While weight-loss surgery, or bariatric surgery, might be the most guaranteed means of losing a great deal of weight, there are also some downsides that might lead you to consider alternatives. Weight-loss surgeries such as a gastric bypass dramatically reduce the size of your stomach, requiring dramatic changes in the amount of food, as well as the types of food, you will be able to eat. These limitations might make alternatives to weight-loss surgery a better choice for you.
Diet and Exercise
While they require a lot of time, effort and discipline to work, diet and exercise are inexpensive ways to lose weight. While you might feel overweight or unable to make changes in your body, gastric-bypass surgery might be too drastic or expensive for your situation. Many weight-loss physicians and counselors actually urge patients to give diet and exercise one last chance before committing to surgery. Though not the fastest way to lose weight, diet and exercise are safe and inexpensive alternatives to surgery.
The Lap-Band
While the Lap-Band requires surgery to put it into place, it is a less-drastic change than typical gastric bypass bariatric surgery in that it does not permanently alter your stomach and is minimally invasive. A silicone gastric band is placed at the top of the stomach. This band inflates gradually, thus slowly closing the entrance to the stomach so that the patient will feel full and more satisfied. It has a similar effect as typical gastric bypass, but without the cutting away and sectioning off of portions of the stomach. The recovery time is shorter and less painful than typical weight-loss surgery.
Per-Oral Suturing
This technique, recently tested on teens too young for bariatric surgery, entails using a scope through the mouth to place three or four sutures in the anterior and posterior walls of the stomach, thus making the space smaller. The procedure is much less invasive than surgery, but still requires a post-surgery type of diet in order to make dramatic changes in weight and in order to not dislodge the sutures.
Weight-Loss Medications
Weight-loss medications are not intended for those just wishing to shed a few extra pounds. You usually have to have tried other means of losing weight without success to be prescribed these drugs. Some of the medications on the market include Orlistat and Sibutramine; theyvwork with the brain to reduce cravings for food. They must still be combined with diet and exercise for the effects to be dramatic and long lasting.
Getting Extra Help
Because each person has a different body that functions differently, weight loss can be difficult without the added help of a dietician, a physician or a personal trainer. You may have an irregularity in your metabolism or your thyroid that makes weight loss particularly difficult. Or perhaps you are genetically predisposed to be a certain weight. Maybe the ins and outs of food information labels are confusing or misleading. By enlisting the help of people who specialize in these fields, you might be able to make more progress than if you were going it alone.
