bassjones

The surgery forces you to make the changes early on. If you don't, bad things happen that are misery inducing. This particular surgery also changes the mental "hunger" trigger. The other thing it did for me was once I got back in the bike after losing 100 lbs, riding became easier and I progressed through mileage faster. I was riding 3-5 days a week pre-surgery and 10-12 miles was killing me. Now, in a month of riding since getting clearance from the orthopedist, I'm up to 30 miles at 15 MPH average and my average heart rate is in the 140s on the bike now. The surgery made it possible to keep losing, even while laid up with a bone infection in my foot. I can't explain it exactly, but the switch has flipped. I've tried before, really tried, and managed to lose as much as 40-50 lbs. crossing that 100 mark and getting under 300 for the first time in over 20 years has changed the mental game too. I'm still overweight/obese, but no longer "morbidly obese", and I'm planning on not being obese for much longer. It's still a LOT of work. The surgery is just a tool.

TrojanHorse

Thanks for your thoughts, btw (and beakersbike too). I'm certainly glad it's working for you!

I caught a show one day with my kids... you know, one of those we're bored, what's on type evenings and there's actually a show out there called "My 600 lb life" that focuses on people who are so crazy overweight they can barely function. One poor woman was 670#. Another was ginormous... there's a doctor in Houston who specializes in (some kind of stomach reduction) surgery for people that size and he requires them to do some dieting before hand. One woman lost 150 lbs simply by changing her diet and exercising. Keep in mind, walking to the mailbox was what she did for exercise, but at 600 lb, that's a serious trial. Then she had the surgery and didn't lose weight for 4 months. Oddly, the KEY component (from my viewer's perch, and only based on two or three episodes) is that each of those morbidly obese people had an enabler in their life that was doing them legitimate harm. The woman who wasn't losing weight after surgery moved out of her mother's house and presto - started losing weight again. She got down to 300 lb and celebrated her birthday with a cake. Apparently it was the first birthday she had celebrated in 10+ years because she was just about confined to her mother's house the entire time.

One lady, from Sacramento, needed to get down to Houston for the surgery and was SO large (670#) that her son (the enabler) had to buy a different car. They took the seats out of the back of the minivan and put a mattress in, and that's how she got down to Houston.

I guess what I'm saying is that the challenges associated with being really large are something I've never had to face, so I genuinely have no idea what it's like or how hard it is to recover from, but I'm glad there's a possibility for the people willing to take on the task.

beakersbike

Maybe it's better to say discipline by itself has a really really poor track record. Surgery by itself has a really really poor track record. It's the combination of the two that is successful.

A lot of people have commented on the people they've seen gain their weight back. What usually happens is they learn their limits and eat around them. They learn how to eat things that go through them quicker so they can eat more, or they just graze non stop, never really getting full but still eating enough that they can gain their weight back. Ultimately when someone thinks they can have the surgery and not put effort in themselves, they're going to fail just as much.

I don't mean to say discipline itself cannot work. We probably all know people who have been able to do it. But the dramatic lack of long term success says there's something more going on. Something changes when you get to a certain point physically or psychologically that it's nearly impossible to maintain the discipline for a long enough period of time.

I'm fully convinced it's a lot like an addiction. It takes a greater degree of will power for a recovering alcoholic to say no to a beer than it does for me, and if they do have that one beer, it's immensely more difficult to stop at that. For most of them, it wasn't always that way, but somewhere along the line their use of alcohol got to a point where everything changed. An alcohol or drug addict struggles enough every day to stay sober, but at least they have the option to completely go without and they can develop support systems to help them to do that. For a food addict, you still have to eat.

I heard it explained that surgery is the tool that levels the playing field so that diet and exercise have a chance to work. If you eat too much after surgery, and you will, you pay a price for it. You are forced to be more conscious about what you are putting into your mouth. You still have a choice, work around it, or take advantage, but I think what happens and why it works so much more often is that surgery breaks the cycle enough and counters enough of the other factors going on for a person that it allows the opportunity to develop the disciplines needed.

bassjones

That's been my experience - on both ends.

