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

I think there's a lot of confusion of "quick" and "easy" on this thread. Lap band surgery is not easy.

 

The Obama Hug disqualifies him on basis of poor judgment.

 

Yeah, that shit don't wipe off, or so I hear.

 

Didn't Charlie Weis have lap band done at one point?

 

He had gastric bypass, and nearly died from it. But he lost a malpractice suit over it.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/city_region/breaking_news/2007/07/charlie_weis_lo.html

The doctors said the problem was that Weis was rushing through everything.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2943852

 

I once had a doctor tell me that, if I burned more calories than I ate, I would lose weight.

Surprisingly, it actually worked.

If Christie loses weight and looks healthier, I think this helps him.

Now that it's out in the open, if he doesn't lose weight, it could hurt his chances a little.

 

I don't care about the political calculus. I hope this helps him enjoy a better quality of life.

 

I have a friend who had the bypass (in which they remove a portion of your stomach). She was terribly obese and has lost something like 200 lbs. So, in a very narrow sense, her surgery was a success. HOWEVER ...

While she was a heavy drinker before her surgery, she has begun to spiral into full-blown alcoholism. Her story is, sadly, not all that uncommon; research of late suggests that undergoing bariatric surgery substantially heightens one's risk of developing substance abuse issues. Some think there is a metabolic component to it, others think it's just addiction-swapping. But my n=1 experience suggests strongly that the dynamic is real.

 

If it works, no one will care that he took not the easy way out, but the easier way out.

If you need to lose weight, anything that can help you do it safely is probably better in the long run than staying obese, which most such people will do if/when left solely to their own devices.

That said, I would not recommend the lap-band surgery. There are too many things that can go wrong, with the the insertion of the necessary device and the usually-necessary regular adjustments to it. There is also a greater chance of infection with it than with the RNY gastric-bypass, or its currently popular and also often very successful but more complicated, more expensive and less-often performed alternative, the deodenal switch.

With the latter two more invasive surguries now done almost entirely lapriscopicallly, those procedures are much less invasive than they used to be, and if Christie is going to go in for bariatric surgery, I would recommend one of those more than the lap-band, with which there is often much more, and much more easily, regained weight besides the slower weight loss and greater possibilities of problems with the foreign body that will then be lodged in his insides.

The lap band is less permenant, I guess, because the band can be taken out if there are problems or if it just doesn't work. But it isn't supposed to be, is it? And if it is removed, then the patient is right right back where they began, or else soon will be.

I underwent the RNY gastric bypass in 2008 and think I'd qualify as a wild success story. I lost 146 pounds and have kept it off since, within about a 6- to 8-pound range. I worked hard at it in the first two-plus years after surgery, becoming a regular gym rat, until now, I and my body have become so accustomed to what I should eat and what works for me, exercise and habit-wise, that I stay where I'm at without working too hard anymore.

Basically, I'm trained now, and I'm fine with it. I'm also much more aware of my body, how it works and what to do to do things right, and when I'm doing things wrong. If you follow the program faithfully post-surgery, and maintain some sort of regular (but it doesn't have to be grueling) exercise regimen afterward, this all just kind of...happens. To your amazement, you'll find that normal eating becomes...your new normal, and that it really is normal for you, and that you're fine with that.

Having weight-loss surgery has so far turned out to be one of the biggest and best decisions I've ever made.

It wasn't easy -- far from it, and getting on the path took four years in itself just because of a colossal insurance fight to get that I finally resolved by hiring a lawyer (It was amazing how quickly the insurance company changed its tune after that).

The actual surgery and pre- and post-surgical process, and their result, was easier to achieve, though, than it would have been without it.

And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. You just have to do it right in terms of realistic expectations and commitment. Nowadays, you could look at me and you'd never know I ever even had a weight-loss procedure, and if I told you, you'd look at me and wonder where I ever kept another 146 pounds on my frame. (I've actually had this happen).

But, the sad and formerly familiar reality is that, left to themselves, many, if not most, morbidly obese people would, really and truly, waste their whole lives away repeatedly trying to lose and regaining weight...and it would still probably never happen on any kind of long-term or permanent basis. Or, they would just give up the effort entirely.

I decided not to keep going that route, and I'm glad I did.

 

I've lost 34 1/2 pounds since Feb. 24 without lap band surgery.
I found a phone app - my plan is two pounds every week. It counts my calories and reduces my count as I've lost weight. My first goal is to get under 300 for the first time in five years. Seven pounds to go. My only exercise is golf - walking 18 burns over 2k calories - and walking the zoo with my daughter.
Christie could do the same thing, but my guess is - based on my experience - is he eats incredibly unhealthy foods and has ridiculous portion sizes. He's taking the lazy way out, but if it makes him healthier it shouldn't matter.

 

I can't see how it will hurt him, unless there are some medical complications.

But no way the Nazis in the Republican Party nominate him. He'd have to switch parties to win a nomination.

 

There is some danger of the substitution of one bad thing for another. It sounds, though, as if your friend had a bit of a drinking issue before surgery and that that should have been dealt with first.

Because I was told/warned, in no uncertain terms, that I shouldn't drink or smoke post-surgery. That was never a problem for me because because I never developed a taste for alcohol and rarely imbibed, anyway.

And now, I never do, and I never smoked, either. There's something about the surgery that can impact the body's ability to handle alcohol or smoking in the wake of surgery and it is generallly highly recommended that a patient not indulge in either habit.

The thing I did indulge in -- it actually was almost funny and amazing at the same time, and I was very aware of it and often smiled and laughed to myself as it was happening -- was shopping.

When it came to clothes, I suddenly and unexpectedly developed a latent sense of style and a fascination with experimenting and finding out what mine was, now that I finally had an ability to do it easily and enjoyably. I suddenly became a collector of belts -- belts, of all things, but perhaps for obvious reasons -- and spent many hours in dressing rooms trying on different things and realizing the joys of shopping.

That went on for a little while, and, sure, I wasted some money on some things I probably didn't really need, but I wasn't that bad, I had fun, and the fetish has faded and I got back on course, spending- and budget-wise, after about a year following my post-surgery clothes-buying binges.

But it's still nice to know that, now, I can even go one, and find things easily, if and when I want to do so. It's amazing the little things you come to notice and appreciate after losing a lot of weight.