Does bariatric surgery work?  That’s a question on many minds, as well it should be.  In fact, should I get bariatric surgery is another common question that should be asked.  They have changed their ways, and in fact they are allowing more people to get bariatric surgery than ever before.  It used to be that you had to go through rigorous testing, both physical as well as mental, and you had to have tried everything else and failed with everything else.  They didn’t take that many patients.

But lately, they aren’t actually using those same tests.  They hold seminars, mentally test you, you hope, etc.  But there are more that fall through the cracks and have mental breakdowns every year, because it’s a big change in many lives.  They are also doing more surgeries on teenagers, which is a disturbing trend considering how it disrupts the adult body, let alone that of a child.

But with the growing obesity epidemic, many of us are looking for a way out, any kind of way out, whether it may be easy or surprisingly harder, and eating less technically does help you to lose weight.  They put you through diet counseling, which they hope will motivate you to fill your small stomach with more nutrients.  I know more than one person who has told me that even if you eat all fatty foods, you could not possibly eat enough to not lose weight or to not gain it all back.  This is completely untrue and a myth, there are plenty of people who have actually gained weight back after bariatric surgery because of just that kind of mentality.

Frankly, anybody can lose weight on their own or with temporary supplements that suppress the appetite.  If you combine them with diet counseling as they do with prescription appetite suppressants, you would get the same result, the same feeling, etc, without all the very permanent side effects.  Now, it makes it easier when you are throwing up when you eat too much to be motivated not to eat that much.  But bariatric surgery is no miracle cure.  It still takes a certain amount of work, and it’s still highly dangerous.