Hi I am a newbie...in fact this is my first post.

I went today for the initial consultation with my surgeon. I am hoping to have the surgery within the month. I am in the UK and I am paying a lot of money for the operation, but if it gives me what I am after then I would gladly pay double.

I am 48 and male. I am 6ft. and 322 lbs and want to get down to 196lbs. I have done it before on my own and put it all back on again.

What strikes me about most of the pictures of before and after is that most do not become slim, but just slimmer. I want to be slim. Is there a reason for this?

Any advice and support would be most welcome.

Thanks Graham.

Graman- There are certainly a lot of people who have become slim. But some people are happy at a healthy if slightly chunky weight. A lot of the before and after pictures are people who are still "in progress" They may still want to lose weight but are celebrating their sucesses. If you want to find people who have had a lot of success you should check out the plastic surgery threads. The people who share their journeys have all lost tremendous amounts of weight before their plastic surgery.

Results vary by person. The lap band is a tool, it helps with portion control and can help limit overeating. Exercise, decent eating habits, and working with your band are all important. My doctor indicated that most people with the band will lose about 70% of their excess weight. It seems to vary a lot.

I agree with girlygirlz - I think a lot of us are still a work in progress. However, I do not want to be skinny or bony so I will stop before I get there. I want to remain curvaceous which is what my DH prefers as well :rolleyes2:

Also my doc suggested that I could only lose 60-70% of the weight that I wanted with the band. I have already exceeded that mark but they only base it on statistics. You can be as successful as you want it to be - and sometimes it's slower than others but it does work!

good luck to you!

wombat

I had this question awhile back. I had lost about 75% and my Dr told me that I would be done. HE told me that isn't possible to loose more than that, that your body will shut down. Well he is full of it. I lost another 30 without him! I think that you CAN DO it, no matter what they say. I think it is safeguard because it is the average of what people loose. I am now at 100% of my excess gone, so it CAN be done! Good luck!

A lot depends on how old we are (slower metabolism), how much we exercise ( calories burned) and how tall we are.

At 5'0" my ideal weight would be about 120 pounds, which means I would either have to eat less than someone whose ideal weight is 150 or I would have to exercise more than that person (assuming we're about the same age). So some of it just depends on how hard we want to work at getting and keeping it off.

At 6 feet tall, you're at an advantage over a man that's 5'8", as your ideal weight is higher and therefore you can consume additional calories to maintain your ideal weight.

I doubt I will ever get or maintain my ideal weight of 120 pounds and yet people like me would be included in the statistics.

The majority of banders seems to be women and women have a harder time acheiving and maintaining their ideal weight, so you might have closer to ideal results.

Espace Canoë - Moi, avant et après ma nouvelle vie (lap-band)...et mes rêves...

This is a link of a blog. The girl is showing her result on a slide show. Very impressive. She is cute!:rolleyes2:

In my 2 and a bit years round the traps, its become really obvious to me that the people who achieve that statistical average of 60% of weight lost are by and large people who dont commit themselves to exercise. Or they might but its very moderate exercise, a bit of walking maybe, or some Water aerobics 3 times a week.

That's fair enough, if that's the effort you want to put in, and I'm not goign to knock it. But you get out of this what you put into it and you have to own that. Many people are so thrilled to have lost that 60%. We had a big debate (well fight really) over this not so long ago but really its up to the individual.

But if you WANT to be one that loses 100% or more of your excess weight, the secret is exercise and getting REALLY fit. I eat quite a lot still, enough so that people would never guess I"m banded if I didnt tell them. But I run for an hour most days of the week. That's quite a manageable time committment around kids and study for me, if I"m short on time, I run for half an hour. But I could have walked, not run and then I'd only burn half the calories because I'd only cover half the distance right? I had so many knockers when I started, all that hoohaa about how running burns less fat than walking. Rubbish. Get fit enough to run and you can burn 1000 calories in an hour becuase of the distance you cover.

That's honestly all it took to lose than 100%. Diet wise, I'm no star bandster. I just decided that what time I'd spend exercising I'd make REALLY count.

Slim was my goal too. I had no real health problems, and truly, this surgery for me was 80% cosmetic, I hated the way I looked. I had "future" health problems developing, for sure and was very motivated by my future health. But I wanted to become slim, I would have been VERY disappointed not to lose all my weight. And I want to lose a bit more. I want to be at the bottom of my healthy weight range, I just have that kind of build.

hi grayorm,

i have to agree with Jachut.

in my opinion...

it really is up to whatever we want to accomplish and what we put into it.

since being banded...i've had periods of eating junk and not exercising and my results showed this. i would stop losing and even gained a few.

...exercise has been key to keeping my "metabolism going". that and eating sensibly

the best thing in the world my doctor did for me was to say "i may not lose all my weight" that propelled me into action to prove i could. (a silly little quirk of mine...tell me i cant do something and i become super focused to prove them wrong ha!.)

my new goal is to lose the balance of my weight by my 1 year anniversary. so i'm back to the gym 5-6 times a week.

i will tell you...unlike other times i lost weight before the band...this time i actually enjoyed the many steps down (ie. lower size clothes, fitting in airplane seats with extra seat belt length, etc). i didnt just focus on the end result. so this is a gift of the band.

anyway good luck

OK Josie, Jachut and BooBoo, looking at your fabulous success I am going to the gym tonight! I haven't been in over a week (had a bad cold) and told myself I would go tomorrow. But you are all such an inspiration! BooBoo Love the latest picture!

I agree with the above posts. You can get average results by putting forth an average effort. If you want amazing results put forth amazing efforts both in eating and in the gym.

Graham, the facts are the facts. The lapband typically is 62% roughly of your total weight loss. The stats for the bipass are 90% the first year but at year 3 its the same. I have exactly at 65% and have stayed here for quite some time . I have 35 lbs to go and it just doesn't want to come off. I do think you can reach your goal but it will take some determination including exercise, etc. on your part. Good luck. You can do it.

My two cents.

You get what you give. If you want to lose 100% of your weight then you will. You need to keep that focus and not settle and you need to do everything in your ability to reach that goal.

It is ENTIRELY up to the individual. When my doc told me the stats of 40 to 60% weight loss, I told him I'd be the one on the tip of the bell curve, two deviations from the norm. I've not lost that focus.

You too can be on that part of the curve if you want.

And yeah, I'm not there yet, but I'm at -60% of my excess weight and it's not been a year since surgery.

i'm not having much success so far, but it sounds like my doctor is the only one who says that 100% weight loss is not only attainable but expected. He said in a noncompliant patient...70% minimum.

However, his version of compliance involves exercising and counting calories..and he does not want you to pick your goal weight based on some stupid chart.

Thanks folks, Good advice. I lost ALL my excess after a divorce 10 years ago and put it all back on and more after re-marrying. I did a little excersize, but mainly it was down to a 1200 per day diet. I just kept on going. I lived alone and usually kept just 1 lettuice leaf in the fridge, sometimes 2 at weekends...(well, you know what I mean). I intend to lose 100% this time using excersize if needed, but not by choice. It felt sooooo good last time. The only problem is the clothes shopping bill! I just couldn't stop!