I had a lapband put in March 2008 and lost 30lbs in the first 3 months... I thought I had found the perfect solution and would be skinny by the end of the year. However, it just didn't work for me, my doctor could never get it adjusted right. I could either eat everything or throw up everything. After two and a half years I had him take out all the saline and started Ideal Protein. I've now lost more on that program then I did with the lapband. Although I'm not a success story with the lapband, it definitely has helped me learn new ways to eat.

Those that say this is the easy way out, have no clue what they are talking about. You still have to make appropriate choices. There are ways to binge and cheat after WLS. However not with some of my previous favorite foods! One of the biggest lessons I've learned is patience. Just stick to healthy eating and portion control and eventually the weight will come off. I used to be a carb addict and now I stay clear of them. I also used to be the pickiest eater, but now I love putting a ton of vegetables into every meal.

Luckily for us we don't have to listen to naysayers... everyone knows what works best for them and that is all that matters

Angela - how did the presentation go? i'm sure you were fabulous - but inquiring minds are curious!!!!

Not doing it for two weeks, Jiff. I will let you know!

This thread was quite a conversation starter! Woohoo!

IMO, there is NO easy way out. It's a decision each individual has to make for themselves. I knew a woman who had WLS 10 years ago. At that time, I was 25 years old and felt so bad for her. I told myself that I would NEVER go through that and that I could just diet and exercise if and when I was ready. Well, here I am 10 years later with a RNY-GB scheduled for December 2nd, 2010. 35 years old and tired of yo-yo dieting. Now, I'm ready to do almost anything to feel good again and to be able to live life.

I'm late to this thread (that's what I get for being a lurker) but my favorite analogy is this:

If you were in a burning building would you take the exit right in front of you or would you run up the stairs to the roof, find the emergency exit stairs on the outside of the building and climb down them, all the while hoping you stay ahead of the fire?

I was one of those people who looked at WLS as the easy way out too. Then I watched my mom get the lap band. She was one of those people who had tried it all. Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, SlimFast, calorie counting, NutriSystem...you name it and she had probably tried it. She has always struggled with her weight while her parents and siblings were lean and healthy always. She became prediabetic. She was on medication for high cholesterol and high blood pressure. After so many years of living with excess weight her knees have no cartilage left and grind and ache constantly. One of her friends had gastric bypass and went from a size 24 to a size 4. She looks and feels great. Ma finally researched WLS for herself and chose the lap band over gastric bypass. Even though medically she needed the surgery, her insurance didn't pay a dime. $15,000 in the hole just to get healthy. She found a doctor in Atlanta who let her work out a payment plan and she had the surgery in January 2008. She has lost 75 pounds but is stuck at 245 and can't seem to get the scale to budge.

After seeing my mom go through the surgery and still struggle with weight loss I know that WLS isn't for wimps. It is a lifelong struggle. It may make dropping the pounds easier but even shelling out $15,000 doesn't make it an easy fix.

Having surgery was the hardest and best decision I ever made. But I still sometimes feel like my weight loss has less value because of these kinds of opinions. I know it isn't true, but I still think it.

Anyway, I tried for years and would do well, then gain right back. I was afraid that while I tried to find something that worked for me that I would die, leaving my daughter motherless. I won't lie, surgery wasn't easy, but it has been a heck of a lot easier than anything else. For once, my body punishes me when I do badly or make a bad decision. Before, it would punish me when I made good ones and reward the bad. I was hungry and crabby when doing well, satisfied with an elevated mood when I ate too much. Sure, I had guilt when I did bad, but the positive effects of the food always won. My body now makes me feel good when I eat appropriately and my physical and emotional well being drop when I accidentally eat too much. So yeah, it is much easier, but I think I paid my dues for the decade before the surgery. Nobody says naturally thin people should feel bad about being thin because it was easy for them. And I still have to work hard every day.

I had surgery on December 7th, 2001. I have dropped from 310 down to 150 and now because of a job/activity change, I've crept back up to 180 pounds. This surgery is by no means an easy way out.

When I finally came to the conclusion that this was my only choice, I had already gone to my doctor and had tried many different diet and exercise plans and programs. From Weight Watchers to Meridia to Optifast to waking up every morning at 4AM and exercising for 2 hours before getting a shower and going to work. Nothing was working for me.

