Should I get a gastric band?

[SlipperyNipple]

OK I have not name changed so please be kind.....OK, OK wrong place for that.

I'm 5.6 and 16 stone 4 at the moment. This is post having two children in the last 3 years. I used to hover near 13 stone....so heavy but not this heavy. I don't have any obvious health issues other than I get achy knees now.

I would have to go private. We are reasonably financially comfortable. I could get the cash together but it we would feel it.

I think my husband is going to be a very tough to persuade round. He is very kind and wonderful but thinks I should do this with exercise, diet and willpower. He's never had to diet in his life so he doesn't understand how hopeless I feel about this.

I have been dieting since I was 15 years old and it never really got me anywhere. I would go up and down and always end up around 13 stone. Now I just can't seem to make any headway with a diet at all. I'm tired all the time (baby) and comfort eat.

I don't believe in diets any more. But I don't want to be this way. I can't do the things I want to do: shop in normal shops, run for bus without hurting my knees, ski, feel like a normal person.

OK I'll stop. You get the idea.

For those who don't know, a band will only aid a fifty percent of excess fat weightloss, you don't end up skinny after a band.

I have a lot of experience in working with bariatric surgery. I personally would not recommend a gastric band or balloon.

What you need is good impartial advice, preferably including dietician and psychology input. This should encompass looking at your whole lifestyle and eating habits and being honest about your food intake.

This is available privately, you must do your research and involve your GP (ask for a recommendation). Please, please do not be tempted to go abroad. Success and complications are dependent on consistent local follow-up. A good surgeon will always tell you if they feel you are not a good candidate - previous hx of eating disorders etc.

Cheapest is also not necessarily best. I would urge you to exhaust all other avenues first, especially exercise and diet (WW, SW and the likes). Surgery can be very successful but it is not without its drawbacks. Think very carefully about the future and include possible complications from surgery.

FWIW, gastric sleeve surgery seems to give an excellent outcome. Good luck with your research.

The thing is, if you don't rethink your relationship with food, a gastric band will not work long-term. Your new, smaller stomach will stretch again.

Another fact for those that don't know what they are talking about. Where I had mine done, you have to have a history of dieting for long periods in the past. If you are not able to diet for months on end you are not suitable for surgery.

I went to two pre appts for gastric band. Realised was a bad idea as the waiting room was full of people that had regained the weight after tne op.

Regardless of which type of surgery people have had, there are still ways to cheat/not adhere.

I kid you not when I say post-op band patients have been known to melt or liquidise vast quantities of chocolate (and even fish'n'chips once) and force it through the band. Their pouches can become very stretched and they are capable of holding a larger quantity of food. Alcohol can be a major problem too - very calorific and just slips through.

A colleague of mine had a bypass and has done extremely well (12st loss). However she now has additional health issues directly related to the surgery - gallstones and also massive excess skin which will require further surgery. She has traded probable cardiac complaints for others but deems the surgery a massive success for her as without it, she would most likely have had a heart attack.

Seriously try all other avenues before risking surgery.

We are all different, I only liquidised directly after surgery and a band fill, it is horrible and tasteless. I was always a crunchy food lover anyway, so sticking to the rules hasn't been a problem for me.

I thought I would have excess skin and I don't.

The band has helped me with lower GI symptoms, the excess wind goes up rather than down now which is more comfortable.

Respect to you MrsEwing.

A member of my family had a gastric band fitted. He lost a lot of weight in a very short time. He still looks big because he's covered in tons of empty, saggy skin sacs which collect sweat and dirt and get infected. It's not a good look.

I'm overweight myself. I've had a baby, but the reality is that I don't exercise and I don't eat properly. I know what to do, how to do it, but don't have the willpower at the moment.

I don't believe in fad diets either. I think they are too restrictive, even the ones that apparently aren't. I do believe in small portions and nutritional balance.

I also believe that losing weight is akin to moving to a new country or starting a new job or meeting someone new - it's a chance to change your life. In fact, the times I've successfully lost weight and kept it off coincided with such things. The best and easiest way to eat better and exercise more is to completely smash up your current routines and start afresh. I also honestly believe that apart from breakfast, there should be no such thing as lunch and dinner times. If you eat lunch at 12 every day split your lunch in half and eat at 11 and 1. If you eat dinner at 5pm every day split it into 3 and 6.

If it's at all possible, focus on something else in your life that you would like to change so that you can avoid thinking about food all the time, otherwise the molehill becomes a mountain.

This is of course just my opinion and I have no qualifications in nutrition or exercise. I lost 4 stone when I changed my job, worked different hours and felt I had some responsibility. I kept that weight off (give or take half a stone) for over 7 years.

If you do decide to go ahead with the gastric band then good luck to you and I wish you well.

A vote here for Paul McKenna's 'I can make you thin'.

One thing I noticed since the op is that when I was slim I chewed food and swished it around in my mouth as I do know, I also now cut up all forms of food as I did when I was slim. When I was gaining I didn't chew much or cut up all food, I am talking cutting sandwiches up into 4 or 8 rather than 2, no idea what that is all about no one told me to do it, and I forgot I used to have this habbit.

