Folks with heart problems or other medical conditions that make general anesthesia a risk will most likely be rejected by bariatric surgeons. If you are denied, then you will have to pursue another option, such as diet delivery services or obesityhelp. The best diets often require willpower and determination to succeed. You will need plenty of both!

If overeating and lack of exercise are the reasons you are fat, then you will be considered a candidate for surgical weight loss. On the other hand, if you have an overactive thyroid or are diabetic, you won’t be helped by having stomach banding.

There are two main types of Bariatric Surgery: Gastric Bypass Surgery and Lap Band surgery.

“Lap Band” Surgery

This operation makes your stomach smaller by putting a gastric band around it. Afterwards, you won’t be able to eat as much. You will therefore lose weight quickly. Rather than cut your stomach (as in gastric by pass), the stomach is effectively made “smaller” by putting a band around it to restrict the amount of food that you can consume. Most doctors who perform weight loss surgeries agree this is the safer alternative. Gastric banding or “stomach stapling” is becoming a routine procedure. Laparoscopic gastric banding is another related technique.

Gastric Bypass Surgery

In this operation, the bariatric surgeon will actually cut your stomach and change it to make it smaller so that it can’t hold as much food. With gastro bypass, sometimes the stomach size is reduced by over eighty percent! Your caloric intake is therefore also reduced dramatically. Diet pills are not able to help. It’s one of the more dramatic weight loss surgery techniques, and is also known as roux en y. Laparoscopic gastric bypass may also be considered.

A smaller stomach means you can’t eat as much and feel full more quickly. (Male liposuction does the same thing, but on a smaller scale.) You will lose weight quick because you can’t hold as much food in your “new” stomach.

Is bariatrics dangerous?

Between one and five percent of people who undergo gastric surgery for weightloss experience serious complications. Death occurs in less than one percent of cases.

Are the weightloss results worth it?

Most folks who undergo surgery to lose weight end up dropping as much as 70% of their extra pounds after a couple of years. It must be remembered that a dramatic change in lifestyle is also required. Long-term weightloss success requires a commitment to a bariatric surgery diet and regular exercise. Without making these lifestyle and psychological changes, you will most likely gain back the weight again.

Is bariatrics surgery expensive?

Gastric Banding Surgery: $20,000 minimum

Gastric Bypass Surgery: $25,000 minimum

Weight loss story: what about excess skin after bariatric surgery?

When you have gastric band surgery to lose wieght, your weightloss will most likely leave behind a lot of excess skin. Such excess skin normally cannot be lost by dieting or liposuction. More surgery is therefore necessary to deal with it. An operation to remove excess skin is considered cosmetic surgery and can therefore be quite expensive.

In conclusion, weightloss surgery is a major step and should only be considered after all other ways of losing weight have been tried!