The Truth About Lap Bands and Fills

There’s a blog post that I’m sure a lot of people who are researching Lap Bands right now are seeing in which a young woman is telling her tale of getting Lap Band surgery in Mexico four years ago. At that point in time, surgeons weren’t doing fills for the patients of other surgeons, so she had to fly to Mexico everytime she needed a fill – a situation that has now changed. Anyway, she expresses the idea that had she not needed to fly to Mexico for a fill, she would have had fills several times a month, rather than over the course of several months. This isn’t accurate – you wouldn’t have fills several times a month. According to Dr. Paul O’Brien, who is the Director of The Centre For Obesity Research and Education at Monash University in Australia, you’ll have your first adjustment 4 weeks post op. At that point, you’ll have adjustments every two weeks or so, until you hit what he calls “the green zone”. It takes about a week to determine how the particular fill is affecting you and most physicians prefer to have a little more data before they proceed again. Once you hit the green zone, the time between adjustments stretches out from four weeks, to six weeks to three months, to six months. It just depends. I’ve talked to a few people who have lost all of their weight with four or five adjustments. Some people require more.

For those of you who are new to this – the port is located somewhere just to the side of your belly button. Fills are simple and painless. You lay down a table, put your hands behind your head and life your legs slightly. That causes your tummy muscles to tighten up and the physician feels for the port. Once found, they swab the area to clean it, spray a local anesthetic on it (no shot) and do a quick injection. They withdraw all the saline from your Lap Band so that they are sure how much is already there, and then inject the full new amount. It’s all over in under two minutes.

Here’s a video of a Lap Band fill being done:

Here’s Love My Lap Band Interviewee Lorraine Kay talking about her fill (among a few other things). Now, Lorraine’s experience involves a barrium X-ray so they can check things out a little more thoroughly, and that’s more likely to happen with someone whose procedure is being covered by insurance. Still, she makes the point quite well that it’s quick and simple.

And here is Becca getting a Lap Band fill in her physician’s office:

Fill Centers USA has 30 locations around the nation and has an entire post-operative support program. They handle fills, and provide the post-surgical support helping you learn to use your Lap Band to the most positive end possible. One of the things we know, is that people who have post-surgical support lose more weight, and have an all around happier experience. So, if you’re contemplating surgery in Mexico, this is an option you should consider.

If you’re just investigating Lap Band surgery, I’d encourage to read Dr. Paul O’Brien’s book THE LAP BAND SOLUTION. He covers all of the basic information in a clear, concise, easy-to-read manual. He’s one of the premier experts on Lap Bands in the world, and has been formally researching their efficacy since the early nineties.

What Can You Eat With A Lap Band II

I realized I’ve never done a post on what Lap Bandees are most comfortable eating. I have Lorraine Kay’s YouTube clip where she talks about what she can eat, but perhaps I should expand on this a bit more.

Let’s begin by addressing how one loses weight with a Lap Band. Lap Bands make your stomach much, much, much smaller. Typically, your stomach holds about one liter of food though it can be distended to hold up to four liters – close to a gallon! At the top of your stomach are stretch receptors and when they are stretched, they signal your brain that you’re full. With the Lap Band, you’ll be eating about six to eight ounces of food per meal. Because your stomach is so tiny now, those stretch receptors will be activated quickly, and you’ll feel satisfied with a far smaller amount of food than you would have before the Lap Band.

What makes Lap Bands so much more effective than diet and exercise is the capability to keep weight off once you lose it. Ninety eight percent of people who lose weight through diet and exercise put it right back on in under two years. That doesn’t usually happen with Lap Bands. Those stretch receptors being stretched after each meal tell your body that food is plentiful and because of that, your body doesn’t crank down your metabolism the way it does on a diet. And because your body doesn’t crank down your metabolism, you keep the weight off that you lose. Brilliant, eh? I should add that you’ll be consuming about 1100 to 1200 calories per day. Your body’s new set point will be established when the amount of energy you are burning at your new size equals the amount of calories you are consuming – same as for everyone else.

For the sake of a visual comparison, you’ll be eating the equivalent of McDonald’s Double Cheeseburger and a small order of French Fries per meal. Now, needless to say, your surgeon doesn’t want you eating those two things, but McDonalds’ food is internationally available and the same size everywhere.

Anyway, the first week, you just don’t feel any hunger by and large, and you only consume clear liquids. The point of this is to not stretch your stomach in anyway in the first days. Be of good cheer – I have yet to hear anyone complain about being hungry that week. After that, you begin a journey that will lead to your first fill and the adjustment process.

What so many Lap Bandees love about their Lap Band is that they can eat almost anything within reason – at holidays, you’ll eat what everyone else does, just less of it. Bread is the most consistently problematic because it mushes up into a gloopy little ball and doesn’t pass through the clip very well. Lots of bandees find that fish quickly becomes one of their favorite dishes – even the people who hated it before. Red meat needs to be cut into tiny pieces and chewed slowly. Crunchy stuff goes down well. As, Lorraine Kay says – tacos with crispy shells, good. Tacos with soft shells, not so good. Nachos, first rate. Some bandees do very well with rice and pasta, others less so. I think it may largely be a matter of being content with just a few bites and moving on. White meats tend to be easy though some people have to be very careful with chicken. You can have ice cream, of course, but it’s calorie dense and goes through the band quickly – thereby defeating the entire purpose.

