Hello!

My name is Melissa and it looks like the options my insurance will cover for WLS are not good ones for me and at this point, it's the specific method I want, or nothing at all.

I play a full women's contact sport and exercise 3-6 times a week, but I have uncontrollable eating and sometimes the hunger after a hard workout in insatiable. I've struggled to eat healthy which is 80% of the battle of weight loss. I can manage to lose about 10 lbs before falling off the band wagon and turn back to my old ways. I can't seem to shake my addiction to bad foods and it's not that I don't like eating healthy, don't get me wrong, but I can't stay strict with myself and one little thing throws me off for weeks. I don't know why it's such a challenge because it seems straight forward, I understand the process, and I've even seen a dietitian but I just feel like I can't win, which is why I turned to WLS.

Any suggestions, tips, words of wisdom?

Hi, Im posting on my Belviq experience of this past year, so please check it out :)

Gael

Well, I believe you have to do the same with WLS so if I can lose 50 lbs on Atkins, I would try just as hard to keep it off in maintenance by eating low carbs

Hi, I had gastric sleeve in Jan 2008. I got down to a low of 137 lbs (I am 5'7") and was able to maintain my weight perfectly fine until 2014 and I hit menopause. The hormone change really threw me off. I am struggling with being hungry way too much again. I have an appt to see my bariatric specialist to see what can be done. I would kill to get phentermine again but at 156 lbs now my BMI is not high enough. Sad that our medical system waits until you gain back everything you lost before they will prescribe a medication that has been around since the 1950's. I am married to a personal trainer and I have to starve and workout 5 days a week to get 1 lb off now.

But you asked about the decision to have surgery. I have never ever regretted getting it done. I totally relate to how you feel about being tired of being the largest person at the party, the largest person in the photo, etc. I am also tired of people saying, put the fork down and get on the treadmill. Yeah, right, it's that easy isn't it. There is a genetic component to the obesity problem. Me and my brother both got the "fat" gene and he had gastric bypass, I opted for the sleeve because I had less weight to lose than him.

I wholeheartedly believe for myself that this was and still is a long term success. It's not a perfect solution because things happen in life (pregnancy, stress, menopause...) that sometimes drive us to pick up the bag of Cheetos but overall it is better than spending your life regretting not doing it sooner. I had the sleeve done at age 42 and I can't tell you the number of people older than me in my support group who said they wished they had done it a decade+ sooner.

So the only question left for you is, how much longer of your life do you want to spend being physically and emotionally tired?

Hello!  I was un-banded 12 months ago and still have the same comorbidities. I weigh 218 and wonder if I could lose enough weight by doing Atkins. My A1C blood work levels are entirely too high and my diabetes is out of control. I'm looking into RNY for that reason but was hoping I could do this without having another surgery. I'm afraid of not being able to get my A1C levels down before having complications. Has anyone done Atkins with good results?