Surgery of any kind is not to be taken lightly, but when it comes to weight issues, there are three simple procedures that can, quite frankly, save your life.

If you struggle with obesity, you’re not alone: One in three Americans are in the same battle. Here at Atlanta Body Institute, we understand the incredibly difficult journey that is weight loss, which is why we offer three types of weight loss surgeries to our patients: Gastric bypass, gastric balloon, and gastric sleeve.

These surgeries help you lose weight, and keep it off, giving you a new lease on a healthier, more active life, free from the numerous health complications that come with being overweight.

So, the question isn’t whether we can help you with your weight problem, but how. Here’s what we tell our patients in Buckhead, Loganville, and Atlanta, Georgia, about each of these surgeries to help them decide which one is right for them.

Gastric bypass

While we always caution against shortcuts when it comes to dieting, this is one shortcut that may benefit you. In a gastric bypass procedure, we divide your stomach into two parts: an upper part called a pouch and a lower half. With the lower half sealed off, your “new” stomach holds a very small amount of food — less than one ounce.

To address your digestion, we connect a part of your small intestine to your pouch, so anything you eat will pass from the pouch and into your small intestine. We make this connection somewhere lower along your small intestine, which means you’ll absorb far fewer calories since your food isn’t making the full journey through your digestive tract, which is when it absorbs energy and nutrients.

And with a smaller stomach, you’ll feel full much faster, because a large portion of your stomach has been taken out of the picture, or bypassed, as it were.

Gastric sleeve

With a gastric sleeve surgery, we go in and remove up to 80% of your stomach, which means you will feel fuller a lot more quickly each time you eat, and feel less hungry between meals.

Picture your stomach as a wide C-shaped curve, which rests in between your esophagus and your small intestine. When we perform this type of bariatric surgery, we remove the outer curve of your stomach, along the outside of the C, considerably reducing the size of your stomach.

After your gastric sleeve procedure, you’ll not only feel much fuller after you eat because of the smaller size of your stomach, you’ll feel less hungry because your smaller stomach doesn’t release as many hunger-causing hormones.

Gastric band

A gastric band, or lap band, is one of the simplest procedures we offer. We simply go in and place a band around the upper part of your stomach, which creates a place to hold food that’s a fraction of the size of your normal stomach. The band still allows food to slowly pass through to your intestines, but there won’t be much to speak of since you’ll feel full after eating only small amounts.

We can adjust the band down the road to allow less or more food to pass through, depending upon how your body reacts to the procedure.

Making the choice

Each procedure has its own set of pros and cons, which makes choosing the right one for your situation important. Here at our practice, we review your current health, your eating habits, and your goals. With those in mind, we sit down and review your options.

Each of the surgeries is just that — a surgery. So we need to take into account what type will work best for you. If you have pre-existing medical conditions, we need to choose the least invasive procedure possible, which is the gastric band. If you’re healthy enough to undergo a slightly more invasive and longer procedure, we can discuss both the sleeve and the bypass.

And while these surgeries are life-savers in terms of being able to quickly and permanently address your weight issues, you still need to do your part at home. Get up and move around to help you shed the pounds more quickly. And make sure that the smaller amount you eat is delivering the right nutrients for your healthier, slimmer body.

In very little time after any of these procedures, you’ll have a new spring in your step as your mental and physical well-being is lightened from the inside out.

To explore your options in bariatric surgery, please give us a call. Or you can use the online scheduling tool on this website to request an appointment at one of our three locations.