How do we trim health care costs? Weighing in on the national debate, a new study in the journal Health Affairs urges: Fight fat by fighting fat.

Jaylene Verhelst, 33, worried that like many in her family before her, obesity would take her on a path towards heart disease and diabetes.

The HealthGrades Fourth Annual Bariatric Surgery Trends in American Hospitals Study released today identifies 88 hospitals as "best" performers (five-star rated), with mortality rates, complication rates and patient lengths of stay that are dramatically lower than poorly rated hospitals.

A 25-year-old unemployed woman who was given an £8,000 operation to help her lose 16 stone is complaining because, as well as her weight loss, her benefits have been reduced.
 

Laura Ripley, who has never worked, was given the operation on the NHS to help her slim down from 38 to 22 stone

MBA student, CET topper and double amputee gets a further leg up with stomach stapling surgery that will help him control  weight and get a fair chance during campus placements

A 2009 state topper in the CET. An MBA student from Pune University. And a double amputee with a weight problem.

That's Anil Kamble, who will undergo a sleeve gastrectomy operation today, which will reduce the size of his stomach by 15 per cent.

William McBride, from Portland, Oregon - who weighed 14 stone when he was 10-years-old - has become the youngest patient to have a weight loss operation.

The policy highlights of this Weight of the Nation conference are designed to scare people in power. And since everyone in Washington is obsessed with cost, the big news out of the conference this morning is the latest estimate of obesity's direct costs from obesity cost guru Eric Finklestein  $147 billion per year. His calculations are exacting, although it is extremely difficult in reality to make such a snapshot estimate of something so complicated as obesity. This is one reason why researchers in the field tend to focus on suffering and disparities within populations, rather than aggregate cost. But policy-makers take their cues from numbers, and the CDC has an agenda to sell too. That's not necessarily a bad thing, given the problem at hand, but it's an example of how it is impossible to separate science and values.