Bariatric Surgery as an alternative to fight Obesity. Weight loss surgery (bariatric surgery) involves surgically reducing the size of your stomach so you aren’t able to eat as much. This means that your body absorbs less food. As mentioned before, common types of bariatric surgery include laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (also called the lap band), gastric bypass, a sleeve gastrectomy, and biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch.

Many of these procedures are laparoscopic surgeries, also known as minimally invasive surgeries. This means they’re performed through small incisions using a laparoscope (a small, thin tube with a camera on the tip that is used to see the inside of the body). Laparoscopic surgeries lead to less pain and a quicker recovery time than more invasive surgeries.

It is Important to know, that bariatric surgery isn’t for everyone who is overweight or even obese. Before you can qualify for surgical weight loss, you must have health conditions related to your obesity. For example, you must also have been diagnosed with sleep apnea, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, or high blood pressure.Our body types, genetics and hormones can affect the rate at which we lose or gain weight, which is why some people  find it easier to lose weight than others. The reverse is also true, some people may find it tough to lose weight but easy to regain lost weight.

As such, eating less and exercising more is the common way to treat obesity, for those who cannot achieve a healthy weight despite lifestyle changes: bariatric surgery is an option for them to consider. Bariatric surgery is not a miracle solution for any obese person to lose weight. Obesity can be considered a lifestyle problem, where the person is trapped in a cycle of losing and regaining weight; or their body is at a balance of not losing enough weight. Bariatric surgery breaks that cycle, giving the person a chance to get into a new cycle that involves eating less, getting good exercise and living healthier.

Before surgery, a patient has to go through consultation and evaluation with a surgeon or physician well-versed in bariatrics,

Here it is important for the patient to be prepared to eat in moderation, follow diet plans (as instructed by the doctor) and exercise regularly.

Bariatric surgery should be taken into consideration if you are obese with a BMI over 35, or if your BMI is higher than 32.5 but also have serious health risks such as the aforementioned comorbidities, especially type-2 diabetes.

Apart from knowing your BMI, it is also important to know your waist size. Having excess fat around your waist can also lead to health risks, compared to having fat in other parts of your body. In fact, waist circumference has been shown to correlate with metabolic syndrome more than percentage fat in other areas of the body. Women with a waist size of over 35 inches (89cm) and men with waist size over 40 inches (101cm) may be at a higher risk of developing metabolic syndrome or diseases related to obesity.

If some of these symptoms are present in you and you would like to learn more about bariatric procedures, please don’t hesitate to contact us.