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I am working toward the band, with my surgical consultation this Thursday. Wondering how alcohol plays into life with the lap-band. Not that it is a major part of my life, but I do enjoy going out with friends and having a drink. Are certain drinks better than others? (If something is already posted out there about this, I apologize... I did not see it).

I wouldn't drink because alcohol will have an immediate and significant impact on your liver. Definitely talk to your surgeon ahead of time, but if it were me, that close to surgery, I wouldn't risk it. That said, you can still have fun without drinking. If your friends are true friends, then ask them to respect your decision not to drink. Have fun and Happy Birthday!

Honest answer- if I want a cocktail with friends , I have one. One is the key . I can't afford to waste my precious calories on alcohol , and since surgery, one drink goes a long way! My first drink was 8 weeks post op. I think one of the biggest reasons for caution (bedsides the empty calories) is the possibility of cross addiction from food to booze. That's another reason for my " one and done" style.

Welcome--you are in the right place, the right place to ask anything you want! I would have been fine a month out, I am sure the wedding will be fine. You should be feeling good again, losing well, and back to eating pretty normally by a month. The wedding would be good to keep your mind off of the hard time, following surgery, when liquids are your main food! It passes quickly, and is done so that you can heal. As for alcohol, I have had several drinks at different times in the last 8 months. I will occasionally have a margarita with my dinner at a favorite mexican food restaurant. The other night we were at a friends bridal shower, and they had Fuzzy Navels---I drank that without issue. I don't notice a difference in how my body reacts, I do not drink much, never did, a drink or 2 here and there, never in excess. Pretty much anything non carbonated is fine. My friend who is banded drinks vodka and cranberry juice she says. So it should be fine. Please feel free to ask away!!! You have found a great site---with great support, and we believe fully in our bands!!! Kat

there are food restrictions the first few months, but after that, there aren't any limitations as long as you can tolerate whatever the food is (I can no longer tolerate really high-fat meals - and it's not uncommon for people to develop things like lactose intolerance after surgery - but you won't have any restrictions per se. I'm "allowed" to eat anything - and have been for a long time). I was never a big drinker even before surgery - I'd just have an occasional glass or two of wine. We weren't supposed to drink for the first year (according to my clinic, anyway), and I didn't at all for the first three years. Now I'm back to having my occasional glass or two of wine - by which I mean, maybe four or five times a year. So for ME, I don't notice any difference...other than alcohol hits me a lot faster than it did pre-surgery. taking vitamins becomes pretty automatic after the first few weeks. I don't even think about it anymore. I take a small handful when I get up in the morning, a smaller handful around dinner time - and my iron and vitamin C before I go to bed. complications aren't common and most are minor and "fixable". The most common one with sleeve is reflux, which in most cases (if you happen to develop it) can be managed medically. In severe cases, there's always the option of revising to RNY - although I don't know how common it is for it to get to that point. Might be worth asking if you're concerned. I didn't mind the puree stage. It was a relief after being on all liquids. If you're not crazy about the puree stage, just keep in mind that it doesn't last very long. You'll be on soft foods - and then solid - before you know it. it'll be pretty obvious to others the first month or two by how little you can eat that something is "up". I mostly just tried to avoid going out with people so the question wouldn't come up - or I'd suggest meeting up for coffee or tea or some activity instead of a meal. After that, for several months I'd just claim I wasn't very hungry and order an appetizer or some soup or chili. Now I'll sometimes still order that - or if I do get an entree, I'll eat half of it and have the rest boxed up. Pretty much the same as a lot of my never-been-obese women friends. No one can tell anymore that I've had surgery. Basically, this will all take some getting used to - it can be overwhelming at first - but after the first few weeks, it really isn't. And you're right - pre-surgery nervousness is pretty common. I've had four surgeries in my life, and I get nervous every time - but they've all gone off without a hitch!

Only during the healing, and initial losing stage were certain foods and drinks prohibited. I had a 3 month wait on raw veggies, fruits, and nuts. Alcohol was also a 3 month wait, but my surgeon preferred that we wait until goal to start indulging in alcoholic beverages due to the empty calories. As for after hitting goal, I have zero food or drink restrictions. I have drank soda, which some surgeons say they are forever off the list of drinks, since being around 6 months out. I really do eat and drink anything I want or need. I live a life of moderation at this point, and have since being at goal. It's just works for me.

