i wondering if this only works for the first month then...it's just counting calories

[Lynn_Marie 0]

From everything I've read on here it seems that everyone has to 'work their band' whichever way works best for them. Personally, I don't count calories or carbs or anything like that because I don't want to play the mind games that come with that. (or do for me, anyway) When I count like that my mindset becomes...How many calories/carbs do I have left?? What else can I have to eat??? and worst of all I get that latter years Weight Watchers mentality of, "It doesn't really matter what I eat as long as I don't exceed my points (calories, carbs, whatever I used to count) So....NO COUNTING for me!!!

[Danielle2649 0]

Sorry, in all my babling, I forgot to mention that I don't count calories either! That makes it feel too much like a diet, not a lifestyle change. I just eat WAY smaller portions and am learning what I can't really eat very well. BEST OF LUCK TO YOU! I wish you the best in your search in deciding if this is the best option for you!

[kagoscuba 0]

I'm not a month out yet, but I can tell you it's worked wonders for me and will continue to. Why? Because I was never a "bad food" eater; I've always been a family sized portion eater. Since that option is now gone, I am sure I'll be able to control my weight much better. I've always exercised, which helped me to not be bigger than I was. When people asked me at the gym how I worked out so much and still stayed so large (that was nice...not!) I just said, "I'm working out to keep on even keel with the beer and Pasta." Now either one of those in moderation will not kill a diet, and the beer was mostly in moderation. However, the Pasta? I could go through a 12 serving box in two meals. Sushi? Healthy right? Not if you eat four rolls and 6 pieces of sushi, along with a miso Soup, salad, and edamame. All those things are healthy...not all together though. That's where the lapband will make the difference to me. I'm was never a grazer, but I was a buffet destroyer.

I count calories now to ensure I'm getting enough calories; I'm not worried about getting too many. With the food choices and meal plan I have (most important for the lap-band to work) getting too many calories would almost be impossible.

[Mhuire 0]

I think weighing and measuring foods helped keep me crazy during my eating disordered years. I want this band to do this for me: I want to be able to eat three small/reasonable meals a day without measuring or fretting. You know, like a person who doesn't have a ED. I am afraid if my eating getting checked, I'll have to work really hard to keep my impulses from appearing elsewhere. Haven't got that one figured out yet...

[M Taylor 0]

i wonder if this really works or is it cuz you are on a liquid diet for so long...then you lose pounds....

and once you recover...nothing really changes unless you do what you couldn't do well before and that is COUNT CALORIES...

and then you don't lose ???? if you don't count...

i am wondering just how great this operation is after reading these pages...

WHAT IS YOUR THOUGHT on this ??????

If the band itself didn't do anything no one would have it put in. I think that much is obvious. "Once you recover, nothing really changes." Everything changes if you use the band correctly. There are people who go through all the trouble and expense of having a band put in and never follow up with their surgeon for fills. Of course it doesn't work for them, they only had half the procedure done! (This of course excludes those very few lucky people who obtain restriction with no fills.)

When maintaining a proper fill level, you physically cannot overeat. It will be painful, and most likely come right back up. You quickly learn to stop eating when you're full. Before banding, I ate when I wasn't hungry all the time, just because I was bored. The prospect of gaining a few pounds a month made me feel guilty, but wasn't enough to stop me. The first time I tried to eat when I wasn't hungry, just because I was used to eating all the time, I vowed never to do it again. Excruciating chest pain is a great deterrent to eating when I'm not hungry. Granted I'm only one week post op, but if overeating on liquids causes pain, I'm sure not going to try it once I'm on solid foods.

Before banding, I could count calories like a pro. Only problem was I needed to eat less than 1000 calories per day to lose weight, and my stomach couldn't deal with that. Now, since I'm still on liquids, I eat half that, but I never go hungry. Of course caloric intake will increase with solid foods, but when properly restricted solid foods satisfy longer than liquids. Personally, I plan on never counting calories again. Protein is what fills you up, and as long as I get in all of my Protein (something I'm desparately struggling with at the moment) I don't see how I could have enough room for excessive amounts of fat and carbs.

