I genuinely don't understand the mentality of somebody who would prefer to have most of their stomach removed rather than learning to eat less and exercise more.
Well obviously you've never had a weight problem or you wouldn't make a statement like that. What if I said: I don't understand why anyone would smoke when they know they're killing themselves, when it's a simple matter of just putting the cigarettes down; or I don't understand why anyone would be an alcoholic when they could just learn to put the bottle down after one drink; or I don't understand the mentality of someone who would have a drug problem rather than learn to live without them. We recognize all these things as an addicition, but not food.
Our brains get addicted to various things: cigarettes, alcohol, drugs and yes food. I ate when I was stressed but also because I was genuinely hungry all the time. Our entire society is geared to us being not very physically active as most of us have jobs that require brain power, not physical power. So we're not burning off the calories like we did a hundred years ago and you're mentally exhausted at the end of the day and therefore you don't get much physical work. Plus most foods we eat have far more calories in them than what our body needs. Plus the second you start to diet, your metabolism slows right down as your body desperately tries to re-set it's "set point". Our metabolism also slows down as we age as well. When you're really overweight, you more than likely have higher insulin levels, even if you're not diabetic. This lovely insulin stubbornly holds onto the fat even when we diet and exercise----it doesn't want to let it go, PLUS it can make you ravously hungry. There's also another hormone they've discovered called "ghrelin" which sends signals to the brain telling you to eat, eat, eat. And guess what? When you try to diet, the body produces MORE of the ghrelin, sending stronger messages to the brain. When you combine powerful messages like this, coupled with the metobolic slow-down when you try to lose weight, and then throw all the advertisements for fast foods that we see on TV, the grocery store and everywhere else under the sun, it gives a better idea as to why so many of us have a weight problem, and why we'll resort to something like weightloss surgery in order to lose weight.
After I came back to work after my weight loss surgery, one of the girls in the office next to me came upstairs with a great big piece of chocolate cake (it was someone's birthday in the office). I felt an overwhelming urge for a piece of the cake, just like a person addicted to cocaine would feel, if they saw someone snorting some powder. I closed my office door and cried and thought "oh my god, what have I done? I really want a piece of cake!" About 10 minutes later, she came over to me moaning "oooooh, I shouldn't have eaten that!" I felt much better and I thought "this is exactly why I had the surgery done. I had to put myself in a situation where I physically could not eat stuff like that anymore."
The head of Eating Disorders at Harvard University made a really good point in the National Geographic a few months ago on the subject. She said "trying to treat an obese person in our society is like trying to treat an alcoholic in a town where there's a bar every 10 feet. Unhealthy food is cheap, heavily promoted and is easy to get. Nutritious food is expensive, not promoted and difficult to get."
Believe me, being obese also puts a huge negative emotional impact on you as well. You have self-disgust, you're angry with yourself because you can't seem to lose weight and you're in such bad shape at first that exercise isn't even an option. If weight loss surgery forces you to eat less and if that's the only way you can do it, I say go for it. It's certainly helped me and I'm very glad I had it done.
