Anyone who thought getting the lap band would make it easier to lose weight finding it isn't as easy as you thought? I have written down my thoughts on this after 8 months out from lap band. I weighed 254 before surgery and now weigh 227. That's only 27 lbs in 8 months...

here's my thoughts....

http://www.debbiedanthony.com/cake-walk-no-way/

Anyone want to weigh in??

It is NOT easily. I suspect few WLS are "easy." They all have their risks, and they have their horror stories--regardless of the surgery.

For me, the lap band required a great deal of attention... I have to track exactly what I am eating, and keep records for my daily Protein, carbs, fats and total calories. That keeps me honest and aware of whether the band is working, or needs adjustment, I also force myself to go to my gym at least six days a week. That routine burns 800 calories a day. That means I am burning about 1.5 pounds of fat per week on average. I also track how much exercise I do each day in a log on Fitday.com. I've been using it for ten years. When I get lazy and don't keep records I get lazy and I gain weight. When I pay attention and keep track of what is going on I lose weight. Nothing comes "easy," For a few, I guess they are lucky and the pounds fall off and stay off. I am one who needs to work at it, and I know becoming complacent means failure.

If a lap band patient follows the diet, and watches what they eat, and exercises, the weight will come off. This assumes they will have fills and follow up visits when problems arise.

I use myfitnesspal.com but my life gets very busy and I find having to think about and document what I eat all day every day gets to be too much. I find I am focusing too much of my time on food. So now I just focus on eating the 3 meals a day and only eating until satisfied. If I can stop snacking between when I know I'm not really hungry, I would be fine. lol

that's my big struggle.

I was banded in 2001. I weighed 272. I lost 30 pounds in the first month as my surgeon had me on a liquid diet for a whole month. It took me another 11 months to drop an additional 40 - I exercised daily and really tried hard. I never got under 200# and started having severe reflux and had to have all Fluid removed. I was not a success story. Once the fluid was removed, I regained and hit my lifetime high of 332 by 2005.

I didn't expect it to be a cakewalk, but i really thought it would help me more with appetite control, portion control. I tried really hard but I needed more support and education than I received ... also, as a tool, it just didn't work that well for me.

I revised to the sleeve in December 2011 which has just worked better for me as a tool AND I sought out a surgeon with a very detailed 2 year follow up support plan that was mandatory. I am down to 140 now and maintaining...

I am seriously wishing I could get the sleeve but I am a self-pay because my insurance does not cover weight loss surgery so I don't think it will ever happen for me. AND, I am still paying for something that doesn't work. I have to hope that the day comes that I find a way to make this work...

I am glad you finally found success!!

It definitely is not. I've met quite a lot of people that assume lap band is as easy as getting it done and then you'll magically lose a ton of weight with putting no real effort into it.

By completely changing up my eating habits I have managed to lose 152 pounds over the last two years, and I'm 120 from my actual goal weight. A lot lost, a lot more to go. But I'll get there. I'm doing everything I can be doing to reach it.

Highest was 445-450, current is 293. Best thing I've ever done to help me get my weight back into control, for sure.

WOW! that's an amazing accomplishment with the band only! You go girl! Unfortunately, I didn't \ don't have as much to lose so I understand it doesn't come off as easy the lower your weight gets.

What are you doing that works so well?

Hi Debbie, love reading your pieces. The grazing sure resonates with me -- that is my downfall also. One thing I do is count off four hours after a meal and register that time. So if it's noon, one finger then two, three, four and I say out loud four o'clock. I repeat it to retrain my brain. That's the time at which I might be hungry again. Otherwise it's just grazing. And to tell the truth, when I do feel hungry I usually find that more than four hours have elapsed. Exercise. I walk an hour nearly every day. Nearly every day I do not want to do it and then afterward I feel great and am so happy I did it. Still some work to do in that part of the brain's reprogramming. But meanwhile the doing it anyway means my jeans are falling off. Love that!

I was banded in 2004. I started at 267 and lost down to 160. The amount of work that I put into to losing that weight I'm sure I could have done on my own. It was just as hard to lose as before surgery. The difference was that I was just totally motivated. Once I got to 160 I started vomiting a lot and regurgitating everything up in my sleep and had horrible reflux. I even aspirated during a surgical procedure. I had all saline removed and ballooned back up to 242. Got a revision to the sleeve 6/23/14 and have lost 34 pounds to date. I'm excited to have the band out of me. My surgeon said that the scar tissue from the band was the worst he had seen. He said at first he couldn't even see the band when he went in. There was even scar tissue under the part of the band that was wrapped around my stomach. There is no telling what a few more years of having the band in could have done to my health.

