Exercise and weight-loss surgery

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As techniques, safety and efficacy improve – partially due to higher demand because of the increasingly obesogenic environment we live in – bariatric surgeries for weight loss become more sought after as a last resort to achieve a healthy body weight.

But that doesn’t mean you just get the surgery and wait for the pounds to fall off. You’ve got to do your part to maximize effectiveness and be healthy, and this is where exercise comes in.

A recent study that will be published in a future issue of Obesity outlines that bariatric surgery patients are safe to undertake rigorous fitness regimes to both assist in the weight-loss process and prevent regaining weight.

I’d add to this that exercise is just plain good for you, so, yeah, consider it for those reasons too.

I know some scoff at the idea of weight loss surgery, but I don’t. I understand just how much a challenge maintaining a healthy weight is for a lot of people. As a last resort, I think it’s a viable solution. I mentioned the obesogenic environment, where we’re surrounded with highly palatable food that creates addictions via high doses of sugar, fat and salt.

Some assert that we should return to a simpler time when we didn’t have easy access to so much junk, but the fact is that society and technology never move back, they always go forward. While getting sliced open is never a desirable option for weight loss, it is getting less invasive and there could be better options to come. Pills for weight loss haven’t worked worth a damn so far, as the ones that are effective come with brutal side effects, but that doesn’t mean they won’t one day make an effective pill with minimal or manageable side effects.

Technology got us into this mess with the mass production of Doritos and Haagen Daz, and perhaps it can help get us out.

Until that day, we’ve still got exercise to help, even for those who opt for surgery.

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