On Bands & Balloons: What Everyone Can Learn From Weight Loss Surgery

I have four friends who have had the "Lap Band" surgery in the past year. All four of them were overweight to the degree that major surgery was a justified option. All four of them recovered nicely from the surgery, and all four are losing weight at a good and healthy rate. Overall, their experiences have been very positive.

Again, each of these four people were more than just slightly overweight. Their own weight issues posed a genuine health risk and demanded a lifestyle change.

I am -- by no means -- endorsing surgery as a solution for an overweight condition. I believe that this is a decision that should be made by the individual and his or her own physician, after careful consideration. I do, however, bring up the issue for a reason that pertains to every person fighting the Battle of the Bulge, whether a candidate for surgery or not.

I ran across an article at FoxNews.com (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,183124,00.html) that highlighted an alternative to the invasive "lap band" surgery, that may serve as a "safer" alternative. The procedure involves inserting a round silicon "balloon" into the stomach of the patient by slipping it through the mouth and down the throat. The balloon is then filled with about a pint of saline solution.

The "balloon" takes up space inside the stomach, causing the patient to feel "full" sooner. It is too large to slip down into the digestive tract, and -- as a safety precaution -- it is filled with a blue dye that will show up in the patient's stool if the balloon were to burst or leak. Far from being a permanent treatment, the balloon must be drained and removed in six months, before the material is allowed to degrade.

Even so, the results have been encouraging so far. Dr. Nicola Basso, who has performed 700 such surgeries, says that his patients see an average weight loss of 33 to 44 pounds over six months. Interestingly, Dr. Basso warns that the weight loss is often temporary. Dr. Basso states that the success of the procedure is entirely dependent upon the lifestyle changes the patient adopts during the six-month period. It was this comment that convinced me to write to you about this topic.

Many of us want to lose a few pounds, and many of us are in dire need of losing weight. The thing about the balloon, or the lap band, or any other device or technique or procedure that promotes satiety (the feeling of being satisfied or full) is that, in the end, the choice is ours to make a lifestyle change that will make it "stick" or to revert back to old habits that caused the problem in the first place.

Just as with climbing a mountain, it begins with the first step -- AND the first step must be in the right direction. Climbing a mountain is a series of decisions to continue. After each step, the climber must choose to continue on toward the goal, or he or she will never reach the top of the mountain.

Dr. Basso states that patients considering the "balloon" are first counseled and screened by a psychologist. Monitoring and continued counseling are part of the follow-up as well. Without such counseling before and after the procedure, it is simply too easy for the patient to revert back to his or her old ways.

It strikes me that many of us can use this process as an inspiration to lose weight and to do so sucessfully. We can save the time and expense of going through a surgical process and simply choose to eat slowly and stop at the first sign of being full. This process is the very same one adopted by the patients opting for weight loss surgery.

Okay, it's lunch time... I'm going to take the first step. Will you join me?

Michael Callen is the author of the Weekly Weightloss Tips Newsletter (http://www.weeklyweightlosstips.com) and the Chief Technology Officer for WellnessPartners.com (http://www.WellnessPartners.com), an online retailer of dozens of health and wellness products such as conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), r+ alpha lipoic acid (R+ ALA), and green tea extract.