Is weight loss surgery the cure when dieting fails to permanently reduce weight? Check out this NY Times article.

Many obese people have tried numerous diets, only to find that once the diet has ended, they gain back the weight. There are numerous reasons for this happening, including hormones, fecal bacteria mix, the type of food you consume, and of course the portions.

Certain types of diets can change the body’s set weight, but they also require you to change your eating lifestyle, something many of us are unable or unwilling to do. Years ago I went on a leaky gut diet which helped address chronic gut inflammation due to foods that had been identified for my sensitivity to them. First, I took the Alcat test, which can test quite a number of food sensitivities. Then you stay away from the foods with the highest sensitivities for at least 6 months to a year and gradually introduce them into the body again. This, along with certain supplements to help normalize how my body converts energy and cardiovascular exercise allowed me to have fewer stomach-related complaints and more energy and I reduced my weight by about 18 lbs. over a period of 10 months. The diet reset my weight and I have been able to keep off about 12 of the 18 lbs. without much difficulty.

Most obese people have difficulty changing their diets, which will If they eat more green leafy vegetables and stay away from the white (sugar, breads, wheat, rice, milk) and the high gluten foods reduce their weight and in combination with exercise improve their ability to have better muscle tone which also helps you burn more calories at rest.

Most standard diets people go on are not lifestyle-changing enough to help the person keep off the huge amounts of weight they may lose with an extreme diet. One of the best examples of this was The Biggest Loser, where most if not all the contestants gained back the weight after resuming their regular lifestyle again.

There are huge benefits to our healthcare system, when obese people lose and keep offer the weight including fewer health problems, avoiding diabetes, less joint pain, and fewer sick days.

The current debate is whether more outlets should cover the cost of bariatric surgery, which is shown to not only help obese people reduce and keep off weight but may also help them avoid or reverse diabetes. Apparently, the procedure causes changes at the cellular level which physiologically is important to maintain weight loss.

The gastric bypass was the original procedure, followed by the lap band procedure which has had high complication rates over the years. Now, the sleeve is the preferred method for doing bypass surgery since it has fewer side effects and is reversible.

If dieting has not worked for you, you may want to read about the current technologies and results people are getting with the new bariatric surgeries.

Check out this recent article in the NY Times regarding gastric bypass and its benefits.

Why Weight Loss Surgery Works When Diets Don’t

Personal Health

By JANE E. BRODY FEB. 13, 2017

“Bariatric surgery is probably the most effective intervention we have in health care,” says Laurie K. Twells, a clinical epidemiologist at Memorial University of Newfoundland. She bases this bold claim on her experience with seriously obese patients and a detailed analysis of the best studies yet done showing weight-loss surgery’s ability to reverse the often devastating effects of being extremely overweight on health and quality of life.

“I haven’t come across a patient yet who wouldn’t recommend it,” Dr. Twells said in an interview. “Most say they wish they’d done it 10 years sooner.” She explained that the overwhelming majority of patients who undergo bariatric surgery have spent many years trying — and failing — to lose weight and keep it off. And the reason is not a lack of willpower.

“These patients have lost hundreds of pounds over and over again,” Dr. Twells said. “The weight that it takes them one year to lose is typically back in two months,” often because a body with longstanding obesity defends itself against weight loss by drastically reducing its metabolic rate, an effect not seen after bariatric surgery, which permanently changes the contours of the digestive tract.