Have you or do you know anyone who had a gastric bypass (or any other surgery for obesity)?

i know several who have had it, some at work, one a friend. some had had the band, some had the total surgery. i can tell you that of like 10 people, half lost a lot and half stayed the same (both with the band and with the total surgery). it seems like the total surgery ones can keep eating a lot and stretch the stomach out again. one with the band who did not lose did not have band made smaller. one person told me “it’s a start but you still have to keep up the work of not eating and excercising.” good luck and let us know how you do.

I know two people; my cousin and a friend.

My cousin that the lap band surgery and it went very well. It was a difficult adjustment eating wise and she still had to exercise, but it was a head start and she looks great.

My friend had the full surgery and he didn’t change his lifestyle at all. He stretched his stomach from overeating and the staples/stitches ripped – he bled internally. He soon gained back almost all the weight.

Yes, a friend of mine from high school had it done. I barely recognized him when I came back home.. he couldn’t have been happier either

A guy I work with had the bypass almost exactly a year ago. He had some serious complications, but got through it OK and has lost nearly 200 pounds.

Yes. The idiot got discharged from hospital, went for a slap up meal and ruptured his stomach. Not pretty.

I had a friend who did the lap band. She lost a lot of weight, but I think she didn’t really deal with a lot of the psychological issues with food and exercise. She kept most of the weight off, but she never really got to a healthy weight or into healthy habits. She stayed between 20–50 pounds overweight and still ate poorly. You can still sabotage yourself after the procedure.

If you’re doing this, decide that you’re going to be “all in” and commit to doing all the follow up stuff with your doctor. Work on all the parts of the process, and don’t expect the band or bypass to fix everything for you. I wish you much success.

My mother, my ex-mother-in-law, my step-father and his wife have all had some variation of this surgery. My mother’s was extremely successful. She was actually skinny for the first time in her life, and she has managed to keep the weight off. The ex-MIL stretched and herniated her stomach, gained quite a bit of weight back, but has had it repaired. My stepdad had one of the original stomach stapling surgeries when I was a kid, and lost over 300lbs. Over the years he’d gained quite a bit of weight back, and just had one of the newer versions. With he and his wife, it is too soon to report the results, but both are losing weight.

The factors common to all of them are: Recovery was hard. Adjusting to eating spoonfuls of food was hard. Spontaneous vomiting occurred in the initial stages, due to over-eating or eating the wrong thing. Dealing with all the excess skin left after the weight loss is a problem. MIL had multiple surgeries to remove skin from her arms, stomach, and legs…all of which left pretty big scars. In spite of all that, each feels it was the best decision for them. It’s a tough road, but each feels it was well worth doing.

Good luck with your surgery and recovery!

the ones i work with said the hard part was not eating and being starving but not being able to eat.

I am familiar w/ one person who had the bypass type surgery.

There was a bunch of initial success and then the weight started coming back on….

As others have suggested this it only a tool…in combination w/ severe life style changes (including exercise and nurtition).

If you can’t commit to the surgery and the exercise and nutritional changes, I would pause before commiting.

I wish you all the best on your journey.

Both types of surgery have their pros and cons. There are also various types of stomach surgery, so depends what operation you are thinking of having.

Gastric banding is safer, cheaper, and less drastic than bariatric surgery, but doesn’t offer as drastic weightl0ss. You can find out more about banding here – http://www.realizeband.com/

Bariatric surgery is more drastic, but can offer better results. The main types of surgery are Roux-en-y bypass, sleeve gastrectomy and gastroduodenal switch. All offering various levels of both restrictive, and malabsorbtive effects. More information can be found here – http://www.bariatricedge.com

It is important that you understand what you are going to be going through, and also the fact that surgery itself will not be enough.

The stories of people ripping staple lines etc. above, are classic examples of this. A Roux-en-y bypass for example leaves you with a stomach pouch of around 25ml. This is the same size as a top shelf measure. You need to understand that you will only be able to eat very small portions. Having a ‘slap up meal’ as one comment above mentions is an extremely irresponsible thing to do!

Both of my daughters in-laws had the lap band surgery. It was horrible at first for her Mother-in law, who died briefly on the table and needed paddles to bring her back because of faulty equipment,(long story) but she is doing well now. The Father -in Law just had it done a few months ago, and he too is doing well.

With this procedure, you have to go to the doctor periodically to have the band adjusted, but they seem to take it all in stride. Both people were beyond morbidly obese, and well over 400 pounds, so the procedure literally saved them from themselves. So far, after 2 years, she has dropped 250 lbs, and he has lost close to 90 since just before this past Christmas.

It’s good that you are asking questiions and gathering information before doing this. It will help you know what you should ask your surgeon, and should make you more successfull should you decide to go through with it. I wish you the best of health and luck.

I know three people who had some form of the surgery performed. All three lost shocking amounts of weight initially, and then gradually regained almost all of the weight.

I’ve lost 90 pounds on Atkins and just recently had Gynecomastia surgery. My mother had gastric bypass and it was very successful, though it is not a cure-all and will still require some work on your part. Her friend died on the operating table in an attempt at Gastric Bypass. That’s rare though.

quantify rare please.

In cases of extreme obesity in which the surgery was a last resort, the gastric bypass can lead to death because of relatively terrible health of the person receiving the surgery.

good lord – that’s just horrible.

Certainly not the expected result.

Have you also tried lap-band already? Much less invasive. I know people who have tried gastric bypass and it is either really good or really bad. Not a lot of “in the middle.” I almost did it and was convinced (by the gastric bypass office) to try one more diet. It was HMR I did the medically supervised plan. I am so happy I did! It was 4 years ago, it took me less than a year to loose 80 lbs and I have maintained it on this plan since. They have a “More is Better” Philosophy which helped me. They say eat more healthy foods. As much as you want of fruits vegetables and their “program foods.” My problems were all about volume so this has worked great for me!

Look at Al Roker. It looks like he is gaining it back. I heard that 1 in 100 die from gastric bypass. I could be wrong though.

It’s no where near as high as 1 in 100, probably more like 1 in 1000

Yes I have had a gastric bypass!