Lap Band surgery... Any insights from BTDT people?

[Anonymous]

I posted on the health forum but didn't get any answer I would really appreciate any insights/tips, especially for the post-op! Thank.

[Anonymous]

My friend went through it over a year ago and hasn't lost any weight. I feel horrible for her that she went through that with nothing to show for it. My cousin also did it a few years ago and, while he does appear to have lost some weight over the last couple of years, it has not been dramatic weight loss. Please fully evaluate this surgery before you spend all the money and endure the risks and discomforts of surgery.

[Anonymous]

I had gastric bypass and it was the best decision I ever made. Don't do it unless you are willing to change your life. It is not the "easy way out." You must still commit to fully changing your eating and lifestyle habits -- forever. People seem to think that any weight loss surgery (that includes lap band) is a magic wand waved over their bodies and poof! the fat comes off. No. It is a tool for weight loss, just like Weight Waters, Atkins, Nutrisystem is a tool. If you use the tool, it works. If you don't, then you are like the people mentioned by the PP in the previous post -- you lose little or no weight, or even gain weight.

[Anonymous]

OP, visit obesityhelp.com and go to the main forum and the lap band forums. This is the place to get all kinds of tips.

Also recommend the blog http://theworldaccordingtoeggface.blogspot.com/

She's had WLS and it's full of recipes, insights, and tips.

[Anonymous]

MY step mother in law had it, she doesn't look like she's lost much. My mother has bypass and went from a size 30 to a 12( in less than a year).

[Anonymous]

I considered both the lap band and a vertical sleeve gastrectomy. I never fully considered the gastric bypass, s I was unwilling to deal with some of the digestive side effects and potential for serious nutritional deficiencies.

I got the VSG. No, I did not lose all of my excess weight (people generally don't, even with a bypass, and they often gain at least a little back), but I did lose over 100 lbs. Best thing I ever did.

[Anonymous]

One of my family members had lapband surgery in her mid-30s. It's been good for her. She was over 100 pounds overweight and it was really becoming a health issue. One of her problems was the she never felt "full." She could eat and eat until she got sick but never felt that feeling of fullness that can stop many of us. Not only did the lapband surgery help with that (but didn't totally remove it), it also forced her to focus on eating healthy. She started to exercise and has lost about 75 pounds over the span of 2 years. I am convinced that she would not have lost weight otherwise. I think it saved her.

[Anonymous]

I had a lap band surgery by a surgeon in the area 2 years ago. I am in my mid 30s. It was an ok choice but looking back I think I should have gone for gastric bypass. I needed to lose over 130 lbs to be in the normal range for my height and I managed to lose 80lbs after the first year and then an additional 25 in the second. With Gastric Bypass, I would have lost the 130 in one year.

The lap band does help regulate how much food you eat and I feel like my chances of regaining the weight back are pretty slim if I keep the band filled and my surgeon feels the same way. It is hard to over eat *solid food* with the band. I mean you really, really have to try hard. However, you can over eat liquids and liquid food or anything that has the potential to be liquid. For example, cheesecake - I can eat a large slice no problem but couldn't eat a whole salad - go figure

The actual tube from the band to the port has been known to leak. If this happens, the liquid itself doesn't harm you but the band can no longer be filled and you would have to have surgery again to get a new band. That type of leakage is a little bit higher than reported so make sure to ask the surgeon you use if he has had patients with that issue and also ask with brand of band he uses.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for providing such an insightful knowledge about weight loss surgeries. This information is really wonderful. I am also looking to get lap band surgery done. I also found a very informative website providing trustworthy information about lap band surgery - www.freelapbandsurgery.com

[Anonymous]

My sister had it done and has lost very little weight. HOWEVER, she has NOT followed what the doctor has told her to do. She does not eat right and she does not exercise. I also don't think she has been doing her fills regularly.

On the flip side, I have a friend who also had it done and she has lost all her weight and has maintained it ever since. She followed her doctors orders to a "T" and made it a lifestyle change.

People who get the lap band done do lose the weight a bit slower than the gastric bypass. However, the two people I personally know who had the bypass (before the lap band was offered) have gained almost all the weight back.

The lap band can be kept at a constant tightness for the rest of your life to help control your intake of food. The bypass physically reduces the size of your stomach and it can and often does, grow back to it's original size if a change is not made in your lifestyle.

[Anonymous]

My cousin did it and he died. Sorry OP

[Anonymous]

Hi OP,

I hope you're still watching this thread since it took me a while to decide to reply. I saw it back when it was current but couldn't figure out what I wanted to write. I had the band surgery in Dec 07. I was "off label" for it, meaning I was only just into the obese bmi range, 30.6, which is no where near large enough to qualify for insurance to cover it or to fall into the general recommendations for it. I wanted to do it because I have always been a terrible emotional eater and a yo-yo with my weight. I'd go up and down by 10 to 20 lbs over and over, and never really got down to a truly "normal weight". My surgeon was sympathetic and a HUGE believer in the band, having had one himself, and open to doing it "off label".

So, I had it done in Dec 07, lost about 40 pounds in the next 6-8 months and was feeling relatively happy with my weight and appearance which plateau-ed at about a bmi of 24.2, so just into the "normal weight" category.

BUT, my eating and lifestyle were a MESS. I was happy, because my weight stabilized for the first time in my life, but I'm telling you the sacrifice to live with a lap band is HUGE. YOU ABSOLUTELY CANNOT EAT NORMALLY EVER, in my experience. Meat and vegetables were nearly impossible; I lived on cheese and crackers, pureed soups, and smoothies, which was fine as a single girl, most of the time. Dating, which I was doing a lot of given my new found sanity of stabilized weight, was difficult as I couldn't eat normal meals. So I drank too much wine, my surgeon advised a glass of wine with dinners out as it does slightly loosen the band (not sure why, but it does) and had to go to the bathroom with absurd frequency as I was having to throw up the food that wouldn't pass through the band. I can't imagine that I was healthy, never got my cholesterol checked, which I wonder what it would have been with all the Camembert cheese I was eating, but I damn sure was happy being a solidly normal weight person, not skinny, but definitely no longer fat.

