AKK! Haven't lost much weight 1 year after MGB

I apologize for this long post up front....also I have already posted a similar post on the failed bypass forum, but decided to put it on a different one for more perspectives.....

In my eyes, my MGB, done by one of the docs who is certified to do the surgery, failed to help me lose a significant amount of weight, however, in this one and only time in my life, I don't think I failed and I'm desperately seeking answers. My surgery was 7/29/08 and to date I lost a whopping total of 50 pounds (24.6 of which were the first 6 days post op, so it was all fluid)....my bmi now remains in the 35-36 range, so technically, I'm still severely obese (I started out with a bmi of 41) and I still have about 80 pounds to lose to even start to be near a realistic goal....

I was self-pay and I was hell-bent of making it work since I used my inheritance to pay for it, so I completely changed my diet, ate all the protein I'm supposed to (first)and have a very healthy diet of veggies and some fruits, take all the vitamins, drink all the fluids, work out 6 days a week with cardio and 2 days a week with strength training, including 1 session with a trainer.  I have 1 nutritionist and 1 dietician, along with a MD, monitoring everything I eat on a weekly basis (counting calories, amount of carbs, simple sugars, etc.) --I have food journals for the entire year, measure & weigh everything (even in restaurants!!) and don't cheat. .I have every workout session logged and calories burned (using a calorie monitor)....I went for hypnotherapy for 6 weeks (to make sure I stayed positive, didn't turn addiction toward something else, deal with weight issues) and went to accupuncture for 3 months to try and jump start my  metabolism when I noticed I was not losing weight.  

So, I think I've given it a fair shot at "working."

For some reason, I felt like something wasn't right at 2 months into my 'journey' and immediately emailed the docs ...they thought I was paranoid and said not to worry until 6 months--at 6 months I had not lost a single pound in 2 months and they were not concerned (but I was), so I upped my cardio and did some food combination juggling, then at my 1 year, the docs said, 'you need more patience'--I darn near decked them!   To date, I have not lost a single ounce in more than 7 months and no one can tell me why.....I did have an upper GI barium swallow at the 1 year and they said anatomically, everything was fine, but for some reason, I cannot lose weight (which is what I was scared of pre-op but everyone said "if you do your part, the weight will fall off of you--it cannot fail"...well, it did...for an entire year I gave up eating ALL desserts, didn't have a drop of alcohol, tea, sodas,didn't eat breads or pastas (I did substitute quinoa, a high-protein grain), didn't eat candy or junk food, never ate a single thing from a fast-food restaurant, and didn't use any sauces or condiments other than seasoning salt on things I cooked..I ate a 'normal' amount of calories for a bariatric patient (there is some crazy equation that was worked out for me and I was told to eat no more than 2000 cals a day and no less than 1000 or I would be in starvation mode)..everyone around me were amazed that I actually did what i was supposed to (and had I done that years ago, I never would have gotten fat!!), but I did completely change my lifestyle....I am 'healthy' according to blood pressure, cholesterol levels, bloodwork/labs...I'm just fat. (although my circumference measurements have changed as I got more tone, but it is still not enough)....so after that 1 year check up I was so upset, I went right out and ate whatever I wanted for a week...and I had no change in weight either....I think the aliens must have come an done something to me (obviously I'm kidding)....

My doc said to change my exercise plan to have my heartrate to 95-105 bpm (which, let me tell you, is pretty hard to do if you're used to going at a pretty good clip on the treadmill that the trainers and exercise folks tell you to do--I have to walk at a mere 1.4mph which feels like I'm barely moving!) for 1 hour 5x week--it hasn't made a difference yet (3 weeks) but I keep on doing what I am supposed to do cause I will be darned if someone is going to blame me for not doing what I was supposed to!

I am desperately searching for others who have honestly done what they were supposed to with this "tool" of WLS (it doesn't have to be just MGB) and got little results.....my hope is to figure out some commonality and find some surgeon/doctor/endocrinologist somewhere who wants to help the 'outllyers' like me (because the gal who had surgery same day as me has lost 165 pounds and by her own admission has not exercised a single minute--she's the success story while I'm the problem story)......

Through my pleas on a variety of boards, I found one other person with virtually the same experience at the same time(different doc) and she's going nuts like me trying to figure it out...fyi, both of our thyroid functions test "normal".