JimF22003

Good luck. Right about now is when the hard part begins

12 years for me, down about 300 pounds. My weight fluctuates now, and I still have bad eating episodes, but I largely keep it under control, mostly with the help of cycling. I'd be ten years in my grave at this point without the surgery.

bassjones

I've been at a plateau for about 3 weeks - ironically, right when I started riding again. I'm not over eating my exercise, I know that. I think it's just a plateau and maybe I just need my body to recognize the new norm and quit hiding into the lbs. I'm following the eating plan and no extras.

ColaJacket

Have you checked your waistline in the past 3 weeks?

You're exercising new muscles with the riding. Those muscles are going to respond by getting bigger. Bigger muscles weigh more.

But if you check your waistline, it may be down a little bit. To me that is more significant than weight loss, because so many things can contribute to gaining a little weight (e.g. when you weighed, how hydrated you are, muscles getting bigger, etc.).

GH

beakersbike

I'd say take it as a sign of just how far you've come. When you've got a significant amount of weight to lose and you start doing the right stuff, it's going to melt off no matter what. Now that you are getting closer to your ideal, things like an increase in muscle mass can make it look like a plateau. Good thing the number on the scale is only a part of the picture. I would guess that your body fat percentage has seen a significant improvement in that time frame and that kind of progress won't always show on the scale.

ridingrae

Hi there, CONGRATS #bassjones ! I had the sleeve four months ago today, and I am down 53 pounds. I was an endurance cyclist and Trail-runner 50 pounds ago but everything is so much better now! To all you skeptics asking how someone who couldn't be disciplined enough to control their eating to not become obese could maintain their loss, the answer I've discovered is that I actually love the rigid regime that I now must follow. It must be great to not have eating issues on your list of other issues but I wasn't programmed that way. Any who...enjoy your new life! Do you mind sharing what you eat for long rides?

chefisaac

First, congrats! No matter how you slice or dice it, keeping weight off and sticking to an eating plan can be tough. Keep up the good fight.

There re was a member here who had weight loss surgery. I cannot recall his name but rode with him a few times. He passed away from complications about two years ago. Very nice guy he was.

I thought about the surgery but it's not right for me. It's challenging to first take the weight off in time and keep it off. I'm down around 140 pounds but it's a fight everyday. And I have to stay on top of it all the time. It's a lot of psychological retraining of your brain and habits.

Good luck and keep up the great work.

lane_33

I've seen that 5% statistic and it definitely pans out among people I know, most of whom have not had surgery but a few have (and they seem to have been successful like the OP).

I have lost about 60 lbs so far (without surgery- and I recognize that candidates for weight loss surgery have to lose a hell of a lot more than that. I'm also only 5'8" so 60 lbs is a lot) but ultimately the only thing that made/makes my continuing weight loss possible is the near lack of appetite. It's not a matter of willpower or discipline. If it were, there's no way I would be satistfied with 1000-1300 calories per day. But now the only way I experience hunger at all is to not eat all day, then I'll want to have something for dinner. But usually I have some food earlier in the day. I haven't been hungry in about 2 years. Removal of the cells that secrete ghrelin, as well as shrinking of the stomach which leads to a feeling of fullness with less food, might be the only way to go for some folks.

It might be "unnatural" but so is the internet, cars, phones, medication, my cousin takes a medication to stop her entire body from seizing up without warning and she wouldn't be able to hold down a job without it. All that is "unnatural" but I'm fine with it.

bassjones

Thanks for the new posts and reminder to update. Almost down to 275 now and just did a 16.4MPH average 25 mike ride, Saturday, with my average pace closer to 19MPH. Lots of stops and starts at the beginning and end of the ride drove the average down. Once I got out in the country I was able to maintain a constant 18-19 MPH pace at 70 RPM and up. I'm in 2XL now and just got two pairs of bibs and a jersey. I feel GREAT!

rodstewart

Just to add another anecdote, I've had the Roux-En-Y with no complications, but almost everyone else I've known has had the gastric sleeve with complication after complication. A very large part of avoiding issues after gastric bypass is YOU. Sounds like you have it down, but a lot of people never quite figure it out.

