Surgery for a condition you can correct yourself is not a prudent decision.
The problem is that some people just can't do it themselves.
I firmly believe that asking some compulsive eaters to eat less is like asking some homosexuals to have straight sex. It is something they can't control, at least indefinitely.
Agree with both the above posts 100%. That is why it is an individual decision.
Huge congratulations, not an easy thing to do. Moreover, not everyone can do it. A good example, put me in a room with lots of yummy homemade food and I loose the rigid self control that otherwise dominates my existence. Thankfully I am rarely in a room with lots of homemade yummy food, so I'm OK.
I have the same problem but I also have mad skillz creating homemade yummy food. When I get on a roll, there's no stopping me. I have been known to bake a sour cherry pie every day for an entire summer, in the act of perfecting the sour cherry pie recipe. BTW I did perfect it and now make the best sour cherry pie in the world. No brag just fact.
My problem is carb addiction, and when I say the word "addiction" I mean it in every way. I behave toward carbs the way heroin addicts behave toward heroin. Escalate use, overdose, cravings, withdrawal symptoms, spending way too much money on them (fancy cookies from NYC), hiding my eating from others, hiding the amount of money I spend on treats, continuing the behavior despite negative consequences, developing an elaborate ritual revolving around eating my sweets.
I have been known to buy sweets from the bakery section, go to an empty parking lot, eat them, discard the packaging and the receipt (evidence) in the trash, and then drive home where I pretend that the healthy dinner is the only thing I've had since lunch.
The only reason I'm not fatter than I am (a mere 30 lbs overweight) is excellent genes from my parents, there is zero obesity in my family, I'm the most overweight one of them all. I have avoided diabetes by the skin of my teeth, and I have a very good cholesterol profile.
Probably also, I don't drink the liquid carbs, no soda or juice, and I pretty much refuse to eat low quality sweets or unhealthy sweets (hence the expense) unless I get on a really bad binge. Ideally, my treats are gluten free, free of trans fats or HSCS. John Kelly for example. My pie recipe uses fresh leaf lard, not Crisco.
The only thing that stops me from binging on carbs is testing my blood sugar. So far I have managed to stay in the PRE-diabetic range. If I test and find a certain snack has my BS higher than 140 at one hour, it acts like a wakeup call and I never eat that thing in that amount again. The only flaw in this is that I have the ability to put myself in denial and not test my blood sugar.
I have been able to lose weight both being vegetarian/low fat, and being Atkins/low carb. I prefer low carb because on the former I was always hungry and all those veggies gives me painful gas. Atkins/low carb/keto/paleo is the way to go for me. But like heroin addiction, I do well and then "relapse". I tend to relapse in times of high stress. It is a lifelong condition and I will always be "in recovery".
There is a reason heroin addicts are told to dump their addict friends and even move away if necessary to avoid the locations and people and triggers for their addiction. The trouble with food addictions is you cannot do that, the best you can do is keep it out of your own house.
If I were 100 or 200 pounds overweight there would be a strong argument for me to have bariatric surgery because of my relationship with carbs. But at my level and because I have found the tool that does work for me, surgery is not right for me. The solution for me is to work with a professional to hold me accountable (a nutritionist) and to require myself to consistently test blood sugar every day.
