Health Consequences
For 15 years Paige’s weight has been a problem. Through high school, college and a few years beyond, her weight was normal – she had a very healthy body mass index (BMI - calculate your BMI) of 19 when she was 25 – then her weight started to creep up at a rate of five to 10 pounds per year when she took a desk job. Over 10 years, she gained 100 pounds, and by 2004, her health was in serious decline because her weight wasn’t.
Paige knew her health depended on losing weight, but she, like many people, had never been able to achieve permanent weight loss.
Within one year of losing weight, say experts, 30 to 35 percent of people regain it; and five years after losing, 50 percent or more are likely to have bumped back up to their starting weight. There’s no one answer to explain why that is, but research is showing that in some people, the complex interplay among genes, hormones and metabolism can make the body fight back against even the strictest weight-loss efforts. That means, according to the latest theories, that making lifestyle changes – even appropriate calorie restriction and intense, regular exercise – will not be effective for some people, even though it is for others.
Paige tried what seemed like everything – eating less, eating only certain foods, joining support groups and weight loss programs, following specialty diets, taking prescription weight loss medications and exercising. “I’d lose and regain, again and again,” she says. She started to feel obesity was her destiny.
In 2004, when Paige regained the weight she had recently lost and then some after stopping a prescription weight loss medication, she gave up and entered into a downward spiral. With her weight up to 256 and her body mass index at 39, the pain in her knees was excruciating when she walked up or down steps; osteoarthritis (OA) surely was developing. Walking to a nearby restaurant for lunch left her winded, and she had chronic heartburn. She developed sleep apnea; sleep studies showed her breathing stopped an average of 15 times per hour every night. Eventually, her cholesterol level and blood pressure got so high her doctor wanted her on medications to reduce her risk of heart attack and stroke, and they warned her she was in a pre-diabetic state. Because diabetes and heart disease run in her family, Paige knew she had to do something serious.
Surgery for weight loss became a possibility, but she knew it was not a casual step to take. “I thought about bariatric surgery for a year and a half,” says Paige. “I read books, chatted online with those who had done it or were also considering it, and researched physicians.” Her decision to proceed was made neither lightly nor quickly.
Once she felt committed to weight loss surgery, she soon saw the decision wasn’t hers alone to make.
