A gastric balloon, also known as an intragastric balloon, is a short-term non-surgical weight loss tool.

It is a soft silicon balloon that is temporarily inserted into your stomach to partially fill it so that you feel full quicker after small amounts of food. It offers a weight loss solution to help patients to kick start their lifestyle changes. Sometimes it is used when the patient’s BMI is not high enough to justify surgery.

A gastric balloon works by taking up space in your stomach so that you feel full sooner and need to eat less. As you eat a smaller amount of food, you lose weight. It won’t help if you eat soft foods, sweets or drink high calorie liquids

It allows you to get used to having smaller food portions and adopting a healthier lifestyle. When the gastric balloon is removed you will, hopefully continue with your newly trained lifestyle and eating patterns. You must be committed to a supervised gastric balloon diet and modified lifestyle both whilst the balloon is inserted and after it has been removed.

The benefits of a gastric balloon are that it offers a non-surgical reversible weight loss treatment option that may help you to develop long term new eating habits. The weight loss can also improve any obesity-related health problems such as type 2 diabetes.