Stop Touting Weight-Loss Surgery as a Miracle Cure

As the war against fat people rages on in America, more evidence comes to light that dieting and other weight-loss interventions just don't work. In fact, intentional weight-loss interventions are a pretty sure way to ultimately gain weight, making the weight-loss industry a self-perpetuating moneymaker.

A well-rounded body was once seen as an indication of health, wealth and abundance, but is now seen as diseased, a sign of ill health and lower economic status. Multiple studies now suggest that people classified as "overweight" are actually healthy and that life expectancy is the same regardless of your weight. Adults with greater weight-satisfaction, those who are happy with the skin they're in, live their lives practicing more positive health behaviors and have better health regardless of their body mass index, or BMI.

[See: How to Weigh Yourself the Right Way.]

Despite this evidence, there's now a group of organizations claiming to represent the obese people of America, contending that people of large body size are being discriminated against because insurance companies will not pay for weight-loss surgery.

There is an abundance of evidence to support that fat people are discriminated against in multiple ways, but, in my personal opinion, being denied surgically induced starvation is not one of them. The permanent mutilation of one's body for the purpose of weight loss has limitations, just like dieting and all the rest do, and in many cases can come with more damaging side effects.

The notion that the general public and candidates for surgical weight-loss interventions are being fully informed prior to making the decision to alter their bodies and lives forever is questionable. If they were, it seems to me that choosing this route would be the act of a very desperate person.

Our own government knew as far back as 1993 that even the most drastic weight-loss procedure, the Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass, has limitations and that only 7 percent of people undergoing this operation lose all of their excess weight.

[See: Best Weight-Loss Diets.]

Statistics exist regarding the amount of excess weight one can expect to lose with each of the surgical procedures on the market today. "In all of the operations we perform, there is a finite weight loss, and it can be classified in the gastric bypass of about 65 percent of excess -- the sleeve -- and about 50 percent the banding -- maybe 35 percent, 40 percent. Patients don't lose forever," stated one physician during a June 2014 product review meeting of the Food and Drug Administration's Gastroenterology and Urology Devices Panel.

Let's make this simple to understand. If a 300-pound woman has "the sleeve" operation, which makes the stomach smaller, she can expect to lose about 50 percent of her excess weight. This means she will lose approximately 75 pounds, leaving her still considered obese at 225 pounds. By today's faulty standards, she would still be considered diseased and not healthy. So if improved health is the goal of weight loss and not vanity as so many are claiming, what has been accomplished? Believe me, none of these surgeries are the easy way out or come without side effects.

Some physicians try to sell their patients on weight-loss surgery by telling them that it will improve their health by reversing diabetes and lowering blood pressure and cholesterol. Sadly, studies have shown that within about two years, those health improvements have reversed.

A big risk of weight-loss surgery is mineral malnutrition, which is often under-recognized and if left untreated, can have devastating consequences on bone health and the functioning of the immune, nervous and muscular systems. Studies also suggest an increase in depression, self-harm and suicide in patients who have undergone weight-loss surgery.

[See: 7 Ways to Get Calcium Beyond Milk.]

Weight-loss surgery is not something that I myself would consider and I am not shy about sharing my educated opinion with others considering that step. I do know a number of people who have made the choice to have a procedure and not one has emerged without experiencing a serious side effect. A very dear friend had weight-loss surgery resulting in a serious mineral deficiency; several years later, she broke both her ankles as she stepped out of her car at a gas station. Extreme abdominal pain motivated one friend to have her lap band removed. Another friend emerged heavier than when she started, regaining all the weight she lost post-procedure, and then some. During her darkest time, one friend questioned her choice and wished she could reverse it. Yet another friend developed an iron deficiency after undergoing weight-loss surgery and now must have periodic blood transfusions.

I believe that "surgical methods" are not the miracle people are being told they are. Instead, it's time for a change in how we view body size. Individuals of higher weight can be just as healthy and live just as long as anyone else. It's time to accept the fact that we come in all sizes.

Peggy Howell is the public relations director for the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance.