[qt82699]

at my surgeon appt today we talked alot about different things, plastics and all kinds of things anyhow to my surprise my surgeon tells me that 20% of ppl who have RNY fail and gain all their weight back...scary!! and only 20% maintain their goal weight...another scary!! anyhow just wanted to share..i hope i will be in the good 20%

[Kenyar]

20% regain ALL OF IT??? HOW? i cant even imagine eating as much as i use to...or even all the same stuff i use to. man. i thought the odds were better than that

[Cheryl24]

My Dr told me the same thing last week. I was surprised.

[Trulykath]

some gain is anticipated...I've read several places about 10% gain....

[greensgirl19]

I can't even imagine how people could possibly eat enough to gain it all back, but you have to consider the law of averages. I know a few people who know people who've gained most or all of it back. But I also know someone who knows someone on the pre-op liquid diet that I did and she cheats constantly, I don't even know if she's lost that much weight. People like that are destined to fail and it's people like that in the bottom 20%. Plus look at the number of wls pt's every year and look at the number of us even, and we have people from all over the world and years out from surgery. I think just us coming on here and getting the support and information we need makes us more likely to be in the good 20% rather than the bad 20%!

[DocSanae]

20% of total doesn't seem that far off, when you count all the patients from the very beginning of this method of treatment. If you check the patients who had this done in the very early days of this program, the regain rate probably is much much higher than 20%--that is why you hear from those who have negative opinions of the surgery that it will fail anyway.
I imagine the rate is much much lower now, with the knowledge that good post op follow ups and support is essential in staying successuful, and so, surgeons an bariatric centers include post op programs for their patients.
So, if the failure rate was, say, 30% years ago, and is now 10%, that does average out to 20%. Does this make sense?

And yes, as Kelley points out, if you go about saying it's too hard, can't do no harm cheating once in a while, then you will set yourself up for not doing well at this. You need to keep tight control over yourself especially during the early stages, because it is very hard to set up new habits--and as you all know, surgery is only a tool to help you set up new healthy habits for yourself, and in the end, it is those healthy habits that lets you stay at your desired weight, not the pouch and bypass.

Also, about a 10% of the lost weight regain is expected after you hit your bottom weight. So, if you lost 150lbs, your surgeon will expect you to gain back about 15lbs. Now, does that sound so bad? I mean, it is best if you do not regain, but, you haven't regained all of the 150lbs back, either. If you can stay on top of yourself at the +15 from rock bottom point, that doesn't sound bad at all, either.

[kimtindall]

Hmmm, thaks Doc. You always make thing understandable!

[qt82699]

thanks doc for explaining it better!

[judijo]

Thank you, DocSanae. I was depressed after reading the initial post. Thank God one of us has been given the gift of reason! Information really IS power, isn't it?

I feel much better now.

[lvmyboys]

I know 7 people who have had surgery 5+ years ago. 3 of them are below goal. 2 of them bounce 10-15 pounds above and the other 2 have gained a good amount back but not near as large as they were. I would say they just look heavy vs. morbidly obese. I have never met or heard of anyone gaining it all back!!! That seems physically impossible!!! My neighbor is a teacher and has 3 people at her school that have had it done....she said 2 have kept it off and one gaines some and loses gaines and loses. They are also several years out. Gaining all back?!!?!? That is mind blowing!!!