Lap band vs sleeve?

[attitudefree 2]

My insurance covers both and I am weighing the pros and cons of each.... your thoughts?

[cattoy71 0]

I got the band, but really wished I had gotten the sleeve.

I have had steady, but slow weight loss, and it has taken me over 6 months with monthly .5 cc fills to get restriction.

I was self pay, and now wish I had the guts to have just done the sleeve, but it seemed a little extreme to me at the time.

My only concern for you is to make sure your doctor has done many many sleeves and isn't just getting into the surgery.

[Sarah.R 2]

I've heard sleevers actually maintain the weight loss longer over time but overall it's personal preference. The guy that runs this site has just actually started a vertical sleeve talk website so maybe you could try and find some info out there? I'm pretty sure the url would be verticalsleevetalk.com. Good luck either way =)

[RestlessMonkey 7]

I hadn't even heard of the sleeve before my lap band seminar and many of the reasons I didn't want bypass applied to the sleeve

1 didn't want my stomach (or intestines, in the case of bypass) cut up

2 I wanted something reversible, just in case

3 I wanted something that could be tightened once my stomach (pouch) stretched...in other words, lifetime options. neither the sleeve nor bypass offer that.

I preferred having an implant and going through all the fills etc.

I would never have chosen the sleeve because I don't believe in having my stomach partially removed.

[Akire20 0]

Hi Everybody I'm in the same dilemma i choose the sleeve gastric, but right now i'm thinking to get the lap band I'm still two months away from my surgery date 08/17 at Bellevue Hospital Center in NYC. This happend because in the last two months i've lost 22 pounds by my self with gym and diet. So this make me think that i don't need something to drastic because i could do it for my self. So at the moment at 75% sure to get the lap band and the other 25% for the sleeve gastric. Any suggestions? George from Ny 5' 7"/295/28 yrs. Good Luck!

[RestlessMonkey 7]

Akire20 Respectfully I don't follow your reasoning. If you think "I can do this by myself so I'll get the lap band" ...that makes no logical sense. The band is surgery. If you don't need the band to lose and keep it off, don't get the band. Let alone the sleeve.

I honestly think you may need to do some more soul searching, thinking, research. And that's a good thing. If you are one of the few percent who can successfully lose and keep it off then that is totally what you should do! No surgery at all.

[Jachut 487]

I'd like to see what happens longer term with the sleeve, although it does look like an excellent surgery.

However, with a band, since I've been maintaining, once or twice, I've required a small top up to keep me on track. It loosense off just marginally, the appetite picks up and i"ve had to go back in and get just 0.1cc put in. That's a seriously tiny adjustment, so I wonder if even minute stretching out of a sleeved stomach would add up to 5 or 10 extra lbs. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, I dont look at being within 10lb of my goal as good enough, I need to be AT goal at all times, lol.

And then when I get old, my family tends to get scary skinny on my dad's side, like my nanna was my height and at 84 was about 120lb. Really THIN, as in not just thin but underweight by a good 20lb.

Its not that the band is removeable, its that its ADJUSTABLE that is what I like about it. I can let all the Fluid out of my band when I'm older if I need to. Or I can remove it, yes. But it kind of scares me to think of having a minute stomach and not being able to adjust it.

And what most of the sleevers have said they eat and live on, I would seriously starve to death. I appear to have quite normal calorie needs, unlike many formerly obese people, I need about 2000 a day to maintain my weight these days. I couldnt get that in with a sleeve it would be extremely difficult.

[TopTier 0]

Hi Everybody I'm in the same dilemma i choose the sleeve gastric, but right now i'm thinking to get the lap band I'm still two months away from my surgery date 08/17 at Bellevue Hospital Center in NYC. This happend because in the last two months i've lost 22 pounds by my self with gym and diet. So this make me think that i don't need something to drastic because i could do it for my self. So at the moment at 75% sure to get the lap band and the other 25% for the sleeve gastric. Any suggestions? George from Ny 5' 7"/295/28 yrs. Good Luck!

Congrats to you on your weight loss, but losing it is only half the battle, normally, with obese people.

I've lost anywhere from 60 to 80 pounds before. And watched it creep back on over the years.

The key, with the lap band, is not so much the weight loss (though it definitely does help one lose weight), but with the maintenance. That's where most obese people lack success. Over 95% percent of them.

If it's true that you are in the 2 - 5% who can lose large amounts of weight and keep it off, then you are to be applauded. In that case, though, then you should not consider any surgery at all.

You would still have to work hard to lose the weight. But why undergo an expensive surgery when one doesn't have to?

Just curious, what is your BMI? What was it before you started your weight loss program?

[gamyj 0]

I too decided to get the band... I didn't want any cutting, I definitly wanted something that I could regulate... I didn't feel I could do that with either of the other options. I really think its a very personal decision, what it is that u want out of the tool u choose. I also felt there were less complications with the band. I wish u lots of luck reguardless of what u choose!!

amy

[Nchaka 0]

My insurance covers both and I am weighing the pros and cons of each.... your thoughts?

