I am wondering if anyone among the USMS swimming ranks has had experience with bariatric surgery. Did this lead to sustained significant weight loss? Did it have a positive impact on your swimming and/or other aspects of your health? Did it help your speed, endurance, or both? Did it help one stroke more than others?
It's also conceivable that such surgery has had neutral only, or even negative, impacts on your swimming performance. If so, what problems has the surgery brought you? Does reduced caloric intake, for instance, make it hard to train as hard as before? If you have shed very significant amounts of weight, have you needed follow-up procedures to reduce loose skin, or does this tend to contract naturally over time?
I have a friend who was a great swimmer in college who I think could benefit from this approach, but he is very reluctant to try it, opting to go the natural route (lifestyle and diet modification only). The problem, however, is that though this has proven somewhat helpful, he still needs to lose very significant amounts of weight, and he's reached a plateau. I am thinking that the combination of the surgery AND continued diet and swimming practice will lead to a positive spiral upwards--the more weight he loses, the better his swimming will become, which reinforces the diet and commitment to swimming even more.
Is this naive? I am hoping someone who has been through the process can provide some insights! Thanks!
PS if you have had the surgery, is there any specific type you would recommend? I have heard that the "sleeve" procedure might avoid some of the nutrient absorption problems of earlier techniques. The removable "balloon" also seems intriguing because of its reversibility. Thanks!
I think so. The problem with weight loss of such considerable magnitude--he really needs to lose 150 lb. or more (and even harder, sustain this loss long term) just to get out of the morbidly obese category. The percentage of people who are able to accomplish this via lifestyle modification is miniscule, and those who do achieve it find their lives more or less ruled by constant obsession about food.
As one obesity researcher described it to me, imagine you go into your doctor, and he or she measures your resting respiratory rate. "Oh," says the doctor, "I see that you take 18-20 breaths per minute while you are sitting around quietly, not exerting yourself. This amount of breathing is a little high. I think you would be better off breathing 12-14 times per minute at rest. Do you think you can do this?"
"Of course, I can!" you proclaim, and over the next few minutes, with the use of a timer with a prominent second hand and your full powers of concentration, you easily manage to breathe just 12-14 times a minute. It's easy to do!
What isn't easy is to keep this resting respiratory rate every minute of every hour of every day for the rest of your life! Your intelligence in no match for the inner desires of your physiology!
It is the same with food balance/energy expenditure in all of us. Thin people often give themselves a lot of credit for exercising and dietary restraint; fat people often give themselves no end of grief for failures on both counts.
In either case, it is a delusion.
We have no more long-term volitional control over our weight than our height. Don't believe me? Google Vermont Prison Studies and you will see how it is as difficult for thin people to gain weight--even when there is huge incentive to do so--than it is for fat people to shed it!
My friend is wedded to the "I am the master of my own destiny" kind of malarkey that most Americans swallow as easily as Haagen Dazs! I am convinced he will not succeed without medical intervention, and I was really hoping some swimmers out there would report their experience with same.
However, given that surveys show that most people would rather marry a drug addict or prostitute than an obese person, I can understand the reluctance to come forward about arguably the most highly, and unfairly, stigmatized human disorder in our modern culture!
Has your friend tried working with a nutritionist to help get some new insight and ideas on food modifications? And they provide accountability between visits.
I have had three friends go through bariatric surgery, all former college athletes, but not swimmers. One was successful and has dropped and maintained the weight loss, has gotten more active, but reported she cannot maintain a high fitness level (she wanted to go back to running marathons) as her nutrition cannot support it.
The other two friends have not fared well at all, they had initial weight loss but soon returned to their former obese status, which is very interesting given the tiny portions they could consume initially. Both have ongoing pain and GI issues and are really just miserable.
I would suggest that your friend not pursue the surgery unless he is 100% on board with it and ready to make significant life changes to accommodate what would be his new reality.
This is excellent cautionary advice, and I truly appreciate hearing it. My friend was truly a great college swimmer, and since joining masters 2 years ago, he has been swimming and competing on a very regular basis. I wonder if a history of past sports participation, plus a current renewed dedication to a sport, might up the odds of his having a post-surgical experience more like your one friend's than the other two. I realize I am capable of a lot of backseat driving-style boosterism for procedures that strike me as very likely to help a person; but the fact that I won't be going under the knife myself does raise the very real criticism: It's easy for you to say! Anyhow, thanks for your comment.
good day Jim, My name is Kevin I have been part of the USMS for 3 years and a former bariatric patient. When I started my program I weighed 500lbs today with hard work like swimming I am 220lbs and getting ready to compete in my first Ironman. I would love to share my experience with you a little closer by email is bk_ioof@yahoo.com.
Kevin, I will email you right now. Thanks so much! The friend of Anna Lea (Jayhawk) has already emailed me some fascinating info about her experience, and I plan to put together as much of this as I can assemble and present it to my friend when the time is right! Thanks! And please check your spam filter for James Thornton! I am often treated, understandably enough, like digital refuse.
Jim, a swimmer friend of mine will be contacting you. She went from 380 lbs. to 150 lbs. and has maintained that weight for five years. She now does triathlons.
She wrote me brilliant replies! Thanks so much!
good day Jim, My name is Kevin I have been part of the USMS for 3 years and a former bariatric patient. When I started my program I weighed 500lbs today with hard work like swimming I am 220lbs and getting ready to compete in my first Ironman. I would love to share my experience with you a little closer by email is bk_ioof@yahoo.com.
I have had three friends go through bariatric surgery, all former college athletes, but not swimmers. One was successful and has dropped and maintained the weight loss, has gotten more active, but reported she cannot maintain a high fitness level (she wanted to go back to running marathons) as her nutrition cannot support it.
The other two friends have not fared well at all, they had initial weight loss but soon returned to their former obese status, which is very interesting given the tiny portions they could consume initially. Both have ongoing pain and GI issues and are really just miserable.
I would suggest that your friend not pursue the surgery unless he is 100% on board with it and ready to make significant life changes to accommodate what would be his new reality.
Jim, a swimmer friend of mine will be contacting you. She went from 380 lbs. to 150 lbs. and has maintained that weight for five years. She now does triathlons.
You are such a good friend for helping out with this. I admire you and hope that your friend is able to find a way to lose the weight, keep it off and go back to doing what makes him feel great. Let us know how it goes?
You are such a good friend for helping out with this. I admire you and hope that your friend is able to find a way to lose the weight, keep it off and go back to doing what makes him feel great. Let us know how it goes?
Thanks! I will definitely keep y'all posted, but I sense it may be months or years before new data emerges! Flower Mound, Texas, by the way, sounds like quite the hamlet.