Fast forward to meeting DH, having the gorgeous wedding pictures with me looking normal and lovely and then quickly having DD. The thing about the band is that it can be loosened, which I did when I was pregnant, under the auspices of wanting to have a healthy pregnancy, but also just enjoying eating for the first time in a few years. Had DD, lost 30 of the 50lbs that I gained pretty quickly, and then came to a screeching halt. I thought about tightening the band again, but DH had by then become very used to me eating like a normal person and by now had forgotten the days when he used to go on about what a bird I ate like. (He knows about the band, but not a lot about it, I've never really brought him into the deep depths and darkness of my lifelong struggles with my weight. He met me when I was "normal" and he doesn't really get it about weight issues in general) So for about 9 months PP my weight just hovered, I went up and down but only by about 6 lbs or so. Oddly, after giving birth, my band had actually gotten a bit tighter so it was keeping me a tad in line, not much restriction but a tiny bit, basically it kept me from overeating bread at least.

After a while I started thinking about how much healthier I'd like to be, as I still couldn't really eat a lot of vegetables, though I could eat meat fairly easily. Plus since my weight had stayed fairly stable for 9 months I think I had started to believe I was a bit more in control than at previous times in my life. So, I went and had my band completely emptied and removed all restriction.

And then, unexpectedly I had a family tragedy and my stress level went through the roof, with my band loosened. So, sadly I am still a diehard emotional eater (yes, of course rationally I know it's utter illogic to be feeling bad and then overeat and gain weight and feel worse, but knowing that for some reason still doesn't stop me from doing it time and time again) and I am writing today, 4 months after I loosened my band, with a bmi of 31.6. Higher than it was on the day of my surgery. I've gained 20lbs in 4 months. I feel completely broken.

So, what is my advice as a BTDT lap band-er? I'm honestly not sure. The band is certainly no instant fix. The only way it works is if you are tremendously committed to the massive sacrifices involved in making it work to be thin. I remember sitting in my dr's office one day next to an incredibly thin woman; she had lost 100+ lbs, was a size 2 now, and had had a tummy tuck, so she looked amazing. Admiring her success. I asked her about how it was working for her, given the challenges I had with it, and she told me, yes, she's skinny, but has zero social life because she has to live on liquids and thus can never go out to eat with her husband or friends, but it was worth it to her to finally be thin.

The problem is, none of us who wants or needs a lap band got to this point because we were successful at managing our weight. And with the band, you can take the restriction out and be able to still eat "normally", and let's face it, our "normal" is what got us to this point.

I suppose my conclusion on the band is twofold. It can work well in the beginning when your motivation is high and there's excitement to losing the weight and still some novelty to the process required, much like any diet. Longterm is a bit more challenging. After having the band and doing well with the numbers on the scale and how I looked in jeans, but I certainly can't claim having conquered "eating healthfully to maintain a normal weight", I feel my confidence that I will ever be able to control my eating is completely gone. Plus I think metabolically it's an even greater challenge for me now. I gain weight faster than I ever have previously and I suspect it's from all the starvation periods I've put my body through that have destroyed my natural metabolism now.

Tomorrow I am going to get "a fill" and begin to tighten it back up. I hope I have the commitment level again to stick to it and deal with the sacrifices and insanity of how I have to eat. It's not hard when you're alone (a single girl), like I said I even would get some pureed vegetable soups for some nutrition a few times a week, but it will be very difficult to explain to DH and in my active social life. And of course I am terrified of how I am ever going to provide a good example for DD. I think I'm a wonderful mother in many regards, but I shudder with worries of failing her when it comes to potentially passing on my psychosis around food.

As you can probably tell by now, I just don't know what my recommendation to you is? I would love to say, don't do it, just get your diet and exercise under control instead, but let's face it, you wouldn't be considering this if you felt capable of that method. I think the final point is, there's no easy fix to struggles with weight, especially for those of us for whom there is a deep psychological component. The band is one desperate avenue to try to control it, but the real dark side of success with it is, that it leaves you feeling even less confident in yourself and your abilities to control yourself. I think that's the despair of where I am now.

I doubt this will be encouraging, but you wanted BTDT and it's honest. (and ridiculously long, sorry!)

Good luck in your decision.

[Anonymous]

You have to realize you are nto loosing the fat you are loosing lean body mass, the fat is still going to be there until you start working it off. You will jsut be a smaller fat person, sorry but it is the reality of it.

No taking the easy way out. Notice non of these weight loss places say anything about loosing % body fat?

[Anonymous]

The person I know who did it lost a lot of weight at first and then gained it all back and more. She can only eat small amounts so she eats very frequently and she eats only junk food- mostly chips and candy. She throws up if she eats too much and she says she can't handle fruits or vegetables at all. She always feels sick. It seems horrible to me.

[Anonymous]

I considered both the lap band and a vertical sleeve gastrectomy. I never fully considered the gastric bypass, s I was unwilling to deal with some of the digestive side effects and potential for serious nutritional deficiencies.

I got the VSG. No, I did not lose all of my excess weight (people generally don't, even with a bypass, and they often gain at least a little back), but I did lose over 100 lbs. Best thing I ever did.

DITTO. VSG is way way better than banding, because it is more permanent (see above poster and her struggles) and the band can cause serious issues. You can google and find lots of people who after struggling, went from band to sleeve.