Congrats!

RollingBlubber

Have there been any long term studies on Weight Loss Surgery success? Taking it off and keeping it off for five years is great and all but unless you don't plan on living longer than five or 10 years has there been anyone with 20 years of success keeping the weight off without other complications?

bassjones

The newer techniques are less than 20 years old. Particularly the Sleeve that I had. I know the shorter term success rate is huge and complications are very rare with it. A number of clinics (mine included) are doing a lot of pre-op training and education on nutrition and exercise and then have a great deal of follow up, including regular checkups and monthly support meetings - like Weight Watchers except for post-surgical patients. The entire staff is whole person focused rather than just a surgery center.

RollingBlubber

That was my understanding too. I've explored going the surgical route by, ironically, my Ferrari insurance plan does not cover it and I'm not paying it out of pocket. My beef with WLS though is that the immediate success tends, if the experience everyone that I know that's had it and everyone that I talked to during my research over the years that have had is any indication, to overshadow how hard it will be to keep the weight off for any extended period of time. One of the things I always tell people is that losing weight is simple and very easy. The challenge is keeping it off for more than five years.

bassjones

I think/thought they were required to cover it over certain BMIs... May want to research further.

RollingBlubber

Nope. If your company didn't add the bariatric rider there is zero coverage.

scrming

Most excellent!!! 18-19 MPH is moving!

Jarrett2

Congrats!

How much have you lost now?

What's your diet look like at this point?

bassjones

143 total loss so far. Diet is still almost entirely protein, fruits and vegetables. I limit myself to one serving of a starch a day and that is typically steel cut oats mixed into my Greek yogurt and fruit for breakfast.

bassjones

ridingrae

Fantastic!!! Isn't fun to average that not just on the descents?! Keep up the hard work, it's clearly paying off

wphamilton

Although the procedure works and it's fairly easy, as those things go, I want to post a word of caution to counterbalance the enthusiastic advocacy. There are several long-term problems that can arise from the gastric bypass and they are not uncommon. First, and this is everyone who has undergone bariatric surgery, you are limited in certain medications. Any NSAIDs for example, even topical, will kill you. You can't take Aspirin, bleeding of the stomach lining is a problem. You'll have difficulty absorbing certain types of nutrients or minerals, such as iron. My wife had to have an iron infusion due to a combination of that, internal bleeding, and I think perhaps imperfect diet, and the iron deficiency could have been fatal. All of it related to the gastric bypass from years before.

I'm not warning anyone away from it, but I'd advise anyone considering it to take a sober look at the potential long term issues. Of course, anyone is jubilant about it six or eight months in, (except for the small fraction who kill themselves with too much drink or something equally dumb), and my wife I think would still advocate it. But I'm not so sure that it's such a great deal long-term, having seen the complications first hand. I'm just saying, make an informed decision about it.

bassjones

NSAIDS and Aspirin are big no-nos but the absorption issues with RouxenY are drastically reduced or eliminated with the Sleeve. I/we do have to keep up a vitamin routine and sleeve patients take an extra B12 dose, but if you keep up with that, there shouldn't be any issues. The main reason for the vitamin routine isn't absorption with the sleeve, but the extremely limited post-op diet and even after normal eating resumes, it's difficult to impossible to eat enough food to get the RDA of vitamins. I consider it a small sacrifice. It ads about $30 a month to our budget but I eat at least that amount less of food now. I don't know of any Sleeve patients who have experienced any serious complications, though I do know a few RouxenY patients who have - including my wife. There is a connection between POTS and RouxenY, though not yet determined to be a causal factor - my wife has POTS. It appears that women, in particular, are prone to the malabsorption issues with that procedure, possibly due to the menstrual cycle???? Seems most of those I know who have had the worst complications are all women. There are definitely risks. I know Tom was a RouxenY patient, but I don't believe his issues were related to the surgery. Even if they were, the surgery added years to his life because it was quite literally a last ditch effort and he would have been dead 10 years ago.