After reading how yoyo dieting can be bad for your health, I got serious about the sleeve. I too was able to deprive myself of a lot and exercise like crazy, or lose weight with a very low calorie protein diet but I always put the weight back on. I hesitated for a while trying to do it "one more time" because I did it before but this time I just didn't have it in me.
I would suggest going to a seminar. You will learn a LOT about the whole process and how your body makes it harder and harder to lose the weight. The sleeve is a tool . You'll still work at it but you'll be working smart not hard.
Good luck with everything.
Oh and I have no guilt and never look back. I only look forward to more success.

The main objective here is your health, how on earth can there be any guilt involved in using whatever tool possible to save your life! The sleeve is not a magic fix it, it is a tool that if used properly will give you lifetime results. I did not chose to have the sleeve done lightly. I have had years of failed diets and a family history of obesity. It was when I survived a battle with breast cancer that I decided to use this tool to save my life. I am almost 4 weeks out and have lost 29 lbs. It has been hard work, changing my entire thought process of eating, making the healthiest of food choices, and exercise. All things I did before the sleeve with little to no results. No guilt here, save your life and don't worry about the stigma of doing it the easy way.

Hey...I get your point, but, believe it or not, you couldn't be more wrong. Let me explain.

The sleeve is a tool. Nothing more and nothing less. Here's the analogy I'll make for you. When you have a nail and a piece of wood to drive that nail into, the methods of driving that nail are essentially endless. You could use your bare hands, a piece of spaghetti, a screw driver, a ball point pen, or any other tool to achieve your goal. All of the items I listed would probably get the job done, but, the job would not be done efficiently or quickly. So, in determining the best way to achieve your goal of driving that nail into that piece of wood, you do research and find out that the best tool available is a hammer. You use the hammer, get great results, and feel like a genius because you researched into the most expeditious methods available for driving a nail.

Losing weight is no different. You have tried to lose it conventionally and succeeded. Where you failed was at maintaining. That's the monkey wrench in the entire process. All of us could lose, none of us could maintain.

The sleeve will help you lose your weight quickly, and then it will help you keep the weight off. But, it will only work if you use this tool to it's best advantage. You will have to engage in a little behavior modification. In my world, I never over eat. I eat what I want, when I want, and made just the way I like it. I just never over eat...ever. What we eat doesn't make us fat. It's how much of it we eat that makes us fat. The sleeve will help with that problem. It will make it very uncomfortable for you to over eat. If you don't over eat, you won't gain weight.

Now, one more piece of advice. If you are one of those that thinks that you need to suffer for your successes, then my dear, take my word for it......this ain't no easy trip. You will ask yourself two questions.

1. Why in the hell did I do this?

2. Why in the hell did I wait so long to do this?

You'll hate your life for the first month or so and then after that, it's smooth sailing. You will be very hard pressed to find anyone on here who will tell you that this process is a piece of cake. It most certainly is not. But, the discomfort ends quickly and the benefits can last a life time.

I will be post op for three years come this August. I've been maintaining my current weight for almost two of those years. I lost 265 lbs in about 14 months. I couldn't lose weight before getting sleeved and now I can't gain significant weight if I tried.

I literally can't believe I waited so long to do this. I was stubborn, like you, and thought I was taking the easy way out. I quickly lost that mind set when I started losing the weight.

Everyone else did too and you will too.

Good Luck and feel free to reach out if you have any questions or concerns I can help you with.

You will love it! Guilt, why? It saved my life.

Just sit back and imagine being a size 8 again, and staying there the rest of your life. It's amazing.

