Learning about VSG

Hello everyone- I am considering VSG and currently going through the insurance approval process. I haven't decided for sure if this is what I should do. I have a friend who had the surgery a few months ago and another scheduled for April. I originally was considering lapband surgery and after having the consultation with the surgeon this past week I've decided that is not for me. I do not like vomiting and the surgeon told me that is very common with lapband. He also stated that for every lapband they do they take 8 out due to complications. I have friends who have lapband and have been successful with it and one who doesn't recommend it. I have been dealing with my weight all of my adult life and I've been successful on diets only to gain it all back. I love to eat and use food for everything good and bad that happens in my life. I feel controlled by food and these things are exactly what I don't want anymore but at the same time I am afraid of losing them by having the surgery.  I don't know if that makes sense at all. Another thing for me is the concern that I will lose too much weight. I currently weigh 220-224 and am 5'5. I would like to weigh about 150. I don't want to lose my curves and don't want to appear too skinny. Ideally I would like to be a size 10 (currently 18/20). I guess I'm looking for some advice to help my decision. For those of you who have had this surgery do you think it's a good option for someone who wants to lose 70-75 pounds? Thank you in advance for reading my post.   

I thought about sleeves but my insurance would only approve bands and RNY and I had heard too much bad about bands.  I have been happy with my RNY and have never been sorry.

Surgery will give you a tool to lose the weight and help keep it off.  However, the surgery is on your stomach, not your brain and if you have food emotional issues like stress eating, etc. no surgery will be the total solutions.  I highly recommend getting help for those issues in conjunction with surgery.  Overeaters Anonomus, etc can help in a low cost manner.  You can eat your way around any surgery. 

I am 4'11 and started at 220.  I got down to 111 but have stablized in the upper 120's.  Bounce back is real and if folks stop their weight loss too early, the bounce back can put them higher than they want to be forever.  We usually suggest folks get as low as their bodies want to go because the likelyhood is that they will gain 5-10lbs back. 

"I love to eat and use food for everything good and bad that happens in my life. I feel controlled by food and these things are exactly what I don't want anymore but at the same time I am afraid of losing them by having the surgery." 

Here's what I will tell you:  until you address what you typed up above, you have no business getting any type of WL surgery.  Tell me that you are in counseling for this issue; tell me that you go to a 12-step program for this.  But don't tell me that you believe surgery will address these issues because you will fail.  Surgery doesn't fix our head or our lifetime of poor coping mechanisms:  using food to cover up and push down all our feelings, good and bad.  VSG surgery simply changes the size of your stomach.  You'll probably lose pretty quickly but maintaining that loss?  Not gonna happen until you've done the serious internal work to wrap your head around the fact that surgery is just a tool and not a cure-all for bad eating habits.  

Now, having said all that - I do believe that VSG is a good tool for someone who wants to lose 70-75 lbs.  I chuckle over the idea of you losing "too much weight".  Believe me when I say it's very easy to stop the weight loss in its tracks - you simply add more calorie dense food.  And it's MUCH easier to stop it than to get it re-started.  Just do a search on "stalls" and read the hundreds of posts about people not losing and taking forever to lost their last 10-20 lbs.  

Tracy D thank you so much for responding. I realize that the surgery is not a cure all and I don't plan on having it until I am fully ready and have my head in the right place. At this point I'm trying to teach myself as much as I can about it. Your stats are very similar to mine and I'm glad to hear that stopping the weight loss is easy. Is it odd that I don't want to get to skinny? I think 140-150 pounds would be perfect for me. A couple of years ago I made it down to 167 with HCG and looking back I wouldn't want to be too much smaller than that. I guess since it's been so long since I've been that small my thoughts could change once I start losing. Thank you again for responding.

I don't think it's odd at all that you don't want to get too skinny.  Frankly, the older we get the less good we look at super-thin weights.  I'm 52 and although I could go lower I don't think my face can take it - lol!  

There's also a lot better ways to determine where your ideal "weight" is and that's by having your body fat percentage calculated.  A much better indicator of overall health.  I just put a post on the VSG board about this so you can read it there if you're interested.