Bypass surgery Vs Wegovy advice

[Bristolandlazy]

I've got a consultation with the surgeon for a bariatric bypass later today. I've been waiting years for this and thought it was the answer. I've spoken to the dietician and the psychologist but also read more about it online and I'm having doubts.

I started on wegovy five weeks ago, I've only lost a few pounds. I don't think it's working for me yet as I don't feel any different.

I'm thinking of asking to postpone or even lose my place on the list for the operation. Has anyone got any experience that's relevant? The dietician told me it's very unlikely I would get the result I want.

I'm at a size 22 (biggest I've been is a 24) and I would like to be about a 14/16. If I lost anymore than that I think I would have a lot of excess skin. I'm 52 if that's relevant.

I want to lose weight for appearance, bodily comfort and health reasons but I'm happy to lose it more slowly if that's what it takes.

I've read of people losing amazing amounts of weight with jabs and I'm hoping that's possible.

Thanks.

Surgery carries risks, risks with general anaesthetic and a permanently smaller stomach along with needing time to heal with the assumption it all heals well. Then with a smaller stomach, you still have food noise but can't fit much food in so then could be vomiting excess food.

Weight loss injections are not permanent but can be taken long term. They also lower blood sugar and pressure and reduce inflammation, I've not had a single IBS flare up in 19 months that I've been on miunjaro. I was prediabetic, had high blood pressure and cholesterol at a size 14. Weight loss injections have changed my life.

It’s amazing what’s available now just as a caveat here surgery also removes food noise and hunger and simply longer term solution ie not having to inject forever to maintain however either is a great option - however happy that I’m not pumping drugs with side effects into my body when taking other meds

WLI all the way OP. The surgery was a great and for some life saving solution in the past but it comes with so many risks and complications. If you get side effects on WLIs just stop and they will go away. Many people don't get any side effects. You'd be crazy not to try it first I think.

Weight loss surgery statistically has a 60 percent full regain rate, is a common stat you can google. It does nothing to deal with the cravings people have and the stomach effectively starts to stretch again, so people can eat more over time. It’s far from a once and done. And comes with the risk of very real complications.

weight loss injections do stop the cravings, and allow the user to eat a clean and healthy diet, stop all desire to over eat etc, but like any drug, they only work when you take them, hence why it is recommended as a long term approach with diet and exercise advise.

obesity is a regain disease, there is no way round this. With the surgery you have a sixty percent chance of full regain. With the drugs, it will be 80 percent, as it’s 80 percent for any diet. But the difference is you can stay on the drugs for life. Thus avoiding any regain.

the issue with the drugs is cost and the nhs don’t prescribe at this stage for life due to cost, that will likely change, but when is the question. However what they do do, is give you two years to eat a clean and healthy diet, and they do say, it takes two years for these habits to become the norm.

there is no way I’d go under the knife if I could get the drugs free for two years, and I’d start saving what I could now, for year 3, giving myself the best possible chance.

the other thing is the drugs come with other health benefits, improved cardio vascular, kidney and liver disease, reduced cancers etc, whereas the surgery comes with very real and life threatening risks.

surgery was optimal when the drugs didn’t exist. But they do. Medicine has made a huge advancement, and the nhs now has a right to chose. And I don’t think many people after research will chose to get on the table rather than use a much safer way to reduce their weight.

Disclosure: I have been overweight/obese virtually my whole life, and morbidly obese most of the past 35 years. Classic yo-yo dieter - multiple big losses (4,5,6,7 stone), usually followed by rapid regain (a stone and a half in a month, 4 stone in a year). I have, at times, looked intensely into both surgery and WLI, but have never used either.

I am currently more than 8 stone below my peak weight, and have been maintaining here or hereabouts for a year.

My advice is this: before you decide how to lose the weight, think about what life will need to be like in order to keep it off. You can not lose the weight and then “go back to normal”. You have to change your definition of normal.

For me, normal used to be something sweet to finish every meal, lots of crisps and chocolate, grazing, snacking and bingeing, every birthday and special occasion had to be celebrated with a big meal/special food, because….. just because. And, of course, emotional eating, social eating, eating because someone offered it, or someone said I couldn’t have it.

I have had a fundamental shift in attitude.

