Weight Loss From a Personal Perspective

Gastric Bypass Weight Management 3 UD Physical/Biological Physiological Consequences and Health Risks of Excess Body Weight Description of Concrete Experience: I chose to have gastric bypass surgery because I was dealing with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes due to my weight. Over time, my weight had just continued to creep up until it reached a point that made it really dangerous for me.

Additionally, back pain, knee pain, and joint pain were always present, and it hurt to walk and move around, so daily life activities were difficult to handle. I got out of breath when walking even short distances, and with that and the joint pain, exercising to lose weight was really not possible for me anymore. Even though I used to exercise, it was not something I could go back to until some of the weight was gone and the stress on my joints was lessened.

My primary care doctor told me I would be dead within 10 years if I did not lose weight, so I saw gastric bypass as my only option for potential success. Diets and other methods in the past had not been successful. Reflections: Looking back on my life, I realize that I was not careful with the way I ate. Eating became a pleasure and a crutch, instead of something that was used for fuel for my body.

When I finally came to terms with the way I was eating and how much weight I had gained, I knew it was time to make a change. By that point, though, I was too heavy to get much exercise and the patterns I had gotten into were a big part of my life. Because of that, it was very difficult for me to make the kinds of changes I knew in my heart I should make.

That was why I decided to have the surgery, because I knew without it I would only continue to get larger and may not live to see my children grow up. Generalizations/Principles/Theories: There are several theories about excess body weight and the health consequences that come with it. Numerous studies have shown that people who weigh more have a higher chance of having problems like high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

They can also have joint problems, heart disease, diabetes, and a host of other ailments that come along with their extra weight. Of course, not every person who is larger or heavier will have these health conditions, and some people who are heavy can also be relatively healthy. It often depends on their genetics, but also on how well they carry their weight in the sense of how well they can exercise and move around with the weight they have.

People who are able to exercise and who stay active are generally healthier than those who are sedentary regardless of their weight, but that is not always the case. Testing and Application: I tested the idea of needing gastric bypass to lose weight by attempting a number of things first. I tried to exercise but was not successful with it, and I also tried to diet -- but nothing kept the weight off.

Usually, I would lose a few pounds, but then I would either stop doing the diet or I would find that I just did not lose any more weight. Once I hit a plateau, I really was not interested in working any harder to lose weight, or was not able to lose more weight because I could not get the exercise I needed to do so. I know that diet and exercise are both important to losing weight and staying healthy, but putting that into practice is not always easy.

Current Nutritional Theories and Recommendations for Maintaining Healthy Weight Description of Concrete Experience: Gastric bypass is a type of last-ditch effort when it comes to losing weight. It is usually performed on people who have done a number of other things to lose weight and who have not been successful in anything else they have tried. For me, that was very accurate.

I had been through other types of nutritional programs and had been given many recommendations as to what I should do in order to lose weight and maintain a healthy weight once I reached it. Despite that, I avoided doing what I should do and stated that it was too difficult.

There was always some excuse or reason why I was not able to make my experience match up with what I knew I "should" be doing based on nutritional recommendations and guidelines, and I began to feel like a failure. Many of the recommendations and theories are also for people who are at a lower level of obesity than I had reached, so they are able to exercise more and help maintain proper weight.

Once I reached a certain point in my weight gain, I was no longer able to exercise enough for it to have any benefit for me, so I gave up on it. Reflections: I think the giving up on exercise and proper nutrition was a real turning point for me. It was as though I simply accepted my overweight status, and decided that there was nothing I could do about it. By doing that I ended up gaining even more weight, instead of only maintaining the weight I already had.

It is much harder to follow a plan for diet and weight loss than many people think, and when you have a lot of weight to lose it can become even more difficult because it seems as though you can never really lose the weight. It takes too long, and that kept me from really working at it. I wanted to see quick results, so I would believe I could really lose the weight and be thinner (or at least average weight) again.

When I did not lose weight rapidly, I stopped trying. That made it very difficult for me to continue to focus on weight loss. Generalizations/Principles/Theories: Nutritional theories and principles are important, but they do not work for everyone. Often, this is because each person is a unique individual and may lose weight more or less easily than another person even if they are trying the same program.

