Adjustable Band Bariatric Surgery: Will My Appetite Change? - Dr. Johnell

Dr. Johnell:
Patients commonly ask me, “Am I going to starve after surgery? Am I not going to be able to eat the things that I like to eat? Is my diet going to be radically changed?”

And my response is no, you are going to be able to eat normal food, you are going to be able to go to a restaurant and enjoy a meal with your family or your friends and you are not going to be restricted to certain kinds of foods.

What you will be restricted to is the quantity of the food that you are going to eat. You can still eat your favorite foods but it’s just not going to be as much.

The great thing is, though, that after eating a small amount of that food that you enjoy you will feel satisfied and you won’t be hungry.

So over the course of a day you will eat fewer calories and day-by-day and week-by-week those fewer calories will translate into weight loss.

Initially after the LAP-BAND® the little pouch that’s created by the band is very small. It can hold about two ounces of food, which is really a small amount – about the size of a small egg.

However, as their operation matures and as their pouch becomes more used to handling foods most patients will be full after about a cup of food.

And so a cup of their favorite food or a meal that is equal to about a size of a cup is going to be the average meal for a patient.

About Dr. Michael W. Johnell, M.D., F.A.C.S.:
Dr. Johnell is an advanced laparoscopic bariatric surgeon, specializing in the Adjustable Gastric Band procedure. Bariatric surgery constitutes 98 percent of his practice. He has 22 years of general surgery experience, 17 years of advanced laparoscopic surgery experience, and 7 years of laparoscopic bariatric surgery experience.

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• Bariatric Surgery