This is all just my two cents (well, at this point, more like a dollar) but in the six years I've been researching and looking into having this done, and the four months I've spent on LBT, I've seen it both work and fail. The people it works for use it as a tool helping make the necessary changes easier to accomplish. The people it doesn't work for (for the most part, there are always exceptions) don't do their share of the work.

[WASaBubbleButt 41]

my questions is ...then why spend so much money on a band

when in fact you do the real work

controlling our hunger....

my problem is i eat when im not hungry now...how will that change..

exercise..i can do it now..will the band MAKE me exercise...

is the BAND a modern day bottle of SNAKE OIL ????

A cure all pretense ..when the reality is ...very different

i wanted to open this can of worms cuz i don't see it being discussed here

i want to believe it will help me..but i am about to pluck down 10,000 dollars in cash....

and with all the research i am doing....i am asking these questions

If you eat a solid Protein first and THEN feed head hunger, you'll barf. There simply is no room.

The band will fix stomach hunger, the head hunger is something we all deal with and you continue dealing with it.

There is something to the idea of not being able to do something, you physically can't pack that much food in a pouch so the obsession with food and head hunger ... it doesn't go away completely but for me it's about 95% better.

You CAN eat around the band, there is no doubt there. If you think you won't be able to resist eating around the band then the band may not be for you. But if you can manage to fill your pouch with a solid Protein (takes hours to drain into your bigger stomach) and THEN feed head hunger, you'll do well.

If it goes through a straw it will go through your stoma. If you opt to not fill your pouch with the right foods so there is no room for cake and ice cream, then you won't do well. But it comes down to a choice.

There is no magic cure for weight loss. Regardless of which method you use you STILL have to work at it. Spending $10K doesn't mean it's a free for all and you can sit on the couch and eat while the weight drops off.

With gastric bypass you'll dump if you eat fat and calories but that usually only lasts for six months to a year then you are back to diet and exercise as the intestinal tissue begins to regrow and you can absorb calories again. Banding and a sleeve are restrictive so you can only eat so much food before you barf it back up and it is quite painful. Not something you'll want to do on a regular basis. DS is bad IMO because of the malnutrition that often times follows.

So it's a choice but most of all, it really comes down to how bad do you want thin? Traditional diet and exercise didn't work for me, it was too hard. I just couldn't stick with the program. Banding is hard, VERY hard, but it's the kind of hard WE can do. Our population, we fatties.

[joe7777 1]

Wintersunshine, i appreciate what you are trying to say, but if you read the forums you would already have the answers to your question. Your cynicism is a not founded.

In response to you, in my personal experience with the band, it works! I havent lost weight in my life, i've steadily gained weight since i've been 10. Since i've been on my band journey i've lost about 40 lbs, I've been at a standstill lately because my fill level was inadequate, but i've since had a fill, and what a difference!!! If you understand the physiological working of the band you wouldn't be so quick to call it a modern snake oil. TRUST ME! I was a BIG eater, now i eat maybe 30% of what i ate before. It's not like a diet, when you starve yourself, you are genuinely not hungry even when in your head you think you need more food, your body tells you you're food (not the case when you're not banded, even if you're full, your body won't tell you---i'm talking about obese people here)

[illdeal 0]

Hey everyone!!!! The band is the best thing that I have ever done...but just like everyone said...its hard....but it's all about how bad you want it...I was banded 9-12-07 and lost 20lbs my first two weeks....That makes you feel great....!!! When I eat now it makes me think.....that was so gross to be eating all of the food I did before...and the amounts....ITS ALL ABOUT CONTROL!!! Good luck to everyone....

[lisah25 3]

my questions is ...then why spend so much money on a band

when in fact you do the real work

controlling our hunger....

my problem is i eat when im not hungry now...how will that change..

exercise..i can do it now..will the band MAKE me exercise...

is the BAND a modern day bottle of SNAKE OIL ????

A cure all pretense ..when the reality is ...very different

i wanted to open this can of worms cuz i don't see it being discussed here

i want to believe it will help me..but i am about to pluck down 10,000 dollars in cash....

and with all the research i am doing....i am asking these questions

Research and questioning are GREAT.

