Longitudinal assessment of body composition following bariatric surgery allows monitoring of health status. Our aim was to elucidate trends of anthropometric and clinical outcomes 3 years following sleeve gastrectomy (SG).

A prospective cohort study of 60 patients who underwent SG. Anthropometrics including body composition analysis measured by multi-frequency bioelectrical impedance analysis, blood tests, liver fat content measured by abdominal ultrasound and habitual physical activity were evaluated at baseline and at 6 (M6), 12 (M12), and 36 (M36) months post-surgery.

Sixty patients (55% women, age 44.7 ± 8.7 years) who completed the entire follow-up were included. Fat mass (FM) was reduced significantly 1 year post-surgery (55.8 ± 11.3 to 26.7 ± 8.3 kg; P < 0.001) and then increased between 1 and 3 years post-operatively, but remained below baseline level (26.7 ± 8.3 to 33.1 ± 11.1 kg; P < 0.001). Fat free mass (FFM) decreased significantly during the first 6 months (64.7 ± 14.3 to 56.9 ± 11.8 kg; P < 0.001), slightly decreased between M6 and M12 and then reached a plateau through M36. Weight loss “failure” (< 50% excess weight loss) was noticed in 5.0% and 28.3% of patients at M12 and M36, respectively. Markers of lipid and glucose metabolism changed thereafter in parallel to the changes observed in FM, with the exception of HDL-C, which increased continuingly from M6 throughout the whole period analyzed (45.0 ± 10.2 to 59.5 ± 15.4 mg/dl; P < 0.001) and HbA1c which continued to decrease between M12 and M36 (5.5 ± 0.4 to 5.3 ± 0.4%; P < 0.001). There were marked within-person variations in trends of anthropometric and clinical parameters during the 3-year follow-up.

Weight regain primarily attributed to FM with no further decrease in FFM occurs between 1 and 3 years post-SG. FM increase at mid-term may underlie the recurrence of metabolic risk factors and can govern clinical interventions.