I use Pure Protein bars. They have sugar alcohols which can upset your digestive track of you eat too much, but at 4 months post op, I can really only handle half a bar.

Yes we certainly will be cheap dates...lol. I think being able to have a glass of wine with dinner occasionally will be the thing I miss the most, but hey, the odd small glass of low alcohol wine can now be dessert Thanks for the message, I have sent a request to join that group. The thing I am excited about the most is being able to take my daughter to the beach or pool next summer and not feel self conscious about my weight.

My surgery is 3-22 and need advise on this.... Fast food what is best eat and alcoholic drinks how many? Thanks

I think it's especially important for us to pay attention to these things too. Not only because it takes so much less to knock us on our butts. I think the risk of a "crossover addiction" is very easy! I come from a background of family members with addiction issues (drugs alcohol) I have NEVER had a problem with drugs or alcohol (just food) . I was very prepared for many things after surgery but the one thing I didn't think about was the temptation to find comfort in things that never comforted me before.. The weeks after my surgery I became increasingly aware of my "need" for my pain meds (refilled twice) it got to a point I looked forward to my nightly dose. I wasn't taking it during the day just at night for my relaxing down time (the time I used to over eat also). I knew it was becoming an issue so I fessed up to my husband who then helped me hold myself accountable after. I guess for that reason now I only have a glass of wine when I'm out at a social event and not at home alone, at least for now....

Hello there! I love this site as everyone is so honest and open and it has really helped me with my research and options. My short (but often unfortunately repeated) story is a weight struggler from aged 10 now 34 need to lose for my little one's sake and mine. Sick of seeing person in a mirror that is not me. need help - drastically. I lost 4 st in 4 mnths on CD last year (loved the mid bit where I was released of thoughts of food)- nearly gained all that again - same old story diff diet ... I know a band will suit me as when I had my 2 pregnancies I was lighter both times at the end - than at the beginning! NHS/ PCT won't fund so only option is to go private (prob diff story if i was an alcoholic or drug user). Now or never for me as the beleif in myself losing weight virtually none. Hadn't much money so was relieved to find europesurgery; I was scheduled to be banded with Chris De Buyrne(? is that right) in Belgium at beginning of Sept but family intervened - or rather sister - and stumped up £3k (bless her) for me to stay alot closer in UK and have package which includes psycholigical assistance. So now I am awaitiing my LAP-BAND® op (with Spire) in Sept - date tbc! Any other Septemberbanders (hee!) out there? please say hi! x

Thank you!!!! I ended up having vodka and diet 7up last night. Alcohol did hit me sooner then it used too but felt nice to relax. Not to be nasty but after I drank, I was able to get a lot of gas out. Did carbonation help? Back to being good today!!! Thanks everyonw

I've sure found them this week. Gained two lbs. Let's see BBQ beef or pork every night. Baked potato with goodies. (What do you mean, potato is not a vegetable?????) Multiple alcoholic drinks during the cooking part. Takes so long to cook, potato chips and dip are in order. And ice cream. Don't forget the ice cream. I have good restriction. I have bad habits! :hungry: Oh, well, summer is nearly over and indoor cooking will happen again. Sigh!

im on my 3rd fill. a little bit on the aggressive side. 1st fill .5 2nd fill .3 3rd fill .5 so... 1.3cc in a 4cc band i have been keeping a daily log of my weight. i know, i know you are supposed to weigh in once a week or so, but for now, this is what i want to do. i notice when i have an alcohol to drink, i level out on my loss. note to self: DONT DRINK. duh and double duh. iam beginning to really notice a difference with this last fill. im really excited about it. not only that, i can now walk, sit, and stand with no hip pain. i so so so wish i was not such a lazy girl and could just get to the gym on a daily basis. geez.

