Why say no to bariatric surgery?
When discussing my health with my family doctor in Winnipeg last December, we talked about strategies for addressing my insulin and weight issues. At the end of our discussion, he also mentioned the possibility of weight loss surgery, aka bariatric surgery. He suggested I read up on it, get as informed as possible, and then upon my return to Manitoba in July, we could see if it was something I wanted to pursue or not. He suggested I try on my own to see what I could do, and then we'd take it from there.
There are several procedures when it comes to bariatric surgery. Most people call it "stomach stapling", which is only partially accurate. The four options are known as the gastric bypass (roux-en-y), the vertical sleeve gastrectomy, the duodenal switch (biliopancreatic diversion), and the lapband (laparoscopic adjustable gastric band). The first three involve removing a significant portion of the stomach (the duodenal switch is the lowest at 70% and the gastric bypass is the highest at 95%). The lapband is a band put around the stomach to limit how much food it can accept. Each procedure works a little differently, but the end result is to limit food intake. People can and do stretch the remainder of stomach space left to them, out-eat their gastric bands, and have all sorts of complications, including new surgical procedures to correct complications.
To be fair, it also works for a lot of people. Weight loss is extremely rapid due to caloric intake being limited to around 500 calories per day (for a healthy adult, the daily recommended intake is 2,500 for men and 2,000 for women, just to put that into perspective). Saggy skin is often a thing, though that can happen with slow weight loss, too. It's also been very successful with reversing type 2 diabetes, and for people with extreme obesity, it can be a lifesaver, quite literally.
I read about this for weeks, with a cautiously open mind. I wasn't sure how effective any sort of change to my eating patterns would be (really, I honestly thought that weight loss was sort of mythical, at least for me!), so I thought I should at least learn about this before dismissing it as an option.
Dr. Fung wrote an excellent post about this, where he says that essentially, bariatric surgery just forces people to fast, and that there's nothing wrong with it (apart from the serious risk of complications), but that you could just decide to fast on your own. In the end, that's what I decided to do. More about fasting later!
There are several procedures when it comes to bariatric surgery. Most people call it "stomach stapling", which is only partially accurate. The four options are known as the gastric bypass (roux-en-y), the vertical sleeve gastrectomy, the duodenal switch (biliopancreatic diversion), and the lapband (laparoscopic adjustable gastric band). The first three involve removing a significant portion of the stomach (the duodenal switch is the lowest at 70% and the gastric bypass is the highest at 95%). The lapband is a band put around the stomach to limit how much food it can accept. Each procedure works a little differently, but the end result is to limit food intake. People can and do stretch the remainder of stomach space left to them, out-eat their gastric bands, and have all sorts of complications, including new surgical procedures to correct complications.
To be fair, it also works for a lot of people. Weight loss is extremely rapid due to caloric intake being limited to around 500 calories per day (for a healthy adult, the daily recommended intake is 2,500 for men and 2,000 for women, just to put that into perspective). Saggy skin is often a thing, though that can happen with slow weight loss, too. It's also been very successful with reversing type 2 diabetes, and for people with extreme obesity, it can be a lifesaver, quite literally.
I read about this for weeks, with a cautiously open mind. I wasn't sure how effective any sort of change to my eating patterns would be (really, I honestly thought that weight loss was sort of mythical, at least for me!), so I thought I should at least learn about this before dismissing it as an option.
Dr. Fung wrote an excellent post about this, where he says that essentially, bariatric surgery just forces people to fast, and that there's nothing wrong with it (apart from the serious risk of complications), but that you could just decide to fast on your own. In the end, that's what I decided to do. More about fasting later!
Glad to read that you decided against bariatric surgery. I know several people who have had different variations of that, and, even though they did lose weight, I do not know of any who did not have complications of one sort or another, including, but not limited to, more surgery to try to fix it. The most common one among the people I know is vomiting. If they eat too quickly, they vomit. If they eat large pieces of food without chewing it a lot - and I mean a LOT - they vomit. And some of them, as you mentioned, actually manage to circumvent it and gain the weight back. Without a lifestyle change, nothing will work.
ReplyDeleteSorry Katherine, I never received a notification about this comment! Yes, exactly: I've heard all those same stories, and the thing is that it's completely unnecessary. The whole point of the surgery is to limit how much you can eat, whereas you could just decide to do that on your own. It takes more willpower for sure, but if you don't have your head in the game in the first place, there's no point in having surgery, either - it just means that the consequences of cheating could be literally life-threatening! No thanks!
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