Why is surgery considered so wrong???

I totally understand where you are coming from. For over 15 years I tried Weight Watchers off and on, exercised like a fiend, and had only minor, and very slow success. When you have so much to lose and yet you end up losing and gaining the same 2 pounds for months on end, all while working so hard at it, it can be incredibly frustrating. I remember leaving the meetings in tears, and then spending hours poring over my journals trying to find what I was doing wrong. Over and over again, believing that if I just ate less and moved more that I would be able to lose weight. I went to several doctors (who would run a basic thyroid test) who refused to believe that I was accurately journaling. I doubted it myself. Recently, I was referred to a wonderful endocrynologist/neurosurgeon by my current doctor. After a zillion blood draws and tests, she found what was causing my issue. Now I am able to build muscle, endurance, and lose weight.

Somebody who hasn't gone through that frustration may very well believe that their overly simplistic answer is everyone's answer (eat less, move more). However, there are those of us with barriers to being able to lose weight (be it mental or physical) who have to go another route. You don't have to justify it to anyone, I am so happy for you that you found what works.

For many people, weight loss is a life or death issue - shame and judgement have no place in the discussion. You have to do what you feel will have the best chance of working, and do your best to stay alive.

I don't feel that weight loss surgery is a cop out or easy way out- and I don't even see anything WRONG with it.
However, I've know 12 people who've gotten weight loss surgery...
My mother got it, and unfortunately that's what's made me cringe away from it.
Did she loose her weight? Yes. She also has absorption issues with vitamins, she still eats her old foods, just less of them. Now they are saying she might have a hernia where they blocked her stomach off, and might have to reverse the surgery almost ten years later. She also needed a tummy tuck because the weight fell off of her...Could she have needed one even if she did it the old fashioned way? I don't really know.
My uncle...lost 250 pounds, piled it back on. My best friend, lost 210 pounds and gained 95 of it back two years after her surgery, never even made it to her goal.
Personally I think the failure rate is high due to the fact that suddenly people CAN'T eat certain foods and certain amounts. So they feel like that will be enough.
Me? I can eat whatever I want, but I'm learning not to. That is invaluable to me, because I am NOT coming back to this. I also have PCOS, Diabetes, Highblood pressure...failing pancreas, and I'm getting the weight to come off. Now I can do pretty much anything work out wise (walking, weight lifting, ect I'm fortunate enough to not have those limitation) but it is coming off.
I appreciate every pound that comes off on the scale. I appreciate every calorie burned in my workout because it's the only option I have.

Now if someone is going to get the weight loss surgery AND get the mind frame that you get from diet and workouts, great! I am personally the kind of person that would use the surgery as a crutch and not a tool.

I honestly hope everyone finds their way with the help of this site.
Their way. Not mine.

There are people who think that surgery is the easy way to be thin, but the reality is that it's a big decision that is just as difficult, if not more so, as non-surgical weightloss. No matter how you get to your goals, there will always be people who judge and say that you aren't doing it right and theirs is the only way. But, as you figured out, there is more than one road to Rome and you're on the right track and feel good!

Congrats on all you've accomplished!

I don't think surgery is wrong at all. People have to decide what is best for them. Congrats on having your surgery and doing so well. Weight loss surgery as well as cosmetic surgery is helping thousands of people look and feel so much better. I'm happy to hear about your results!!! Keep up the great work!

P.S. People talk negatively about cosmetic surgery as well which is why I'm always open about my surgery. I even posted on FB that I was having elective cosmetic surgery when most women try to keep it hush hush (whether its implants, tummy tuck, liposuction, nose job, etc. etc.) Like I said before, surgery is a personal choice that so many people benefit from.

There definitely is a level of righteousness felt and shared on these boards from individuals who have lost weight the "traditional way" versus weight loss surgery. I think there are a number of reasons for that, but, at the end of the day, I think it comes down to a philosophical difference.

I think some of this comes from the fact that most people don't always know all of the things you have to go through before getting surgery. You have to prove you can lose and change before surgery.

Not sure that helps. Some people will think, "Well, if they have to prove they can lose and change, why not lose and change without the surgery?"

^^^^^
This...if it were me, if I have to lose a chunk of weight before being able to have surgery, why wouldn't I just continue with that discipline and skip going under the knife? I have met two people who actually did that; they found that they could lose weight without permanently changing their bodies through surgery and skipped surgery. They both lost over 100 lbs and are within 20 lbs of their individual goal weights.

There are those who get the WLS and truly tackle the reasons why they eat. The reality is when someone is "obese" or morbidly obese, there are psychological reasons for abusing food. If one does not tackle their issues, a person can "eat through" any WLS, thus the relatively unfavorable success rate (defining "success" as hitting goal).

In my opinion, too many people use WLS as a way to "fix the problem" without truly fixing their problem. I've known people who purposefully gained weight to be eligible. Sad.

To the original poster, it sounds like you've been successful and good for you! Keep it going and taking a healthy track (which we all aspire to do on MFP).

Surgery is not wrong. People can be very judgmental. I believe if you are willing to do the work with the surgery, it is not a shortcut. It's a tool to help you.

Congrats on your hard work, sacrifice and success!!

I can 'see' both sides and their argument.. unfortunately the negative side that I see is as a result of the line of work that I do.

