Help Me Understand How The Lap Band Helps You?

[germanmom 0]

I'm in the decision making stage as to whether or not to have the band. I think I'm understanding that for several weeks after the banding your appetite is markedly decreased? Does the decreased appetite continue?.... I'm sure most of us have been on multiple diets and have for one reason or another, failed. I have always failed because I just plain get hungry. How does this procedure help you? Is it the fact that you can't eat more without getting sick? I do understand this is a lifestyle change but so are diets suppose to be. I'm not sure I understand what to expect from this,( its an aid but in what respect?) Any comments will be greatly appreciated.

[Greengage 1]

Hi Germanmom,

I had my band put in 6 weeks ago, and had my first "fill" yesterday. The band does give you a feeling of being full up more quickly and for longer. But getting the right a mount of restriction is tricky and needs to be adjusted carefully by your doctor.

I come from a large family, my brother had the procedure nearly three years ago and has lost 91 lbs. He has diabetes , and the weight reduction has helped with this.

The thing about the lap band is that it is not actually stitched to your body, and can be removed, if you wish. A gastric bypass is more radical surgery. I didn't have any problems with the surgery, except shoulder pain, which was a surprise!

The incisions have healed nicely. I'm watching what I eat as you can "Cheat" the band, if you were to eat lots of ice cream or fried food for example, it would slide down and gain weight.

Hope this helps....I have no regrets, Iv'e tried many diets, and I think this one is really going to help!

Good luck to you in any case!

[Corrigan 75]

Guten tag, It looks like you've asked all the right questions and gotten some very good answers.

The only thing I could add is to look for a Center of Excellence to have your surgery. They

assure you of a proficient staff and an excellent surgeon and that's half the battle. The other

half is your will power and strength of porpoise. Not all surgeons are created equal so be

careful. My DW is from Munchen.

[B-52 7,113]

I'm in the decision making stage as to whether or not to have the band. I think I'm understanding that for several weeks after the banding your appetite is markedly decreased? Does the decreased appetite continue?.... I'm sure most of us have been on multiple diets and have for one reason or another, failed. I have always failed because I just plain get hungry. How does this procedure help you? Is it the fact that you can't eat more without getting sick? I do understand this is a lifestyle change but so are diets suppose to be. I'm not sure I understand what to expect from this,( its an aid but in what respect?) Any comments will be greatly appreciated.

Lots of good questions.

First, people call the band a "Tool". I personally do not understand this concept because a tool is something that makes work easier. Being banded has not been work for me. Well, maybe yes in the early stages.

To me, the band was "surgical intervention" that, were diets have failed me in the past, this is a foreign object wrapped around my stomach and adjusted (tightened) that prevents me from doing something that I tend to do.

And that is overeating. Period. Simple.

The 2nd thing the band does for me, is it stimulates certain nerves signaling the brain that I am not hungry. Notice I did not say "Full". There is a difference between the 2.

Example: Yesterday was thanksgiving. I sat at the table and ate till I felt full. Which was very early, eating very little because of the band and the pouch.

Today, as I am typing this, I have not had a single thing to eat yet today (other than coffee and some water) and I am not hungry. I even went to the gym this am, so I should be hungry enough to eat a very large Breakfast. But I don't feel like eating. That's the band talking to my brain! Also keep in mind it took me 4 months past surgery to start to get these results. It was not instant.

So yes, as you say, diets have failed before. They failed because WE have to do the work with discipline. That is why I needed to have my stomach banded! Because I could not do it.

Also, keep in mind as you read all the posts on this board.

As with any "Bell Curve" you will have people on both ends. Those who have had the surgery and never need a adjustment (fill) and loose weight just fine, and at the other end there are those where everything went wrong for whatever reason. But then there is the large bulge (bell) in the middle where the majority are.

[honk 780]

I had a fill recently, first in 7 months. After my mushie lunch I went to BJ's and they were giving out warm sugar cookie samples. Boy did those suckers smell! Anyway. I really was not at all temped. I was full and the idea of eating anything more kind of grossed me out.

In general when I'm full I don't have the desire to eat anything more.

[54Shirley 105]

Yes it does decrease your appetite slowly..

It works on a fill after fill process.

