Just want to say.....

[SandyM 1,956]

I think it just means we are all different. I keep hearing that the band isn't a tool, but for me, I still believe it is just that. If it's working properly and used properly, it will help me lose weight. I could sit and eat a sleeve of choc chip ahoys dipped in milk, hungry or not, and they would slide right through. I certainly wouldn't lose weight that way. I believe some people are more foodsaholics when it comes to sweets. I personally can't touch them and I know it. If I eat one, the cravings start. For that reason I try to avoid simple carbs.

[Jean McMillan 2,973]

It is confusing, isn't it? And very hard to study and analyze in a scientific manner, so we may never have an answer to the eternal question of: is it me or my WLS? Your ability to eat less even of "bad" foods is probably due to a combination of your band's effects on your appetite and satiety and new eating habits developed over time following your band surgery. I think some of the eating habits I acquired in 5 years with my band did survive, but since my sleeve surgery, my conscious behavior while eating seems to have changed. For example, with my band, I would suddenly lose interest in finishing whatever food I'd been eating (even a "bad" one). In fact, that food would often seem repulsive when I'd been enjoying it just moments before. And on the whole, food was less appealing to me, so I thought about it, anticipated, and enjoyed it less. That's all history for me now.

WLS of various types has been done for decades now, but even the best bariatric medical professionals are still learning how each procedure works. The human body is very complicated and as I understand it, nothing in the body works entirely independently. Conscious and/or exterior actions affect unconscious, interior, autonomic functions, and vice versa. The nervous system, immune system, digestive system, circulatory system, endocrine system and so on may be able to function independently in some ways, but that doesn't mean each system receives no messages, input or effects at all from the other systems.

Then a surgeon opens up that complicated human body, fiddles with the innards, closes up it up (perhaps even leaving a "foreign object" like a gastric band behind), and as a result, all of the bodily processes we take for granted are thrown into a tizzy. Some of the tizzy is beneficial, some is not, some is neutral. And since every human being is unique, it's impossible to predict how that surgery (be it dental, bariatric, cardiac, etc.) will affect the patient in the short or long term.

I don't think it's a bad thing to have both WLS and conscious behavior helping to manage our weight, and after 5+ years on WLS forums, it's my opinion that believing that WLS can and will do all the work in weight loss and management is all too likely to lead to frustration and failure.

Well I am still confused then because like B-52 I eat what I want but thanks to the band I have more control. I just came off a two week vacation and I had all the things I wanted just no where near the volume when I was preop. I had Cookies, candy heck I even had french fries while in NY playing tourist. So...is it my band or is it will power? Is it both? I am not kidding when I say my head hunger is practically gone. I actually lost weight for the first time in my life during the holidays. I've lost 13lbs since Thanksgiving! That is not bragging...I'm seriously confused.

[Jim1967 3,569]

I guess if it's not broken I shouldn't tinker with it and just enjoy the ride.

[lisacaron 5,075]

I've had 2 WLS procedures (the band and the sleeve) and neither of them have cured my obesity or any of the emotional stuff that contributed to my obesity. I'm 18 pounds below my goal weight thanks to WLS, but I still experience stress and temptation during the holidays - in fact, all year 'round - because unlike B52, I'm a human being.

Jean I would like this 100 times if it was possible to do so.

Yes I work my band. It stops me from eating all that I would otherwise and thank goodness for it. However it does not stop how I "feel" emotionally about wanting to eat. It does not stop me from tasting anything. As those who are here because they are or were overweight know all too well, tasting can be the cause of several pounds over the course of a couple of weeks.

So yes during stressful times, and during holiday times choosing to eat the cookie or taste the pie is not a horrible thing to do. The horror comes when you are tasting every single pie that your 40 plus family and friends brought by for dessert. The Cookies that your co-worker made, the home made candy fudge and toffee made special for the occasion. It is when you are having the pie, today and tomorrow and the next day because Christmas is 12 days of family food and love and fun, preceded by a week of Thanksgiving and a New Year that rolls (literally if you let it) into Valentines day...and boy oh boy can't you just see your way to tasting, just a bite or a lick of this and that and 15 pounds later....I'm sorry you were NOT dieting!? I'm not either...but I kept my mind set as such so that I would not bite and lick my way to a 15 pound gain!

The band does not and will not stop any of that, I actually don't know of any WLS (maybe a lobotomy) that does. The choice of what passes my lips is MINE the band can stop me when I have had too much of any one thing, or the mechanics is not right but it doesn't care if it's loaded with fat and sugar and enough calories to feed an elephant for a month, but I DO.