Yesterday I read the following article on Yahoo News - Review Finds Weight-Loss Surgery Safe and Effective - http://health.yahoo.net/news/s/hsn/r...-and-effective

The article has been on my mind so I went back to it yesterday. I found it both comforting and disturbing. I am glad that the physician interviewed believes that weight loss surgery is safe and effective. I believe that weight loss surgery is a valid tool for weight loss. A family member has been helped greatly with surgery. However, the following quote really disturbs me:

Really, Really ! ???????

So anyone who can't afford the surgery, or is afraid of it, is doomed to be morbidly obese for the remainder of their lives?? To quote my grandmother, "Poppycock!" I really believe that statements like this from health care professionals does more harm than good. How many people were totally discouraged from even trying to improve themselves after reading this?

I just want to tell anyone coming to this site for inspiration on losing weight that it is possible to lose weight without surgery, even large amounts. I would love to have others who have lost weight without surgery post here too.

Weight loss surgery can be a good tool for weight loss but it is not the only tool!

I've seen that sort of thing as well and it's very frustrating. The problem is how the studies on weight loss are done. Researchers routinely report an average weight loss of 10% but the average masks the people who successfully lost much more. They generally assign diets, so they can compare one with another and then wonder why they get poor compliance on all of them -- without, apparently, realizing that an individual is likely to do better with a diet that she chooses and tweaks for herself.

You might like the book Thin for Life by Anne Fletcher. She tried a different research paradigm -- seeking out people who successfully lost weight and asking them what they did.

I think really, they are pushing weight loss surgery because it is what they know. They should look at the national weight loss registry if they want to see those who have been morbidly obese but are no longer due to other methods.

Is it cynical of me to suggest that they are pushing weight loss surgery because that is where they get their profits?

A more generous interpretation would be that the patients they see have often tried and not succeeded without surgery, and so they extrapolate that to mean that all people will not succeed without surgery.

I don't think I'm prepared to be quite as generous as Joy and believe that they actually even consulted research before making these statements.

But I really want to join you, Cheryl, Joy, and Nelie, in proving this doctor wrong.

The article looks at weight reduction at 5yrs, I wonder how it would look if looked at every year as I often hear about people who have had surgery than lose all or most of their weight but start gaining it back because the same problem applies, they look at the changes as short term and go back to eating the same crap they did before once they have lost. They gain it back slower because their stomach is smaller, but the stomach can stretch over time and allow slightly more and more.

I support anyone who decides this measure is for them. But the changes are too drastic for me. I will continue on my path without it. over all I have lost around 185 lbs since 3/2010 if I count regains and re-losing. Yes I slip up but obviously the dieting works even though I am obese.

Working at a weight loss surgery center just might give one tunnel vision as far as solutions for morbid obesity to put it generously -.- The doctor's quote makes me cringe. I also find it untrue for everyone, obviously. I do think that proponents of bariatric surgery are positively thrilled that surgery for obesity gets a strong mention and a (rightful, in my opinion) place in the doctor's decision-making flowchart in the most recent and updated Guidelines for Treatment of Obesity published just last month:

2013 AHA/ACC/TOS Guideline for the Management of Overweight and Obesity in Adults: A Report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force on Practice Guidelines and The Obesity Society
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/1.../oby.20660/pdf
(chart for treatment recommendations is on page 14, this is a monster-length article.)

However, the following qualifiers are noted when it comes to selecting patients for bariatric surgery evaluation:

*wants to lose weight
*greater than 40% bmi (or 35% bmi with comorbid conditions <-chart says plural)
*has not been successful with behavioral treatment (diets, lifestyle programs, counseling, exercise, etc.)
*has not been successful with weight loss drugs
*has been advised of risks of staying morbidly obese, as well as risks of bariatric surgery. Also must be advised of the psychological and behavioral changes which take place after bariatric surgery.
*note: bariatric surgery is not recommended for anyone with a bmi under 35%

Bariatric surgery reads like a last resort solution to me, at least in these medical guidelines. And certainly, for some people out there, bariatric surgery IS the recommended treatment. I wish them well! However, the doctor's quote from the article you linked sounds more like salesmanship, and is NOT what the current treatment guidelines actually say.

On a personal note, I do on occasion run into other people who have lost a large amount of weight (and maintained!) by diet/exercise which gives me great hope. I have two co-workers who lost 70 and 100 lbs respectively and have each kept it off at least two years. I have had a couple of my customers mention to me that they have lost and kept off (100 lbs and 60 lbs.) I also had the pharmacist mention to me that she had lost 60 lbs so far. The successful dieters ARE out there!

I have two co-workers who have had gastric bypass type operations (one was Roux en Y, but I'm unsure of the other type of procedure.) Both of them look great and lost a considerable amount of weight! However one has gained back 30 lbs (he told me how much,) and the other person I'm not really sure, but I'd say about a 30 lbs regain for her. Another one of my friends who I only communicate on Facebook had gastric bypass and, wow, she is completely different looking!! She's probably about a year and a half out from her surgery and she appears to still be losing weight (no regain at all.)

There is the National Weight Loss Registry which refutes that. There is 3FC of course which is awesome. And I am a HUGE fan of Huffington Post Weight Loss Success Stories. Google it. It is awesome. When I was starting I read like a 100 of them.

And I still like the new ones. With motivation anything is possible. I remember what kick started me. I go to a conference once a year and sometimes don't wear this suit jacket but once a year. In late April this year it didn't fit by a few inches. Then I went to a concert and I was one of the heaviest around.

All of a sudden it just seemed so absurd. Just absurd. I had worked out the day of the concert which was a Saturday following the conference. I woke up Sunday knowing I would be at a healthy weight. The week before I thought I was going to be really unhealthy forever. That morning I knew there was no way I wasn't going to lose it. I can't explain it, but it was strong and hasn't gone away.

For a person to say only surgery, they have to willfully be ignoring a lot of evidence before them and being completely selective: exactly what any researcher/scientist worth anything doesn't do.

I think the medical profession gets frustrated with people not losing weight (even though a huge percentage of the profession itself is overweight!), so they think, "NOTHING works." Then they see the WLS surgery stats and say, "Well, but that does work."

But I hardly think that's a reason to decide "nothing works" but WLS. It's just hard with a normal-size stomach to stick to a healthy eating plan in the face of all the food that's around us. Heck, from what I've heard that's hard to do even with a smaller stomach.

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