When someone decides that it’s time to start losing weight, what do they do first?  Some with the diet mentality might have a “last hurrah” where they eat a bunch of the junk food they love, thinking that they’ll never get to have those goodies again.  Then they buckle down.  Of course the best route is to develop a lifestyle mentality, knowing that there will always been room for those treats in your diet- in moderation, of course.

For many people, the wake-up call is stepping on the scale and seeing a number that they can no longer tolerate.  In that case, they start down the path of a healthier lifestyle with better food choices and regular exercise, hoping to make that number get smaller.  But would you ever gain weight first in order to lose it?  Sounds strange, but some people are willing to do it in order to qualify for weight loss surgery through their insurance company.  

Many insurance companies have strict policies and will not cover patients for weight loss surgery unless their BMI is between 35 and 40.  Patients tell stories of being turned down for surgery because they had less than 100 pounds to lose.  After gaining more, then they were able to qualify.  There are even websites where people share information about the fastest ways to gain weight- specifically for this purpose.

Doctors discourage these practices for a number of reasons:  it’s not healthy and some insurance companies consider it to be a form of fraud.  They suggest finding other ways to pay for the surgery if a patient doesn’t qualify through insurance.  “The dilemma has been exacerbated by the recent FDA decision, which approved the use of Lap-Band in patients with BMIs as low as 30 with at least one weight-related disease, such as high blood pressure or diabetes. The agency left the BMI level at 40 for heavy but otherwise healthy people.  The move opened the door to an additional 27 million people eligible to access surgery and prompted experts to predict a sudden rush toward lower BMI procedures.”  So far, that increase hasn’t happened.  According to statistics, less than 1% of people who qualify for bariatric surgery actually get it.

Personally, I will always be an advocate for a healthy diet and regular exercise.  I’ve never been in the shoes of someone who has a very large amount of weight to lose, so I will never judge those who choose to have weight loss surgery.  But I think developing a healthy lifestyle mentality is the key to success no matter how you lose the weight, and I have a hard time seeing that mentality in someone who’s willing to gain weight first in order to qualify to lose it.  To me, it just seems like there has to be a better way.

What do you think?