I am starting the process and my insurance requires the 6 month waiting period. My problem is that I can lose weight, just not keep it off. I am wondering if anyone has lost a significant amount of weight during their 6 month waiting period and if it affected their coverage? I have read that they go by your starting weight and not your ending weight. I am ready to lose weight. I've done diets, gave up, tried to be fat and happy, and now am at my fattest and tired of it. I just know if I start a liquid or low carb diet plus exercise, I will lose weight. I just won't be able to keep it off long term and that is why I want the band. It will help keep me from getting overly hungry and remind me that overeating won't "work".

Hello,

I did weight watchers and excercised and lost 45 pounds before my surgery and everything was fine, a friend of mine was not aloud to lose more than 10 pounds but not aloud to gain. I think it depends on your insurance/doctor. Good luck!

I am starting the process and my insurance requires the 6 month waiting period. My problem is that I can lose weight, just not keep it off. I am wondering if anyone has lost a significant amount of weight during their 6 month waiting period and if it affected their coverage? I have read that they go by your starting weight and not your ending weight. I am ready to lose weight. I've done diets, gave up, tried to be fat and happy, and now am at my fattest and tired of it. I just know if I start a liquid or low carb diet plus exercise, I will lose weight. I just won't be able to keep it off long term and that is why I want the band. It will help keep me from getting overly hungry and remind me that overeating won't "work".

I did the aetna 3 month "fast track" - which actually took almost 6 months to complete. I was right at the 40 BMI and was told not to lose or gain during that waiting period.

Mine was six months with monthly nutritionist visits. I was fortunate to have a great nutritionist who really prepared me well for life after banding and helped a lot with getting myself in the habit of making good dietary choices even before banding. I lost 18 pounds during the pre-op phase.

You need to ask you doctor how they handle weight loss esp if you are near 40 and your insurance says you have to be over 40 BMI to have surgery. I was so far above 40 that I still qualified even though I lost 50 pounds between first consult and surgery. These 6 months are the time to start learning new food and eating habits.

Start eating like a naturally thin person. To me this means eating healthy foods most of the time. Have a grilled chicken sandwich instead of fried. Stop eating french fries and have a baked potato. Stop having "a few bites" here and there. They add up! And you always eat more than you think.

Getting the Lap Band is only half of the battle. You need to rewire you brain. I thought I was making good food choices but I was'nt. I would buy baked lays and crackers thinking they were low fat. My problem was I would eat half a bag at a time.

i had Eatna and did the 6 months, i weighed 314 lbs, i could go down to 275 and no lighter, i also had high blood pressure, high cholesterol, sleep apnea, but i only lost around 10 lbs. and on the last weigh in i gained 4 back. and was approved in 10 days max...!

I went from 390 pounds down to 372 and stayed there I'm scheduled for surgery 2/10/2011 and starting the pre op shakes on Wednesday. I am sure that another 5-10 pounds will come off with that. I guess if I could drop with just diet and exercise alone then I wouldn't have needed to consider the surgery at all. I Think that if you are younger (i'm almost 63) more significant pre op weight drops could be expected but i'm not sure of that.

Well, that is kind of where I am. I feel like if I have to wait 6 months, I am going to be trying to get as much weight off before the surgery as I possibly can. This will help me heal from the surgery plus if I spend the 6 months trying to keep my diet and exercise what it needs to be once I have the surgery, it won't be that bad of a psychological shock. I feel motivated by the fact I can have this awesome tool that will hopefully keep me from weight regain and keep me on track. Right now, I have no such motivation. I feel like I have lost and regained the same 20, 30, 40lbs with even more weight regain over and over again. I don't want to bother. But now that I can potentially take it off and keep it off, I am motivated.

I know I kind of think differently.