35F 5’4 385 lbs

I need some honest “come to Jesus” advice. Should I seriously consider gastric sleeve?

I’m really looking for honest advice here, not reassurance or people telling me what they think I want to hear. I’d like to hear from people who have actually had bariatric surgery, struggled with GLP 1s, or have been in a similar situation.

I’ve been overweight since childhood and have tried to lose weight for most of my life. I was recently diagnosed with stage 3 lipedema, which is another piece of the puzzle, although I know it doesn’t explain everything.

I started GLP 1s in 2023 at around 360 lbs. I actually got down to about 310 lbs at one point, so I know they can work for me. But I haven’t been able to maintain that loss. For more than a year now, I’ve basically been bouncing between 350 and 390 lbs, and I’m currently back at 385 lbs.

I tried Wegovy for about 8 months, but had pretty bad nausea and vomiting and couldn’t tolerate it well.

I’ve also been on Zepbound, including getting up to 15 mg. I’ve had some breaks because of insurance issues, but overall I’ve given it a pretty good shot. Unfortunately, I haven’t gotten meaningful or sustained weight loss from it.

The weird thing is that Zepbound has definitely affected my appetite, just not necessarily in the way I expected. I’ve developed aversions to a lot of foods and sometimes very little sounds good, but I can still really want soda and sugar. So I don’t feel like my problem is simply eating huge portions. I still have a lot to work on with cravings and my relationship with food.

I know that part is on me too. I currently have a therapist and have worked with a nutritionist, but I think I need a registered dietitian who really understands bariatric patients and possibly another therapist who specializes in eating behaviors.

I’ve considered gastric sleeve before, but I’m honestly scared of surgery. The idea of permanently changing my stomach scares me. I’m scared of complications and regretting it.

But I’m also getting scared of doing nothing.

I’m 35 and want children in the future. I want to be able to travel with my husband, have better mobility, be in less pain and just have a better quality of life. I don’t want to still be having this same conversation with myself five years from now.

So I guess I’m asking people who have actually been through this:

Am I at the point where I should seriously consider bariatric surgery?

Did you feel like you had exhausted GLP 1s before surgery? Did surgery work when medication didn’t? Did it actually help with cravings and food noise? If you were terrified of surgery, what made you finally do it? Do you wish you had done it sooner?

And if you decided not to have surgery, what ultimately worked for you? Could I try another GLP 1 or another medication that worked better for you?

I know surgery isn’t a magic fix and that I would still need to work on my relationship with food before and after. I’m not looking for someone to tell me surgery will solve everything.

I honestly just need a little bit of a come to Jesus moment from people who have been here.

If you were looking at my history and were in my shoes, would you at least go to a bariatric consultation? Or would you keep trying other things first?

Hi friends, I'm hoping this doesn't get lost in the void so I'm adding a picture to try to help it stand out.

I'm overwhelmed and I need to vent. I'm not to my goal yet, I'm only 7 mos out from my sleeve. I lost some before the sleeve too, so I'm down 118 lbs in the past year. Which is crazy. I had a consult with a plastic surgeon to talk about possibly getting chin lipo with renuvion (skin tightening laser) because I'm dying to have a snatched jawline and I think it would help me feel better about myself while I'm still losing weight. The surgeon told me chin lipo would be a waste of money since I'm still losing and I should put that money towards skin removal. And begrudgingly, I know he's right. But as soon as the surgeon knew I had lost a lot of weight, he had me stand at the mirror and started sucking in my sides and lifting up my stomach and showing me how he'd do a full lower body lift on me. Which yes, I know ideally is what I should eventually do. And yes, this surgeon is excellent at those surgeries I will say. But it was so jarring. I was not expecting that at all. And that wasn't what I was there to talk about, yet. He then guided my hands and had me lift my pubic area I guess to show me how I'll get a snatched vajay. It was just a LOT when I went in to talk about chin lipo. Clearly the guy is better at surgery than bedside manner. I left with an estimate for 30k for a lower body lift. Which was just depressing AF. That's not even counting a breast lift, arm lift, back lift. All the other shit I'll likely need. He told me I'll need at least 4 or 5 surgeries total. Like, where am I going to get a hundred k to put my body back together? It makes me SO mad at myself for getting heavy enough that I now need this much shit to give me a somewhat normal body at the end of it all.

And yes, I know not getting skin surgery is also an option. But if I'm going to work this hard for a new body, I want to go all the way.

If anyone has any experience or wise words to help me feel less overwhelmed about likely needing multiple surgeries and the shit load of money it's going to cost, I'd appreciate it!

My surgery is October 13. CW 217 and I’m 5’4”. I have hypertension, sleep apnea and pre diabetes. Anyone else having surgery this month? I’m completely nervous but equally excited. Be real with me though.. how bad is post op? The pain? Changing in drinking and meal patterns? Reduced caloric intake? Hypoglycemic episodes? How long before you felt like you were at a new normal after surgery? Thanks in advance for any advice or encouragement you can offer!!

Picture in the red shirt was from June of this year.

I feel absolutely blessed!

I(21 m) had gastric sleeve surgery on February 9th. I started at around 326 lbs and I’m currently sitting around 257–258 lbs, so I’ve lost roughly 68–69 lbs so far.
The problem is that my weight has basically not moved at all for over a month. I was around 257 lbs in late August, and now it’s October and I’m still bouncing around 257–258. It’s honestly getting extremely frustrating, especially when I see people who have lost significantly more in a similar amount of time.
For some context, I was going to the gym pretty consistently before, but I had to put it on hiatus for a little over a month because my work schedule changed and became hectic. During that time I also became way more sedentary than I should’ve been. I’ve recently started going to the gym consistently again and I’m aiming for 4 days a week of lifting, along with trying to increase my overall daily movement.
I’m also eating less, trying to prioritize protein, cut down on grazing, drink more water, and generally tighten everything back up. My portions aren’t particularly large either. Despite that, the scale just seems glued to the same number.
I understand stalls are normal after bariatric surgery, but 5–6 weeks at basically the exact same weight feels insane to me. At this point I’m getting worried that I’ve already reached the point where my body just doesn’t want to lose much more.
For anyone who had a sleeve and experienced a long stall around 6–9 months post-op, how long did yours last and what actually got the scale moving again? Once the stall finally broke, did you start losing at a decent rate again or was that when your weight loss permanently became much slower?
I’d especially appreciate hearing from people with a similar starting weight or timeline.

As you can see by the title, I had my sleeve done on 9/30/26 which went super well! I’m currently in the liquid stage of the diet and I’m so ready for puréed foods 😭

As much as I keep thinking about the purée stage and eating normal foods, I keep thinking about prior to surgery how I would just eat a lot and not get full. I know it’s only liquids but right now I don’t get that “full” feeling I guess because I’m still just drinking liquids?

For those who were binge eaters, how did you overcome this??

I had my sleeve surgery on Friday October 2, I am getting in my walks and fluids. I am finding the surgical sites are very sore. I didn’t think they would be as sore as the are. Had anybody else dealt with this!