Your Dr. will keep filling you until you know longer have the urge to go back and get filled.

This takes time. So getting the Band is just the beginning, getting filled to the proper level is what works comfortable for me anyway. So you have to get there to have total restriction if that's what your looking for.

In the meantime you will control what you eat, and lose weight. (NOW YOUR LIMITED AS TO HOW MUCH YOU CAN EAT, SO AS A RESULT YOU WILL LOSE WEIGHT.).

Then when filled enough, your Hunger Hormone is deadened, and you really don't even have a appetite. So either way, you will lose weight.

I hope this helps out.

Shirley.

[Jachut 487]

At first, like B-52 has said, I didnt find the band a "tool" either. For probably the first year, I found it surgically induced weight loss that I helped along by doing the right things, but I would have lost weight, anyway. I couldnt have helped it. I had very little real hunger, I had an appetite,but a very small one, I wasnt interested in eating between meals. Over time, despite getting more fills, I'm not sure whether that really waned, or whether my perception of it changed, I became less aware that the band was doing something and found it more work to continue losing. But that has a lot to do with the fact that I was 80lb lighter and already well under a BMI of 30, so that to lose more, I really had to 'diet'. Early on, it was very simply eat less, move more and the weight will pour off.

I've now been banded six years. Head hunger, inappropriate appetite returned for me, despite fill levels. I'm the same old person, put cake before me, I'll want to eat it. Ive been forced over the years to really work on some habits like that - and the band doesnt help it - but at the same time, the band gives you a safety net. You dont have to be perfect, like if I do eat that cake, I cant eat dinner due to the band. I'm too full. That's not necessarily healthy, but it controls calories which at the end of the day, is what losing weight is all about. You finish the weight loss phase (and I never unfilled, my weight loss just got slower and slower till it stopped, and I maintained on that fill level), you dont go back to regular eating like you would have done. You keep your band, so you keep the banded lifestyle and amazingly, the weight doesnt go back on. Christmas, birthdays etc are big days, you eat more, you drink a bit of alcohol but its not enough to cause a 5lb weight gain, its incredible.

I spoke about perception and mine is that now, I'd call myself a normal person with normal appetites who just eats a bit less than normal. But in reality, the band is still doing more for me than that. I notice that people all eat Snacks between meals, their meals are what I consider huge, they dont worry about adding dessert when they eat out, they drink calories, I do none of that becuase the band doesnt let me and has taught me not to see it as normal.

Its a tool - it really is - after the honeymoon of a year or so, it does take a lot more work and a lot of your old self creeps back in, but its a totally workable tool that is easy to use if you have the right mindset - and that mindset develops over time.

[cheryl2586 3,053]

I am coming up on two years banded the first year was a breeze but now I am still hungry but dont eat and pretty much have come to the conclusion I am dieting as I was before the band. I cant get too much of a fill because I have issues eating then it is a real problem. I think more people have issues with the band than they are willing to admit after a few years. It helps in the beginning but it never ever took my hunger away. I had and have still to this day had to control that. You have to go in to this whole thing with the mind set that you have to do some of the work it wont do it for you for me it has done about 10 percent and I have done the other 90 I get full quick yes but am hungry in about two hours and have since losing weight become severely hypoglycemic so I need to eat frequently. Does it happen to everyone No but thats my story

[B-52 7,113]

So, according to last 2 posts, all this "Surgery" and other stuff is a waste of time?? And after 1-2 years it is as though you have never been banded?

No appetite suppression? No band restriction with Portion Control? No lessons, lifestyle changes learned?

Sounds like diets I have been on before, where I loose weight only to have it come roaring back!

I want to be a loser, but not that kind!

Why waste my time! I should start thinking about having this thing removed and go back to a life of diabetes, coronary artery disease, $$ per month for Rx drugs, XXX clothes.

I was getting ready to head to the gym this am, but after reading this good news, why bother?

Me and thousands of other people have been duped!

My wife and I, after I loose an additional 15-20lbs, were researching surgery to have these "Love Handles" removed. But now I am loosing all my motivation knowing I will be a failure in 2 years.

There's a lot of people on the "Reached your personal goal???" thread in for a rude awakening!

I'm really bummed!!

