NYCDanielle1980

My question is this: we all have been on various diets, exercise, eat abnormally small amounts compared to our friends who are much thinner than us. Therefore, how does weight loss occur from surgery if it only makes you eat less? Does the surgery speed up the metabolism? If not, does it really work for PCOS?

odiej

The food you eat gets digested faster, and because it limits how much you can eat it turns the food you are eating into fuel. The surgery is a "Tool" if you don't exercise and eat correctly at first you will lose weight but the effects will not last.

This is definately not an easy thing to go threw, it is still alot of work. Plus you have to add in vitamins and protein to your daily regemin since our body's malabsorb some of the nutrients we eat. You also can get dehydrated very easily so that is something you have to be aware of and conscience of keeping water by your side for most of the day.

I lost 100 pounds in my first 11 months post-op by walking and going to curves, with the surgery you chose your own destiny. I have lost 126lbs total in 20 months. It was the right choice for me.

** editing to say since i have lost my weight my cysts have slowed down, and not comming back as often or getting as large as they did before surgery. so it does help with pcos.

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Jodi
me 30 dh 36

TDoern

I have to give you points, that’s an awesome question, and actually one of the things I thought long and hard about before I had my gastric bypass “Roux-en-Y” (RNY) surgery on December 6, 2007.

Weight loss surgery is not the magic “fix everything” button that some people thing it is. WLS, in my opinion, is a tool that can be used to change your life and habits.

First, I want to say I had the RNY surgery, and my experience is my own, and my opinions. I suggest before setting your mind to one surgery or the other that you research all of the surgery options that are out there. I also suggest finding all the bariatric surgeons in your area, going to their seminars, and finding what surgeon you want to use. Then sit down with your primary doctor, then the surgeon you have picked, and talk to them about what surgery will fit YOU the best. Just because the RNY was my surgery of choice doesn’t mean it would be the surgery for my mom. Picking a surgery and surgeon is a very personal choice depending on what you are looking for.
As I said, I had the RNY, so my experience is limited to that surgery. Also, as I said, I did not look at WLS as the “EASY button”, my surgery was a tool that I used to live healthier. The RNY surgery does a few things that help a person lose weight, and keep it gone.
1. The RNY surgery DOES make you eat less, at first. Coming out of surgery a gulp of water would fill me up and make me uncomfortable. At three weeks post-op I was allowed to have one egg each day in addition to my two protein shakes each day. Even now it’s hard to imagine, but ¼ of and egg made me full, I’m talking about two teaspoons of scrambled egg.
2. The RNY surgery makes you chew better. Chewing better helps get food down in the beginning and after awhile, even now at just over a year post-op I have to chew food really well or I risk something getting stuck. Getting food stuck hurts. It’s one quick way of correcting yourself, if you do something that hurts you won’t want to keep doing it. Chewing your food better means it takes longer to eat. The longer it takes you to eat between bites the more time your stomach has to get the message out that you are full.
3. The RNY surgery also takes out or moves part of your intestines (I can’t remember which). Taking that part of your intestines out of the picture, and having the smaller stomach for food to go in means that you aren’t absorbing everything you used to. This was one of the reasons I chose the RNY surgery, I knew I’d done plenty of diets where I starved myself that didn’t work.
4. The RNY surgery (for the most part) tells you when you screw up. Most people who have had the RNY surgery end up experiencing something called dumping. Basically dumping happens when you eat too much of something you shouldn’t be eating. For example I can eat two of the tiny chocolate chip cookies you get from the refrigerated section at the store, but if I eat a whole big cookie I feel sick as a dog. I can eat about three tablespoons of ice cream without problem, but after that my stomach says I’ve eaten too much. Dumping for me feels like a really bad fast flu. I feel horribly sick to my stomach, I get sick from both ends, get chills and sweats and just feel crappy. I am lucky in that I’ve been very strict with what I allow myself to eat, and in the past year since surgery have dumped maybe a handful of times. Dumping was also one of the reason I chose the RNY surgery, I knew I needed a consequence to eating wrong or I would never learn. Having your body beat you over the head with the fact you ate the wrong stuff makes you pay a little more attention to what you eat.

As I mentioned, the RNY surgery wasn’t the “EASY button” for me. The surgery allowed me to change my lifestyle and eating habits permanently. Post-op just getting in enough water was work in itself, then adding in trying to get in enough protein to keep my body healthy was more work. I didn’t have time to think about all the foods I wasn’t eating, I was too worried about getting in what I HAD to have. I HAD to eat slower, I HAD to chew better so that it didn’t get stuck. I can still remember the first time I caved in to a craving, it was some cookie dough, and I can tell you that little bit of cookie dough was not worth what I went through. To this day I can’t even think of eating cookie dough without regretting it.

