Many insurance providers require their clients to prove a documented history of failed weight loss efforts before they will pay for weight loss surgery. And anyone who has ever considered a weight loss program knows there are plenty to choose from!
Most non-surgical weight loss programs are based on a combination of diet, behavior modification, and regular exercise. There are literally hundreds of diets available. Moving from diet to diet in a cycle of weight gain and loss - yo-yo dieting - is a health risk. It stresses the heart, kidneys and other organs.
Unfortunately, even the most effective interventions have proven to be effective for only a small percentage of people a small percentage of the time. It is estimated that less than 5% of individuals who participate in non-surgical weight loss programs will lose a significant amount of weight and maintain that loss for a long period of time.
According to the National Institute of Health, more than 90% of all people enrolled in weight loss programs regain their weight within one year. Sustained weight loss for patients who are morbidly obese is even harder to achieve. The following are brief explanations of weight-loss methods, including surgery.
Physician Supervised Diets
Doctors who prescribe and supervise diets for their patients usually create a customized program with the goal of greatly restricting calorie intake while maintaining nutrition. These diets fall into two basic categories:
Low Calorie Diets (LCDs) are individually planned so that the patient takes in 500 to 1,000 fewer calories a day than he or she burns.
Very Low Calorie Diets (VLCDs) typically limit caloric intake to 400 to 800 a day and feature high-protein, low-fat liquids.
Many patients on Very Low Calorie Diets lose significant amounts of weight. However, after returning to a normal diet, most regain the lost weight in under a year. Ninety percent of people participating in all diet programs will regain the weight they've lost within two years.
Behavior modification
Behavior modification uses therapy to help patients change their eating and exercise habits. Like low-calorie diets, behavior modification, in most patients, results in short-term success that tends to diminish after the first year.
Over-the-Counter & Prescription Drugs
New over-the-counter and prescription weight-loss medications have helped many people curb their appetite. The results of most studies show that patients on drug therapy lose around 10 percent of their excess weight and that the weight loss plateaus after 6-8 months. As patients stop taking the medication, weight gain usually occurs.
Weight loss drugs can also have serious side effects. Still, medications are an important step in the morbid obesity treatment process.
Exercise
Starting an exercise program can be especially intimidating for someone suffering from morbid obesity. Your health condition may make any level of physical exertion next to impossible. The benefits of exercise are clear, however. And there are ways to get started.
A National Institutes of Health survey of 13 studies concludes that physical activity:
Results in modest weight loss in overweight and obese individuals
Increases cardiovascular fitness, even when there is no weight loss
Can help maintain weight loss
New theories focusing on the body's set point (the weight range in which your body is programmed to weigh and will fight to maintain) highlight the importance of exercise. When you reduce the number of calories you take in, the body simply reacts by slowing metabolism to burn fewer calories.
Daily physical activity can help speed up your metabolism, effectively bringing your set point down to a lower natural weight. So when following a diet to attempt to lose weight, exercise increases your chances of long-term success.
Examples to get you started:
. Park at the far end of parking lots and walk
. Take the stairs instead of the elevator
. Cut down on television
. Swim or participate in low-impact water aerobics
. Ride an exercise bike
Overall, walking is one of the best forms of exercise. Start out slowly and build up. Incorporating exercise into your daily activities will improve your overall health, mood, and is important for any long-term weight management program; including weight loss surgery. Diet and exercise play a key role in successful weight loss after surgery.
Weight Loss Surgery
If diet and behavior modifications have failed you, surgery may be your next option. Morbid obesity is a complex, multi-factorial chronic disease and as already discussed above, traditional diets are seldom an effective treatment for it. That is why people are turning in larger numbers to surgical solutions for permanent weight loss.
Still, it is important to understand that even after surgery, diet and behavior modification continue to be instrumental to sustained weight loss. Weight-loss surgery itself is only a tool to get your body started losing weight - complying with diet and behavior modifications determines your ultimate success.
To date, the community of gastric band patients is now over 140,000 strong. Three key factors point toward the escalation of this number.
First, the morbidly obese population continues to rapidly increase, reaching almost 15 million in the USA alone.
Second, the only treatment demonstrated to have long term success in combating morbid obesity is weight loss surgery.
Finally, awareness and acceptance of the gastric band as the safest, and most patient-friendly, weight loss surgery continues to grow through ever-increasing supporting evidence.
Where there is some risk involved with any surgical procedure, most modern bariatric procedures are minimally invasive. Statistics show that for most people the adjustable gastric band is the safest surgical weight loss procedure.
For many people the risk of death from obesity related co-morbidities is much greater than the risks from the possible complications of weight loss surgery. That is the key reason that in 2001 approximately 50,000 weight loss surgeries were conducted. The number of people choosing this option has been steadily increasing ever since!
Patients who have had the procedure and who are benefiting from its results report improvements in their quality of life, social interactions, psychological well-being, employment opportunities and economic condition.
In clinical studies, candidates for the procedure who had multiple obesity-related health conditions questioned whether they could safely have the surgery. These studies show that selection of surgical candidates is based on very strict criteria and surgery is an option for the majority of patients.
Surgery should be viewed first and foremost as a method for alleviating debilitating, chronic disease. In most cases, the minimum qualification for consideration as a candidate for the procedure is 100 pounds above ideal body weight or those with a Body Mass Index of 40 or greater.
A weight loss surgery procedure will also be considered for someone with a BMI of 35 or higher if the patient's physician determines that
Obesity-related health conditions have resulted in a medical need for weight reduction
Surgery appears to be the only way to accomplish the targeted weight loss.
In many cases, patients are required to show proof that their attempts at dietary weight loss have been ineffective before surgery will be approved. More important, however, is the commitment on the part of the patient to required, long-term Aftercare.
Patients should demonstrate serious motivation and a clear understanding of the extensive dietary, exercise and medical guidelines that must be followed for the remainder of their lives after having weight loss surgery (see Life After Surgery).
Most non-surgical weight loss programs are based on a combination of diet, behavior modification, and regular exercise. There are literally hundreds of diets available. Moving from diet to diet in a cycle of weight gain and loss - yo-yo dieting - is a health risk. It stresses the heart, kidneys and other organs. 
Physician Supervised Diets
