Understanding the Importance of Body Composition Changes After Obesity Treatment

From Surgical Readings by The American College of Surgeons

June 10, 2026 · 18 min · Episode 27

About this episode

This episode discusses the comparison of body composition changes between GLP-1 treatments and bariatric surgery for obesity treatment.

With a growing reliance on GLP-1 treatments for obesity, researchers at VanderbiltUniversity in Nashville, Tennessee, compared body composition changes betweenpatients who used GLP-1s versus patients who underwent bariatric surgery for obesitytreatment. In this episode, host Rick Greene, MD, FACS, talks with Jason M. Samuels, MD,FACS, one of the authors of Body Composition Changes After Bariatric Surgery orTreatment With GLP-1 Receptor Agonists about the findings, which showed that whileboth treatments reduced fat mass, surgery helped preserve fat-free mass such as muscleand organ tissues. Talk about the podcast on social media using the hashtag #SurgicalReadings

People in this episode

Host: Rick Greene, MD, FACS

Guest: Jason M. Samuels, MD, FACS

Topics covered

body composition
obesity treatment
GLP-1 treatments
bariatric surgery
fat mass
fat-free mass

Keywords

body composition
obesity
GLP-1
bariatric surgery
fat mass
muscle preservation

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Vanderbilt University, American College of Surgeons