Question:
After a rouxeny, does the weight stay off?
Is the weight gone forever, or do most eventually gain the weight back? I would like to think not, but I hear you have to work very hard to keep the weight off and I wonder how many succeed? — Jane B. (posted on February 28, 2003)
February 28, 2003
The weight will stay off if you watch what you eat and get exercise. If
you dont follow the rules, you wont lost as fast or as much and eventually
you will gain back what you have lost. I'm 4 1/2 months post-op, have lost
76 lbs so far. At first the weight just fell off..of course I couldn't eat
anything but liquids and then soft foods. Once you start on solids thats
when things get tricky. I am fighting all the compulsive eating problems I
was pre-op. My "innards" have been drastically changed..now all
I have to do is change my ways of thinking about food..I eat like an
alcoholic drinks. Its my drug of choice. I am starting to attend support
groups, spend more time here, and looking for a counselor... I really want
this to work so I have to do all I can to fight it and win. The surgery
makes it a possibility....we choose whether or not is we will make it
happen. I dont know the exact statistics, but I know that the % are very
high for keeping the weight off....
— cherokey55
February 28, 2003
There is usually some regain after two years. The degree of regain, if any,
is up to you. The first year or so is time to learn new habits and up your
activity level. Most people do not gain back more than 50% of their excess
weight (As opposed to any other diet where almost ALL people gain ALL the
weight back). The stories you hear about people who do regain it all
usually have a common factor - that the people actually work around the
surgery to gain weight. Your stomach capacity is never near the same. The
people who regain it all usually go out of their way to drink high calorie
liquids and foods. In the menu at the top of this page, highlight
"library". You will find tons of questions and comments on this
subject.
— Julie S.
February 28, 2003
hi there :) at first, the weight just seems to fall off, and at a very
rapid pace i might add! this is a tool, not a cure all. youll find it
begins to taper off as time goes on which is completely normal, if it kept
going very fast, wed get too thin. you can optimize the best results of
this by making good healthy choices by sticking to low carb, no or low
sugars and very high protein, water intake and activity. as the weight
starts to come off, your ganna have so much more energy, feel so much
better about you. as soon as you start to get a taste of how skinny feels,
it makes the taste of food less inticing! you wont want to go back to that
old life. its still work, you still struggle with food issues but this
surgery gives you the tool that many of us need to get off to a good
healthy start.its important to not lose focus of why we had this. its too
easy sometimes to start feeling good, your getting compliments and may
think "hmmm, im doing good, looking good, this weight will keep coming
off" this is a dangerous time when many may ease up, get lax and fall
into the old way of things, i speak from experience in my past when id be
dieting and do this very thing. ive learned from that and wont allow it to
happen again, i wish you the bestofluck!!!!! :)
— carrie M.
February 28, 2003
It depends on several factors. Type of surgery, how exactly it is done,
your post-op regimen, your mindset, your training, your degree of being
involved in the WLS community. We have a fatal disease. If we have a full
tool box, we can put it into remission. But only as long as we remember it
is a fatal disease and there is no cure, only treatment. It IS possible to
get 100% wt loss, and maintain it, but it takes a combination of many
factors to do it. And even so, there is no guarantee. For me, as much as I
like the 100% loss, it could end tomorrow, if I change the
"formula" or if........ (fill in unknown) Still, as much as I
cringe at the thought, until I went over 200# again, I'd be healthier than
the day I had surgery. And I've had a chance to have a normal life for
these many years!
— vitalady
February 28, 2003
According to my surgeon, 20-25% of patients with the proximal RNY will
experience a late regain (2-3 years after surgery) of at least 20-30% of
lost pounds. This is pretty consistent with most of the studies I've found
on the issue. One article which really stuck out in my mind when I was
first researching was the 1993 "Hebrew" study: "Long-term
weight changes after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass for morbid obesity." The
abstract of that study contains the following sentence: "Longer
follow-up of 6-9 years showed weight gain, with 24% having become morbidly
obese again, 74% having lost more than 50% of their excess weight and only
7% having lost all their excess weight." So, according to those
researchers, one in four RNY patients either remained morbidly obese
following surgery or regained enough weight to become morbidly obese again.