So, in my opinion, the outcome of the surgery failed for me and the investment in myself has really not panned out the way I was told would happen if I did my part--the surgery was done correctly and I have no quarrels with that, but the results are not what were expected, so obviously this type of surgery was not the 'right' one for me (why the bariatric profession doesn't  have a screening tool to determine metabolically **before surgery** if you're a better candidate for one procedure over another, before they take the $$ is beyond me) .  

I don't know what to do next....It's crazy-making though--I did what I was supposed to and have very little to show for it (oh, i had no major co-morbitities pre-op other than slightly elevated bp and slightly elevated lipids, so mine was mostly for appearance)......At the 1 year mark, I had asked about a revision, but the surgeon said "that won't help you" and left it at that and said to wait about 3 years and see what happens (what??? 3 more YEARS???)....So I'm keeping on doing my exercise and eating appropriately, but we'll see what happens....and in the meantime I'm reaching out to others because I have no other options surgically (but i am trying to find an endocrinologist to help me).

Any thoughts anyone has (or any docs/medical professionals out there want to help someone who honestly did everything they could to succeed and still had little results)....all responses are appreciated....and, again, sorry for the length of the post.....

Hi,

I know you are frustrated and it is hard to find folks who have issues with the MGB.  How many feet did they bypass on you?  That is the key.  Dr. Rutledge is the master of this surgery and it is too bad you couldn't have gone to him.  He can fix your problem, but unfortunately, it is again going to cost.  So, I recommend you find out how much was bypassed.  It probably wasn't enough.  I am so so sorry you are having these issues.  I would suggest you call Dr. Rutledge and talk to him personally about this.  His cell number is on the clos.net website.  If he doesn't answer, keep trying until he does.  Huuuugzzzz hang in there!!

I am going on 4 months post op and have only lost 23 lbs.  I am scared of the very thing that you are talking about.  No matter what you do, the dam weight won't come off.    Ya, I would call Dr Rutledge and get info on bypassing more.  I would also talk to one of his assistants.  He has a couple of ladies under him that didn't loose enough weight and they had him go in a 2nd time.  You might want to get their story.  At least keep it open as an option.     If you are at least maintaining your weight loss, try to stay optimistic on that point.  I know it's hard but I don't know what else you can do at this point.    Hang in there!

Hi Kathy.....it was the very thing I was most worried about pre-op and I didn't want it to be a self-fulfilling prophesy, so i went and got hypnotized for positive thinking purposes.....I even called my surgeon over to my bedside minutes before they put me under and begged him to do as much bypass as possible since I figured my system would be stubborn...he indicated that the 6 feet he was planning (and ultimately did) was appropriate...well, it wasn't ....though I am extremely healthy, the weight just won't come off--I've been eating a modified diet and doing his prescribed walking regimin since my 1 year check up, and the weight is exactly the same as before--hasn't changed in 7 months now....and it is completely wrecking my mental health because I did everything I did, spent the huge amount of $$, and have virtually little to show for it...and I tried so darn hard.

I hope that your weight loss picks up or kicks in, but if not, know that you are not alone--there are at least 2 of us like you if you get to the 1 year mark and are lower in the loss category....sometimes it just helps to know there is someone else out there who can empathize (instead of reading all those posts on the board where people are losing 140 pounds---I pretty much want to spit each time I read that!)....I regularly talk with that other person now and we are doing all the medical research we can to see if we can figure out something we can take to the medical community.   As for going to Dr. Rutledge, I cannot afford to do that any time soon unless I win the lottery--I'm unemployed, our house has been on the market unsold for a year, have double utilities/rent, and have so many debts I have no idea how we will ever pay off--I really could have used the $20 grand I paid for my surgery to have lived on.....

Good luck to you..I sincerely wish you the best outcome possible.....

Hi all,

I know this is just what I did and I may be weird but I never weighed unless I had to.  I used my clothes as my guide.  I have no idea if I was a fast loser or slow loser and I never compared myself nor did I worry about the days going by.  I just enjoyed my journey and did my best with the food and exercise.  I am sooooo glad I did that!  I still don't own a scale.  Just a thought.

Also, one thing I have noticed over the years is that for many of us, the surgery isn't enough. It wasn't just the putting wrong food in our mouths that put us in our situation but it was past trauma or crises or hurt or something that triggered the obesity path like eating disorders, food addictions, OCD and other symptoms related to emotional issues.  Many surgeons don't address the possibility that there are other issues and reasons why we ended up the way we are.  So, when the "honeymoon" stage is over, all those "demons" so to speak pop up their ugly heads and we end up unprepared to battle them. 