While nutritionists are firm believers in what they are doing and the information they are offering to people who need to lose weight and/or eat healthier, they have to understand that each person handles weight loss and health differently. By being aware of that, they can actually help more people because they will be tailoring what they are offering to each person instead of asking people to fit into a mold.

When a nutritionist advises a person how to lose weight, he or she is not generally focused on the individuality of that person to any large degree. There are some questions based on a person's lifestyle and other factors, but most of the advice given is the same advice that would be provided to everyone. As such, it is really not as valuable as it could be when it comes to helping a person lose weight.

Testing and Application: Information about nutrition and weight loss theories can be applied in many different ways. One of the best ways to test these kinds of theories is to offer them to a group of people and see if they work for each person equally. For me, the testing of nutritional theories came from talking to nutritionists and attempting to do what they asked of me based on proper eating habits.

However, it was difficult for me to follow some of their advice, and I often felt deprived of the foods I really enjoyed. An "everything in moderation" approach was not acceptable to them, and I felt that I would have done better if that approach had been one that I was able to use. Still, past experimentation has shown me that I am not very good at moderation.

If I had been better at moderating what I ate -- and how much of it -- I may have avoided my weight problem. Psychosocial Principles in Weight Management Description of Concrete Experience: I was required to have three visits with a weight management psychologist. This was done to make sure of my reasons for wanting surgery, and to help determine if I really did need the surgery or if there were other options that would have been better for me.

Additionally, these visits were to assess my state of mind when it came to my dedication to the surgery and the way I would have to live my life beyond that point. It is a very serious lifestyle change, and I could not just have surgery and that would fix all of my problems. It is a true lifestyle change, and one for which I had to be ready of the psychologist would not approve me.

During those visits I was asked about the proper kinds of foods to eat and the portions I was consuming. Part of the reason behind that was to see if I was understood proper nutrition, even if I did not follow a proper diet. Another part of the reason was to determine whether I understood that I was overeating.

Learning about proper portions is very important to someone who is going to undergo gastric bypass, because excessively large portions are generally the reason people have gained too much weight and/or cannot lose the weight they have gained. She also wanted to know about any family history of obesity, and why I really wanted to have the surgery. I told her I wanted to be alive for my wife and two young daughters. There has been obesity in my family, but my entire family is not overweight.

The surgery was very important to me because I wanted to be alive to see my children grow up, and also wanted to be there for my wife, whom I love very much. Reflections: The sessions I had with the weight management psychologist were important to me, although when they first began I was very uncomfortable with them.

It is not easy for me to talk to strangers, and talking about my weight and eating habits made me feel as though I was being judged for the poor choices of my past -- and also for the poor choices I was continuing to make. However, once I got through the first session I started feeling more comfortable. I realized the psychologist was not "out to get me" and that I was not being judged.

Instead, the psychologist was there to help me and make sure that I was mentally prepared to go through the surgery and understand the lifestyle changes I would have to make afterward. There would be no going back to old eating habits, or I would completely sabotage everything I was trying to do. Generalizations/Principles/Theories: There are many theories and principles regarding psychosocial development and concerns in people who are overweight or obese. Many of these surround the person's inability to lose weight and why that is the case.

There are a number of hypotheses and generalizations that are also made when it comes to these people, including the idea that they must have mental health issues that cause them to overeat. In some cases, this is certainly true. Additionally, some people who are obese became that way as a coping mechanism because they were molested when they were young, or because they were teased, they were depressed, or there were other issues with which they could not cope.

Depression and anxiety are often coupled with obesity, as are self-esteem issues and other problems. That does not mean that every person who becomes obese has mental or emotional health issues, though, as some of them do not have specific, underlying causes for the reasons they overeat. I was one of those people, and did not have any diagnosable, underlying issues. I simply overate, and did not control it properly.

Testing and Application: The theories that pertain to psychosocial issues in obese people and those who have gastric bypass can be tested by determining how many people with these issues have underlying mental health conditions or emotional problems that have caused them to overeat. When a person overeats, it is important to understand the triggers that cause that person to overeat. If these triggers are mental or emotional in nature, the person could benefit from psychosocial treatment.

