• I cannot lose weight on my own, I have tried everything imaginable.
  
• I exercise pretty regularly and have good endurance.
  
• I weigh 215 and am only 5'2 - a size 16 - i think a bmi of 40 (morbidly obese?)
  
• I am in perfect health otherwise, except for psychologically I have depression and am very unhappy b/c of my weight and the problems I feel because of being overweight & failing so many times
  
• I am not an 'overeater', I eat regular pseudo-crappy american diet, probably too much, but i dont down a box of cookies in one sitting
  
• I hear people on these boards have such great success and no pain and weight loss extrordinaire. But there are the others who the surgury is somewhat of a failure.
  
• I would have to be self-pay

I can't freaking decide what to do... I think the Lapband is my only hope to get to a somewhat normal weight, but there is the person inside who has failed at every other weight loss attempt before that thinks I would just fail at this too.

:help:

congratulations Kim. I do not have the band MYself, you just had surgery girl, you are going to feel like hell.

I am assuming people feel like crap for at least a couple weeks, right?

You are now on the Losing Side! Just ponder that & feel good inside about how you will feel 6 months from now....! :clap2:

*sorry U feel like crap tho*

Have you tried visiting a dietician and getting a personal coach? It would be much cheaper than the surgery. If you're doing this mainly for cosmetic purposes, I would try this route. I was self-pay, and it's not easy coming up with that kind of cash.

It's quite possible that you think you're doing everything right (diet wise and workout wise), but you're not, so find some professionals to go over your routine. There's so much information out there that it's easy to do the wrong thing.

Good luck with whatever you decide.