This afternoon I stumbled upon an interesting article in the Las Vegas Sun that got me all fired up as it posed the following question: “If gastric bypass saved you money for morbidly obese people to have weight loss surgery, would you suggest they do it?”
The article clearly skewed toward “the knife,” listed a variety of interesting statistics that argued that fat people are costing the taxpayers lots of money.
As the number of obese Americans grows – currently 1/3 of our population, about 72 million people are overweight – and the number of Americans at least 100 pounds overweight multiplies, I need to ask:
Is this the answer to our problem? Sign everyone up for surgery?
In 2007, about 205,000 Americans underwent the surgery. What will the number be this year and next year? What is the long-term success rate? How many people gain the weight back?
As a Weight Loss Coach, I have worked with many who have had surgery and gained it all back. Why? Because people insist upon treating only the food and exercise aspects of weight loss.
Obesity is a complicated issue. It is not solely about how many calories you eat and burn in a day. It is about the food industry feeding us foods that are addictive, it is about our larger-than-life lifestyles, and it is about how we think.
Surgery or no surgery, if you want to lose weight, you need to look at your life as a whole. Who are you and how do you function in all areas of life? It’s not about your fat, it’s about your life.
It’s not that I’m totally against gastric bypass surgery. I just think that people need to think it through and – again – whether you opt for surgery or not, you still have to change your life and in order to do that you have to change your thinking.
Take an honest assessment. Ask yourself, how do I handle the rest of my life? Am I happy? Am I motivated? Where have I been successful? How can I utilize those strategies with my weight? How can I educate myself about healthy eating? What will losing weight give me that I wouldn’t otherwise have? How will my life change when I lose 100 pounds? How will I handle these changes?
See the movie: FOOD INC. Learn the truth about the food you eat.
Read Dr. Kessler’s book: The end of overeating. Learn the truth about the food you eat.
Read Diets don’t work: A kick in the tush does. Think it through!
Spread the word, not the icing!
Janice
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