Anyone obese since infancy get their 1st weight-loss success with sleeve?

[Quarry]

In my nearly 60 years, I've never not been overweight. A couple times I fought my way down near 170 pounds, but it was like holding my breath and diving deep under water--unnatural and unsustainable.

Since I have no medical issues (relatives and ancestors also stout, vigorous, and long-lived), health is not a factor in my "to sleeve or not to sleeve" soliloquy.

Especially having to be a self-pay, I wish there were a degree of guarantee that my hunger would be dialed down. The best I can do is search for the existence of others who found their first, honest-to-goodness, appetite down-throttling and meaningful weight loss thanks to their sleeve.

I'd hate to take from our retirement fund just to amputate a functional stomach and introduce chaos into our routine and then have little to show for it. Too bad there isn't some kind of genetic screening or a way to check for the FXR receptor to rule in or out those whose hormones and bile acids respond to sleeving.

Thank you for entertaining my question.

[ncubed03]

I've lost 92 lbs and I am keeping it off which is key. I was self-pay too and I have been yo-yo dieting since I was 13. This has far and away been the best decision of my life! I basically purchased the tool to get me to live again. You do have to do some work after the sleeve to lose the weight but because your stomach is so small, you can't help but lose weight! I literally had no off switch with my stomach before the surgery. I didn't even know what it felt like to be full. If I liked something, I just kept going until it was gone. Now, I can hardly eat enough calories in a day that I could eat in one meal before. I can still eat what I like but just little bits and I have changed my whole diet and my family's as well. We are all on a high protein, low carb diet because you can't feel good otherwise. Protein first and you will be great! My opinion is to go for it! Good luck!

[Bufflehead]

Yup, I've got a little ways to go but I feel like a success now. I have been overweight or obese my entire life. I won a ribbon at the "toddler bathing beauty" contest (very informal, not a real beauty pageant!) at our local Independence Day Fair when I was 1 1/2 - my ribbon was for Biggest Tummy. I have occasionally managed to diet myself down from morbidly obese to plain old obese as a teen or adult, but always gained it back and then some.

[Quarry]

Bufflehead, your message carries more weight (no, no pun intended) than all the rest of the words in this forum combined. Thank you for your post, too, Nora, but "since toddler" resonates in a way most people cannot fathom.

This kid thanks you: Sharepoundpound_zps201214c1.jpg

[Skibabe]

Not since infancy (ironically, I was a really scrawny kid. Did it the wrong way round!), but ever since puberty. A lot of it was genetic down my mother's line, until I moved to NZ, moved in with a man with a big appetite and lived in a country where I drive everywhere :-)

I tried to diet roughly five time before realising it would never work for me. Every day on a diet, I would obsess with what I could and couldn't eat. The more I couldn't have a certain food, the more I wanted it. Food shopping was a nightmare, so many temptations and I constantly felt denied. Then I'd invariably get sick (small kids = plenty of germs) so I couldn't exercise. By the time I'd get better, dieting was the last thing I felt liked doing. I'd out all the weight back on, then more.

This time is so different. I still don't get hungry, which helps a lot (it's one thing you won't be able to know in advance, some never lose their appetite), but my brain simply doesn't crave things like it used to. No mental torture, no thinking about food all the time. I can eat anything I like, but just get a taste of it, instead of gorging on a huge bowl of it. I have control now, that I've lacked for decades. Food doesn't feel like such a treat now. I still enjoy it, and I eat a wide variety of foods, but it's just a small part of my life now, not a huge part of it. I did watch a couple of documentaries several years ago where they found that the brain changes after a sleeve or bypass, but not a band, which is curious and something my surgeon is currently researching further. My tastes have changed a lot too - many things taste far too sweet now, and unpleasant. I still have two sugars in my tea, but that's about it.

It might sound miraculous, but you have to adjust your eating habits, which the sleeve helps you to do. I have three meals a day, no snacks, and I've got to my goal weight within nine months, which I find astounding. That's 120+lbs, or 56kg. I would never have got here without the sleeve, I know that. I'd resigned myself to always being the fattest person in the room, everyone's "fat friend" that they could rely on to be bigger than them. It's nice shocking people now ;-)

Good luck with whatever you decide :-)

[readytochangemylife]

