When people think of bariatric surgery, their most common conception is of stomach stapling or something surgeons do with a band. Essentially, all forms of bariatric surgery do the same thing. They make the stomach smaller so that the person is not able to eat as much food - at least in terms of volume of food.
The older surgical methods, stomach stapling or lap band bariatric surgery only reduces the volume of the stomach. It takes far less food to feel full, usually only a serving or two. Weight loss follows calorie restriction.
The newer and now more common form of bariatric surgery, the Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, also makes the stomach surgically smaller, but the stomach is not cut and stapled.
In Roux-en-Y gastric bypass the stomach is cut and sutured, or sewn, and the intestines are moved so that the end of the stomach is connected farther down the intestine.
In Roux-en-Y bariatric surgery, there's a smaller stomach that fills more quickly. There's also less intestine to absorb fats (and other nutrients) from the smaller amounts of food that are eaten.
With this form of bariatric surgery, you don't just eat less. You absorb less of the food you do eat. Roux-en-Y bariatric surgery produces faster and greater weight loss than just stapling or banding the stomach.
And another form of bariatric surgery is the mini bypass, sometimes performed under local anesthesia as day surgery - allowing the patient go home the same day the procedure is performed.
Who is a candidate for bariatric surgery?
If you have a television, you've seen the success stories of Al Roker and Carnie Wilson. What the television doesn't show is that bariatric surgery isn't a total solution for losing weight.
Because there are risks to bariatric surgery, it should only be attempted when the person is at least 100 pounds overweight.
People who will benefit from bariatric surgery need to know that they will only lose 60 to 70 percent of their excess weight as a result of the surgery. It will still be necessary to diet.
It's best think of bariatric surgery as the beginning of a different kind of battle with obesity. If you have bariatric surgery, you will still need to diet, forever. You will need monitor your exercise carefully, forever.
But bariatric surgery can give you a jumpstart on a thinner lifestyle that you can get no other way. To learn more about the risks and potential of bariatric surgery, and what you need to make bariatric surgery work for you, click here.