I had a lot of the same thoughts. What I've found in the year I've been banded is that it is nothing more or less then a tool. I have to do the right things of course, but it's possible now. I once compared it to being given a hammer to pound nails when you'd been using Jello.

I've found that my appetite is dimmed. I still have urges to eat for reasons other then physical hunger, but find it easier many times to not give in. I spent almost 40 years trying and failing to lose much weight, and never kept it off. I'm down just over 60 pounds now, and even when I've been plautead haven't regained more then a pound or two. That is a totally new thing for me.

[Oregondaisy 2,021]

One reason the band works is if you have a good fill, you can't eat bread, Pasta, rice, & pizza.You can try to eat that stuff, and it will get stuck, and cause pain. I call it aversion therapy. I can watch people eat pizza and not want it because the times I have tried to eat it, I spent a lot of time in pain, trying to get unstuck. You can eat chocolate, ice cream, and a lot of other junk.

If you give in to sweet cravings, the band will not help that. If you cut out all the bad carbs that the band helps with though, the sweet cravings are extremely less.

[Jachut 487]

Thats true - I mean I've always stated that you dont have to give up carbs to lose weight and I think that's true. Calories are calories, you can lose weight eating nothign but chocolate.

And I do eat bread, etc.

But the truth is I eat way less of it and if pizza's on the menu, I'll probably say no thanks because of the difficulty in getting it down. Pasta fills me up in literally one bite, so when the family has spaghetti bolognaise (a staple round here) I serve myself up some but generally eat the meat sauce, a mouthfull of spaghetti and I'm good. If we have sandwiches for lunch, I'll pick at half a one, not a whole one.

So the carb content of my diet HAS dropped markedly simply because even though I can eat bread, rice and Pasta, they're hard to eat and I usually cant be bothered to eat much of them.

And that does make a difference. I dont have the carb cravings I once did.

[ddavis217 0]

My question is how many fills did it take you to obtain that kind of restriction. I got banded in Aug. and have not been filled yet. I find myself eating more than what i was told i would be able to eat. I haven't felt much restriction and havent gotten sick at all. I am not even having to take small bites and eat slow. I am almost afraid that I have stretched my pouch. I had to reschedule my fill and cant get it done until Nov. 1st. I'm afraid I'm going to regain all the weight I have lost by then. I agree with the mental hurdles, right now the main one for me is will I suceed at this.

[LauraD 2]

Hi Wintersunshine......

When are you having your surgery? I ask because if you're still this unsure about the band, you shouldn't do it until you are ready to commit 100%.

I'd respectfully suggest spending more time hanging out here and learning from the experts. "They" didn't know it, but I've been lurking for months, deciding myself whether or not to get banded! You can learn a lot about how the band works, fills, and how to really succeed at this. Visit for awhile every day or so, and just read the threads; your questions get answered before you can think of them. Maybe the band ends up being your choice, maybe not. Either way, do as much research as you can and remember that you are in charge of your own happy ending.

[amoroxy 0]

How many fills have you had and what were the amounts in them?

[socalgal3 4]

My question is how many fills did it take you to obtain that kind of restriction. I got banded in Aug. and have not been filled yet. I find myself eating more than what i was told i would be able to eat. I haven't felt much restriction and havent gotten sick at all. I am not even having to take small bites and eat slow. I am almost afraid that I have stretched my pouch. I had to reschedule my fill and cant get it done until Nov. 1st. I'm afraid I'm going to regain all the weight I have lost by then. I agree with the mental hurdles, right now the main one for me is will I suceed at this.

There isn't really a set amount of fills. It is very individual. I was filled and unfilled twice due to being to tight. I only have .6cc right now which is nothing compared to many people, but it is almost too much for me again. Some people have 4cc in a 4cc band and feel like they can still eat. It really depends on you, your band, your body and your doc. You say you haven't fely much restriction-but you've had no fill. So, of course you have no restriction. You probably haven't stretched your pouch, but try to follow the rules so that it won't be so hard once you do have a fill.