It's Just A Tool

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but there seems to be many people who think that Weight Loss Surgery is a magic bullet solution to obesity.

It's not.

When I was pre-bariatric, I never felt full. Well, rarely did I feel full. I think I could eat an entire pizza and not feel sick. A footlong hoagie an bag of Doritos was hardly a challenge. It just didn't stop.

But I could feel hungry.

Head hunger, physical hunger, wanting more...but not full. Like The Hacker's Diet postulates, it's as if the "full" side of the body's thermostat is broken. Maybe my stomach was stretched from years of abuse, or maybe it was a natural tendency to keep shoveling it in, I don't know. But I know that when your thermostat doesn't work right it makes dieting a lot more difficult than it is for the normals to lose a few pounds.

Weight loss surgery is a tool to help you learn new habits, a new lifestyle, by "resetting" your thermostat. It won't cure your mental issues. It won't be bulletproof. And because of individual differences, the effectiveness and side effects are all individual as well, so just because one patient may throw up from eating too much another patient may not feel any discomfort.

I have far less physical hunger. I have not had dumping. I haven't had a huge amount of extra gas which was a warned effect. I am still relearning what "full" feels like, and having to concentrate on chewing thoroughly and concentrate on portion size.

All the surgery did was give a timeframe...it's supposed to be about 12 to 18 months...in which to relearn how to eat properly without focusing your life on your hunger, your appetite. You're given a chance to change your lifestyle, which is really the only way to actually lose weight. Diets don't work because they're short term or unnatural. You need to change your lifestyle. If you can change your lifestyle in that timeframe, you should be on a road to success.

There are some people who, after all the recovery pains and issues, regain the weight. They think the surgery is a magic bullet and treated it as such...if your body tolerates it, you can still slurp ice creams and cakes, or graze on snacks, gradually building up calories over the day until you're still overeating. You will gain weight again doing that.

There are people who start losing weight and regain it because they use food as a crutch or emotional comfort and refuse to change such behaviors. They don't solve the issues, just relying on surgery to...again...be some magic bullet to solve the problem. Doesn't work like that.

If you're considering or facing surgery, MAKE SURE YOU UNDERSTAND...it's just a tool.