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Gastric bypass patients cook up lots of food!

Feb 5, 2010 | Alexandra Hackett | Tampa Bay News

Raul and his brother Henry consider their cafe on North Armenia Avenue their little slice of heaven. "It's my dream come true basically," Raul said.

The Castillo twins were pushing 500-pounds a piece when they underwent gastric bypass surgery in September 2006.

"We cannot believe that was us," Henry said.

By Christmas the brothers each melted away 100-pounds. Now their weight loss is down 230 pounds.

"That's amazing! I lost half of me!" Raul laughed.

With new found energy and a longtime love for food they cooked up the idea of their own restaurant.

"They could not do this type of heavy work running around a restaurant is really tough," said their surgeon Dr. Alfredo Fernandez.

He performed the operations 14-months ago.

"You're giving someone, who failed at ways to lose weight had reached the weight that was going to kill them, tools that help them change their lifestyle," he said.

The menu is full of classic Latin dishes, tempting and tasty, yet known for not being low in fat and calories. But the brothers believe they'll be able to keep the weight off.

"I don't miss eating the way we used to eat," Henry said.

"They're eating a lot of proteins and lot of good carbs, low but good fats, the result is evident," Dr. Fernandez said.

And hopefully this enough to lose even more weight.