Once you're at goal weight, do you get the band removed or is it life long?

Its lifelong - most people still need Fluid in their band too to maintain their loss.

Whatever you do to lose weight, you have to do forever to keep the weight off. You'd think you'd learn new habits and be able to go it alone past a certain point, but statistically that hasnt proven to be the case.

My surgeon said that in the few cases where people had their bands removed, they gained the weight back. If you keep in mind that the band works by suppressing our appetites by putting pressure on the vagus nerves...removal of the band means that hunger will most likely return. I'm planning on keeping mine.

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After nearly 3 years, I still want to eat everything I put on my plate. Even though intellectually I know I won't be able to. I also put much less on my plate than I did 3 years ago.

If my band were gone, my portions would go right back to where they were pre-banding. Yep, I'll need some form of surgical intervention to keep my weight down for the rest of my life.