I recently asked about a friend who intended to have surgery to lose weight (Bariatric Surgery). I was surprised to find that he won’t be getting it because it was decided that he wasn’t a good risk for it. He HAD lost weight on Nutrisystems (I understand about 50 pounds) but dropped the program. I don’t know what he’s going to do, but I think I’d advise him to get back on the diet.
I’ve worked with several companies in the industries around Bariatric Surgery. While this is a very good and effective procedure and really helps some people, many people who are considering it just don’t realize how much of a change in their lifestyle it’s going to make. Too many people considering surgery seem to think that it’s magic and will let them lose the weight without any effort. Let me say right away that it just isn’t so.
I’ve known a lot of people who’ve had surgery and it’s tough. Anyone who has lost weight by this means and kept it off deserves every bit of praise you can give them because they’ve made radical changes in their lifestyle. Weight Loss Surgery is a last resort and should be because it’s a major intervention in your body, but more than that, it’s not a magic bullet that will automatically make you lose weight and keep it off. The people I know who’ve had it have struggled to create new lives for themselves, lives that change their habits in ways that help them keep their weight down. It involves more than just changing eating patterns, though that’s a major part of it; it means living with a special diet, it means coping with massive weight loss, it means the need for plastic surgery if you want to look half-way decent, it means coping with problems you never expected, it means many things will have to change for you to be a continuing and not a fleeting success.
My hat goes off to anyone who has accomplished all of that. I’m not brave enough to do it.