Why weight loss surgery?
With obesity affecting two-thirds of the population, the United States is the most overweight nation in the world. And, once you get to be severely overweight, many people find long-term success difficult with diet and exercise programs. Many people find it possible to lose weight in the short term, but tend to gain the weight back—and then some when they stop these programs. For those patients, weight loss surgery is the only effective long-term solution. Despite obvious social implications, the main problem with remaining overweight is the increased chance for early death and the risk for developing the many medical problems associated with obesity. Most patients who have chosen weight loss surgery have found it to be the only thing that has allowed them to not only lose weight but keep it off long-term.It is important for you to understand that no weight loss surgery is magic and all require effort. Weight loss surgery does not work by itself. Weight loss surgery is simply a tool to help you lose weight. Weight loss surgery often works by allowing you to feel full after eating a small amount of food and helping to control background hunger. Weight loss surgery is a powerful tool and for most surgical patients, often the only tool that helps them control their weight. Like all tools, it works best if you use it correctly. A comprehensive program that provides extensive education and support will maximize the results of weight loss surgery. It is our promise to provide the tool and teach you how to use it. After surgery, weight loss gives you more energy, makes you feel better about yourself and motivates you to continue the changes that have made you successful. The success of any weight loss operation must begin with realistic goals. Your motivation will determine the amount of weight you ultimately lose.
Weight loss surgery is not cosmetic or plastic surgery. It does not involve removing extra tissue or surgically remodeling the body in any way. Weight loss surgery simply creates a situation where a small amount of food makes you full and not hungry all the time. If you take advantage of this situation, you will lose weight. Weight loss operations are effective at reducing the number of calories eaten in a day. Exercise adds to this by increasing the number of calories burned. When you exercise, you build muscle, which increases your metabolic rate, which burns more calories. We strongly encourage the addition of calorie burning activities to weight loss surgery because the combination of eating fewer calories and burning more calories is very powerful for successful weight loss.
There are patients who go through the trouble of having weight loss surgery and do not lose much weight. That’s because instead of using the tool effectively, they sabotage the operation. Becoming a thinner person requires change. You must be more active and make wise food choices. An example of sabotaging is a patient who eats a large quantity of high-calorie liquids such as milkshakes or sugary sweets. Sugar is an unnecessary source of calories that will require more calorie burning activity. We strongly recommend not eating sweets after weight loss surgery (unless it’s your birthday!). A better choice would be sugar-free foods. Other patients will sabotage their success by emotional eating or grazing —eating small amounts of food frequently throughout the day. After weight loss surgery, if you avoid sugar, high-calorie liquids and emotional eating, you will increase your success rate. Calorie burning activities also increase your success. The best way to lose weight is to burn more calories than you eat. Weight loss surgery is a powerful tool to help you eat less; but it will not make you burn more calories.
We have many successful patients, but it is incorrect to think that you do not have to put any effort into losing weight. Weight loss surgery just makes it much easier because you get full on a small number of calories and you are not hungry all the time.
Improved health is not the only benefit to weight loss surgery. Patients say they have more energy and feel better about themselves. Their quality of life improves dramatically. After weight loss surgery, patients report substantial improvements in self-esteem and the ability to get jobs and promotions. If you talk to people who have lost more than a hundred pounds and been able to keep the weight off long-term, they are among some of the happiest people you will ever meet. That is why we love our work.