So I have grid every imaginable diet, a week ago I decided to get banded, tonight my daughter and husband decided to ask, f I can dedicate th diet change now, why not before, if I can commit to eating less now, why not now. They say its a "short cut". My daughter is 19. I don't feel it s a shortcut, but is it?.

So I have grid every imaginable diet, a week ago I decided to get banded, tonight my daughter and husband decided to ask, f I can dedicate th diet change now, why not before, if I can commit to eating less now, why not now. They say its a "short cut". My daughter is 19. I don't feel it s a shortcut, but is it?.

could be. i dont see it that way, but that is me.

like you i have (dieted) and had great success but always gained it back...so whatever. this surgery is a tool that is there for people who need help to get healthy...it saved my life...its not easy. (trust me 36 days of all liquids is not a short cut)...so see this as something that is going to make you healthier. those who say bad things about WLS dont understand or are just stupid. everyone has a a-hole just like everyone has an opinion.

if you want it, go for it.

So I have grid every imaginable diet' date=' a week ago I decided to get banded, tonight my daughter and husband decided to ask, f I can dedicate th diet change now, why not before, if I can commit to eating less now, why not now. They say its a "short cut". My daughter is 19. I don't feel it s a shortcut, but is it?.[/quote']

To be honest I think the majority of us have dieted in the past only to put it all back on then some. Wls surgery is not a shortcut and those that have never had a weight problem have no idea how hard it is to live with one. Those of us that got banded or are considering it have got to the point where we are reaching out for medical help. To be constantly dieting losing, gaining over and over is just as harmful as staying overweight. Personally I am finding so far with the band it's helping me to stay on track and keeping off what I've lost so far. I have a long way to go but finally this tool is going to help me get to my goal and fingers crossed stay there because at 50 years old I'm done being overweight and want to get as much out of what is left with my life as a healthy slimmer person.

It's hard work but the band makes it that little bit easier by turning off that constant hunger for me. It's enabled me to stop thinking about food from the time I get up till the time I go to sleep. It's allowed me to gain control of my food addiction.

Is it the easy way out? No way, I wonder how many slim people would last on a liquid diet for weeks on end. We also go through emotional and mental changes and some days it's not easy. We still have to work our butts off re exercise wise to loose and keep it off. We no longer eat like normal people, constantly having to be careful to take small enough bites, we will still struggle with plateaus and setbacks. So no personally I don't think it's the easy way out but smart to get medical help if its out there.

The great thing about your "short cut" is that it keeps you on the straight and narrow. It is not easy, but it has been good for me and so many others. I have lost and gained proabaly 1000 lbs over my 64 years of life. This "tool" has been the best for me. See carolinagirl, she would , probably" have not lost 88 lbs since June 6 without it. And Floridays, she lost a large amount, like 275, I think. She would not, more than likely, stayed on her "diet' plan long enough to lose that weight without the lapband. It is worth it for me and so many others. Good luck with your decision. Happy New year.

Thank you all for your words of encouragement and support

Technically I worked just as hard losing weight with the band as I did the hundreds of times before without the band. The only difference is that the band is a tool to help me out along the way to keep me more satisified on lesser amounts of food. If thats a short cut so be it. Its something that works.

No different than using a calculator to do math instead of doing it in your head. Or using a washing machine to do laundry instead of doing it by hand. And certainly much easier using a drill to make a hole in a piece of wood instead of chiseling away at it by hand... The band is a tool plain and simple invented to make my life easier.....

Try and see it as a life saver to some. As a tool to help you maintain good health and possibly longevity. If You are a better and healthier YOU, you can be more helpful to the family. YOU are a quality of life!

Go for it and you'll never regret this. Lot's of us here, lost big weight prior to surgery but WE know our bodies better than the family and WE know we will gain it all back. The band is only a tool to help you feel fuller, longer and thus hopefully not eat often. YOU still have to do all the hard work.

Best wishes and Keep the Faith.

I know a bit of how you feel with the "short-cut" nonsense. My (soon to be ex, but that's another story) is telling me I'm wasting my money on my surgery. Every time he sees an ad for some fad diet I get told all about it and asked if I'm sure I still want to waste all that money!

What a lot of people don't understand is that an obese person's metabolism is not the same as someone who has been thin all their life. We all have a "thermostat" in our bodies that is programmed to a set weight. Your body fights to maintain that weight. Dieting and sometimes genetics sets that thermostat a lot higher in obese people.

When an obese person loses weight they have to eat around 30% fewer calories (along with exercise) to maintain that weight, than a thin person who has always weighed that much. Then the obese person's body thermostat is still set at the high weight, and the body "fights" to go back to that weight with hunger pangs, storing fat etc. Ask your thin family members if they think they could eat 30% less every day for the rest of their lives, as well as hitting the gym every day - being plagued by hunger pangs the whole time!

That's why we get WLS - to make our stomachs feel more full and slow our eating, so we can eat less and lose weight without the hunger pangs. We're actually correcting an abnormality: it's not normal to eat a healthy diet and feel hungry all the time. Thin people who eat healthy diets aren't always fighting the urge to hit the fridge! But thin people don't realize that they're not physically the same as obese people, so they don't understand the need for an extra tool to lose weight.

I felt like it was the opposite of a short cut. It was not easy going to 5 different specialist to make sure I was healthy enough for surgery, with many medical tests. My surgery went smooth, but even a smooth surgery seems harder than a non-obese person going on a "diet" for a month to lose a few more pounds. Liquid diets, mushy diets, they do not seem like short cuts. I wish there was a short cut for me to lose weight, but instead I am on this challenging journey that is right for me.

