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How much do you know about managing your weight? Take a quiz at
askAAMC.org/WeightQuiz
.
What Susan Dennis says is most
extraordinary about her life now is that it
is so ordinary. In the last few months, she’s
taken many long walks, gone to a baseball
game, flown to Florida on vacation, and
walked down the beach in a swimsuit.
Nothing that unusual for a 40-year-old
woman, except if you are Susan Dennis.
Flash back a year, and Susan says you
wouldn’t recognize her. She weighed over
300 pounds and had full-blown diabetes,
high blood pressure and a host of other
serious health issues.
“I didn’t go out, I didn’t like seeing
friends, walking was a chore,” Susan
says. “I felt weighed down by myself, by
everything. It wasn’t a happy existence.”
Susan has struggled with her weight
since she was 16. Over the years she
tried fad diets, weight loss groups, even
medically supervised prescription diets.
But nothing worked.
Finally, with her
health in steep decline,
her endocrinologist
suggested
bariatric surgery.
At first, Susan balked
at the idea. “I told her
no. I thought it might
be the easy way out and that I could do it
on my own.”
But as her health worsened, Susan
finally realized she needed help.
The right decision
Susan decided to have gastric bypass
surgery with Alex Gandsas, MD, who
leads AAMC’s Weight Loss and Metabolic
Surgery program. Susan says she liked
that the care felt “very personalized.”
Dr. Gandsas says it’s essential to have
a rigorous bariatric surgery program that
addresses the whole person.
“We are helping our patients engage in
a different life,” Dr. Gandsas says. “The
surgery helps them change course and
shed weight, but it’s only one component.
We want them to have all the tools they
need to permanently succeed.”
At AAMC, weight loss patients begin
preparing for surgery six months in
advance with medical testing, diet,
exercise, and nutrition counseling.
And it doesn’t end there. After surgery,
patients continue to receive careful
monitoring and meal plans.
Just 4½ months after her surgery,
Susan was doing great. In addition to
having lost 83 pounds, her blood pressure
was down and her diabetes was fully
controlled. What’s more, Susan says she’s
happy all the time. “I just feel wonderful,
I feel like I can take over the world.”
But for now she’s content trying to live
her extraordinarily ordinary life. Next on
the list: yoga classes.
Visit
askAAMC.org/WeightLoss
or call
443-924-2900
to learn
more about weight loss and
bariatric surgery.
Weight matters
If you’re struggling with being obese or
overweight, it’s important to know that
you really can lose unwanted pounds and
gain better health.
Is there a secret to slimming down?
“Not really,” says Meetu Agrawal, MD, a
primary care doctor. “It takes time and
determination, but weight loss success is
within your reach.”
Check your BMI
How do you know if you’re overweight
or obese? One way to check is with the
body mass index (BMI)—an estimate
of body fat based on your height and
weight. Having a BMI of 25 to 29.9
indicates that you are overweight.
Having a BMI of 30 or greater
signifies that you are obese. You
can calculate your BMI by going to
cdc.gov/bmi
.
Alex
Gandsas, MD
Win at
losing
Read on
Visit our
Living Healthier Together
blog at
askAAMC.org/Living
to read more weight loss success stories.
Find the weight
loss option that’s
right for you
Healthier U
“Both obesity and being overweight
can increase your risk of high blood
pressure, heart disease, type 2 diabetes,
and other serious health problems,” says
Dr. Agrawal.
What are your options?
Weight loss, even a modest amount, can
often help improve your health. Lifestyle
changes—such as cutting calories, eating
healthy foods and exercising regularly—