Ok Ok, I will get off my soap box.  Sometimes, we just need to step back and look at all this in another way.  Huuugzzz.  hang in there!

I agree on the looking at things different ways, and I am constantly trying to do that....I've been only weighing myself 1 time a week at my weekly training session at the gym with my trainer....that's just to keep track of things for my docs....we also take my measurements 1 time each month to measure inches lost....I have lost a significant amount of overall inches, but not near enough.....

I had a fabulous childhood and young adulthood so there was not really any significant issues to address...I do have ADHD (a pretty bad case of it) so I get behavioral counseling on that,, but no other conditions....i really don't have any 'demons' to deal with (and i'm not in denial!).....

I seriously think my issue is that I was a competitive swimmer for 23 years (I swam with Olympic champion Dara Torres) and one day, just stopped cold turkey...I had been swimming 15 MILES a day, up to 7 hours of swimming plus weights and eating enough calories to sustain that and I was always muscular and thin/lean (though I had the shoulders of a linebacker!)......from what I understand, my metabolism was set at such a ridiculously high-efficiency level that stopping caused great confusion....that, coupled with being a female with hypothyroid issues, I pretty much had no chance to have a 'regular' metabolism and that has definitely been proved over the last 15 years when I gained all that weight.....

So....unfortunately I didn't even have a 'honeymoon period' of losing weight...I have been eating a measured amount of food and exercising regularly....I just am a wacked out metabolic mess.....

If you are like me, once a week is TOO MUCH!  Also measuring is taboo.  I hate both of those.  Anyway, I like using clothes.

Man, I feel your pain.     I can't pretend I have been getting the excercise you do.  One of the reasons I would rather not work my ass off is because I I know that it would not speed up my weight loss any faster.   You're right, the body gets used to all that excersice then once you slack off,  BOOM,   the weigh comes on fast and furious.   Don't get me wrong, I do go to the GYM but I do the minimum just to keep myself limber.      Excersise helps allot of people to shed weight;  I'm not one of them.  Believe me, I have had personal trainers for extended periods of time and all I got from it was being a solid fat girl instead of a flabbly fat girl.  Big Deal!    How does one maintain their motivation when there is no pay off????

Did you get MGB with Dr Rutledge?     Dr R bypassed 5.5 ft on me.  Sometimes I wish I would have pressed for at least 6 ft because I knew it would be hard to get the weight off even with the surgery.   I understand he wants to stay conservative.  From his experience, best to stay safe as not to risk too much weight loss which can lead to malnutrition in his patients.  He always says  God didn't give him the luxury of a yardstick of just how much to bypass on each individual.   

Anyway, I haven't weighed in 3 weeks.  Too afraid the plateau has reached me after only 4 months.  I don't want to have surgery to bypass anymore either.   I guess I'm just going to have to try not to eat anything.     Gees    Life can be cruel!!!

Kathy, I am curious if you began losing again.  My pattern will not make you feel any better but...I had MGB with Dr. Rutledge 9 years ago.  I lost 97 pounds in 7 months then nodda...nothing...and I began to gain.  In month 19 for no reason I can explain, I began to lose again until I lost an additional 52 pounds between 18 months and three years not doing anything different that I did from the very beginning.  I have seen patients who have lost almost nothing in the beginning but by the time the end of the second year came they were down most or all of their excess weight.  I have seen only one patient that did not lose a substantial amount of weight. And unfortunately I have seen several patients, done by other than Dr. Rutledge and Dr. Peraglie his associate, who have lost too much weight because they had too long of a bypass FOR THEM.  It is horrible to see.  I know it's no consolation, but if given a choice of weighing a bit too much or weighing too little, too much is preferable.  On the other hand, I would be devastated if I paid for a surgery and it made little change in my life because I didn't lose much weight.  I am hoping that you are losing again and seeing at least some progress.  I work for CLOS and I see miracles every day and I am disheartened for you that you are not experiencing the miracle that I and so many others have experienced!

I am wondering if your surgeon ever suggested that you have an upper GI with small bowel follow through to see if there is a possible "bridge" (that is where the stomach did not completely divide). It's none of my business and I am just throwing that out there fas food for thought.  At 50 pounds it's unlikely but it's a thought.....