My normal now is that I eat meals, not snacks: I eat mainly natural single-ingredient foods, not ultra-processed: I have realised I am a sugar addict, therefore I do not eat sugar or artificial sweeteners: I do not drink juices, smoothies, or milky coffees - except the latter as part of a meal. I practice intermittent fasting, normally 2 meals per day, and longer fasts from time to time.

I didn’t do this all at once. I made a sequence of changes, over time. A work in progress.

I needed the support of a community around me in order to make and maintain these changes. I found this initially in an online community dedicated to fasting, but latterly as a member of Overeaters Anonymous.

In order to keep your weight off, irrespective of whether you use surgery, WLI, or both, you will need to change your normal. It won’t have to be the same as my normal, but it WILL be substantially different to how you have eaten until now. It may or may not enable you to get to the 14/16 to which you aspire. But it will enable you to get at least part way there, and you will feel so much better, you will learn to appreciate what you’ve gained, rather than lament what you haven’t yet reached. At least, that’s how it is for me. At my biggest, I was a size 30. I’m currently a 16, and would love to be a 12/14. It doesn’t look like that’s happening any time soon…… but 16 is a different world than 30. I love my life now, even though I acknowledge it could be even better.

That's what I had thought until I read more about it recently.

That's great, I'm glad it worked for you. I've read quite a few negative experiences re gastric bypass and the closer it got the more I thought I don't think this is for me. I'd started to change my eating habits in the last year or two so will carry on doing that and using Wegovy.

That's fantastic, congratulations, what a great feeling.

Yes the thought of the food noise still being there but with a restricted stomach made me think I've cheated things in the past, why would this be different. The thought of not having the food noise and hunger is amazing. I've only just gone up to .5 and I can feeling the affects now. I can eat or not bother. I certainly don't usually feel like that. It's only started to work for me in the last few days.

Yes that's the decision I made just before the meeting with the surgeon. Worst case scenario I've wasted time but I really don't think I will. The thought of having an operation and potential side affects got more and more real.

I sincerely appreciate your comments, you've been so helpful. I should of researched sooner. Like many I've lost and gained before, I appreciate injections are a tool and I'm more aware than ever of foods that aren't worth it for me. I've started interment fasting in the last year, cooking from scratch more than ever. I lost three stone before Christmas and regrettably regained it. I know (mostly) what I need to do and will do it.

I know food, family and love are intertwined for me. For example my daughter suggested we share pizza for dinner, I said no I'm having salmon. In the past I would of binned the salmon thoughts and shared pizza with her.

I've definitely changed my eating habits and will keep working on that.

Many thanks.

My friend had a bypass and regrets it. Admittedly it was before the jabs existed but I wouldn't put my body through the op when such an easy alternative is available.

That's fabulous, well done you. I hear you. I've done the same in the past. Got to the size I wanted to and slipped back into old habits. I eat two meals a day and don't often snack. I've fasted for 24/48 hours before, though not recently.
I've realised the same re sugar etc. It's not worth the cravings to go there. I said to my daughter the other day that sometimes I'm living to eat instead of eating to live.

I cook from scratch (mostly) but I was still over eating. Wegovy can help me with that. I eat more vegetables and salad than I ever have in the past and I'm enjoying eating that way. I used to eat white bread and it didn't fill me up, I nearly always have wholemeal now. I'll add more changes. Thanks for your comments, really helpful.

You’re welcome, @Bristolandlazy and well done on the changes you have already made.

For quite a few months of 2024, I was doing 2-3 fasts a week. One of 42-48 hours, the others 24 hours. That’s when I lost the bulk of my weight. Then about a year ago I went into the familiar cycle of accelerating bingeing and weight regain, I arrested it by joining Overeaters Anonymous and working that program. That was what I needed to make being sugar-free and binge-free stick. I’ve lost over half of the regain, but I haven’t been able to get back to the amount of fasting which had the scale moving consistently down.

Dont get me wrong - where I am now is an absolute gift. At the same time, I could do with losing another 2.5-3 stone to get to the top of the healthy BMI range. Have thought often about using WLI to make fasting easier to reach that target. I am pretty confident that I could maintain the loss, with the changes I’ve made. But getting there seems interminable!

PS - I have never once, in a million and one weight loss attempts, got to my goal weight. And only once into the healthy weight range. And never, before this time, maintained the lowest size I’d reached for more than a few months. It’s been over a year now.