[MikeB]

Originally Posted by Big John

Thanks everybody for your replies.

MikeB- I've had 45 years to learn to eat/exercise. I've lost in excess or 100lbs three times in my life the latter 5 years ago with 187lbs. lost only to gain back 130 of it. I've been on every diet that you've ever heard of & a few of my own you haven't heard of. I've never had any kind of surgery before & that's why I did a lot of extensive research on the lapband before making my decision. The surgery is done laproscopically with small incisions & long narrow tools & the least invasive of all weight loss surgeries. With all the co-morbidities involved with my obesity I stand a much greater risk without the surgery than with it. I disagree whole-heartedly with the concept of the lapband being regarded as a crutch, it's a tool that you have to work with in order to be successful. Good luck to all of you. BIGJOHN

John the problem here is you think of it as a diet, that doesn't work. You've also not completely controlled your ability to eat correctly and to learn to exercise daily. I promise you that you can learn to eat and exercise and lose the weight w/o surgery. The key is I'm not on a diet, I eat a specific way every day with an occasional cheat day but most days I eat veggies & meat.
Eat to live don't live to eat.
Remember that you can stretch your stomach out with lapband just as much as gastric bypass. A friend of mine/co-worker who paid over $20K for his gastric bypass went from 440 down to 250 and is now back to 350. How does he do it? Well he eats a 2lb back of M&M's every day plus whatever else he eats for the day. If you constantly graze on high fat/sugar foods you can put the weight on no matter how small your stomach.
I beg you not to get the surgery and instead to start tracking your calories and exercising daily, build muscle, lose fat and be HEALTHY!