I'm sure we've all had our fair share of struggles and hindrances before we finally had enough and decided on weight loss surgery. Here were my apparent shortcomings, after all was said and done:

South Beach Diet--unfortunately wasn't a good fit. I would shed some pounds, and lose my appetite, which was really good. I'd forget all day to eat, and I loved that. The bad part is, I would forget to eat so much (since I could only basically have cheese, meat, eggs) that I'd start to get light headed and dizzy. Also, it seemed to wreak havoc on my emotions; I would become discouraged, cry easily, get angry at stuff I could normally let go, etc.

Weight Watchers--I was most successful at this, but in the end just had difficulty controlling portion sizes and with hunger. Nothing was restricted, but I would run out of points too soon and had an overall hard time planning out my life, logging everything, and sticking to it. Lots of weeks when I would stick to it, there would be minimal or no weight loss, and that's when I got discouraged and would want to throw in the towel. Since I did tend to run out of points, if I blew through my weekly flex points, I would end up "borrowing" points from the next day (I don't know if anyone else has done that), and then go through the next day kind of tired and hungry before I'd lose willpower and have a meal.

Phentermine--I had a (not very good) doctor put me on this. I won't deny it had weight loss potential, but the way it made my heart race made me highly uncomfortable. I got off it relatively quickly.

Feel free to share your stories, I'd love to hear them and why they didn't work/led to WLS.

Edited February 20, 201412 yr by Skywalker

Wow!! Good topic. Lots of "diet" pills I've waisted money on throughout the years. I did ww with coworkers and was successful for a while. I changed jobs, moved, had no support system so stopped the program. Then I began quick weight loss centers and was successful with it. Stopped going because I couldn't afford to continuously buy the supplements and food which I did enjoy. Last but not least I tried one box of nutrasystem and wish I hadn't of wasted my money. That was some nasty tasting food.

Let's face..... We were all DIET EXPERTS..... I think one big problem is, we were never MAINTENANCE EXPERTS!!!!!!

. Oh my gosh truer words have never been said! I am a great dieter but lousy at maintaining. I wish I had a dollar for every pound I lost and then regained.......I would be so rich!

Let's face..... We were all DIET EXPERTS..... I think one big problem is, we were never MAINTENANCE EXPERTS!!!!!!

So true. I lost ALOT of weight on MANY of the diets I tried. I could lose, just not for long. And what I lost in 3 months could be gained back in a week, no joke!

Among those I've tried:

Jenny Craig ... Grew tired of the packaged food quickly, and was discouraged by the very slow losses.

New Direction and Optifast ... These worked great, as they were liquids only; gained it all back as soon as I went back to work.

The Diet Center ... I did this plan a couple of times. It worked extremely well the first time (back in the late 80's) and I thought I could stick with the new eating lifestyle forever; I couldn't.

Atkins ... Also worked well, but same issue as above.

Diet pills ... They were ok when I was younger; less tolerance for them and less results as I got older. Plus I would get too snappy.

Hcg ... Actually would work well, just could never stick with it long enough to get to goal.

Nutrisystem .... See Jenny Craig above,

The Beverly Hills Diet ... Does anyone remember that one? Or am I giving away my age? Lol. Anyway, I fainted and gave up on that.

Those are just my majors, lol. I had tried probably every diet out there before being saved by the band.

My biggest NSV with the band is the freedom of mind from the dieting mentality I lived with every day since my teens.

Let's face..... We were all DIET EXPERTS..... I think one big problem is, we were never MAINTENANCE EXPERTS!!!!!!

So true. I lost ALOT of weight on MANY of the diets I tried. I could lose, just not for long. And what I lost in 3 months could be gained back in a week, no joke!

Among those I've tried:

Jenny Craig ... Grew tired of the packaged food quickly, and was discouraged by the very slow losses.

New Direction and Optifast ... These worked great, as they were liquids only; gained it all back as soon as I went back to work.

The Diet Center ... I did this plan a couple of times. It worked extremely well the first time (back in the late 80's) and I thought I could stick with the new eating lifestyle forever; I couldn't.

Atkins ... Also worked well, but same issue as above.

Diet pills ... They were ok when I was younger; less tolerance for them and less results as I got older. Plus I would get too snappy.

Hcg ... Actually would work well, just could never stick with it long enough to get to goal.

Nutrisystem .... See Jenny Craig above,

The Beverly Hills Diet ... Does anyone remember that one? Or am I giving away my age? Lol. Anyway, I fainted and gave up on that.

Those are just my majors, lol. I had tried probably every diet out there before being saved by the band.

My biggest NSV with the band is the freedom of mind from the dieting mentality I lived with every day since my teens.

. Me too. I could never understand why I could gain the weight back so quickly. I forgot about Diet Center I did that one too. All the money involved with all these diets wow! I still find myself being drawn into any ad I see for weight loss. I think to my self maybe I should try that one. I have to stop myself and remember I have done something about it lap band surgery. Old habits are hard to break I guess.

Dmh, yes! And I forgot to mention that throughout all of those diets, I felt "deprived" in one way or another. I still look at other diets sometimes too, and then remember that I am at goal already with the lapband, lol.

Atkins- Started to lose close to 20 lbs then weight loss stalled... Found out I was pregnant with my angel baby. There went that! I'm actually getting back into the low carb high Protein and fat deal because that's kind of what my NUT recommends... So we will see.

Slime Water detox- I had to drink 5L of some nasty lake slime looking water that tasted like baking soda... Um no thanx!

Take Shape for Life by Medifast- I lost 17 lbs on this and it was my last venture. Eat 5 of their small meals daily and 1 "lean and green" of your own and lose. I was always effing hungry and when I realized I could be spending the $400 a month on better things... I decided to do so and get the band!

Raspberry Ketones- $50 for a bunch of nothing. Thanx Dr. Oz!

Low cal- no more than 800 cal a day... Dropped 20 lbs then gave up because I was oh so hungry!!!!

I see a common theme of diets failing because of (1) hunger (2) inconvenience and (3) cost, about in that order. Do you guys feel full/satiated with the band? Like you are going out like you used to, but not feeling deprived?

I, personally, do not feel deprived with my band lifestyle. I'm not sure what it does, scientifically, but it certainly dims my appetite and I do feel satisfied now with what I eat. I do indulge every now and then on a cookie or cake, or whatever, so I don't feel like I am 'forbidden' from foods. It's really a sense of freedom from dieting!

Of course, every now and then I miss having a soda or a Corona or a double shot of espresso, none of which I partake in, but it's not the 'deprivation' feeling I used to have with 'diets.'

The other amazing thing I've noticed is that when I do eat a high sugar or 'fattening' item, I don't bound right in to eating everything in sight anymore, and the scale doesn't go up 10 pounds in a week!

I am still trying to hit that magical green zone. I have always been a big eater so I love eating smaller portion. It is so cool to feel full with such a small amount of food. I am loving it.