I haven't been overweight since toddler, but I chubbed up when I was around 12, thinned out in my early teens. I am short, so even when I weighed 120, wearing size 9, I was called "big ass" . I broke my ankle at age 16 being a clown, and I went from 120 to 180 lbs in a few months. I only went up after that. I have weighed right at or over 300 lbs most of my adult life. I lost mega weight a few times, only to gain it back. I am now 60 and I was also self pay. I agree with skibabe. The surgery restricts how much food you can eat. I don't have the cravings like I always had. It amazed me and still does. I haven't had a dessert (cake, pie, cookies, candy, etc.) in 15 months and I do not miss or crave the sugar any longer. I really don't crave anything. I do get hungry, but my hunger has changed. Now, all I have to do is eat what I have chosen to eat, and I am fine and full. I not regretted this at all and I am still paying off my credit cards and will be for a few more years. I also think that since I paid for the surgery I am more determined to succeed long term. When I see food that could derail this, I see dollar signs instead of the food. Something else I have noticed is how I am now label obsessed. Start reading labels and looking up fast food calories, fat and etc. and you will understand how we got this way. Sugar industries wants us to stay addicted so they will not lose revenue. For me, low carbs, high protein took away the cravings. Don't hesitate if you want this surgery, but please know, you do have to learn how to eat right and it is not just a walk in the park. I have said all along, the only easy thing about this surgery has been the amount of food I can eat.

[Quarry]

I hang on your every word, my dears. Your responses are the most valuable gifts I could be given. Thanking you with virtual bouquets.roses.gif

I wonder whether there are data available that break down patient weight history with percentage of loss achieved via WLS. In the distant future, surely exacting correlatives will be drawn. (I know distinctions are recognized between Asians and Europeans, for example.) If I would be among those who tend to fall within the 25% excess weight lost from WLS, then I'd essentially be paying about a $1,000 a pound for a small effect with major inconveniences. Given I have no medical issues, that just doesn't hold up well to cost/benefit analysis.

[KarenJean]

Quarry, few things in life come with absolute guarantees. Take a risk. Your happiness is worth $millions$.

[Quarry]

I appreciate what you're saying, Karen, and I appreciate you. Since I started reading your posts, I've just plain-out liked you.

Just need to point out that I am already happy. My name is Joy, and it's not a misnomer. I have achieved feats in life that make my heart sing. I feel like I've been denied nothing but a physically svelte form.

[ncubed03]

There are only 3 things that I would do over in my life. That is get married, have my son and have the sleeve surgery. I am happier than I have ever been. You will never regret it!

[DebbieD]

I had my sleeve surgery in Mexico at the age of 58. Life time of struggle with weight. A pediatrician gave me diet pills at 10! Like so many others lost and gained, lost a lot of weight in mid-twenties and kept it off for several years but the wrong way mostly starving and diet pills. Only wish I did it sooner. At over 18 mos. out I rarely feel hungry and my whole relationship with food has changed. Everything in my life is better...I can run and play with my grand kids, I wear HIGH heels on occasion, cute dresses and shorts, I started dancing. Love my new life, LOVE MY SLEEVE! I must say mine has been an easy journey. No pain, no nausea, no complications. The weight just went away. According to the charts I could stand to lose a few more pounds but I can wear a 10-12, mostly mediums and I have no trouble maintaining. If my body is happy at this weight then so am I.

[Quarry]

Thanks for adding to the chorus (((Debbie))). Mounting evidence like yours is what I'm searching for.

[KarenJean]

I appreciate what you're saying, Karen, and I appreciate you. Since I started reading your posts, I've just plain-out liked you.

Just need to point out that I am already happy. My name is Joy, and it's not a misnomer. I have achieved feats in life that make my heart sing. I feel like I've been denied nothing but a physically svelte form.

Thank you! And me too--I've ridden on a camel and crawled inside a pyramid in Egypt, canoed the Allagash waterways, climbed all over the mountains in Alaska, hot-tubbed with Jerry Garcia, kissed a boy in Paris.... And never, ever managed to get and stay thin.

This time feels very different. This time I'm not fighting my biology.
K.

[niki k]

My husband had the sleeve on 12/31 and I am having mine done on 2/26. During this time, I have educated myself and started changing my habits. I have seen how wonderful it can be! He has lost 40 pounds! He has so much more energy, we are going to the gym, he is not snacking anymore, and just seems happier. His was paid almost entirely thru our insurance, but mine is self pay, and I did have my guilty feelings of we could really use this money for other things, but I want to do this together. I want to be able to do things with my kids! I am so excited about this, and look forward to getting my life back! You will see that the majority love their sleeve!

[Quarry]

This time I'm not fighting my biology.
K.

There ya go, hitting my target words.

Hey, dear folks, note that the lure of promises of energy and dress size don't mean much to me. I already have endurance and flexibility and don't give a hoot about fashion. But, talk to me of adipogenesis, lipid metabolism, bile acids, and genotype, and I'm all ears.

During times of starvation in war-torn Germany and during the U.S. Depression, one lineage of my ancestors remained round and stout while their neighbors withered (I have photos). A genetic resistance to losing weight has benefitted one strain of my family until my generation. I'm just trying to learn whether VSG durably affects both appetite and metabolism and, if so, are there markers that indicate, such as FXR receptors, who will benefit from WLS and on whom it is wasted.