When to Consider Weight-Loss Surgery

Our team at Nova Physician Wellness Center is committed to providing the ongoing nutritional counseling, medical expertise, and accurate information you need to accomplish your weight-loss goals.

The services we offer focus on the emotional, social, and health rewards of reaching your ideal weight. Once you’re there, we help you sustain your new healthy habits by supporting you throughout the transition from losing weight to maintaining your loss.

While bariatric surgery can greatly enhance your weight-loss efforts, it’s not a miracle cure for obesity. To succeed, you still need to make healthy changes in your diet, exercise routine, and other habits before and after the procedure.    

What is weight-loss surgery?

Weight-loss surgery, also referred to as bariatric surgery, is designed for individuals who:

• Are significantly overweight, typically a BMI (body mass index) above 35-40
• Have been unable to lose weight with diet and exercise
• Are at risk due to serious weight-related conditions such as diabetes, liver disease, and heart disease

There are several types of bariatric surgery available. Depending on the type you choose, the procedures are designed to limit the amount of food you can consume, reduce your body’s ability to absorb nutrients/calories, or both.

What types of bariatric surgery are available?

Two of the more common types of weight-loss surgery are the sleeve gastrectomy and the gastric bypass.

Sleeve gastrectomy

During a sleeve gastrectomy, your surgeon removes about 80% of the stomach, including the portion that produces most of the hormone that triggers your appetite.

Ideally, with a much smaller stomach size, you feel full quickly and thus consume fewer calories. Loss of the “hunger hormone” also helps reduce your cravings for food.

Gastric bypass

With a gastric bypass, your surgeon creates an egg-sized pouch from the top portion of your stomach and bypasses the rest by connecting a part of your small intestine to the “new” stomach.

Like other procedures, gastric bypass reduces your ability to consume large amounts of food or beverages and changes the way your body absorbs nutrients/calories.

Both surgeries require hospitalization but can be done laparoscopically. This approach requires only small incisions and thus shortens the recovery phase after the procedure.

What happens before and after weight-loss surgery?

Depending on your overall health, you may be required to lose up to 10% of your body weight before the surgery is performed. This helps reduce your risks of serious health complications during and after the procedure.

It’s important to note, however, that you must also follow an approved diet and exercise plan following the surgery to achieve long-term success.

Many people can lose a significant amount of weight following a bariatric procedure. However, without positive changes in the ways you view food and weight loss in general, you’re likely to regain those pounds you worked so hard to drop.

For more information about our medically supervised weight-loss programs and the support we offer before and after bariatric surgery, schedule an evaluation at Nova Physician Wellness Center today.