Not a lot of ESG folks?

[ESGinGA 1]

Compared to all the other forums, this one seems kinda dead? I know it’s a newer procedure, but are there really that few people?

Getting the procedure done at the end of this month and would love any tips, lessons learned, etc! Even just success stories would be great!

[SleeveToBypass2023 2,637]

It might be because the reality of this particular surgery is that it's not permanent, the expected weight loss if you are completely compliant is between 12-20% of excess body weight and we typically need to lose a lot more, and insurance won't cover it. It's around $10,000 and people tend to want better results for that kind of money.

[ESGinGA 1]

Makes sense. I guess I thought the low invasiveness would appeal to more people.

[SleeveToBypass2023 2,637]

On 9/13/2024 at 3:57 PM, ESGinGA said:

Makes sense. I guess I thought the low invasiveness would appeal to more people.

Not so much because we need something that gives drastic results, that's permanent and can't be undone, and will be a tool that will help and almost force us to stick to the diet and make good choices. If it's something that can be easily undone, then when it gets hard and we feel like it sucks, we can go in a moment of frustration and have it undone. Not to mention, the weight loss isn't as much, which is something most of us need.

At my surgery weight, I was 388. My goal weight was 190. So my excess weight was 198 pounds. With this surgery, I only would have lost 40-50 pounds. That wouldn't have made any sense at all. There are a few articles I saw that had people lose 35% of their excess weight, but that's the exception and not the rule. But even then, I would have only lost 65 pounds. Still would not have been enough. Wouldn't have even gotten me out of the 300's.

My heaviest weight was 421 and my surgery day weight was 388. With the sleeve, I lost 113 pounds but had complications and needed a revision. Once I had the revision, I lost another 100 pounds. No way could I have done any of that with this particular surgery, and I'm guessing that's why most of us don't look at it. We need something more drastic. Losing 40-65ish pounds wouldn't cut it.