just my mind going!!!!!!!!

i see alot of post about how people arent losing and everyone is just telling them you need to get your fills and you will lose weight.

ok everyone says you just got to hit that sweet spot. you have to get the fills. lets say you dont hit your sweet spot until you have 7cc's or 8 cc's in you 10cc band. when you finally do reach your goal a year or maybe two later what will happen the doctor is not going to take the fill out they gonna keep it in. now from my experience you learn to adjust to your band and eat and the band loosens over time. (now i might be wrong about that) not really loosen but you can eat more over time. lets say you gain 50 or so lbs back in the 3rd year and then you are full up on your fills and cant get anymore what will you do then? i believe the band is there to help us and remind us why we have the band as well as help us feeling fuller with a smaller portion. but if we count on fills and not excerise or learn to adjust to a healthier eating habits then wouldnt we just gain our weight back? what will the band be for then? i dont know everyone always saying go get fills your not there yet once you hit it you will be on your road to weighloss. but in my opinion wouldnt you rather have less fills and adjust your lifestyle so you dont have to rely on the band. in 5 years what would happen? to me we would be in the same position we are in now. so yes i believe its important to do what we dont like to keep the results(as in eating right and excerising). this is the sole reason why i didnt do the gastric bypass. you dont learn to eat right when you have the bypass. you have to adapt to your stomach which forces you to lose weight but if you think about it what will happen to you 5 years when you can eat normally or close to it? you gain and you have no means to lose it again because your not forced to wouldnt you rather be in control of the whole thing instead of getting controled? i dont know know i just hear alot of blame on the band. to me i see that we have control on what we want out of life. if your happy being 250 lbs with a bmi of 40 then gratz to you and i will support you. but if you complain about the band and state you are not losing because you just dont have any restriction and just dont take the control back and get offended because people constantly tell you that you have to excerise and change your eating habits then why complain? am i being to harsh about this? im not trying to be mean to the people that get frustrated with there weighloss and restriction but have you ever thought why the weighloss slowed and what you can do to see more results for the future?

I think that is a great wake up call. I was banded 7 weeks ago and had my first fill yesterday and after reading your post I don't think I really needed it. You know its true what your saying. We do have to take responsibility for the types of food we intake, make sure they are healthy and also move our bodies, wether it be gym, walking, cleaning the house or chasing your kids around. It is so much easier to blame it on the band and forget the bands guide lines. THANKYOU

Karen - obesity is a very complex condition. Of course it is always about calories in vs out. But the more this condition is studied the more they are finding that genes and hormones like leptin and grehlin play a role in our appetite, our satiety, not to mention a whole host of other things. We are not like naturally thin people. How we see, taste and smell food is different. When our brains tell us to stop eating is different. Our metabolisms are different. That is why obesity is considered a disease. Going on a diet is like holding your breath - you can only do it for so long. The band is supposed to make you feel full and satisfied with a small amount of food. If it is not doing that then yes, it is the bands fault. What food you fill your pouch with is your responsibility. You have to eat healthier. It doesn't mean that once in awhile you can't have something you like - we're not monks, but the 6 month pre-surgery nutrition diet is supposed to teach you this. Anyone can overcome the band or by-pass. But that's not the point of getting these surgeries. Nothing is fool proof. Diets fail 95% of the time. Can you imagine doctors recommending any procedure to a patient with a disease that fails 95% of the time? But weight loss surgery is the only medical intervention that has proven successful against obesity and its related co-morbidities. For most people it works. But there are always exceptions.

i dont see that cloe's mom i understand that there are cases where there is nothing we can do but gain weight. everyone's metabolism is different but i dont see that other countries having such an issue on obesity as we are in the united states. 100 years ago you didnt see many obese people out there in the u.s. its all about the eating habits. they didnt have fast foods or all the snacks and junk food they could eat. also they were more active in there lifestyle then we are today. so i see that we forgot how to eat correctly and to stay active. and yes im one of them obese people but i dont blame society or call it a disease because it can be preventable in 99% of the time. i do believe we got where we are for making the wrong choices and i am here now trying to turn it around. and i can tell you my metabolism is not there im 30 just had two kids within the last four year. but i do feel my body changing once i started eating right and excerising. and i mean changing as having more energy less stress more happier, etc..... and i dont see anything wrong with taking that slip up here and there and moving forward afterwards. what gets me is people are quick to blame something or someone and not look towards themselves.

Karen- I understand what you are trying to say and I agree with most of it... I haven't had a fill yet and am losing at a nice pace. I called my dr. to ask if I needed to come in since I was doing well. I was told to wait another month and then they wanted to see me whether I get a fill or not. I took that to mean we will discuss it and make a decision at that time. This plan works for me. I like knowing that I have this band in place to stop me when and if I get off track. Right now I think I have just enough restriction to keep me honest and not so much as to make me feel deprived. I know I have to make this my life's plan now. I do also understand what the other gal said about obese people being different and that being why this is called a disease.. I'm hoping to balance everything out and make the rest of my life better than what has gone so far. I think it is very good to be giving so much thought to what is happening to us. It is complicated and yet simple all at the same time. Understanding as much as possible is a very positive thing. I'm very happy with my decision to have the band and I'm hoping I'll still feel that way 10 or 15 years from now... Take care all............. Julie

Gee Karen Karen... sounds like you should have never gotten your band and just started eating lettace and running marathons. Wouldn't that have the same end result???

I am 57. I am the third generation with an obesity problem. I don't know my ancestors before that. This includes both parents and both sets of grandparents. My father's mother was born around 1895. No fast food. No prepared food. And they did a lot of manual labor. And she was obese. Same for my mother's parents. (born 1895 and 1901) Both grandparents obese. And they all lived through the depression. Including my mom. But only the girl children (my mom & her sister) became obese. My mom had 2 kids - me and my brother - both of whom became obese as adults. My mother's sister had 3 children - all were/are obese (1 died). Her oldest daughter had two children - one normal weight (boy) and a girl who was obese almost from birth (breast fed only) and was a clone of her mother. So, I look at my family and its history and you cannot escape the genetic factor. Yes I think our western diet is to blame but our society has moved from agricultural to industrial to a service (sitting all day) economy and nothing is going to change that. We do need to exercise more and that has been emphasized for years by the medical profession. And don't forget that for every 10 pound you lose, you need 150 fewer calories to maintain that weight. Our bodies are designed to hold onto calories from our time when food was scarce. Our bodies have not evolved to match our society. And the medical profession does define obesity as a disease even if you don't. If it didn't - insurance wouldn't pay for these surgeries. I will never beat myself up for being who or what I am. I am not a number on the scale. But I have taken steps to get healthier which is what everyone on this board is doing and they deserve the support of each other.

Gee Karen Karen... sounds like you should have never gotten your band and just started eating lettace and running marathons. Wouldn't that have the same end result???

truthfully getting the band got me to rethink all this. no i dont think i would lose any weight without the band and the reason for that is because i was not motivated and i was negative. getting the band made me realized what i wanted in life. at first it was more im so tired of being fat i didnt care about my health or anything. i just didnt want to be fat anymore but i didnt know how to fix it. now being banded i did realized i have to change my lifestyle regardless and it got the light bulb on in my head. it taught me to care about myself more and treat myself better. i dont think i could have done that on my own. now yes i think if i didnt have the band i could lose weight but whats done is done and no reason dwelling on it. the band gave me my life back gave me the confidence and strength to become a better person as a whole and not just physically

This if off topic but may I make a suggestion? Use paragraph breaks frequently in long posts. Long posts without paragraph breaks make it very difficult read.