With a BMI of 62 have you verified with your insurance company that they will still band you? Some insurance co's are amazingly stupid and anything over a BMI of 50 they will only pay for bypass. I still haven't figured out their reasoning behind that one but that's what they do often times. It's just another thing for you to research. Don't just call the insurance company, look it up on your policy and read it with your own eyes. You have the same issue as the rest of us. You can't stop eating on your own, thus... the band. If you could control your eating behaviors over the holidays or any other time you would but you can't. That is why you are just like the rest of us. Most of us can lose weight but we can't keep it off. Eating is a compulsion and it's very difficult to overcome that kind of issue. Many compare it to telling an alcoholic they can only have one drink daily but they MUST have that one drink daily. Well, for an alcoholic one is too many and 100 isn't enough. I think the same kind of concept applies to us as well. One bite is too many and 100 isn't enough. Yet unlike an alcoholic we HAVE to eat to survive. It would be easier to just cut out food completely since we typically are "all or none" kinds of people. But that isn't possible so it merely means we have a few challenges others don't have. I don't really look at our type of eating disorder as a mental problem. I have read too many studies that show very clear biological differences for our complusion to over eat. Everything from hormones, brain activity, type of bacteria in the intestineal system, pancreatic issues, studies showing how MO diabetics respond to bypass procedures... I can go on and on. Thin people stop eating when they are no longer hungry. We eat until we can't possibly cram one more bite down. We can eat until it hurts and then we eat some more. That isn't depression, that is an eating disorder. Maybe it's a matter of what came first, the chicken or the egg. Depression/eating disorder. Either way it isn't something to be ashamed of, it just is. It is probably one of the least socially acceptable disorders out there. It's PC to make fun of a fat person, it's a horror to make fun of a 78# anorexic. That doesn't help us any. Tell me something, when you eat Breakfast are you thinking about what you'll have for lunch? If you are eating lunch are you planning dinner? If you are going to go to a restaurant do you stop and think about what you will order before you ever see the menu? Thin people don't give it much thought until they are in the restaurant looking at the menu. We are planning what we will eat the morning before we go to dinner. Do you eat when your stomach isn't really hungry? There is more than one kind of hungry. There is stomach hunger and head hunger. Our issue is typically head hunger. We aren't hungry, there is no stomach pain associated with hunger but we see that chocolate cake and we want it. We don't need it, we aren't hungry, but it tastes good, the texture of the frosting is creamy, the aroma is fantastic. We aren't actually hungry but we just want to eat anyway. Does this describe you? Anyway, it seems to me your next step is to read your insurance policy for yourself. Don't depend on what the ins co says when you call them on the phone. Look it up for yourself. Verify everything. See if they cover bands, see what their requirements are, see if your BMI fits in with their criteria for banding vs. bypass, and most of all at this point, see if they require a six month medically supervised diet. If so, you need to get to that appointment and get it started. Have your doc document your weight and get a copy of the office notes each time you go there so you can prove you were there. Some people do all the diagnostics such as the sleep study, nutrutionist eval, psyc eval and THEN they discover the six month medically supervised diet. So get that diet going just in case it is an issue otherwise you'll have to start all over and do it again.

The biggest issue with alcohol is cross-addiction. Work with you doctor and learn about your own habits.

After surgery can you ever drink hard alcoholic drinks again? Or does it have to be completely cut out of your life?

I was wondering if it works like that too. I've heard it can, but I don't know how to gauge it personally. It's rush season at work (until after Christmas), and I'm always running around like a chicken with its head cut off!! There's so many issues during our rush season, we all live stressed.. a lot of people blame their smoke and/or alcohol addictions on our jobs lol. I am extremely tight since my revision surgery, but the past 2 days have been the worst. Nothing goes down until after dinner (and I'm home). Could just be coincidental.. could be supposed TOM (I take B/C back to back as not to have a real TOM).. maybe stress? Wish I knew.. I'm going to get a little unfill and I'd hate for this to just be something passing.

For me I realized it was my body detoxifying. I quit alcohol, soda, coffee, and fast food right before my pre-op diet. After a few days it will seem like no big deal. And it is worth it! I have lost 100 pounds since February 28th and I couldn't have done it without the surgery or the pre-op/post-op diet. Good Luck!

Not drinking isn't hard for me, it's the drinking enough that's my problem. All over the boards it says to keep your water intake up to wash away the toxins from the weight loss. Water is just not my thing, but I'm working on it. When it comes to "drinking" I'm going to miss my occasional glass of wine. I hear alcohol is a no-no the first six months. Liquid calories and all. Keep up those walks!!

