Book excerpt: Cut Down to Size covers everything you need to know about bariatric surgery, from referral through to the challenges you may face after surgery. Most people who seek weight loss surgery have struggled for many years to control their eating, and have experienced increasing health limitations, self-consciousness and discrimination. People see weight loss surgery as their last chance for a better, more normal life. While hopeful fantasies about an alternative future make it hard to contemplate the risk of failure, some patients experience considerable emotional or physical problems. This book offers insight into the realities of living with weight loss surgery, and practical exercises help you think through your emotional readiness, social circumstances and eating habits that could determine the success of surgery. Active preparation for surgery by making psychological and lifestyle changes puts you in the best position to achieve better health and emotional wellbeing. Cut Down to Size is the first book to focus on the psychological and social aspects of weight loss surgery and will be of interest to health professionals as well as anyone contemplating weight loss surgery. By sharing the experiences of other bariatric patients, the reader can appreciate the nature of life after surgery and make a judgement about their capacity to cope with these demands.