Host Amber Smith: Here's some expert advice from Dr. Timothy Shope from Upstate Medical University. How much weight does someone lose after bariatric surgery? It's not immediate. But the majority of people will notice a substantial amount of weight coming off within that first month or so. When we talk about the weight loss for these operations it's generally a year to a year and a half is the timeframe that we talk about for maximum weight loss. But that is pretty well front-loaded, meaning that the first six or eight months is where are they going to experience the majority of that weight loss, and then the next eight months or so, a little bit here and there will come off. It really depends on the starting weight as far as how much weight they will lose in that first month. But I think on average, somewhere around 20 to 30 pounds in the first month is pretty typical. They don't wake up lighter from surgery. In fact, because of the fluid that we give during surgery and during the hospital stay, some patients will go home up a pound or two. That's not unusual, but realistically within that, those first couple of weeks they are really starting to drop that weight.
Host Amber Smith: You've been listening to chief of bariatric surgery, Dr. Timothy Shope from Upstate Medical University.