Are you a Candidate for Surgery?
You are a candidate for weight loss surgery if you fulfill the following criteria based on medical indications:
- Your Body Mass Index is equal to or greater than 40 kg/m2 (calculate your Body Mass Index)
– or –
- > 32 kg/m2 with associated obesity related medical conditions such as:
- Type 2 diabetes
- High blood pressure
- Sleep apnoea +/- CPAP machine
- Joint pain (ankles, knees, hips, lower back)
- High cholesterol and other lipids
- Depression
- You have failed to permanently reduce your weight using nonsurgical methods
- You have an absence of endocrine disorders that can cause morbid obesity
- You are psychologically stable which means
- you do not abuse alcohol and drugs
- you understand how surgery causes weight loss
- you realize that surgery itself does not guarantee results
In addition, you should honestly and truthfully, be able to answer “Yes” to the following questions:
- Are you convinced that your excess weight is a danger to your health or do you just hate the way you look?
- Is your weight interfering with your everyday life, i.e. your ability to look after your family or enjoy your life?
- Have you really tried to lose weight by modifying your lifestyle, such as dieting and increased physical activity?
- If you were successful in losing weight, have you gained it all back?
- Do you feel that you will never succeed in achieving permanent weight loss without weight loss surgery?
- Are you willing to undergo a psychological assessment if your surgeon determines that this is necessary?
- Are you prepared to modify your eating habits required by weight loss surgeries which reduce the amount of food that you will be able to eat after the surgery?
- Are you prepared to face the altered body image induced by massive weight loss?