THE KEY TO WEIGHT LOSS seems like it should be straightforward. Eat less and those excess pounds will melt away.
The reality, as many dieters know, is much more complex. “It’s not just a question of consuming fewer calories,” said Dr. Justin Hsu, a fellowship-trained bariatric surgeon at The University of Toledo Medical Center.
Your weight—and your success at weight loss—is based on several factors, including your metabolism, genetics, hormones, behaviors, and even environmental components. “The reality is that our understanding of weight loss and obesity has changed dramatically over the last decade,” Hsu said. “We really try to emphasize that obesity is a disease with medical and surgical treatment options, not a lifestyle choice.”
For patients who have struggled to lose weight through diet, exercise, and other lifestyle changes, those options can make a world of difference, improving their health and their quality of life. At UTMC, patients have access to the latest weight-loss surgeries and a supportive team of weight-loss experts who can help to ensure patients are successful in the long term. Obesity is widespread in the United States, with the most recent data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showing nearly 42% of American adults fit the definition of clinical obesity. Being obese significantly raises an individual’s risk of high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, stroke, and several types of cancer.
For Charles Jake, who had been overweight most of his life, those health effects became more than hypothetical when a frightening at-home blood pressure reading finally pushed him to pursue bariatric surgery at UTMC. “It was really high,” he said. “I knew it wasn’t healthy. I knew it wasn’t sustainable even with medication. I thought if I want to be here to see my kids graduate, if I want to walk my daughter down the aisle, I’ve got to do something about this.”
Jake, who is vice president and general counsel at The University of Toledo, has lost about 80 pounds since having the procedure in the spring of 2021. “My blood pressure, which was my biggest concern, is normalized. I had plantar fasciitis in my foot. I had pain in my knees from carrying the extra weight. That’s all resolved with the weight coming off. My blood sugar thankfully was not a problem, but it’s stayed normal since then,” he said. “Medically it’s the best decision I’ve ever made in my life.”
Bariatric surgery is a general term referring to one of several different procedures aimed at helping people lose weight. Jake had a vertical sleeve gastrectomy, which reduces the size of the stomach. UTMC also offers gastric bypass surgery, though Hsu said sleeve gastrectomy makes up about three-quarters of all weight-loss surgeries in the U.S.
Done laparoscopically under general anesthesia, the vertical sleeve gastrectomy procedure takes about an hour. Surgeons remove as much as 70% of a patient’s stomach, including a part responsible for producing hormones believed to play a role in making you feel hungry. Most patients go home the next day and are back to normal activities within two weeks.
Bariatric procedures are usually well tolerated and possible even in individuals with other serious conditions, including those who are waiting for life-saving organ transplants.
Jake’s bariatric surgery was the first major operation he had undergone, but his hesitancy to pursue it was as much about guilt as it was concerns over the procedure itself. “People do lose weight without the surgery, and I felt like I was going to take a shortcut or was taking the easy way out,” he said. “I had to tell myself, whatever worked for other people, this is what’s going to work for me.”
Hsu said that’s a common feeling, but one the team at UTMC works hard to help patients overcome. “People think that they’re cheating, but obesity is a disease and surgery is one option for treating that disease with the best long-term results,” he said. “It shouldn’t have that stigma associated with it, not when your health is on the line.”
In general, patients are candidates for bariatric surgery if they have a body mass index of 40 or more, or 35 or more with obesity-related health conditions like diabetes or hypertension.
However, new guidelines are starting to reduce the body mass index requirement to 35 or more and 30 or more with obesity-related health conditions. Patients are also not required to have tried multiple different weight loss regimens prior to entering into the bariatric surgery program.
Patients typically begin seeing results within two weeks, with the peak weight loss coming about a year after surgery.
Individuals who are interested in learning more about UTMC’s bariatric surgery program can visit the UTMC website or call the Department of Surgery at 419-383-3759.
Tyrel Linkhorn is a communications specialist at The University of Toledo.
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