The sad truth about being a formerly obese person So I today I the great displeasure of going to the doctor, which of course means sitting around for 45+ minutes beyond your appointment time to even getting in the room. But, I digress...today's appointment was interesting to say the least. So while I was sitting there, a frail old man comes in with a walker and what is presumably his obese daughter. He has a severe difficulty moving and it takes him over a minute to walk across the room, which is probably not too surprising since I was at a checkup at the orthopedist. Regardless, he was a new patient and since it's a small office, I could overhear the staff asking about his history and what he wants from the doctor since the consultation room was right next to where I was sitting. The first major issue that he says he has is that he's on dialysis due to kidney failure, which makes him weak and unable to walk long distances...which certainly makes sense. He then goes on about the severe pain in his hips and knees due to the cartilage being completely gone, which considering his presumed age doesn't seem that out of the ordinary either. They then ask him if he's had any surgeries, and he then says that he's had two bariatric surgeries. One of which failed, and then the second which was successful. He then states that he was diabetic for more than 20 years and that most likely killed his kidneys. He then goes on about how he was over 500 pounds at one point which was outstanding, since he was deathly skinny and frail. I would have never suspected him to be super morbidly obese. Regardless, he continues on with his ailments and various health issues and how his main goal is to be able to walk unassisted again. That's when the obese middle-aged daughter chimes in - "Dad is only 65 and has the body of an 85 year old man".  That is what hit me, a man who looks to be at death's door is only several years older than my parents and the same age as my uncle. He looks to be no younger than 80 from his outward appearance, but he's barely even at retirement age. It really makes you think, even if you do lose the weight, you're still most likely going to end up with permanent damage. It's guaranteed that if you stay obese you'll die young, but even if you do lose the weight you may have ended up destroying your body while you were obese that your final years are pure agony.  It really makes you think, does bariatric surgery even "help" the super morbidly obese? Sure, you'll lose weight - but you're still going to be facing the consequences of being obese for so many years. Your knees will be shot, you'll have diabetes related complications, and you'll have an absurd amount of excess skin while only living a few extra years in pain. It makes me wonder if they would be happier if they just ate themselves to death and died at 40, it would certainly be less of a strain on the medical professionals at least.