[Jachut 487]

The thing is, you do change over time, or you should if you put in the work. Everyone is different, and it may not be the same for each of us. I didnt say it was doing nothing or that it was like i was never banded because it still controls portion size very well and it decreases hunger and appetite but you lose awareness of that. If it didnt do that im sure i would have gained. But i also had to be unfilled for nine months and managed to not gain because i ave a new perception of what appropriate portions are, im used to analysing urges to eat and weighing up whether i really need to or not and ive mostly overcome my addiction to sugary white carbs AND im capable of running 10k a day which helps an awful lot.

But for me, it was a definite honeymoon of an easy first year after which it settled to a tool that required more effort. Id do it a hundred times over anyway, its doing something because im fairly sure i didnt turn into a person that could lose 120 lb for good overnight. And no decent doctor would ever tell a patient tjis was anything other than a tool. Unfortunately, whether you go bavk to a life of disease and obesity is down to YOU as much as it is the band. Many people are tight but live on chocolate and icecream and stay fat, but you havent chosen to do that so why be so negative about ypur own abilities?

[elcee 3,340]

Being banded hasn't been work for me either, I have lost my weight easily. i am now 2.5 years out though and I do notice a difference. I can eat lots of things that I couldn't eat initially and they go down far easier. I also don't think it controls the hunger as much but a lot of it is head hunger. I have slipped back into a couple of bad habits lately. I will eat a biscuit(cookie) with my cup of tea in the morning when I get up before Breakfast etc. But I think the difference is I am more aware of my limits. I still weigh myself daily and so long as I am under 51kg I am happy - if it goes over that I know I need to tighten up and be more careful. I still eat way less than anyone else at mealtimes and I have to eat slowly which is how i know my band is still working. I also don't think i need another fill as I don't think it would make a difference - a lot of my non hungry eating is because I want to and I can. When that starts becoming a problem then I will have to get back on track.

But I think that really the band is now working for me the way I always hoped it would. it is allowing me to eat like a skinny person. That is I eat what i want , when i want , without having to think too much about it.

The daily weigh in keeps me on the straight and narrow. If i see that i am gaining I can cut back . I think this could be how it should work when you get to maintenance though - because if I carried on eating the way i did when I was first banded I would have probably carried on losing and got to a point where i was underweight. Hopefully that makes sense.

[Humming Bird 275]

I'm about 2 1/2 years post-op and still in love with my band. I lost 100 pounds in the first year and the rest came off a bit slower. I was lucky to get the proper restriction level early in the process. I've had a couple tiny fills during maintenance. I have put in very little effort. I still believe this is the easiest weightloss and maintenance of my life. I have been on almost every diet known in my life. None of them worked as well as this has.

How does it work for me? I get satisfied on very small portions of food. It is basic calories in vs. calories used. I have not eaten a full plate of food in 2 1/2 years. I do not exercise but my general activity level has increased since I'm not hauling around 100+ extra pounds. I do not count calories, weigh/measure food, or track anything. I'm not telling anyone not to do these things, I just can not live my life obcessing over every calorie and gram.

I do have a list of foods I can no longer tolerate, but I do not miss these foods like I thought I would.

For the question ,"Is it the fact that you can't eat more without getting sick?" Yes. At first, until I learned, if I ate too much or ate a food I could no longer tolerate, I would throw up. I hate throwing up, so it didn't take me long to figure out my full signal and stop eating. When I get my full signal I do not take another bite even if it means throwing the last bite or 2 on my plate in the trash.

[Humming Bird 275]

back when I was just starting we were chatting with a lapband doc in a thread "I don't understand". I saved one of the Dr.'s posts because I liked the basic explaination. Here is his post:

All weight loss comes from calorie deficit (burning more calories than you consume). Burning more and consuming less is what causes weight loss.

The band will not force you to burn calories. The band helps with the consuming less part. It helps with this in three major ways:

1. Reduced appetite - some surgeons argue that the band is an appetite reduction operation. It has been shown to reduce appetite hormones. Patients say they don't feel hungry - they don't feel like they are on a diet. The band reduces true physical hunger. Some of us struggle with emotional hunger, phantom hunger which is not cured by the band but reducing physical hunger is very helpful at combatting head hunger. Emotional hunger comes from deep rooted emotional pain causing negative emotion that is unfortunately temporarily cured by food.

