New research suggests that the benefits of weight loss surgery only last for a few years, Reuters reported.
Researchers at Tel Aviv University found that obese patients regain many of the pounds they initially shed five years after weight loss surgery. This usually happens because many patients don't change their eating behaviors or stick with strategies that make the initial weight loss results stick.
"The first year after surgery is usually a honeymoon period that should be used for coining new habits, and the ones that don't do that regain weight," Dr. Andrei Keidar, lead author of the study, told Reuters Health. "Don't take surgery as a panacea -- beware of bad eating habits."
For the study, researchers collected and analyzed data from more than 440 obese patients who had sleeve gastrostomy procedures between April 2006 and February 2013.
After the first year, patients lost 77 percent of their excess weight. However, by the fifth year they regained their weight, "bringing their weight loss to only 56 percent," HealthDay reported. They also experienced improvements in diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol, health problems associated with obesity.
According to the World Health Organization, 1.9 billion adults are overweight or obese. Roughly 180,000 people get weight loss surgery, sleeve gastrectomy being the most popular one, each year.
The findings are detailed in the journal JAMA Surgery.
