Customer Reviews

A Guide to Weight Loss Surgery: Professional and Personal Views (The Praeger Series on Contemporary Health and Living)

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Whether you are overweight or just know someone who is, this book offers a personal point of view from a physician who has been there and tried all sorts of dieting solutions, etc before deciding that surgery was the appropriate solution for her.

She deals with the emotional issues of being overweight, the various attempts at dieting and exercise and combines this emotional roller coaster with the understanding of a physician.

Finally, she discusses objectively the decision process toward solving her overweight problem, why she made the decisions she made, how to determine what is best for the individual, and finally what to expect before , during and after varoius surgeries if that route is chosen.

I found this to be an extremely useful book if you're considering bariatric surgery. Like many books in this category, it's written by an M.D.--however, Dr. Hamilton has struggled with her weight all her life and actually had gastric bypass herself 8 years ago. She discusses at great length why diets and exercise fail 95% of the public--especially those who have 50 pounds or more to lose--and why the risks of surgery may be considerably less than the risks to our health of being morbidly obese. An excellent book--expensive, but well worth reading (you might try your local library if money is tight!).

What I love about this book, that I haven't found in other popular WLS books, are the explanations, statistics, and graphs related to the pros and cons of surgery. I have already used the information gleaned from this book twice to combat ignorance associated with WLS. Hamilton's writing is clear, logical, and organized, so it makes a subject that could be confusing, easily understandable.

There are only three downfalls of this book. First, when written, VSG was not as popular as it is now, so the author does not really go into that procedure much. I would love to see this book updated to include relevant VSG information. Second, it would be nice to have a bit more post-surgical information. Maybe now that the author is a few years out from her surgery, she could add a chapter on long-term care/concerns. Finally, and this is probably the publisher's fault and not hers, the price is very cost-prohibitive if you wanted a hard-copy. Thankfully I have a Kindle and could afford it, but if I didn't, there would have been no way I would have purchased it. (Plus, I would have been angry if I did, as it is not a very large book to justify the expense.) As much as I love this book, and it is my favorite of all WLS books, I have a hard time recommending it unless I know the reader has a Kindle.