I keep hearing everyone saying that lap band is only a tool and it's up to us to lose the weight. Honestly, can you lose part of the weight by just getting the band? I'm am thinking once I'm banded I will jump on the "It's just a tool" band wagon and truely understand what you all mean. If it cuts down portion size and helps us to feel full longer isn't that the "magic" we're looking for? As well as not gaining weight back. My problem is sweets. I know that I can easily eat around the band, but won't it help me by keeping me from eating 10 donuts instead of a normal persons one?

I am scheduled for the 31st. Based on everything I've been reading it seems that I will not lose a thing and maybe this is just another (VERY EXPENSIVE) diet scheme.

Any advice is welcome. Also, I need to lose 10 pounds by my surgery date and can't stop eating everything in sight. I am majorlly suffering from last meal syndrome. Please tell me I'm not alone?? :help:

It IS just a tool, but based on MY experience you will lose some weight just because the quantity of food you can eat physically MUST be curtailed. I haven't exercised pretty much at all, and I eat a lot of sugar and soft foods, so I haven't lost what I should. I'm happy, though, losing about 1 lb/month right now with virtually no work. I don't have time to focus on this in my life right now. But knowing I won't GAIN because I just plain can't overeat makes me really happy!

THE BAND IS JUST A TOOL TO AID WEIGHT LOSS, YES IT RESTRICTS SOME OF THE KINDS OF FOODS YOU CAN EAT BUT YOU ALSO HAVE TO BE SENSIBLE TOO, IF YOU TAKE THE EASY WAY OUT AND EAT HIGH CALORIE SLOPPY FOODS THAT GO THROUGH THE BAND LIKE CHOCOLATE & ICE CREAM THEN YOU JUST SIMPLY WONT LOSE WEIGHT AS ITS TOO MUCH OF A HIGH CALORIE CONTENT, YOU MUST WORK WITH THE BAND AND IT WILL WORK WITH YOU TOO. ITS A SLIMMING AID NOT A MAGIC CURE.

So weird that you ask that because I was thinking the SAME thing this morning in the shower. They say it's not a "miracle cure" but to some that HAVE to stop eating everything in sight, it is kind of a miracle.

I agree that its a tool to help you lose weight - and you have to make the choices to make the best of it....and who wants to be operated on, go through the hassle of getting approved by insurance, or financing or even have to "hold back" your food intake if you're not going to use it?

I have a question though. I wonder why I can't go on Medi-fast for about 6 months after the band, since the reason most people cheat on Medi-fast is because they are still hungry? It has all the nutrients and Protein we need - is it because once we are off, we will gain the weight back like you do without the band? I guess you have to train yourself how much food you really need to survive rather than try to trick it.....I think I just answered my own question. But ....I'd still like to hear everyone's comments

Hey, if we could lose the weight without the band pre-op, we might not need the band! I don't get that pre-op diet thinking at all. For goodness sake, don't blame yourself! We're all obsessively morbidly obese and out of less extreme options!

I have never been comfortable with calling my band a tool. It's my best friend and at times my annoying friend. I have never been successful with weight loss, ever. I'm a binger, a grazer, a sugar addict, a couch potato....and I'm losing weight. It is harder than I thought it would be...and it works better than I thought it would. IT basically turned the IMPOSSIBLE into just HARD WORK. I can live with that. I think part of what makes it a tough concept is that we have all done hard work on ourselves before and failed miserably. The band gives us success for our hard work. Shoot...even when I screw up royally, I just stop losing until I get myself back on track. Before the band, I would be yo-yoing up to new high weights when I screw up. I figure the band just gives us what normal people have...the ability to work hard to change our health.

Here are some examples.

As a binge eater, I used to be able to sit in front of the TV and go into a trance and stuff my face for hours. Now I try to eat without the TV on, but when I slip....grab a can full of mixed nuts and sit in front of the TV like an automaton, I am truly stuffed after 8-10 nuts, if that many. And I am putting the can back.

As a sugar freak, I used to be able to eat everything and anything. Now if I screw up and go get ice cream at Dairy Queen, I know I can still get it easily through the band, but instead of feeling defeated by my lack of self control, there is no self-hate. It's just a mistake and I'l do better next time, and I go to the gym and work off the calories.

As a grazer, I used to be able to eat all day. As a bandster I should also be able to theoretically. But much of the time I'm full and not interested. And if I do graze, it's more likely to be a bite than a plate.

I have my perfect days too, but I think it helps to know the realities...that we aren't perfect, but that things just don't get catastrophic anymore.

It is now 3 years later........I lost what i wanted to lose, 65 pounds.......sometimes I gain a few but it is so easy now to just give up that ice cream and get right back on track. In my "other" life that 65 pounds would have ca me right back as soon as i over ate, THERE IS NO OVEREATING NOW......just bad choices !! That 1/2 pound of pasta that used to fill me up is now less than a cup and i remain full for the rest of the evening. I no longer look for a snack late at night. You will also find there will be some foods you canot tolerate. I am very lucky because those for me are the things that i always struggled to give up on other diets and believe me you LOSE the desire for these foods......for example I was a beef eater, loved it and now it does not agree with me and I no longer want it.......AMAZING !!! Doesn't faze me to feed my family a roast and then sit down and eat the potato and veggies and a salad !! In the past that would have never happend because I didn't have the will power to have a little piece or as always I would think "i will have it tonight and start my diet tomorrow !!" When you find you are eating too much you just get a fill and you are right back where you started !!I have friends who had the by-pass around the time I had my band, they are now dieting big time because of weight gain, i just watch what I eat for a few days and the weight starts to drop again........but it is a TOOL........soda, ice cream, puddings,anything liquid goes through the band and you do not fill full..dangerous foods because there is nothing to keep these things from making you gain weight. The band is the best thing i have ever done for myself and the best way to lose weight and keep it off but YOU have to work with it................it is so very worth having done !!! Good Luck !

