I was sitting in a hospital lobby this morning while my wife was resting in her room. (She had major back surgery Tuesday.)

Anyways, knowing this hospital does WLS I was looking for patients that was about to go through their surgery. I just wanted to encourage them.

I found a lady, a morbidly obese lady, whose daughter that was having difficulty swallowing after gastric by-pass.

I told her I had a lap band.

Now here is the sad part.

That's when she told me that she had a lap band BUT IT DIDN'T WORK. I wanted to scream at her, WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT DIDN'T WORK!!!!

So, I start questioning her. Why it didn't work??

I asked her, did you exercise?? NO, my knees hurt to much

Did you stop eating greasy, high carb foods??? NO

Did you go to your doctor for follow ups/fills?? NO

I told her the lapband worked, you didn't do the work. You didn't use the tool.

what did she say when you told here that?

She was nice, she said it was just to hard to do the work.

My thoughts were, it's going to be hard work when you lose a foot to diabetes. Or go blind it have the heart attack. But I guess it's easy when you die and just lay in a coffin.

A sad story.

So Sad!

It is sad, but we can't lose weight until we are ready. I have been to spas for 4-6 months at a time and lost 75-100 pounds each time, sadly I did gain it back.

I think no matter what we do spas, dieting, exercise or even drastic surgery, if we aren't mentally at that point where we want to lose weight, we won't no matter what our consequences are.

I hope the lady you visited will make it this time and I hope you encouraged her through this very drastic surgery she just had.

Hope your wife is recovering well!

I agree IP.

If you aren't ready doesn't matter what "reward" you are offered, or you will feel better and healthy,mentally you have to be there.

Texas, I congratulate you on your weight loss HUGE difference, bet it feels good not being fat anymore. But if you did actually speak to her after her gastric bypass about her "failure" for lapband do you think you were helping her? or making her feel like a failure?

You told her "You didn't do the work" That seems a little harsh to someone who failed at something and now just came out of surgery? Just my thoughts.

I totally agree IP. Totally!

Here's the really sad part: She won't do any better with Gastric Bypass either.

It doesn't matter which WLS surgery you choose, unless you change your eating habits for a lifetime you simply won't lose weight and keep it off. I mean, this is exactly why there's so many cases of band over bypass lately.

When I was banded 14 months ago I had 2 friends who were getting Gastric Bypass within a month of me. I heard constantly how foolish I was for not getting Bypass like them. I heard how I'd lose weight so much slower and I wouldn't lose nearly as much. Still, I stuck to my decision and got the Lap Band.

Today, one friend has lost about 60 pounds (all in the first couple months) but is slowly gaining it all back. The other friend only lost about 30 pounds. I have lost over 190 pounds. Needless to say, neither friend bash the band anymore.

So what's the difference? Is the band better than bypass? No! The difference is, I changed my eating habits and started exercising. Neither of my friends did, as a result, I have lost a lot of weight and they haven't. WLS isn't a sure thing unless you are willing to do the work.

It was her daughter that had the by pass.

And believe me I was not mean spirited. I said it the same way all of our doctors told us. You have to do the work.

I did not hurt her feelings but I did give her something's to think about.

Good post Mis and congrats on your weight loss. Exactly doesn't matter what surgery you choose as long as you are ready and committment and as IP said mentally ready!!!

WTG 190 is amazing!!

Couldn't agree more with y'all.

I have been very surprised even on this site what people consider healthy eating! I don't think the education in nutrition is there. I almost jumped off the couch when I was reading about a person who said they were eating healthy and not losing. When they were asked what they ate that day one of the items was a lunchable and the other was a roastbeef sandwich from Arby's...YIKES...definitely not part of my menu! I feel that before the band when meeting with the nutritionist you should have to submit examples of what you will be eating and what you feel are healthy choices! The lady with the lunchable was probably thinking turkey is good for you, so is cheese and the crackers are fiber! To her she probably thought it covered most of the food groups. This type of thinking is not uncommon. I wish the nutritionist was more a part of the program than it is. I think it would make for more success stories.

weight gain and loss is a mental issue and some of us needed to get some counsoling to go along with it...I couldn't just do do the weight loss I had to I was eating and what... I needed to do to be able to loss the weight medication and counsoling and now the LB and zi am losing and loving it.

More often than not, when I hear/read stories about the Lap band being a failure...it's the other way around.....OTHER than medical issues out of our control....

It's very sad.. My best friends father, and aunt both had bypass. They both now weigh MORE than they did before surgery.. Everyone thinks any kind of WLS is an easy way out, and it's not by any means.

It's very sad.. My best friends father, and aunt both had bypass. They both now weigh MORE than they did before surgery.. Everyone thinks any kind of WLS is an easy way out, and it's not by any means.

For me, the only hard part was the first 6 months or so...Bandster Hell...until I got the band properly adjusted, and I got myself adjusted to the band....once I found that groove it has been ALL EASY....

But getting there was the challenge...and that's where I feel most have problems....