Im not one who overeats at meals. Im at home most of the time and eating constantly small bites. A handfull of nuts, a little piece of candy, ok two, fruit bites, and on and on.

If all the lap band is going to do is keep me from overeating, when I dont overeat now at one time, will this really help me lose weight?? My mom's argument is you still have to diet, why do this to your body? I snack constantly, carb addict. All these folks saying to journal etc, that wouldnt stop it. Im bored and so I eat. Even when I take my sister out to eat at fast foods, we share one meal. I really dont eat much at once. Its the continuous eating with me.

Will a lap band help me at all to lose weight? Im scheduled for July 8th.

Once you get the Lap Band you are only supposed to eat three meals a day with no snacks or grazing in between meals. You also say that you are a carb addict. With the LB, protein is supposed to be eaten first so would need make sure you got those requirements in before going for the carbs.

Thanks, I guess thats what worries me. I could do that now without the lapband? Eat Protein first and not graze if it was that easy. I had a plate of french fries yesterday instead of dinner last night and never ate dinner.

I lost 80 lbs eating right on Nutri System and have put it all back on plus a few more lbs to a new record high right now. I guess I dont see how the lap band would help me eat better, not trying to be contrary, but as my mom points out, I could do this now, go back to eating my protein and fish and lose the weight again, and save all the money self paying the lap band costs.

Other than ok you change your diet and now eat more protein and have a starting date to make you buckle down and start the diet, does anyone think that actually having the lap band will help someone like me. Other than the pressure of having paid all that money so you feel the need to make it worthwhile, Im not sure Im seeing the benefit of the lap band. Am I missing something here??

Simply put, if you aren't willing to change your habit of constantly grazing small amounts, the band will not work for you. The band will easily let you eat what you say you are currently eating.

As you said yourself, I believe you need to honestly journal everything you eat (time and quantity as well)- this way you could really know what you are actually eating. This is something you could/should do before being banded so that you have an honest account of what you eat and you can make your decisions from there.

You also really need to address your ideas that you are a carb addict and that you eat because you are bored. As many people have said, you can get your stomach banded, but there is no band for your head. The band will not touch either of those issues. By the way, you are not alone. I would suggest that many if not most of us here can relate to either or both of those issues.

Just being honest here, but if you aren't willing to look at your behaviours around eating, there isn't much point to going through major surgery. On the other hand, if you get the help you need to address those issues (perhaps therapy?), you can succeed.

There is nothing inherently wrong with any food, it is generally the quantities we eat that causes us to be obese - even if we are only "grazing" small amounts continuously.

Good luck with your decision.

You should really talk to your surgeon or the bariatric nurses at the hospital regarding your questions. If you're really not sure you can at least postpone your surgery date. I was a grazer all day too but I also ate too big of portions at meal times. I was banded May 28th and it has helped the grazing dramatically! I'm in a completely different mindset now and it's like something in my brain turned off and I don't feel like I need to munch all day long. The feeling of having control over my body and what I eat is the best feeling ever. I don't know you personally so I can't really say if you should do it or not. I know from my experience with grazing it has definitly helped me. I'm down 27lbs and I havent even had my first fill yet. Definitly talk to a nurse or surgeon about your concerns and do alot of thinking. This is a lifetime of change, not just fad diet. I wish you all the best with whatever choice you make!

Marianne

I'm not trying to pass judgement, but it sounds to me like you aren't ready for the band if you don't believe you can change your habits. To be successful, you really need to be ready for it; otherwise, it is a waste of money and unneeded stress on your body with the surgery. Everyone who is successful with the band has had to makme drastic life changes. For a couple o fyears, I said that I didn't think I could get it b/c I didn't think I could not drink liquids while I ate and that I couldn't give up carbonation. But, now I've made both changes. It's not always easy, but I'm doing it and am having success! Whether you choose the band or not, you know what you need to do to reach your goals. You can do it! (I hope I didn't sound preachy...that was not my intent.) Good luck with your decision!

I'm not trying to pass judgement, but it sounds to me like you aren't ready for the band if you don't believe you can change your habits. To be successful, you really need to be ready for it; otherwise, it is a waste of money and unneeded stress on your body with the surgery. Everyone who is successful with the band has had to makme drastic life changes.

