For a morbidly obese person, there should be no greater priority than losing weight. While it’s easy to feel okay and feel like you’re not at risk for serious health problems, many of the diseases that can affect you show few symptoms in the beginning. Because a morbidly obese person is at high risk of potentially deadly diseases, losing weight as soon as possible is important.
A morbidly obese person is generally 100 pounds or more overweight. A person who is considered morbidly obese can weigh less. In those cases, it’s not the amount of the weight as much as the health problems it’s already causing that determine the person’s level of obesity.
Some doctors consider morbid obesity such a serious and urgent health risk that they encourage their patients to have surgery. The weight loss surgery usually consists of portioning off part of the stomach to make it hold less.
These types of surgery are often called gastric bypass, lap band surgery, or stomach stapling. Stomach stapling was the more popular term years ago, but more often today it’s called a gastric bypass. This is because the stomach is reduced and a bypass is created from the small pocket of stomach to the intestines.
Gastric bypass surgery that’s done today is reversible, so that the person may not always have to go through life only able to eat an ounce of food at a time. But it’s still major surgery and carries with it the risks of that type of surgery. For someone who’s morbidly obese, the risks are even greater because it’s harder to heal and recover when you’re that overweight and unhealthy.
Many doctors feel the risk of remaining that heavy is much worse and carries far greater consequences than the risk of major surgery. Other doctors prescribe things like liquid diets to promote very fast weight loss. Liquid diets are by and large unhealthy. But doctor prescribed and monitored diets are at least nutritionally balanced.
The benefit of a liquid diet is that the weight loss is rapid and dramatic. Some doctors feel this is necessary to get the pressure of the joints and the heart, and to quickly lower blood sugar, cholesterol and triglyceride levels that may be hovering in the danger zone.
But the safest and best way to lose weight is always healthy eating and exercise. An obese person who wants to lose weight and save their health but doesn’t want to follow a liquid diet or undergo surgery has that option.
A low-carb diet or one that focuses only on good carbs and limited caloric intake is ideal both for obese people and diabetics. When the blood sugar levels are stabilized, overall health tends to improve and it’s far easier to lose weight.
When exercises is added, even at low levels to start, then weight loss and health improvements can happen pretty quickly. A morbidly obese person will take longer to lose all the weight, but by using regular diet and exercise it’s possible to achieve a normal weight and be healthier.