I dont find one thing about the band a short cut. It is a helpful tool to help you eat less and nothing more then that. There is nothing easy that I have found about the band life other then it changed my whole out look on the way I eat and how much I eat. You have to understand that being banded is no more easier then doing any other diet except that it helps you adapt to a healthier life style. The weight loss after a period is slow (which we all have hated) but its a healthy weight loss. Its not a short cut but a very hard decision for any one person to make.

So I have grid every imaginable diet' date=' a week ago I decided to get banded, tonight my daughter and husband decided to ask, f I can dedicate th diet change now, why not before, if I can commit to eating less now, why not now. They say its a "short cut". My daughter is 19. I don't feel it s a shortcut, but is it?.[/quote']

OH YEA... The SHORTCUT question ... Some of us let it prevent us from the bariatric solution earlier in life --- because we didn't want to "cheat" we wanted to "do it on our own" etc... Here's the deal - Surgery is NO shortcut!

I think of it as analogy like this...

You live in a neighborhood , rows of houses and driveways - you know, the a standard neighborhood. It's winter and it SNOWS ... A lot! So everyone is out there shoveling their driveways. Some take breaks and do a little every 15 minutes, and some have whole families each with their own shovels buzzing through it TOGETHER and some even have SNOWBLOWERS and for them it's not only easy... It's oddly fun ?!!

Then there is YOU (US, the uber obese) and we have only a tiny TEASPOON as our tool to shovel that Long driveway Full of snow. We are NOT Lazy ... We Do Care... We Do understand how important (safety) it is to have your driveway clear of snow BUT we only have a TEASPOON as our tool. We work and work and work and to look at the driveway - you would never know we even tried to shovel the snow. We keep trying but the task is overwhelming and we struggle to no avail. Our neighbors glare at us and whisper comments about how terrible we are not to shovel our driveway and we feel horrible and embarrassed but we DON'T give up. Some of the more well meaning neighbors say "we understand how tough it is to shovel that's why we broke it up and worked on it 15 minutes at a time ... " you see they are trying to empathize ... Trying to help... But they don't see we have only a TEASPOON as a tool while they have a shovel.

SOOOO... You have surgery .... Now you have a SHOVEL not a TEASPOON... you haven't taken a "short cut" you have now just leveled the playing field. You have the right tool.... BUT you (I) STILL have to do the WORK. THE DRIVEWAY DOESN'T SHOVEL ITSELF.

REJOICE ! You have the tool (band) and now the work begins. Shovel your way out to the new life you were meant to have and enjoy : )

Hope in Your Future is Power in Your Present!

Lee

269 lbs lost so far - reversed Diabetes, lung disease, high cholesterol etc...

^{I look at it this way...there is a defect at the never ending at the top of my stomach and the band pulls them closer together so that the first bit send messages to by brain telling it I am eating and full. I have never felt this way b4 and it must be how normal eaters feel. I don't get hungry and my brain doesn't keep telling me I need to eat junk or where the crap is located...my body and mind works great now. Don't tell people that can stand by you and help. My family doesn't bring in food that I cant have and if they do they hide it now that is support. Good luck this band works so you bodys works with you.}

I have come to the conclusion that banding is no cop out or easy beat out. People don't understand that this, for us, is a desperate measure! We are unable to lose weight by any other means! It's our time to shine! We need not worry about opinions right now. It's your dream, go for it!

OH YEA... The SHORTCUT question ... Some of us let it prevent us from the bariatric solution earlier in life --- because we didn't want to "cheat" we wanted to "do it on our own" etc... Here's the deal - Surgery is NO shortcut!

I think of it as analogy like this...

You live in a neighborhood , rows of houses and driveways - you know, the a standard neighborhood. It's winter and it SNOWS ... A lot! So everyone is out there shoveling their driveways. Some take breaks and do a little every 15 minutes, and some have whole families each with their own shovels buzzing through it TOGETHER and some even have SNOWBLOWERS and for them it's not only easy... It's oddly fun ?!!

Then there is YOU (US, the uber obese) and we have only a tiny TEASPOON as our tool to shovel that Long driveway Full of snow. We are NOT Lazy ... We Do Care... We Do understand how important (safety) it is to have your driveway clear of snow BUT we only have a TEASPOON as our tool. We work and work and work and to look at the driveway - you would never know we even tried to shovel the snow. We keep trying but the task is overwhelming and we struggle to no avail. Our neighbors glare at us and whisper comments about how terrible we are not to shovel our driveway and we feel horrible and embarrassed but we DON'T give up. Some of the more well meaning neighbors say "we understand how tough it is to shovel that's why we broke it up and worked on it 15 minutes at a time ... " you see they are trying to empathize ... Trying to help... But they don't see we have only a TEASPOON as a tool while they have a shovel.

SOOOO... You have surgery .... Now you have a SHOVEL not a TEASPOON... you haven't taken a "short cut" you have now just leveled the playing field. You have the right tool.... BUT you (I) STILL have to do the WORK. THE DRIVEWAY DOESN'T SHOVEL ITSELF.

REJOICE ! You have the tool (band) and now the work begins. Shovel your way out to the new life you were meant to have and enjoy : )

Hope in Your Future is Power in Your Present!

Lee

269 lbs lost so far - reversed Diabetes, lung disease, high cholesterol etc...

GREAT analogy, love it!!

Thank you ALL for your comments!

These are great. I've also been contemplating on the short cut issue. I have my initial consult on jan. 10th. Thanks for helping