Surgery, the answer for weight loss – No way!

No matter how much I weigh, I would never consider the Lap-Band, or gastric bypass, or anything else surgically to “correct” my obesity.  Statistically I am sure many people have had these surgeries and are happy.  Good for them.  It is just not for me.  I knew a couple of people I worked with in Florida who had gastric bypass and they lost like 100 pounds in four to six months or something crazy like that, but long-term they ended up back where they started from.  So was it really worth it?

I have been a medical transcriptionist for 18 years and my very first account was with a gastroenterology office.  I used to type reports on women that underwent the Roux-en-Y surgery, commonly known as gastric bypass, and five to ten years later had medical issues directly related to that surgery. 

The whole concept doesn’t make sense to me.  After the surgery you eat very small portions.  Please correct me if I am wrong, but isn’t cutting back on portions to lose weight kind of a no brainer which you can do without major surgery?  How many times have we heard, “I have tried every diet and I just can’t lose weight.”  I think that’s a cop out just to go for the easy way out, or what is perceived as the easy way out – body altering surgery…Yikes!  Diets do work but I will admit that in my career as a professional dieter some work better than others and it is totally up to the individual.  With that said though, even if you have the surgery, if you are not meant to be a skinny person, you will not be a skinny person.  Period.  Same thing goes for dieting, if you are not meant to be a skinny person, you will not be a skinny person.  Sure you will lose weight, but the inevitable outcome is what your body decides is right for you.  Remember those little things called genes?

So stop stressing about it and be happy people!!  If you want to override your body’s genes and teach them a lesson then go ahead – starve yourself and exercise 12 hours a day.  I would rather be fat and happy then skinny and miserable – just sayin’…

Hey!  Check out my YouTube video – Fat Chicks and Unfriendly Chairs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQR5AC-r9qU

With a bunch of butt shots with measurements (yes I said measurements!) coming up to the slow rocking beat of stripper music, my video Fat Chicks and Unfriendly Chairs definitely has the market cornered on making light of being heavy   Making Light of Being Heavy is a comical book with opinions and observations from a fat chick’s point of view that puts an unexpected and funny spin on dealing with the fat gene!

Until next time, keep laughing!

http://newsatjama.jama.com/2011/03/21/author-insights-long-term-benefits-from-gastric-banding-are-questioned/

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Yes, I know I am fat!

The title of the article I refer to was “Fat and Unaware: Most Obese Americans Don’t Think They Are.”  This was based on a new poll by Harris Interactive, a market research firm.  News flash people, we know we are fat and as a fat expert myself I would say the resistance would be not wanting to call oneself morbidly obese but maybe overweight instead or just simply fat as I resolve to do because even though “fat” is not the greatest word either, it sure sounds better than morbidly obese!

Why haven’t they come up with words for short people like “drastically underheight” or for the too thin of the world “radically emaciated” to be used when defining them??  I am pretty sure a short person regardless of liking that particular character trait or not would prefer to be called short and the same for a person who is too thin.

Over the years in my business with medical transcription I have typed “morbidly obese” a zillion times and still get a little irked each time I type it.  When a person is of “normal weight” (and I use that term loosely) the usual phrase is “well‑nourished, well-developed…” But then one day a doctor referred to the fat patient as “overly nourished.”  Ha!!  That made my day.

According to the poll, about half of the respondents thought that surgery was very or fairly effective in keeping off the weight.  “It’s not as simple as portion size and activity.” said Steven R. Smith, an obesity researcher at the Burnham Institute in Lake Nona.  Surprise, surprise Steve, I have known that since I was in grade school.  “Smith agrees that the surgery, though it can start at $12,000, can reduce diabetes, heart diseases, and mortality, and even save money in the long run.”

This is where I get a little riled up….how is it better to physically alter the body you were given during the miracle of birth by medically removing or banding a piece of your stomach so the end result will be basically the ability to ingest SMALLER AMOUNTS OF FOOD more often to lose weight.  Gee, give me a minute, but I think I have read somewhere that that is one of the recommended ways to lose weight without surgery….Again, call me crazy and I am no medical expert but surgery sure sounds like an asinine approach to take.  In my field of medical transcription, I have typed countless reports in which years later the digestive system is out of whack and the previous gastric bypass patients have lifelong medical issues directly related to the surgery.

According to the poll, most of the respondents really thought that they were fat because they did not get enough exercise.  Yes, exercise definitely is advantageous to a person overall but certainly not the determining factor as to why a person is fat.  Genetics plays more of a part than anything else out there.  Didn’t you get my memo??

Until next time, keep laughing!!