Why do people have weight loss surgery?

So we all know that creating a calorie deficit leads to fat loss and consequently it becomes very easy to say that people who aren't able to do this are simply lazy slobs who can't manage to get off the couch and put the fork down. I think that's a presumptuous stance to take.

Given some of the diet products that sell and the vast amounts of misinformation that I see, I'm not sure that's the case...

I so dislike auto correct....

Statistically speaking... people that get bariatric surgery (without psychological intervention for underlying issues) gain back their weight within 5 yrs.

Its an easy way for people to lose weight fast. No exercise required.

I am sorry but coming from 315 lbs to 199, and failing several times prior (now its my life, I eat to get stronger or leaner, always with a purpose), I simply cannot buy into the whole it was my only option thing. If you want something bad enough, you will achieve it, and to insinuate that a 500 lb person would need to eat 1200 calories to lose weight is just absurd. A 500 lb person could cut weight on a ridiculously high number of calories. All the weight loss surgeries in the universe are not going to stop someone with no self control from stuffing their reduced stomach with super calorie dense food, and on the other end of the spectrum lets say they decide now that they have lost weight, they now want to build muscle..... well good luck doing that with food restrictions. If you want to lose weight, do it by changing your lifestyle, not by forced restrictions. But do what ever you wanna do.

Speaking from experience at my heaviest I was consuming close to 10,000 calories a day and had no problem doing that... I consumed foods very calorie dense (21 in. Pizza's, boxes (not individually wrapped) of swiss cakes, hoho's, Nutter butters, bags of chips like Doritos, tortilla chips smoothed in cheez wiz, etc, etc..... It really was not that difficult, my biggest problem at that point was guilt tripping my family or flat out verbally bashing them until they caved and gave me what I wanted.. the Last couple years getting close to my max weight I could barely get around the house, let alone leave the house.. I still managed to get to my truck on occasion and drive myself through the drive thru's when I really wanted something.... When you are in that vicious cycle of being hungry, stuffing your face til you feel like throwing up, then play the why do I do this to myself and saying I am going to change, and that only lasting til you have room in your belly to eat more so you start the cycle over again.... At that point (and I think I can speak for most) you are in a cycle that you can't see anyway out of so you refrain to the fact nothing will change and I would say alot of people view the surgery as an easy way to try and break that bond. If you can't eat all that food because your stomach is the size of an egg now then you'll just get skinny and that is that.

You can't see past that part of it to all the changes you are going to have to make to sustain any of it... Changing your eating habits, exercising for fitness, changing your mindset towards all that you have known to date, etc, etc.... At that size the easy way out is to take the easier road (or atleast what at that time you perceive to be the easy way out.) but in my case I still had enough common sense to know that no amount of Weight Loss Surgery was going to fix what caused me to get to 560 lbs. If I could not fix what was broken in my head then there was no chance in my mind that I would ever be able to lose the weight and keep it off.... So I was totally against WLS for me as an option.. When my doctor asked me if I wanted the surgery I told him HELL NO!! I would do every thing I was asked to do by him and the dietician and whoever else but I was doing this naturally or die trying.... You really have to be in the right mindset to do this.... I don't know the statistics but I would have to say it is in the single percentages of people that can lose 200-300-400 lbs, on their own and keep it off. And for the majority of those people the WLS in the beginning probably looks like the easier option... Little do they know it is NOT and is why alot of them fail because they never tackle the real reasons they got that big to begin with...

A life long friend that had Gastric bypass and lost 200 lbs. and I followed her journey on facebook a couple years ago and was doing so good at her weightloss and exercise had been distant the last year and I had not seen much posted from her until a few weeks ago she said she was moving back home (lived in Missouri the last 10 years) and didn't give a reason why... She called me Friday (knows I am an IT.Computer nerd) and asked if I could fix her laptop and she stopped over and to my horror she has put back on all of her 200lbs, lost and I would say another 50-60lbs. on top of that.. Seeing me she lost it in the driveway, She is so ashamed of failing and seeing my success (even though she is really happy for me and my success) and when I asked her what happened she said she never fixed the mental side of the journey. She never addressed her severe depression, her childhood issues that cause her to eat to hide her problems and even though she experienced so much success in the beginning it wasn't enough... I sat in this very recliner with a loaded handgun for 3 days back in 2009, trying to think of a way to blow my brains out and not leave a mess for my family to come home too, on the 3rd day I realized that was not going to be possible, I accepted I had a major problem, and had that AHA moment and put the gun down and start working to fix the problem...

I can tell you it was nothing short of climbing my own Mt. Everest but I went about it the right way getting to heart of my problems, working through them and taking my progress in steps and finally overcoming my weight issues... So when I say they use weight loss surgery as the easy way out I don't want you or anyone to think I mean that in the sense that it often gets taken out of context in other threads on here. I simply mean when you weigh 500+ lbs. that surgery is looked upon (atleast from my view) as a quick fix so that I would not have to put in all the effect it would take to lose 300+ lbs. but in the end there is NO EASY WAY OUT.... You will have to work your *kitten* off regardless end of story....... Best of Luck

Because some people think it's simpler to amputate parts of their body than put in actual effort to change how they eat.

