioned doing nutrisystems. I freaked. I mean I know that I am going to need to continue to monitor my weight and food intake the rest of my life still but if I ever have to turn to a comercial diet like that again I think I will just go insane. My surgeon went over on how I could trick the pouch and gain weight. I plan to follow those rules to the T. That with my love for exercise.. lord I hope I this doesn't happen. Whats the percentage of people that gain weight back.. 35%? I guess they have to take it off some way again.. but WEIGH****CHERS!! Ugh! That is like a dirty word for me now. I did the program 3 times, Jenny Craig 3 times. Diets just always seem to get me in trouble. The yo yo cycle I fall into.. :SCREAM: I think I was a little dilusional thinking that WLS gave everyone who had it a free pass never to go on another diet like that again. Then I started thinking ok really what will I do if it happens to me?I don't want to ever do a comercial or fad diet. They do not work for me! I know this. I never got sustained results. But I want to have a backup plan. I thought long and hard about this. I would log my food and exercise, turn to my AMOS family, run back to my nutritionist or find one I could see weekly, go back to basics, go to into therapy, seek support from my husband. No.. I refuse to go on a comerical diet. What would you do? Would you ever do a diet again? Did you even spend time thinking about this prior to WLS? How you would handle it? Lord.. please, please, please do not let me be in the 35%.

Staci, I don't think it is 35% regain. I am not sure where that cam from. I think that the people *****gain is a much smaller%. And when you say regain, is that all the weight. I am "regaining" now....but I think its LLM. Don't listen to all those people from the main chat room. I went there a few times and realized that most of them are full of **** They sit in front of their computer and chat for hours and hours on end....and graze on snacks the entire time......then they say that they have no time for exercise....or they tried exercise for a few months and it didn't help. I quit going there because there was so much bad information. Everyone in there is a self proclaimed expert because they had the surgery....and they assume that we all react the same way....and that we all started from the same place.None of those people are doctors, nurses,dieticians,persoanl trainers....but they sure do dole out advice like they are.........In my humble opinion, the real experts are on this board. If I had to guess, 95% were UN-ABLE to exercise before surgery and lost weight. Then the same 95% CHOSE not to exercise after the surgery....I am exaggerating, but my point is that it is SOOOO easy to lose weight after WLS. That small % who fail.... really are not putting forth much effort.( I do concede that there is a very, very small % that fail because of no fault of their own).

I mentioned above about the "grazers" failing. There is also failure from eating too little. There are those that have WLS then eat a mere 500 calories a day and shut thier system down and wonder why they fail. There are many ways that WLS can fail, but I NEVER regret my decision to do it( Ok... i confess there was one regret at this Chinese buffet a few weeks ago)

The first thing my surgeon taught me was how to fail the surgery. He is really good. No grazing for me! I'm not a big grazer though. My issue has always been about large portions at planned meal times. I can't imagine eating only 500 calories a day. lmao @ chinese buffet comment I have some hot and sour soup in the frige. Drained it to just have the broth today ;)

John - You don't know how good it is to read your post. Especially the day before my surgery. I think you might be right. When I said I would never ever go on another comercial diet again I think I offended a few people there. I do understand everyone is different. I know how hard this is going to be. I feel more confident that with my age, lifestyle, and support system (including the experts on this board) that I am NOT going to gain the weight back. I REFUSE! I've made so many changes already that I believe I do have an advantage. I also know at the other end of the extreme I am not going to look like this after... (http://www)irun.com/users/1505/pictures/maggie19.jpg (http://www)irun.com/users/1505/pictures/maggie2.jpg but I can work towards making some serious muscles, LIVE STRONG, and more importantly live the active healthy lifestyle that I have been striving for the last few years without having the barrier of injury after injury and joint pain, and other co-morbidity issues due to the excessive weight. Even with those small % that fail because of no fault of their own - mechanical, or whatever the case may be.. I am just going to stay positive that I won't be one of them. ahh.. thanks for letting me vent I feel better now =) (well.. besides this horrid 2 day bowel prep and just 2 hrs of sleep.. I was ready to bring my pillow and sleep in the bathroom last night!!)

Good for you. That's the attitude to take, and I think that is what Earl and I were trying to say. I tell people in the classes I speak to that the surgery doesn't fail you, you fail the surgery. It's garunteed to take 65-75% of your excess weight off. How much over that is up to you. The best advice is follow the program. John is right. Misery loves miserable company and that's one of the reasons I stay with a positive board. Good luck tomorrow! We will be thinking and praying for you! Hugs, Val

Hey Val - Actually, my dr's stat for his patients his higher - 80% =) I do really appreciate you guys and gals sooo very much. It helps a ton to have these boards. I'm so glad I found all of you! Thanks