For years, I had avoided answering this question because it bothered me at first.
When I first started this blog, it wasn’t common to see people lose triple-digit pounds without surgery, which meant that many of the conversations that arose among people sharing my blog included the phrase: “I bet he had to surgery.” and he’s just lying about it.”
There were people who saw my cesarean section scar and accused me of hiding a tummy tuck; A cesarean section scar is not as large as a tummy tuck scar, which extends across the entire front of the body instead of the c. -section scar that is usually only wide enough to be needed to deliver the newborn, and people asking my old friends, sorority sisters, and family if I had really done it on my own without surgical intervention. It was difficult: despite writing regularly about what I had learned and was learning about how to lose weight and keep it off, I couldn’t get rid of that stupid question.
But that resentment was more because I felt hurt because it was a challenge to my integrity; I wouldn’t lie about something like that. In any case, there is a space for someone who absolutely has He underwent some type of weight loss surgery and is honest about it and the struggles that come with trying to maintain weight loss permanently, because it’s not easy. But that person was not me; Except for the two cesarean sections I had, I have never been opened for anything.
However, when someone asked me about this in the comments on my Instagram today, I decided to finally respond. My experiences are different now, my experience is different now and I have had clients who have had some type of weight loss surgery. Now it’s less about me and I can see that.
Whether or not a person should undergo weight loss surgery is a personal decision, best made between that person and his doctor. I don’t. Final point.
Bariatric surgery itself prevents people from comfortably overindulging. Some forms of the procedure. remove a portion of the stomach completely; Some place a device inside the stomach to reduce the amount of space available for food, meaning you fill up faster than you otherwise would because something is already permanently inside the stomach, taking up space. Because of this, it can result in weight loss: it physically impairs your ability to overeat, makes it uncomfortable and, in some cases, painful, and therefore serves as an internal deterrent.
After surgery, patients may find themselves trying to eat their favorite foods and, because of the surgery, find it uncomfortable to eat the way they used to. They can’t eat as much or as fast. When you can’t eat a high-carbohydrate food quickly, it enters your bloodstream differently and therefore doesn’t produce the same “euphoric” “ahhh” feeling that comes from excess, which also serves as a deterrent. If you don’t feel the same and, in fact, it hurts now when you try to do it, you will do it less and less.
That’s the benefit of surgery: the internal deterrent to the behavior itself.
Weight loss surgery has saved lives: there are people who, for various reasons, cannot stop the series of behaviors that cause them to continue gaining weight, and they could very well eat themselves to the grave prematurely if they cannot stop. Weight-loss surgery, which ultimately creates barriers within the body to prevent you from being able to eat as much as you usually do in one sitting, has stopped people from compulsive overeating.
And much of the research on the post-surgical benefits of these procedures can say a lot about foods and the effects our current food system is having on the public. Weight loss surgery patients are experiencing reduced rates of breast cancer, Reduced rates of heart-related diseases and events (such as strokes and heart attacks)., Successful remission of type 2 diabetes.and cancer risk reduction.
It is not the weight loss itself that does this, but eat fewer calories.
And there are people who will ask, “Well, can’t I do it on my own, without surgery?” Of course he can. But if your doctor fears for your health and believes you are at serious risk, what decisions will he make then?
It’s certainly not my place to judge. However, there is cause for concern here.
I’ve had conversations with women who, in search of that “euphoric” “ahh” feeling, would run their old favorites through a blender so they could get the food into their system quickly enough to make it happen. I’ve had conversations with women who were still eating the same unhealthy foods and snacks they ate before, just in smaller portions, wondering why they were still hungry and craving food sooner than expected. And I have spoken frankly with primary care doctors and bariatric surgeons who have seen people cause stomach damage because they were still overeating, to the point that their stomachs expanded or altered surgical implementation entirely. But, because they still manage to lose weight successfully to some extent, this continues to incentivize bad behavior: if weight loss continues, even with all the cheating, there is little incentive to change or leave the bad behaviors behind completely.
There are many things about weight loss surgery that tell us what the processed food industry doesn’t want us to know:
1) the food is deliberately designed to encourage compulsive overeating;
2) it is designed to generate as many feel-good chemicals in our brain as quickly as possible;
3) there is little consideration for the amounts of fat, salt or sugar; and
4) the most reliable way to ensure and preserve health and the weight is to completely disconnect from the industry.
Because of this, here’s the real truth about bariatric surgery: Regardless of whether or not you have surgery, you’ll want some type of behavioral therapy. Why the attachment to compulsive eating behavior? Why the need to overdo it? What can you do instead of binge eating when you need to feel “better”?
Whether or not you have surgery, you will still need to learn how to eat healthier and, most importantly, let go of your attachment to unhealthy foods. You will have to ask yourself why this food, Why do I want this food? right now, What do I feel when I eat this food?and Am I relying on this food to get something I struggle to get in a healthier way?
for me there is is one reason not to have surgery, and it is this: the inability to eat also means the inability to eat enough to exercise. One of the most frustrating things for me as a trainer is having to strategize for a client who wants to lift weights but can’t eat in a way that ensures recovery. If you need protein, and protein is one of the most satisfying things you can eat, it will be difficult for someone who has had surgery to eat enough of it, even if they turned to protein powders.
I know it’s a “so what!?” some people don’t really want to exercise at all, but that’s another thing: you’re going to want exercise, because what protects against weight gain is not the surgery itself, but muscle. The possibility of hair loss does not matter. (Pardon my vanity.)
With bariatric surgery, your metabolism lowers substantially due to rapid weight loss, and the only healthy way to rebuild and gain weight. is muscle development. That is extremely difficult after surgery.
It is not for me to say whether I think it is “worth it” or not, because that is a value judgment that a person has to make for themselves with the information they get from their own doctor. I’m not going to put my finger on the scale in any way. I also don’t think people should allow the blogosphere and social media to influence them in any direction; I’m looking at people who I think have had bariatric surgery. lie through your teeth claiming they have lost triple-digit amounts thanks to a modern diet instead of going under the knife; I’m looking at people who sell waist trainers and who have obviously had liposuction; and I see people claiming that their bariatric surgery saved their life, but they ‘sell’ it through the lens of “look at all the unhealthy shit I can eat and still lose!”
Before I go, I have one last point: We need to stop sarcastically talking about weight-loss surgery as some kind of “cheat code” or the “easy way out.” We have to ask ourselves: “easy way out… from what?” A food system that benefits from our overconsumption, regardless of the harm it causes? A country that makes healthcare inaccessible in virtually every way possible? A society where the vast majority of its citizens are overweight but still can’t be bothered to stop shaming people for being overweight? We need to focus our anger in the right direction: it’s not the people who use whatever means necessary to stay alive, it’s the people in power who make it so difficult for us.
Like I said, I’m not putting my finger on the scale in any way. I don’t have the authority or the right to pass judgment, but this is what do know: what you decide, you will do have to get the job done, and we here at #bgg2wlarmy will be here to support you.