I an currently in the process of trying to get the gastric sleeve but I know several people who have had the lap band done and to answer your question no I do not think the lap band is a cake walk. I have heard of success stories but I have also heard of some scary ones as well. It takes longer for a person to loose weight with the band. And you don't lose as much as compared to the sleeve or the bypass. You also have to deal with slippage, erosion, and sometimes getting them adjusted and refilled. I've also heard there is a higher chance of gaining the weight back because you learn how to eat around it. I'd say it's a lot of maintenance with the band, but congrats to the ones who have made it work.

I was banded back in 2010. I *thought* it was gonna be a cakewalk and at first, it kinda was. I lost about 60 pounds, but never changed my eating habits or anything and managed to gain it all back. Because I wasn't following the rules and was eating too quickly and the wrong foods and drinking with my meals and stuff... I was literally throwing up every time I ate. I was also delusional enough to think that it was just a malfunctioning band and not that I wasn't following my rules. heck, I even thought I might have stomach cancer or something! My band was drained and I was sent to have my gall bladder out. I did. The vomiting continued. I just recently did a modified 5 day pouch test (was surprised to see that my idea was trademarked already LOL) and am DETERMINED to make this work. I, too, am self pay. I can't afford another surgery. But, I also can't afford being this unhealthy either.

I'm so excited to meet others who have had the same or very similar experiences with the Band! I'm BamaGymnCoach on MyFitnessPal. Feel free to friend me! I need all of the encouragement and accountability I can get!!

I was banded back in 2010. I *thought* it was gonna be a cakewalk and at first, it kinda was. I lost about 60 pounds, but never changed my eating habits or anything and managed to gain it all back. Because I wasn't following the rules and was eating too quickly and the wrong foods and drinking with my meals and stuff... I was literally throwing up every time I ate. I was also delusional enough to think that it was just a malfunctioning band and not that I wasn't following my rules. heck, I even thought I might have stomach cancer or something! My band was drained and I was sent to have my gall bladder out. I did. The vomiting continued. I just recently did a modified 5 day pouch test (was surprised to see that my idea was trademarked already LOL) and am DETERMINED to make this work. I, too, am self pay. I can't afford another surgery. But, I also can't afford being this unhealthy either.

I'm so excited to meet others who have had the same or very similar experiences with the Band! I'm BamaGymnCoach on MyFitnessPal. Feel free to friend me! I need all of the encouragement and accountability I can get!!

what do you mean by "modified 5 day pouch test"? what is that?

I say modified just because I had never even heard of the "5 Day Pouch Test". I was studying for finals-- stress makes my reflux worse-- I chose to start a liquid diet just so I could focus on studying and not barfing. I did nothing but liquids (mostly cream based soups because they were comforting to me-- and this wasn't a weight loss attempt, I was just trying to make it through finals) for 4 full days and then slowly added back in mushies and then regular protein. I found out about the Trademarked 5 Day Pouch test after the fact when I was researching my band and if it was possible that it could truly be helping me even though it's completely empty at the moment.

i've never heard of the 5 Day Pouch Test? is that all it is? just going back to basics?

nevermind....I am looking it up now. Very interesting !!

Have to say, speaking for myself...the first 4-6 months were "Hell"..pure frustration, thought I made a big mistake....

Then after my last fill, things got better, although very confusing with many stuck episodes....

Eventually, say after 1 year to be sure, a little earlier perhaps, I figured it all out...found what worked for me, found what rules I had to adhere to to make it work, and began to make all the changes second nature....

The weight just started to come off consistently, and it was, and still is the easiest thing I could have ever done...it still is.

So the first few months were very hard, after that it became a "Cake walk" as you say, easy as can be......I felt sorry for all those around me always talking about having to loose a few pounds....

Most of the posts I read here from people struggling, IMO, and I stress it is only my opinion, (have no way of ever knowing what people are really experiencing) it sounds like they are trying to find that "Groove"

As far a the 5 day pouch test...I do my own mini-version of it every 6 weeks or so, but not for the reason(s) many here feel it is for. And my Dr. thinks it is a great idea for maintenance. (if there is such a thing with surgery)

Edited August 5, 201412 yr by B-52