While many people are upset with the way their body looks as they gain weight, the main concern with carrying extra weight is how that weight impacts your health. As your weight goes up, that extra weight begins negatively affecting your health. Did you know there are over 230 medical problems that are directly related to your weight including many different cancers? The good news is that as you lose weight (medically or surgically!), many of these health issue will improve or go away all together!
Why does my weight matter?
Why can't I lose weight?
You can! In fact, getting people to lose weight is not that hard. Getting them to keep the weight off once they have lost it is REALLY hard! Have you ever experienced the frustrating “Lose 5 lb, gain 7 lb” battle??? Trust us, you’re not alone. Have you seen the stories about what happens to the contestants of “The Biggest Loser”? Your inability to keep the weight off is not your fault, it has more to do with the way your body is designed. You see our bodies are designed to defend our weight, even if that weight is too high. To learn more about “Set Point Theory” please watch the video below.
Putting it all together
Is it starting to make sense why it has been SO hard for you to keep the weight off? The fact of the matter is that once the Body Mass Index (BMI) goes above 40 (calculate your BMI here), traditional or “natural” methods of weight loss like diet, exercise, weight loss medications, etc. are unlikely to help you achieve long-term weight loss because they do not “reset” your “Set Point”. In fact, less than 5% of people with a BMI ≥ 40 can lose a significant amount of weight and keep that weight off for 5 years with “non-surgical” treatments. Does that mean the 95% of people who can’t keep this weight off are “lazy”, “stupid”, or “just not motivated”? NO!!!! It appears that today, the only way to “reset” the “Set Point” is with bariatric surgery.
Are You Taking the “Easy Way Out” By Choosing Bariatric Surgery?
Many people falsely believe that bariatric surgery patients are taking the “easy way out”. Nothing could be further from the truth. Bariatric surgery patients must do EVERYTHING that patients who are trying to lose weight with “traditional methods” have to do! That means they must make better food choices, increase their activity, sleep better, manage their stress better, and gain a better understanding of their relationship with food. That’s why it is critical that our patients come to their follow up appointments after surgery and work through the program to achieve maximum success.
Even though the surgical patient and the non-surgical patient must do the same things to lose weight, the surgical patient is WAY more likely to lose more weight and to keep that weight off for a longer period of time because of the metabolic changes that occur in the body after bariatric surgery “resets” the set point.. In fact, greater than 70% of weight loss surgery patients will lose more than 25% of their body weight after surgery and keep it off for the rest of their life! Hmmmm, 70% chance of keeping the weight off with surgery vs <5% chance without surgery, sounds to us like the surgery patient isn’t taking the “easy way out”, they’re taking the “effective way out”!
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