Gastric Sleeve Before and After Stories

Do you struggle with your weight? Do you diet and exercise like a champion and lose 50 pounds or even more, only to watch as the scale creeps back up?

It can feel hopeless. But lots of our patients have been right where you are now. Gastric sleeve surgery helped them to level the playing field so they could lose weight, keep it off, and regain their quality of life.

With the gastric sleeve, you can expect to lose between 55-70% of your excess unhealthy weight. That could mean losing 100 pounds or even more. Imagine how that would feel.

You can use this handy weight loss calculator to estimate how much weight you’ll lose after your sleeve gastrectomy.

Please note: these numbers represent national averages. Some patients may lose less and some more. While the sleeve gastrectomy is a very powerful weight loss tool it isn’t a stand-alone cure. But if you are dedicated to using the comprehensive toolset that we will introduce you to, including dietary modifications and exercise after surgery, you can reasonably expect the kind of life-changing results that our patients experience (which often exceed national averages).

You can see their gastric sleeve testimonials below.

Gastric Sleeve Testimonials

Gastric Sleeve Before and After Story: Keri and Chris Sexton

After having been married for 2 years, we found bliss in everything we did…except one thing…our weight. We spent most of our adult lives with fluctuating weights, diets, extreme weight loss, then gaining again. Now after finding our perfect match, we wished to conquer this as well…. We had seen a couple in our Church go through this process, and became very interested….

It seems we ate for many different reasons, and few of those reasons actually had to do with hunger. As we identified our true unhappiness, it became clear that we needed help, a tool, to help us with our true desire: to be healthy.

So, in March of 2015, Keri began research on this Bariatric process, and we spoke more deeply to our friends who’d undergone this transformation. After filling in most of the answers, we prayed and decided to move forward with this process, contacting Dr. Long, and, our journey had begun.

The best part of the education piece of this decision was the realization that eating would absolutely change. My friend summed it up perfectly, for him, “eating was no longer fun”. This, for me, was wonderful news, because who actually continues with something once it is no longer fun? This surgery would supplement the knowledge given to us by giving us a tool, with which we could enjoy lasting success. A permanent fix, if we chose to make it so.

Fast forward, May 2016, 4 months post-op… we clearly see that this is the BEST decision we could have ever made; life is changed, and for the better. We exercise daily, eat what is required, and are enjoying the benefits thereof…. This means, endless piles of clothing that no longer fit, the positive reinforcement of peoples compliments, and being able to journey together to the happiness we enjoy. So far, combined, we have lost 125lbs, heading to 170 lbs or so when this is all said and done… the habits that we have learned and adopted have become a part of daily life.

We cannot imagine another Doctor or Practice with whom this process could have been so wonderfully orchestrated…. Dr. Long and his staff are the kindest, most loving, and supportive group of individuals we have ever could have met. Each person has contributed to our success, each and every one.

We have tremendous gratitude for this gift which we have been given… we are thankful on a daily basis for this and offer our testimony to anyone looking to solve a weight challenge.

Gastric Sleeve Testimonial: Karl Romriell

My name is Karl Romriell and this is my adventure with my weight. I have always had a struggle with my weight, I was a bigger kid. I played all sorts of sports and even did weight lifting in high school but I was always over 200 lbs. Even in middle school when I wrestled I had to wrestle the heavy weights which started at 200 lbs. I found I had a love of food, and not just any food, but sugar. I loved my sugars, cookies, cakes, pies and most of all soda.

All thru my life we always had soda in the house, I would drink any soda except for diet soda. We always had Shasta when we went camping, and then when I got older I would drink Pepsi or Mountain Dew. I would drink two 2 liter sodas a day. Or I would easily drink a 12 pack of soda a day. I have tried every fad diet out there that you could think of. I did Weight Watchers and lost weight, I did Slim 4 Life and lost weight, Adkins diet, the lemonade cleanse. I had lost weight with all of these diets, but had the same results. As soon as the diet stopped and I went back to normal eating, I put the weight back on.

After several years of yo-yo diets or fad diets my wife and I both decided that we had enough and would look into doing the bariatric surgery. Now my wife and I had looked into doing the surgery for a while but we were not sure if it was right for us. We looked into our insurance and found that Bariatric and Metabolic Center was the best in the area. So we meet up with Dr. Long and sat down and talked with all of his staff. We felt like they were on our team and wanted to help us. We didn’t feel judged by them and it was a wonderful feeling. When I started with Dr. Long I was at 328 lbs, the heaviest I had ever been. After going thru the 6 months of supervised diet with Dr. Long I was able to get down to 316 (before surgery). The 6 months of classes were the best, we felt like we were fully prepared for what was about to happen and what our lives were going to be like. We didn’t drink or smoke so those were easy for us, but giving up the soda was hard. But with great support you can accomplish anything.

I had my surgery on Dec. 16th 2014 and I haven’t looked back since. My wife and I joined Orange theory and we started to work out 4 to 5 times a week. Now I will tell you this was no cake walk. I really wanted to see the weight shed off of me fast. I created a chart to track my weight loss, and in my opinion that is not a good thing. It can be discouraging to see that after all your work you only lost .1 lbs. Not realizing that you were also losing inches. I have found that this is a complete life style change. It is also one of the biggest challenges mentally. It has been hard to go out to eat or sit down and think that you can eat more. This is all in your head. Your body will take care of itself.

My biggest success that I found is the support from my wife and my family. I don’t think I could have done this journey without my wife’s support. We are able to keep each other in check and make sure that we are getting our water and our proteins in. I love to work out and go for walks and ride bikes. I went on a 10 mile backpacking trip and felt great, we have run several 5k races and currently looking to run the Bolder Boulder race this Memorial day. Since the day we went to Dr. Long to today I have lost 120 lbs. I am very great full for everyone at the Bariatric and Metabolic Center and I highly recommend them. We have had a lot of people ask us about our story and we tell them to always seek out the Bariatric and Metabolic Center. We love everyone there and they are always happy to see us. Thank you for giving me my life back and extending my life.

Gastric Sleeve Before and After Photos

Is the Gastric Sleeve Right For You?

The sleeve gastrectomy isn’t right for everyone. If you have type II diabetes, then the gastric bypass or duodenal switch will give you your best chance of a cure (90-98%). If you suffer from severe reflux or heartburn, you may also not be a good candidate for a sleeve, because the sleeve can sometimes worsen these symptoms.

However, if you don’t suffer from diabetes or reflux, than the gastric sleeve can be a powerful tool to help you lose 60-80% of your excess weight.

Interested in a sleeve gastrectomy? Most insurances will cover the cost of bariatric surgery, or you can take advantage of our very competitive all-inclusive cash pay option. Get started today!