Obesity is almost 100% a disease of lifestyle choices. We can look externally to do things for us like bariatric surgery and change the way we look, but unless we change ourselves, nothing will every truly change. This the case for bariatric surgery.
In a long-term study of adults from the University of Florida, published in JAMA Network Open, despite bariatric surgery and physician’s attempts to fix obesity, the patients’ lifestyle still sucked.
Researchers analyzed data form the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2015 to 2018 of 4600 adults. These adults were divided into three groups: having recieved bariatric surgery, met eligibility of bariatric surgery but has not undergone procedure, and people who are normal weight. Through the survey, the investigators looked at the diet and physical activity data of these patients.
They found that people who have received the surgery were doing more moderate-to-vigorous physical activities than people who were eligible for the surgery. However, only 23% of people who had recieved bariatric surgery met federal physical activity guidelines (75 minutes vigorous-intensity activity per week, 150 minutes moderate-intensity per week). On the other hand, of normal weight people, 45% met their recommended physical activity guidelines.
In their diet review, they found that caloric intake was the lowest in the post-operative bariatric group. However, in terms of the quality of the diet they ate according to the Healthy Eating Index, it was lower than the normal weight group. Possibly the calorie was lower because their stomach cannot take more food in as a result of the surgical goals.
This just comes to show, obesity is an effect of lack of personal accountability and nothing will every change for the better until you make the decision that you want better and do better. Surgery is not a substitute for the lack of self-efficacy nor is it an enabler of continuing lazy lifestyle habits.
Fact of the matter is, you cannot run from yourself, so you must change. And if anything, many who were obese may not have ended up obese if they ate higher quality diets and met the guidelines for recommend physical activities as comparatively more of the normal weight people did. While we cannot change our genetics and sometimes we are dealt those cards, we have the power to make our own decisions about regarding our daily lifestyle choices.
Make. The. Change.
YR Hong et al. Assessment of Physical Activity and Healthy Eating Behaviors Among US Adults Receiving Bariatric Surgery. JAMA Network Open. DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.17380
