When Diets and Exercise Aren't Enough

The closer I get, the more confident I am becoming that I have chosen the right path. A publication given to me from my doctor stated the following, and it is such a summary of my fight against weight loss and many of my family members who I've seen battle with it their entire lives:

"WHY DIETING AND EXERCISE MAY NOT BE ENOUGH TO FIGHT OBESITY
 
Because your body works to defend it's set point, dieting and exercising are rarely effective in helping people with obesity achieve and maintain a healthy weight long-term. When you go on a diet, your body thinks its being starved and its survival instincts kick in. As a result, your body stores energy-rich body fat, and you can't lose weight easily. A landmark Swedish study found that, on average, a 200-pouind patient fighting obesity with diet and exercise alone would only be able to achieve a sustained weight loss of 4 pounds over 20 years.
 
UNFORUTUNATELY, YOUR BODY'S HORMONES ARE WORKING AGAINST YOU
 
When weight is lost, lower body fat levels trigger hormones that encourage the body to get back to it's previous weight set point. A New England Journal of Medicine study showed that while dieters may initially lose weight, their bodies change levels of hormones that encourage weight regain in response to the weight loss. These hormones increase appetite, decrease feelings of fullness, and slow down metabolism. The study also found that these hormones had not returned to pre-diet levels even 12 months after the initial weight loss, meaning their bodies were still encouraging weight regain a year after they stopped dieting. This is a powerful defense mechanism and may explain why the majority of weight loss attempts fail.
 
BARIATRIC AND METABOLIC SURGERY CAN RESET YOUR SET POINT
In order for a person with obesity disease to achieve significant long-term weight loss, the body's weight regulation system must be reset so that the body will stop storing excess fat. By altering the complex relationship your body has with food and its metabolism, bariatric surgery helps reset your body's ability to effectively manage weight. New research indicates that some types of bariatric surgery (gastric bypass, sleeve gastrectomy, and billiopancreatic diversion) have metabolic impacts that enable a new, lower set point, allowing the body to return to a lower body fat level. By altering the anatomy of the stomach and/or intestine, these surgeries affect hormonal signals, resulting in decreased appetite, increased feelings of fullness, increased metabolism, and healthier food preferences. These positive changes allow your body to lose weight without the internal fight to return to the higher set point.
 
Bariatric and metabolic surgery is the most effective treatment to date, resulting in sustainable and significant weight loss along with resolution of weight-related health conditions in up to 80% of people. Bariatric surgery has been also shown to resolve diabetes, sleep apnea, joint pain, high blood pressure and high cholesterol."