Starting with this blog, here are five things that you should consider before choosing to proceed with weight loss surgery.
1. Have you tried everything?
Obesity is a complex disease that involves many different physiological and psychological reasons why a patient may not be able to lose weight through conventional methods alone, and weight loss surgery is their final option. Thankfully, it can be very successful in finally tipping the scales in your favour and achieving sustained, meaningful weight loss.
It still does however require you to make a number of significant and important changes to your lifestyle more broadly. The ability to reduce the number of calories you consume after weight loss surgery will be easier, but in turn, the quality of the foods you do consume needs to improve as well. If you are already trying to make a change, you are much more likely to succeed following weight loss surgery.
2. Are you ready to commit to a new lifestyle?
Leading on from point number one, weight loss surgery is an important part of obesity treatment, but it is only part of the picture. Yes, surgery will reduce the quantity of food that you can consume, but it cannot control the types of food or frequency (the quality of what you eat is up to you!).
Before deciding to have weight loss surgery, you need to be 100% committed to making changes to your life and committing to these changes long-term. This involves embracing a new diet, ensuring you are getting balanced, nutritious food at each meal and avoiding snacking between. Becoming more active and embracing a new approach to life, helping you to break bad habits of the past and create positive habits for the future.
If you’re not ready to commit to this new lifestyle, then you will find that you will not lose as much weight as you potentially could, or cannot maintain the weight loss past the first few years post-surgery. Weight loss surgery is not a ‘quick-fix’.
3. You may never be ‘skinny’
Weight loss surgery is not the same as the diets that are constantly being promoted over social media or in magazines. Unrealistic body standards have become the norm in recent years thanks to the rise of social media, and the expectations that people place on themselves because of this can lead many to feel disappointed in their own bodies.
Being ‘skinny’ should not be the goal. Weight loss surgery is not about how you look, but the positive impacts that losing weight can have on your health and overall well-being. You will likely, as with the majority of the population, never be skinny, but after significant weight loss following surgery you will be living a much healthier (and therefore hopefully happier and longer) life.
4. Excess skin is another surgery
Leading on from getting skinny, it’s important to know that weight loss surgery could potentially lead to the need to consider other surgeries. Losing a significant amount of weight and having excess or ‘saggy’ skin is quite common and unavoidable in most cases. The severity of the excess skin will depend completely on the individual circumstances, for example, those who had less excess weight will likely have less excess skin than those who have lost a larger amount of weight.
It is important to let your weight ‘balance out’ after weight loss surgery, before considering surgery that addresses excess skin issues such as the widely known ‘tummy tuck’ (abdominoplasty). Appearances aren’t the goal here but improved health, however, excess skin can cause other medical issues such as rashes or infections, and can make life more difficult for a person trying to fit into clothes for example.
5. Why do you want to lose weight?
Ultimately it comes down to this question, that I ask all of my patients: why do you want to lose weight? Is it because you want to be able to keep up with your very active children/grandchildren? Is it because you’d like to sleep better at night and have more energy? Or you’re concerned about ongoing health issues and understand that losing a significant amount of weight can have a positive impact in so many other areas of your life?
If your answer to this question was more motivated by your appearance, which is of course important for your own self-esteem and confidence, but not about your overall health, then maybe its time to look a little deeper into the real benefits that can be achieved from sustained and maintained weight loss, not how you look in the mirror.
If you’d like to know more about weight loss surgery and if you’re a candidate, then please contact us today or you can book an appointment online.