Hoping to end The Weight Loss Yo-Yo Story

[VIN_IN_AL 55]

Weight management has always been an issue my entire life, I have gained and lost over 100 pounds THREE times in the last 15 years, hoping the FORTH time post-surgery will be the last.

Whatever diet program, book, shot or pill that has come along in the last 15 years, most likely I have already tried it and unfortunately failed. If your “considering” non-surgical alternatives to weight loss surgery feel free to ask me, most likely I have used it at least once and have accurate records of what was used and what were the results and pros / cons of each. The “pill of the month” currently is Contrave Blue which I have been on since December 2019.

I have been avoiding weight loss surgery for years. My sister had full bypass surgery 20 years ago and unfortunately, she has suffered complications for many years.

At the end of 2018 I had ballooned to the heaviest I have ever been, started January 1, 2019 I was a “Big Mac and Large Fry” away from 400+ pounds. My blood pressure was extremely high, and my new primary care physician was very blunt during my first visit, “lose weight or die” was the basic theme of our health conversations.

Even with that much bad news and new physician pushing for weight loss surgery, I still was trying to avoid surgery. I decided to take an alternate route, take some time off from work and attend a Weight Loss Boot Camp for 10 weeks at a cost of over $15,000 self-payed of course since health insurance does not cover this type of activity. Unfortunately, life has ways to make things difficult at the worst time and I only was able to complete 6 weeks

For those interested I have a blog that chronicles my weight loss efforts at the weight loss bootcamp last year, good reading for those thinking about that route.

https://vin1959.blogspot.com/

For reasons I will expand on in future messages, the weight loss boot camp adventure did not get the job done and weight loss surgery has now become necessary. At this stage I am not going to play the “pre-approve documentation game” and wait for my health insurance company to say I am covered, I am simply going the SELF -PAY route and will plan for the Gastric-Sleeve procedure hopefully in April this year.

[FluffyChix 17,418]

8 hours ago, VIN_IN_AL said:

Weight management has always been an issue my entire life, I have gained and lost over 100 pounds THREE times in the last 15 years, hoping the FORTH time post-surgery will be the last.

Whatever diet program, book, shot or pill that has come along in the last 15 years, most likely I have already tried it and unfortunately failed. If your “considering” non-surgical alternatives to weight loss surgery feel free to ask me, most likely I have used it at least once and have accurate records of what was used and what were the results and pros / cons of each. The “pill of the month” currently is Contrave Blue which I have been on since December 2019.

I have been avoiding weight loss surgery for years. My sister had full bypass surgery 20 years ago and unfortunately, she has suffered complications for many years.

At the end of 2018 I had ballooned to the heaviest I have ever been, started January 1, 2019 I was a “Big Mac and Large Fry” away from 400+ pounds. My blood pressure was extremely high, and my new primary care physician was very blunt during my first visit, “lose weight or die” was the basic theme of our health conversations.

Even with that much bad news and new physician pushing for weight loss surgery, I still was trying to avoid surgery. I decided to take an alternate route, take some time off from work and attend a Weight Loss Boot Camp for 10 weeks at a cost of over $15,000 self-payed of course since health insurance does not cover this type of activity. Unfortunately, life has ways to make things difficult at the worst time and I only was able to complete 6 weeks

For those interested I have a blog that chronicles my weight loss efforts at the weight loss bootcamp last year, good reading for those thinking about that route.

https://vin1959.blogspot.com/

For reasons I will expand on in future messages, the weight loss boot camp adventure did not get the job done and weight loss surgery has now become necessary. At this stage I am not going to play the “pre-approve documentation game” and wait for my health insurance company to say I am covered, I am simply going the SELF -PAY route and will plan for the Gastric-Sleeve procedure hopefully in April this year.

Welcome. Most of us are "champeen" losers. Most of us have lost hundreds of pounds countless times in our lives. And clearly most of us suck at maintaining. Not only are we fighting our internal habits of a lifetime with food (addictions, using food as a drug, disordered eating behaviors, etc), but we also battle our metabolism and the neurohormones and gut hormones and insulin/glucagon, derangement that happens once obesity has set in. So we are walking time bombs.

I would encourage you to spend time doing the head work. I would encourage working with a counselor and an RD. Please don't wing it. You only get one golden shot. After that, revisions become dicier and weight loss is usually slower plus you'll be out a lot of money. Please consider what kind of surgery you need. Do you need malabsorption in addition to restriction? Only you know this.

Hope you post often.

[VIN_IN_AL 55]

21 minutes ago, FluffyChix said:

I would encourage you to spend time doing the head work. I would encourage working with a counselor and an RD. Please don't wing it. 

Thank you for the response and I absolutely agree with you 100%!

I have absolutely NO intention to do this on my own, I should have mentioned that prior to moving forward with the weight loss boot camp that I had already been working with a surgeon that was recommended to me by my primary care physician. I already completed the psychiatric evaluation, scheduled my pre-op nutrition program and had already finalized my surgical procedure decision for the gastric sleeve. I had all historical weight loss documentation in place and all that was missing was the submission of paperwork to insurance for final approval and the selection a date for the surgery. It was then that I got cold feet and took an unexpected right turn and tried a final non-surgical solution.

I am already in the process of selecting a new surgeon, had an appointment with one yesterday 2/13 and have an appointment with another surgeon next week as well as a follow up with my primary care physician.

I joined this forum due to a weight loss surgery support recommendation from the office I visited yesterday. 😊