Doctors in the U.S. do not get much, if any, nutritional education in school. They tell people to lose weight, but cannot really give them good guidance. A person will have to research and find answers on their own in many cases. For example, how many of us told our doctors about LCing vs. them recommending it to us as a way to lose weight? I'll bet a very small percentage of us had medical guidance to reach the LC way.

Doctors will more than likely intervene, well, medically. Throw a pill at it or cut out the problem. For example, when I was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease, my gastroenterologist never told me anything about diet modification. He had no problem writing Rx's for steriods though. I gained a lot of weight on those. When I finally got sick of taking them, I started researching a carbohydrate diet that helps alot of Crohnies. That's when I also decided to investigate Atkins.

Tell a doctor you can't lose weight and they will tell you to exercise more or cut back on calories, maybe give you a diet pill that will be pulled of the market in 6 months if it doesn't kill you first. Or if you qualify, they may send you to a surgeon who will do gastric bypass surgery.

This disease of obesity is as much psychological as it is physical. Someone with a food addiction cannot simply stop eating. An alcoholic can stop consuming alcohol, but a food addict still has to eat to live. Behavior modification in my experience should be the first line of defense for people who are battling obesity.

I don't blame people for opting for the surgery. I have personally felt desperate enough myself to think about gaining enough weight to qualify for it. In many cases, they just don't see any other way and their doctors can't/won't help them. But as has been said, in the long run, unless they change their behavior, even that may fail to work for them.