UNION, New Jersey (12/6/11) – Weight loss surgery patients from New Jersey got to show off their new bodies, better health and increased confidence last week as they took the “Walk of Success” at the New Jersey Bariatric Center^®’s annual Sweet Success Holiday Gala.

The Walk of Success is an annual tradition started by New Jersey Bariatric Center^® founder Dr. Ajay Goyal and has grown in popularity each year since the first event, held in 2006. This year, 34 patients strutted down the red carpet to the cheering of a room of more than 200 patients and their guests. The combined total weight loss of the patients who took the “walk” was an astonishing 3,000 pounds.

“The patients who walked the red carpet tonight represent some of the most successful of our bariatric surgery patients,” said Dr. Goyal, director of Bariatric Surgery at Overlook Medical Center. “But all the patients who came tonight have their own success story to tell. For some, it’s losing 100 pounds or being able to get off their diabetes medications. For others, it’s something as simple as being able to fully wrap a towel around their body when they get out of the shower.”

The party-goers were all patients of the New Jersey Bariatric Center^®’s weight loss surgery program and had one of three different types of bariatric surgeries: gastric bypass, sleeve gastrectomy (also known as gastric sleeve) or gastric band (known by the brand names LAP-BAND® or REALIZE® band).

Weight loss surgery alters the digestive tract to aid severely obese patients in losing weight. It is considered the most effective means of controlling weight and resolving co-morbid conditions in the obese patient, according to the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons.

New Jersey Bariatric Center^® surgeons point out that surgery is only a tool. “Whether you’ve had LAP-BAND, gastric bypass or gastric sleeve, the ultimate success of the bariatric surgery patient is in that patient’s hands,” says NJBC surgeon Dr. Glenn Forrester, also Director of Bariatric Surgery at Trinitas Regional Medical Center. “The patients here tonight did not take an easy way out. In order to be successful they made the lifestyle changes that every healthy adult must make: they eat a healthy diet, avoid high-fat, high calorie foods and get plenty of exercise.”

About New Jersey Bariatric Center^®

The New Jersey Bariatric Center^®, a medical & surgical weight loss center with offices in Union and Hoboken, New Jersey, helps patients achieve long-term weight loss success through the most advanced bariatric surgery procedures, including gastric sleeve, gastric bypass, LAP-BAND  and REALIZE Band procedures. Led by the team of Drs. Ajay Goyal, Glenn Forrester, Angela Jack Glasnapp and Leigh Montes, the New Jersey Bariatric Center^®’s approach to patient care has resulted in zero mortalities and a complication rate that is lower than the national average. For more information about bariatric surgery, visit  www.NJBariatricCenter.com.