Hello my name is Brandy and I'm 29, 220lbs and I feel horrible:frown: I have a bad back and i had surgery, that is when my weight got out of controll. I have mixed feelings about the lap band! It sounds painful and very hard, just like a diet! How do you feel after having the procedure and are you glad you did it? .....confused.......:tongue_smilie:

Hello my name is Brandy and I'm 29, 220lbs and I feel horrible:frown: I have a bad back and i had surgery, that is when my weight got out of controll. I have mixed feelings about the lap band! It sounds painful and very hard, just like a diet! How do you feel after having the procedure and are you glad you did it? .....confused.......:tongue_smilie: I cant seem to find much motivation to start a diet and I think that is most of our struggles, and if i do start and lose weight as soon as I stop I go right back to my old habbits

Well, honestly like most banders will say on here, you can't think of the band as a diet. It isn't..it is changing your life forever. You have to make the choice to give up old bad habbits in order to be successful, because the band is not a calorie counter. It can only help you feel full from the food you eat, not make you choose a piece of baked chicken over a greasy burger. There are people who get the band that don't loose, because they are unable to stop their old ways. However, if you put your mind to it and make the choice to get healthy and stick with it, then you have every oppertunity in the world to be successful.

good morning tubby

I know its hard but this is a life changing tool..not diet..I would suggest that you attend seminars about the lap band because people assume automatically having the surgery will make u lose weight...following the meal plan drinking Water getting adjustments exersizing and taking your Vitamins will change your body but again it takes alot of EFFORT..

myself and thousands of ppl are in or were in the same boat as you..Good luck to you!!

Hey there..

I am not on a Diet! I eat whatever I want and yes I eat burgers, hot dogs, sweets etc. The thing is I eat just a little. You can check out the thread share ideas about what you eat.. you can see what people are eating once banded. If you have any specific questions please feel free to contact me. Today it has been 9 months since I got my band and I have lost 117 pounds! For me it was the best decision. I wish you luck and let us know how you are doing!

I am another one who dieted about a million times...very successfully...then quit eating rubber cheese or only baked chicken and POW gained it all back plus another 20 pounds or so. Each time. Diets do NOT work for me.

The band works because I eat "normally" but less and lose weight. As I lose weight I am more active and do more and exercise and eat less and lose more weight.

It's a great cycle. While there are successful bandsters who weigh and count and chart and journal, that is not me. And that's the beauty of the band; you make it work for you. I lost 2.8 pounds the last week and i had some birthday cake (love that icing!) I had pizza (couldn't finish even 1 piece but I had it and enjoyed it and it was plenty) and even bean and cheese nachos. Also had a rib eye steak and a baked potatoe one night. OF course I only ate about 3 oz of steak and 1/2 of the potato, but I was happy, it was delicious. See?

You have to be ready emotionally, though. If you aren't there, don't force yourself!

You know your post really hit home with me. I eat what I want but am careful. I have been journaling my food intake and watching how many calories/fat/carb/protein I'm eating. By watching it is only observing.

I've had steak, baked potato, brownie (a nibble), ice cream (no sugar), even hamburger and french fries. Now the hamburger was not on a bun and made with lean ground beef and the french fries were very healthy and there wasn't many.

Dieting is not and should not be denying yourself food but a way of life. What you eat is your diet. Changing your diet means changing what foods you eat. I would venture to say close to 100% of everyone here has tried a gazillion types of diets (restricting and limiting foods), exercise plans and nothing has really worked long term. RNY seems so scary and drastric, the band is a more sensible way of getting surgical help for weight loss and obesity.

That being said, I can tell you that I was scared before surgery of how my life would change, all the ifs and but I will miss this or that food....and the big one...what if I fail this..

So far it has been easy to loose weight, but then I'm still new and learning.

Speak to people, go to seminars, support groups and learn as much as you can.

Good Luck

I have yoyo dieted forever. I could successfully lose, but only through feeling deprived and hungry, taking the weight off, starting to slip and getting back into old habits again. Every diet eventually left me a little heavier than before. I knew that if I didn't make a change, 225 would eventually become 325 . . . it was just a matter of how many years of unsuccessful dieting would get me there.

At 32 I finally got the band at 225 pounds. I have lost 100% of my excess weight to get to a normal BMI in less than a year. Why is this any different than dieting . . . because I am not excessively, compulsively hungry all the time. I was a chronic overeater. I would eat and 30-60 minutes later I was hungry again.

The band worked for me and I have exceeded my goals. I still had to eat the right things and get the exercise, but it was easy to stay motivated when I was compelled by hunger and the scale kept moving in the right direction. Also excersize became easy and fun once I peeled off some extra weight.

For me there is never any comparison between diets and banding. Banding is 500% better, at least in my case.