I would say NOT from the rooftops. I am almost two years post op and it has been as much help as a paper hat in a rain storm. I know it has worked for many and happy for them congrats to you but there are many, many of us living with regret. £5,000 and five scars worth of regret with no way of getting either back, my money or my scars which ps are horrific. I was sold it as a tool that would 1. Make me feel full. 2. Make me feel more satisfied on smaller portions. 3. Make feel fuller and satisfied for longer. Great I thought I am not looking for a miracle just a tool that's going to give me an edge. I did not expect miracles, I just wanted steady slow weight loss and hoped that my one year surgery anniversary I would be at least under the 200lb mark. Well..... What they don't tell you is the pain the band causes when you try to eat small meals. At one point I could not eat a boiled egg without feeling like I was having a heart attack. It was a miserable way to live your life. I could even have put up with it if I got results but nope! Also you are not told that everything you did before to lose weight that us yoyo dieters always fail at, you will still have to do, this tool is not any help in that regards. I used to love big bowls of veg and salad when dieting, not with the band I can't. I ended up being vitamin deficient because your not allowed bread, rice, pasta even sparkling water which I love. It just made eating a painful, joyless, dreaded chore. Now another thing I might add I am not and never have been a big portion eater which I told the surgeon when he asked me my portion size I answered med/small, he looked at me as if to say, yeah right... But it's the truth. I don't eat take always either hate fried food, have never cooked as much as a chip in my home, not even an oven chip. So I have been told since the band should not have been offered to me as really its for people who eat big portions. My problem is a sweet tooth, I cannot get through they day without a biscuit or chocolate bar or two or three, now I am being honest here and was with the surgeon. The band does not inhibit your ability to eat a dairy milk fact! It does inhibit your ability to eat chicken breast with a rainbow of veggies though. It's madness. Now people have told me, if you just stick to the rules it will happen... Well I stuck to the rules week after week after week after week with zero results. Dieticians at the clinic are no help. And the pain I suffered trying to eat when my band was filled was unexplainable, I kid you not every day I was salivating and spitting constantly in a tissue when trying to eat a small portion, my chest and rib cage would hurt for up to an hour after eating, I would dread trying to eat. In fact I ate so little by body just refused to give up any excess weight, it thought I was starving o death. The day I was crying from eating a boiled egg my husband said, that's it we are going to get this thing emptied, I was so relieved. After in the car on the way home I ate a whole wheat tuna sandwich and it was the best darn sandwich I had ate in my life. So here I am almost two years down the road with a band around my stomach (which still hurts me on a weekly basis) and a port in my body good for nothing, £5,000 poorer, 5 raised red keloid scars because I was given "internal" stitches which meant the two pieces of flesh did not fully come together ergo never healed properly. Basically getting a band FOR ME was a fruitless endeavour. If I knew before surgery what I know now I would not have had it done for free on the nhs never mind pay fir the privilege. If i had a spare £5,000 lying around i would have it removed asap. I would never after this experience op for sleeve or bypass! Not even if I was paid to do so. I know now with all my heart surgery is not the answer, not for me. And it has nothing to do with willpower either. And here endeith my tale. I would like to add now I do not diet, I got of the merry go round, love my body, enjoy life and don't set foot on the scales, because happy calories don't count!
