Placing a Gastric Lap Band
For Weight Loss
Lap band for weight loss works...
...IF you follow some basic rules.
Understand how the gastric lap band works
Gastric banding will decrease the amount of solid food you can eat at one time.
This will reduce your caloric intake which is what's required to lose weight.
Read more on 3500 calories = 1 pound.
Note that I said the adjustable lap band helps reduce how much solid food you can eat. It will not...I repeat NOT...help you reduce portions of liquids or soft, mushy foods.
Lap band for weight loss WON'T work if:
1. You consume a lot of liquid calories
- juice
- sugar sweetened drinks--Kool-Aid, Gatorade, lemonade, etc
- milk
- "fufu" coffee drinks
- milkshakes
- soda pop (you shouldn't have this after gastric banding surgery anyway because of the carbonation)
Therefore: Drink water and zero calorie beverages ONLY!
2. And you'll decrease your chance of weight loss success if you eat soft, mushy or slushy foods too often (soup, ice cream, yogurt etc.). These foods simply slip past the band and don't fill you up.
Add bulky foods to soft foods.
If you must eat soft foods, be sure to eat a "bulky" food at the same time:
- berries (bulky) + yogurt (soft, mushy)
- sliced apple (bulky) + cottage cheese (soft, mushy)
- If you MUST have ice cream (soft, mushy), mix with berries or sliced banana (bulky)
Get the idea?
In my experience
As a bariatric dietitian, I've had more than one person sitting in my office, crying, because their weight loss was either too slow or non-existent. After careful review of usual food intake, the culprit almost always boils down to consumption of too many caloric liquids and/or soft foods.
Don't let this be you!
Lap band for weight loss: Additional foods to avoid.
