Why Should A Person Get Weight Loss Surgery?
In this video, Dr. Erik Lough explains that weight loss surgery is often the best option for those with severe obesity (BMI 35+), as diet and exercise alone are rarely effective. Surgery helps patients lose significant weight (80–100 pounds) by altering the stomach and digestive hormones, reducing hunger, and improving satisfaction with fewer calories. Beyond weight loss, it can eliminate or reduce health issues like diabetes, sleep apnea, and high blood pressure, improving overall health and quality of life.
TRANSCRIPT
Hi, I’m Dr. Erik Lough with Capital Surgeons Group and Southwest Bariatric Surgeons. I answer common questions patients ask me about general surgery and weight loss surgery. In today’s video, I’ll address the question: Why should someone get weight loss surgery?
Being overweight or obese is a very common problem that many people struggle to overcome. Patients who see me for a consultation have often tried losing weight through various methods, including diet, exercise, medications, or injections. Obesity is classified into varying degrees of severity, and as a person’s obesity increases in severity, their ability to lose weight becomes more and more difficult.
Additionally, as obesity severity increases, individuals often develop obesity-related health problems, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, joint pain, and high cholesterol. These degrees of severity are typically classified using the body mass index, or BMI.
An ideal BMI is 24 or lower. Overweight is classified as a BMI between 25 and 29, while obesity starts at a BMI of 30 to 34. Morbid or severe obesity is defined as a BMI of 35 or higher.
As BMI increases, the chances of losing weight through diet and exercise alone decrease significantly. For example, a person with a BMI of 29 has a better than 50% chance of losing weight to reach their ideal body weight through exercise alone. In contrast, someone with a BMI of 35 or higher has only a 1% chance of losing enough weight to achieve a healthy weight and reduce their risk of obesity-related health problems.
When a person is only 20 or 30 pounds over their ideal weight, diet and exercise are often enough to help them reach their goal. However, for someone who is 60, 80, or even 100 pounds or more above their ideal weight, 99% of those individuals will not be able to achieve their goal without surgery.
I tell my patients that this is where surgery comes in. My goal for them is not just to lose a few dozen pounds but to lose 100 pounds or more. Losing weight is important, but my ultimate goal is to eliminate conditions like diabetes or to prevent someone from ever developing diabetes if it runs in their family.
I also aim to help my patients eliminate sleep apnea so they no longer need to wear a CPAP machine, and to reduce high cholesterol and high blood pressure so they don’t have to rely on medications for the rest of their lives.
For example, a man who is 5’10” tall has a BMI of 40 when he weighs 285 pounds. A woman who is 5’4” tall has a BMI of 40 when she weighs 235 pounds. Surgery can help patients like this lose 80 to 100 pounds—not just the 30 or 40 pounds they might lose with diets they’ve tried in the past.
As a person gains more and more weight, their metabolism slows down. At the same time, their appetite and satisfaction with certain foods change. The reason surgery is so effective is that it alters the stomach in a way that helps patients feel full with a smaller amount of food while also feeling satisfied.
The hormones produced by the digestive system are also affected, leading to reduced hunger and increased satisfaction with fewer calories. Between meals, patients feel less driven to eat, and they remain satisfied with fewer calories throughout the day.
After weight loss surgery, a person can feel perfectly satisfied with just a few hundred calories per day. Weight loss then occurs gradually over several months as the body burns excess fat.
