A guide to weight loss surgery acronyms and terms

If you’re new to the world of weight loss surgery and you’re being a super sleuth online there might be a few weight loss surgery acronyms and terms out there that are leaving you a bit confused. I thought I’d write a post as your one stop shop guide to figuring out exactly what everyone else is talking about!

Bariatric

Bariatric is the umbrella term encompassing all of the different weight loss surgeries. If you see someone saying they have had bariatric surgery it doesn’t give away what type but you can safely assume they have had weight loss surgery of some kind be it gastric bypass, gastric sleeve, duodenal switch or a lap band for example.

WLS

Is simply, weight loss surgery.

NSV

This is a non-scale victory. These are the best things to look forward to after weight loss surgery because it focuses on all of the awesome wins you will have aside from watching your weight go down on the scales. Some of my favourite NSV’s have been easily getting a normal sized towel tied around myself, fitting in an airplane seatbelt and being able to fit ‘normal’ (not plus sized) clothing again!

Pouch

The word many gastric bypass patients use to refer to their new tiny tummy.

RNY

Is the acronym for roux-en-Y which is a type of gastric bypass surgery. They aren’t all done in the same way but this one seems popular in New Zealand and around the world.

Stalls

When your weight loss stops or slows down after surgery for no apparent reason. The first few times it happens it usually starts up again but it’s almost a compulsory part of a WLS journey. You can read a post I wrote about it here.

Dumping

This is something that happens exclusively to gastric bypass patients. In a nutshell it’s when you have too much sugar or fat at one time and your body freaks out. I’ve written a whole post about it here.

VSG

Is short for vertical sleeve gastrectomy. This is one type of bariatric surgery that is becoming very popular.

Sleeve

The word many gastric sleevers use to refer to their new smaller tummy.

Onederland

This term is seen all the time from our counterparts in the US as most of them have goal weights in the 100’s pound wise. It’s similar to us in metric land wanting to get into double figures and under that dreaded 100kg mark.

Surgiversary

This is what many of us refer to the anniversary of our surgery as!

HW/CW/GW/LW/SW

Are as follows highest weight, current weight, goal weight, lowest weight, starting weight.

BMI

Stands for Body mass index. The measure we figure out to see if we qualify and can use to track how we are going after surgery.

So do you feel a bit more confident that you know what everyone is going on about online when talking about WLS? I tend to forget and sometimes use the acronyms through posts myself but I need to remember not everyone is schooled in these terms and acronyms. If I’ve missed anything off this list please comment below, let me know what’s confusing you and I’ll update the post to include it if necessary!