supbanana

I used to be addicted. I ate my way up to 370 pounds through compulsive binging. However, I saw an amazing therapist and my addiction is behind me. The problem now is that the weight is taking forever to come off. I've been dieting and exercising for the last 3+years and have lost 90 lbs, but 2.5years of that time has been spent stalled, including the last year straight, I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong or why my body won't let go of the weight, but addiction no longer has anything to do with it. Food doesn't control me anymore.

Wow!! I'm so happy for you, you look amazing.

Yep! I'll be representing Humboldt County.

How's everybody doing? I'm definitely getting a little nervous about the surgery, starting my pre-op liquid diet tomorrow! Surgery is in a mere two weeks, I can't wait. Does anyone have tips for burning off nervous energy/anxiety??

Thank you so much for sharing your experience! I'm seeing this Dr. Illan August 9th for my surgery and found this very helpful.

It's a really hard decision, I think, and a very personal one. When I first looked into WLS I weighed 370lbs and was considering the duodenal switch because I was so desperate for drastic loss. Then, of course, a patient was admitted to the nursing home I worked out that was suffering serious complications from his own duodenal switch. He ultimately passed away (he had the surgery 10 years earlier, but refused to take his Vitamins and his diet was literally pizza and soda) and it scared me. I decided to lose the weight 'on my own'. First I tried a low-fat diet. I lost 30 pounds quickly and then stalled for two years. I was looking into the RNY when I found the ketogenic diet and decided that diet would be my last serious attempt before WLS. I lost 50 lbs in five months and then stalled for a year straight. My health dramatically improved and I love the low-carb lifestyle, but I finally decided that I can't keep working so hard at weight loss with no results. Today, I am 5'10" and weigh ~280lbs, and my sleeve surgery is scheduled for August 9th. Losing 50% of my excess weight will get me right around 200lbs and I'm okay with that. It took me years to decide to go through with WLS but I truly feel that I did the best I could with diet and exercise. Maybe you could do something similar, find a diet and stick with it, see if it works for you? Even if you hate it, the more weight you can get off pre-surgery, the close you will be to your goal. Even though those three years were so frustrating and full of stalls, I'm glad I stuck it out so I can start WLS 90lbs closer to my goal. Nutrition is not one size fits all, if you've tried low-fat with no success, maybe low-carb would be the way to go, etc. Good luck! (ETA: I'm self pay also. I'm headed to Mexico for my surgery... those three years I spent dieting and failing and crying were pretty helpful because I got to save up the money I needed for the surgery.)

I feel the same way. My surgery is scheduled for August 9th and I'm just a bundle of anxiety and nervous energy. Normally I would diffuse my feelings by talking to other people, but I'm afraid to tell anyone because of the usual, "what if I fail", etc. Glad I have this site.

You are so inspiring! Thank you for sharing.

I know it's not everybody's cup of tea, but I found a great therapist to help me. I used to be a compulsive binge eater - food was how I coped with my feelings and emotions, and I had eaten myself up to 370 pounds by the time I was 21. It took a while to find a good therapist, but she completely changed my life. She used a workbook called "Don't Diet, Live It" (it's on Amazon). I would fill out the workbook chapters and then we would use that as a starting point for our sessions. When I started seeing her, I was suicidal, had social anxiety so bad that I was afraid to leave my house alone, and I was terrified of other people (especially men). Afterwards, zero anxiety, virtually no more fear, reduced depression and I've barely felt suicidal since (as opposed to every single day prior to getting help). It completely changed my life and my outlook. If anyone has any questions about it, they can message me. OP, I wish you the best, I know how frustrating it is. Good luck!

Thank you so much! This is what I needed to hear. I feel a lot better now.

Hi all, my VSG surgery is scheduled for August 9th and I'm really worried that it just won't work. I'm mostly basing this off of the fact that I've been dieting at a calorie deficit for the last three and a half years (low-fat diet for two years, then ketogenic diet for the last year and a half) and I've only lost 80 pounds 'on my own' (from 370lbs to 290lbs). I'm sorry if something like this has been posted before (I'm sure it's a very common concern), there's just so much info here to sort through and I'm a little overwhelmed. Can anyone that was on a strict, long term diet with limited success prior to the VSG tell me about their experience with it?? If the VSG is restriction only, what is the difference between the sleeve restricting food intake and all of us restricting food without it? A friend just asked me this ("why don't you just starve yourself and get the same results?") and I had to admit that I wasn't sure, and that's probably a good thing to know prior to going through with this. I'm just scared because diets didn't work for me, Phentermine didn't work for me, exercise didn't do the trick either... I'm pouring literally all of my money and hope into this surgery and I'm scared, albeit very committed and determined to doing this right. Thank you for your time!

Thank you for your answer! Unfortunately, what I'm doing isn't working for me anymore. Some more history: I was looking into WLS in 2009, but it scared me (and apparently still does, lol, though today I've decided the pros outweigh the cons), so I decided to try to seriously diet first. I started the low-fat diet in January 2010 and lost 30lbs in 3 months, and then completely stalled for the next two years. I looked into weight loss surgery then, discovering the VSG that I had never heard of before, but then found the ketogenic diet and decided to try that as my last attempt at doing this without surgery. I lost 50 pounds in five months and my health has been incredible since I started it, but have been stalled for the last year no matter what I do. I don't want to be struggling like this, trying so hard and seeing no results, for the rest of my life. I can't afford to stay fat due to the depression it's caused me. I'm pretty good about maintaining weight loss, it's just my body hits these walls and seemingly can't go any further and I'm sick of it. I just want to be an average person that blends into the crowd and doesn't get singled out based on my weight. I do have a lot of doubts that I expressed here, but mostly it's just that I don't want to get my hopes up. I'm very excited about this surgery and have been reading as much info as I can take in, and the success I see here is just breathtaking. I'm going to throw everything I have into this and I'm very serious about it, but I don't want to get too excited because if this fails like everything else I've done eventually has, I'll be devastated. I'm glad I've lost as much weight as I have because every pound helps... I just want to be under 200lbs at some point in my adult life. I think the surgery is my best bet, truly.

This is so sad and terrifying, especially given that she told the ride operator that her belt didn't fit. I had a similar experience on a rollercoaster when I was 15, the belt wouldn't fit over my stomach and the ride operators just tried to shove the bar tighter while I literally begged them to let me off. Thankfully they finally did but they weren't happy about it. I can't even imagine what her family must be going through right now and am disgusted, but not surprised, that most people commenting on this are making fun of the woman's size. Screw that, if this article is correct, she told them the belt didn't fit and they wouldn't let her off. Her death was entirely preventable.

Looks like I'm an August sleever as well, I was approved for surgery with Dr. Illan today. I think I'll be booked for August 9th, so I'll be nice and sleeved up in time for my birthday on the 19th! I hope you all have great experiences.

Congratulations! How are you feeling now?