What is Obesity?
Find your care
Our bariatric surgeons use a range of treatments to help you reach weight loss goals and optimize your health. To learn more, call 310-206-0367.
Losing weight often feels like an uphill battle. At the UCLA Center for Obesity and METabolic (COMET) Health, we understand that permanent weight loss is often so much more than sticking to a diet. Obesity is a real medical condition that requires both expertise and proper treatment to manage.*
When you come to UCLA, our team of experts will treat you with the dignity and compassion you deserve, while providing cures and treatments for your condition, along with lower medical costs and a better quality of life.
Learn more about our weight loss treatments.
About Being Overweight
Obesity is a complex medical condition that occurs when you have too much body fat. Obesity is often associated with a lower life expectancy and a reduced quality of life, including physical limitations, body pain and fatigue. You are most likely considered to be obese if your body mass index (BMI) is 30 or higher.
Use a BMI calculator to find out your BMI.
Obesity affects more than your weight. More importantly, obesity can cause a series of severe, weight-related medical conditions, such as:
- High blood pressure (Hypertension)
- High cholesterol (Hyperlipidemia)
- Diabetes
- Cardiovascular risks: Includes stroke and heart attacks
- Fatty liver: Chronic liver condition where excess fat in your liver leads to inflammation and liver damage
- Sleep apnea: Sleep disorder where you breath irregularly during sleep
- Cancer
- Depression
- Migraine
- Back and knee pain
- Joint pain and osteoarthritis
- Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS): A female hormone imbalance that can affect periods and ovulation
- Infertility and sexual dysfunction
Benefits of Weight Loss Surgery
Bariatric surgery helps you lose excess weight by reducing the size of your stomach, removing a portion of it or by rerouting your small intestines to a newly created, smaller stomach pouch. These methods work by limiting the amount of food you can comfortably eat and/or by lowering your body’s ability to absorb food and calories. Bariatric surgery can help you lose as much as 85 percent or more of your excess weight, which is a major reason it often has a huge impact on your overall health. Studies have shown that weight loss surgery can also effectively:
- Cures high blood pressure
- Stop or reverse the progression of fatty liver
- Prevent some cancers
- Increase fertility
- Improve female and male sexual dysfunction
- Improve your quality of life and increase your life expectancy
- Effectively treat type 2 diabetes, sleep apnea and polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS)
- Provide pain relief
Bariatric surgery is now considered safer than removing your gallbladder, thanks to advancements in surgical techniques and strict quality measures. At UCLA’s COMET program, our patients report better than 95 percent satisfaction after treatments involving of one of our bariatric surgery options, including:
Learn more about bariatric surgery and our nonsurgical weight loss program at UCLA.
Contact Us
To schedule a consultation with UCLA Center for Obesity and Metabolic Health, call us at 310.206.0367 or
fill out our online form.
For a physician referral, please call (800) UCLA-MD1 (825-2631).
*Weight loss results can vary depending on the individual. There is no guarantee of specific results. Read full disclaimer.