I was considering trying my luck on Optifast(liquid meal replacement) instead of Lapband surgery.

What do you think of this idea?

I was considering that my problem is mainly an eating problem. A liquid diet might work, because it totally eliminates the act of eating from my lifestyle.

Does this make sense? please be brutal and tell me what you think.

thanks

Tyler

So are you giving up solid food for the rest of your life? Most people who do Optifast diets gain the weight right back as soon as they return to real food.

I'm not sure what you mean when you say your problem is an eating problem. All of our problems are eating problems. That's why we are fat!

My problem is an eating problem.

When I start eating, I can't stop. My "I'm full nerve" is absolutely broken and not working.

By elliminating eating, I would be removing the underlying issues related to my eating......even if I don't understand what my eating issues are.

Eventually, I could return to eating, but continue to use an Optifast style diet as a tool to maintain a steady weight.

I would ask the following questions as a starting point. (I'm not asking you to reply to these questions, these are just some points I'd have to answer for myself before I went on Optifast)

Do you have your surgery scheduled yet? Do you have time to give the Optifast diet a try without postponing or canceling surgery? Do you have to be under a doctor's supervision while you're on it? Do you know how long someone typically stays on a liquid diet, and how they go about returning to solid foods without regaining their lost weight? Can you realistically get your bmi to a healthy number while on Optifast? What is the overall success rate of Optifast?

You are definitely welcome to try and you will most certainly lose. The problem with most of us is we have dieted several times and regained the weight. I did Opti-Trim, which was not a complete liquid diet, but allowed one meal a day. I lost 70 pounds and gained it back plus some over the following years. The best thing about the LapBand is that it helps you maintain a loss. Even when I "cheat", I usually don't gain much. It is easy to get a fill and get back on track. It is impossible to totally eliminate the act of eating from our lifestyle on a permanent basis. Unless you want to be on a feeding tube! I wish you the best, but I will say, for me, the Lap Band has been great in keeping the weight off(and I still get to eat real food!)

Sorry, one more thing.....How does removing eating eliminate your underlying issues of overeating? By removing one's coping mechanism(eating), one generally tends to replace the coping mechanism with another(smoking, drinking, etc.) Hopefully, you can replace it with a healthy thing like exercising, journalling,etc. If your "issue" is purely that your "I'm full nerve" is broken, the Lap Band helps it work a lot better!

To be brutally honest...If you're like 99.9% of the rest of us you will kick BUTT at losing weight while you stick with it. However, as SOON as you go off you'll gain the weight back and then some.

Trust me, BTDT with Slim Fast. Not quite the same thing, but close. Heck, I've BTDT with EVERY diet I ever went on.

IF we are all good at losing the weight, why don't I lose the weight, then get the lap band? it would be much lest risky if I went into surgery at my target weight.

Because any surgeon I have ever heard of won't give you ANY kind of weight loss surgery if you're already at or near goal weight. You have to be at LEAST in the obese catagory with your BMI, not just a documented weight problem.

Hi Tyler,

I went on the Optifast diet through a good Dr here in the San Francisco Bay Area a few years ago. Went 3 full months on ONLY the shakes. Spent $1800 to the Dr to cover all the Dr visits and all and spent $90 a week buying the shakes, soups, and snack bars from them for another $1170. Spent nearly $3000 and lost 48 lbs. But gained it all back in a year and a half....

This could never happen with the band. You may (or may not) lose weight as fast but you can't gain it all back because you just go get an adjustment to tighten the band if you start gaining anything back.

Save yourself the money and the grief and get the band done.

Hi Tyler,

It sounds like you are a bit apprehensive about this procedure, and maybe more investigation about it will put that to rest. At the seminar that I sent to given by my surgeon, he said that all of us have lost weight before, sometimes in large amounts. The hardest part really isn't about loosing the weight; it is in KEEPING THE WEIGHT OFF. Socalgal3 pretty much hit the nail on the head. The LapBand is our tool to keeping the weight off. Take your time and make sure you are ready to make the commitment to not only loosing the weight, but also to keeping it off. I'm sure there's no hurry; if it is right for you in your mind, you'll do it. Best of luck!