I think stuff like that works, MrsjREwing in fact the more you faff around with your food the more chance your stomach has to feel full before it's too late.

A hell of a lot of the time I think to myself.. did I really taste that when it went down?

Also if you're not really hungry but are dying for a bar of chocolate just so you can taste it, try slicing up a mars bar and freezing the pieces. I say that in case anyone's a chocoholic like me.

In january, I weighed 21st and contacted clinics for a gastric band and really got desperate but I could not justify spending that much money just on me when I have a family to care for so I joined weight watchers and last tuesday at the meeting I weighed 15st13. I lost nearly 5 stones mainly through exercise and changing my lifestyle. 16st isn't that big and you could lose it if you committed to it. Just chose the date and time for the beginning of that journey and take your time and you will see.. I never feel hungry on ww...

Boomer, the chewing thing I have to do now, because if I don't I will vomit, I only vomited on the day of the band being fitted. I tried the chewing preop to practice, without the band I often forgot. Food is so much nicer if you chew properly, I wish I knew what all the rush was about regarding eating before.

A friend of mine is doing well with a gastric sleeve, but I think you'd be mad to do it if you haven't tried hypnotherapy first.

I did every diet but dukan, hypnotherapy with two different people, liquid diets, psychologist, personal trainer everything. I thought for seven years about getting a band and lost and piled on stones during that time. I very much wanted to do it myself. I felt so selfish the night before surgery, I asked my family if they wanted me to not do it, they said do it, for me it was worth the risks of surgery, it helped knowing no one had died under my surgeon. It is a deeply unpopular thing to do, and very looked down on. A lot of the risks relate to things like band slippage or erosion.

It is the sleeve and bypass that create problems due to how quickly weightloss is in those cases and they loose more of their excess fat. What put me off bypass and sleeve was lifetime vitamin and mineral malabsorbtion.

Why don't you read a book on nutrition? The basics are that you need to burn more calories than you consume. Exercise more and eat more healthily, that way you will lose some weight.

I agree with your husband, I am very sad that someone would consider surgery when educating yourself and learning self discipline would solve the problem you have got into. Good luck on your journey.

Not all weight gain is caused by the calories in/out ratio. I learned on my Gastric band journey that the genetuc condition I had gave me sleep apnea and the SA makes people fat, I probably had SA when I was thin, I also had PCOS, which makes you fat. As part of the genetic condition I have fatigue. Whilst calories in/out is a huge part of weight loss/gain it is not the whole story, as there are loads of physiological reasons that contribute to holding excesd fat.

My sister has lost 5 stone after gastric band hypnotherapy. It would be worth a try before resorting to the extreme of gastric band surgery.

I can only base my reply on secondhand info, via a friend who has had a gastric band. First off, she was much, much heavier than you. She has lost weight, and kept it off (had her surgery about 10 years ago). She is much happier now, but that happiness is not without it's downsides. She has to be very careful to get adequate nourishment. She has excess skin. She cannot enjoy a night out as she did before - if we are having dinner out, she has a small meal and drinks, or just meets the rest of us after for drinks, as her stomach cannot physically handle a full meal and couple of glasses of wine. She was also lucky as she suffered no complications from the surgery (the aforementioned consequences are quite normal). For my friend, it has been worth it, but would it be for you?

Also, bear in mind that surgery means anaesthesia, and anaesthesia always carries a risk, however minor.

It is no-ones place to tell you not to have the surgery, but I would urge you to thoroughly research the benefits, risks, and possible complications.

Shadow, that is correct, when going out for a meal I order a starter or leave some on the plate if I order a main meal. My personal enjoyment of eating out with others hasn't bothered me at all. I do have to wait to drink after the meal, normally my companion has dessert so that is about right that we have coffee at the same time.

I am not a big drinker so the rules on alcohol don't bother me, good point to bring that up to OP.

MrsjRE, my friend is much the same, especially since having her DS, she is not too interested in drinking. She does enjoy coming out for meals with our group of friends though, and although it does not bother us at all what she orders, it can make her feel just a bit awkward. Of course, this won't apply to everyone, but is worth bearing in mind, I think.

Sorry, just to clarify my last post, for my friend, there are still more positives than negatives, but she would never deny that her life has changed. Meals out (for example) are not the same experience that they used to be for her, and even though this is a fairly minor detail in the grand scheme of things, it does still get to her sometimes.

I highly recommend slimming world. I have lost 4 stone. It is. Sustainable healthy eating plan. You can eat whenever you want to. No starving. You can eat out. Stick to the plan and your blood sugars will level out and your appetite will decrease.

Another vote for the virtual gastric band app.
I've lost 3 1/2 stone so far, and feel it has sorted out all the head stuff that makes me overeat in the first place.
It's not a diet, it's easy to do, and at £6.99, it's on a par with the cost of a book, or one week at SW or WW, there is fantastic support available for free on FB.
If you want to know more, or you don't have an iPhone or iPad, pm me and I'll tell you more.
I honestly wouldn't have surgery unless I'd tried everything, and it was truly a last resort.