Physiologic Influence of and Recommendations for Aerobic, Anaerobic, and Resistance Training in Weight Management Description of Concrete Experience: When I first started my weight loss journey, I was not able to exercise at all. My joints hurt too much, and I got out of breath so quickly when I walked that I could not walk far enough or long enough to help me actually lose weight.

My aerobic and anaerobic conditioning was terrible, as well, and I was not able to handle resistance training because I could not move comfortably enough to do so. Once I had the surgery, I was able to lose quite a bit of weight very quickly. That made a huge difference in how I felt physically and how I felt mentally, as well. Because I was in less pain and able to move around more, I found that I actually wanted to get back to exercising.

I started out by working out in the pool because it was easier at my weight and did not hurt my joints as much. As I lost weight I started going back to working out and training with my football players like I used to, and I walked three miles every day. I am 6'6," and went from 430 lbs. To 275 lbs. Dropping that amount of weight made me feel healthier and much better about myself, and made working out more enjoyable again.

Reflections: Working out again was a very interesting experience for me. I had forgotten what it really felt like to exercise and be healthy. At first it was very difficult, though, because I was so uncertain about what I could safely do. I wanted to get healthy again, but I did not want to harm myself in the process of trying to do so. It was very important to me that I get healthy again, but working out was actually kind of frightening in the beginning.

I feared not being able to work out correctly and injuring myself, and I feared a heart attack or something similar that would end my life before I ever had the chance to get it back. Still, I pushed on with my exercise because I knew I was never going to get healthy without it. As time went on, I became braver and more confident about my exercise regimen, which helped me get healthier than I had been in a long time.

Generalizations/Principles/Theories: Exercise is important for weight management. Most people do not deny that, but they also understand that the level of exercise differs between individuals. Some people are simply better able to handle exercise than others, and some people have higher tolerances for exercise than others do. There is nothing wrong with that, of course, because everyone is different. However, it is important to remember that nearly every person can exercise at some level.

Even a small bit of exercise is helpful, and over time a higher tolerance for getting exercise can be built up. This is very important to be aware of, because those who want people to exercise (such as personal trainers) have to understand that each person has different limits. When these limits are considered carefully and fairly, people can excel at exercise that truly helps them with weight loss.

Testing and Application: Resistance training on its own is beneficial to people who are attempting to lose weight and/or maintain weight loss, but there is more that can and should be done for these individuals. They need to understand that aerobic and anaerobic conditioning are both vital to good health and weight maintenance. Especially for those who have had gastric bypass surgery, proper exercise habits can help keep them from ending up with weight gain.

Long-term success is questionable with gastric bypass surgery, and those who are focused on making sure they maintain a healthy level of weight loss have to remember that exercise needs to be a part of their life. When they focus on only one aspect of it, they will see that they are not getting as much success as they would hope.

Advantages and Disadvantages of the Various Methods for Determining Healthy Weight Description of Concrete Experience: Now that I have lost a lot of weight, I no longer have diabetes, high cholesterol, or high blood pressure to contend with. These things are not a part of my life anymore, and that means I am healthier and stronger than I was in the past.

It has also reduced my back pain and joint pain, so I am able to exercise and also deal with the activities of daily life that eluded me in the past. My clothing is smaller and fits much better, and it is easier for me to drive and get around. However, there are disadvantages to gastric bypass surgery that are important to understand, as well.

I need to take a multivitamin each day for the rest of my life and must always be careful with what I eat and how much I eat at one time. If I do not get my vitamins I do not get proper nutrition, which can put me at risk of other medical conditions and problems. Proper nutrition comes from multivitamins and also from making sure I get enough protein in my diet without eating "junk" food that will only provide me with empty calories.

I vomit if I eat too much or eat the wrong things, and I have loose skin from my weight loss journey. These things are frustrating, but they are small prices to pay for the benefits I have received from the surgery. I can have the excess skin removed at a later date, and the vomiting is a very good reminder to me that keeps me from eating too much. Reflections: When I first had the gastric bypass, I was very excited about the surgery overall.

I wanted to get it done because I knew it would help me lose weight and allow me to feel better and more healthy. I was also nervous, though, because I knew that I could end up with more problems than I started with. Not everyone is successful with gastric bypass surgery, and some people do not make it through the surgery at all.

There was a risk of that, and a risk of complications at a later date, but those things were worth it to me, since I knew that it was really my last and only chance.