Surgery to lose weight? No thanks! I’ll keep my pudge 
(Photo credit: Army Medicine)
Would you go “under the knife” to lose a mere 25 lbs–if it was an option?
If you answered an emphatic “yes indeed-y!” then you might want to consider a new surgery: Primary Obesity
Surgery, Endoluminal, or POSE for short (and profiled in the May 2012 issue of Glamour magazine.)
A few things to note about POSE: it’s a new surgery. It’s not FDA approved. This means that right now it could be pretty costly (few gastro docs perform it), and you are taking a big risk (not FDA approved.) It’s also, well, surgery–which means recovery and discomfort, even if there’s no cutting. Not quite the same as a full-blown gastric bypass or Lap-Band surgery, but your stomach lining is folded over and closed with what are called anchor stitches, thus making your stomach smaller.
Another problem with POSE is that there’s currently no clinical evidence that its effects are long-lasting. Then again, if you’ve ever known anyone who’s had gastric bypass or Lap-Band, you’ll know that these more invasive surgeries aren’t long-lasting either.
Still another reason to put POSE on pause is that, at this point, there does not appear to be any corresponding psychological counselling to go along with the surgery. Most individuals who I’ve known–and from what I have read on both gastric bypass and Lap-Band–have had to attend counselling sessions to determine if they are ready for the surgery, if they are dealing with any emotional eating issues or if there are other issues that will not support a good outcome. Maybe some doctors believe that the person who wants to lose 20 to 75 pounds (the amount of weight that POSE is said to help one lose) might not have the same issues as someone who wants to lose more than one hundred pounds.
If that’s the way doctors are thinking, then they’ve never met a binge eater who complains about her eating habits then wolfs down an entire cheesecake in one sitting. Weekly.
Even though there are all these caveats to POSE, I’d like to bring up a whole bunch of other health-related issues that might be causing you to NOT lose that 20 or so pounds you’ve been bitching about for maybe as many years. Those issues/causes/bad habits/health problems include
- Eating out all the time
- Lack of exercise
- Emotional eating
- Hypothyroidism or other endocrine conditions
- Food allergies or sensitivities (please get tested for these. Don’t assume the white flour/white sugar thing.)
- Genetic make-up
- High alcohol consumption (yes, women get “beer bellies”)
- Other health conditions that you might not know affect your metabolism
- Menopause
Once you get out of your 20′s, a whole host of things can go wrong in your body that will collude against you maintaining that size 2 figure you had when you were 21. That’s no reason to immediately go for some sort of stomach re-arrangement surgery to lose weight when you may not have considered all the other reasons why you aren’t losing weight including your own unrealistic body image and expectations.
So, wise up ladies! Unless you have some really, REALLY pressing health issue–such as Type 2 diabetes, back problems, inability to get pregnant–DO NOT even think of going the surgical route for weight loss simply because it sounds so easy. Take stock of yourself, of your overall health, your diet and exercise routines, and your overall life habits. Maybe all you need are some tweaks here and there in your everyday life to get to where you can buy those designer clothes (that don’t come in a size 14–those bastards!) and not some (currently) unapproved and unproven surgical quick fix.
Be happy and healthy in our own skin, no matter what your weight or size
Related articles
- Psychological clearances for gastric bypass (terancedukes.typepad.com)
- New Weight-Loss Surgery to Lose 20-50 Pounds (abcnews.go.com)
- Does the gastric bypass no surgery work (dennismoreno5.typepad.com)
- Carnie Wilson Undergoes Second Lap-Band Surgery (thehollywoodgossip.com)
