The risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) after bariatric surgery persists for at least a year after the procedure, according to a review of medical records of 17,000 patients.

Rob and Brenda Tapley of Muleshoe have been overweight most of their lives.

"I don't think there's a diet we haven't tried over the years," Brenda said. "You name it, I know I've tried it."

Rob added, "And they've all worked ... for a while. And then the weight comes back, plus some."

But the couple hope a surgical procedure called laparoscopic gastric banding has changed that.

Patients who undergo gastric bypass surgery often have undiagnosed glucose abnormalities that can lead to bad eating habits and regained weight, a small clinical study suggests.

In follow-up for as long as six years, adolescents maintained at least as much of their original weight loss as older patients did, Nestor de la Cruz-Munoz, MD, reported here at the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.

Here are some pregnancy and infancy factors to consider for preventing obesity:

Ideally, ensure that both parents have a BMI under 25.

Breastfeed for as long as possible and when weaning babies early, be careful with overfeeding them by giving excessive amounts of formula (optimally, no more than 150 mL per kg per day for full term babies).

Imagine feeling hungry starving, even all the time, no matter how much you eat. So hungry that you would shoplift, sneak, steal or secretly order takeout food to sate your appetite, without regard for consequences.

Kate Kane doesn't have to imagine; she knows.

You may have heard or read about ‘Billy Robbins’, the teenager who has unfortunately been nick-named ‘half ton teen’ by the mass media, who at just 19 years of age topped the scales at an incredible 800 pounds, making him the worlds heaviest teenager.

His plight has been well documented in a TLC special called, imaginably, ‘half ton teen’. Billy had been told he had literally months to live if his weight wasn’t drastically reduced and the only option for such drastic weight loss was to undergo weight loss surgery.

Bariatric surgery before pregnancy significantly improves an obese woman's chances of giving birth to children who don't have obesity-related metabolic disorders, according to a study reported here.

I am extremely concerned with the incorrect data and extremely single-sided statements regarding weight-loss surgery and its risks and benefits as detailed in “The Skinny on Being Fat.? (Cover story, 6/04)

I had lap-band surgery five years ago with a starting weight in excess of 400 pounds. I was suffering from high blood pressure, asthma and sleep apnea; and the weight and my arthritis were limiting my ability to get around.

Despite having one of the highest rates of obesity in America, the poor are less likely to undergo weight loss surgery than obese people who are better off financially, new research shows.

White women with higher incomes and private health insurance were the most likely to have the surgery, according to a study to be presented Wednesday at the American Society for Metabolic and amp; Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS) annual meeting, in Dallas.