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When Losing Means Winning: Bariatric Surgery Helps a Former Athlete Shed Pounds

Former football player and weightlifter Bryon Walker was used to winning at sports. When he retired, he set a new goal of losing weight. Before undergoing bariatric — or weight-loss — surgery, he weighed 367 pounds. Four months afterward, he weighed 292 pounds. He expects to stabilize around 250.

“I’ll never be thin — I’m not a thin guy,” said Walker, 39. “But now I can play with my sons. My cholesterol and blood pressure have dropped. I’m off my blood sugar medication, too.”

A Return to Health

When Walker entered his 30s and started spending fewer hours on the playing field, his weight rose steadily. So did his blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol. As his health worsened, his energy levels tanked. “I just couldn’t do what I needed to do — get moving and eat better,” he said.

With the experienced counsel of Joel Sebastien, MD, a bariatric surgeon at East Coast Bariatrics at Halifax Health, Walker chose a procedure called a gastric sleeve. Dr. Sebastien removed roughly 80 percent of Walker’s stomach.

“One of the gastric sleeve’s benefits is that it doesn’t cause malabsorption issues,” Dr. Sebastien said. Malabsorption is the inability to absorb nutrients from food. After Walker’s surgery, he could eat normally, just in smaller quantities than before. “At East Coast Bariatrics, we help patients choose the procedure that is right for them,” Dr. Sebastien added.

The Tools to Succeed

Most people who are candidates for bariatric surgery are at least 100 pounds overweight. Many patients also have diabetes or high blood pressure. For the surgery to be successful, patients must make lifestyle changes. At East Coast Bariatrics at Halifax Health, they are assisted by a dietitian, exercise physiologist and psychologist.

Since his surgery, Walker has adopted a healthy diet and exercise regimen. “I spend an hour in the gym every day — even if it’s 10:00 pm,” he said. “I would never have had the energy to do this before.”

East Coast Bariatrics at Halifax Health earns a gold medal from him, too. “Their service was spot-on,” Walker said. “No one in the world would be making a wrong decision to go with them.”