That's where I'm coming from, Jen. I think to accept that this is normal you really have to accept the understanding that being heavy in and of itself is a disease. I don't really accept that. I weigh about what I weighed when I graduated from high school (not too many people can say that, actually). I have not been "normal weight" for my adult height since 6th grade. I work with what I've got. I know there are people suffering at my weight with all kinds of joint issues, especially if they used to be thin, but I know just as many bigger people who are out there doing their stuff. I was creamed in a ten mile race by a woman who easily had 100 pounds on me, and I weighed 230 at the time. It's a false statement to say your weight makes you incapable - everybody can adapt to better health, better mobility, lower blood sugar, etc. no matter what their weight. My husband is in the lower end of normal BMI (5'5" and 130-135 lbs) and is prediabetic despite being on a VLC diet. Is he supposed to solve his problem with major abdominal surgery?

I love that attitude, you rock!

It wouldn't apply for everyone but I so feel this way as well.

The thing that has always bothered me about Weight Loss Surgery is that it does not "correct" anything; in fact, the whole point is to make a body system work badly.

This just isn't a good idea.

The only thing that distinguishes it from jaw-wiring (remember that? Used to be every woman's magazine ran a story on it once a year) is that jaw-wiring is reversible. It used to be well-known that any stomach surgery destroys the person's appetite; part of the recovery period is getting that back. So much of the WLS cheerleading goes on in the Honeymoon Time before full recovery, such as it is, is reached. And once that happens, hunger returns with a vengeance; and now the person is even less able to cope with it.

I was an active, slender child, but in my case puberty turned me pear-shaped, and my desperate attempts to turn myself from a tall, broadshouldered, bigfooted girl into Tinkerbelle only ruined a metabolism already genetically leaning towards carb-intolerance. If WLS could correct my pancreas overreacting to incoming carbs, there might be a scientific basis behind it. But that's not what it does. It's just high-tech jaw-wiring.

I think that 99% of the time, obesity is caused, and maintained, by the staggering overload of carbohydrates that is so common in our society that we low carbers are the "strange ones." Ironically enough, many many people, after WLS, find that the only foods that their revamped digestive system can handle are the low fat, super-sugary items that are possibly the worst things you can eat. This is often pointed out by blogger Melting Mama, a WLS patient who has seizures from her surgery.

No thanks.

Well my sister has had the lap band and my fathers wife has had gastric bypass and both have done wonderfully and have become very active with exercise and their confidence and health has improved greatly!

On the other side of the coin here I am no surgery have gained the 40lbs I lost lc 3 years ago plus 13 more and I struggle daily with my weight and obsess what I can and can't put in my mouth - I don't think that it's a great way to live but I keep trying and keep hoping that one day my weight will be under control and stay off for good as I really don't want wl surgery but I can see where it was a good decision for some. I just know thou that my weight yo yo probably isn't the best for me either. But I will keep plugging away at it - one day it'll stick

I do envy them when we go clothes shopping of course as I still need to shop in the "special" stores and they can go anywhere.

No, another poster weighs 211. I weigh 135.

I could never maintain without my sleeve, I would regain without it.

First of all I self paid for both my surgeries, my band and my revision to a sleeve. My insurance would have paid for my band and a bulk of my sleeve but I didn't want to jump through insurance hoops and wait 6-8 months. For my revision ins would have paid most of it but I wanted my original surgeon to do it.

Most people who have surgery do have issues such as high blood pressure, diabetes, all kinds of issues and when they lose weight it saves the ins co money because they aren't paying for all the medical costs due to obesity anymore. That is why medicaid pays for surgery, it saves them money in the end merely because it is more cost effective.

Obesity is a disease, the most effective known treatment is surgery. Yep, I think by the time we hit the 30BMI point (obese) we should be able to get treatment. Some can do it on their own, I was not one of them. I just didn't want to fight the battle anymore. And today I don't fight it.

But that's not true across the board that we all ate ourselves to the point of obesity. It was true in my case but it's not the case for everyone. There are plenty of people that have serious metabolic probems and the only way they are going to lose is via surgery.

