So You're Considering Gastric Bypass Surgery To Lose Weight

Okay so you are wanting to lose a lot of weight and you have tried every diet known to man and have failed every time. And each time you fail at the diet, you end up gaining even MORE weight, and it becomes a vicious cycle. You diet and regain and diet and regain and you feel like life will never change for you. You look at the MOUNTAINOUS amount of weight you need to lose and feel defeated before you ever start. You want that 'magic pill' that you could take that would drop the weight off effortlessly without diet and exercise and the closest thing to that is 'Gastric Bypass Surgery'.

I'm writing this to tell you that I understand how desperately you want to get the weight off. I know because I used to weigh 325 pounds ten years ago. I've dieted from the time I was 12 years old and gained and lost a zillion pounds and regained it all plus more. I wasn't born fat. In fact I was a very underweight child until my parents divorced and my father remarried when I was seven. Then the weight poured on and hasn't stopped since. After failing at every diet ever created, I finally, at the age of 43, gave in to my desperation and had the gastic bypass Roux En Y surgery. I, like you, had tried every diet available in my lifetime and none of them worked. Well, that's not true...they worked but I ended up gaining all of the weight loss back plus more until finally my chest started hurting and I was willing to do ANYTHING to get the weight off, even if it cost my very life. Now, ten years later, I'm here trying to help others who want to have this surgery and I'm here to tell you the TRUTH about your impending decision.

Having weight loss surgery is a gamble – period. It’s like playing Russian roulette. You allow some doctor you barely know, to surgically change the way God made your body, in order to obtain some sort of control over food. You see all the 'before/after' pictures of hundreds of thousands of people who have had the surgery and the more pictures you see, the more it makes you desperate to have the surgery so that you too can be thin again. You dream of how you will look in your 'thin' clothes and how good it will feel to have no fat on your body. You long to be in small sizes again and be sought after by the opposite sex. You think life can begin again if you just can be thin. You feel that if you continue in your morbidly obese body that your will end as you know it and that you can't be truly happy until the fat is gone. I know all your thoughts because I had them myself. But here is the reality of weight loss surgery that you may not be aware of:

People who have gastric bypass surgery must eat a diet of meats, fruits and veggies with very little carbohydrates after surgery just like those who haven't had surgery in the first place. They also must follow a regimen of daily exercise also. And, most importantly, due to their inability to absorb proteins and vitamins, they have to take several vitamins and supplements every day for the rest of their lives in order to be 'normal'. If a person who has this surgery goes back to his/her former eating habits, they will regain at least 50%, if not all of their weight back. There are post-operative complications for life, such as anemia, hypoglycemia, gallstones, bowel obstructions and permanent heart damage. Each one of those issues is life threatening and aren't to be taken lightly.

If you are truly considering having this surgery, then DO YOUR HOMEWORK and research sites that will tell you the truth about long term complications. There is a website called ObesityHelp that have many forums for the different types of surgeries. In the 'graduate' forum, you will see many posts from thousands of people who are regaining the weight that they initially lost. You will see that the only way to be successful after surgery is to eat healthy and exercise, as though you never had the surgery at all. Yet, you will also learn from people there, that there are many post-operative lifetime health problems that people have to deal with the rest of their lives. And, finally, you can see the 'memorial page' where you will find the long list of people who have died from the surgery or soon thereafter.

I realize this article may be discouraging to you if you had your heart set on this surgery, but you must know the truth before you lay your life down on that gurney and let a doctor rearrange your intestines that could cost your life. The reason this surgery has become so well known is because doctors know that people will do anything to become thin. They are peforming this surgery because it costs tens of thousands of dollars and they make a TON of money with each patient. When insurance companies agree to pay for it, the doctors make even more money. It's become a very greedy business and unfortunately people who undergo the surgery are the ones having to pay the price down the road while the doctors are acquiring all of their money. It's very tragic when you look at it realistically.

Oh, and before I forget, if you have more than 100 pounds to lose, you will have a LOT of sagging skin left over after the weight is gone. Then, if you can afford it, you will have to pay for a plastic surgeon to remove the excess skin from your stomach, thighs and arms and sometimes a surgery called a 'body lift' to remove it from all over your body. Insurance companies, rarely, if ever, will pay for these surgeries because they are considered to be 'cosmetic'. If you don't have the surgeries to remove the excess skin, you are left wearing clothes that cover everything as though you never lost weight at all and you never fit into the 'skinny' clothes that you dreamed of.

I'm sorry to be a damper on your dream of being thin forever with weight loss surgery. However, I'm telling you the truth. Your stomach will stretch back to it's normal size over the years and you will have to eat healthy and in small portions just to be able to maintain the initial weight loss over the first year. If you don't, the weight will climb back on as though you never had surgery at all.

For me personally, I've regained 35 pounds from my lowest point after surgery ten years ago. If I don't stop eating fattening food and if I don't start exercising, I will more than likely gain back all of the weight I lost. I have a permanent condition of anemia and hypoglycemia and had to have emergency surgery for a bowel obstruction that almost cost my life. I will never be normal again. I can't eat a normal meal of carbohydrates without my blood sugars going off the chart and my heart pounding and getting headaches and then two hours later my blood sugar dropping like a rock and having to take a glucose tablet so I won't lapse into a coma.

Would I have this surgery again? Not on your life, but I will always be here to tell the truth about this surgery for those who want to hear it. I want to help save a life if I can for as long as God will allow it.

So BE SMART and realize that you are taking your life in your hands and playing Russian roulette when you have this surgery. Are you REALLY willing to 'die to be thin'??? The choice is up to YOU!