LapBand?

I had my lapband surgery about 7 months ago.. I had tried to lose weight before and gained it back.. As with any diet or surgery you have to be ready to make life style changes.. All diets , surgeries etc all fail if you dont make these changes..

I have been obese my whole life and I finally decided to make those changes.. I gave up alot of little things to gain the most important thing.. A new life !

The lap band is a great tool but if you arent prepared to follow a strict diet plan and workout it will not help you.

As far as my decision to have it I feel like it was one of the best things I have done.. Recovery time was very fast.. I was back to work in under 2 weeks.. Which depending on your job it could be less. I havent had any problems so far.. Knock on wood hehe..

I have lost 122 pounds or so in 7 months after my band surgery..

Whatever you decide I wish you the best of luck and will give you all the support I can to help you

Have a great day

I was banded in December 2010 and I have been diagnosed with PCOS although it is not severe enough that I have to be on medication and I was able to get pregnant twice without fertility treatments (even though my doctor says that I shouldn't have been able to). Since I started my pre-op diet in mid November, I have lost 86.8 lbs.

The tipping point for me was having to have knee surgery a year ago to repair a torn meniscus (injured while working out) and after it was over my surgeon showed me picture of my knee and informed me that I had advanced arthritis in that knee (and suspected in the other knee) due to my obesity and it isn't a matter of "if" I will need a knee replacement but "when". I couldn't imagine going through that sort of surgery at my weight (325 lbs) so I started looking in to LapBand surgery.

You are right that the LapBand is just a tool and you have to do your part to make that tool work for you. I still have to make good food choices, weigh and measure my food and count my calories every day. My band doesn't prevent me from eating anything and it doesn't stop me from eating too much if I really want to. What it does do is help me feel satisfied on smaller amounts of food - note that I didn't say "full". I rarely feel full when I'm finished eating - I measure out my food and stop eating when it is gone - that took quite a while to get used to.

The reason I mention all of this is that there are too many people who think that they can get a band and it will do all the work for them...they honestly think that they can keep eating McDonalds Extra Value Meals (only eat less of it) and lose weight...it doesn't work that way.

It sounds like you are dedicated to losing the weight so as long as you are willing to continue to work hard the LapBand might be a good solution for you.

Good Luck!

Hey, I was VERYYYYYYYYY hesistant on having LB! I decided I dont want to live my life being over weight anymore! TRIED EVERYTHING! BESTTTTTTTTTT DECISION EVER!!! I went for a consultation and said "NO WAY" did Jenny craig for a few month following only to continue gaining weight! woke up 10 months later and said, "I AM GOING TO DO IT!!!!" 3 months later was the beginning of a new and happier me!

I was banded may of last year, and I am not going to lie I am struggling with it. The recovery time of the actual surgery was a week for me and I was back to work. I did good with it for a while and was down 50 lbs total from pre surgery and post surgery. I have gained some of the weight back, and now I am working to get back on track with the help of mfp.

My advice to you is make sure that you are really ready for the change. The process to get to surgery was a long one for me, but once I completed the necessary steps the surgery happened very fast, and honestly I do not think I was ready for it. I do not regret the decision I just wish I would have been a little more mentally prepared. Your whole life will change, not just the way you look. It is important to realize that. I think you should do whatever is right for you and you will know.

Also know that the way in which you eat will change. I was not told about this before surgery and I wish I would have realized. You have to eat very slow or you will get sick. That has happened to me several times and it is just not fun. Good luck with your decision, I'm sure you will make the right decision, and I am here to offer any advie. Friend me if you ever want to chat about it or need help with anything else. Good luck!!!

@Ambermagdalena.
I have been a bander since 2007. To my knowledge people who do the gastric by pass and stretch out their pouch end up with a lap band. So, my choice was LapBand.

I have lost 125 pounds. I struggle now to pull the last 20ish pounds off. My pants size goal is a 10. If I would stop carbing out I could reach my goal. So Myfitnesspal is a nice eye opener.
I am looking for fitness pal friends, open to friends request.

I had considered gastric bypass but was told that I didn't meet the body mass weight requirements and then talked to a friend who is an anesthia nurse and she said a friend of hers had it done. (bypass)

She lost a ton of weight and then broke her leg in the parking garage and fell....yes in that order...because her bones were so weak due to malabsorption issues.

Later on after the leg healed....she died behind the wheel of her car and crashed into a telephone pole....in that order...her heart gave out again freaky malabsorption issues.

Obviously I am not saying this to freak you out, but this was a NURSE that thought she needed quick life saving results from her weight issue and now she is gone.

