(New York Post) Talk about holistic medicine.
Dr. David Buchin of Long Island Obesity Surgery helped Charles Gonzalez lose nearly 300 pounds. Now, the surgeon is shopping for a new wardrobe for Gonzalez so the 30-year-old can look sharp as he socializes more.
The 30-year-old based in Huntington Station, NY, has struggled with weight his entire life. In 2018, he crossed the 500-pound threshold. He was living on a diet of “only junk, fast food and snacks” as he struggled to cope with the death of his grandparents and a failing marriage.
“When I started eating I couldn’t stop,” he told The Post. “By the time I would be done, I would think, ‘Damn I can’t believe I just killed that whole thing.’”
By early 2021, the 5-foot-9-inch man, who works as a manager at Advance Auto Parts, tipped the scales at 525 pounds. He worried that one day he “wasn’t going to wake up” and was moved to take action.
Charles Gonzalez went from a size 58 to 34.Dennis A. Clark for NY Post
“I realized [my grandparents] wouldn’t want me to be like this. I wanted to be around longer for my nieces and family,” said Gonzalez, who dotes on his three nieces, aged 2, 5, and 8. “I couldn’t go to the beach, couldn’t ride a bike, it was hard to go up and down the stairs.”
He turned to Buchin — not a moment too soon.
“He couldn’t walk into my office. He was super morbidly obese,” the doctor, who is also the director of bariatric surgery at Huntington Hospital, told The Post. He noted that Gonzalez had a body mass index above 80. “That weight really decreases life expectancy.”
At his heaviest, Charles Gonzalez feared he might not wake up one morning.
Charles Gonzalez used to weight 525 pounds.
Buchin recommended a single-anastomosis duodeno-ileal bypass, an aggressive, relatively new bariatric procedure that is essentially both a gastric sleeve and a gastric bypass.
The doctor said the hybrid approach has seen much better, more lasting results for patients with extremely high BMIs because it results in less vitamin deficiency and malabsorption of nutrients.
But, before Gonzalez could safely go under the knife, he had to lose 100 pounds on his own by eating better and going on walks. It was “definitely one of the most challenging things [I’ve ever done],” he said
By March 2022, he was ready for surgery. The procedure lasted just 45 minutes and resulted in a nearly immediate 45-pound weight loss.
He went on to shed another 155 in the past year and now proudly weighs just 225 pounds. He hopes to soon weigh less than 200 pounds.
Gonzalez starts his day at 3 a.m. — he goes to bed by 8 or 9 p.m. — with a mile-and-a-half walk followed by an hour or two of strength training before going to work. He eats fruits, salads and protein bars. He’s also become an avid coffee drinker.
“All the little things bring me joy,” he said. “Even just being able to go up the stairs without problems makes me happy.”
Buchin has been there for Gonzalez throughout his weight loss journey, including by helping his patient replace his size 58 clothes with a new size 34 wardrobe.
