More from Kathleen and the DS Dieting Dilemma

Kathleen gave me permission to reproduce her post...it was in response to a woman who was worried about her weight loss post op the DS. She got the usual prompts to restrict her carbs.

As I am one of those where the DS kind of "didn't work" I feel I must reply to this post and put in my 2 cents. I lost 45 lbs and stopped. I started at 285 and was very dismayed at my weight loss stopping before I'd lost at least 100 lbs.

If I had to do it over again I think I would have been watching my carbs more carefully from the early months but right after surgery I was 1. not used to dieting, 2. not used to actually believing that diets worked for me, in fact, convinced they did not! and 3. wasn't able to eat very much so it didn't seem important that I ate carbs as long as I got in protein first.

I still can't each much. Heck, I just started to be able to eat at all a few months ago. My doc told me to eat whatever, since I could eat so little. I was on a tube feeding for months. I never have gone hog wild and eaten sweets wholesale--I'm diabetic. Eating whatever meant to me was eating the few carbs that I could tolerate without distress. So far that's not much, mainly potatoes and brown rice--but I don't like brown rice much. Eating whatever is eating a piece of Ezekiel bread (sprouted whole grains and beans--high protein) and rejoicing I kept it down.

You might say I had to learn the hard way that for some of us (what do you think, maybe 50% or more?) this is a tool that helps people lose a bunch, eat less after that, and get determined to stick to a sensible eating plan, (I am not bothered by the word diet, which to me means eating plan) and the DS does not automatically achieve the ideal weight loss by itself. It was a learning curve for me, and in the first year I did get down to a 65 lb loss by dieting, and later down to a 120 lb loss with more dieting, and this was indeed a "weight loss diet", one I liked and could stick to. I didn't stay at the 120 lb loss (165 lbs) and am now at 185 to 195 range and working on it, adding more exercise and sticking to my preferred eating plan (except when I don't).

Oh shit. Eating plan means D I.E. T. to me and diets have always been my nemesis.

I just wanted to say a word here about honestly looking at ourselves, how new people sometimes talk before DS about "diets don't work for me" and after DS many of us talk just like people on a pretty darn strict diet. ...Also called watching your carbs.

Thank Gawd, I'm not the only one who feels like that. I was boggling when I started to look into archives about my slowed to nonexistent weight loss. Everybody was telling me to diet! If I could diet, I wouldn't have needed the frickin' surgery, I thought.

 I never have gone hog wild on carbs, had to limit them because of my diabetes. Eating the minimal carbs always kept my ass fat. So am I back to square one!?  But I kept my mouth shut.

Whatever term you are comfortable with, it is a much stricter way of eating than we were doing before DS. I don't want to be telling Worried to "be afraid, be very afraid", just to recognize, as many have to sooner or later, that a change of eating is indeed part of the "work" and the "success" of the DS. We just can't eat like we did before surgery, for many reasons. Not trying to suggest that Worried is doing so, just commenting on the subject of life post DS and how it was for me, and that sometimes it does seem the DS didn't work.

Heresy!  The words seem to be verboten in the public forums.  Did I really damn near die for something that won't work all the way? Maybe I did...but I do know I wouldn't have lost the 70 pounds without it. Time will tell if it was worth it. Life is usually a gamble, and with no risk, comes no rewards. No regrets.

Yeah, yeah, I know you lucky ones who don't diet, never had to, the DS worked beautifully for you and I am happy for you and desperately wanted to be one of you myself, but get over yourselves, you were damn lucky!! Appreciate your good fortune, it didn't happen that way for quite a few of us, including, I suspect, many who just read, am I right?

Smug be-yotches. Okay, I admit it, my 215 pound ass is jealous. But why do people have to transform into born and bred Skinny Bitches once they lose the weight? Seriously.

I have often considered a revision, and while I have never really completely given up on that idea, I know that a little discipline and a good eating plan and exercise would do me just as good and cost a lot less. I don't regret my surgery (6 years ago) but I wish I had had a shorter common channel and developed better eating habits sooner. Better late than never tho! I am trying to be encouraging and informative with this post, and mean no criticism for anybody, just talking about my own experience and wanting to share with others who can relate.

Thank you! I SO related to you. But I'm not considering more surgery. I've had enough and more might just kill me. Where I'm at right now is either to accept my 215 poundedness or deal with low carb dieting. Maybe I can set my sights lower. I can lose thirty more pounds, can't I? I'd be more satisfied at 185.

Bear with me. I'm working through it. This is a big deal.