Am I a Candidate for Non-Surgical Weight Loss?

Losing weight is hard. Researchers are learning that eating less and moving more doesn’t work for everyone, especially those with obesity. 

If you struggle with your weight, you may consider weight loss surgery. These procedures permanently change the size of your stomach. For many people, this may feel like too much of a change. But there are non-surgical weight loss options. Are you a candidate?

At Transform Bariatrics in Greenbelt and Rockland, Maryland, our skilled bariatrician, Dr. Hitesh Amin, offers many options to help those with obesity get to a healthier weight, including the gastric balloon — a non-surgical weight loss procedure.

Here, we want to talk about non-surgical weight loss and how to determine if it makes the right choice for you.

Non-surgical weight loss

Non-surgical weight loss and medical weight loss aren’t the same. 

Medical weight loss includes diet modifications, exercise, and sometimes medication to help control the appetite to help drop those unwanted pounds. Non-surgical weight loss is a procedure that reduces the amount of food your stomach can hold, helping you eat less without making any permanent changes to your stomach or digestive system.

We offer gastric balloon for non-surgical weight loss. For this procedure, we use an endoscope that goes through your mouth and into your stomach to place the balloon. We inflate the balloon, so it fills up about half of your stomach.

The gastric balloon is temporary and removable and doesn’t physically change the size of your stomach like weight loss surgery.

Am I a candidate?

Though less invasive than weight loss surgery, we use much of the same criteria when deciding who’s a candidate for the gastric balloon. We may consider you a candidate for non-surgical weight loss if you:

• Have a body mass index (BMI) between 30 and 40
• Have a BMI between 27 and 30 with weight-related health problems 
• Failed to lose weight following a traditional diet and exercise program

We conduct a thorough evaluation before making any treatment recommendations. In addition to weight and diet history, we also need to determine if you’re committed to making the diet and lifestyle changes with the gastric balloon.

Because the balloon reduces the size of your stomach, you need to eat a modified diet filled with nutrient-rich foods. We recommend three small meals a day that center around a lean source of protein (chicken, fish, or beans) with small portions of low-carbohydrate vegetables (salad, broccoli), and carbohydrates (potato, grains).

Weight loss results

Results following non-surgical weight loss vary and depend on how compliant you are with the diet and lifestyle plan. You can lose anywhere from 7 to 15% of your body weight within the six months you have the gastric balloon in place.

After six months, we remove the gastric balloon and encourage you to continue to follow your diet and lifestyle plan to maintain your weight loss and continue to lose.

Are you considering weight loss surgery, but are apprehensive about permanently changing your diet? Then you might want to consider non-surgical weight loss. Give us a call or request an appointment online to schedule a consultation to see if you’re a candidate for non-surgical weight loss.