I've been researching the band and I keep running across the information that bandsters generally lose around 60% of their excess weight. Why is this? Why don't people lose 100% of their excess weight? Or at least close to 100%? Are we physically incapable of it? Does something change inside of us? Do we just get to a certain point where we give up and say "ok, this is good enough." Because it seems to me that if you are properly restricted and exercise regularly and lose 60 pounds, if you continue on the same way, wouldn't you continue to lose until you reached a healthy weight?

Using myself as an example, I'm 5'6" and weigh 240. I'm 100 pounds above my "healthy" weight. If I were to lose 60% of that, I'd weigh 180 pounds and have a BMI of 29, which is just shy of obese. Maybe I'm being unrealistic - and please tell me if I am - but that seems nuts to me. I'd go through the insurance nightmare and the surgery and the liquid diet and the pain and I'd still be (for all intents and purposes) obese? It doesn't make sense to me.

I've reconciled myself to never being skinny, but I'd be really upset if obese was the best I could do. My goal is to get healthy, not just "less unhealthy."

Please tell me - am I delusional?

I know that my "best" weight is around 70kg at 5ft 10. Most of the surgeon's literature says getting me down to just mildly overweight is about what they aim for. I told him I"m not paying $3,000 and going through this to still be overweight. Low 70's is where I want to be. He laughed and said dont worry, they take it on an individual basis. Meaning if I still require a fill after I've hit about 80kg to get down a bit lower, he's happy to do it, within a healthy weight range.

But he did point out that having been much heavier, my bone and muscle mass is more than it was when I was 70kg, so I may be just as slender at 76kg this time, depending on how much lean tissue I manage to preserve while losing weight.

I dont really care so much what the scale says as I want to make it into an Australian size 14. Then I can shop anywhere.