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Congratulations! 2025 has kicked into gear, and you may find yourself looking seriously at optimizing your health and weight with New Year’s resolutions. Your motivation is at a high point, and it is important to harness the momentum and run with it toward a healthier you.

Weight loss looks different for everyone, and it is important to understand the many options available to you so you can make the appropriate choice for your lifestyle and goals. Your primary care provider can refer you to a specialized weight loss provider who can help you with powerful weight loss approaches. Weight loss specialists work on a team to support you with medical weight loss — also known as nonsurgical weight loss — and surgical weight loss options to help you achieve your goal. It’s important to understand both approaches to see if you may benefit from these medically supervised approaches.

Medical weight loss usually consists of medically supervised lifestyle changes, alongside pharmaceutical aids as appropriate. Lifestyle changes include adjustments to your diet in terms of macronutrients, quantities and timing, as well as modifications of physical activity. Diet and exercise changes as well as attention to stress and sleep management can help you lose weight. Many medical weight loss programs have resources to help you along the journey, such as dietitians, personal trainers, and check-ins with a health care provider, such as a nurse practitioner or physician, to monitor your progress and help you reach your weight loss goals. Long-term weight management often integrates behavioral counseling as well to ensure lasting changes.

Certain FDA-approved medications, such as GLP-1s, may be able to help with weight loss by modifying some elements of your metabolism. These medications can be effective for individuals with a body mass index (BMI) between 30-35 when combined with diet and exercise. BMI is a medical screening tool that measures the ratio of your height to your weight and is correlated with categorizing excess weight along the spectrum of obesity, and categorizing the risk of severe health consequences associated with excess weight and obesity.

Medical weight loss can be a good starting point for those who aim to lose weight slowly or are hoping to lose 40 pounds or less. However, for those with weight loss goals higher than this, or for those who are suffering from more severe weight-related health conditions, surgical weight loss options are worth exploring.

Surgical weight loss, or bariatric surgery, is a more powerful tool than medical weight loss alone. Individuals with a BMI over 35 with additional medical conditions that stem from obesity (such as heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep apnea and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)) are ideal candidates for a surgical approach to weight loss. The weight loss surgeries that are performed modify the body’s naturally produced hormones and make direct changes to a patient’s metabolism. These changes in your hormones and metabolism are how surgical weight loss can facilitate a person to not only lose more weight than medical weight loss alone, but also to keep the weight off for good.

Surgical options range from incisionless procedures such as endoscopic gastric balloons and endoscopic sleeve gastrectomy to commonly recognized minimally invasive bariatric surgeries. Surgical options include the gastric sleeve, the gastric bypass, and the single-anastomosis duodenal switch, or SADI, all of which create changes to the stomach, and sometimes to the intestines. These operations are performed with small incisions, over a few hours, with a planned return home after an overnight stay. While every surgery has risks, surgical weight loss procedures are widely known to be safe and effective, with a risk profile similar to gallbladder removal surgery.

Surgical weight loss can lead to significant weight loss that lasts decades and usually for a lifetime. As a result, weight loss surgery helps send associated health problems such as diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, PCOS and metabolic syndrome into remission. Importantly, weight loss surgery not only reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, but also reduces the risk of cancer development and recurrence. In fact, weight loss surgery is now referred to as “metabolic surgery” because of the powerful effects on metabolism and metabolic disease associated with obesity.

Weight loss surgery can help you lose pills as well as pounds and feel more energized in your busy life. Weight loss surgery affects how much food you can eat in one meal, and it also affects how food moves through your digestive system. Weight loss surgery changes your digestive hormones and your metabolism, which results in powerful weight loss; with these metabolic changes, your weight loss will be durable and long-lasting. Surgery needs to be supported with lifestyle changes, and it is important to talk to a weight loss surgeon about whether surgical weight loss is appropriate for you.

For some individuals, medical weight loss methods provide the structure and support needed to lose weight safely and sustainably. For others, surgical weight loss may be the most powerful and most durable long-term weight loss solution. If you are interested in medical or surgical weight loss, discuss this with your health care provider to help get access to a medically supervised weight loss program for more information.

Many surgical and medical weight loss programs offer informational seminars or a consultation visit with a specialized provider to become informed about available weight loss options. You can meet with a medical weight loss provider or a weight loss surgeon to gain information about both types of interventions. Most importantly, your commitment to your health and your willingness to adapt to a healthier lifestyle are going to be the most important pillars of your success. Find out about how medical weight loss or surgical weight loss programs can help you achieve your goal of becoming your healthiest self in 2025.

Dr. Venugopal is an assistant professor of Clinical Surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Dr. Venugopal is accepting patients at the Vanderbilt Weight Loss Center, in Shelbyville, Murfreesboro and Nashville.