Weight Loss Surgery Wont’ Change Body Perceptions: Study

Being thin is in nowadays, and it sure comes with a lot of benefits. Aside from making you wear all the clothes that you want, being thin can also eliminate your risks of acquiring illnesses such as hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol levels, heart disease and stroke.

Bariatric Surgery

For morbidly obese people, diet and exercise simply wouldn't work. Bariatric surgery may be the only option for these people. Bariatric surgery is the term for the type of surgery that can make the morbidly obese lose weight. It is not recommended for those who are not overweight or obese and it may also be the last resort for obesity which has been resistant to diet and exercise. Obese people have a body mass index or BMI of ?30. Weight loss surgery is only recommended for severe obesity or those with a body mass index of above 40 who had not responded to diet, exercise and weight loss medications. It is also recommended for those with a body mass of 35 to 40 with problems such as diabetes, joint pains and sleep apnea.

Those who have been prescribed with weight loss surgery should be made aware of its benefits and risks. You should also be motivated and willing enough to make changes in your lifestyle. There are several types of weight loss surgeries that your doctor can choose from, such as lap banding, gastric bypass, and sleeve gastrectomy.

Lap banding, also known as laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB) uses an adjustable band fitted around the stomach's opening to reduce the amount of food that you can eat. It is a popular type of weight loss surgery because it can be removed or adjusted, with a lower risk of serious complications after surgery. Weight loss can occur at 45 to 75% after two years. On the other hand, gastric bypass or Roux-en-Y gastric bypass creates a small pouch in the stomach that can make you lose weight by reducing the amount of food that you can take in. The smaller stomach pouch can hold less food thus making you feel full even if you have just eaten a little. The body also absorbs lesser calories in the process. This procedure has a high success rate of about 62 to 68% weight loss during the first year.

The other procedure is sleeve gastrectomy and can reduce stomach size to just a narrow tube. This new stomach is smaller and produces less ghrelen, a hormone that triggers hunger. Thus sleeve gastrectomy makes you easily full and satisfied even if you have eaten a little food. It is less invasive than gastric bypass due to its minimal invasion to the intestines, thus it creates less malnutrition. It can lose about 33% of body weight during the first year.

Thus we can say that weight loss surgeries are all highly effective methods of reducing weight. However, the question is, can body perception change after the obese even after weight loss surgery?

Weight Loss Surgery And Body Perception

A new study has shown that after weight loss surgery, women take a long time to adjust to their new stomach. This doctoral thesis from Karen Synne Groven at the University of Oslo gathered data from 22 women who underwent gastric bypass, one year after the operation and 2.5 to 4 years after surgery. The researcher concluded that weight loss surgery has increased quality of life in all of these women; however, they still have a hard time adjusting to their feelings and to other socially. They still had feelings of inferiority even if they were already in shape.

The researcher commented that this may be due to the branding society does to fat men and women. A lot of commercials focus on being fit and thin; with shapely models to promote products, especially health products. These commercials seem to imply that fat women were lazy and ate the wrong food. This perception has to be changed.

If you need some advice on how to stay fit and healthy, you can read our other articles on this site.