Carnie Wilson's War: Weight Gain After Gastric Bypass

March 13, 2008 — -- For many veterans of crash diets, killer workouts and tailored meal plans, weight loss surgery is the nuclear option in a battle against the bulge.

But while such procedures can indeed lead to dramatic weight loss, for some the pounds return.

Such appears to be the case with musical star Carnie Wilson, whose fluctuating figure dominated tabloid front pages this week in the latest chapter of her widely publicized fight against obesity since her gastric bypass surgery in 1999.

Wilson, 31 at the time, weighed more than 300 pounds before the procedure that reduced the size of her stomach to that of an egg.

Speaking with ABC's "20/20" at the time, Wilson said that at that weight she felt "tired a lot, I'd feel sluggish. I started getting paranoid. ... I felt like I was going to have a heart attack."

By all accounts, Wilson's procedure was a success; she dropped 152 pounds and her new trim figure soon made her the poster child of weight loss surgery.

She regained 70 pounds in 2005, when she was pregnant with her daughter, but later lost the weight. Until recently she sported a trimmer figure.

But that appears to have changed. New photos released by the celebrity Web site TMZ.com Tuesday show the singing star significantly heavier than before.

Without a doubt, weight loss surgery works. Within the first two years of surgery, most patients who have such procedures can expect to lose 50 percent to 80 percent of their excess weight.

This means that if a patient's ideal weight is 150 pounds and they weigh 350 pounds, they can expect to lose between 100 and 160 pounds in those first two years. And following suggested lifestyle modifications, most of which revolve around healthy diet and regular exercise, can go a long way in ensuring that this weight stays off.

But for some, like Wilson, the weight can come back.

"We know that 5 percent or maybe even more of these patients over time can regain weight," said Dr. Daniel Jones, director of the bariatric program at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. "A large part of that has to do with the fact that the factors that caused them to be overweight to begin with are still out there."