niche

I'm somewhere in the middle of the two of you. I have had a pretty good experience with the band in the sense that it allowed me to lose 'most' of the weight I was trying to lose. I have had an unfill but was able to refill 3 weeks later, so it was a relatively minor speed bump. I will say as a warning to people looking for a band that this is not the answer for everything. You will still have to follow a diet that allows you to lose weight, bear in mind that this diet may not mean the one that is easiest to eat with very tight restriction. I started gaining my weight back after about the 4 year mark where I was 21lbs above (189) my lowest weight (168). Now I have gone to a low carb diet because it completely eliminates my cravings and provides the maximum nutrient density. Not to mention, it keeps my insulin under control and stops the fat storage from continuing. I am now under my low weight at 166 and am shooting for my 150lb goal. Finally. Then on to maintain land!

I'm glad to see that some low-carbers have come here to support each other. The science really is with us - read 'Good Calories, Bad Calories' and it extensively outlines the endocrinological reasons that carbohydrates are not good human food. The reader's digest version is: carbohydrates drive insulin, insulin drives fat storage. In order to nip fat storage in the bud, nip insulin in the bud by avoiding excess carbohydrates. I am almost 5 years banded and I began regaining my weight because I went down the Standard American Diet path. It had my hunger levels completely out of control and me feeling very sluggish. And for all of 'you calories in, calories out' people, this is an example that fat storage does not happen because you are slothful, people are slothful because their fat metabolism is dysregulated. Now that my fat storage is regulated thru low carb (actually near zero carb, but I won't shock all of you with the science for that) I feel great, and my energy levels are wonderful. I am a huge proponent of low carb eating for health for nearly every human. I am glad that this space is here on LBT. Let's keep using this for support. It works!

yep yep yeppers! apparently "yep!" is not a sufficient post length.

i think it's because the actual size of the pouch is 1/4 c. but while you're eating some of the food goes through the stoma allowing you to eat more than the size of the pouch. i think the card just says that to avoid litigation for stretched pouches, slips etc. if someone eats more than they should.

there has absolutely been a lot of great advice but i'm a bit puzzled at why all of us WLS patients discount that surgery may actually be beneficial to this young lady even though she is young. i'm not saying that every health possibility, mental and physical, should not be explored, but we here all know the chances of succeeding at dieting long term. so i just say that to say, MAYBE she needs/would benefit from a medical intervention to help her regulate her weight.

i also loosen after exercise. it's only when i exercise that i can drink anything in the morning.

i am also really saddened that the lap-band wasn't made available as a wls option for her. there is a lot of research that has been done on the safety and efficacy of the procedure for young adolesents. i don't disagree with the lipo per se, it's just that it is a procedure that is not intended for weightloss and probably won't work for the girl in the long run. if all she needed to become one of the 3% of effective dieters was a jumpstart, god bless her. but it just seems like a strange course of treatment. and probably more risky to lipo 35 lbs than a gastric bypass and definitely a more dangerous surgery than a lap-band.

i'm in a 10/12 now but my goal is a solid 6. i'm 5'8"

my nurse practitioner, who is banded has the 10cm 4cc inamed and says that he has had up to 4.7ccc's in the band and that the 4ccs is just mfr's suggestion.

my eyes water and i know it's all connected up there.

i put my fill experiences in my signature not so that people can compare their level to mine, but just so that people know that you can have restriction from day one or some people may have to get to the higher numbers. i didn't feel anything until 3.4ccs. but it's like obscenity, you know it when you -feel- it. lol

on plastic surgery - i vote YES. lift up these hound ears (a.k.a. my breasts) at first financial opportunity.

yep, gaspar is a sweetheart and gave me tissues through my angry tears. i guess i realized that i may have complications at some point, but i genuinely was *not* ready to contemplate the possibility less than a year into the band journey. i hope i've cheated the complication boogie man for a while and continue with good restriction. i hope yours ends up being nothing too!

i definitely agree that there is an age and gender dynamic at work here that has only been touched on by a few people. it seems that older men are least likely to have bariatric surgery for any cosmetic consideration and younger women are most likely to have cosmetic surgery for cosmetic consideration. i definitely fall into the young women's category and i had not yet had any ill effects from my obesity. i do have all of the typical comorbidities on both sides of my family but at 27, the decision to have surgery was *absolutely* influenced by the goal of improving my mental and emotional health. which is certainly influenced by the way other humans treat me. i know i wouldn't have done this (at least at this point in my life) if rubenesque were still the ideal. so what? i certainly do not consider myself immoral. i weighed the risks of surgery, and the cost/benefit was acceptable to me. i am simply another person taking advantage of better living through technology.

