The frustrations of trying to lose weight and the alternative of bariatric surgery

Aged 42 years, ‘S’, friend and colleague of the author, weighed 204 kg. Now, three years later, after undergoing intensive dieting and psychotherapy, she has lost nearly 10% of her body weight. But she remains 38 BMI units over and above the 30 kg/m threshold for the ‘obese’ category; she is in the range of ‘morbid obesity’. In a few weeks she will undergo dramatic abdominal surgery for this condition. Rhys Williams tells her story.