Losing weight is perhaps the most desired experience people are looking for and is the reason why there are so many diets, diet plans and programs, pills, surgical options, and products available to achieve the dream of getting rid of the fat. Yet they fall way short with an estimated 95 percent of weight loss attempts failing.

We need to understand this about the human body. That for most of the time during its evolution food was scarce and as a result our bodies have become very efficient. Unused muscle tissue shrinks, unloaded bones lose density, thickness and strength. Unused tendons that hold things together lose strength and tear more easily. Unused brain neurons and nerves degenerate and die and red blood cell count goes down if oxygen demand is low.

A recent study investigating the relationship between complications of body contouring surgery and body mass index has confirmed an increase in the occurrence of such complications with worsening degree of obesity. Findings from the study are published in the July/August 2008 issue of the Aesthetic Surgery Journal, the peer-reviewed publication of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS).

In order to determine the degree of risk associated with obesity when undergoing body contouring surgery, a retrospective review was conducted of 129 patients who underwent a single body contouring procedure from 1993 and 2002. Patients were categorized based on their body mass index (BMI), clinical degree of being overweight, into groups including ideal (BMI <25), overweight (BMI 25-30), obese (BMI 31-35), morbidly obese (BMI 36-40), and severely morbidly obese (BMI >41).

Noted bariatric surgeon and pioneer of the vertical sleeve gastrectomy, Dr. Paul Cirangle of the bariatric surgical practice Laparosopic Associates of San Francisco, is the first in San Francisco to perform StomaphyX™, incisionless weight loss surgery. The StomaphyX™ is a fastening device approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in early 2007 that is inserted down the esophagus to the decrease the size of the stomach pouch.

StomaphyX™is for patients that have undergone either gastric bypass, vertical sleeve gastrectomy or the duodenal switch and have not reached their goal weight due to setbacks ranging from an expanded pouch to post-operative complications. It is already gaining popularity due to its advantages.