Recent Study shows long term (12 years out) benefit from WLS

What Laura said. The numbers are not nearly as bleak as some of the above posts think. There were very few in the study that lost more than 50%, but that's TOTAL body weight, not excess weight. So, if you started off at 260 pounds and end up at goal at 145, you've "only" lost 45% of your weight to begin with.

that was my immediate thought, too - that they were talking about total weight. I started out at 372 lbs, so losing 30% of my weight would put me at 260 (after 12 years). And of course, we're talking averages here. That wouldn't surprise me all that much, actually. It's still a 112 lb loss (although I'm fighting like hell to stay in the 140s!!!)