3+ years out. Please respond

It wouldn't let me type more. I do have a cookie, piece of candy or cake but my mind knows I can have that if I want so this isn't a diet. The mental part is the hard part. I don't have ' cheat ' days ...that's for dieters . This is a lifestyle. Problems ? I have trouble if I get lax on my vitamins. I do get lax and then wonder why my bones hurt and I am tired. DUh..,,..vitamins old lady. I sometimes eat too fast and have pain. To sum this up, it can be done . Get the word diet out of your mind . This is your new life and that's that. I also ride bike and kayak a lot. I am going to be 67. If I can do this I know you can too. God bless

P.s. I can not eat like a ' normal ' person. 2-3 ounces is my limit 

Thanks for all of your comments Kathy. Its been 7 years since my first surgery so I do know about all of the sacrifices Im just worried that so far I am not any more successful long term with WLS than I was before hand. I genuinely work extremely hard when it comes to diet and exercise but just keep ending up back in square one. Thanks again for chiming in

I am three years out from LapBand to RNY revision.  I can't recommend RNY enough for helping getting me to Goal.  As White Dove says above - that is all any WLS can do for us - be a tool we use to get to our goal weight and hopefully regain our health as well.  

In maintenance it is all about the daily food choices I make and portions I eat that keep me below goal.  I do not exercise - at all.  For me that isn't necessary to remaining slim.  Yes I can eat more at three years out than I could at 3 months out but the thing is, I don't.  I am lucky in that I have no sense of hunger.  I eat by the clock or when my body feels wonky from lack of protein/fluids.  I drink a ridiculous amount of fluid everyday, spaced out throughout the day and eat small meals 4 to 6x a day.  Always protein heavy and I dump, so I must be very careful about hidden sugars, replacement sugars, fruit, etc.  I don't eat pasta, rice, bread etc. I do eat very tiny, infrequent amounts of complex carbs like beans, lentils, chick peas etc.

I actually find my life easier and simpler since RNY and have never regretted it for a second, while I lamented my LapBand for the entire 7 years I had it in me. I also suffered from GERD and acid reflux and had hiatial hernias due to the Band and all of that was resolved with the RNY.

I hope you find relief and success with your next WLS.  Good luck with your journey.

Thank You!!

 Our pouches are designed to stretch somewhat, even though they are formed from the less stretchy part of our old stomachs. We couldn't survive long term if we had to eat only an ounce of food at a time. That being said, long term we still have to exercise portion control.

 I eat 3-4 ounces by weight of protein per meal; usually 3 ounces, and a 1/4 cup of non-starchy veggies. ( There is honestly no way people don't notice that I have a ridiculously small appetite. I can't eat like a "normie". When I go out to eat, I get questioned all the time if I didn't like my dinner. "My small appetite won't let me eat it all, but I'll take it to go!" is my standard answer. )

 I'm 3+ years out, and I love my RNY. I've maintained a 143 lb loss from my highest weight, and 130 from my surgery weight. I can eat what I think is a fair amount of food, and I don't get seriously "OMG I must eat NOW" hungry if I stick with protein and low carb veggies. I only get that way if I've started eating starchy foods.

 Yes, malabsorption ends, and that is why portion control is so important. I really don't know how much I can eat, because I don't try to test that. I stick with how much I know to eat to make me feel satisfied. Sometimes, even what I've measured out is too much, and at those times...yes, there's been a bite too many, but I've never, ever gotten the foamies or thrown up from eating too much ( or at all, actually. ).

Like others have stated, there's no newer way of performing RNY. The surgeries are only successful ( especially long term ) if we work with our tool to make it so.

Thank You!

There is virtually zero caloric malabsorption with proximal RNY, not even in the beginning.  Appreciable caloric malabsorption is a complete myth that has been refuted by innumerable studies, yet everyone on this forum parrots it because that is the nonsense their surgeon fed them (and it makes intuitive sense to most).  There are a number of biological reasons why RNY does work, though.  The primary one is that every time you eat, your metabolism revs way, way up.  If I were willing to devote the rest of my life to putting an end to this caloric malabsorption myth on ObesityHelp, maybe I could put a small dent in the confusion (after non-stop online fights and thousands of hours typing), but I figure within 20-30 years people will get the message on their own...

However, saying there is no appreciable caloric malabsorption is not to say that the effectiveness of RNY does not fade in time.  Fading has absolutely nothing to do with the pouch stretching.  The pouch is just a funnel into your small intestine, not your new stomach volume.  Having said that, I'm here to tell you that the weight loss effectiveness of RNY absolutely does fade, becoming quite evident by 3-4 years out.  It is not because you become lazy (people always blame the patient); the weight loss effect of the RNY surgery itself simply declines a few years out for reasons no researcher has yet discovered.  The huge advantage of DS is that this regain effect is much, much less than with RNY.

I tell everyone that if you get RNY, you will experience being a superhero for 1-2 years, but ultimately you will be back to struggling with your weight the rest of your life -- but odds are this struggle will take place at a weight that is at least 100 lbs less than before you got the surgery.  I also think RNY can impose a mental struggle for a segment of people and worsen depression for some (certainly not all).  Another downside is that it turns alcohol into heroin (almost) for many, and alcohol then becomes a struggle with some people.  Then there is dumping syndrome, but that is not the end of the world.  On the whole, RNY is a very good surgery, and the overall solid benefit-to-risk ratio is the reason RNY became the gold standard in bariatric surgery.  Anyone who dismisses RNY as a blanket bad surgery does so out of ignorance.

I am glad I got RNY (almost five years ago).  It is definitely superior to VSG if you have any of the following conditions:  GERD, nutcracker esophagus, or extremely high triglycerides or LDL cholesterol.  In fact, if you have cholesterol problems, you will most likely go home from the RNY operation with these cured for life, whereas with VSG it takes time to see improvement (and may or may not make a big difference).

The bulk of evidence also shows that RNY has better long term efficacy than VSG with keeping diabetes at bay and with long term weight loss, though there are some conflicting studies.

The upside of RNY over DS for most is the comparative lack of complications with RNY -- whereas DS has the best long term weight loss of any bariatric surgery, no question, hands down.  My recovery from RNY was mostly a breeze.  Nutrient deficiencies are overblown by the RNY online community.  B12 is a serious concern, as can be iron, esp for young women.  Almost everyone finds out their vitamin D is low after the surgery, but what most don't realize is that it was low before, also.   Take a high-strength multivitamin/mineral set, and you're likely set.  Taking supplemental calcium is a good idea, but RNY causes bone loss, period.  If you get the proximal, rather than distal, RNY (virtually everyone these days gets proximal), then your nutrient malabsorption should be quite manageable.

If I had it to do over, I would seriously consider DS -- but only with a doctor who had done thousands and was highly regarded (which is not all that many surgeons in the world).  But then with DS I'd likely be facing serious complications that I didn't have to endure with RNY, so it is easy for me to say from the comfort of my RNY experience.  With what little I know of your story, RNY does sound like the way to go for you, mainly because of GERD (DS will give you the same GERD issues as VSG; lower BMI is not a reason by itself to ignore DS).

If you go into your decision well educated and with realistic expectations, the odds are excellent that you will have a positive long term outcome.  Good luck to you, Sarah, with whatever decision you make!

Thanks for popping in and letting us know the medical community are all in on the deception.  *******s.  Can't trust anyone these days,

Anyone seen my tinfoil hat?  Julie?

Would you please site your source about the of malabsorption of calories?  I'd love to see where this is coming from.  I've never even heard anyone say that it's not true before.