Amy lost 153 pounds -- half her body weight -- when she had gastric bypass surgery. In the US 100,000 bypass procedures are performed each year.

We follow two patients as they go through the life-transforming experience of gastric bypass surgery, causing dramatic weight loss. Over the course of two years, Amy loses 153 pounds — "I lost an entire person!" she says, hardly able to believe it. Rodney loses 141 pounds — "I'm sixty, and I'm like I'm sixteen again," is his delighted comment. In the process, both patients achieve major life goals, from the simple act of shopping in a regular — not plus-size — clothing store, to the substantial reduction of health risks like heart attack and diabetes.

Alan Alda observes in the OR when Amy has her surgery at a Boston hospital, and visits Rodney as he recovers the day after his operation. Gastric bypass, in which a small, one-ounce, stomach "pouch" is created to replace the natural stomach, is the most common stomach surgery in the US, with 100,000 procedures performed a year — ten times the rate ten years ago. Nationally, 75% of those patients will achieve substantial permanent weight loss, although some will be able to "behaviorally" reverse their surgery, as Amy and Rodney's surgeon, Scott Shikora, explains to Alda.