I was reading on another site that this woman was banded a year ago and only lost 7lb. How is this possible? Did the band fail, or was it her inability to use the band correctly ?

Yasmina :Bunny

I can honestly say, without exaggeration, that if I wanted to gain weight I could easily do so. I've lost weight with the band ONLY because I've undertaken the correct behaviours for weight loss, I choose healthy foods, I stick to 3 meals a day and ignore hunger between meals and I exercise like mad.

I've got some restriction so the band has helped me enormously. But I dont have restriction anythign like what others describe, I can still eat any food I choose to (some harder than others) and I'm limited to maybe a cup and a half, 2 cups, not the *ideal* of 1/2 a cup. I only have to choose slightly more calorific foods (lots of cheese, for example) and my calories are easily up to 2500 in a day. Fine for maintaining my body weight, way too much to lose.

I can still eat limitless amounts of Cookies, a bad habit I used ot have. I've indulged every now and then since being banded, but I no longer eat an entire bag of cookes 3 or 4 times a week - not because my band stops me but because I choose not to.

If I'd chosen to sit back and let the band just do the work and not been proactive in it, I wouldnt have lost weight, I can safely say that. It hasnt been effortless, but it hasnt been that difficult because of the band.

But I can easily see that I could have not lost over the last year.

I'm not suggesting for a minute that's what this poor lady has done, but the band only works when the user makes it work. But of course there ARE many health issues that could be the underlying cause too. It must be extremely hard to undertake such a drastic step as WLS and not see the results for it.