I have been on diets for most of my life. My mother and sisters were always smaller than I, so I was always encouraged to lose 20 lbs. Growing up my mother bought me a bike and she prepared my Jenny Craig meals. I lost 20 lbs and she asked me to lose 20 more (I went down to a size 9 and I am taller than her). My whole life has revolved around food and although my mom tried her best to keep me healthy (may she RIP), I despised the way she made me feel so I ate. I married at 21 to a man who I had no business even knowing. Anyhow, I ballooned to what I can say was 300 lbs (or at least close to it). I got rid of the "garbage" but the emotional issues were all there. Till I dealt with all of the emotional food triggers, I knew I could not be successful at ANY weight loss plan or surgery. I was successful on Weight Watchers during the last 5 years but after being faced with kidney cancer (tumor found by tech for Lap Band), I had to save my life 1st. I had a Nephrectomy in 2012 and my Nephrologist is the one who referred me for the VSG. We discussed my options and I am a nurse in a hospital so I must have had over 100 opinions....LOL let me tell you, EVERYONE....EVERY Dr that I talked too told me the same thing. They all told me how strong I was and how I did the right thing to save my life. Look at the big picture. Sure I had pain for a few days after surgery but nothing a Norco couldn't fix....LOL and I have had severe constipation but nothing fiber gummies didn't fix. Bottom line is I have been over the moon about my progress. I look better now than I have in YEARS. Read my profile and you will see a lot of the same stuff said here. Surgery is VERY safe today and just do your research on your Dr & hospital. Best of luck to you

All I can say is, If you're not 100% sure this is what you want then DONT get it

I went thru regrets, guilt, all the above..but not anymore..the emotions can be very real the first few weeks, they are hard, it is abdominal surgery and for some it can be difficult. it was for me, i was naustiated, i went thru loads of emotions..i felt all that and more..but now i am almost 12 weeks out..and i am fitter, healthier, happier and the worry about loosing weight i can now get off my mind. I am concious on what i am eating, i drink lots of water, i am active, i watch the foods i get, and there is a tool that helps me. and i am not hungry. this is no longer will power..but reality and that is a blessing. i was always loosing and failing.
spent loads of money and kept going back to loosing, and then stopping loosing for whatever reason.
this time i am just working on being healthier..so guilt is gone..but it was very real the first few days..until i realized i tried everything else..and never could do it...i am grateful for weight loss surgery..really grateful

You do know the long-term success stats for diet + exercise, don't you?

Look 'em up. Go on. I'll wait.

Now look up the long-term success stats for WLS.

Go on. I'll wait.

Now tell me how badly you want to not weigh 280 pounds, then 300 pounds, then 350 pounds.

Well said Tinman!!! God Bless...mem

here's the bottom line. If you lost all that weight and gained it back then you MUST get sleeved because what that means is that you have the determination to lose the weight but not the stamina to change your habits to keep it off.
The reality is that even if sleeved you can gain weight. It's easy to lose in the beginning because you are very restricted in your consumption due to healing. Once the MD says "you can eat anything" that's when the head game starts because you really can, and from that point on its all up to you.
I am 5 months out, have lost 63 lbs and have fought every step of the way for the last 10 lbs which has taken me 2.5 months. Why? Because old habits are hard to break and even though my sleeve restricts the amount of food I can eat it doesn't restrict the value of the choice I make of what food to stick in my mouth.
So don't worry about feeling guilty about using the tool of the sleeve to help you. If you are on this site checking things out then you know deep down you need this, and you do!
Don't be so proud!! Give yourself every tool available to you and use your strength and determination to lose the weight you need to lose once and for all. For the days you do fail and eat too much or the wrong things the sleeve keeps you from doing too much damage to your progress and reminds you of why you can't make that choice anymore. It's a good thing, I need it, and I bet you do too!

As others have mentioned. The sleeve is a tool not a solution. I lost 170 lbs on Nutrisystem and gained back 230 lbs along with chronic kidney desease, HBP, borderline diabetes, very severe obstructed sleep apnea, chronic fatigue, migraines, back pain, and knee pain. Sure, I struggled with whether or not to have surgery - until I learned I was in Stage 3 of Chronic Kidney Disease. Then I came to terms that I needed help. There is no shame in that. Even Michael Jordan had a private trainer/coach, did that make him a less of a player? Having help whether it is a personal trainer or through a medically supervised diet, or through weight loss surgery should not matter as the goal is to be healthy/lose weight. Having surgery has helped me save my life. Each day I still have to make good choices and simply having the sleeve won't help with that. Many have found that they gain the weight back even after being sleeved. The key for me is to keep trying to work at my goals and not be too concerned what others think of how I get my life back.

