📖 8 minute read

I’ve lost count of the myths I heard before my surgery. Well-meaning friends calling it the “easy way out”. Headlines making it sound like a simple operation with a simple outcome. None of it was accurate, and some of it genuinely worried me. So let me go through the ones that come up most often, because sorting the truth from the noise matters, especially before you’ve even had that first consultation.

Myth 1: it’s just a quick fix

This is the big one. The one I heard most before my surgery, and the one that still frustrates me when it comes up now. Surgery gets painted as the lazy option, the shortcut, the thing people do when they can’t manage on their own. I understand why that myth exists. But it couldn’t be further from the truth.

What surgery actually does is give you a tool. A powerful one, yes. But a tool you still have to use every single day. It changes the size of your stomach, and in some operations your digestive system too. What it doesn’t change is your relationship with food, your habits, your cravings, or the world you go back home to after the operation. That part is all still yours to deal with.

And the work that comes after genuinely surprised me. Tracking everything you eat, taking vitamins every day without fail, relearning how to exercise with a different body, navigating social situations where food is front and centre. It touches every part of your life. Surgery is where the chapter starts. It’s not where the story ends.

Myth 2: you’ll never feel hungry again

I really wish this one were true. It would have made the early months a lot easier. But hunger doesn’t disappear after surgery. It changes, and that distinction matters.

Your stomach holds less, so you fill up faster. That part is real. But your brain still sends hunger signals. You still get cravings, especially for the things you used to eat regularly. Sweet things, high-fat things, comfort food. Your stomach might not be able to handle them the same way anymore, but your brain hasn’t got that memo. Not for a long time, anyway.

There were days in my first few months where I felt genuinely hungry an hour after eating. That was confusing and a bit demoralising, if I’m being honest with you. But it wasn’t a sign the surgery had failed. It was just my body trying to figure out its new normal. Hunger after surgery isn’t gone. It’s just wearing a different disguise, and learning to recognise it for what it is takes time.

Myth 3: the surgery does the nutritional work for you

This one’s dangerous, and I don’t say that lightly. There’s a version of this myth that goes: “my stomach is smaller now, so I’ll naturally eat less and lose weight regardless of what I eat.” It sounds logical on the surface. It really doesn’t hold up.

Your body is far more sensitive to what you put into it after surgery. Eat something too sugary and you might experience dumping syndrome. That’s your body going into a kind of protest, and it’s deeply unpleasant. I’ve been there. Your body makes it very clear that what you just ate was a mistake.

Beyond that, the nutritional demands after surgery are real and non-negotiable. High protein. Low sugar. Specific vitamins and supplements, every day. Not optional extras. Actual requirements for your long-term health. People who skip this part risk malnutrition, vitamin deficiencies, and weight regain. Surgery changes the size of your stomach, not the quality of your choices. That bit stays with you.

Myth 4: it’s only for people at the very top of the weight scale

Before my surgery, I heard this one from people who were surprised I was even considering the surgery. The assumption is that bariatric surgery is reserved for extreme cases only, the very highest weight categories, people who’ve exhausted every other option imaginable.

That’s not how it works, and I think a lot of people miss out on even exploring surgery because they assume they won’t qualify. Someone with a BMI of 35 and a condition like type 2 diabetes, sleep apnoea, or high blood pressure can often be eligible. Because the goal isn’t just weight loss. It’s health. Surgery has been shown to improve or even reverse some of those conditions significantly, and that changes the conversation about who it’s actually for.

If you’ve been struggling with your weight and it’s affecting your health and your life, have the conversation with a specialist rather than ruling yourself out before you’ve even started. Your GP can point you in the right direction.

Myth 5: once it’s done, you’re done

This might be the myth that does the most damage in the long run. The idea that surgery is a finish line. That once you’ve had the operation, you’ve solved the problem and can get on with your life unchanged.

My follow-up appointments didn’t stop. My vitamins didn’t stop. The tracking didn’t stop. My body kept changing, sometimes in ways I expected and sometimes in ways that genuinely threw me. Hair loss. Fatigue. Periods where my relationship with food got complicated in new ways I hadn’t anticipated. None of that is failure. It’s just what long-term life after surgery actually looks like.

Weight loss after surgery tends to be fastest in the first several months, then it slows. Plateaus happen. Life happens. If you’ve gone in thinking surgery was the end of it all, those moments can feel like the wheels are coming off when actually they’re just part of the road.

Surgery gives you a head start that most people going through this would never have had otherwise. But the starting gun going off isn’t the same as crossing the finish line. You still have to run the race.

I went into surgery carrying most of the myths on this list, and unpicking them was part of the work just as much as anything else I had to do afterwards.