Thin = Rich

at least from the perspective of pharmaceutical companies.

Think of how big the market for a safe, effective weight loss drug would be. Think of how many people already are willing to undergo the risks of gastric bypass surgery.

Of course, once an effective drug hits the market, pressure on physicians to prescribe it for those who just want to lose a few pounds, as opposed to the truly obese, will be enormous. Of course, you can count on the pharma companies to market directly to consumers, just like they did with Cox-2 inhibitors.

One quote I liked from the article about the difficulty of keeping weight off:

"There's a tremendous body drive to restore that weight," Dr. Corkey said. Some people do lose a lot of weight and keep it off, she said. "But their lives are spent keeping weight off. And that's kind of their profession."

The people I know who've succesfully lost weight and kept it off used exercise as a big part of both.