Some patients benefit from revision surgery, depending on the kind of surgery originally done and the reasons for regaining weight. You should call the center where you had your surgery done in 2003 and arrange for a follow up with the dietician and physician. If you have moved away from the center where your surgery was done, contact your primary care provider for advice about how to follow up. (If you were a patient here, our number is 774-443-3886.) Best of luck.

I’m not sure I understand what you’re asking, but I’ll try to help: If you mean that you’re heaviest in your stomach or abdominal area and want to lose weight there, it’s all about diet and exercise. The UMass Memorial Weight Center dieticians will work with you to develop healthy eating habits that will help you lose weight, and our exercise physiologist will put together an exercise program that will have the greatest effect on your overall weight loss and on any particular problem areas. Come to our next free Orientation Meeting, being held this Friday, June 7 or Thursday, June 27, or meet us in Leominster June 18. Click here for details and to register.

If your question is in regard to loose, excess skin around your stomach: many people who lose significant weight quickly after bariatric surgery find they have lots of excess skin, and it can be uncomfortable. The Weight Center refers patients to the UMass Memorial Cosmetic Surgery Center for reconstructive surgery; our colleagues there have a lot of experience caring for patients we’ve helped!

Any kind of abdominal surgery or procedure will require at least a week of recovery, usually more, before a person can return to work. For the gastric band, we recommend at least two weeks, or more if the person’s job is at all physical. Your daughter should come to an Orientation Meeting to learn more about the effective non-surgical options we offer: our Behavioral Track, which focuses on intensive lifestyle changes, and our Custom Track for people medical issues or particular weight loss needs. Our team is very supportive and can help your daughter learn the lifelong skills she’ll need to lose weight and keep it off. Click here for the schedule of free Orientation Meetings. They’re held twice a month: at 6 pm the fourth Thursday and at noon the first Friday of the month.

You definitely should come to an Orientation Meeting again; it will be an hour well spent. Even though we’ve been helping people lose weight for ten years and we have a very comprehensive, successful program, there is always something new to tell people, from advances in surgery to updates and improvements in what we do for patients. In fact, we recently renovated our clinic to make it much comfortable for patients, with space for our group discussions and other parts of the programs.

If you’re now considering surgery, the Orientation Meeting will give you more information to help you decide. We host the meetings twice a month—at noon on the first Friday and at 6 pm on the fourth Thursday of every month. We’re also hosting an evening session at the Four Points by Sheraton in Leominster on June 18. Check the schedule here. We hope to see you again soon!

We follow the National Institutes of Health guidelines for weight loss surgery (gastric bypass, sleeve gastrectomy, lap band), which rely on a person's BMI, or body mass index. Click here for a BMI calculator. In general, patients with a BMI of 40 or higher are eligible for surgery. Patients can also be eligible for surgery if they have a BMI of 35 or higher AND they have major weight-related health problems, like type 2 diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and obstructive sleep apnea. Health insurance companies also vary in terms of what they cover for whom, so it’s important to check with your insurance company, as well.

I encourage you to attend our free upcoming Weight Center Orientation Meeting (May 3 and 23), where we explain our behavioral and surgical weight loss programs, to help you get a better idea of what might be best for you. Click here for the schedule.

Thanks for your question. The UMass Memorial Weight Center offers something for everyone, through our Surgical Track, Behavioral Track, and Custom Track. All three tracks include a full team of supportive medical professionals—-such as doctors, nurse practitioners, registered dieticians, exercise physiologists, psychologists focused on weight-loss issues, and surgeons as well—-who provide the expertise and guidance you’re looking for.

I would strongly encourage you to go to http://www.umassmemorial.org/weightcenter for more information and attend one of our free Orientation Meetings so you can learn about the different tracks we offer, insurance coverage, and how we can help you. Meetings are held the first Friday of the month at noon and the fourth Thursday at 6pm. (That’s May 3—tomorrow!—at noon or Thursday, May 23 at 6 pm.) Click here for more information and to register. We hope to see you soon.

Having a high BMI is reason enough to come see us, as is having difficulty losing significant weight. You don’t need to have any other major health issues—in fact, losing the weight now will help you prevent health issues that may develop as a result of the excess weight. We invite you to attend an upcoming Orientation Meeting, where we describe our program and our three--behavioral, surgical, and custom--for weight loss. The next session is Thursday, May 23 at 6 pm. Click here for more information about the program and the meetings. Meanwhile, take a look at Weight Center Advisor, our newsletter for patients. Our providers recently wrote an article that talks about frustrating weight-loss plateaus and what to do about them.

These are both very common questions, and we can answer them together. The best way to know if you're a candidate for weight loss surgery is to check your BMI--your body mass index. Click here for the National Institutes of Health BMI calculator. Surgery is generally considered an option for patients with a BMI over 40, which corresponds to being is about 100 pounds overweight. Surgery can also be an option for patients who have a BMI of 35 or higher AND who have certain medical problems like type 2 diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and obstructive sleep apnea.

