Gastric bypass long term weight loss S.O.S. (Swedish Obesity Study) results

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The reason some doctors say WLS is the only weight loss solution which works is because the average WLS patient (unlike the average patient on a diet) does not gain it all back.  However, as shown in this clinical study, WLS may only give the patient a small advantage over dieters.  Although medicine considers this advantage to be significant but it may not be what most patients who wish to be "slim" would like to expect.  (The Hebrew University study showed that only 7 percent of gastric bypass patients kept all the weight off - 70 percent kept SOME weight off and 25 percent regained all.)
 
Here are some of the results of the only long term clinical study of WLS that we know about. It's called the Swedish Obesity Study.  In the New England Journal of Medicine, some of the results were published.  This is a clinical study of over 641 patients, and has been ongoing for ten years.
 
The weight loss results were:
 
at the 2 year point post op: the average loss was 23 percent of the patient's weight.
 
at the 10 year point post op, the average loss had dropped to 16 percent of the patient's weight.
 
Here is a projection of expected weights for the average gastric bypass patient according to the Swedish Obesity study:
 
SOS weight results
start wt    2 years      10 years   
 300         231           252
 350         270          294
 400         308           336
 450         346.5         378
 500         385           420
 
As reference to diabetes:
 
At the two year point, 72 percent of the diabetics appeared to be recovered but at the 10 year point, only 36 percent of the diabetics were still "disease-free".
 
Although we certainly rejoice with those new ops who show amazing weight losses, the results of the only ongoing clinical long term study of WLS patients are a bit more sobering than the ads or seminars.  Remember those who hang out in ANY diet group, INCLUDING WLS support groups, are the small percentage who can keep all or most of their weight off - the average people who usually have more significant regains, are not the ones they parade to sell the diet. 
 
SOURCE: New England Journal of Medicine: Volume 351:2683-2693  December 23, 2004  Number 26
Lifestyle, Diabetes, and Cardiovascular Risk Factors 10 Years after Bariatric Surgery
Lars Sjostrom, M.D., Ph.D et al