Most prominent Weight Loss FAQs

If your BMI is 35 or above you could be a candidate for bariatric surgery. Please use our BMI calculator to figure out your BMI.

Most patients have a lot of questions about the type of procedures as well as the risks and complications. The first step is to watch our online seminar. Once you have completed the online seminar, a representative will contact you with further information about your insurance coverage and how to set up your initial appointment.

1. Attend a seminar.
2. Make a list of all the diets you have tried and bring it with you to your doctor.
3. Bring any pertinent medical data to your appointment with the surgeon - this would include reports of special tests (echocardiogram, sleep study, etc.) or hospital discharge summaries if you have been in the hospital.
4. Bring a list of your medications with dose and schedule.
5. Stop smoking. Surgical patients who use tobacco products are at a higher surgical risk.

Medical problems, such as serious heart or lung problems, can increase the risk of any bariatric surgery. On the other hand, if they are problems that are related to your weight, they also increase the need for bariatric surgery. Severe medical problems may not dissuade the surgeon from recommending gastric bypass bariatric surgery if it is otherwise appropriate, but those conditions will make a patient's risk higher than average.

Certain basic tests are done prior to bariatric surgery: A Complete Blood Count (CBC), Urinalysis, and a Chemistry Panel, which gives a read out of about 20 blood chemistry values. Often a Glucose Tolerance Test is done to evaluate for diabetes, which is very common in overweight persons. All patients but the very young get a chest X-ray and an electrocardiogram. Other tests, such as pulmonary function testing, echocardiogram, sleep studies, GI evaluation, cardiology evaluation, or psychiatric evaluation, may be requested when indicated. 

Insurance Issues  

Payment may be denied because there may be a specific exclusion in your policy for obesity bariatric surgery or "treatment of obesity." Insurance payment may also be denied for lack of "medical necessity." A therapy is deemed to be medically necessary when it is needed to treat a serious or life-threatening condition. In the case of morbid obesity, alternative treatments - such as dieting, exercise, behavior modification, and some medications - are considered to be available. Medical necessity denials usually hinge on the insurance company's request for some form of documentation, such as 1 to 5 years of physician-supervised dieting or a psychiatric evaluation, illustrating that you have tried unsuccessfully to lose weight by other methods.

Gather all the information (diet records, medical records, medical tests) your insurance company may require, before your consultation. This can help reduce the time it takes to navigate through your insurance plans process.

After all pre-operative tests have been ordered and results have been received, your surgeon’s office must mail or fax your information to your insurance carrier. Insurance carriers’ time frames vary from 1 to 4 weeks to respond to your surgeon’s request for the bariatric surgery.

Although it can vary, the hospital stay (including the day of bariatric surgery) can be 1-2 days, but is usually 24 hours.

Every attempt is made to control pain after bariatric surgery to make it possible for you to move about quickly and become active. This helps avoid problems and speeds recovery. Various methods of pain control, depending on your type of surgical procedure, are available. Ask your surgeon about other pain management options.

For your own safety, you should not drive until you have stopped taking narcotic medications and can move quickly and alertly to stop your car, especially in an emergency. Usually this takes 7-14 days after bariatric surgery.

Answer: Almost immediately after bariatric surgery doctors will ask you to get up and move about. Patients are asked to walk or stand at the bedside on the night of bariatric surgery, take several walks the next day and thereafter. On leaving the hospital, you may be able to care for all your personal needs, but will need help with shopping, lifting and with transportation.

Personal toiletries (comb, toothbrush, etc.) and an outfit to change into before going home. A hospital gown will be provided by the hospital during your stay, but some people prefer to bring their own. Choose clothes for your stay that are easy to put on and take off. Because of your incision, your clothes may become stained by blood or other body fluids. Other ideas:

-Reading and writing materials
-Crossword and other puzzles
-Bathrobe  

Smoking increases the risk of lung problems after bariatric surgery, can reduce the rate of healing, increases the rates of infection, and interferes with blood supply to the healing tissues.

Many patients experience some hair loss or thinning after bariatric surgery. This usually occurs between the fourth and the eighth month after bariatric surgery. Consistent intake of protein at mealtime is the most important prevention method. Also recommended are a daily zinc supplement and a good daily volume of fluid intake.

Most patients experience natural hair growth recovery after the initial period of loss.

Patients may begin to wonder about this early after the bariatric surgery when they are losing 20-40 pounds per month, or maybe when they've lost more than 100 pounds and they're still losing weight. Two things happen to allow weight to stabilize. First, a patient's ongoing metabolic needs (calories burned) decrease as the body sheds excess pounds. Second, there is a natural progressive increase in calorie and nutrient intake over the months following weight loss bariatric surgery. The stomach pouch and attached small intestine learn to work together better, and there is some expansion in pouch size over a period of months. In the absence of complications, patients are very unlikely to lose weight to the point of malnutrition.

You will need to keep in close contact with your primary care doctor regarding any long term medications you are currently on. Your doctor will determine whether medications for blood pressure, diabetes, etc., can be stopped when the conditions for which they are taken improve or resolve after weight loss bariatric surgery. For meds that need to be continued, the vast majority can be swallowed, absorbed and work the same as before weight loss bariatric surgery. Change in dosage may be required with weight loss but will need to be discussed with your primary care doctor. Two classes of medications that should be discussed during your consultation with your surgeon are diuretics (fluid pills) and NSAIDs (most over-the-counter pain medicines). NSAIDs (ibuprofen, naproxen, etc.) may create ulcers in the small pouch or the attached bowel. Most diuretic medicines make the kidneys lose potassium. With the dramatically reduced intake experienced by most weight loss bariatric surgery patients, they are not able to take in enough potassium from food to compensate. When potassium levels get too low, it can lead to fatal heart problems.

Most patients say no. In fact, for the first 4-6 weeks patients have almost no appetite. Over the next several months the appetite returns, but it tends not to be a ravenous "eat everything in the cupboard" type of hunger.

Many people heavy enough to meet the surgical criteria for weight loss bariatric surgery have stretched their skin beyond the point from which it can "snap back." Some patients will choose to have plastic bariatric surgery to remove loose or excess skin after they have lost their excess weight. Insurance generally does not pay for this type of bariatric surgery (often seen as elective bariatric surgery). However, some do pay for certain types of bariatric surgery to remove excess skin when complications arise from these excess skin folds. Ask your surgeon about your need for a skin removal procedure.