Does WLS work for PCOS? For me, it has. I can’t say that everything is like new and all, but all of my symptoms are less if not gone. I weighed 297 pounds the day I got home from surgery, Before my surgery I hadn’t had a period without medication since I was twenty in 2000, and even with stuff like provera or birth control pills my period might just be a wipe, or never come at all. Hubby and I did a year of fertility medications, and nothing, we couldn’t even get me to ovulate let alone get pregnant. I had a super hairy face I was shaving or waxing or epilating every other day or so, I had tons of back hair, chest and stomach hair too. I had HUGE dark black/brown patches on the back of my neck, underarms and such from insulin resistance.

What’s changed? I am now having a period every 29 days like clock work, whether I want to or not. The dark patches under my arms and on my neck are gone. I no longer feel the ups and downs from sugar and carbs. My facial hair and such aren’t completely gone, but I can tell you it’s much less than it was. I only have to do something about it every week or two versus almost daily. As of this morning I weigh 151 pounds.

What did I change in my life to get where I am? I made a commitment to exercising even though it’s painful. I have some back problems that I’ve had since 2000, that are still getting worse, my L4-L5-S1 in my lumbar back ruptured and was fused together, I have degenerative disc disease, my L2-L3-L4 are bulging, and I have nerve damage in my back and legs from the disc problems. Just about anything hurts including walking and sitting and such, but I still do it. I no longer live on carbs, carbs are at the bottom of my list instead of the top When I sit down to eat I eat my protein first, grilled chicken or beef, baked foods and such first, then if I have room some veggies and last if I still have room a bite or two of a carb. For example yesterday I had about two scrambled eggs, with a bit of cheese and bacon for breakfast. Lunch was Tuna salad with some lettuce, I had a snack of edamame (soy beans), then dinner was grilled chicken with asparagus, my desert was about two or three spoons of ice cream. I drink water all day long now too instead of juice or milk, or soda, and things. I enjoy water. If I’m craving something sweet it’s normally fruit, not candy.

I didn’t have WLS to cheat, I didn’t allow a surgeon to go in and rework my insides to quit. There are people I have talked to who did screw up. One person on a support site is now three years out of surgery, she had the same surgery as me, and she can eat half a pizza, and guzzles soda. She’s also gained back most of her weight. There are people I’ve talked to who did the same thing, they saw the surgery as the fix it, without changing anything in their lives, that’s not the way it works. Surgery isn’t a temporary diet, it’s a life change. You have to work to get results, and you have to stay true to your new ways of eating and living. MY WLS changed my life, but that’s because I changed too, if all I done was eat less I’d be exactly where I was, and I would be doing the same up and down dieting I’d done all my life.

I’ m not sure if any of that answers your question as well as I wish it did, but I hope it helps at least some.
Tammy

