The Acai Berry diet, Atkins Diet, Hollywood Diet, Zone Diet… It seems that as soon as the buzz begins to fade on one diet, there’s always another new fad to take its place. Indeed, there are literally hundreds of diets available, and many overweight people hope that the latest will help them shed those hated extra pounds.
While some people experience initial success with fad diets, the reality is that after returning to a normal diet most people regain the lost weight in under a year. Ninety percent of people participating in all diet programs regain the weight they’ve lost within two years.
Moving from diet to diet in a cycle of weight gain and loss – “yo-yo” dieting – stresses the heart, kidneys and other organs and can be a health risk.
The National Institutes of Health reports: “Weight loss surgery for the morbidly obese, when combined with behavior modification, is currently the most reliable and only choice for long term maintenance of excess weight loss.”
Even so, bariatric surgery is no silver bullet that magically results in dramatic weight loss. The surgery itself is only a tool to get your body started losing weight. Long-term success requires a lifetime change in eating and exercise habits.