So, you have taken the big leap and had your weight loss surgery. You are recovering, adapting to a vastly different way of eating and drinking and losing weight. You are not alone, weight loss surgery (WLS) in its various forms (LAGB, LSG, RYGP, VSG) is an increasingly popular way for Australians to address the sometimes-radical weight loss that is needed to prevent and reverse many obesity associated comorbidities including type 2 diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver, high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease, to name a few.

The laparoscopic or vertical sleeve gastrectomy (LSG, VSG) now accounts for around 70.1% of all weight loss surgeries in Australia.  The numerous types of surgeries fall into two main categories, restrictive where they reduce the stomach size to restrict the volume of calories that can be consumed and malabsorptive where the digestive tract (small intestine) is shortened to reduce the number of calories that can be absorbed.

These procedures can be lifesaving and many people finally lose the weight they have been desperate to lose for years. Just because you end up having WLS does not mean that you have not tried your very best with diet and exercise, in fact sometimes you have tried every trick in the book and a combination of genetics, biochemical pathways and hormones just simply mean that you are up against it.