Speaking from experience at my heaviest I was consuming close to 10,000 calories a day and had no problem doing that... I consumed foods very calorie dense (21 in. Pizza's, boxes (not individually wrapped) of swiss cakes, hoho's, Nutter butters, bags of chips like Doritos, tortilla chips smoothed in cheez wiz, etc, etc..... It really was not that difficult, my biggest problem at that point was guilt tripping my family or flat out verbally bashing them until they caved and gave me what I wanted.. the Last couple years getting close to my max weight I could barely get around the house, let alone leave the house.. I still managed to get to my truck on occasion and drive myself through the drive thru's when I really wanted something.... When you are in that vicious cycle of being hungry, stuffing your face til you feel like throwing up, then play the why do I do this to myself and saying I am going to change, and that only lasting til you have room in your belly to eat more so you start the cycle over again.... At that point (and I think I can speak for most) you are in a cycle that you can't see anyway out of so you refrain to the fact nothing will change and I would say alot of people view the surgery as an easy way to try and break that bond. If you can't eat all that food because your stomach is the size of an egg now then you'll just get skinny and that is that.

You can't see past that part of it to all the changes you are going to have to make to sustain any of it... Changing your eating habits, exercising for fitness, changing your mindset towards all that you have known to date, etc, etc.... At that size the easy way out is to take the easier road (or atleast what at that time you perceive to be the easy way out.) but in my case I still had enough common sense to know that no amount of Weight Loss Surgery was going to fix what caused me to get to 560 lbs. If I could not fix what was broken in my head then there was no chance in my mind that I would ever be able to lose the weight and keep it off.... So I was totally against WLS for me as an option.. When my doctor asked me if I wanted the surgery I told him HELL NO!! I would do every thing I was asked to do by him and the dietician and whoever else but I was doing this naturally or die trying.... You really have to be in the right mindset to do this.... I don't know the statistics but I would have to say it is in the single percentages of people that can lose 200-300-400 lbs, on their own and keep it off. And for the majority of those people the WLS in the beginning probably looks like the easier option... Little do they know it is NOT and is why alot of them fail because they never tackle the real reasons they got that big to begin with...

A life long friend that had Gastric bypass and lost 200 lbs. and I followed her journey on facebook a couple years ago and was doing so good at her weightloss and exercise had been distant the last year and I had not seen much posted from her until a few weeks ago she said she was moving back home (lived in Missouri the last 10 years) and didn't give a reason why... She called me Friday (knows I am an IT.Computer nerd) and asked if I could fix her laptop and she stopped over and to my horror she has put back on all of her 200lbs, lost and I would say another 50-60lbs. on top of that.. Seeing me she lost it in the driveway, She is so ashamed of failing and seeing my success (even though she is really happy for me and my success) and when I asked her what happened she said she never fixed the mental side of the journey. She never addressed her severe depression, her childhood issues that cause her to eat to hide her problems and even though she experienced so much success in the beginning it wasn't enough... I sat in this very recliner with a loaded handgun for 3 days back in 2009, trying to think of a way to blow my brains out and not leave a mess for my family to come home too, on the 3rd day I realized that was not going to be possible, I accepted I had a major problem, and had that AHA moment and put the gun down and start working to fix the problem...

I can tell you it was nothing short of climbing my own Mt. Everest but I went about it the right way getting to heart of my problems, working through them and taking my progress in steps and finally overcoming my weight issues... So when I say they use weight loss surgery as the easy way out I don't want you or anyone to think I mean that in the sense that it often gets taken out of context in other threads on here. I simply mean when you weigh 500+ lbs. that surgery is looked upon (atleast from my view) as a quick fix so that I would not have to put in all the effect it would take to lose 300+ lbs. but in the end there is NO EASY WAY OUT.... You will have to work your *kitten* off regardless end of story....... Best of Luck

Speaking from experience at my heaviest I was consuming close to 10,000 calories a day and had no problem doing that... I consumed foods very calorie dense (21 in. Pizza's, boxes (not individually wrapped) of swiss cakes, hoho's, Nutter butters, bags of chips like Doritos, tortilla chips smoothed in cheez wiz, etc, etc..... It really was not that difficult, my biggest problem at that point was guilt tripping my family or flat out verbally bashing them until they caved and gave me what I wanted.. the Last couple years getting close to my max weight I could barely get around the house, let alone leave the house.. I still managed to get to my truck on occasion and drive myself through the drive thru's when I really wanted something.... When you are in that vicious cycle of being hungry, stuffing your face til you feel like throwing up, then play the why do I do this to myself and saying I am going to change, and that only lasting til you have room in your belly to eat more so you start the cycle over again.... At that point (and I think I can speak for most) you are in a cycle that you can't see anyway out of so you refrain to the fact nothing will change and I would say alot of people view the surgery as an easy way to try and break that bond. If you can't eat all that food because your stomach is the size of an egg now then you'll just get skinny and that is that.

