Can only hope to lose 65% of excess weight???

[Midnightwitc6 0]

I dont know about anyone else, but I too had to got to 2 support group meetings because of the insurance prerequisites. I found them to be extremely negative and clicky. Amazing how the long term bandsters were not supportive of the newly banded or the people still trying to make the decision to be banded or not. I use this website as my support group. I come here everyday and though I dont post much I get so much from everyone here. One of the speakers at the support group meeting I attended was obviously frustrated with her own weight loss, standing up there with her fribble milkshake telling everyone how easy ice cream and M&M's go thru the band. I'm not as easy to sway as some people but what a horrible role model for the people who really needed the support. I did my 2 meeting quota and I dont plan on going back...well maybe if I ever get to my goal...hehe.

So I guess my point is, dont let those people in the support group meetings get you frustrated about the band. Read the many posts here, good and bad, do your research and if it feels right for YOU, then dont let anything stop you. The band isnt a cure all, but I love it! I was banded 3/3/06 and I'm down 66lbs....thought I'd mention that since I cant get a ticker...I'm a computer moron and cant figure it out.

[La_madam 20]

I can only speak for myself, I started at 265 and ended at 164 in 18 months. I lost my band due to erosion after 18 months back in November of 2005 but I am maintaining and have not gained my weight back. Anything is possible. The band is a great tool but it is a tool not a magic wand, you have to do some of the work too and not rely on the band to do it all. Your head definately has to been in this, the band will not do it all on it's own. This is not a race it is a journey, the key to this is patience and to not see others success and expect the same for you, everyone is different, everyones weight loss is different.

[sleepyjean 0]

If you ask me, the best thing you can do is forget you ever heard that. This journey is tough enough without someone telling you from the get-go that you'll never lose all the weight you want to lose.

[maryb 1]

Some kind of support group telling you that you will only lose 65%. A real support group would be telling you that you will lose no less then 65% of what you want, and we will help you reach 100%. You need to tell those negative ninnies to try a little positive attitude for a change!

[Time to love me 0]

Debi..I'm so frustrated with this stupid guideline too. My doc didn't tell me this, he told me I'll lose as much as i want (within reason) if I follow the food and exercise program. He did, however, tell me that I will never be a size 2. LOL age has something to do with this too. I'm 35 and 5'6, I weight 228.5

The 65% weightloss guide is bull crap, I think. It most likely is the average for the band. So this include those who abuse the band, those who mostly follow the rules and people who are rule followers. IMO there are many people who take this band for granted. There are those who cheat & eat around the band and then you have the die hard people who are truly giving 100% to making this all work, not to mention the ones who are in between those two. Now don't get me wrong, i'm sure everyone has eating things that we shouldn't eat. We all have the band because we have food issues. We are all human and once in awhile it's okay to "cheat". BUT at the same time i really think that some people believe that this is a magic band and that they don't have to exercise or eat right.

I am only a little over 3 weeks out of surgery, so I'm not eating solids yet. BUT I have started to exercise and before I had the band, I did start my healthy eating plan, I lost weight and felt good about myself. And NO I wasn't perfect, I had one cheat item a week. I will continue to cheat once a week. The nutritionist said it's better to cheat once a week or I'll set myself up for failure when I finally had it and eat out the house. LOL

It just pisses me off that a doc can say 65% is what you'll lose and that your goal is unrealistic!!! Come on, we'll do just fine. Once we start losing weight, we'll have the motivation to want to take more off and we'll do what ever it takes for us to get to the point of where we feel most comfortable. Whether it be 145 or 175, I don't care as long as i'm healthy & happy. Every pound I lose is better than what I weighed pre-band. I look at it as a diet, I know most people don't like to look at it the same way, we've dieted all of our lives. Shall we call it a life change? In the end we need to eat right, drink Water and exercise. The same stuff we would have to do to lose weight if we were not banded. We just have a little band telling us it's time to put down the fork.

