September 22, 2009 · Filed Under Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass · Comment 

Weight loss surgery has been around for well over fifty years now and, while there are of course risks the majority of patients are very happy with the results and enjoy a an enormously improved standard of living. However, there is a price to pay and you will have to lead a very different lifestyle following surgery which may be very hard unless you are prepared for the change.

Some of the post-surgical changes are obvious as the principle behind weight loss surgery is to drastically reduce the size of your stomach and physically restrict the quantity of food that you can eat. This simply means that those days of sitting down to a big meal are gone forever.

However some of the other consequences of surgery are less obvious.

For instance, even in small quantities the days of eating foods that are high in fat or sugar are also over. The results of eating foods of this nature can be extremely unpleasant as their rapid absorption in your newly shortened digestive tract can produce very disagreeable feelings of faintness.

You will also discover that the change in your eating pattern leaves you very short of water so that you need to get used to drinking small amounts of water during the day in order to avoid becoming dehydrated.

This is all very well but just what can you expect from obesity surgery when it comes to weight loss?

Results will of course vary from one person to the next but it is important to begin by looking at just how post-surgical weight loss is measured.

Here you have to begin by calculating how much excess weight you are carrying and this is done by working out your ideal weight. Working in pounds, for a man this will be 106 plus 6 times your height in inches minus 60. For example, for a man who is 5ft 10ins tall the ideal weight will be (106 + [6 x (70 – 60)]) which works out at 166 pounds. For a woman the principle is the same but here a women’s ideal weight is calculated as 100 plus 5 times her height measured in inches minus 60.

Thus, if we take the example of the man above and give him a weight of 366 pounds then he is carrying 200 pounds in excess weight. Weight loss is then measured in terms of the percentage of excess weight lost over time. So, if at the end of 6 months he has dropped 100 pounds then his weight loss will be 50 percent.

In the majority of cases you could expect to lose around 50 percent of your excess weight within the 6 months following surgery climbing to approximately 70 percent one year after surgery and to perhaps 80 percent at the end of 2 years. For the majority of patients however weight loss will stop after 2 years and some long-term weight gain will be evident. Long-term weight gain is typically around 10 to 15 percent of your excess weight.

Once again, as a general rule, if you are very overweight you will shed a greater percentage of your excess weight (possibly as much as 90 to 95 percent) while if you are not so heavily overweight you may shed as little as 60 percent within 2 years of surgery.

You will almost certainly not shed 100 percent of your excess weight and are not going to reach your ideal weight as a result of surgery. As a consequence, it is occasionally said that gastric bypass surgery is not a completely successful. Nevertheless the overwhelming majority of patients would not agree with this statement and will tell you that the improvement in their quality of life is simply unimaginable.

Tags: Bypass Surgery, Consequences, Digestive Tract, Discover, Excess Weight, Faintness, Feelings, Fifty Years, Gastric Bypass, Health, Ideal Weight, Lifestyle, Obesity, Obesity Surgery, Overweight, Principle, Rapid Absorption, Small Quantities, Stomach, Surgery, Surgical Changes, Surgical Weight Loss, Weight Loss, Weight Loss Surgery, X 70

September 22, 2009 · Filed Under Weight Loss Surgery · Comment 

Obsession with weight loss can be devastating, and may even be dangerous. The fear of fat has driven many individuals to take drastic, and even dangerous, measures aimed at weight loss.

Obsession with weight loss and dieting has become a national crisis. The health hazards and dangers of weight loss are not to be taken lightly.

Weight loss is a health-related endeavor. As such, it should be subject to accountability, clinical testing, and stringent regulation. Unfortunately, this is not the case. As a result, high-risk patients are often given high-risk treatments.

The only explanation for the above phenomenon is that the billion-dollar weight loss industry and its entrenchment with Congress policy makers are all behind it. They want you to lose weight to the extent of completely disregarding the health hazards and dangers of weight loss.

Dieting and weight loss are the goals of many individuals. But beware! Overweight is bad enough for your health, but overcoming overweight may be even worse. It could be a case of jumping from the frying pan into the fire. Indeed, weight loss can be dangerous, and even deadly.

Sudden death syndrome does happen to dieters. Women are more prone to sudden death syndrome than men. Sudden death syndrome is often due to total and prolonged fasting, too-low-calorie dieting, obesity surgery, and other health complications resulting from drastic measures to lose weight.

Besides sudden death syndrome, people who use nicotine to lose weight may face other heath issues, such as heart disease and lung cancer. In spite of the potential health risks in smoking, many people opt to use nicotine to lose weight, because nicotine can accelerate loss of calories by as much as 10 percent if they spoke 24 cigarettes a day. Sadly, many people focus their attention only on the immediate result of using nicotine to lose weight without any regard for their health issues down the road. Do not use nicotine to lose weight.

Many adolescents and young adults are so obsessed with getting the perfect body image that they may go to the extreme of using induced vomiting to lose those extra pounds. In addition, the use of laxatives, such as water pills, has potential health hazards in that they may lose potassium, which is critical to building muscle mass and normal heart functioning. Dehydration is yet another health problem. Worst, these extreme measures in weight reduction may lead to eating disorders, such as anorexia and bulimia.

Dieting is the most common method of weight loss. There are many fad diets, many of which are too low in calories that they are tantamount to a “starvation” diet. Calorie deprivation can lead to depression, development of gallstones, cardiac disorders, anemia, hair loss, and a host of health problems and complications.

Many individuals want a quick fix to their overweight problems, and they turn to oral and injected medications aimed at weight reduction. Some of these drugs may contain dangerous chemicals, such as dexfenfluramine, which can cause brain damage.

Exercise is an excellent weight-loss aid. But compulsive exercise is something else. To some, exercise takes priority over everything else in their lives. Compulsive exercise often results in stress injuries.

Finally, many obese individuals resort to surgery to eliminate their weight problems. Unfortunately, obesity surgery does not solve weight problems. In the first two years or so, some patients may have their weight under control. But many late complications begin to surface down the road. Obesity surgery for weight loss is dangerous and should be the last option in weight loss.

Weight loss is a complex health problem. As such, solutions are many, but they are far from being simple and safe. Just don’t jump from the frying pan into the fire!

Tags: compulsive exercise, Dangerous Measures, dangers of weight loss, Dieters, Drastic Measures, Eating Disorders, Entrenchment, Health Complications, Health Hazards, Health Issues, Heart Disease, Heath Issues, High Risk, Jumping From The Frying Pan, Lung Cancer, National Crisis, Nicotine, nicotine to lose weight, Obesity Surgery, obsession with weight loss, Potential Health Risks, Risk Patients, Stringent Regulation, sudden death syndrome, Young Adults