By: Joann Bally CSCS
Obesity surgery, called bariatric surgery, is getting safer and more common. It’s also a money maker for hospitals and surgeons who specialize in the procedure. That’s why you see so many ads for it. Could it be that surgery will be the answer to the obesity epidemic? There’s one thing the ads don’t tell you—it doesn’t always work.
Although the surgery reduces the capacity of the stomach, and thus reduces caloric intake, the body compensates by increasing the efficiency by which it absorbs calories. This, and other effects, can result in less weight loss than anticipated, or even weight regain after surgery if the patient does not comply with nutritional and exercise recommendations, per an article in ACSM’s Health & Fitness Journal. Patients who followed diet and exercise guidelines after surgery maintained 70% of weight loss, but those who did not follow guidelines maintained only about 40% of weight loss, according to a study in the journal Obesity Surgery.
I concede there are situations where such surgery may be necessary, but something that requires $20,000-$40,000, possible complications and lengthy recuperation from surgery, and may not work if you don’t follow the guidelines given to you, is hardly a quick fix, regardless of how cheerful the people in the ads may be.
There are many instances where obese people have lost large amounts of weight through lifestyle changes, without surgery. What is more, it is possible to maintain that weight loss. These individuals use a variety of approaches to cut calories, including formal weight loss programs, vegetarian diets, dietician recommended diets, or self-education and calorie counting, but very seldom fad diets. Almost everybody who loses and keeps off large amounts of weight includes large amounts of exercise in their program, both during and to maintain weight loss.
So don’t run off to the surgeon just because you are very obese, unless you have a good medical reason to do so. (Of course, it’s best not to get obese in the first place.) And exercise is necessary for maintaining weight loss, no matter how you get there.
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