We were discussing how fast/slow the weight loss was going to be. I made a simple yet true comment and she gave me the "you just sprouted 3 extra heads and two of them have horns" look.

She told me to expect a "sudden" loss then it will slow down, and all I said was "I hope it isn't to fast, I would rather loose slow and steady then fast and stall". I guess she wasn't expecting it, most of her patients are bypass patients I am one of the few that are in for the lap band (she keeps pushing bypass and/or the sleeve (no thankee spankee)) and that is what they experience. I am not a bypass patient (much to her chagrin) and I don't want the sudden drop, I just want to get healthy and fit.

But even after the appt was over and she put in for my mental wellness referral I think she was still shocked that I said "slow and steady wins the race while fast and furious fall short of the finish line every time" ... (yes I said that, huge fan of the tortoise and the hare)

Well, anyhow I am done with my classes now, and moving on to the last 3 one on one appointments before I schedule my surgery .. I AM SOOO CLOSE I can taste it now!! :tea:

Ya know Pix, who cares what she thinks, my first appointment is Monday, and even the lady that answered the phone asked me if I was getting excited, she said that her first year that she dropped it fast, and now her second year is really slowing down, but she blamed it on exercise, she doesn't do any, and she said that is one of the things that needs to be done to push the weight loss, I agree with you, I want to lose it slow say about 10#'s a month will be fine with me, when you lose it really fast (my opinion) your skin doesn't have the time to shrink with your lost and I really don't want to have to look into plastic surgery, I'm already paying for this out of my pocket and plastic surgery is not covered by my insurance either, that is what they classify this surgery also. So, you just listen to your doctor and do what he says, I'm sure that he will agree with you about the time lost. Be Cool

Pix, you are not alone in valuing the moderated weight loss offered by the band. This is one of the primary reasons I chose the band over bypass, though I was a good candidate for either.

Back in 1990 I lost 75 lbs in three months on Optifast, and it was really a very disturbing experience. I hated not recognizing myself in the mirror, and particularly hated everyone oohing and aahing over me like I had been some sort of creature they couldn't bear to look at and only now was I worthy of their notice.

Nuh uh, no thanks. 70 lbs in a YEAR is much more my speed.

Ditto for me! One to two pounds a week is just perfect. Tomorrow it will be five months out and I've lost 40 pounds, which is the way I want to lose it.

I will admit, when I've had the scale stall (for three weeks) and then suddenly jump down four pounds, I kinda wish it would do that more often!!!

My boss's daughter and his son had bypass and he said his son (13 months out) is way below his goal weight and looking pretty drawn (too thin). He went to his surgeon for the one year checkup and they just said "Wow--we have to get pictures for our website!!"

No thanks, I'll take my time thank you! And by the way, another consideration is that we can exercise our butts off - while the bypassers lose so quickly there's no way they could keep up--thus plastic surgery is a must (boss's daughter is shelling out $13,000 to shed her excess skin!)

why is it that the healthcare professionals try to push gastric bypass? do they not think we haven't done any research? i've had a lot of people try to change my mind about being banded. i'm sorry... i don't want a month of recovery. i don't want to worry about leakage into my abdominal cavity. i too would rather a nice, slow and steady weight loss instead of losing 50 pounds in a month and then nothing more!

I am with all of you. I would rather lose it slowly and keep it off versus losing it all at once and gaining it back. I guess I am lucky because the doctor that is doing my surgery HIGHLY recommends the band over gastric bypass. During their seminar they give you the stats on both but they tell really push why they feel the band is better than bypass. They even state that in the long run, most bypass patients end up with a leak or something and gain most if not all their weight back. The great thing for me is that the band is reversible, not permanent! If I get sick or pregnant, we can defill the band. That was an important sticking point for me!