Unfortunately, despite the cost, a year or so after gastric band surgery, the success rate is disappointingly low. A report at a recent meeting of the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery stated that “using 40% excess weight loss as the standard” for adjustable gastric banding “resulted in a five-year success rate of about 50%, which declined to 20% at 10 years.”
A simple tightening of the stomach does not create a new healthy lifestyle or change the metabolism. Most of all, it does not create a new self image and mindset. The Technologies of the Self Weight Loss Program recommends a commitment of 8 weeks for adequate time for clients to develop their new lifestyles, learning to shop differently, starting an exercise plan, making their health a priority an creating new neural pathways, visualizing themselves at their goal weight.
For those that have a lap band and are still struggling to lose weight, hypnosis affects the subconscious and offers new associations with food. The weekly sessions create a cumulative effect and clients report spontaneously losing the attraction to the unhealthy foods that used to cause weight gain. They also learn techniques to create a feeling of satiety with much less food.
Now, an innovative virtual surgery is being offered in the US and Europe that offers the same benefits as gastric band surgery, without the risk or expense. It is called a virtual gastric band, gastric mind band, or phantom lap band. The approach works to convince your mind that you are actually going through gastric band surgery, causing you to be satisfied with much smaller portions. One woman reported that “the bizarre thing is that I don’t think for a minute that I have a gastric band, I know that I don’t, but I feel strangely full in a way that I didn’t use to.”