If you are excessively overweight, then weight-loss surgery or bariatric surgery is one of the best, and sometimes the only ways to bring the scale down and preserve your health. However, there is a lot of hype that is added to weight-loss surgeries raising people’s expectations and views about the whole procedure.
And this is dangerous because people can have very high excitations about weight-loss surgeries that simply aren’t true. Here we will break down some of the most popular weight-loss surgeries and you can decide which one is best for you!
1 Gastric Bypass Surgery
Gastric Bypass Surgery is one of the most popular bariatric surgery, not just in the US, but also around the world. The reason for its popularity is justified because it is very effective at what it does.
Gastric bypass makes adjustments to the stomach and the small intestine in such a way that the person can only consume less food. In addition to decreasing the amount of food that your stomach can hold, the adjustments also make the digestive system absorb fewer nutrients.
1.1 Procedure
In a Gastric Bypass surgery, the surgeon firstly divides the stomach into two, the upper half has a volume of 1 – 2 ounces. The rest of the stomach is not used from that point onwards.
Then the small intestine is divided near to the bottom end.
The next step is to connect the top part of the stomach to the intestine.
1.2 Effect
Since the volume of the stomach is reduced, the person can only eat one or two ounces of food and they will feel full from it. Since the food doesn’t travel to the whole of the stomach and skips most of the small intestine, the body will not be able to absorb many calories from it. Hence, these two effects help in weight loss.
1.3 Results
Gastric Bypass Surgery is very effective. With the first 6 months after the surgery, one can expect a reduction of 30% to 40% excess weight loss. With the first 24 months, the person would have lost 60% to 80% of their excess weight.
2 Sleeve Gastrectomy or Gastric Sleeve surgery
Sleeve Gastrectomy is the next most popular weightless surgery performed in the US. Like Gastric Bypass Surgery, this surgery aims to restrict the amount of food that the stomach can hold. What this does is that it will make the person feel full for less amount of food.
2.1 Procedure
The surgeon will make multiple incisions on the upper abdomen to insert the instruments for the surgery. The procedure involves removing about 80% of the stomach in such a way that the shape of the stomach changes to a tubular form.
2.2 Effect
Removing a large section of the stomach will reduce the overall volume of the stomach. This reduces the amount of food that that stomach can hold. the person will feel full for. During the process, the stomach loses parts where the hunger hormones are secreted, thereby removing the sensation of hunger.
2.3 Results
Sleeve Gastrectomy is again a very effective bariatric surgery. However, in most cases, it doesn’t match the effectiveness of Gastric Bypass Surgery. You can expect to lose about 60% of excess weight in 24 months.
3 Adjustable Gastric Banding
Adjustable Gastric Banding is one of the modern weight-loss surgeries. Even though it upholds the core concept of weight loss surgeries, which is to restrict the amount of food that the stomach can hold, it does the same differently compared to the previous two forms of surgeries we have discussed.
3.1 Procedure
The surgeon will place an adjustable band around the stomach so that it dives the stomach into two parts, the upper and lower portion. The two parts are still connected to each other, but the channel has a smaller diameter now as the band squeezes at that very point.
The incision made for the procedure is quite small. Hence you will be getting a smaller scar when compared to the other methods.
3.2 Effect
When the stomach is squeezed to an upper and lower portion, the food will take a longer time to empty from the upper portion to the lower portions. This makes the person feel full for longer as the food takes time to empty the first pouch. The pressure on the band can adjust the movement of the food.
3.3 Results
When compared with Gastric Bypass and Gastric Sleeve, Adjustable Gastric Banding does not give the same level of results. You can expect weight loss anywhere between 35% and 45%. Nowadays most doctors do not recommend Adjustable Gastric Banding because of its higher failure rates and low results.
4 Ultra-modern methods of weight-loss | ESG
Bariatric surgery is still the most famous method for weight loss. However, with the advancements we have made in medicine, there are now more options!
One such procedure that has been getting much popular lately is ESG or Endoscopic Sleeve
Gastroplasty. The reason why many looks towards ESG as the new best bariatric procedure of 2020 is that it doesn’t involve surgery.
Bariatric surgeries always involved surgeries, and along with it comes scars and long rest periods.
ESG doesn’t have such caveats for weight loss.
4.1 Procedure
The procedure involves reducing the volume of the stomach using sutures. By the end of the procedure, the stomach will have 70% volume blocked by the sutures. ESG is done under general anesthesia using endoscopy.
4.2 Effect
By reducing the volume of the stomach, ESG restricts the amount of food that the stomach can hold. It makes the person feel full with less amount of food and helps them lose weight.
4.3 Results
The person can expect 50% to 60% of excess weight loss.
Conclusion
Weight loss surgeries do work and they are effective at taking out a large portion of excess fat from one’s body. As we discussed now, each how their own estimation of how much weight one would lose. Also, weight loss surgeries are accompanied by strict diets and lifestyle changes.
What we see in 2021 is that more and more people are embracing incision-less procedures like ESG that provides results without the downfalls of surgery.
