I had a sleeve done on Oct 21st this year and between that and 3 weeks of optifast I lost 46 lbs fairly quickly. I have not weighed myself in a week or so because I am already on a slippery slope of bad eating habits that I hate to admit to but I'm being honest. I think the problem is when I was doing optifast and the first few weeks of post-op diet I was very regimented and didn't have to think much about what I was eating. Now that I can eat regular food it is much more difficult. I can't eat much but I find myself eating foods I really want to stay away from. With the sleeve I can eat anything, I am not going to dump if I eat sugar or fat but if I eat too much or too quickly or drink fluids while I am eating I will feel very full very quickly and have inadvertently made myself almost sick on 2 occasions. It doesn't help with the time of year that it is. I don't think I have gained because I'm not eating that much but sure as heck I doubt I am losing. I don't want to face the scale right now because it is that time of the month and I feel bloated so I don't want that water weight to depress me. Take my word for it that if binge eating is an issue you will not be able to eat hardly anything to begin with but I don't know how long it would be before your stomach started to stretch out again. Generally I eat slowly and stop when I start to feel even a little full which is about 5 or 6 bites. Recently I was at a fancy restaurant and could barely eat anything and I had the waiter inquire if my food was okay because I'd barely touched it! So like I said on 2 occasions I have eaten more than what I should or I was eating too fast and recently I had the hiccups while I was eating and had some water and I thought I was going to be sick. Not just the nausea but there is a lot of pain putting too much into such a tiny stomach. I don't know if the time period where you absolutely have to be regimented in your diet for safety if no other reason (in the healing period post-op where you could easily damage your digestive system by non compliance with the diet) is enough time for you to get over binge eating. My personal thoughts are probably not. I am not a binge eater, never was but have my own issues with food. I have to get back to basics already, it's only been 2 months and I'm back into some bad habits! It is not easy to break those and maybe I was feeling a bit too proud of myself. Anyway I hope I have given you something to think about and if you have any questions about the sleeve please do ask me anything!

I never said zero carb - that's nearly impossible (even aggs have carbs!). I would define very low carb as being around 30g or less per day. End of carb discussion in this thread :P

But low-carb diet or no, I still think counseling can be very helpful. Even though I've done well with my surgery, I still have some compulsive eating issues I likely need to address. I've looked up counselors more than once, but I'm so afraid that I won't be able to find the right one for me, and I fear wasting time hopping from one to another searching. And now I'm pregnant, so I've got bigger fish to fry! I usually combat my overeating issues by just limiting availability of things I know I can't control well, so we don't keep any junk or even hardly and convenient snack foods in our house (even "healthy" ones because too much of anything can still be a bad habit).

Jen - wow- you're sure experiencing the gamut of issues we've all faced [and are STILL facing!]. I just want to comment on two points you made [because all the rest are things i absolutely sympathize with and understand, and they're things that you're actually figuring out for yourself so that you can live with the surgery[

first of all, waiters are always concerned that the food is good - and they're always afraid if we're not eating it. Just smile sweetly and say something along the lines of 'it's delicious, but my eyes are bigger than my stomach' or 'i'm just eating slowly and enjoying it' or 'my goodness this is a huge portion.' bottom line: don't eat more than you want because you're afraid that you'll be hurting someone's feelings or causing a scene.

and about the binge eating and healing from surgery. binge eating = emotional responses [and sometimes food triggers, but IMO, that association is mostly learned before it becomes biochemical]. surgery = physiological changes.

so, while the surgery can give you that awful reminder that you're eating wrong at the moment, it CANNOT fix the emotions. but it CAN help you un-learn and change. and that'll take time - in some cases years. and during times of stress, you'll feel the urge and will have to do something to get through it.

wish i could have happier news for you, but ...

and jilly - THANK YOU!!!

oh definitely surgery is not going to fix emotional problems but I'm thinking that the negative reinforcement of that horrible full sick feeling potentially could stop the binge eating long enough to deal with the emotions. It's a potential but not probable because as you say food issues develop over years and not likely to be fixed in a few weeks.

After posting yesterday I was very stern with myself and made myself get on the scale this morning. Good news is that I have not gained and so I'm hopeful that in a few days when my period is over I may drop a few lbs of water weight, not counting on it but would be nice. I'm going back to basics, making sure I am getting my protein and water, that was sliding a bit. I'm not going to beat myself up if I had a little bit of what I probably shouldn't have had, I couldn't eat much anyway, that was the good thing because I do stop eating when I get that slightest bit full feeling and usually I don't feel like I need to eat for a few hours after that.

I had a VSG (sleeve) nearly three years ago. Although my weightloss has been slow (due to medical reasons) the surgery was and still is a success.

However, weightloss surgery is done on your digestive system - not your head. If you don't get your headhunger under control, then every single type of wls can and will be unsuccessful.

WLS just gives you the time to re-adjust your thinking and eating patterns, but if you don't make those permanent adjustments - or deliberatly eat around your wls with slider foods - then you will re-gain. It is not advisable to get a surgery because youthink that you will be able to still eat junk food and just get a bad upset tummy from it. Dumping is not guaranteed with any surgery, and "dumping syndrome" can be far more debilitating and is actually alot more than just exlposive bowel movements.

Many bariatric surgeons insist on psych reviews and therapy for very good reason, and its defintely worth while seeing a therapist as part of the process (people who have lengthy therapy tend to be more successful).

Personally I do recommend wls (except the lapband), the statistics are weighted heavily against maintaining weight loss without it (something like 95% of people who loose weight from diet/excercise regain it with interest within 5 years - repeated personal experience supports this). Even with surgery, maintenance is not guaranteed if you don't sort your head out.

I can only speak for myself on these issues. I had a Roux-en-Y in August 2006. I went from 299 to 225 and couldn't lose anymore. I became frustrated and went back to my old ways of "grazing". I wasn't eating regular meals, but rather, just nibbling throughout the day. I ended up back at 275, and I KNOW I have to take the weight off. Weight Loss Surgery is not a fix all. I know at least 6 people who had the surgery. Unfortunately two passed away shortly after. My ex-husband went from 500+ lbs down to 180 then back up to 400 lbs lbs. He recently went to Mexico and had WLS redone and is now down to 200 lbs. Everyone I know who has had the surgery had gained back most, if not all of the weight. I think if I had it to do all over again, I wouldn't do it.