FA and Weight Loss Surgery

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The free 12-Step program of Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous (FA) provides an alternative to weight loss surgery

Weight regained after bariatric surgery can be very disheartening. Unfortunately, many people do gain their weight back if they do not adjust the habits that led to their obesity in the first place. FA helps people address the underlying causes of obesity so they can stay slim after bariatric surgery or avoid surgery altogether.

 

Bariatric Surgeon, Dr. Carl Lowe, on morbid obesity:

Dr. Lowe speaks about a Swedish study, “[the study] indicates that surgery can be only one small part of a solution. It can potentially help people with medically diagnosed morbid obesity get down to obesity and then to a place where they’re merely overweight, but it’s highly unusual for anyone to reach what is medically considered a healthy body weight after bariatric surgery. Typically, a year and a half after the operation, people reach their lowest weight— about 50 percent of what they need to lose—and then, over the next ten years, they slowly regain some of what they’ve lost, until they reach a plateau.”

"I mentioned that studies show that people who are morbidly obese have only a 1–2 percent chance of losing weight and keeping it off. That is a sad statistic, and it’s why people are going for surgery. I believe we could really change that percentage if more people went to FA."

"FA seemed to me to be a perfect solution. It offered wonderful support, frequent meetings, and a human being who could talk with a struggling person every single day until he or she got strong. We in the medical community can’t give enough of the intense interaction that’s needed by a person trying to overcome addiction. You can’t put a child on a bike and expect him or her to ride right away. Addicts need someone to talk with several times a day."

 

If you are a food addict, bariatric surgery may not be enough of a solution to take off weight and keep it off. Click the button below to find out if FA could help you.

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This woman had bariatric surgery but was still bingeing on food. FA helped her to stop overeating and stabilize her weight. Here is her story:

At a significant cost, I had 80% of my stomach removed. Some weight came off, so I resumed eating calorie-laden desserts and consuming alcohol. Without the body weight to absorb my previous quantities, I regularly found myself passed out on the floor at 4 a.m., in a sheer panic.

After joining FA, instead of regaining all my weight, I lost more, stabilizing at around 130 pounds and a size 4. I’ve been that size now for more than two years and I love it!

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This woman lost weight with bariatric surgery but put it all back plus more... until she found FA. Here is her story:

I heard about weight-loss surgery—stapling the stomach to make it smaller. I went ahead and had the surgery. I lost 125 pounds in a year, but I had complications. From the first week, my new stomach didn’t want any food in it. Everything I tried came back up! I couldn’t digest food anymore. For the next six months, the only thing that would stay down was Gatorade. I couldn’t eat meat and raw vegetables were hard to digest.

The weight loss lasted five years, until I hurt my back at work. Because of my slow digestion and my being laid up, the weight slowly started coming back on and I couldn’t stop it. The weight yo-yoed until I was more than 350 pounds again. I was over 50 years old, on disability, and fat. I needed medicines to keep my blood pressure and cholesterol down, and had many aches and pains. I knew that there was no hope left. I was losing feeling in my legs and getting fatter every day.

I’ve been in FA for two years now and have been given hope for a longer life. I am down 146.6 pounds, my blood pressure and cholesterol readings are normal, I have no diabetes, and I now take less medicine.

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This woman avoided bariatric surgery by joining FA. Here is her story:

Five years ago I came into FA, desperate to lose weight. At the age of 55, and after decades of obesity, I weighed 330 pounds and was ravaged by medical complications. The only option open was bariatric surgery. Nothing else had worked and I thought nothing else was available or would work.

Some would say that it was serendipity that I heard about FA while driving home. In the past five years I have lost 170 pounds. I thank God for the solution FA has given me.

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Bariatric Surgeon, Dr. Carl Lowe, Jr., suggests FA to all of his patients. He says:

I’ve been doing bariatric surgery since 2004, so I’ve had eight years of meeting with hundreds and hundreds of people who have struggled with their weight. In my view, undeniably, food addiction is real. I see it every day.

Unfortunately, looking at the scientific data, we see that there’s no easy solution when people can’t control how much and what they eat. The medical literature tells us that if someone weighs 100 or 150 pounds too much, that person has just a 1–2 percent chance of losing that weight and keeping it off over a sustained period of time.

FA seems to me to be a perfect solution. It offers wonderful support, frequent meetings, and a human being who can talk with a struggling person every single day until he or she got strong. FA works, no question about it.

Read Dr. Lowe's full story

 

Click the button below to find out more about how FA works and what steps to take to get started.

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