Abstract
This article critically explores the tension between perceptions of weight loss surgery as a last resort and as a tool. This tension stems from patients’ doubt and insecurity whether expectations for a healthy life will come through. Thus, even after surgery, traditional weight loss methods, including diets and exercise, are considered paramount. Drawing on a series of interviews with Norwegian women, we argue that the commercialization of weight loss surgeries as well as the moral stigmas attached to such operations serve to perpetuate this tension. More specifically, the women were advised to leave their old habits behind, and embrace a healthier and more active lifestyle. In such a climate, we argue that undergoing surgery without subsequently embodying dietary and exercise norms is hardly an option. On the contrary, these become a moral obligation that modern women need to relate to—and perhaps negotiate—in order to repudiate stigmas attached to weight loss surgeries as a quick fix for those incapable of losing weight in the “proper” manner.
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Notes
Due to ethical concerns, we have used fictitious names for all the women throughout this article. The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Medicine in Norway (REF 6.2009.88).
A recent study published in British Journal of Nutrition concludes that morbidly obese patients undergoing surgery tend to eat more “unhealthy” food than morbidly obese patients participating in traditional lifestyle interventions. Although both groups were encouraged to eat more healthy food and given dietary advice to change their eating habits, their dietary modifications were significantly different. Surgery patients reported eating less vegetables and fruit than previously, whereas participants in the conservative group increased their intake of vegetables and fruit. In addition, surgery patients ate more fatty food and sweets than the conservative group (Johnson et al. 2012). It should be noted, however, that these results are based on short term outcomes, specifically a one-year follow-up. Unfortunately, little is known regarding long-term dietary changes following weight loss surgery.
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Groven, K.S., Råheim, M., Braithwaite, J. et al. Weight loss surgery as a tool for changing lifestyle?. Med Health Care and Philos 16, 699–708 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-013-9471-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-013-9471-7