I have been overweight since I was about seven years old and grew up on a perpetual diet. My mother would put me on every fad diet that she would learn about. Every item in the house was diet, low-fat or fat-free. By the time I was a teenager, my mom put me on diet pills. I tried many different diet pills, hypnosis, and exercised with limited success. I had made it down to 175 pounds twice in my life through my dieting attempts, but I was never able to maintain my success and would end up gaining back all the weight in a very short amount of time.
I started hear and see a lot about the LAP-BAND through radio and ads on Facebook and wondered if this might be something I should consider. I weighted 238 pounds and wore a size 2X shirt and size 22 pants tightly. Surgery seemed pretty drastic to me, but I thought about it more and more with my other option being diet pills with unseen side effects. My mother died when I was 19 of a massive heart attack after battling with her weight her entire life and I decided I needed to try something totally different because nothing up to that point had yielded me lasting results. The gym worked for losing weight only until my joints started hurting too much to keep working out. My problem was with portion control and no matter how much I worked out, I would just keep consuming more and more without feeling satisfied.
I had the LAP-BAND surgery on April 9, 2010 and lost 90 pounds in a year. In that time, I have been subject to normal life stress. I had a car accident that would have normally derailed any previous diet attempts, but the Band has helped me maintain my success after losing the weight. I am now down 148 pounds, wearing a size small shirt and size 4 pants and enjoying being thin for the first time in my adult life. I would recommend the LAP-BAND for anyone who has been fighting and losing the fight with obesity because I know it works.