I just feel like this conversation, which btw Im also having with my mom who is against this, goes in circles. If I could just change my eating, then I would already be on the diet. I know journaling wouldnt help me except maybe the nuisance of doing it, I know Im eating too much junk without journaling.

We just had one of those $5 subs from subway which we share 4 ways, my parents eat very little of it though. I know I rarely eat what fast food considers one serving, its the nuts and bad food which seems to me to have nothing to do with what the band will help with. My skin is now saggy from yo yo dieting, I eat right for a while and lose and then I start craving popcorn or something else carbs that I shouldnt have. I know with nutrisystem, their Desserts all had soy powder added, but you could still have a dessert is why I did well on that .... until I quit, dont really like the taste of their food, but it worked well for me because my insulin goes out of control with carbs and I gain more than the average person from the same amount of bad carbs.

The fact that no one here thinks the lap band is going to help me is kinda scary. Everyone agrees with my mom that you just have to diet, and the band isnt going to help that.

ok guys.... Ill think about if I should back out and cancel the surgery.

The bottom line question you need to ask yourself is what is preventing you from losing weight? You really need to get to the root of the problem. If the band as a tool will help you solve that problem, then it's something you should consider.

The bottom line question you need to ask yourself is what is preventing you from losing weight? You really need to get to the root of the problem. If the band as a tool will help you solve that problem, then it's something you should consider.

I know I have a insulin problem and my insulin spikes when I eat carbs, even though I can see some are skeptical. I recognize when Im getting to that pre-diabetic stage where I cant even sleep thru the night without getting something during the night. I was serious about the carbs when I mentioned them above, they are like poison to someone with a insulin problem. They more carbs the more I am driven to eat.

I just found my Healthy Choice frozen dinner in the oven ..... from YESTERDAY's dinner. I forgot about it completely. I dont like meat much or main meals, those arent my downfall, its truly the snacking and carbs and the after dinner time. I dont even care for steak and meat others love. Baked potatoes and corn on the cob though...

Im just using the lapband as a date to start the diet to force myself to eat right. I admit that. Im so torn. I feel I have to do something to draw the line in the sand and force myself to start, and this is what I hit upon. I just dont really know if its going to help me keep it off if I fall off the bandwagon. I dont want to keep losing and gaining. If I knew I could do it and keep it off, thats all everyone here wants, me too.

If I back away from this, I know I wouldnt come back and do it later.

Scary to know that no one here thinks this is going to work for me either.

Don't get us wrong...I think many of us think it could work for you if you are willing to change your habits. I know it's a hard decision. I almost did it 3 years ago (even had a surgery date). About a week before, I backed out because I wasn't ready. This time I was ready! I wish you the best as you continue to contemplate this.

I don't think we are saying you shouldn't get the band. You haven't really said anything in your posts that would lead me to believe you are really any different from the rest of us when it comes to food. In my past life I could and would go an entire day without "real" food but would eat and eat and eat all the instant snacky foods with abandon and never get full. When I decided to get the band, I made choices that were my own. This has been one of the most difficult journey's of my life to date, but I have done the work, not the band.

What you have said that leads us to to question whether you are ready for the band is that you are a victim to Snacks and carbs and you have no control over your behaviour around them and that you had hopes that the band would control that. It won't. As long as you have the belief that you have no control over yourself, there is no weight loss method that will help you. This isn't at all about dieting, it is about making conscious choices to make changes within and for ourselves.

The band is a tool that can help with appetite and portion control, but not with the head stuff we all go through as obese people. What you need to do is explore how to reframe your attitudes from that of a victim to a survivor who can conquer themselves.

I don't want to be mean or make you feel bad about yourself, but even in your posts today, you have made yourself a victim of our responses to you. You have said that is scary that we say this won't work for you (twice), that everyone here says you just have to diet, that your mom says this isn't going to work. What I hear you saying is that you have no personal responsibility in taking control of your life. Now it is our responsibility for your decision to possibly cancel getting the lap band.

You need to do some work for yourself to honor the special person you are. I am positive you are very strong in many areas of your life. You need to find a way to use your strengths and apply them to this journey. You can do this!

You can't have it both ways. Either you don't eat much or you are eating way too much. What does your scale tell you?

