Surgery Better Than Exercise for Obese Teens?

For overweight and obese teens struggling with weight loss, the solution may not always be to eat less and move more. A small study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that gastric bypass surgery is more effect for weight loss in teens, reports Reuters.

For two years, researchers from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, tracked the weight loss of two groups of 25 severely obese teens, who ranged in age from 14 to 18. One group focused their weight loss efforts by participating in a diet, exercise and behavior modification program while the second group underwent gastric bypass surgery.

The surgery can help severely overweight and obese patients lose weight by restricting their food intake. A band is wrapped around the top of the stomach, bypassing the top of the intestines and the remaining portion of the stomach, which creates a feeling of fullness and can help reduce the amount of food and calories consumed.

Twenty-one of the teens who had the surgery lost more than half their body weight, compared to only three out of the exercise group. Additionally, those with gastric bypass lost an average of 28.3 percent while the second group only lost 3.1 percent, on average.

While these findings emphasize some of the positive impacts of gastric bypass surgery, it's worth it to not only note that the study was very small and, more importantly, gastric bypass surgery can pose serious risks and health complications, such as blood clots, violent stomach cramps, dizziness, pneumonia and, in rare cases, death.

Read more about one woman's experience after having gastric bypass surgery in That's Fit's column, "The Good, The Fat and The Hungry."