Ask your doctor about all of the issues for side effects and complications and then weigh it carefully. It is up to you but I would think slow and steady is safer on your body, your bones and your heart than sprinting to the finish line while falling apart.

Hi, I am banded and I have pcos. I did take met but I release myself from it. My highest weight was 297. My lowest 219. I am currently 244. When I first got the band I lost alot of weight because I was determined and knew that this could be the tool that I needed. Then I noticed that I could eat more and more and more. It wasn't because I didn't have it filled enough either. My doctor says I am nearly full. I feel that it is mostly my fault and not the bands. I think that I have manipulated it to work how I want it to work. I like food and unfortunately, it cannot keep me away from it. I also think that pcos keeps me from losing as much weight as those without. I am going to get it together and I am going to lose this weight! IF you are more determined than I and think that you can get rid of most of your bad eating habits then this could really help you. Now, I know that us pcos'ers have a habit of craving sweets and carbs; well this is going to be very difficult to overcome because those things go through the band very easily. In conclusions and the most important part, IF THE BAND IS USED PROPERLY it is very beneficial and will help you with your weight loss. Exercise and proper eating habits still apply with the band, not like other more evasive surgeries.

Hi I was banded on July 22, 2011 so I am pretty new to this! I believe this was the best decision for me and am determined to make it work for me. I know I still need to concentrate on eating healthy and excercising and that is why i joined my fitness pal. So far I am doing well, I am hungry but am trying to stick to what the doctor has told me to do (not without failure) but I think I am doing ok. I started my journey at 276 lbs and as of today I am at 252 lbs, I realize it won't always come off that fast due to the fact that I have been basically on liquid for three weeks.

I am 36, I was banded December 2009. In June 2006, my mother just so happend to win a free 2 month membership to Curves for two and I went with her. When I got on the scale, I was in shock! I was almost 390lbs!!! I had no idea I had gotten so big. I've always been overweight, since I was about 5, maybe before that even. In high school I was around 250 and a size 24. I had my daughter when I was 19 and got on birth control shots and I knew I gained about 50lbs after that. When I gave birth to myy son at 29, I was about 325. I remember going shopping and getting bigger and bigger clothes... 4x, 5x, 6x, then 7x or size 40, but even then my size did not click. It didn't hit me until I was on a scale and saw the number.

So anyway, I started working out at Curves and had trouble losing weight at first, but was dropping inches. After about 2 years, I think I had only lost 30 lbs and hit a plateau. The Curves workout was getting too easy for me I thought. So I joined another gym. I ended up getting down to 310 and hit another plateau. Then I think I gave up and ended up gaining 30lbs back. I tried to get back to working out and eating better and nothing was working so I started researching weight loss surgeries. I chose lapband because it was cheaper, I had to pay for it out of pocket because my insurance wouldn't cover it.

I was 340 when I started seeing my lap band doctor. Did the prediet for 3 months and lost 12lbs. I lost another 11lbs on my 2 weeks supposed to be liquid diet (I snuck in food), so my surgery weight was 317. I didn't have a whole lot of success in the beginining, 4 or 5 lbs a month. But one month I had a period for 2 1/2 weeks, and that month I lost 11lbs, and then I started losing about 8 lbs a month. Then I started back on birth control and didn't really have periods anymore, I don't know if that had something to do with it, but my weight loss started slowing down.

I think the beginning of this year I got down to 348. My last visit to my fill doctor was in February and he actually took a tiny bit of fluid out because I was havnig so much trouble in the morning even getting down liquids. Then I went on spring break with my kids the end of March, and pigged out and over the next 2 months gained 10lbs. And I was mad at myself!!! I didn't go back to my fill doctor cause I didn't want to drive all the way to Chicago (a 3 1/2 hr drive) knowing that it was purely my fault for gaining, so I decided to try to cut back on my own and been struggling every since. I've been losing inches, but only a few pounds. I started a new job at the end of July so I won't have insurance until December and can't see my doctor until then.

But all in all, I would say having the band has been a good experince. About 67lbs lost since being banded. I could have had a fill doctor that filled me all the way up and felt sick all the time like some do, but lost a lot quickly. And I know there are people who have lost way more way faster just with diet and exercise, but my fear is gaining it back, and my band has helped keep me in check with that. But I'm kinda glad too that I am losing more slowly because I feel like I am learning my lessons, how to still enjoy food without going overboard and balance it out with exercise, like we are supposed to do. And losing more slowly I think my skin has a better chance of recovery, although right now it looks bad because I can tell I have a lot fat hanging with muscle underneath. So, I keep trucking!!!

That's my long story. Any fellow bandsters, feel free to add me. I need all the help I can get!