That’s the short version of it all. I’ll be doing a couple more interviews this weekend, I think. I’ll be sure to talk to the bandees about it, and I’ll let you know what they have to say. In the meantime, if you haven’t watched Lorraine Kay’s interviews on this site, I’d encourage you to do so. She’s someone who thinks and speaks for succinctly. She covers a lot of territory in her interview and you’ll have a much better idea of the road ahead by listening to what she has to say.

I’ve covered caffeine a lot on this site. In fact, there is a whole category about it. The surgeons are split on the subject. Some don’t want you drinking any caffeine whatsoever, and some don’t mind. What I’ve noted in the past is that caffeine causes the blood sugar levels to spike in Type II Diabetics. Spiking blood sugar produces insulin and tells your body to store the energy you’re eating rather than to burn it. Atkins had long noted that people on his diet didn’t lose weight if they drank caffeine. Keep that in mind, and decide how much you value your morning Joe. Atkins now allows people to have one cup a day. If you’re a determined coffee or tea drinker, experiment to find out if there is a reasonable amount you can consume.

Some surgeons object to Lap Bandees having any alcohol at all – the feeling being that you are so restricted in the amount of calories than there are none available to waste on an alcoholic beverage. Dr. Paul O’Brien, of Monash University’s Centre for Obesity Research and Education, says that a glass of wine per day seems to do well by his patients. He’d encourage to check out Australia’s wines, as well. 🙂

As always, if there are any questions, pass them along. If you’re interested in reading more about why losing weight and keeping it off is so difficult, check these posts out.

I’m Looking For People To Interview

about their experience with Lap Bands. The promise of this website is that our guests would get to see lots of interviews with people who have Lap Bands. I’m now gearing up to get to work on that full time, and I’d love to hear from some of you who have Lap Bands – particularly if you live in Southern California or thereabouts.

If you live elsewhere, and have a video camera, I’ll be happy to work with you on what I want on the video. You just need a comfy place to set and either a tripod or someone to hold the camera. It’s easier with a tripod. 🙂 You don’t have to do any editing – I’ll do all that.

If you’re willing to do an interview, you can be as anonymous as you like or fully identified as Lorraine Kay is. The point of the interviews is to create really solid, dense information so people contemplating Lap Bands will have a very full sense of what their life will be like on a day in/day out basis. So, if your profession would frown on this discussion, you can call yourself whatever you’d like.

You can leave a comment here and I’ll email you back or you can write me at love my lap band at live dot com.

I hope to hear from you. This is going to be a cool project. The feedback and email I’m getting is overwhelmingly positive.

Lorraine Kay’s Lap Band Weight Loss Story Finale

In some ways this is my favorite clip in the entire series. The interview was over and we were packing stuff up to leave, when I finally remembered to ask Lorraine about her career change. She talks about becoming a script supervisor and how she never would have done that when she was heavy. And she also talks about her life as a professional musician and performer and how that has changed with her weight loss.

Here is the link to Lorraine Kay’s MySpace page where you can hear some of her music:
http://www.myspace.com/lorrainekay

Lap Band Before And After Clothing

Los Angeles Lap Band patient Lorraine Kay shows us a couple items of clothing from her pre-weight loss days. I like her whole thing about skinny clothes versus fat clothes – she’s right. Skinny clothes are so much more fun. She says it’s been 25 years since she wore anything smaller than a size 16.

Lap Band Fill – What’s It Like Getting One?

Los Angeles Lap Band patient Lorraine Kay talks about a few different things in this clip. She talks about exercising, her husband’s reaction to her weight loss, and most importantly for most people thinking about getting a Lap Band, she talks about the process of having a fill. Doest it hurt? How long does it take? What do you do?

What Can You Eat With A Lap Band?

I like this clip – it’s purely practical. Lorraine talks about what food she can eat and how much she can eat. She also talks about when she eats too much and gets “in trouble”.

The First Month After A Lap Band Procedure

In this video, Lorraine Kay talks about the first month after surgery. Lorraine had congestive heart failure and wrestled with a tremendous amount of edema – which largely disappeared the first month. Her legs had been so swollen that she couldn’t bend them to walk up stairs. Now, she could walk and felt like a different person. She didn’t need pain pills but she was kinda hungry.

Lorraine Kay’s Lap Band Weight Loss Story

Lorraine Kay was an ultra-high risk patient. Just over 5 feet tall, she weighed 325 pounds. Her physician had warned her that she didn’t have another year left. Her diabetes was completely out of control (120 units of insulin a day), she was losing her vision and had congestive heart failure. Her physician wanted to perform a gastric bypass. Her surgeon refused to because he didn’t think she’d survive the surgery – although he did think she could get through a Lap Band. Her physician rejected the Lap Band because he didn’t think she’d lose weight fast enough to extend her life. Eventually, her surgeon won out. There was a four hour delay to make sure the crash cart was available, but she came though it just fine. I’ll let Lorraine tell her story from here on out.

This is the first of the videos that I’ve shot and I will be upping the resolution. I’m having a bit of a YouTube learning curve.