Weight loss surgery could make you RICHER – new figures show drastic surgery leads to higher earnings

Going under the knife to lose weight can boost revenues, leaving patients slimmer and better off, official data shows.

Analysis by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found that men who had bariatric surgery saw an average pay rise of as much as £200 per month five years after surgery.

Women saw more modest financial benefits, receiving just £55 more per month.

Both men and women were also more likely to be employed overall, with a four percentage point increase in being employed after losing their love handles.

ONS analysis suggested the results were likely due to those who had weight loss surgery being fit enough to find work rather than being paid more by their bosses.

Analysis by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found that Britons in England who underwent bariatric surgery, such as gastric bypasses, on the NHS saw a significant increase in their wages five years after the operation.

Wages peaked at £84 five years after going under the knife, but the results started much earlier, with an average peak of £3.50 in monthly wages from the sixth month and rising from there.

Brits who had the operations earned more but were also more likely to find a job overall, with a 4.3 percentage point increase in being employed after losing their love handles

It highlighted how a subsection of the study, which only looked at Brits who had surgery while already in paid work, saw a much smaller pay rise over the same period, taking home just an extra £17 a month.

ONS analysts also found that monthly wages fell immediately after the operation, by an average of £117.

This is probably because people cannot work during the four to six month recovery.

Overall, when the figures for men and women were combined, people were £84 better off five years after weight loss surgery.

The ONS analysis was based on more than 40,000 Britons who underwent bariatric surgery on the NHS between April 2014 and December 2022.

Bariatric surgery, commonly known as weight loss surgery, consists of a variety of possible procedures, including gastric sleeves, gastric bypass, and gastric banding. This illustrated example shows a gastric bypass

Bariatric surgery, commonly known as weight loss surgery, consists of a variety of possible procedures.

These include gastric sleeves, gastric bypass, or gastric band procedures.

Although they all differ slightly, the basic principle is that they change the shape of the stomach by cutting away parts of the organ or by securing it with artificial material.

The end result is that the stomach becomes smaller, making a person feel full more quickly.

This helps them reduce the amount they eat and by extension lose weight.

It should not be confused with liposuction, a primarily cosmetic surgery that removes fat from parts of the body but does not help people lose weight in the future.

Bariatric surgery is only available on the NHS to Britons who are severely obese, usually people with a body mass index (BMI) of 40 or above.

Such patients will also need to have attempted to lose weight through diet exercises and medication before they are eligible.

Bariatric surgery is available privately to patients who do not meet these criteria, but such operations can cost around £15,000 depending on the specific type.

There are growing concerns that patients who do not qualify for NHS surgery are seeking cheaper alternatives abroad, sometimes with disastrous consequences.

About 5,000 people a year go abroad for obesity surgery, but the BritishPushers have warned repeatedly NHS is left to ‘pick up the pieces’.

They say many patients are returning with serious infections due to the lower standards of some foreign clinics.

Treating these preventable cases leads to delays in routine care, such as hip and knee replacements, because they take up limited hospital beds and surgical capacity.

Bariatric surgery, like any major surgery, is associated with a large number of possible complications.

These include standard complications such as blood clots and infections, as well as unique complications such as a blocked intestine or stomach contents leaking into the rest of the body.

The ONS analysis comes as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s government has shown keen interest in tackling the country’s obesity epidemic to get overweight Britons back to work.

However, these controversial plans do not include surgery. Instead, health secretary Wes Streeting has proposed using fat-burning jabs similar to Ozempic as a pharmaceutical solution to ease the burden on the NHS and stimulate the economy.

Weight-related diseases cost the economy £74 billion a year, with overweight people at increased risk of heart disease, cancer and type 2 diabetes.

However, NHS chiefs have privately warned that the plan risks overwhelming an already overstretched service.