Weight limit for surgery

[songbird81 1]

Has anyone's surgeon told them they need to be below a certain weight or BMI before the surgery can be done? My surgeon told me I need to get below 60 BMI before I can have the surgery. If it were that easy, I could just lose weight on my own without the band.

[Banjo257 920]

I have heard people have needed to lose a significant amount of weight before surgery. I understand it seems strange cause if we could do that on command we wouldnt need a band.

[☠carolinagirl☠ 18,722]

my bmi was either 62 or 61

if that helps...and my dr operated and i am/was grateful

[PattyGirl66 1,243]

It really is the surgeon. They all are soooooo different. If you look around this site you will see there are many on here who had surgery with a very high bmi, including myself.....

[dolphintattoo 96]

Yes I believe the cut off at my practice is 50 or 55. Beyond that he refers you to a major Boston teaching hospital, the community hospital isn't equipped for the higher weights or the increased risk factors.

[songbird81 1]

Thanks ladies. I'm at 64 right now, so I'm not too far over. Hopefully she'll operate rather than require me to be on an 800 cal diet much longer. I do have to get my gallbladder out in a couple weeks; too bad the band can't be done at the same time.

[honk 780]

It's important to remember that the surgeon has to contend with the fat in the belly area while doing the surgery. That's why they ask higher weight people to lose weight. I watched a surgery on YouTube and saw this yellow stuff and wondered what it was and then realized it was fat that they were pushing thru. After seeing that I really understand why my doctor wants me to lose 35 pounds before surgery.

Please understand that at my heaviest I was around 380 pounds. And my BMI would have been well over 60. Well before ever considering the band I started to modify my food habits and exercise activities and has lost 50 pounds. So it is possible to lose weight without the band.

Another thing that concerns me a little is the ideas that the band is a fix for being fat. It can't outsmart you. A lot of this is going to be psychological effort. Especially in the beginning before you have restrictions from fills.

If your doctor does not require sessions with a psychologist that specializes in eating disorders then I really suggest that you go to 1 anyways. I thought those sessions were going to be a major waste of time and I was really wrong. I've never been to a therapist before I which could explain why I thought it was going to be a waste of time. These sessions can help you understand why you overeat. And having that knowledge helps you counter act emotional overeating.

Most doctors won't do the Lap Band and gallbladder surgery at the same time. Mine says it's because the Lap Band is clean surgery I guess meeting they're not cutting away any living tissue; while the gallbladder involves cutting off living tissue. Which gives you a higher chance of infection. Also some peoples gallbladders have become a diseased in addition to having created the gallstones.

[DELETE THIS ACCOUNT! 12,703]

I have heard other surgeons doing this. The reason being is the risk of serious complications and even death rise with a higher BMI.

With that said, my BMI was a whopping 72 the day of my surgery. I'm so glad my surgeon was confident enough in himself and in me to go ahead despite my super sized state.

[FLORIDAYS 3,040]

I was. 377lbs with a BMI of 55. I am tall and carried my weight low so evidentially that is why my dr was satisfied with a 2 week liquid diet.

In your case what wouldn't you do the diet to become healthier for surgery? It's just that much less weight to lose after being banded. It also is a good lesson in will power... Because once you get banded you are going to need a whole lot of willpower to make it work before you hit the green zone.

[songbird81 1]

I didn't say that I wouldn't do the diet; only that I was hoping not to be on the 800 calorie diet for much longer. I did it for five weeks and lost 22 pounds, but then my gallbladder was hurting so badly that I have to eat more to stop the pain. It is much worse if my stomach is empty or if I go a long time without eating, because the bile backs up there with stones.

I understand how I got to this weight, and I am not needing continued therapy to deal with it. I passed my psych eval just fine. I also never said that I thought the band was a fix for being fat. I know I have to put in the work and it's only a tool. I've been wanting the band to help me with my weight loss for the last few years but my insurance only started covering it this year; in the meantime, I've done countless hours of research and read several books on the topic.

I was only wondering if others had to lose a significant amount of weight before getting the band like my surgeon is making me do. It's very hard trying to function on such a low calorie diet for a long period of time without any band restriction to help. It's like the two week pre-op diet on steroids.

[CHEZNOEL 4,061]

You may need to have your gall bladder checked first. I do know that doctors may want you to lose weight to remove fat from around the liver so they can see that area better during the surgery.

[honk 780]

My doctor originally required that I lose between 30 and 35 pounds before surgery. Due to resolving a blood clot I had to wait about 7 months before actually having surgery. During that time I lost 50 pounds.

1 thing that is concerning me is that you said I understand why I'm fat. This is almost verbatim what I said to myself when I was told I had to attend therapy sessions with food addiction specialist. These sessions weren't so much about admitting that I was fat but understanding why I was over eating. And recognizing my personal triggers.

We were discussing things to do when you had the urge to eat. I said well you can go to the movies. 1 of the other women looked at me like I had 2 heads and said that's a terrible idea because you have to eat at the theater. I've never bought food at the movie theater. In my family if we had money to go to the movies didn't have money to buy overpriced Snacks. So that woman and I had different sets of triggers.

Something else we covered in those sessions was when you get the urge to eat asking yourself why do you want to eat. Are you truly hungry? Are you bored? Are you tired? These are questions I never would've asked myself before those sessions.

[honk 780]

1 other thing about the pain you are getting. Not all gallbladder pain is the same. I understand what you're saying about getting pains when your stomach is empty. However drinking Water does help it doesn't have to be food. In fact when I had my gallbladder out 20 years ago ( after having lost 100 lbs which I gained back) I would have those ghost pains after surgery if my stomach got really empty in the middle of the night. In fact after lap band surgery I actually had 1 of those attacks again when my stomach was really really empty in the middle of the night. When I mentioned it to the nurse practitioner she was actually quite worried and said if I continue to have these pains that I needed to have a test to make sure the band hadn't slipped. I think I had 1 "attack" after lap band surgery and then never had 1 again. And yes the Phantom attacks were bad enough to wake me up in the middle of the night. They normally came during PMS. So not sure if they were hormone related or due to swelling of some kind.