Hang in there and be positive. You can get close to goal, if not at goal. There will be plenty of people here to help you get through this. I know I'll need all the help I can get when it gets to those last 20 pounds. If I don't get there, then I don't. I'll give it my all. In the end.. I just want to be healthy.

[Stitchy 0]

When I went in for my 2nd fill, my fill nurse announced that I was half-way to my goal. I told her that 160 lbs was not MY goal; it was the goal of the person that was filling out the form. When I told her mine was 140, she said that was reasonable and doable and she would speak to the form-filling out people (whoever they are). She said the goal should be the patient's goal. I was so afraid that they wouldn't give me more fills once I reached "goal." Maybe I won't reach it, but I sure feel a lot better having MY number on the chart.

[KoalaDH 0]

One of the speakers at the support group meeting I attended was obviously frustrated with her own weight loss, standing up there with her fribble milkshake telling everyone how easy ice cream and M&M's go thru the band.

I'm torn. There's two possible responses to that person:

1. Uhhhhhh, yeahhhhhhh, that's obviously the Lap-Band's fault!

2. Thank goodness those things do go through the band or that woman would've been in some serious trouble.

This person was frustrated because she couldn't lose weight eating ice cream, M&M's, and milkshakes? Unless a representative from Inamed was holding her down and force feeding them to her, someone should have told her to grow up and take responsibility for her own dietary choices.

The band didn't fail her; She failed herself. She made ridiculous choices to defeat the band.

I can see how a group of long term patients could be very cool to new people who are just dropping pounds left and right. It's not right, but it is human nature. Of course, I don't know why they would bother being part of a "support" group.

The bottom line is this: If anyone tells you that the band or gastric bypass will do all of the work for you, they are a liar.

I spent close to an hour talking to the Inamed person who is the Lap-band product specialist (can't remember his name now). He said the biggest difference between Band and Bypass is the amount of effort required to lose the weight at different stages. The two methods are exact opposites. The first half of your desired weight loss on the band is 80%band/20%your effort. It changes for the last half of your weight. So, that last half will take more effort on your part...but you'll be healthier because of the slower weight loss, etc. (You all know the drill.) Hopefully, you will already have established habits that will make it easier.

Bypass is the opposite. It takes an incredible amount of effort at first to adjust to your new, surgeon provided digestive tract.

Here's the kicker. How many times does a "65% of your weight" person quote the studies that show long term weight loss is about the same for both methods?

Remember. Statistics can be skewed to support predetermined outcomes.

All weight loss surgery can be defeated by poor choices.

Thank God for these Lap-Band bulletin boards and the ability to see people who blow that 65% statistic out of the Water.< /p>

[Koala 0]

You know, I heard the same statistics from two surgeons. It made me turn my back without any investigation about the band because I wasn't comparing the 65% to 0% of excess weight loss. I was comparing the 65% to the supposed 100% I thought gastric bypass would provide. So, I really think that one sentence can shift someone from a $17,000 surgery to a $35,000 surgery. My numbers are what I found locally and I know they vary, but that one negative sentence is worth $18,000 or so, to the person who says it.

I also think that many doctors are quoting information from the same study, that they believe it to be true, and that it isn't a monetary investment for them all. We have to remember that any studies done in the U.S. had to be done since 2001 when the band was approved for use here. That doesn't leave much time for a true long-term success rate study.

After going through all the tests for the bypass, my insurance would not cover it. I was upset for a week or two. Now, I see it as divine intervention that kept me from making a mistake. It forced me to rethink the band, and I am SO glad I did.

The personal determination factor and human spirit cannot be measured by a certain percentage or by others' experiences.

We WILL get there.

[GeezerSue 7]

I think that 65% is a rather generous figure and the average is actually a little lower. But it IS only an average. No one knows in advance whether you will be someone who loses MORE than average, LESS than average or the average amount.