My doctor suggested weight loss surgery and I said no and continued working on it for another year. Finally I realized that there was something preventing me from losing weight the conventional way and I agreed to the surgery. Because of my documenting EVERYTHING for so many years through my doctor and through each of the organizations I went to, my surgery was approved in under an hour, and I started my surgery testing the next day. I was required to do the following prior to having surgery.

1. Go to my lawyer and have a will drawn up so that my affairs would be in order in the event of my death on the table or as a result of post surgical events.

2. Have a living will drawn up so that in the event of a catastrophic event occurring during the surgery or as a result of the surgery, that my decisions to be kept alive or to be allowed to die would be carried out.

3. Have a durable power of attorney created for my husband so that he could take care of my affairs while I was incapacitated, or prior to my disconnection from life support

4. If I wanted one, have a Do Not Resuscitate order put in my file.

None of the above legal documents support the statements made by others that this is taking the easy way out.

To put it a bit graphically, and to be a bit crass, I had my guts rerouted, as a last resort so I could save my own life.

After surgery I felt horrific. I felt like I had been ripped apart because my surgery was open, not laparoscopic. Believe me, that wasn't easy.

I am disgusted with people who feel that they have the right to judge whether or not a fat person is taking care of his or her obesity the "easy" way or the "legitimately difficult" way. It's all difficult, there is no easy way and there is NO END to it. Weight management for those of us with weight problems is a life time commitment, whether you have surgery or not.

People with weight problems are fair game for public ridicule and judgment. It's disgusting and it needs to end.

Ageed Jill...it was easier in a way...but not in the way that some people think it is.....eat a cheeseburger and lose weight anyway (someone actually said that the GBP didn't work for them because they could eat McD's 3 weeks after surgery and never lost much weight) but it is easier in the long run for those that stick to the plan, do the leg work, and DIET AND EXERCISE ANYWAY!

I am going to give a much better speech with all this input!!






Angela

I only briefly considered surgery for weight loss. I've already had plenty of surgeries in my life that I HAD to have. I've never had a doctor tell me to consider it so I don't think it would be considered medically necessary. I don't know. Did I ever think it was the easy way out? Um, no, surgery is like the last resort. I don't need anything else cut out of me or put into me, thanks. None of it is easy. Weight loss isn't easy. Life isn't easy. People who judge others for making choices to help their lives and make themselves healthier aren't people I want to know.

They judge you for being fat.

Then they judge you for doing something about it?

If there were fewer judgmental people in the world, it would be a much better place.

Then I would consider that a success Congratulations.

I have been watching several seasons of The Biggest Loser, and that's a really high profile show, yet in each season these days they seem to have a contestant with a failed WLS. People can probably easily relate to TBL because it's such a big name, so might be useful to remind them of these people who had the surgery and still ended up on TBL because it didn't work out, and Ron (season 7 I think, maybe 6) had ongoing bleeding from the bypassed area of the stomach. So, big op, lifetime complications, possibly had to pay out of pocket for it and then it didn't work anyway. Easy way?

I'm sure people are going to judge my weight loss because I am getting plastic surgery at the same time. I am having it as a scar correction because of all the scarring from my other surgeries over the years (none of them are WLS) and a major operation at the same time, but still there will be some that say I got a better profile because of my surgery, and not only that but somehow think that massive surgery was easy!

I haven't had WLS. But what I do know, nothing about this is easy.

After struggling for 30 years with diabetes, my mom found out today that she no longer has to take insulin three months and 50 lbs after gastric bypass.

I took care of her in the hospital and when she got home. NOTHING about that surgery is easy. NOTHING about her recovery was easy. The mental work she had to do to get ready for surgery and the work she is still doing today are not easy. She works hard every day.

When she said she was going to start the process, I was scared for her health, scared of the surgery and its complications. But I NEVER thought she was taking the easy way out. Just fighting her insurance company was a battle in itself. I am so proud of her and respect anyone who can commit to this change.

I'm sorry for all the people being judged for WLS - how rude and ignorant!

I can only image the stories you have about what lead you to the surgery, there's nothing easy about it from what I understand, and even there were... so?!

A lot of people having WLS spend money they don't have and take time they can't afford off work for their surgery because it is essential for them!

People are naturally inclined to categorise and judge others for some reason. We all do what's right for us!

Not a candidate, just a sympathiser. I really think very few people take surgery and such a change in lifestyle lightly.

If WLS was right for you then you should be proud. Don't let other people and their ignorance detract from your happiness.