Drugs, Surgery Work Better For Some People Determined To Lose Weight

Research presented at a recent scientific meeting shows that diet and exercise simply don’t work for all people who want to lose weight. In fact, obese and overweight Americans were most satisfied with weight loss surgery (gastric bypass or laparoscopic gastric banding) and prescription weight loss medications when it came to shedding pounds. The U.S. study analyzed data from more than 39,000 respondents to a national health survey from 2012. Thirty-nine percent of obese respondents in the surgery/medication group said they were extremely or very satisfied with their weight loss method, compared to only 20.2 percent of those that used “self-modification”. One disturbing fact: 58 percent of obese respondents were not doing anything at all to lose weight.