How can you lose weight?

*Non-surgical method :

Many people who are overweight have tried in vain to lose excess weight. The market is inundated with all kinds of slimming diets, cures and products that promise success.All studies show that diets rarely succeed in helping people to achieve the desired result of long lasting weight reduction. In fact, many people who have tried dieting regain more than they lost when they go off the diet.

*Surgically :

If you have tried diets, cures, tablets, medicines or weight loss clubs and they haven't helped you lose and maintain a steady weight, one option to consider is the Lapband.
The Lapband in combination with behaviour modification is currently the only proven method to achieve a quick, spectacular and long-term weight loss. If you follow the advice given, thanks to the Lapband, you will lose weight quickly and... stay slim !!

The operation

The Adjustable Gastric Band was developed almost twenty years ago (1985) and has been in use since then. These days, most of Gastric Banding operations are performed through "keyhole", or the "minimally invasive, laparoscopic" approach.
This means that no large incision in the abdominal wall is needed. The operation is performed through small incisions in the abdominal wall where special tubes are placed to allow passage of operating instruments inside the abdomen. The surgeon can view and control the operating instruments on a TV screen througha miniature camera which is passed inside the abdomen through these special tubes.

The Gastric Banding procedure principle is based on " tightening with a belt" the uppermost part of the stomach by fitting the band around it. The band narrows and divides the stomach into two sections in a shape of an hourglass. There is no need to cut, staple or remove any part of the stomach or gut in order to place the lap-band. This results in two important facts.Firstly, the banding procedure is an operation that doesn't mutilate the digestive tract at all, thus avoiding many undesirable side effects associated with some other surgical treatments for obesity, like the gastric bypass or stomach stapling.

Secondly, in rare cases when repeat surgery is needed, the Band can be easily removed and the original shape and stomach structure is restored. This is not the case of many other obesity surgery procedures, where reversion back to the original anatomy of the stomach or intestine is either extremely difficult or even impossible.

Gastric Banding offers easy postoperative adjustability, that means that the diameter of the band (narrowing of your stomach) can be adjusted after the operation according to your optimal weight loss requirements and well-being, by injecting or removing fluid from the band via a port (small chamber) placed under the skin. This is done on an out-patients basis, and does not require analgesia or anaesthesia.

Should you require any other type of elective or emergency surgery in the future, the gastric banding system is not a contra-indication for any other procedure. It is recommended, however, that the surgeon is in formed of the Gastric Banding.

How does Gastric Banding work?

Gastric banding induces an early feeling of satiety. You will feel full quickly after eating a small amount of food to fill the newly created small upper part (pouch) of the stomach. This feeling is caused by stretching the stomach wall whereby the nerve fibres transmit the message to the centre of satiety inside the brain. The feeling of fullness can last for several hours before you will feel like eating another small portion.

The Band will assist you to avoid over-eating and decrease your overall daily food (calorie) intake. By the nature of the functioning of the Gastric Banding of you should eat much less, feel much less hungry and gradually lose your extra weight, often in a spectacular way.
It will be the first time that you will have lost so much weight in such little time!
You will achieve this without going on a diet, without feeling hungry, without experiencing the yo-yo effect, while feeling absolutely fine.

This will also lead to a healthier life style with less risk of obesity-related secondary diseases. However, you will have to change your eating habits as well. Although Gastric Banding is a wonderful tool for helping you to induce sustainable weight loss it is not a self acting slimming device.
Your postoperative dietary and behavorial compliance is of essential importance for successful weight loss as well as in avoiding complications.

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