Chris Christie has lap band surgery, will that hurt or help him in 2016?

Last year, I remember Christie saying, "You'll know I'm running for president if I start losing a bunch of weight..."

I just saw that he had lap-band surgery.

I'm not trying to create a political thread. I'm just curious if people think this will help him, hurt him or make no difference.

I'm a fan of the guy, but I think this will hurt him. While I applaud him for taking the steps to lose weight, I think people will see it as someone who had to take the easy way out to lose weight as opposed to diet and exercise like Mike Huckabee did.

Thoughts?

 

When you're that big there is no easy way out. He still needs to lose weight.

 

Point taken, but it is a lot easier than doing it the conventional way.

 

Do you actually know anybody who has had the procedure? It helps, but it also presents its own challenges.

 

Can't see how it hurts him.

 

I was 4 rows behind him at a Springsteen concert when he was running for governer. He was huge -- I was surprised how big he was. Not a tall guy either -- he's probably 5'9" or so and had to be 325 lb.

Hopefully, it will allow him to control his weight going forward.

 

Christie, given his size and his schedule, can be excused for starting with the lap-band. Of course, when you get that surgery, you're supposed to have months of counseling before and afterward, in part because it's very easy to put the weight back on. I don't know if this means he's running for president, but he at least needed to do something for health's sake.

Mentioning Huckabee, last I saw him, it looked like he was putting a lot of weight back on. That's not a criticism. It's difficult to keep a weight-loss regimen going.

 

My aunt has had it. It will save her life after years of abusing the shit out of it. She's lost 80 pounds in six months.

Maybe the word easy isn't the right one, but it's definitely easier than the conventional way.

I hope it helps him.

 

Speaking from experience, if you're a compulsive eater the band will only do so much. If you don't change yourself and your relationship to food, it won't work long term.

NB: For the sake of full disclosure, I did not go the band route. I did WeightWatchers but the principle is the same.

 

Very good points...

I will be very happy if doing this is seen as a positive rather than a sign of weakness.

 

I spent a day hanging out with a doctor who does bariatric care (preps 'em for surgery but doesn't do the cutting), and he said the reasons for counseling are 1) what you mentioned, about changing diet and the relationship to food and 2) to cope with the rapid weight loss afterward. Yes, it's a good thing to lose weight, but he said it's difficult to conceive the depths of which relationships with yourself and others can change when you go from very large person to not-very-large person in a matter of months.

 

But it is a sign of weakness. I'm sure there are some rare cases where genetics and bad luck predetermine that someone is going to be 100 pounds overweight, but for the most part the factors are eating too much and not exercising, both of which boil down to a lack of willpower.

Lap band surgery is fairly ineffective long term because the people don't change their behaviors. It's a quick fox for a problem that doesn't have quick fixes.