The rate of obesity in the United States is rising — going from a little more than 30% of the population in 2000 to nearly 42% in 2020. Not coincidentally, the number of weight loss surgeries performed each year in the US is also rising, but not nearly enough — only 1% of the eligible population has treated their obesity with surgery.
One of the problems may be the amount of misinformation that tends to surround procedures like weight loss surgery. To provide you with the right information, the team of general surgeons here at Rockwall Surgical Specialists presents a few myths and facts about this approach to your weight issues.
When you have obesity, you’re at far greater risk for some very serious health issues — cardiovascular disease, diabetes, sleep apnea, and liver disease, to name just a few. In fact, it’s no exaggeration to say that, as a risk factor, having obesity is about as dangerous to your health as smoking.
So if you think weight loss surgery is simply for people who want to look better in a bathing suit, think again. This procedure can greatly improve your health and even be life-saving. To put some numbers to this, studies show a 90% decrease in premature death after weight loss surgery.
Your weight loss surgery will change your life in many ways. Whatever the procedure, your relationship with food will need to change, and you’ll have to be mindful of how you eat.
Most procedures limit the amount you can eat by shrinking the size of your stomach. This means that portion control is not only necessary, but also unavoidable. If food is more of an event or routine, you’ll need to reframe the role that food plays in your life.
However, this overhauling of your relationship with food will benefit you in so many ways that the efforts are worth it.
At Rockwall Surgical Specialists, we offer two different types of bariatric surgery, one that does irreversibly change your digestive tract and one that doesn’t.
The first is a gastric sleeve, a procedure in which we surgically remove about 75%-80% of your stomach. This stomach reduction is permanent and can’t be undone.
If you’d prefer a less permanent approach, we can turn to a gastric band, a procedure in which we place a band around your stomach to limit the available space. The benefits of the gastric band is that we can adjust the band as you go and then remove it when you’ve reached your goals.
If you’re contemplating weight loss surgery, odds are good that you’ve tried over and over to lose weight through dieting and exercise. While you may have become discouraged by these failures, there is great success waiting for you after weight loss surgery.
For example, on average, people lose between 38 and 87 pounds in the first year after procedures like the gastric sleeve and gastric band.
We’re happy to sit down with you if you have additional questions about bariatric surgery. To get started, contact us at one of our locations in Rowlett, Rockwall, Greenville, Terrell, and Forney, Texas.
