When you are seriously overweight or obese, nothing is more frustrating than being told by a well-intentioned loved one that the cure is to eat less and exercise more. While family and friends undoubtedly have your health and best interests at heart, you know that the solution is not that simple. If only it was as easy as eating smaller portions and taking a daily walk!

Based on recent studies, it is safe to say that science is on your side. Texas Laparoscopic Consultants explains why diet and exercise are not permanent solutions to obesity.

Biological Factors that Affect Your Weight

In a paper published in the journal Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, obesity treatment experts argue that obesity is primarily rooted in biological issues in the body that are unaffected by diet and exercise.

Obese individuals are biologically very different from individuals of the same age, sex and bodyweight who have never had obesity, argues Dr. Christopher Ochner, the lead author of the study.

Restrictive dieting may even trigger the natural impulse to eat foods that are high in calories. This biological response may be reminiscent of the hunter-gatherer times, when humans weren’t sure when/where they’d eat again, so their bodies stored away energy in the body as fat.

Dr. Ochner, who is the Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, and his team found that while lifestyle modifications may cause initial weight loss results, 80 to 95 percent of chronically obese people will eventually regain the weight.

“Although lifestyle modifications may result in lasting weight loss in individuals who are overweight, in those with chronic obesity, body weight seems to become biologically ‘stamped in’ and defended,” he said.

A Permanent Solution to Obesity

If diet and exercise won’t produce the necessary results, what will?

Texas Laparoscopic Consultants and other obesity treatment experts believe that bariatric surgery is the most effective and longest-lasting treatment for the chronic disease (and weight-related co-morbidities such as diabetes). Studies such as the Surgical Therapy and Medications Potentially Eradicate Diabetes Efficiently (STAMPEDE) examined the effectiveness of treatments for obese and diabetic patients, and found that over 90 percent of bariatric surgery patients were able to lose a quarter of their body weight.

If you are tired of constant yo-yo dieting, not being able to move around comfortably and taking medications for weight-related health conditions, we would love to talk to you about your surgical treatment options.

To learn more about surgical weight loss procedures — including adjustable gastric banding, gastric sleeve and gastric bypass — please contact the TLC team and schedule an informational consultation.