My surgery isn't all that extreme, not in comparison to bypass or DS. It was life altering in the sense that I got my life back. I look at feel better than I have in 20 years. Surgery can be a very good option.

Don't you think most people that opt for surgery (and epecially self pay) did try to cut down in portions and eat better foods? If they could have done it without surgery they would have. Then you have some that can't even do well WITH surgery. They just can't stop eating poor food choices.

They are currently doing clinical trials where they are taking non-overweight people and doing weight loss surgery because it is the fix for diabetes.

I think we will find more and more people having these procedures. I mean, look at elementary kids today, half of them are obese. We have 10 year olds that are as big as a house and at 10 they are diabetic and have high blood pressure.

Today 1/3 of the US population is normal weight, 1/3 is overweight and 1/3 is obese. This is a big huge problem and it's only getting worse, not better. Studies show that women who get pregnant with a high BMI will likely have a child that will struggle with their weight throughout their lives. Since 2/3 of the population is overweight/obese that's a whole lotta large pregnant women out there. Yet if that same woman loses weight and then gets pregnant her child has less risk of obesity throughout their life.

Sorry, but, what?

Just reading this thread is getting me fired up, so suffice to say I completely agree with WereBear, who has already said far more eloquently than I could type how I feel about this topic.

You can't really assume all surgery types do as you claim. I am not a fan of bypass (the surgery type Beth/Melting Mama has) because with that surgery there are huge risks. Reative hypoglycemia, seizures, dumping, the works. The reason many bypass folks fail is because the stoma, or the hole where food passes from the stomach to the intestine dilates. Then there is nothing keeping food in the stomach and the person IS hungry.

But that isn't true of all surgery types. You really can't lump them all in there and diss 'em all and assume each one will have issues.

How do you figure that a sleeve makes my body work badly?

Bypass most certainly is reversible, you can remove a lap band, sleeves and DS are not reversible. But I don't want reversible, I want forever and that is what I have.

Our population tends to have 3x more hunger causing hormone - Ghrelin, than naturally thin people. Sleeves remove the excess Ghrelin. I've been at goal for over three years now and absolutely nothing that you have written applies to me in the least or most of us for that matter. You are taking all the worst effects of bypass and assuming we all experience these issues and it's simply not accurate.

DS actually corrects hormonal issues that lead to obesity, it doesn't make the body work badly.

I do agree with you about overloading with carbs. But that isn't really the fault of many people. There was a person posting that finally had WLS and she was putting together the info for her ins company and she ran accross years worth of nutritionists advice and the first one she went to was in the 70s. She still had the paperwork. She was told to eat all the bread, pasta, potatoes that she wanted but no fat, none. In the AMs she was told eat a bagel but no butter or cream chz. Carbs were fine, fat was the enemy. So now 100# bigger she finally had surgery.

Look at how many times they have changed the food pyramid. This is why I am not a fan of malabsorption because there is just so much about nutrition we do not know yet.

All in all I do have to say that you really are misinformed about various WLS types. They are not high tech jaw wiring.

If their diabetes is out of control and insulin isn't doing the job anymore they need some treatment and DS has something like a 97 or 98% 'cure' rate. I would assume in a normal size person they wouldn't bypass as much intestine.

Parts of previous posts remind me of thin people telling fat people "you just need to cut your calories and exercise more." Really?!

Agreed.

I spent around 20 grand, who knew just cutting calories could do it! HA!

If it is so doable why isn't every person posting at goal?

Whenever I see this about a diabetes "cure", though, it makes me think of Jenny's Diabetes Blog:
http://diabetesupdate.blogspot.com/...ic-bypasss.html

I hope you did not take that from my post as it was not my intention. My intention was to say that eating well and moving your body are keys to health - at any weight! Some folks are just never going to be thin, but it is still possible to have a healthy, exciting life. I would have to diet to the weight I was when I was 12 to be "normal-sized". I don't have alot of hope for that but I don't let it stop me from eating well or taking care of my body and I wish the same for others, and more, if it helps them shed pounds, too. Even if getting up from a chair is a serious struggle, anyone can become more capable and stronger, whatever their weight, by practicing and with encouragement. Anyone can identify foods that make them feel like hell and work on eating healing foods.