A study done by Monash University and the Center for Adolescent Health at the Royal Child Hospital in Melbourne (Australia), reported that a large proportion of adolescents suffering from severe obesity that were implanted with an adjustable gastric band by laparoscopic lost more than 50% of overweight.

The clinical trial, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, discovered that gastric band surgery results in significant weight loss results in obese teens than diet and exercise alone.

Over two years, the surgery group lost an average of 76.2 pounds, while the lifestyle intervention group lost 6.6 pounds i. e. 84% of the gastric band group lost more than half of their excess weight, compared to just 12 percent of the lifestyle group.

The research included more than 50 adolescents in the age group14 and 18 years with a body mass index (BMI) over 35 who went through the program of change in lifestyle by the implantation of the gastric band, and were followed for two years.

The gastric band group, in two years, “had lost an average of 28.3% of their total weight and 78.8% of overweight”, and in the group of the lifestyle the total weight loss was on “average 3.1% of the total weight and 13.2% of overweight”.