Surgery Info Net

I’ve been seeing this ad for Full bar, which is a bariatric surgery alternative. Bariatric surgery is the technical name for weight loss surgery. Sometimes it’s also referred to as gastric bypass surgery. Regardless of the name, it’s the one where they surgically reduce the size of your stomach. Bariatric surgery has been shown to have a good success rate, and I’m not opposed to it in severe cases, where the individual is so grossly obese that it has become a serious health issue.

However, I really think that the weight loss surgery path of losing weight has become far too fashionable, with people undergoing surgery for no reason, other than their desire to lose weight fast, and have a shortcut. Weight loss really comes down to one factor, and that is how many calories in versus how many you burn. Yes, different foods and food types do metabolize differently, but essentially, even without changing your diet nutritionally, you can lose weight through trimming down portions, and adding a little activity to your daily routine.

In the quest for shortcuts, people do a lot of stupid things, and I think going under the knife to lose weight is the sort of thing that should be reserved as a last resort. I’m not at all in favor of the pop culture trendiness of bariatric surgery. Like I said, if you’re in a situation where your health is in serious risk by not losing weigh and getting it lost today, then that is where gastric bypass surgery is something that you should consider.

I remember a friend of mine telling me, there is no such thing as a minor surgery. What he was saying was that no matter how fast the surgery is usually performed, and whether or not it is an outpatient treatment, no matter what the standard recovery time is, surgery is always serious. This has always stuck with me, especially considering the fact that the vast majority of deaths or other complications on the surgery table occur, not as a result of the surgical procedure itself, but as a result of the anesthesia inducing complications. That was really the biggest concern I had when I had my umbilical hernia repair surgery. I was terrified to go under. I trusted Dr. Trajtenberg to know what he was doing, but I was scared of the anesthesia wild card.

That is why when I see something like Full Bar being promoted by a guy who does bariatric surgery for a living, it makes me stop. Here’s a guy that immediately makes me think, “wait a minute. If people use this then they will be less inclined to take a surgical route.” In other words, whether it is a marketing mind trick or not, it makes me have an immediate level of trust for what he has to say, because it appeals to my bias that surgery is serious, and not the sort of thing to undertake because it’s fashionable, trendy, or easy.

So, what is the deal with Full Bar?

Full bar was created by Dr. Michael A. Snyder, MD, FACS. His website is a little odd, so I didn’t realize at first that you can find the nutritional information by selecting the link for available flavors of the bar. But, with a little clicking around, I was able to find that there are currently about 6 varieties.

• Cranberry almond
• Cocoa chip
• Caramel apple crisp
• Peanut butter crunch
• Fresh berry bliss
• Zesty lemon lime

Most of the bars come in at about 160 calories per bar. Fresh berry bliss, and zesty lemon lime come in a little lower at 150 calories each, and the peanut butter crunch is a little higher with 180 calories. But they all pretty much fit the same range in terms of caloric intake. It’s a reasonable calorie count for a bar. Some cereal bars weigh in with considerably more calories per serving.

Out of curiosity, I decided to look at the nutritional information of my wife’s Kashi™ TLC™ all natural fruit and grain bars. The one I looked at was the Dark Chocolate Coconut flavor. They have a serving size of 1.1 oz. (32g) and contain 120 calories each. 30 calories from fat, for 3.5g of fat. 21g total carbohydrates, and 4g fiber. They have 50mg sodium, and 4g of protein.

By contrast, the Fullbar Cocoa Chip flavor has a serving size of 45g (about 40% larger). It has 170 calories, 25 from fat for 3g of fat. Fullbar has 31g total carbohydrate, with 4g fiber. They have 105mg sodium, and 5g protein.

So, comparing Kashi to Fullbar, you can see that they are about the same nutritionally, especially if you were to account for the 40% larger portion of the Fullbar. The ingredients of the two are somewhat similar as well. Being a mostly grain based bar.

The main issue that I have with Full Bar is the instructions:

Simply eat FullBar with an 8-ounce glass of water 30 minutes before your 2 biggest meals of the day. For added fullness and flavor, drink Aquafull with your FullBar. By meal time, you’ll eat less and your hunger will be completely satisfied.

The fact is that if you were to develop the habit of eating 45g (the Fullbar serving size) of any reasonably healthy food with 8 ounces of water half an hour before your 2 biggest meals of the day, you would be inclined to eat less during those meals, and in a quantity significant enough that the combination of the premeal snack combined with the meal should ultimately lower your daily calorie count.

This is a minor quibble, but it’s important, to me, to point out that the main benefit of following the fullbar regimen as an alternative to weight loss surgery is that it creates an eating habit change. It causes you to eat 5 times a day, as opposed to 3, and in smaller quantities. It is no secret that this is one of the main dietary recommendations for healthy weight loss programs is to eat more often, and in smaller portions.

There is no magic formula to full bar. It’s simply a moderately healthy snack that you eat before your meal to reduce the available room in your stomach for your meal. That is the similarity to gastric bypass surgery. While bariatric surgery reduces the size of your stomach, Fullbar and a glass of water fills up your stomach. Both reduce the volume available in your stomach for meals, but full bar does it non-surgically.

In all, I have a fairly positive opinion of FullBar. It seems to be a fairly healthy snack. It also seems like it would be a tasty snack, that I would enjoy whether trying to lose weight or not. I would eat them just to have a good, healthy snack that is enjoyable to eat. It’s also a much preferred alternative to butchering your insides to force a change in eating habits. Full bar works because, if you follow the regimen, you are making precisely the dietary habit changes that lead to weight loss. I’d buy them.