After struggling with my weight since puberty and being super morbidly obese for many years, I had an open Roux-en-Y (RNY) on August 27, 2007. It was the day before my 45th birthday, and it was the day that gave me BACK my life. After having WLS, I lost 190
As a bariatric surgeon with 20 years of performing weight loss surgery procedures and 10 years performing the Duodenal Switch almost exclusively, I have come to know the pro’s and con’s of the various operations for weight loss. While the type of surgery performed and the way it is performed has changed
There is a strong connection between WLS, food, nutrition and bioavailability. Having weight loss surgery greatly impacts the types of food post-op patients should eat, the nutrition needed for good health along with the bioavailability from those foods. Bariatric surgery is the most effective solution for long-term weight loss in
Get Ready For A New You! Are you ready to begin working on a new you? There are six weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve. By the time the Thanksgiving dishes are put away, I feel I’m on the Polar Express, traveling through the season at lightning speed. I’ve made
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 78.6 million adult Americans are affected by obesity. A person with a BMI of 30 kg/m² or greater is considered obese. Obesity increases one’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke and certain types of cancer (1). Weight
It is not easy to break your relationship with food. When you think about relationships, what feelings come to mind? Love, safety, contentment, happiness, sadness, disappointment? These are the common feelings we experience during the relationships in our lives. Making changes in our lives and relationships are seldom easy. They
As a VSG (Gastric Sleeve) doctor with over 9,000 patients, I get asked lots of questions. Thousands of them! Some have to do with health, diet, food, the procedure itself, and even how others will think of them for having VSG surgery. Although I can point you in the right direction
First of all, let's be realistic. Life is too short to go for the rest of your life without ever drinking a soda again. Don’t get me wrong--soda is a terrible thing to put into your body with any regularity. Concentrated sugar (or the chemical sweeteners in diet varieties) mixed
Hypoglycemia is a term used to describe low blood sugar levels. Hypoglycemia is low blood sugar that typically occurs when meals are skipped, delayed or contain too much sugar or too many easy to digest carbohydrates. Preventing a low blood sugar is always preferable to trying to manage and treat.
Creepy Calories! It is important to be aware of creepy calories because they are the enemy of your weight loss surgery, perilous to your pouch, and the true nemesis of all your efforts to lose and maintain weight loss after bariatric surgery. What is this frightening foe that I call
