When you are severely overweight, you may find it difficult to lose fat and pounds through dieting and exercise. Rather than give up on your weight loss goals, you may achieve them by undergoing gastric sleeve surgery. You can determine if gastric sleeve surgery is right for you by learning what it entails and what to expect as you recover.
What is Gastric Sleeve Surgery?
Gastric sleeve surgery is a surgical procedure that involves the removal of part of your stomach. In fact, when the surgery is finished, you are left with about 1/10 of your stomach. As alarming as that may sound, it actually benefits you in your weight loss efforts because you eat less and feel full sooner. You avoid overeating thanks to your reduced stomach size.
The surgery also removes the portion of your stomach responsible for the production of hormones that make you feel hungry. Without this hormone, you are less tempted to overeat. It is easier for you to lose weight.
Gastric sleeve surgery is not the same as gastric bypass surgery. Gastric bypass involves attaching a pouch that bypasses your stomach and goes directly to the intestines.
Given the nature of this operation, it is important that your surgeon ensure your candidacy for gastric sleeve surgery. These criteria lower your risk of complications during and after the procedure.
Candidacy for Gastric Sleeve Surgery
Patients must meet several stringent criteria before they can go through with gastric sleeve surgery. You must, for example, be at least 100 pounds overweight and have a BMI of 40 or greater. You also must be between the age of 14 and 75.
Further, if you have a BMI of 35 or over, you must have weight-related health conditions like:
- High blood pressure
- Heart disease
- Type II diabetes
- Sleep apnea
- Gastrointestinal diseases like chronic reflux
It must also be determined that you cannot successfully lose weight with dieting and exercising.
Recovery from Gastric Sleeve Surgery
The operation takes several hours to complete, after which you may need to stay in the hospital for a couple of days. After you are sent home, you will need to follow your surgeon’s post-surgical instructions carefully. You also will need to take six to eight weeks off from work to recuperate.
Gastric sleeve surgery can be an effective way to lose weight. It can help you achieve your weight loss goals when you cannot shed pounds or fat through dieting or exercising.
