Hi everyone,

I am having second thoughts about getting the lap band. My surgery's scheduled for May 9th, but I need to know this - at 347 lbs is the lap band going to really be enough to help me lose SO MUCH weight? I want to get down to 180, so that'd be 167 lbs to lose.

Should I consider a more drastic option, like a gastric bypass?

Thanks.

I had 130 to lose when I started this journey. To date, since Jan 1. I have lost 50 pounds and feel so much better I can't hardly believe it. It is a very personal decision and this is just my opinion but I think if you can do it with bypass, you can do it with the band. It takes work and committment but if you work your band and follow the band rules, this will work for you.

My personal opinion (for what it is worth) is that the level of committment of the individual is directly related to the success of the band. In my case, I am committed to measuring my food, tracking my calories, working out five or six times a week. Walking instead of driving when possible. I finally have the energy to do those things. I still have about 85lbs to lose but I can do it. Before I got my band I worried about whether it would work for me, I took a gamble and it has paid of royally.

Good luck in your decision and with your band.:thumbup:

Hi CelticDreamer! In my opinion, the Lap Band is the way to go. As you can see from my ticker below, I started at nearly the weight you are now. I also am scheduled for surgery on May 9th. Are you doing a liquid preop diet right now? Some docs don't use it, but mine swears by it because it makes surgery easier and safer. I've lost 18.3 lbs on this liquid (5 Optifast shakes a day plus sugar free Jello and popcicles, broth and crystal lite) since April 24th.

As for how much weight we have to lose, well I recently met a fellow that weighed well over 400 lbs and he's down to around 220 or so right now. He still has some to go, but he's lost more than you and I have to lose.

What you might be suffering from is called Head Hunger. That's the voices that say you might not be successful and you'll still be hungry and are full of self-doubt. The bypass, in my experience with friends, is NOT a good option. If you think about it, virtually every star on tv that has had bypass has gained the weight back or at least a good portion of it. Who? Try Al Roker, that singer chick (her name escapes me right now), the afro-american woman who plays a nurse on ER, Randy Jackson (Am. Idol) etc. You'll have to take pills - lots of pills - for the rest of your life to maintain health, because it's your intestines that absorb the Vitamins from the food you eat. With bypass they BYPASS the major portion of your intestines.

Call your doctors office and get some professional advice. After all, you've come this far and are 1 week away. YOU CAN DO THIS! It's all up to you.

I wish you the best of luck with your journey. If you'd like, I'd be pleased to hear from you again - we're band-mates if you still get your surgery on 5/9 like me!

Here's to your health and happiness!

Barbara :thumbup:

Hi:

I can tell you that either way it's hard. But it can be done. I started at 324 and now I'm 199 and it's been only a year.

Do you really want to consider altering your anatomy? Taking alot more risk if you go the Gastric Bypass route.

The little voice in me tells me that those smart scientists are going to come up with a cure for obesity that works with a pill in the next 20 years. That's when I plan to have my band pulled out and be able to eat like I used to without a problem. Don't know if this will ever really happen, but the band is completely reversible.

Hope all works out for you.

Sue

Okay, I guess I didn't have my weight listed... frankly, I started at 330 and am down to 311.3. Hope this all helps!

Barbara

Hi Celticdreamer,

I too have been having second thoughts for Years now and I have watched my Arthitis get worse and worse, now I have no choice but to get the Lapband. I am close to your weight too and I would not even consider the Gastric, TOOO dangerous, someone else here told me that also! I am too young to get my knees replaced but I am getting to the point that I cannot walk without my walker. I want to feel normal again and do fun things again before I am Too old and my life passes me by. I know that is will be HARD for a while. I am getting things together for myself comfort wise so when I do get my date, I'll be ready. Pillows, a journal for writing and Venting!! I have been over weight all my life and I know I cannot do it alone and I want to be healthy again!!! I will pray for the both of us!!!

Good Luck!!!!!

I just had my band done about 3 wks ago and am down 30 lbs already. The band can get you there, but it will take longer and more committment on your part. However, the band is safer, adjustable, and reversable.--- you are stuck with bypass. My aunt had bypass about 6 years ago. She has gained back most of the weight because she did not change her lifestyle and is considering getting banded.

This is a very personal decision. I made it looking at long term results and risk factors. Good luck!

Studies show that the overall weight loss between gastric bypass and lap band is the same. Gastric bypass patients tend to lose faster in the beginning but don't lose more weight overall.

Yes, the band will be enough. It will likely take longer, but it's safer and it'll take work on your part. (although I imagine that's true for gastric bypass patients too)

My goal is -159 lbs, and maybe some more after that because I won't be "thin" at 140, just "not fat". I'm well on my way, and already feel fantastic compared to before.

Will it work for you? Yes, if you're willing to do the work to get there! :thumbup:

Should I consider a more drastic option, like a gastric bypass?

Well, no one can really make that decision but you, but nevertheless I'll throw in my two cents...

YES! Do the Lap Band!

Almost every study done shows that after two years, the percentage of weight lost is almost exactly the same for Lap Band and GB patients. The difference is that GB patients lose a little faster initially because it's such a dramatic change to the body, but once it evens out (within a year or so) LB and GB patients progress the same and lose the same amounts.

Lap Band is FAR safer and completely reversable, should anything in the world go wrong. Your body is put together a certain way and GB is a huge, unreversable change in your anatomy. If so much as one staple leaked, the toxins could cause death.

GB is no more a miracle cure than LB is. It just comes with much worse side effects and consequences when you give in to will power and eat something you really shouldn't.

Google things like "dumping syndrome" for fun examples.

In my mind, it would seem the more you have to lose, the more benefit you would get from the Lap Band -

Someone who weighs 250lbs probably doesn't eat as much as someone who weighs 400, so the reduction in calories would be greater, and therefore cause faster weight loss, in the larger person.

Granted, I don't know that last part for a fact, that's just the reasoning that goes through my mind.

I wish you the best, whatever choice you make!

Edited May 3, 200818 yr by *Jewels*

I just saw a friend who had gastric about 4 years ago..she has now gained back 30 lbs. She said that you are "supposed to catch it at 15"...and she was embarrased to say that she obviously didn't do too well at that. Granted she has lost, still at least 60 lbs...but she is struggling. Another person I know said her daughter gained all 100 lbs back after bypass! Another bypass friend said she has gained at least 50 back...lastly, a woman I exercise with has gained back 120 pounds after bypass...

See the trend?

Now, I am not banded yet but this is my thought process:

OMG!!! How can it happen so easily for these people??

Could it be they did NOT CHANGE THEIR LIFESTYLE?? WAS IT SO EASY TO LOOSE DUE TO THE MALABSORPTION THAT THEY NEVER REALLY MONITORED AND ATE MORE HEALTHY?

So, Why the Band? Because to loose the weight YOU HAVE TO CHANGE YOUR LIFESTYLE...OTHERWISE YOU WILL NOT LOOSE VERY MUCH!!!

So, it may be slower because we will absorb every single calorie we ingest...But...along the way we will train ourselves to eat a whole new way.....The whole "TOOL" idea...

In summary...maybe some people gain back after bypass because it was too easy and they never really changed once they got where they were going....

Anyone can eat around the band or bypass...you have to CHANGE!!!!