BariatricEating.com Health & Nutrition

Rant - Find out what’s eating you?

There are too many people gaining weight back after having bariatric surgery! Now that I have rounded the five year post op corner I find myself in the minority; those who continue to live within the boundaries of my surgery.

I tend to run into more healthy eaters because of my book and nutrition business, so when I venture out of my little world I am often shocked by the people I meet who have had weight loss surgery and have moved along on their merry way. This wouldn’t normally be a bad thing but for the fact that they are otherwise unrecognizable as a bariatric graduate. They are fat… some are plump, others are obese, a smaller percentage even morbidly obese again.

When they find out I had my surgery five years ago, there is often silence as they fumble around for an excuse for the way they look or what they happen to be eating at the time of our discussion. I find that dynamic most interesting; standing at a party and finding out that my new acquaintance that is washing down chips and salsa with a frozen margarita had a bariatric procedure. I listen in order to find something that I might be able to help them with but my carefully chosen indirect suggestions are almost always quickly discounted. The standards are; ‘I didn’t have my surgery to live on a diet’ or ‘You are lucky you get sick’ or ‘I just can’t get back on track’.

Could it be that these folks had more issues to deal with than just overeating? I thought that I was as entrenched in my eating disorder as the next post op, after all I was a serial dieter and had a standard but serious college stint with bulimia, so I’d paid my dues. Did I not have the severe emotional trauma that fuels the compulsion that causes many to fail? Why do some of us stay on the path while others are stomping all over the grass the first chance they get?

Undiagnosed mental disorders, self loathing, low self esteem, negative outlook; aren’t these the problems that come easily to those labeled with the tag of morbid obesity? Why are some able to overcome the problems that hold us down, allowing a rapid rise to the surface to find that we can swim quite well… while others get caught in the undertow and find they are unable to tread water for even the shortest time?

I think that we are not addressing the fundamental root of why we over ate. Too many people are having this surgery as a band-aid approach to their obesity; a very expensive and serious band-aid. They are given a surgical power tool that they are not emotionally qualified to operate. Oh, the surgery works at first, as it will work for a while without an operator. However the long term benefits often require that we are skillful drivers that pay careful attention to not only our bodies but the surroundings that influence our actions. We have to anticipate outside pressure and think around it. Some people get tripped up at the same spot over and over. They don’t plan to fail, they just fail to plan. They don’t know why ‘yummy’ triumphs over ‘common sense’.

Surgical groups should start pulling these folks out of the pile as pre-ops and addressing these eating and personality disorders or the long-term statistics for failure to maintain weight loss and health will ruin this for the future people who are equipped to benefit from this procedure.

So it looks like not only is it important for the doctors to have a path for their patients to follow in terms of diet, but also there is a need to evaluate patient ability or willingness to follow! How about a real psych exam and not the standardized ‘Do you have thoughts of hurting small animals?’ line of questioning. How about making bariatric candidates keep several weeks of food diary to track patterns and identify habits; so we are at least aware of what triggers our eating. Is the recognition of when and why we overeat enough to stop us from doing it when paired with the strength of surgery?

I have created more questions than answers in this rant, but something has got to give. I am saddened by the increasing number of bariatric failures with excuses. If you recognize yourself on this page… work up the courage to go back to your surgeon and ask for help, this and personal accountability is the perfect place to start!

Ciao,
Susan Maria