this very same thing happened to me. i went in in august to be raised from 3.4 to 3.6. after the fill i didn't feel any different, but i was on liquids, so i didn't really pay attention until i started solids and ANY and EVERY thing would go through. so i went back and there wasn't 3.6ccs in but .2! so they put me up to 3ccs and the restriction was somewhat there. then i went back and they took out 2.4ccs. so .6 had disappeared. then they took me up to 3.4. i went back and there was 3.4 in and then they took me up to 3.8 where (i hope!) i am now. so apparently they said my issue was a 'fluke'. and the saline prob went into my skin as opposed to my port. and it just looked like a leak. i hope that is the case. so, definitely keep going to the doc to see where you are. but they told me that if the fill keeps leaking, the port would have to be replaced. so that seems to be the standard treatment. best of luck to you!

i am on the tight side at this point. definitely had major restriction with 3.4ccs but that loosened after 4 months or so. now i'm up to 3.8ccs

i am starting to research a breast lift and i found that the info here was amazing and that i learned so much from regular peoples' experiences. do any of you know of any good plastic surgery message boards? thanks!

this article appeared in Slate yesterday. it always strikes me as odd that people find it best bizarre and at worst shameful that there is a surgical cure for obesity and that people are taking advantage of it. anyhoo, happy reading: Radical Reduction The benefits of stomach stapling for teenagers. By Amanda Schaffer Posted Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2006, at 7:27 AM ET Last month, the already grim prognosis for heavy kids took a turn for the even worse. A study of more than 100,000 women, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, found that those who were overweight at age 18 were more likely to die prematurely in middle age. And research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that people who develop type 2 diabetes—a condition associated with obesity—before the age of 20, as opposed to later, are at greater risk of end-stage kidney disease and death before the age of 55. Obesity at any age is associated with health woes like sleep apnea, fatty liver disease, atherosclerosis, loss of vision, and some types of cancer, in addition to diabetes. But when these conditions appear in the young obese, the long-term ramifications are just scary. How about a radical solution—stomach stapling for teenagers? It may sound crazy and desperate, but several major children's hospitals, including Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Texas Children's Hospital, and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford, have started offering obesity surgery in recent years. Nightline recently followed a 16-year-old Texas girl who underwent stomach stapling and lost 129 pounds in six months, down from a starting weight of 368. The worry is that such stories distract from workaday efforts to improve school lunches, promote exercise, and establish good eating habits for kids. Critics also point out that stomach stapling is expensive and can cause serious complications, like intestinal leakage, bowel obstruction, and nutritional deficiencies. But for extremely obese teens—especially those who already have a related health problem—less radical treatment options may not work, or at least not work fast enough. Surgery, by contrast, can not only lead to dramatic weight loss but also improve or reverse conditions like sleep apnea and diabetes. Only a small group of kids should be eligible for the surgery, but for these few, it can be a very good thing. In a stomach-stapling operation (the medical term is gastric bypass), a small pouch is created in the upper portion of the stomach, and the small intestine is rerouted to connect with it. The benefit is that a downsized stomach will hold less food and may release fewer hunger-inducing hormones, causing patients to feel full more quickly and stop eating. To be sure, obesity surgery is a risky proposition. One small study, published earlier this year in the Journal of Pediatric Surgery, found that roughly 40 percent of kids who underwent gastric bypass experienced some kind of complication, such as intestinal leakage, dumping syndrome, bowel obstruction, wound infection, or a nutritional deficiency. (A similar complication rate has been found in adults.) Nutritional deficiencies, especially of Calcium, Iron, Vitamin B-1 and vitamin B-12, may occur partly because patients are eating less and partly because the operation bypasses a portion of the digestive tract that efficiently absorbs many Vitamins and minerals. The potential for deficiencies means that patients must adhere to strict guidelines. All patients must eat more lean, high-quality protein; exercise; and take vitamins and minerals for the rest of their lives. Teenage girls must take additional calcium and iron. Critics argue that teens are less likely than adults to follow these rules and are too young to make a decision to undergo major elective surgery. They also argue that the surgery takes on a different social meaning when performed on young people: It seems like giving up and is hard to reconcile with the cherished notion that kids can always grow and change. There's no sense in soft-pedaling these issues. But Thomas Inge, co-founder of the obesity surgery program at Cincinnati Children's Hospital, points out that when teens are more than 100 pounds overweight, the chances are vanishingly small that they will shed the necessary pounds on their own and keep them off. Programs that focus on changing diet and behavior may work for younger children whose eating habits and behavioral patterns are less ingrained; for teenagers, though, the results are often disappointing. Inge has developed guidelines to identify the small group of teens he and other doctors think should be eligible for stomach stapling. (Here's a brief summary.) Preliminary data show that surgery can really help these adolescents. In one study, teens who underwent gastric bypass lost an average of 37 percent of their body mass index by the end of the first year. Other research suggests that the procedure can reverse or improve sleep apnea and type 2 diabetes. Similar health gains have been noted in adults. But that's not necessarily a reason to delay the surgery. Inge points out that the longer a patient has had diabetes, the harder it may be to reverse the condition. The same may turn out to be true for cardiovascular disease, though the data on this are not well-established. Stomach stapling also seems to get riskier the more obese a patient is. So, an extremely heavy teen who is likely to grow into an even heavier adult might be better off opting for surgery sooner rather than later. A procedure that's less risky than stapling, known as adjustable gastric banding, may also soon make surgery a better option. During this procedure, a flexible silicone band is placed, inside the body, around the upper part of the stomach. At follow-up office visits, the band is progressively tightened (here's how). This appears to suppress appetite (perhaps by stimulating stomach fibers associated with feeling full). Gastric banding seems to cause adults to lose weight more gradually on average than gastric bypass. But it has a lower rate of complications. And it's reversible. In 2001, the Food and Drug Administration approved adjustable gastric banding for people over 18. Now a small number of researchers have received permission from the FDA to study it in teens. At NYU Medical Center, about 100 teens have undergone the procedure. About 5 percent have required a second operation because the band slipped out of position. But according to NYU lead surgeon Christine Ren, that's the most frequent complication. To date, there have been no deaths and no hospital readmissions for acute complications. Patients, who weighed 300 pounds on average before surgery, report a decrease in appetite. And they appear to be losing a lot of weight—an average of 95 pounds in the first year. Ren says that adolescents who undergo gastric banding seem to lose weight faster than adults do, perhaps because of differences in metabolism or because they're more, not less, diligent about following the post-surgery rules. There's a lot we still don't know about stomach surgery and its long-term effects when performed on young people. But for kids whose obesity is likely to be life-shortening, not to mention a source of diminished self-confidence and opportunity, the benefits may well outweigh the risks. It's heartening to have a possible life raft to offer them, however bizarre it seems. sidebar Return to article According to Inge's guidelines, teens should have a body mass index of more than 50 kilograms per meter squared or a BMI of more than 40 kg/m2 along with a major medical condition, like type 2 diabetes, sleep apnea, or pseudotumor cerebri, which can cause progressive loss of vision. For a typical obese teen who has stopped growing, a BMI of 50 corresponds roughly to a weight of 300 pounds for girls and 335 pounds for boys. A BMI of 40 corresponds to 250 pounds for girls and 275 pounds for boys. sidebar Return to article During surgery, the band is connected to a small reservoir placed deep under the skin. At follow-up visits, saline solution is injected through the skin and into the reservoir, which causes the band to inflate and tighten around the stomach. (Think of a blood pressure cuff being tightened around the arm.) Amanda Schaffer is a frequent contributor to Slate.

