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she could just lose the weight herself if she ate what she'd be allowed to eat with the surgery.

That logic works for normal people. It does not work for food addicts, in my experience. That would be like saying "if you could just use X amount of meth, you could keep the side effects under control." Sure, but what addict can DO THAT for very long without some sort of outside enforcement? I don't know of any. The physical craving combined with the emotional compulsion means that no amount of willpower can keep you in control for very long. For food addicts weight is merely a symptom, a side effect, of active food addiction. Addressing the side effect without addressing the cause doesn't generally bring positive long-term results.

I know it's not easy to understand. It's not normal. It's addiction. Logic and consequences are not enough to stop active addiction. Eating disorders, including binge eating, are classified in the DSM IV, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Food addicts are not people who just need to lose weight. In fact, some are not over weight, and some are even under weight. I didn't need a diet. I'd done diets for years with varying success. I needed something to address WHY I looked to ANYTHING (food, alcohol, pills) to deal with emotional discomfort.

Food became my drug of choice when I got pregnant with my son. Food was OK while pregnant. People understood eating more while pregnant. Weight gain was expected. During that time, the switch was flipped for me, and I was a pickle, never again to be a cucumber.

On my friend who had gastric bypass then plastic surgery, she lost 100+ pounds over the course of a year from the gastric bypass, which left her with a lot of extra skin (this is normal after quick and major weight loss). She had plastic surgery to remove the excess skin (11 pounds of skin). She looked great, perfectly normal size at that time. A 10/12. But she slowly added things back in, sugar, bread, alcohol, fatty foods like steak and butter. It would make her sick at first. But she would continue to push it until she tolerated it a bit better. Some things still make her sick, but she still eats them anyway. I saw her do this at the wedding this weekend. Ice cream was placed in front of us both. She ate. She got sick. I gave mine away.

Gastric bypass surgically closes off the stomach to leave a small pouch, and reconnects the intestines to that small pouch. Some intestines is generally removed. Lap band leaves the stomach intact but places a ring around the top of the stomach that is expanded with air to create a small pouch above it.