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<\/p>\nAs GLP\u20111 drugs surge in popularity, experts say bariatric surgery remains the most durable option for long\u2011term weight loss and major health improvements.<\/p>\n
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Jennie Mixon took this selfie two weeks before her 2024 surgery. She shied away from being photographed except from the shoulders up.
\n(Courtesy Jennie Mixon) <\/p>\n
\n Courtesy Jennie Mixon <\/p>\n
![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/After-941x1254.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Jennie Mixon a year and a half after surgery.
\n(Courtesy Jennie Mixon) <\/p>\n
\n Courtesy Jennie Mixon <\/p>\n
![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20260220_122556-1672x1254.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Jennie Mixon and Dr. Yewande Alimi.
\n(WTOP\/Tracy Johnke) <\/p>\n
\n WTOP\/Tracy Johnke <\/p>\n
When Jennie Mixon had gastric bypass surgery in February 2024, she weighed 245 pounds, and was a Type 2 diabetic in Stage 3 liver failure.<\/p>\n
Today, the 53-year-old is no longer diabetic. She lost half of the weight, and she can keep up with her two young grandkids.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey exhaust me, but it is a good exhaustion now, compared to what it was,\u201d Mixon told WTOP.<\/p>\n
Mixon, of Bowie, Maryland, said she was \u201cfailing miserably, healthwise.\u201d<\/p>\n
She tried a GLP-1 drug, but a negative reaction sent her to the hospital. That, and other health complications from her weight and diabetes, led her to Dr. Yewande Alimi, a bariatric surgeon at MedStar Washington Hospital Center in D.C.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe medications out there certainly can help patients really lose weight,\u201d Alimi said. \u201cBut not every patient responds to GLP-1s. We also know that the most durable approach to weight loss really still is, the data shows, bariatric surgery.\u201d<\/p>\n
Obesity surgery rates have not changed since GLP-1 drugs, such as Ozempic and Mounjaro, arrived on the scene. Alimi said only 1% of obesity patients who meet the criteria undergo bariatric surgery.<\/p>\n
And a stigma still lingers around the procedure.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople sometimes think that it\u2019s a failure of themselves, of their inability to do something, that they\u2019ve reached out to consider bariatric surgery. And that really isn\u2019t the case,\u201d Alimi said.<\/p>\n
\u201cObesity is a disease,\u201d Alimi said, adding that it\u2019s also complex. \u201cObesity actually affects so many organ systems that I can\u2019t detail all of them in this conversation, but it really impacts every sort of organ system in the body.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Mixon\u2019s case, gastric bypass surgery emerged as the better option.<\/p>\n
\u201cBariatric surgery really does still win out when we talk about being able to get patients off of some of their antihypertensives, getting them off their insulin medications, and really bringing their weight down and getting them back to a fuller life,\u201d Alimi said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t had any insulin since Feb. 19, 2024,\u201d Mixon said. \u201cI can get out and go on a hike with my daughter and my grandkids, and not be absolutely wiped out a third into it. I got my life back.\u201d<\/p>\n