BMI, or body mass index, is a calculation to assess your weight-height relationship and make a preliminary determination of underweight, normal weight, overweight, or obese. Enter your weight and height to calculate your BMI.
Body Mass Index Chart
BMI
Weight Status
Below 18.5
Underweight
18.5-25.0
Normal
25.0-30.0
Overweight
30.0-40.0
Obese
40 and Above
Morbidly Obese
Gateway to long-term weightloss... Gateway to a NEW YOU!
Is it possible for weight loss surgery to fail? Well, the answer is yes. Weight loss surgery is only a tool. It is not a miracle. For a person to be successful, they absolutely need to make lifestyle changes and it turns out there really are a lot of changes involving that, but I believe the two most important changes are having a healthy diet and exercise. And in fact, I believe any person that can make those changes of the healthy diet and exercise, those people are going to do absolutely wonderful after weight loss surgery. So, as you goes through this process, you really need to look at yourself and understand, are you going to be the type of person that is going to find the time to make these lifestyle changes because if you are not sure you are going to find that time to make changes, you probably would not benefit from a Lap-Band, and if you realize that you probably will not make any lifestyle changes at all, then again you may not even benefit from a gastric bypass.
How long does a process take? Well, that really depends on two main factors, the individual looking for weight loss surgery and the insurance company. The first important step is the educational seminar. Next step is getting all the appropriate medical and diet history forms to our office for our review. Third step is having the complete history and physical examination by me, and then lastly our office will do a predetermination letter that we will submit to your insurance company. Once we get an approval for surgery, typically we schedule your operation at that time and it is usually about two to four weeks after the approval from the insurance company. In our program, we simply do not have any waiting list. We are able to run things very efficiently.
I had the gastric bypass, the Roux-en-Y on April 19, 2000. My starting weight was 324 pounds. Today, I am at 214 pounds. I have lost 110 pounds. My starting BMI was 52 and my current BMI is 35. I chose to have the Roux-en-Y because I wanted this to be a permanent weight loss for me. I had a lot of foot, ankle, knee, hip and lower back pain. I was in very good health otherwise, but I was really hurting. I was not able to enjoy activities that I enjoy doing. I decided to have the weight loss surgery because I want to live till I am 100 and I want to play softball again and I want to be outside. I love to swim. I did not like how I felt in a bathing suit. Now I feel like, “It’s great, let’s go.” I chose Dr. Wagner because a friend of mine had the surgery. He is amazing. He is patient with me. He talks to me when I have questions. He was very thorough. He did an excellent job beforehand explaining this is what we are going to do and this is how we are going to do it. He also gave me a lot of knowledge into what I needed to change because for me this was a mental change. This is a lifelong permanent change and I needed to be mentally prepared and I have done that and I am very satisfied. I feel amazing. I felt wonderful.
I had gastric bypass surgery on March 31, 2005, 5 a.m. in the morning. My BMI was 66, 445 pounds. My BMI now is 28 at 189 pounds and the reason why I decided to have surgery was because life was very difficult. I was barely able to get around in life and everything, and I felt like life was fixed or directly go downhill and so I went to a couple of different seminars, ended up with Dr. Wagner’s seminar, really liked him. Decided that was where I wanted to go with. Did a whole lot of research on it. There was a lot of testing done and I have had a very good outcome. I am very happy with Dr. Wagner’s surgery and myself and had a brand new life to start with. Life is good.
I had the lap band surgery June of 2003, I was Dr. Wagner’s third patient here in St Louis. One of my tenants in the building had the gastric bypass surgery. He recommended me coming to Dr. Wagner’s seminar. I did, I fell in love with him, his staff, Sarah is just absolutely wonderful. When I got on the scale, I said something has got to be done. So, I scheduled it. I weighed more than any football player in St Louis. And now I am just thrilled with the results. I’ve lost over 130 pounds. My BMI was a 50 and now it’s a 30. Dr Wagner was just absolutely wonderful, his bedside manner was absolutely incredible. When you are that overweight you don’t have any confidence in yourself and he builds up your self-esteem. And I am very happy.
