The band does NOT make you lose weight!

There is nothing in the band that makes the pounds fall off. It is an inert lump of silicone which doesn't have any effect at all on your excess pounds or in any way make the food you eat have less or more effect on your body.

This is true however tight or loose the band may be. 

What the band does is enable us to feel satisifed after a small amount of food and take the edge off physical hunger for several hours after a meal.

If we eat following certain basic rules and if we are strong enough to make healthy food choices, then we will lose weight.

It is in some ways like signing up for a personal trainer who lives with you 24 hours a day. If you sign up to the gym, you may go sometimes, not others. You may work hard or slack a bit. The band is like a personal trainer always with you, poking you in the ribs to keep you on track, nagging you to behave in a certain way.

You can ignore it, just like you could your 24 hour a day personal trainer - but that would be a bit pointless when you have gone to all the trouble of employing him/her.

Some people expect to eat until they feel full,  but that's not what it is about - it is about eating until you feel gently satisfied. If your band stops you abruptly, you have over-eaten!

And before Maria chimes in, yes, I do know some people don't get restriction!  But I also know (not referring to you, Maria) that some people expect restriction to stop them in their tracks. If it is doing that, you are too tight!

Kate

Very true Kate....I love my band, it reminds me to have self control & I make the healthy choices, job done!!!

Jill

That's why I chose the band is for portion control. I don't have a problem just with sweets or with things like that it was the portions I was eating. I would stop at Mickey D's to get something to take home and I would get me an extra burger to eat on the way home. I would throw the wrapper away before I got there so no one would know.

That is why I chose the lapband because I did not need the malabsorption (sp), I just needed portion control which is what the band does for me.

good words of wisdom Kate and thank you for them....curious....when your band leaked did you have symptoms other than the weight gain?

I didn't gain weight because of a leak. My gain was from 6 months of total depravation! I had four holidays, several 60th birthday events, 2 Xmases (an extra one as we were not with our family on the actual day). I just ate and drank whatever I fancied with no thought at all for my weight! Took me two months of really hard work to get back to my comfort zone!

My leak was sudden and dramatic. One day I good restricition, the next I had none. It was repaired a week after it happened - no gain at all from that.

Kate

Yep.

Before banding, I would never have been satisfied on 4oz of cottage cheese & 1 tbspn bacon bits.  I just finished that 15 minutes ago and sitting here thinking it might have been a tad too much!!  LOL

(I'm not stuck, just burping a bit..)

before banding, I'd try so hard to reduce portion sizes. .. but would eventually get so hungry that I'd give up and eat and probably overeat to compensate.

Now, I do get satisfied on smaller amounts.  I do have to stop myself sometimes, esp. in the evenings, cause even if "full" (quotes becuz the feeling of fullness is different), the food doesn't stop tasting good!

That's what I need.. is a device or mechanism that when I've had enough, turns off the tastebuds!!

Kate,

Thank you for posting this.  You posted this same advice to me when I was asking for help and you made me think about things .

I was starting to reach about getting a fill because people was telling me to , and my body was telling me other wise.  I thought well if I get a fill the weight will start coming off again and that is what I was reaching for hell I had WLS it has to come off , but that isn't true lol.

I know I'm eating healthy 3 cups per day with a snack thrown in of peanuts , cottage cheese and yes sometimes chips lol, but I know in my heart its healthy and that is what I'm suppose to be doing :o)

Your advice really hit home with me the other day and really made me stop and think about things.

I'm in a good place I can go at least three hrs at a time without wanting to eat and that is exactly what the band is designed to do .   I needed somebody to tell me that again lol.

I have seen some people in my support group that uses fills as a crutch oh I can eat more then a cup of food I need a fill well people has to realize you need to have some will power and self control also .    Also running to get fills because they have head hunger. Sorry fills are not going to make head hunger go away you might as well deal with it .

I can also eat over a cup of food but I dont and if you wait a good 15 min more then likely then Im at a good place and I am.

Getting fills like you said will aid you in your weightloss journey but in the end it has to be YOU that loses the weight  :o)   Im learning that hard lesson this week with my stumbling Im having lol

I agree.  Before reading things like this I thought my band had to be very tight in order to work.  Now I realize I have to work in order for the band to work.

***HIJACK***

Kate!  Your new picture is GORGEOUS!!  You look like a million bucks!

***UN-HIJACK***

That's a really great way of putting something that is otherwise hard to explain.  I know that my band isn't making my body lose weight.  It's just assisting me in establishing patterns of behavior that will help me to lose weight.  And that's EXACTLY why I got the band and not another surgery. 

I don't want something to do the work for me and not teach me anything.  And no, I'm not bashing other surgeries.  NONE of us picked an easy path.  But it's just a fact.  A malabsorptive surgery will result in weight loss even if you never exercise a day in your life.  I have a good friend who had a bypass and he lost almost 200 pounds and he lost it FAST.  But he lost it sitting on his couch.  Is he healthier?  Probably.  He's thinner anyway.  But he still can't walk up a flight up steps without getting winded.  He still eats crap, just less of it.

For me to be successful, those behaviors aren't an option.  I WANT to learn to eat better and control my portion sizes.  I WANT to be forced to lead a more active lifestyle.  And I know that for my band to help me the way it is intended to, I have to make those things a priority.

You post is dead on Kate! More people need to realize this and live by it! This goes hand in hand with Lisa O's post about "what is restriction".