Big Con

[savery 0]

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<HR style="COLOR: #e9e9e9" SIZE=1><!-- / icon and title --><!-- message --><!-- google_ad_section_start -->Hello. I'm a new member. Don't mean to offend anybody here, that's the last thing I want to do, because I'm thinking of getting banded and I need answers from you, but isn't this lap band gimmick a big con?

I mean if you want to lose weight why not diet?

If you get banded you still have to eat less and diet so why bother getting banded?

Surely when your banded 'pouch' is full of food you may feel full but you must still feel ravenous because the rest of your cavernous stomach is completely empty?

I want to believe that banding works but I can't see how it reduces your hunger pangs and you can't eat what you like - I mean indian curries and savoury foods.

How much will power do you bandsters need to succeed?

And if you have will power why don't you just diet and avoid surgery?

This banding idea doesn't make any sense to me, it's just a big con.

Sorry if I've offended anybody but my doctor said that I couldn't get banded unless I could show that I could lose weight, so I tried and failed. But hang on a minute! If I could lose weight by dieting I wouldn't need to get banded would I ? It's all a big con. The fact is that you could all lose weight without the band, banding is a big con.

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[Wendell Edwards 73]

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<HR style="COLOR: #e9e9e9" SIZE=1><!-- / icon and title --><!-- message --><!-- google_ad_section_start -->Hello. I'm a new member. Don't mean to offend anybody here, that's the last thing I want to do, because I'm thinking of getting banded and I need answers from you, but isn't this lap band gimmick a big con?

I mean if you want to lose weight why not diet?

If you get banded you still have to eat less and diet so why bother getting banded?

Surely when your banded 'pouch' is full of food you may feel full but you must still feel ravenous because the rest of your cavernous stomach is completely empty?

I want to believe that banding works but I can't see how it reduces your hunger pangs and you can't eat what you like - I mean indian curries and savoury foods.

How much will power do you bandsters need to succeed?

And if you have will power why don't you just diet and avoid surgery?

This banding idea doesn't make any sense to me, it's just a big con.

Sorry if I've offended anybody but my doctor said that I couldn't get banded unless I could show that I could lose weight, so I tried and failed. But hang on a minute! If I could lose weight by dieting I wouldn't need to get banded would I ? It's all a big con. The fact is that you could all lose weight without the band, banding is a big con.

Thanks for reading the rant.<!-- google_ad_section_end -->

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Hello. I'm a new member. Hello

Don't mean to offend anybody here, that's the last thing I want to do, because I'm thinking of getting banded and I need answers from you, but isn't this lap band gimmick a big con?

No.

I mean if you want to lose weight why not diet?

Because diets do not, and never have worked.

If you get banded you still have to eat less and diet so why bother getting banded?

Because there is a world of difference between being banded and dieting.

Surely when your banded 'pouch' is full of food you may feel full but you must still feel ravenous because the rest of your cavernous stomach is completely empty?

No, that's not the case in my experience.

I want to believe that banding works but I can't see how it reduces your hunger pangs and you can't eat what you like - I mean indian curries and savoury foods.

I eat pretty much whatever I like, only in smaller quantities. I almost never experience hunger.

How much will power do you bandsters need to succeed?

Far less than when I was dieting.

And if you have will power why don't you just diet and avoid surgery?

I did that for 38 years and continued to "fail" at dieting. I have not "failed" at Lap-Band.

This banding idea doesn't make any sense to me, it's just a big con.

Simply because you do not understand something that you yourself have not experienced does not make that thing "A big con".

Sorry if I've offended anybody but my doctor said that I couldn't get banded unless I could show that I could lose weight, so I tried and failed.

That's understandable. Maybe it's time you found a doctor who understands the morbidly obese better than the one your currently use.

But hang on a minute! If I could lose weight by dieting I wouldn't need to get banded would I ?

You need to seperate losing weight from maintaining weight loss. I have lost weight, a lot of weight, several times in my life, only to re-gain that weight whenever my "willpower" gave out. I have lost weight, a lot of weight, while wearing a Lap-Band, and I have not re-gained that weight. Losing weight is relatively easy, keeping that weight off for life is the hard part.

It's all a big con. The fact is that you could all lose weight without the band, banding is a big con.

I disagree, and I dare say there are tens of thousands of people who used to be morbidly obese that wouold also disagree with you, they simply chose to not argue the point with you, as you seem to be prejudiced against the Lap-Band.

Thanks for reading the rant.

[musicalmomma 1]

Sounds like you've made up your mind and just came on here to rant...hope getting it off your chest made you feel better As for me...I love my band :whoo:

[Marimaru 7]

My understanding of the stomach organ is that if you constantly eat a lot, it will expand, but if you quit eating that much, it will go back toward it's original size. I believe this to be true, because even on days when I do not have good restriction, I still can't eat what I used to.

There are some significant rules with the band, which is probably why your doctor wants you to prove that you can lose some weight on your own. I don't know how much he told you to lose. You can still eat savory foods, just not much of them. Some people have trouble with breads and rice and things, but not everyone, and you learn to live with your limitations.

I dunno, if the band is a con, I think that the RNY is a bigger con, because there are a decent chunk of those people that lose their weight, maintain for a little while, and then as soon as their body adapts to the surgery, if they haven't changed their ways, they start gaining again.

I don't think any of the surgeries are a con, I just think that some of them work better for some people than others. The band is not right for some people, and the RNY and other surgeries aren't right for most of us that chose to go with the band.