Hi, If I may ask, what insurance do you have?

I'd like to get the sleeve but my insurance(Cigna) doesn't cover it yet. So I'm leaning towards the band. But I'm not sure how the fill appts will fit into my work schedule.

Also, look on this board for the sleeve forum. There is good info on them. "wasabubblebut" and "elisabethsew" have alot of good info on the sleeve.

Good Luck

[Akire20 0]

Hi, thanks to the replys.

I was at 330 pounds and 51.7 bmi

and now i'm at 295 pounds and 46.2 bmi

I haven't had any surgery yet and i'm not taking any diets pills. My weight loss is for the diet and the Gym.

In the first 12 pounds i wasn't really doing any diet, just trying to eat good and walk more but when the doctor told me about my weigh loss i get motivated, so i decide to make a diet and start working out, I'm burning about 1200 calories a day in the treadmill, 5 days a week and trying to consume no more than 1800 calories a day, sometimes even 1500. I even did the liquid diet with the slim fast optima for 1 week, just getting the 4 cans a day and that's it.

To tell you the true i never though in getting the lap band, but since i lost almost 35 pounds on my own i think i just need some help, not something to drastic like the by pass.

I decided to get the sleeve gastric but i'm thinking to get the lap band instead. My surgery is schedule for August/17.

My goal is to loose about 100 pound.

Any suggestions? Thanks

(Sorry for any mistakes in grammar, english is not my main language)

Edited June 4, 2009 by Akire20

[JENNIFER7375 3]

I had the band on 2/24. I chose the band for several reasons. To start off the surgery is a lot less invasive so there's a significantly reduced risk of complications as well as a much shorter recovery time. I also liked the idea of it being adjustable. So if I start to gain back or stretch my pouch it can be adjusted to get me back where I need to be. I personally know of several people who had the sleeve or the bypass that lost dramitcally in the 1st year or so but then gained back significantly. I know of 3 people that gave regained 50+ back after the sleeve or the bypass .I've spoken to a few of them at length and they said that once they started eating poorly they had a really hard time stopping themselves. That once they're stomach started to stretch that eventually they ate like they'd never had surgery. At least with the band you can have your fill level adjusted and get back on track. And I'm not saying that there aren't plenty of people that have failed the band. But at least to me that having the option to go back for adjustments would give me better long term results. But I will also say that anyone that has any of the 3 surgeries without making the mental changes needed to change your relationship with food isn't gonna have much long term success no matter what surgery they have.

[Jaffa 5]

People have seriously got to stop telling people that the band is adjustable if you stretch out your pouch. THIS IS NOT what is meant by adjustable. My god, with all of the frustration threads about people getting "adjustments and waiting for restriction" this should be obvious why you don't want to lead people to believe this.

If you have a stretched pouch you will be UNFILLED, not filled up more. The adjustability is purely for unexpected desires to increase consumption. Which would only be in the rare case of a disease that required you to increase consumption.

NO other reason is accurate or representative of how the band adjustment is used.

Everyone, if given the choice would be adjusted once and once only to the sweet spot, but they can't really do that. The took the negative aspect of a band, and they turned it into a pretend positive, and people are propagating this marketing farst.

[JENNIFER7375 3]

The pouch actually can be readjusted after being stretched out. And this comesfrom speaking to people in my local lap band group who have done so with specific diet and fills. And these are people that went completely off plan that I've discussed this with in person. So the adjustability is not simply a marketing farce.

[Jachut 487]

If you stretch out the pouch, the only way to fix that is a complete unfill. It allows things to settle back where they should be. then you start getting filled again, when the stretching is sorted.

But at least a stretched out pouch CAN be fixed with a band, that's the beauty of adjustability.

But I dont agree that everyone would be adjusted only once - not at all. If I were to decided to do a marathon, I plain couldnt do it on my intake - that's not a rare case. I can also see that now, when I live a lifestyle that I can eat whenever I'm hungry, I can be tighter and eat smaller amounts more often.

When i return to work next year (as a teacher) I think I will need to unfill a bit. On my teaching practicum, I've struggled a bit and lost quite a bit of weight each time becuase you dont get ANY opportunity to snack as a teacher. It becomes Breakfast, lunch and dinner for me then and becuase I can only eat small meals, I find I undereat really badly at these times. I would need to be able to put away much more substantial meals when my eating habits are forced to change like that - because I'm at the stage where I really dont need to drop more weight.

I strongy disagree that they took a negative aspect of the band and threw a positive spin on it. That's an individual opinion, nothing more. I really view that as the biggest positive of my band - and I havent been one to fill/unfill at all, I've stayed with steady restriction so far.

Edited June 4, 2009 by Jachut