2. Fullness on small portions - the amount of stomach above the band is small. You will feel full on a much smaller portion of food if the band is properly adjusted. The fullness feeling is not a "pat your lower belly" kind of fullness. Band fullness is a very high sensation - in the chest - the feeling that the last bite of food is somewhere near the base of the tongue and another crumb will not be physically allowed.

3. The impossible nature of overeating - let's say you feel full and not hungry but you decide that you will overeat anyway. A properly adjusted band simply will not allow this. A point will be reached where the system will reject anything more. The esophagus (swallowing tube) is a transport organ; not a storage organ. The esophagus has two buttons: down and up. It will try down first. If that doesn't work, it switches to up and you get to see the food again.

We've been banding for eight years and we see three groups of patients in our practice:

Group 1 - gold medal superstar patients who lose easily and steadily after band surgery and send us Christmas cards that will bring tears to your eyes.

Group 2 - patients who acheive the same ultimate results as Group 1 but it takes longer with more office visits and more education and slower weight loss but we still get there. The race car crosses the finish line but it's on fire and badly damaged.

Group 3 - patients that will be three years out from band surgery and only down 20 or 30 pounds. The three biggest reasons patients are in this group are: 1.) unsolved emotional eating 2.) zero calorie burning 3.) Quit, give up, stop coming to the practice for band adjustments, education, etc

One of the best books I've seen on emotional eating is: "Shrink Yourself" by Dr. Gould. Many patients have told me this helps. The secret to curing emotional eating is to identify the root cause of this negative emotional pain and work through it. This is the most difficult aspect of successful weight loss.

[54Shirley 105]

So, according to last 2 posts, all this "Surgery" and other stuff is a waste of time?? And after 1-2 years it is as though you have never been banded?

No appetite suppression? No band restriction with Portion Control? No lessons, lifestyle changes learned?

Sounds like diets I have been on before, where I loose weight only to have it come roaring back!

I want to be a loser, but not that kind!

Why waste my time! I should start thinking about having this thing removed and go back to a life of diabetes, coronary artery disease, $$ per month for Rx drugs, XXX clothes.

I was getting ready to head to the gym this am, but after reading this good news, why bother?

Me and thousands of other people have been duped!

My wife and I, after I loose an additional 15-20lbs, were researching surgery to have these "Love Handles" removed. But now I am loosing all my motivation knowing I will be a failure in 2 years.

There's a lot of people on the "Reached your personal goal???" thread in for a rude awakening!

I'm really bummed!!

I'm sure you really don't believe that ! You know yourself that the weight comes off slower then any other WLS..

As long as you keep working that band, it will work for you. This is a life long thing, and I'm in this for the Long Haul.

I know I won't be a size 0,,,, that's a unrealistic goal, but yet some people think that will happen.

Maybe for them it will, but it won't for me.

I will take whatever I can get out of this Band, and keep working it for more. When I hit Rock Bottom, and weight stops coming off, then that's it for me. As long as I am Healthy, that's what matters.

I will never be Bikini Material, and I new that when I was banded.

My surgeon even asked me how small did I expect to get ?

I said a 14 would be nice ! That's it ? Yeah, but 12 would be nicer. He said it's all doable with the Band. At least your realistic about your goals.

I guess what I am saying is don't get down do to a posting, were all different, and success comes in surprises from what I know, and see.

So keep going to the Gym, and busting your butt. It's well worth it.

[cheryl2586 3,053]

So B52 you thought you would have the band and not put any work in to it? Come on you have to do some of it. Even on a diet the diet wont work unless you work with it. Im not sorry I did it because I surely couldnt have lost 70lbs without it. I get full faster but my hunger was never satisfied some people not all will never get hunger control so its up to me not to eat like a pig and I dont I have normal portions and thats it or under normal portions I never go back for seconds and I eat very healthy with lots of fruit and vegetables and a little meat. Sometimes I have sweets but not often because I cant have just one piece of chocolate and be satisfied. If you look at that you will never have to do anything and lose weight that is one mistake because most have to help some do nothing and lose but most people have to work at it always.