Regardless of whether you're a candidate for surgery, we'd encourage you to come to an Orientation Meeting to learn about our programs. Our Behavioral Track is an intense, lifelong program that helps you change your eating and exercise habits to lose weight. Our Custom Track is also based on changing habits and is for patients who are not candidates for surgery because of certain restrictions, like physical limitations, or patients who have specific goals like losing a certain amount of weight before joint replacement surgery or before organ transplant. For all tracks, patients work with nutritionists, health psychologists, and exercise specialists who are supportive and encouraging and can give you the tools you need to lose the weight and improve your health. For all patients, the key to success is changing your eating and exercise habits.

Click here for the schedule of free Orientation Meetings—generally the first Friday at noon and the fourth Thursday at 6 pm. We hope to see you soon.

You should speak to your primary care doctor immediately about your blood pressure and also get screened for diabetes and other weight-related medical issues. After you connect with your doctor, I encourage you to attend our Orientation Meeting to learn more about our Surgical Track, Behavioral Track and Custom Track programs. We go over the programs in detail and would be happy to discuss whether weight loss surgery would be a good fit for someone in your situation. Again, contact your primary care doctor right away.

We discuss this very topic in our Orientation Meeting. Here’s what we tell people they might expect, in general, though of course each person is different:

• Gastric bypass: 1-3 days in the hospital, 4-6 weeks out of work
• Sleeve gastrectomy: 1-2 days in the hospital, 4-6 weeks out of work
• Gastric banding: Same day or overnight in the hospital, about 2 weeks out of work

Weight loss varies from person to person and depends on how well you stick to the new diet and exercise habits you learn before surgery.

• On average, gastric bypass patients lose 65-70% of their excess body weight within two years of surgery and have kept off about 55-60% of it at ten years.
• Gastric band patients lose 30-45% of excess body weight within two years of surgery
• Weight loss results with sleeve gastrectomy, which is newer, is expected to fall somewhere between that of the bypass and band.

Most people are likely to reach their lowest weight 1-2 years after surgery Some weight regain is common after reaching your lowest weight, but that’s really up to you: Avoiding weight regain depends on permanently changing your diet and exercise habits. We’d love to have you come to an Orientation Meeting to learn more about weight loss and surgery.

UMass Memorial offers three types of weight-loss surgery: gastric bypass, sleeve gastrectomy, and laparoscopic banding. More than 4,000 people have had weight loss surgery at UMass Memorial, and we were recently ranked #1 in the state for overall bariatric surgery by Healthgrades, a leading healthcare information organization. You can read a bit more about the types of surgery on our web site but I’d suggest you come to one of our free, informational Orientation Meetings so you can ask questions and get more detail about your specific situation. Sessions are the first Friday of the month or the fourth Thursday.

Weight loss varies from person to person and depends on how well you stick to the new diet and exercise habits you learn before surgery. The average weight loss varies for the types of surgery, as well:

• On average, gastric bypass patients lose 65-70% of their excess body weight within two years of surgery and have kept off about 55-60% of it at ten years.
• Gastric band patients lose 30-45% of excess body weight within two years of surgery
• Weight loss results with sleeve gastrectomy, which is newer, is expected to fall somewhere between that of the bypass and band.

Many people with type 2 diabetes see their diabetes resolve or significantly improve after surgery, and improvements in cholesterol, heart function, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, arthritis and urinary incontinence are also common after surgery. Again, this is something we discuss in our Orientation Meetings. We hope to see you at the next meeting!

We have two tremendously helpful nonsurgical weight loss programs: the

(Regarding loose skin: many patients who’ve gone through bariatric surgery and lose significant weight quickly find they have a lot of loose, excess skin. The Weight Center refers patients to the UMass Memorial Cosmetic Surgery Center for reconstructive surgery to remove excess skin.)

Lots of questions! People may have noticed that I often answer, “Come to our Orientation Meeting!” Well, there’s a reason for that: we give you A LOT of really important and helpful information at the meeting, and it gives you a chance to ask questions and think about why you want to lose weight and how we can help you do it. And, related to your last question, it also gives you a chance to meet some of our staff and see for yourself that they’re not judgmental. Whether you “eat all day long” or not, our goal is to help you understand why, give you what you need to make important changes that will help you lead a healthier life, and support throughout the process. We’ve helped thousands of people and we’re proud of our patients! We’re also proud to have been ranked #1 in Massachusetts in overall bariatric surgery by Healthgrades!

For your first question: Technically speaking, there really is no absolute upper weight limit for surgery. Each patient is different; some may be heavier but healthier, and some may have less to lose but suffer more medical complications that make surgery riskier. Higher body mass index (BMI) does increase risks for any type of surgery, and we encourage all patients to lose weight before surgery to help lower their risks and shorten their recovery time. Also, losing weight before surgery shows you’re on the right track. Surgery is not a magic bullet; it helps turbo-charge the eating and exercising habits we’ll help you adopt.

Regarding location: All the evaluations, preparation work, the surgery itself, and follow up are done in Worcester at the UMass Memorial Weight Center. You would need reliable transportation, but call us. We might be able to help you identify some resources in your community that might help, but unfortunately, you’ll have to work out reliable transportation. If it helps, we’re hosting an Orientation Session June 18 in Leominster.