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It does work for many but my concerns were with committing to a lifetime of vitamins, a restricted diet, surgical risks (though much safernow), etc. There actually is a rather long thread on the topic from less than a year ago. Just search "gastric bypass"
It is still quite possible for people to defeat the procedure by not changing their behavior in the long run.
After years of struggling with this, I have finally lost 60 lbs with about 60 to go by calorie counting, excercise and not looking for magic cures and it is very hard but it is a complete lifestyle change. She needs to be the one asking the questions though.
Has she gone to a nutritionist? I know I would not tell anyone I cared about to go in for GP because of all the risks involved and the cost. If she just failed on marketed diets tell her to go to a nutritionist for sure. The marketed diet is just a tweak of general nutrition. She will find that general good nutrition has a lot more flexibility and is much easier to do and stick to. Some people call it "calorie counting" diets. The only drawback is getting started can be rough until you get familiar with the info. With cell phones now though you don't really need to carry cal counting books and guess etc. I think that makes the general nutrition/cal counting diet easier.
I had the RNY gastric bypass in March of this year. I have lost a total of 63 lbs since beginning the run-up to the surgery.
It is not a magic caure by any means! Even with laparoscopic surgery, there is a LOT of pain for about 10 days. You vomit a lot until you get used to 6 oz meals; no snacks, no fluids for 30 min before or after meals or during meals; taking your meds spaced out over the day; losing hair as your body adjusts (most grow it back eventually); counting food weights, protein amounts, calories for the rest of your life; need for exercise 5 days/week; and all this for the rest of your life. Many gain back all the weight they lose plus more.
It can be quite expensive, $30K and up unless insurance pays some of the cost.
I am grateful I had the surgery but it is not easy.
Also what HAS she done? Has she made a truly serious and concerted effort using a sensible approach?
I had years of failed diets before I realized there was no "magic bullet" and that unfair as it may be, I simply have to work harder than many to loose an equivalent amount of weight.
Each person is different. I am not going to judge anybody who has been done this but I would hope that the doctors and insurance compnay would require a comprehensive diet and excercise log as well as clear documentation of past attempts before putting someone under the knife. I kind of doubt it though because I had a doctor tell me to gain some weight so I would qualify. WTF?
I have heard that the lap band does not typically get you as far towards the weight loss goal as does the bypass but I am not sure. Either way it is surgery.
My daughter is considering this after 10 years of failed diets.
Does anyone have experience with this procedure.
I have had several friends who have done it. My husband had the vertical sleeve gastrectomy done about one year ago had has lost 160 pounds. He had tried Weight Watchers, Nutrisystems and other things (plus working out.) It was truly a last resort for him, but he would do it again in a heartbeat.
The gastric sleeve procedure is not as well known as the Roux en y (gastric bypass) or lapband. It's a relative newcomer to bariatric surgery. I think it began being done about 7 years ago. A good portion of the stomach is removed, but there is not re-routing of intestines so you have to deal with a lot of deficiencies and need for vitamin supplementation as with the gastric bypass.
That was what my husband like about it.
If your daughter is interested, I am posting a link.http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/vsg
Some insurances will pay for this newer procedure and some will not. It is cheaper than the bypass. So a lot of people are able to self-pay if their insurance won't (which is what my husband did.)
(There is also info on this website regarding other types of bariatric surgery such as the roux en y and lapband.) The gastric bypass is generally recommended for people who have as much weight to lose as my husband did, and he considered it but ultimately chose the sleeve procedure.
Just let me hasten to add I agree with the others, however, that bariatric surgery really does need to be a last resort. If someone can lose without surgery, I think they're better off to do so. At a certain weight,howver, some people, maybe most people will just not be able to persevere long enough and hard enough to significantly impact the amount they need to lose for health reasons without surgical intervention IMO. The surgery kinda gives them "a fighting chance" to really impact their health.
I went on the site and looked and found it interesting that calorie consumption after the procedure about 500 day but then up to about 900-1500 after a year. Assuming the higher end of the range is for men...........
Right now I am eating about 1200 calories a day and really monitoring nutrition AND doing excercise. I hope to be able to maintain at that level but it really takes some dedication to be there. At this level, I am supplementing with potassium (no salt) because most potassium sources are also high in sugar.......
So what I am eating on my non surgerized stomach is about where they will be. I am warding of hunger by eating about 33% of protein, carbs, and fat right now (subject to change) and eating a LOT of fiber. I dropped the carbs from about 50%. Really have to watch for hidden sugar.
That new procedure looks straightforward. I never understood why it was not the FIRST line of defense compared to the bypass. I really did, it just makes so much more sense in my non-medical mind.
As a diabetic, there is a clear advantage to the bypass. The first 3 ft of your intestines are removed and that is where a lot of hormones are produced/affect glucose control. Many diabetics do not need meds or insulin after the surgery. I went from 300 units/day to about 15 units/day. needing that much insulin, it was impossible to lose weight.
The lap-band takes up to 3 yrs to achieve full results vs. about 1 yr for the RNY. It also results typically in less weight loss overall, maybe 60% vs 80% of the excess.
Medicare now pays for weight-loss surgery as it is cheaper than years of meds, hospitalizations for strokes, heart attacks, amputations (diabetics).
That new procedure looks straightforward. I never understood why it was not the FIRST line of defense compared to the bypass. I really did, it just makes so much more sense in my non-medical mind.
Well, also some people still favor the bypass for those who have massive amounts of weight to lose because of the malabsorption with the bypass. Not all calories are absorbed but they are with the sleeve procedure. It is still thought that because not all nutrients are absorbed, the bypass may cause more weight to be lost and those who are very, very obese may need this added boost to lose and keep enough weight off. Hope my explanation makes sense.
It kinda cuts both ways. (No pun intended!) The malabsorption probably gives more weight loss but a person also loses more nutrients that way and has to do more supplementation. I do think, however, that many will elect to do the sleeve rather than the bypass now, however. The lap band, however, has also had a lot of complications associated with it. For example, one friend of mine that had lap band did well with it, but had to have it removed after a couple of years because it was eroding the stomach and it's my understanding she was not a rare case with this. I think ultimately the sleeve procedure will replace lapband. Also, for some the sleeve will allow them to come off their diabetes meds immediately after surgery like the bypass. This was the case for my husband. He took metformin and glucophage, not a high doses, but after his sleeve surgery, he was able to immediately be taken off them and has maintained proper sugar levels since then. The medical authorities are not sure why this is the case with the sleeve procedure since it doesn't involve the intestines, but something in the stomach seems to also be involved in affecting sugar levels.
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