When I heard those numbers, I was sure that I'd lose MORE than average. I actually lost around 40% of excess weight prior to developing complications. (The band was filled and unfilled over the next year or so and then removed, three years after it was originally placed. By the time I had revision surgery, I actually weighed about three pounds MORE than I did before I got the band. I had the Duodenal Switch surgery and have lost around 70% of my excess weight in eight months. I'm still a newbie with that surgery and do not know what the future will hold, but the long term results tend to be a higher average weight loss than band or RnY...not without a price, but right now, I'm doing fine.)

While my approach is very different than Jack's--I've had the bowel rearranged via invasive surgery, and I'm "suffering"...lol... the heartbreak of a BMI of +/-33 when it WAS, at one point, 52--he brings up a very good point. (As he is wont to do.)

Using hypothetical numbers closer to mine, I suspect, than yours...if someone who "should" (whole different argument there) weigh 150, weighs 300 and loses 65% of her excess weight, she will weigh, 202.5. Is that good enough for you? (Hypothetical You.)

That kind of progress is, depending on your perspective, GREAT because you are now only 52.5 pounds overweight instead of 150...or, TERRIBLE because you spent $12000 and had surgery on are still 52.5 pounds overweight. And that's just a case where everyone's mileage will vary.

No one should be telling you that YOU cannot lose more than that amount...but they should be telling you that ON AVERAGE, band patients lose about 65% of their excess weight...and that means that for every person who is 100 pounds overweight and loses 85 pounds, there is someone else who loses only 45 pounds.

~~Standing with back to the wall and awaiting the onslaught~~

I think that anyone who cannot deal with the (very good) possibility of losing only 55-65% of their excess weight should shy away from surgeries that have that track record.

I am one who cannot accept that long-term result and this is one reason I did not have a revision to RnY. Some people CAN accept that outcome and good for them because they are probably very reasonable people. But those numbers just don't cut it for me.

Good luck figuring out which choices will be your best.

Sue

[GeezerSue 7]

GeezerSue: I appreciate your updates and the wealth of information you provide. I am curious about "not without a price," as you phrase it.....

While I still have considerable excess to loose (about 35# more) to 'goal' I am at a size not visited since Nixon was in the White House....and this is a triumph of body and spirit for me.

Meds, no insulin injections, etc etc....

In the beginning I asked my surgeon what HIS goal was.....he said something to the effect of 'Let's focus on getting you HEALTHY and not worry so much about how much weight you loose'.....he went on to define 'healthy' in terms such as 'no insulin, fewer meds, no CPAP' able to do certain things, etc.....

While I am near that "65%" excess weight loss figure, I am far closer to those other goals.

I believe it is to MY advantage to Celebrate daily rather than postpone my victory dance until '100%' is achieved....

Congratulations on your continued progress. Could you address whatever changes you may have noted in your interface personally and professionally with your new habitus? Has there been any shift in your own behavior or personality? Do 'new friends' treat you differently than 'old friends'. And has there been transition in how 'old friends' relate?

Here's to Health for All of us!!!

Oh, Jack...you are too kind. My "price" is that I DO have to make time for those three or four bathroom trips every morning and that I worry a lot about the LONG-TERM effects of malabsorption. (Also, I carry the very small can of Ozium and some flushable wipes in my purse, "just in case." I almost never use them, but they make me feel "safe.")

I'm sure people treat me differently, but I can't claim that any difference is based on their shallow reactions to my outward changes...I think that my physical presentation of myself to the other residents of the planet has changed.

On another thread, I posted:

HOWEVER...the other night, my husband and I were walking to the elevator in our building to go somewhere and he disappeared. I stopped and looked over my shoulder and saw him behind me...down the hall...and asked, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," he said.

"Aren't we going down to the garage?"

"Yup."

"Then what are you doing back there?"

"Watching."

"What?"

"I'm watching you walk. It's VERY nice to watch."

Deal is, I walk differently in high heels that I do in Birkenstocks! I haven't been around any really old friends, but that will be coming up soon. I'll let you know what happens.

