Weight Loss Surgery Options

Currently there are two major types of weight loss surgery being performed. The gastric bypass and the lap band. When you have finally chosen to pursue this option how do you decide which surgery is best for you? There are several things you should take into consideration before you decide. The following information should only be used as a general guide. Always discuss your options with your surgeon.

The gastric bypass and the lap band are both good procedures that can produce good results. If you are looking into the bypass you should know that this surgery is more invasive and does require at least one overnight stay in the hospital, usually two nights. The bypass surgery is a combination restrictive and malabsorptive procedure. This means that it works by limiting the amout of food you can eat as well as by stopping your body from absorbing everything that you eat. The good side of this is that you don't absorb all of the fat and calories that you eat while the down side is that you don't absorb all of the vitamins and nutrients that you eat either. What that means to you is that to keep from getting malnutrition and being in the hospital you will need to make sure that you dring enough sugar free low calorie liquid, like water, crystal light, and sugar free or artificallly sweetened tea each day. You will also have to take multivitamins with iron, vitamin B-12, folate, calcium, and protein supplements every day for the rest of your life. The vitamins will all have to be chewed, crushed, or liquid for you to get them down. The protein supplements generally all taste pretty bad and you either have to drink one to two eight ounce glassfuls or you have to purchase a more expensive liquid that you can take about four tablespoonfuls a day.

With a lap band you are not required to take all of the supplements although it is still recommended that you take a good multi-vitamin every day. Most lap band patients can get their protein from the foods that they eat. The main difference that you are going to see between the surgeries is the speed of weight loss at the beginning. Generally any patient who has a bypass will begin to loose weight just because they have a bypass, but unless the patient follows the diet and exercise regimen (which is basically a low calorie, low fat healthy diet, and routine daily exercise for at least 30 minutes a day) after the first six months you will stop loosing weight. That is when we can normally tell which patients are following the diet and exercise program and who is continuing their bad eating habits. Patients who have the lap band will generally only loose weight if they start off following the program and because they learn to follow it from the beginning they typically learn to stick with it and continue to loose weight as long as they continue to follow up with their surgeon and get band adjustments as instructed. Regardless of which procedure that a patient has both procedures have been shown to allow a patient to loose the same amount of weight after two years. Some band patients have lost almost all of their extra weight in as little as eighteen months. Follow up is also recommended to be about the same regardless of which procedure you have, simply because you have someone helping to keep you on track.

No matter what option you choose remember that anyone can be succesful as long as you stick to the program and follow the advice of your surgeon and staff. Good luck with all of your weigh loss efforts.