Multiple goals required for losing weight with Lap-band weight loss surgery

I met a young woman who had her weight loss surgery five years ago and was at goal, with a BMI of 21. While she maintained her weight on a diet of protein bars, water, shakes, and very little food—she was missing out on the enjoyment of life. When given the recipes in the guidebook, she threw away the bars and the shakes, and was able to enjoy meals with her husband and three children. She worried about regaining weight and was surprised that she didn’t. The body is a perfect calorie counter—and you do not have to suffer, you can enjoy good food.

Two major themes in our Lap-band weight loss surgery workbooks:

Theme 1:  Small changes over time make a large difference

A small change in diet, or a small increase in activity, will have a profound effect over the long term. The best examples are my patients who come for weight loss surgery. Did they really eat that they much more than other people? Did they snack more than your thin neighbor did? They didn’t. Most patients gained ten pounds a year for ten years or longer. Ten pounds a year for ten years is one hundred pounds, which is when a person becomes eligible for weight loss surgery.

To gain ten pounds a year is easy: it just takes 96 calories a day above BMR - that is it! If your BMR is 2000 calories, and you daily consume 2100 calories, you will gain ten pounds in a year. That is one beer a day above your normal calorie intake. The reverse is also true. If you want to lose ten pounds in a year, then get rid of those 96 calories.

Think of it—96 calories out of the 2000 or 2500 you consume on a daily basis. That is less than one fourth of a Snicker’s bar, less than the difference between Taco Bell’s Big Beef Nacho Supreme and their regular nachos. That is one less glass of wine a day, a graham cracker instead of a chocolate chip cookie.

Theme 2:  measure and determine the calories that you burn, and measure the calories that you consume.

The second theme goes hand-in-hand with the first. We want you to measure and determine the calories that you burn, and we want you to measure the calories that you consume. Your body is a perfect calorie counter—it will measure every calorie. You have two choices to weight loss—you can move more, or you can eat less (or more sensibly). By measuring both what you burn and what you eat, you can take charge of how you want to lose weight, and even the time that you want to work at it.

Again, set a reasonable timetable for weight loss. A year may seem far away but it is not—and the time you spend good food and starting an exercise program between now and then will be the start of a new life.

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