I'm currently about 50 pounds over what the BMI charts say I should weigh, at the high end of my height group. But THAT number is about five pounds less than I weighed at the end of Basic Training when I was 26...back when...well, back when Ford had just taken over from Nixon. (Are we old, or what?) I have NO plans to end up there!! I applaud your 35-to-go status, and I think I'm in generally the same neighborhood. I use the Obesity Help estimator: http://www.obesityhelp.com/morbidobesity/information/post+op+planner.php

If I put in my starting weight and a presumed 75% ewl, I am following that prediction table pretty closely. IF IT IS ACCURATE, I should be hitting "overweight" around Halloween, and then I may lose another ten pounds or so...IF it is accurate and IF I progress as predicted. (My best friend always says, "If we had ham, we could have ham and eggs..if we had eggs.")

But the honest answer to the "price" question is that the only things I have to deal with (so far?) are the several morning BM's (if I were working, I'd have to get up earlier to allow for that routine), the worry about how bad that might smell (I have impaired olfactory ability), and MOSTLY worry about whether my doctors are on top of my labs the way I want them to be.

(Caveat: I am happy with the DS for ME...but I'm almost 60 and I might have chosen a different route if I were younger. At the same time, as I watch my mother's declining health at age 83, I see that dealing with any band-related problems at that age could be a challenge, too. Any surgery is more dangerous at that age...even something as simple as repairing a slip and even more so with having to remove an eroded band. That factored in to my desire to have a "alteration" as opposed to an "appliance.")

[dpingl 0]

Great discussion. I have not been banded yet, however I am going through lots of aniexty per the possibilty of purchasing COBRA because of a possible job change.( I have been approved with UHC w/ my current employer, don't want to go throught that again) Don't know how much I want to start a new job with Lap band with the possiblity of being sick and missing work...... Also stressing over all my failures in the past with weight loss and how this might be painful, expensive and I could still be fat and unhealthy, if I would lose 50-60 #'s I would be healthier. I do thinkg setting real expectations with any change in life is important, BUT I am just having problems with all of these decsions at once.

[lovecats85 2]

Another thing I forgot to mention on my post - when I got my surgery this guy waiting for his wife who was also getting surgery that day told my husband in the waiting room that she hoped the band would help her not eat so much, but that nothing could make her give up her oreos and chocolate milk she has daily. These people are why the band has an "average weight loss" of 50-65% of excess weight. Like everyone else has said, it's the band PLUS the choices you make that define your weight loss, not the band itself.

Plus, everyone is different - clearly the band didn't work for GeezerSue, and LaMadam had an erosion and is at goal without a band. I am a slow loser, but I don't let it get me down, because I feel great, and I think I look pretty great, and I have more energey, and I am never going to give up on getting to goal.

Point is, I don't think the #'s people say are defining of where you will end up - they are an average. In every average there are people at one end of the scale and people at the other. Forget what other people say to expect and just do the best you can do!

[Desi80 1]

once i hit about the 60% mark, my weightloss has slowed considerably. I have not given up though, i just take my half a pound a week loss and move forward the best i can.

[Carlene 12]

Hi Carlene -

I was surprised that you said that you had lost over 80% of your excess weight - at 127 lbs, surely there can't be much more weight for you to lose?!? Is there another 20% that you consider "excess"?

Just wondering, because I'm 5'2", so the charts say I should weigh somewhere between 115-135, but I'd be thrilled to weigh 135.

Julie...

I am not quite 5 feet tall and I'm perfectly satisfied with my weight loss. I wear size 2/4 and already have a hard time finding age appropriate clothing to fit me. Where do you go after that...the children's dept?

When I said I had lost over 80% of my excess body weight, I was quoting the most conservative weight/height charts I have seen, just to err on the side of "fairness". If I knew exactly what chart the doctor was using who threw out the 65% number, I could respond more accurately. Most doctors, however (my own included) consider me to be at goal.

[Koko 0]

Well if I lose 65% of what I have after getting banded (in the preliminary stages) then I'll be happy. Anything more would be a dream - with good food choices, exercise and the band, I believe it can happen.