Bariatric Surgery?

Hospital experience:
I have attended sessions at medical centers for people interested in Bariatric Surgery.  There were two tracks for the treatments, one was surgery (covered by insurance) and one was diet and exercise (not covered by insurance.)  I just never felt that either of these approaches from a hospital was enough.  The diets involved liquid crash dieting and really boring exercise in a clinical environment.  I have yet to meet someone who has had the surgery who is really satisfied many years after.  Most of the time they gain the weight back and are really stuck. Now they need to lose weight the old fashioned way but with a really little stomach that pukes a lot.  Some develop keloid scarring that is very painful and impossible to get rid of.

The Easy Way Out?

Ultimately, the surgery makes the weight loss journey more difficult.  It's more difficult to eat the high fiber, high nutrition, high bulk foods that you need to keep full and satisfied and build muscle.  A really tiny stomach rewards small amounts of calorie-dense food.  Calorie dense foods are the problem that lead to the weight gain in the first place!

Bariatric surgery is preferable to cancer for a quick means of weight loss, but I think that's it.  I've had dysentery and that was an ordeal.  I would prefer that to puking all the time!

So let's just say I got the surgery and became really small really quickly.  Would I really use my new body for loads of exercise and eat mostly veggies, beans, whole grains, and lean meats?  Would I eat cakes and cookies because it wouldn't manifest for a few months or years?  Would I really care for the new body correctly?  Honestly I can say I would not.

I don't think there is a viable option besides major lifestyle changes.  I don't know if Ms Powter is right about the human body not being able to lose more than 2 pounds of fat per week, but it's probably not far off the mark.

This woman has gotten the surgery and committed herself to ongoing health.  I can see her points in this post.  This nurse points out that THERE HAVE BEEN NO STUDIES THAT PROVE ANY BENEFIT TO BARIATRIC SURGERY!  I was really shocked by that.  I was sure that the weight loss would result in longer life, lower cancer,etc. but there have been no released studies.  Studies have been done, but the results have not been released!  WOW.

The ECRI report, “Bariatric Surgery for Obesity,” noted that the surgeries can produce significant initial weight loss but “three years after surgery, the typical patient is still obese.” Most importantly, they concluded that based on the quality and strength of the available evidence, claims of improved “quality of life and long-term health impacts are less conclusive.” They found available evidence weak for demonstrating that comorbidities can resolve and “it was also not evident whether bariatric surgery extends survival.”