[WASaBubbleButt 41]

<!-- google_ad_section_start --><!-- google_ad_section_end -->

<HR style="COLOR: #e9e9e9" SIZE=1><!-- / icon and title --><!-- message --><!-- google_ad_section_start -->Hello. I'm a new member. Don't mean to offend anybody here, that's the last thing I want to do, because I'm thinking of getting banded and I need answers from you, but isn't this lap band gimmick a big con?

I mean if you want to lose weight why not diet?

If you get banded you still have to eat less and diet so why bother getting banded?

Surely when your banded 'pouch' is full of food you may feel full but you must still feel ravenous because the rest of your cavernous stomach is completely empty?

I want to believe that banding works but I can't see how it reduces your hunger pangs and you can't eat what you like - I mean indian curries and savoury foods.

How much will power do you bandsters need to succeed?

And if you have will power why don't you just diet and avoid surgery?

This banding idea doesn't make any sense to me, it's just a big con.

Sorry if I've offended anybody but my doctor said that I couldn't get banded unless I could show that I could lose weight, so I tried and failed. But hang on a minute! If I could lose weight by dieting I wouldn't need to get banded would I ? It's all a big con. The fact is that you could all lose weight without the band, banding is a big con.

Thanks for reading the rant.<!-- google_ad_section_end -->

<!-- / message -->

I agree with everything Wendell wrote so I won't repeat it but I will say one thing. The reason you are full with a pouch full of food is because the nerve in your stomach that tells your brain you are full is at the top of your stomach.

Your stomach is about the size of a football or a gallon of milk. If you start at the bottom of your stomach and fill it up you would have to eat quite a bit to feel full. With a pouch the "bottom of your stomach" sits up much much higher, closer to that nerve so you don't have to eat as much for that nerve to tell your brain you are full.

BTW, I think your doc is an uneducated jerk in the field of bariatrics. If we could lose weight and/or keep it off, we wouldn't need a band to begin with.

[Wendell Edwards 73]

BTW, I think your doc is an uneducated jerk in the field of bariatrics. If we could lose weight and/or keep it off, we wouldn't need a band to begin with.

Maybe that doctor is a "Band Practicioner"... :bounce:

[WASaBubbleButt 41]

Maybe that doctor is a "Band Practicioner"... :bounce:

Licensed, too!

(sorry folks, private joke here)

[noahsmom 0]

Bubble butt - whats up with the Yikes I have to do it quote?!? Are you just trying to help out the spelling disabled?

[kacee 3]

Savery, believe it or not, I actually see where you are coming from on some of this. It is a legitimate question. I've been told that after banding the trick is NOT to diet. Now, that being said, it isn't license for no behavior modification. We obese folks have extremely flawed mentality when it comes to eating. We head for all the WRONG foods in the WRONG amounts. Now, when you get banded, and I mean banded with a decent restriction, a portion of that battle is removed...the WRONG AMOUNT portion. You can still eat the wrong foods and defeat the band. That's why the band takes more "work" than, say, a bypass which in many cases can physically restrict you from eating the wrong amounts AND the wrong foods (i.e., dumping syndrome, etc. and many bypass people cannot eat surgars afterwards without a lot of distress).

To put it simply, if you were told you had to stand on your head and knit a sweater, that would be a daunting task. However, if you were told that you didn't have to stand on your head...just knit the sweater...it's still work, but it sure looks easier to accomplish!

[Betsyjane 2]

I hope before you consider seriously getting banded, that you will read a lot of this website, and do your research. You have to be psychologically ready to follow the bandster lifestyle, which for me was MUCH easier than dieting...and has had real results like I've never had before. Don't do the band until you are completely past ranting and fully into researching. And thanks, Wendell, for the concise post. I agree with everything you said.

[Alexandra 55]

I hope before you consider seriously getting banded, that you will read a lot of this website, and do your research. You have to be psychologically ready to follow the bandster lifestyle, which for me was MUCH easier than dieting...and has had real results like I've never had before. Don't do the band until you are completely past ranting and fully into researching. And thanks, Wendell, for the concise post. I agree with everything you said.

:rockon:

I agree 100%.

Like everything else, banding is what you make of it. It is not a "big con" unless you go into it thinking it's a magic bullet that will render you slender overnight with no effort on your part. But no responsible doctor is selling it that way. It's a tool, nothing more, nothing less, and it absolutely makes the job of losing weight and keeping it off easier--hell, it made it POSSIBLE for me.

[want2beme 2]

<TABLE id=HB_Mail_Container height="100%" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0 UNSELECTABLE="on"><TBODY><TR height="100%" width="100%" UNSELECTABLE="on"><TD id=HB_Focus_Element vAlign=top width="100%" background="" height=250 UNSELECTABLE="off">The band is not a 100% guarantee for weight loss. There's still a lot of work that goes into it. Diet and exercise are a MUST if you want to lose all of your excess weight. I'm just planning on it!

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[IneedMajorHelp 1]

it gets old reading a what a few of these nattering naybobs of negativity have to say about the band - c'mon people educate yourselves before you come on here and bitch and moan about the lap-band - for most of us it's been a very positive rewarding experience -

[losingjusme 12]

Sounds like you've made up your mind and just came on here to rant...

yeah... so much that it had to be posted a couple of times ...

i love my band btw ... :bounce:

[losingjusme 12]

Maybe that doctor is a "Band Practicioner"... :bounce:

oh oh oh ... i wanna be one ... do i have to change my name to include RN (even though i'm clearly NOT)...