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jackie_h1

Open RNY February 8, 2002. Gosh it seems like just yesterday, it's hard to believe it's been nearly 7 years since I had my surgery. I would love to share my experience with all of SoulCysters. This is my experience only, my knowledge of the procedure and the aftercare. I worked as a post surgical nurse in the recovery room and also on the unit in a exclusive batriatric hospital here in Southeast MI. About a year after my surgery I was asked to be a support group leader and I happily took on that roll as well. For the first 6 years of my post-op life I was very involved, very proactive. Then I had back surgery and life changed (now disabled after 2nd back surgery) & take things pretty easy. I stepped down as SGL, but still attend meetings as often as I can (being with other post ops really helps keep me on track). I'm now a SAHM to my 3 beautiful girls (ages 10, 7, and my post-op baby girl who's 3). I really LOVE being home with my girls. My husband and I don't prevent another baby, but due to my PCOS I don't have a cycle unless it's medically induced.
Anyhow, why did I chose RNY surgery? At the time in 2000-2001 when I was researching each procedure and attending seminars, the GOLD STANDARD in the USA was the Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery. Having the surgery with the open incision (down the midline of the abdomen) wait time was about 1 month. Laparoscopic wait time was 6-12 months. I went with the open procedure as I wanted this done fast.
I've always been overweight, obese, morbidly obese, and super morbidly obese in my first 27 years of life. My top weight was 374 pounds and I was truly miserable. I'm only 5'4", so that's alot of weight on my small frame (oh my, it's still crazy to think I have a small frame versus always thinking I was big boned). I wanted the procedure, the renewed birthday ASAP! I had my consult with Dr. Neil S. Marymor on 12/11/2001, due to holidays my INS approval was delayed. They called me on December 28th but the doctor didn't get the approval until January 17...my PreOp testing was 1/27/2002 and surgery 2/8/2002! I had witnessed 2 people in my family have this surgery and do very well. I also had a close friend have the surgery and not do very well. I asked her what went wrong and she told me, "Jackie, the surgery worked for me, I didn't work for the surgery!" she openly admitted that she did NOT follow the post-op lifestyle changes. She said she could eat a Snickers bar with no problems and her portions were just as big now as they were 3 years before when she had her surgery in 1998. I promised myself, I promised my husband, and my family that I would give this my all. I wanted to succeed. I didn't know what the magic number would be on the scale, but I knew that I wanted to feel good about ME, feel good about my health, feel good about my decision to have this surgery. So I can say at that time I truly made a "Commitment" to myself to do my very best as a post-op RNY/WLS patient!
Researching procedures was a task I did as well. At the time I was attending seminars on the RNY, the DS or the BPD/DS, VBG, and just coming out was the Lapband. One of the reasons I chose RNY is because I wanted more children. I had 2 daughters, but did want to try again after I lost weight. The DS or BPD w/DS are very malabsorptive and with me wanting to nourish a baby, I didn't want to stress over "am I nourishing myself? Am I nourishing the baby?" I know the vitamin/supplementation is greater and I just didn't feel comfortable with either of these procedures. If I didn't want children, I would have chose either one. (PM me for more personal opinion/experience) The seminar I attended the surgeon did the BPD/DS on the higher end BMI patients. The VBG and Lapband were NOT enough for me. Just having the "restrictive" property was NOT enough for me. So I chose RNY, both "restrictive" and "malabsorptive". I knew me being a food/sugar/chocolate ADDICT, I needed the procedure, for me RNY, the "tool", that would help me in every aspect, lose weight, gain health, learn proper nutrition, to move my body/exercise, and keep the weight off long term. Even today @ nearly 7 years post op I rely on the low carb, higher protein, water, and exercise....sound familar? Another aspect of RNY that I liked and needed was "Dumping Syndrome". For me this is a built in body mechanism that tells me that "Oops! You ate too much sugar or fat!" I know to make changes and not to eat that again! When I dump I have flu like symptoms (nausea, flushed, clammy, dizzy, abdominal pain, and loose stools)--I can have 1 or all symptoms, it varies on what I ate! But trust me it's not fun and you are telling yourself "I won't eat that again!" My eating plan said no more than 2gm of sugar per snack or meal (hard to live by, I can avoid dumping and eat about 8gm of sugar), also no more than 12gm of fat per meal or snack--ok by me! Every surgeons/dieticians program varies a little, it's always fun to compare notes. Some surgeons only want you eating 3 times a day, some say 6 very small meals/snacks. I still eat 3 small meals & maybe 2 snacks. Also in my first 2 years after surgery, if I ate too much, I could tell immediately within a bite or 2. I would need to go to the bathroom and purge or throw up, but for me, I would only throw up that 1 or 2 bites, it's not like vomitting pre-surgery.
I now know that I needed the "restriction", "malabsorption", and also "dumping syndrome" to help teach me to use the "tool" of the RNY surgery for what it's intended. I am very satisfied, very happy w/this procedure!
Just this past summer I had a scope to examine my pouch. At nearly 7 years post op my pouch is normal size, my stoma (opening from pouch to intestine) is narrow, and my weight is good.
Being a post-op nurse and support group leader for 6 years I have seen alot of men and women have this surgery. Many thinking it's a "quick fix" for their weight problems. This is by NO MEANS a fix of any kind. It won't fix your marriage, it won't fix your happiness, it can fix your weight, but it won't keep your weight down, unless YOU make permanent LIFESTYLE CHANGES!!! --- all of these require YOUR participation and YOU making the CHANGES necessary for the fix to happen. It always takes WORK and PARTICIPATION on YOUR part. That's what I've learned, it's all on what I DO! I must follow the rules to be healthy, a nice weight, and to feel good. 1.)watch what I eat 2.)portion control 3.)water intake 80-100oz per day 4.)MOVE my body/exercise
I also wanted to say that not everyone shares the same experience. Not everyone loses weight at the same pace. I've seen some patients lose fast (all their weight gone in 10 months) while others it takes up to 3 years (that was ME)!!! I've learned do NOT compare yourself to others, everyone's surgical/post op experience is personal and individual. Just keep doing what is best for your body, keep utilizing the "tool" and the weight will come off and you will feel better!
I feel GREAT at 160 pounds, I feel GOOD at 200 pounds and both are better than 374 pounds! I've learned that the number on the scale doesn't matter. The size in my jeans doesn't matter! Sure when both are low it feels good to tell the entire world, but when it's not, I keep a closed lip! I've learned it's all on how I feel physically. Sure I feel better at the lower weight. But I know that there are many post ops who don't reach that doctors goal weight of 120 pounds (including myself), but for someone who is super morbidly obese to go to an overweight status...that's an accomplishment and I know they feel 100% better! Because I DO!
Here I sit at nearly 7 years post-op and I look at society and losing weight. I don't find my lifestyle any different than the average person trying to lose or maintain their weight. I keep watching what I eat (low fat, low sugar, higher protein, low carb), portion control---everything in moderation (I eat no more than 1 1/2 cups of food per serving), drinking tons of water--not too much diet soda and lastly move my butt/exercise. With my back problems it's hard, but I've learned that being sedentary doesn't help my weight or my overall health. My girlfriend who never had surgery follows just about the same rules! It cracks me up that for once in my life I feel "normal"!

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