Opting for weight-loss surgery at lower BMIs may be best for patients' health

(Michigan Medicine - University of Michigan) The struggle to escape obesity is pointing more Americans toward bariatric surgery. But a new study shows that only one in three patients who have an operation succeed in getting their body-mass index below 30, the cutoff for obesity, in the first year. The odds were better for those who had surgery while they were still below a 'morbid obesity' BMI of 40.