Former competitive weightlifter Dana Bichler lost more than 80 pounds after a minimally invasive stomach procedure, per Healthline, after diets and GLP-1 drugs stopped working for him.
By The Wellness Desk — CelebnMusic247
For years, Dana Bichler competed as a weightlifter at 200 to 210 pounds, per Healthline. After wear and tear and aging pushed him away from training, he told Healthline the weight crept up slowly, despite trying running and other approaches. Dieting took off about 50 pounds at a time, but the weight returned. At his heaviest, he weighed close to 300 pounds.
What He Tried First
About five years ago, Bichler tried a GLP-1 medication, and two others a few years later, per Healthline. Each, he said, helped at first and then stopped working. “There was really no long-term positive effects or benefits that I saw,” he told Healthline. Healthline reported he still takes Mounjaro for blood sugar control because he is prediabetic — reported here only as Healthline stated it.
A few years ago, he was also diagnosed with fatty liver disease tied to obesity, which had caused scarring on his liver, per Healthline. The condition ran in his family: his two younger sisters and his oldest brother also had it, his brother and youngest sister developed cirrhosis, and his brother died after the disease affected other parts of his body. “I had to do something,” he told Healthline. “What I was doing was not working.”
The Procedure Healthline Described
From St. Cloud, Minnesota, Bichler traveled to the University of Minnesota, where a hepatologist referred him to a gastroenterologist, per Healthline. In March 2025, at age 67, he had endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty, or ESG, and Medicare pre-approved it in his case.
Healthline described ESG this way: a doctor passes an endoscope through the mouth and uses sutures to fold the stomach into a narrower sleeve. No portion of the stomach is removed, and there are no incisions. The smaller stomach limits how much a person can eat at once.
Brian Dunkin, MD, chief medical officer at Boston Scientific, told Healthline patients typically go home the same day and can return to routine activities within two to three days. He does not frame it as ESG versus GLP-1 drugs: “The goal is finding the right treatment, or combination of treatments, for the right patient at the right time.” Per Healthline, Dunkin said ESG is indicated for adults with obesity with a BMI between 30 and 50 — his statements as reported, not advice for any reader.
A Hard First Month, Then a Different Life
Bichler weighed somewhere in the 260s when he had ESG, and today he weighs 178 pounds — a loss of more than 80 pounds, per Healthline. The month after was difficult: bread, pasta, rice and carbonated drinks were off the table, and he moved from clear liquids to other liquids and eventually cream soups.
He also described depression in that period. Per Healthline, he had stopped taking his antidepressant about two weeks before the procedure, working with his weight loss doctor, and his eating habits changed sharply. “I was in a pretty deep funk for a while,” he told Healthline. He restarted his antidepressant, Healthline reported, and adjusted over time.
Today, he told Healthline, he exercises four to five days a week and has more energy for farm work, his chaplain role and his grandson. “I haven’t felt this good in 30 years,” he said.
The 247 Take — Bichler’s story, as Healthline told it, is not a verdict on any one treatment. It is a reminder that weight care can be long, personal and uneven, and that the honest parts — the regain, the hard month, the low mood — are part of the record too.
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Sources: Healthline
