During my recent trip to Austin as a member of the Apollo Lap Band Patient Advisory Board I was fortunate to have the opportunity to listen to Dr. John Dixon speak via video conference on the subject of Satiety vs. Restriction.  He is an amazing man with a tremendous amount of experience, and looking around the room as he spoke I saw that all present were totally enthralled, and even excited, by his presentation.  He put into words and fact based statements what I have been saying since May 28, 2004 - “As soon as a band was put around my stomach the gnawing hunger I had dealt with, the never having had “enough” went away.  My hunger- satiety switch was obviously broken most of my life and Lap Band fixed it.” Those are my words describing what I learned from my personal experience.  Dr. Dixon said quite simply that “surgery changes the satiety regulation.”

Think about those words, roll them around in your brain, and let’s talk a little about satiety regulation and what that might be.  It was explained to us that by the time we are 4 years old our metabolic programming is set.  Funny, but my “story” starts with I was an obese child from the time I was 4.  We went on to learn that our bodies have a built in bias to “protect” against weight loss.  That is as our weight drifts up our body tends to defend it.  This translates to us as Harder To Lose Weight.  Any of you notice this as the years went on and your weight got higher and your need for food got stronger?

The net take from this is that obesity is a physiological disease, not a lifestyle choice - as some would like us all to believe.  Once you get that, then you can understand and appreciate that Lap Band surgery provides an immediate and permanent reduction in physical hunger.  It did for me, and along with that reduction in physical hunger came my ability to demonstrate what Dr. Dixon called “cognitive restraint”, which was accessing my power to change my food choices and my portion sizes.  Makes sense when you understand that the physical need to eat hunger, was significantly reduced by putting a Lap Band around my belly.  It was a relief to not be driven by hunger all the time. 

The mental part of the game- the choice of what foods I was going to use to feed the physical hunger, the need to remove sugar from my eating plans, all of that was up to me.  No surgery will deal with those issues permanently. 

I chose Lap Band originally because I knew, based upon my doctor’s words at the informational seminar, that I would need to make those changes immediately, sooner rather than later.  While the other surgery choices might give me an immediate weight loss due to the anatomical changes that would be made in my body I wanted to not have a honeymoon period where I could count on anything but my choices and my WLS tool to facilitate the weight loss.  I didn’t want the most invasive surgery; I wanted the least invasive surgery.  For me it worked beautifully; hunger was reduced, I made the long term changes necessary and it was not about restriction, it was about learning and cherishing that new feeling - SATIETY.

There is a misconception out there in the world of bands that restriction, the inability of food to move through your band is what we are looking for.  All I can say to that is - ouch and NO.  I don’t know about you but I hate “getting stuck” and PBing.  As I have been learning so does our band and our esophagus.  A tight band would make the assumption that delayed gastric emptying - or in my terms keeping the food in your “pouch” or your stomach longer to achieve a higher level of satisfaction is how the band works.  NOT SO.  We are not out to have a girdle so tight around our stomachs that nothing passes through it easily.  Our pouch empties in less than 3 minutes.  The band is but a speed bump for the food we choose.  That is, well for me, a foodie who enjoys eating, actually SILLY.  Why would someone want to not be able to eat at all?  We have to eat to live, and what we eat might as well be enjoyable.  If not, just have your jaw wired shut and drink your food for the rest of your life.  Not much difference to me.

I have never functioned in the world of a band that was so tight I couldn’t enjoy foods.  Sure, we do get some restriction along the way as the band is adjusted to make sure that physical hunger between meals is reduced.  This is what my Lap Band is about.  This is how I have managed to lose, as of this morning, 270 pounds over the past 11 years and create a full, vibrant life for myself.

One side note from Dr. Dixon was something totally new for me.  I heard him say that a craving for sugar was actually your body asking for protein.  So yeah, grab that piece of chicken instead of that cookie, and see what happens.

As your journey continues or just begins, remember that a Lap Band is about hunger being diminished, satiety increased, and not a tool of torture.  You get to choose the foods you eat, and in those choices lie the weight loss you can and will achieve.