One of the most intractable health problems in the U.S. is obesity.  Statistics from the National Center for Health show that 30 percent of U.S. adults age 20 and older are obese.  That translates to over 60 million people – and the number is growing.  Medical professionals predict that by the year 2010, 40 percent of Americans will be obese.

There's no consensus on the causes of obesity, but the costs are clear – increased chronic health problems and painful loss of self-esteem.

The solution seems simple.  People should eat less and exercise more.  But if you ask the millions of people who have tried and failed they'll tell you that diets work for a little while; then they regain the weight plus more.  This pattern – called yo-yo dieting or weight cycling – is a dangerous sequence that can actually change the body's fat-to-muscle ratio, one of the more important factors in health.

So, while it's always best to lose weight through a healthy diet and regular physical activity, weight loss (bariatric) surgery may be the only real long term solution for those who have been struggling with chronic obesity for years.  In fact, thousands of people are doing just that with as many as 175,000 to 200,000 procedures predicted for this year by the American Society for Bariatric Surgery.