11-24-2017, 09:45 AM
Hey group
My wife has been fighting a weight battle since she was a teenager. She has tried every diet and sincerely put all her effort in to each one. She exercised religiously for years, but now it is dangerous for her to even do that. She was seeking to have an "ORBERA" balloon installed into her stomach. That's the latest of a line of devices that take up space in your stomach. The theory being that you will have less room for food and, thus, be less hungry. Sadly, while such a balloon will make one feel less hungry...it will not necessarily stop them from eating amounts similar to before they had their installation. That is because the majority of morbidly obese people have hunger that stems from psychological reasons. They are not truly hungry, as someone would be if they were at a caloric deficit at the moment. They eat for comfort. During the formative years, many children make an association between food and happiness and it stays with them on until adulthood. If my wife is stressed about something, just the smell of food works on her like a sedative would. It's really remarkable to observe. The smell of food does absolutely nothing for me. I am always analyzing her (and myself, and the world) and she, like many who came from a poor family, remembers the best moments of her life centering around eating. Her family getting together at the table. The sight's and smells and visceral satisfaction that she gained from those experiences, etc. Under stress now, as an adult, her mind calls out to her to reenact those moments, in order to gain a form of escape from her current worries. All this to say that people who eat for comfort will generally not do well with a balloon device, stomach stapling surgery, or anything that lessens the size of the stomach. The problem is not in their stomach, it is in their mind. I beg anyone who is considering this surgery to first have a psychiatric evaluation that seeks to discover the root of your weight problem. Not ever overweight person eats for comfort. You may be one of the lucky one's for whom a balloon device would work (if absolutely all other measures have been exhausted). Peace.
My wife has been fighting a weight battle since she was a teenager. She has tried every diet and sincerely put all her effort in to each one. She exercised religiously for years, but now it is dangerous for her to even do that. She was seeking to have an "ORBERA" balloon installed into her stomach. That's the latest of a line of devices that take up space in your stomach. The theory being that you will have less room for food and, thus, be less hungry. Sadly, while such a balloon will make one feel less hungry...it will not necessarily stop them from eating amounts similar to before they had their installation. That is because the majority of morbidly obese people have hunger that stems from psychological reasons. They are not truly hungry, as someone would be if they were at a caloric deficit at the moment. They eat for comfort. During the formative years, many children make an association between food and happiness and it stays with them on until adulthood. If my wife is stressed about something, just the smell of food works on her like a sedative would. It's really remarkable to observe. The smell of food does absolutely nothing for me. I am always analyzing her (and myself, and the world) and she, like many who came from a poor family, remembers the best moments of her life centering around eating. Her family getting together at the table. The sight's and smells and visceral satisfaction that she gained from those experiences, etc. Under stress now, as an adult, her mind calls out to her to reenact those moments, in order to gain a form of escape from her current worries. All this to say that people who eat for comfort will generally not do well with a balloon device, stomach stapling surgery, or anything that lessens the size of the stomach. The problem is not in their stomach, it is in their mind. I beg anyone who is considering this surgery to first have a psychiatric evaluation that seeks to discover the root of your weight problem. Not ever overweight person eats for comfort. You may be one of the lucky one's for whom a balloon device would work (if absolutely all other measures have been exhausted). Peace.