For many morbidly obese people who are facing serious health issues related to their obesity, gastric bypass may be the answer to losing weight and getting healthy. It’s not a quick fix or a ‘lazy persons’ way out, it’s a procedure that can help someone lose a lot of weight more quickly than they could with traditional diet and exercise alone. This quick weight loss is the key since the sooner the weight comes off the more quickly a persons health can improve. While everyone is different and results will be different from one person to the next, here are some gastric bypass statistics that you can consider.
The basic concept behind the surgery is pretty simple: close off a portion of the stomach so a person can’t eat as much food all at once. Eating less food, and taking in fewer calories, will make it possible for someone to lose weight at a significant pace. Since this method emphasizes proper nutrition and lifestyle changes the rapid weight loss doesn’t have the unhealthy aspects that many other rapid forms of weight loss have.
The most important thing to think about is how would you define whether or not the procedure was a success? Would you define it based on a certain amount of weight you lost or would you define it based on whether or not you kept that weight off? Some will define the success or failure of the procedure based solely on achieving, and maintaining, a normal Body Mass Index for over five years after the procedure. Knowing what your expectation are and making sure they are realistic is a very important step for you to take prior to making a final decision on whether or not you are going to undergo the procedure.
For those people who are classified as morbidly obese, having a Body Mass Index of between 30% and 49%, the success rate has been shown to be as high at 93%.
A new category, Super Obese, has been coined and that indicates anyone with a Body Mass Index of above 50%, for those people the success rate actually goes down somewhat to about 57%. ( though it should be noted that for many this simply means that they didn’t get or maintain a normal Body Mass Index for five years or more. That doesn’t mean that they didn’t make dramatic improvements to their overall health).
Many studies have shown that patients who undergo the procedure, and make the required lifestyle changes, will reduce their other obesity related health issues such as high cholesterol and high blood pressure.
With the very real, and life threatening, health issues associated with being obese, it’s imperative that anyone who is overweight take significant steps to lose weight and improve their mobility. Eating less and moving more can have a huge impact on your health, your appearance, and your overall sense of well being. For some people, surgery will provide them with the best chance of a positive result. While the actual results can vary dramatically from one person to another, the actual gastric bypass statistics tend to show that for many people who are seriously overweight, this surgery can help them achieve the normal Body Mass Index that is at the heart of having a healthy body.