Results without WLS

Thoughts on just following the food plan to lose weight without having the surgery? Anyone try it? I know the surgey helps with hunger but what else?

Yes, I've lost weight many times without surgery.  What I've never done is keep it off.  I'm only five weeks out, but what's different is I'm full.  Tonight for dinner I'm having refried beans, and I can't finish half a cup.  Before surgery, I could eat four or five enchiladas.  To lose weight, I had to go hungry all the time.  How successful do you think you'll be living the rest of your life hungry?

I started making healthy lifestyle changes in July when I started this process, eating healthier and walking on treadmill, the day of my surgery I was down exactly 60 lbs!  Now 4 weeks later down a total of 80. I am totally not hungry have to make myself eat and I feel great!!!

If that is what you want to do then go for it. You have to know that according to statistics 80% of those who lose weight with surgery keep it off only 5% who do it by other means keep it off. Losing the weight is not what is as hard we have all done it, keeping it off is what this surgery helps with the most.

Geting your mind set is the most important part of the process. I am seriously thinking about geting a therapist because befor the surgery I was eating 1200 calories a day logging everything in my fitness pal  walking everyday and lost about  50 lbs  before my surgery. I was deligent and dedicateed then I had my surgery and every since thanksgiving it is a constant fight for me to stay on track I have stalled at  191-192 and can not move past it. I sneak cookies, graze at my desk eating cheese sticks and peperoni. I jsut can not control my eating the sleeve has some restriction which is why I haven't gain my weight back but honestly I thought it was going to be easier after the sugery but it is harder for me. So regardless of which way you go if you head is not in the game you most likly will not be sucessful.  Good luck

Why sabatoging yourself? maybe a support group meeting or a therapist would help. yes it's hard but now's the time to kick ass!  take advantage of the surgery, the gift you have! You are soooooo close......jump in there and fini**** up. Do something different than you have in the past...don't settle. Keep going!!!!

My husband has tried to follow my food plan without the surgery, and it hasn't gone well.  Intense, debilitating hunger that leads to headaches, nausea and lightheadedness.  And he never feels satisfied despite eating a protein-forward diet.   He lost weight for sure, but he's bounced up and down in weight lately as he feels very deprived and hungry all the time.  

THAT is the difference the surgery makes!  

My sweetie, who is also MO, is trying the "protein-forward" diet. I'm encouraging him, of course! The funny thing is, when he follows it PROPERLY, he doesn't suffer hunger and deprivation. The hard part is remembering to do it right. You really do have to re-learn how to eat. I think protein-forward is more difficult for non-surgical folks. Not impossible, but it's harder!

I agree with the other posters here. I lost weight "on my own" prior to surgery and did a pretty good job. But then, to keep it off, I had to eat very few calories. I dealt with some pretty intense hunger that woke me up at night. I started relying on the pharmaceuticals just to function, because I would get dizzy, was not able to sleep well, and had a hard time focusing. The constant hunger was starting to trigger binges at mealtime. Not all the time, but once or twice a week. The weight loss stopped. I realized I had a problem on my hands that was more than just the dreaded "head hunger". I researched VSG beyond just what the doctors' marketing websites said, actually reading scientific papers etc., and believed it might be able to help me, so I scheduled the surgery. Now, at a week out, I don't have "body hunger" anymore and I'm doing remarkably well without any of the dizziness/anxiety/waking up at night even though my calorie intake is very low.

AND I've lost 8 pounds as of this morning. I AM CURRENTLY AT MY LIGHTEST WEIGHT IN 25 YEARS. That's huge, dudes. I'm that much closer to getting rid of some of these obesity-related co-morbidities that were slowly killing me.

I realize that there will be a lot of folks who think I should have "toughed it out" and continued to starve myself and suffer, and I'm sure I'll hear from them soon enough. But the point was, I was ready to give up and just eat myself to death because my choice was, literally, suffer one way (with hunger and pills) or suffer the other way (with morbid obesity) for the rest of my life.

I'm glad I had this option.