Obesity: The walking financial time bomb BBC News
People who qualify for surgery often need care - over many years - for other conditions including diabetes, heart disease and arthritis. Untreated, their risk of premature death is high.
With surgery 60% to 90% get resolution of their diabetes, with an overall cost-saving on healthcare about three years after surgery.
But before anyone thinks that the problem stops here, think again.
To date, we have only been talking about little more than 2% of the UK population - the morbidly obese.
In fact, 62% of Britons are already obese or overweight, so government can no longer treat this as an issue of obesity prevention.
Around 13m people fall into an intermediate category where, ineligible for surgery, they nevertheless may benefit from losing 10 to 30kg (20 to 60 pounds).
So what should be done?
For government, there is no clearly defined strategy - GPs can offer dietary advice at one end of the scale, or surgery at the other. They can urge people to turn to some of the commercial dietary plans, but there are few partnerships to achieve this.
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