I am just in the beginning stages of getting approved, I am reading all these posts and find my self wondering if it will still be hard to lose weight after being banded? I am scared that I will fail again....but I am thinking that if so many other obese people have lost so much weight then the band must make it easier...no? Please any thoughts on this would be helpful. Thanks!

This is definately a yes and no answer. It does help with the ravenous hunger. This doesn't mean that you will never be hungry again, just not ravenous(with fills). Exercise is a very important part of the process. If you want the band to do it all for you it isn't going to. And it isn't going to help you make the correct food choices. Your still going to crave the junk. So I think if your objective is better health, I would not question the decision at all. I, for one, love my band and have not seen this weight for about 10 years. I couldn't have done it without it. Please believe in yourself, don't have doubts, know that this time with the band you will succeed! If you believe in yourself and listen to the band rules you will be fine. Good Luck and I hope to hear that you've been approved.

hi ... i have been banded for 2 months so I do not have the big experience yet ... but i have been dieting for the last 20 years ... sometimes the diets used to work but 90% of the time they failed and in the last 5 years i failed all my diets ... so to lose 16 kg in 2 month since the band is something i never expected or dreamed of. it needs persistance i think and this huge first loss will be minimal after a while but the way i see it is the scale is going down not up ... and i got few non weight success ... my blood tests were all normal two days ago , my doctor reduced my blood pressure drug to half and my body became regular in all other aspects ... I know I could not have done that without my band and I can not say it was a hard route so far ... i m still to see what happens in the next 6 months to come .... If i m to do it once again ,,, I will with no hesitation ... Good luck with your decision :-)

Well I'll tell you, It's a lot of hard work But do-able and worth it.

I agree - yes and no.

Because you feel full, and satisfied, not deprived like on a diet, I found myself constantly beating myself up for overeating. I'd feel I was being a pig and wasting my chance. Yet week after week after week the weight fell away - I was eating WAY less, it didnt feel like it is all.

Initially you have terrific enthusiasm and once you notice it working, it is so easy to make good food choices and really work that band.

For me, the challenges came later. After 18 months or so it wasnt all shiny and new anymore and I had to work a bit harder to stay on track, my appetite normalised a bit around the band and the last bit of weight took absolutely ages to shift. And maintenance is just as hard as losing - you have to constantly adjust, make up for big dinners out or Christmas day, stick with that exercise plan day after day, week after week, month after month and year after year. If you give that up, you regain, simple as that. I'm now an expert on what I can and cant eat, what to go for if I want a bit of a pig out, that will slide down well, I even have some vices I never had before - like instead of coffee and a muffin now, I tend to have coffee and the lemon slice - more calories than the muffins at Muffin Break! You have to REALLY watch yourself on stuff like that and stay on top of the bad habits - you can have a treat but you have to learn for that not to lead to too many treats. Its not easy.

But its doable, truly, if I can do it anybody can, I was the world's most pathetic dieter.

Oh hell yes.. to me it is just as hard until u get to the proper fill. Once u get there seems seem so freekin brand new. I am going to keep sayin it.. lol.. I am at 7.5cc's and I am truly amazed i am not hungry and it only takes a few fork fulls to fill me up.. OMG... I have never experienced nothing like this. Up until now I thought i had made a mistake that's why i had not visited the board in a while, but i will be the first to tell u it does work... I can't wait until Monday so i can weigh myself. Once u decide to make the change don't let anyone turn u against it. It is truly diffrent from having the will power to do it on your own because if u are always hungry it is impossiabale to loose weight... U can do it.. :cool:

Oh hell yes.. to me it is just as hard until u get to the proper fill. Once u get there seems seem so freekin brand new. I am going to keep sayin it.. lol.. I am at 7.5cc's and I am truly amazed i am not hungry and it only takes a few fork fulls to fill me up.. OMG... I have never experienced nothing like this. Up until now I thought i had made a mistake that's why i had not visited the board in a while, but i will be the first to tell u it does work... I can't wait until Monday so i can weigh myself. Once u decide to make the change don't let anyone turn u against it. It is truly diffrent from having the will power to do it on your own because if u are always hungry it is impossiabale to loose weight... U can do it.. :thumbup:

That's truely inspiring! Thank you so much!:thumbup:

Thank you all so much for your encouragement, I feel better now:)