Inquiring minds wanna know???

I really don't think that lapband surgery is a good idea. My best friends sister was always heavy and she had the procedure done and she lost the weight but she doesn't look healthy. She looks like she's malnurished to be honest and she has huge bags under her eyes and her skin looks awful like grayish yellowish and pale. 800 cals a day just doesnt seem right.

It is a must stick to rule that you never go below 1200 cal. or you wil go into starvation mode, so my question is... if that is the case why is it required for Lap Band people to eat 800 cal.. Why can't anyone do this???

That is because "starvation mode" is a myth. There is no truth to it at all.

That may be the case but everybody has a bmr and staying underneath that is not giving your body the proper nutrition it needs to maintain itself and you'll probably lose weight but I don't think you'll look very healthy or be very healthy

I don't know much Lap Band, but my friend had either that or something similar like that done. If she eats too much (at least shortly after she had it done) she would literally fill up and out it will come. Not really throw-up, but it would just fill her up.

I don't know a ton about those lap bands but I have read a few articles about them stating that after a quick and dramatic weight loss for most of the people who have the surgery, most will inexplicably gain the weight back over time, even while eating less than 1000 calories per day. The one friend I know who has had the band (for 4 years) followed this exact pattern. I know, one person isn't exactly enough to base an opinion on, but there does seem to be some evidence that super low calorie diets cause some sort of weight gain backlash.

It is a must stick to rule that you never go below 1200 cal. or you wil go into starvation mode, so my question is... if that is the case why is it required for Lap Band people to eat 800 cal.. Why can't anyone do this???

That is because "starvation mode" is a myth. There is no truth to it at all.

Starvation Mode is not a myth its just become a phrase that has gotten thrown around to quick. If a person eats less than should for a long period of time, which is different different from person to person, your body can go into to starvation mode. It does not happen overnight or in a matter of days. 1200 is just a generalized number, but I think if you want to go below you should talk to a doctor or nutritionist. I ate much less than I should have at one time which was around 800 calories a day. I did this for a year. Because of that I damaged my metabolism and started getting physically and mentally sick. It took a long time for me to be able to increase my calorie intake to a healthy level for me without gaining weight. I did this with the help of a nutritionist who got me back to where I needed to be. As far as people who have had lapband: It is a big adjustment. My best friend had it in college and had alot of side effects including hairloss and vomiting if she ate a little to much. She was also being montitored by doctors because of the calorie restriction and had to take supplements to get the vitamins and nutrients she needed.

Most people who have Lap band are not recommended to eat 800cal/day or even less than 100cal/day. Starvation mode is real! Your bosy, at some point, will go into self-preservation mode to protect its vital functions. I felt this on my 5 day liquid preop diet of about 1200 calories. I also lost ONE POUND in this week, not some dramatic drop.

I follow an average of 1200 cal/day plan with some room for more if I've worked out a lot and need more fuel for my metabolism. Most professionals will tell you less than 100cal/day is not healthy and not sustainable for very long with or without surgery. As a sidenote, many bypass patients consume less than 1000cal/day in the first year or so post op just because their restriction is greater, but they always are required to take supplements to ensure good nutrition

If you go to the "Lap-Band" brand of bands website, and read down to where it says "Risks", click on it and they tell what what you can expect. It says that they did a 3 year follow up study of 299 patients. Of these patients, "88% had adverse side effects"....so much so that 25% of them had the band removed. I mean, 88%??? That means that if you have this procedure, YOU WILL HAVE PROBLEMS!

Why would anyone have a procedure done to them if it had that high of a problem rate?

Adverse side effects can mean anything from reflux to nausea and vomiting, which are predominantly self induced states- eating too much/too fast or too tight bands (read: overfill of saline). It is major sugery! There is the potential for post op complications as well. Band slippage, erosion, and port issues are possible, but most of the time they are easily fixed through outpatient measures. Slippage can sometimes be resolved by unfilling the band. True erosion will require surgery, but most patients who get to this point have not followed their aftercare and diet modification. You have to read the research well to understand what "complications" and "adverse effects" mean, what the subject retention was over the 3 yrs, etc. Also, one small scale study of 299 patients is not enough to judge a procedure as unsafe. Furthermore, there have been newer, improved models of the band introduced since that study with much lower removal and erosion rates.

I am not going to say that the procedure has no risks, but it is safe and the majority of patients do not have these kinds of complications. Personally, I have not vomitted, been nauseous, or sick since my surgery and it has been almost 7 months. Occasionally I do get a little GERD, but it is only if I eat too fast. That kind of negative feedback is reinforcement to me to follow the rules.

For anyone who decides to have WLS, you need to find an experienced surgeon with a strong supportive behavior modification program. In addition, the individual must be prepared and driven to make these permanent lifestyle changes and commit to followup.

Having lapband and making my very personal decision to better my life were the best things I have ever done for myself.

So please do not say that everyone will have problems because they do not.

This is the problem with weight loss surgery, as well as the reason why so many fail to maintain weight loss. You have to change what food is in your life. It has to be fuel that your body needs to keep working, and little more. Once you take away the emotional signifigance of it, it's so much easier to make the right choices most of the time, with a little splurge here and there. Until that change takes place, the weight will never stay off. This is the reason we say it's a lifestyle change, not a diet.

That is absolutely true. It's not just weight loss surgery, it applies to everyone. Learning that food= fuel is very hard. Unlearning deep rooted "truths" and behaviors can be the hardest part. Emotional eaters and food addicts need the most support, that's why counseling and things like OA are beneficial with or without surgery. People who go into surgery without making behavior modifications and getting food issues under control set themselves up to fail.

All ASBMS (American society of bariatric & metabolic surgery) accredited WLS hospitals/surgeons have support programs to work through behavior modification and clear patients through every step of the process including psych eval to identify those people who are emoptional eaters and food addicts.

Just my 2 cents