Yikes. Overall, the RNY is very effective surgery, but the chance of this
kind of late regain bothered me quite a bit (I couldn't bear the thought of
"failing" surgery, just like I'd "failed" all of my
previous weight loss attempts). That concern was my primary motivation for
cancelling my RNY date and traveling out-of-state to have the Dudoenal
Switch instead. (The DS tends to result in greater weight loss than the
proximal RNY, and with very little risk of late regain due to the
significant malabsorptive component.) I'm eight months post-op now, almost
to goal, and feeling terrific. I consider myself extremely lucky to have
been able to have the surgery of my choice. On the other hand, if I hadn't
been able to get the DS for any reason, I would have had the RNY in a
heartbeat, worked hard to make it successful, and never looked back.
— Tally
February 28, 2003
Typo in my post below, it should be: "Duodenal Switch".
Gotta start remembering to proof read before I press that send button!!
:-)
— Tally
February 28, 2003
It really hurts to tell you this, but surgery is not a magic pill. Our
bodies fought to get fat and will fight to get fat again. However, with
this tool, you now have a fighting chance. It takes awareness and finding
what works for you.
— faybay
February 28, 2003
You will have to work at it, to be successful.
— barbara A.
March 1, 2003
My surgeon told me I will always be morbidly obese - genetically, but using
the tool properly I can keep this disease in remission. At first I was
taken back but then I understood what he meant.
<p>The whole goal is during the first 6 months especially, is to
develop great new eating habits and dump the old ones. This should set you
up to be able to work the tool with a reasonable degree of effort. If you
continue to always eat protein, veggies, fruit, carbs in that order and get
in your water and get even a low level of exercise (this is assuming you
now have a way more active life and getting lots of activity in everyday
life) you should be able to keep things in check. Most people end up with
a slight weight gain but watching what you chose can help get it in check
before it is out of control. If you chose to eat carbs for most of your
meals and lots of sugar you can count on gaining a lot back. Hopefully by
then you will love your new life and will realize that sugar and carbs are
not your friend. I certainly plan to be able to eat some things I like,
but in very small quantities. That assuming they don't make me dump. I'm
too early (1 month on Monday) to even consider trying them as I do not want
to find out that I don't dump. Just my safety valve for now - what I don't
know won't hurt me. It comes down to what you want out of life and how hard
you are willing to work at it. I am surprised on how little food I am
satisfied on. I just had two slices of canadian bacon (8 grams protein)for
breakfast and could not totally finish them. The dogs got the last 1/4.
Do they have WLS for dogs as I'm afraid mine are going to get fat with
eating all the stuff I can't finish or should not eat. Last night they got
the macaroni and cheese out of a microwave dinner. I wanted the salisbury
steak of which I ate about a 1/3 (probably 1/4-3/8 c) and was very
satisfied.
— zoedogcbr
March 1, 2003
The surgery is a tool that lets you lose the weight. That is all it is, it
is not a cure. However, I've found that my tastes and eating habits have
changed so much that keeping it off probably won't be a big challenge. I
am 15 months post-op and have lost 171 pounds. I am thrilled - would love
to lose another 20 or so pounds, but probably won't. I am already below my
surgeon's goal for me. I eat right now and I get more exercise - even
though I don't do enough of the latter (I have severe arthritis in my knees
and can't do much). I do walk whenever I can though.
I don't eat sweets like candy, cookies, cakes, pies (and I rarely eat
sugar-free versions of the above because they are still full of
non-nutritious calories), I can't eat pasta (makes me ill) and I rarely eat
bread or rice or potatoes. I do eat protein, vegetables and fruit and love
it all. I eat chips occasionally and really don't deprive myself of
anything I want. It's just that I don't want the things that used to be my
downfall. The thought of do-nuts makes me physically ill.
So, if you approach this with a good attitude and don't try to see what you
can get by with - it works. And, by the time the rapid loss stops, you
will probably have developed good eating habits.
Best of luck to you.
— Patty_Butler
March 2, 2003
There are some good answers here from the other posters. I think all
pre-ops considering WLS should read a thread like this and understand that
the weight loss, while pretty much guaranteed the first year, then becomes
the responsiblity of the loser to keep it off. And it will not stay off
unless the loser makes a committment to eating right, drinking tons of
water and exercising. For most of us, we know what got us into trouble-our
comfort foods. There comes a point when you can go back to eating them,
although in smaller quantities than we did pre-op. If this gets out of
hand, then you will gain weight back. What is wonderful about this surgery
is that it gives us a "tool" to use to keep the weight off. For
me, the small pouch, limited amount of food I can eat at a meal, and
ability to exercise (now that I am no longer obese), are the tools I am
grateful for to help me keep the weight off for live.
— Cindy R.
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