Weight loss surgery after intuitive eating

amother

Thu, Jun 04 2020, 9:21 am

After many years of successful dieting, my metabolism basically stopped working and I slowly gained my weight back while still keeping to my diet. In an effort to try to lose it, I basically developed binge eating disorder.

Discovering intuitive eating helped me completely heal from my binge eating disorder and I can now say that I'm truly an intuitive eater with a healthy relationship with food and a decent relationship with my body.

However, in the process of making peace with food, I gained even more weight. My metabolism seems to be broken. On a regular day I probably eat around 2000 calories ( I don't count but I spent many years eating 1200 so I have a pretty good idea of what 2000 would look like), and I've been mostly maintaining my weight of close to 300 lb. In this situation, being home with my kids, I shot up ten lb without changing my eating or exercising habits at all.

Being this big really affects my quality of life and I know that dieting will just destroy my relationship with food again. I feel like my metabolism is permanently destroyed and it seems like the only way to reverse that is weight loss surgery. I can't find any information on people who do the surgery after working through becoming an intuitive eater. I feel like that would make me a great candidate for surgery because I already have great eating habits. I'm just worried that my metabolism won't change from it and I will have had major surgery with all the risks involved for nothing. In the short term I'd probably lose weight but I don't care about short term.

I'm not sure if my question is clear. I'm looking for anyone who's had experience with any of this. Do you have thoughts, tips, advice?

Please don't recommend any diets or way of life. I'm happy with how I eat and I've been badly burned before so I'm not looking to change that.

lamplighter

Thu, Jun 04 2020, 10:09 am

I have no personal experience with surgery but I think the question to research is how will you have to eat after the surgery. That may be diet like.
If you can eat as you are now afterwards, it does sound like a decent option.
I think IE would be opposed to your desire to want a smaller body or maybe its just the militant groupies I know.

amother

Thu, Jun 04 2020, 10:27 am

lamplighter wrote:

Eating after surgery would follow IE principles of listening to my body. That's why I feel I might do well.

You're right that IE is very opposed to surgery which is why I can't find out anything about it. I've accepted my weight as it is but the fact that it's still climbing affects my quality of life. I have a lot of pain problems and I injure myself every time I try to do any exercise that isn't swimming or walking. I was an ardent chossid of intuitive eating and health at any size, and I still am, but the excess weight is starting to really affect my mobility. I'm not sure where to go from here.

WitchKitty

Thu, Jun 04 2020, 10:28 am

Wow, you sound amazing!
May I ask- why do you want to lose weight? What does your doctor say about your current gain? Is it dangerous? Does he have any reason why it has happened? Maybe there's something to do to help your metabolism get back to normal. Maybe this is normal.
I think I would be terrified to do surgery at your weight. You've just gone up a bit, there's probably a reason.

lilies

Thu, Jun 04 2020, 10:34 am

No experience.
You seem like the perfect candidate to me, but I don't know much.
It seems this would be a pure 'medical' reason for surgery and you seem to have a healthy relationship with food.

Side note, do you think if everything returns to normal within the next few weeks, you'll be able to lose the weight gained and might not consider surgery at this point?

amother

Gray

Thu, Jun 04 2020, 10:57 am

amother [ OP ] wrote:

But it won't allow you to follow IE, as, depending on the type of surgery, it may severely impact what you are able to eat. I have friends who have had weight loss surgery who can no longer make motzei on challah, for example.

That's not to say that you shouldn't have the surgery. AIUI, it can sometimes reset a badly damaged metabolism, which is what you appear to need. I attended a meeting regarding surgery once, and they said something like this works if you were an A+ person on WW, able to restrict your food intake. Otherwise, they said, it doesn't. It should like it would work for you, even though its not IE.

My advice is to talk to a registered dietitian, as well as a weight loss surgeon.

Hatzlacha, no matter what you decide.

(IE Devotee, who understands that neither IE -- nor anything else -- is for everyone)

amother

Jetblack

Thu, Jun 04 2020, 11:46 am

Op I am so happy you started this thread!

I am a long time believer in intuitive eating and have even started more than one thread here and elsewhere about combining the two. I haven't gotten very far, since ardent IE fans would see it as a contradiction.

It is honestly the only flaw in the IE model that I keep coming up against. The insistence of leaving weight loss out of the picture completely negates a very real issue for people who are significantly larger. I am not talking about people who are a size 14 and want to be a 6. I am talking about people who are very large in a way that severely impacts their day to day life.

amother

Rose

Thu, Jun 04 2020, 12:01 pm

I don't have personal experience with weight loss surgery but I had a good friend that did it and not only did she not lose the weight but it really affected her health. I know she's just one person but I think that surgery is a serious thing. Is there a possibility of adding a little bit of exercise to your routine? Because 2,000 calories really isn't that much so it doesn't really explain why you're at the weight you are. Maybe if you started exercising you could jump start your metabolism. It doesn't have to be a lot but once you start you're probably will feel better and want to do more and it just certainly healthy exercise.

smss

Thu, Jun 04 2020, 12:09 pm

OP I sooooo hear you. I also feel tremendously grateful for the relationship with food IE has/is giving me AND at the same time I really want to lose weight.

I would just really do your research, the people I know who did gastric bypass have pretty unpleasant long term side effects. Also you'd have to eat so little- don't you think that might be triggering for you? Besides for the difficulty of getting enough nutrition...

How long have you been practicing IE? I would imagine it can take some time for metabolism to heal after prolonged dieting...

amother

Blush

Thu, Jun 04 2020, 1:24 pm

Hi!

I am a practitioner that combines the principles of intuitive eating with nutritional interventions and helping people get a better quality of life. I always say that part of honoring your body is eating what you want, when you want with intention - for some people it means they can really eat whatever foods they want, but for a lot of people in order to feel good, eating with intention does focus on education themselves around food, and which foods they tolerate well and which foods should be removed.
I can bh say that I have helped people to restart their metabolism and heal from chronic conditions within the framework of IE.
Looking for a practitioner that combines these 2 is probably your best bet to discover your options!

lamplighter

Thu, Jun 04 2020, 3:01 pm

I think your first move would be to speak to a surgeon and find out more about what it mean for your body and your future eating.
Intuitive Eating, as in listening to your bodies hunger cues, theoretically is in line with WLS because your cues are different I would imagine.
I dont think longer time doing IE would result in a "healed metabolism". Some people gain weight or are very large following IE but the premise is that being very large is not an issue so you wont find support for any weightloss in the IE community.
I am an avid follower of IE but I did pair it with weightloss at some point and then went back to IE.
I understand wanting mobility and other lifestyle issues with obesity. For me IE needed some other elements to really work for me.

amother

Peach

Thu, Jun 04 2020, 3:26 pm

Also, it's really tough. IE does not do a great job of dealing with body discomfort that comes with being in a higher weight.

That said, it seems that WLS is trading one set of problems for another. I definitely second what another poster said about speaking to an IE nutritionist who can talk to you about your metabolism. Maybe also a doctor can helps with pain management? I know that it can be hard to find one who can address actual issues and not just see your weight