Medifast/Optifast for primary weightloss with lapband?

JustinsMama · February 12, 2008

Would this be possible - to get the lapband and try to lose the majority of your weight with this and then do a "maintenance" period by introducing regular food? I did Medifast before and lost 13 lbs in one week by sheer willpower, surely the band would help even more? (Of course this was last year and I've since gained it back and then some).

I don't particulary view myself as a sensitive/queasy type person, but I was just reading the thread about food sitting in the smaller pouch waiting to go into the stoma and then something about saliva being so gross when something won't go down and I literally gagged at my computer after trying to picture it. Needless to say I backed out of those threads and am not going to open up anything else like that for a day or two.

So, I'm thinking if I gag like that just reading about other people's experience and I don't even have a lapband, what is trying to eat real food going to be like if/when I actually have the lapband?

Thanks for any advice!

Elisabethsew · February 12, 2008

Welcome! If you follow the band "rules" that will be reviewed by your surgeon and his/her staff, you'll do fine. Go to the free informational sessions in your area and ask lots of questions. Also, read the MANY success stories here and ask questions.

Jachut · February 12, 2008

I wouldnt think it would be any easier with a lapband after the initial healing phase than it is without one. Lapbands dont restrict liquids, once you're healed up and not swollen, you'll be starving on this sort of a program.

Nor is it a healthy way to lose weight. Those things are designed for urgent, fast weight loss prior to surgery or for other very pressing reasons, not for a lifestyle. Very low calorie diets are not necessary for most people, you will lose a lot of muscle as well as fat, learn absolutely nothing about how you should be eating and fitting that knowledge into your lifestyle, you wont have the energy to exercise properly, theres just a million reasons not to live on Optifast. Plus it tastes like crap, you'll get bored as hell and go on a major binge. Not to mention becoming constipated.

Dont do it. Eating with a lapband is just fine, what you're imagining is worse than reality. In reality most people get stuck every now and then but its not a big deal even when its a really BIG stuck, lol.