You can't see past that part of it to all the changes you are going to have to make to sustain any of it... Changing your eating habits, exercising for fitness, changing your mindset towards all that you have known to date, etc, etc.... At that size the easy way out is to take the easier road (or atleast what at that time you perceive to be the easy way out.) but in my case I still had enough common sense to know that no amount of Weight Loss Surgery was going to fix what caused me to get to 560 lbs. If I could not fix what was broken in my head then there was no chance in my mind that I would ever be able to lose the weight and keep it off.... So I was totally against WLS for me as an option.. When my doctor asked me if I wanted the surgery I told him HELL NO!! I would do every thing I was asked to do by him and the dietician and whoever else but I was doing this naturally or die trying.... You really have to be in the right mindset to do this.... I don't know the statistics but I would have to say it is in the single percentages of people that can lose 200-300-400 lbs, on their own and keep it off. And for the majority of those people the WLS in the beginning probably looks like the easier option... Little do they know it is NOT and is why alot of them fail because they never tackle the real reasons they got that big to begin with...

A life long friend that had Gastric bypass and lost 200 lbs. and I followed her journey on facebook a couple years ago and was doing so good at her weightloss and exercise had been distant the last year and I had not seen much posted from her until a few weeks ago she said she was moving back home (lived in Missouri the last 10 years) and didn't give a reason why... She called me Friday (knows I am an IT.Computer nerd) and asked if I could fix her laptop and she stopped over and to my horror she has put back on all of her 200lbs, lost and I would say another 50-60lbs. on top of that.. Seeing me she lost it in the driveway, She is so ashamed of failing and seeing my success (even though she is really happy for me and my success) and when I asked her what happened she said she never fixed the mental side of the journey. She never addressed her severe depression, her childhood issues that cause her to eat to hide her problems and even though she experienced so much success in the beginning it wasn't enough... I sat in this very recliner with a loaded handgun for 3 days back in 2009, trying to think of a way to blow my brains out and not leave a mess for my family to come home too, on the 3rd day I realized that was not going to be possible, I accepted I had a major problem, and had that AHA moment and put the gun down and start working to fix the problem...

I can tell you it was nothing short of climbing my own Mt. Everest but I went about it the right way getting to heart of my problems, working through them and taking my progress in steps and finally overcoming my weight issues... So when I say they use weight loss surgery as the easy way out I don't want you or anyone to think I mean that in the sense that it often gets taken out of context in other threads on here. I simply mean when you weigh 500+ lbs. that surgery is looked upon (atleast from my view) as a quick fix so that I would not have to put in all the effect it would take to lose 300+ lbs. but in the end there is NO EASY WAY OUT.... You will have to work your *kitten* off regardless end of story....... Best of Luck

Thank you for this Ed!

I've known many people who have had WLS including myself. It is really hard for me to see people with the attitude that you describes. It almost always indicates that the person will not be successful with the surgery. I had a friend who went to an all you can eat chicken place right before her bypass. Guess what? She had a VERY hard time sticking with her post surgery diet and before long was eating all of the wrong foods for weight loss. Last time I saw her she was nearly up to her original size and could eat a dozen chicken wings with bleu cheese dressing for a snack.

I had another friend who had it and never learned to cook for himself, never embraced exercise and ate from McDonald's twice every day albeit in smaller portions, following his surgery. He has regained over 200 pounds.

Fortunately there are many others who don't follow this pattern. I did a doctor supervised 800 calorie VLCD for 13 weeks prior to my surgery and stuck with it faithfully. Even BEFORE that I was eating healthily and exercising. On the day of my surgery I was down 70 pounds from my original weight. People ask me, "well if you could lose 70 pounds on your own then you obviously don't need surgery, so why go through with it" My answer is simple, I have lost 70 pounds and even more than that in the past and gain it all back. For me weight loss is like telling yourself you're only going to breathe four breaths each minute. You can do it.. For a while. If you put all your focus into it. I had constant nagging hunger. I felt like I was starving all the time. It was more than my willpower could conquer over the long haul.

You want to call it an excuse, go ahead, I don't care. I know it was something I needed help with. So I got VSG surgery to remove my excessive hunger from the equation without affecting nutrient or calorie absorption. Now I can make a good meal choice and eat a few ounces of chicken, a bit of veg, and 1/4 of a potato and feel very satisfied. Before I'd eat a piece of chicken, a few servings of veg and I wouldn't feel satisfied without a heaping portion of starch.... and while I'd be eating it, I'd be thinking about my next meal. Now I just have hunger like a normal person and feel satisfied after eating a reasonable portion of food. It's a wonderful feeling not obsessing about food all the time and not having constant nagging hunger and urges to eat. I think I deserve this feeling. I'm happy with my decision. It's the best thing I've ever done for myself.

Weight loss surgery will NOT make you magically lose and maintain your weight. If you approach it like it will, then you'll find yourself as somebody's anecdotal "I know someone who gained it all back and more" story. What weight loss surgery CAN be is an aid to help you stick with a calorie deficit so you can lose weight. It might reduce your hunger so you can more easily resist cravings. It will reduce the amount of food you need to eat to feel satisfied. It will not prevent you from snacking, drinking frozen milkshakes, eating gallons of cake frosting, overeating to the point of pain, drinking high calorie beverages etc.. It will not drive you to the gym or tie your workout shoes for you.