The number of individuals choosing to have gastric bypass surgery has risen dramatically in the last few years and will continue to rise as obesity sweeps across the western world. And there is little indication that this will reverse in the near future as we continue to eat more and more fast food and take little exercise. As if this is not bad enough surgical techniques to answer our weight problem are becoming better each day and insurance companies are even beginning to pay out for an increasing number of weight loss surgeries.

So, should we be concerned? Obesity surgery may seem like the simple solution to the problem of obesity but it remains a major surgical procedure and is not without its risks. Indeed, some forty percent of patients experience some form of problem in the six months following surgery and roughly one-quarter of these individuals will need to return to the hospital. Possibly the most significant difficulty, however, is the dramatic changes in lifestyle which are encountered following surgery. The majority of individuals know that they will need to change their eating habits after gastric bypass surgery to cope with the immediate effect of having a dramatically smaller stomach and to ensure that they do not begin to put on weight again once their initial excess weight has come off. However, what the majority of individuals do not realize is precisely how dramatic these changes are going to be. Not only will you discover that you are severely restricted in terms of exactly what you can eat, but you will also discover that your whole eating regime will need to change dramatically.

For those individuals who are severely overweight because they have a compulsion to eat and are effectively addicted to certain forms of food this can come as something of a shock. This, of course, is only the beginning of the problem as gastric bypass surgery marks a major turning point in your life and will also put you under a great deal of psychological stress will have you running from tremendous highs to deep lows for which you will need the help of your doctor, as well as friends and family. For anyone considering obesity surgery, it is vital to get hold of as much information as you can not merely about the surgical options open to you but also about the effects of surgery and what is going to be involved in helping you through the months following surgery.

You must then sit down and talk to your doctor and think very carefully about precisely how you will cope before you commit yourself to surgery. A critical person in the whole equation and somebody who will have a very significant influence on your success is your doctor as he will be the person you are going to need most in those critical weeks after surgery when the going begins to get tough. It is vitally important therefore that you pick your doctor with care and look for somebody who is not only a first-class surgeon and well qualified to carry out your procedure, but is additionally someone who you can turn to and lean upon for support when things are not going as you expected after surgery and you are down in the dumps. The gastric bypass may appear to be an easy choice but it most assuredly is not and is something which you have to prepare yourself for with care.