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!
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!
