There are some things I see here, and I hope you guys don't mind me being frank. I'm not trying to be mean or hurtful, but am writing these things because I think there is a better way, which is not the easier way.
I've known people to get some of the different surgeries to lose weight. At first, everything seems fine, the weight is going down. Some years later end up being malnutritioned, getting other diseases, and frankly, looking quite terrible. Sure, there are probably success stories of people who have had success, but if you followed them through the years, I bet you their lives would've been far better off had they not taken a short cut.
People often think these surgeries will help them, and maybe temporarily it does. However, none of them actually address the root cause of the problem and work to eliminate those issues. The surgeries may help you drop the weight, but it's unnatural and it's hard for your body to adapt that quickly to what it took years to develop.
Rich -- just from the posts I've read of yours, your problems aren't with your weight per se, or even genetics. It's really with making the wrong choices for your mind, body and health. You write you get 2.5 hrs of sleep. Do a Google on sleep deprivation and weight gain. You'll see a HUGE correlation. You don't need surgery, you need to get adequate sleep EVERY NIGHT for your body.
What's your diet like? Is it comprised of whole, natural foods in as much of their natural states as possible? Do you drink things like milk, juices, sodas, alcohol? I'd give those things up because they are all empty calories. I suppose drinking juices that you make from fresh, organic vegatables and a little fruit would not hurt, but I would not buy any commercial juices of any type. Adults do not need to live off of dairy, for the most part. Sodas are just plain bad. Yeah, there are some studies that show red wines in moderation and a little every day is good for your heart, but since weight reduction is something you need to do, alcohol has a lot of calories (1 gram = 7 calories).
Because you weigh a lot, I would suggest just doing simple walking for as long as possible (you can break this up into several times a day). I would get a heartrate monitor. I just recently took a New Leaf VO2 Test that told me what my anaerobic threshold heart rate is. This is a really good thing to have, so you know how hard you need to work to have your body most effectively burn fat, which is what you want to do.
I'd start keeping a food journal. Why don't you post that here.
1. What you eat
2. How much you eat of it
3. When you eat
In order to lose weight, you'll need a caloric deficit, but something that is manageabe, doable and sustainable over a long period of time. Let's say you lose at an average 2 lbs a week and mainly bodyfat. Go to this and take the test to determine what your metabolic typing is:
http://www.mercola.com/forms/mt_test.htmOnce you know that, give me the results. I'll help you figure out some simple, affordable, healthy ways to eat.
If you lose 2 lbs a week, in a year that is 104 lbs. In 2 yrs 208 lbs. In 3 yrs. 312 lbs. That will put you around 188 lbs...so, you may reach your goal in less than 3 yrs. If it should take you 5 yrs, so what? Have you read about my journey so far? I've learned a ton of stuff and I continue to learn. My health, when I'm 40, should be excellent as well as my physique, fitness, stamina, vitality, energy, mental outlook, and the list goes on.
When you take shortcuts like these types of surgeries for weight reduction, you'll eventually reap the negative attributes of those things. I don't know you, but I do care. Take the time to learn about your health. I've done a lot of reading and experimentation on my own body, as well as my kids. They are reaping the good things I am learning.
When you drop a hundred pounds or so, it will make mobility better, then you can do some other exercises. For now, at the weight you are at, it's a huge strain and a lot of stress on your joints. If you can find a pool, pool exercises would be good, too.
I have plenty of places and articles, books to direct your learning.
You also have the mental/emotional aspect of your life that I feel is very disempowering & negative. You intellectually seem to know a lot of things, but emotionally I think you are discouraged and could use some help. I was able to employ a method called EFT (emotional freedom technique) to help break many negative emotional issues/addictions I had. You can find out more about this at www.emofree.com (Note: the guy that developed this is into the New Age movement, however, the technique itself is very useful. You can disregard anything that doesn't sound biblically correct to you from that site).
If you need help with the EFT stuff on where to get started, PM or email me. I can help you out here as I've been using this with great success since May'01.
Perhaps I can share my learnings with you to help cut your time down, so that you don't have to go through all the school of hard knocks that I've had to.
I know you can make these changes in your life. It's one thing at a time. If you address the mental/emotional things first, it will make everything significantly less challenging.
God bless,
Doris