Hello all,

I work primarily in weight management at a fitness/health resort. I mainly give workshops on various nutrition topics, and field a lot of questions, in addition to foodservice management and consultations (and the 4 million other things us RDs do that go unseen until SHTFs).

I receive questions weekly on bariatric surgery, and especially recently, Ozempic, and other weight loss medications.

I list pros/cons of these in regards to habitual modification going into a sustainable lifestyle. I strongly feel that oftentimes those struggling with long term weight management turn to bariatric surgery/weight loss medications without really delving into the slow and steady approach. The "I don't see immediate results, so therefore it's not working" mentality. I frequently encourage guests to take a step back and consider 10-20 years, expand the frame of reference. I use analogies like getting into the marathon, not the sprint. We are the proverbial turtles, not the hare. I focus on avoiding metabolic rebound, and having slow weight loss, so as to actually lose body fat, and not majority LBM.

I see these individuals struggle a lot with the emotional toll of weight loss, and gear my educational component around emotional eating/working on mindset before the nitty gritty science.

I don't have studies that i've seen on rates of like recidivism (right word to use?). The aspect of the bariatric surgery CAN work if you follow the post-op to the letter, but it's not the overnight solution, and entails a LOT of hard work. Like a band-aid fix sometimes, without assessing the gaping untreated wound underneath.

Most poignant example is I worked with a patient who was suicidal because she had bariatric surgery, but food was her drug, and now it was deprived of her and there was like no going back.

I was wondering if anyone has any feedback here? Studies on long term bariatric success? Same with Ozempic? I need to learn more and become somewhat competent on the weight loss medications also.

A lot of rambling here, but hopefully you get my gist. I work solo and so don't have any colleagues to bounce these ideas around, or those who understand the struggle.

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THANK YOU!!!! :)