fellow new yorker here! just wanted to say hi! i'm pretty sure that i won't be getting a TT but my boobs look terrible, i can't really blame that on the surgery lol. they looked terrible before. but i'm definitely getting those puppies (aka hound ears) fixed!

toast works cuz it breaks down into a smaller crumb and tends not to glob together like regular bread. on breakfast, i'm strictly a coffee girl. my doc's in the same practice as saul and julie and they definitely don't push us to start breakfast. for me, breakfast just means adding another 200-300 cals to my day. i don't tend to eat less if i eat in the morning. my first meal is usually 2pm or so, then snack at 4, dinner by 8, bed at midnite or 1am.

this really intrigues me as a topic. i know there are a lot of people who feel like, 'of course i am the same person inside as when i was xxx lbs heavier!' i am not so sure that this is the truth. we can prob all agree that other people treat you differently when you lose weight. but i for one feel like a completely more confident person. was my lack of confidence caused by the world around me and did it suck? you bet! but i think the way i see myself is very different now. i actually got on top during sex. lol. i've been out several times in the last 3 weeks and haven't paid for my own drink once. i know these things seem a bit shallow, but i don't think i've changed in terms of being able to see other people for who they are. one of the guys that bought me a drink is in the process of losing 100 lbs and i want to see him again and i think he is sexy as hell and hope it goes somewhere. so i think i'd be sadder if i could no longer see other people for who they are and used the same discriminating eye as those other people did with me.

i don't have a spouse, but i have a mother and the only thing i could say was. 'remember when i lost 60 lbs? then gained it right back? three times? right, well this is going to help me lose 80 lbs and keep it off for life. i will still have to exercise and watch what i eat, but i actually have a shot at keeping it off now.'

thanks for posting this. i subscribe to salon so i read the article and the commentary. it's funny that several people made comments along the lines of: "where's the story here? Where's the interest? What's the point? How does this connect to the universal? Who is this supposed to appeal to outside of OTHER morbidly obese or formerly morbdily obese women?" it's crazy to me that people can know that 60% of the country is overweight at least, but doesn't see the universal in this. fat is such a polarizing thing! i mean what kind of mental gymnastics do you have to do to come to this conclusion?!

i am shooting for 150. at that weight i should be sie 6 or 8 american. i was about 155 10 years ago and loved every minute of it. (it was just minutes, mind you)

i think that there are many horrible dictators around the world. some are aligned with U.S. foreign policy some are aligned against. i think the coverage is consistent with american spin on a dictator that is aligned against the U.S. no more no less.