I’ve got two friends that have undergone surgical procedures to help them reach healthy weight; with two very different outcomes. One is happy and her weight is slowly, but surely dropping—she’s taking it easy and is responding nicely. I have the feeling she’d like a faster rate of loss, but she’s down 6 dress sizes and still shrinking, so it’s going well. The other friend pushed her eating too much once out of her recovery period after surgery; she’d dropped a lot of weight in those two months and she was feeling good. Old habits die hard, however, and because she pushed herself to eat too much, her stomach has begun to re-stretch, so she’s putting back on the weight she initially lost.
No matter what strategy is chosen to lose weight it requires dedication and strong willpower; and with surgery it’s especially important as you can have serious medical issues—like tearing your stomach open—if you don’t follow your meal plan directly after surgery.
Before opting on surgery, to anyone considering it, I’d suggest you look at the proposed meal plan that is set up post-procedure. Try some of the recipes in the cook book, make sure it’s something you like and wouldn’t mind eating regularly. If it is, then try going on that diet for a couple of weeks—adjust the portions so they’re larger, though, or you’re going to be terribly unhappy with the amount of food. If it’s a change you think you could make for the long-term, you may not need surgery, or it may just mean you’ll have an easier time after surgery.
Surgery is a valid option, it’s just not something to dive into and it’s certainly not a quick fix or a magic pill.
