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Bariatric Surgery Updates


Deadlift1

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One of my best friends had gastric bypass surgery shortly before COVID.  He lost nearly 350 pounds and has managed to keep it off.  

Recovery was literally hell on earth for him and he ended up in the hospital a half dozen times in the first 6 months after surgery for various complications including dehydration (he could not drink more than a teaspoon of liquid for the longest time).

After about 6-8 months, life started returning to normal for him and by the end of the first year, he was fully recovered.

He's a hundred times more happy about himself, but he still has to take vitamins and supplements daily and he can't eat many things he used to like.  (This can be both good and bad.)

I generally would not recommend it unless its a last resort.  The surgery while effective is super hard on the body and if you can make a change through diet and exercise, I would HIGHLY recommend that approach first.  It's literally a forced lifestyle change.  

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1 hour ago, liubit said:

A question, @RadioRob.  I guess that your friend, after losing 350 lbs (a tremendous weight loss), had severe skin-sagging issues among his complications, right?

Yes.  The part that sucks is that surgery can't be done until you're within about 20% of what you want as your final long term weight.  Otherwise you run the risk of just having more skin sagging.  The skin has taken a lot of damage and is stretched out pretty hard.  It does not have the same level of elasticity that a "normal" person might have.

Most surgeons want to see you at your long term weight for about a year before they'll do the procedure in many/most cases.  

(This is from my own plastic surgeon after I lost a ton of weight myself from diet and exercise.  I ended up having a tummy tuck and a back lift to remove my excess skin from weight loss.  The skin removal surgery is just the clean up after the hard work is done.  lol)

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I’m down 140# from mine in 2009. Yes, some sagging skin but it’s a trade off for my better health. I regained about 8-10# over the last 3-4 years, but since first of this year I concentrated and lost 20, I’m now today under by lowest weight post-surgery by another 15 pounds.

I had zero complications or issues. The first 90-120 days after surgery are NOT fun, but things progressed for me rapidly after that. I still take vitamins daily.

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  • 2 weeks later...
1 hour ago, Lucky said:

What about the e surgery causes a person to drink excessively?

A few factors that I’m aware of:

  • Many patient’s palates/taste change after surgery. Drink more/less, or different alcohol. 
  • Depending on your procedure, the new size of your stomach and the length of your small intestine cause  “malabsorption”. Good for weight loss, not good for absorbing alcohol as you might of before. Malabsorption also the reason a vitamin regimen must be followed so your body gets extra nutrients from vitamins it’s now not getting from food.
  • Remember those little  cards the DMV (California at least) sends out showing how many drinks you can have an hour to stay under DUI limits? Lose 100 plus pounds and you can handle less booze than before.
  • There are some psychological reason that vary by person, too varied to detail 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Pensant said:

My associate also rarely ate after his procedure and substituted alcohol. Very sad decline. But he also was addictive and suffered from depression. The older I get the more I realize that alcohol is a poison.

Yea, I just saw a study that said a lot of the old studies saying one glass of wine (say) was actually good for you were wrong.  Granted, it's just one study, but if you go by what they say, you should only have 5 large glasses of wine a week.  I usually drink a half bottle a night...so I've got to cut back, or rather, I should according to this study.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 7/23/2022 at 3:34 PM, RadioRob said:

Yes.  The part that sucks is that surgery can't be done until you're within about 20% of what you want as your final long term weight.  Otherwise you run the risk of just having more skin sagging.  The skin has taken a lot of damage and is stretched out pretty hard.  It does not have the same level of elasticity that a "normal" person might have.

Most surgeons want to see you at your long term weight for about a year before they'll do the procedure in many/most cases.  

(This is from my own plastic surgeon after I lost a ton of weight myself from diet and exercise.  I ended up having a tummy tuck and a back lift to remove my excess skin from weight loss.  The skin removal surgery is just the clean up after the hard work is done.  lol)

Do you mind if I ask how much weight you lost through diet and exercise? I’m 25kgs overweight and am at a stage where I realise I have to do something about it and is seeking motivation.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 8/13/2022 at 6:14 PM, sydneyboy said:

Do you mind if I ask how much weight you lost through diet and exercise? I’m 25kgs overweight and am at a stage where I realise I have to do something about it and is seeking motivation.

It was around 125 pounds at the time of surgery. The skin removal surgery itself was a little more than 5 pounds. Afterwards, I lost another 20 pounds. 

The biggest change for me was limiting myself to 1500 calories a day. I literally tracked EVERY bite of food I put in my mouth.  (MyFitnessPal is great for this by the way.)  I treated it like a checking account. I could spend my calories on anything I wanted by once they were gone, I had to earn more with extra workouts etc. 

You would not believe how many calories come from the small little bites of things. That one fun size candy bar… or the 5 chips… or the few bites of a leftover sandwich, etc. They all add up and will have an impact on your calorie budget. 

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7 hours ago, RadioRob said:

It was around 125 pounds at the time of surgery. The skin removal surgery itself was a little more than 5 pounds. Afterwards, I lost another 20 pounds. 

The biggest change for me was limiting myself to 1500 calories a day. I literally tracked EVERY bite of food I put in my mouth.  (MyFitnessPal is great for this by the way.)  I treated it like a checking account. I could spend my calories on anything I wanted by once they were gone, I had to earn more with extra workouts etc. 

You would not believe how many calories come from the small little bites of things. That one fun size candy bar… or the 5 chips… or the few bites of a leftover sandwich, etc. They all add up and will have an impact on your calorie budget. 

Congratulations! A magnificent achievement. My goal of 25 kgs is modest by comparison. 

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On 8/28/2022 at 9:36 AM, RadioRob said:

It was around 125 pounds at the time of surgery. The skin removal surgery itself was a little more than 5 pounds. Afterwards, I lost another 20 pounds. 

The biggest change for me was limiting myself to 1500 calories a day. I literally tracked EVERY bite of food I put in my mouth.  (MyFitnessPal is great for this by the way.)  I treated it like a checking account. I could spend my calories on anything I wanted by once they were gone, I had to earn more with extra workouts etc. 

You would not believe how many calories come from the small little bites of things. That one fun size candy bar… or the 5 chips… or the few bites of a leftover sandwich, etc. They all add up and will have an impact on your calorie budget. 

I gotta say that I'm proud of you reading this.  Well done, sir.

Most people have zero willpower.  They make excuses.  They fall off the wagon, again and again.  It's nice to see someone who went all the way and then made the decision to make it a permanent lifestyle choice.  

I have friends who went for surgery and then eventually ate through it.  They're right back to where they were before.  They never dealt with their mental issues with food, so the behavior continued.  It's unfortunate to see.

Keep on keepin' on Rob 👍

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