I personally wouldn't go through the surgery until I proved to myself that I can follow the basic bandster way of eating: Lean Protein, veggies, high Fiber foods, a couple servings of lowfat dairy. You aren't banded yet, so you don't have to limit your portion sizes like a bandster, just stick to the foods you know you'll be having to eat to be successful later.

The band isn't going to magically fix everything for you. You have to pony up and to what needs to be done. You don't have to graze and you don't have to give in to your cravings. But you need to find it within yourself to make better choices and stick with them. Maybe you aren't miserable enough yet.

Just so you know, I've been eating the bandster way for quite some time now, and I'm down over 50 pound on my own, pre-band. So I'm not telling you to do anything I haven't been doing myself.

The band will only work if you get some control and start making intelligent choices. Can you?

Orea

The band will only work if you get some control and start making intelligent choices. Can you?

Orea

yes, of course. I think I mentioned doing low gi diet and losing 80 lbs which Iv just put all I lost back on over the last year. So, yes, I know I can lose weight NOW. I was at 157 lbs only Jan 2007, not much over a year ago.

Then my Dad has been thru one emegency after another and I was at Rehab daily and the only one of the 4 of us driving, the final straw was breaking my own shoulder last Christmas. Its been a very bad year and my diet slipped.

I just dont want to yo yo again. Seems like everyone is concentrating on short term, can I lose weight again now, YES. Of course I can. Anyone can lose some weight. Im worried about long term. How many put the weight back on within 5 years?? Most of us who have lost over and over again know its easier to lose it than to keep it off. If this will be just one more time to lose it and then it comes right back and the lapband doesnt help to keep it off, then maybe its not for me.

Im not really hearing anything long term here to make this decision any easier. I guess Ill keep trying to muddle thru it. To me the decision isnt about if Im ready NOW to make a commitment, its about can I keep it off and that is much harder to know. Maybe the rest of you dont know if you can keep it off or if the lapband is helping you do that. Its the keeping it off I need help with, not the NOW. I keep saying I dont want to yo yo again, which to me is talking long term. I guess whatever Im asking Im not clear enough about that its coming across. Didnt any of you worry if it would work for you a year from now?? 5 or 10 years from now?

thanks for all your comments.

Do not do it you will regret it. It is painful this is the wrong forum to be asking they only are lab band cheerleaders and do not respect others opinions here you will regret it and it I cannot get a dr to confirm it but I am guessing the damage done by the band is going to cost me more than the original 17500 the surgery cost me you can email me privately and I will gladly send you my phone number and I will talk to you.

Do not do it you will regret it. It is painful this is the wrong forum to be asking they only are lab band cheerleaders and do not respect others opinions here you will regret it and it I cannot get a dr to confirm it but I am guessing the damage done by the band is going to cost me more than the original 17500 the surgery cost me you can email me privately and I will gladly send you my phone number and I will talk to you.

Can you post why you are saying this? What was your experience? If you can help us understand then perhaps some won't considering doing it. But, without the facts to backup what you are saying, your words mean nothing.

Do not do it you will regret it. It is painful this is the wrong forum to be asking they only are lab band cheerleaders and do not respect others opinions here you will regret it and it I cannot get a dr to confirm it but I am guessing the damage done by the band is going to cost me more than the original 17500 the surgery cost me you can email me privately and I will gladly send you my phone number and I will talk to you.

I think there is a PM system here to if you dont want to talk about it. I admit to feeling frustrated and worried.

As far as everyone's answer that all I need to do is journal and its going to show me the way. We were at the Rehab Center 24 hours a day for months. The ONLY food within a mile was Taco Bell and Golden chicken, neither my idea of healthy food. I was sitting with my dad and doing 12 hour stretches sat and sun and letting my mom have the weekend off. She was sleeping on the tile floor at her age of 82. I never would have thought I could get back up over 200 lbs again, but Iv been thru a lot.

If journaling was all I needed to set my diet for life, then Im thinking these folks probably havent been thru what I have to say its so simple to them. When all you had was those two fast food places to eat at, no diet is going to work. We were mentally and physically exhausted.

So, here I am for the second time in my life, not only over 200, but over 240. I can only go forward and not beat myself up for the past and hope I can stay on a diet, but after what Iv been thru I know its not nearly as easy as losing a bit of weight near term. Call me a worrier.