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2024 February.  During a recent consultation I saw a lady who was three months since her laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy by me.

I normally say to people when I first see them that we usually see 2/3 to 3/4 of the excess weight being lost from this operation and that normally that would occur at about 6 to 9 months with most of it being early on. It’s standard not getting down to an ideal weight, rather most of the way down. Certainly patients can reach an ideal weight – importantly I tell my patients beforehand that to aim for an ideal BMI category, it will require them to really focus on a far healthier lifestyle overall.

This type of operation is well tolerated with the expectation of eating any type of food just much less and without vomiting, which is the benefit of this. This lady is actually at 83 kilos today so she's lost over 20kg by 3months and she's already beyond her target already, which is a bit quicker than standard. She is still now slowly losing weight. She's very happy, and there's no vomiting and I'm happy with her progress. That is an example what you can expect after this operation.

2024 January. Let's look at an example of a lady in her 20's who was 3 months since her laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy. She had dropped 30 kilogrammes out of 56 kilogrammes of initial excess weight so that's just over half the excess weight over a three month time frame. So she is doing very well. She has a good eating tolerance and whilst being able to consume them, she would say that carbohydrates sit a bit heavy, the pastas, the breads the rice, so she's tending to avoid these. So the reduced carbohydrate has been contributing to the very good weight loss progress. She also has a better eating habit established - in asking her how things are different to before before, she previously was eating on the fly and a lot less mindful - the surgery has certainly encouraged her to develop much better eating habits. 

2023 June. When a patient comes to see me they usually have reached out with a phone call to my lovely secretary Tracy or they might be seeing their GP. You may have seen your GP and you may have known people that have seen their General Practitioner and have potentially explored this option. Then they come and see me with a GP referral so your general practitioner will certainly advise you in a very open honest way if this is something that potentially should be explored. I do see GP’s and give talks to them to educate them about who this could be indicated for. A person may have been struggling with their weight for many years and the reality is most people that come and see me this has been a chronic problem. If you're considering if weight loss surgery is appropriate for you (and not just a binge over Christmas period for example) then it’s important to know that it needs to have been a long-term struggle. You wouldn't be alone in that respect - we know that the overweight condition and obesity is extremely common now and it's a burden for an individual absolutely and also our society as a whole. Two thirds of people either are overweight or are in the obese category and a third of Australians and probably even more so now on updated statistics.

The story is often that a person may have struggled from their adolescent times -people often talk about school days. Another common time people mention is for women following a pregnancy or when both men and woman begin a busy family life.