Cut Me in Navigating the Shadowlands
- Feb. 18, 2016, 6:05 a.m.
- |
- Public
So, I am fat.
I think I mentioned that. I have a consult today with a bariatric center to discuss weight loss surgery. I’ve been doing research and been active in online support groups and I’m starting to lean toward surgery.
I am starting to see that obesity is a disease, and having surgery is ONE way to help me manage my disease. The surgery not only makes my stomach smaller and able to hold less food but actually removes some hunger hormones like ghrelin to make me less hungry and diminish cravings.
I’ve wrestled with the fact that post-op I WILL have to eat the healthy way I’ve been attempting to do for years: low carb, protein and veggies, small portions, lots of water.
So I kept asking myself: if I can do it after post-op, why can’t I do it now and not have the surgery? Why can I follow an eating plan for a few days (at most) and then plow through huge portions of junk and go right back to where I was? Why can I not consistently stick to a healthy eating plan?
You see, my fear is that I will go through surgery (which is NOT easy) and then a few months or years post-op, I will go right back to my bad habits; and regain it all. What is the “magic bullet” of surgery that prevents that?
From the support groups I’ve read it’s 3 things:
1. Smaller stomach: you just CAN’T hold the amount of food you ate pre-op. After many years, you CAN stretch your smaller stomach to hold a bit more but never back to its full size.
2. Removal of the hormones (mentioned above) that cause my cravings/inability to ever feel full in the first place.
3. Dumping: when you eat sugar or processed carbs or large portions you experience dumping. This is where you feel nauseous, sometimes throw up, get shaky, sweaty, clammy. It feels like you have food poisoning. This can last for a few hours to a few days. This terrifies me. I HATE that feeling. I hate it so much that there are two restaurants (two separate ones) that I got food poisoning from OVER ten years ago and I STILL won’t eat at them even though they have some of my favorite foods. So, for me, the threat of dumping will prevent me from eating the wrong things/huge amounts and/or if I do try to eat the wrong thing in the wrong amounts and experience dumping-I will NEVER do it again.
I do NOT feel like a failure that I have to resort to having my body cut up to lose weight. I do not feel like I am giving up. I feel like....maybe this is what I need. Obesity is a disease. I need to do what I need to do to manage it.
Stay tuned for what I learn at the consult today.
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Tacobelle ⋅ February 18, 2016
I think it's alright - but think long and hard about it, because many people experience depression after having this surgery although surgically removing part of the stomach is an effective way to break the mechanism that causes weight regain.
You'll probably need to do an intense diet/exercise programme for a few months before the surgery. I have a friend who planned to have the surgery, and ended up losing 70lb. in 5 months before the surgery because of the preparatory diet/exercise programme, and she ended up electing not to do the surgery.
But yeah, the removal of part of the stomach will limit the likelihood of regaining it all.
Flyte ⋅ February 18, 2016
My best friend had the surgery and successfully lost down to a normal weight. However that was 13 years ago and two years ago she started gaining it all back. She never went through dietary counseling so she didnt learn the right way to eat. The symptoms you described kept her from gaining any weight back for over 10 years but once her stomach started stretching she just went back to her old habits. To make sure that wont happen to you, go through diet counseling and really apply all you learn before the surgery. Then you will know whether you can stay with the diet. It changes your life and also your family's life. My friend had a big husband and 3 teenage sons that continued eating as they always did and my friend just fell back into it when her body allowed her to. But most people who go through the surgery know exactly how to eat for the rest of their lives due to the intense diet program they make you do before surgery.
nowthat'salady ⋅ February 18, 2016
I'm sure they will require you to go through intense programs before the surgery and prove that you can lose some of the weight before by eating similarly to how you should after the surgery. I would be very leery of any doctor who would just do the surgery without having you do all the important stuff before it.