All the awesome advice & points of view you've got in this thread so far.
There is no shame in taking action to help yourself. Yes, some people may judge you and accuse you of taking the easy way out. But what is more important - having the life you want & getting your health back or trying to get the approval of the ignorant. Besides, not everyone has to know. If you get questions on how you lost the weight, you can always say portion control. It will be the truth!
There is no shame in having surgery to help you in your goals. If we need to lower our blood pressure or get treatment for any disease, likely it will involve some intervention other than will power. Taking action to give yourself the best shot at success is not weak, it's smart.

Hi, Yes, the sleeve can certainly take weight off, and there is no reason to feel like you've cheated or something like that afterward. As you are still deciding, a couple of reality checks for you from a veteran of nearly 4 yrs out.
Losing weight may, or may not, change your health. With less weight you'll move better unless your joints are already damaged but being able to move better means you can exercise.... and if you don't do that it won't help your health as much as you hope. I don't mean becoming a road warrior, just a walk 4 days a week, or swimming, etc.
You would do well to have realistic weight goals as you go along. Hanging out on this site can be terrific, I mean, I posted over 4,000 times in 18 months but it can also make you a bit depressed if you judge yourself against those starting at 200 and getting down to size 4. When you start larger that could happen but it's not likely, at least not without major plastics. So, be real. Figure on dropping and keeping off say 90 lbs and if you decide then you want to go lower, great, keep on. But if you have insulin resistance and you just about make that 90 lbs you'll be proud of yourself for making your own personal goal instead of being upset you aren't size 4 like the smaller size starting folks.
If you have a food addiction, or use it as a crutch...then get help and do the work to find other ways to deal with it or believe me you can eat it back on. The worst foods for us are the easiest to get down as time goes on...so go into this with emotional armor,not with just hope.
lastly, there are some illnesses you can get from having this surgery as time goes on. Hypoglycemia, gastritis, gallbladder. It's not benign. It's major surgery. You'll need recovery time and patient family because of mood swings. On the upside you'll also probably need new clothes every month starting about 3 months out.
It's not a horror story and it's not a fairy tale. It's just a tool, and being realistic is probably the most important thing you can do.

Wow, I didn't expect to get such amazing advice from so many people! Thank you so much. I am starting to realize that the point ReadySet made is a great one because since i've already lost so much and gained so much back it shows that I probably need some assistance to make sure it doesn't happen again. I'm only 29 so i'd rather take care of it now and live my best life than yo-yo diet and gain/lose for the next decade and wish I had been sleeved sooner. As i'm sure you can all appreciate, its just scary to think about surgery in general and the things that can go wrong. But of course just as much (or worse) can happen if I stay at almost 300 pounds. There is a lot to think about but it's great to have everyone on here who can give me some perspective because they have gone through it.

I have my initial consultation on June 2nd, which right now is exactly a week away, and I will be sure to blog about how everything went, my feelings about the doctor and what I find out about the insurance requirements/timeline.

Thank you all again so much!

I agree! This turned into a great thread. Thanks for the blog.

Having lost 60-100 pounds and gained it back 4 times as an adult I hear what you are saying. In the end it is the bigger picture and you have to just realize that what you thought worked, does not work. If you wait too long to keep trying the same thing that doesn't work , you just get bigger and bigger . You just have to surrender, waive the white flag and take another route. Like going to that fork in the road and you know one direction is a dead end but you keep going down it. The other side is a clear pathway to success. Will be the best thing you have ever done