Think of it this way-If you want to drive in a screw, you use a screwdriver to make it easier. You still have to turn it though, but it is much easier than driving the screw in by hand.

Thank you for your honesty and great replies! Your really know how to touch on the heart of the matter. You could write a book about this Lap Band thing and I would buy it~!

I love how you described the "automatron" -sp? aspect when you sit infront of the TV. When we got our "Plasma" TV w/Tivo I gained 20 lbs. and I never even care too much for TV before. I would come home from work super stressed on certain days and like a robot sit in front of the TV and graze, gorge what ever you wanna call it for hours! YOu put it so perfectly when you said the lap band will stop an eating catastrophy! Thanks for the great reads!

Best to you on your wonderful w/l success!

Whoops I mean this for everyone but my previous note was directed to BetsyJane

Heh, the point is - you will not be able to eat everything in sight. Not even ice cream or chocolate. When your band is completely tight(in the time of highest weightloss, like mine is right now, a year after surgery), you cannot eat more than 50-80 gramms of ice cream. In the past few weeks, I completely stopped eating solid food because of stomach issues(gastric acid) and I eat a few spoons of ice cream every day(I choose this special children's one, with vitamins) and I am not hungry at all(I eat nothing else that day). I also drink a few deciliters of natural juice and as much Water as I can. That's like 600-800 calories a day. And no, I am not starving myself, I get all the Vitamins and minerals, and Proteins, just not so many calories.

Before my band was so tight, I could eat much more ice cream, but no donuts or stuff like that, solid food made me feel queasy.

To resume - the band itself makes you change your habits. IF YOU DO NOT CHEW ENOUGH, YOU WILL FEEL PAIN IN YOUR STOMACH AND YOU WILL HAVE TO VOMIT. Finally, common sense will tell you to stop overeating in order to function normally.

I really had to confront that I ate when I was bored...and that TV is boring! I had to confront that I go in a trance when I eat, and start to eat mindfully. It's a real learning experience, but you go through it bit by bit, like peeling back an onion. You learn patience with yourself, and you just learn until in starts to feel natural.

I've only been banded about 2 months but already I can see how easy it would be to take in the same calories as before. No, you can't have a big lunch or dinner but you can supplement it with bars of chocolate, many well-chewed biscuits/cookies or ice-cream, crunchy stuff or just mushies.

If you're going to start doing that all day, you'll be taking in as many calories as pre-band. Foodies can always find ways, we're really good at it.

I'm trying to stop myself from going down this destructive route but it's tough when you've been emotionally over-eating all your life.

I made my lunch in small containers every day this week. Today I decided to buy lunch - Japanese. I could only eat a few delicious spoonfuls before no more could go down and I was annoyed as I wanted to eat all of it like I did before. What did I do? Buy some chocolate in defiance. The kind of 'diet-defiance' we're all familar with.

I couldn't have the meal I wanted but the chocolate went down without difficulty. Pre-band, I didn't think I'd do stuff like this to sabotage myself but I'm still the same person now as I was before. Soon I hope that I'll realise that I'm not doing myself any favours and I hope as the weight drops, it will spur me on so things like this occur less and less frequently.

I've only been banded about 2 months but already I can see how easy it would be to take in the same calories as before. No, you can't have a big lunch or dinner but you can supplement it with bars of chocolate, many well-chewed biscuits/cookies or ice-cream, crunchy stuff or just mushies.

I want to comment on this in terms of my experience with the band. When (and only when!) my band is properly adjusted, though the above is definitely TRUE, 49 days out of 50, I don't WANT to supplement my meals with things like chocolate or ice cream, just because they go down. Before the band, it would have been a constant struggle all day long to not eat whatever it was I was craving. With a well adjusted band, I simply don't think about food when I'm not physically hungry. In that sense, the band is, at least in part, more than a tool and is more of a miracle.

Yes, I use it as a tool. I count calories most days and I exercise a reasonable amount. But I tried to do those things every day before I got the band and I failed every day. There's something about a well adjusted band that makes dieting POSSIBLE.

Yes, there are days when chocolate and ice cream (or, for me, Skittles) haunt me. I still have a binge about once a month. But I don't have a binge every day like I did pre-band and when I do binge, it's 1000 extra cals, not 10,000. There's something physically different for me now.

Portion control true but you can have 3 ounces of Godiva dark chocolate, 4 oz. of hazelnut truffles, one double fudge brownie, chocolate milk...hey, THAT's portion control right?

No, up to us to diet.

IMO I have only had it a few months but I will tell you it is just a TOOL. It does help but you need some self control on your part and motivation. If you don't have any of that then the tool will not work for you very well. If you do that and add exercise it only makes the band work that much faster. I LOVE MY BAND !!