Alison Hammond has admitted that she went through “absolute torture” after having a gastric band fitted.
The This Morning presenter said she decided to have bariatric surgery after a “horrible shameful moment” which saw her chair break while she was interviewing Hollywood heart-throb Matt Damon.
Alison said that, although Matt was lovely, she decided she “didn’t want to be fat any more”.
The TV favourite made the revelations in her new book, You’ve Got To Laugh, which has been serialised in The Sun.
What did Alison Hammond say about her gastric band?
Alison revealed that the band created a pouch at the top of her stomach that filled “so quickly I couldn’t eat much”.
However, she said mentally she wasn’t really for the “drastic change” to her eating habits.
She described the experience as “hell” and said it was “absolute torture”.
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But it appears that was nothing compared with what was to come.
Alison said she was “sick a lot” and it felt as if her body was rejecting the gastric band.
She said she kept it in for two years, before deciding she couldn’t take it any more.
She writes: “I’m striving to have a slimmer body and I’m not happy. I’m vomiting all the time. It’s awful.”
Alison went to see her surgeon who suggested taking a look at what was happening, but she said her mind was made up and she asked him to take it out.
She explained: “Normally it takes 15 minutes to remove a gastric band, but it took my surgeon an hour and a half because scar tissue had grown around mine so thickly that it was squeezing my stomach shut to the point where I couldn’t eat anything, which was why I was always being sick.”
Alison also revealed that in the two years she had her gastric band, she didn’t lose more than a stone.
What happens when a gastric band is fitted?
There are three types of bariatric surgery that can be performed to aid weight loss.
Doctors can fit a gastric band or gastric sleeve or carry out gastric bypass.
A gastric band is a type of restrictive weight loss surgery.
The surgeon uses an inflatable band to squeeze the stomach into two sections.
Read more: Alison Hammond hits back at ‘angry’ people who want her to ‘hide under a rock’ because she’s fat
Patients are left with a small upper pouch and a larger lower section.
They’re connected by a very small channel, which slows down the emptying of the upper pouch.
Most people can only eat half a cup of food before feeling too full or sick – and food needs to be soft of well-chewed.
A gastric sleeve is another form of restrictive weight loss surgery.
In the operation, the surgeon removes around 75% of the stomach.
This narrow sleeve connects to the intestines.
A gastric bypass, meanwhile, combines both restrictive and malabsorptive approaches.
In the operation, the surgeon divides the stomach into two parts, sealing off the upper section from the lower.
The upper stomach is then connected directly to the lower section of the small intestine.
Essentially what’s happening here is the surgeon is creating a shortcut for the food – bypassing part of the stomach and the small intestine.
The operation means the body absorbs fewer calories by skipping parts of the digestive tract.
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Other stars who’ve had weight-loss surgery
Vanessa Feltz famously underwent weight-loss surgery in 2010.
After yo-yo dieting for years, she opted for a gastric band.
However, numerous medical problems led to her having it removed, with doctors performing a gastric bypass instead.
It’s reported she’s lost six stone.
Fern Britton had a gastric band in 2008 after complaining of pains in her knees and her high cholesterol levels.
She is said to have lost five stone.
James Argent opted for gastric sleeve surgery last year, which saw the TOWIE star have 70% of his stomach removed.
As a result, he’s currently lost seven stone.
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