• For general LapBand tips and blog posts direct from our
  doctors, click here on lap band blog and tips.

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  or to see previous questions, click on ask a doctor

Lap Band patient Stacia had surgery in 2005,
has lost and kept off 120 pounds by following our system

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Recent questions for Ask A Doctor

• • 1. Hungry all the time with the LapBand
  • 2. Lower BMI and insurance coverage.
  • 3. Hungry after one hour with my LapBand
  • 4. Lost 100 pounds. Need to lose 30 more pounds. Should I get a LapBand fill?
  • 5. How long after a blood clot in my lung can I have Lap Band?
  • 6. How do I know if my Lap Band is too tight?
  • 7. Lap Band port problem? It seems to be pushing out.
  • 8. Can PCOS resolve after Lap Band?
  • 9. Lap Band 10 years ago, and it's not working.
  • 10. Lapband for my elderly mother?
  • 11. What does the LapBand cost in New Mexico?
  • 12. Broiled fish stuck in my Lap Band.
  • 13. Pinching on my side 1 year after Lap Band surgery?
  • 14. Lost insurance and haven't had a fill in 3 years.
  • 15. Will the Lap Band be right for me?

Lap Band- How does it work?

The Lap Band is a device that fits around the top of your stomach. Think about it like a belt. It fits around the top of your stomach, gently compressing it. So you are left with a small part of the stomach above the gastric band, and the rest of your stomach below the Lap Band. Some think about the Lap Band as creating an hourglass figure in your stomach. Just like an hourglass is narrow in the middle to slow down the sand that goes through it, the Lap Band narrows the stomach to restrict the passage of food through it.

Trying to find diets that work?

There is not a single person trying to lose weight who hasn’t tried a diet. Think of all the diets out there; it seems like there are a million diets. Why is that? Well in the long run, none of them work. All of the different diet plans make grand promises and show off their individual success stories, and then they have that small disclaimer that reads “results may vary.”

The vast majority of diets have never been studied scientifically and you can’t get reliable reports on long term results. What none of the diet programs tell you is that when they are studied scientifically they generally show poor results. Let’s take a look at some dietary interventions that were studied carefully as reported in scientific medical journals.

Diets don’t work!

There have been reviews of diet programs in the The New England Journal of Medicine, widely recognized as the most influential scientific medical journal in the United States, and in the Journal of the American Medical Association, another widely respected medical journal.

One study, published in 2008 in the New England Journal of Medicine reviewed people trying three different dietary regimens, low-fat diets, low-carb diets, and a Mediterranean diet. 85% of the people stuck with this study for 2 years. That’s much higher than the typical compliance with a diet program. After 2 years, the dieters lost on average of only 7 – 12 lbs. That’s in 2 years of dieting! This is a very modest weight loss.

Another study published in JAMA in 2007 compared the Atkins diet, the Zone diet and two other diets. After one year the average weight loss for each person was 10 pounds for the Atkins diet and 3.5 pounds for the Zone diet. For one whole year!

For people who are seriously overweight or obese, this very modest amount of weight loss is often not enough to make a big difference in their weight issues.

For sustainable weight loss, no diet can compare to weight loss surgery. And the LapBand is statistically the safest weight loss surgery procedure available.