AABS - What are they?

Hey all- I stumbled upon an anti-Bariatric Surgery group on Yahoo! called Advocated Against Bariatric Surgery... who are they? after reading a lot of their posts, I am wondering about all of your experiences... They claim everone who has the surgery will gain all of the weight back- I know that is way too generalized, but has anyone here regained? They claim that 90% of WLS's end up giving people health problems- like you're trading one set of illnesses for another. Any truth there? Just wondering- they are too uneducated to be listened to too closely, and they are not always honest. Never hurts to double check though! Valarie

It's groups like that that make me do even more research. Some people have been known to gain some of the weight back. From what I understand it's because they do not stay on a healthy regiment of diet and exercise. There are risks and rewards with this surgery. Yes, we have to take nutritional suppliments the rest of our lives.....HAVE to - not should....where most people should take additional vitamins. If you're anything like me - you do resaearch....I'm 17 months PO and STILL research the long term effects and what they're finding and if I was asked to do it again from the beginning I would. The reward in this for me outweigh the risks.....just like the risk of facing death on the table out weight the risk of death from morbid obesity! Keep doing your reasearch and keep up on latest information about long-term effects of the surgery and you'll be doing yourself a favor. Just my $.02 Dee Dee

Valarie, I have learned from my support board for the Mini Gastric Bypass that there is a lot of false information out there. For example, someone posted on OH.com that the MGB would cause fecal matter to back up into the stomach! Not only is this not true, but to do so would be an impossibility! People are just looking for ways to discredit any type of bariatric surgery. I personally have not heard of anyone gaining all their weight back. Until weight loss surgeries become more accepted by the general public, there will be controversy. Since the improved surgeries have not been around very long, I believe time will tell about the weight gain. Those in the news, like Carney Wilson , may have gained back some, but from what I've read, they are still considerably smaller than before. I, for one, have no regrets, having lost 194 pounds. Sandy