OK Tyler,

You asked for opinions, so I will share mine - and I am pretty passionate about this topic. Going on a liquid diet like Optifast is no way to lose weight in any sustainable way. If it were effective, you would be able to buy it on every street corner. This form of weight loss is like any other "diet" that restricts you in some way (atkins, jenny craig, etc.). You do well while you are on it and then when you go off, 95% of people immediately gain the weight back, plus more. Why?

1. You haven't made any changes to your life style, so you go back to old patterns of eating almost immediately when you start eating real food.

2. The foods you have been denying yourself almost become drug like, so when you start eating them again it is very difficult to keep to small portions (see #1 about not learning anything about portion control or changing your lifestyle)

3. You will lose weight, but is it fat or is it Water?

4. As snowbird says - are you willing to drink all your food for the rest of your life?

You made the point that your "full nerve" is broken. So is mine - I don't think I even have a "full nerve". A liquid diet will not repair that nerve and will not address the true issue (the brain) in any way. Elliminating eating will only delay the inevitable confrontation you need to have about your relationship with food. Why put yourself in a position where you know you aren't actually helping yourself in any meaningful way, but only slapping a temporary band aid on?

Your reasoning that by not eating you are removing the problem seems to be quite faulty. Just because you are drinking your meals, don't kid yourself that you are not going to want to eat, or that you will feel full, which seems to be what you are saying are your issues. You may be able to stop yourself from actually putting solid food in your mouth, but it won't stop all the other urges you have to eat continuously.

I am going to share a personal example with you. As part of my banding experience, I had to go on a 2 week optifast diet, then I was on 2 weeks of liquids after the surgery. In that 4 week period, I lost 55 pounds (about 1/2 before the surgery and about 1/2 after). I also got incredibly sick, dehydrated and ended up in hospital for 2 weeks because of dehydration and my electrolytes went dangerously out of wack. I am not blaming the liquid diet on my illness, but the fact is, while I was in hospital, I was on IV and ate very little. In that 2 weeks, I gained 57 pounds, so I was right back to my pre-optifast weight. IN 2 WEEKS!!!!!!!! Some of that weight was due to the massive amounts of fluids being pumped in my body, but the truth is after my release I lost 25 pounds in the next 4 weeks, but the other 32 pounds took 2 more months to lose. The weight I lost on liquid diets was not fat, but rather water. I wouldn't wish that experience on anyone.

IMHO you would be better off investing in a psychologist than in optifast.

If I get dehydrated, my calves cramp up. I've been able to lose about 54 lbs without the happening, by adding bananas to my protien shakes. But the problem is, I've stop eating bananas since I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

If your full nerve is broken, WLS -- of any type -- will fix it. Opti-fast won't fix it.

I call my full nerve my hunger thermostat and mine is broken too.

One thing I've been doing is try to stop eating as soon as I eat 1 cup of food. I figure that if I'm going to be hungry again in a 1-2 hours no matter how much I've eaten, why not eat less?

It does help. I've lost around 10 lb. doing that. But will I lose the other 75-90 and keep it off? I don't know. I do know I'm sick and tired of being hungry all the time and trying to trick my brain and my hunger thermostat.

So that means I'm getting WLS. Because WLS works and diets don't.

Hello,

Just one more person to add to the anti fast diets. My aunt did opti fast in the late 80's and she had the same result, lost alot fast, put it back on just as fast. It is so important to control eating for a lifetime, not just a short time "fix". But you have to make sure that you are ready for the committment of surgery. Take all the time you need, but ask yourself how much longer do you want to live as obese?

Amy

To be brutally honest...If you're like 99.9% of the rest of us you will kick BUTT at losing weight while you stick with it. However, as SOON as you go off you'll gain the weight back and then some.

This has been my biggest problem. I can work my butt off and loose the weight only to have it come back plus some. In Feb last year, I was down to 230 and now I am back up to my highest weight of 280 again. I have tried so many times, but I ALWAYS gain it back and then some. I have thought about surgery for years, but I always came back to "if I can loose weight by myself, then why have the surgery". Now I have the answer, the answer is "if I have the surgery, I can loose weight and NOT gain it back". I am so ready to have a new life!!!