A friend of mine recommended checking out the Obesity Help website (also known as OH.com) when I told her I was thinking of having weight loss surgery.  I checked it out a few times but didn’t join at the time.  A few months ago I decided to go ahead and join the site, make a profile, and become active on the boards.  Originally I was hoping to meet some more people local to me but I have talked to people all over the world!  OH.com is resource for weight loss surgery, including a BMI calculator, research, forums, insurance assistance, pictures, and stories.  This site explains the different procedures and real people share their own experiences and help support one another.  Looking through the before and after pictures is pretty amazing, too.  I can spend hours (I have spent hours!) look through the before and after pictures.  There is also lots of information and research as well.  You have a profile (kind of like Myspace) and you can post pictures, make blog posts, and add others as friends and keep up with them and their progress.  There is a health tracker for you profile that tracks your weight loss, too.  There are lots of interesting and helpful tools here at OH.com.

I do want to warn people that not all of the information people post on the forums is the best advice and you should always consult your doctor with your medical problems.  Lately there has been lots of message board posts about the diet requirements after having a duodenal switch hat were highly inaccurate.  From what I can gather their doctors did give them this information, but it is still not accurate.  If something sounds too good to be true, it is.  People who have a duodenal switch do not need to consume more grams of fat in a day (or as much fat as they want to) or not have to care what they eat, Big Mac’s are not a healthy food, and eating a half a pound of bacon and two fried eggs each morning is not considered a healthy breakfast.  So while OH.com can be a great source of support, be cautious of bad advice.