New to forum - What's the difference???

[angelsoul 0]

Hi, I'm new to the forum and have been debating about getting a lap-band. (I know, nothing new there....) But what I've been trying to determine is what is the difference between getting the lap-band and having a restricted diet as opposed to just having a restricted diet? Does the food metabolise differently with the lap band? If I just cut my eating down drastically and begin to exercise will it be the same effect? Or does the brain have something to do with the equation. Do I really have to feel "full" before my body will take itself out of starvation mode and metabolise at a faster rate? Should I pursue the lap-band (and yes, THAT was a rhetorical question).

[WASaBubbleButt 41]

There is a huge difference with a band. The band kinda sorta creates two stomachs. One little tiny one and the usual stomach.

With a band the little stomach is just a few ounces large. Without a band your stomach will hold an amount about the size of a gallon of milk.

It is certainly possible to restrict your caloric intake to that of a banded person but you'll be hungry all the time. If you could do that, you would have done it by now and you wouldn't be here with the rest of us. :car:

The little stomach that the band creates is where the nerves are that tell your body you are full. Those nerves are at the top of your stomach, so when your little stomach is full, you feel full. The band is amazingly small with restriction, the hole between both stomachs can easily be the size of a pencil lead, or half the diameter of a thermometer. When you eat you fill your little stomach. Let's say you eat 4oz of food. It takes hours to drain into your larger stomach so you stay full for hours.

No, metabolism is no different. You just get very full very quickly and stay full for much longer. That is what the band does.

Starvation mode is when little children in Africa eat 100 calories every few days. THAT is starvation mode. It does NOT happen with obese people. Starvation mode is a myth, nothing more. Starvation is when you are severely under your normal BMI, you are suffering from malnutrition, and your body makes clear and obvious physical changes. That does noth happen with fat people.

One of the hardest parts of losing weight is letting go of all the myths that have been around for eons. Starvation is when you have gone to the point of a severe anorexic and your body pulls Fluid from the arms and legs and stores excess Fluid in the gut to protect organs. You are weak, unable to move, prone to disease, malnutrition, etc. It is an absolute extreme. It is NOT the same as a plateau that we all go through at one time or another.

[angelsoul 0]

Wow, Thanks Wasa! You are painfully right about me restricting my intake. If I could, I wouldn't be where I am now. I guess I'm just weighing all of my options out of fear of the surgery. You're also right about my mindset....my body has never known what starvation mode is my entire life!

[WASaBubbleButt 41]

Wow, Thanks Wasa! You are painfully right about me restricting my intake. If I could, I wouldn't be where I am now. I guess I'm just weighing all of my options out of fear of the surgery. You're also right about my mindset....my body has never known what starvation mode is my entire life!

You know, there is actually a LOT of science behind why we eat the way we do. There is a type of xray that they can use to show brain activity just LOOKING at food. If you take a skinny person and a fat person and put them under a special xray, then you show them both photos of food it is interesting to note the differences in the brain of the skinny person vs. fat person.

Both brains will do virtually nothing when shown a photo of a carrot. But if you show both people a photo of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, chocolate cake, etc., the skinny person's brain doesn't do much of anything yet the fat person's brain will go nuts. All kinds of electrical changes happen. Now they are looking to see if that brain activity produces a hormone that causes hunger. Stop and think about it, if you start thinking about food you become hungry. If you are busy and focused on something else you don't feel the hunger in the same way. Just suggesting food to us can do us in. Not so with a naturally skinny person.

That is just one of many examples.

If we could do it without a band, we would have. We have different issues and different needs, the band fixes much of the physical part. We have to fix the mental part and really, that is the hardest, the mental part. But the band makes it so that we CAN do that. It's something that is hard to explain until you have experienced it.

[Wendell Edwards 73]

I was never successful at keeping weight off when I dieted. I could lose tremendous amounts as long as my willpower held out, by inevitably hunger destroyed my willpower.

In asddition, I don't believe I ever felt full before Lap-Band. What I THOUGHT was full was in fact PAIN from a horribly over-stuffed stomach.

Now I feel full on small amounts of food, and my brain thinks everything is OK with that, so there is the difference to me.

[WASaBubbleButt 41]

Ahhhhh, Wendell! One of my favorite bandsters!!! A true inspiration.

[Wendell Edwards 73]

Ahhhhh, Wendell! One of my favorite bandsters!!! A true inspiration.

:biggrin1: And good morning to you too!

[WASaBubbleButt 41]

Wendell...

Have you been to the "at or near" goal section of this forum? I'd love to see your thoughts on the topics, "oh wise weight loss guru".

[NanaRenan 0]

Starvation mode is when little children in Africa eat 100 calories every few days. THAT is starvation mode. It does NOT happen with obese people. Starvation mode is a myth, nothing more. Starvation is when you are severely under your normal BMI, you are suffering from malnutrition, and your body makes clear and obvious physical changes. That does noth happen with fat people.