Well i think you have to get a handle on whether there is any physiological basis for it or not, I know i certainly like a bit of alcohol and comfort food after a busy day at work. Thats a matter of willpower and sometimes counselling depending on your issues. We have all used food inappropriately in our lives. Lately though, ive had sugar and carb cravings that are insatiable and have many days where my entire food intake is caffeine and sugar. Ive been fighting it for months. But i guess ive had a traumatic year with cancer and its treatment and Im feeling horribly depressed despite getting the all clear, routine bloods have shown severe Iron depletion, zero ovary function (so im completely menopausal at the age of 44, thanks chemoradiation), thyroid insufficiency, and low serotonin levels. I feel lie crap, look like crap and am eating crap, sigh. But all i want is sugar sugar sugar, story of my life but never like this. So for me, i have a lot of willpower but i have to address these underlying issues. Likewise, you have to eat well, not be lacking things and identify the factors that set you off and kearn to reprogram yourself. I believe some can do this on their own, others need professional help.

i dont know what they do but i remember i used to always get diarrhea after eating one of dem low carb bars with sugar alcohols.

Well they told me to cut out sugar, salt, and greasy foods. They said I need to shrink my liver. This isn't part of the pre-op diet, just a warning due to my liver size. I've been doing good really, cut out the major daily sugar I intake.. cokes. Also been watching what I eat, but I am PMSIng and craving chocolate, so I got the Russell Stover's sugar-free coconut bars. When I did Atkins back in the day, I used Ketosis strips to check my Ketosis (I was a little obsessed with those things..) and when I ate sugar alcohol it did not seem to affect it. I'm not talking about gorging, I just never knew the affects of Sugar Alcohol outside of Atkins. And yes, sugar alcohol/malatol does cause diarhea, but normally only in large quantities. I binged on a bag of sugar-free gummie bears on Atkins and paid for it all night!! In less than a week I have to start the SSS diet of Sandwhiches, Soups, Salads.. and then 3 days pre-op I am to do the clear liquid diet, and day before the magnesium and Protein shakes.

OK, in February of 2011 I said I would get my ass back in gear. I had lost over 100 Pounds since getting my band and was doing great. Sadly I got comfortable. That means I learned things like: Sauces make things easier to eat Ice cream is easy to eat Alcohol is easy to drink Saving your fat guy clothes as you lose weight makes gaining weight back easier as you don't have to go outside naked So, after 18 months I bounced back up by about 30 pounds. Not horrific by my standards of weight loss but still pissed me off. I was still down net 70 but the direction had reversed. I had to do something. I schedule a check up and possible fill. I needed to do that. I had become too comfortable with my ability to cheat the tool. I need the restriction. I got a personal trainer and committed myself to it. I am now 6 weeks in. I have lost about 24 net pounds but need to track inches (stop it!) as I know that the workouts are changing my body more than the scale is reflecting. I am, for the first time in my life, planning my life around my workouts. I will drop a note when I have something really cool to report but for right now I am stoked about that exercise change. The diet side will lead to the weight loss most directly but the exercise will start to compound it. For those interested, I work out with a trainer on Monday and Wednesday for 1:15 minutes. We do a combination of cardio, weights and circuit training with a pretty significant focus on core. On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays I do his Bootcamp which is: Tuesday: Sparticus Circuit. 10 exercises. 45 sec to 1 min on then move. Three sets followed by an ad circuit. Thursday: Sand day. Conditioning, sprinting and footwork all in a sand pit. Wrap with abdominal circuit and arms (Push Ups and Dips) Saturday: Mixed bag. This day can be running, ladder drills, circuits. It really depends on the weather. All the exercises can be modified for different levels of ability. It has been truly amazing to start to MISS workouts and try and plan work and vacation around them. If you can contact someone locally and work out a plan to start you really should. It took about 3 weeks for me to convert over to wanting to do it instead of having to but now that I have, I don't really want to stop. Anyway, wanted to get back into the swing of writing. Hope you are all well.

Hello, I’m new here so I hope this post is ok. I am a 47 year old man in the UK who went from being a 10 stone fit guy in my 20s to being 23 stone now. Tried diet after diet and yo-yo’d so much I went dizzy! I am paying privately for a gastric sleeve in January 2022 and my partner seems to have more concern than me. I feel I have done plenty of research but the two questions my partner keeps asking are: 1) will you ever be able to have more than a couple of drinks of alcohol (wine) in future 2) will you ever be able to go for a nice meal again (not just diet food) we are a social couple and like to enjoy nights out but my biggest concern is I want to be healthy and look healthy so not drinking alcohol at all for a while and small meals isn’t a problem. We are both just wondering what happens say 12 months down the line could I potentially be able to eat a normal meal (normal portions not trailer loads like now) and perhaps enjoy a few drinks on a night out? Thank you all in advance.