deed87

I'm a 21 year old male college student and have been struggling with my weight for a long time now and am seriously considering the lap band. My biggest concern is how to deal with the eating and drinking changes I'll have to make while still being a college student. In the past 2 years I have cut my drinking down a lot, let me just say that where I live, drinking every Friday and Saturday night is the norm from about junior year of high school on. I have cut back my drinking a lot; senior year of high school I could down a case of beer every night I drank and now I usually have a 12 pack when I go out. I know that I am going to have to make some huge changes and DRAMATICALLY cut back on my drinking if I go ahead with the lap band. I wanted to know how everyone, especially the guys, has adjusted to going out and drinking after their lap bands? I have already come to terms with the fact that I won't be able to drink beer, but will hopefully be able to drink 2-4 whiskey or vodka drinks when I go to the bars with all my friends.

I am a 21 year old college student and have been overweight for many years now and have not been able to lose weight and keep it off. My parents and I have been researching the Lap Band procedure and I have set up a meeting with a surgeon to discuss it in more detail. I would like to get the surgery done this summer while I am not in school so I have time to adjust to all the new changes before coming back to school. I wanted to know what the diet will be like for the first 2 or 3 months after the surgery? And how soon I would be able to eat solid, normal foods again, obviously in much smaller amounts. Also, being a college student I like to go out on the weekends with my friends for a few beers. I've done research about drinking beer after the operation and found some people saying they can drink and some who don't at all anymore. I would like to still be able to drink a beer or two on the weekends and wanted to know if anyone is able to do this? I have already realized that if I do have the surgery my days of drinking a 12 pack on a Friday night will be over, but would like to still have a few beers or some whiskey waters on the weekends when I go out. Thanks!

Thanks for all the speedy responses guys it's helped alot. Another question that I have is about the diet and lap band after you reach your target weight. Right now I weigh about 320 and am 6 ft. 2 in. and would like to weigh around 200 or just under. One of the main reasons I am considering this is because the job I want to get in the next year or two will require me to climb telephone poles and work from bucket trucks, a linemen for an electrical company. In order to do this I need to get my weight under control and get my knees back to their original strength before I gained all my weight. If I do ahead with the lap band and reach my target weight of 200, I will start work and will have to remain at that weight in order to continue working as a linemen. Since I am so young and will have a very active job, climbing up and down poles almost everyday, is it possible to have the band loosened so that I could eat so half a normal meal? I honestly believe that once I am smaller and have seen all the benefits of it, that I could control my eating and weight much better especially since I will have to if I want to keep working and earning the high pay I would as a linemen. Sorry for the long post but I have a lot of questions that I would like to get answered.