"Survival Mode" is very real and DOES happen to fat people all the time. I've lived with it for years, it's part of my insulin-resistant/pre-diabetic and eventually diabetic genetics.

If I restricted my calories to 1000 calories a day for more than three weeks, my appetite diminishes to the point that at six weeks, I'm not even taking enough enough fluids to be properly hydrated. Husband comes home to an empty table because I haven't even THOUGHT about food -- in fact, I didn't eat Breakfast or lunch yet.

Needless to say the weight loss stops, about 3-4 weeks in, too, because my metabolism isn't even switching on to process food - cause there's hardly any coming in.

I've been to doctor after doctor, dietician and nutritionists.....they all look at my diet journal and say, "You're not losing weight because you're not eating enough." I would say, "Do you know how crazy that sounds?" Then they would explain it again.

Basically, it's my body ANTICIPATING that I'm going to end up only getting that 100 calories every few days like the starving children!!

The only diet I ever had a modicum of success with Weight Watchers and it's because it had a range -- and I had to eat a MINIMUM of points every day. It kept my metabolism going enough that I didn't go into survival mode. Unfortunately, I got cocky and started to think I had it all figured out!

But that's another thread.

[Wendell Edwards 73]

Wendell...

Have you been to the "at or near" goal section of this forum? I'd love to see your thoughts on the topics, "oh wise weight loss guru".

Hi,

Actually I have not. I am operating on very limited time now, as I am far more involved in other projects. I am adding another machine to my home gym today, and doing some other projects also, so I haven't had much time to look around.

If it were not for me having to drink some Protein coffee, I wouldn't be online right now.

And I am *NOT* a "Guru", neither do I wish to become one.

I am just a guy who struggles every single day to take another step down the road to "Normal". :car:

[WASaBubbleButt 41]

"Survival Mode" is very real and DOES happen to fat people all the time. I've lived with it for years, it's part of my insulin-resistant/pre-diabetic and eventually diabetic genetics.

If I restricted my calories to 1000 calories a day for more than three weeks, my appetite diminishes to the point that at six weeks, I'm not even taking enough enough fluids to be properly hydrated. Husband comes home to an empty table because I haven't even THOUGHT about food -- in fact, I didn't eat Breakfast or lunch yet.

Needless to say the weight loss stops, about 3-4 weeks in, too, because my metabolism isn't even switching on to process food - cause there's hardly any coming in.

I've been to doctor after doctor, dietician and nutritionists.....they all look at my diet journal and say, "You're not losing weight because you're not eating enough." I would say, "Do you know how crazy that sounds?" Then they would explain it again.

Basically, it's my body ANTICIPATING that I'm going to end up only getting that 100 calories every few days like the starving children!!

The only diet I ever had a modicum of success with Weight Watchers and it's because it had a range -- and I had to eat a MINIMUM of points every day. It kept my metabolism going enough that I didn't go into survival mode. Unfortunately, I got cocky and started to think I had it all figured out!

But that's another thread.

Being insulin resistant is not the same as starvation mode. Two very different concepts.

[WASaBubbleButt 41]

If it were not for me having to drink some Protein coffee, I wouldn't be online right now.

And I am *NOT* a "Guru", neither do I wish to become one.

OMG! You are drinking liquid Protein?

Where are the ch.... oh, never mind. :car:

(sorry folks, private joke here)

*I* consider you the guru of weight loss.

[angelsoul 0]

I have to agree Wasa. As a diabetic myself, and also being insulin resistant..when my metabolism shuts down I think that is very different than going into a "starvation mode" scenario. It is time we really start re-defining our eating stages. I am used to thinking "starvation", but that is not really the case!

[WASaBubbleButt 41]

I have to agree Wasa. As a diabetic myself, and also being insulin resistant..when my metabolism shuts down I think that is very different than going into a "starvation mode" scenario. It is time we really start re-defining our eating stages. I am used to thinking "starvation", but that is not really the case!

Heh... I just had a thought. Do you think that we need to go from unlearning old myths to learning new myths? HA!

Obesity science is like psychiatry. Those are the babies of medicine. They have the shortest amount of time for research and the fewest dollars. That is slowly changing but it's not changing fast enough to please me. :car:

[Fort Bend Band 0]

I would like to add one more thought Angel. My doctor told me that I would have the benefit of feeling less hungry overall just from the band and that science could not totally explain why. I do still have my messed up mind that tells me to snack sometimes just out of boredom, but I do have to say that when I feel hungry I want to eat but do not picture a whole platter of food to wolf down like I used to. Also, I have noticed that if I get busy at work and cannot eat lunch when I usually do I can be more patient about it and not feel like I am going to die if I don't eat. I am greatful to my band for this!