3 Most Common Types of Weight Loss Surgery

Is your current weight a problem? What steps have you taken to keep a happy and healthy weight? As you consider weight trimming, you’ll want to learn and understand about the variety of operations available.

The type of stomach reduction surgery you choose is often determined by various factors such as your health, your target goal, doctor’s advice, lifestyle and your insurance coverage. However, before opting for a bariatric surgery, you should at least try other weight loss approaches like dieting and exercise and see if you’ll achieve your desired weight.

While there are obvious advantages of having a weight loss surgery, surgeons only recommend it for people with specific obesity conditions such as high cholesterol, heart diseases, diabetes and a low body mass index of about 80 pounds for women and 100 pounds for men. Although doctors recommend these situations, you can still have an operation if you’ve assessed and understand the risks involved.

Weight loss surgery is an important procedure that not only improves your quality of life, but also saves you one. In fact, it has been proven that if you lose 5%-10% of your weight the chances of developing heart disease are very minimal. However, research shows that about 50% of Americans are unsuccessful at losing weight due to the lack of discipline. For this reason, you need to be committed towards lifestyle change and healthy dieting in order to fully enjoy the benefits of stomach reduction surgery.

There are several weight loss surgery options, both surgical and non-surgical but the most popular types are the gastric bypass, sleeve gastrectomy and gastric band.

Gastric Banding
This is a common type of restrictive metabolic surgery and it uses a band to control food absorption into the stomach. How does a gastric band work? The band is tied around the stomach and it squeezes to form a pouch on the upper part of the stomach. On the other side of the pouch is a large portion of the stomach and the two sections are connected by a thin channel, which regulates food intake of the upper pouch. About 4-6 weeks after the surgery, that’s when the band will be first tightened via a small device placed under the skin. Gastric banding is an effective stomach reduction surgery that usually doesn’t require a long and complex surgical procedure.

Sleeve gastrectomy
This operation involves removing some part of the stomach to about 75%. This leaves a narrow tube connecting what is left of the stomach to the intestines. Sometimes, people with an obesity issue will find sleeve gastrectomy as the only surgery they’ll need, but for some, a series of weight loss surgeries may be required. However, this procedure has risks involved, and they include blood clots, infections and leaking pouch.

Gastric bypass surgery
A gastric bypass is a surgical procedure that involves dividing into two pouches and reconnecting the small intestines to both pouches. This is what is referred to as bypassing and it’s basically a shortcut created to reduce the distance which food flows to the intestines. As one of the most effective weight loss surgery, gastric bypass significantly reduces weight as compared to other weight loss procedures.

With these few options available, your quest to a more comfortable and healthy weight is made realistic with minimum effort. Lastly, it is important that you stick to doctor supervised weight loss programs than doing it alone. This will help you understand the process and get the most out of it.