People who have suffered from a life-long struggle with obesity may have discovered that conservative attempts to achieve and sustain weight loss have been futile. Because obesity is a disease with a genetic and metabolic basis, even the most successful weight loss programs which incorporate nutrition, exercise, and lifestyle changing strategies often fail (1).

A recent medically supervised study compared the effects of weight loss induced by some of the most popular weight loss programs in the country. Adults with an average BMI of 35 (Class I-II Morbid Obesity) participated. The table below summarizes the results from this research. Despite the majority of subjects’ completion for the duration of the study, the degree of weight loss achieved after one year was unremarkable.

Unfortunately, the success rate for sustained weight loss with drug therapy is also poor. Research conducted by Eliosoff, Sjostrom, and Obrien revealed that even with prescription medications, on average, subjects achieved and sustained less than 10% excess body weight loss at five years (2).

There is hope, however!!! In 1991, the National Institutes of Health delivered a consensus statement that surgery is the only way to obtain consistent, permanent weight loss for morbidly obese patients. The graph below demonstrates these findings in a comparison of weight loss trends for patients treated conservatively and surgically with the gastric bypass procedure for the management of morbid obesity.

For more information about the positive benefits of weight loss surgery, as well as the risks that one must consider before taking the first steps, please visit our “Am I a Candidate” section.

1.Kaplan, L. Body Weight Regulation and Obesity. Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery 2003, 7(4):443-451.
2.Eliosoff 1997, Sjostrom NEJM 2004, Obrien J Laparoendosc Adv Surg Tech A 2003 Aug, 13(4):265-70.