Semaglutdie vs Gastric Bypass

Semaglutide vs Gastric Bypass. Let’s do a comparison. In this blog post we are going to discuss the differences between Semaglutide and Gastric Bypass. We’re going to look at the effectiveness of each, recovery time of each, and the cost of each.

First what’s Semaglutide? You may have heard Tirzepatide Semaglutide GLP-1. Well both of those are GLP-1. What is that? That is a peptide. Peptides make your body do what it forgot to do. So it’s more of a natural kind of way to get your body to go back to doing the things that it should. So Semaglutide is a weekly injection. It’s in the fat, and you want to try to stay right about that same day of the week. It’s going to help control your hunger, your thought processes. Get rid of that food noise. It’s going to stop the cravings, slow down your digestion, which is going to shrink your stomach in the long run. Going to help with insulin resistance. But peptides are actually really good for our bodies. They are. Specifically, the GLP-1 is really good at helping with cardio effectiveness, so making your heart do its job better. It’s actually just been shown that it’s good for your kidneys, so it is going to give your body this overall benefit.

The Gastric Bypass on the other hand, that is an actual surgery. There are three different types. One is going to affect your absorption. The other one is going to be more restrictive. And then the third one is also restrictive and malabsorption. Malabsorption! That’s pretty interesting if you think about it. So what are they doing. They’re actually going to go in and either cut you open or do a laparoscopic. When I was in nursing school, I actually was able to scrub in and it was intense. This lady was 500 pounds. They cut her from chest to pelvic bone and just literally opened her up. And they went in and stapled the stomach and actually decreased the size of the stomach. I mean, to be honest with you, when they decrease the size of your stomach, they’re taking out important parts that you need in order to absorb the food that you’re taking in. But the goal with Gastric Bypass is to decrease the amount of food that you can eat. Now, the very interesting piece of it is about 70% of people actually fail Gastric Bypass. What does that mean? That means they tend to eat through it. So they’re going to start eating as much as they want. Or you know, they still think about food. They’re obsessed with the food. They still want to go out with their friends and eat and drink what they normally did. At first they’re going to throw up because they ate too much, but then they’re going to expand that stomach, make it a little bit bigger. So they’re going to be able to go back to the way that they were. But the thing is, they’re still going to have that malabsorption. So that’s really where they have to kind of, you know, with the Gastric Bypass, you’re not changing that mentality. That’s why if you go see watch 600 pound life with their doctor, now he is putting them through counseling. He’s encouraging them to try and lose that weight beforehand. And it’s a challenge. It’s difficult. It’s hard. But it’s really important to change that mindset. And that’s where it’s hard to do.

And sometimes I would think a lot of clinics probably aren’t worrying about the mindset of the Gastric Bypass, or that why are they big in the first place? So it’s really important to think about all of the issues and risks with the surgery. I mean, you can have blood clots. There are people that pass away and die from Gastric Bypass. There’s a huge risk of, you know, malabsorption. They, you know, can have a lot of skin. So they might have to have that skin surgery after that, you know, you’re going to lose all that weight and that skin’s not going to go away. So there’s lots of alternative, you know, things or additional things that you’re going to have to do when you get that Gastric Bypass.

Let’s discuss the effectiveness of Semaglutide vs Gastric Bypass. So actually I’ve done a little bit of research on this because I have probably around 10-15 people that have had the Gastric Bypass and then they’ve failed it. And then they come and start Semaglutide. So the effectiveness of Semaglutide and you have to look different for men and women, because women are going to lose weight differently than men. And there’s a healthy weight loss. That is what you really need to worry about and be concerned about is what’s healthy. We don’t want you dropping significant tons of weight in the beginning. We want you to be able to sustain it for the rest of your life. So when you look at it, a woman should lose about maybe 1 to 2, maybe 3 pounds a week. Men could be probably like 2 to 4, possibly five. And that’s the same with Gastric Bypass. You can lose that amount of weight. So if you think about it, Semaglutide and Gastric Bypass, you’re going to lose about the same amount of weight but one is invasive, very invasive and that’s Gastric Bypass. Semaglutide is not invasive and it’s actually healthy for you. So that’s the difference in the effectiveness of Semaglutide vs Gastric Bypass.

So let’s talk about recovery. The difference between Semaglutide vs Gastric Bypass. Semaglutide, you may have some constipation. You may have some nausea. But typically it’s not going to knock you down. You’re still going to be able to go about your day, do whatever you need to do. Plus, there’s pretty quick remedies for that. You know, you can take Zofran for that nausea, or you can take some other things to get your bowels moving and working. And as long as you have a good practitioner that’s really monitoring and teaching you, then you really don’t have any downtime with Semaglutide. Now Gastric Bypass, it is a massive major invasive surgery. They are slicing you up in and open. They might do a laparoscopic. So there’s you know, you’re going to not feel good for probably a week or two, but you probably aren’t going to get back to work for 4 to 6 weeks. Now, that’s got to be a little bit of, you know, that’s kind of cutting you down there a little bit and you’re not doing as much as you can where Semaglutide, you don’t really have any problems. You can get back in there and do what you need to do. Gastric bypass. That’s a big surgery. You really need to be careful and consider what the options are out there.

Let’s discuss the cost of Semaglutide vs Gastric Bypass. So if you think about it Semaglutide at my clinic is $350. That’s about the average of where you can get it from. If you pay $350 a month for 12 months, that’s $4,200 for the year. You could, on an average lose about 10 pounds a month, which is going to give you 120 pounds in that year. So now let’s talk about Gastric Bypass. That is $25,000 on average. Now we’re talking about out of pocket. In order to get your insurance to pay for it, you have to have the BMI greater than 35%. And you have to have an obesity related diagnoses, which could be diabetes, cardiac issues, maybe congestive heart failure, things like that. I would say maybe 5% of people in my clinic actually meet those standards. So it’s, you know, is it really the best thing? I mean, that’s a lot of money. But if you think about it with with Semaglutide, you’re going to cut down your food bill probably by half. So that’s going to save you a lot of money in the long run. So make sure you’re kind of weighing both options and looking at it. I don’t have $25,000 to do Gastric Bypass. Some people do. So it’s your option, but you might be able to get the same benefit from a weekly shot.

Now, we have discussed the effectiveness, recovery time and cost of Semaglutide vs Gastric Bypass. Now you can make a better informed decision as to what’s good for you.