Since musician Carnie Wilson lost 150 pounds after undergoing gastric bypass surgery in 1999, obese adults have been lining up at bariatric clinics across the country, this year reaching an estimated 140,000.
But some of them are raising concerns about the surgeries made famous by Wilson and more recently broadcaster Al Roker and “American Idol’s” Randy Jackson. In Web chat rooms, those who have had weight-loss surgery lament their struggle to keep the pounds off. Some say they have regained much of the weight and question whether the surgery is the cure-all they had hoped for.
Doctors say it never was.
Although physicians counsel patients about the importance of diet and exercise, some people don’t follow the guidelines and put weight on as a result.
Nothing’s perfect
“There is not a single perfect operation for obesity,” said Dr. Todd McCarty, medical director for the Baylor Weight Loss Surgery Program in Dallas. “Weight-loss surgery is only a tool to facilitate weight loss.”
Those tools–the most common being the gastric bypass and Lap-Band surgery–reduce the stomach’s ability to hold food. In the gastric bypass, which has been performed in the United States for 17 years, the stomach is stapled to create a pouch, and part of the small intestine is bypassed. In the Lap-Band surgery, which the FDA approved in 2001, an inflatable belt is used to shrink the stomach.
With the stomach only able to hold 1 to 3 ounces of food, compared with the 50 ounces it once did, the weight comes off. Typically, adults lose most of their weight during the first 18 months after surgery.
But after they have lost the weight, some people push the envelope, said Dr. Adam Smith, a surgeon with the Bariatric Program Team at the surgery clinic of the University of North Texas Health Science Center. They figure out how much they can eat before they get sick, then stop just short of that.
“Rarely, if ever, do they regain all of the weight they’ve lost,” he said. “But human beings are smart creatures, and they will find ways to undo anything we do to try and help them.”
Cornelia Whatley, 54, who lost 110 pounds with the help of Lap-Band surgery, said the procedure helped her learn how to eat less and focus on healthy foods, so she has not regained much weight.
“If I want something, I eat it; I just don’t eat the whole thing,” she said. “I’ll allow myself chocolate, but I only eat a few Reese’s Pieces.”
For most people, support groups help. Weight-loss surgery is a drastic change, and people benefit from support, said Dr. James Hall, a psychologist on the Bariatric Program Team at the UNT center.
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“They have to look at eating as something they have control of, rather than food controlling them,” he said.
Pain of failure
When they hit a plateau, it can be especially painful, because most obese people have a lifetime of diet failures.
“They think this has failed too,” he said.
Laurie Taylor, who lost 100 pounds after gastric bypass surgery four years ago, said she recently gained about 10 pounds. But unlike in the past, when 10 pounds would have turned into 30, then 70, she got back in control quickly, she said.
“Your little pouch works if you work it,” said Taylor, of Dallas, who now leads a support group through Baylor. “It’s a tool, it’s no guarantee that you’ll keep the weight off.”
It’s a tool that can, most importantly, reduce the risk of diabetes, heart disease and other obesity-related conditions.
“Even if Carnie Wilson puts 10 pounds on, the weight loss she’s had still dramatically affects her health,” Smith said. “She’ll live probably 12 years longer because of it.”
Whatley said that since having the weight-loss surgery she has been healthier and has been able to do things she couldn’t do before.
“I feel like my life has been given back to me,” she said.