Clinical Research Directory

Inclusion Criteria: * Adolescents and young adults ages 13-18 with a BMI\>95% for age or over 30 for young adults, with pre-existing metabolic syndrome Exclusion Criteria: * Subjects on any chronic medication other than antihistamines, asthma medications, oral contraceptives or diabetes medications, smoke more than 5 cigarettes/day, suffer from alcoholism or drug abuse or have any significant abnormality not associated with metabolic syndrome on screening labs will be excluded from randomization. * Subjects currently taking Byetta will be excluded from the study, as a side effect of the drug is weight loss. * Subjects with familial hypercholesteremia may be excluded if the investigator considers the history to be severe. The data collected from subjects with a HBA1C greater than 12.5 will be analyzed in a separate group, although they will still be randomized to one of the three treatment groups. This is due to the fact that past experience has shown that these individuals run a high risk of being non-compliant with medication use, diet, and exercise plans. Results from this group will be reported separately. * Subjects who are pregnant or those desiring pregnancy will be excluded, as the safety of this intervention in pregnancy has not been established.