The Facts about Gastric Bypass Surgery
Gastric bypass surgery is a controversial, but often used surgery to help people who are suffering from obesity. Also called Bariatric surgery, this surgery is for people who have tried many different diets and have failed, and just can’t lose the excess weight that they have been carrying around for years even through healthy eating and exercise.
Gastric bypass surgery is an option for those people who have a BMI that is higher that 40 which is considered to be morbidly obese, or if you have a BMI between 35 and 39.9 and have other underlying conditions such as high blood pressure or Diabetes. Usually this amounts to being 100 pounds or more overweight. It does not replace healthy eating and proper exercise though; it is merely a stepping stone to losing the weight as you change your lifestyle drastically.
Gastric bypass surgery is done by qualified physicians, in which they create a small pouch at the top of your stomach to make that area smaller. They add a bypass around a segment of your small intestine and then they staple part of your stomach, sealing it off from what is left of your stomach. The resulting pouch can hold up to an ounce of food, and is about the size of a walnut. That pouch is then separated from the rest of the stomach and the small intestine is then surgically sewed to your stomach.
By doing this, the food is redirected bypassing most of your stomach and the first section of the small intestine. The food enters the second section of your small intestine which limits the amount of calories you absorb. The part of your stomach that is left still secretes the digestive juices to mix with the food in the small intestine. The surgery takes about 1 to 2 hours, whereas you will be put on a strict eating plan for 12 weeks. After that time you will slowly start introducing food back into your diet. Through gastric bypass surgery, most people will lose 50% to 60% of their excess weight.