Gastric Bypass is not Fail Safe

To have WLS is not a fail-safe procedure. I keep always saying, that it is not the magic bullet or the “set it and forget it” solution. You have to make changes for the rest of your life, and you have to live with it. In my case and in almost all cases I have been involved, time will help you and it is pretty easy. But there also exist failure, and yes, you can gain weight back if you do not follow instructions or change habits.

Gastric bypass works two ways. The stomach is divided to form a tiny pouch that holds less food and it's connected to bypass most of the small intestine so fewer calories and nutrients are absorbed.

But over time, the stomach stretches and for some, the opening between the stomach and intestine expands. Do not worry, all the myths related the pouch “growing” to the original stomach size, are absolutely not true.

Over time, you will feel hungry not five or six hours after a meal, but maybe an hour to an hour and a half. This will enable you to do more snacking and more significant eating throughout the day.

Also, as time goes by, the reconnected intestine works harder to hold on to the calories. The body adapts and it becomes more efficient and it absorbs more than it was in the first six to 12 months

Doctors can sometimes re-do the gastric bypass, but scar tissue can make it riskier. Instead, a handful of surgeons are adopting another type of obesity surgery, laparoscopic lap band surgery, to fix the problem.

This procedure keeps the original bypass intact, Al the surgeon does is very non-invasively placing a band over the bypass where the stomach and intestine are connected and then start to gradually restrict or adjust that over the subsequent six to twelve months after surgery.