What’s the difference between a gastric bypass, band and sleeve, and which celebrities have had weight loss surgery?
WEIGHT loss surgery is used to treat people who are dangerously obese.
In Britain, the procedure is sometimes available on the NHS - an investment doctors make because obesity costs our health service £4.2 BILLION every year. But what are the gastric surgeries available, and how do they work?
How does weight loss surgery work?
When coupled with exercise and a healthy diet, weight loss surgery has been found to be effective in dramatically reducing a patient's excess body fat.
Recent research in the United States found that people with gastric bands lose around half of their excess body weight.
Meanwhile gastric bypasses reduce this excess body weight by two thirds post-op.
However, it's not always successful - and patients still need to take responsibility for eating well and working out.
Who qualifies for NHS weight loss surgery?
To qualify for a state-funded procedure, you have to be classed as 'dangerously obese'.
This could be a person who has a BMI of 40 or above, or a BMI of 35 coupled with other serious health conditions such a type 2 diabetes or high blood pressure.
In private procedures, gastric bands cost between £5,000 and £8,000 - while gastric bypass surgery costs £9,500-£15,000.
What is the difference between a gastric band, bypass and sleeve?
The three most widely used types of weight loss surgery are:
- Gastric band: where a band is used to reduce the stomach's size, meaning you will feel full after eating a reduced amount of food
- Gastric bypass: where your digestive system is re-routed past stomach, so you digest less food and it takes less to make you feel full
- Sleeve gastrectomy: where some of the stomach is removed, to reduce the amount of food required to make you feel full
Mama June, of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo fame, has undergone weight loss surgery.
Alana Thompson's mum has slimmed down to a size 8, a shadow of her former 33 stone frame, thanks to a gastric sleeve.
The 11 stone transformation was so dramatic that Mama June had to have a special fat freezing procedure, to get rid of her wobbly "turkey neck".
X Factor judge Sharon Osbourne had a gastric band fitted in 1999, while Fern Britton had one in 2006, and Vanessa Feltz in 2010.
Vanessa has seen her weigh tyo-yo over the years, saying she initially put weight on when she had her children.
She shed six stone after her relationship broke down, and her weight fluctuated over the coming years.
Fern and Vanessa have become reluctant poster girls for the procedures.
Fern lost five stone, taking her from as size 16 to a size 12, after her surgery.
But Vanessa was less successful. She originally shed four stone, but has seen her weight fluctuate in recent years.
While Shameless actress Tina Malone lost 12 stone after having a gastric band fitted in 2010.
Her weight plumeted from 19st to 7st 8lbs, and 5ft 1 Tina had to have eight operations to remove excess skin.
And Loose Woman's Anne Diamond had the same op in 2005, after her weight spiralled to 15 stone.
However, the surgery was ineffective and a surgeon later discovered that Anne's band had been fitted in the wrong place and she felt no restriction. He carried out revision surgery.