Advanced medical billing: the number one component of my job is appealing claim denials. I use my clinical background to analyze and interpret the surgical notes/office notes and in deciphering the information, it goes into the form of an appeal.

We have a number of patients who are seen in our GI practices for complication-related issues with their bariatric-related procedure. Often, its because the bariatric patient has failed (in some cases miserably) to adhere to the post-op instructions, and has literally eaten their way into emergency surgery, and now is doing a follow-up with the GI specialist and often, the Bariatric surgeon teaming together as well.

The requirements just to have a WL-related surgical procedure varies from plan to plan (most companies who are self-insured will not even think of adding it), and the considerations to approve such a procedure is extremely reliant on the patient being a staunchly proactive person to try multiple methods of weight loss. Proving that alone is extremely difficult from a clinical perspective. Ive angered many physicians when their medical documentation does not meet the insurance guidelines and frankly I dont care - I need the doctors to be compliant with records regulations and laws.

Unfortunately for every one patient who complies with the post-op instructions, we probably have three or four who are totally non-compliant because they did not do the appropriate behavioral health modifications needed for working with a modified stomach/intestine. They ate themselves crazily into the ER.

A good friend of mine was bound and determined to have bariatric surgery and I begged her not to do it - she had no control over her eating habits, and to see her binge as if she had been starved to death was literally frightening to watch. Her behaviors were severely compromised.

She was hospitalized for four months as a result of significant complications - total sepsis, developed MRSA and was on life support for four weeks within the time frame of being hospitalized for the procedure. Day three she went into cardiac arrest. We almost lost her. Her body could not handle the procedure - it basically broke down on her. It seemed like she was in a medically induced coma for a long time.. it was torture on her family and friends. She was 350lbs overweight when she hit the surgeon's table.

Fast forward 6 years later - she is a heart patient at age 40, walks with a cane. She has only lost 100lbs thus far and willingly admits she still has problems with food.... there are days she still cant stop. As a result of this, she continues to have problems with her bypass. She expects people to be 100% supportive of her decision... its not easy to do that. Not when you see her still gorging on food and we are panic-stricken she will have a mass gastric rupture because she has not changed her behaviors.

I wont judge a person who chooses to go through the surgery. Its not my place. However, I sit back and every time I have to review a complication a bariatric patient presents with as a result of extremely poor food-related behavior(s), and all I can think about is my best friend almost dying in the OR.... Having that surgery requires 100% compliance post-operatively speaking, and I see many records of patients who dont make the required changes, often referred right back to the same people he/she dealt with before the surgery was approved to do what they can to intervene and get the patient back into compliance.

ANY surgery holds risks, complications and even death. No matter what procedures, all patients are advised of those issues prior to signing for consent. Bariatric surgery is a very sensitive issue because there are many cases patients fail miserably to adhere to the strict rules they have to follow because they failed to change the eating-related behaviors... thankfully it does not apply to all bariatric patients... but a greater percentage of those patients, it does....and all too often they wish they never had done the procedure in the first place.


For those that willingly have chosen to do this, my advice to you is to find others like yourself and avoid the main boards here like the plague. There are too many nasty-friggin' people (my own patients often shy away from the main boards here) who will throw you to the lion's den and have at-it with you. You dont deserve that type of treatment. Its ok to have a mature discussion provided the other party doesnt attack you - people are entitled to their albeit, constructive opinion, but often resort to the mental stigma of their shoe size.

First I want to say congratulations and way to go!

Now, I'd like to respond to your question. I used to work in health insurance and the main downside to surgery, for me, is that it is still considered experimental. I have seen cases where people have died due to complications from the surgery and end up leaving over $1 million in medical debt to their families. These families not only have to deal with the loss of their loved one, but also with foreclosure on their home. Now, the counter to this is that I don't know if the patients who have passed from complications took the surgery serious or not. Did they follow the food guidelines and other criteria that they are supposed to? I don't know. Maybe that was the reason for their complications?

No, the fact that someone has surgery should not be taboo. However, no one should enter the surgery process with a light heart and the mindset that this is the easy way out, as I have seen several people do.

Again, I want to congratulate you on your hard work and I hope the pounds continue to drop for you! You have done great, keep it up!

I don't think it's necessarily wrong, but I know a lot of people who had it and not one of them has managed to reach goal weight and all of them gained most of their weight back.

Surgery doesn't teach you how to eat right and exercise. I also, after reading your OP, think you are not being honest with yourself about your own eating habits. You contradict yourself a lot. And the bottom line is, if you're overweight despite NOT overeating, as you state, surgery isn't going to help you. But that's one of the places I think you're dishonest because if you were overweight despite not overeating, you wouldn't be able to lose weight on 1,200 calories a day as opposed to 1,500.

I think you probably have a lot of psychological work to do that surgery isn't going to help with. Good luck.

So true. Good health is my aim so this should be the perfect site for someone like me!

The thing that makes us all so interesting to each other is that everyone has a different opinion to many many things. Whether it is from life experience or just a gut feeling.

You have to make whatever choices you feel are right in your life, and if they feel right to you, they are right to you.

To get along in life you have to take everyone's opinion with a pinch of salt. Many different opinions can actually help you make the right choice in your life.

You have found that the surgery has helped you so much to become the person you want to be. It may have been a mistake to someone else.