Hi my name is Liz and I have been referred to be banded.. I have lots of questions... How affective is it... How much can I plan on loseing in about 12 months.. and so on if there is anyone out there that can help answer all the questions running thru my head it would be a great help....:laugh:

Honestly, everyone is different. If you exercise, you can lose weight faster. It also depends on how aggressive your dr. is with fills. The band will not do all the work. It will help you with your portion sizes after you have the correct fill.

It will not stop you from eating ice cream, cookies, cake or chips. These kinds of foods slip right through the band and you can eat way too much of this stuff. If you are determined to follow the rules, a lot of people get close to their goal weight in a year.

The best place to start is your doctor. They will have everything you need.

This board is a great resource as well to get ideas of the personal experience.

Expect to lose 2 pounds a week- on average.

I reached goal pretty fast and have exceeded all expectations. For me, it was portion control. Didn't exercise, didn't quit eating sweets.... it's eating healthier and not eating too much.

But everyone is different and some have to exercise and avoid sweets.

Good luck and keep us posted on your progress!

Everyone is different and a lot depends on how much weight you need to lose. Some people, like lapbandtalker, can lose weight relatively quickly with minor changes in lifestyle other than portion control. For others, like me, it is a slower process. My advise is to take the time now to read these posts here on this website and you will get an understanding of what others have experienced. Then you can expect it to be different for you. There are no two of us who are the same. There are a lot of questions that you will have that you don't even know about yet. Keep researching and get ready for a change in your life.

I agree with all the posters. Everyone is totally different. For me, the first year was a piece of cake, lost quickly. The 2nd year life threw me some curve balls and had lots of hurdles to jump so it was hard. Now I'm headed toward the right way again and 20 lbs from my ultimate goal, 10 lbs from a healthy weight for my height. I can see light at the end of the tunnel.

For me, I have to exercise. If I don't - I just can't keep the scale moving.

I can eat anything, I have only PB'd 4 times over a two year period. I just can't eat much of anything. I can't eat an entire box of cookies like I did prior, or an entire pizza pre band. So with the band, I am able to control my portions. I love that. I know that I will NEVER weigh 248 lbs again!

Also, I don't have to take small bites of food, I don't have to chew, chew chew like they say. I eat regularly and am full with a small amount of food. I have had to have 14 fills, and finally gave up on trying to get to that perfect restriction. I'm at 3.9 cc's in a 4 cc band. When he puts me to a 4, I close up.

So with the band, it gets frusterating trying to get to the perfect fill level, you have to be patient.

You have to be willing to make some changes, and the band will be a tool to use to help you get to a healthy weight. But again, its a partner, the band will not do it all alone. You have to be willing to give some too.

Hope this helps. But read everything you can before going into it.

Best wishes.

Iv found it is probably less effective than say phen fen was, or any diet pill in the past. Its just to curb your appetite, nothing else. I dont think folks understand that part sometimes. You still have to eat the right foods and exercise, it just helps me with the snacking somewhat, but its hard for me, for some it seems easy. I think its easier if you were overeating before, it helps you cut down and you cant eat as much, but I was a grazer, and it doesnt help as much with that.

On average from the tickers I have seen, I decided that it looked to me like a lot of folks lost 100 lbs in a year. So, if you have more you want to lose, it might not happen in a year.

I have lost 25 lbs since Dec 22. Diet pills never worked for me, and phentermine (probably spelled wrong) made me the mean mean crying cussing queen. I have not once regretted my surgery, even when I make my payment every month, since my insurance would not cover it. I have to make choice on what I eat, but it is much easier for me to make good choices. Not that I haven’t had chocolate cake, but a little bit satisfies me instead of the whole cake. And I can actually turn down sweets now, something I would have never believed. One thing I have noticed is when I am stress, it is really hard for me to eat, and I use to be a total stress eater. Maybe the first time that I fell into old habits and I puked on myself made that change.