as the daughter of two parents who've had gastric banding, neither of whom have made the required lifestyle changes to compliment the surgery - all i can say is don't go there unless you're ready for life long lifestyle changes - it might give you a short term fix for the weight, but if you don't do what you're supposed to long term, you'll have complications forever. my mother is now larger than she was pre- surgery (and has had both stomach stapling/ gastric banding which had to be reversed after 10 years due to complications, and gastric bypass) - she weighs easily 20kg MORE than she did pre-surgery, and continues to believe that she can eat anything because the surgery is what will help her. it's a constant point of contention - i refuse to eat with her cos she eats crap! dad had gastric banding a year or more ago, lost a bit of weight, but has gradually put it all back on

it is NOT an easy fix - as sushee said, you need to change your lifestyle - the banding is only there to boost you along - i guess a bit of an added "push" to do the right thing - if you're not prepared to do the hard yards yourself, then you won't get anything other than illness and lifelong probs from the procedure

i'm a big person, and i know, short term, i could lose a crap load of weight from the procedure (as my parents keep telling me) - but untill i'm ready to make ALL the lifestyle changes i need to make, and can implement them FIRST, there's not a chance in hell i'll go there.