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I can only speak from my experience. I had several of those "I can do this without surgery" moments throughout my life. I first started down the path of surgery in 2013/14. I was doing the Tim Ferriss Slow Carb Diet (6 days/wk, eat only beans/meats/veggies, 7th day is cheat day) and having great success. I explained what I was doing to the bariatric surgery coordinator and her response (paraphrased) was, "That's nice, but you won't be able to do that post-surgery." I didn't want to hear that, figuring that I had already lost 40+ pounds this way and cancelled my appointments. I ended up losing roughly 150 pounds on that diet, but gained it all back. Why? It reinforced binge eating habits and didn't set me up for future success. Like a lot of overweight people, I thought my next lifestyle change (clean eating! intermittent fasting! keto!) would be the one that allowed me to lose the weight and keep it off. I finally realized that I was only fooling myself. It takes an incredible amount of discipline to lose weight and keep it off without surgery. You have to commit to eating a certain way for the rest of your life; I have yet to meet someone who did a diet for 6 months, lost the weight, went off the diet and kept the weight off. I reached a mental state where I had two choices: 1) continue living my life as I had been or 2) making a truly radical change, the change most likely to keep the weight off. I chose Option 2, because I owed it to myself, my wife and my kids to be the healthiest person I could be. I do not regret my choice. But while I do not regret my choice, I don't go around telling other people to do it. I don't think I would have succeeded in 2013 the way I have today with the surgery. In 2013, I would have seen it as "I do a surgery, I eat less, I lose weight, winner, winner, smaller chicken dinner." That is a set up for long-term failure. Now, I see it as "I have been given a great chance to live a healthy life and I need to take advantage of it." Until you reach that mental state, you are not ready to succeed with this surgery.

check with your clinic. That could be symptomatic for a stricture, and you're still in the "window" for one (they almost always occur, when they're going to occur, between one and three months post-surgery (they're very rare after you hit the three month mark) they occur in about 5% of bypass patients. And they're an easy fix (I had two - at four weeks out and again at about eight weeks out)

I have my pre-op procedures of upper GI and chest X-ray on Tuesday morning and my pre-op primary care physician appointment for clearance on Tuesday afternoon. I’m getting closer! After I had finished my nutritional class requirements at the first of January I thought surgery was imminent as we were told in the doctor talk that we were about a month away. But as I’ve read on here, enjoy the journey. Don’t rush. Be patient. Be gentle. I haven’t been very patient which is very evident by how little I chewed my food! I’ve been working on that. I’m turning 60 this week! I am excited that this milestone and my wls are close together. I feel ready for some good changes. My bmi is 44. I think at my highest weight it was 46. I feel so roly-poly. I want to kick my type 2 diabetes to the curb. I want to be able to be more active without the constant pain in my arthritic knees and ankles. I want to keep up with my two little granddaughters. I want to fit into seats! I am very glad to find this app/support group. My doc said that they had one on Facebook but I’ve given up that so I was glad to find this better alternative.

Hopefully this is the next step to getting my life together and living it in a positive full way. since this last June I decided not to hide who I am anymore and came out to my friends and family as bisexual at 28 y/o and I will be 29 in May. Sent from my moto g power using BariatricPal mobile app

I had this same issue. What got me through was the chicken Bouillon with added protein that i purchased from bariatricpal store. The sodium is high but I needed a break from everything sweet and it had the required protein. you could try getting an unflavored protein and add it to a low sodium bone broth. It may be enough to get you through.

Its hard to make the decision to do this surgery until you know for a fact that you have to get it. I haven't had the easiest ride since surgery and there are a few more like me. For about 3 weeks after surgery, I had buyers remorse and I did buy it myself. Then things turned around a little and got better. I love my new stomach now, I love how little I am able to eat and am growing in confidence in the foods that I can try again. Take your time with the decision, you can always return later if the time is not right for you now. I would say though that you need to listen only to your inner voice. Your husband may be having second thoughts and passing these on to you. Take care and good luck

Thanks for checking in and letting us know how you're doing. I'm glad you gutted through to Day 4 and no longer have the buyer's remorse. It just takes time. Good luck on your WLS journey.

I don't know your age, situation, weight, other health problems, etc. If you think you can do this without surgery, then do it without surgery. I am not being sarcastic. It is a huge, life-altering decision and if I could do it without surgery, I would. But the surgery isn't just another way of saying, "Eat right and exercise." I understand what your husband is saying: with or without surgery, you will have to watch what you eat and stay active. But I struggle to explain to people how the surgery changed me, in terms of my relationship with food. Bypass/sleeve doesn't just make your stomach physically smaller; it changes the hormones from your stomach. My cravings for food are so much weaker and different; I don't crave rich foods (I am much more likely to crave saltines than cake). More than any time in my life, I see food simply as fuel rather than a source of pleasure/joy. I choose foods as much for how they will make my stomach feel than how they taste (my stomach will find it much easier to digest fish than steak, so I am much more likely to order salmon at a restaurant than sirloin). It's easier to stay disciplined when you don't even feel the same tug toward the foods that destroyed your old diets.

I started the second week of pre-op diet yesterday which means only liquids. It’s actually not that bad because I’m full of liquid all the time. My mind tries to tell me that I want something to eat, but I’m truly not stomach hungry. I guess that’s good since the post-op diet is liquids for awhile, too.

according to your profile, you're hoping to lose about 150 lbs, so yes, you'll almost certainly have loose skin. Fortunately, most of us are able to hide it pretty well by the way we dress. I'm sure no one noticed mine (well, except my husband...). I originally lost 235 lbs, so I had a ton of it (I've since had it removed since it was driving me nuts, even though no one could see it). Honestly, I think I can speak for most vets who've lost 100+ lbs that we'd take the lose skin any day of the week over being morbidly obese again. ANY DAY!!!