JAMA, the journal of the American medical association describes our time as “The age of obesity and inactivity” and we all know it:

• 2/3 of adults and 1/3 of children and adolescents are now classified as obese or overweight.
• The cost of treatment of obesity related conditions has reached 10 % of the total US medical expenditure.
• Obesity is reversing all the gains made in the past 100 years by lowering cholesterol, hypertension and smoking rates.

What We Should Do?

The answer is simple: Eat Less and exercise more. 25% of American men and 43% of women attempt to lose weight each year. Of those who succeed 5 % manage to keep it off for the long haul. 45 million Americans belong nowadays to a health club as opposed to 23 million in 1993. $19 billion per year are spent on gym memberships. A Houston heart survey showed a 10% increase in regular exercise from 1980 till 2000. Yet, obesity figures in Houston more than doubled in that same time frame.

Why is our body fighting against our own good health?

In an article published in 2011 in the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Proietto, from the University of Melbourne, showed that multiple compensatory mechanisms encouraging weight gain, persist for at least 1 year after weight loss. He followed 50 overweight individuals for approximately one year after putting them on a very low calorie diet for several weeks. Hunger and satiety hormones were monitored. Dr. Proietto showed that following diet induced weight loss, hunger hormones go up and satiety hormones go down. In other words, every time you lose some weight following any kind of diet you feel hungrier than before. The more you lose weight the harder it is to maintain a low calorie diet. Furthermore, your metabolism goes down as you lose weight. Your body goes into an energy conservation mode making it harder to shed additional pounds. In this fight between you and your own body, guess who wins? 95% of all those who attempt to lose weight by diet and exercise end up gaining it back. The reality is that very few of us can overcome our basic biology to maintain the weight loss.

At Houston weight loss surgery center, we clearly differentiate between preventing weight gain and treating excess weight. We strongly recommend eating less and exercising more to stay fit, and healthy. If however you are already overweight, weight loss surgery is the only effective treatment for durable weight loss. Bariatric surgery prevents the compensatory changes that accompany weight loss. You are no longer fighting your own body. The struggle against obesity becomes a journey. A journey, we are privileged to be part of. If you are overweight and you are trying to lose weight please give us a call at 281.205.3205