If you’re considering weight loss surgery, also known as bariatric surgery, it’s essential to understand both the potential benefits and the serious risks. These procedures can help people lose significant amounts of weight, but they also bring lifelong physical and emotional changes.
Types of Bariatric Surgery
Bariatric surgery generally falls into two main categories:
1. Malabsorptive Procedures
These surgeries change how your digestive system processes food so that fewer calories and nutrients are absorbed. While this can lead to rapid weight loss, it can also cause nutritional deficiencies. Common deficiencies include:
- Iron
- Vitamin B12
- Folate
- Thiamine
- Fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and K)
Without proper supplementation, these deficiencies can cause fatigue, nerve damage, and other serious health problems.
Other possible complications include inappropriate insulin secretion, which can lead to dangerously low blood sugar levels. There’s also an increased risk of deep vein thrombosis (DVT)—a blood clot in the leg that can lead to pulmonary embolism, a potentially fatal condition.
Rapid weight loss following these procedures can also cause gallstones, which may require further treatment or surgery.
2. Restrictive Procedures
Restrictive surgeries work by making your stomach smaller so you can’t eat as much. The most well-known is the gastric bypass, which reduces the stomach’s size to around 15 milliliters (ml)—a tiny fraction of its usual capacity (which can stretch to over 1000 ml).
This reduced stomach size means you physically can’t eat much at once, which leads to weight loss. However, it’s important to know that this procedure doesn’t force you to make healthier choices—it simply limits quantity.
Try It First: A Simple Experiment
Before deciding on surgery, consider trying this:
Find out how much food someone with a post-surgery stomach can eat at each meal (usually a few small bites). Then, for a couple of weeks, try eating that way yourself. This experiment can help you decide if you’re ready for such a major lifestyle change—or if you might succeed without the operation.
How These Surgeries Work
All bariatric procedures aim to limit how much food your body can process or absorb, so that fewer calories are stored as fat. This results in gradual weight loss over time.
Some surgeries focus on reducing stomach size, others reduce nutrient absorption, and some do both. But remember: while the physical change happens immediately, the emotional and psychological changes take time and support.
The Emotional Side of Surgery
Many people feel excited and proud after losing weight. But others face unexpected emotional challenges after surgery. These can include:
- Grieving the loss of food as comfort or enjoyment
- Mourning a former identity tied to their weight
- Regret about having surgery
- Stress from changes in relationships
- Anxiety or fear of regaining weight(3rd image)
These feelings are real and valid. It’s not uncommon for people to need ongoing emotional support and counseling after bariatric surgery to help them adjust to their new lifestyle and body image.
Is Surgery Right for You?
Bariatric surgery is not a quick fix—it’s a major decision that changes your eating habits, body, and emotional landscape for life. Before going through with it, talk to doctors, mental health professionals, and people who’ve had the procedure. Learn about all the pros, cons, and necessary lifestyle changes.
You may find that with professional support—like nutrition counseling, exercise, and therapy—you can achieve your goals without surgery.
Final Thoughts
Weight loss surgery can be a powerful tool, but it’s not the only one. Make sure your decision is based on knowledge, preparation, and what’s best for your overall health—both physically and emotionally.
The author of the award-winning book, Diabetes: The Real Cause and the Right Cure, and Nationally Syndicated Columnist, Dr. John Poothullil, advocates for patients struggling with the effects of adverse lifestyle conditions.
Dr. John’s books, available on Amazon, have educated and inspired readers to take charge of their health. You can take many steps to make changes in your health, but Dr. John also empowers us to demand certain changes in our healthcare system. His latest book, Beat Unwanted Weight Gain, reveals the seven most essential strategies for shedding pounds—and keeping them off for good.
Follow or contact Dr. John at drjohnonhealth.com.
As a best-selling author and Nationally Syndicated Columnist, Dr. John Poothullil, advocates for patients struggling with the effects of adverse lifestyle conditions.
Dr. John’s books, available on Amazon, have educated and inspired readers to take charge of their health. There are many steps you can take to make changes in your health, but Dr. John also empowers us that we must demand certain changes in our healthcare system as well. This article is an excerpt taken from “Diabetes: The Real Cause and the Right Cure”, now available in a second edition.
Follow or contact Dr. John at drjohnonhealth.com.
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