Would I qualify for the gastric bypass procedure at 5'7 and 350+ pounds? (Photo)

Hello Alexa, I hope you are well. I'm sorry to hear about your on going struggles surrounding your weight and overall health. Your rheumatologist is right about weight gain being heavily associated to steroid use. Altough SLE is not a contraindication for bariatric surgery, active flares are. According to the metrics you provided, your calculated BMI would be 54, based on that alone we could assume you would be eligible for a gastric bypass. However, you would need to be further evaluated by a bariatric surgeron, as other factors need to be taken into account. Hope this answer was useful.

Yes, you would likely qualify for gastric bypass surgery. With a BMI over 50 and a history of medical conditions, including Systemic Lupus and long-term steroid use, most bariatric programs would consider you a strong candidate. Given your history of water retention, it might also be worth exploring whether excess fluid is contributing significantly to your weight. A specialist (such as a nephrologist or endocrinologist) could help determine if there's an additional medical approach to help manage that alongside surgery.
Since you're already mindful of your eating habits but struggling with weight gain, gastric bypass could help by altering how your body absorbs nutrients and potentially reducing inflammation-related weight gain.

You would be a great candidate for weight loss surgery. However, you should chose a program with a great ongoing nutritional support team. Weight loss surgery helps with most of the contributors to weight gain but not all and the most important is having a great understanding of the science behind losing fat (using fat for energy). Most weight loss surgeons focus mainly on portion size but decreasing portion size alone will not get you to where you want to be. I would avoid a gastric bypass and focus more on gastric sleeve or duodenal switch as your options.